73Why are fairies in general called fairies when they use pixie dust? What happened to the pixies? Fairy invasion?
Hallows
Vidia? Could you give me a hand?
Vidia cocked a lazy ear as she heard her name carried on the hot summer breeze. Only wind-nature fairies could send and receive messages in this way - not that she bothered, mostly. Every other wind-nature fairy could hear whatever was said and Vidia was a private person by nature. She was also sunbathing right now - whatever problem they were having was someone else's problem.
She was mildly surprised that they'd called to her at all. Except for Tink, most fairies respected her prickly personality and gave her a wide berth. It helped that even the friendliest of her clan were loners by nature, more inclined to relax by whipping up a storm over the ocean than chatter mindlessly like certain garden fairies - and tinkers - she could name.
Vidia, please!
…Well, that was just terrific. Not even she could ignore a plea that sounded that desperate.
She got to her feet, habitually fluttering her wings just enough to clear them of dust or dirt and ensure they were in primo condition before rocketing up into the sky. She turned into the breeze that had carried the cry for help and urged it to turn back, to carry her to its source.
She found it on the outskirts of Summer Meadow. Gale, a spiky-haired fairy who was rather weak with winds excepting those that heralded rain, was struggling with a tufted thistle seed.
"Seriously?" Vidia asked, unimpressed. "You called me out for this?"
"It's not going to Pixie Hollow." Gale hissed. "It's going.. You know."
That caught her attention. Everyone had heard rumours about a strange new fairy who'd taken over Skull Rock and the baby pixie dust tree at its centre. The dust keepers who'd come back from tending it had come back white-faced and shaking like they'd seen a monster. Queen Clarion had summoned all of Pixie Hollow - including Winter - to make a rare, royal commandment.
No fairy was to step foot on or within Skull Rock upon pain of immediate death.
Naturally, only Tinkerbell had been suicidally curious enough to fly right out there and see why, but luckily the rest of her friends had been enough to stop her. Or, knowing Tink, stall her.
Later, though, a Lord or Lady of each season had been dispatched to speak with the fast-flying fairies in their domains about a new addition to their duties.
The ferrying of new fairy-carrying seeds to the very place they could not touch, for the birth of a new breed of fairies. Such fairies would be rare, they had been assured, but they would come. The fairies who caught them would know them by how abnormal they were. Fear, exhaustion, pain, desperation - these seeds would carry the last breaths of a child's life and belonged within Skull Rock, under the leadership of Lord Hallows - the fairy of Death.
Although the Lords and Ladies had not asked them to keep their knowledge quiet, she didn't know of any who had decided to share the information just yet. It was a frightening thought, that this 'Lord Hallows' should exist at all, let alone this new breed of fairy born of misery.
And this seed before her… it was the first, save Lord Hallows himself. As the wind shifted and curled to help Gale keep it aloft in one location, she heard the slow wheeze of a child's lungs fighting - and failing - to stay alive.
A birth of a fairy was supposed to be a cause for celebration - not mourning.
"So?" She asked after a heartbeat of uncontrolled wariness. "You know where it goes. What do you want from me?"
"Could you take it?" Gale begged, already urging it towards her, forcing Vidia to back away lest it touch her and.. And taint her with that terrible fear. "Please Vidia? I can't- I just can't."
Vidia scoffed, putting another foot of space between them.
"Hey, don't go thinking I'll just pick up your slack because you're-"
"I'll do whatever you want!" Gale steamrolled right over her. "Anything. I'm sorry, I just… I panicked, and you've always been the best of us - the strongest talent. Please!"
Ego stroked and only capable of resisting so much begging, Vidia sighed and twisted a hand. The wind, always eager to aid her, leapt from Gale's control to hers and shrunk down to contain the seed within a tiny sphere of ever-spinning currents.
"Thank you Vidia!" Gale gasped, streaking away as fast as her wings could take her. Vidia rolled her eyes and, as she started towards Skull Rock, began thinking of something sufficiently exhausting and/or disgusting the other fairy could do to pay her back.
Anything to take her mind off the desolate seed in her gentle grasp.
Hallows
Skull Rock was… different.
On the outside it was as foreboding as ever but on the inside… it was worse. The pixie dust tree looked… twisted. Almost, but not quite, shrivelled. It looked dead, despite the slow trickle of (green, but a wrong sort of green) pixie dust it was still producing.
All at once, she felt a shiver right down to her bones. She understood suddenly that Queen's Clarion's warning had been absolutely accurate. If she touched any part of this place… she would die.
Swallowing tightly and regaining a firm grip on the winds that seemed as uneasy as her, she aimed for the familiar (and new) swirling platform at the centre of the tiny tree. She would deliver the seed and get out.
Something darker than night and almost skeletal rose suddenly from the topmost branch of the tree. She flinched back, heart pounding - but as they moved in a familiar flutter, green power lit them from within and a trail of eerie green power lit the area enough to see a male fairy with wings similar to the Queen's.
Lord Hallows.
She tried to speak but had to clear her throat first to manage it.
"I have a seed for you." She managed, voice barely trembling at all.
"Thank you." The Lord said simply.
She kept half an eye on him as she circled 'round and urged the seed to land precisely.
He was frightening to behold with his sunken and pale skin. Every fairy she'd ever known had been plump and flush with health. There was something lonely within him - something that she felt like a stirring breeze. It made her fear that he might be very happy to see her die within his realm, just so that his loneliness might be sated for a time.
The seed touched down and her wings burned as they got her a good several meters away - far enough to see without possibly touching anything by accident. Part of her argued to just get out and go while she still could… but the part of her that was secretly thrilled to be the first to see the new fairy's birth urged her to stay.
There were no dustkeeper fairies here. There was no-one to pour a ceremonial cup to change essence into fairy. There were no other witnesses to feel/hear/share the moment of pure happiness that had created their new fellow. Lord Hallows just lifted a hand, his whole body glowing with green-yellow fire, and the tree beneath the seed followed suit.
It was as though the entire thing caught alight - except that it burned away only the seed, purifying the essence and - she was relieved to feel - eradicating the pain and fear.
A new life straightened, blinked, looked up and around with wary eyes. He was as pale as his Lord and somehow even bonier. His pants were ragged and his white hair was short and tufted. Black eyes looked at Lord Hallows with something like hope, like somehow the ruin of a fairy knew that whatever suffering had come before was over now. Like they knew they had Lord Hallow to thank for their newfound peace - but still feared it would be snatched away like a dream.
Lord Hallows went to one knee before the kneeling newborn fairy. Hands wreathed in the same fire that had forged the new fairy lifted to cup his cheeks, sending trails of it burning along skin that didn't seem to feel a thing. In its wake, it left blackened whorls and scattered shapes - like that found within a normal fairy's wings, Vidia realised sharply. It wasn't until that exact moment that she realised the fairy below here didn't have any wings! None at all! Except, when Lord Hallows lifted his hands and stepped away, rising into the air to hover with a hand extended, the wingless fairy got to his feet and…
And flew. Darkness matching the shapes on his skin fractured out of his back, lit from within by the same hellish glow that radiated from Lord Hallows. Below him, he trailed unnatural green pixie dust. As he shyly took Lord Hallow's hand and ascended, Vidia found herself backing away even further.
There was something about him that made every hair on her body stand up. Something that spoke of inevitability, of death like a weapon to be wielded.
She thought that maybe even touching one of Hallow's fairies would be enough to die. She wondered if even the humans would fall to their touch.
She wondered if they were supposed to.
Then, finally, she fled - missing the new fairy's naming and Lord Hallow's lessening loneliness. As she speared out over the roiling ocean, she decided right then and there that Gale's owed favour would be to take the next 'death seed' she caught. The less she saw of Lord Hallow's awful, empty, lonely realm, the better.
Hallows
A few more tiny one-shot ideas are growing for this fic. They'll be uploaded when they're written.
