Chapter 1: If only
Summary:
Varian gets grounded. Oops.
Chapter Text
The perks of having your not-so-secret laboratory on the outskirts of the water fairy’s village were nice, in all honesty.
This meant Varian could have his precious privacy when playing around with new experiments and ideas, or attempting to repilcate his mother’s notes, even if they were unsuccessful in the end.
By far the only downside to this, however, is how long it takes to walk back to the village. Especially when you’re a fairy who constantly uses up his pixie dust and leaving none for its proper use of flying.
But, that’s also where the perks of having a raccoon for a best friend comes in. Quick travel!
Which led him to right now, Varian humming a nameless tune from atop Ruddiger’s fluffy back.
The animal trudged through the blades of grass and huge flowers, the fairy taking it all in like a… what was it called?
Sponge. Like a sponge.
When the dirt below the two became less messed up and more clean, Varian leaped off from the back of Ruddiger, dusting off his apron and pants after a cloud of dirt appeared when he landed.
He turned to Ruddiger, waving for him to head back to his home. The raccoon whined and Varian rolled his eyes.
”I know, buddy, I’d love to have you see what I do on a daily basis too! But you’re a freaking huge animal in a village of tiny houses, and I think if I destroy any other properties, I’m going to get my wings ripped off.” Varian pat the raccoon’s nose, which twitched slightly before letting out a loud huff.
Ruddiger poked Varian with his nose once, playfully, before returning back to the forest.
Varian continued down the path, continuing the nameless hum while he hopped from one sunflower to the other. He kept his hands in his apron pockets, one hand idly fidgeting with a handful of dust bombs.
Varian made these balls of compressed pixie dust when he was a lot younger for the purpose of instant flight or attack. You never know when a hawk could attack, and pixie dust can be a great distraction!
The only reason he didn’t use those same dust bombs right now was because, in the words of his father, he would be seen using pixie dust despite not being a dust keeper, accused of ‘witchcraft’ for creating pixie dust out of nowhere, and then sent away to the trolls.
The water fairy couldn’t help but roll his eyes again. That seemed to be Quirin’s one and only excuse to make Varian stop his alchemy, in public, at least. The man just can’t keep the boy away from the chemicals in his lab, so the only rule in his family was to restrict it when in public.
But still, it was really quite tedious. Nobody in their right mind would be stalking a fairy on any day, nor would they see someone use pixie dust on themself and call it “witchcraft”. Every fairy uses dust on themselves!
But no matter how many times he tried to argue this to his dad, it always ended with Quirin winning.
Varian supposed he could understand. Being a water fairy with an interest in something that was barely related to water was a dangerous and risky game to be playing, and Quirin simply just wants his son to be safe.
So in the end, Varian respected Quirin’s wishes by keeping the alchemy to a minimum and Quirin got off his back.
(But sometimes, on days when Varian would leave his lab covered in soot and mud, he could see that sad, disappointed spark in his father’s eyes for just a fleeting second. Dad doesn't approve. He needs to change that, he needs his father to see he can be something to be proud of.)
Varian shook his head, chasing away the foggy thoughts as he entered into the actual heart of Corona’s hollow. Around him, his friends were already working alongside their respective coworkers and talents.
Rapunzel saw him first, she was directing sunlight around the fields of flowers to help the bright plants grow. Surprisingly, her insanely long, golden hair didn't seem to bother her or her flying.
Her eyes brightened when they landed on Varian, waving her hand and cheering. “Hi Varian!!”
The boy returned the wave, albeit a little more awkwardly, with a smile. “Hi Rapunzel!”
Nuru, who was currently growing bundles of tulips and sunflowers, also turned her attention to Varian. “Hey! Used up your dust again?”
”It appears so.” Varian shrugged humorously.
Rapunzel fluttered closer to him, worry etched on her face. “You know, Varian, I could help you conserve your pixie dust for longer periods-“
”I’ll probably take you up on that, Raps!” Varian said as he ran up to a large mushroom, hopping onto it and using it as a launchpad to reach the other side of the grass that blocked his way.
On the other side, Varian was met with Cassandra and Lance first, then noticing Yong beside them.
Lance was moving a line of ladybugs towards a source of wind to dry them off from their previous trip in the river that Varian had missed.
Cassandra was moving in a similar motion, but looked more like an army general compared to Lance's more eased movements.
Yong was at their side, controlling a tinker-made contraption that would lift the insects higher and closer to the miniature cyclone for a faster dry.
The larger animal fairy noticed him first. Lance didn’t move his hands from where they were directing the bugs, but he did lift his head to face Varian with a smile. “Morning, little man!”
Cassandra brought her head up, offering a curt nod. "Good morning, Varian."
This got the attention of Yong, who also turned to the water fairy and beamed. “Hi Varian! Are you out of dust again?”
Varian laughed, shaking his head. “Morning guys. And no, just going for a stroll.”
He continued past the four fairies—yes, four, he knew that tornado formation anywhere—and winked at the twirling source of wind by the line of bugs. “Nice wind, Hugo.”
Suddenly, the miniature hurricane stopped and Hugo was in it’s spot with his hands on his hips. “Thanks. What’s a stroll?”
Varian snickered, about to shoot back at the fast flying fairy with another quip, but was interrupted by the familiar horn coming from the water fairy’s village, alerting him that his morning shift was starting in a minute. “Oh, crud!”
Varian changed to running down the entry to his home village where multiple water fairies were beginning their own shifts. Some already meeting a group of young dragonflies, others harvesting seaweed and cattails from the river.
Varian, however, ran for a specific area on the side of the river with a moving conveyor and waterproof leaves for packages.
His job was to douse packages of droplets of water wrapped in waterproof leaves into a small fountain of pixie dust, directing them into a delivery cart to be given to other villages in Corona.
He used to have a job wrapping the water droplets, but after his father learned he had a habit of wrapping said water so fast it broke before the package was finished, he was moved to the transport area.
Varian skidded to a stop in his usual spot just beside Eugene, the last fairy who was tasked with wrapping the drops in the line, who raised an eyebrow at the sight of Varian running into the village.
Before the man could get a word out, Varian huffed. “No, I didn’t use all my pixie dust in my experiments last night. I’m fine.”
“Sure, sure,” Eugene grinned, “Just looking out for my favorite mad scientist, you know? I mean, who else would I go to for hair gel that actually works?”
”Mmm… King Fredrick?”
”Don’t even joke about that.” Eugene shuddered, “Sure, he might be my father in law one day, but that guy is terrifying, Varian, terrifying!”
The younger fairy only laughed at his cousin's turmoil.
Eventually, leaves with drops of water were coming down the conveyor line, some already packaged, some open for other fairies to fix.
Eugene reached for the first leaf that came close to him, wrapping the ends of the leaf around the top and finishing the package with a small cattail stem.
He then set the leaf back onto the belt, where the finished products would continue down the line and right to Varian, who took the packages with the help of others and sprinkled handfuls of pixie dust onto the package until they floated up from his hands. The leaves were gently guided from the conveyor and into multiple carts to be sent off.
The reason for the use of pixie dust was to reduce the risk of water droplets breaking inside the package from harsh movements, so the process of having it float with pixie dust to the carts helped a lot.
It also gave Varian ideas.
He grabbed another package, automatically repeating the process while his mind and mouth worked elsewhere. “Hey, Eugene. D’you ever wonder about… like, pixie dust?”
The man hummed, focused on wrapping another package. “Pixie dust? Well- No, not really. I mean, unless I run out and I can’t fly, then yeah, totally.”
Varian scoffed lightly. “Okay- yeah, true, but I mean like- like do you ever question or think about it? Like what can it do?”
Eugene paused, turning to Varian with a bewildered look in his eyes. “It… helps us fly.”
“Yes, I know, but why does it do that?” He emphasized excitedly, lifting another package to a cart, “Maybe my mom’s journal has something about-“
“Ahem.”
Varian’s excited thoughts came to a screeching halt when the sudden voice interrupted.
Eugene, as well as other nearby water fairies, quickly shot their heads back to the packages in front of them, not daring to look ahead of who stood before them.
Warily, Varian brought his gaze to meet Quirin’s, who stood on the opposite side of the conveyor belt with a frown. “Distracted on the job, Varian?”
”No-nope!” The fairy hastily shook his head, forcing an unconvincing smile, “Fine! We- I’m great- fine. I am perfectly good- fine. Fine.”
Quirin raised one eyebrow, and Varian felt more swear appear on his brow as his smile grew uncomfortably bigger.
Eventually, his father sighed, breaking the awkward tension. “Well, it’s your turn with dust duty today, Varian.”
The boy gasped. “Really?!” In his excitement, he almost knocked over a nearby water package, before reeling back with a wince and apologetic smile. He cleared his throat, “R-Really?”
”Yes, now come along, we mustn’t hold up the line.” Quirin gestured for his son to follow, already moving away.
Varian quickly took one last package from the belt and tossing it into the cart with little care before running after his father.
”Dust Duty” was what the fairies calls the duty of refilling the village pixie dust stock.
Per every district with a different talent, there is one large well of pixie dust, all of which comes from the large pixie dust tree in the Light Fairies' village.
The dust well in the water fairies’ village is basically the same as every other one across the hollow; a large wooden water tower filled with pixie dust that flows like a river around the area.
It’s powered by a couple of blue pixie dust from the Pixie Dust Tree, but once the blue dust runs out, the dust stops flowing. Therefore, about every three months, an advisors of the Light Fairies travels across the kingdom hollow to deliver monthly loads of blue pixie dust.
And today, Varian gets to be there to help!
The fairy bounces on his heels as he watches his father exchange a few words with one guard, who handed the water fairy leader a large, elaborate jar of luminescent blue dust.
The guard bowed once, before stepping back and moving to examine the rest of the village, most likely an order from the king.
Quirin unfolded the pre-made stand for the jar of blue dust, gently placing it into the stand then gesturing for Varian to come closer.
His father began to twist the notch on the top of the container, and Varian couldn’t help but cut in. “It’s- uh, seven to the left.”
”Yes, it is.” Quirin confirmed. It sounded like he was forcing himself to be pleased, as if he was upset with Varian…
The boy winced at the thought, but it faded when the latch was opened.
The pixie dust seemed to glow ever-so more brighter now that the lid was opened, Varian leaned closer in awe.
Quirin handed the young fairy a vial and pipette for the dust, Varian quickly accepted it.
Carefully, he moved the hand which held the pipette into the jar of blue dust, slowly using it to suck in specks of the dust.
Quirin was quick to remind him of the strict rules regarding the blue dust. “Remember, son, exactly twenty six specks.”
Varian hummed in acknowledgment, filling the vial with the same amount of dust, before frowning in thought. “But why twenty six? Why not try, say, twenty five? Oh! Or twenty seven?”
Quirin sighed exhaustedly. “Oh suns, here we go.”
”What if we change the amount of blue dust and it creates a different kind of reaction?!” Varian was buzzing with ideas now, “Maybe it could create other kinds of pixie dust! Like orange, or purple, or- Ooh! What about pink?”
His father let out one huff of laughter, probably the most Varian would get out of him today. “The day someone finds pink pixie dust will be the day I retire my work pants.”
”But what if we don’t find it? What if… What if we make it?” Varian grinned at the thought, perhaps another experiment!-
He felt a heavy hand land on his shoulder, then he was turned to face Quirin’s seriously stone-like face.
His father stared down at him with a frown. “Listen to me very carefully now, Varian. We do not tamper with pixie dust, it’s too dangerous.”
Varian’s face fell, he already knew this! However, he might’ve just came up with something that could finally grant him a break through in his mother’s research!
He wasn’t about to give that up. “B-But dad, just think about it! With this, we- I could make something that could help-“
”No Varian. I have told you multiple times you cannot toy with magic you do not understand!”
”Then help me understand!” Varian yelled, throwing his hands up. “Why are you so-so adamant about me not doing alchemy?! Why can’t you just let me-“
”Because I won’t let you fall to the same fate as your mother!”
That got a reaction from Varian. He froze completely, staring up at his father with wide, tiny eyes.
Quirin sighed again, pinching his nose. “You… You and your mother are very alike, Varian. She was.. smart, brilliant even. She always thought there was something more to the magic of Pixie Hollow than there seemed to be. But, just like you, she was curious, far too curious.”
The hand on his shoulder softened, sliding down to his upper arm instead. “She disappeared one day trying to chase after a dream of alchemy, Varian. She never came back, and I cannot, I will not let you to befall that same fate… I can’t.”
Varian didn’t give an answer to that.
He exhaled shakily, meeting his father’s eyes and nodding silently. Now in both of his hands, he held the vial of blue pixie dust like a child caught stealing.
Quirin didn't answer either, taking the vial and pipette from the fairy's hands and placing a cap onto the vial. "Do you still want to help me with the pixie dust?"
Varian gaped, blinking in shock for a few seconds. "I- yes! Uh- yeah, yeah sure. Please."
His father nodded, taking Varian's much smaller hand and bringing him into the air as the man flew to the top of the dust tower.
Once at a sturdy platform just before the large bin of pixie dust, Varian was back on his feet beside his father.
Varian watched in silent amazement as Quirin uncapped the vial, hovering it upside down over the dust as the blue sparkles slowly fell from the glass. The first speck of dust that floated into the sea of yellow glitter created a ripple like effect, slowly followed by the other drops.
Eventually, the bin of pixie dust that barely reached the top was overflowing with pixie dust.
The young water fairy giggled when he saw the waterfall of dust fall from a large pipe near the bottom of the barrel, letting it create a river of pixie dust that flowed throughout the village.
"From a trickle to a roar." Quirin commented, his gaze also fixated on the flowing pixie dust.
Varian smiled contently. He supposed he could be fine with everything right now.
But no matter how hard he tried, throughout the entire day, Varian couldn't seem to get one idea out of his mind regarding the pixie dust.
The rest of the day moved along like a blur, and by the end, Varian's wrists were aching with how many times he had to repeat the movement of guiding floating packages. He supposed he should be grateful, it can't possibly be worse than how Eugene feels. Constantly wrapping droplets for an entire shift is not easy for the hands.
Varian huffed out a tired sigh as he flew to the door of his home, not the lab this time.
It took a bit of force to open the wooden door, but when he did, the fairy was hit with a blast smelling like Aunt Adira's cooking.
He was quickly seated at his usual chair at the six person table, between Eugene and Uncle Hector.
His uncle eyed him suspiciously. "Heard you had a problem with your pixie dust again."
Varian groaned. "I'm fine! I got some from the well in the square, right Eugene?"
His technically-cousin hummed at the mention of his name. "Whu- Oh, yeah, I saw it. Bu-u-ut... Hector's right, kid, you suck at keeping your dust in check."
"I do not!"
"No, you do, Hairstripe." Adira piped up from the flame and pot in the kitchen. "I think I've seen you walk more times than I've seen you fly."
Hector snickered, elbowing the boy. "Keep it up and your wings'll fall off."
At Varian's horrified gasp, Eugene frowned, throwing an arm around his shoulder. "That's not true, wings can only break from ye old elements."
"How do you know there aren't other ways, boy?"
"Eh- Well, for one!-"
"What's this about wings?" Quirin said, walking into the room with Edmund in tow.
"Hector's trying to rip off his nephew's wings." Adira commented blatantly. Hector squawked in offense.
"Liar! She's lying, I was telling the boys about what a lack of pixie dust does to a fairy."
"Hey- This is all about Varian, actually, don't drag me into this." Eugene pulled away, dramatically huffing.
Varian grumbled in his seat, but said nothing. Edmund took the bowls from the counter and began to place one in front of each chair.
The stew smelled great, as well as its taste. Adira had a sort of hidden talent when it came to cooking.
Yet, Varian couldn’t help but let his attention drift away from that, from the environment of his family at supper. It favored his new ideas with the pixie dust.
He sat quietly in his spot for the remaining time at supper, only nodding and humming when mentioned by a member, then returning to his mind.
Varian was so, so sure he was onto something with the addition of new pixie dust variations once he figured out what could be missing!
If only he could leave…
Once the stew was drained from his acorn bowl, he slammed it a bit too harsh on the table, standing up. “I’m done, can I go to the lab?” He rushed out.
His family, for the most part, seemed rather surprised at the sudden outburst. Quirin raised a suspicious eyebrow at his son. “Why do you need to go to the lab right now?”
Crap, he forgot he was restricted access to his laboratory after his work hours. Probably another rule from Quirin to keep him away from alchemy.
Varian glanced down at his person, before darting back up. “I- forgot to put my apron and goggles away. And I think I left some chemicals out..?”
His father sighed, waving the boy off. “…Fine, go ahead. Please be back before lights out.”
”Got it!” Varian nodded, already running for the door, “Um- L-Love you, dad.”
Varian only got a hum in return.
When the water fairy finally did return to his laboratory in the oak tree, he wasn’t all that surprised to see Ruddiger already there, fast asleep.
Varian giggled at his large friend curled up and slumped on top of one of the bigger branches of the tree, flying up to pat the animal’s nose twice. He had to be careful not to wake him, lest Ruddiger awake the nearby village.
Right beside Varian’s lab was the Light Fairies’ District. It was much more cleaned and developed than the other villages in Corona, made of perfectly cut cobblestone and clay-crafted buildings, probably because that’s where the Royal family lived. Makes sense.
In a way, he supposed he envied the luxury lifestyle of light fairies, but what could he do? It’s not their fault that the talent just so happens to be related to a long line of royals, one of which who happens to be one of his best friends.
Varian slipped inside his lab, which used a large maple leaf as a mock curtain or door. Within, there were multiple prototypes for various machines that he had yet to finish.
The boy was no tinker, obviously. That was Yong’s talent. However, that didn’t stop Varian from at least trying to create a design for something that wouldn’t break and burst in front of his eyes.
Sometimes—well, most of the time—Hugo would make himself comfortable in Varian’s lab, building tiny machinery and tools with whatever materials he could. Occasionally, Varian would add his own flair to Hugo’s inventions with some added alchemy.
Their process of building was very different from that of a tinker fairy, and by far much more difficult.
Tinkers had a sort of spark within them that gave them some kind of magical ability to turn junk into a perfectly functioning machine in maybe just a day.
For Hugo and Varian, however, it takes probably a month of more to just think of an idea. Then it’s off to the designing, the actual building, the rebuilding after the first draft breaks, then rinse and repeat.
It’s tedious, sure, and it sucks most of the time, but it’s so insanely fun for the two Varian wonders if he’s gone crazy too.
Varian is taken out of that train of thought when the special journal that once belonged to his mother fell from its stand on his desk.
He somehow just realized he’s been staring at the cover for maybe two minutes now. He placed the book back onto the stand, opening it to the first page.
One every page he used, which was all of them by this point, Ulla had written whether or not these experiments had been a success or failure. Spoiler alert: none of them are successful.
Varian had been recreating each equation his mother used and written down, often changing a small factor in her version to see if that yielded any differences.
It did, but not in a good way by any means. It mostly just left Varian with a dirty face, bruised ego, and laughing Ruddiger.
”No result,” Varian read, flipping through pages of the journal for the billionth time, “No result, no result, no result!” He groaned, falling forehead first onto his desk, causing some beakers and materials to rattle.
It was silent for a moment, but most sounds stirred in Varian’s mind as he wondered what he could possibly do.
Peeking out from the surface of the desk, Varian gazed solemnly at the journal above him. If his mother was here, she could probably lead him to an answer-
A shining speck of blue light drifted down in front of Varian’s eyes, gracefully floating down until it hit the wooden table and simply shined in the moonlight above from Varian’s window.
Upon closer inspection, he gasped. A blue pixie dust spot was here? Was that good or bad?
Bad- so, so very bad, oh Dad was going to be so mad when he realized Varian had blue pixie dust with him-
If. If he realized.
Varian paused, fully freezing as he thought over his options.
Well, it was really one option, because there was no way he would skip out on an opportunity like this.
He had a brilliant source of pixie dust energy just laying on his desk! How often would he be able to obtain such a rarity on a normal day?
Unlikely, possibly 0.003% of a chance if we’re being realistic-
Unimportant! Varian could use this, maybe it’s what he’s been missing!
Grinning at the revelation, the fairy leapt for his alchemy equipment, a magnifying glass, and some tweezers.
First, he began to recreate the process of Light Pixie Dust written in the journal.
Just before the final step, Varian stepped away from the nearly complete substance and towards another table where he left the blue pixie dust.
He placed the spot on a rock beneath his large magnifying glass, carefully bringing a sharp stick of wood over the glow before hammering it down once with a small hammer.
The faint crack scared Varian at first, until he realized the dust was finally split into two pieces.
Smiling wildly, Varian grabbed his tweezers to pick up the blue dust, transporting it to the bowl of useless dust on the previous table.
The tweezer released its grip on the speck, and it fell into the sparkling dust. Instantly, Varian witnessed the reaction.
The blue spot morphed the originally golden color of pixie dust into a bright yellow hue.
Varian gaped in awe, slowly removing his safety gloves from one hand and lowering it into the bowl. The dust stuck to his hand easily.
Hesitantly, Varian walked over to the center of his lab where a beam of moonlight from the upcoming sunset shone through his window.
He placed his dust-covered hand to the light and it moved.
Varian let out a surprised laugh involuntarily, moving the hand about and watching as the light was deflected off of it.
He did it! He made orange pixie dust! See that, dad?!
In his excited stupor, Varian stumbled back, shaking off the remaining dust from his hand. He has to show someone!
And from the faint, glowing lights that emitted from the kingdom nearby, he knew just who to show.
Rapunzel stepped back with an exhausted sigh. Her glass painting was coming along well, she would say.
Tilting her head slightly, the Light Fairy looked at her creation in search for any possible mistakes.
This was going to be on display at the next 'Corona Spring Festival'! She couldn't imagine having it displayed for all fairies to see and notice a little spot of—
Aha! There, a blank, unpainted spot of glass on the side.
Rapunzel hummed as she brought out her wooden pallet of homemade paints and leaf brush, stepping closer to the canvas of glass.
Until a chorus of knocks rang from her door.
The fairy paused, turning to the door but making no move for it, wondering if it was just her mind, or maybe Angry and Red were playing pranks again-
The knocks returned, in a faster and more frantic rhythm. Definitely not her imagination.
"I'm coming, one second!" Rapunzel called, tossing her art tools on a nearby table.
She threw open the door, and was met with a smiling Varian, who was practically vibrating in place from excitement.
"Rapunzel!" He shouted the moment the door opened, before remembering its nearly sunrise, and thus, quiet time. "S-Sorry, Rapunzel, I have something incredible to show you!"
"Really?" Rapunzel beamed. "Ooh I can't wait! Wait, wait- let me guess! Is it another hair serum for Eugene?"
"YE- What? N-No, but thank's for reminding me, I do need to get to that." Varian muttered, before shaking his head, “But no! Rapunzel, I can’t- I need to show you this! Like- right now!”
”Ok, ok!” The light fairy giggled, stepping fully out of her doorway, “What’s this we’re looking at today?”
Varian gave one last blinding smile of excitement before flying off in the direction of his lab. Rapunzel grinned, following after the boy.
Rapunzel may not know what goes on in the water fairy’s mind most of the time, she doesn’t really know what half of his experiments do, but she’s happy to listen!
Whatever he made now is surely something she’ll get behind.
”YOU’RE BENDING LIGHT?!” Rapunzel shouted in utter shock.
Varian, who was happily adjusting rays of moonlight with an unknown yellow dust on his hands, smiled wide. “I know, right?! Realistically, we all know that it’s impossible, given how fairy tradition is and talents and all that-“
While the water fairy’s continued rambling, Rapunzel stayed put in her spot in the center of the lab, watching Varian move about with a mouth agape.
Her friend, a water fairy, just bent light.
”But… How? You-You're not a light fairy! You're a water fairy!" Rapunzel couldn’t help but ask, because literally how does one do this?
Varian turned to Rapunzel, gleefully, before showing the blonde his gloves covered with orange dust. ”With this!”
"Woah..." Rapunzel gasped in awe, moving closer to inspect the hands. "You found orange pixie dust...?"
Varian laughed. "Found it? No, Raps, I made orange pixie dust!"
”That’s…” Rapunzel trailed off, her mind drawing a blank.
”Amazing?!” Varian answered for her, jumping up and down again, “I know! Just think of all the possibilities, Raps! We- There could be- Oh! I have to try some more!” Varian shot off to his desk once again, almost like his wings were on fire.
”Well, I was going to say it's never been done before but- Wait, more?!" The light fairy shuffled closer to the frantic boy, who was flipping through pages of his mother’s journal, grabbing supplies and tossing them into a large bowl.
While Varian muttered the recipe to himself, Rapunzel watched from a safe distance.
At first, there was simply dust in the bowl, the kind of dust fairies use to fly on a daily basis.
Rapunzel cleared her throat, attempting to regain her currently frazzled mind. "Uhm- what does your dad think about this?"
"Oh- See, he doesn't exactly... know." The fairy answered, not looking up from his work.
"What?"
"He... He doesn't think I should tamper with pixie dust, in his words." Varian paused, seemingly dejected, before moving a bowl into Rapunzel's hands.
Inside were clippings of purple feathers and a huge amount of pixie dust, "Do you mind stirring?" He walked away before she could answer.
Beside Rapunzel, Varian worked with a large magnifying glass that hovered above a rock with a small blue light on top. "I guess he just thinks it's too powerful, or something... Oh- you can't stop!" He instructed, glancing at Rapunzel and noticing she had paused stirring amidst his rambling.
The woman couldn't help but glance to her side, watching as Varian peered through the large glass and used a small hammer and sharp rock to pierce the blue dust. "Is that.. blue dust? You're doing this with blue dust?"
"Yes! And all it takes is the tiniest amount, Raps! Can you believe it?" Varian smiled widely as he brought the chipped piece of blue pixie dust in a pair of tweezers to the bowl of dust, dropping it in and watching as the reaction created a burst of purple.
The two fairies gasped, Varian lowered a hand to the bowl to coat his glove with the purple dust.
After a moment of thought, Varian walked closer to the center of his lab, Rapunzel moving out of the way for the alchemist.
The water fairy began to wave his hand around in a circular motion, gasping in revelation as the hand coated with purple dust created a small flow of wind, picking up stray papers and objects.
“Purple equals fast flying talent!” He laughed, shaking off the purple dust. Varian quickly forgot about his newest creation, running to make a new one already!
A stray flower bud landed at Rapunzel's feet, which Varian picked up quickly with an excited grin. "Garden talent next!"
Rapunzel gathered her courage, as well as shoving down her growing concern, and stepped closer to follow her friend who was moving about his desk in a frenzy. "Um- Varian, I don't think this is safe..-"
Varian was grabbing items and supplies alike, namely anything pink and plant related.
He clipped off the petals of a rather large flower, the petals falling into yet another bowl of dust.
"Maybe you should.. uhm- slow down, maybe? Please?" Rapunzel's pleads went unheard of to Varian, who continued to mutter directions under his breath.
When he returned to the magnifying glass with the blue pixie dust underneath, Rapunzel watched in shock as Varian chipped off two pieces instead of his usual one!
"Two?" Rapunzel asked. "This time you're adding two?"
Varian didn't look up to his friend, only humming. "Uh-huh!" He took the two specks of blue dust and placed them in the mixture.
The reaction also followed instantly, similar to the previous experiment.
A burst of pink exploded in the bowl, and Varian was hit with the blast right in his face.
Rapunzel leaped back with a yelp, while Varian fell to the floor from the blast's force. "Varian! Are you okay?!"
The fairy sat up quickly, wearing a bright grin.
"Princess, we better get my dad some new pants, 'cause I just made pink pixie dust!" Varian jumped to his feet, running over to the other side of his lab and returning with a thing table with a single potted vine inside.
"Do you know what this means, Rapunzel!" He said, grabbing the bowl of pink dust. "I finally found my lost things! L-Like, you know, how yours was painting and all that? This could be mine!"
"V-Varian, I'm really not sure about this!" Rapunzel said. "We should stop, or at least go a little bit slower before-"
"What?" Varian asked, distracted, as he turned his head to face the princess but had tripped over the table with a shout, dropping the pink dust all over the plant.
For a moment, neither fairy moved. Both Varian and Rapunzel stared horrified at the vine covered in pink pixie dust.
Just when they were beginning to think nothing had happened, a loud rumble shook through the lab.
Varian shot up. "What was that?!"
Rapunzel gasped, her eyes back on the potted vine.
Varian followed her gaze and watched with the woman as the vine shook in place, before multiple vines were beginning to grow, extremely fast.
Within seconds, the vines were overtaking Varian's lab, wrapping around machines, alchemy sets, and reaching the door.
Despite this, Varian ran to the plant, pushing it away from the doorway in hopes it would maybe do something!
It didn't. The vines kept growing, pushing against the smaller fairy and eventually bursting out of the lab. Varian tugged at his hair in horror. "Oh no! No no no no no no!"
"Varian!" Rapunzel ran for her friend, pulling him out of the way of a fast moving vine that was close to penetrating Varian's head.
They fell to the floor in a heap, before Rapunzel shot up again, looking around for an exit.
"We have to get out of here!"
"But how?!" Varian crouched onto his knees, looking around for a space that wasn't overtaken by vines. "I don't see an exit!"
Rapunzel bit her lip, frantically searching for an opening before noticing a hatch at the top of the lab. "There!"
The light fairy grabbed onto the smaller fairy's hand, shooting off from the ground and flying through the opening before it was covered by vines.
Varian collected himself, now able to fly on his own accord, yanking his hand from Rapunzel's iron grip and hugging it close to his chest.
He winced when he turned back and saw his lab, now decorated with hundreds of growing vines. "It's.. It's okay- We're fine! This is fine! We- I can just find Nuru, and- and she can help- yeah, we got this! No- No problem here!"
Before Rapunzel could console her panicking friend, Varian flew off to follow after the trail of vines.
Surely the plants hadn't caused that much damage, Rapunzel thought hopefully.
Yet, once again, she was wrong. Oh so wrong.
"Oh no..." Rapunzel gasped when she and Varian had reached the end of the vine trail, taking in the chaos it had created before their eyes.
The light fairies sector was completely ransacked. Homes and shops seemed to be fine, none were broken by the vines, but were totally covered by the plants. Fairies of the village gasped and shook in shock as they stared at the plant infested kingdom.
The worst piece of destruction, however, stood in the very center.
The dust depot in the kingdom was destroyed. Vines stuck out of every which opening and crevice, even ripping the roof off of the top completely. Dust trickled out of sides like water, pitifully flowing into the grass.
A few officials, being leaders from other sectors or the Royal Family themselves, approached and stared as well.
Quirin, being one of the fairies who had noticed the commotion, stalked closer to one larger vine that ran into the depot.
He ran a couple of fingers across the green surface, pulling back when it was covered with a layer of pink pixie dust.
When the realization hit the man, Quirin couldn't help but give a disheartened groan.
His thoughts were proven correct when he stood up and watched as Varian ran—not flying—down a huge vine to the depot. He skidded to a stop, pulling his hands to his mouth in horror as he stared up at his creation.
Varian unconsciously glanced to his side, making contact with his father just as he stepped forward to the boy.
His father's hands were held out in front of him, as if holding something. And holding something he was, Varian noticed in fear when he saw that Quirin held a collection of pink pixie dust in his hands.
The water fairy pulled his hands down from his face, his mouth opening and closing as he attempted to form a coherent sentence. "I'm so sorry! D-Dad, I swear, I didn't- I'll help rebuild the depot! I'll work late, I- I can work early, just-"
"I told you not to tamper with the pixie dust, Varian." Quirin's cold, disappointed gaze bore down on Varian like a rock piercing through his chest.
Behind the two, fairies began to crowd around the disaster. Rapunzel met with her friends as they approached with worry etched on each of their faces.
"Blondie! Blondie- Are you okay?" Eugene ran over first, frantically checking over the woman before gently cradling her hands.
"I'm- I'm fine, Eugene.." Rapunzel breathed with a smile. Cassandra followed, her concerned expression melting into warm relief when Rapunzel met her with a grin.
But Rapunzel's attention slowly drifted from the water and animal fairy, instead returning to the shaking boy who stood before his father.
"Dad- Dad, please, you have to believe me- I didn't- I didn't mean for this to happen!" Varian pleaded, yet he didn't dare move closer to his father.
Five adults appeared behind Quirin; the King and Queen of Pixie Hollow, Adira, Hector, and Edmund. However, only Adira moved forward to whisper into his father's ear.
When his aunt pulled away, the man sighed through his nose, his head falling down slightly. "Varian."
The teen perked up, not uttering a word.
"Hector is going to take you with him-"
"Wh-What?"
"-To stay with him in the Great Tree-"
"Wh- Dad!"
"-Until the springtime-"
"Dad- Dad, please, I-"
"This is not up for debate, Varian!" Quirin shouted at the teen. Varian stepped back with a flinch, sucking in all his breath and shaking.
Quirin sighed once more. "You clearly cannot be trusted with this... alchemy hobby of yours, so until you learn how to control it, better yet- abandon it, you will stay with Hector until then."
Varian shook, taking one last chance to change his father's mind. "Dad, please, you- you can't be serious-"
The man held up a hand to cease any more words coming from Varian's mouth. "I have already discussed this with the King and Queen. They.. also believe it is better if you learn elsewhere."
To that, Varian didn't respond. He simply stared back at Quirin's eyes, with pin-sized pupils and tears building behind them.
Quirin heaved out a breath one last time, turning away from his son, as he began walking for the conversing adults. "I'm disappointed in you, Varian."
That broke him.
Varian, with tears suddenly dribbling down his cheeks, took several more steps backwards, before fully turning around and shot off to fly back to his destroyed laboratory.
Rapunzel took one step forward, as if trying to follow after her friend, but stopped when Cassandra's hand landed on her shoulder.
She simply watched as the weeping fairy left the scene behind.
Despite the overflow of tears flowing from his face, Varian managed to make it back to his lab unscathed. Well, physically, that is.
Ruddiger was nowhere to be seen, probably fled when the vines first started to grow.
Great job, another subject to add to your 'Pushing everyone I love away from me' list.
Varian stood in the middle of his messy, broken lab as the tears fell onto the floor.
He panted for breaths he couldn't seem to get, his mind racing for something to do.
His father was sending him away.
His father was sending him away.
Another wave of sobs wracked the fairy, sending him to the floor.
There, Varian shook as he still tried to form just a single coherent thought, but nothing worked!
Except for one. One single conviction that seemed to halt Varian's wheezing breaths.
He needs to get out. He can't stay in a tree halfway across the island until spring! He needs to leave, run, fly away and never ever come back-
In a sudden burst of desperation, Varian shot up from the ground and grabbed his large alchemy bag that sat in the corner of his desk.
He tossed objects and items alike into the bag; tools, beakers, anything.
Varian's main priority, though, was a sizable bundle of pixie dust wrapped in a leaf and tied together with a small vine.
Following it were his previous pixie dust creations, pink, purple, orange dust were wrapped into smaller bundles and shoved into the bag.
His last treasure to bring was kept safe in an an acorn locket, the speck of blue pixie dust.
The locket snapped shut and was placed into the bag along with the rest of his items.
Varian tossed the bag onto one shoulder, making a run for the doorway.
He paused, taking one last, longing gaze at his broken lab he'll likely never see again.
One last tear made its way down his face, before Varian tossed a handful of pixie dust onto his wings and quickly flying away from Corona.
Away from his home.
The words 'I'm sorry' went unsaid when Varian flew through the blurred trees.
"What do you mean he's not here?!"
"I don't know, Adira, I just told you!"
"Hector, that's impossible, he was supposed to be with you!"
"Sister, I was with Quirin, saw the boy get chewed out, and he ran away. I assumed he went back to his lab, or at least the house, but he wasn't in either of those places!" The man tossed both hands in the air as he explained. "I even sent my rats to find him!"
Adira cringed at the mention of Hector's beloved rats, they were so obviously the opposite. "Then, what do you suppose we do?"
The animal fairy was quiet for a moment, before slowly shrugging. "We... don't tell Quirin...?"
"Are you OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" Adira raged. "Our nephew is missing and you want to act like it's FINE?!"
"Listen, LISTEN! I can search for him while we're both gone, it'll be like we're already gone for the tree!"
"So what, you want me to LIE to Quirin and say that you're both living wonderfully at the Great Tree when in actuality, Varian is missing and you're still trying to find him!?"
"Well now, you say that like I won't find him!"
"You better, because if we don't get him back in time, you are DEAD." The fast flying fairy shoved a harsh finger at Hector's face, retracting it before he could bite it in defense.
"Sure, good luck." He rolled his eyes, already saddled on one of his—disgusting—rats before they took off in a direction into the woods.
Adira stared on after the retreating figure of her brother.
'Please be safe, nephew.'
"Ohhhh NO- This is bad!"
"What?! What's bad?" Lance burst into the room.
Currently, Eugene and Lance stood in the center of Rapunzel's extensive bedroom while she and Cassandra talked about... something in the room over.
"Very, very very VERY BAD, Lance!" Eugene shouted as he latched onto his friend's shoulders, shaking them slightly. "Varian's gone!"
"Gone, like.. like that gone?" Lance's eyes widened in horror.
"No, he's not dead! I hope-" Eugene ripped his hands away from the man.
"Look, all I know is that Varian did something- something huge, and got a real bad lecture from his dad and was basically sentenced to time out in the Great Tree with his uncle until spring."
"Oh. Well. That can't be... good?"
"NO! It's not! And you know why, dearest friend of mine?! Because that kid wouldn't survive out there! He's-"
"Eugene. Buddy. Pal. Listen to Lance." The man landed one hand onto Eugene's.
"Look, from what I know about the kid, he should be fine! I mean, he's got his crazy uncle who lives with rats, he's going to be living in a huge tree, and he's got his wacky chemicals-"
"That's the thing, Lance." Eugene sighed. "His dad- He... Quirin's making him give up alchemy."
"He's WHAT?!" It was Lance's turn to grip Eugene's shoulders. "He- Wha- WHAT?! WHY? That kid lives off alchemy, why would he DO that?!"
Eugene grabbed onto Lance's shoulders again. "I don't know- That's why I'm worried, Lance! What if he-"
At that moment, Cassandra walked into the room, dragging a wailing Rapunzel behind her.
"Woah- Sunshine! What's wrong?" Eugene quickly let go of Lance and ran to comfort his girlfriend.
Cassandra stepped back. "She tried to explain what happened before the whole... vines, and then she just started... crying?"
"It's all my fa-a-a-ault!!" Rapunzel bawled into Eugene's shoulder, the man slowly rubbing at the woman's back. "I-I should've s-s-stopped h-i-i-im!"
"No, no hon, it's not your fault, it's gonna be fine." The man said.
Lance grumbled behind him. "Where was that attitude when you were crying to me, hm?"
"Look, point of the matter is Varian's got a lot on his plate, so do we, apparently." Cassandra said, cringing when Rapunzel sobbed again. "But I hate to say it, I don't think there's anything we can do about it."
"Do about what?" A new voice interrupted.
The four fairies turned to the entry of the Princess' room, which revealed a nervous Yong, surprised Nuru and an unimpressed Hugo standing just outside.
The taller teen behind the two fairies looked down at the group of older adults, frowning. "Why's the princess crying on the floor?"
"Personal issue." Cassandra said in a clipped tone. "Now run along or something, we've got important adult things to talk about-"
"Varian's go-o-o-one!!" The princess of light sobbed one more time, falling onto Eugene who landed back onto the floor with an 'oof'!
"He's WHAT?!" Nuru shoved herself past the two boys, running to the older fairies for answers. "WHY? What happened?!"
"Where'd Var- Goggles go?!" Hugo demanded, stomping over.
"Is he mad at us? Did we do something wrong?" Yong asked, lips already wobbling.
"Oh yeah, forgot they weren't at the whole vine thing." Eugene muttered as he attempted to lift himself and his girlfriend up from the ground.
Lance clapped his hands. "Ok, well, TLDR: Varian was put in time out for making some huge vines break the dust depot and he's not gonna be back 'til spring."
"Until SPRING?!" The three teenage fairies screamed in unison before breaking into their own separate ramblings.
"That's horrible! Why would- how did this happen? Do you know what happened?"
"Varian's never coming ba-a-a-ack!!"
"What the ever-loving CRAP did he do?! Wait- no, don't answer that. WHERE IS HE?!"
"Calm down!" Cassandra interrupted the panicking fairies, before pinching her nose with a sigh. "Listen. We don't know the whole story, only Rapunzel does, apparently, and until she's ready to tell us, all we can do is just... hope Varian does okay."
"Are you ser- You want us to just sit here and- and send our well wishes while my- our friend is being sent away!?" Hugo yelled back.
"It's not our choice." Eugene grumbled. "It was his dad's."
"Well let's undo his choice!" Hugo threw his hands up.
"Guys..." Rapunzel muttered from her place in Eugene's arms. "There's nothing we can do. We- We'll just have to wait until spring..."
Nobody spoke.
Hugo seethed in silence, Nuru looked down at her shoes, Yong fidgeted, Lance looked to the side, Cassandra looked to be in deep thought, Eugene was downcast, and Rapunzel sighed.
"I just... I wish Quirin would see how brilliant Varian could be with his alchemy." The princess mumbled.
Attempting to add some humor to the dark situation, Eugene huffed a laugh. "Quirin? Yeah, good luck. It'll take a miracle to change his mind."
"I hope Varian's doing okay right now..." Nuru rubbed her arm, gazing out of one of Rapunzel's many glass painted windows.
"Varian's a strong kid," Cassandra said, "He.. He'll be fine."
"He better be." Hugo grumbled, arms crossed. He looked like he was trying to keep his annoyed, angsty mask intact, but it was clear there was an overflowing amount of concern for the missing fairy underneath.
Rapunzel let her eyes trail to the morning sky, her eyes shined with fresh tears. "Yeah... it's.. It's going to be okay."
"Argh! This damned map isn't helping!"
"Maybe you're lookin' at it wrong! Give it here-"
"Oi! Quit it, you're messing up my craft-"
"Would y'all shut UP?! Yer shaking the whole damn room!"
"HEY!"
The crew of pirates immediately ceased their arguing, turning to face the man who stood in the doorway.
The man cleared his throat, one hand holding the cabin door open, while the other hidden behind his back. "Listen, guys, I know it's been a rough couple of days-"
One member scoffed. "Understatement of the century. Andrew, we've been tryin' the same route for years! Nothing changed, just the same darn rounds and we're no closer to-"
"The second star, yes, I know. Thank you, Maisie." The man—Andrew—sighed, dragging his now free hand down his face. "But I think this little problem of ours is all about to change."
"How do you suppose we do that, sir?" Juniper waved a hand around lazily.
A larger, burlier man chuckled from the side. "Maybe we'll ask some pegasus to help us, get them to place some magic on the ship."
"Horribly unrealistic, Kai." The old lady huffed. "Pegasus don't help pirates, ya idiot. We'd have better chances getting help from trolls!"
"Please, Clementine," Andrew raised his hand peacefully. "Kai was actually right, in a sense."
Ignoring the muttered 'Yes' from Kai, Andrew smirked when he finally began to remove his hand from behind his back. "I might just have the thing to help us get out of this dump."
"Andrew..." Juniper tested in a hushed voice. "What is that?"
"Why, help of course." The man said, pulling out a glowing source of light from behind. The light suddenly made a noisy sound, similar to that of jingling bells-
The pirates gasped. "Is that what I think it is?" Maisie asked.
In Andrew hand stood a fairy, who's wings shined a brilliant gold in the dark cabin. The light gave access to the face, which revealed an angry scowl which somehow didn't match the fairy's small figure.
"Meet Varian." Andrew announced.
He opened his mouth to continue, but was cut off by the sound of bells from the fairy again. Andrew seemed to look like he was listening, glancing down at the fairy.
"He's our new captain. And he's gonna make this ship fly!"
At that proclamation, the crew of pirates erupted into cheers. Even Andrew couldn't help but grin.
In the man's hand, Varian felt himself begin to smile as well. Maybe this was what he needed. A new beginning. A fresh start.
A chance to prove himself.
Chapter 2: Captain Varian
Summary:
Varian poisons the entire kingdom and, uh oh! He’s in a gang now.
Notes:
pls ignore how horrid the writing is near the end i was going thru somerhing ig
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Six months later
Yong stepped back from his project, using the arm of his sleeve to wipe off any remaining sweat as he stared proudly at his machine.
Today was the Spring Festival in Corona, and Yong was tasked with creating a device that could showcase each talent in the hollow in the presentation!
It was probably his biggest, most stressful job he's ever taken, but he did it!
The device sat in the center of the workspace he had been given to use in order to keep his project hidden from the fairy audience until then. The exit was covered with a curtain of leafy vines, blocking the view of the growing crowd outside.
From a room on the side, Hugo and Nuru emerged; one with a bright smile and the other with a bored gaze.
"Are you excited, Yong?" The garden fairy cheered as she hugged the shorter tinker. "It's your first time presenting for the public!"
"Yeah, gotta say, Firecracker," Hugo started, running a hand along the wooden machine, "This is probably your greatest invention yet."
Yong gave a big smile back. "Thanks guys! I'm so so so excited, everyone'll be able to see an invention of mine that doesn't explode!"
"Yeah, let's hope it stays that way before we get trapped inside." A monotone voice cut in.
Cassandra, followed by Rapunzel and Eugene, trudged into the room.
The light fairy bounced with every step while the other two fairies on either side of her seemed to be rather hesitant.
"This is so cool!" Rapunzel cheered. "I can't wait for our part in the festival! Do you think that-"
The princess was suddenly cut off when the sound of a loud horn rang from outside the curtains.
Nuru jumped. "Is it starting already?"
"Nope." Eugene sighed, poking his head out of the vines. "Just Lance."
The rest of the cast followed Eugene, slightly opening the curtain to find Lance and Hook Foot sitting in the stands beside each other.
Lance, as Eugene claimed, held a horn in one hand and one of the free drinks in another. The man happily played the obnoxiously loud horn with glee.
Hugo grumbled. "Great, can someone tell him to cut it out before I cut off my ears?" The fairy stomped away from the vines.
Rapunzel followed, happily skipping to stand beside the teen. "Hey, Lance's just expressing his joy for the Spring Festival- which, by the way, you should be doing too! You have the most important role, you know-"
"Yes, Princess, I'm aware. Thanks." Hugo interrupted, waving off the light fairy and stalking over to sit by a stray crate on the side.
Rapunzel frowned. The fast flying fairy had been like this for months now. And unfortunately, Rapunzel knew why.
She didn't relent, instead fluttering closer to sit next to the teen. "Is it... him, again?"
Hugo didn't answer, only further tensing and crossing his arms as he turned away from the woman.
It was enough of an answer for Rapunzel.
She sighed, turning to face the ceiling. "I miss him too, you know."
"I know you do, Princess." The teen muttered. "You guys were basically siblings, or whatnot. I get it."
"Yes, but you also mattered a lot to him, Hugo." Rapunzel said. "None of us enjoyed these past few months. Without Varian, everything just felt..."
"Broken?" Hugo supplied. "I dunno, I guess ever since he left, something's changed. With... us? The group?"
"With yourself?" Rapunzel raised an eyebrow.
"S-Sure..." The fairy shrugged, seemingly trying to hide the growing glow of blush on his face.
The princess sunk backwards with another sigh. "He's coming back today, you know. Hopefully, after today, maybe everything'll be okay."
"I... wouldn't be so sure, Princess." Hugo laughed humorlessly. "I mean, Goggles was sent away to abandon his love for alchemy. Nothing will be the same when he comes back."
"Well-" Rapunzel went to speak again, but was cut off when the real horn for the festival sounded from above.
The group of fairies returned to the curtain of vines, staring beyond to the audience as fairies already began their segments of the festival.
The courtyard erupted with cheers when a group of fairies—the winter fairies, it seemed—appeared, sliding along the ice and carrying their extravagant flower props.
"Well, I gotta admit, the winter fairies are pretty good this year." Eugene commented as he looked out from the curtain. "Especially that one fairy, Isha, Isla-"
"Elsa." Cassandra corrected.
"Yeah, what I said. She's doing better than last year." The man straightened, placing his hands on his hips with a grin. "But, not as great as my lovely sunshine, of course."
"Awwwh, thanks Eugene." Rapunzel swooned, holding onto her boyfriend's hand.
Behind her, Cassandra and Hugo gagged while Nuru and Yong giggled at their reactions.
The group continued to watch as the fairies performed their parts of the festival with glamour. Rapunzel was especially impressed by one winter fairy's performance with a stick, of all things. He seemed to make it look effortless!
When the fairies left the courtyard, Rapunzel looked up behind the stands and noticed some large flowers beginning to grow above the crowd. Odd, but rather gorgeous.
"Hey, Nuru." Rapunzel said, pointing at the large plants. "Did you plant those? They weren't in rehearsal."
"Hm, no, I don't think so?" The garden fairy hummed as she inspected the flowers from a distance. "Those are poppies, see? I don't usually plant them, their pollen makes fairies tired."
"They're kinda pretty!" Yong said with a grin.
The flowers continued to grow, but not blooming just yet, they stayed as simply flower buds.
It was then when Rapunzel noticed the far away figure that flew by the flowers, seemingly sprinkling a strange dust onto the plants.
They were distant from where she stood, making it hard to see their face—especially when they had a large bandana covering the lower half—but Rapunzel couldn't help but note that familiar blue streak of hair.
She gasped quietly, watching as the fairy flew to a spot unseen by most, if not all, of the audience.
They reached into a bag on the side, quickly tossing out balls of pink pixie dust at the flowers which instantly bloomed with a burst of powder.
The pollen released from the flowers rained down on the audience like snow. The fairies in the stands stood and gasped with delight as the sparkles fell onto them.
Nuru was beginning to sense danger.
She watched in growing fear as those in the crowd who once held out their hands to catch the falling pollen began to slowly sway with fatigue, eventually sitting back in their seats and falling asleep.
"Guys..." She warned. "We-We have to hide!"
"What?" Hugo raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"No time!" Nuru yelled, suddenly pushing the group of fairies back into the room behind the vines to escape the fog of pollen. "Now, now, now!"
Yong punched a button on the side of his device, revealing a hatch that opened like a door to the inside of the hollow machine. "In here!"
The fairies piled inside, holding their breath as the hatch snapped shut and blocked out all lights but the glow from their wings.
Nobody knows how long they sat in the cramped, dusty machine, but they did know that it was getting worse.
"I can't breathe in here!" Hugo screeched, kicking against the walls wildly.
"Cut it out, you're being loud!" Cassandra shot back, grunting when Eugene shoved against her.
"Who's foot is that?! Who did I just slap on accident?" The water fairy shouted.
"Ow! Hugo stop! You're hitting my legs!" Yong yelled.
"Ok, everyone stop!" Rapunzel shouted over the commotion. "I-I think the pollen is gone now, we should be able to get out."
Nuru nodded. "Right, okay- Yong? You can open the door now."
Yong moved to where the hatch once opened, pressing against the wood rapidly. "Uh- right, so... about that..-"
"DID YOU NOT BUILD AN EXIT BUTTON?!" Hugo screamed, somehow now upside down.
"I DIDN'T THINK ABOUT IT!" Yong shouted back. "I was supposed to be outside for our part! Not inside!"
"We're trapped!" Eugene cried in a panic.
"No- Nobody is trapped!" Rapunzel countered, attempting to soothe the upcoming uproar of fright from the group, but it came too late.
Cassandra began pounding on the wooden walls. "Hey! HEY! SOMEONE GET US OUT!"
"I CAN'T STAY IN HERE ANY LONGER WITH CASSANDRA!!!" Eugene screamed, also hitting the walls, then shouting again when Cassandra elbowed his side.
Rapunzel groaned, fear also beginning to grow in her chest. "Um..."
"Hello?!" A voice, far away from where they were, called out. They were outside, from how it sounded.
The sudden voice caused the group to pause their screaming, listening for the next call.
"Anyone?" They yelled again.
The familiarity of the voice must have set in for Eugene, because the man's face suddenly broke into a wide grin. He turned to the walls again, punching harder.
"LANCE!" Eugene shouted. "We're in here!"
Rapunzel gasped, also moving to add more noise against the machine. "Help us!"
“Wh- Hey!” Lance’s voice moved closer, but was blocked off. “Where are you guys?!”
”We’re in the machine!” Nuru cupped her mouth with her hands.
Yong used what little space he had to fly closer to the ceiling of the hollow machine, punching at it. “Push the big button! It opens the door!”
It took about a minute longer before the latch was snapped open and the fairies quickly shot out.
Hugo fell onto the ground with a groan. "I take back my statement before, I hated that."
"S-Sorry, I didn't plan for all of us to be stuck inside..." Yong sheepishly smiled, rubbing at the back of his neck.
Rapunzel placed a soft hand onto the boy's shoulder. "It's fine, Yong. It worked well to keep us away from the pollen, right?"
"Speaking of pollen," Lance started, coughing into a fist. "You guys might wanna see this."
The group followed Lance outside the vines, gasping when the festival that was lively and loud just a few moments ago was now silent and fast asleep.
"I knew it!" Nuru said. "Well, not really, but someone used the poppies to put everyone asleep!"
Cassandra hummed, before turning to the other animal fairy. "Lance, you weren't affected by the pollen. Why?"
The man shrugged. "I went to the bathroom just before the show started, that's probably why."
"So... if you left..." Rapunzel fluttered over, a hand on her chin. "Then, did you happen to see who planted the poppies?"
"Or at least anyone acting suspicious?" Eugene added.
Lance thought for a moment, going silent and placing one hand to the side of his temple, before shooting upright. "Wait- Yes I did! Someone was flying towards the dust depot when I came out of the-"
"Then that's where we're heading!" Rapunzel ordered. "C'mon guys!"
"Lance, keep an eye on everyone else, please." Eugene said, staying behind the group. "Especially the winter fairies, they need a lot of snow."
"On it, Chief." Lance saluted, before he flew in a separate direction.
"What could someone possibly want from the dust depot?" Nuru asked, flying beside Rapunzel.
"I.. I don't know, but hopefully we can figure out why." The princess stated confidently.
Hugo rolled his eyes. "Right, through the power of friendship we can ask this person to quit poisoning the citizens."
Rapunzel frowned, she hoped that was the easiest option.
But, Nuru was right. What could someone want from the dust depot at this time?
"They... took the blue pixie dust.." Rapunzel breathed in disbelief.
Eugene shoved his way past, getting closer to the stand that was missing the elaborate container of blue dust. "IT'S GONE?!"
"No duh, Fitz-jerk." Cassandra hissed. "Do you see the jar anywhere?"
Yong whined, tugging at his hair. "W-Without the blue dust, the tree can't make pixie dust!"
"And without pixie dust..." Nuru continued. "We-We can't fly!"
"Well then, let's go find it!" Hugo shouted, already moving towards the open doorway.
"Wait! We don't even know where they went with the dust!" Rapunzel countered.
Cassandra moved to join Hugo by the door. "But, every second we spend in here is another second wasted without our blue dust back."
"Let's find ourselves a thief!" Eugene cheered triumphantly.
"Weren't you a thief?" Hugo muttered.
"So were you, kid."
"LET'S MOVE IT!" Cassandra yelled, shoving Eugene particularly out of the way and flying off into one direction, the rest following behind her.
The fairies raced through the forest, Hugo having flown further ahead and saw a faint trail of pixie dust for them to go after.
The fast flying fairy turned his head to the rest behind him. "How's the weather back there?"
"Not the time!" Nuru shouted angrily.
"Geez this guy's fast!" Yong gasped at another turn. "Do you think they're also a fast flyer?"
"If they were, I'd be catching up to them right about now." Hugo grit his teeth, pushing himself to fly faster.
The party continued the chase, reaching a point in the forest that was covered in a thick layer of clouds.
"Eugh, what is this? Fog?" Cassandra said, trying to keep her sight on the fairy ahead.
"Ehm, actually, it's mist." Eugene corrected smugly. "Means we're near the coast."
When they breached the last bit of the forest, they had lost sight of the runaway fairy.
Rapunzel darted her head around, her braid cracking like a whip at the harsh movements.
Eventually, she caught sight of a small rowboat at sea. Further behind the boat was a large pirate ship.
She gasped in horror. "Look! There's pirates!"
"They must've taken the fairy!" Yong shouted. "Or-or forced them to get the dust!"
"Come on!" Cassandra yelled, flying to the boat first.
There was a part of the wooden boat that stuck out on the side, giving the fairies enough grounding to stand on.
Rapunzel led the group around the side to a small opening in the wood which granted them easy access to view inside the boat.
The hole in the wood was not wide enough to let six fairies view at once, but Rapunzel couldn't help but gasp when she saw the blue glow hidden behind one of the pirate's boots.
"I see about three pirates." The light fairy whispered to the others. "And they're holding them hostage at the bottom of the boat!"
Rapunzel waved for the rest to follow her as they moved further along the side of the small ship.
Each fairy that passed the small hole either winced or frowned as the pirates continued to boast about their stolen treasure.
Eventually, they reached another break in the wall, one much larger and allowed a much larger perspective of the inside.
One pirate, the only man on the left side of the boat, chuckled. "Might I just say, your plan worked perfectly, Captain."
The man's boot moved off the large chest in the center of the boat, revealing the stolen jar of blue dust hanging in a blue sack, but also—
"VARIAN?!-" Eugene shouted, before being cut off by Cassandra's glove covered hand. The animal fairy glared harshly at the man to keep quiet.
"Captain...?" Nuru whispered, her eyes widening.
Rapunzel watched in terror as the pirates continued to surround her missing friend, all singing praises.
Varian looked so different. He no longer wore his usual apron, gloves, and waterlily goggles or the pale blue outfit he had on constantly.
Now, the teen donned a large, dark coat with an unfamiliar symbol on the front. The shirt and pants underneath the coat were also dark, except for the bandana over his chest and neck that was a faded red maple leaf. His goggles, while still having a large dewdrop for the lens, were now made with seaweed. Across his chest was a strap containing multiple bundles of multicolored chemicals and dust.
Most of all, he stood facing the pirates with a proud grin.
The man on the left handed Varian a small sword, which he took gratefully. The fairy gave a small bow before he sheathed the weapon into a scabbard on the side of his waist.
Another pirate, a woman, leaned down with a wide smile. "That was the perfect plan!"
"And all we had to do was put 'em fairies to sleep!" A third pirate cheered.
The group outside the boat quickly turned their backs to the commotion going on inside.
Rapunzel gripped tightly onto the wood behind her, shaking slightly.
Cassandra snarled. "Guess he doesn't need any rescuing."
"Wh-What should we do now?" Yong shakily asked, turning to Rapunzel.
The princess considered her options for a moment, before swallowing. "We.. We should get the dust back. Hopefully, we can convince Varian to come back with us too."
The group—minus Eugene, who was seemingly still not over the fact his cousin was in a pirate gang now—stared at her skeptically, before nodding.
Juniper laughed heartily as she and Maisie rowed back to their ship. "What can I say? A little bit of pillage, a little bit of plunder- AGH!"
The paddle she held was ripped from her hands and then struck on the top of her head, like it had gotten stuck on seaweed.
Outside the boat, Nuru sent another blast of dust to the other paddle, growing more seaweed which sent the other pirate into a fit of pain when it also broke out and hit his head.
With the boat no longer moving, Andrew, with a lantern in hand, and Varian shot up and moved to the side of the boat.
Andrew grimaced. "Fairies!" The pirate announced in surprise, focusing on the garden and light fairy both outside their ship.
Rapunzel found a spot of moonlight on the water surface, redirecting the light into the man's eyes.
With Andrew shouting in shock, Varian took the chance to move the blue dust to safety, but was stopped by Hugo who flew right in front of his path.
"Goggles! What's going-" Hugo didn't get the chance to finish when Varian flew off in the opposite direction. The fast flying fairy didn't give up, growling and continuing to block the smaller alchemist's path.
"Hairstripe-" Hugo tried again and again each time he thought he had Varian cornered. "Goggles- Varian! Stop!"
The pirates finally regained their grounds and began trying to snatch Hugo in the air, continuously missing because of course they did.
Eugene brought harsher, rougher waves to rock the boat and throwing the pirates off balance again.
Andrew fell less gracefully, his arm trapping Varian against the side of the boat and leaving the bag of dust vulnerable.
Hugo snatched the bundle of pixie dust, sparing the teen a confusing glance of something before darting off to Rapunzel.
"Here!" He tossed the bag into Rapunzel's hands, who began to fly away from the boat.
"They got the blue dust!" Andrew shouted. Varian glowered, throwing the man's arm off of him and racing after the retreating group of fairies, ignoring Andrew’s cry of “Captain!”
The alchemist, somehow, managed to arrive ahead of the group, stopping them just in front of a rushing waterfall.
"Give me that dust back!" Varian ordered.
Rapunzel threw the bag of dust to Nuru, returning to meet the water fairy with a distraught gaze. "Varian, wh-why are you doing this?"
Varian didn't answer the princess, only flying to grab the dust from Nuru's hands, who only flung it to another fairy.
The game of tossing the blue pixie dust went from Nuru, to Hugo, then Eugene when Varian finally stopped.
The fairy smirked, reaching out a peaceful hand. "If you hand it back, I'll give you quarter."
"Quarter?" Eugene repeated incredulously. "No, I think we need all of it."
"Quarter means mercy!" Varian angrily shouted, going for the dust again only to miss it when it was thrown to Rapunzel.
"This dust belongs to Corona, Varian." The princess tried to reason. “Your home.”
Varian was growing tired of the humiliating game of cat and mouse. He turned to the group of fairies and reached into one large pocket on the side of his coat. "I gave you your chance."
The alchemist shot a burst of multicolored pixie dust at the fairies, sending them into a whirlwind of dust towards the waterfall and the dust out of the Princess' grip.
Varian caught the bag before it fell to the sea below, watching with an emotionless gaze as they crashed through the flowing water. He turned and flew back to the saporian ship.
"Raps," Someone said. "Rapunzel, wake up."
Rapunzel blinked first, before groaning as she began to sit up straight. Her body ached, like she had been thrown right onto stone.
And looking down to where she now sat, Rapunzel realized she was.
She turned to Cassandra, who sat on her knees facing the princess. She sighed with relief when the fairy rose. "You good?"
"Y-Yeah.. I'm fine." Rapunzel nodded. "What.. happened?"
"Last I remember was Varian throwing some weird dust at us..." The woman muttered.
Rapunzel's mood took a slight dive at the mention of her 'friend turned not-so friend maybe pirate'. She looked to Cassandra again, but paused when she took note of her outfit.
What was once a professional looking fit of armour for working with animals was now pink and covered with flower petals in some parts.
"Cass, your clothes!" She said. Cassandra followed her gaze, grimacing in near disgust at the sight of pink of her person.
"Y-Yeah, I know." The fairy grumbled, then pointing at Rapunzel. "Yours too."
Rapunzel looked down at her own dress which was once a brilliant purple and yellow Clematis was now blue.
The princess gasped, then looked around, noticing her friends--and boyfriend--as they also began to regain their consciousness, groaning in pain as they did so.
"Is everyone okay?" Rapunzel hastily asked, standing up to check for injuries on the group.
"I guess..." Yong muttered.
"I'm not!" Eugene gasped from behind the princess, stomping forward. "Purple is not my color!"
Hugo and Cassandra, being Eugene's mortal enemies it seemed, snickered at his panic. "He's right." Hugo smirked.
Rapunzel placed a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder before a conflict could start. "Listen, we need to get out of here and get Varian and the dust back!"
She walked closer to the waterfall, reaching a hand out to the water, expecting it to do nothing. "Eugene, can you part the waterfall-“
The flowing water parted with her hand, sending a blast of the liquid at her friends who let out shrieks at the sudden splash.
(All but Cassandra, who stood off to the side with her arms close to her chest as she watched in shock.)
"AGH!" Nuru shouted, now doused in water.
Hugo spit water from his mouth, glaring at Rapunzel like it was her fault!
"I-I didn't do anything!" Rapunzel defended, moving her hand to copy the exact same motion. "I just-"
The water sent another wave to her friends again, resulting in more screams.
"Princess! Could you stop not doing anything?!" Hugo yelled.
"Not to worry, sunshine!" Eugene pushed himself up from the ground, running towards the waterfall. "I got this- WOAH!"
The moment Eugene's hands touched the running water, he was sent upwards to the rock ceiling like a magnet. He struggled above, constantly hitting the rocks before finally crashing back down with a shout.
"Eugene!" Rapunzel crouched next to the man. "Are you okay?!"
"I think I broke my smolder." He whined pitifully. At least now she knew he was fine.
"That's so weird..!" Yong whispered, stalking forward to the two. "Here, I can help- AH!-"
The younger fairy reached to help Eugene to his feet, but instead sent a ray of sunlight straight into everyone's eyes.
"Too bright!" Rapunzel shielded her eyes from the light, stepping backwards.
"I can't see-" Cassandra said, backing into a rock with a large plant overhanging it, then shouting in alarm when the plant grew in her presence, hiding her behind the large leaves.
Hugo ran over, noticing the lack of a certain scary woman. "What did you do?!"
"I don't know!" She yelled from behind the curtain of leaves.
"Ew, ew ew ew-" Nuru's voice rang from an opposite side of the cave. When the group turned, they found Nuru backed against a wall with bugs crawling towards her.
"Get them off of me!" She shrieked when one insect came up to her face, and... kissing her cheek??? She usually liked animals and bugs, but not when they were climbing all over her!
Hugo and Eugene ran over to take bugs from her person. Rapunzel gasped in shock when she came to a sudden realization.
"Guys, do you know what this means?!" She said.
"Ohmygosh- Varian switched our heads!" Yong cried in distress. The rest turned to him with bewildered expressions at the idea.
"No-Not that." Rapunzel shook her head. "Varian switched our talents!"
"What?!" Eugene shouted, dropping the bug he held in his hands.
"Excuse me??" Nuru said.
"I-I must be a water fairy." Rapunzel took another look at her outfit, which still remained a bright blue.
"Ah, so that explains why your dress is blue." Eugene walked over, inspecting the princess' new clothes.
"And you must be a fast flying fairy now." Rapunzel grinned, pointing at Eugene's purple outfit.
"Im a- I'm a light fairy!" Yong whispered in awe when he stepped closer to the rays of light the shined through the water. It was further confirmed when he pushed his hands forward and reflected light straight into his eyes again.
Cassandra groaned loudly from behind the leaves. "Garden fairy here."
Nuru lifted a cricket from off her head, nervously laughing. "Wow, guess I'm an animal fairy now. Lucky..."
"Oh no..." Hugo whispered, finally taking a moment to look at his own clothing. "No, no no!"
Yong giggled. "You're a-"
"DON'T!" The fairy interrupted, stomping over to the younger boy. "Do NOT say it! Take these things back right now!" He pointed to the weird balls of cotton on his shoes.
Yong leaned down, moving the accessories from Hugo's shoes to his own. When he stood back up, he smiled at Hugo mischievously.
"Tinkerrr!" Yong sang quietly, prompting Hugo to angrily growl at the smaller fairy.
"Guys, c'mon." Rapunzel cut in. "We have to get out of here!"
The group turned to the wall of water, then to Rapunzel expectantly.
"Well," Cassandra started. "You're the water fairy, Raps. Part the water!"
Rapunzel swallowed nervously, before confidently stepping forward for her third attempt at the waters.
Eugene shuffled closer. "Oh- use both hands this time, Blondie."
Rapunzel walked right up to the waterfall and shoved two hands directly through it. It created a window, but at an odd shape that make it look like an 'X'.
"Well you don't see that everyday..." Eugene commented.
"You guys have to hurry!" The princess yelled over the force of the water. "I-I'm not sure I can hold it!-"
Instantly, every fairy in the cave ran for the window. But with the amount of people reaching for the small opening, someone had ran into Rapunzel and knocked her off the side, sending all of them falling.
They fell down leaf after leaf following the flow of water, using each plant like a makeshift slide. Except this slide was not fun and there were no signs of happiness here.
The group fell onto the sand below, spreading out as they landed.
"Guys? Are you-" Eugene called, flying off the ground and instantly hitting Cassandra, who was pushed off a rock and into the sand.
The sand around Cassandra grew large flowers, nearly blocking her off. Luckily, she quickly got onto her feet and ran for the rock again to escape the growing plants that seemed to sprout every time her feet touched the sand.
"Guys...?" Nuru said warily. "I think I broke something..."
The girl slowly sat up from where she landed; on top of an egg. The egg began to crack, pieces of the shell chipping away and eventually revealing a large eye, and then a whole crocodile.
Nuru shrieked, crawling off the baby animal in a haste. She began to back away from the crocodile with a nervous grin. "N-nice little, sharp-toothed, scary, terrifying, hungry animAL-"
The crocodile lunged with its mouth wide open, and the group screamed. That fear for Nuru being eaten alive quickly melted away when the crocodile was revealed to only be hugging the small fairy instead.
"Don't be scared!" Cassandra shouted from her spot on the rock. "Infant animals imprint on the first thing they see after birth!"
"Congrats on being a mom, Sparkles!" Hugo yelled, laughing when the crocodile placed a large kiss onto Nuru's head.
"Guys, sorry to interrupt," Rapunzel started. "But the pirate ship is gone!"
"What?!" Yong cried.
"Oh no!" Nuru said, but her voice was strained from how much the crocodile was hanging onto his new mom.
Cassandra cleared her throat, turning to Eugene. "Fitzher-jerk! Fast flyer! Check it out!"
"Fine!" He shot back, before launching off his feet into the air.
Eugene seemed to have misjudged just how far he could fly, because in a matter of seconds, he was so far in the sky he could see the entire island.
He scanned the seas around the island, searching for the missing boat.
Eventually, he noticed the large ship further from its original spot, but just far enough for them to reach if the flew!
Now to just get back down...
"Where is he?" Cassandra lifted a hand to block the sun from reaching his eyes as he started up at the sky where Eugene had flown off to.
"I don't see him..-" Rapunzel started, only to be cut off by a sudden shout and a rocket of pixie dust and sand.
Eugene shot up frantically. "Guys! I saw the ship! O-On the northern coast! Let's go!" And he was off again.
It took the man a few seconds to slowly return to the rest of the group, sheepishly grinning when he did so. "Ah... right. Wet wings, can't fly."
Hugo clicked his tongue as if to confirm Eugene's statement. "There's gotta be something we can use... Aha!" He turned away from the fairy and found the empty shell where the crocodile had hatched from.
The fairy began inspecting the egg, ignoring the baby crocodile happily brushing an annoyed Nuru's hair. "Hm, structurally sound enough... strength-width ratio seems good... if I had some rope-" Hugo was cut off by himself when he choked, groaning distraught.
"You're thinking like a tinker!~" Yong sang again, grinning widely.
Hugo glowered at the boy then stopped himself with a sigh. "Okay, fine. Get me some vines."
Everyone turned to Cassandra, who looked around for a moment, then groaned loudly. She stepped onto the sand and let the plants around her grow until the reached over her head.
"Will these do?" She asked, her voice muffled from behind the amount of flowers that had grown.
When Hugo had finished reformatting the shell—or "Tinkering" as Yong has teased—there were vines repeatedly wrapped around the side and inside of the egg, then one tied around Eugene's waist. Being the only fast flying fairy, Eugene had the job of dragging the group across the waters in a new egg boat. Thrilling.
"Okay!" The fairy started. "We all ready?"
"Wait for me!" Nuru called, still on the sand while the others sat in the shell. One leg pulled her forward, while the other had a baby crocodile stuck to it. "Urgh! Look, sorry- I gotta- I can I please-"
The girl wretched her leg from the animal's grip when it placed a large, sloppy kiss to her cheek, sending her backwards and into the shell.
Hugo took the chance to yell at Eugene. "Go go GO!"
Eugene took off, taking the egg with him.
Behind the retreating fairies, the baby crocodile called sadly for his mother.
What was thought to be a more relaxing ride through the sea turned out to be a terrifying trip as the shell went over wave after wave, shaking the raft.
"There's the pirate ship!" Yong cheered, his voice slightly wavering from the force of the shell falling over and over.
While Eugene flew as fast as he could, it didn't help the fact the egg was crumbling the longer they went on.
Nuru yelped when a piece of shell broke off by her hand, flying off and into the water.
"You can- slow down- now!" Cassandra shouted to the fast flying fairy.
"Easy for you to say!" Eugene shot back, turning to glare at Cassandra.
When he turned around again, Eugene yelped when he came face-to-face with a large wave.
With no time to go over, under or around the rising water, the group flew right through the wave, breaking the egg and launching them right into a cannon on the pirate ship.
The fairies were silent for a moment, no sound was made except for the heavy breathing from fear and exertion.
Then, Rapunzel broke out into cheers. "YEAH! We did it!"
"We made it!!" Yong laughed, falling onto Hugo's shoulder.
Nuru smiled. "Now all we have to do is-"
BOOM!
Notes:
bee tee double you, i added a Jack Frost, Arcane, and Frozen reference in this chapter lmaooao i think im hilarious
Chapter 3: The Frigate that Flies
Summary:
Rapunzel cannot fix things with friendship. Sad.
Chapter Text
BOOM!
"What was that?!" Cassandra shouted, sitting up straight and looking around for signs of danger.
The fairies returned to silence as they listened for the noise again.
BOOM!
"It's getting closer!" Hugo yelled, scrambling for the opening of the cannon to poke his head out the side.
When Rapunzel and the others followed, they gasped as each cannon was being set off, launching cannon ball after cannon ball into the water.
BOOM!
"Move! Get out of here!" Rapunzel ordered, shoving the fairies to the opening before the cannon they resided in was set off.
BOOM!
"The vine's stuck!" Eugene shouted, tugging at the tightly wound vine around his waist which was stuck on a part of sharp charcoal.
BOOM!
Rapunzel flew to the spot where the vine was caught, throwing it off and pulling Eugene out of the cannon.
They had just breached the opening of the cannon, barely flying to the side when the last cannon was set off with a loud—
BOOM!
The sharp whistle of a cannon ball flew past the fairies, sending some scrambling backwards with a scream. Yong and Nuru clung to each other before Rapunzel directed them to a nearby yardarm.
From so high above, the fairies were able to watch as a total of four saporian pirates lit cannon after cannon in celebration.
”Music to my ears!” Clementine grinned, using a candle on its stand to light another cannon.
The group tensed, covering their ears as the explosion hit somewhere in the ocean. This did not stop the pirates, who cheered again and went to light another.
”Cease fire!” The pirate at the wheel, Kai, ordered, prompting the three at the cannons to pause.
”What?” Clementine said. “Cease fire, what for? That was only seven.”
Kai glared, pulling out dual swords from his sides and holding them high. “I said twenty-one.”
Clementine and the rest froze, until the older woman blew out the candle quickly with a tight smile. “Right! Twenty one- of course, haha!”
The woman muttered to herself as she began walking away, leaving Maisie and Juniper to shrug and continue on.
Rapunzel flew down from the yardarm. “Come on! We have to find that dust.”
The fairies followed after the princess down to the floor of the ship, hidden in a pile of rope near a couple of barrels.
The door to the cabin burst open, revealing Andrew holding up a tray of mugs. “If I may, crew, I believe the proper celebration would be a toast!”
Maisie chuckled. “A toast it is!”
As the pirates followed behind Andrew towards the quarter deck, the smaller fairies lifted their heads above the rope to observe.
Andrew suddenly stopped at the top of the stairs, holding up a hand to the rest of the group behind him. “Ah- If it pleases the captain, of course.”
At the very edge of the deck, Varian stood proudly over the entire ship, hidden under a shadow. He turned to the approaching saporians with a smirk.
Clementine was nodding encouragingly, for some reason.
Varian grinned. “You tell those scurvy, scally-wags that-“
Let it be known that it was basically common knowledge that humans could not understand the language of fairies. Andrew, however, had spent the most time alongside Varian during the past six months and was a lot better at understanding the odd-sounding language of pixies. When Varian had finished his rant, Juniper leaned to the man, confused. “What’d he say..??”
”He said, it does!” Andrew announced, finally handing out mugs of beverages to the crew as they cheered.
Rapunzel was the first to leave the spot behind the rope, directing the others to follow her to a new location behind some stray objects like a screwdriver and hammer so to get a more clear look at what was happening between the fairy and the saporians.
”More tea, Captain?” Andrew offered the tray to Varian, which had a large teapot and one of the tiniest cups known to man. “Earl gray, of course, hot.”
Varian fluttered over, tossing in a handful of pixie dust to the teapot and retrieving the cup to drink.
”To our cunning captain!” The man cheered.
”Okay, but, you gotta love the boots.” Eugene supplied, causing everyone else to eye him in bafflement.
”Just a few months ago we lost everything,” Andrew started, holding a mug high as he spoke. “Our ship had turned a’drift, and then we found him.”
The man gestured his cup to the flying fairy, who let out a chorus of chimes in response. Andrew only laughed. “Exactly, we needed a captain. And when we so humbly asked if he could make us fly…”
”He didn’t just stop there!” Maisie continued, raising his mug.
”Nope! He did one better!” Kai laughed.
”Better, indeed.” Clementine said. “Soon, he’s going to make the whole ship fly!”
The hidden fairies gasped at the proclaimation. They turned to each other in shock. “Fly?” Rapunzel repeated.
”I say we stop by the tower of London first!” Maisie said. “The guards won’t know what hit ‘em when we steal the crown and the jewels with it!”
”Or we could fly to Paris!” Kai added. “The Mona Lisa would look great over in my cabin.”
”What about when in Rome, we could rob the Sistine Chapel!” Juniper laughed, leaning on one wooden railing.
”And all them folks in Egypt will have an abysmal day when we take their mummies away!” Clementine cackled, raising her beverage. “And y’know why?”
”’Cause no one can fight a frigate that flies!” The crew yelled in unison.
Rapunzel crept closer to where Varian sat on the rails of the ship, attempting to snag the blue pixie dust back, whilst trying to not get caught. But each time she got close, Varian would stand to cheer, taking the bag with him.
Andrew leaned onto one of the railings on the side of the ship, staring out to the sea. “You know how high we’ll be? Pretty high up I imagine. That blue fairy dust could surely pack a mighty whallop. It’ll break us free from them chains of gravity and we’ll set for the sun!”
The man stepped back, walking towards where Varian stood on the deck rails with a bow. “And, of course, we owe it all to our great and glorious captain.”
Varian couldn’t help but beam at the praise, something that used to be such a rarity only six months ago.
”Yeah, but now that you mention it, why are we taking orders from some fairy anyway?” Kai said from the side.
The crew gasped in mock offense, only for Varian to toss a large sword right next to the man’s head.
Kai leaned away from the thrown weapon that was now lodged in the wood behind him with a nervous chuckle. “Right. Nevermind!”
Andrew stepped back, staring ahead of the ship with a grin. “Look alive, crew!”
A large shadow overcame the ship, drowning out all light from the sun as the rock before them loomed overhead.
Rapunzel gasped, shrinking back further in her spot as she stared up at the huge skull-shaped rock island.
”It’s so…” Cassandra muttered, trailing off.
”Terrifyingly ugly?” Eugene supplied. The woman only shrugged at the comment.
As the ship grew closer, the water directed the boat to flow right through the mouth of the cave. Once close enough, Rapunzel could almost make out the shape of a large tree that was growing on a rock.
It looks so familiar…
Nuru gasped from her side. “It looks like the pixie dust tree back at home…!”
”Varian must’ve… grown it.” Hugo added, breathless.
”So that’s how they’re gonna fly!” Yong whispered.
”He’s going to make pixie dust…” Rapunzel said as the tree grew closer the more the ship moved to dock.
Varian unsheathed his sword, directed towards the crew. “Ahoy! You biscuit-eating rats—“
Andrew listened to the song of jingles, determining the answer as he turned to the rest of the saporians down on the deck. “Prepare to dock!”
The captain raised his arms, and Andrew turned to call to the crew again. “Captain says ‘raise the sails and step lively’!”
As the saporians followed after the orders, Varian sheathed his sword and flew to take over the steering from Kai, who stepped back at the silent request.
When the ship began to properly line up with the dock, Varian continued to order his crew, with Andrew translating.
”Let go anchor!”
”Let go anchor!”
”Get out all line!”
”Get out all line!”
The ship rocked and shook wildly as it made contact with the flimsy dock below. The saporians threw ropes to the pillars of wood on the platform, securing the boat.
A long, wooden ramp was thrown down from the deck, connecting the ship to the dock. Clementine climbed down first, walking towards barrels of supplies. Following behind him was Maisie and Juniper who both held different kinds of weapons.
Rapunzel brought her friends out of their spot, hidden behind a large section of the rails, watching as Andrew walked onto the deck where Kai was.
"Captain says 'restock the ship'. We're setting sail at dawn." The man stated, ushering Kai away from the wheel.
"Yes sir, right away." Kai saluted, climbing down the stairs of the deck and off the ship.
A golden trail of pixie dust indicated Varian was flying off his post and towards the cabin of the boat.
The door to the cabin was large, the size of an average human and far too heavy to open for a fairy. Thus, there was a smaller, pixie-sized door in the center off the door for Varian to enter through. The captain, with the bag of blue dust still on his hip, threw open the door and floated inside.
Rapunzel watched as the door closed behind him. She leapt up from her spot on the yardarm, flying for the doors. "Come on!"
When the fairies finally did reach the door designated for pixies, it was locked, no matter how many times Rapunzel tried pulling on the knob.
The princess grunted. "It's locked! How did I not think of that?"
Further behind the group, loud muttering could be heard, drawing closer.
Nuru gasped. "Someone's coming!"
"Hide over there!" Cassandra whispered, pointing to a shadowed area behind a nearby barrel.
The fairies made their escape by disappearing behind the wooden barrel, silently watching as one of the pirates climbed up the stairs.
The group gave a collective sigh of relief as the pirate disappeared over the deck, but that was quickly thrown out when there was a loud SHRIEK heard behind them.
Shouting in fear, the group shot around and was met with a hissing rat, standing in front of an eaten apple core.
Nobody moved as the animal continued to stare down the fairies. That was, until Hugo elbowed Nuru forward.
"Ahem." He whisper-shouted to the girl. "Animal fairy? Make it go away??"
After Nuru had sent one last death glare to Hugo, she swallowed and approached the animal, which growled at her as she drew closer.
Nuru leaned down, still a good distance from the rat. "Hello there, Mister Mouse." She cooed.
"See, my friends and I here kind of need this space, so if you could, please move along now." Nuru waved her hands in a motion to sway the animal from their spot.
The rat hissed one last time, taking the apple core and skittering away from the barrel.
Nuru stood up, confused and triumphant. "Oh! Well then, haha! Bye-bye!" She waved in the direction the animal had taken off. "Aww, what a cute little mouse."
"That was a rat." Cassandra corrected, deadpan. Nuru winced in disgust.
New footsteps began to approach the fairies, causing the group of six to quickly snap their mouths shut. Rapunzel crept closer to the edge of the barrel, finding the boots of the man Andrew walking towards the cabin door with a silver tray in one hand.
The pirate knocked on the wooden door. “Permission to enter, Captain?”
There was a moment of silence, but Andrew did not pull his ear away from the door. Eventually, the faint sound of bells was heard from the other side of the wall, giving Andrew the permission to throw open the door and walk inside.
The door was beginning to close, very slowly for some reason. Rapunzel’s eyes lit up.
She turned to her friends behind her, pointing at the door. “This is our chance! Let’s go!”
The princess shot up from the ground, quickly flying through the closing gap of the door, followed by Eugene and Hugo. Just before Cassandra, Nuru and Yong could enter, the door clicked as it finally shut.
Outside the now locked door, Cassandra shouted in annoyance, pounding on the door once before Nuru and Yong had to pull her away lest they draw attention to themselves.
Inside the cabin, Rapunzel looked to the only two fairies that made it inside. “What happened?” She whispered in a panic.
”Door shut before they could get in.” Eugene responded in a hushed tone, before Hugo quickly, and rather loudly, shushed him. The teen shoved a harsh finger towards the large desk where Andrew was approaching, and where Varian floated.
“The dust!” Rapunzel whisper-shouted in delight when she saw that the bag of dust was no longer attached to Varian’s body.
Andrew placed the platter of dessert onto the jewelry desk. “I had Clementine make your favorite, since we all know how much you like sweets while you work..”
Varian chimed, seemingly thanking the man. He fluttered to a small drawer in the desk, pulling out a circular tray for the dust.
“You’re welcome.” Andrew replied, smug.
The fairy’s voice rang again, pointing to two draws further up on the desk, but closer to Andrew.
“Oh, yes of course-“ The man reached for the top drawer, about to pull it open when Varian interrupted again, pointing to the drawer below. “Oh- right, second drawer.”
Andrew pulled out a small tool to sift the blue dust. He placed it over the circular tray that sat at the bottom of Varian’s contraption to catch the falling dust. When the sifter was placed correctly, Varian began to pour the pixie dust out of the bag and through the sift.
The glowing blue dust fell like rain through the tool and onto the tray, piling up like snow. Varian crouched down on the desk as he watched the dust fall, picking at a few stray specks.
“Look at that,” Andrew breathed in amazement. “Sparkling like a hundred diamonds.”
While the two pirates extracted dust, Rapunzel, Eugene and Hugo crept along the cabin’s walls behind a propped up tray. Rapunzel watched from behind the silver platter as the two conversed at the desk.
She formulated a plan in her head, a way to obtain that blue dust once again, but was interrupted when a voice behind her suddenly gagged.
The fairy’s shot around quickly, fearing for the worst, until she saw Eugene leaning against the wooden wall, one hand over his torso and the other supporting him with the wall. Admittedly, still bad, but still, not the worst… Maybe?
”Eugene!” She whispered in concern. “What’s wrong?”
”He looks… sick.” Hugo commented. “And not in a good way.”
Her boyfriend tried to glare back at the younger fairy, but it didn’t come off as intimidating in the slightest. Eugene gagged again, this time throwing a hand over his mouth. He groaned sadly. “This never happened when I was a water fairy…”
”So it’s seasickness..?” Rapunzel moved closer to comfort the man. “Don’t worry, it’ll all be okay. Once we get that dust, we can get off the boat and then you’ll be able to recover from-“
Eugene wretched again, this time quickly turning away from Rapunzel in fear he would throw up, but ended up elbowing the tray from its place, sending it falling to the ground with a loud clatter.
Andrew turned around to find the source of the sound with a suspicious eyebrow raised. He only found a platter toppled over. The man leaned over to place the tray back where it was before, humming as he returned to sifting through the blue dust.
Rapunzel and Hugo sighed with relief in their new spot, behind Andrew’s large boot. A distant sound of gagging was heard again, and when the two turned, they found Eugene leaning into a teacup, half his lower body hanging outside of the glass.
“I’m fine.” He whispered, throwing out a big thumbs up for further effect, but went straight back to throwing up in the cup.
Outside the door, Nuru and Cassandra pressed their ears and bodies against the wooden door, listening for anything going on beyond the wood.
Cassandra sniffed once, for no reason in all honesty. Then she sniffed again, more clearer, this time noticing something was different. Another two inhales of air later, Cassandra discovered she was smelling something burning.
Nuru must’ve smelled, or at least heard, the same thing because the two fairies turned around to find Yong drawing a smile on the wooden barrel with his new light talent powers. The boy remained oblivious to the noise he was creating, continuing to draw the curve of the smiling mouth-
“Yong!” Nuru shouted, hushed. That got the boy’s attention, who shot around in a panic and nearly burned off Cassandra's and Nuru's head with his light he still held in his hands. Luckily, the two fairies had ducked in time before the burning light reached them.
Cassandra rose back up first. “What are you thinking?! You’re going to get us caught!”
Yong pouted. “But Nuru does this stuff all the time.”
”I do not!” Nuru objected. “You should never take light so lightly!”
Cassandra offered one last warning glare to the Yong, receving an unconvincing smile in return, before she turned back to the door with her back against the younger fairies.
Nuru sighed, also returning to eavesdrop, but quickly stopped when her eyes made contact with the backside of Cassandra’s head.
The girl quickly and frantically waved Yong over, and when he did arrive, she gestured her head towards Cassandra. Yong gasped, his hands going to his mouth instantly.
Cassandra, who had heard the loud gasp from Yong, turned around to face the two. “What?”
”Nothing!” Nuru yelped, smiling. “Nothing’s wrong! A-At all.”
Yong nodded quickly, hoping it would convince the older fairy. It seemed to do the trick, because Cassandra groaned exhaustedly and returned to the door.
The back of her hair was burnt off.
Andrew sat at the desk, still holding onto the sift pan delicately over a small jar that contained the blue dust while Varian poured what was left from the pan through it.
”It’s… pretty hard to believe that this blue dust can make.. flying dust?” The man commented.
Varian hummed, seemingly thinking for a moment before speaking in chimes once again. The small fairy gestured as he spoke, making shapes for a tree specifically.
Andrew stood up. “Ah, so the secret is the addition of blue dust into the tree then?”
Varian nodded, floating up to follow after the man as he walked towards a colored glass window in the cabin.
Rapunzel and the two fairies had changed spots, now hiding inside one of the many drawers of the desk. While Hugo and Rapunzel had their heads sticking out, watching for any sign of danger, Eugene groaned quietly as he held onto the roll of yarn that was attached to Hugo’s hooked stick.
”Eugene,” The princess called. “You okay?”
When her boyfriend returned with a confident thumbs up, Hugo interrupted. “Alright, start throwing out the line. Princess, open the drawer as much as you can.”
With the drawer now pushed open slightly bigger, Hugo had more space to throw down the open paperclip that was attached to the long string of yarn, lowering it closer and closer to the unattended jar of blue dust just below them.
Before this, Rapunzel had asked why they didn’t use her long hair instead, but Eugene had explained it would’ve been more risky, thus the use of Hugo’s new tinker talent was needed instead.
The paperclip was growing closer to the jar, but it was moving fast. Hugo shot his head around to the fairy at the yarn. “Rider! Hold the line!”
Eugene grabbed onto the roll, stopping the line of silk so suddenly the paperclip clinked against the jar.
Rapunzel and Hugo shot their heads towards Andrew and Varian, worrying they had heard the sound, but the two were still conversing on the opposite side of the room.
Hugo took this as a sign to continue, moving the paperclip around in an attempt to hook onto the small handles of the elaborate jar. The first few tried were unsuccessful, but with one grunt and a firm movement of the hook, it had caught onto the handles.
The fairy grinned in triumph, beginning to lift the jar from its stand slowly.
It had barely even left the stand when the ship suddenly rocked with the outside waves, causing Eugene to lose grip of the yarn, sending it rolling towards Hugo who had dropped the hook and paperclip upon impact.
The tool fell onto the desk with a loud clatter, just as Andrew and Varian turned around and were beginning to walk back to the desk.
Rapunzel popped out of the drawer, with a button on her head for some reason. “Hugo!” She whispered, warning him of the approaching danger.
The two fairies dropped back into the drawer quickly, hoping the two pirates outside hadn’t noticed them.
Varian fluttered over to the filled jar of dust, twisting a cap onto the jar and securing it under his arms.
Andrew leaned down to the fairy, handing him a small fencing weapon. “Your sword, Captain.”
The water fairy took the sword with a grin, twirling it in the air once before sheathing it onto his waist as he began to fly away from the desk.
Andrew moved to follow, but was drawn back when he noticed a stray drawer had opened. He doesn’t remember opening it, but the ship does tend to rock sparatically, and must’ve knocked it open.
The man hummed as he shut the drawer, walking away to follow after the fairy captain.
Meanwhile, Rapunzel, Eugene, and Hugo gasped as the light around them suddenly went dark as the drawer shut closed above them.
Yong, Nuru, and Cassandra had their ears placed against the door for a while now, and the oldest of the fairies was beginning to grow worried. Abruptly, Cassandra heard the sound of approaching footsteps and quickly ushered the younger fairies away from the door as the steps drew closer.
First out of the cabin was Varian, who held the jar of blue pixie dust under his arms, as he exited through the fairy-crafted door above. Andrew was next out, who threw open the larger door just far enough so that the three remaining fairies could slip in unnoticed.
When they were inside the cabin, Cassandra instantly found Rapunzel and the two others that had managed to breach past the wooden barrier. “Raps!” Cassandra said, flying closer to the princess.
”Are you guys okay?” Nuru fluttered over, worried.
”Yeah, we’re fine.” Rapunzel reassured. “But, the pirates are heading for the tree! C’mon!”
While the princess directed the fairies out of the cabin, which was a much easier task than prying a door open from the outside, Hugo had flown closer to Cassandra confused.
The teen raised a hand to the woman’s hair. “Woah, what the heck happened there-“
Yong quickly interrupted, barreling into Hugo to stop any more words. “Nothing! Nothing happened!”
When Cassandra flew after Rapunzel and Eugene, Yong made a motion to Hugo that conveyed the words “please please please don’t tell her, she will literally feed me to the hawks if she found out”. So Hugo nodded slowly, still very confused.
From out of the small fairy door and onto the deck, Rapunzel watched from behind the ramp to the docks as the saporian pirates prepared the area around the tree for flight.
At the very top of the tree, there was a large platform, where a golden glow was radiating.
"The dust is up there!" Rapunzel whispered, pointing to the canopy of the tree. She waved to the group, gesturing for them to follow.
While Andrew continued to spout orders to the rest of the crew, Varian was fluttering near the bin of pixie dust, holding the jar of blue dust in his hands. The fairy brought the dust closer to his face, it was honestly hard to believe he’d made it this far.
Only six months ago, his practice of alchemy was disapproved by nearly everyone he knew—maybe not Rapunzel, or any of his friends, but they tried to steal this from him, so Varian didn’t dare bring them into this—but now, he has an entire team of pirates who encourage him, who praise him for his work.
They were everything he wanted from his father, from his home, even just a bit more. Varian couldn’t be happier!
He flew closer to the bin of pixie dust, preparing for the next step in his process.
“Cass!” Someone had accusingly whispered to the fairy in question.
Cassandra, who had unintentionally touched a branch on the tree the group currently hid within—causing it to grow rapidly, lurched back in an instant. “Sorry!” She hissed back, turning to the fairies with a half-hearted glare. “I barely even touched it anyway!”
”Well, don’t touch it at all!” Eugene argued back, before being hushed by Rapunzel.
Nuru turned to the woman sympathetically, being a garden fairy and not knowing what you’re doing is tough work, she would know. “Just hover, it’ll help.”
Cassandra nodded, floating mid-air while the others spied on the pirate fairy, who was inching closer to a stand that was created to hold the jar of blue dust while it fell into the powder below.
”As soon as he’s gone, we’ll grab the dust, and get out.” Eugene whispered.
Rapunzel winced. “Mh.. Maybe we should talk to him?”
Cassandra chuckled dryly from her spot in the back, rolling her eyes. “Right, ‘cause that worked last time.”
Hugo frowned at that statement, but said nothing further as he turned back to Varian. The teen leaned over to Nuru and Yong, hissing through his teeth. “Is it bad that I think his new outfit is kinda hot?”
Nuru smacked his shoulder, hard. “Could you quit it?!” While Hugo whined, rubbing at his shoulder, Yong covered his mouth as he laughed.
Cassandra’s wings, thankfully, haven’t grown tired from hovering so far. Still, she watched as the others poked through the curtain of leaves with an unimpressed stare. Cassandra wanted to groan, shove her way through the group and steal back the blue dust while at it, but was interrupted by a faint buzzing by her ear.
She turned, and was met with a regular bee that was flying uncomfortably close to her. Cassandra made shooing motions at the insect, trying to get it to move away. “Urg- Hey! Go, move!”
When the bee didn’t move, Cassandra wanted to scream. She was a garden fairy now, not an animal fairy! Oh, how she wanted to throttle that tiny pirate now for taking away the one thing she was good at—
The bee came closer, and Cassandra swatted at it harder with a low snarl of annoyance. No matter how hard she tried, the bee just came buzzing back like it had a mission to permanently ruin Cassandra’s day further.
The final straw happened to be when the insect flew around her in circles, then Cassandra shouted and furiously swat at the bee. “Hey, hey, hey!” She angrily ushered the bee away for the third time already. “Go away!—“
In her fit of mild anger, Cassandra had failed to notice that she had placed a hand onto a branch nearby. Cassandra quickly retracted her hand, fluttering away from the branch. “Ohhh fu—“ The sudden rumbling of the stick cut her off, beginning to grow.
Cassandra was no garden fairy, obviously, but she was smart. And thus, Cassandra knew she could do nothing but watch in horror as the branch doubled in size, shaking the tree. If she dared to place her hands on it again, it would risk adding even more growth to the plant and causing further destruction.
The shaking caught the attention of the rest of the group, who turned around and gasped or shrieked in shock when the branch shot forward, sweeped up Cassandra and the others, sending them directly to Varian.
Their screams were cut short when the pirate snapped around to face the intruding fairies, pulling out his sword at a speed not even Hugo could comprehend, and facing the group down with a glare at the end of his sword.
Nobody spoke for a moment, but Eugene, being the one at the very end of the branch, shrieked in fear as he tried to move away from the end of Varian’s weapon.
Suddenly, Yong laughed loudly from the back. “Ha ha ha! We got’cha!”
Nuru tore herself off the branch, smugly grinning at the pirate. “Did you really think that if you swapped our talents, you’d beat us?!”
Varian only smirked, placing his sword away with a chuckle. “Seems ‘bout right.” The teen did not elaborate further, only sending a sharp whistle in another direction at catch the attention of—
The group of fairies shouted when they were abruptly taken from the branch and hauled into a woven, see through bundle. Clementine smiled wickedly, holding up the bag like it was treasure. “Well done, boy! Got ‘em all in one swoop!”
Clementine hopped down onto the wooden platform just as the rest of the saporians approached. Varian flew down to hover just in front of Andrew, staying in the air just above his friends the trapped fairies.
Rapunzel didn’t want to give up on her friend, she ran for the edge of the bundle, gripping onto the rope with a desparate look as she faced the fairy outside. “Varian, please- please don’t do this! You can come back with us, back home…!”
Varian did not respond to the princess, only staring back coldly as he fluttered closer to her. When he reached a point where he and the woman saw each other eye-to-eye, Varian’s gaze hardened ever more so. “I’m never going back to Corona, Princess.”
”You don’t belong here.” Rapunzel softly objected.
”This is exactly where I belong, Rapunzel.” He gestured to the ship, the tree, the group behind him. “Where I won’t be known as a ‘freaky scientist’.”
”We appreciate what he has to offer for us.” Andrew proclaimed, staring down the fairies with a smirk. “Treasure it, actually.”
Varian glared at the group one moment longer, before he snapped his fingers once and Clementine took that as permission to relocate the fairies.
”Keep them in the low.” Kai used one of his dual swords to point at the ship. Clementine only muttered something snarky back before she had left the platform, taking the fairies with her.
Varian hadn’t moved from his spot, still hovering in the air. His head had lowered slightly when Andrew sauntered over, glancing at the fairy solemnly. “Captain? Are you alright?”
The teen’s gaze hardened again, making a circular motion with his hand as another order. Andrew smiled, despite Varian’s faint frown. “Captain says ‘Back to work’, crew!”
While the man climbed off the platform, Varian focused on the ship one last time.
“Those were your friends.” Something hissed at him, echoing in his mind. “They came to you, begged for you to come back, and you threw them away.”
”No.” Varian whispered back. “They- They’re not here for me. They want the blue dust.”
”You’re right.” Another voice hummed. “They didn’t come for you. You’re an obstacle in the way. A problem, just like before.”
Varian glared at the wood below him.
”You stole from them. You took something precious from them.” His brain unhelpfully supplied. “How do you think dearest father would react when he found out his dearest son committed treason against Corona?”
”Stealing the most essential tool of fairy kind doesn’t sound like something that would make him proud…”
Varian grit his teeth. “I don’t care. I have people who want me for my talents. I’m using that blue dust.”
”Dad would be disappointed…” The voice echoed before it faded out completely.
The fairy stared at nothing for a while, before he turned on a heel and returned to the homemade fountain of pixie dust.
Sarie (Guest) on Chapter 1 Fri 23 May 2025 08:54PM UTC
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Sarie (Guest) on Chapter 2 Fri 23 May 2025 11:13PM UTC
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Madeline (Guest) on Chapter 3 Fri 23 May 2025 07:58PM UTC
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Sarie (Guest) on Chapter 3 Fri 23 May 2025 11:33PM UTC
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Sarie (Guest) on Chapter 3 Sun 29 Jun 2025 04:00PM UTC
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neo_exploded on Chapter 3 Mon 30 Jun 2025 05:45AM UTC
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