Chapter Text
“The tree should be our top priority, but any fairies we can spare should try to frost the rest of the seasons” Lord Milori ordered from the back of his great snowy owl. “Start at the freeze line and spread out to Spring to Summer.” He nodded to Sled who fell back and lead a fleet of frost fairies back towards the boarder. “The rest of you, cover the tree!”
Tinkerbell watched as the Lord of Winter landed on the branches of the Pixie Dust tree and dismounted, streaks of pixie dust cut through the cold winds across the surrounding warm seasons. What distruction her invention had caused! She only hoped that she had gotten help in time to save the tree.
“Tink!” Clank ran up to her, a thick leaf blanket sliding off his shoulders in his rush. “Bobble’s not inside the tree!”
“What?!”
“He was with me, handing out blankets, then he went with a group to pick up the last load. I thought he had come back but he’s not here!” Clank continued to look around, releasing his wings from the blanket to flutter about.
“Clank! Cover your wings!” Fairy Mary called, pulling him back down to the central branch and tucking the blanket tightly around his broad shoulders.
“But Fairy Mary, Bobble’s missing!”
“Oh my!”
“We must find him.” Queen Clarion decreed. “Periwinkle, check each entrance to the tree, find out if someone has seen him.” With a nod from Lord Milori the frost fairy darted down across the tree in a hurry.
“Oh where is he?” Clank fretted, anxiously tugging at his blanket and fruitlessly trying to squint through the storm fast approaching. “Oh no.”
“What is it?” Tink rushed to his side, looking out across the valley. “The machine must’ve gotten caught again!” The dark blue freeze was creeping across the land joined by a building swirling snow storm from the border, just like the one that had formed when this whole mess began. “We have to stop it!”
“You can’t fly out in this, your wings would be ruined. Once the tree is safe I will send my fairies to stop the machine.” Milori told them, watching the storm carefully.
“Tinkerbell, Clank, the rest of you, get inside. You must stay safe from the freeze.” Clarion gestured to the frosted leaves covering the closest entrance to the tree.
“But your majesty-”
“We’ll find him, Clank, but we’re no use to Bobble frozen, come on now.” Fairy Mary took Clank’s hand and began leading him back to safety.
“Lord Milori! Tink! He’s not in the tree!” Periwinkle called, zooming back to the branch as fast as she could. “The team that went with him saw him pick up a load of blankets and they thought he was following them back but he’s not here.”
“Fairy Mary!” Clank pleaded. A gust of ice cold wind cut through the frosted canopy of the tree, sending shivers through the warm weather fairies.
“We’ve no choice, Clank, we can’t stay out in this cold.” Fairy Mary told him, clearly heavily conflicted. “My lord, please one of my fairies is missing!”
“We’ll find him.” Milori nodded. “Periwinkle, send a group of our fastest flyers out to the boarder to stop the machine. Tell them to look out for this-”
“Bobble!”
“-Bobble tinker fairy, getting him out of the cold is a top priority.”
“Yes, my lord.” Periwinkle took one last glance at Tinkerbell before zooming back out of the shelter of the Pixie Dust Tree.
“Fairy Mary I insist, you must all take shelter.” Clarion guided them back towards the tree trunk, a frown weighing down her ageless face.
“Yes, your majesty. Come now, Clank. I’m sure Bobble has got himself to safety, he’s a smart lad.” Fairy Mary flew Clank and Tink into the frosted bunker, making sure the door was shut tightly behind them.
The dark was stifling and only clouded breaths of scared fairies moved within, waiting for the freeze to hit. The three of them settled down against the inside of the tree trunk, huddling under their blankets shoulder to shoulder for warmth.
“What happened?” Vidia whispered, never having seen Clank so shaken before. He was clinging to Fairy Mary’s hand with a grip that would surely hurt if he wasn't so aware of his own strength.
“Bobble’s missing, he’s not in the tree.” Tink whispered, tears stinging at her eyes. The other fairies within ear shot gasped, looking to each other for comfort and the door for some hope their lost sparrowman would simply walk in right then. Whispers spread back through the hollow and down the trunk of the tree, then silence. The freeze had hit. The warm fairies watched in horror as deep blue ice spread over the entrances and the air became heavy with the harsh cold.
The wait was unbearable.
Tinkerbell kept her eyes on the door, praying for something, anything to break the silence. A shadow moved, then a golden glow came back into view. Queen Clarion. Tink got to her feet and pushed the door open, padding out on to the frozen branch. The Pixie Dust Tree was gone. It wasn't destroyed but it was unrecognisable. The warm browns and bright greens were replaced by a deep unforgiving blue. Ice covered every inch of the tree and everything seemed so dark. It was dark, Tink realised. The Pixie Dust had stopped flowing and it’s glow was gone. She had never seen the hollow so lifeless. Periwinkle stepped into her field of view, trying to offer comfort but until the tree unfroze nothing was certain. Hand in hand with her sister, Tinkerbell gathered with the others on the mushroom platform below the dust falls with Queen Clarion, Lord Mirlori and her friends waiting anxiously. Clank shuffled his feet, unable to keep his eyes on the tree alone, he looked ready to take off at any moment. They waited.
Moments passed. They felt like an age.
The slightest crack sounded.
Then another.
A crunch of frost and a soft jingle.
Speck by speck golden Pixie dust spilled over the edge of the mushrooms, breaking into a stream and flowing down the tree. The fairies cheered! Despite the freeze, the Pixie Dust Tree returned to life, it’s light signaling the fairies to leave the tree and celebrate in it’s golden glow.
“It worked!”
“We did it!”
“We have to find Bobble-”
“The tree is saved!”
“We’ll still be able to fly!”
“This is amazing!”
“Tink, come on!”
Tinkerbell hesitated.
“Tink?” Periwinkle glided back down the ceremony platform to her sister, who couldn’t meet her gaze. “What’s wrong?” Tinkerbell said nothing. Slowly she turned and slid off her coat, her mournful expression telling the others what had happened before they even saw the evidence. Over her shoulders her wings drooped back, one of them severely cracked almost halfway down the from the top. “Oh Tink. When you flew into winter that’s why you fell.” Tinkerbell turned to face her and nodded, the reality setting in. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“We had to save the tree.” Tink sighed and shook her head. “Besides, there’s no cure for a broken wing.”
“I’m so sorry.” Periwinkle looked about to cry, most of them did. A broken wing was a grievous wound that had not been seen in Pixie Hollow since Lord Milori’s fateful day.
“This happened because we tried to keep you apart.” Queen Clarion said mournfully, holding tight to Milori’s arm and his owl feather cloak weighing heavy on her shoulders. “But never again.”
“You belong together.” He agreed, looking at Tinkerbell with such sorrowful understanding.
“Lord Milori.” A winter scout fairy rose to the platform level with a small group following him. “The storm from the machine stopped before we were half way across autumn so we returned, we flew closer to the ground and checked the Tinker’s workshop but we saw no sign of the lost warm fairy.”
“Bobble, no.” Clank gasped, looking to his queen for guidance. Fairy Mary put her hand on his arm, unsure of what to do.
“Send as many fairies as possible, go to the south side of the tree and keep searching as you fly back to winter. Knock on doors, look under shelters, we must find the warm fairy. Don’t risk your wings, keep heading north as you search, soon the warm fairies will be able to fly out to check anywhere missed. Go!” Milori ordered, holding tight to Clarion’s hand. A warm breeze drifted through the Pixie Dust tree, scattering some stray dust form the smaller dust falls onto nearby fairies.
“You better get back to Winter.” Tinkerbell said sadly, a deep acceptance had settled in her eyes and Periwinkle could hardly bear it.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll be okay.” Tink offered a ghost of a smile to wave off her concern. It didn’t work.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at the border.” Periwinkle said, hesitating a moment. “Sisters?” Tink smiled for real this time, joining hands with Peri.
“Sisters.” She nodded. For what might be the last time the two fairies turned away from each other and carefully lined up their wings, raising them skyward and matching the delicate swirls together. The sparkle of their wings turned to a powerful glow and they jumped apart in shock. “Jingles!” Tinkerbell looked to her tingling wings and saw the split was shimmering brightly, what if… The two of them stepped back together and as they raised their wings, sunlight came streaming down through the frosted leaves of the Pixie Dust Tree and the glow they exuded momentarily blinded all near.
Blinking out the light, Tinkerbell stepped away from Periwinkle and gasped. Her wing was healed! The fissure was gone without a trace! Holding on to her sister’s hand she carefully rose into the air, then confidently took flight. The surrounding fairies cheered as she soared through the air, her wings renewed.
“That’s a new chapter!” Dewy gasped excitedly, pointing with his staff.
“Fairy Mary please! We have to find Bobble!” Clank begged, having shed his blanket to hold it tightly in his fist and looking over the edge of the tree frightfully.
“Do you think it’s warm enough now, your majesty?” Mary looked to her queen who thought for a moment.
“I’m not sure, perhaps it’s best to let the winter fairies search first until we know for sure.”
“We can’t wait any longer! He could be hurt!” Clank gasped. “Please your majesty he could be frozen!” Clarion looked just as pained at the realisation, Milori tightened his grip on her waist as he watched his searching fairies pass the tree and started to head north.
“Peri could you use your frost on someone’s wings?” Tink asked suddenly. “If it can save the Pixie Dust Tree from the freeze why can’t it stop warm fairy wings from getting too cold?”
“But what it hurts you?”
“Does it hurt you to get frost on your wings?”
“Well no but-”
“Try it on me, if it doesn’t work we can just heal me. Clank’s right, Bobble doesn’t have any time to spare.” Peri hesitated before nodding, fluttering to Tinkerbell’s back and running her fingers across the top edges of her wings, coating them with a gentle frost. Tink gasped, the other fairies froze in fear. Then she flapped her wings and fluttered off the ground.
“It doesn’t hurt! It feels warm, it works!” She grinned, then quickly switched to serious and determined. “Quick, frost our wings, we have a tinker to find!” In a flurry of Pixie Dust the warm fairy friends had their wings frosted and zoomed out of the tree to check the seasons for Bobble. “Clank, we’ll search Tinker’s Nook first. That’s the last place he was seen."
“Right.” Clank nodded, no one had ever seen the sparrowman so serious before.
The two of them sped over to Tinker’s Nook, calling Bobble’s name as they checked each frozen house and basket they could. Clank felt his heart clenching fearfully as the search came up fruitless. Then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Under the slowly melting layer of ice on the ground lay a small bundle of blankets. “Tink!”
“Yes Clank?” She called, popping up from behind the wagon fixing station and flying over.
“The last blankets, Bobble didn’t bring them back to the tree.”
“Oh no. Hmm... Maybe he saw the storm and went back to stop the machine!” Tink gasped.
“But the freeze-” Clank couldn’t finish the thought, he looked desperately to Tinkerbell and she took his hand.
“Come on, we’ll find him.” She pulled his arm and they took off through the Autumn Woods to the border. On the border a handful of winter fairies were still searching, calling out for Bobble and squinting across the river for any sign of him. Tink felt her heart begin to sink.
“Look Tink, the machine.” Clank flew ahead to where pieces of the machine had spewed across the banks of the river. It seemed the machine hadn’t stayed sunk and had gotten caught above the next step down in the river, but whatever happened had definitely stopped the machine and broken it properly. Guilt weighed even heavier on Tink’s shoulders, if only they’d never made it. “Bobble! Bobble please! Where are you?! Bobble!” Clank called desperately, inspecting all the nooks and crannies in the banks around the machine. As his hope began to dwindle and his flying slowed he heard a faint whispering. Confused he tried to fly towards it but it got quieter so he tried the other direction. The bell of the snow funnel had landed flare downwards on the ice and was frozen in place. Water dripped from the small end as the snow melted off it, that’s where the whispering was coming from. Leaning in and straining his ears Clank realised the whispering was sharp small gasps, fairy gasps. “In here! Help me move this!”
Tink zoomed over and the two of them began desperately tugging at the ice covered metal. Two winter fairies rushed to their aid, cutting their hands through the ice with ease and loosening the funnel enough to push it over. Tink gasped. In the circle of snow left beneath the funnel there was Bobble. He was paler than she’d ever seen anyone, his hair was covered in snow and though he didn’t shiver his back shuddered with each strained small gasp. The poor sparrowman was on his knees in the snow, curled as small as he could get and his wings… His wings. The tall delicate appendages were frozen solid, even the winter fairies looked pained at the sight. The fairies hesitated, too afraid to even touch him, but Clank unfroze first. He knelt down next to his friend and pulled his own blanket over Bobble’s shoulders. As delicately as he could he lifted the smaller sparrowman into his arms and off the ice.
“...H-have to st-st-stop… st-stop the the machine… have t-to…” Bobble was whispered, his face pinched tight in pain, unaware he had been found.
“Bobble, it’s me. It’s Clank. We found you. You did it, Bobble.” Clank called to him gently, tears running down his face. Tinkerbell closed in and almost pulled back again in fear of hurting him. Carefully she reached down and pulled Bobble’s goggles off him, the dew drops were frozen to disks and surely must be making him colder. His ears, hands and lips were turning blue and without his goggles he seemed smaller and the pain on his face was much easier to read. “Snap out of it, Bobble! Please, it’s okay now.” Clank sniffed.
“...C….Cl-clank?” Bobble gasped timidly, cracking open his frosted eyelashes and blinking in confusion.
“It’s me, we found you, Bobble.”
“You did it, you stopped the machine for good.” Tink nodded, taking one of his hands and trying to rub some warmth back into them. The one blanket was simply not enough, she shrugged off her coat and tucked it in around him, praying that his shoes had been enough protection that he wouldn’t lose any of his toes.
“Th-the tree?” Bobble whispered, straining towards Clank in desperation. He looked delirious with the cold, his eyes hazy and unfocused, his hair more white than red.
“The winter fairies covered it in frost, they saved it.” Clank told him earnestly, hugging his friend tighter to his chest.
“... the fre..the freeze…” The small tinker seemed to struggle for air, so cold that his breath didn’t cloud in the cold air like Tink and Clank’s did. His eyes fluttered dangerously and he lost focus.
“Bobble don’t fall asleep!” Clank begged, shaking him the tiniest bit, as much as he dared. Tink retook the sparrowman’s hand to warm it, feeling a desperate need to help in any way she could.
“...safe… was e-e-everyone sssafe?” Bobble managed, blinking up at Clank.
“Yes Bobble, no one got hurt.” He glanced at Tink and winced, sniffing. Just you two.
“Oh you’ve found him!” Fairy Mary cried, flying into view and recoiling at the sight of her charge so ill. “Oh my. Phineas, you poor poor boy.” She gasped, joining Tink at the boys’ side.
“He stopped the storm from getting worse.” Lord Milori said gravely from the back of his snowy owl as it landed on the border bridge.
“He sacrificed himself for everyone in Pixie Hollow.” Clarion sounded pained as she approached, hands clasped to her chest.
“Y...your ma...maje-...” Bobble had lifted his head slightly to see the queen but it proved too much for him, his eyes rolled and fell shut. He head gently thunked against Clank’s chest and the larger sparrowman whimpered in fear.
“Clank, quickly- take Phineas back to the Pixie Dust Tree. The healer fairies will still be there, they will do all they can for him. Go!” Queen Clarion ordered, her hand on Fairy Mary’s shoulder. Clank nodded and with Tink behind him they zoomed back into the forest. “Oh Fairy Mary, I’m so sorry. Such a brave fairy.”
“Do-do you think he’ll live, your Majesty?” She whimpered, trembling with worry.
“To have survived the freeze he is much stronger than he seems, have hope Fairy Mary, that is all we can do for him now.” She gestured for Fairy Mary to follow her charges, lingering behind to say goodbye to her winter fairy.
“I’m sorry we didn’t find him in time, Clarion.” He sighed, pulling her close and pressing their foreheads together.
“He’s strong, we have to pray he will pull through. After all this, the heartbreak of death is near unbearable to face.” She said quietly, hugging into the lord tightly before sharing a sad kiss. Their joined hands lingering for a moment she backed into the autumn forest and returned to the Pixie Dust tree.