20.

The early morning meeting Queen Clarion had called together began in earnest. It only lasted a few moments but it did not go well. She announced her intentions to reveal everything to the populace of Pixie Hollow. The four ministers all nearly fainted where they stood.

"Are you suggesting we reveal to the general populace that we have been concealing knowledge of this terror all this time?" Hyacinth the Minister of Spring squealed. "They'll strangle us."

Hyacinth tugged at his collar, as if feeling invisible hands tightening around his neck.

"Your Highness, we cannot in good conscience tell the fairies of Pixie Hollow that we knew from the very beginning and never told them," Redleaf, the Minister of Fall replied more calmly. "They will not be happy."

"We were not in good conscience when we chose to withhold this information, Minister," the queen answered. "But it must be done. Last night went beyond any I could have imagined when this began. We owe it to our fairies to explain our reasoning and hope they understand."

"What happens if they do not?" Sunflower, the Minister of Summer asked.

"Well they must," Snowflake, the Minister of Winter interjected. "This is the queen. No monarch in the history of Pixie Hollow has ever been ousted by the population."

"There is always a first time for everything," Snowflake was reminded by Redleaf. The Minister of Autumn turned to his queen regnant and spoke. "I do hope you know what you are doing, Your Highness. No matter what comes, we will support you absolutely."

"Very good. Thank you, Ministers. Viola, have the scouts assemble the fairies in the common space just beneath the Pixie Dust Tree. I will make an announcement at the veranda."

Viola, the queen's summoner and personal bodyguard wore a troubled look on her face. "There is no need," she said. "The populace is here and they appear quite furious."

"It's begun," Hyacinth croaked. "They'll hang us from the nearest branch."

"We have wings," Sunflower snarled at him. "We can fly."

"What makes you think they won't remedy that?" Hyacinth screeched in return. He wore a sick look on his face, imagining the populace shearing off their wings before carrying each to a nearby branch with a hangman's noose dangling from it. He gulped; the thought of fleeing no doubt crossing his mind.

"Remember," Sunflower whispered into his ear, "if we do not hang together we surely hang separately."

Hyacinth knew he was being mocked. The pained look on his face was replaced by one of disdain for his fellow minister's poor taste in jokes.

While the four ministers bickered amongst themselves behind her, Queen Clarion approached a window in the tree. From here she could overlook the courtyard and common area below. Even from this distance Clarion could hear the howls of displeasure from her people. She now regretted more than ever not telling them sooner, but understood why it had to be done. This was why she had to be queen, to make decisions where there was no clear right one to make. And as queen she mast also suffer the consequences of those decisions.

Clarion took a deep breath, held it in for a few seconds and let it out. She took a second breath, held it and slowly let it slip out between her beautiful lips. The Queen of the Never Fairies smoothed out her dress, checked her hair and then stood as straight and confident as possible. A beat of her wings sent her gently floating forward, the morning sunlight lit up her face and the entirety of Pixie Hollow never looked lovelier.

Down below, hundreds of frightened, angry fairies had gathered. Clarion waited a moment for the crowd to quiet; then she opened her mouth, began her speech and hoped for the best.

~O~

Tinker Bell was crushed by the news. Never before had she been so betrayed. Not even when Terence made a foolish and exaggerated boast to his friends, a boast Tink had hoped Terence was too mature to make. That was a mere breach of trust. This was an act of betrayal that hit on a personal level. He had abandoned her for another woman and did not even have the courage or the honesty to tell her before he made it public to everyone else.

So devastated was she that Tinker Bell did not even register that her friends were holding her limp form in their arms. Or that she was weeping so uncontrollably that tears had badly stained her little, green dress. Today she felt her heart break. She had loved him so completely and he abused her faithfulness.

Rosetta was livid. Silvermist could not believe her ears. Fawn had trouble accepting the news, but had no other explanation. Iridessa was more worried about Tinker Bell to care otherwise. Vidia, however, was completely unconvinced, owing to the source of the news. Jeremey was a carouser, a philanderer and an unprincipled swine. Anything he said should never be taken at face value.

"Tink, you have to talk to him," Vidia encouraged. "None of this adds up."

"Oh please, why are you so all fired up willing to take that boy's side?" Rosetta growled.

"Last night was not an ordinary night," Vidia scoffed. "Maybe someone just thought they spent the night together."

"She's right," Silvermist agreed.

"Oh please, Vidia," Rosetta said, wagging her finger, "he's a distrustful, faithless creature."

"She has a point," Silvermist nodded.

"Pick a side and stay with it!" Vidia yelled.

"Okay. Which one?"

"Ugh!" Vidia just buried her face into her palms. "When have any of you ever heard of Terence acting so disloyal to Tink? Never. We need to find out what happened."

"Uh, guys, you need to see this," Fawn called out. "Guys!" When the others joined her they looked down on the Pixie Dust Tree. It seemed as if every fairy in Pixie Hollow had gathered there. "What's going on?"

Vidia squinted, her keen eyesight able to take in a bit more detail at a distance than her friends, a benefit of being a fast flying fairy. She could see Queen Clarion standing on a veranda delivering a speech. She informed her friends of what she could take in.

"She's called an assembly? How come no one told us?" Fawn asked rhetorically.

"We should get down there to hear what she's saying," Rosetta advised.

"What about Tinker Bell?"

"I'm… I'm okay," she whimpered between wails of painful crying.

Rosetta suggested that Iridessa and Silvermist escort Tinker Bell back to Vidia's home and keep her company. "The rest of us will find out what's going on and report back to you," she told them.

The friends agreed and went in separate directions. Tink returned to the comfort of Vidia's isolated home while the others went to the tree and listened to what Queen Clarion had to say.

~O~

"Hey, thanks," Jeremy said, offering his gratitude to the dove which flew him from Vidia's sour plum tree house. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know where I could find some lovelies, do you."

The bird just twisted its head side to side before winging away.

"Yeah, didn't think so. Oh well, at least my wings are dry enough now to fly one my own," he observed. "Now then, where is everyone?"

~O~

"It has been said that hindsight offers perfect vision. Hindsight has shown us the error of our choices. So we offer our deepest regret that we chose not to inform you of what we had learned," Queen Clarion said after revealing to the populace that the crown was well aware of the situation and made the decision to remain silent. "It was never our intention to mislead you. We had hoped to avoid a panic. One of our purposes here in Pixie Hollow is to raise, instruct and care for the animals of the forest, to prepare them for life on the mainland. As I'm sure you can already imagine such benign creatures would suddenly become the focus of all suspicions. Mistrust would have grown out of that, followed by abject fear and perhaps even misguided reprisals. Such actions would have harmed our society to its very core."

Clarion took a moment to breathe. "Sadly, our chosen course of action only resulted in the very outcomes we were so desperate to avoid. Now that we have cleared the air, it is our deepest hope that you will find it in your hearts to forgive us our mistakes. But if you believe it necessary to seek new leadership then both I and my ministers are prepared to step down. We, each us, pledge to abide by the will of our people."

Clarion ended her speech and waited. She put all her faith in her people's better nature. Those gathered at the tree were silent for several moments. Then they began to talk amongst themselves, a quiet murmur reached up to where the queen had delivered her impassioned message. This went on for several minutes as she waited for them. Just behind her, barely visible, her four advisors waited anxiously with bated breath.

The wait seemed to go on forever. The sun had moved close to midmorning when someone from the crowd approached the queen. It was Lockheed of the fast flyers. He bowed before her in respect then spoke. "Your Majesty, we the assembled wish you to know that we are deeply wounded that you and your ministers did not have faith enough to trust us with this knowledge. Had you informed us we would have been of greater service to the crown and to Pixie Hollow. Instead we were forced to live in growing fear of our animal friends without the complete awareness of what was occurring around us."

Lockheed's words were harsh and they struck a nerve with the queen. Clarion's wings drooped because she knew how right he was. She had betrayed her people, betrayed their confidence and misjudged their intelligence and competence under such a difficult situation.

"That being said," he continued, "we the assembled of Pixie Hollow understand why you made the choices you did and offer our forgiveness. We only wish to assist our queen in uncovering what is the cause of our current distress and hope the queen will trust in us to do complete this task."

She smiled. She smiled with such radiant relief it could have melted even the coldest heart. "We graciously accept your kind generosity and forgiveness. And rest assured that neither this queen, nor her advisors, will ever doubt the people again."

Lockheed again bowed, this time speaking, "How may we be of service?"

~O~

Vidia turned to her friends in the crowd. "So that's what has been happening," she commented.

"I don't know, it's not much help," Rosetta cautioned.

"No, but it does tell us something more," Fawn said in summary. "Whatever it is that's affecting the animals is only occurring in the warm seasons. The Winter Woods appears safe. Something there must be repelling it."

"Or maybe they're just lucky," Rosetta added.

"Why don't we pay them a visit," Vidia suggested.

"First we need to let the others know," Fawn directed. "Maybe Tink can shed some light on this."

So what's to happen next between Tinker Bell and Terence? Hang on to your hats for the next exciting chapter.