The Forgetful Fairies

Once upon a time in the land of Atheria, there was a Princess Nea and a Princess Lulu and they went on the most amazing adventures. They just arrived in the fairy village of Hummingwood, looking for one of the lost crystals, only to discover that something unbelievable had happened to all the fairies in the village. 

As they walked through the village they were a bit astonished. For one thing, all the fairies were visible. None of the fairies were using their magic to hide themselves from anyone. And quite honestly, the whole village was in total disarray. Fairies were bumping into each other in the sky. Fairies were arguing with each other. There was a lot of clumsiness followed by anger all around them. 

“What’s going on?” Flix said, pulling aside one of the fairies.

“What do you mean?” the fairy asked, looking confused. 

“Why aren’t we keeping Hummingwood hidden?”

“Hidden!? Why would we do that?”

“Are you crazy?” asked Flix. “We could be captured!”

“What do you mean, captured?” 

“Captured! You know ...” and then Flix himself had to stop and think for a minute. “Captured, it’s a - it’s a not good thing for us magic fairies.” 

“Magic? We have magic?” the fairy asked, looking confused.  

To that, Flix turned around. Eyes wide and arms flailing.

“I don’t know what’s going on. It’s like everyone has forgotten everything!”

“I think we need to see the queen.” Princess Nea said, but honestly she wasn’t exactly sure why anymore. She just remembered that there was something about this queen they needed to do. 

So they made there way through the village, up to the palace. But only after a few detours from Flix, who was still trying to remember how to get there even though he knew Hummingwood like the back of his hand. 

Now since Nea and Lulu were so much larger than fairies, they couldn’t quite fit inside the palace. Flix flew inside the palace and a couple of minutes later flew out with a very dazed and confused Queen Ignea.

“Queen Ignea of ... this village,” Nea said, “We are Princess Nea and Princess Lulu of Sparland.”

“Why hello.” 

“We’re here looking for something important.” Nea shrugged.

“A crystal, I think!” Lulu finished. 

“Yeah, a crystal that dropped from the sky kingdom.” Nea finished. 

“No, it didn’t drop from the Sky Kingdom. It dropped from the sky.” Lulu corrected her. While Nea’s memory was lapsing, Lulu was still able to remember things. 

“Why would a crystal fall from the sky?” Ignea asked.

“I don’t know, they just do.” Nea answered. 

The fairy queen just started laughing. Quite softly at first, then more loudly, until she couldn’t contain herself any more.

“You two are so very, very funny! I mean, whoever you are. I don’t know what kind of rocks fall from the sky wherever you’re from but here in ... this place ... rocks don’t fall from the sky.” 

“Rocks are falling from the sky?” Flix asked. 

“No! No, crystals are falling from the sky!” Lulu said. “Shiny beautiful crystals, like this one.”

And Lulu opened up her pocket and pulled out the green Terrianian crystal they found on the edge of Lake Celestrium in the sky. 

“Ohhhh!” said Queen Ignea, “That is beautiful.” 

And for a moment, upon seeing the crystal a flicker of her memory came back. 

“We had one!” she said, “I had one! One of those. It was beautiful and it was mine.”

“Where is it now?” asked Lulu.

She shook her head, then asked, “Where is what?”

“The crystal!” Lulu said, completely frustrated now. 

“Why are you so flustered?” Nea asked. 

This went on for another few minutes until Lulu realized that everyone was confused and everyone was forgetting everything. It was like the whole village had forgotten how to fly straight, what a crystal was, what the sky was and even where they were. Sensing that things might only get worse for them inside the village, Lulu finally talked Nea and Flix into leaving the village. Because there was really no place for humans to hang out and rest in a fairy village, they walked to a nearby grove and had something to eat. 

“We could sure use some help from Tuck right about now.” Said Lulu.

“Who?” Asked Nea.

At that point, Lulu realized that until everyone got their memory back they would not be able to continue their adventure. It didn’t even make sense to talk. 

As luck would have it. Someone else was on their own adventure in the Boxley Wild. After helping Princess Ellery and the three dwarfs return to Morrenvale and heal the plants, Darius and his bear, Rose, were sent by Tuck to the edge of Boxley Wilds to help find some special wood. 

You can imagine his surprise when they came upon Nea, Lulu and Flix.

“Why hello, princesses!” greeted Darius. 

“Hello?” they both asked at the same time, not recognizing him.

“It’s me, Darius and Rose!” he said. 

Rose walked up to the princesses, sniffing them. They smelt funny, she thought. Not normal at all. 

Darius realized something was wrong with their hearts. Something odd and off. Just like the plants were not growing and the water was getting dirty, people’s hearts were changing too. They were forgetting and getting angry. Having healed the sick birds and then seeing what happened at Moorenvale with the brown crystal, Darius pulled out his white crystal, which was glowing brighter and brighter. He held it out and it released a small twinkling light that shot out over the group then showed them with sparkles. 

And they started to remember again. All their thoughts and experiences started to come back.

“Darius!” they called out and ran over and gave both him and Rose a big hug. 

“Are you guys okay? What in Atheria happened?”

They told Darius and Rose about their adventure in Skyrabia with Princess Aria and how they had met up with Paul and O’Lah and that his dad, the Shadow Man, even showed up riding the dragon, Scorch, to help them get up to the Cloud Ruins. 

“One day, Rose, you and me are gonna find a way to get to the sky.” 

“Ehem!” interrupted Flix, who had been waiting patiently and invisibly. 

“Oh, where are our manners. And this, of course, is Flix of Scattered Woods. We met him up in the clouds. Flix, meet Darius. Darius, meet Flix.”

Darius waved his hand while Rose, sniffing the fairy growled. Flix didn’t much like that the boy had no legs or that the bear was growling at him. However, he was intrigued that the boy rode a bear. Something a fairy (or any other being for that matter) didn’t come across every day.  

“As much as I appreciate your help with my memory, Darius. I’m not very fond of large animals growling at me.” Flix said.

“Don’t mind Rose. She’s nice once she warms up to you.” 

“I also, see that you are another Keeper. You princesses really are good at tracking these crystals down.”

“Yeah, they sure are. They even made friends with a few dwarfs who are able to use one of the Terrainian Crystals to heal the plants at Moorenvale.”

“Oh, yes.” Lulu remembered, “Did Princess Ellery’s land get healed?” 

“Yes, it was truly amazing! When we got back to Morrenvale with the brown crystal, Jo the Botanist was there too. And when the dwarfs tried to use the crystal it started to glow brighter and brighter, but they had never used it before. And guess what? Jo ended up SHOWING the dwarfs how to concentrate on the plants and gave me a little lesson. It was actually kinda funny at first, they started arguing over which one could do it best, then they started blaming each other and telling everyone it was someone else’s fault. Eventually they figured it out. All three of them had to hold on to the stone and walk all around all the plants before they started growing and getting healthy again.” 

The girls laughed at the thought of all three dwarfs having to shuffle together around Morrenvale, healing the plants. Even Rose laughed a little. 

“So what brought you all out here?” Darius asked.

Flix decided to jump in, “There’s a crystal here somewhere. We thought Queen Ignea had it but she can’t remember a thing and neither can any of the fairies in Hummingwood. Maybe you could help us bring everyone’s memory back?”

“I think I might have to anyways, I was sent here by Tuck to find some magic Orgrown Wood. I was supposed to meet up with a fairy named Fiamma from Hummingwood.”

So the adventures continued together and headed back into Hummingwood. 

As Darius entered the village, he concentrated on his crystal and, just like before, it started to glow and sent out a bright twinkling light that showered the entire village with sparkles.

When they got back to the palace, Queen Ignea had a much better time remembering things. On the one hand she remembered what a crystal was, but on the other hand, it turns out it had been stolen and she was not very happy about it.  

“Oh yes, I did have a magic crystal.” she said, “But it’s gone now. It’s been stolen by some dirty rotten thief and if I ever get my hands on them! If you find whoever it is, you must bring it back to me!”

Princess Nea and Lulu looked at each other very carefully. They certainly didn’t know everything about these crystals but they had a very bad feeling about returning a power crystal to someone as angry as Queen Ignea. She just didn’t seem like she was going to do the right thing with it. 

“We have something else, your majesty,” Flix jumped in. “We must find Fiamma. Have you seen her here in the village lately? Darius here, has been sent from across Atheria and needs her assistance?”

“Yes, your Majesty. I was told she could help.” Darius agreed.

“Oh Fiamma. Such a wild one, she is. But that would make sense, she’s often over in the western wood exploring and building things. You’ll find her there and she would know where any wood you need is.”

“Thank you, your majesty.”

As the party left the village and headed west, they had no idea what they were getting themselves into next or who they would end up running into. 

The end.