Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (7 page)

Nyx also had a gift. But it wasn’t something Gruff could touch or hold. She bowed in respect.

Fawn was last. “Hey, big guy. I won’t see you again. But I know you’ll always be there when we need you. I’m really gonna miss you.” At last, she pulled back to
gaze into his face. “I love you, Gruff.”

He gazed back at her, also full of love. Then, slowly, his eyes started to close and Gruff drifted off to sleep with a happy smile.

B
eyond London, past the second star to the right and straight on ’til morning, lay the glistening hills of Never Land. Above the meadows of
Pixie Hollow, graceful fairies flitted across the blue sky.

But not Zarina.

She walked into Sunflower Meadow, where Rosetta, Silvermist, and Iridessa were working together to grow a lush field of flowers. Each fairy has their own special talent, which tells what their
tasks are.

“There we go,” Rosetta said as she planted seeds. Silvermist watered the soil.

“Little bit of sun.” Iridessa added her touch, then, noticing her friend Zarina, she said, “Oh, look!”

Rosetta gazed up and, seeing that Zarina was traveling on foot instead of flying, remarked, “Hey, Zarina. Out of pixie dust again, sugar?”

Zarina shrugged. Her red hair glistened in the sunlight. “You know me, Rosetta.”

“I could give you some tips on conserving your supply,” Iridessa suggested.

“I may just take you up on that, Dessa,” Zarina said as she hurried out of the garden.

Silvermist shook her head. “A dust-keeper fairy who’s always out of pixie dust.”

“Ironic, isn’t it?” Rosetta replied.

Zarina walked quickly through animal-fairy headquarters, where Fawn was busy bathing a couple of baby birds.

“Lift that wing! Right there—nice!” Fawn said to the birds. “Okay. Rinse time. Time to dry.” The birds moved past Fawn’s cleaning station to where Vidia was
drying them with a soft gust of wind.

Zarina scurried by.

“Hey, Z! Wings okay?” Fawn called out.

“Just enjoying a stroll, but thanks, Fawn! Nice wind, Vidia!” She hurried away.

“Thanks.” Vidia looked up from the birdbath. Then she asked Fawn, “What’s a
stroll
?”

Zarina could see the Pixie Dust Tree in the distance.

“Oh no!” At the sound of a whistle signaling the start of her shift at the Pixie Dust Depot, she picked up her pace and jogged the rest of the way.

After stamping her fairy card, Zarina entered the pixie dust distribution area and slid down a rope to the assembly line area. Her work smock had a large
Z
in the center of it. She
slipped it on, blew the hair out of her eyes, and took her place in the distribution line without a moment to spare.

Terence the sparrow man—what male fairies are called—blew his kazoo, marking the start of the workday. The assembly line began to roll. Pixie dust swirled around a central vat,
funneled down into barrels, and then dropped gently onto leaves, where the measuring dust-keepers made sure there was just the right amount.

Zarina’s station came next. As each package went by, she leaned in and studied the contents before wrapping the leaves into neat dust-filled packages.

“Uh.” The dust-keeper next to Zarina pointed at Zarina’s bangs, which were now floating up thanks to the pixie dust she’d sprinkled on them.

Zarina considered her hair. “We put the dust in the bags, and the bags stay there, right? And yet, we sprinkle dust on top of something, and it floats.” She put a pinch of dust on
her ponytail. The hair rose up toward the sky.

Suddenly, everyone in the line paused, pixie dust packages in hand.

The dust-keeper said, “Well, that’s just how pixie dust works.”

While everyone else seemed to accept that answer, Zarina didn’t. She asked, “Well, yes, I know, but
why
is the question…isn’t it?”

No one answered.

“Know what I mean? Not even a little? Never once had the thought?” Zarina asked them.

The dust-keepers still stared at her blankly.

Fairy Gary, the head dust-keeper, entered the factory floor, along with his assistant, Terence.

“Good morning, dust-keepers!” Fairy Gary greeted everyone.

Zarina shook the pixie dust out of her hair and muttered, “Oh!”

“All right, let’s see, on Blue Dust Duty today, we have…” Gary looked at Terence. “What were we on?”

Terence looked at his list. “
Y
.”

“Ah yes, Yvette.” Gary glanced around.

“Yvette’s out for the day, Fairy Gary. Her dust-keeper elbow flared up again,” a fairy reported.

“That’s fantastic!” Zarina suddenly shouted, then softened. “I mean, poor, poor Yvette.”

“Well, that brings us to—” Fairy Gary stared at the list.

Zarina pointed to the
Z
on her apron. “
Z
.”

“
Z
,” Fairy Gary echoed with a long sigh. “Zarina, you’re up.”

“Uh-oh,” a dust-keeper muttered as Zarina left the assembly area with Fairy Gary.

Zarina followed Fairy Gary into the Blue Pixie Dust Vault.

“I mean, one day early. It’s so exciting,” Zarina said happily. She stopped talking as Gary opened a fancy chest with a secret combination lock.

“Six clicks to the right…” Zarina watched him carefully, reciting the code from memory.

“Yes,” Gary said. “Thank you.”

The lid slid open.

“Whoa,” Zarina gasped.

Inside the chest was the super-rare, amazing, sparkling Blue Pixie Dust. Blue Dust strengthened the Pixie Dust Tree and helped the tree make enough golden pixie dust for all the fairies in Pixie
Hollow.

With their daily ration of pixie dust, fairies could fly and make magic. Pixie dust was extremely important, and adding Blue Dust to the tree was a huge responsibility.

Zarina took the job seriously. She slowly collected blue flecks into a clear glass vial.

Fairy Gary watched her. “Careful now: After last time, I am sure I don’t have to remind you just how potent and powerful this—”

“No touching. I promise,” Zarina said.

“Attagirl. All right, then, exactly twenty-six specks,” Gary reminded her.

“But why twenty-six?” Zarina asked.

Gary sighed. “And here we go….”

“Why not twenty-five? What would happen if we put in, say, twenty-seven?”

“Zarina, you’re the most inquisitive fairy I’ve ever known.” Gary changed his mind. “Correction: It’s a tie. Let’s just say you’re the Tinker Bell
of dust-keepers.”

“Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?” Zarina asked.

“Because we don’t work with twigs and acorn caps. We work with pixie dust. It’s our lifeblood.” He paused before reminding her, “There’s no room for
error.”

Fairy Gary and Zarina entered the boughs of the Pixie Dust Tree. The tree glowed as it made golden pixie dust. Zarina could see that the usual trickle of pixie dust was slow and
weak.

Zarina handed Fairy Gary the vial. Fairy Gary poured the dust into a beautiful wood-and-glass container, refilling the tree’s well with the precious blue flakes.

“Blue Dust—one of nature’s mightiest multipliers—takes the golden dust from a trickle to a roar.…” Gary said.

Zarina stood behind Gary and watched as the Blue Dust dropped speck by speck into the golden dust. The stream of golden dust grew bigger and brighter than before, cascading in a waterfall down
the side of the tree.

“No matter how many times I see it—just, wow!” Zarina said. She thought it was beautiful.

“Indeed,” Gary agreed.

Zarina knew that Blue Pixie Dust was created when the light of the Blue Moon shone through a moonstone at exactly ninety degrees. That’s why the Blue Dust was so rare and precious, but
still, Zarina wondered about other possibilities.

She asked Gary, “But, if there’s Blue Dust, why
can’t
there be other colors?”

“Because there aren’t,” Gary answered.

“And maybe those other colors do other things. What if there was—I don’t know—purple? What if there’s pink?” Zarina asked.

Fairy Gary chuckled. “The day someone finds pink pixie dust is the day I trade in my kilt for trousers.”

Zarina’s eyes lit up. “Well, what if we don’t find it? What if we
make
it?”

Fairy Gary looked at her in a serious way. “Listen carefully, Zarina: We do not tamper with pixie dust; it is far too powerful.”

“But if we don’t, we’ll never fully understand what it’s capable of,” Zarina said.

“That is not our job. We’re dust-keepers,” Gary told her. “We nurture the dust, maintain it, measure it, package it, and distribute it. A beautiful tradition, day in, day
out, passed from one generation to the next to the next to the next.”

Fairy Gary continued, but Zarina wasn’t listening. She’d taken off her bracelet and dipped it into the well of golden dust. She watched as it rose into the air, and then flicked it
with her finger into the path of the Blue Pixie Dust.

The combination of Blue Dust and golden dust supercharged her bracelet! Like a torpedo, the bracelet shot up. It bounced around the tree, ping-ponging off the limbs of the tree
until—WHACK—it hit Fairy Gary in the face.

“Oh no. Fairy Gary! Are you okay?” Zarina asked.

Gary grunted.

“Technically, I didn’t touch it this time.” Zarina frowned.

Gary simply took her bracelet away. He removed the empty Blue Dust vial from the tree receptacle and held it toward Zarina.

“The cap.” He said it, and Zarina put the lid on the vial. Then Gary lectured her, “Let me be absolutely clear, Zarina: Dust-keepers are forbidden to tamper with pixie
dust.”

With that, he flew away, leaving Zarina alone at the tree.