She clung to a wall and struggled to get her balance. As she steadied herself, she noticed a soft purring noise coming from behind her. Slowly, she turned around.…
An enormous snowy lynx was just inches from her face! Tinker Bell clapped her hand over her mouth. But when the creature snored, she realized it was asleep. Sighing with relief, Tinker Bell backed away…
…and slipped on the ice! “Ahhh!” she cried as she slid down into the frozen depths of the hall. She kept sliding and sliding, until finally she crashed into a large stack of ice books against the wall. She breathed heavily for a moment. This was not going as well as she’d hoped. She staggered to her feet and looked around.
What she saw took her breath away. She was in a grand library, bigger than any room she had ever seen. Thousands of books lined the walls, and stacks of frosty parchments towered in every corner. Several large ice tablets teetered on the edges of their shelves, held in place by even more books and papers piled on top. It was incredible!
Across the room, Tinker Bell spotted the wing book that the winter fairy had dropped off. She began to inch over to it when suddenly a short, elderly fairy walked in. He had tousled white hair and small, round spectacles. Tink could hear him mumbling to himself.
“Ah, that’s the end of that chapter,” the fairy was saying. “Boy, that’s a beauty. Flora and Fauna of the Fairies.” He chuckled.
That must be the Keeper, Tinker Bell thought. She couldn’t believe it. She had found him! She was just about to step out from behind the ice books when a young winter fairy came whizzing by.
“Keeper! Keeper!” the winter fairy shouted. Her voice was filled with urgency.
“Yes?” the Keeper answered, turning around.
“The most amazing thing happened!” the fairy gushed. “Yesterday, at the border. You’ll never believe it!”
Tinker Bell watched as the fairy paused to catch her breath. The commotion had woken the snowy lynx from its nap, and it wandered into the room. “Hi, Fiona,” the young winter fairy said to the large cat.
Then she turned back to the Keeper. “You’ve got to tell me what it means! Okay, my wings…”
As Tinker Bell listened, a tingling sensation suddenly overwhelmed her. She looked over her shoulder and saw that her wings were shimmering so brightly she could see them right through her coat.
“My wings, they actually…they lit up!” the young winter fairy finished. She gasped. “It’s happening again!” She turned so that the Keeper could see that her wings were sparkling.
“Oooh,” the Keeper said, amazed.
Tinker Bell peeked out from her hiding place and got a good look at the winter fairy’s face for the first time. Her stomach did a little flip. Something felt so familiar about the fairy! She had short, silvery hair and ice-blue eyes. Her dress was made from a delicate material that glistened like frost in the sunlight. Tink was positive that she had never met this fairy. But she couldn’t help feeling drawn to her. She took off her coat and stepped out of hiding.
The winter fairy turned and stared at Tinker Bell. They began drifting toward one another, as if they were guided by an invisible force.
“In all my years…” the Keeper said quietly.
“Your wings,” the winter fairy whispered. “They’re sparkling.”
“Like yours,” Tinker Bell replied.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, the sparkling faded.
“Keeper?” the winter fairy asked.
“I’ve only heard of this,” the Keeper said in amazement. “But I’ve never seen it right here in front of my own eyes.” Then he chuckled excitedly. “Ooh hoo hoo!” His expression said that he knew more than either of the young fairies did about the sparkling. He rubbed his hands together, delighted. “Follow me!”
Quickly, the Keeper ushered Tinker Bell and the winter fairy through the vast hall. He pointed his cane toward a great room with a giant snowflake pattern on the floor.
The Keeper motioned for both fairies to stand in the center of the snowflake. “Your wings are safe in here,” he assured Tinker Bell.
Tink placed her coat on top of his cane and flew with the winter fairy to the middle of the snowflake. The Keeper tapped his cane on the floor, and the room went dark. Instantly, the snowflake Tink and the winter fairy were standing on lit up and rose off the ground. Amazed, the two fairies held perfectly still.
“Just put your wings into the light,” the Keeper instructed.
Together, the fairies lifted their wings into the sunlight streaming down from an opening in the ceiling. The rays shone through their wings. Then an incredible thing happened. The light began projecting images from their pasts on the icy chamber walls. The first picture was of Big Ben, the clock tower in London.
“The mainland,” Tinker Bell whispered, recognizing the landmark.
The scene switched to a baby laughing for the first time. The fairies watched as the laugh split in two and landed on a dandelion. Two wisps from the flower took flight and danced across a night sky. They floated past the Second Star to the Right and headed straight toward Never Land! But before they could reach the Pixie Dust Tree, one got caught on a branch. The other traveled on. A strong gust of wind came and blew the tangled wisp in the opposite direction, toward the Winter Woods.
“Oh, no,” Tink whispered.
Images of both fairies arriving in Pixie Hollow appeared—Tinker Bell in the warm seasons at the base of the Pixie Dust Tree, and the other fairy in the center of the Winter Woods.
“Two fairies born of the same laugh,” Tinker Bell said slowly. “So that means…”
“You’re my…” the winter fairy began.
“Sister,” they said at the same time.
The Keeper nodded and gestured to the fairies’ wings. “Yes, your wings are identical,” he said. “That’s why they sparkle.”
Turning their backs to each other, Tink and the winter fairy lined up their wings. The Keeper was right—the patterns matched perfectly! A bright spark of light suddenly burst forth when their wings touched. It created a beam that shone all the way up to the ceiling.
The two fairies jumped back. “Jingles!” they both cried. What was that?
“Ah,” the Keeper said. “Maybe you shouldn’t do that.”
Tink smiled. “I’m Tinker Bell,” she said happily.
“I’m Periwinkle,” her sister replied.
Tink thought back to how her wings had sparkled the first time she jumped into winter. “So, you must have been at the border?” she asked slowly.
Periwinkle nodded. “Yeah, I was hoping to see the animals cross.”
“I guess I didn’t see you,” Tink replied.
“Me either,” Periwinkle said, smiling. Then she looked down at the pom-poms on Tink’s boots. With an excited squeal, she reached into her pocket and pulled out two identical pom-poms. “I usually just wear them at home.” She grinned.
At that moment, a deep voice bellowed through the chamber. “Hello, Keeper. Are you in?”
“Yumpin’ yetis!” the Keeper exclaimed, startled. “Lord Milori!”
Periwinkle panicked. “If he sees you, he’ll send you back,” she said to Tinker Bell.
“Don’t a-worry,” the Keeper whispered. “I’m gonna take care of this.”
“Keeper?” Lord Milori called. “I need to speak with you. It’s important.”
Tink and Periwinkle crouched down on the large, hovering snowflake. As long as they stayed up there, Lord Milori wouldn’t be able to see them from down below.
“I’ll be right back,” the Keeper promised. Then he flew down to see Lord Milori.
“I’m right here,” the Keeper told the royal fairy.
“Did you receive the wing book?” Lord Milori asked.
“You know, once upon a time you’d stop by just to say hello and howdy-do,” the Keeper said, shaking his head. He pretended to look hurt.
Lord Milori sighed. “I’m sorry,” he replied sincerely. “Hello,” he added.
“This book has me worried,” Lord Milori continued. “What if a warm fairy brought it here?”
The Keeper chuckled. “Well, that might be nice, then, meeting a warm fairy,” he said. “Especially one with such good taste in books.”
“It’s too cold,” Lord Milori said sternly.
“Well, maybe if they were wearing a coat or, you know, one of them little sweater vests,” the Keeper replied lightly. “They’re nice.”
The look that crossed Lord Milori’s face made it clear that he was losing his patience. “I’ll remind you, crossing the border is forbidden.”
“There was a time when it wasn’t,” the Keeper responded, growing serious.
“The rule is there to keep the fairies safe,” Lord Milori said. “That will never change. If a warm fairy comes here, you will send them back.”
He stared long and hard at the Keeper, and the elderly fairy dropped his gaze. “Of course,” the Keeper agreed softly.
Up above on the floating snowflake, Tinker Bell and Periwinkle exchanged a worried look. This didn’t sound good.
“Thank you,” Lord Milori said, turning to leave.
Once he was out of sight, the snowflake Tinker Bell and Periwinkle were on descended to the floor. The Keeper turned to Tinker Bell sadly. “Well,” he said, “you heard Lord Milori. You must go back home.” He paused and thought for a moment. “Of course, he didn’t say when,” he added with a twinkle in his eye.
The sisters hugged and cheered, happy to have more time to spend together.
“Now, listen, you two,” the Keeper told them. “It gets colder after dark, so it’s best to get Tinker Bell home before the first moonlight.”
Periwinkle gave the Keeper a big hug. “Thank you, Dewey,” she said.
Tinker Bell glanced at her sister, confused. “Dewey?” she asked. What did that mean?
“That’s his real name,” Periwinkle explained.
“It’s what my friends call me,” said the Keeper.
A big smile spread across Tinker Bell’s face. “Thank you, Dewey,” she said happily.
The Winter Woods seemed even more spectacular to Tinker Bell now that her sister was showing her around. Icicles covered everything, and the pure white snow sparkled on trees and in fields. To Tinker Bell, it appeared as if the whole world was glowing!
Together, the sisters visited Periwinkle’s favorite spots. First they stopped at the Winter Field, with its endless mounds of snow that were perfect for sledding. Then they visited the Icicle Cave, with its hundreds of twinkling icicles in all shapes and sizes. Periwinkle flitted between frosted trees while Tink ran through snowdrifts. They even went to see the Pixie Dust Well. It was similar to the Pixie Dust Tree on the warm side of Pixie Hollow, except that the pixie dust here flowed from a hollow root. The root connected, underground, all the way back to the main Pixie Dust Tree on the warm side. This was where Periwinkle had arrived when she was born. Tinker Bell smiled. She would have loved to have been with her sister when they both arrived in Never Land.
But most of all, Tinker Bell and Periwinkle couldn’t stop talking. There was so much to catch up on. They shared stories of their adventures. Periwinkle wanted to hear all about tinkering. And Tink listened with wide eyes as Periwinkle explained that she was a frost talent. It was her job to frost things throughout the Winter Woods.
Soon they reached Periwinkle’s home. Tink had never seen anything like it. It was a cold but cozy cave nestled high up on the side of a snowy mountain. It even had an ice-crest ledge for a front porch. From the tip of the ledge, Tink could see all the way to the border of winter!
Periwinkle showed Tink her room, and opened a drawer full of lost objects that she had collected. Tinker Bell pulled a paper clip from the treasures.
“You collect Lost Things, too?” she asked eagerly.
Periwinkle grinned. “I call them Found Things,” she told Tink.
A short while later, the two sisters went ice-skating using skates they had made from the paper clips! Tink wasn’t very steady on her feet, but Periwinkle was patient and helped her sister glide across the frozen pond. Later, they tried snowboarding…and wound up landing in a heap among the trees.
When the two fairies grew tired, they sat on a branch to rest. Down below, a snowflake fairy was busy twirling a handful of snow high in the air as if it were a pizza. Then she expertly poked out a pattern in the frosty crystals. Each flake she made floated gently past Tinker Bell and Periwinkle, and no two were alike.
Tinker Bell sighed. This was the best day ever!
In the afternoon, Periwinkle took Tinker Bell to see two of her close friends in the Frost Forest. “That’s Gliss,” Periwinkle whispered, pointing to a fairy a short distance away. The two sisters didn’t want to get caught, so they were hiding behind a snowy branch where the other fairies couldn’t see them.
“And that’s Spike,” Periwinkle added.
Just then, Tinker Bell slipped and fell onto a snowdrift below. Periwinkle flew to catch her, and they both wound up sliding right into Gliss’s and Spike’s arms!
“Hi,” Periwinkle said, smiling sheepishly at her friends.
When the two sisters had explained everything, Spike and Gliss looked at them in disbelief. “Sisters?” Spike asked, her eyebrows raised.
“Well, I think it’s fantastic!” Gliss exclaimed. “You two look exactly alike! I mean, except for your clothes, and your hair, and Peri’s a bit more pale.” She took a deep breath and stood back to examine the two fairies. “But your noses are very similar!” she said, nodding.
Spike shook her head. “Forget their noses. She’s a warm fairy in winter!” She pointed at Tink.
“You’re right!” Gliss agreed. “We gotta show her around.” She smiled at Tinker Bell. “Oh, oh, oh! Let’s take her ice-sliding.”
Periwinkle turned to her sister with a knowing twinkle in her eye. “You are going to love this,” she said.
Soon, all four fairies were teetering at the top of a high frozen waterfall aboard a toboggan.
“Ready, set, slide!” Periwinkle called out.
Tink shrieked in delight as they went racing down the icy hill. She couldn’t remember ever having this much fun in her life.
That night, as the stars twinkled overhead, Periwinkle and Tinker Bell sat by a small campfire on the ice crest in front of Peri’s home. They chatted quietly in the frosty night air.
“Favorite star?” Tinker Bell asked.
“Second Star—” Periwinkle started to say.
“—to the Right,” Tink finished.
They laughed.
“Okay,” Periwinkle said. “Favorite drink?”
“Hot chamomile tea,” Tinker Bell said.
“Iced chamomile tea.” Periwinkle giggled. She and her sister had so much in common!
“Okay, my turn,” Tinker Bell said eagerly. She had the perfect question. “Favorite bug?”
“Bug?” Periwinkle paused for a moment. “It’s too cold for bugs over here. But in one of Dewey’s books I read about butterflies.”
“Oh, in Butterfly Cove there are hundreds of them,” Tinker Bell said. She looked out toward where she thought the center of Pixie Hollow would be. “It’s in summer, right over…” She scanned the horizon, but all she could see was the frozen land of winter. “Hmm. I guess you can’t see it from here.”
“No, you can’t,” Periwinkle said sadly. She was quiet for a moment. Then she asked, “What’s it like over there?”
“Warm,” Tinker Bell answered.
“And the colors? The sounds? All the animals?” Periwinkle’s eyes searched her sister’s face. “And the fish! They swim in melted ice, right?”
Tinker Bell smiled. “Water,” she said.
Periwinkle sighed. “I wish I could go there.”
The two fairies sat side by side, watching the night sky. Then Tinker Bell looked at the tiny campfire that was keeping her comfortably warm. It gave her a
n idea.
“Peri?” she said slowly. “I made it warmer over here. Maybe I could make it colder over there.”
Periwinkle gasped. “Are you saying I could cross?” The winter fairy’s heart leapt. Crossing the border was something she had never thought was possible.
“Yeah!” Tinker Bell replied.
“Oh, Tink! You could show me your world. I could meet your friends. Wait…do you think I could see a butterfly?” Periwinkle asked excitedly.
Tinker Bell smiled at her sister. “There’s a pretty good chance,” she said. Her mind was racing with ideas about how she could bring Periwinkle over to the warmer seasons. This would be her biggest tinkering challenge yet!
The two sisters were so busy chattering about their plans that they didn’t notice that the campfire they had made was slowly melting the ice. It wasn’t until they heard a loud crack that they realized something was very wrong.
The ice crest underneath them was collapsing!
Periwinkle quickly fluttered into the air. But Tinker Bell’s wings were trapped beneath her coat. She panicked. “I can’t fly!” she called out.
“Tink!” Periwinkle shouted. The frost fairy reached out to rescue Tinker Bell, but her sister’s weight was too much for her.
“Hold on!” Periwinkle yelled, her voice strained. “Hold on!”
“I’m slipping!” Tinker Bell cried.
Periwinkle lost her grip on Tinker Bell, and they both screamed as they tumbled down through the ice and snow. Then, out of nowhere, Fiona the lynx appeared beneath them. The sisters landed on her back with a soft thump, and the lynx skillfully dodged the avalanche just in time. She carried the two fairies to safety.
“That’s it, Fiona,” Dewey said as he came flying up. “That’s it.” He turned to Tinker Bell and Periwinkle. “Are you girls all right?”
“Yeah,” the sisters answered, out of breath. They couldn’t stop shaking.
“Nothing broken? Nothing bruised?” Dewey asked.
Periwinkle shook her head. “No, we’re okay.”
Dewey dusted the snow from Tinker Bell’s coat. His expression was serious. “Yeah, this time. Oh, Lord Milori was right,” he said quietly. “Crossing the border is just too dangerous.”
Tinker Bell: Secret of the Wings Junior Novel Page 3