At dawn the very next day, Tinker Bell stood at the edge of Pixie Hollow, ready for her flight to the mainland. About her slender frame she wore an extra layer of sturdy clothes to ward off the cold, and sundry pouches were tied about her waist. She was joined by Queen Clarion, Lord Milori of the Winter Woods, a clutch of her closest friends and many others to see her off.
“Lord Milori has tasked an Ice Hawk to assist you on your flight,” the Queen informed her.
“An Ice Hawk?” Tinker Bell looked at the majestic white bird in wonder and more than a little trepidation. “I was expecting a Snowy Owl. I was almost eaten by a hawk once, trying to teach a bird how to fly when I thought I wanted to be an animal fairy and-”
The hawk peered down at Tinker Bell and she took a step back.
“Tinker Bell,” Lord Milori began softly. “I am afraid the trip to the mainland is far too dangerous for any Snowy Owl. But fear not, this bird is here to protect you, and your experience sneaking off to the Winter Woods in a basket to uncover the Secret of the Wings will serve you well. Hawks are faster, but the trip will otherwise be very much the same.”
“And don’t forget when you made that hot air balloon, to uh…” Terrence, a dust keeper and one of Tinker Bell’s closest friends began to stammer. “Uh, for when you needed just the right diamond to craft the most amazing Autumn Scepter ever. That was a long ride in a basket and that will help too!”
“Aye, and you have the bestest,” Bobble was quickly interrupted by Clank: “Most sturdiest basket ever made in a tinker’s shop in all of Pixie Hollow to rely on!”
The pair rushed her then and gave her a big hug. “Good luck Tinker Bell and return to us soon,” said Bobble.
The hug swelled quickly as her many other friends joined in.
Vidia, a purple garbed fast flying fairy, looked down at the group with a frown. “I still don’t like this Miss Spare parts. We’re your friends and should be going with you,” she said and the rest of her friends quickly agreed.
“Please, everyone. It’s all right. I’m a tinker. This is what I do. I fix things. And with all of Zarina’s talent switching fairy dust to help me, it’ll be like you’re all there with me. I’m going to be fine. I’m going to find this Doctor and bring him here to Pixie Hollow and we’re going to set things right.”
While the gathered fairies cheered Tinker Bell’s brave words and watched her flutter into the basket for the trip to the mainland, Queen Clarion glanced over at Lord Milori and felt a tear roll down her cheek.
“She is right you know,” the Lord of Winter whispered and brushed the Queen’s face with a gentle hand. “Tinker Bell is our best hope.”
“Your majesty,” said the Minister of Spring. “I have retrieved what you asked for.”
Queen Clarion looked down at his hand and accepted the small blue box with a solemn nod. It had no hinges and appeared to be a perfect square. It has been so long, she mused silently. How can we be certain this will even work anymore? Then, her dandelion yellow gown shimmering in the morning light, she gracefully alighted over to the basket where Tinker Bell was saying her final farewells.
“Tinker Bell,” said the Queen. “Take this seedling and keep it safe. This is what you will need to summon the Doctor. Find a lofty place. Then, after switching your talent with the garden fairy dust, sprinkle blue pixie dust on the box.”
“That’s it?” the tinker fairy asked.
The Queen nodded once. “This is what the Doctor told me, those many years ago.”
“How do we know this is going to work?” asked Silvermist suddenly. “What if it’s like a regular seed and needs water too? If I’m not there how will she know? She can giver herself my water talent powers but she can’t giver herself my experience.”
“What if some of her talent switching dust is inert?” added Rosetta. “Especially if it’s her garden fairy talent switching dust. I should go with her to be sure.”
“If that’s true I should go too,” said Fawn. “There are lots of different birds and wildlife on the mainland. Dangerous wildlife.”
“It’s still cold there,” noted Periwinkle. “If it’s too cold Tinker Bell won’t be able to fly. A winter fairy should go. I’m her sister, it should be me.”
The chorus grew until-
“Enough!”
A red haired fairy garbed like a pirate, long locks roiling in the breeze, rose swiftly into the air and flew to the edge of the basket.
“Zarina!” Many whispered. “It’s Zarina!”
“I personally prepared every pouch of dust Tinker Bell is taking with her,” the pixie dust alchemist said firmly. “They will work. She is ready. To Tinker Bell!” Zarina drew her sword and thrust it into the air.
“Tinker Bell!” many cried.
“I said!” Zarina followed her sword into the air over the basket. “To Tinker Bell!”
“Tinker Bell!” everyone shouted.
Zarina began to sing a rousing Pixie Hollow melody and the crowd joined in lustily. Near the end she fluttered close to Tink and whispered, “Are you ready?”
“I am now,” Tinker Bell hugged Zarina tight. “Thank you!”
Zarina sped into the air again and began to chant: “Fly! Fly! Fly!”
A short distance away Queen Clarion nodded at Lord Milori. The Lord of Winter whistled to the Ice Hawk and said, “Nimrod! Setzoun!”
Spreading its powerful wings the bird hopped several steps and leapt into the air.
“Fly! Fly! Fly!” the crowd continued to chant as the hawk circled twice and then dove toward the basket. Speeding in, claws extended, it appeared as if the streaking bird would pummel the basket and a great gasp strangled the chant. But Nimrod spread his wings at the last second, slowing just enough to gently clutch the basket in his talons and rise away with it toward the mainland.
“Fly! Fly! Fly!” the crowd resumed chanting.
Tinker Bell waved until they were out of sight, and then sat in the basket clutching herself. “This is going to work,” she said. “Right Nimrod?”
Nimrod replied with a piercing cry that should have stung Tinker Bell’s ears. Instead she found comfort in it, as she did too the rhythmic flap of the great bird’s wings and the swaying of the basket. Snuggling up in a blanket laden corner, she pulled out the summoning seed and examined it to pass the time.
“Right then Clara Oswald, time to find out who you are!”
The Doctor flipped the Dematerialization Lever and the TARDIS lurched unexpectedly to the left, sending him careening against the railing warding the ship’s hexagonal console.
Quite abruptly the TARDIS’ landing sequence began to squeal.
“No, no, no!” the Doctor shouted. “What are you doing? We have to find her!”
Unbidden words surfaced in his mind. A conversation not too long ago. A conversation with the TARDIS when its bio-circuitry briefly assumed a human form called Idris.
Those who knew him best would say a conversation with his wife:
“You didn’t always take me where I wanted to go,” said the Doctor.
“No,” replied Idris. “But I always took you where you needed to go…”
The console quieted and after a moment, the Doctor raised his head and looked at the monitor.
“Organic distress signal?” he mused out loud. “Who could have? Only one person… But that was so long ago… Oh-oh-oh-OHHH no!”
The TARDIS doors opened and the Doctor came racing out. “Your majesty! I’m-”
BONNGGG!
He ran straight into a massive bell.
“Oww! Owww! Owwwwwww!” said the Doctor, holding his forehead. After a moment, still holding his head, he squinted up through the pain with one eye. “That looks like Big Ben. We’ve materialized inside Big Ben… Cool! What’s Big Ben doing in Pixie Hollow?”
“It’s not in Pixie Hollow and neither are you,” said a jingly voice flitting passed his ear.
The Doctor’s vision cleared and he looked down over the gas lamps of Victorian London. “I suppose I’m not,” said the Doctor. Then he looked up and saw a massive plant with luminescent blue flowers that resembled satellite antenna sprouting from the top of the bell tower.
“Oh that won’t do,” the Doctor said. “That won’t do at all. Why did you plant the organic distress beacon on top of Big Ben where everyone can see it?”
“Oh I don’t know,” said the jingly voice fluttering around his head. “Maybe because you told Queen Clarion it needed to be used on high ground without saying how gi-normous it was going to get!”
“Gi-normmous,” the Doctor reflected. “How is that not a word yet? Going to have to pop back and talk to Mr. Webster about that.” The Doctor leaned out to look at Big Ben’s face, lost his balance and nearly fell out of the giant clock.
“High ground!” he shouted, whirling around and straightening his bow tie as if nothing had happened. “Well then,” he finally made eye contact with the tiny figure fluttering before him. “I must say, that was rather resourceful of you, putting it way up here, where the TARDIS would be sure to hear it.”
“I, uh,” the diminutive figure put her hands on her hips and hovered in place. “Thank you, I suppose. You know it wasn’t easy. There were storms! The moment we arrived heavy winds whipped me right out of the basket Nimrod was carrying and we got separated. So ever since I got here, I’ve had to walk. Walk! Quite a ways too because it’s been too cold for me to let my wings out. And now, only just today, the sun peeked out so I took a chance on flying up here and turning myself into a garden fairy. And growing your blue box seed thingy into this giant tree plant to get you here because we, I mean, Pixie Hollow, is in big trouble and Queen Clarion said you made a promise to help us if we were ever in trouble, and we’re in trouble so I hope you’re ready to keep that promise.”
The Doctor’s eyes wobbled a bit from trying to keep up with the rapid recap.
“Sorry,” Tinker Bell said after another moment, “I can get a little excited. It’s just-”
“Yo-ho-ho!” the Doctor spun around on his heel. “I’m ready! I am ready indeed! But I have two questions. First: Who are you?”
“I’m Tinker Bell, of course.”
“Of course,” the Doctor whirled again. “Tinker Bell! Smashing! What a brilliant name! Tinker Bell!”
Tinker Bell, still hovering, cocked her head from the left to the right. “Wait a second. You are the Doctor right?”
“Yes. Absolutely.” The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair and spun a third time. “At your service.”
“Really?” Tinker Bell peered at him skeptically. “The Queen said you’d have a long, rainbow scarf. Where’s your scarf?”
“Yes, ah, that was some time ago,” the Doctor said. “Quite a few wardrobe changes since then. But I’ve got the blue box,” he pointed at the TARDIS. “Surely she told you about the blue box?”
“Well yes, that’s true,” Tinker Bell conceded. “All right then. What’s your second question?”
“Second question?” the Doctor was momentarily confused. “Oh yes! The second question! Very important. Second question.” The Doctor took a breath and let it out all at once: “Are there going to be pirates? I love pirates! Yo-ho-ho and uhhh,” the Doctor saw Tinker Bell squinting at him and began to drift off, “uhhh…”
“No,” said Tinker Bell. “No pirates. And what do you mean you love pirates?”
“Well,” said the Doctor. “I just meant-”
“Pirates are bad!” Tinker Bell interrupted him. “They pillage. They steal. Always up to no good. Trying to swipe our Pixie Dust.”
“Right!” said the Doctor. “What was I thinking?” He jolted his forehead with his left hand. “Things still a little scrambled in there after thumping Big Ben.” He smacked his head with his other hand. “Ha-haaa! There it is! Pirates-Bad. Got it now! So where’s Queen Clarion?”
“She’s in Pixie Hollow.”
“So she is,” the Doctor clapped. “Pixie Hollow. We should go there and talk to her, I suspect.”
“We can’t.”
“Can’t?” The Doctor stilled and looked directly at Tinker Bell. “Why? What’s happened? Pixie Hollow is protected.”
“No,” said Tinker Bell. “I mean, Queen Clarion is fine. Pixie Hollow is fine, for now, I guess, and maybe longer, we hope. But we can’t go there.” Tinker Bell flew to the ledge and looked up. “It… It took me too long to get here.”
“Too long?” the Doctor said. “What do you mean?”
“Doctor,” Tinker Bell pointed up into the sky. “The Second Star is gone.”
“Gone? What?” The Doctor jumped forward and looked up. “That’s impossible.”
The Doctor scanned the sky, muttering, “Impossible. That’s just impossible. Should be burning for millennia, that’s why I chose it. If it’s gone, that would mean…”
“It means,” Tinker Bell said weakly. “I’m stranded here, in the human world, forever.”
The Doctor hunkered down, resting his arms on the ledge next to Tinker Bell. Bringing his head low to look at the fairy closely, he could see that her blond hair had come undone from its bun, and that her bright green, leafy garb had been soiled by the rough hands of London.
“Tinker Bell,” the Doctor said softly.
The fairy sat on the ledge and drew her legs in, then sniffed and brushed away a tear. “I was too late. I was going to save spring, and all the seasons, for everyone. Now the Second Star is gone and I have no way to get back. When it gets cold again, my wings will freeze and crack and I’ll never fly again. What’ll happen to me then?”
“Tinker Bell,” the Doctor began again. “You can’t be stranded. Not when your new best friend has a space ship.”
Tinker Bell looked at him. “A space ship?”
“Yeah!” the Doctor grinned. “And not just any space ship. The best space ship anywhere, ever.”
Tinker Bell fluttered up in excitement. “It can take me back to Pixie Hollow without the Second Star?”
Trying to maintain eye contact, the Doctor lifted himself to the very tip of his toes. “Well, no,” he fell back on his heels. “Not without the Second Star. No one can get to Pixie Hollow or Neverland without the Second Star. That’s the whole point of there being a Second Star.”
“Then what good is it?” Drained of her momentary enthusiasm Tinker Bell landed again.
“What good is it?” the Doctor’s face zoomed in close and zoomed away again. “It’s the TARDIS!” The Doctor pranced away and leaned against the blue box with all the flair he could muster.
Sensing the Doctor was holding something back, something big. Tinker Bell darted over and circled the TARDIS twice. “Not very big for a human ship,” she observed.
Shrugging away the comment with a sly smile, the Doctor said, “Yeah, like it that way. Good for parking.”
“Hold on,” Tinker Bell froze in the air. “How is it you can even understand me? Humans don’t understand fairy talk.”
“Ohhh, you are good Tinker Bell,” the Doctor wagged his finger at her. “Very good. The TARDIS has a translation circuit. Any language. Anywhere.”
“Wow,” Tinker Bell said, looking the blue box all over again with fresh eyes.
“Wow,” the Doctor shucked and stroked the TARDIS with a gentle hand. “She said ‘wow.’ Love it when people say wow.”
“What else can it do?”
The Doctor tilted toward Tinker Bell, raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.
The TARDIS door squeaked open and Tinker Bell’s flight response jet her straight back as fast as her wings could take her.
“Come inside and find out for yourself,” the Doctor proposed with an enigmatic smile and then vanished through the door.
Tinker Bell blinked twice, flew up to the door and paused a moment before retreating again. Finally, with a deep breath that rattled her shoulders, she affixed and stern look to her eye, and flew through the doors in search of the Doctor.
The Doctor pulled the monitor over, flipped a few switches and contemplated the picture.
Flying over the console, Tinker Bell alit gently on his shoulder. Then she cupped her right elbow with her left hand, and her chin with her right in an exact imitation of the Time Lord. “What is that a picture of? And why is it moving?” she asked.
“This picture is an eyehole to the outside that shows us where we are. All this, debris floating around, appears to be blocking us from seeing or getting any closer to the Second Star.”
“Debris?” the fairy wondered. “What kind of debris? It looks like an avalanche without the mountain.”
“Hmmmm,” the Doctor tapped his chin. “Maybe the debris is the mountain. Or more precisely, a moon that was pulverized into a fused asteroid belt of some kind.”
“What happened to it?”
“That is the question Tink. That is the question. That and what’s holding it together and how is it hiding the Second Star from my instruments. Guess we’ll have to go and find out, won’t we?”
“Go and find out? Outside you mean?” Tink’s voice rose. “In space?”
“In space?” the Doctor echoed. “Noooo. Didn’t I tell you the best part?”
Tinker Bell flew off the Doctor’s shoulder and hovered in front of him with her hands on her hips. “Yes. You said we didn’t have to wait till morning.”
“Right,” the Doctor pointed at her. “I mean the other best part.”
Tinker Bell folded her arms and cocked her head in mild annoyance.
The Doctor looked away and back. “The part about the TARDIS being the best spaceship anywhere, everrr?”
“Well, you did, but you didn’t quite say it like that: everrr. What’s that supposed to mean?
“It means, the TARDIS is also a time machine, and we can go back and see what happened! We can find out why the moon exploded!”
The Doctor spread his hands, mouth hanging open, waiting for Tinker Bell to speak.
“Great!” she said. “Let’s go! I’ve never seen a moon explode before.”
The Doctor’s hands dropped. “Great? That’s it? I thought for sure she was going to say wow again. That would have been a third wow. The record is five you know, on a first trip.”
Tinker Bell was standing on the Dematerialization Lever. “Can I push the lever that makes us go this time?”
The Doctor’s face lit up again. “You can! Absolutely! How about that?”
“Flitteriffic!” Tinker Bell exclaimed.
The Doctor lowered his eyes gloomily and set to work, throwing switches, twirling dials and consulting various gauges.
At length, the Doctor drew a deep breath and Tinker Bell asked, “Now?”
“Delicate business, calibrating. Have to set the chronolytic telemytron just right so we don’t whiz passed the event we’re looking for without seeing it.”
Tinker Bell turned around and leaned against the lever.
“Flitteriffic,” the Doctor asked suddenly, slapping a row of switches down with his left hand. “What is that? Is that like wow?”
“I guess,” Tinker Bell said. “I suppose it’s better really.”
“Better,” the Doctor nodded, smiling again. “All right then. That’s a wow. I’m giving you a third wow. Rarefied air, three wows, absolutely. But you earned it- now.”
“Thank you Doctor, though I’m not sure what all that means or why it’s important.”
“Now means,” the Doctor spread his hands. “Now.”
“Now means… Oh!” Tinker Bell turned, set her feet on the console and gripped the lever. “Now!”
“Now!” the Doctor cried with her, and Tinker Bell leaned into the lever with all her might and flap. The lever hesitated and Tink’s wings blurred and buzzed with effort until it finally yielded and the console grinded into life.
Stepping back, Tinker Bell dusted her hands together and watched the rotor going up and down. “You know, when I first heard that sound, it scared me, but the more I hear it, the more I like it.”
“Of course your do,” the Doctor said. “Everyone does! It’s the call to adventure!”
The Doctor stood up straighter, his voice remained low, but inspired by Tinker Bell’s speech, his eyes had begun to shine. “Do you have a plan Tinker Bell? I’m getting the distinct impression that despite being so far from home and completely out of your element, you might have a plan. Usually I’m the one who gets the plans, but… not lately.”
Tinker Bell sensed the great sadness around the Doctor once more and resolved to try and fix that too if she could. “Okay,” she thought out loud, “first things first.”
“But not necessarily in that order?” the Doctor forced a smile.
“Yes!” Tink cried. “Finally! Someone who gets what that means!”
“Finally,” the Doctor agreed.
Time Lord and fairy shared a knowing grin, the former pleasantly surprised at how Tink’s glee had turned his smile into a genuine one.
Then she elaborated: “So, it might not be a plan. Not really, but it is and idea.”
The Doctor smoothed his sleeves and then peered at her from under his hair. “Go on.”
“Well, you said it was a cloud of some kind right?”
“Yes. A temporal cloud.”
“Well, in Pixie Hollow, when we need to water some things but not others, Vidia and the other fast flying fairies zoom around a storm cloud and catch it up in a cyclone, then guide the cloud to where we need it. Can the TARDIS do that? Fly real fast and move the cloud somewhere safe?”
“An inter-stellar cyclone,” the Doctor mused. “That is quite clever Tinker Bell, quite clever indeed.”
“Thank you.”
“In this case, at the right speed, I think the temporal cloud might even collapse in on itself and blink right out of existence.” Then the Doctor sighed. “But were talking about one, very big, very massive cloud that’s blotting out a star. The velocity it would take to create a cyclone big enough to capture the temporal cloud, I’m afraid it’s beyond even the TARDIS.”
Tinker Bell’s eyes sparkled in the light of the TARDIS’ instruments.
“I might have left out the best part,” she said with a smile.
“The best part?” the Doctor asked.
“I have Pixie Dust.”
“Yes,” the Doctor nodded. “Pixie Dust. Great for flitting around from place to place but-”
“Talent switching Pixie Dust,” Tinker Bell added.
The Doctor’s chin rose. “Talent switching Pixie Dust?”
“Yes,” Tinker Bell said. “I get the feeling the TARDIS is more than a ship. That it’s a living ship. And if it is, maybe we can use the fast flying Pixie Dust to make her fast enough to create the cyclone. It’s worth a try at least. Right?”
The Doctor stood there speechless. His eyes glistening. Then his lips moved, his voice barely a whisper. “I shouldn’t travel alone. That’s what she said and she was right. Ah, my lost Ponds…”
“Lost ponds?” Tinker Bell asked. “What are lost ponds?”
The Doctor thrust his arms out suddenly, pointing at the little fairy with both hands. “Talent switching Pixie Dust!” he exclaimed.
Tinker Bell fluttered back in confusion, then shook her head and said, “That’s right. Will it work?”
“Oh I have that wonderful tingly feeling that it might and it might not! Love that feeling!” The Doctor began turning knobs and dials. “Just have to go back to your present and find precisely the right spot. Of course we’ll have to exponentially increase the size and mass of the TARDIS. Can’t whip up the wind we need in this tiny box.”
The TARDIS wheezed and lurched suddenly forcing the Doctor to hold on. Then he patted the console. “Oh don’t worry girl, soon as were done I’ll have you back to your svelte, sexy self.”
“Who invented that I wonder,” the Doctor was once again running around and making adjustments all over the console. “Talent switching Pixie Dust? You, Tinker Bell?”
“Me? No. That was Zarina. She was a dust keeper who became a pirate-”
“Ah-ha!” the Doctor grinned. “Pirates! I knew there’d be pirates!”
“And noooowwww,” Tinker Bell looked at the Doctor sternly, “she’s back in Pixie Hollow and a Pixie Dust alchemist. Not a pirate! But, she still does kind of dress like one.”
“What a name,” the Doctor tore himself from the console and stretched his hands across the air before him, “Zarina, the Pixie Dust alchemist. Great names fairy names. One of the bestselling baby name books across the universe for millennia. Don’t remember seeing Zarina in there, must be new. She must be the first! That settles it, have to pop over and say hello when we get back.”
“I’m sure she’ll enjoy meeting you too Doctor,” Tinker Bell interrupted him. “If we fix this, I hope you’ll consider-”
“Here we are!” the Doctor announced, racing over to open the doors. “Whenever you’re ready Tinker Bell.”
Tinker Bell looked back and forth between the Doctor and the open doors several times. “Is it safe to just, go out there?”
“The area around the TARDIS is shielded. Plenty of room for you to fly around.” The Doctor flashed a dainty smile and flicked his fingers in the air. “Sprinkling.”
“All right,” Tinker Bell said, examining herself. “I know it’s here somewhere. Give me a second. I’m not used to all these pouches and pockets.”
“Love having pockets,” the Doctor said. “Lots of pockets. Not pouches so much. But pockets. Have lots of pockets I always say. Best way to find things you’ve forgotten about to help you out of a jam.”
“Here it is,” Tinker Bell announced.
“Looks small,” the Doctor noted. “Will it be enough?”
“I have blue Pixie Dust too. Blue Pixie Dust multiplies any other dust it gets mixed with, should be plenty.” Tinker Bell crossed to the doors. “But I’ll use it all just in case.” Then she flew out.
“She’s going to use it all,” the Doctor echoed, flexing his fingers rapidly. “I need a hat! This calls for a hat!”
Tinker Bell spread Pixie Dust all around the outside of the TARDIS and returned a short time later. “All right Doctor, we’re all set.” Tinker Bell looked around the empty chamber. “Doctor?”
“Coming!” the Doctor cried, all but leaping back into the console room.
Landing with a low thud he tugged at the goggles affixed to a brown leather cap he’d put on and let them slap back down with a loud thwap!
“Huh? Huh?” he asked brightly.
Then he twirled and the ear flaps rose up around him like a propeller
Tinker Bell’s chin drooped, but her gaze never left the Doctor. “Do you really need that?”
“Do I really need this?” the Doctor frowned. “Do I really need this? Oi! This is my speedy hat. Wore this when I helped Chuck Yeager break the sound barrier.”
Tinker Bell blinked twice. “Well, I suppose, if you think it will help.”
“Of course it will help. Not as much as you’re going to. But yes. Absolutely.”
“Me?” Tink floated back in surprise.
The Doctor opened his mouth to reply but the TARDIS shuddered suddenly, cutting him off.
"What was that?" Tinker Bell asked, darting through the air in short, quick spurts, eyes peering up at the rafters.
“That was the TARDIS. She’s not aligned with the magic of the Pixie Dust. That’s where you come in.”
“Oh.” Tinker Bell touched her chin, then looked up hopefully: “Back to the Flight Light?”
“Flight Light,” the Doctor’s eyes widened and he began to mumble. “Much better than what I made up before. What did I make up before? Flight, something or oth-”
The TARDIS rumbled again and Tinker Bell landed on his shoulder, looking up behind him and tugging on his hair, “Doctor?”
“Yes Tink!” he answered. “Back to the Flight Light. And hang on! Might get a little scary with all the crazy swirling. But you are as perfectly safe up there as I am in here. Remember the way?”
Tinker Bell gave the Doctor a salute and zoomed off, her tiny, tinkling voice fading quickly, “I remember!”
The Doctor saluted the direction in which she disappeared. Then he switched channels on the display until he saw Tinker Bell clambering inside the newly renamed Flight Light. Once she settled in, he used his sonic screwdriver to unlock a panel near the rotor and opened it. The toggle underneath had two settings: lock and free. He flipped the switch to free and pressed the button beside it. Almost instantly the rooftop beacon outside began flashing through the spectrum. Gradually it began to slow, until finally, the light settled on the same luminous green as Tink’s outfit.
“Right then,” the Doctor said softly. “Now you’ve got it. This is just for a little while I promise. Then it’s right back to comfy blue.”
He flicked the toggle over to the lock position and the outside of the TARDIS turned green.
“I know I’m asking a lot of you today, maybe the most dangerous flight we’ve ever undertaken, and we’ve undertaken quite a few. But it’s important. Pixie Hollow is worth saving.”
The Doctor tugged and snapped the goggles down over his eyes with both hands.
“So let’s save it.”
With a final, deep breath, the Doctor threw a bright red lever and the TARDIS jolted forward.
“Geronimo!”
“Oi!” the Doctor twirled. “What’s this then? Of course it has. The Second Star is back, the Pixie Planet, excuse me,” the Doctor waved his hands dramatically, “Sundrop Meadow, is warming up. Warming up! Snow-a-melting! Going to be awhile before everything is back to normal, but saved, certainly.”
The winter fairy sighed wearily. “Turn around Doctor.”
The Doctor did so and saw a massive tree, much like a willow. The ancient giant was thawing, but its trunk was splintered and cracked. Its once mighty branches burst by the weight of crushing snow, lie dangling at odd angles.
“That is our Pixie Dust Tree. We did everything we could. But winter has held sway for too long. As it thaws, it also dies. And when it dies, we will never fly again. On top of that, a new fairy has not arrived here in Sundrop Meadow in nearly a hundred years.”
“What about the garden fairies?” Tinker Bell asked. “I don’t see them anywhere, have they even tried to save the Pixie Dust Tree yet?”
Many faces dropped at the same time, and the once cheerful mood around them spiraled down into a profound sadness. Tinker Bell hovered closer to the Doctor’s ear and asked, “What is it? What did I say?”
“Look around Tink,” the Doctor replied. “Nearly all winter fairies left now. I believe the garden fairies, and probably many others, were lost during the Frost Fall ushered in when the warmth of the Second Star was blotted out by the temporal cloud.”
“Ohhh,” Tinker Bell said, looking left and right. “Hold on. I still have Zarina’s talent switching dust. If we don’t have any garden fairies we’ll make some!”
“What does this mean” Carver asked gruffly. “Make some?”
In short order, Tinker Bell had all the surviving fairies of Sundrop Meadow gathered and began to explain. There weren’t as many as she thought. Just one hundred twenty-six in all. Sadly, there were only seven summer fairies: two dust keepers, two animal fairies, one fast flying fairy, and two water talent fairies.
Meanwhile, the Doctor was walking around the Pixie Dust Tree, scanning it repeatedly and taking measurements with his sonic screwdriver.
“All right,” Tinker Bell called, “I’ve explained how the talent switching dust works. Now we need volunteers.”
All the summer fairies stepped forward.
“I’m sorry,” Tinker Bell said after a moment’s consideration. “If this works, the natural order will eventually be restored and the winter fairies will have to stay on the cold side, so I think only one dust keeper, one animal talent and one water talent can volunteer. The rest will be needed to use their gifted talents if this works.”
“How many others do you need to give this plan its best chance?” Carver asked.
Tinker Bell looked out at the tree, recalling when the deadly Frost struck Pixie Hollow and how many fairies it took to save their Pixie Dust Tree.
“Four more,” she said at length. “Seven will be enough and leave us dust left over for other emergencies.”
The Doctor was just coming around the trunk of the tree again, sonic screwdriver bussing away in his hand, when Tinker Bell arrived with the seven volunteers.
“We don’t have much time,” he said, checking his final readings. “But with a little luck, and our secret weapon, I think we have a real chance to save this Pixie Dust Tree.”
“What secret weapon?” asked a spritely, dark haired fairy dressed in red.
“And who might you be?” the Doctor asked, leaning down for a closer look.
“I’m Ozzie,” the fairy replied, zooming off toward the tree before the Doctor could get a proper look at her. “What secret weapon?”
“The Doctor fixed his bow tie, “Well, me of course.”
“You?” Ozzie mused over her shoulder. “What does that mean?”
“Right,” the Doctor said with a clap. “I’ll explain along the way. Has everyone been sprinkled Tink? Turned into a proper garden fairy?”
Tink nodded amidst a chorus of “ayes.”
“Great! Fan out everyone, spread out and start working your magic. Tink I’ll need you at the bottom with me, and maybe someone else to help cauterize that nasty frost crack.”
“I’ll do it,” Carver said.
“Too late,” Ozzie called from the tree. “I’m already here.”
The Doctor was already walking away, focused on the monumental task at hand.
Carver glanced over to Tinker Bell who shrugged and sped away after the Time Lord. Watching them go he exhaled deeply, unable to shake the feeling that somehow it was supposed to be him helping the Doctor at the base of the tree. His face grim, Carver finally lifted off for the upper branches.
“How do we do this?” he asked loudly. “We’re not garden fairies. We don’t know what we’re doing.”
“Just try and use your talent like you normally would,” Tinker Bell advised, darting in and out of the branches to check on their progress. “But focus on growing and healing the tree instead of what you used to do.”
“I’m doing it!” someone called. “My leaves here are turning red and gold!”
Within minutes, the combined efforts of all the fairies were getting results, but their progress among the branches was halted at the thick shaft of the tree.
“Tink!” the Doctor called. “Down here!”
“Oh right!” Tinker Bell chastised herself and raced down to where the Doctor and Ozzie were concentrating their efforts at the base of the tree.
The jagged split began nearly halfway up, and got thicker and deeper all the way down. At the bottom lie a mass of exposed, tangled roots, grey with brittle frost death.
Ozzie was hunched closest to the gaping wound, her face lined with concentration. The Doctor was down on one knee, looming over her, his sonic screwdriver buzzing endlessly. “I want to try something Tink, focus your efforts down here next to Ozzie.”
Tinker Bell did as the Doctor bid while he recalibrated his screwdriver. “C’mon, c’mon!” he urged the gleaming instrument, slapping it against his palm until the tool resumed whirring at a different pitch.
“The minutes dragged on and on until finally, a distressed voice called down from above, “I can’t do this much longer!”
“Hang on!” the Doctor cried. “Just a little more!”
Tinker Bell had heard that before, and steeled herself for the worst.
“Time to deploy the secret weapon Doctor!” Ozzie said.
“Secret weapon,” the Doctor grit his teeth. “Yes, I suppose you’re right Ozzie.”
In one smooth motion the Time Lord tucked his screwdriver away and edged closer. “Hang on you two, just a little bit longer…”
The Doctor reached out a hand and a wisp of golden energy materialized in his palm. Tink’s eyes widened as it crept from his outstretched fingers and into the dark crack leading to the tree’s root system.
“Secret weapon away!” he whispered.
“What is that?” Tinker Bell asked in hushed tones.
“Regenerative Energy,” the Doctor said. “Last resort. Emergency use only. Just a dash ought to be enough to get the dust flowing again. That’s it. It’s going to be all-LLLL-AHHHGG!”
“What is it?” Tink glanced at the Doctor’s suddenly straining face.
“Acchh!” the Doctor grunted again. “Tree! Caught! Feedback loop! Burning me! Inside out!”
“Doctor!” Tinker Bell shouted. “Tell me what to do!”
Ozzie stood up quietly, staring into the heart of the tree.
“Run!” the Doctor said, his face turning orange and yellow. “I’m going to explode.”
“Explode!” Tinker Bell was horrified.
“Warn the others!” the Doctor continued. “Hurry!”
“You said feedback loop,” Ozzie took a step toward the tree. “It’s because the tree can’t convert your energy into magic. Because you’re not a fairy, right?”
“Maybe. How do you even-” the Doctor grunted, grabbing his right hand with his left and struggling to keep it from touching the bark. “Probably. Yes.”
“So if I go in there,” Ozzie trailed off…
“What?” cried the Doctor, slipping closer. “No! You can’t! You’ll merge with the tree! Be lost forever- even if it works!”
“It’ll work. Remember me-” Ozzie began to say, but the rest of her words were lost as she stepped forward into the light.
“No!” the Doctor shouted, but almost instantly, he was released and the pain was gone. After another moment his face fell and he closed his hand, cutting off the flow of Regenerative Energy.
“No.”
The golden light flowed up the trunk, sealing the frost scar with new bark. Without warning the tree flashed as bright as the sun and when the glow faded, the bark was a rich, healthy nut brown and the branches full of vibrant, rainbow colored leaves.
The Doctor stood and looked up just as a stream of Pixie Dust cascaded down and splashed over him.
“Thank you Ozzie,” he whispered.
“What just happened?” Carver asked, flying over to the Doctor who was still standing under the Pixie Dustfall.
“Tickles a bit, doesn’t it,” he said softly. “Pixie Dust. Absolutely wonderful. Totally unique in all of time and space.”
“Doctor?” Carver asked again.
“Right then,” the Doctor continued, turning serious. “Save the Pixie Planet stage two, well three actually if you count what we did up there. No more fairies. Isn’t that what you said Carver?”
The Doctor whirled around in the opposite direction Carver flew. Reversing at the same time, they did it again. “Carver? Where’s Carver? Just here a second ago. Anyone seen Carver?”
“Behind you Doctor,” Carver informed him.
The Doctor turned around slowly while Carver waited. "No more new fairies. That’s what you said. Right, Carver?”
“Doctor, please,” Carver pointed at the crowd. Many were kneeling, some were crying, all of them imploring him with their eyes. “Tell us what happened. Are we safe? Finally safe? What happened to Ozzie? We need to know?”
Tinker Bell watched the Doctor gird himself against what he had to say.
Realizing suddenly how difficult permanent loss must be for someone who could travel everywhere in time and space except to see the faces they most wanted to see, she was now certain that when they had first met back on the mainland the Doctor was dealing with some great loss himself. A friend perhaps, maybe family, or even both.
“Yes, all right.” The Doctor said. “What’s the point of being amazing if no one’s going to remember? And you know who was amazing just now?”
“You?” asked a fairy with streaming, sunset red hair.
The Doctor leaned down. “Me? Well maybe just a little. But really, it was Ozzie.”
“Ozzie?” many whispered, flying in closer.
“Yes!” the Doctor raised his hands up toward the looming branches above him. “Ozzie! She saved the Pixie Dust Tree!”
The Doctor paused, looking up toward a high ridge in the near distance.
“And saved me too,” his voice dropped. “Thank you again Ozzie. Now how does this work? Happy thoughts. Yes that’s it.”
The Doctor, still sparkling with Pixie Dust, began to float up into the air. “Yes. Follow me up to that ridge and I will tell you about Ozzie.”
The Doctor landed in a hilltop glade and many of the fairies landed with him. After looking around a moment and seeming satisfied with what he saw, the Doctor began aiming his sonic screwdriver at the sky in every direction.
“There you are,” he said when the whirr reached a high pitched whine. “Knew you were out there somewhere.” Then he dropped to one knee and began to dig a hole with his hands.
“Despite our combined efforts,” he said, clearing a few stones out of the hole. “The Pixie Dust Tree was going to fail. I have a talent much like you fairies do. Well, many talents really, but my most special one is called regeneration. Sometimes I can lend a little of that energy to others, to help them heal. That’s what I was trying to do. That was the secret weapon.”
The Doctor removed one of the satellite plant’s blue bulbs from his pocket and dropped it in the ground and covered it up.
“But the tree and I were not compatible. It couldn’t absorb the energy. So it kept taking more and giving it back trying to make it work. Garden fairies if you please?” the Doctor stood and pointed at where he had worked the ground.
While the garden fairies rushed in a nurtured the new bulb, one of the others asked, “What does that mean, not compatible? I don’t really understand.”
“Ohh!” Tinker Bell announced. “I know. It’s like needing water, but you only have ice, so you need something to melt it so you can drink it properly.”
The fairies all began to nod ad murmur as they clarified it for each other. The Doctor smiled at Tinker Bell and she flittered in a circle.
“Exactly as Tinker Bell says,” the Doctor continued, looking up at the new antenna plant rising into the air. “I was the ice, and Ozzie, brave Ozzie, sacrificed herself to convert my talent into the water the Pixie Dust Tree needed to regenerate and live again.”
As the blue stalk reached higher and higher a great cheer went up for Ozzie. When an antenna blossom opened near the top, the Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver at it until, apparently satisfied with something, he dropped his arm again.
As the throaty clamor died down, the Doctor twirled with a flourish and announced, “But wait! There’s more! Rising above us now is a new amazingly, remarkable plant that-”
“Look! Look!” someone shouted, and another thundering, celebratory roar filled the air.
“It’s a fairy wisp! A new fairy has come to Sundrop Meadow!”
“Yes,” the Doctor clapped happily. “As I was saying…”
The assembled fairies began to race off after the wisp.
“I’ve tuned it, so now,” the Doctor’s voice faded as he watched more and more fairies fly back down the ridge. “Now, new fairies will come.”
After a long moment of silence Tinker Bell buzzed around the Doctor’s head. He flashed a grateful grin at her, but as ever, his somber thoughts, whatever they were, remained unspoken.
Tinker Bell smiled back, then asked seriously. “Will the fairy wisps keep coming now? Why did they ever stop? Just the thought of it frightens me.”
Utilizing the Pixie Dust, the Doctor rose up off the ground and Tinker Bell followed him back toward the TARDIS.
“Quite simple actually,” he said, doing a somersault in the air. “The nearest human colony making babies and babies laughing for the first time must have moved out of range, or perhaps they were wiped out when the temporal cloud was created. But humans are everywhere is this era. And always shout to the universe: ‘Here we are!” Easy enough then to locate them and tune the antenna plant in that direction. I expect that before long, Sundrop meadow will be thriving again.”
“That’s great!” Tinker Bell exclaimed.
“Yes whooOAAAHH!” the Doctor crashed the final few feet to the ground. “Well that wore off quite suddenly.”
Tinker Bell giggled. “Do you want some more Pixie Dust”
The Doctor’s eyes lit up for a moment, then he ran his hand along the side of the TARDIS.
“Love to Tink, but it’s probably a good time to slip off.”
Tinker Bell fixed a stare at his back as he disappeared through the doors, then zoomed in after him to confront him inside.
The Doctor was already flipping switches when she asked, “Don’t like goodbyes much?”
He shrugged in reply at her and glanced away at the rotor as it began to rise and fall.
“Okay,” Tinker Bell said. “Well don’t think you’re dropping me off in Pixie Hollow and sneaking away without seeing the Queen.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Tink’s eyes narrowed. “And there will definitely be a festival in your honor. You have to stay for that too.”
The Doctor’s head rolled to one side. “You know, when all this began, well, I have a very important thing tomorrow.”
“Thing? What kind of thing?”
“Not sure exactly. Sort of mysterious. But a thing. A real thing. A definite thing. I mean, she told me to come back tomorrow.”
“Who did?”
“Clara.”
The TARDIS began to groan and wheeze, coming in for a landing.
“Well she can wait,” Tinker Bell said. “Pixie Hollow festivals are legendary, and we can’t have one without the guest of honor. And besides, you have a time machine and you can get to your date whenever you want.”
“It’s not a date,” the Doctor protested. “It’s a thing. I said a thing.”
“Great,” Tinker Bell said. “By rule dates are much more important than things. If it’s just a thing and not a date, it’s settled then.”
The Doctor’s jaw dropped. It was rare that he was so subtly outmaneuvered. Then he smiled, his childish charm and humor returning all at once.
“Two conditions.”
Tinker Bell flew around to meet him eye to eye. “Go on.”
“You said guest of honor. We have to be Co-Tinkers of Honor because I couldn’t have done any of this without you.”
“Well, sure,” Tink blushed. “And the second?”
“More Pixie Dust?” the Doctor raised his eyebrows. “Flying really is quite brilliant.”
“I’m sure that can be arranged,” Tinker Bell flew in a happy circle, then stopped suddenly to point a warning finger at the Doctor. “And you promise not to leave before the end of the festival like we did Sundrop Meadow. We work quick around here, I’m sure it’ll be tomorrow night. Afterward, I’ll meet you here at midnight to say… to say…”
“I promise,” the Doctor raised a hand.
The TARDIS doors hummed open in the ensuing silence.
“To say see you later,” Tinker Bell nodded once and flew out.
“See you later.”
The Doctor smiled, and realized suddenly that he had been doing much more of that since meeting Tinker Bell. “Always rather liked see you laters. So much hope. So much promise in those three little words.”
The Doctor’s hand had unconsciously moved back to the door control and he looked down at it in mild surprise, then at the other, patiently standing by to dematerialize.
“Fairies,” he said softly, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again he looked up and around the TARDIS with a wistful smile. “I did promise you a rest, didn’t I?” The Doctor nodded. “Well, you’ve certainly earned this one.”
“And you Tinker Bell, you promised me,” the Doctor looked around as if realizing he was alone for the first time. “Where’d she go?”
The Doctor strode toward the doors, his voice rising, “Tinker Bell! I distinctly remember you promising me-”
A wall of cheering fairies stopped him in his tracks at the TARDIS threshold. Though tiny, they could orchestrate tremendous noise when they set their minds to it; with horns blowing, animals calling, birds singing and insects chirping and zizzing and buzzing.
“Told you,” Tink said, gliding up to him while hundreds of colorful butterflies burst into the air behind her like fireworks. “Legendary.”
Surrendering himself to the frivolity of Pixie Hollow, the Doctor raised his hands and danced out among the celebrating fairies with a gleeful shout:
“I love legendary!”
A month after the return of the Second Star, Tinker Bell rose early and flew straight away to the last place she had seen the Doctor.
The fairies had erected a new garden where the TARDIS had appeared, and subsequently disappeared. The dedication of a new garden always meant a Pixie Hollow wide holiday for the fairies, and today was Dedication Day for The Doctor’s Landing.
After the Queen’s speech, the fairies filed inside through the TARDIS Gate, a trellis erected in facsimile of the TARDIS itself and covered in blue flowers. The trellis then wound itself out into a maze of many sitting areas and secret grottos, simulating the bigger on the inside secret of the TARDIS.
At the center was Ozzie’s Pool of Courage. A serene reflecting pond for visitors to peer into themselves and find the hope and bravery they needed to face whatever crisis they might be dealing with at the time, just as Ozzie did.
In the middle of the pond was a rock with the sculpted statue of a fairy standing steely eyed against an unseen danger.
Tinker Bell was quite proud of it. She had worked long hours with an illustrator to get it just right for the carvers, especially the face. And should the Doctor ever keep his promise to return for Dedication Day, or perhaps tour the garden at some other time on holiday, he will indeed recognize the face of impossibility on the statue of the fairy he never quite actually got to see- as one he’s seen before.
True as well this is, of her name as it appears on the plaque:
OSWIN of SUNDROP MEADOW.
-The End
Second Star to the Right is an UNOFFICIAL story created just for fun. Feel free to copy and circulate, but please remember to credit Trae Stratton as the author. Thank you!