Tinkerbell x Vidia ch3

Perhaps the most unsettling thing one can wake up to is the smell of something burning, accompanied by the crashing of thousands of leaves and twigs just outside of the gourd you forgot you fell asleep in. Tinkerbell didn’t sleep often, but when she did, few things could wake her. Luckily, a fire will wake just about anybody.

Tink blinked open her eyes, only for them to be stung with smoke. She went to rub them, and immediately regretted it.

“Vidia?” she called, and looked around. The smoke seemed to be spewing from the kitchen, where the oven was now glowing a blazing orange. Tink gasped and leapt to her feet. “Vidia!” she shouted again, and grabbed the washing basin.

Outside, Vidia hurled another gust of wind over the ground, shoving the leaves into the massive pile growing beside the base of a weeping willow. She’d have to figure out what to do with the leaves later. They would certainly get in the way of other renovations.

Just then, high pitched squeals came from below. “Is that the rat?” she muttered, and glanced down. Indeed, it was Cheese trying to get her attention, and it didn’t take long for Vidia to see why.

“Oh no, the pasta!” She darted into the smoke, shoving wind into the space to clear it. As soon as she did, more smoke spilled from the windows and chimney. Vidia opened the door and flew in. “Tink?” she coughed, and made another breeze to push the smoke out the windows. In the kitchen, Tinkerbell soaked another towel in the basin and shoved it into the oven, which still poured smoke from every crevice.

“Vidia!” Tink dumped the rest of the basin into the oven, causing another black cloud to billow behind her. She flew over to Vidia with hands on her hips. “Vidia, what were you trying to do, burn the place down? You could have destroyed all my lost things!”

“I know, I know, it was- wait- you’re worried about your lost things?”

“Well of course!” Tinkerbell was already beginning to redden, “I’ll have to build something to help clean up the Burnt Grove, and I’ll need all my tools to-”

“I could have killed you, and you’re worried about your tinker junk?”

“Junk?” Tinkerbell fluttered closer, her fists clenching at her sides. “I’m trying to help you renovate this place, and all you can do is burn the place down and call my tools junk?”

Vidia crossed her arms. “First of all, I don’t need your help. If anything, you’ll just slow me down.”

“Excuse me?”

“Second of all, I was not trying to burn the place down. I was making pasta.”

“In the oven?”

Vidia frowned, “Well how do you do it?”

Tinkerbell returned to the fuming oven, yanked open the door, and used a towel to remove the dish from inside. It appeared to be filled with thin brittle sticks of charcoal. “You just threw it in the oven without any water?”

“Well why don’t you do it then, if you’re so smart?”

“Because I need to make a machine to help you!”

“I don’t need your help! And how am I supposed to know how to cook? I’m a fast flying fairy!”

“Well how should I know how to cook, I’m a fast flying fairy!”

Tink threw the dish to the floor, where it clattered. “You’re about to be a dead fairy!” she yelled, and dove toward Vidia, who almost escaped.

“Tink, get off me!” she shouted, and pushed her off just as she tried to scratch her face. “This isn’t helping anything!”

Tink stumbled backwards through the air and blinked as the smoke stung her eyes. “I tried to make this work, okay? I did! I tried to be excited, and friendly, and I hoped that we could just focus on the mission and get home. But we’re not even a day in and you’re already making it a nightmare!”

“Tink calm down already! I made a cooking mistake, that’s all!”

“A mistake that almost cost us everything!”

Vidia seethed, but forced herself to take a deep breath. “Fine. If you do the cooking, I’ll do the renovating. If you stay out of my way, we’ll be done in no time.” she turned to leave.

“You lousy twig! I can help, you know I can! You’re just too stuck up to see it!”

Vidia looked at her and forced a smile. “Of course you can help, Tink. You can help by cooking, and staying inside to work on your little doo-hickies.Just so long as you stay out of my way.”

“Wait-” But Tink spoke too late. Vidia had already darted out the door and back into the yard, leaving Tink to clean up the mess.

Vidia spent the rest of the day moving the leaves into piles, and clearing as much ground as possible. She wasn’t sure she liked the Burnt Grove- something still felt off about it. In the corner of her eye, shadows danced and mocked her, only to disappear the moment she looked directly at them. Occasionally the wind would blow in such a way that made the branches of trees sound like they were laughing. There were no animals in sight. Not even a grasshopper.

It was eerie, and cold, but it was much better than being inside, surrounded by Tink’s trinkets and her guilt-tripping. Surely, even Tink knew better than to try and help with one of her disaster-bound machines.

Darkness had fallen by the time Vidia returned to the gourd. Her hopes of Tinkerbell going to bed already were dashed as soon as she walked in.

“There you are!” said Tink. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, pouring over a leaf she used to draw sketches of blueprints. Spare parts were scattered everywhere, placed dangerously between half-burnt candles. “Muffins are on the table.” she nodded to the kitchen.

Vidia grabbed one and shoved past the curtain separating her nook from Tink’s. The patchwork fabric now had a hole burnt into the corner. Whether this was from the fire that morning, or one of Tink’s candles, she didn’t know, and couldn’t bring herself to care. Her limbs ached and hung loosely as she threw herself onto the hammock. It may have been unwise to push herself so hard on the first day, but Vidia considered it well worth the effort. She’d take a break tomorrow. Maybe try to build her own shelter to stay in so she wouldn’t have to listen to Tink’s muttering all night.

On the other side of the curtain, Tink tapped the charcoal to her lip in thought. The leaf bag would take quite a bit of effort to sew together, and she wasn’t sure Vidia would be too eager to help. How long would it take her to make it alone? She crumpled the leaf and tossed it in the vague direction of the waste bin, along with many others. What would they do with all the leaves? They took up far too much space as it was, even in the piles Vidia had made with them.

What else did Queen Clarion want them to do? Dig holes? She could do that. She had a shovel. But that could take weeks. She started sketching again.

And promptly crumpled the drawing.