A Tale That Could Not Be

Tinkerbelle opened the throne room’s great double doors and led the others inside. Selvina found herself inside a circular room with many benches, all of them empty, along the curving walls and two elevated thrones directly in front of her. Beside the thrones were two slightly shorter ones where she assumed Thumbelina and Cornelius sat. Chandeliers that resembled upside down lilies hung from the ceiling and magnificent paintings filled any empty space on the room’s walls.

Sitting upon the throne on Selvina’s left was a male fairy with a wispy beard, a stern visage, large, if slightly tattered, dragonfly-like wings, and a head of long white hair. Sprouting from his forehead were impressive antlers and nestled between them was his crown. On Selvina’s right was a female fairy with long, dark blue hair, luminescent eyes, an elegant and attractive figure, and a gentle smile on her full lips. She bore a thin silver crown on her forehead and no antlers. Her wings resembled those of a butterfly and were brilliantly adorned with many different colours and designs.

The queen spoke first. “My dear princess, I am pleased to know that you are well. My son was rather concerned with your sudden disappearance.”

Tinkerbelle took a step forward and bowed low. “It is my doing, Queen Titania. I was on my way to partake in an evening patrol and Princess Thumbelina asked if she could accompany me. If my decision to take her with me displeases you, I will take whatever punishment you see fit.”

“Now, Tinkerbelle,” Queen Titania said warmly, “you need not worry about our displeasure. Thumbelina is a grown woman and can make her own decisions.”

“She could have at least told someone,” the king fairy growled grumpily. “It’s not too difficult to do that.”

Thumbelina bowed at the sovereign. “I agree, King Oberon, I should have said something to someone. Forgive me. It shall not happen again.”

“It better not…”

“Father!” Cornelius shouted with a frown.

“Son!” Oberon shouted back, his eyes bulging.

“Please,” the queen gently cooed. “There is no need for raised voices.” She then looked down at Selvina and the blonde girl gulped, the fairy’s gaze keeping her petrified in place. “Who do you bring before us here?”

Thumbelina stepped forward and gestured to the nervous young woman at her side. “This is Selvina, my king and queen. She has lost her way and I thought it only decent of us to help her find it again. You need not take any effort in it if you do not wish to as Tinkerbelle and I will take the matters in our hands.”

“Where are her wings?” King Oberon snarled, his back going straight and his eyes flaring. “I see no wings on her!”

“She is human, father,” Prince Cornelius said bluntly, taking position in front of Selvina protectively.

King Oberon said nothing for a few moments, his eyes bulging and his body vibrating. His face grew several shades of red darker before he jumped to his feet and screamed, “SHE IS WHAT?!”

“Human!” Cornelius screamed back at him. “She means us no harm!”

“Get her out of my sight!” King Oberon shouted, pointing at the throne room’s doors.

“Father, she is not—”

“GET HER OUT OF HERE NOW!”

Thumbelina and Tinkerbelle glanced at Selvina worriedly. Matters did not appear rather hopeful. Selvina, however, was not going to go down with a fight. He might be the king of all fairies but she had a right to do whatever she could to save herself, even if it meant standing up him.

“Your highness,” she said, fighting the urge to run as the fearsome face of the King of the Fairies stared down at her. “I truly mean no harm. I am here purely by accident and will leave your people be as soon as I am returned to my proper size.”

“So you can come and destroy what is left of us!

“NO! I would never do that!”

“Then you will send others of your kind here. I have seen it before.”

“No, please, King Oberon, listen to me. I don’t want any harm to come to any fairies or their homes. I will leave in peace, I promise you.”

“A promise from a human is worthless.”

Thumbelina stepped forward a bit more, standing at Selvina’s side, and looked up at her father-in-law with a deep frown. “I had no wings when I was brought before you, my king. I was more human than fairy and yet you chose to trust me and have I ever brought any harm to you, this kingdom, or any fairy for that matter?”

King Oberon glanced aside for a moment and grumbled. “No, you did not. She is not you, however.”

“I know, but I trust her. Tinkerbelle trusts her too. If you can’t trust her then trust us.”

King Oberon calmed somewhat and took a deep breath. “There is too much at stake, my dear. It may already be too late. She knows where our kingdom is now and that puts us at risk. There are also reports that Peter Pan has returned to Wonderland and if she were to speak to him about us…”

Despite her better judgement, Selvina said, “Peter Pan is the reason that I am here.”

Tinkerbelle slapped her palm against her forehead and Thumbelina sighed and shook her head as Cornelius, Oberon, and Titania stared at her wide-eyed. A long moment of silence ensued and Selvina could hear her own heart beating, loud and fast as it was. Before the situation exploded into one of chaos, she added, “He kidnapped me and several of my friends. He was taking us to the castle to offer us to the queen. I was separated, along with one of my friends, and I ingested a mushroom that turned me to this size. Believe me when I say that I despise Peter Pan as much as you do. I would never, and I repeat, I would NEVER tell him where your kingdom is.”

King Oberon composed himself, gulped, and shook his head. “It matters not, Selvina. If he truly wished it, he would torture you until you told him. Pan only comes to Wonderland when he is in need of more fairy dust and nothing in this world or the world above can prevent him from seeking us out. He will stop at nothing to find our kingdom and if he ever discovers that you were here then he will pry our location out of you. That, I have no doubt.”

“I’d never tell him!”

“You say that now but he would find a way for you to talk. You say he has your friends captive? If so, then he would torture them before your eyes until you told him what he wanted to know. If you kept resisting he would kill them one by one. There is no stopping him when he has his path set.”

Considering how often Pan had cheated death and managed to win battles against Hook, Sinbad, Tarzan, and a monstrous gorilla Selvina couldn’t deny what the king was saying. He appeared unstoppable and perhaps even invincible. If he could not be killed then there was nothing to prevent him from searching for Celustaria until it was eventually found. Selvina considered that for a moment before saying, “You say that Pan only comes to Wonderland for more fairy dust which means that it doesn’t matter if he knows I was here or not because he’ll be searching for you anyway. You just told me that nothing will stop him so you could kill me now and he will still find you. Setting me free or ending my life does not save you in the end.”

King Oberon didn’t appear to like her tone and chewed on his lip as his fingers drummed on the armrests of his throne. He glanced to his wife and she nodded back. She would do the talking from now, it appeared.

“I understand what you are saying, Selvina,” Queen Titania said in her gentle, soft, and patient tone. “Without the knowledge of where we are Pan will take an extended amount of time before finding us. If he pries the information out of you then our time is cut even shorter. We, as a people, desire to live for as long as possible. We already know that our time here is nearly at an end but would you not have us enjoy every minute left to us?”

Selvina frowned, surprised at what she was hearing. “So you guys are just going to let it happen then? You’ll kill me or imprison me or whatever and just let Pan find you? As queen and king it is your duty to defend your people!”

“Do not presume to understand the duties of royalty!” King Oberon growled, jabbing a rigid finger in Selvina’s direction. “Who are you to consider yourself higher than sovereign lords?”

“I am Selvina Whitier and I am not a coward! I get scared and I scream when I do too but that doesn’t make me a coward. Sitting your asses down on a chair while the cause of your doom is slowly getting closer and doing nothing about it definitely makes you one! Why not stand against Peter Pan?”

“Do you not think we tried that already?” King Oberon shouted, slamming a fist on his throne. “We sent our finest warriors against him and they were wiped out. Ask Tinkerbelle about our last attempt.”

Selvina glanced at the blonde fairy and she sighed sadly, looking away and hugging herself. Shifting her eyes back to the king and queen, Selvina asked, “What happened?”

Queen Titania responded. “We sent our finest champions against Pan when he was last in Wonderland. Tinkerbelle had three sisters, her fiancée, as well as a dozen other fine and brave fairy warriors with her. Pan killed them all, ripped Tinkerbelle’s wings off, and nearly killed her as well until she managed to hide inside an abandoned snail shell. Her wings have since healed and regrown but the wound in her heart and soul will never close. Pan suffered not a single injury in the attack. He found one of the last fairy kingdoms and captured half of its population as the other half fled here to ours. Do you know what he does to captured fairies?”

Selvina dreaded to know but she shook her head anyways. “I do not…”

“He eats them. He shakes them and strips them of all their fairy dust, as much as he can gather, and then to ensure that he misses none he then eats them whole. You can thank Tinkerbelle for this information as she saw it all happen on her way to our kingdom. The fairy dust allows him to keep flying and is what we assume gives him near invulnerability.”

Selvina was sick to her stomach but not as much as she would have thought. The fact that Peter Pan killed and then ate fairies didn’t surprise her to any extent. After witnessing him lick a dead door mouse from his boot there was little that monster could do to surprise her. She took a deep breath, steeled herself, and gave Queen Titania a firm gaze. “It’s all the more reason to finally kill him.”

“Have you not been listening?” King Oberon asked angrily. “We have tried and failed. There is nothing left for us to do.”

“There is always something you can do!”

“Pray tell me, human, what can we do to save our people?”

“Take a moment to think about it, your highnesses. Pan has returned to Wonderland for fairy dust, which means that he has run out and is at his limits of his abilities. I saw him bleed on his way here and though he remains impossibly agile I think he is starting to slow down. He is walking on his feet more often than usual and that could also mean that his ability to fly is waning. If there is ever a time to strike then it is now.”

“We attacked him on his last search for us which would suggest that he was as weak then as he is now and we still failed, Selvina Whitier.”

“You did that alone, though. I can bring allies. I can bring Captain Hook.”

At the mention of the pirate’s name King Oberon and Queen Titania exchanged a startled glance. King Oberon then rubbed his beard thoughtfully and pondered for a few moments. “I have never set eyes on this Captain Hook but he is known, even to us. It is said that he bears the greatest amount of hatred against Pan, which is saying much considering all the lives that fiend has affected. Do you believe that this Hook can truly kill Pan?”

“He has sworn his life to doing so. He has allies of his own and I know that if I can get back to him and bring him here to Wonderland that he will seek out Pan and end him.”

“It might be too late by then.”

“It might be but it’s our only chance. You’re just sitting here waiting for him to find you anyway.”

King Oberon frowned at her last remark but said nothing to it. “All you ask of us is to return you to your normal size? That is all you want from us?”

“That is all I need, your highness. Once I am my proper size I can find my way through this forest and set this plan in motion.”

“Do you know your way through these woods?” Queen Titania asked.

Crap. “I…I lost my guide, actually…”

“I’ll take her through,” Tinkerbelle said, standing straight with a look of utter determination on her face. “If guiding her through the forest can give our people a chance at being rid of Peter Pan then I will be more than willing to take that chance.”

Queen Titania nodded and smiled. “Very well, it shall be so.”

“It is quite dangerous at night, however,” Princess Thumbelina spoke. “Surely Selvina can leave in the morning when it is safer?”

King Oberon nodded. “I see no trouble with that. It also allows us to keep a close eye on her. Your plan gives us hope, Selvina, but that does not mean that we trust you to fulfill it. Giving a doomed people false hope is the greatest torture you can inflict. We fairies may not be able to kill Pan but I promise you that we can definitely kill you.”

“Father!” Prince Cornelius barked. “Why must you be so abrasive?”

The King ignored his son’s question and looked away.

Thumbelina placed a hand on Selvina’s shoulder and gave her a comforting smile. “Before you go to rest allow me to personally take you to the Midnight Pool. A visit to Celustaria is never complete without doing so.”

Queen Titania stood up from her throne and eyed Selvina and Thumbelina. “I shall join you. I wish to soak my feet in its cool waters and I would dearly love to know more about our cherished guest.”

Selvina nodded and smiled. Perhaps being the size of a thumb wasn’t so bad after all. She waited for Queen Titania to approach and then she, Thumbelina, Cornelius and Tinkerbelle walked out of the throne room as King Oberon watched from his seat, deep in thought.