Sisters of the Wilderness Interlude the First: Replenishing

TheCuriousSeed

I don't normally do interludes, but I thought this would fit in the tale.



Kyra and the New Healer

~Meanwhile, Kyra, having been taken to the Sick Bay by Magnolia, was resting. She had a very rare illness that was worse than fairy distemper, fairy flu, fairy pox, hazy glows and fluttering flight combined. Not even the other Healers, even Elixa the Animal Healer, could handle Kyra because even though some of said Healers had seen this before, many newer ones hadn't, ergo Kyra had to rest in the Sick Bay alone. Fortunately a new Healer, or rather, Healing Cook, named Larissa Joyvision, had never become sick at all, even when dealing with the worse contagions. Even though she would've failed the Scouting tests if there were such tests, she was a very strong Healer to the point her cooked creations were made delicious and nutritious no matter what she used. There was just one problem...

~"P-p-p-pleas-s-sed t-t-to m-m-m-meet y-y-you," Larissa stuttered.

~Okay, two: 1. she could barely say a syllable without stuttering or stammering and 2. except for Belief Talents, what fairy introduced herself with a greeting that formal by human standards anymore?

~"M-m-m-my n-n-n-n-na-a-ame i-i-i-is L-l-l-lar-r-ri-i-is-s-s-sa J-j-j-joyv-v-vi-is-s-sio-o-on."

~A Healer with that bad a stutter? Kyra thought. I must be sicker than I thought.

~But since any other Healer would've caught whatever Kyra had that was so serious, Larissa was her best option. Larissa already knew what to do and she already knew not even Onyx could prepare a soup that could cure Kyra's serious illness or even diagnose it... it was an illness Larissa couldn't pronounce in fewer than ten seconds given how bad her stammers and stutters were, but she knew how to fix Onyx's so called cure.

~"I-i-i-i-i w-w-w-wi-i-i-ill-l-l-l r-r-r-re-e-e-et-t-t-tur-r-r-rn-n-n s-s-sh-sh-sho-o-o-or-or-rt-t-t-t-tl-l-l-ly," Larissa stuttered before taking that batch of soup Onyx fixed for Kyra (but not what was in Kyra's container because, germs) to her kitchen.

~Larissa often preferred to hum or vocalise in vowels and closed-mouth consonants only as opposed to singing because of her speech issues, but she had a lovely music voice. As she fixed Onyx's special Get Well Soup, she hummed many happy fairy songs and even a few happy human songs too, the names of which strictly confidential. Larissa had just put the finishing touches on Onyx's soup when...

~"Larissa, what're you doing?" asked Labyrinth, who came by with her brother Quarry.

~"I-i-i-i'm-m-m-m f-f-f-fi-i-i-ix-ix-ixi-i-in-n-ng a-a-a-a G-g-g-ge-e-et W-w-w-we-e-e-el-l-ll S-s-s-so-ou-u-up," answered Larissa. "K-k-k-ky-y-y-yr-r-r-ra-a-a i-i-is-s-s v-v-ve-e-er-r-r-ry s-s-s-si-i-i-ic-ck-k-k."

~"She really needs to see a Healer about that stutter," said Quarry.

~Ignoring that comment, Larissa, once she spotted Ginkgo approaching her kitchen, asked Ginkgo to join her at the Sick Bay since Larissa herself couldn't fly there nearly as fast.

~"What?" asked Ginkgo, whose ears weren't that keen.

~Larissa then tried speaking slower, but that made her stuttering even worse, so she decided to try signing or gesturing, but Ginkgo still wasn't sure of the message.

~"Oh, for the love of..." said Labyrinth, pulling out a pencil and pad and writing down what Larissa needed Ginkgo to do.

~"Oh, you want the soup delivered very quickly to the Sick Bay, but I can't actually go in the Sick Bay lest I get sick too," Ginkgo voiced. "On account of Kyra being super sick with a rare illness."

~Larissa nodded, then it was time to deliver the soup. Ginkgo took the soup in arms while Larissa hung onto Gingko's ankles and off they went.

~It took very little time to reach the Sick Bay entrance, but once Ginkgo handed Larissa the soup, Larissa flew into the Sick Bay and fed the soup to Kyra, who started feeling better already from just one spoon. Spoon after spoon was given until Kyra was good and cured, but Kyra still needed to rest for a few more days in the Sick Bay. No way she was going on any more adventures until completely cured.

~Mission accomplished, Larissa thought, washing up and returning to her kitchen to work on her craft.

Drained!

~"I need more Pixie Dust," panted Primrose, who was too drained even to walk let alone fly. She opened her pouch to look for some sweets filled with Pixie Dust, but... "Empty?! Even my honey-flavoured acorn crisps and acorn biscuits?! But I fixed, like, at least a few hundred of each sweet and only ate one sweet, a maxout sweet!"

~"Our sweets are gone too!" exclaimed Heather as she, Strawberry and Crystal checked their sweet treat inventories.

~"And where are Labyrinth, Ginkgo and Foxglove?!" exclaimed Crystal. "They said they were getting more cupcakes!"

~"And the fact that we each only ate one sweet, said sweet a maxout, yet lost all our sweets shortly after is beyond plausibility!" exclaimed Strawberry. "Who in Neverland could've stolen our sweets?!"

~Their answer came in the form of a very skinny girl clad in pink and very, very fast at flight and running, but also very voracious of appetite. Her name was Cypress Starspark and she had the largest appetite in all of Pixie Hollow. In fact, she was almost always hungry thanks to her almost hummingbird-like metabolism and she had to eat at least a third her weight a meal lest she starved! She still had plenty of Pixie Dust left, but she was too hungry just to stick to her own sweets, which she ate first.

~"Oh, great," said Primrose upon seeing Cypress zip and zoom by. "The Bottomless Belly strikes again."

~"I have four new raspberry cupcakes!" Cypress exclaimed.

~"Where are they?" asked Primrose.

~Cypress, hungry as she was, ate the cupcakes and all the girls in the Wilderness at the time got their Pixie Dust back, but...

~"Only sixty smidges each?!" exclaimed Primrose. "That should've given 480!"

~"Well, excuse me for having such a fast metabolism I could only spare 1/8 the Pixie Dust per fairy except she what ate the cupcakes!" exclaimed Cypress. "But at least I'm not starving anymore."

~"Anyone have a fifth cupcake?" asked Foxglove as she, Lenora (who had only cookies, no cupcakes), Labyrinth, Quarry and Ginkgo returned. "We're almost out of Pixie Dust."

~Quarry conjured up one sunflower cupcake per fairy and sparrowman, then he ate his, but his magic cupcakes only replenished four smidges per cupcake consumed (except when Cypress ate hers, that one replenished only one smidge.) Altogether, only 37 more smidges were replenished.

~"At least we each got 97 smidges back," said Primrose.

~Labyrinth conjured one blueberry, Neverberry, raspberry, honey and sunflower cake per fairy and sparrowman, replenishing fifteen smidges per cupcake eaten except Cypress, who replenished only three. Altogether an additional 138 smidges were regained, making a grand total of 235 smidges of dust each.

~"We're back in business!" exclaimed Primrose. "Let's do this!"

~The nine fairies and one sparrowman continued on their adventures in the Wilderness and once challenges complete, it was all worth the hunger and draining and waiting, plus having two Magicians on the team that could make emergency cupcakes was well worth the hassle!

Hope you enjoyed this interlude.