Where Have All our Buddies Gone?

TheCuriousSeed

This is loosely based on what I saw in the most recently updated Hollow.

~One day when Daylily was getting ready to take on the day, she noticed something... or rather, someone, missing. She looked and looked, but her beloved firefly Gingerbright was nowhere to be seen!

~Where could she have gone? Daylily wondered to herself.

~Daylily looked all over the Hollow, but not only was her dear orange and golden firely gone, so were many other Animal Friends! Although Daylily was a Scout, she was one of the few with a strong connexion to animals, so strong in fact that she, like Beck, could even converse in Hawk or Eagle perfectly. After a little while, Daylily just felt like giving up and crying.

~"Why so sad?" asked Silver, a Winter Talent.

~"I lost my firefly Gingerbright," Daylily answered sadly. "She was very small, but quite strong and would train with me every morning except when either of us was too sick to work."

~"I've never had an Animal Friend, but I heard we now had pollywogs available. Still, I'm not sure what pollywogs eat, but I don't think they like the same fare we fairies can eat."

~But Daylily knew what pollywogs ate when they grew up and that reminded her of Gingerbright, who could've been eaten by a frog because frogs were insectivores, a fact that made Daylily even sadder.

~"Don't worry, we'll find her," Silver assured Daylily. "We can definitely eliminate the Winter Woods because fireflies can't stand the cold like I can. Try the warmer areas, namely summer."

~Daylily agreed to look there.



~Two hours of searching later Daylily was no closer to finding answers or her beloved friend Gingerbright and what was worse, when she tried visiting Beck's Animal Nursery, it was...

~Closed?! thought Daylily.

~Daylily kept searching and searching, but though Gingerbright couldn't be found, she did find Ginkgo, who to had lost her firefly Violet Beacon. Violet Beacon was specially skilled to help deaf fairies like Ginkgo navigate where sound proved a failure and she had violet colours about her, hence her name.

~"I can't find my Violet!" cried Ginkgo. "She's usually much faster to answer when I call and I can't see her from here either!"

~Even though Daylily had keen senses, her strongest was clearly empathy of animals, and she could feel her heart rate increasing rapidly. "We'll look together," Daylily told Ginkgo.

~"You'll have to repeat that in Sign Language because I still can't hear too well."

~But Daylily's sign language was rusty beyond the alphabet, so she simply spelt out her reply in Sign Language. The two then went to search for their respective fireflies.



~"NOOOOO!" cried Gardenia when her pollywog Jordy slipped away from her and darted. "First your pollywog and now mine?!"

~"Where are they going?!" cried Holly, who was much taller than Gardenia let alone Ginkgo, but not as tall as Daylily.

~"Same place as my dragonfly Blueblitz, I think," answered Hickory.

~"My hummingbird Glaucia's gone too!" cried another Silver, this one much shorter than the first Silver, but still pretty tall for a fairy.

~"Francesca would never do this!" cried Holly. "She's always been by my side!"

~"And my bee Lilacsong flew the coop too!" cried Strawberry. "This is getting too real."

~"I'll say!" said Daylily. "We have to find out where our Animal Buddies have gone!"

~Off to search went the seven fairies for their respective friends.



~Even though Holly was an Animal Talent, she could only speak the Chordate Languages well, so Daylily had to ask all the other animals for help. Every single animal sounded concerned because Beck had gone missing too... again. Some other shopkeepers were missing too, like Colette or Trinket or Neville. Soon it was apparent that the Animal Buddies were missing because they were all called away to missions almost no one else knew of, not even the rest of the Animal Kingdom.

~It's official, thought Daylily sadly. We don't know if they'll ever come back.

~The much taller Silver returned, antennae flapping in the wind as she landed. "They could," she assured everyone. "They really could. In the meantime, don't feel sad for the loss; feel glad for the memories."

~Everyone fondly remembered their respective animal friends, then Daylily started crying. It's oft assumed that Water Fairies were the weepiest, but Daylily was indeed much more emotional than even the average Water Fairy and she was a Scout! Daylily hugged all her friends and everyone shared an emotional group hug before Daylily took up seventeen fallen petalkerchiefs and dried her eyes and runny nose with one. She was still a little sad, but she now had hope too.

I hope you enjoyed this tale.