Wing Care 101: Soggies are Worse for Wings than Froggies

TheCuriousSeed

Chapter 2 is on the move!

~"Another day, another opportunity to hone a new technique," said Mae as she tested out some new cleansers she prepared.

~Mae was one of the best Wing Cleansers in all of Neverland if not the best. She had just taken care of her toughest case yet: a blatantly failed waterproofing followed by eight victims of one grown zorilla and a multitude of other messes she'd seen before, but never to such a huge magnitude. Today, Mae was ready. She really enjoyed cleansing other fairies' wings, but couldn't cleanse her own with the tools she had, so she went to other Wing Cleansers for hers. Today was no exception.

~"Maaaaaaae!" sang Saffron. "Oxxy Oxxy almond free!"

~"Don't you mean 'olly olly oxen free', Saffron?" asked Elva.

~Ignoring that remark, Saffron and Elva came with Ginkgo, who had fallen into a bog and her wings were now very, very muddy and soggy. "Can you get all that muck out of Ginkgo's wings?" she asked.

~Mae had just the tool to help Ginkgo: a special Mud-B-Gone formula she and a few veteran Wing Cleansers came up with long ago. Ginkgo was finally going to be able to fly again! Mae scrubbed and cleansed until finally Ginkgo's wings were good as new. A happy customer was more than thanks enough for Mae, but almost everyone whose wings she cleaned before returned with a gift, tangible or intangible. Indeed Mae was greatly appreciated.

~The next day no one needed their wings cleansed, so Mae was consulting with a few other Wing Cleansers on the best way to cleanse wings. Whenever the Wing Cleansers had no customers, they oft discussed new cleaning techniques. All was going swimmingly there this day minus the customers.

~But things were less than at the swamp where Daylily, Elva, Holly, Jessie, Robin and Trinity were trying to chase down a frog.

~"Don't let her get away!" cried Holly.

~"But please be gentle!" called Daylily. "She just grew into a full-fledged frog!"

~Trinity was definitely the worst Animal Talent to consult when it came to amphibians, but Robin wasn't very good with insects that could sting or otherwise defend themselves, so when the frog saw a scorpion and caught him, Robin was relieved, but the frog didn't like the taste, so she sought better prey: smaller, non-poisonous, non-venomous insects. Upon the release of the scorpion, Daylily was relieved, then led the scorpion back to his nest. Scorpions didn't often obey Animal Talents, but they knew to obey Animal Scouts.

~"Is that big, scary scorpion gone?" asked Robin.

~"He's back with his nest far away from here," assured Daylily.

~"Daylily! Daylily!" called Saffron as she flew to the Animal Talents (well, technically jessie was a Tinker, but she was very good with animals too) and was about to land on that big, squishy surface.

~"I wouldn't land there," said Holly. "Those are tadpoles."

~Saffron decided to remain airborne. "Okay, I just heard word that another Fast Flyer needs her wings cleaned, but here's the ticker: she's a Wintry Fast Flyer."

~"Not Fauna!" cried Robin.

~"Oh, yeah, and get this: a Wintry Water Talent named Snowbelle tried to help said Wintry Fast Flyer out of a muddy predicament, but to reach a Wing Cleanser, they had to fly into the Warm Seasons, risking their wings melting and breaking."

~"Don't they know they have to first ice their wings?" asked Trinity, pointing to hers. "Both Silver Winterjewels that we know always know to do that beforehand, not that you can tell from sight or touch, but still."

~"Also, since when did you start gossiping?" asked Elva.

~"Ask the Babbling Brook," said Saffron. "It told Onyx, who told Lavender, who wasn't much help because she refused to tell me, so I had to find out from Onyx, only to realise she wasn't telling anyone else since Lavender can't speak as well as most anyone else, so I convinced five Water Talents to translate the Babbling Brook's words to English so I could understand, then I came here with said news. By the by, that was only once and we have to rescue Snowbelle and Fauna while their wings are still intact."

~"Let's go!" cried Jessie.

~Off the girls flew.

~Saffron was indeed telling the truth as Snowbelle and Fauna were wings-in-muck.

~"Help!" cried Fauna.

~"Our wings!" cried Snowbelle.

~"Say no more," said Daylily. "On three, three to a Winter Fairy, one Scout per and Saffron leads the convoy. One... two... three."

~As the seven Warm Fairies worked to carry Snowbelle and Fauna, something didn't feel or sound right.

~"Oh no, my wings!" cried Fauna. "They're warming up!"

~"Mine too!" cried Snowbelle.

~"On second thought, Saffron, get Hickory," said Daylily.

~Saffron flew as fast as her wings could carry her.

~"Sorry, Saffron, you'll have to settle for a Water Scout," said Hickory, thumbing Heidi while her wings were getting cleansed. "Some can make ice too."

~"Lead the way!" said Heidi, her wings completely dry and now clean.

~Back at the scene of the mishap, the two Winter Fairies were warming up fast.

~"Where's Hickory?" asked Holly.

~"Wing cleansing," answered Saffron. "But at least Heidi can freeze water too."

~"Stan back, everyone," said Heidi as she scanned for a safe spot... how about... yes, that barren clearing of dirt would work. "No really, stand way back." Heidi then took a deep breath and tried to form ice with her powerful lungs, but she formed a huge gust of wind instead. She would have to touch the water first, so she bent a little water out of the bog and concentrated on freezing it to slush, then applied the slush to Snowbelle and Fauna's wings before freezing them to ice. "That better?" she asked.

~"A little," said Snowbelle.

~Heidi scooped up more bog water and, after freezing it to slush, wrapped it around Snowbelle and Fauna before freezing it to ice too. "Wish I had cleaner water to work with, but this'll have to do until we can get you cleaned up."

~Off to Mae's Wing Care.

~Once Heidi removed the ice from Fauna and Snowbelle, Mae immediately readied her brand new cleansing formula, one that would cleanse Winter wings without harming them irreparably. She only had minutes to ensure Fauna and Snowbelle's safety. She'd only just finished it and had Hickory be the first to test out said formula; it was ready for a real Winter Fairy test run and...

~Please let this work, Mae pled in her head.

~In an instant Snowbelle and Fauna stopped overheating and sweating and were once again comfortably cold. The new formula worked! Now whenever a Winter Fairy was in trouble, all they had to do was visit Mae or Hickory as they both had the recipe for the Winter Cleanser. As for the bog, there were still a few mishaps here and there where wings got mucky, but it was still surmountable by Mae.

~Two days later Daylily came by to thank Mae and Hickory, who was scrubbing Mae's wings with the Winter Cleanser. Daylily gave them each a handmade-by-her necklace made from an acorn and bits of grass shined up with the soft sheen of frog eggshells. Mae had already scrubbed Hickory's wings with the Winter Cleanser again today and now as thanks, Daylily got the same scrub. She had work in the Winter Woods, ergo the warm clothing. Apparently the Winter Cleanser also kept Warm wings warm too, but though it lasted longer, it was still not as strong as frosted wings.

~"C'mon, the Winter Woods await!" called the taller Silver.

~"Coming!" called Daylily. "Time for us to go."

~Seeing an even slower Wing Care day on the horizon in the Warm Realms, Mae took her special cleanser with her and she, Hickory, Daylily and the taller Silver set about to the Winter Woods.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!