Dreams of Stars (A Once Upon a Time/Jiminy Cricket fanfic)

Dreams of Stars Part 26

Early in the morning, after Kaelin's last night at Geppetto's workshop, the Blue Fairy came to take her away. She said a long goodbye to Jiminy and Geppetto and a short one to Pinocchio, who she hadn't known very long. Then the Blue Fairy took some fairy dust and sprinkled it on Kaelin's paws. As soon as the dust hit Kaelin's paws, she started floating up in the air. She squeaked in alarm.

"Don't worry," the Blue Fairy said with a tinkling laugh, "You'll be able to control it if you try. This is what you need to come to the fairies' realm with me."

Kaelin concentrated and found that, by moving her paws as though she was running on the ground, she could scurry through the air in the same way. It felt weird. She giggled with excitement. "Look at me, Jiminy!" she called, "I can fly too now!"

Jiminy fluttered up to her level and hovered there. "So you can," he observed.

"I bet I can go faster than you," Kaelin teased.

"It's time to go," the Blue Fairy interrupted, "That spell will wear off after a time, and we should get to the fairies' realm before it does."

Reluctantly, Kaelin took her leave of them and followed the fairy up into the sky. They climbed higher and higher until the air began to grow cold, and they neared the clouds. Her little heart racing in amazement, Kaelin looked down at the landscape beneath her. Yes, there was Geppetto's little seaside village. The glinting, blue-gray sea reached all the way to the horizon on one side of the village. On the other side, there were trees, and beyond that, fields. Silvery olive trees grew in rows on a hillside, and there were also fields of grapevines and golden wheat.

Kaelin remembered that Sofia had come from one of the little farmhouses outside the village. She had grown up combing the olives off their branches in the autumn. Once every year, she had taken Geppetto, Kaelin, and Jiminy out to the olive groves so they could see the olives being harvested and ground up to make oil. Despite the tension still between Geppetto and Jiminy back then, those were happy memories.

"Kaelin, wake up!" came an exasperated sigh from the Blue Fairy. Kaelin shook herself back to reality and followed her farther into the sky. Finally, they popped right through the fluffy, silver clouds and came out on the other side. Kaelin shivered a bit as the cool dampness of the clouds clung to her fur. It was like going through a heavy fog or a very light drizzle.

Above the clouds was like a whole new land. Kaelin gazed around in wonder at the cloudscape, all white and gray and soft and shining—and with so much variety! She wanted to go explore every fluffy little nook and cranny in this kingdom of the sky. Yet she had business to do, and the Blue Fairy wasn't going to wait for her to look around. Kaelin scampered to catch up.

After a while, Kaelin caught sight of a flash of pink in the clouds. "There she is," the Blue Fairy muttered. As they drew closer, she called, "Nova!"

The pink fairy started, then raced toward them through the air. "Yes, Blue Fairy?" she said breathlessly, scooting to a halt in front of them.

"Will you take over with Kaelin for me?" the Blue Fairy requested.

"Yes, Blue Fairy," the pink fairy repeated. She turned and waved at Kaelin even though they were hardly a foot apart. "Hi, Kaelin," she said, as the Blue Fairy glided away, "I'm Nova."

"Have we met before?" Kaelin asked curiously, because Nova seemed familiar, and she thought she recognized the name too.

"Well, I—I've seen you a lot, but I don't know if you've ever seen me," Nova began uncertainly.