Hey guys! Here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoy!

Berkley Beetle was not in a good mood. He was cold, and tired, and his wings were being held hostage by a toad. And now, he had to go capture the fairy princes. On foot. Now normally such a feat would be impossible; after all, fairies were some of the fastest fliers around, and each of them was backed by the protection of the Fairy Court. Such a thing made it nearly impossible to attack or capture a fairy and get away with it.

But now it was winter. The fairies would be hiding in their little Vale, safe inside their flowers, and so the threat of the Court was weakened. Of course, rather than being directly in the Vale, the princes were apparently out somewhere in the woods. Alone, and without any protection; for although the princes were known for their aptitude with the sword, Berkley had all his beetle henchmen to back him up. All of this, creating the perfect situation for them to capture the princes.

Now if only he actually had his wings!

"See now; now he takes my wings away, now I have to walk to find the princes." Behind him, two of his men notice a dark shape underneath the ice of the pond they were walking by.

"See, if he let me keep my wings, I could fly after the princes, and bring them back in two seconds!" As Berkley complained, Bradley, one of the beetles with him, used his arm to clear some of the snow residue off the ice, making it clearer. Seeing Cornelius and Chrysanthos' faces staring back at him, he turned excitedly to his boss.

"Hey Beetle! These guys are the princes!"

"The princes?...Ah! THE PRINCES!" He cried gleefully, as his beetles began cutting the frozen fairies out. What luck! Now he could get these two back to that stupid toad, get his wings back, and then huddle up somewhere warm with a glass of nectar mead.

"Somebody up there loves me! The princes-" Hopping up onto the cube of ice that his beetles had lugged up from the lake, he began directing them.

"Okay, okay, you pick them up. Let's get outta this stinkin' weather before we're statistics! Hoo! I can't even feel anything in my feeler's anymore. A guy with my brains, I gotta talk to a toad. What kinda-what kinda conversation can you have with a toad?"

Berkley raised an eyebrow at the slightly offended look Bradley was throwing in his direction. (This was due to the fact that Bradley was actually fairly good friends with a toad, who he had tea with once a week.)

"What? They're toads; they're green, they're toads-"

Yes, Berkley Beetle's fortune was beginning to look up.

Thumbelina was cold. Shivering, she continued walking through the snowy grass.

Ever since Jacquimo had left her to go and find the Vale of Fairies, she had been wandering through the forest, trying in vain to find her house. Autumn had been fine, as with the harvest there were plenty of berries and seeds she could find to keep herself from starving. But now with winter, not only had it become dangerously cold; all of the berries had shriveled, and the seeds had been buried under a layer of frost and ice. Oddly enough though, she didn't feel hungry, despite the fact that she hadn't eaten for at least a day.

Oh, if only Jacquimo had known where she lived! Then she could have just asked him to fly her back home. But by the time they had met, the toads had sailed so far away from her house that none of the jitterbugs had even known where her house was. And after everything that had happened with the beetle, Thumbelina had done her best to hide away whenever she encountered another creature.

Shivering again, Thumbelina pushed aside some grass and stepped through, only to gasp as the dirt under her foot crumbled away, and she fell. Rolling over some rocks, she slid onto the ice of a pond-

Splash!

-And fell directly into freezing water, courtesy of a hole that Berkley Beetle had recently made when he found Cornelius and Chrysanthos. Climbing out quickly, Thumbelina shuddered and coughed as she got out. Now not only was she three times colder, her clothes and hair were weighed down with water. Tripping onto the snowy bank of the pond, she fell heavily.

Slowly sitting up, she sat there, shivering and miserable and alone. Ever since her birth from her flower, she had never been alone. She had always had Mother and Ivalyn and Hero and the farm animals. But now, not even her sister was here beside her. Her wonderful, stubborn sister who had always looked out for her, and understood her like no one else ever had. Her sister who had fallen over a waterfall, and was out there, and alone just like Thumbelina.

Jacquimo and the jitterbugs might think Ivalyn was dead, but something inside Thumbelina just knew that her sister was alive. And that was what kept her going; the hope that she would see Ivalyn again; the hope that she would find her home and Mother; the hope that Cornelius would come for her. But in the dark and cold winter weather, without even the sun to guide her, that hope was so small and tiny.

Seeing something out of the corner of her eye, Thumbelina turned to look, and-

Oh! An old boot was sitting there, on top of a hill, but it was the closest to shelter that Thumbelina could find. Scrambling up the hill desperately, she crawled inside the open hole in the front, and wrapped the old sock lying inside around her.

"Jacquimo was wrong. I will never find my way home. It's impossible. Oh Ivalyn, Mother, where can you be?" Thumbelina curled into herself, sniffling and feeling smaller than she ever had before.

Ivalyn blearily opened her eyes. She remembered grasping the hand, but then after that, nothing. Sitting up, she looked around the room she was in. It was small, with sloping wooden walls and glowing moss gently lighting the room. She was laying on a bed of leaves, soft and green as if in the midst of summer. Looking to her right, she froze at the sight of a woman sitting there.

The woman was the same size as a fairy, but like Thumbelina and Ivalyn, she had no wings. A small part of Ivalyn wondered if perhaps that meant they were the same, and the woman would know why Thumbelina and her were small but wingless. The woman looked different from anyone Ivalyn had met yet, with tangled silver hair twining down over a blue dress. Her eyes were clear and blue-extremely bright in the dim lighting-and she was looking straight at her.

"Hello," the woman said, her mouth stretching into a comforting smile. Her voice was the same as the achingly familiar one that had come from the hand. Ivalyn hesitantly smiled back, and opened her mouth to say something, only to break into a coughing fit as she tried to speak. The woman held out a bowl of water, which Ivalyn gratefully accepted, gulping the clean water down her throat.

After setting down the empty bowl on the bed next to her, Ivalyn turned back to the woman.

"Hello," she replied hesitantly. "Um, if I may ask, who are you?"

The woman laughed heartily, Ivalyn flinching back from the sudden noise. Seeing this, the woman smiled gently and tilted her head slightly to the side.

"Oh, little nymph. There is no need to be nervous around me. I am Liliana, Daughter of the Lily Tree. You can call me Lili though. And what's your name?"

"Oh! Why, um, my name is Ivalyn," the dark-haired girl awkwardly replied. "It's nice to meet you?"

"The pleasure is all mine," the woman, Lili's eyes curved up in amusement. "It's not often I'm able to speak with others of my kind face to face. After all, it's rare to find a dryad willing to venture from her plant. Of course, that does bring up a question I have. What is a Daughter of Barleycorn doing so far from her flower during the frost?"

Wait, what? Ivalyn blinked in bewilderment.

"Um, sorry, but could you repeat that?"

"Oh!" Lili looked startled, a small blush gracing her cheeks as a hand flew up to cover her mouth.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to imply that you were weaker, just for being a Smallplant! I-Well, I mean what I was trying to say, you know, before I put my foot in my mouth, was that most nymphs just tend to stay in their plants during winter. Not that that's a bad thing! I mean, I stay in my tree during winter, because it's so gosh darned cold out there, so it's perfectly okay if other nymphs aren't good with the cold-or are good with it, in your case-including Smallplants."

"Um," Despite understanding most of the words that came out tumbling out of the woman's mouth, Ivalyn honestly had no idea what she was saying. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand. What's a Smallplant?"

The question seemed to shock Lili, who reared back in surprise, before blinking and peering closely at Ivalyn. She fidgeted slightly, uncomfortable with the sudden scrutiny. Looking at her hands clasped in her lap, she shrunk in on herself.

"…Did I say something wrong?"

A hand at her chin lifted her face, sky blue meeting soft jade.

"No, no. You have done nothing wrong. However, I fear I've gotten ahead of myself, like usual. Tell me, what do you know about nymphs?"

Ivalyn blinked confusedly at the question, relaxing a bit now that she knew she wasn't in trouble.

"Nothing, to be honest. What is a nymph?"

Lili's cheeks blew up for a moment, before deflating with a sigh. Running a hand through her silver tresses, she took a long, bewildered look at Ivalyn. Letting out another sigh, she put her hands back in her lap.

"Okay, sorry, for me blundering ahead before. I kinda have a horrible habit of letting my mouth run way ahead of my brain. Um, oh geez, I really didn't think that I was going to have to give someone the talk when I woke up this morning. So, I guess the first thing to start with is, nymphs. That is, you are a nymph. A dryad, to be really specific, but nymph is the more common term."

A nymph. Ivalyn thought to herself, finally having a name for what she was.

"You see, a nymph is what happens when a plant becomes something more than it should be. By that I mean that something super weird that isn't supposed to happen, happens. For example, this tree we are currently in grew when someone planted a lily flower in the ground, and it grew into a Lily Tree."

Gesturing around at the room, Ivalyn realized that when the hand had pulled her away from the frost, it had literally pulled her inside of the bark. So that at least told her where she was.

"Now, as that plant grows, it eventually reaches a point where the thing that makes it different from others of its kind reaches maturity. In this case, that means when the lily that grew went from being a flower, to a tree. Bark grew, branches began spreading, and it was no longer a lily. So it became a nymph plant, with a nymph in it. That's me."

Lili took a moment to wink at Ivalyn, who smiled at the show of good humor.

"But I wasn't born as I am now. I was formless-like a spirit that existed solely within this tree, with no way of interacting outside of it. I was the tree, and the tree was me. Well, I mean, I still am the tree, but now I have a form. This form."

Cue gesture to her body.

"But it didn't just happen randomly; I didn't just go poof one day and suddenly have a body, there's a process to it. To transform into something with form, nymphs need a catalyst. Someone who loves the nymph, and who the nymph loves in turn, must give their love to the nymph in the form of Love's Kiss.

"So tell me Ivalyn, how were you born?"

"Oh!" She jolted at the unexpected question, her eyes widening, and then narrowing as she thought back and searched her memories.

"Well," she started, speaking slowly in the way one does when lost in thought. "Mother always said that she had been very lonely, for a very long time. She had her animals and garden, but she wanted someone she could talk to. So she went and visited an old friend who was a witch, and explained her situation to her, asking if she could help. Her friend agreed to help her, and gave her a small barleycorn, with instructions to plant and care for it, and once it grew, Mother would not be alone anymore."

Lili nodded at her, a thoughtful look on her face.

"That makes sense. Witches, particularly ones who are sensitive to magic, can usually tell what seeds or other natural objects will produce a nymph plant. They usually collect them to either create servants or helpers, or to keep in stasis until needed. I've never heard of them giving them away before though. I mean, nymphs are pretty rare, and it's even rarer to just find a nymph object. And from what I'd heard of witches, they tend to hoard precious things. So it's kind of weird that your mother's witch friend just up and gave her your barleycorn."

Ivalyn nodded, understanding why Lili was confused.

"Mother said that Ms. Gwyneth-her witch friend, that is-had our barleycorn for a long time, and that she was waiting to give it to the right person. Which ended up being Mother, and we were very glad about that. I've never actually met Ms. Gwyneth-though she was going to come visit this winter-but from what I've heard of her from Mother, she doesn't do favors for too many people."

Here Ivalyn bit her lip, wondering if she should continue, but Lili was being so nice, and was even answering her questions about who she was.

"I think that the reason she gave our barleycorn to Mother is because they're in love. Or at least, I think they are. The thing is, Mother gets this odd look on her face when she talks about Ms. Gwyneth, and for the longest time I didn't know what it was. Recently though, I've realized that that look is what someone looks like when they see the person they love. Because it's the same way that Cornelius looks at Thumbelina."

-and how Chrysanthos looks at me. Ivalyn thought to herself, a small smile appearing on her face. Sure, her and Chrysanthos had only been together for a night, but he understood her in a way that no one else did, except for maybe her sister. Although Grandma Izzy had questioned her about that whenever they had met up, Ivalyn knew that it was love. Maybe not the strongest, and truest love in the world, but it was love.

"Cornelius? As in, one of the fairy princes?" Lili asked Ivalyn, who nodded.

"Yeah. He's in love with my sister, Thumbelina."

Lili suddenly stood up, and moved into Ivalyn's space.

"You have a sister?!" She cried with shocked eyes, moving back when Ivalyn flinched at both the sudden movement and the loud noise.

"Sorry. I'm really sorry about that, but you have a sister?" She was more composed this time, but her sudden mood change had made Ivalyn nervous.

"Y-Yes. When our plant sprouted, she came out of the first flower, and I came out of the second one. Why is that so surprising?"

Lili gestured helplessly for a second, opening and closing her mouth as she searched for words. Frustrated at her own inability to talk, she covered her face with her hands and let out a muffled groan. After a moment had passed, she sat back up and took a deep, fortifying breath.

"Okay. So, first things first: nymphs are rare. I've already said that, but I'm saying it again now. But nymph siblings-twins… they're the stuff of legends. It's like… that is…"

Lili worried her bottom lip between her teeth. After spending about five minutes with her, Ivalyn had picked up on the fact that Lili was a person who talked a lot, but needed time to think over how to best phrase things. So she stayed silent and waited for the nymph to find the right words.

"Plants have power. The more time has passed, the more they grow, and the stronger they become. Even plants that can't live during winter leave imprints of themselves; like how one year a dandelion grows somewhere, and the next there's a whole patch. If that makes sense?"

Ivalyn nodded, and Lili's brow smoothed out a little in relief.

"This is even more true for nymph plants. The older the plant, the stronger the nymph, and the more powerful they become. But with twins, it gets kinda complicated. 'Cause, no one's figured out why, but twin nymphs are twice as powerful as a single born one. The last time a pair of nymphs were born to the same tree, they ended up being worshipped as gods! You might have even heard of them. Are you familiar with Grecian mythology?"

"Grecian?"

"Maybe you know it as Greek?"

"Oh!" Ivalyn jolted in recognition. "Yes, Mother had a book of myths which she would read to us at night. Me and Thumbelina always prefered the book of fairy tales though, so I don't remember much."

"Well, most of the myths have some basis in events that actually happened, but a lot of the stuff isn't all that accurate. The important thing is that all of the gods actually exist, even if they aren't exactly gods per se. I'm not entirely sure what species most of them are, but two of them are the nymph twins I've told you about. Apollo and Artemis. They both came from a lotus tree, and they grew to be some of the most powerful nymphs ever."

Lili's eyes gained a far away look, as she became lost in her storytelling.

"Apollo is said to be able to see the future, to heal wounds, and even tell truth from lies. Artemis on the other hand, is said to be able to run quicker than wind, to see further than the horizon, and to hear even the softest sound. Together, they rule over the nymphs who live in Greece and the Mediterranean islands."

Here Lili seemed to snap out of her momentary trance; giving her head a little shake, she turned to look Ivalyn directly in the eyes.

"So, as you can kinda see, nymph twins are kind of a big deal."

"But me and Thumbelina aren't anything like that! We don't have any special powers, or magical abilities. We're just…"

Ivalyn trailed off, as she didn't know how to end it. What were they. Sure, maybe they were nymphs, but even if they were, they weren't anything like Apollo and Artemis. They were just... tiny people; no magic powers, no wings, and no way home.

"Ivalyn."

She looked up at Lili through eyes blurred with tears. When had she started crying? Lili moved then, and enveloped Ivalyn in a soft embrace. The tears began coming faster now, and Ivalyn clung back tightly. It had been so long since she had hugged someone like this. Before everything, her and Thumbelina would always hug each other or dance together, sharing touches. Ivalyn hadn't realized how used to those touches she was, and how much she had missed them. Grandma Izzy had always hugged her, but they had only met up about once a week or two, when Ivalyn came back from scouring the forest to see if she had news.

Long minutes passed like that, as Ivalyn cried and Lili held her. Eventually, the tears began to slow, and then stopped, and Ivalyn sat up, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. Lili bit her lip, torn between curiosity and concern.

"...Ivalyn?" The girl looked up, red rimmed eyes looking questioningly at her.

"I don't want to be rude, so you don't have to answer this if you don't want to. But, where is your sister? What happened that caused you to wander around during the frost?"

"...After our birth from the flower, we lived happily. Mother loved us, and we loved her, and life at home was... peaceful. But, despite all that, me and my sister...we were discontent. It wasn't that Mother was doing anything wrong, but we weren't doing anything. For me, it was more of the fact that I had all this energy, and the only way that I could get rid of it was through dancing or fencing or swimming. I learned as many different things as possible, because I kept getting bored, and I just had all this energy looking for a way out.

"For Thumbelina, it was more the fact that she wanted to help Mother with all of her tasks, but because of her size, she couldn't. She always tried so hard to be useful, but we were both too small to do anything important. But we continued on, and we tried our hardest to help Mother, and be good daughters. And then, at the beginning of Autumn, everything changed."

"If I may cut in for a moment here," Lili interrupted, waiting for Ivalyn to nod before she continued. "I think I might know why you were feeling like that. Full of energy I mean."

"Really?"

"As I said before, all nymphs have power, and although the power varies, it can have interesting effects, depending on the nymph. For example, as a Lily, I have the power of purity and innocence, which means that I can cleanse things that have been tainted, like water or someone who is sick. However, as a Tree, I also gain the ability of protection and strength. In other words, I'm very strong. I've never checked to see how strong, but I do know that I once was able to throw away a bear that thought he could claw up my trunk."

A bear, Ivalyn thought with wide eyes, thinking of the size of a bear she had seen wandering the woods, and then looking at the size of the nymph in front of her. Lili smirked as she noticed the other nymph's awe.

"Yeah, I think I ended up lucking out on my powers, but that brings me to yours. As a Barleycorn Flower, that might explain why you're so filled with energy. Barleycorns are food, but that also means that they are a way that creatures gain energy. Because of that, I think that what your Barleycorn power ended up being is that you have a lot of energy, and therefore can continue on when others may become exhausted."

"Huh," Ivalyn blinked, thinking about it. "That actually explains a lot. So my magical nymph power is that I won't get tired?"

"Well, right now at least. It might end up heightening into other types of energy powers, but it would definitely take a while for that to happen."

"I see. So you said you had two powers, one from the Lily part, the other from the Tree part. Does that mean I have some type of Flower power?"

"Exactly! You're pretty quick. From what I've seen of other flower users, you could have one of the following powers. One is the power of attraction. The purpose of a flower is to draw attention to a plant, so those nymphs tend to get a lot of suitors. The second power is the power of distraction. This comes from the fact that a lot of flowers distract people from other, more dangerous parts of a plant, like thorns. The third is the power of lure. This is similar to attraction, but it's more dangerous, because it allows a nymph to make someone purposefully walk into danger. For example, a nymph with lure could convince an insect that it's a good idea to walk into a spiderweb."

"Ah." Ivalyn thought about it for a moment. None of those really sounded like her. But…

"Lili, what you told me about the power of attraction, I think my sister has it."

"Really? Does your sister have a lot of suitors?"
"You could say that. She's in love with Cornelius, but a toad kidnapped both of us to try and convince her to marry him."

"WHAT?" Lili shouted, standing up. "You got kidnapped?! Why the heck would-what even-who would be so horrible?!"

"Calm down, please." Ivalyn smiled humorlessly at Lili. "Luckily we escaped in time, but from what I've heard, he's still trying to find her. Luckily, she's apparently managed to evade him for all of Autumn, but I'm worried for her, now that it's Winter."
"What? But that makes no sense!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Attraction doesn't work that way, it only works while the nymph is physically there. Once your sister left, the attraction should have gone away, and the toad wouldn't have had it affecting him anymore. Unless…"

Lili trailed off, her eyes going wide as she thought of something.

"Lili. Unless what?"

"Even with the nymph twin thing making the attraction more powerful, no attraction would last all of Autumn. But, your sister also came from a Barleycorn, and from what you've told me, she doesn't have the same power as you. Which means she might have one of the other two Barleycorn powers."

"And what would those powers be?"

"The power you have is the power of energy to the self, also known as increased energy for the nymph who has it. The second power is the power of energy to drain. The nymph that has that, can drain energy from their surroundings to increase their own. A friend of mine named Bailey, who's a Daughter of Barleycorn also, has this power. She's why I know so much about this. The third power is the one I think your sister has. The power of energy to others, or of giving energy. In other words, everyone around your sister feels better, or more energized. The problem with that, is that coupled with attraction, everyone around your sister who decides to pursue her, is going to remember that feeling, even after attraction wears off. Which means-"

"-That Thumbelina is like a walking target. Oh no! I have to find her!"

Ivalyn scrambled out of the bed, already looking around for a door. Lili reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her to a stop.

"Ivalyn, calm down. Think about this rationally. Your sister is outside in Winter, yes, but as long as your flower is cared for, you and her won't die. So, time is on our side. Let's contact the other nymphs, and then we can ask them to help us search the forest. Okay?"

"But what if someone else sees her and tries to take her away?!"

"Oh, gosh. I never went over foci. Dang it, I knew I forgot something. Okay, so Ivalyn, your sister isn't just using her powers wily nily all the time. They're activated by something the nymph does."

"What?" Ivalyn turned to look at Lili, slightly calmer now. "What does that mean?"

"It means that all nymphs have a focus; something we use to channel our powers. For me, that something is brushing my hair. Yes, it sounds really stupid, but brushing my hair makes me feel happy, and it was what became my focus. As for yours, what do you do that makes you feel happy?"

Ivalyn thought about it for a moment. She was happy when she was with her sister, but that wasn't an activity. But there was something niggling at the tip of her tongue...

"Oh! Dancing! I love dancing. So then, that's my focus, and then Thumbelina's would be singing!"

Lili smiled, letting go of Ivalyn's wrist.

"Good, so as long as your sister doesn't sing in front of others, there's no need to hurry. Come on, let's contact the nymphs. I'll teach you how to use the root system."

Smiling, Ivalyn followed Lili, feeling better yet still filled with worry for Thumbelina.

Back at the house where Thumbelina and Ivalyn lived, Mother looked out of the open window one last time, before mournfully closing it. Gwyneth had promised she would look for her daughters, but that would take time, as she need to contact the forest spirits to help her search. Until then, Mother was all alone. Picking up a candle, she walked over to the cradle her daughters had slept on.

"I know there's someone

Somewhere

Someone

Who's sure to find them

Soon"

All the farm animals huddled together sadly, all of them listening to the heartbroken mother sing. Mother laid down two dresses she had made for her daughters on the cradle; one was light yellow, the other a soft pink.

"After the rain goes

There are rainbows

They'll find the rainbow

Soon

Soon my breaking heart will mend

Soon a happy ending

Troubles behind them

I will find them

Homeward bound

Safe and sound and

Soon"

Mother rocked back and forth in her chair, as Hero stood vigil beside her. Both waiting for the girls to come back.