When they finally touched the ground, the birds admitting that they were too tired to fly any farther, it was quite dark. The sky was illuminated by an enormous, nearly full moon and at least a few thousands of tiny, pulsating, and shimmering stars. And it was cold. Very cold.

They all trembled in the northern wind blowing from the seashore, like the dry leaves clinging to the misshapen and twisted branches of the only tree growing close to the edge of the tall cliff where they had landed, until Roza waved her wand, conjuring up warmer clothes for all of them. After she had prepared dinner for everyone, the birds included, the two Rose Elves said that they would look around and see if they could find a place for them to sleep. It was too windy to spend the night in the open, on top of the cliffs towering above the sea, which they could hear roaring angrily in the depths. So, as Rosalind, Hans, Louise, and the birds started to eat, Roza and Rolo disappeared over the precipice, determined to search the beach.

They came back just when Hans, who got bored of waiting for them the moment his stomach was full again, walked to the very edge of the steep promontory and studied the damp rock wall shrouded in shadows impenetrable to the moonlight. He squinted his eyes behind the lenses of his glasses sprinkled with the sea spray brought to his face by the chilly wind as he scanned the rocks, nearly as black as the surrounding night, for a path that would permit a wingless human to reach the half moon shaped beach lying deep down.

Roza and Rolo did not come back alone. They were accompanied by three tall, dark moths, whose large wings glittered and shone in the silvery light of the moon as if they were sprinkled with stardust.

"Princess," one of them spoke to Rosalind, its voice deep and mysterious like the cold night. "The Blue Swallowtails send you their regards and ask if you would like to join them."

"You found them!" Rosalind called to her elves as she scrambled to her feet.

"We did, Princess. They are camped down on the beach, but..."

"Thank you, Rolo, and thank you as well, " Rosalind said, approaching the Moth Fairies. "We would love to join you."

"Very well, Princess. Let us carry you to our camp then. You, Flower Fairies, don't fly well in the dark, and it's too windy... Will your birds be able to carry your elves? It's not very far."

"We will. Show us the way," Orangebeak chirped, spreading one of his wings to the ground to help the elves climb up.

"Just... Hmm... You must be strong, Princess," Roza said as she walked past Rosalind and wrapped her short arms around the fairy's waist briefly on her way to the waiting bird.

"What's wrong, Roza?" Rosalind asked the elf even as one of the Moth Fairy boys lifted her in his arms and took off immediately.

"You'll see soon enough..." Roza sighed.

Louise squalled and closed her eyes when another Moth boy scooped her in his arms and followed his friend who carried Rosalind.

"Hmm... I thank you, but... Skylar?" Hans asked tentatively, not liking the idea of being held in a Moth Fairy boy's arms like the two girls.

"Of course, Master Hans. Here!" The nightingale laughed in its strange, warbled way, then hopped closer to him and let the boy settle on her back.

"Alright. Let's go," the moth carrying Rosalind said.

The place where the butterflies were staying was not very distant. Rather than flying, the moths, followed by the birds, glided down towards the sandy beach, letting the wind carry them to a place where several leafless shrubs grew at the foot of the cliff.

Someone had built a large, tent-like shelter here by spreading many wide sheets of fabric among the bushes and securing them to their branches.

Spider silk, Hans thought. The sheets, so shiny and silvery-white that they seemed to glow under the moonlight, reminded him of the soft baskets made for their dandelion seeds by the spider in the meadow.

"No, Hans, this is butterfly silk," Rosalind said reverently as she started to walk towards the huge tent the moment the Moth Fairy set her back on her feet.

"Princess, wait..." Roza called, running after her, wanting to tell her something, but it was too late.

Rosalind lifted one of the flaps leading inside and stood in the tent's entrance, as if petrified by what she saw in front of her.

Hans and Louise exchanged a confused look, then ran to their friend and stilled at her sides, rendered speechless and motionless by the unexpected sight.

In the eerie glow of Foxfire and Goblin's Gold growing on the floor, they could see many beds, both big and small, lining the walls of the spacious tent. The place was full of quiet, sleeping creatures. There was a grey mouse, a beautiful black and white swallow, a small brown spider, a shiny, blue-green dragonfly, a ladybird, a pink Mushroom Fairy, a large fluffy squirrel.... and more.

"Rosalind!" A Butterfly Fairy girl with a magnificent pair of blue wings suddenly appeared in front of them, making them jump. "I'm so glad that you're here."

"Celeste," Rosalind whispered, moved to tears by what she saw in the tent. Luckily, at the sight of the blue Butterfly Fairy, she seemed to pull herself together a little. "Is he here...?" the fairy whispered, scanning the multitude of beds again after having embraced the butterfly quickly.

"No... we have not found him yet. Let me take you to our parents. Your birds can sleep here..." Celeste said, pointing to an adjoining room where they could see a row of empty beds.

"We'll stay here too, Princess. There's more than enough space for the five of us," Rolo said.

When Rosalind agreed, and the birds and elves headed towards their beds, she, Louise, and Hans followed the Butterfly Fairy outside.

"Celeste is Blue's sister," Rosalind explained as they walked towards a group of several smaller tents standing nearby, their long winter coats flapping and billowing like sails in the wind, "and these two are my friends, Louise and Hans."

"Are they humans? You never stop surprising us, Rosalind." The butterfly smiled at her.

Rosalind smiled in response, then asked, "So... what is this place, and who are all those creatures? Moreover, where's your brother?"

"This is our... infirmary, but you must have guessed that already. They, our patients, were all brought here from the Snow Queen's land, half-frozen and starving. Most of them don't remember anything. We help them heal as well as we can, but there's nothing we can do about their missing memories..."

"That is so sad..." Louise muttered.

Hans, seeing how close to tears she was, wrapped one of his arms over her shoulders and, despite his own sadness, smiled at her encouragingly.

"Is this, their memory loss, caused by the fragments of the cursed mirror?" he asked Celeste.

"Yes. And those fragments are also the reason why they followed the Snow Queen to her realm, where they nearly starved and froze to death."

"How do they follow her, and how do they come back, Celeste? We were told that no one can cross the sea unless carried by..." Rosalind started, but the Butterfly Fairy interrupted her.

"The Wild Swans. That's who brought them back. They fly between this and the opposite shore, bringing new ailing creatures once in a full moon."

"But how did they all get to the Snow Queen's realm in the first place?" Hans asked, still not satisfied by Celeste's explanation.

The Butterfly Fairy sighed. "A rare few of those who recover, recall some things... They talk of a shard of glass they picked up somewhere, of joining others with similar broken pieces on this shore, and then about a snowy night, when the Snow Queen herself came over on an enormous flying sledge and gathered all those waiting for her... Unfortunately, they don't remember anything else. Their names, families, where they come from... all remain forgotten."

"Maybe... I think I could help you. I know a spell... It's very complicated but I would like to try it..." Rosalind muttered, lost in thoughts.

"Really? Well, if you are sure, we could try tomorrow," Celeste said as they stopped in front of one of the tents.

"And the Wild Swans? When are they coming back?" Louise asked. "We..."

"...need their help. We hope they will agree to..." Hans continued, then let Rosalind finish, "...take us to the Snow Queen's realm."

They all stayed quiet for a long while then. The sudden absence of their voices made the sound of the waves crashing against the cliffs and spilling over the beach seem incredibly loud, making them notice how very agitated the sea was, and how very cold and dangerous its restless waters looked.

Celeste looked from Louise to Hans to Rosalind. "That's... very brave of you, but also absolutely crazy," She said in the end, shaking her head unhappily.

"It is not. I'm going. I must find him, Celeste," Rosalind said.

"But what if something happens to you? What if you di... No one knows where the Snow Queen lives, where her palace is... I would have gone myself if only we knew where to look for him."

"Berenice the Snow Owl knows everything. We will find her, and she will tell us," Hans declared.

"You don't know what you are talking about, Human Boy. It's not as simple as it might seem to you."

"We know that it won't be easy, but trying to find him is better than waiting here, hoping that he will be brought back one day by the swans. If something like this happened to someone whom I care about as much as Rosalind cares about Blue, I'd want to find him," Louise said, hoping that the blush spreading over her cheeks was not visible in the light of the moon, when she noticed Hans observing her closely.

"The Wild Swans, Celeste. When are they coming back?" Rosalind repeated Louise's question.

"They should be back any day now. But... if we knew at least that Blue is really there... "

"Where else would he be, Celeste? All these weeks... We'll find Berenice, I'm sure that she will know where to find him. In the meantime, you must wait here and try to send us any news concerning your brother by the swans the next time they'll cross the sea. Now let us go in, we're freezing and tired," Rosalind said.

"All right. But it might be better not to say anything about your plans to my parents, I'm not sure that they would let you go if they knew."

Finally, they entered the closest tent. Inside, they found Blue and Celeste's parents bent over a map spread on a large flat rock serving as a table. After a quick introduction and a few tears escaping the Butterfly Fairy lady at the sight of Rosalind, Blue's parents explained that as they refused to believe that their son was with the Snow Queen, they were searching the map of Terra Sonalis for all possible places where he could be.

Hans noticed how Rosalind looked at Celeste, asking for permission to speak her mind, but did not say anything when the butterfly shook her head and put her finger to her lips behind her parents' backs. Apparently, it was better to let them believe that things were not quite as serious as the rest of them thought they were.

Soon, seeing how tired Rosalind and her friends looked, the Blue Swallowtails asked Celeste to accompany them into one of the empty rooms of their tent and let them rest.

Hans wanted to speak with the girls about their plans for the journey across the sea, but they were all too exhausted to talk. The three adventurers fell asleep the moment they laid down in their soft, warm beds, lulled by the susurrus of the sea spilling over the shore, and the sound of the walls of the tent, swelling and sighing in the ceaseless, surging wind.