Untitled Document
"Jane, I'm back. Why didn't you even greet me?" Ixi demanded,
to his owner, who was sitting on the floor rather than the sofa, and staring
at her feet. "Why won't you even give me my daily pocket money of five hundred
Neopoints?" he added sulkily.
His owner sighed, still looking down at the floor.
"You never greeted me, whenever you came back home from Faerieland. You
never even thanked me for being such a hardworking owner. You never even
cared." She did not sound enraged, or even slightly sulky. Her voice was expressionless
and that made it worse.
"What do you mean, greeted? Not greeted,
it's greet. And same with everything else you said," corrected Ixi.
"Ixi, I've decided I'm leaving Neopia. I don't
want to--" she raised tearstained eyes to his face, "have a pet who doesn't
love me. And you didn't want me to create another NeoPet. I'm staying f-for
a week, to give you a head start. And then," she gulped, "I'm going to leave.
I'm sorry, but you never deserved the love I gave you. You never even cared,"
she said again.
The spoiled young Faerie Ixi was speechless.
He did not retort, however. Neither did he apologise.
***
DellaNeve was relieved that Skeithena and he could talk to each other by Neomail
now. Just after sending Sapphire off to send a message to Skeithena, he had
talked to his owner, Anna, who had agreed that letters labeled "Private and
Confidential" should not be read or even touched by Ghicaccio or anyone else,
if it wasn't addressed to them. Ghicaccio wasn't happy, and tried to cute-look
Anna, but Anna thought that privacy was very important. Della had to pay a price
though, albeit a very small one, compared to losing his sister--Anna seemed
to think that Della was up to something. Well, he was, sort of. But it was to
save his sister.
He read Skeithena's note. It was the shortest
one he'd ever received from her and it was even messier than the first letter
he was written to her.
Attached is a copy of what Queen Fyora and Darkness Faerie sent me when
I mailed her, without things like salutations etc. Also I told Luperusse we
were in contact etc. He didn't know earlier. You can come too if you can make
it. TY.
So Della read the note from Fyora and the Uber-Darkness
Faerie:
"Thanks for your letter. The Darkness Faerie has a library with books that
even you have not read before, and I believe that you are the cleverest pet
in Neopia. The library should be some help. If you would kindly visit Faerie
Castle tomorrow, the Uber-Darkness Faerie can show you. Please be quick in replying."
He just finished the letter when he heard someone
behind him. A door being locked--
Ghicaccio. Oops, DellaNeve had forgotten
to lock the door, as he had been so excited that Skeithena had gotten help.
And now Ghicaccio was locking it so that Anna couldn't catch her...
"You're 'iding sumfing from me, aren't you, Della
big brudder?" she said cutely. Just like before. Honestly, Della couldn't have
told the difference between the slave Ghicaccio and the real one, if he didn't
know better. She snatched the letter out of his hands. She was Jhudora's slave,
and very strong. Her grip was too much for him, and she managed to read the
letter from Fyora. Fortunately, DellaNeve had hidden his first note - the one
from Skeithena - in his pillowcase, and Ghicaccio hadn't got her paws on that
at least.
"So you've been in contact with the Faeries!"
said Ghicaccio furiously. "You're sly, brudder, and dang'rous to the plan, as
I have now found out. I shall hand you over to my wonderful, beautiful, great,
marvelous, magnificent, powerful - "
"- bigheaded - " When DellaNeve was frustrated,
and he couldn't do anything, he would insult. "My, my, Jhudora is so bigheaded
that she wastes time making her slave compliment her with a long string of unnecessary
adjectives!" Though his vocabulary wasn't quite as good as Skeithena's, of course,
his wasn't bad and he enjoyed using words that Ghicaccio didn't know.
The slave slapped Della in the face, but she
was blushing slightly. Annoyed. "Shuddup, Della. Anyway, you're coming wid me.
If you do, you won't be able to go to this wonderful library of the Uber-Darkness
Faerie." She used her slave-magic to conjure very strong, thick ropes from thin
air and tied DellaNeve up. "Oh, don't be so relieved brudder. I'm going to get
past Anna, easily. Oh, easily." Grabbing the ends of the ropes tightly, she
jumped skilfully out of the window. Of course Anna would not see. Jhudora was
cleverer than he'd thought.
And Jhudora herself was sitting there in the
luxury of her Cloud, watching the scene in her head, and laughing. For she could
always know where Ghicaccio was, and she could always see what Ghicaccio saw,
for the baby Lupe was her slave!
***
Jhudora greeted Ghicaccio, delighted. "Excellent work, Ghicaccio."
Ghicaccio nodded. Jhudora, with a wave of her
hands, used powerful magic to send DellaNeve to be imprisoned in her secret
place which she used as a storeroom, deep in the coldest and darkest part of
the Ice Caves. She laughed as villains do, except this time Jhudora had things
not going exactly as she intended; but better. "MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ghicaccio,
return back to your idiotic owner, or she'll realize and be worried."
The baby Lupe slave returned her laugh.
***
"Did you receive any letters from DellaNeve?" the Uber-Dark Faerie asked wearily.
Skeithena bit her lip. "Uh... yes, sort of. I
sent a message to him, and received a reply. Not good news either."
HAHAHAHAHA I AM THE EVIL SISTER GHICACCIO.
I SERVE JHUDORA AND ONLY HER, JHUDORA RULES. DELLANEVE IS KIDNAPPED, HE CAN'T
VISIT THE STUPID UBER-DARK FAERIE AND HER STUPID LIBRARY TO GET STUPID HELP.
---EVIL GHICACCIO. P.S. MUAHAHAHA.
"My guess, Darkness Faerie, is that Ghicaccio
read the note that I forwarded him, which was from you and the Queen, but without
any salutations. But it seems that she has not read the note that I wrote
to him, not forwarded," said Skeithena.
"I see. You two will have to save Della as well
as Ghicaccio, then. Come, my pets, we shall go to my library," beckoned the
Uber-Dark Faerie.
"Yeah!" said Luperusse eagerly. "We can-- I mean,
you can, Skeithena - read up on Faerie Magic and learn magic and beat
Jhudora up!"
"More like you'd be doing the beating-up, if
we went along with your plan," said Skeithena thoughtfully. "I think it would
be better to read about ancient secrets, and using them, we could form a plan.
What do you think, Darkness Faerie?"
The Uber-Dark Faerie sighed, and turned to the
ex-slave Lupe. "Magic would take years to learn, Luperusse. I think that it
would be better if you, Luperusse, read about magic and its secrets and rules.
I shall read about ancient artifacts. You, Skeithena, can read anything you
fancy, that you think can be useful. Wouldn't it better if we read different
types, and used it to our advantage?"
Both of them agreed heartily. "Yes Darkness Faerie!"
***
Skeithena stared at the notes that the three of them had scrawled that night.
In total, these notes took up over twenty pages. The Darkness Faerie and Luperusse
had already fallen asleep, with books and scrolls on their laps, but Skeithena
had taken their notes and was reading them, to see if she could formulate a
plan.
This was the only time that Skeithena's brain
had let her down. But Skeithena still continued to work, although she gave up
reading the notes. Instead she continued reading the books in the library, until
she had read every single piece in the library.
At sunrise, she fell asleep in her chair, exhausted,
and still holding the notes.
To be continued...
Author's Note: What do you think will happen next? That will come in the
next issue of The Neopian Times... Meanwhile, feel free to Neomail
me with any comments, complaints, questions, suggestions, or just to have a
friendly chat! Thanks and have a nice day :)
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