| Jhudora sat on her cloud, staring down at the piece of paper
in front of her. There was a scowl on her face. On the paper, a small purple dot
had disappeared and had been replaced with a small green one. Other purple dots
were moving steadily toward the green dots, and the green ones were moving steadily
closer to the purple ones.
Jhudora and Illusen were having a war. Winner
takes both homes, and loser is banned to Krawk Island forever. So far Illusen
and Jhudora were tied. Every time one of Jhudora's troops was destroyed, her
army would become fiercer and take out one of Illusen's troops, and vice versa.
Jhudora was facing a problem here. Very few
troops emerged from the top of the paper, while a fair few emerged from the
bottom. Illusen, "sweet" Illusen, had absolutely no problem finding Neopets
that would help her. However, "nasty" Jhudora had problems fining even
one. Also, Fyora was doing her best to protest against this war, and since Jhudora
was closer, she always picked on her.
"Shame on you!" she'd say. "No Faerie of mine
shall even go into exile!" But Jhudora would just nod, and say, "You're right,
Fyora," then continue with business.
I won't be pushed around by a goody two-shoes
that's shorter than me, Jhudora thought angrily.
Jhudora pushed a button on her desk and an Uber-Earth
Faerie appeared. "Hello, Jhudora. Lovely to see you!" the Faerie said
to Jhudora.
Jhudora shook her head in disgust. "Give it
up, La. You'll never pass as a spy," she said.
The Earth Faerie frowned, and slowly morphed
into a scowling Uber-Dark Faerie. "My name's Lanya, not La," she said.
"Yeah, whatever, La."
"You're just jealous because you can't morph,"
La scoffed.
"Oh yeah?" Jhudora morphed into a towering,
twenty-foot tall neon green Eyrie.
La dropped to her knees and extended her arms
in front of her, and her forehead touched the ground. She was quivering all
over. "S-sorry M-master," she said.
Jhudora morphed back into her original form.
"That's better."
"You must realize that you're my only hope for
succeeding in this war. People don't know you can morph. If I went out there
to gather supporters, and the Illusen Supporters saw me, they'd kill me," Jhudora
explained impatiently. "Go out as a -- baby Lupe. Get them to sign THIS form."
Jhudora thrust a piece of formal-looking paper
into La's hands. The words on it said, "Join my army! Protest the war!" And
underneath it, there was about a hundred black lines where people could sign
their names to sign up to "protest" the war.
I'm very sorry if you think that Jhudora had
finally listened to Fyora. Sadly, it is nothing like that. When you sign your
name, you are instantly tossed into Jhudora's army -- whether you like it or
not. So if you see a baby Lupe along the streets saying, "protest the war,"
don't sign up, whatever you do!
La looked up at Jhudora in disgust. "A baby
Lupe? Come on, an air Faerie would be much better--"
"Are you contradicting me?" Jhudora asked in
oddly sweet tones.
"N-n-no," La said, clearly terrified.
"I think you were," Jhudora said in the same
high-pitched, sweet voice.
"M-m-master! I b-beg your forgiveness!" La screamed
with terror.
"You've contradicted me one to many times!"
Jhudora shouted, all sweetness gone. "Now you'll pay!"
Surprisingly, La's face took a look of glee.
"Since your about to punish me," she said happily, "and that punishment is usually
death or exile to Krawk Island or the Maraqua, I suggest you pack your bags."
"What do you mean?" Jhudora asked. La was satisfied
with the tiny flicker of fear that crossed over Jhudora's face.
"You said that I'm your only hope for succeeding
in this war, right? Well, if you kill me or exile me-- you can just go into
exile yourself," La said.
Jhudora's face grew red with fury, and she was
about to mutter a horrible spell, but then her face went back to its normal
color. "Very well done, La. Very well done," she said softly. La looked surprised.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Since you're a spy now --" Jhudora said, and
La gasped.
"Yes!" she said happily.
"Let me finish. Since you're a spy now, here's
the plan..." Illusen sat in her glade, writing down people's usernames. These
were the usernames of people that were fighting for her. There was a long list.
Fyora had been helping her. She'd always say, "You'll always be my number one
Earth Faerie, Magic or not, old or young, big or little, and I'm going to help
you." Illusen appreciated her help.
A new person appeared at the front of her glade.
She had medium-length brown hair, bright green eyes, and was wearing khaki shorts
and a SUPPORT ILLUSEN T-shirt. She was accompanied by a yellow Poogle.
"Hi, Illusen!" the girl said cheerfully. "I'm
Lucy and this is my Poogle, Smooches. We're here to sign up to help you!"
Illusen nodded and smiled. "Excellent. Just
sign this paper," she said, holding out a piece of paper.
Lucy laughed. "I will soon enough. I'm your
biggest fan, and I want to interview you!" she said.
Illusen frowned, but the smile reappeared quickly.
"Alright," she said, leaning back in her chair. "Interview away."
"How do you feel about this war?" Lucy asked.
"How do I feel? Hmm... that's a hard one. I'm
kinda afraid, after what happened last time there was a war," Illusen said thoughtfully.
Lucy nodded. "okay...," she said, writing it
down. "What are your plans to do to Jhudora?" she asked.
"A couple of supporters and I are going to crowd
around her cloud and demand that she comes out, and when she does, we'll throw
a net over her and send her away to Krawk Island," Illusen said. "The net's
going to be spun out of a special light thread. That way Jhudora won't be able
to escape."
"Gotcha," Lucy said, scribbling down the answer
once more. "Do you have any secret hiding places?" she asked.
"Only one. Fyora supports us, you know, so she
lent us a hidden room in her castle that we use for secret meetings and stuff,"
Illusen said, then added, "I'm glad she's on my side."
Lucy wrote down the last answer and sighed.
"Well, Illusen that's it!" she said. "Whoa, look --" Lucy said, pointing out
Illusen's window. "A whole parade supporting you."
Illusen whirled around to look out the window.
Suddenly, Lucy grabbed a net and threw it onto Illusen. She turned back around
quickly, tangling herself up in the net, and watching as Lucy morphed into La.
Her Poogle morphed into a red Grarrl.
"YOU!" Illusen shouted. Illusen knew La, because
La used to be an Uber-earth Faerie before she had declared her loyalty to Jhudora
and turned into a Dark Faerie. Her Grarrl was actually named Ultimate Destroyer.
"Me," La said grimly. "I'm here on Jhudora's
orders --"
La was cut off as Illusen whacked her on the
head with her Staff. La cried out with pain, then muttered a curse and Illusen
was paralyzed. La picked Illusen up, and with the help of Ultimate Destroyer,
took her to Jhudora. Jhudora beamed and smiled when La came back with Illusen.
"Excellent..." Jhudora said softly. "Perfect,
La, perfect. You're now promoted to being my personal advisor. Nice work on
the paralyzing curse."
As the curse started to wear off, Illusen shouted,
"LET ME GO, JHUDORA!" But Jhudora just shook her head.
"And sentence myself to Krawk Island forever?
No, Illusen, but I'll give you a chance to be free..."
"I'm not going to Krawk Island," Illusen said
fiercely.
"No, you're not," Jhudora said sadly. Then she
changed her voice so that it sounded like Fyora's. "No Faerie of mine will
ever go into exile," then she changed back. "If I forced you to go, Fyora
would kill me. So it's either enslavement to me forever, or this."
Jhudora shoved a piece of paper toward Illusen.
Illusen read it aloud:
"I, the following, agree to be held ransom for
three hundred thousand NP. If my supporters do not pay the price to Jhudora,
I will be enslaved to her forever to her."
"Jhudora, can't we just quit the war?" Illusen
asked.
"And make me look like a coward? Illusen, no.
Sign this paper or sign a contract enslaving you to me. Here's a pen."
Illusen took the pen and wrote sadly, "Illusen,"
on the bottom of the first sheet of paper. Jhudora smiled gleefully. "Excellent.
Three hundred thousand NP is all I need to finish the weapon that'll destroy
you and nobody will ever know that it was me. Do you see my trick, Illusen?
Either way you're going to be destroyed."
Illusen sobbed quietly. Jhudora laughed evilly.
"La-- take Illusen up to the Hidden Tower. Take An and Tia with you," she ordered.
La bowed, and grabbed the net that Illusen was in.
"An! Tia! Get over here!" La screamed.
Two dark faeries appeared. One was short and
fat, and one was tall and skinny. The fat one jumped up and down with glee when
she saw Illusen, and the skinny one screamed, "Our clever master! Our good master!"
They both picked up the net, and they flew to the Hidden Tower.
The End
| 
