Wish Upon A Piece Of Junk by kitties_kitties40 |  |
Mandelini lay on the couch in the living room of her large
NeoHome. Her owner Anise and her sisters, Pandora, Danya, and Deb were out. Deb,
a rainbow Aisha, was visiting the Secret Lab to get zapped. Pandora was, according
to her note, at the toy shop, awaiting the restocks in order to grab one of the
ultra-cool cloud Kiko plushies for her plushie collection. Anise was donating
some old possessions to the Money Tree, and Danya -- well, nobody EVER knew what
Danya was doing!!!
Mandelini sighed, and rolled over off the Nova
Sofa, landing on the floor with a thump! She got up, dusted her self off, muttered
a few words of annoyance, and stalked into the other room, throwing herself
down on a Kauvara beanbag chair. Why wasn't anyone ever around? she thought.
I'm always so lonely!
Suddenly, she heard the clink of her owner's
Neomail box. Neomail call! She jumped up from her chair and rushed to the inbox
center, where several items and a few letters lay on Anise's electric desk.
Mandelini hurried over to the desk, where she sorted through the items, (a Happy
Birthday gift for Pandora from her cousins, a Pustravaganza scratchcard from
Danya's Scratchcard-or-the-Month club, and a mystery package all wrapped up
in paper, packing tape, and string,) and then sorted through the letters: Several
for Anise, two for Pandora, (probably birthday greetings), a letter for her-
Wait. A letter for her? Mandelini NEVER got
mail!!! She eagerly ripped it open. The letter read:
Dear Mandelini:
DO NOT OPEN THE PACKAGE IN FRONT OF YOUR
SIBLINGS. The package contains an extremely powerful piece of magic, and I do
not want anybody but you to see what it is... at least for the first three days.
Use it well.
Signed,
A Well-wisher
Mandelini looked around, checking to see that
none of her sisters had arrived home yet. Then carefully, she picked up the
package and shook it. It didn't sound like anything she had heard before. Very
slowly, she began to open the package...
The front door of the NeoHome slammed shut as
Anise walked in the door, closely followed by Pandora and Deb. Mandelini quickly
stuffed the package underneath a cushion on the electric Sofa, and sat down
next to it, just as Anise walked into the room.
"Hey Mandi! How are ya?" asked Anise, smiling
as she sat down next to Mandelini.
"Fine, I-I guess," Mandelini answered weakly.
She felt the package under the pillow and bit her lip.
"Good! Then you can help me make dinner!" said
Anise cheerfully, and stood up. At the door, she beckoned to Mandelini to come
with her, and together they went down to the kitchen.
During dinner, which consisted of baked beans,
Extra-Long Hotdogs, (Hubert's Specialty, which Anise had picked up on the way
home), Leeks, and Nova Pops for dessert, the family discussed things of interest
to them all, but Mandelini was unusually quiet at the table. She was thinking
about the package. After supper, she ran upstairs and grabbed the package, and
made a break for her room.
Flopping down on the bed, with bated breath,
she began to unwrap the package. She had just undone the last string when the
mysterious item fell out...
"A WISH STICK?" Mandelini asked with disgust,
staring at the piece of tacky merchandise sitting on her bed. "A WISH STICK?????"
Ugh, she thought, I wish I had gotten something else.
Suddenly, she noticed another small package
tucked inside the paper. She opened it carefully, took out the item inside,
and gasped in delight!
"BOOYAH! YES! YES! YES!" she screamed, jumping
up and down, staring at the item in her hand. For out of the small package had
come...
A Battle Duck!!!
"Honey, what's up?"
"Are you okay?"
Anise burst into her room, followed by Pandora
and Danya.
"Yeah, I'm fine, but look what I found!" Mandelini
exclaimed, showing her mom and sisters the small duck. All three gasped in unison.
"Where did you find that?" asked Danya, examining
the Battle Duck carefully, as if to see that it was in fact the extremely expensive
item.
"I dunno -- it was just on my bed," Mandelini
explained, but Anise cut her off.
"Nonsense. Why would you find a battle duck
in your room, on your bed, for that matter?"
"I dunno, but I just... did, y'know?"
Pandora, who had been quiet all this time, spoke
up. "You know Mom, it really isn't that strange to find an expensive piece of
Battledome equipment on your bed. I mean, this IS Neopia, right?"
Mandelini flashed a grateful smile at Pandora,
who smiled back.
Anise, still not convinced said, "Yes, but..."
"But nothing," Mandelini said. "I was busy doing...
something. OUT!" Her family turned and trudged out of her room, shutting the
door behind themselves. Mandelini sighed, and flopped back onto her bed. Her
stomach gave an ornery growl, signifying that she hadn't gotten enough to eat.
I wish I had a peach or something, she thought, and for the first time she noticed
a peach lying on her dresser. She gaped at it for a second, then picked it up
and gobbled it down.
Wait a second, she thought, this is
weird. Everything I wish for is coming true. She spotted the Cherry Wish
Stick on her bed and let out a little gasp. What if the Wish Stick was what
was granting her wishes? There was only one way to find out.
Mandelini rushed over to her bed and picked
up the item. She thought for a moment, closed her eyes, and said, "I wish for
a red paint brush!" She waited a few seconds, and then opened her eyes. A shiny,
humming paint brush was sitting on her bed! She smiled and placed the paint
brush to one side and put the wish stick on her dresser to think about. Her
first thoughts were: This is great! I have a ton of power now. But then she
started to wonder. Why would someone just send this to me? It's not like
it's a piece of junk they found on the street or something! This is extremely
powerful magic...
* * *
During the next few days, Mandelini went about her business like any other
preoccupied Neopet. She went to school, played games, and ate, all while occasionally
using the sacred Wish Stick for a few needs. But truthfully, she was worried.
Every time she saw the blessed piece of junk, she said to herself, This isn't
normal! Why isn't this item off being junky? I should report this to
TheNeopetsTeam or Fyora or someone... But little did she know that the answer
was right in her head...
Mandelini stood under a large tree in Faerieland,
contemplating the situation. She had traveled all the way to Faerieland to speak
to Fyora, the Queen Faerie, about the magical Wish stick, but now that she was
about two blocks and fifty feet straight up in the air from the legendary ruler,
she was having second thoughts about the whole shaboozie. She took a deep breath,
thought, The worst that could happen is that she would turn me into a Lenny,
and ran.
She was sprinting faster and faster, and moving
higher and higher into the clouds. Her tiny Uni wings flapped in vain as she
tried to keep from falling...
"OUCH!" Mandelini landed on the ground with
a thump! She got up, wincing, and looked around. Luckily, no one she knew had
seen her fall. Mandelini took another deep breath, and, with a running start,
she lifted higher and higher off the ground, until she had arrived safely in
the Hidden Tower. She looked around at all the expensive items, and called softly,
"Your Majesty? I've come to see you."
No answer. Mandelini wandered between the rows,
and stopped at a shelf of Faerie Queen Dolls. She cautiously picked one up between
her two front hooves, and was about to put it back down, when it slipped out
from between her hooves and landed on the floor with a crash, where it broke
neatly in two.
"Oh, no," Mandelini murmured under her breath,
and whipped out the Wish Stick. "I wish that had never happened."
With a small pop!, the doll mended itself magically.
Mandelini breathed a sigh of relief and left, figuring Fyora wasn't there. She
walked out of the Hidden Tower, forgetting the ground wasn't there, and plummeted
fifty feet to the ground.
* * *
"What the heck!? You mean it just MENDED ITSELF?" asked Luna, Mandelini's
best friend. Mandelini was sitting on a desk at their Neoschool before class,
holding a bag of ice to her right front hoof, as Luna had dropped a large book
on it, containing Battlesunn's collected works.
"Yep. I don't know how this happened, but somehow
everything that I wish for comes true -- but I have to have the Wish Stick on
my person. What should I do about my sisters though? I don't want them finding
out that I have this thing. Deb is greedy, Pandora would probably use all of
it's power on things like making the grass purple and the trees puce, and Danya...
well, I can't even trust her with a plastic butter knife! What the heck would
she do with this?" Mandelini asked, brandishing the Wish Stick like a weapon.
"Well, you're right about Pandora. She is the
stupidest Ixi that I have ever met in my short lifetime, and that's on her good
days. And Deb... well, she IS extremely greedy. She would probably ask for a
Hypno Helmet and an Icy Battle Duck, and she doesn't even battle! But you should
tell Danya. I mean, there must be some way she can help."
At just that moment, Mandelini's mortal enemy
Hilary ambled past, and grabbed the Wish Stck from on top of the desk where
it lay, knocking Mandelini's ice pack to the floor. Mandelini reached for it
and fell off the desk, landing on her injured hoof. She gave a tiny moan of
pain, but Hilary took no notice. She sniffed at the Wish Stick, and said, "Well
well. If it isn't POOR little Mandelini. I bet your family had to save their
Neopoints for months to buy you this piece of junk." Hilary dropped the Wish
Stck in Mandelini's lap and strutted off, her nose in the air.
Mandelini's family wasn't as well-off as Hilary's,
but they weren't dirt-poor either! Mandelini ground her teeth and clutched the
Wish Stick, wishing with all her might that Hilary would just disappear. Suddenly,
the Faerie Gelert just vanished! Mandelini stared at the Wish Stick in surprise.
She actually hadn't meant to make Hilary disappear, it had just happened. Beside
her, Luna gaped at Mandelini with horror, thinking the same thing as Mandelini.
Slowly, Luna turned her head, looked at Mandelini, and said quietly, "I think
it's time to report this."
* * *
The next day, Mandelini woke her sister Danya, a rainbow Poogle, up early.
Ignoring Danya's complaints, Mandelini quickly made breakfast, (sugar doughnuts,
some grapes, and coffee with marshmallows) and packed a lunch for their Faerieland
trip. (Several bottles of water, some cans of Neocola, two bags of Cheesy Neos,
three Pears, three Cheese sandwiches, some strawberry Achyfi at Luna's request,
some potato wedges, and for dessert, and a huge caramel Usul cake.) Luna promptly
showed up on their doorstep at 6 AM, and, Danya still complaining about the
time, the trio went off.
Luna, Danya, and Mandelini hiked to the train
station, and fell onto the 6:30 train to Faerie City with relief. All of their
legs were killing them, and they still needed to get to the Hidden Tower! The
train was filled with Neopets rushing off to work, and across the aisle a pretty
blonde girl was trying to keep track of her Neopets, an Invisible Acara who
was running up and down the aisle shrieking, and a baby Aisha who was wailing
in her arms, all while cradling a cell phone, trying to keep track of her stocks.
Mandelini & co. watched this display for some time, and then turned their attention
very abruptly to the blue Shoyru who had sat down next to them. He looked at
them, and asked, "Why in Virtupets are you all looking at me like that? Did
I get something on my face?"
The girls shook their head and Mandelini said,
"No, sorry. Just wondering, could you help us? And by the way, what's your name?"
The Shoyru, still not convinced some of his
breakfast was still not residing on his face said, "Drew. And what do you need?"
The girls looked at each other, and Mandelini
said, "We need someone who can fly us up to the Hidden Tower. And quickly."
Drew softened at this, but asked dubiously,
"All of you? I don't know..."
"Oh! Not, like, all of us at once, ya know...
one by one?!"
"Ohhh... okay, I guess." Drew seemed a lot happier
now. "Yeah, I'll fly ya. For a small fee..."
The girls glanced at each other. What kind of
fee could a teenage Shoyru want? Drew, seeing the look on their faces, laughed
and said, "Some of that delicious looking lunch you've packed..."
The girls laughed, and Mandelini said, "Sure.
Fine with me!"
When the train arrived in Faerieland, the girls
and Drew got off the stop and ran toward the intersection where the entrance
to the Hidden Tower was. They hesitated, and tried to look inconspicuous, but
if you've ever stood on a street corner in downtown Faerieland with a starry
Uni, a rainbow Poogle, a starry Ixi, and a blue Shoyru, and tried to look like
you weren't up to anything at all, you have probably found that it is extremely
hard. However, as soon as they reached the corner of Air Faerie Avenue and Faerie
Castle Close, Drew was all action. Quickly, he grabbed Danya, and rose up into
the air. The two pets rose higher and higher, and suddenly Drew was coming back
down again, Danya-less. He swooped down and grabbed Luna, who giggled and waved
to Mandelini as he took her high into the air, and into the castle.
And then, he was coming toward Mandelini. He
grabbed the Uni with difficulty, and flew into the air. When the pair arrived
in the hall, he smiled, and was about to jump back down when Mandelini grabbed
the back of his shirt collar and said, "Stay. I want you here."
"But-but--"
"No buts. Come on!" said Mandelini, and strode
into the tower room, followed by Luna, Danya, and Drew, who was looking extremely
nervous. Mandelini felt a tiny pang of nervousness, but brushed it away and
called, "Er, Fyora? Can we have a word, please?"
"I'm right in here!" called a smooth, silky
voice, and the pet quartet followed it into a parlor, where Her Majesty the
Queen lounged on a comfy-looking Ultranova Sofa, shooting rubber bands at a
portrait of the Snow Faerie on the wall. Fyora quickly hid the package of rubber
bands under a cushion as the pets came in, and straightened up on the sofa.
Mandelini took a deep breath, and began to speak:
"Erm… Your Majesty, there is a problem. You
see, recently, I got this package in the mail. It contained a wish stick. I
was disappointed, of course, and I actually said out loud that I wished that
there was something else in the package. And also out of the package came...
a Battle Duck.
After that event, I knew that there was something
weird going on, but I didn't feel that it was weird enough to report. One time,
I really did try, I even came all the way to Faerieland, but you weren't here.
So I left.
But the next day at school, a girl I know, Hilary,
was being a total snob, and I wished that she would disappear. I didn't really
mean it, but she did, and that clinched it. We came to see you today, to see
if you know anything about this. So... do you?"
Fyora chuckled. "Well, Mandelini, I'm glad you
came to ME. I commend you for having the courage to tell ANYBODY, let alone
me. That is a very powerful piece of magic, and I'm very glad you reported it
to me."
Mandelini was all of a flurry. What does
she mean, I'm glad you told me!? She should be wondering what could have caused
this!
Fyora continued, "You see, my life here is very
boring. I rarely have much to do. While I was bored, a couple weeks ago, I invented
some new things, that I would sell. I needed some real Neopians that I could
test these on. So I chose you... because, you see, of all you've done to improve
Neopia. Money Tree Drives, Scam-Busting, that time you caught the Bank Robber,
you know the list! You just seemed like an upstanding citizen. So, I sent you
the wish stick. I figured you'd use it wisely--"
Mandelini was still confused. But slowly she
was starting to understand...
"YOU SENT ME THAT WISH STICK?!!?" she
screamed.
Fyora didn't bat an eye. "Yes, I did. But, to
ensure that you didn't overuse it, I did two things. One was, I made the item
expire after twenty uses. And two, I put a spell on it, one so that I could
always know what wishes the stick was granting. That way, I could always reverse
the magic, if it was too terrible." Mandelini was still not fully comprehending
this, but it sunk in quick enough. And, she thought, if Fyora knew about everything
the Stick had done, she knew about the Faerie Doll...
"So I guess you know about the broken doll,
huh?" Mandelini said in the most apologetic voice she could muster.
"Oh yeah. You are SO busted on this one,"
said the Faerie Queen. "But since you fessed up and apologized, I'll only charge
you half price!"
The End
(Author's note: This story was inspired by precious_katuch14's article
about wish sticks. If you have any questions or comments, Neomail me! I love
to get Neomail! Also, I'm really sorry if I took your Neopets name.)
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