"I know, I hurt my head," Hannah grumpily replied.
On the wall, there were six small buttons,
coloured purple, yellow, red, light blue, dark blue and green. They were arranged
in three rows, two columns, and I realized it MIGHT just be the way to get out.
"No, this," I said, "It might just be
how to get out!"
"How?" asked Illusen.
"I think each colour stands for a Faerie
-- purple for darkness, red for fire -- and they have an order -- like maybe
Jhudora's preferred order," I said.
"But there are two blues," said Illusen.
"Which is which?"
"I get it!" Illusen said. "But how do
we know it doesn't just lead to a worse trap?"
"How do we know it does?" I replied. Illusen
was not supposed to act like this.
"Besides, I haven't got my wand!"
"Your wand could be on the other side!"
Hannah replied, grumpily.
"But --"
"We're going to try," Hannah said firmly.
"Very well," Illusen said grumpily, "but
don't blame me if you die!"
"If we die, we won't be able to blame
anyone!" I yelled.
"ENOUGH!" Hannah yelled. "If Jhudora hears
you two, we'll die anyway."
I turned to face the buttons again.
"First, dark." I pressed the purple button.
"Then fire, I think. Because it could burn earth..." I pressed the red.
"Light, Water, Air and Earth," mused Hannah.
"What next?"
"I wish I knew more about my mum," I said,
"but I'll take Air. Because Water will heal her enemies." I pressed the cyan-coloured
button.
"Okay," said Hannah, "water next, because
she hates my mum and Light Faeries..."
I pressed the dark blue button.
"This is the hard part," I said, "which
does she hate more? Light Faeries, or Illusen?"
"I'll say me," Illusen said, "or maybe
she would have taken a Light Faerie."
"Okay," I said, "Light... Earth." I pressed
the last two buttons. The wall slid away to reveal -- another half of the room,
but much darker.
"THAT'S good," said Illusen sarcastically,
"I'd hate to think we worked that out for nothing."
Illusen walked over into the darker half
of the room -- and disappeared through the floor.
"Mum!" yelled Hannah.
"We need to follow her," I said.
"What? But what if we fall on top of Jhudora's
head?"
"We won't," I replied.
I stepped onto the black ground in front
of me. I felt myself fall, fall, fall, fall -
SPLASH!
I landed in the ocean, right next to Illusen.
Looking up, I could see the clouds of Faerieland hovering above my head -- the
closest one was Jhudora's Cloud, of course, but I could feel myself drifting
away, towards the Healing Springs.
SPLASH!
Hannah had landed, too.
"Hannah!" cried Illusen. "Are you okay?
Did you get hurt? How -"
"I'm fine, mum."
"Jhuisa, what was that?" Illusen's tone
had changed into an angry tone.
"A spell," I said, "that makes something
that isn't appear as though it is."
"You know an awful lot of dark magic for
someone who's supposedly good." Illusen said. I figured that Illusen still didn't
trust me.
"My owner's a Dark Faerie, remember?"
I reminded her.
"Exactly," Illusen replied.
"Right now, we are stuck in the middle
of the ocean. Not a good time to start a fight!" reasoned Hannah.
We started swimming, and after about half
an hour hour we found a boat headed to Mystery Island. We spent the last hour
drying out on the boat.
- - -
Mystery Island. The land of relaxation. Or, in our case, NO relaxation. Because
Illusen didn't have her wand, we had very little defence - and even less strength,
movement and power if Jhudora came to attack us. Illusen seemed to think that
I was hiding her wand.
"What are we going to do?" asked Hannah
crossly, after three hours of doing nothing.
"Leave HER behind," Illusen said angrily.
"That's NOT a real possibility," I said.
"Well, what is?"
Hannah looked at the sky. She knew another
Illusen/Jhuisa fight was going to happen soon.
"Going to my NeoHome, and finding your
wand."
"And how are we going to do that? We can't
just walk in and say, 'Hi Jhudora, don't mind us, we're just looking for my
wand.'"
"Wait ... we can ..."
"Yeah. You just want to help your stupid
mum imprison me in some stupid dungeon, never to see daylight again!"
"No, I'm NOT!" I yelled. "But if you are
just going to argue with everything I say, then you can leave, and we'll make
sure my mum disposes of your wand ... quickly."
"Look, mum," Hannah put in, "Jhuisa knows
Jhudora best out of the three of us. We should listen to her."
"Fine!" Illusen replied hotly. "What is
your plan, Jhuisa?"
"Well," I said, "my mum grounds me a lot."
"Good for her," Illusen mumbled.
"The whole REASON you don't like me is
because of my mum!" I angrily responded. "So why are you suddenly saying she's
in the right? She's got your wand!!"
"YOU GUYS!" yelled Hannah. "Stop arguing!"
"Anyway," I continued, "as I was saying
before Illusen rudely interr -"
"JHUISA!"
"Okay, okay. I could tell her she grounded
me, and forgot - she might not buy it, but she might -"
"Oh, very good," Illusen said sarcastically,
"So Hannah and I get to be kidnapped by Jhudora just because she might not think
you're grounded."
"MUM!"
"You have a better idea? If you do, I'm
all ears," I responded.
"What about we just drown the two of you
in Maraqua so we don't have to worry about Jhudora at all!" Hannah angrily shouted.
"Fine," Illusen snapped. "I have an idea,
but Little Miss Jhudora's Pet won't want to hear."
"Try me," I said. Illusen could at least
TRY to make an effort, couldn't she?
"Say we just walk in. But invisible. So
if we remain -- QUIET -- then she'll never know we're there, and we can just
get my wand out."
"Yeah, a wand flying itself out of Jhudora's
Cloud when it's not even a Wand of the Dark Faerie's got to be perfectly normal,
hasn't it?"
"Jhuisa, that's the best plan we've got
and besides we want to get her before she gets us so we're doing it," Hannah
said quickly.
"O-kay," I said, "but she's got good hearing."
- - -
Three minutes later...
Hannah, Illusen & I were all wearing Invisihats.
(We actually were not sure of the colour, as we didn't pay attention - and it
was also semi-invisible.)
Unfortunately, Jhudora was not happy -
she was throwing everything everywhere & almost knocked the Invisihat off Hannah's
head.
And then, it happened. Jhudora threw a
Poisonous Lollypop at Hannah, and her hat zoomed off her head and straight through
the window.
To be continued...
Author's Note: Uh-oh. Bad news. If Hannah goes, who'll break it up when Jhuisa and Illusen argue? Will they fight again? Actually, I can tell you the answer to that one already: YES. But what will happen to Hannah?
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