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“She disturbed me while I was preparing an important potion!”
“She nearly injured my Lupe!”
“She is a total disgrace to all fire faeries
everywhere!”
Fyora the Faerie Queen could not take any more
of these complaints from the residents of Neopia, and the faeries themselves.
She just had to confront the mischievous faerie herself.
“Bring Farrah over to me,” she said loudly. Two
air faeries came in, holding a younger, smaller, fire Faerie. They set her before
the queen, and zoomed out the door.
Fyora stood up, and examined the young faerie
from head to toe. She scratched her head, and called in the rest of those present
in the castle, namely the Space Faerie, the Negg Faerie, Jhuidah, Taelia, the
Soup Faerie and even the Tooth Faerie. They huddled and began to speak among
themselves.
“She must be punished for her actions!”
“Don’t be so hard on the little one. She means
well.”
“Ha! And by meaning well she’d go around playing
pranks on helpless Neopians everywhere!”
“But it’s in her nature. Fire Faeries are naturally
mischievous.”
“You rarely see Fuhnah or the other Fire Faeries
doing such nonsense, do you? Do you?”
Finally, they all looked up from where they were
huddling. “Farrah, we have finally decided your sentence for exhibiting such
un-Faerie like behavior,” proclaimed the Space Faerie proudly.
“We have proposed that you be watched over by
Fuhnah, in order to make sure you do not make any more mistakes, and we just
sent out a message to her,” added the Soup Faerie.
The young Fire Faerie gasped. “Me? Have a babysitter?
No way! I’m old enough to take care of myself! Can’t you just let me be? All
Fire Faeries behave in this manner!”
“Ah, but a real faerie, no matter what element
or job, knows when to stop making shenanigans and get serious,” sighed Jhuidah.
“I myself like to enjoy the beach at Mystery Island, but the Cooking Pot must
come first. I do not wish to see Neopians waiting feverishly in line with their
ingredients.”
Suddenly, amidst all the discussion, a beautiful
Earth Faerie flew into the window, clutching a scroll.
“Illusen!” exclaimed Fyora. “What a pleasant
surprise! Care to help?”
Illusen shook her head. “No, I merely bring a
message to all of you from Fuhnah. She is too busy to attend to this young faerie.
The other faeries are preoccupied too, with giving out quests and other such
important matters.”
“They are such busybodies,” grumbled Farrah.
“Looks like I won’t have a faerie-sitter!” She started for the door of the castle,
but the Earth Faerie blocked her path.
“Hold it right there,” she said. “I haven’t finished
reading out Fuhnah’s message to all of you. She has decided to send another
Fire Faerie along to carry out your orders.”
“Excellent work, Illusen,” said Fyora. “Our plan
shall come into action, and soon Farrah will be formed into a refined, gentle
and kind Fire Faerie.”
***
“Why are we here again?” asked Farrah grumpily. “I want to see some action!”
The older faerie groaned. How did I get myself
into this mess in the first place? Liana thought to herself. She had been
sent by Fuhnah to take her place, and now the two Fire Faeries were in Neopia
Central’s marketplace, just beside the Soup Faerie’s hut.
“Farrah, we are here to help the Soup Faerie
with her duties,” answered Liana calmly. “While learning how to be a good faerie,
one must learn the virtue of generosity that is manifested in every faerie individual.”
“Say what?” replied the young faerie absently.
“You should learn how to be kind in order to
be a good faerie!” Liana rephrased.
Liana knocked on the door, and a cheery-looking
faerie wearing an apron and holding a spoon opened the door. “Hello Farrah,
and hello Liana! Thanks for helping me out… business here seems to be booming!
If I had a Neopoint for every Neopian that entered the Soup Kitchen everyday,
I’d be rich! Not that I care about cash, though… So anyway, you two can mix
up the new concoction I’m trying today. It has no name yet though, and the recipe
is on top of your respective pot. Now, I’d better be going, there’s a long line
of needy individuals to attend to!”
Liana and Farrah went to the back of the kitchen.
There, over the large cooking pot, was a long list of all the ingredients needed.
Surrounding everything else were cabinets and shelves filled with food, spices
and other things for cooking. “We’d better begin,” said Liana, picking up a
spare wooden spoon.
***
All of a sudden, the Soup Faerie called out all of a sudden, “Liana! I need
your help! The fire under my pot has gone out, and I can’t serve cold soup!”
The older Fire Faerie stood up. “Farrah, please
continue stirring the ingredients. You already saw where the list is located,
so it should be easy for you.” And with that, she flew off, leaving the young
faerie alone in the kitchen.
Farrah reluctantly did as she was told. Just
several seconds later, she yawned and said to herself, “No one will notice the
difference if I alter the concoction, so I’ll change a couple of ingredients.
Besides, it’s like helping out… by improving the soup faerie’s recipe!” Instead
of tossing in Orange Chicken, she added some Beefy Broccoli. Baby tomatoes were
stirred into the concoction in place of mushy peas. Farrah continued substituting,
eliminating and adding portions until the two faeries came back.
“Is it done yet?” asked the Soup Faerie. “I may
finally get to name it! But first…” She got her trusty wooden spoon, scooped
some of the young faerie’s creation and brought it to her lips. Farrah and Liana
both held their breaths.
“Why, this has got to be…” the Soup Faerie began,
“the most disgusting, vile concoction I ever tasted! You can’t mix Pan Galactic
Gargle Slushies with gruel and Dark Nova pops! Get out of my kitchen! I never
want to see you two near it ever again!” The pair quickly flew out of the little
cottage before she could hurl her wooden spoon at them.
“Farrah, what did you do?” asked Liana. “Fuhnah
is going to hear about this, and you could be in big trouble, especially if
Fyora gets word of this! After all, she and the soup Faerie are good friends!”
“I was only trying to help,” sniffed Farrah.
“Okay, I switched most of the stuff. But I thought it would make things all
better!” Farrah started crying.
Liana put her arm around the young faerie. “You
could have at least asked us if it was okay to change anything. If you only
did that, none of this would have happened.” She sighed and then turned to Farrah,
who was crying a storm. She took one look at Liana and dashed off.
“Farrah, wait!” she called as she followed her
little companion.
“Don’t even bother, Liana,” sobbed Farrah. “I
can’t do anything good, even if I want to, which I do! Even if my intentions
are good, even if I don’t pull any pranks! It was hard, Liana. It was really,
really hard for me to control myself. I had wanted to boil away the Soup Faerie’s
soup and make up some tall tale, or switch the salt with sugar! And now all
my hard work being good was for nothing!” She threw up her hands and began crying
again.
“But Farrah…” replied Liana worriedly.
“But what?” screamed Farrah.
“Farrah, you are hovering next to a trap!” yelled
Liana, pushing the young faerie aside. However, just as Farrah was safe from
the trap’s clutches, Liana tumbled right into it. A large Lupe suddenly came
into view, an evil look in his eyes. He picked up Liana by the wings and shoved
her into a small bottle. Cackling with glee, he put his trap away and set off.
“Balthazar…” whispered Farrah from behind a small
leaf. “He’s got Liana and I’ve got to save her!” She came out from her hiding
place and decided to follow him. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel the presence of
another potential catch as Farrah silently flew behind him.
At last they got to a small hut—Balthazar’s lair.
She ducked behind a dusty bowl when the Lupe turned around, and continued to
watch his every move.
***
After what seemed like forever, Balthazar entered a small door beside his fireplace.
That was Farrah’s cue to get out and search the small hideout for the Fire Faerie.
She came across a small bottle with a reddish glow in it, sitting on a table.
Beside it were a few more bottles containing more faeries.
“Liana!” whispered Farrah with triumph and joy.
She took another look at the door Balthazar had entered, and suddenly felt frightened,
for she didn’t know when he would come out. Then she was struck with an idea.
Farrah found a small stool next to the table, and pushed it toward the door,
blocking it.
“At least I performed a little prank for good,”
she thought. She flew back to the bottles of faeries and one by one, burnt the
corks sealing the bottles off.
“Farrah, you did it! You saved us all!” said
Liana, hugging the young faerie tightly. The rest of the faeries cheered and
clapped, but all of a sudden there was a clicking noise.
“Balthazar might come out, I don’t know how strong
he really is,” said Farrah frantically. “Let’s get out of here!” She burned
a hole in the wall and every faerie flew out of it.
***
“So let me get this straight,” began Fyora, looking at the faeries Farrah had
saved yesterday, “Farrah saved all of you? She is the faerie I once reprimanded
for being a prankster and not being serious? Well, I must say, I underestimated
her.”
The Faerie Queen pulled out a medal from her
pocket. “I knew this would come in handy,” she muttered to herself. Then she
pinned it on Farrah, beaming happily. “I must say, you are one of the most improved
faeries I have ever seen in a long time! How did you do it?”
“I had help,” Farrah replied. “I had help from
one of the best fire faeries around!” She put an arm around Liana. “Liana, this
looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship!”
The End
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