“Who stole the jewel?”
“I don’t know,” the Snowager admitted. He glanced
down at Bluey and Dragoon. “Someone took it and left. Where did you find it?”
“At the Money Tree,” said Bluey. “If Spirit and
Darkmoon touched it... where are they?”
“In the realm of the jewel,” said the Snowager,
mystically. “There is only one way to escape it, and it involves taking the
jewel to the world.”
“Just that?”
“No--you have to smash the jewel. But then you
have to get out quickly. Destroying the jewel will destroy the realm.”
“Oh--okay,” Dragoon said. “So, all we have to
do is get in, find our friends, and smash the jewel?”
“Yes,” said the Snowager. “But it may not be
easy to find your friends.”
“Tell me about it,” Dragoon muttered.
So the Snowager gave them a long lecture on how
to find Spirit and Darkmoon relatively quickly.
“Do you have the jewel with you?” the Snowager
finally asked.
“Yes,” said Dragoon. He took the fist-sized jewel
out of his pocket. He’d wrapped it in a dark cloth.
“Good. Whenever you’re ready, go.”
“Okay,” said Dragoon. “Ready, Bluey?”
“Uh--you’re sure we should do this?”
"It’s for Spirit and Darkmoon. Come on,
you’re a brave dragon, aren’t you?”
“Um, of course. Okay, then,” Bluey said nervously.
Dragoon laid Nikola’s jewel in the snow and carefully
unwrapped the cloth. “Thanks for everything, Mr. Snowager,” he said.
“Let me know how everything works out,” he said
with a nod. “Be careful.”
“On three,” said Bluey, trying to be brave. “I’ll
grab it before we go.”
“Okay.”
“One,” said Bluey.
“Two.” Dragoon closed his eyes.
“Three!” They said in unison. They touched the
jewel and Dragoon scooped it up.
Their white, snowy surroundings melted. It was
just as cold as before and they caught a glance at the Snowager gaping at them
before they were surrounded by a flash of soft light, teal-blue light like the
jewel. Then they had the sickening feeling that they were falling down, down,
down, into nothingness...then they saw a flash of blue, nothing more.
Uneasily, Spirit and Darkmoon had made their
way to a main hallway and found what they hoped was Nikola’s room.
On the door was a sign. It read: “Turn back,
Spirit. I know you’re here.”
Darkmoon blinked and stepped back, alarmed. The
letters shifted to read: “Turn back, Darkmoon. I know you’re here.”
“Aha,” said Spirit, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Clever indeed. This isn’t even a spell; it’s a programming trick.”
“A program?”
“Yeah. Remember that command, #VISITOR, that
shows your name when you view a petpage?”
“Oh, yeah,” Darkmoon said. “This must be similar.
She was trying to trick us into thinking she knew we were here.”
Spirit nodded and turned the crystal knob of
the blue door. It opened creakily and revealed a darkened room.
Darkmoon found a light switch and flicked it
on.
They were astonished. Here was one of the most
evil faeries in Neopia, and she had a simple bedroom. A large bed, a desk with
papers on it, a trash can and a window. All blue, the teal blue that they’d
come to expect in this world.
“Look at these,” Darkmoon said, shuffling some
papers. “They’re a list of all the Neopians trapped in here. It goes back nearly
two years.”
“Wow,” marveled Spirit, looking them over. He
pointed to two of the last names on the list. “Look! It’s us.”
“Hey, cool,” Darkmoon replied, glancing at it.
“If we can do this right, they won’t be on there any longer, though.”
Spirit moved on and found an old book covered
with dust. He blew on the cover, which read:
The Diary
of
Nikola,
a Water Faerie
1 BN-Y2
“ ‘BN?’ ” Darkmoon wondered aloud.
“Before Neopia,” Spirit explained. “Don’t you
see? This is Nikola’s diary! There’s no telling what might be in this!”
Spirit flipped through some pages. “Here’s a
spell to make an Everlasting Apple,” he said, astounded, “and there’s another
for making a Radish Bow work.”
“Nikola must have worked for the Faerie Queen,
making weapons for the Hidden Tower,” Darkmoon noted. “No wonder she could make
an entire world.”
Both of them glanced at a page and read a strange
entry, scribbled messily and stained with drops of water:
10 Storing, Y2
“Another night with no sleep. I can’t stop thinking, crying, screaming about
what Frank did to me. He promised we’d be together forever. Then he ran off
with that... that Jhudora...! I can’t take it. I’ll just finish the alternate
world spell I need to graduate and get my magic license. Then I’ll show him...
him and every other greedy jerk in Neopia. And maybe finally I can have the
respect and peace I deserve.”
Spirit snapped the diary shut. “Darkmoon, don’t
you see? She was heartbroken after Dr. Sloth dumped her and spitefully created
this world.”
“Wow,” Darkmoon commented. “Didn’t she have friends
to go and cry to?” He looked through some more papers.
Spirit opened the diary again. “According to
this, no,” he said, reading another entry. “She was shy and a loner. Nikola
hated Jhudora because she was one of the popular faeries that made fun of her.”
Darkmoon shook his head. “Girls are so hard to
understand.”
“It doesn’t say how to get out!” Spirit exclaimed
frustratedly, not noticing his brother’s comment.
“Shh!” urged Darkmoon. “I heard something.” He
listened but there was only silence.
“We’ve been here long enough,” Spirit whispered.
“Let’s go and search in another room.”
They quietly turned around and bumped right into
Nikola.
Darkmoon screamed and tried to flee, but Nikola’s
dainty arm grabbed for him and held him still. He felt cold and horrified, as
if he’d been touched by pure evil.
“Nikola, please,” said Spirit. He backed away,
terrified. Nikola blocked the exit. “We--”
To their astonishment, Nikola smiled. “I can
only do one thing with Neopian fools who disobey me.”
“Let us go!” Darkmoon said, struggling. Then
he whispered to Spirit, “Dantus gave us up. I knew it.”
Nikola glanced at him and smiled maliciously.
“No, he didn’t,” she replied coolly. “He was rather... reluctant to help me
find you.”
“Where is he?” Spirit demanded. “What have you
done to him?”
Nikola laughed. “Don’t worry; you won’t care
in a moment. Goodbye, Zafara and Gelert.”
With a wave of her wand, everything went dark.
To be continued....
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