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A BEDROOM - Believe it or not, this flittering faerie is possibly the hardest
Neopian to catch up with. She’s more shy and elusive than the Shadow Usul, although
much prettier to look at. When I first got the idea of interviewing her for the
Neopian Times, I searched everywhere for her, but I couldn’t find neither wing
nor wand of her. It eventually cost my Zafara a tooth before I could even find
her to ask for an interview. I’m sorry, Rhapsodia, it’ll grow back eventually!
I hope…
Well, the Tooth Faerie came zooming into our Neohome almost before the tooth
was even out of Rhapsodia’s mouth, snatching it right out of my startled Zafara’s
paw.
“I’ll take that,” she said briskly, and her voice, I noticed, was much deeper
than the average faerie’s. Then she noticed the blood on the tooth and the small
hammer held loosely in my hand, and…well, you can guess the rest.
After we managed to calm her down and convince her that a) I wasn’t mistreating
my neopet, and b) We weren’t knocking out teeth just to get her Neopoints (“I’m
not the Money Tree, you know!”), she was much nicer. She consented to do a brief
interview with us, since we’d gone through such effort to find her anyway. So
we settled down in the living room, and I got Rhapsodia a bag of ice for her
jaw, and a notebook to take notes in.
We started off the interview with easy questions: What’s your favorite colour?”
“Purple.” Fyora would be thrilled. Then we progressed immediately on to the
hard ones: “How many dentist smocks are there in Neopia?”
“2,932”. After that, we eventually settled right into the middle.
“What’s it like to be the Tooth Faerie?”
“Busy, it’s always very, very busy. And a plague on that tooth-rotting Neocola,
as well! Drink diet Neocola, I beg of you! Diet!” I looked guiltily at the sugar-filled
Neocola in the cooler next to me, and rushed on to the next question.
“Do you ever get tired of people saying you don’t exist, or telling their Neopets
that you’re make-believe?” That got a bit of a smile out of her. Brushing her
electric-blue hair out of her face, she considered for a minute before she replied.
“Well, it’s quite an experience to show up to collect a tooth and have the
door slammed in your face because someone thinks they are imagining you. I’m
sure the Easter Cybunny has it much worse, though.”
“Oh… here’s something I’ve always wondered. How do you manage to get enough
Neopoints to pay for all the teeth you collect? Do you get a salary for collecting
them, or do you do it for free? And why do you collect teeth, anyway?”
“Easy, easy!” she said with a laugh, holding up both hands and gesturing me
to slow down with the questions. “I’m just like everyone else here, I have to
play games every day to keep enough Neopoints to give to the pets. I do get
a small salary as the official Tooth Collector, but it’s barely enough to pay
for what I give to the pets.” She reached down and ruffled the soft fur on Rhapsodia’s
head affectionately, and I noticed a strangely pearly, tooth-shaped ring around
her index finger. “And as for why I collect teeth… well, I guess somebody’s
got to do it! Otherwise they’d just be laying around, crowding up the Money
Tree and getting tossed around and broken everywhere. Actually, if you want
the full reason why I collect teeth, you should read my autobiography, The Tooth
Faerie Book. And if you buy a copy of it, it’ll help me get up the Neopoints
to keep collecting teeth!”
“So… you wrote a book about yourself? Why?” Her caramel eyes brightened happily;
apparently the book was something she was very proud of.
“At first I just started jotting down my favorite pets to visit… little Timmy
the Tuskaninny was always one of my favorites… but then I started writing down
what exactly it was like to be the Tooth Faerie, and my reasons for starting
in the dental industry. Eventually I got a fair amount of writing done, and
Fyora pulled a few strings and got my book published! Isn’t that amazing?”
“Yep! That’s awesome! So do you get a lot of appreciation for the work you
do as the Tooth Faerie?”
“Well, kind of. There are a lot of people like you, who go out of their way
to make my job more fun…although I’ve never seen someone quite as desperate
for an interview as you,” she said lightly, glancing at the bloodied tooth she
still held in one delicate hand. “On the other hand, there are a lot more who
just assume that I am another Random Event, and not even a real faerie at all!”
Her transparent wings buzzed together against her back, sounding like a swarm
of angry wasps.
“Oh dear, that’s awful! How do you handle that?”
“There’s not really much I can do about it. I usually don’t have the time to
tell them off, especially not when I’m on the job. All I can do is hope that
they will read my book and realize that I am just as much a living being as
they are.” She still looked angry, and I quickly steered the conversation back
onto safer ground.
“So what’s it like having your own items named after you? Like the Tooth Faerie
Snowglobe, or Trading Card?” The Tooth Faerie grinned gleefully at me again,
the gauzy blue-white material of her sleeves rustling as she gestured merrily.
“Oh, it’s wonderful! There’s nothing quite like flying into a Neohome and seeing
a snowglobe with yourself in it…although I have to admit, I nearly dropped a
tooth the first time it happened, because it startled me so much! It’s kind
of odd as well, seeing yourself in a little glass globe, or a little plastic
card, though.”
“How do you know when a neopet is about to lose a tooth?” I asked her curiously.
“Ah! That’s my little secret, dear… if I told you, then before you know it,
everyone would be doing it, and I’d be out of a job!” I couldn’t help but look
startled, and she laughed at me.
“Oh, alright. It’s not really a secret, anyway.” She held up her hand, showing
the ring I’d noticed earlier. “It’s something Kauvara made for me. I used to
have to talk to every Neopian owner to find out if their pet had loose teeth,
but then she made me this ring…it glows whenever someone’s about to lose a tooth.
I still have to figure out where, though.” She glanced lovingly down at it,
giving me time to examine it as well. It was just a small little ring in the
shape of a tooth, with roots that wrapped delicately around her slim finger.
It was also glowing a pale, luminescent white. She must have noticed as well,
because she hopped up off of my couch and picked up her bag of teeth to leave.
I looked down at my sheet of questions I’d prepared for her. I’d asked all
of them already, but there was still so much that remained a mystery about this
elusive, mostly unappreciated Neopian. There was a few minutes of silence as
I stared at the faerie standing calmly in my Neohome, and the faerie stared
absently back, checking to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything.
“There’s just one more thing I’d like to ask before I let you get back to your
work,” I said shyly. She looked up again, glamorous as any Beauty Contest winner.
“Yes?”
“Um… well… is your hair naturally that color?” I burst out, gesturing at her
celestial blue locks. I have to admit, I’d always been curious about that.
“Well, actually…” She leaned towards me with a conspiratorial smile on her
cranberry lips, and for a minute I held my breath and wondered what would happen
if she said no. “Yes!” And with that, the strangest faerie I have ever met zoomed
right past me so closely that her wingtip clipped my ear, and darted out my
window into the brilliant Neopian sunlight.
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