With input from Banveri
When I first created Banveri, on the first day that Ixis became available,
the 30th day of Swimming, I had no idea that she would turn out to be such a
sleuth, or that she'd get us all into so much trouble. As you'll see, though,
she spent no time wreaking out havoc--er, excuse me, "pursuing the case," as
she calls it.
This is her story, exactly as she told me after it occurred. I shall defer
to her now...
Yeah, like Muas said, I was born on the 30th day of Swimming.
Now, that is a great month to be born in, because who doesn't like swimming?
Especially at the Mystery Island or in the Rainbow Pool... but that's another
story. Apparently, they don't like pets to sneak into the Rainbow Pool. Yeah,
like I was supposed to know that!
Anyway, the story I'm supposed to be telling
you involves my daring attempts to rescue poor, anguished faeries from the clutches
of some really evil people who, if they weren't working for Balthazar, sure
thought they were. It was a miracle I survived, really.
I first heard about this whole faeries-in-a-jar
thing from who else, my perfectly ancient older brother Klaue. Can you believe
he is almost two years old? But don't mention that to his face. Last time I
did, I had to hide out with Moon_Lee_ in the account that belongs to Muas' younger
brother for days. It wasn't fun.
Klaue is utterly obsessed with being the biggest,
coolest, strongest pet. He's a weakling, though. Some of my stats were better
than his when I was born. Anyway, he decided to try a faerie one day, and I
walked in on him just as he was releasing that poor fire faerie from her bottle.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" I demanded,
as I watched her flit away without blessing him. Serves him right.
He said a bad word and looked at me. "For your
information, I am doing something perfectly reasonable," he said snidely. "I
am asking a faerie to bless me. But she didn't, and it's your fault, you know."
"Since when is it my fault?!"
The argument just went on from there, and I needn't
burden you with my brother's silly retorts. The point is, I learned what happened
to faeries that were caught by Balthazar and others, and I didn't like it one
bit. (Nor do I like how Balthy keeps trying to snack on poor little petpets
in Extreme Herder!)
I asked Muas what I could do about it, and she
said nothing, because it's an accepted practice in Neopia. People do it because
the faerie gets off free after they let them out anyway. But what about when
the faerie isn't bought? Or if someone buys it just to sell it? It could stay
in there for months!
Whenever someone came over, I asked if they ever
used faeries. They seemed uncomfortable with the questions, which obviously
meant they were feeling guilty! I had to uncover the truth, you know. It was
really unfair of Muas to start locking me in my room when people came over!
One day though, a friend of mine said his owner
felt exactly the same way! Finally someone who agreed! I went to talk to that
guy and he thought I was too weak to do anything (silly man), but he told me
about these creeps. They pretended like Balthazar ordered them specifically
to get faeries for him, so it all seemed official and all, but they just took
the faeries and sold them, for lots of Neopoints. Can you believe it?!
Of course I had to stop that. I couldn't just
let them keep doing that!
I TRAPPED THEM!
Yeah! It was a good trap, too. Set up and everything.
I waited till I heard they were around, then I said I had seen some faeries
in our backyard, and when they got there, I put potato sacks over their heads!
Yup, Meridell potato sacks straight from the medieval land itself!
They didn't like it though. Nor did they come
to their senses. One of them used a fancy-schmancy lightning beam to incinerate
the bags (they were good sturdy bags too) and got free. Then...
THEY IXI-NAPPED ME!!
I think they figured they could make NP off me.
Or maybe they were just mad at me. But whatever they were thinking, they put
me in one of their sacks (not Meridell ones, ha-ha) and took me to this cave
with them. They kept talking about how "Balthazar would love that one," or "he'll
want to donate those."
But (this is where I save Neopia!) I managed
to sneak off, and I found where they were keeping the faeries. I let them all
go, every single one of 'em, even the Dark Faeries (because Muas says you have
to have balance of power, you can't be all bad or all good). They were very
very grateful, but I wasn't able to tell them that I needed help myself before
they flew off.
As you can imagine, though, a few hundred faeries
of all different colours, all flying out the main entrance of a cave, creates
really an amazing spectacle. The Balthy minions were left entranced as I snuck
along in the shadows--it's a good thing I don't stand out much!
When I got back, though, NOBODY believed I saved
Neopia. They all said I was a troublemaker who was just sneaking off, and for
all I knew, those people ran a legitimate magical business (ha!). But hey, sometimes
I gotta prove myself, so if it takes maybe going after Balthazar when he goes
after those petpets, or catching the Ghost Lion, or defeating somebody in a
war, so be it! I'm there! Super Sleuth!
And there you have it... Banveri's story, in her own words. She wasn't quite
truthful when she said "no one believed her," though--I did, and my other pets
did. It's just that Banveri has such an imagination, and a capacity for expressing
it, that for all I know they really were running a legitimate magical business
and Banveri set them back a few million NP. I'm going to have to watch her,
though; can't have her sneaking after any ghost lions or bounty hunters, can
we?
The End | 
