Skeithena and Luperusse had no weapons, and had a fierce
Aisha in front of them, but there was one tiny ray of hope for them, they knew.
Jhudora hadn't locked the door. Luperusse tried
to stifle a laugh at Jhudora's forgetfulness. A Neopia-famous villain forgetting
to lock her prisoners in!
Luperusse and Skeithena exchanged glances, and
ran out of the door as fast as they could. Jhudora climbed upon Fluffy's back,
and cackled, "Hah! You two stupid young NeoPets! You think you can run from
us, eh?"
The ‘two stupid young NeoPets' didn't bother
to reply or look back, and just ran as quickly as their legs could carry them.
"Quickly, to the Hidden Tower!" cried Skeithena.
"There we can take those items and fight Jhudora and Fluffy off!"
***
Soon, Skeithena and Luperusse arrived in the Hidden Tower. The Faerie Queen
Fyora wasn't in the tower. She's probably gone away for a meeting, or something,
decided Skeithena. They were way ahead of Jhudora and Fluffy, and could hear
Jhudora's shouts.
"Hmph! I should have known that Baby Aishas
can't climb stairs properly! Hurry up, Fluffy, or else we won't be able to catch
those two stupid NeoPets by the time it's the Month of Sleeping!"
Back at the Hidden Tower, Luperusse and Skeithena
were looking at the weapons on the shelves.
"Quickly!" hissed Luperusse, helping himself
to an Ice and Fire Blade. "Go on, Skeithena, don't just stand there gaping,
get a weapon!"
"Okay, okay," muttered Skeithena, taking a Air
Faerie Sword from one of the shelves, "calm down."
"How do you expect me to calm down when - " the
two spun around, and saw Jhudora at the stairway, her Dark Faerie Wand in hand,
and Luperusse gulped, "when Jhudora's here!"
Jhudora smiled, and waved her Dark Faerie Wand.
The purple blast of light zapped towards Luperusse, who skilfully defended it
with his Ice and Fire Blade. The blast bounced off the flat of the Blade towards
Skeithena. She quickly dodged it with her lightning speed, but not without dropping
the Air Faerie Sword! The Sword shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.
Suddenly there was a flash of white light and
the Uber-Air Faerie appeared.
"Hidden Tower thieves! Jhudora and her servants
coming to steal Faerie treasures while Fyora is away giving quests out to Neopians!
I am here, for I could feel one of my most treasured weapons breaking, all the
way from my NeoHome!" she cried in her soft voice. "Do you have any idea
just how fragile my Sword is?"
"Sorry, Uber-Air Faerie," said Skeithena sadly.
"I'm really, really sorry, ma'am."
"Quiet, accomplice of Jhudora! Now, Jhudora,
what do you have to say for yourself, before I call all the other Faeries here?"
"I would just like to say, that, uh, this new
type of Mutant Aisha, and, erm, her friends dragged me here. They were, er,
trying to...t-to frame me!" she said, stuttering quite a bit. "Honest!" she
added.
The Air Faerie nodded, showing no emotion. She
clapped her hands together and called, "Uber-Faeries of Neopia! Come!"
There was a flash of pink light. The Faerie Queen
appeared, tossing back her lovely hair. She had a can of Achyfi in her hand,
which Skeithena immediately assumed was one of the quest items that she had
asked for.
There was a flash of green light. The Earth Faerie
came, holding several berries of some sort.
There was a flash of blue light. The Water Faerie
arrived, looking quite grumpy and muttering that there were "many needy Neopians
were at the Healing Springs waiting for her".
There was a flash of yellow light. The Light
Faerie emerged, staring at Jhudora, Fluffy, Skeithena and Luperusse in shock.
"My word, Hidden Tower thieves! How, oh how could this be!"
There was a flash of red light. The Fire Faerie
materialised, with a fireball in her hand. "I am ready to attack these thieves
if need be, Queen Fyora!"/p>
All four of the Uber-Faeries began jabbering
away noisily.
Fyora waved her wand, trying to restore order.
"Silence!" she called.
None of the Faeries listened to Fyora, as they
usually did. They were too excited, and just kept chattering.
The imperious Faerie Queen wasn't too used to
being ignored. "SILENCE!" she screamed, and the Uber-Faeries instantly became
their usual obedient selves, and discontinued their talking.
"Now that you have finally stopped your
talking," began Fyora, putting very heavy emphasis on the word finally,
"and are listening to me, I would like to hand this speech over to the Air Faerie,
who will tell you exactly what she saw and exactly what happened."
The Air Faerie nodded to Fyora. "Well, I can
tell you exactly what I saw, but not exactly what happened, because I came here
just a few minutes before I summoned all of you. All right, I was in my NeoHome
enjoying some Fruity Faerie Fingers when I felt that one of the treasures that
I had created had been broken! I knew that it must have been my Air Faerie Sword,
so I immediately flew here. When I did, I saw Jhudora, and these Hidden Tower
thieves, a Skeith, a Lupe, and an Aisha! Jhudora here said that the NeoPets
had dragged her here and were trying to frame her...so, what do you think, Queen
Fyora?"
"Okay, my Faerie folk. So, who thinks that Jhudora
is lying?"
All of the Faeries raised their hands.
Jhudora pulled at the Uber-Dark Faerie's arm.
"Dark Faerie, my friend, how could you do this to me?"
The Dark Faerie glanced at Jhudora. "I'm not
your friend anymore, Jhudy. I may be a Dark Faerie, but Dark
Faeries aren't all bad. I'm a friend of Jhudora, you know - you'll have
to get out of this trouble yourself. I'm not helping you anymore."
"So all of us, including me, think that Jhudora
the Dark Faerie is lying!" Fyora continued. "Now, who thinks that these three
NeoPets are innocent?"
The Uber-Water Faerie spoke up. "The Aisha and
Lupe are mutated in an odd way, the way Jhudora looks; they must be servants
of Jhudora herself, and have come to help her steal the Air Faerie's Sword and
the Ice and Fire Blade. However, I think that the Skeith deserves a chance.
Let us see if what she says is a lie or not, and then let us judge whether the
three are Jhudora's friends, or foes."
The other Faeries nodded in approval. "Water
Faerie, you are right," Fyora agreed. "Skeith! What do you have to say for Jhudora,
this Lupe and this Aisha?"
"Your Majesty Fyora, my name is Skeithena. My
brother, the Lupe here, is called Luperusse. The Aisha is called Fluffy. Fluffy,
Luperusse and I have thwarted Jhudora's evil plans a few times, and Jhudora
wanted revenge, so she kidnapped us, and made Fluffy an evil Aisha. We escaped
from her Cloud, so she rode on Fluffy and followed us here. We thought that
if we borrowed an item here, we could defend ourselves from Jhudora."
"Oh, really?" said Fyora. "So, young Skeithena,
how did Jhudora turn this Fluffy into an evil Aisha? And why does Luperusse,
supposedly your brother, look mutated like Fluffy does?"
Skeithena smiled faintly. "It is a rather long
story, but I don't think I need to tell you. It is all in Faerie Berry Recipes,
page one hundred and eighty-seven. Oh, and check page one hundred and eighty-nine
for more information. Fluffy can easily be put back to normal, if I have the
right items."
"Okay, okay! I don't need to read a book to see
that your story is true..." said Fyora. "But I will use a spell which won't
let you go home until you give me back an Air Faerie Sword or seven million
Neopoints, and turn Fluffy back to normal! I'm very, very sorry about this,
my young NeoPets, but it goes like this in the Hidden Tower: You break, you
buy! Oh yes, turning Fluffy back to normal shouldn't be hard, since you say
she can ‘easily be put back to normal'..." With that, Fyora and all her Uber-Faeries
disappeared.
"Seven million NP!" groaned Luperusse. "Seven
million! How are we ever going to get that much? We have to get seven million
Neopoints and make Fluffy her normal self! What is that Fyora
thinking? It's easy to say, and harder to do - especially with Jhudora on our
backs!"
"Especially with me on your backs," echoed Jhudora
with a sneer. She was still sitting on Fluffy's back. "Well, Luperusse, I do
happen to have an Air Faerie Sword in my Cloud, from a Quest that one of the
Neopians did. I might decide to give the Sword to you."
Skeithena narrowed her eyes. "Even if you give
it to us, we'll have to pay a price, Jhudora. I know what you're like."
"You're right, young Skeithena! Now, listen carefully.
I will give you the Air Faerie Sword but only if one of you--either of you--eat
a Jhudaberry Omelette and be my slave!"
"Oh yes? And how do we know that you'll keep
this promise of yours?"
Jhudora cackled evilly. "I will. It's your only
chance to get back home, anyway..."
To be continued... | 
