The Faerie Who Rebelled

      "What?" I asked, not bothering to look up from my book.

      "I went to the Tombola and I won!"

      "What did you win today?" I yawned. "Another Gross Burger?"

      Melinda laughed. "Would I be excited about winning a Gross Burger?"

      'Yes,' I thought. "No," I said.

      "Well, I won a Bottled Air Faerie!" Melinda clapped her hands.

      "Give it to Adrian," I said.

      Adrian is my older, annoying brother. He's a Fire Scorchio and trains a lot at the Mystery Island academy. Thank goodness. He's often away from home, either at the academy, battling or visiting the Healing Springs after battles. Melinda spends lots of Neopoints on him; bottled faeries, codestones, dubloons and weapons. He receives far more than I but I don't care, as long as I have my books.

      "He's away training. I thought you might like to be blessed for once?" Melinda said.

      I finally looked up.

      "Why would I want that?"

      "Well... " Melinda hesitated. "It's always nice to be made stronger or faster."

      "Not for me. I don't need to be."

      I looked back down. I was starting to become irritated. Shouldn't Melinda know that when I am reading, I like to be left alone and not interrupted?

      "Oh, come on, Minty, it'd be fun!"

      I sighed. When she was in a mood like this, she won't give up until she gets what she wants.

      "Fine." I stood up from my extremely comfortable position on my beanbag and took the bottled faerie. "But," I added, "Only if you let me be blessed in the privacy of my bedroom."

      Knowing Melinda, she'd probably want to paint the scene as I was being blessed for my first time. It's not dreadfully exciting. I've seen Adrian be blessed a gazillion times. He opens the bottle; a faerie flies out and decides to bless him because he set her free. As if bottled faeries aren't manufactured in some secret lab somewhere.

      I took the bottle upstairs and sat on my bed. I held the bottle up to my eyes and peered in, my breath misting up the side of the bottle.

      A tiny air faerie stared back at me, frostily. I was taken aback. Faeries weren't meant to be frosty. They were meant to be happy, willing to help, whenever it is needed.

      I glared back at the faerie. I stood up and said to it, "I don't want to set you free if you aren't going to be nicer," I huffed. I was about to step forward and place it on my desk when I tripped over a discarded roller-skate and the bottle flew into the air. It landed on the floor and cracked.

      And before I knew it, the air faerie had flown out.

      "Hey!" I shouted as it started to fly away. "You can't fly away without blessing me!"

      Much as I didn't want to be blessed, I wanted to get the most out of this as I could.

      The air faerie flew back to me, until she was inches from my face.

      "Technically, you didn't set me free," she pointed out. "You dropped me and I managed to fly out myself."

      "But I still dropped you, which means that I set you free, because if I hadn't dropped you then-"

      "Be quiet!" the faerie shouted, which considering her size, wasn't very loud.

      I, at the best of times, do not like being told to be quiet, especially not by a bad tempered little faerie.

      "Fine. Fly away." I smiled. "But I'll tell the faerie Queen."

      It was a guess but it worked. The little faerie froze. She scowled.

      "Blackmail!" she snapped.

      I grinned.

      "Bless me then."

      The faerie said nothing for a moment. Then she said, "How about we make a deal. Seeing as you didn't technically set me free, how about you do something for me and I will bless you."

      "That's not the point!" I snapped.

      "Take it or leave it." The faerie started to fly away.

      "Wait!" I thought for a moment. It wouldn't be that hard to do what this faerie wanted. It could be fun and an experience. I nodded. "OK..." I said, slowly. "I'll do it."

      The faerie smiled. I didn't like her smile.

      "Find my name."

      My mouth dropped open. How does she expect me, a little green Acara with no magical powers whatsoever, to find her name? There must be a zillion different air faeries out there. But although I might have been a lowly Acara, I was a stubborn Acara.

      "Fine," I said, through gritted teeth. "Could you give me one clue?"

      The faerie glared at me.

      I glared back.

      "Fine," she finally said. She cocked her hair to one side, her blonde hair falling over her face. "The first of my name is the other half of the letter 'O' and the end of my name is a line of things."

      I pondered for a while. The other half of 'O'? But there wasn't another half. This faerie was clever. I couldn't possibly beat her. But I wouldn't give up.

      I saw the faerie staring at me, an evil grin on her face, as she combed her hair with her tiny fingers.

      "Could you quit looking at me?" I snapped.

      "I could..." the faerie said, slowly. "But I won't."

      "Just turn around!" I replied. I couldn't remember the last time I was this angry and I didn't even know why. But this faerie made me feel inferior. 'Get a grip on yourself, Minty!' I thought.

      "Fine, your majesty!" The faerie flew down and huffily sat down on the floor, her back turned.

      "Don't speak to me like that, OK?" I said. Then realisation dawned on me. The other half of 'O'. OK. The other half of O was K!

      I laughed silently to myself.

      But I still had the other half to go. A long line of things. Hmm... what was in a long line? An army of angry Meepits? K-Meepits? No, that couldn't possibly be her name.

      I was starting to feel defeated when the faerie piped up, "You'll never get it! Just give up."

      I scowled. As if I'd let a tiny midget like this faerie beat me!

      What's in a line? I gazed around her room, hoping for inspiration.

      "Minty!" Melinda called up. "Have you finished your blessing?"

      "Uhh..." I called back. "Umm... no. I'll be down in a minute. Why don't you go and do the shopping?"

      I didn't want Melinda barging in.

      "OK. I might as well. Do you want anything?"

      I sighed. Why was she always getting in my way? "Umm... get me some... umm... organic green apples!"

      "OK, I'll write it on my list."

      I sighed again. Melinda has a bad habit of writing lists and then losing them. She has lists for everything; shopping, household chores and -

      Lists! A long line of things!

      The faerie was grinning at me again.

      But this time I was grinning back.

      K-list? That wasn't a proper name. K-list. Kay-list? Kay-lis?

      "CAYLIS!" I yelled.

      The faerie looked shocked. "How did you guess?"

      "Clever, I suppose." I smirked.

      Caylis crossed her arms.

      "Isn't Caylis the name of that Maraquan Aisha?" I asked.

      "Yeah. Do you want to be blessed or not?"

      I nodded, smugly.

      The faerie waved her hands and then a blinding white light flashed before my eyes. When I opened them again, no one was there and I was left alone.

      Last I heard, there was a grumpy faerie called Caylis terrorising Faerieland.

      I feel guilty for setting her loose upon the world, upon those unsuspecting innocent faeries, just so I could have improved intelligence. A waste, really. My intelligence was already as high as it could go.

The End