Sanity is forbidden Circulation: 177,117,051 Issue: 324 | 4th day of Sleeping, Y10
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The Faerie Dilemma: Part Four


by shadow_sabre_

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Booville wandered towards her bed in her pajamas, rubbing her hair dry with one of the nice, luxurious towels they had here. Naellie was snoozing away on the other, her mouth stained from eating all of the special complimentary chocolates, and dozens of wrappers laid next to her. The girl grinned. The Kyrii had always had a special place in her heart because she was her first neopet, and she’d only latched there tighter with her cute antics, even though sometimes they got her in trouble.

      Nobody could ever replace her in the girl’s heart, just like nobody could replace her other neopet, Nolion. He was a shrewd young fellow, normally quiet, and he was quite brave, too. Booville thought of the time when they’d found their way on to Roo Island and accidentally walked into the old mansion where Count Von Roo slept, waiting for people to bite—um... play Deadly Dice with.

      “Where are we?” asked Naellie, who was still blue at the time. She shivered wildly, looking around with wide eyes as she clutched the girl’s leg.

      Meanwhile Booville was staring at a large stone box that rested in the center of the room, with its lid halfway off. Goosebumps spread across her skin and shivers walked in waves up and down her spine. All of a sudden her neck felt very vulnerable, and a bolt of fear struck her, not only for herself, but for her two pets surrounding her.

      Nolion blinked as he just stood there, and then gasped as he realized where they’d stumbled into.

      “Let’s get out!” Booville cried, and tore herself away from Naellie and to the door, grabbing the handle with a vice-like grip and shaking it like their lives depended on it. Well, it did...

      The thing just rattled menacingly and they all cried out with fear. All of a sudden, a cold chill filled the room, and the hair/fur/feathers rose up on the back of their necks.

      They weren’t alone.

      “Muahahaha!” shouted Von Roo, leaping out of nowhere and only feet from Naellie, who was shrieking for all it was worth.

      “Leave her alone!” Nolion growled, and leaped at the vampire, claws unsheathed and wings unfurled...

      Of course, it was only after the Eyrie had managed to pin Von Roo down and was about to give him a terrible beating that they all found out he had only meant to scare them. After a couple of shaky—losing—games, they left and for some strange reason decided never to go back to the island ever again.

      “Where is Nolion, anyway?” the girl asked herself, furrowing her eyebrows as she looked over to the door connecting the two rooms to each other. He’d been awful quiet for a while, and the girl knew that even in sleep he wasn’t quiet, tending to snore loud enough to wake her out of a dead sleep.

      Booville paused for a moment, and then plopped the towel on the bed, stopping first to clean up after Naellie and then tuck her underneath the blankets. She slowly walked over to the door, fearing that after coming up to AstroVilla, Rajani had somehow managed to sneak in after all. She shivered, her throat tightening up as her hand closed on the doorknob, and swung it open.

      The door hit the wall with a slight thud. The girl peeked around the corner and much to her relief, saw that nothing seemed to be destroyed. The thing that sent her heart reeling, though, was that her favorite Eyrie seemed to be missing.

      “Nolion?” she asked, hesitantly stepping into the room.

      Nobody answered.

      She walked forward and checked the small bathroom before turning to face the entire room. The curtains were open and looked as if they’d been cleaned recently, the Neovision set was off, and the carpet felt soft and warm underneath her feet. Everything was in place, except...

      A small piece of paper crinkled in her fingers as she picked it up and unfolded it. Her eyes seemed to get larger and larger as they took in each word, and as she read the last line, she gasped, fear mixing in with a little bit of anger. Why did he just rush off? Didn’t he think about what he was doing?

      “How could you do this, Nolion?” she asked to thin air as she ran off to her room, dropping the piece of paper on the floor.

      ~*~

      Neopia Central was bustling with activity, venders advertising their wares as they shouted at unsuspecting passerby, and actually frightening quite a few of them. Hardly anybody noticed the small, dark blue spaceship as it descended out of the skies, since the sight was pretty common.

      Shirin glanced out of the window fearfully as it landed on the ground with barely any jostling. She’d hardly been able to get out of Nolion the reason why he—they—had come down here, but it wasn’t really hard to guess why. As the door slid open, he strode out into the sunlight grumpily, not wanting her here at all.

      “Where are we going?” the white Shoyru asked, running after him and placing a hand on his shoulder.

      The Eyrie stopped. He hadn’t really thought about that. All his mind had been directed towards was getting here, and then meeting his owner. He hadn’t supposed that she’d magically appear in front of him, but he really hadn’t been focusing on the possibilities on where his owner would be.

      Would she be at their old neohome? Would she be on Terror Mountain, a place they had gone to frequently before they’d separated? Or, would she have gone to wherever she had gotten that strange item?

      “Follow me,” he said, and began to walk.

      ~*~

      Amaida pushed her way through the blizzard on Terror Mountain, striving to ignore the sting of the snow as it stung her skin and trying unsuccessfully to keep her wings from catching the wind, which was threatening to pull her back. So far as she’d travelled, she’d met a few ice Bori who’d been throwing snowballs and chunks in her direction, though all their throws had come up short.

      She’d received a neomail from Fyora claiming that there’d been information that people had spotted a strange looking earth faerie in this direction, and right now she was regretting the fact that she’d decided not to bring some snow shoes, instead trying to plow her way through the thick layer of snow with one of the basic shovels instead of a superior one. This one had managed to dump half of the snow in her way before she was able to throw it away anyway.

      Now her lungs were burning with fire, and she wondered briefly how many hit points she’d managed to lose. It was a good thing she’d brought several healing potions with her.

      A strange chanting sound began to be heard from the distance, and Amaida believed it was probably some of the natives doing their odd rituals. All of a sudden, there was a huge sliding sound, and a huge pile of snow found its way in front of her. She sighed, and began to work her way forward, but just as she was about to thrust the shovel in for a third time, something pulled her back.

      What the...? she thought, and looked behind her. Her tail was covered in a small pile of snow. As she pulled and yanked on it, she realized that unless she summoned up a huge amount of magic, there was no way she’d be able to escape without giving of her location to Rajani, if the faerie was indeed nearby. She kept on pulling until her shoulders were sore and her tail felt like it were about to fall off.

      Then she realized that the snow was starting to crawl up her tail.

      She wasn’t going to be any help to Fyora if she were smothered! A swell of power began to rise in her chest, rising from the desperation now beginning to fill her limbs. She had to get out of here, even if it meant revealing herself!

      A blast of magic flew out from her and hit the snow with enough force to send a bunch of the snow flying, making a huge circle around her. She opened her eyes to see the snow quickly rise up around her legs. It hadn’t worked? But that was a spell that even a faerie would be proud of!

      Panic enveloped her.

      “Good morning, Amaida,” said a familiar voice, as the Kougra futilely struggled to dig free. “How is life treating you?

      Rajani was staring down at her with contempt and superiority in her gaze, standing majestically only a few feet away and in full faerie regalia. Amaida glared back for all it was worth, her purple eyes blazing fiercely.

      “Very good, really,” she said calmly, as the snow climbed even further. “You?”

      The faerie grinned. “Fairly well, but what in Neopia would possess you to come here?”

      “I have a few errands.”

      “Well,” said Rajani in a surprisingly light way, “I suppose you won’t mind if I detain you for a few minutes.”

      She turned away, saying a magical word as she began to walk, and the snow actually began to push Amaida forward, tearing her feet away from the ground as they moved. Snow stung the Kougra even worse, and she wouldn’t be surprised if she woke up in the morning with her eyes red and puffy, if she lived that long.

      They travelled for a long time, and the sky had darkened slightly by the time anything different actually came into view. A large, stone cave rose up before them with ice sliding down the walls from cracks. As they came closer, two huge neopets slid out of the darkness, coming before the pair.

      “Ready the pool chamber,” ordered the earth faerie, her voice firm with command. “We have another addition to our group.”

To be continued...

 
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Other Episodes


» The Faerie Dilemma: Part One
» The Faerie Dilemma: Part Two
» The Faerie Dilemma: Part Three
» The Faerie Dilemma: Part Five
» The Faerie Dilemma: Part Six
» The Faerie Dilemma: Part Seven
» The Faerie Dilemma: Part Eight



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