Jhudora's Revenge: Part One

Vendette and Innocenza returned home to a happy owner who finally made peace with Vendette. They stayed together as a happy family and Vendette returned to the Haunted Woods to thank Edna, who was still cranky, but she welcomed Vendette back and his family. They decided, together, that they would move to the Haunted Woods and visit Edna regularly, just not while she was open for quests.

      However, you already know their story, but let’s not forget Jhudora. She vowed to have revenge, and Jhudora doesn’t make a vow lightly. Vendette and Innocenza had forgotten about her vow quickly, but she had never forgotten about them, and certainly not Vendette. She thought of him every time she looked in a mirror or happened to notice her necklace. She started planning and laying out an elaborate trap, but in the time that it took for her to complete the plan, Vendette had almost completely forgotten about Jhudora and what he had done to her.

      Some mornings Jhudora would awake and work on her plans. On other mornings she was still awake from the night before. She only rested if she wasn’t capable of remaining conscious. She turned away almost every pet that came to her asking for a quest unless she desperately needed an item.

      “I will not allow that horrible rotten Kougra to remain unpunished. And his sister shall pay as well. I should also make their owner pay too. I vowed to have revenge and I will follow it through!”

      Jhudora laid out her plans and looked them over while she muttered, “Vendette will pay, Vendette will pay” over and over.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

      Below her and a bit to the west, Vendette was watching his owner once again skip around merrily.

      “Oh, Vendette, I’m just so glad that you’re back home! Though I wouldn’t blame you if you were still mad at me. I just feel so awful that I did what I did. I’m really sorry.”

      Vendette laughed good naturally. “It’s fine, I forgive you. It all worked out in the end so I don’t care. I mean, Innocenza is royal, I’m Darigan, and Edna had some help for a few years. Believe it or not, I missed you some of the days that I was gone. I’m just glad that Edna let me help her.”

      “Speaking of Edna, want to go visit her? I think she’s closed up her quests by now.”

      Vendette laughed again. “Sure. Think Innocenza would mind if we went without her?”

      “I don’t think so. I’m just glad that she finally found a friend who shares her same interests. She’s not conceited or anything, as you know, but most of the pets here have hobbies that are not at all the same as Innocenza’s.”

      Vendette laughed yet again as he thought of the time one of Innocenza’s first “friends” went to their house and asked if were so poor that they couldn’t afford to be mutant or Halloween.

      Vendette and his owner approached Edna’s and saw that she was closing up her quests for the day. Vendette jogged up to her and asked, “Hey, Edna. Want some help cleaning up?”

      Edna stared at him with her head cocked to one side, then she shrugged. “As long as you can remember where everything goes, I guess I don’t care.”

      Vendette laughed as he started dragging boxes around. “I couldn’t forget if I wanted to.”

      Edna also chuckled lightly, but she immediately went back to work.

      After Vendette was done helping Edna, he and his owner talked with her a bit before they realized they should probably get home to make dinner for themselves and Innocenza.

      When Innocenza got home, neither Vendette or her owner were there, so she figured that they were visiting Edna and she waited for them while she read books in her room.

      As Vendette and his owner walked along, they talked about their visit with Edna.

      “Can you believe that Edna actually has so many items?”

      Vendette laughed. “Trust me, I can believe it. She gets SO many quests each day. People keep hoping for her avatar, and they’ll buy almost anything in an attempt to get it. I’ve seen her with more stuff before, actually. I haven’t explored her whole tower, but I’d bet the whole thing is filled with stuff.”

      His owner nodded. “I’m sure that you remember, she had you working pretty hard.”

      Vendette nodded. “That’s true, she did, but it’s no big deal.”

      They continued chatting until they arrived at their neohome, not too far from Edna’s castle, where they saw Innocenza’s bike on the porch so they knew that she was home.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

      Jhudora flew around her private library, rage accenting every hiss that she emitted in her anger.

      “Two pets, why is it so hard for me to find two blasted pets?! It’s almost as if someone or something is hiding them!”

      Realization overtook Jhudora’s eyes as her face broke out into a huge grin. “Then I bet that someone is hiding them, but who? Who could possibly want to hide a brat of a Darigan Kougra and his brat of a royal Aisha sister... The only people that can hide others from me are Fyora, Illusen, and Glitzern. But why would they hide those annoying brats from me? They have nothing to gain. Wait a minute! I forgot Edna!”

     Jhudora smacked herself in her forehead with the palm of her hand. “Of course it’s Edna! That’s who the brat Kougra stayed with, so she’d be the one to blame!!”

     Jhudora stopped her flying and sat in a dark purple leather chair with accented lime edges. She was seething violently as she stared up at a picture of a royal Aisha with unusually blue eyes and a light violet skin, plus as a smile that seemed infectious. Her dress was dark blue with pale blue edges and designs on the fabric. As she glared at the painting, Jhudora whispered to the girl, “Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you, Addieana. I don’t care how much Glitzern tried to protect you. I will still find you, and then you will lead me to your parents.”

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

      Innocenza looked up from her book to see her brother and owner walking into the room. “Hey guys. How’s Edna doing? As crabby as usual?”

      Innocenza chuckled lightly as her brother pretended to grimace as he nodded.

      Veritas, their owner, looked at Innocenza with a hint of admonishment. “Now don’t be mean to Edna; she saved you, essentially.”

      Innocenza was about to apologize when she saw her owner’s eyes sparkle. “You little rat! In that case, I won’t tell you who I met today!”

      Vendette muttered good naturally. “Another pet who thinks that we’re too poor to afford a Halloween paint brush for you?”

      Innocenza stuck her tongue out at her brother. “For your information, I met a light faerie, of all things. All she said was, and I quote, ‘Your time here is coming to a close, Addieana. I wish you good fortune.’ Then she left.”

      Innocenza shrugged as her owner and brother pondered what the faerie had meant.

      Veritas looked up suddenly. “I think she mistook you for Addieana!”

      Innocenza looked at her owner, confusion clouding her face. “Who is Addieana?”

      Vendette spoke up. “I’ve heard of her. Isn’t she supposed to be the only child of King Edel and Queen Mist?”

      Innocenza looked at her brother now. “Who are they?”

      Veritas looked at her in shock. “You don’t know who King Edel and Queen Mist are? Why, they rule the mysterious islands on the other side of Neopia. They won’t talk about what happened to Addieana, but Queen Fyora appointed them rulers over that side of Neopia long ago. I’d say it was about, probably, thirty years ago that they had a daughter, named Addieana. She was destined to unite all of Neopia and turn it into one large group of people and pets, ruling side by side with Fyora. She disappeared one day, and nobody knows what happened to her. She was a royal Aisha, like you, so that faerie probably mistook you for her. After all, most royal Aishas look alike.”

      Innocenza thought about that. “But if Addieana was so great, would she have been somehow different? Unique or special?”

      Veritas looked around sheepishly. “Well, yes, but all we know are rumors about how she was different, so none of it is worth paying attention to. Some say she looked like every other royal Aisha, some people say that she had violet skin and blue eyes, other people say that she had pale blue skin and a pink dress with blue. It’s all very confusing and hard to follow, so I don’t think it’s worth the trouble to try to define her just by her appearance because nobody other than Fyora, Jhudora, and her parents know exactly how she looks. I doubt that she’ll ever come back, though. Jhudora vowed, from the day of her birth, to destroy her. I guess she followed through with her vow.”

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

      Jhudora flipped through countless pages until she found what she was looking for. A way to give a message to someone. She didn’t have to know where they were, she just had to know their name. Jhudora growled when she realized that she couldn’t use the message to track Vendette, but she decided to relay her message anyway. Jhudora cleared her throat and began to speak.

      “Hello, Vendette. Nice to see you again, Innocenza. I haven’t forgotten about you. As soon as Edna tells me where you are, I will hunt you down, and I will have revenge. Enjoy your freedom and ‘family time’ or whatever you call it. Soon, very soon in fact, you will be under my control. Enjoy your lives now; they’ll be destroyed in due time.”

      Jhudora cackled as the message transported itself to the family room of Veritas’s home.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

     Before Vendette, Innocenza, and Veritas, a message started to appear in the center of the room. The threesome stared at it as it started to relay Jhudora’s message. When it was finished, they all looked at each other.

     Vendette was the first to speak. “What have I gotten us into?”

To be continued...