Jhudora's Revenge: Part Two

     Edna glared at Jhudora. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have some pets’ lives to ruin or some other misdeed to commit?”

     Jhudora cackled. “Ah, yes, Edna. I almost forgot about your wit, or perhaps I should mention your lack thereof. But yes, I am here to ruin some pets’ lives, but only because they first ruined mine.”

     Edna continued glaring, not once setting down the cheap weapons that she had with her. “Let me guess, some pet didn’t do your quest? Or did they come here instead because you weren’t home?”

     Jhudora glared at Edna now. “Stop being smart with me. I know you’re hiding them. Tell me where they are, NOW!!”

     Edna looked at Jhudora with confusion-clouded eyes. “What are you talking about?”

     Jhudora hissed and spat as she spoke the words that were burned into her mind. “Those brats Innocenza and Vendette! Don’t play dumb with me, Edna! I know you’re hiding them, so tell me where they are already!”

     Edna rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not ‘hiding’ anybody from you. But perhaps I should be, given your current attitude... and attire.”

     Edna stifled a chuckle as Jhudora looked down to see the clothing that she wore. It was an outfit that followed the design of her favorite dress, but instead of being a dress, it was a pant-and-shirt combination that didn’t look very flattering.

     Jhudora then inspected Edna’s clothes. “You really think that you’re one to talk?”

     Edna’s voice was unconcerned when she replied. “I must think that I am, since I’m talking about it, aren’t I?”

     Jhudora dismissed the comment then returned back to the one thing pressing on her mind. “Enough of these games. Where are they?!”

     Edna stuck her tongue out at Jhudora. “For your information, Judy, I don’t know.”

     Jhudora glared at Edna with disdain filling her eyes. “Don’t ever call me Judy again, and I don’t believe you.”

     Jhudora waved her hands in strange circular motions. Moments later, Edna, as if in a trance, started blurting out everything she knew about Innocenza and Vendette.

     “They live in the Haunted Woods now. I’m not hiding them, but I bet that Glitzern is. Nobody else would bother hiding them. I saw her here a few days ago, or maybe not. It was a light faerie, and she walked up to a royal Aisha. I don’t think that there are any royal Aishas other than Innocenza.”

     When Edna was done speaking, life returned to her eyes and she was painstakingly aware of every word that she had just said. When she looked around trying to find Jhudora, she was gone. Jhudora was nowhere to be seen.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

     Jhudora looked at the gate to her private home on her own cloud. There was a scar on the gate that nobody could see but her, but to her, it was more obvious that the fact that the home was indeed hers. On the handle of the gate was the name ‘Glitzern.’ Jhudora did everything that she could, but the name would not go away. Glitzern had done that to make Jhudora aware of the fact that none of her wrongdoings would go unpunished. Glitzern was one of Jhudora’s biggest enemies. Light faeries were natural enemies of dark faeries, but some bonds were stronger than others, just as some enemies were more determined that others. Glitzern was one of the leaders of the light faeries, and Jhudora was painfully aware of that fact.

     When Jhudora was done regretting her past, she went to the predominately light faerie part of Faerieland. Jhudora approached the miniature castle that housed the light faerie council. Glitzern held a coveted position in the council. She was one of the four main faeries on the council. The other three were Zelena, Cascata, and Sereena. The four were close friends and therefore all were enemies of Jhudora.

     As Jhudora approached the castle, she saw Glitzern walk out and lean against one of the thick columns that supported the gate leading to the castle. Jhudora glared at Glitzern as she approached.

     Glitzern spoke first. “So, Jhudora, I see that you’ve come to the light faerie council. Something horrible must be coming. How can I help you?”

     Jhudora hissed her response through clenched teeth. “You can tell me why and where you’re hiding that rat Vendette and his miserable sister Innocenza.”

     Glitzern pretended to consider that before responding. “I suppose that I could, but I’m not going to.”

     Jhudora snapped her fingers. “HA! Then you don’t deny that you’re hiding the two of them!”

     Glitzern shrugged. “No, but does it matter? I’m not telling you anything that you want to know, at least not now.”

     Jhudora glared at her. “You may have been able to hide Addieana from me, but I will find her one day! I will not fail to find Innocenza or Vendette either!”

     Glitzern shrugged again. “Well, Jhudora, I think you’d best be on your way.”

     Jhudora glared at Glitzern as she left the faerie leaning on the column.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

     Jhudora muttered as she paced around her library. “I’ll get her one day. When the Darkest Faerie returns, I’ll have my revenge. But I don’t have time to wait around for her to show up; I have to take control of this situation now, and so I will. All I have to do is figure out where in Haunted Woods they live. That should be easy enough; most of the people there like dark things like Sloth and Darigan. I, no doubt, should get some respect in that place.”

     Jhudora wandered around the Haunted Woods, amazed at her lack of support, yet equally angered. Finally, she shouted in frustration, hoping that someone would want to know what was happening. However, yelling in the middle of the forest wasn’t her most brilliant idea. Unfortunately for her, Balthazar heard her. Even more to her lack of fortune, he had just devised a way to catch normal-sized faeries and shrink them until they were at the ideal size, for a bottled faerie anyway. A small bit of fortune would be that after she was released, she would return to her normal size.

     Balthazar pounced on her from behind, then immediately shoved her into a huge bottle. Every time she tried to attack, both she and the bottle shrank until it got to a certain size. Realizing that she had no chance of escaping, she frowned and sat down, enormously uncomfortable in the glass bottle.

     She did nothing when he grabbed her with dirty paws and put her into a burlap bag that he threw over his shoulder. She was disgusted that he would do something so uncivilized. She used to think that nothing could be worse than being defeated, but now she wondered. At least, even in defeat, you usually had some freedom. She had nothing left, which was a rather odd feeling that she had never experienced before.

     She grunted when he took off running to wherever it was he was going. Despite being a dark faerie, she couldn’t stand the dark, at least not like this. But there was a small part of her that enjoyed the darkness because it was misery for all of the other trapped faeries that were no doubt in the same predicament that she was in. It was an awfully dark burlap bag, and as jerky as it was being in the bottle, the bottle itself never seemed to move, so she couldn’t tell how many bottles were in the bag, so she couldn’t even guess how many other captured faeries were there.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

     Veritas looked at her pets. “I think it’s time we work on training you more. I know you’re really strong, but you could use a few more abilities. How many do you have?”

     Vendette thought about it. “Almost all of them. I think I’m missing a few dark faerie abilities, though.”

     Veritas nodded. “Then let’s go to the market place. There are bound to be some captured faeries there.”

     Then she turned to Innocenza. “Can you go buy a bottled dark faerie? I want to stay here and see if we have anything lying around that we can use. Plus, Vendette really needs to clean his room.”

     Innocenza laughed as Vendette walked off, muttering something about him doing enough cleaning when he worked for Edna.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

     Balthazar set down the bag and grunted. He took out all of the individual faeries and set them up on a small table. He put a price beneath each faerie. All faeries of a certain kind cost the same, but the price varied. For example, a bottled island faerie was worth more than a bottled light faerie.

     Jhudora rolled her eyes when she saw that she was the only dark faerie there, or at least the only one on display. She only hoped that whatever bought her was strong enough to defend itself from her wrath. She would gladly attack the first thing she could, but the glass bottle wouldn’t do. She’d have to wait for something to free her first.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

     Innocenza sighed as she walked around, such a huge marketplace and nobody selling bottled faeries.

     Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Balthazar’s small table. She saw that he was selling some faeries, and that there was only one dark faerie there. She bought it and was heading home to take it to Vendette when the faerie inside of the bottle somehow escaped and started to grow immensely. The small dark faerie was actually Jhudora, and she couldn’t have been much angrier.

To be continued...