Switched Beings, Switched Minds: Part Two

      There, right next to her, in a chair, was Cecelia. The Shadow Ixi. Herself! Once again, she started to panic. But then, Cecelia - or the Ixi next to her - opened her eyes and looked up at Cecelia. The first thing that emitted from the Ixi's throat was a scream.

      "What's going on? Where's Eve?" the Ixi said in Taelia's voice. "You're me! That's me! Why are you me?"

      Cecelia was so confused she could barely say anything. "I don't know! I remember the faeries just doing a spell and then everything went white and I had no idea what was going on..." She was so perplexed she could actually feel the tears starting in her eyes. "Wait. Who are you?"

      "Taelia." The Ixi crossed her arms, but then she unfolded them to cover her mouth with her right hoof. "Holy Neopia. You said the faeries were doing a spell?"

      She nodded.

      "Ohhhh no..." Taelia put her head in her hands. "That means - that means - they did an old spell, so old it has been almost forgotten. They made us switch bodies. You don't have any idea to do a spell, and I'm reduced to lowly power in this form."

      "Hey! That used to be my form, if you hadn't noticed!" Cecelia scowled at Taelia.

      Taelia jerked her a head a bit to the side. "I'm sorry," she apologized sincerely. Was jerking your head to the side a form of thanks?

      Cecelia sighed and folded her long, skinny arms. It felt so weird, not having any fur on. "So what's the point of switching bodies? I mean, a lovely vacation and all, but yoo-hoo! I want to be a Shadow Ixi again!"

      Her companion rolled her eyes. "To reduce my power. Didn't I already say that? But I didn't explain it. So... the point is, we're doomed."

      "Darn. I mean, terrific! Positive thoughts, right?" Cecelia flashed Taelia a smile. The Ixi just blinked, and Cecelia stared. "What's wrong?"

      "I doubt you know, and I doubt I knew, but... you look absolutely gorgeous," said Taelia, clearly flustered. "Did I do that all the time to people? I feel guilty and immensely shallow."

      For a few moments, Cecelia just flexed her limbs, trying to get used to this... this weird body. "You're not shallow," argued Cecelia. "You aren't shallow at all. I've never met you, sure, but you're just... not shallow. So what are we going to do while we're just sitting here?"

      "Well... no offense, but I haven't asked you your name yet." Taelia smiled and laughed. It was more of a cold yet gentle laugh, but Cecelia liked it.

      "No offense taken. I'm, uh, Cecelia," explained Cecelia. "But just call me Cece."

      Taelia said, "Great. Okay, Cece, we find Fyora. She can reverse the spell, right? But I must say..." She stared down at herself. "Being a neopet is compelling."

      Now that Cecelia thought about it, she thought being a faerie was awesome, too. Everything was more defined, and she was stronger. She could almost feel the flow of magic surging through her. Was she using Taelia's magic, or her own? But anyways, she felt more... upper. Better. Almost healthier. She shook her head. This was definitely puzzling.

      "Well, being a faerie is cool, too," she answered nonchalantly. "Okay, are we going off to Fyora or not? Because I want to get back to my old life and all of that jazz."

      "Yep." Taelia stood up. "But first, you need to perform a Scanning Spell." She grabbed her blue wand, with ice formed around it. She nearly dropped it. "Gah! Is my wand really that cold?" Swiftly she held it out to Cecelia.

      Cecelia took it from Taelia's outstretched hand. Strange, it felt very warm in her hands. It glowed even warmer when the wand touched her fingertips, and she almost sighed in relief. She stood up, too, and fluttered the wings on her back. It was odd, but lovely at the same time. Then she glanced downwards to look at Taelia.

      "What's a Scanning Spell?"

      Taelia grinned lopsidedly, like Cecelia's little sister Prella. "You'll see," was all she said.

      "Incantation. Waving a wand around. How can it possibly be hard?"

      Cecelia's words were ringing in her head when she began to start Taelia's Scanning Spell. It was supposed to be fairly basic, because Taelia would be telling her the words for Cecelia to repeat. And Taelia just had to remind Cecelia ten times that they were scanning Terror Mountain for Ali and Eve, the evil duo. Mostly just Eve, because she was the real danger.

      It was a bunch of mush, from what it sounded like from Taelia's chanting. She repeated them and made an X in the air with her icy wand. An eerie whitish-bluish light followed. It exploded into the air, and Cecelia's strength was drained. She nearly crumpled on the spot, but Taelia yelled the words into the air and she forcefully made herself say the strange words. Figure 8, X, V... the movements required for the spell were difficult to remember, but she did remember them.

      Soon, Cecelia was floating. She wasn't next to Taelia anymore. Instead she was a faerie taking flight, except no way could she have done it that fast. Her vision turned to an odd color malfunction on Neovision or something; Terror Mountain was disfigured by ripples and it turned purple and green and red, instead of its usual whiteness.

      Look for a gold flame, Taelia had said. It marks where your objective or objectives are.

      There were no gold flames in sight. Just a bunch of colors. Cecelia suddenly felt a pull at her heels; a moment later she was sucked back into her faerie self. Was it a faerie self if she was out of place in her faerie body? She had no idea.

      "So. How did it go?" Taelia gave Cecelia a smile.

      "Nothing of importance," she answered, exhausted. "Can we please find somewhere to stay?"

      Taelia sighed. "Yeah. Sure. Got any ideas?"

      Cecelia shrugged. "Well, my house is pretty close to here..." She trailed off, unsure if that would suit Taelia's idea.

      Instead, Taelia brightened. "Great! Let's go!"

      "Mom?" Mary opened the door, and jumped back. "Ahh! Taelia!... Cecelia? What are you doing here?" She was confused. Right behind her, Prella sat huddled, and Cecelia felt guilty for scaring them.

      But Cecelia had no time at all to explain. "Hi, Mary, long story short, Taelia and I have switched bodies, I'm the faerie here, and Taelia's the Shadow Ixi. Or me, if you'd like to put it that way. Where's Hailey?"

      Mary's eyes widened. "She went to find you. After the blizzard started up again, she was worried, and she went on out. She should have been back by now, though, and Prella and I have no idea what to do. Do you?" Fear sparked in her eyes.

      Cecelia narrowed her eyes. That was unlike Hailey. Then she realized something was missing. "The blizzard?"

      "Yeah," answered Mary nervously. "Like, five minutes after you left. Didn't you see?"

      This was weird. Cecelia had been gone for more than five minutes on her way to Taelia's, and it had been just a calm, cold day. She frowned. "No. There was no blizzard."

      Taelia raised an eyebrow. "You think that Eve and Ali have got something to do with this?" She looked just as confused as Cecelia. "Brought on another blizzard, but where you were it was calm and around you it appeared calm?" Taelia frowned, too. "But only snow faeries have that much kind of control over icy weather."

      Mary turned to Taelia. "Cecelia, I didn't know that you knew so much about snow faeries!"

      Cecelia gnashed her teeth together. They were getting nowhere. She reminded Mary, "I'm the snow faerie, Mary, not the neopet I should be. Remember?"

      "Oops." Mary pretended to seal her mouth shut. "I better not say anything else then, hey." She paused. "You said something about Ali and Eve... who are they?"

      "Later, Mary," said Taelia before Cecelia could speak. "We have to find Fyora before this gets out of hand. We should have warned her with like, neomail or something. But there would have been no way the Weewoos would have gotten through that snowstorm you say you just had."

      Almost on cue, a Weewoo thumped against the glass back door. Cecelia gasped and covered her mouth with her hand, feeling each and individual fingers. The Weewoo fell to the ground, clearly unconscious. She ran forward, accompanied by Prella, Taelia, and Mary. She opened the door and gingerly picked up the petpet, noticing the white envelope clutched in its beak.

      Cecelia closed the glass door behind her and put it on the dinner table. The Weewoo shook its head and got to its feet, clearly unharmed, just dazed. It dipped its head to get their attention because of the envelope, but Cecelia had already taken it. She patted its head to make the Weewoo feel better.

      "'Dear Taelia,

      "'I equipped this Weewoo with extra abilities for the time being to sense where you were. I just received word from Illusen that there is danger up in Terror Mountain. She saw Ali and Eve, and they were speaking of your home. I immediately grew worried and sent this message. Hopefully the Weewoo found you.

      "'Apparently Eve is a disguised neopet somewhere on Terror Mountain. She was clever enough to conceal her evil, and pretended so well to not pose any sign of being what she is now. I warn you: be careful. They are either making plans to do something on Terror Mountain, or already have.

      "'Lately Haylen has been telling me that there's been too much snow activity to be normal down near Neopia Central. This has reached my interest, and I wonder if you have been doing any snow charms in your area. If so, notify me.

      "'Reply as soon as possible. We might have not enough time to act, but we need some warning. Yours truly, Fyora.'"

      Cecelia looked up from the letter. Taelia's eyes had widened in the few moments she had been reading. "What should we say?"

      "I'll write," said Taelia promptly, taking the letter. She reached for her side, and then looked infuriated. "I forget I can't use my wand anymore! Do you have any pens I can use?"

      Nodding, Cecelia reached into a cabinet, and pulled out a normal black pen. She handed it to Taelia, and watched her write a long letter. She had no time to read it, because Taelia took the letter and stuffed it into the same envelope Fyora had sent them. Taelia ran forward, got into the refrigerator, grabbed a hunk of cheese, and tossed it towards the Weewoo. The petpet snapped it up in one gulp, and clearly was asking for more.

      "Good girl, Jaiden," murmured Taelia as she gave the envelope to the Weewoo. "Be careful. Cecelia, can you cast a spell so that Jaiden will be protected?" Before Cecelia could answer, she went on at top speed, "Nah, I'll give her a necklace I charmed myself." She unclasped a necklace around her neck and put it around Jaiden's neck. "Have a safe trip."

      Jaiden cooed, nibbled Taelia's finger before her beak was stuffed with the envelope. Cecelia opened the glass door and let Jaiden fly off. Taelia turned to grin at Cecelia.

      "And now, we act."

To be continued...