Clues in the Hidden Tower: Sparkles's Mystery - Part Six

     After the quake was over, Sparkles immediately checked on the sleeping faeries. But sadly they were still asleep. They were all resting, as if the quake had never happened. Another thing Sparkles wanted to know was where Hanso and Brynn went. Were they okay? And what about Mike and Oscar?

     "Hey!" a voice cried from the nearby woods. Sparkles and Scary followed the voice and were pleased when they met up with Brynn and Hanso, who were pointing to the space in front of them.

     "What's that?" Scary wondered as she stared at the blank piece of land in front of her. "Are we here to look at grass?"

     Brynn shook her head. "No, we're staring at the Hidden Tower!" She had almost sounded excited about finding it again.

     Sparkles looked at the Hidden Tower, but for some reason she wasn't excited about it. "What's it doing here?" she asked. "Shouldn't it be in Faerie City?"

     "That's something I don't get," Brynn sighed. "You know, guys, I'm starting to get the idea that somebody doesn't want us to visit the Hidden Tower."

     "Really?" Scary asked sarcastically. "Wow, you are so smart for finally figuring it out. Brava." Brynn mumbled to herself as Hanso got up.

     "I think it could be somebody who is trying to frame me," Hanso suggested. "Like Saphrine."

     "But Saphrine's asleep in her room," Sparkles pointed out. "She and Illene were both attacked by that sleeping dust. Somebody must have had a motive in order to strike them after the other faeries were struck. But who?" Everyone stopped to think of anymore remaining suspects. The only suspects that Sparkles and Scary could think of were Oscar and Mike. Sparkles also had a feeling that Hanso and Brynn were also thinking about those two 'wraith survivors'.

     "Well," Sparkles began, "I guess we should start climbing the tower now, before an aftershock from that earthquake comes."

     "I don't think it was an earthquake," Brynn said thoughtfully.

     Everybody gasped. Sparkles was dying to know if Brynn felt the same thing during the quake.

     "Did you... I don't know... feel like Faerieland was trying to oh... go back to the sky?" Sparkles stammered. To her amazement, Brynn nodded.

     "Yeah, I thought I felt that too," Brynn admitted. "At first I thought I was just crazy. But then I saw this weird fog coming from the ground, and the ground was shaking so hard that I thought it was trying to lift itself up. Hanso thought I was crazy, but I'm glad you felt this too."

     "Do you think it's a sign?" Sparkles asked Brynn. "A sign that Faerieland wants to be back in the sky?"

     Brynn nodded. "I think that's dead-on. And whoever was planning this would obviously want to do this in peace. But why anybody would do this is still a mystery to me."

     "Come on," Hanso insisted. "We have to go climb up the tower. We're wasting time again!" Sparkles groaned as she grabbed the rope and started her climb. She wished dearly that the tower wouldn't just 'magically' walk away again.

     "Good luck, guys!" Brynn cheered as she saw the trio climb up the Hidden Tower. The climb today was just like the other climbs, except it was colder than yesterday.

     Thank goodness I'm wearing a sweater, Sparkles thought as she climbed higher and higher. As she climbed, Sparkles felt her heart beating as hard as a stampede of Kaus. She hoped that this terrifying climb would end, so she could walk down the tower stairs and come back completely unharmed.

     "I see a light! I think it's the window!" Hanso exclaimed as he pointed to the end of the rope. "Climb in. We'll meet you inside." Sparkles nodded in agreement and crawled into the window, pleased that she had survived the climb. What an accomplishment!

     "Wow," Sparkles gasped. Even though a horrible earthquake had rocked Faerieland, all of the items in the Hidden Tower were still on their shelves. There were many potions, weapons and other rare artifacts that could only be bought here. Sparkles was also amazed that the Hidden Tower wasn't really 'hidden' from the inside; a grey stone wall guarded the artifacts from the outside world. Sparkles was fascinated that the stone wall was invisible on the outside, but cold and grey in the inside.

     "Wow, it's still the same." Hanso grinned as he crawled through the window. Scary crawled through it last and looked around the Hidden Tower. Suddenly she gasped.

     "It's a Jhudora doll!" Scary exclaimed as she picked the delicate doll up. "I wonder if it comes with extra clothing."

     "A Rainbow Fountain Faerie Doll!" Sparkles exclaimed. She picked up the doll and stared at it, hoping it would blink or talk to her. "And look... what is this?" Sparkles was surprised when she found a bottle of purple dust on a shelf. The bottle had two Fyora-like wings on its sides, and it was filled with a pile of purple dust.

     "What's that?" Scary wondered as she inspected a Taelia doll she had just found.

     "The label says it's 'Glittery Faerie Dust'," Sparkles replied. But now that she knew the item's name, Sparkles continued to read the attached label out loud. "With a sprinkle of this dust, your opponents will know you have the power of the faeries behind you."

     "That's lame," Scary scoffed. "What does that even mean?" Sparkles shrugged her shoulders.

     "And what's worse is that I can't find that amulet," Hanso groaned. "I swear it was with the other faerie magic stuff, but it's not! Instead there's nothing but a pile of dung, some puzzle boxes, a ring from Jhudora, a Faerie Blade-"

     "A Faerie Blade!" Sparkles knew immediately what that was. She went to Hanso and gasped at the Faerie Blade he was holding in his hand. "So it's true! Whoever had cut our rope with the other Faerie Blade must have gotten it from here."

     "But who would break into the Hidden Tower to steal a sword?" Hanso wondered.

     Sparkles shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know," she admitted, "but guess what this is?"

     "A stupid bottle of sand?" Scary replied.

     "No," Sparkles insisted, "it's a bottle of the magical dust that we found on the ground. This was the dust that was sprinkled over Faerieland in those showers. It had also put all of the faeries to sleep!" Sparkles was really proud of herself for finding the dust. Now the group knew what had caused the faeries to go to sleep.

     Hanso took the bottle from her and read it. "That's odd," he mumbled. "I don't see anything about 'sleeping dust' on the label. Are you sure this is the right substance?"

     "It has to be," Sparkles insisted. "Besides, remember what Illene told us? She said that this dust is extremely powerful." She sighed and said, "I wish she and Saphrine were awake. Just when we find the dust, the two most helpful faeries in Neopia are now asleep."

     "I'm sure Brynn can identify it. She knows a lot about faerie weapons and magic," Hanso explained.

     "And how do you know this?" asked Scary. Hanso began blushing hard.

     "Come on... let's go!" he stammered quickly. He pointed to a long staircase, and he lead the two Bruces down the tower. Although she wished she could stay longer, Sparkles was glad that they had completed their mission. Or had they? They didn't find the missing Dark Faerie's Amulet, and they were not sure if the Glittery Faerie Dust was what they were looking for.

     When they got out of the tower, they were pleased to see that Brynn was waiting for them. "Oh, thank goodness you're here," she gasped as she ran towards Hanso. "I thought you guys were going to be goners for sure! Did you find what you were looking for?"

     "Well," Hanso began, "we found a bottle of dust. But that was it."

     "What, no amulet?" Brynn demanded. Hanso sighed and shook his head.

     "Can you inspect the dust, Brynn?" asked Sparkles. "Hanso said you know a lot about faerie magic and faerie weapons."

     "I can do that," Brynn said as she took the bottle from Sparkles. She stared hard at it, and watched the dust inside swish from one end of the bottle to the other. "This is very similar to what we found on the ground," said Brynn.

     "And what we found in Saphrine's room," Sparkles added.

     Brynn nodded. "I believe this is the very dust that fell upon Faerieland," she concluded. She gave the bottle back to Sparkles.

     "But what I don't understand is how the dust even works." Sparkles sighed with a hint of defeat. "It's definitely something different."

     "Yeah, it's very special," said Scary. "Now, can we please go eat now? I'm just dying for some-What? What's going on NOW?" Scary immediately fell to the ground. It was an earthquake!

     "Is this an aftershock?" Sparkles shouted at Brynn, but Brynn couldn't hear her.

     "Help!" Sparkles could faintly hear someone else screaming, "Help, Xandra has escaped! Xandra has escaped!"

To be continued...