Illusen's Day Off

      "Here you go, Illusen!” a blue Acara smiled, handing the faerie a long brush with wings protruding from both sides. “I finally found it!”

      “Ah” Illusen smiled. “But this isn’t quite what I asked for. I asked for a Faerie Brush Plushie. Did you spend all of your NP on this??” she frowned. The Acara looked puzzled.

      “It’s okay, I took the money from my owner’s shop till! She won’t miss it, we have LOADS of NP!” The faerie took a deep sigh and thought.

      “Well, technically I can’t accept this. And because you didn’t find the item…” she carefully started.

      “You mean I have to go back to the beginning???” the Acara interrupted angrily. “I can’t believe this! It’s not even my fault, the person who sold me this said it was a plushie!!” He looked very angry at the thought of being taken advantage of and Illusen stepped backwards quickly to avoid being hit.

      “Um, well you’ll have to take that up with the person who sold you that. Now, I have to go….get something from the oven. Sorry about that.” She quickly stepped over to another pet who had arrived, leaving the fuming Acara on his own.

      Poor Illusen had to deal with a lot of this- angry pets who had just missed out on their window for quest items, sending them back to the beginning. It wasn’t uncommon to get aggressive pets and even owners as a result. She had been threatened several times and with violence more than once. It made her long standing feud with Jhudora look like a playground disagreement!

      Whilst on the whole she loved giving out faerie quests in her home of Meridell, she couldn’t deny it also presented its own problems. She looked over towards the Acara who was still standing by the door, now being screamed at by his furious owner who did indeed miss 1.5 million NP from her shop till. The Acara cheekily suggested being painted with said paint brush, only to be dragged away by the arm back home.

      Illusen sighed. She had been living here giving out quests for 15 years, night and day. She hated to refuse a pet, even if they woke her up at 3am! She only ever got one day off a year. That would be Jhudora day, on which she had to watch Neopians celebrate her arch-nemesis. That wasn’t entirely why she didn’t give out quests, but it seemed to her to be a good a day as any other to get a well-deserved vacation. The true reason why, she had actually totally forgotten, along with why she hated Jhudora in the first place.

      Maybe she could claim a hidden jealousy or something and get another day off from her quests? Nah, people would ask questions. Why couldn’t she just say she was going off on vacation and be done with it? Nobody would care if she just had a few days off, right?

      Turns out, yes, people would care if she had a few days off. Some unwritten rules that faeries didn’t abandon their Neopian serving roles or something. Illusen sighed. But she could have a day off tomorrow, provided she got right back to her quests the day after. “Very generous.” She muttered to herself. “Thank you so much for letting me have such a long break.”

      The next day she woke up and stretched in her bed. “Aaah, how wonderful to finally get a lie-in” she thought, turning and fluffing her pillow. “No Neopets waking me up early in the morning and late at night.” An hour later she finally rose, went to take a long, well deserved bubble bath and make herself a big stack of pancakes for breakfast, rather than a quickly chomped down slice of toast that she usually got.

      She looked out of the window and saw a Neopet knocking on the door, followed by reading the sign and turning away angrily. She grinned and prepared to go out to Faerieland for a long browse through the shops, maybe stop by Jhudora’s house to taunt her about having a day off...nah. That would be mean.

      When she got to Faerieland she stopped by the Wheel Of Excitement for a quick spin of the wheel- nobody said faeries couldn’t have a go too after all. She muttered under her breath as she hit the ? space and got 150NP back from her 500NP and smiled and thanked the faerie host, before wandering over to Faerie City and the shops.

      As she got to the doorway of Faerie Foods, a Starry Aisha approached her asking for a quest. Illusen thought for a moment, then set the Aisha to fetch her a hot dog, chips and a faerie bubble for her lunch. The Aisha nodded and rushed off, and Illusen smiled and went into Faerie Books to seek out some new books to read.

      She chose a few interesting titles, paid and left, almost bumping into the pet she had set on a quest on her way out. She gladly accepted the food and searched in her pocket, handing the Aisha the 150NP she had won as a reward, who looked very pleased at this and ran off.

      Illusen laughed and went to find a nice place by the Healing Springs to sit down and eat. She watched pets visiting the springs for a while, before she was approached halfway through her dessert by a exasperated looking Lupe. Thinking he was after a quest too, Illusen put her food down and looked up.

      “Illusen, you can’t give out quests just because.” The Lupe sighed. “You’re only allowed to give out quests in your designated quest spot.” Illusen frowned.

      “Who says?” she said, crossing her arms.

      “The rules say!” the Lupe growled. “You have to follow them too you know. Just because you’re a faerie doesn’t mean you can ignore the rules.”

      Illusen looked annoyed and stood up. “Listen, I give out quests all day every single day and just for once, wanted a well deserved day off. Then I get you coming up to me and accusing me of breaking the rules- just leave me alone!” She pushed past the Lupe, who blew a whistle.

      Suddenly, Illusen was grabbed by a selection of other pets who took her and hauled her off to the Defenders Of Neopia station in Neopia Central. She was sat down on a chair and she saw the Lupe from before tutting and writing in a notebook about aggressive faeries not co-operating and the Starry Aisha she had given a quest sitting on a chair opposite and looking worried.

      “Right then” a Chia suddenly piped up, and Illusen realised he was standing right over her accusingly. “Name?”

      Illusen looked offended, but offered “Illusen the Earth Faerie of course. Who did you think I was, Fyora?” The Chia glared at her and continued.

      “Impersonating Fyora…another of the long line of offenses against the rules committed today.”

      Illusen rolled her eyes. “Like what?” The Chia raised his eyebrows.

      “Giving out faerie quests in a non faerie quest area, aggression towards a member of the Defenders Of Neopia, impersonating the faerie queen..” He tutted.

      Illusen facepalmed. “Unbelievable.” She thought. That’s all she needed, getting in trouble with the rules today. So much for her relaxing day off. Even yesterday’s conflict with the angry Acara would be better than this.

      2 hours later she walked out with a piece of paper with a exclamation mark heading it- an official warning. She would be a laughing stock when she got home- imagine, a faerie with a warning! She wasn’t sure what would happen if she had done something really bad- did faeries get frozen like Neopians? She wasn’t even sure what had happened to the case of the Wheel Of Excitement faerie who was taken away- maybe they locked her up in a dungeon or something.

      Illusen sighed and begun to walk home, via Fresh Foods to get something nice for dinner, where she was sniped from a restocking purple negg by a fast Neopian. How embarrassing. She settled for a cheesy meat wrap- ew, greasy and some chocolate milk and went home as the sun set over Neopia.

      Illusen placed her dinner down on the table, along with her warning and sat down on the chair grumbling to herself. Just as she picked up the wrap, there was a knock on the door. Illusen sighed angrily and went to answer the door. At the door was the Blue Techo who ran Cheeseroller. Illusen let him in and went to go actually eat her wrap. As she ate, the Techo asked where she had been all day, and then he spotted the warning on the table. Illusen grabbed it, blushing furiously as the Techo burst into hysterical laughter.

      “You…got a warning!” he choked, wiping tears from his eyes. “What on earth did you do??”

      “Never you mind!” Illusen growled, finishing her chocolate milk and throwing the glass into the bin, which made a clunk noise. “I’m going to bed, goodbye now!” she said, pushing the Techo out of the door, still laughing.

      She angrily stomped upstairs and got ready for bed, even though it was still only 8pm. “Oh well” she thought, “might as well get a early night for tomorrow.” She sighed and got into bed. The next morning, she got up and looked out of the window to see the Cheeseroller Techo gossiping with the Meridell Foods shopkeeper and groaned, blushing. Oh great, now everybody knew.

      She opened the window angrily- hard enough that it made a loud banging noise and the two pets looked up. The Ixi shopkeeper waved and burst out laughing. Illusen’s response to that was to shut the window again, almost onto her fingers as a result and go back to bed. Forget her quests today, nobody would be able to face her without laughing. She lay there grumpily until several knocks on the door by eager Neopets made her jump. She got up and ready, sighing. “Might as well face the day” she thought.

      For the next week, nobody forgot poor Illusen’s warning and she got a lot of mocking from passing Meridell residents. She distracted herself from the constant embarrassment by giving out as many quests as she could and trying to stay out of trouble. Eventually they forgot- Meridellians are simple folk- and life went on. Thank goodness for poor Illusen!

      The End.