Going to See Fyora

      By 'us', I mean Fj0rd's pets. Yotaria; Lyrian; McCandry; and me, a Faerie Wocky. My name is Yrael, and sometimes I think I'm the only sane one in the family. Then again, sometimes I know I am.

      "What was Fj0rd thinking?" I muttered, glaring at my siblings. They were currently trying to buy a Lemon Faerie Bubble with seven Neopoints. The shop owner, a slender Earth Faerie, was quite obviously exasperated. I didn't blame her.

      "All right, that's it. Out, now! All of you." She shooed the others out of the shop, and reluctantly--it was nice inside the shop--I fluttered my Faerie wings and rose into the air to follow them at a discreet distance.

      "Now what?" Yotaria complained. "I'm hungry!" The Disco Kau put a hoof on her stomach as if to prove this point.

      "So am I," Lyrian said wistfully.

      "You don't have a stomach!" said Yotaria, poking the Sketch Kiko. "How can you be hungry, if you don't have a stomach?"

      "I don't have a stomach? Oh, Faerie Snowglobe! I don't have a stomach!" Lyrian bobbed and spun in the air in consternation. "Oh, hi, Yrael. Do you have any food? I'm hungry--" he darted a swift glance at Yotaria--"even though I don't have a stomach."

      I shook my head, partly in bewilderment and partly in response to Lyrian's question.

      "Bother." Lyrian looked at the fourth sibling, McCandry. McCandry is zapped daily with the Lab Ray, so there's no telling what he--or she--will be from one day to the next. This day, however, he was a Spotted Kacheek, after nearly a week of being Tyrannian.

      McCandry shook his head. "Ugg ugga ugg," he said.

      "Oh, that's right." The Sketch Kiko paused. "I know! We'll pay a call to the Faerie Queen! Maybe she'll give us some food," he added, drifting towards Faerie Palace already.

      "Ugga ugg ugg!" McCandry agreed, and began to follow Lyrian.

      "Ooh, good idea," Yotaria said. She trotted off after the others, and with a sigh I followed. I should've just left then, I suppose, but then again they are my siblings--and additionally, they're usually good for entertainment value, if nothing else.

      "Let's see. How do we get in?" Lyrian wondered, tapping at the large double doors of the Faerie Palace.

      "Maybe you use the knocker?" said I, indicating the large bronze rings attached to the doors.

      "Oh, maybe! Let's try!"

      Lyrian has no perception of sarcasm.

      Yotaria trotted up then, panting from our run through the streets. Well, actually, we hadn't had to run until the very end, when some guards caught sight of us and thought we were going to steal stuff from the Hidden Tower. Either that, or they recognized us from the time I mentioned before, when we went to the Faerie Crossword and ended up nearly caught by the Defenders of Neopia.

      The Sketch Kiko floated up to the knocker and knocked it.

      We waited. And waited. Finally Lyrian turned away with a sigh. "Well, that's it then--"

      Yotaria's head was turned up to look at the towers of Faerie Palace. "Yrael," she said slowly. "How strong are you?"

      I froze in the act of turning to follow Lyrian. "Would this have anything to do with breaking and entering Faerie Palace?" I asked.

      "Oh, no--"

      "Good. I'm pretty strong."

      "--we'll just go in and take a look around," Yotaria finished.

      I grimaced. I should've waited for the end of her sentence.

      "This is so undignified," I muttered a few minutes later. McCandry was grabbing my tail with one Kacheek paw; Yotaria held on to McCandry's foot. Lyrian bobbed around Yotaria's shoulders, yelling "Woohoo!" in excitement. I was anything but excited.

      "I hate my life," I said, focusing on the window Yotaria had indicated. "Why couldn't I have a nice, normal family--maybe a little sister who hero-worships me, and an owner who actually remembers to go shopping for food instead of one who buys marshmallows and hot chocolate mix on a regular basis and forgets everything else?"

      "What?" Yotaria asked from below me. "What'd you say, Yrael?"

      "Ugg ugg!" McCandry asserted.

      "What's going on? What happened? Is Yrael hurt? What? What?" Lyrian said. He floated up next to me. "Are you hurt, Yrael?"

      "Only my pride," I said, glaring across at him.

      "Oh. Okay, then." He descended to Yotaria's shoulders again.

      I closed my eyes for a moment and shook my head. The windowsill wasn't far now; it stood open, which was good. We'd only be entering, instead of breaking and entering. I fluttered in, pulling McCandry along with me, and Yotaria fell in as well. We all landed in a heap on the floor, with me at the bottom. I groaned.

      "Yrael? You okay?" Lyrian poked my ear.

      "No. I'm quite probably dead," I said sarcastically, glaring up at him as best I could from the position I was in. "Get those two off, and I suppose we'll see if I am."

      Yotaria scrambled off, and McCandry did too. I stood up and sighed. My fur would never be the same.

      "Okay," Lyrian said when we'd established the fact that I wasn't going to keel over and die in the next ten minutes. "Let's go see the Faerie Queen!" He floated out of the room we were in and down the corridor outside, humming one of those songs Fj0rd sings all the time. "We're off to see the Queen," he sang, "the wonderful Queen of--Faerieland," Lyrian ended, rather pathetically I thought. The word had too many syllables to fit the song structure.

      We--Yotaria, McCandry, and I--followed Lyrian as he floated through the palace. There didn't seem to be many people around.

      "There we go!" Lyrian said. I'd seen the large, purple double doors a few moments earlier, but didn't choose to remark upon that fact.

      "Hey, Miss Faerie Queen," Yotaria called. "We're here to see you!"

      "Come in," a voice called, rather absently I thought. We pushed the doors open and walked through, which means I pushed them open and held them for everyone else.

      "Yay! We're here!" Lyrian exclaimed.

      "Ugg," McCandry said in a monotone. "Ugga ugg ugg."

      "Oh, dear." The Faerie Queen stood up from her throne and walked over to us. "You want me to help with the Kacheek's voice?"

      "Oh, no." Yotaria said. "He's just been Tyrannian for a while. Lab Ray, you see. He'll relearn the language in the next few days."

      "I see." She turned as if to go back to her throne, then turned to look at us again. "What do you want, then?"

      "We just thought we'd pay a visit!" Lyrian said. He grabbed Fyora's hand in an enthusiastic handshake. "It's great to meet you, Faerie Queen Person!"

      "Yes, well, it's good to meet you too," Fyora said, a little nervously. I kept expecting her to summon the palace guards, but maybe she was more patient than some of the people we'd visited lately. "Who are you, by the way?"

      "I'm Lyrian," Lyrian said, "and this is Yotaria, and McCandry, and we're Fj0rd's pets. Well really she's extreme_fj0rd, but we call her Fj0rd--"

      "I'm Yrael," I interrupted, shooting a glare at Lyrian to keep him quiet. "And I'm sorry about the siblings." I gestured at the three others, who grinned, thinking I'd just complimented them.

      "I... see," the Queen said, bemused. "You wouldn't happen to be the pets that kidnapped a couple of people a while back, stole a few things--"

      I sighed. This definitely meant a quick escape. Yrael to the rescue again. Without even needing to be told, McCandry grabbed my tail. Yotaria hung on to McCandry's paw; I grabbed Lyrian by the arm and took off. As we flew up and out a window, Lyrian waved good-bye to the Faerie Queen.

      "Nice meeting you, Miss Faerie Queen!" he called. "Maybe we can meet for tea sometime--" McCandry covered Lyrian's mouth with his other paw and glared up at the Kiko.

      "Ugg," the Kacheek said sharply. "Ugga ugg."

      Lyrian fell silent, and I wondered, not for the first time, just what McCandry was saying. I'd definitely have to give the Kacheek some language lessons when we got home.

The End