"Hey Klara, let's ride those!" Tika said, pointing at the Roo Island Merry Go Round as she finished off the last of her ice cream cone.

"Just after eating?" Klara asked, eyeing the swirling Merry Go Round warily. The green Cybunny wasn't so sure that ice cream and spinning were such a good combination.

"Oh, don't be a wimp," the Zafara said, grabbing her friend by the arm and dragging the Cybunny towards the Merry Go Round.

"Really, I don't think that's a good idea. I have a feeling that the yellow Blumaroo who runs it has a grudge against me. I beat him pretty badly at Dice-A-Roo last month, and he swore that I was cheating, but honestly… I wasn't!" the Cybunny pleaded.

"Oh goodness," Tika said, dropping her friend's arm and facing her. "I sincerely doubt that he remembers whom he played Dice-A-Roo with last month. Come on, you'll be fine."

"O-o-okay," Klara said, hesitantly following her friend.

"Welcome! Welcome to my Merry Go Roun—" the yellow Blumaroo declared, his voice cutting off when he noticed Klara. The Cybunny swore she saw recognition in his eyes, but if he did recognize her, he said nothing. "Just one carousel Uni left, ladies! Go ahead... it's the black one in the back."

Klara's skin prickled as Tika paid the Blumaroo 100 NP and headed towards the rear of the carousel. "Let's double up so we can ride together. It's plenty big enough," Tika said. The Cybunny absentmindedly nodded. She could feel the Blumaroo's eyes watching them.

"Ah, he must mean this one," Tika said. Klara froze – in front of them was a pitch-black carousel Uni, in a fearsome pose. Its lacquered wooden eyes seemed furious to Klara. The Cybunny was starting to back away, when her Zafara friend picked her up and tossed her onto the wooden Uni, then hopped up behind her. The music immediately started up, and the carousel began to turn...

Behind her, Tika was enjoying the view, waving to the Neopets already queuing up for the next turn on the Carousel. "See, Klara? I told you it would be fun! I don't know what you were worried ab-- woah!"

The Uni beneath them suddenly shifted, almost as if it were bucking. Klara, who had just begun to relax, gripped tightly to its mane once more. "What was that?"

"Nothing, I'm sure!" Tika called reassuringly, although she herself felt a little shaken. "Just the motion of the ride. Don't worry, everything's fine."

Famous last words, Klara thought, looking over at the grinning face of the yellow Blumaroo as they passed him. There seemed to be something wicked in the way he laughed at them.

All of a sudden, the sweet carousel tune changed, the notes becoming screechy and discordant. Klara and Tiki clapped their paws over their ears, but it seemed like nobody else on the ride had noticed; they were laughing and chatting happily just like before.

"I want to get off..." Klara moaned, but it seemed as if the ride was speeding up. Faces that had been clear moments before now sped past in a dizzying blur. "I mean it, I'm really feeling sick..." Her words cut off with a scream as the Uni moved again, rearing up, and as she reached to grip its mane, she found it was no longer wooden. It was a real Uni they were sitting on, and it was bucking and rearing madly, until it finally tore itself free from the fairground ride.

With Tika's screams echoing in her ears, Klara hung on tightly and braced herself as the Uni galloped off the Merry Go Round and out into the dark...

Then panic overtook her, and she could only scream as the Uni tore through the woods, grazing trees and kicking up stones with its madly pounding hooves. It seemed as if they would surely crash any moment, but the Uni just kept getting faster and faster and faster...

"Don't worry!" Tika shouted, her voice only barely audible before the wind swept it away. "Roo Island's so small, it'll have to stop soon!"

A few blurred trees later, she was proven right. The Uni tore out of the woods and across a wide beach, tearing the sand up behind it.

"See? There's the ocean now!" Tika yelled, scrambling to adjust her hold on the Uni's mane as it bent down its head. With a snort -- the first sound they had heard from it -- the Uni did what seemed impossible by now: it picked up more speed. Thundering across the dunes faster than a rocket, it tore down to the edge of the sea.

"It'll stop now!" Tika roared, trying to sound confident. "Any second now -- no -- it's speeding up! We're going to go right into the--"

With a wild flurry of sand, the Uni's feet left the ground inches away from the pounding surf. It spread its wings, nearly dislodging Tika and Klara, and started flying without the slightest decrease in speed.

"Oh, yeah," Tika muttered to herself. "Unis can fly. Oops."

Silent and cold, the silhouette of the black Uni and the Zafara and Cybunny clinging to his obsidian mane soon vanished into the black night sky...

"Klara, wake up!"

"Uhh?" Blinking her wind-numbed eyes, Klara raised her head and looked around.

"We're--"

There was a THUD and a sharp jolt. Tika and Klara were thrown from the Uni's back and over its head, landing in a heap on the ground.

"--landing," finished Tika weakly, her face in the dirt.

Rubbing their bruised, cramped limbs, the two friends looked up...

"How dare you sit upon my back?" he asked furiously.

"We -- uh, we thought you were a Merry Go Round Uni," Tika stuttered. Klara just looked terrified.

The Uni reared, its eyes glowing red. "You will pay."

"Um, send us the bill?" Tika suggested hopefully.

"Tika," Klara groaned, "I don't think you're helping our situation at all."

"No," the Uni agreed angrily, "it's not helping at all." He looked thoughtful for a moment, as if trying to decide whether to trample them right away or to ask them some questions first. Questions won out. "Why did you try to ride me?" he demanded.

"I told you we--"

"No, WHY? Everyone else has the sense to stay off."

"It was the yellow Blumaroo running the Merry Go Round," Klara volunteered.

The Uni's eyes darkened. "Him again? I swear, one day I will get revenge..." He trailed off, noticing the two friends watching him eagerly. "None of your business," he snapped in answer to the unasked question.

Tika looked disappointed. "Well, we can't help if we don't know."

"Keep your nose out of where it doesn't belong," the Uni said, stomping off.

Tika followed him. "Hey, don't, Tika!" Klara cried. "I don't think he's in a very good mood."

"But you heard him!" the Zafara protested. "He wants revenge! We might be able to get back with him! And didn't you say that Blumaroo holds a grudge against you? You can get revenge, too!"

Klara looked angry. "That's mean, Tika!"

Tika shrugged. "Suit yourself; I'm going after him."

The black Uni was already far away, looking mutinous. "I can't believe this," he muttered. "Worst of all, I'm going to have to go back..."

The black Uni glowered at her. "I wasn't pretending," he said shortly. "When I'm there, I am part of the Merry Go Round."

"How come?"

"None of your business."

"Of course it is!" Tika declared.

The Uni scoffed. "I don't see how."

"That yellow Blumaroo made it our business when he told us to ride on you," Tika insisted. "We were tricked into offending you and winding up... wherever we are."

The Uni ignored the hint to identify where they'd landed and turned away, pawing at the ground angrily with one hoof.

Tika sighed. "Klara, you're good at puzzles. Help me out here." She paused and looked around, realizing her Cybunny friend wasn't with them, then spotted Klara hanging back, some distance away. "Klara, come on!"

Klara sighed and approached. "Well, he was wooden when we climbed on, or at least felt that way. Between that and having to go back, plus the way it turned to night when we got on in the middle of the day, I'm guessing he's under some kind of spell."

"An enchanted carousel," Tika said, her eyes lighting up. "And a mystery! Maybe we can free him and get back at that Blumaroo."

The Uni groaned quietly. "That," he said flatly, "is the most incredibly stupid thing I ever heard."

"I don't see why," Tika flared indignantly. "Are you not really under a spell, or don't you think we can break it?"

"I'm not the only one under a spell," the Uni said, "and that Blumaroo is..."

Tika and Klara blinked at him, then exchanged glances. "What do you mean?" Tika asked, confused. "He looks like a Blumaroo to me."

The Uni gave her a withering glance. "I assure you he's not. He's not even a he. She is a dark faerie."

"A dark faerie?" Klara squeaked. That would explain why the Blumaroo seemed so vengeful, but the rest didn't make sense. "Why would a dark faerie disguise herself as a Blumaroo?"

The Uni pawed the ground angrily and tossed his head. "You tell me," he snapped. "All I know is that she trapped me on the Merry Go Round, and she intends to do the same to other hapless Neopets."

"But you're free now!" Tika piped up. The Uni, however, could only shake his head no.

"I'm not free at all. Look around you. Do you recognize where we are?"

Klara and Tika shook their heads uncertainly.

"That's because it doesn't exist in Neopia. It doesn't exist anywhere... except in our minds. It's the dark faerie's prison!"

Tika slapped a palm against her forehead. "This is too confusing!" she groaned. "How can this place be a prison? I thought you said you were trapped on the Merry Go Round!"

The Uni shook his head, looking exasperated. "Don't you two get it? We're still on the Merry Go Round. She's trapped you, too!"...

"Yes!" the Uni cried, stamping his hoof. "Now you understand! But you may not still be riding me. Who knows, by now there might be nothing left of you but hideous wooden replicas alongside the other figures on the carousel!"

The two friends shuddered. "That's terrible," Tika muttered. "But why would a faerie pretend to be a Blumaroo and trap Neopets on an evil ride? This is just bizarre..."

"It is," the Uni agreed, stretching his wings. "Maybe someday we'll figure out her motives. We have forever to think it out in here, quite literally."

"...Forever?" Klara asked quietly. "Isn't there some way out? I mean, if it's a mind trap, can't we just think our way out?"

"Look, don't you think I've tried?" the Uni snapped. "I've thought and thought for hours about Neopia, about freedom, but I'm still stuck. There's nothing we can do in here."

"Well, you're optimistic," Tika said sarcastically.

"Well," the Uni echoed bitterly, "I've only been trapped in here for months, completely alone. Stuck in eternal night, without a sign of life anywhere."

For a long time, there was silence. Then suddenly, cautiously, Klara said, "But you're not alone now. You've got us."

The Uni studied the two shivering Neopets before him. He snorted and tossed his head. After a moment, the angry expression in his eyes somewhat softened.

"Well..." he muttered, "You're not exactly who I would prefer to have stranded with me, but it's better than nothing. My name, by the way, is Toru."

Klara and Tika smiled at their new friend. When he turned away and began gnawing at the short, withered grass on the ground, the Zafara glanced around at their surroundings. They were on a deep, dark landscape of rolling hills that looked purple in the starless night. The sky stretched on above, a haunting void of nothingness.

"Toru," she said suddenly, "Have you explored around much? What is in this place?"

"Hills," Toru said glumly, looking up. "Lots of hills. I've flown for miles and miles, but no matter how far I go in any direction, all I see are infinite hills stretching on forever. That's just how the faerie created her trap."

"But what about the sea and the beach?" Klara questioned. "Remember, when you took us here, we were on Roo Island and you flew us over the sea... what about that?"

Toru's eyes gazed into the distance. "I don't know about that," he admitted. "I was just flying around here, when suddenly I found myself in a strange place with you two on my back. I would have stayed and explored, but I just couldn't. I had no power over myself. Something was forcing me, against my will, to fly back here with you as quickly as possible." The Uni sighed.

"Well, maybe there's a way to get back there," Klara suggested.

"Or some other way out," Tika said. "There has to be. A way in has a way out. We're not staying trapped in here forever! Toru, we're going to escape together..."

A cruel grin spread across the Blumaroo's contented face. Her carousel was stunning. Dozens of perfectly sculpted figures were frozen in a moment of sublime brilliance, posed with glistening polish and made of smooth, flawless wood. Some would think it a mere work of art, but she knew it to be much more.

The ride spun to a slow stop, and the Blumaroo climbed onto the platform, running her paw fondly along the wooden statues. My beauties, she thought. In the back was the black Uni, with its coat shining as if newly polished. Alongside it, fitting perfectly into the design, were a Cybunny and Zafara. Each held part of the Uni's rein, as if leading it. It was absolutely charming. No one will ever suspect that this is what happened to them once their families discover they are gone.

Besides, shouldn't they be grateful? Most Neopets aged and withered over the years, becoming stooped and wrinkled mockeries of their former glory. However, these would live on in their prime, immortally beautiful. They'll never figure out how to work against the spell, she thought contentedly. Never.

Toru thought Tika's enthusiasm amusing, but he didn't have much hope that it would change anything. "I don't know," he said. "I've tried everything I can think of."

"Maybe you have," replied Tika, losing none of her energy, "but three heads are always better than one. Surely we can all three think of something!" she said, nudging her friend. "Any ideas, Klara?"

The Cybunny's eyes were distant. "Actually, I think I might have something... if we're trapped inside our minds, then the only way to escape is to stop thinking!"

Toru and Tika stared at the Cybunny. "You mean, standing here not trying to think?" Tika asked. "I don't think that's going to wor—"

"No, no, I mean, totally stop thinking! And the only way to do that is by knocking ourselves out!" the Cybunny explained.

Tika seemed rather stunned by the idea, but the Uni looked thoughtful. "I must admit, I never tried that." Toru confessed. "It sounds a bit painful, but I can handle a bit of pain if it means being free of this rotten place. How do you suggest we go about it?"

Klara was already backing up. "Everyone spread apart, and on the count of three, we all run and head butt each other as hard as we can!"

"Oh dear," Tika said as she watched Toru start to back up for running distance. "We're really doing this?" the Zafara said, wincing at the thought of what was about to occur.

Toru and Tika both nodded in resolution and lowered their heads to the same height. "One, two... THREE!" Klara shouted, and hoof, paw, and foot sprinted towards each other as fast as they could go...

The Blumaroo continued to circle the carousel. It was a work of art, and proof of her sheer genius. Those pathetic Neopets were probably wandering around thinking how to get out. She smiled at her own cleverness.

CRASH! There was a loud noise from the other side of the carousel, followed by moaning. The Blumaroo scurried to the other side, then gasped. The black Uni was laying on the ground. It wasn't wood anymore, and it was breathing. The Cybunny and Zafara were back to normal, as well.

"But how can this be?" the Blumaroo hissed. These simpletons should never have figured out how to break her spell! At least they were still out cold. She still had time to dispose of them.

To her horror, however, the Cybunny sat up. The Uni opened its eyes, and the Zafara began to also stir. Toru shook his head to try and shake off the dizzy feeling.

"Hey!" he gasped, "It worked. We're free!"

Klara and Tika looked at each other and grinned. The Cybunny then looked up to see the Blumaroo scowling at them. The sunny sky dimmed, and dark, purple, angry clouds began to appear in the sky. In a cloud of smoke, the Blumaroo disappeared. Standing in front of them now was a very upset dark faerie.

"I don't know how you managed to escape," she hissed, her voice dripping with venom, "But you will not leave this island alive!"...

Toru, on the other hand, was trying to think logically. To be free again was a wonderful feeling (and one he wanted to hold on to). He could feel the dark faerie's eyes laughing at him... mocking him, so he did the one thing he could think of.

"Onto my back!" he shouted. Tika jumped up quickly, but Klara stayed still. The Cybunny seemed to have lost all control of her body. "Come on!" the Uni urged, but it was too late.

The dark faerie muttered some words under her breath and a shot of green flame flashed from her pointed finger. Klara was pushed backwards, and knocked out by the invisible force.

Meanwhile, up in the air, Tika was whispering urgently to Toru.

The dark faerie's eyes gleamed as she turned on them. "Now my dears, as you can see I am generous... I haven't done away your little friend and I don't plan to, unless you refuse to co-operate, that is. What you don't seem to understand, is that this is a great favour I am offering you... a gift; for what more could a Neopet want than eternal beauty and youth?" She paused, pretending to be momentarily frustrated. "I can not understand why you are so frightened of this opportunity."

At that moment, Toru flew down, hovering just above the Merry Go Round, "Eternal beauty?" he asked, pretending to be interested; but to Tika he whispered: "She wants it, she'll get it!"

The dark faerie rubbed her hands together in glee, saying, "Yes, yes, eternal beauty indeed. Now if you just stand in the allocated positions..." she pointed to the enchanted spot on the back of the Merry Go Round. Toru flew down, and Tika jumped onto the platform, and struck a ridiculous, and ungainly pose.

"I'm confused," Tika piped up. "Am I supposed to stand like this, or like this?" she asked, moving into another perfectly bizarre stance.

"No, no!" cried the faerie. "No; like this! Look, I'll show you." she said, as she impatiently climbed up onto the carousel.

"NOW!" yelled the Uni, and Tika leapt from the platform, grabbed Klara (who was starting to recover from the spell), and jumped back onto Toru's back. The Uni took off from the ground, kicking the faerie hard with one of his hooves on the way.

"Now what?" Klara asked.

"Um, we were planning for her to get a taste of her own medicine, but it's not really working." Tika said.

At that moment, the faerie, (who had fallen backwards) stood up, none-the-worse from her kick, except a slight dizziness.

"I know!" Klara suddenly cried. "We've got to start the Merry Go Round! That's how she --"

"Yes!" interrupted Toru. He folded his wings and streaked towards the ground. "There's the lever! Push it, quick!" he shouted.

Klara leapt off Toru's back, mid-air, and collided with the lever used to operate the carousel, pushing it to the ground.

Immediately, the Merry Go Round began to turn. Faster and faster, round and round, it went. The Neopets watched the dark faerie as, shrieking with horror, she was borne away into her own world. Toru grinned. "I hope she has fun trying to find something to smack her head against in that hilly grassland she tried to imprison us in."

The three Neopets laughed as they slowly walked towards the carousel, where their sculptures had once stood. In the place of the wooden Uni, there was now a life-like carving of a stunning dark faerie -- beautiful and timeless.

The End