It was almost too perfect of a day, but here it was... and to add icing onto the perfect day cake, it was Illusen Day. Granted, the earth faerie thought it was a bit tacky to have an entire day named in her honor, but it was a lovely gesture. It filled her heart with warmth to have all of Neopia out there filled with appreciation for her, and it always made her want to give back.

"Miss Illusen! Miss Illusen!"

Speaking of giving back, a young Acara girl was running through her glade, waving a small flag in her hand. Illusen smiled as she saw her run up. "Hello, Helen," the faerie said. "I see you've found the toy flag I asked for."

"Yes, ma'am!" the Acara said. "I hope I'm not too late."

"You're right on time." Illusen said, taking the flag from the girl as she offered it to her. The earth faerie said a few magical words and the toy flag was enveloped in a green light, which soon vanished.

"You've done very well," Illusen said. "Now, wait right here and I'll get you your reward."

"Yay!" Helen cheered. "Your cream cookies are the best!"

The earth faerie chuckled a bit as she went to the plate of cookies that she had with her, only to see that it was empty. Where there had previously been a large pile of cookies to give out to her quest-takers there was now a very plump and happy Symol, covered in green cream frosting.

Illusen was a bit surprised, but gave the Petpet a smile. "Looks like someone was hungry..." she said in a sweet voice.

"But he ate all the cookies!" Helen said, sounding upset that the Symol had just eaten her reward.

"Not to worry," Illusen said, "I have a fresh batch cooking in the oven right now. Come with me, they should be done any minute now."

The Acara smiled as she followed Illusen back to her home. Once the earth faerie opened the door to her home, however, a thick cloud of black smoke came pouring out. Much to both Illusen and Helen's horror...

"Oh no!" Helen cried, now clearly upset about the realization that her reward was gone. She then promptly burst into huge Krawk tears.

Illusen waved her right hand around, encouraging the smoke to billow out of her house as she walked through the front door. The whimpering Acara followed the faerie inside, trailed by the tubby Sympol, who left a set of green frosting paw prints in his wake.

Illusen headed into the kitchen, pulled the ruined batch of cookies out of the oven, and then briskly opened all of the windows, allowing the rest of the smoke to clear.

She next turned around and surveyed the scene before her. Helen was no longer crying, but she looked like she could release the waterworks again at any moment. The cookie sheet was still slightly smoldering and the Symol was trying to reach the leftover Biscotti she had enjoyed with her coffee that morning. He was too bottom heavy to reach the table, however, and ended up tumbling backwards, taking the checkered tablecloth and the plate of Illusen's biscotti down with him.

She sighed and wished furtively that she could go back in time to that delicious mug of Maraquan Blend she'd enjoyed in ignorant bliss just a few short hours earlier.

Illusen pondered for several minutes and then abruptly clapped her hands together, startling the plump Symol (who had been quietly munching on the biscotti; it's common knowledge all plump Petpets honor the 5 second rule).

"Okay!" Illusen declared. "This is what we are going to do. Helen, I am going to stay here and clean up while you go out and fetch me the ingredients that I need to make a new batch of cream cookies."

Helen sniffled and said, "Really? What do I need to get?"

Illusen looked directly into Helen's eyes and said, "You can't tell anyone, because this is my SECRET recipe. It's very, very important that you don't tell a soul. Someone might ask you while you are questing for the items I need. I need you to promise me you won't tell them the items you seek!"

Helen, her tears now long forgotten, replied in a small serious voice, "I promise! I won't tell anyone, no matter what!"

"Good girl! When you return with the items I seek, I will give you a reward no one has seen before." With that enticing promise, Illusen leaned down and started whispering in the small Acara's ear...

"One more thing," the Earth Faerie said mischievously. "You can take the Symol with you. Not only will he be good company, but I think he could use the walk!"

The pair eyed the round tummy on the Petpet and Helen giggled as she agreed, "I see what you mean." Illusen waved her hands in front of it and, with a grunt, the Symol hoisted itself off the ground and moved to Helen's side as she exited Illusen's home.

"Okay then, first stop: the castle."

Helen waited patiently with the few others who had queued up outside King Skarl's throne room. As she mentally rehearsed the joke that Illusen had given to her, the Acara couldn't quite see how it would work, but with a shrug decided that the faerie must know what she's doing. Just then, a sad-looking jester, bells clanging pitifully on the multi-hued hat slumped upon his Blumaroo head, came shuffling up to Helen.

"It's your turn," he said with a sigh. "You'd better have a good joke on you, too, because His Highness is in a terrible mood today."

Helen nodded and entered the chamber, awed by the sight of King Skarl sitting grumpily upon his throne, his large head propped up on his clenched fist. The Symol hid behind her legs.

When the monarch offered no greeting, Helen decided to dive in. With a nervous clearing of her throat, she began, "What do you do if fierce Peophins has eaten too much tin of olives?"

King Skarl's eyebrows shot up with interest and he lifted his head up expectantly.

Helen took this as her cue to continue and she blurted, "You offering a cup of what what what!"

As first King Skarl's face was inscrutable as he considered the punch line, but then the corners of his mouth turned up, followed by a chuckle that soon turned into a roar of laughter. As the king jounced with hysterics, Helen quickly removed a glass bottle from her backpack and held it open discreetly behind her back, as per Illusen's instructions. When she noted that Skarl's laughter seemed to be petering out, the Acara quickly stoppered the bottle and stowed it away. As she was about to leave, the king stopped her and Helen blanched, thinking that she had been caught capturing Skarl's laughter.

"For telling me such a wonderful joke," King Skarl decreed, "I award you this Bowl of Yuck."

Thinking of the cream cookies that she should have eaten by now, it was hard for Helen to smile as she received the King's gift, but she bowed in a show of gratitude and left with the prize. To the Symol at her side, she said, "Well, that wasn't too hard, and I think it's going to be easier than I thought to collect everything without anyone knowing what we're up to."

As the overweight Petpet scrambled to keep up with her, Helen didn't realise that she was also being shadowed by a scheming Blumaroo, his jangly hat stowed for stealth.

"Let me think," the oblivious Acara said aloud to herself. "Next stop..."

The plump Symol trailed behind her, covering its face as the wind blew the dust and sand around. Helen continued to recite the list of ingredients Illusen was waiting for. She had gotten the Vial of Skarl's Laughter quite easily, and she hoped that the desert would provide similar luck.

The Acara hid her face with her scarf and moved through the hot sand. She passed Neopians, many sweltering in the hot and humid sun. She could see the distant pyramids and knew she was coming closer to her destination.

She followed the river right to Coltzan's Shrine, walking up to the obelisk in all its glory. It was shining brightly, and the hieroglyphics were incomprehensible.

"I hope this doesn't hurt!" Helen exclaimed to the Symol, who was still tucked behind her.

Helen looked to her pocket watch, waiting for the precise moment to approach the shrine closer. When the clock hands struck the indicated time, Helen stepped forward apprehensively, the sweat in her palms.

There was a quick gust of wind and the sand swirled around the bewildered Acara. Out of the top of the obelisk rose an enormous ghost of King Coltzan. His eyes were coated with thick eyeliner, and on his head was his usual crown. The mirage watched Helen slowly and danced lightly in the wind.

"I will do what I can to help you," Coltzan’s spirit commanded, his voicing deepening.

There was a quiet silence before a rumble by the foot of the tower. The sand shifted back and forth vigorously before the tip of the item could be seen.

It was unlike any other item Helen had ever received from King Coltzan. The glass bottle shimmered as the sun reflected off it, and Helen felt momentarily blinded by the light. As she moved forward to grab it, there was a distinct sizzle as the spirit faded back into the obelisk where it had come from.

Helen stooped to dig the bottle out from the ground and noticed the lightly-tinted, odourless liquid contained within it. She swished it around, watching it shift back and forth. The Acara tightened the capsule on the bottle and tucked it into her backpack.

She smiled as she passed another Neopian seeking the same luck from Coltzan and tugged the Symol with her as they travelled back alongside the river. After the pair made their way out of the desert, Helen turned to fetch the water from her backpack and was shocked to find...

What happened? Helen wondered. The Symol blushed as Helen looked at him. "Bad Symol! You should really stop that!" Helen scolded. "Well, I suppose I could buy some water from a shop here. I'll even give you some if you'll stop stealing from me. Do you promise?" Helen asked.

The Symol nodded in response. Helen and the Symol then walked toward the city of Sakhmet.

Upon entering a store, Helen asked the shopkeeper for some water.

"Well, I don't have any water for sale, but I could give you my leftover water from lunch," the shopkeeper suggested.

"How much should I pay you?" Helen asked.

"Pay me? Have this water for free!" the shopkeeper said.

"I insist. Take this bag of 100 NP." Helen implored.

"Thank you, but please just take--oh no!" the shopkeeper exclaimed, looking at the door.

Helen turned to look at the door and saw...

"There goes the lunchtime rush," the shopkeeper said glumly.

"Oh no!" Helen sobbed. "I'm on a quest for Illusen -- now I'm never going to be able to get back to her!"

"The sandstorm will pass soon," the shopkeeper told her. "You won't be trapped here for more than an hour. Of course, my trade will have died by then anyway... say, why don't we help each other out? What do you need for Illusen? Maybe I stock it."

From the doorway, neither noticed a Blumaroo creep inside from the sandstorm and hide amidst the shelves.

"Well, she wants some very specific items," Helen said with a little nervous giggle. "I don't think you'll have them."

"Try me!" the Techo said with a waxy smile.

"Well..." Helen considered as she thought about the list of ingredients Illusen needed. "I already have the one from King Skarl... and I suppose once this sandstorm has died down I can head back to Coltzan's Shrine for another bottle. I don't suppose you have any wheat from Altador?"

"From Altador? Yes! Why, I do think so, somewhere in here!" the shopkeeper replied, hastily rummaging through the piles of goods in his store.

"It's more specific than that," Helen said, correcting him. "It needs to be wheat grown in Altador under the constellation of the Farmer."

"Are you serious?" the shopkeeper asked with a frown. "How am I supposed to know which constellation this was grown under?"

"It's a very, er... unique quest," Helen said.

At that moment, the Symol began to growl in the direction of the shelves...

"What's your Petpet so riled up over?"

"He's not really my Petpet--" Helen began, but she was cut off with a clatter when the Symol dashed forward and jumped up on the shelves.

There was a shocked exclamation, and then a racket as one of the shelves fell over. Both Helen and the shopkeeper hurried over and extricated a green Blumaroo in a purple outfit from the fallen shelf.

"Oh! Oh, welcome!" The shopkeeper was undisguisedly harried. "I hadn't seen you in here. I'm so sorry about that. Well, the more company, the merrier, right? Don't worry, I have plenty of room in here, and maybe you see something you'd like?"

"Aren't you the court jester?" Helen gasped, recognizing the Blumaroo from earlier. "What happened to your hat?"

"It... must have blown away in the storm," the jester replied, sounding unconcerned.

Helen glanced down. The Symol hadn't stopped growling. He was a handful, yes, but he was a such a sweet little Petpet... something wasn't adding up.

She looked back up at the Blumaroo, frowning. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"What, is a court jester not allowed any time off?" he said grumpily.

"No, but... it's just kind of weird that I saw you earlier, and..." she shook her head. Ugh! She didn't really have any proof. She just knew that something felt wrong.

Based upon the Symol's long, unbroken snarl, she wasn't alone in that thought.

The Techo had noticed the growling, too. There was nothing like an angry should-be-cute Petpet to make a room feel twenty degrees more awkward. "Heh, looks like that little guy's a bit spooked by the storm," he tried. "Do you come around here often? It can take some getting used to--"

"Gah!" the Blumaroo blurted out, jumping backwards as the Symol tried to pounce on him. The tubby little creature wasn't quite strong enough to pull it off, but it was enough to make the jester stumble in fright.

"Bad Symol!" the shopkeeper scolded. "Really, Miss, you should take him to training..."

"Wait!" Helen cried out sharply.

When the jester had stumbled, she'd spotted a flask of slightly colored water nestled in his coat...

The Blumaroo scrambled to his feet. "Get the Symol off me and I'll explain everything!" he shouted, his voice scarcely heard over a sudden surge in the roaring of the winds outside.

"Down!" Helen commanded to the little Petpet, who subsequently released his hold on the potentially wicked jester.

"Look," the Blumaroo started, "from the moment I saw the little flask you pulled while making Skarl laugh, I've known you've been on a quest for Illusen."

The Acara's eyes narrowed. "So, you're after the secret to her cookies, eh?"

The Blumaroo snickered. "What, you think you're the first Neopet to go on a 'Cookie Quest'?"

Helen frowned.

"I bet she even promised you 'a reward no one has seen before.'"

The Techo sighed. "Look, if you're going to badger my customers, then I'm going to have to ask you to go -- and believe me, in this storm, you don't want to have to go outside."

The jester smiled. "Fine." He then turned his attention back to Helen. "I'll admit, the reward is rather epic -- definitely epic enough for me to keep my mouth shut regarding the recipe. Regardless, it was in the name of the secret recipe's protection that I became a jester for Skarl. I've long since learned that no one -- save the quester, I suppose -- can be trusted. I stole the bottle from you to prevent that Symol from getting her little hands on it."

Helen scowled in disgust. "You think this Symol is some sort of super spy?"

The Blumaroo nodded his head. Quickly, he retrieved a small potion from elsewhere in his pocket and tossed it on the Petpet.

Immediately, it began to transform... a cackling was heard, and soon Jhudora stood in the middle of the shop. "Finally!" she proclaimed. "I may have gotten caught, just as I've been caught all of the other times that I've staked out a Cookie Quester, but I now know the last three of the six ingredients. Skarl's laughter from the air faerie, Coltzan's drink from the light faerie, Altador wheat from the fire faerie..." She then observed the Techo, who was just staring at her. "And... three others," she finished sheepishly.

"But--" Helen interjected, her entire world flipped upside down.

"Now!" the dark faerie cackled, "I can make cookies as good as Illusen's, and Neopians can quest for me instead for the same reward!"

With that, Jhudora disappeared into the whirling winds outside...

"What. Just. Happened." Her voice was so flat that she barely recognized it as her own.

The Blumaroo jester smirked and rolled his eyes. "Illusen has to do a better job screening her questers!" he muttered.

Helen turned to him, feeling as if her eyes simply could not open any wider. "That was... my Symol was... I mean, the Symol Illusen gave me was... did she know that... I mean..." she stuttered, then stopped herself and took a deep breath.

"Yes, your Symol was Jhudora, and yes, Illusen gave her to you, and yes, of course she knew. Even if she hadn't known the first time a Cookie Quester got stalked by Jhudora, she surely would've figured it out the second, third, tenth, fifteenth time," the jester shot back impatiently.

Helen blinked again. "Fifteenth?"

"Like I said, you're not the first Cookie Quester," he told her, nodding, but his arms were crossed. "You are, however, the first quester to let Jhudora find out those three ingredients."

Suddenly woozy, the Acara sat down in the shopkeep's tent with a dull thud. "Oh, great," she grumbled, burying her face in her hands for a moment, only to yelp in shock a moment later.

"There's no time for that!" the Blumaroo told her as he yanked her roughly off the ground.

"But she already knows! What am I supposed to do?" she wailed. She sounded a bit like a child, but really, this day was going all wrong. She was just supposed to get cookies this morning -- none of this epic questing, and worse, dealing with Jhudora!

The jester rolled his eyes again. "It seems to me like you have two choices: abandon your quest, or finish it."

"But what about Jhudora?" Helen asked, only sniffling a little.

"Somehow, I don’t think we've seen the last of her," he replied.

Helen shrugged. She didn't really want to quit the quest -- she had never quit one yet, so why would she start now?

"Okay, so... Skarrl’s laugh, water from Coltzan, Altadorian wheat... what was next?" she murmured. Just then, the Techo coughed discreetly.

"I still have this wheat... and, ehrm... it seems to be labeled," he said with a sheepish smile.

Helen grinned back at him; she had forgotten to actually purchase it. Going through the packages, she noted the convenient labels showing when they'd been grown.

"Sleeper... Dancer... Gladiator... ah, Farmer! How much?" she asked.

Quickly, they settled on a price, and just in time, for the sandstorm wound down quickly.

"So, where to next?" the Blumaroo asked eagerly as they left the shop. Somehow it seemed to have been decided that he was going to accompany her.

"Moltara, of course. Next is the Fire Faerie..." she said with a smile, glancing curiously at the Blumaroo.

Fortunately, getting the Bag of Browned Sugar was pretty easy. Usually getting the worms that haunted Moltara was difficult, but the little bag of treats Illusen had given her before she left lured them out pretty easily. Once she had him, it was pretty easy to follow the Red Worm right to the sugar.

"That was easy!" the Blumaroo jester said with a clap, "Four down, only two to go!”

"I've been waiting for you to say that!" Helen said with a laugh.

The jester raised an eyebrow in response. "Oh?" he asked neutrally.

"Yeah. You know, Jhudora was the first one I'd heard mention six special ingredients," she said amiably.

"Oh?" he asked again, his face very carefully blank.

"Yes... you see, Illusen told me there are only five ingredients..."

"What..." was all he could say.

"For somebody who's apparently done the quest before," Helen commented casually, "you don't seem to know what the ingredients actually are, do you?"

The Blumaroo's mouth worked, but no words came out.

"Go on," she asked. "What's the ingredient from the Dark Faerie?"

"Shadows from the Haunted Woods?" he guessed.

Helen laughed and shook her head. "There is no ingredient from the Dark Faerie, although if Jhudora wants to try making her own cookie, then maybe that would work for her."

"But... but... stop! Wait! You've got this all wrong!"

"No, I don't think I do. Really, she should have just stayed as a Symol. She was a lot better at bluffing than you are."

"It's not true!" he said desperately. "I'm not working for her!"

"It seems to me," Helen said carefully, "that Jhudora made a guess that Illusen wanted ingredients from every sort of faerie. I asked her that, myself. Apparently, she's tried to bring all the elements into unity before, but darkness made the cookies taste funny no matter what she tried to do with it, so she made do with five, and the last ingredient for those cookies is Illusen's blessing -- something Jhudora will never, ever get." She crossed her paws. "So, go back to your master and tell her that you've failed her quest. I'm sure she'll be happy to hear it."

She turned on her heel and walked away, leaving the sputtering jester behind.

What -- what -- no! This was all wrong! He was supposed to succeed, and then Jhudora would give him power, riches... anything to get him out of his miserable job in the Meridell Court! And now he'd given himself away and failed! Hadn't he acted nice, and normal? What had given him away?

He slumped against the wall and moaned, covering his face with his paws. Everything was ruined! Jhudora was going to... he didn't know what she was going to do, but it was going to be bad! Some Neopets never even came back from failing her! This was an important quest, too; Jhudora had made that clear. It didn't matter that he tried. The moment he stepped back in there in defeat, he was doomed.

Unless...

No, he decided, standing up. He couldn't go back to Jhudora empty-handed. No, he was just going to have to make something up... and then get away. Fast.

"Illusen!" Helen called, bursting into the glade, all four ingredients with her.

The earth faerie was already there, sitting cross-legged within her beautiful clearing. At the Acara's approach, she straightened up. "Do you have the ingredients?" she asked warmly, looking slightly surprised to see the Acara alone. "Oh, and where's your friend?"

"The Symol was Jhudora in disguise!" Helen panted. "She found out most of the ingredients! I'm so sorry!"

To her shock, Illusen only chuckled.

"Again?" she asked nobody in particular, then shook her head. "Oh, dear. Let's take a look at these... the rarest laughter to fluff the icing. For the cookies themselves, the waters of the desert, wheat from the land of light... brown sugar from the volcano. Yes, these are all perfect. All that's left is the touch of the earth."

"Illusen, aren't you worried?" the Acara asked. "Jhudora has almost all of the ingredients! Although I think she had her elements messed up," she said, her face scrunched up in thought. "I think she said fire twice."

"Somebody else could have made them, with the right recipe. Almost anyone could, really -- any bottled Earth Faerie could give the same essence that I do. Even with that, though, she couldn't do it." Illusen smiled gently. "Helen, when baking, always remember this. The most important ingredient you can put into any recipe is love. All of those ingredients are special, but it's the happiness I put into baking them that makes them so light and sweet."

"So, Jhudora won't be able to follow the recipe?" she asked.

The Earth Faerie chuckled, eyes bright with a spark of mischief. "I dare say she won't know what happened."

Miles away...

On the outskirts of Faerieland, an irritated-looking Dark Faerie was calling out to passersby with forced cheerfulness.

Her plan had worked perfectly. That scared-silly Blumaroo had given her the last ingredients without a hitch: brown sugar from Moltara, leaves from Illusen's Glade (psh, typical), and a bottle of pure shadows. The secret was hers!

"Jhudora's Cream Cookies!" she shouted, holding up her triumph -- a tray of lumps smothered in purple frosting. "Indulgently delicious! Far more superior than those crumbly Illusen's cookies! Earn yourself one today by doing my quest!"

A couple of Neopets stopped and stared. A particularly brave one stepped closer and took a sniff of the air, then hurried away with a disgusted look.

"It's probably like that lollypop she gives out," muttered one.

"How can you ruin a cookie?" another despaired.

She glared down at the spurned cookies and brandished the tray. A wisp of sickly-colored smog curled up from them, dissipating into that detestable perfumed faerie air. Back in the day, her cloud had been free from all that sickly sweet stuff... with an angry sigh, she threw the tray to the ground and stomped back into her abode. Her ovens were dripping with batter and bowls of frosting littered her kitchen. The leftover cookies were everywhere, mocking her with their presence. "Curses!" she swore, staring holes into another tray of those unwanted cookies. "Confound it all! Why don't they love them?" Her voice rose to a shriek. "Why don't they love them!?"

"Did that stupid Neopet give me the wrong ingredients? No, no, it's all Illusen's fault,” she muttered, beginning to pace. "Yes! She must have known what I was up to. She gave that stupid pet the wrong recipe on purpose! I won't let her fool me! One day, her secrets will be mine!"

Jhudora cackled for good measure, but even that couldn't bring her wicked spirits up. She glared at the cookies again. They were good culprits for her anger, messy with frosting and smoking slightly.

"They can't really be that bad," she grumped.

After a moment's hesitation, she reached out and took a bite out of one, chewing it thoughtfully.

Her eyes widened, and then she stuffed the rest of it into her mouth with fervor. Those Neopets were crazy! Who didn't like the taste of ashes and despair?

She'd ditch the leaves next time, though. For whatever reason, they just didn't seem to blend like everything else had.

The two of them shared a good laugh at the thoughts that they conjured.

"I bet her kitchen looks all icky!" Helen giggled. "Burnt stuff everywhere!"

"Honestly, anything would be an improvement to Jhudora's kitchen," Illusen said conspiratorially. "However... a certain dark faerie's misfortune aside, I do believe you're due for a reward."

Helen’s eyes grew wide. She'd almost completely forgotten about that in the midst of collecting all those ingredients!

"So, which do you want first? Something few others have seen, or cookies?"

The Acara beamed. "Cookies!"

"Cookies it is," Illusen laughed, and together, they went into her cottage to bake.

What was the blessing, you ask?

Why, you'll just have to do a Cookie Quest yourself, and maybe you'll find out.

Or maybe, just maybe, you'll catch a glimpse of a young Acara soaring on wings of leaves and magic, fur as silky and vibrant as new shoots of grass, laughing joyfully as she flits about the glades of Meridell.

Truthfully, though? Those cream cookies were reward enough.

The End