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The doorbell rang. Sharon, Luperusse, and Skeithena rushed
to answer it.
"Hello Ixi," said Skeithena warmly.
"Ugh, a Skeith!" said Ixi, disgustedly. "Don't
eat my Faerie Back Pack, it's very expensive, and cost a fortune! Go away, you
dirty Skeith!"
Skeithena wanted to call Ixi a bigheaded, specist
(judging pets by their species and nothing else) Ixi, but decided that as a
member of the family, she should treat her guests well. (Note: As we are
all aware of, not all Ixi are bigheaded and mean. In fact I know a lot of very
nice Ixi, but this is part of the story... so, no offense to the species! P.S.
Ixi rule.)
Sharon was appalled, but not enough to look at
Ixi like Skeithena did. Ixi ignored her glare and said to Luperusse, much more
warmly, "Good morning, Luperusse. I'm very glad to meet you." They shook paw
and hoof.
"Looks like Luperusse just made a friend," muttered
Sharon. No one heard her anyway, so she said quickly, "Come into the dining
room for breakfast, Ixi," because Skeithena and Ixi were looking daggers at
each other.
"I'll have my breakfast in the kitchen after
helping prepare it, thanks," said Skeithena, and before Sharon could protest,
Skeithena had swept off into the kitchen.
***
"Anyway, to be frank, it's just as well that your sister - Skeena? - isn't
out here eating, she's just a dirty Skeith... I don't want to dine with a Skeith!
Skeiths are so disgusting, Oopus!" said Ixi scornfully.
Luperusse gave a forced laugh. He felt very uncomfortable,
but he did like Ixi. He thought that Ixi was so heroic, even though he
pronounced his name as 'Oopus'. "My name's Luperusse actually, not Oopus. But
go on, go on about how you saved Neopia," he added quickly, because Ixi was
looking a little annoyed at Luperusse correcting him.
Ixi was only too glad to continue. "Well, when
I saw Jhudora and the Dark Faerie bottles behind her shelf, I got inspiration...
What if I could save Neopia, and myself, by giving myself Dark powers to
free Starbright? I thought. So I deliberately crashed into the shelf, and
broke the bottles... "
It was all Sharon could do not to vomit in disgust.
Sure, she was glad that Luperusse had finally got along with someone - but that
someone wasn't exactly the nicest Ixi in Neopia, heroic and Neopia-saving
or not.
***
Ixi was staying for the night. Tentatively, Luperusse walked into the kitchen,
where Skeithena still was, sulking a little. "Skeithena?" he said carefully.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes... " said Skeithena, although she didn't
look it, at all. "I'm all right." She smiled, but it was more like a grimace.
"I'm glad you made a friend... albeit that friend being Ixi."
"He's, uh, very heroic."
"Not to mention, very specist," said Skeithena
sourly.
Luperusse knew to leave Skeithena alone.
***
The next morning, Luperusse told Ixi all about DellaNeve and Ghicaccio. Ixi
just shrugged and said nothing. He's obviously no cleverer than Skeithena
and not quite as good as he thinks he is, thought Luperusse. He had half
a mind to tell Ixi that, but decided not to risk making him mad.
He excused himself from Ixi and peeked into the
living room to check on his older sister, like last night. Skeithena had been
sleeping on the Straw Sofa for the night, because Ixi was taking her bed (much
to Ixi's displeasure: "Dirty Skeiths! Ah well, if that's all your crummy home
can offer, I'll take it."). Skeithena's nose was buried in a very thick book
(one thousand pages - Luperusse had flipped through it once) entitled Faerie
Berry Recipes. Luperusse didn't know why he was so surprised: it was Skeithena's
natural state anyway, to read all day. Or write. Skeithena had tried to submit
to The Neopian Times once, but she'd received one of those auto-replies, and
it was a rejection letter. It seemed that only humans were allowed to submit.
She had thought that that was ridiculous, and stopped trying to write to the
Neopian Times. She still wrote stories for fun though.
She didn't seem to notice him, so he cleared
his throat. "Skeithena, you've already read that book thirteen times! You still
want to help DellaNeve?
"Twelve times actually. And yes, I have been
hunting through books trying to help Della while you listen to Ixi's wonderful
heroic stories," snapped Skeithena. She had faint black rings around her eyes,
and seemed to be suffering from lack of sleep. A Straw Sofa wasn't all that
comfortable, after all.
"Yes, but you've already read that book."
"I might have missed something important about
Jhudaberries, you never know," answered Skeithena.
Luperusse groaned. Skeithena was humble - a little
too humble. "Skeithena, you're Skeithena. Seeing as you're Skeithena, you read
every single word so carefully that it's practically impossible for you to miss
something," he reminded her.
But she was unconvinced. "Nothing is impossible,"
she said severely, sounding like Sharon.
He raised one eyebrow, and said, "OK, maybe you
should write letters to someone who can help, instead of reading books you've
read millions of times. Are you sure you don't need some more sleep?" he added
suspiciously.
Skeithena yawned. "You sound like me now Luperusse.
No, I'll be okay when Ixi goes," she said, saying his name like it was
a disgusting swearword (and this was extra sour because of Skeithena being her
goody-good self), "A Straw Sofa isn't exactly comfortable to sleep on. Maybe
you can get Sir Bigheaded Specist Ixi to try sleeping on it sometime."
"Don't worry, he's going this afternoon, after
lunch. Lunch isn't that far away you know."
She exhaled rather loudly in her relief. "Thank
Snowflake!" Skeithena kept thanking Snowflake, who was The Neopian Times editor.
The clever Skeith enjoyed The Neopian Times immensely and appreciated the hard
work people like Snowflake put into it.
"I thought you would. Where's your El Picklesaur
plushie?" he asked, abruptly changing the subject.
The Skeith laughed, and looked a little happier.
"My El Picklesaur plushie? He's in the kitchen. By the way Luperusse, writing
letters is a good idea - I'd better start right now." She whipped out a pencil
and paper, and when Luperusse laughed, she laughed again.
Luperusse was glad that his sister was actually
laughing. But that may have been to do with the fact that Ixi was going so soon.
***
Dear Queen Fyora,
I'm sorry to bother you, and sorry that I didn't get along too well with
Ixi. But this letter's not about him, it's regarding Jhudora-slavery.
There is a White Lupe out there, called DellaNeve. His sister, Ghicaccio,
has been enslaved by Jhudora. As you know, before now, Jhudora used Jhudaberry
Omelettes to enslave NeoPets - the one she enslaved was my brother Luperusse.
That slavery could be 'cured' if the slave ate any type of Illusen food. But
now Jhudora has a new way of doing it.
I have been in contact with DellaNeve. He says that Jhudora now uses plain
Jhudaberries for enslaving pets, and while keeping the berry in a pet's mouth,
she chants a spell in the language of the Grundos. She then has almost-complete
control of the victim, and can force him or her to swallow the berry, and fully
become her slave.
She can only enslave one pet at a time, but I believe that the NeoPet (Ghicaccio,
in this case) that is enslaved would be very dangerous and perhaps even deadly,
she has her own brand of magic and is guided by dark Jhudora herself.
Maybe you won't help me completely, but could you please at least give me
some sort of lead or a good start? You and your Faeries are very wise; I am
sure that you would be able to find something.
DellaNeve told us not to tell anybody, because no one would believe us:
but you are wise and good, Your Majesty, and I know that you will believe me.
Thank you very much, and yours sincerely, Skeithena
Fyora re-read the note a couple of times, and
then summoned all the Uber-Faeries of Neopia for a meeting, including the Darkness
Faerie, who had now decided to use her dark power to help Fyora rather than
Jhudora.
The Faerie Queen Fyora told them all about what
Skeithena had said, and even passed around the note for them to read. "I am
certain that she is telling the truth. She would not lie."
The other Faeries murmured agreement with Fyora,
but none of them thought that they had a solution, yet. Until -
The Uber-Darkness Faerie stood up, and a hush
fell over the Faeries. All of the Faeries knew that the Darkness Faerie knew
many old and forgotten Neopian secrets, but most of them believed that the Darkness
Faerie was not quite trustworthy - especially the Uber-Light Faerie, whose daughter,
Starbright, had been kidnapped by Jhudora and the Uber-Dark Faerie in the past.
"Queen Fyora, I am not saying that I have a plan,
or know what we can do. But since the beginning of Neopia, we Dark Faeries have
been collecting and finding ancient documents, scrolls, and books, with forgotten
secrets in them, compiling a huge library of knowledge. This library has been
kept secret for as long as it has been. Even I have not read all the books.
It was said that the secret library would be revealed to Fyora one day. And,
Queen Fyora, I think that this is the day. Perhaps some of those books and scrolls
would be helpful?"
"Of course, Darkness Faerie. I do thank you."
She raised her voice, with a tone that said that she was talking to every Faerie
in the room. "All right then, the rest of you Faeries, you can resume giving
out our Quests. Darkness Faerie, please do stay here with me. Come, help me
write a reply to the brave young Skeith and then together, we shall go straight
to this secret library of yours."
"Yes Your Majesty."
To be continued...
If you want to find out what happens next and what's found in the library,
be sure to read the next issue :) Meanwhile, feel free to Neomail
me with any comments, complaints, questions, suggestions, or just to have a
friendly chat! Thanks and have a nice day :)
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