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As soon as I got back home, I dialed the number to Dagger's
house. "Hello?" came a voice that I soon realized belonged to Stormbringer432,
Dagger's green Lupe.
"Hi Storm," I said. "It's me, Ixi. Can I talk
to Dagger for a moment?"
"Uh, sure," came the reply. "She's scolding Rai
right now, but I'll see if she can talk."
In the background I could hear Dagger scolding
Raiden101, her electric Eyrie. She sounded really mad.
"Oh, Ixi?" I heard Dagger's voice through the
phone.
"Can you come over right now?" I asked. "It's
really urgent."
"Okay," said Dagger.
A few minutes later, Dagger appeared at my doorstep
with Storm at her side. "So what's up?" she asked as Storm walked over to Lightspeed
to play.
So I told Dagger about the disease, about the
Water Faerie, and how I had gained the power to cast every spell ever created
in Neopia. Then I told her about the task I had to do and how I was to become
a Faerie.
"Whoa," said Dagger, once I had finished telling
her my story. "Hey Storm, are you coming?"
Storm nodded solemnly.
"I'm sure Diablo, Xena, and Rai will come, too,"
said Dagger. "So we leave tomorrow?"
"I'll meet you here at six a.m. tomorrow." I
made up my mind. "Get some rest now, and tell your pets the whole story."
***
The next day at five thirty a.m. I woke my pets up. They were to bring their
Battledome equipment, but nothing else (except for Nexxus, who insisted on bringing
his Tyrannian Doglefox along, too).
At six a.m., Dagger came over to my house and
together we journeyed to the cloud where I was supposed to meet the Faerie Queen.
She was there, smiling grimly. "Your quest is this," she said, breathing deeply.
"You must journey into the wild part of Neopia in search of a cure for the new
disease. I will teleport you there, and when you find the cure, I will teleport
you back. The only other assistance you will receive will be from each other.
Understood?"
We nodded. There was a flash of blinding light,
and then we were in a land completely unknown to us. I sensed magic here, wild
and untamed. Diablo (Dagger's Krawk) scanned the rugged territory. "I have a
bad feeling about this," she admitted.
Laserbud looked all around, and said, "Diablo's
right. Something's wrong here."
"Oh, you guys," said Dagger. "All we have to
do is find a cure for a disease and then we get teleported back home. Piece
of cake. Right, Ixi?"
"Right," I said, even though I, too, sensed danger.
"But we don't even know what we're looking for,"
complained Rai. "For all we know, the cure could be some mineral in the dirt!!"
"No," I said. "I can tell, we're going to bump
right into it. Just keep going."
We trekked on until late evening, when everyone
was tired and ready for bed.
Since we didn't have any tents with us, we all
slept beneath a weeping willow tree on beds of leaves.
***
After about an hour of sleep I was shaken awake by Dagger. "Quick," she said
urgently. "There's someone coming. Wake up the others. I think it's danger!!"
We woke up our Neopets, telling them to grab
their most powerful Battledome equipment.
"Nexxus!!" I shook the Gelert awake. He tried
to open his eyes, then said, "I know, Ixi. One hit me - hard. I don't know how
much longer I can hold out-" he paused, eyes widening with horror "-Ixi!!" he
screamed. "Behind-"
His sentence was not finished, for his voice
began to fade away as he slipped into unconsciousness.
I turned around, leaping to my side. Sneering
evilly was a Christmas Uni with a broken horn. I shifted into my NeoPet form,
then said, "Did you do this?"
She nodded, not sorry in the least. "You're next,"
the Uni snarled, then leapt at me.
The Uni knocked me down, then began stabbing
me ruthlessly with her horns.
I got up, then bit her leg. There was a snickering
cracking sound, and I turned to see the Uni lying, clutching her leg. She staggered
back up and made aim to stab my forehead; I flew up into the air, the Uni close
behind.
Although the Christmas Uni was flying as fast
as she could, I knew that soon her injured leg would overwhelm her.
And I was right.
"Help..." the Uni's voice floated up to me as
she fell down. I had defeated her, but still I did not feel happy.
Then I remembered my promise to the Water Faerie,
and how she had told me to always help a NeoPet in need.
I bolted downward in a desperate effort to catch
up with the Uni. She was so close to hitting the ground...
And just before the Uni hit the ground, I swooped
down, caught her, and came to a safe landing. "You'll be okay," I said quietly.
Then I mumbled a few quick spells and the Uni's cuts began to heal.
"You're going to need to rest yourself for a
bit," I told the Uni. "And tell me, what is going on?"
"You see that ghost over there?" asked the Uni.
I nodded.
"Well," she continued, "his name is DarkNight.
He formed this group, you see, of abandoned and abused Unis - Unis that seek
revenge on the whole of Neopia."
"When DarkNight heard that you had the power
to cast every spell ever created by a Faerie, he wanted your power, and he wanted
you dead. I was supposed to carry out your murder-" Holly looked at me, ashamed,
"-but now that you've saved me, now that I know that there are humans who care,
I don't want to harm you. I just want to go home."
The Uni began to sob unhappily, her crystal tears
catching the moonlight and sparkling like stars. Then I looked around, hoping
that the battle had ended.
But the battle continued. A starry Uni was leaping
at Shiva, who nimbly dodged the attacks. Lightspeed had teamed up with Storm
and Geddoe (Storm's Gruslen) and were now frantically dodging blows that seemed
to come out of nowhere. Oh, no, I thought. An invisible one.
Diablo and Laserbud were fighting against a one-winged
Shadow Uni. And Nexxus lay right in the middle of it, with Star of Africa, his
Tyrannian Doglefox, nipping anyone who dared come near his beloved owner.
I ran over to Nexxus. Star recognized me instantly
and let me heal the cuts in his back.
Soon Nexxus got up, and looked around. He had
many scars, but at least he was able to fight now. I saw him look around, spot
DarkNight, and charge.
But where was Dagger?
"Need help?" came a voice from above me.
I looked up to see Dagger riding on Rai's back.
Rai flew down and landed next to me.
Dagger wielded a sword that she must have bought
from the Battle Magic shop before we left.
"Over there!!" I shouted. "The brown one!! Get
him!!!"
I watched as Dagger steered Rai in the direction
I was pointing. Then I asked the Christmas Uni if she knew the cure for Nexxus's
illness.
"Oh," she said. "This is going to be hard to
get. You need the tears of a ghost in order to restore your pet back to health."
"But ghosts don't cry," I said. "Do they?"
"I'd help you," said the Uni. "But you're a Faerie
in training, aren't you? The Faerie queen would get mad if I helped you."
"But can't you give me just one little hint?"
I asked, unsure of the answer.
"Try casting a spell that uses one or two of
the elements. I cannot tell you anything more," said the Uni. "But best luck
to you."
And with that, she vanished into a puff of Christmasy-green
smoke.
I wondered what she meant by this. Oh well,
I thought. I know of a spell powerful enough to handle this situation, but
I'm not sure if I can harness the magic.
I whispered a spell, and my hands began to glow
in a color that mixed all sorts of blues together; aquamarine and turquoise,
sky-blue and navy.
I couldn't destroy DarkNight, for if I wanted
his tears, then destroying would be no good. I raised my open palms to the sky,
and the stars shone more brightly than ever before. The wind came to me in the
form of a magnificent, blue dragon, just as I had hoped. "Please don't let
me fall off," I whispered in the wind dragon's ear.
Then I leaped onto the dragon's back and held
on to its shimmering mane.
The dragon soared up in the air, and I felt myself
changing. I was becoming the wind, controlling its course, feeling it
brush against trees and ocean.
Looking over at DarkNight, I nearly fell off
the dragon in terror. The ghost was growing rapidly; his head was almost able
to reach where the wind serpent soared.
Soon DarkNight was hundreds of feet tall, exactly
level with the wind and me.
DarkNight let out a warning whinny, then a massive
ball of flame came hurling out of his mouth. Fire???
Okay, I thought to myself, desperately
trying to stay calm. I'm facing a fire monster, so I need... Water.
I whispered another enchantment and the wind
serpent began to shift and shimmer, until it was half water, and half wind.
I steered the dragon toward DarkNight. I was
so close now that I could feel his hot breath - so warm, in fact, that in places
my skin became raw and sunburned. I withstood the heat until I felt DarkNight
begin to wind up the energy to release the next fireball.
At the last moment, I dove straight into the
dragon, melding and turning into a part of it. I was now completely in control.
DarkNight opened his mouth, and, the second before
the fireball was hurled at me, I dove down his throat, destroying his ability
to throw fire at me. Then I dove out of his chest, racing straight through his
skin.
DarkNight screamed, and fell to the ground, shrinking
back to his normal size. I became myself again, and rode the wind-and-water
dragon down to where the Uni lay. I walked the silver-eyed dragon forward, and
it bared its sharp, glistening teeth, snarling at the fallen ghost.
"Why did you attack?" I asked DarkNight.
"Your power," he said. "I wanted your power...
To get revenge on my owner. He... He killed me. The price at the pound was too
much for him to pay..."
I felt DarkNight become weaker. He wouldn't hold
out much longer, and we both knew it. "Please," DarkNight pleaded. "Heal me,
please..." he paused and let a tear slip down his cheek.
"DarkNight," I said, noticing the tear. "DarkNight,
where I live there is a new disease spreading. I am on a quest to find that
cure, and I hear that the remedy is the tears of a ghost."
DarkNight eyed me suspiciously, more tears rolling
down his face as he winced with pain. "Take them then," he said. "But be quick.
I can feel myself slipping away..."
I collected a few bottles of his tears, then
cast a spell. Fire streamed from my fingertips and into the bleeding cut I had
made in DarkNight's chest. Then I stroked the wound, gently, and the cut sealed
itself up and stopped bleeding.
"You healed me," DarkNight said in disbelief.
"That's the most a human has ever done for me. Thank you..."
I felt my own tears, sliding down my cheeks.
The serpent nuzzled my arm, its cool breath ruffling my golden-brown hair.
Goodbye, Ixi. The dragon spoke through
my mind, then vanished into thin air. "Thank you," I whispered, bidding the
wind goodbye.
"Get on my back," DarkNight commanded. A bit
nervously, I laid a hand on the Uni's withers and lifted myself onto his back.
DarkNight trotted toward my friends. Lucky for
me, I was able to balance easily because of my experiences with Shiva.
"There is no need to fight now," DarkNight told
everyone.
"Does this mean..." Dagger faced me. "Does this
mean you've found the cure?"
I held up one of the bottles of tears, grinning.
Dagger grinned back.
I waved my hand for an eyedropper to appear,
then filled it and carefully put the drops in Nexxus' eyes. The swelling stopped,
his nose stopped dripping, the fungus fell out of his fur, and the yellow lumps
vanished from his mouth. "I'm cured!!" Nexxus cried happily, leaping up into
the air with joy.
"So that's why you've come?" asked the one-winged
shadow Uni.
I nodded my head.
"So you'll be going, then," DarkNight said, a
bit unhappily.
I nodded my head again. "And I don't think I've
told you my name. I'm superixionffx, or Ixi."
"Ixi," DarkNight seemed to be testing the word,
making sure it felt right.
"C'mon," I told my friends. "It's time to go."
We gathered together, and a white light surrounded
us.
"Goodbye, Ixi."
I heard DarkNight's farewell and acknowledged
it by saying, "Goodbye, DarkNight. And thank you."
The light grew more intense, and soon I found
myself sitting on a cloud with my friends, the Faerie queen sitting in front
of us.
"Well done, Ixi," the Faerie queen said.
To be continued...
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