|
The morning dew hung in the air like a wet blanket. Droplets
of rain came steadily down. Kaelaniie shivered, as her glossy red fur grew wetter
by the minute. It would be any time now. She would be arriving to meet her.
Suddenly, Kaelaniie was aware of footsteps walking
up from behind her. She spun around to be greeted with a voice as cold as steel,
"Aahh, the little Kacheek. How may I be of service to you?"
Kaelaniie winced. The Dark Faerie stood before
her. Her purple hair covered her impish eyes and her blood red lips were scrunched
into the most menacing snarl.
Aware of the effect she was having on her, the
Dark Faerie moved forward and Kaelaniie moved back, stumbling and splashing
into muddy pools of water in the process. "So tell me, what do you want? Jhudora
does not appreciate little scum of Neopets summoning her whenever they feel
the need to."
"P-pardon me, your dark highness, b-but I did
not mean to cause you any inconvenience. I s-simply wanted to ask you for a
favour. "
"A favour?" Jhudora cackled. "The Dark Faerie
does not do favours."
Kaelaniie felt a ripple of anger towards her
supercilious attitude. Using this anger, Kaelaniie dared to stare Jhudora straight
in the eyes. "Very well. I have thought of that too. I have a preposition for
you. If you are willing to do my favour, I will return it to you."
Jhudora was slightly taken aback at Kaelaniie's
sharp tongue. When she did not reply, Kaelaniie continued, "It's a win-win situation,
you see. As my owner would say, you give a little, you take a little."
Dark eyes studied Kaelaniie's face, apparently
searching for any evidence of this being nothing more than a silly prank. After
regaining her composure, the Dark Faerie replied, "Very well, tell me what it
is that you want?"
Kaelaniie found herself grinning from ear to
ear. So busy smiling that she didn't even mind hearing Jhudora mumbling to herself
something like, "I can't believe I'm doing something for a neopet, stupid, stupid
me."
"I need for you to give me the Amulet. The Amulet
of the Dark Faerie," Kaelaniie said, enunciating every word carefully.
The Dark Faerie started to cackle her signature
laugh. "Oh you Neopets, even if nothing more than scums, you can sure make a
Dark Faerie amused!" she told Kaelaniie, waving her hands in the air.
When Kaelaniie showed no signs of laughing,
the Dark Faerie stopped and raised a brow. "Er-you aren't serious are you? This
is a gem of absolute true evil and devastatingly powerful! If in the wrong hands,
there's no telling of the outcome! Besides, only my loyal followers may be serviced
with it and you are certainly not one of them!" She continued on, telling her
about her most faithful minions and how they possessed the true spirit of darkness
given to them from the amulet. During which Kaelaniie stood there half-listening
and half-wishing she hadn't decided to come here. But one thing she was glad
for was the rain, which had stopped just a minute ago.
After what seemed like hours, Jhudora came to
a stop with her nonsensical babble about evil objects, evil subjects and evil
spirits-something that seemed to be her favourite topic of conversation.
Kaelaniie took this opportunity to speak, "I
need the Dark Amulet to heal a friend-a very good friend and-"
"But you can get absolutely any other magical
items for that! A bag of frost healing, for example. And then there are famous
healers such as Aurora and Boraxis."
"Dark Faerie, you don't understand. This friend
of mine is a victim of Dr. Sloth's cruel and disastrous experiments. He used
to be a friendly species of Peophins and then one day he became a mutant Peophin.
Now he won't even show his face, always sits moping in corners looking surly.
And the worst thing about it all is that he's the first mutant of his kind.
Not a very pleasant fact!" Kaelaniie explained with a sad expression.
During this time, Jhudora had eyed Kaelaniie
very intently without interrupting her. When Kaelaniie had finished speaking,
Kaelaniie starred back at her with a pleading look in both her eyes, which caused
Jhudora to feel awkward. What was this she felt inside of her? A feeling of
pity? Surely a Dark Faerie such as herself didn't feel these emotions, it was
quite the opposite really! They felt anger and hatred and vengeful and resentment.
Shuddering, she turned back her attention to
Kaelaniie. "Oh please! Your Peophin friend should embrace the mutant in him!
And moreover, he should thank Dr. Sloth, that genius man for turning him into
such a delicious mutant creature! And even more you should-" Jhudora halted
to a stop and blinked. Kaelaniie's eyes were now wider than ever, both brown
eyes fighting back hurtful tears. Even her fur was trembled slightly. Jhudora
was taken by surprise and absolutely didn't know what on earth to do!
"Please-please stop crying. It's not very healthy
you know." Kaelaniie started sobbing hard. "No-no come on little one, this is
nothing to cry over. Oh won't you stop? It's really quite unpleasant you know…
oh all right! Enough with the bawling!"
Kaelaniie immediately stopped the water works
and looked at Jhudora hopefully, which caused the Dark Faerie to raise her brow
and silently question her tearful, dramatic performance just then. Kaelaniie
sniffed sorrowfully. "Really?"
"Yes you can have the Amulet of the Dark Faerie.
I'm sure it will do justice. I created it after all. And one of my best inventions
too. See --" Kaelaniie coughed loudly.
"Oh yes well what you have to do is to raise
the amulet facing towards your friend, tap it twice and shout 'Mirage Recendum!'.
This will cause the evil put inside him to reflect right back into the amulet."
"Oh Jhudora! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Kaelaniie squealed, all 35 lbs of her jumping onto Jhudora's lap.
"Get off me you pink overgrown Kacheek!" Jhudora
managed to protest as she struggled to get the overly ecstatic neopet off her.
"I heard a lot nasty things about dark faeries
such as yourself Jhudora, and that you were mean, grumpy, nasty, heartless,
selfish, cheeky-"
"I get your point," Jhudora interrupted curtly.
"Well what I mean to say is that I didn't know
Dark Faeries could be so nice either. That they're not really all that heartless
or mean or selfish if you get to know them," Kaelaniie continued.
Jhudora raised her brow at Kaelaniie in silence.
"So what would you like me to do?" Kaelaniie
said at last, realizing that she might be irritating the Dark Faerie.
Jhudora laughed. This time, it was not a devious
sort of cackle but instead, a genuine laugh.
Kaelaniie blinked. Could it be something she
had said?
Jhudora looked at Kaelaniie with sparkling eyes.
"No. The only favour I ask is that you keep this little exchange between you
and I, do you understand? No other Dark Faerie or even a neopet should ever
come to know. Otherwise, I shall become an utter disgrace. And you wouldn't
want that to happen to Jhudora, would you? Not after she gave you a nice, shiny
token that's valuable beyond words! Would you?"
Kaelaniie thought for a moment. Surely, Parigan,
her friend the mutant Peophin would ask questions. What would she say to him?
And on top of that, her owner would ask her questions too! What would she say
to her? Kaelaniie could not lie, she had always been taught that lying was
not for Neopets and that it always had consequences.
"Well?" Jhudora asked, impatiently tapping her
shoe against the ground.
Kaelaniie thought hard. Maybe she could find
some way to not tell them. Maybe she could tell them half the truth so it wouldn't
be a full lie. But then she would be betraying Jhudora's confidence. Oh this
certainly didn't seem like a win-win situation anymore! It was harder than she'd
thought this would be!
"I don't have all day you know. A Dark Faerie
needs to go places. Not to mention I have a Dark Faerie Alliance fundraiser
in an hour. I need to get ready! A Dark Faerie also needs to keep up appearances,"
Jhudora said with a tone that was both snobbish and smug, with her nose stuck
high up in the air.
When Jhudora noticed that Kaelaniie had not
replied, she said, "Well I suppose you must be wondering what to tell your little
friend and your owner."
"Yes, I am," the little Kacheek whimpered.
"Oh geez. Just tell them a certain anonymous
Faerie helped you but you never got to see who she was. Will that do?"
Kaelaniie's eyes brightened instantly. "What
a wonderful idea!" Then her eyes lowered. "But isn't that still a lie?"
"Aargh. Fine. Just tell them a certain Faerie
helped you but she wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons. And boy,
security reasons sure isn't far from the truth seeing as how I'd be clobbered
by the dark faeries if they ever found out," the Dark Faerie said.
"Oh Jhudora! Did anyone tell you you're the
most wonderful dark Faerie in all of Neopia?" Kaelaniie exclaimed.
Jhudora turned scarlet. "Y-yeah well-um, thanks
Kacheek. You're not too bad yourself."
For a while, they both stood in silence.
Finally, Jhudora said, "Now go on. Parigan and
that owner of yours must be waiting for you. It isn't safe you know, to be roaming
around alone talking to strangers like me."
Kaelaniie thought for a moment and then said,
"Well I think it's safe to assume that you're not a stranger. You're my friend.
Bye Jhudora! Maybe I'll see you again! Thank you for everything!"
With those words, Kaelaniie ventured back home
to where her owner and Parigan were both waiting. She was feeling absolutely
wonderful. Not only had she managed to get the amulet for her friend but she
had also made a new friend.
The End
| 
