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The Day After
2nd Day of Sleeping, Year 1
It was the morning after the first year celebration
in Neopia. The celebrations were over in Faerieland, but sometimes you could
catch wisps of sounds of laughter and happiness from the human and neopet world
below.
Taelia awoke in a good mood for once, because
the other faeries had been happy to let her in their circle to celebrate the
New Year. She had celebrated with them all night. They danced together around
a bonfire, told stories, gave gifts, and had loads of fun. So Taelia didn't
even get mad when Poof, her Cirrus woke her up by raining on her so she could
give him some food.
With a smile, Taelia threw open the shutter
to her house and looked out at the clear blue skies of Faerieland. There was
freshly fallen snow on the clouds and faeries were everywhere, going about their
daily business.
"Alyce!" Taelia called.
A pretty Earth Faerie looked at her, quickly
looked around, and then walked over to Taelia's window as if she didn't want
anyone to see where she was going.
"What do you want?" Alyce whispered in an irritated
way.
Taelia was a little thrown off by her response
but continued brightly anyway. "Did you wanna hang out later? I thought maybe
we could go to the-"
"Shhhhh! Stop talking to loud!" Alyce whispered
again. "I don't want people to know we're talking!"
"But we had so much fun yesterday, I thought
we were friends now," Taelia said her happiness fading.
"We are but I can't be seen with you. If I were
then I would become an outcast like you and that can't happen! Sorry," Alyce
said regretfully. She walked away, again looking from side to side to make sure
no one saw her.
Taelia, depressed again, closed the shutters
to her window and turned on the light. She sat down at her Kauvara table with
a sigh regretted even leaving the house the night before. She never wanted to
leave her house again. But soon she got hungry and had to eat, so she went over
to Faerie Foods to hopefully grab a taco or some pie.
Everyone stared as she walked. To amuse them
she put on her worst scowl and some even ran away, afraid. Alyce, who was in
the store, didn't meet Taelia's eye.
"A taco… please," Taelia said to the store owner.
She purposefully made the "please" sound extra sarcastic to hopefully make everyone
noticed how gloomy she was.
Meanwhile, unnoticed by Taelia, a Fire Faerie
named Tilaena was staring at Taelia with very narrowed eyes.
"That Taelia is so pessimistic! How can she
put on a kind face once and expect to be accepted into our group?! She doesn't
deserve to live in Faerieland," Tilaena whispered to some Air and Water faeries
near her. They all nodded in agreement and whispered similar comments.
"I think we should talk to the Fyora about this,"
Tilaena concluded. With that she marched out of Faerie Foods and up to the Hidden
Tower to see the queen.
Now, Taelia wasn't usually pessimistic. Normally
she tried to be very nice and friendly. But what Alyce had said got to her and
she wanted a small revenge to make the faeries feel bad for how they treated
her. She did this by being sarcastic and antisocial. But Tilaena had a particular
problem with Taelia. Back on the first day of Neopia, when all the faeries were
being created, Fyora had wanted to make a special Faerie, a Snow Faerie that
would make spells for the greater good of the very young Neopia. The decision
had been between Taelia and Tilaena, and Taelia had become the snow Faerie.
It was Tilaena who had made the other faeries act so distant and haughty towards
Taelia, and it was Tilaena who had made Taelia an outcast from the other faeries.
But she didn't think of any of this as she marched
with her group up to the hidden tower. Fyora was sitting at her desk, tinkering
with an apple. She took a bite, and the bite disappeared, making the apple whole
again.
"Fyora," Tilaena said. "I don't think Taelia
the Snow Faerie deserves to live in Faerieland. We think she is too pessimistic
and mean."
"Tilaena," Fyora said calmly. "Taelia has done
nothing to deserve your remarks about her. Your jealousy has clouded your mind.
Go back to you home and rethink what you said. Everyone else, please also go
home and rethink what you say."
The faeries left, silent and subdued and Tilaena
felt even more jealousy toward Taelia. It seemed that Fyora thought highly Taelia
and not her, and Tilaena wanted to make her pay.
***
Meanwhile, Taelia sat in her spell room going over the many spells she had
written down. She was testing them to see if they need revising. Poof was floating
around her; occasionally sprouting lightning sparks for fun. How she loved writing
spells! Each one was intricate and had many layers. They could do one thing,
or several things, and they were always beautiful. The only downside was the
items she needed to have for each one. Sometimes they were quite expensive.
But this problem didn't stop her from continuing to write new spells. But a
knock on her front door roused her from her work. Puzzled she went to see who
it was. She hadn't been expecting visitors from the way they had been acting
towards her.
Taelia opened the door and Alyce was there!
Taelia moved aside and Alyce rushed inside and closed the door fast. Then she
sighed gratefully.
"I have to be even more careful these days Taelia,"
Alyce said fearfully. "I heard from some of the other faeries that Tilaena is
planning something bad to get to you to leave Faerieland, or maybe even get
you to leave Neopia."
"Why are you telling me this?" Taelia asked
sceptically.
"I fear for you Taelia, you don't know Tilaena
like I do. When she's mad, she won't stop at anything until she gets what she
wants. And this time, she wants you."
To be continued...
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