Dark Faerie, Dark Heart
The first thing our heroes noticed when they
arrived in Faerieland was how deserted it appeared. Gone were the crowds of
happy NeoPets that were usually present to place their bets on the Poogle Races
or to try their luck at the Wheel of Excitement. Pearlbeak figured that everyone
was either in line for the Soup Kitchen back in the Central Neopian Marketplace,
or else they were locked in their homes, too frightened of the living Food Items
to go outside.
"That reminds me," spoke up BlossomAnn. "I'd
like to send a Neomail to Jonah and Miss_Claus, just to let them know where
we are and that we're all right. I hope we can find a shop that's still open."
[Author's note: another Little Known Fact of Neopia is the fact that there
are Neomail stations located in nearly every shop. Just to let you know...]
As they explored the empty avenues of Faerie
City, several fluttering things that looked like butterflies approached them.
At first they appeared to be Faeries, but upon closer inspection they realised
that it was an assortment of Faerie Food. A wing-shaped slice of Faerie Toast
with Butter flapped past them, followed by a few Earth Faerie Brownies and a
whole flock of Extra Cheesy Cheddar Crisps ("Gourmet Food," BlossomAnn whispered
to 7_flames when she saw the latter. "Been there, eaten that," she added, taking
care that the food did not hear her).
Unlike the Spooky Food and the food prowling
around Central Neopia, the Faerie Food showed a remarkable lack of aggression.
They flew in circles around the companions, giggling mischievously, but made
no attempt to attack them. Or at least they did not until a high-pitched squealing
broke from one of the Food Items: "Eeeek! Ow! Oh, help-help! Murder! Police!"
Pearlbeak, 7_flames and BlossomAnn whirled about
to see a shamefaced Hollowbelly with a struggling Pigalicious Ham Sandwich clenched
in his jaws. Hastily, the Lupe dropped the Sandwich, but it was too late. The
Faerie Food began dive-bombing all four Neopets, uttering cries of "Brutes!"
"Scoundrels!" "Villains!" "Cannibals!" and other epithets. Pearlbeak used her
Attack Fork to swat the food away, but she did not have the heart to shoot flames
at them. Finally, the last one--a Faerieland Gourmet Burger--gave up the fight
and flitted away on its wings of Faerie bread. As she put away her Attack Fork,
the Eyrie gave Hollowbelly a look.
"It wasn't my fault!" the Green Lupe protested.
"I had my mouth open in a yawn, and I swear, the Sandwich just flew right into
it! I think maybe they just wanted an excuse to attack us."
"I think maybe you just wanted an excuse to feed
your face." Pearlbeak said tartly.
***
The Faerie Food Store was, of course, closed due to the Food Crisis. It had,
in fact, been sealed with a magic spell to keep the hostile food within the
building locked up. But so was the nearby Faerie Book Shop shut down, with a
notice on the door that read: "OWNER GONE TO HELP THE SOUP FAERIE IN CENTRAL
NEOPIAN MARKETPLACE."
There was just one other store to check--the
Faerie PetPet Shop. They reached the building only to discover that it too was
closed, its front door locked.
However, when BlossomAnn peeked in through the
window, she saw an Earth Faerie busy tending to the PetPets inside. Rapping
on the window caused the Faerie to look up in surprise. "I'm sorry, but we're
closed right now," the Faerie called through the windowpane, shaking her head
at the four of them.
"We're not here to buy PetPets," the Aisha informed
her. "I need to send a Neomail. Please?"
The Faerie, who was a kind-hearted soul, replied,
"Well, if you can get it done before I'm finished here, I'll let you in. I'm
supposed to be helping the Soup Faerie, but I came back here because I needed
to take care of the PetPets. I'll be off again soon. So, if you're quick..."
"Thank you, Miss Faerie," BlossomAnn purred.
"I won't be but a minute, I promise."
They entered the shop and the Faerie locked the
door behind them ("To keep out unwelcome visitors," she explained). While BlossomAnn
busied herself at the Neomail station, the other three glanced about the shop.
"Try not to touch anything," Pearlbeak warned the other two.
"Awww, you're too bossy," 7_flames griped, putting
his nose to a cage that contained a fluffy Meekins. "Hi there, cutey," he cooed
at it. "Would you like to be my PetPet someday?"
In response, the Meekins promptly screamed, "EEEEEEEEEEEEH!"
into the Wocky's face.
"Sorry about that," said the Earth Faerie as
she brought a dish of PetPet food to the Meekins' cage. "When a Meekins is hungry,
all it'll do is shriek until you feed it."
"Wha'd you say?" moaned 7_flames. "I can't hear
you. My ears haven't stopped ringing yet."
"Serves you right, nosey." Pearlbeak scolded
him.
Meanwhile, Hollowbelly was very interested in
the fact that the PetPet food was not affected by the spell that had brought
all of the NeoPet food to life. He found a large open bag of the stuff in the
rear of the shop, and when nobody was looking, snatched a mouthful of it. Unfortunately
for the Green Lupe, it tasted horrible. He was too embarrassed to spit it out,
and just managed to swallow it down before staggering back to the others, looking
quite a bit greener than usual.
"All finished," BlossomAnn was saying. "Not only
did I send an update to Jonah, but I found a Neomail he had sent me after we
left them. Apparently, he and Kuvu had already discovered the fact that `beating'
the living Food Items in a fight makes them turn back to normal, and they now
have enough edible food in the NeoHome to last the three of them a while."
"That's a relief," nodded Pearlbeak. "Now they
won't have to go to the Soup Kitchen."
"Which is where I need to be getting back to,"
put in the Earth Faerie with a smile.
They thanked the Faerie and left the shop, watching
her lock up again before she departed. "She's a bigger hero than the four of
us," mused the Eyrie. "We may be trying to save Neopia, and admittedly we haven't
done much yet. But she--and others like her--has given her time and effort to
help feed the hungry. That's another type of heroism, a very important type
at that."
Inspired by Pearlbeak's words, the four NeoPets
felt a fresh resolve in their mission; they were no longer just doing it for
themselves, but for the good of Neopia! Soberly, they turned their faces in
the direction of their next goal: the grim, purple cloud of Jhudora, the Dark
Faerie.
***
Jhudora's cloud was a low-hanging thunderhead located at the edge of the main
Faerieland clouds. A winged NeoPet such as an Eyrie could have flown there directly,
but Pearlbeak chose to remain with her companions and use the special teleport
booth that was strictly for gaining access to the Dark Faerie's cloud. "It's
best we stay close together," she explained.
When the booth deposited them at the rim of the
cloud, the four NeoPets peered out nervously, expecting to be greeted by the
dark mistress herself. Much to their surprise, Jhudora was nowhere to be seen.
In fact, it looked as though she had been gone for some time, as the cloud was
in a general disarray, strewn with various non-food items, possibly the objects
of quests.
"Jhudora could use a good housekeeper," commented
7_flames as he kicked aside a Chomby Slingshot, a weapon that was useless to
the group since only a Chomby could use it.
"What do you suppose could have done this?" asked
BlossomAnn, beginning to pick up scattered Collectable Cards so they wouldn't
blow away. "The Living Food, perhaps?"
Pearlbeak considered. "It's possible. I've heard
that Jhudora often asks NeoPets to bring her food items, so maybe the food went
berserk and trashed the cloud before it left via the teleport booth. But if
that's the case, then maybe Jhudora isn't the one after all. I wonder--"
At that moment, a dreadful sound, a moan of purest
agony cut through the thin air surrounding them. Hollowbelly, already on edge
from being in the lair of the evil Dark Faerie, turned to bolt and almost pitched
himself into the lake of violet slime located in the middle of the cloud.
Pearlbeak just managed to grab him by the tail.
"Calm down!" the Eyrie hissed fiercely through her beak. Then, to the unseen
voice, she called "Who's there?"
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh..." came the answer. "Ohhhh,
oooooooohhh..."
"I thought we left the Zombies behind back in
the Haunted Woods," 7_flames quipped shakily.
With her Attack Fork at the ready, Pearlbeak
moved cautiously towards where the sound was coming from. A large lump of purple
cloud was hiding the moaner from view. Wary of a trap, the Silver Eyrie crept
very slowly around the obstacle, until at last her eyes beheld--
--a Brown Meerca, locked up in an emerald cage
and looking extremely sick to its stomach!
"Who are you?" Pearlbeak demanded as the other
three came up behind her.
"Uhhhhhhh..." groaned the Meerca, turning a bloodshot
eye towards the group. "Not again. Not more hallucinations. Curse you, Jhudora!
Oh, let me die, please just let me die..."
At once BlossomAnn pushed her way past Pearlbeak
"Oh, you poor thing!" she cried, unslinging her backpack. "What's the matter?
Neggitus? Achy Head? Cricky Neck?"
"Meercas don't have necks," 7_flames pointed
out.
Ignoring her cousin, BlossomAnn continued to
address the suffering creature. "I've got some Medicines in my pack here. Just
tell me what hurts, and I'll see what I can do for you."
"My stomach," the Meerca whimpered. "I've been...poisoned.
Are you...are you for real?"
While the Yellow Aisha searched her backpack
for an antidote, Hollowbelly came forward to examine the bright green cage that
imprisoned the Meerca. There did not appear to be any kind of latch or padlock
on it, nor indeed any means of opening the cage at all. "However did you end
up inside this thing?" he asked, scratching ineffectually at the bars.
"I caught him stealing from me, and I put him
in there, that's how!" a new and terrible voice answered. A sudden, mutual dread
seized the companions as they turned to view the speaker. Before them stood
Jhudora, the most feared of the Dark Faeries, arms crossed and green lips twisted
in a sneer. "And I would gladly do the same for all four of you!"
"Don't you dare!" yelled Pearlbeak with a bravado
that belied her suddenly pounding heart. "We aren't thieves--we only came here
looking for you! We desire a quest!"
"I'm no longer giving out quests, sweetie. Not
while this stupid Food Crisis is going on."
"The stupid Food Crisis that YOU created?" blurted
out 7_flames.
Pearlbeak shot her brother a warning glance,
but it was too late.
The Dark Faerie gave a contemptuous snort. "I
knew it! `Why did you cause Maraqua to sink, Jhudora?' `What did you do to mess
up the Faerie Crossword Game, Jhudora?' `How come you made the site go down
again, Jhudora?' Every time something goes wrong in Neopia, the first person
everyone suspects is either Dr. Sloth or me! It never fails!"
"Well, actually, our first suspect was old Edna
the Witch," admitted Hollowbelly.
"WHAT?! You dared to place that senile old hag
before ME? How insulting!"
BlossomAnn, who despite distractions had not
left off searching through her backpack, suddenly exclaimed "What did you do
to this poor Meerca? He said he'd been poisoned."
"Indeed he has," Jhudora smiled cruelly. "He
found my stash of Poisonous Lollypops and had himself a little party with them.
Don't waste your pity on that greedy, thieving wretch."
Hollowbelly swallowed hard; he had once eaten
a so-called Poisonous Lollypop himself. "But...but...those lollypops you give
out aren't really poisonous ... are they?"
"They are if you eat more than ten of them in
one sitting!"
As if to confirm the Dark Faerie's words, the
Brown Meerca let out another agonised groan.
"Wow," whispered 7_flames, "I thought I'd never
encounter anyone who was greedier than you, Hollowbelly!" The Green Lupe made
a face at his Fire Wocky cousin.
"Wait a minute," Pearlbeak broke in. "If that
Meerca ate a bunch of Lollypops, he must have done it before the Food Crisis
occurred. Just how long have you kept him here, Jhudora?"
"Since the day before yesterday, if it's any
business of yours. Some thieves plundered my cloud while I was away on business.
When I returned, I found this one too ill to move, but he must have had at least
one other with him, for I discovered I'd been robbed. My priceless Book of Dark
Master Spells, gone!" The Dark Faerie gnashed her teeth in fury. "So I caged
the one thief, and caged he shall remain until he tells me who it was that stole
my precious book."
"But, Ms. Jhudora," protested BlossomAnn, "he
can't possibly tell you anything when he's so sick like this." The Aisha withdrew
a small vial of greenish liquid from her backpack. "This is a Magic Vial. Please,
let me cure him, and then maybe we'll learn something useful from him."
Jhudora scowled nastily for a moment, then shrugged.
"Fine. If you want to waste your own valuable medicine on some vermin, it's
no skin off my nose. But he stays caged, understand?"
BlossomAnn poked her paw through the bars and
held the uncorked vial up to the Meerca's mouth. Weakly, he swallowed the contents,
choking a little at the bitter taste. Moments later he was sitting up in the
cage, staring gratefully at BlossomAnn and nervously at Jhudora.
It was Pearlbeak who started the questioning.
"Who are you, Meerca? What's your name?"
Though cured of poison, the Brown Meerca still
looked rather uncomfortable. "I--uh, my name is, um... Fluffy112362, a-and I
wandered in here by myself by accident. I didn't steal nothin' and I didn't
see anybody else steal nothin' either--"
"Liar," proclaimed Jhudora, though instead of
being enraged, she sounded almost happy about it. Smiling like a cat who has
just found a trapped mouse, she began to tap her long green fingernails together.
"I have a special way of dealing with liars and thieves. As it happens, I am
in need of a test subject for my new magical creations and... experiments."
"Experiments?" quavered BlossomAnn, while the
caged Meerca began to tremble and shake.
Jhudora looked positively gleeful. "Those cry-babies
thought my Eraser of the Dark Faerie was evil, just because it caused their
precious Hypno Helmets and the like to disappear. Ha! Just wait until they see
my next masterpiece--the GREATER Eraser of the Dark Faerie! A one-use item that
will erase any NeoPet, forever! And those fools were whining about Chia Flour.
I'll give them something to whine about!" She threw back her head and laughed
like a demoness.
To be continued...
Next: A Tyrant in Tyrannia | 
