The Prophecy of Four: Part Two

     "No, this wasn't supposed to happen!" she cried out. Shrieks from the living room told Tanelle that she had woken the other faer- no. Tanelle stopped herself before her thoughts could continue. They were all pets now, with little or no hope of going back. Still shaking her head as if to deny the truth, the Krawk spread her bat-wings for balance and walked unsteadily through to where the others lay.

     At the sight of her, Draik, Ixi, and Gelert banded together. "Who are you?" demanded the shadow Gelert, Kanal'te, in a trembling voice.

     Already beginning to regain her composure, Tanelle sighed and folded her wings tight against her back. "I'm Tanelle. You don't know my voice?"

     "You do sound familiar . . ." replied Kanal'te, voice still shaking.

     Tanelle almost lost patience. "That's because I'm Tanelle, silly! Oh, and have any of you glanced in a mirror recently?" she added with a wicked twinkle of humor in her eyes. She knew what would happen.

     Sure enough, the Ixi, Talusai, rushed off to the bathroom, followed closely by Draik and Gelert. Tanelle watched, then followed at a leisurely pace.

     The Krawk entered, observing her friends gazing at themselves in the mirror, much as she had done. "Well?" she demanded, after watching them for several minutes.

     "Well..." Talusai looked up from her study of her new self. "I know who you all are, but who are each of you?"

     The others apparently got the gist of her question. "I am Kanal'te." The Shadow Gelert offered her reply first.

     "I'm Sanalre!" cried the Maraquan Draik, resuming hyperactiveness.

     "That leaves me." Tanelle sighed as all eyes turned to her. "As you may know, I'm Tanelle, and the Faerie Ixi over there is Talusai. Can we go yet?" she asked, rolling dark eyes impatiently.

     "Where?" asked Kanal'te with some degree of confusion.

     "Why, to the Faerie Queen, of course!" exclaimed Talusai, catching Tanelle's idea. "Maybe she can turn us back?"

     "Indeed. She would be the one to do so, if it were at all possible," Kal remarked.

     "What are we waiting for?" squealed Sanalre. "Let's go!"

     Grumbling at the Draik's inexplicable activity, the other three left in pursuit of their friend.

     ***

     The Faerie City was soon within sight, as was Fyora's palace. Kanal'te, Talusai, and Tanelle had caught up with Sanalre fast, and now they were approaching the Draiks who guarded the gate.

     "Oooh!" Sanalre whispered in Talusai's ear. "The one on the left's quite cute, don't you think?"

     As Talusai shrugged off her friend's recommendation, Sanalre stretched leisurely, making sure the guard caught a full view of her beautiful Maraquan coloring. He was uninterested.

     "Hmmmph!" Sanalre snorted, and joined Tanelle and Kanal'te as they talked to the other Draik.

     "Sir, this is really quite important," Kal explained to the guard. "You see, we-"

     "Yeah, yeah, heard it before," the guard yawned. "Now beat it! You know very well we can't let you into the palace without an owner."

     Tanelle spread her wings, and moved forward, pushing the Gelert out of the way. "I don't think, you understand, sir, " she hissed.

     "I understand perfectly well." The guard blinked at the threatening Krawk. "You're trying to get in here without an owner. I'm sorry, but I can't allow that."

     "Fine," Tanelle snapped. "We'll find someone else to help us."

     The guard nodded in approval of her decision. Snorting in disgust, Tanelle herded Kal back to the group. "All right, guys. It's obvious we won't get any help here, so let's head down to Neopia Central. Perhaps Kauvara will be able to help?"

     The others agreed hastily, and together they made their way to the Uni Shuttle Service. (USS).

     "How may I help you?" The Pink Uni behind the booking desk blinked at the regal Darigan Krawk standing in front of her.

     "I need four Unis to Neopia Central," Tanelle replied.

     "All right then. No charge, since it's only to Neopia Central, and there are four of you. Right this way, please."

     The Uni showed the four pets to a small herd of Blue Unis. "Skyborne, FyreSkye, Cloudflier, Azurewyng!" she called. In response, four Unis poked their heads up and trotted over. "Can you take these pets to Neopia Central?"

     The leader of the four, Azurewyng, spoke up. "Sure. Hop on, guys!"

     When Tanelle and her friends were settled, Azurewyng turned his head to the Ixi perched on his back. "All set?" he inquired. When Talusai nodded, and Skybourne, Cloudflier, and FyreSkye had received similar confirmations, Azurewyng raised his voice once more. "Come on, guys! Let's go!"

     The Blue Unis dived off the clouds. The flight was short but exhilarating, and shortly Tanelle, Talusai, Kanal'te, and Sanalre were standing by the Rainbow Pool.

     "See you around!" Azurewyng called as he and his herd soared off, back to Faerieland.

     Tanelle nodded shortly, then turned. "Any of you know where the Magic Shop is?" she asked.

     Kanal'te responded. "No, but I know it's in this area. It's not toward the Bazaar or the Marketplace."

     "All right then," said Tanelle, taking charge. "Let's head for that starry building, to the left."

     The others agreed, and they were walking when a screech of tires grabbed their attention. There was a truck from the Neopian Pound, and a Red Mynci was leaning out the window. "Hey, Frank!" he called to his companion. "Looks like we got ourselves a couple of strays!"

     A grunt came from the other side of the truck. As the faeries-turned-pets observed the Mynci, they failed to see the net coming at them from the top of the truck. Irritated, Tanelle looked up from within the weighted net to see the grinning head of a Purple Kacheek pop over the top before the Mynci hefted the bundle of pets into the back of the truck. Tanelle could hear them talking in the front. "We should take them to Dr_Death right away," the Mynci was saying. "Painted pets always get adopted fast."

     "Yeah," his partner agreed. "Unless, of course, the Pound turns them blue." Both snickered briefly, then returned their attention to finding the Pound.

     "The Pound?" Tanelle murmured to her companions. "What's that?"

     Surprisingly, it was Sanalre who answered. "It's where pets that have no owners are kept. They wait there for someone to adopt them."

     "Adopt them?!" Talusai's voice rose indignantly. Observing the cautioning glances of her friends, she lowered her tone. "But we're not pets!"

     "Remember, to all appearances, we are," said Kanal'te wisely. "Our only hope for survival and eventual fixing is to get adopted and run away later, once we've figured out a way to solve our problem."

     Tanelle, Sanalre, and finally Talusai admitted the truth to her statement, and agreed to go along with the plan. When the Kacheek and Mynci came to lead them out, they followed meekly, and stood in a row before the scary-looking Techo, Dr_Death. "What are your names?" he asked in as kind a voice as he could muster.

     Tanelle replied for each of them. "I'm Tanelle, sir, and this is Kanal'te," pointing to the Gelert beside her. As he finished writing those names down in his ledger, she continued. "The Ixi is Talusai and the Draik is Sanalre. Oh, and Kanal'te prefers to be called Kal," she added.

     "Right." Dr_Death closed the book with a snap. "Come this way, please."

     He lead them into a room with cages of all sizes. Some held dirty, dispirited looking pets, while some others held clean pets with regal bearings. Some cages were empty. The Techo led the four friends over to two medium-sized cages side by side. "Kal, you and Tanelle can share 173," he said. "Talusai, you will share 174 with Sanalre." The friends nodded in mute agreement, and walked into the assigned cages. "The morning rush of adopters is coming soon," continued Dr_Death. "Expect to be fought over. You are, after all, painted pets." Then he left.

     Talusai and Sanalre glanced at each other, as did Tanelle and Kanal'te. Then they looked through the mesh separating the cages. "Right." The Krawk broke the silence. "We'll need to keep in contact. Here." She handed each member of the group a quarter of a silver pendant, ignoring the curious stares of the other pets. "We can keep in touch with these, and they will grow burning hot whenever one of us is in trouble. I used the last of my magic to create them." As the friends slipped the pendants over their head, a young boy entered. He had in tow a Yellow Lupe.

     "Huttser?" he asked. "Here we are. Which one do you want for your sister?"

     The Lupe, whose name appeared to be Huttser, glanced around. His gaze locked on Tanelle. She flashed a weak smile at Kanal'te, then moved forward, acting the part of the arrogant fighter.

     "I like her," the Lupe responded, jerking his head at Tanelle.

     The boy moved towards the cage that held the Darigan Krawk. "What's your name?" he asked.

     "I'm Tanelle," she responded, and her eyes were not on him but on the Lupe beside him. Yes, I think we could get along, she thought.

     "My name's Robert. Would you mind if we adopted you?"

     "No," Tanelle replied. "Only - could you take one of my sisters, too?" The sweep of her tail took in Kal, Talusai, and Sanalre.

     "I'm sorry," said Robert. "I can't. I can only afford to adopt one pet, and I'm only doing this for Huttser. He's always wanted a sister."

     "Well, all right," said Tanelle hesitantly. Robert swung the door open, and let the Krawk walk out. Closing the door once more, he, Huttser, and Tanelle headed for the Adopt desk. Talusai watched the boy through the clear door. He placed some Neopoints on the counter, then walked out the door with the Lupe and the Krawk.

     As the day wore on, they were all adopted. Talusai was adopted by a girl named Karen who already had a Faerie Kougra and a Faerie Kacheek. Sanalre and Kal stayed together, adopted by a girl named Fara. So they lived, happily, for a month or more. But then . . .

     About a month after she had been adopted, Tanelle was play-fighting with Huttser. They were both Battledome pets, and so wanted to keep in fighting shape. As Tanelle ducked a swipe from Huttser's massive paw, she came up and whacked him solidly with her tail. It sparked black for a moment, and then went quiescent. Grasping her tail in her paw, Tanelle looked at it oddly. "That's interesting," she murmured, then glanced up to see what Huttser was doing. To her surprise, the Lupe teetered on the edge of his paws, but did not fall.

     Puzzled, Tanelle looked around. There was a Jubjub caught in mid-roll, a Buzz frozen about to carry its Kacheek sister off to the roof. In fact, it seemed all around as if time had simply frozen still . . .

To be continued...