The Exhibition

     “Well, Kakoni, maybe you could see if Team Darigan is up for it? Most of us are friends anyway,” Whimsi Dia suggested.

     “I’ve been in contact, and it seems like the Darigan Team is quite busy assisting Meridell during their difficult time.”

     “Oh, um maybe another team. Perhaps Roo Island, or maybe Terror Mountain or…” Whimsi said to a skeptical team captain.

     Delma’s eyes lit up. “How about we teach the faeries Yooyuball by setting up a small training camp just for them? And then at the end of the camp, we allow them to showcase their skills against us?”

     “But the faeries seem quite busy with their own affairs. They won’t even look at us even though we represent Faerieland in the cup,” Valtonous Rea lamented.

     Delma gently patted the Uni on her head to get her to calm down. “Not to worry, we have a plan for that. Vivianna can help get the message out to start signups for the camp and recruit interested faeries.”

     “I think we could give it a go; I’d love to teach the faeries Yooyuball,” Ciona Broan said.

     With the rest of the team in agreement, their captain came around to the idea.

     “Well, I think we should go back to Vivianna and tell her of our change of plans,” Delma suggested.

     “Oh, we should also make sure we update our flyers. I have the perfect name for this little training camp of ours. Queen Fyora’s Yooyuball Camp.”

     “Wait, but she has nothing to do with it, Whimsi.”

     “Her name and image appear on lots of marketing material in Faerieland. I’m not even sure if she keeps track of it all. Besides, if she was here, she’d approve! She wants Neopets and faeries to be friends!”

     “Perhaps we should at least ask Aethia.”

     Whimsi’s eyes grew wide with excitement. “Actually, she’d be a great idea. Maybe we can get her to play!”

     The two of them left their team facility on the outskirts of Faerie City. They were right next to a training gym where Aethia also did her workouts, so they decided to poke their heads in to see if the Battle Faerie was there.

     “There she is!” Whimsi said, point over at Aethia who was in the middle of a shoulder exercise, pulling back and forth with each arm.

     “She looks busy,” Delma noted.

     “That’s ok, we can talk to her still, as long as we don’t physically interrupt her workout.”

     Before Delma could say anything else, Whimsi skipped along towards the Battle Faerie.

     “Hello, Lady Aethia!”

     “Lady…Aethia? Goodness, I have a title now? Just Aethia’s fine…” Aethia said, continuing her workout. “You look like an athlete, are you here to train?”

     “Not today, I actually wanted to ask if you would be interested in putting your name to a little Yooyuball camp Team Faerieland might be hosting. Think, Aethia’s Altador Cup Challenge! And then we play an exhibition against the faeries!”

     “You could also learn to play!” Whimsi exclaimed.

     “Faeries playing Yooyuball?” Aethia said repeatedly as she transferred to a leg press machine because of course, Aethia never skipped leg day. Delma stared at the weights Aethia had loaded on the machine. It was certainly a good amount, but not that impressive.

     “Look, we think it’ll get more faeries to realize that we are here as athletes representing Faerieland,” Delma added.

     Aethia began thrusting her legs upward and relaxing them repeatedly as she continued to talk to them.

     “I think that’s a great idea, I mean I’ve always wanted to play. The other faeries always thought it was just a Neopet thing though.”

     Whimsi stared in awe as Aethia continued her workout with hardly a break in between.

     “Hold on, do you like ever take a break between these?”

     “I just did while talking to you.”

     “But that was hardly a break, and you did quite a few of them.”

     “I must maintain endurance to fight shades should they need me again. So yes, reps of 30 it is.”

     “I’m slightly worried about facing her,” Delma whispered in Whimsi’s ear.

     “Don’t worry, it’ll be fun,” Whimsi whispered back.

     “I can recruit some of my friends,” Aethia added.

     “Actually, we’ll give Vivianna some flyers to distribute. We can leave some here too. Feel free to give them to your friends.”

     The two of them left the gym and set off to the Wheel of Excitement again. They told Vivianna about their plans, and she got even more excited about it. Soon they returned with flyers for the camp and the match as well. A good number of submissions came in, but Aethia decided to hold a fitness test before admitting faeries into the camp. Once she was satisfied, the faeries that would attend the training ended up being:

     Jhudora

     Illusen

     Naia

     Meaghan - Earth Faerie banned from giving quests; kept asking for “Tears of the Water Faerie” and discriminating against Dark Faeries

     Vivianna

     Aethia

     Day one of the camp arrived and the faeries began showing up. Team Faerieland awaited their arrival.

     “Hello everyone! Welcome to Aethia’s Altador Cup Challenge. Today, we will start by getting everyone familiar with the different types of Yooyus and their behavior,” Kakoni began.

     “Everyone over here! We’ll meet each Yooyu individually and then allow you time to have some practice shots with each one,” Delma continued.

     A normal Yooyu stepped forward from a line-up of Yooyus and curled itself into a ball.

     “First, we have the normal Yooyu!” Whimsi said excitedly. “This Yooyu is brown on the outside and lives in wooded areas near Altador. It likes to forage for berries and oh it does love to eat all sorts of berries.”

     Valtonous gently nudged Whismi with her hoof.

     “Oh, um, yes, the normal Yooyu always goes in the direction you pass or shoot. You don’t need to worry much about it.”

     “I bet you’ll find some way to make this one curve the wrong way, salad mix,” Jhudora said to Illusen.

     “Ha, you couldn’t even shoot straight,” Illusen retorted. Aethia glared at them both and shushed them.

     “Here are the Fire and Snow Yooyus,” Ciona explained as the two Yooyus trotted forward next.

     “Aren’t these things just so cute?” Vivianna remarked.

     “Cute? They are like little rodents. I don’t know about cute. Kinda dirty, why don’t they just use an actual ball?” Meaghan retorted.

     Vivianna rolled her eyes. “You’ll see why, where’s the challenge with just a normal ball?”

     “The Snow Yooyu moves like the normal one, but slower. And it’s also very cold to touch so be careful,” Ciona continued.

     “And the Fire Yooyu is the opposite, moving much faster, but also needs to be handled with care due to its hot outer shell!” Whimsi exclaimed. She then picked up the Fire Yooyu and passed it. However, she missed a bit, and it nearly grazed Meaghan’s ears, but Naia reached up and caught the Yooyu and brought it back to the ground.

     “Watch where you’re passing that!” Meaghan snapped.

     “Anyways, the next Yooyu is the Darigan Yooyu. Darigan Yooyus tend to go the opposite direction of your suggestion so be sure to take that into account,” Kakoni said.

     The Darigan Yooyu flew into the stands and landed on Meaghan’s lap.

     “Ewww, get this evil looking thing away from me. It looks like a dark faerie!”

     “Hey, watch your mouth!” Jhudora retorted.

     “Darigani are some of the nicest folks I’ve met, get that hot take of yours out of here,” Illusen added.

     Regardless, Meaghan picked up the Yooyu and tossed it angrily. Delma sprang into action and quickly caught it before it smashed into a tree.

     “Cut that out, Meaghan!” Aethia barked as she glared.

     An awkward silence then fell between everyone as Meaghan glared back at Aethia, seemingly wanting to yell back but finally deciding that doing so would not be prudent.

     “The Faerie Yooyu here likes to fly around obstacles but also likes to fly in a curved pattern.”

     “The Robot or Clockwork Yooyu has a time limit for a team to score with it. Otherwise, yes, it creates a moderately large explosion.”

     “Finally, the Mutant Yooyu can decide to do whatever another one of the previous Yooyus did in order to keep you on your toes.”

     After the explanation, the Yooyus lined up in front of the faeries one more time.

     “With all the Yooyus introduced, we should start learning to play. Everyone, there’s a pile of surplus equipment from Team Faerieland. Please try to find something that fits and if nothing does, let me know and we’ll figure something out,” Valtonous mentioned while motioning over to a pile of uniforms, racquets, and goalkeeper’s chest guards.

     “First, let us practice passing” Kakoni suggested.

     Aethia divided the faeries into pairs for this exercise. She paired herself with Meaghan, Illusen with Vivianna, and Naia with Jhudora.

     “Alright, now just place the Yooyu at the base of the racquet and then give it a good fling in the correct direction.”

     Meaghan took the normal Yooyu and flung it as hard as she could at Aethia, nearly hitting her in the face. Fortunately, Aethia’s quick reflexes made sure the Yooyu landed safely in her racquet. Still, she was not thrilled that Meaghan, although strong, did not inform her that the pass was coming and chose to catch her by surprise.

     “You know, we are supposed to be on a team,” Aethia remarked.

     “Aren’t you the Battle Faerie? Anyways you caught it so isn’t that good enough?”

     Aethia folded her arms. “You know a team only needs five members and your attitude seems to be a fast cloud racer to the bench.”

     Meaghan shrugged. Meanwhile the other faeries seemed to be getting the hang of passing the various Yooyus to each other.

     “Who said the Darigan Yooyu was difficult? I can pass this one just fine,” Jhudora bragged.

     Naia rolled her eyes. “If I recall, I was the one to figure this out and taught you, but hey, we do make a great team,” the Fountain Faerie remarked.

     Jhudora then peered over at Illusen, staring at her as she mishandled a Mutant Yooyu which then flew circles around her as it decided to mimic the Faerie Yooyu.

     “Hahaha, what’s going on Illusen? At this rate, the team that loses to everyone will beat us.”

     Illusen scowled at Jhudora. She chucked the Mutant Yooyu at Jhudora with great force, but to her dismay, Jhudora easily caught it as it had decided to mimic the Snow Yooyu.

     “Well, just pass it all to me and we might win,” Jhudora taunted.

     “Stop being so mean to her, you evil dark faerie,” Meaghan screeched.

     “You stay out of this!” they yelled in unison.

     “You are clearly in an unhealthy relationship with her,” Meaghan continued.

     Illusen went straight up to Meaghan and glared right in her face.

     “You let me be the judge of that. Now go back to minding your own business.”

     Meaghan glared back while Jhudora decided to move on from the situation and return to practicing with Naia. Aethia sighed and wondered if she’d ever get the team to function properly. Before she could dwell further, Team Faerieland interrupted the drill.

     “Alright, next, we need to practice goalkeeping. Everyone gets a turn at the goal; let’s see who the best is.” Kakoni Worill beckoned everyone over to the goal.

     First up was Aethia who stood in the middle of the goal, trying to predict the shot. The five members of Team Faerieland all lined up, each holding a different Yooyu. Each of them drew their racquets back, as if getting ready to shoot their Yooyu. Suddenly, Delma shot her Fire Yooyu and Aethia jumped, only for it to sail right through her legs. She got back in position for her second attempt. Whimsi Dia released her Faerie Yooyu. Aethia dove to the right and managed to just tap the Yooyu and change the trajectory, so it went over the net.

     “That was better than the first one, nice job!” Valtonous Rea exclaimed.

     Vivianna went next and unfortunately for her; she was not able to stop any of the Yooyus fired at her. Other faeries seemed to struggle mightily so finally it was Naia’s turn.

     As Team Faerieland fired off their Yooyus, Naia instantly repelled them with her tail.

     “Thwack.” There went the Darigan Yooyu.

     “Thwack.” The Fire Yooyu.

     “Thwack. BOOM!” The Clockwork Yooyu.

     “I think we found our goalkeeper!” Aethia exclaimed, smoothing out her hair from the Clockwork Yooyu explosion.

     Finally, the next drill was centered around defending. Illusen was up first, and her goal was to stop Vivianna from passing the Yooyu to Jhudora. Illusen stepped forward as Vivianna passed a Faerie Yooyu. Unfortunately, for Illusen, she landed a bit awkwardly on her right foot and suddenly felt a pop and immediate pain.

     “Arghhh!” she yelped as she fell to the ground, holding her ankle.

     Jhudora instinctively ran right next to Illusen.

     “What in Neopia… Illusen, I think you tore your Achialles…”

     Illusen glared at Jhudora. “No way.”

     “Look, salad mix, I heard that pop. See if you can put weight on that ankle.”

     “ARGGGGH!” Illusen screamed.

     “It’s an Achialles alright,” Aethia walked over and gave her assessment. “I’m afraid it’s straight to the injured reserve for you, my dear. Meaghan, you’re up!”

     Meaghan floated over. “What, you want ME to practice with a dark faerie?”

     “Get in there!” Aethia barked.

     Meaghan stepped in and blocked every pass Jhudora sent her way. However, Aethia found her comments rather troubling.

     “No dark faerie is gonna get a pass past me,” she remarked.

     Finally, Aethia confronted her.

     “You do realize Jhudora is probably going to make the team and be a forward, so you’ll likely have to pass to her.”

     “Passing to her? No, I think I avoid needing to pass at all.”

     Meaghan shrugged and rolled her eyes. “My ideal game is that I just score myself.”

     Aethia shrugged while Meaghan acknowledged she may need to be a replacement for Jhudora.

     “Alright, Aethia has the final roster right now,” Kakoni stated.

     “Oh, I look so eager to play them!” Whimsi exclaimed.

     To be continued…