The Newest Bestseller

     As long as Illusen was deep within the forest, surrounded by living nature, she could nearly imagine a Neopia without the horrible greying.

     But only nearly.

     So the earth faerie simply did her best to distract herself, to enjoy the little things and to create as much peace for her soul as possible. One of her favorite clearings had been her destination for the morning, with countless tiny flowers speckling the fresh looking grass, the melodic sounds of wild avian Petpets audible and dense bushes surrounding it, Illusen felt at peace.

     And the morning would have passed by peacefully if not for the sudden appearance of two Gruslens on the path leading through the forest to this clearing.

     Yipping excitedly, the Petpets raced past her, towards an old oak tree on the edge of the clearing. Not even giving her a glance, the pair was focused on something else.

     On a thick branch, an Albat was grooming itself, unbothered by the two energetic sabre-toothed critters at the foot of the tree.

     One a vibrant purple, the other one as green as her glade, Illusen knew very well who these two belonged to.

     Sighing, she turned to face the path, where exactly that person she expected turned up. Surprisingly to Illusen however, the other faerie was carrying a big bag over her shoulder, as well as a second one she held with a hand. A fluffy purple blanket and what appeared to be a plush toy were partially visible in the opening.

     Yes, she had expected the other faerie after nearly getting run over by her Gruslens, but not looking that way.

     “Jhudora, what are you doing here?” Illusen couldn't do anything but stare while trying to figure out a reason for that kind of appearance. Her mind was drawing a blank.

     “Hello to you too.” The dark faerie frowned and carefully let the open bag, with what Illusen now assumed were items for her Gruslens, drop to the ground. “Have you heard about the newest bestseller in the bookstores?”

     “...no?” What a weird topic to have a conversation about.

     There were countless other faeries Illusen could imagine having a talk about a new novel with, basically everyone but Jhudora. They hadn't been friends in so long and every conversation in the past few months had included insults and barely any small talk.

     This was more than unexpected!

     Confused, the earth faerie watched the other one walk closer, still carrying the second bag. “You really live such a sheltered life, lucky you.” She scoffed and before Illusen could throw a retort her way, Jhudora continued. “Someone wrote about us again and it's getting sold in such quantities, as if there were no other books to buy! Everyone is going crazy for it!” Outrage dominated her voice.

     “I'm sure it's just another analysis of our messed up history, there are countless of them. Everyone likes to speculate, they're just nosy.” Illusen shrugged helplessly, but Jhudora only dug through her bag and then threw a heavy object her way.

     It was a book - THE book.

     Illusen saw herself on the cover, standing back to back with the dark faerie. CLASH was written in bold letters above them.

     “Read the backside.” Jhudora demanded, glaring her way.

     With a roll of her eyes, Illusen turned the book and began to read.

     “From the best-selling author of ‘Lonely Lupe Nights’ and ‘A Qalasan Dream’ comes a new heartwarming story about how two estranged faeries find their way back to each other and-” She trailed off while her eyes read the backside again and again. “Oh.”

     “Oh?! That's all you can say in regards to that…that…thing?!” Illusen blushed while turning the book back around to look at the cover again. A horrible, sappy novel about THEM.

     “Well, this is unexpected, but no harm was done, right? It's just…a book.” A book that was being sold quite well, apparently.

     Once more Jhudora only dug through her bag and this time a big batch of papers flew over to the earth faerie.

     They were fan letters for the book and an unhealthy amount of congratulations in regards to the two of them finally making up, getting over their differences and starting a new life together.

     Illusens mouth dropped open.

     It seemed as if some readers could not differ between fiction and reality.

     “Oh.”

     “Your reaction vocabulary is really lacking!”

     “Is…is that all you received or are there even more?!” Surely there had to be at least 50 letters in this pile alone! And if the book was as good-selling as Jhudora made it out to be, this couldn't be everything! Alright, okay, she was starting to get at least a tiny bit freaked out by this now.

     The dark faerie snorted. “Have you even checked your own inbox today?! It's buried underneath a ton of flower bouquets!” Illusen's head snapped away from a letter, describing in very colourful language how touched the reader was by the book, to Jhudora. No. She had felt restless after waking up and had immediately retreated to her glade - her inbox looked like what?!

     “Oh-” “Stop it!”

     “Just...help me try to figure out a solution for this! You're involved too!” Desperation was starting to seep into the dark faerie's words, rather uncharacteristic for her, but then again neither of them had been faced with such a situation so far.

     “Unless you're ok with this?!” She gestured at the letters.

     “No! Of course not! This is a serious attack on our privacy!” It was worse than the usual books, right? At least they were only filled with retelling and speculations about their situation, this was something completely different. Illusen took another glance at one of the letters, there were so many hearts scribbled on it, she didn't even want to try counting them.

     “What…what can we even do? Who wrote that book?!” She grabbed the novel that had fallen to the ground when the swarm of letters had come her way. Once more, Illusen turned it around, even opening it to search for the edition information.

     Her finger hovered over a name.

     “Here, it's-” “Trust me, I tried to figure it out first thing, but it's not a real name, just a synonym.” Someone hiding behind a fake name. Fantastic. Illusen's hand dropped down and she closed the book again.

     Around her, letters lay scattered.

     “So we can't get them to stop the sales of this? It's just…continuing?” In now growing horror she glanced at the piles of papers, not even wanting to imagine what her own fan-post looked like. And what was written inside of it.

     “What are we going to do now?” Voice slightly shaking, she turned to Jhudora. They had to team up now, figure out something to get through this messy situation that concerned both of them - this is why the dark faerie had come here, right?

     Jhudora shrugged. “I don't know what you are doing, but my girls and I are taking a long vacation in Shenkuu until this blows over. Called in a favor and have a whole isolated chalet, mountain included, just for myself.” She gave her bag a pat and Illusen finally understood why she had it, as well as the second one for her Gruslens, with her.

     She was fleeing. Avoiding this situation, not entertaining the nosy readers, not caring about the letters and - oh.

     It was only a matter of time until the first reporters would show up at her door to most likely ask very personal questions that the earth faerie did not want to get bothered with!

     Especially when they were based on whatever was written in this book!!

     “Please, take me with you!!”

     She sounded desperate, Illusen knew that, but if Jhudora went into hiding, everyone would focus on her alone. Unfortunately, the dark faerie only flinched back at the request, then snapped at her.

     “Have you completely lost your mind now? Just think about how much talk there would be if someone would see us together?!” Stomach dropping, mind turning, Illusen blabbered out the first idea that she could think of: “Next time Queen Fyora wants us to team up I will tell her off and won't back down until she gives up. Promise.”

     Silence followed this offer and Illusen held her breath in anxious anticipation.

     “...You? Standing up to Fyora? Really?” Baffled, Jhudora stared at her. Surely the dark faerie would not agree, it was too risky they weren't on the best terms and- “Alright, deal. Don't make me regret this.” The earth faerie let out her breath in a relieved sigh. Honestly, Illusen was convinced that she was going to regret it, but right now it was much more important to disappear until the book-fanatics calmed down.

     “Oh, thank you! Give me a few minutes to pack and we can leave straight away! Here.” She handed the book back, that she had anxiously clutched until now, but Jhudora only grimaced. “I'll take the letters because I do not want anyone to find them in your glade, but the book? Throw it away!” “No, no, I want to take it with us!”

     The dark faerie looked at her as if she'd just admitted to writing this thing herself.

     “You want to read this trash?!”

     Illusen nodded. “Maybe I can recognize the autor somehow. Writing patterns, you know?” Scoffing, the dark faerie shrugged, but she finally snatched the book out of the earth faerie’s hands and carelessly stuffed it back in her bag.

     “Well, whatever. If you can figure out who that ‘Quinn Faellia’ is do let me know because I have to personally give them my review of their book.” Grumbling more curses at whoever wrote it, Jhudora put down her bag, a clear sign that she'd wait for the earth faerie to gather her things.

     Illusen quickly left towards her cottage, only throwing a single glance back at the other one.

     The dark faerie was watching her two Gruslens play-fight over a branch and Illusen wanted to imagine that perhaps she was at least slightly relieved about the fact that she didn't have to deal with this…slander all on her own.

     Well, this day really could have gone worse after all.

     The End.