Faerie Fables - Naia the Fountain Faerie

      Naia crouched down at her small desk, clutching an armful of goodies. Carefully, she balanced herself on the chair and let all of what was in her hands fall onto the desk. She sat back in her chair and looked at what she had found: a water pot, a few brushes and some flowers she was going to grind down to make the paint. Naia longed for actual paint but as her father had said, paint was very expensive and hard to find in the Neopian Shops. Satisfied with what she had, she began to grind down the flowers she had picked in the forest to make beautiful powders of blue, red, orange and pink. She smiled to herself and slowly added the water, making a perfect mixture of both of the compounds.

      She picked up the paintbrush and began to draw one of the wild Neopets she had seen that day, a beautiful green Uni. She looked down at the colours she had and began to frown upon realising that she did not have colours that could match the Uni she had discovered. Placing her hands on her face, she began to sulk. She was frustrated because she had not thought to check what colour flowers she had collected and which ones she may need before she had headed back home. Sighing deeply to herself she closed her eyes and let her imagination wander. She thought about wide green meadows, bright flowers, and a pink Uni. A pink Uni? Naia sat upright and gasped at this - she had never seen a pink Uni but who was to say Unis could not be pink? Finding a new lease of excitement within her imagination, she wet her brush and began to dab it into the pink paint.

      Letting her imagination take over the painting, she allowed the brush to travel wherever her mind would go — swirls of pink covered the page as she began to paint the most beautiful, regal Uni she had ever imagined. Her creativity had really taken hold as she had taken it from just a pink Uni to one with a beautiful blue princess hat and cape of a musty purple. She sat back and smiled at her work — she had never seen a pink Uni before, let alone a beautiful, royal looking one. She picked her artwork up and ran to show it to her father, besotted with what she had painted onto the page. As she approached him, she calmed herself down, feeling giddy and still excited she explained what she had painted. Her dad smiled down at her, ‘Ah young Naia, your imagination is wonderful - could you imagine, a Uni being pink. Sadly, not in the world we live in.. Neopets are only basic colours.’ Naia bit her lip, ‘I know, I know dad, I just…’ she began to blush. ‘Wouldn’t it be magical if they could be all the colours of the rainbow… and even royal; looking like a prince or princess!’ Naia’s father smiled at her once again, watching his daughter's expression glaze over as she (as always) lost her thoughts in the clouds of her imagination.

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      This new spark of creativity was just the beginning for Naia, every single day she ran out to the forest meadows to pick armfuls of bright, elegant flowers. Carefully she would place each flower into a small napkin to transport home. She had found several different shades of blue, red and yellow as well as other beautiful colours she could mix and turn into new shades of paint. Her room had turned into a stunning art studio, with different pots with mixed powders that would assist her in letting her imagination run wild. Every time she saw a Neopet in the meadow she would remember what colour it had been and begin to imagine what colour she could turn it onto on her way home. Her father had been fully supportive of this new lease of inspiration and had made her an easel, paint bench and shelving unit so she could store all the colours she had made.

      Naia’s writing and drawing had improved tremendously within the past two months, she had learnt to write the colours and ingredients of each paint, how many scoops of each pressed flower she needed, where she could find the flowers and what unique name she was going to give the colour (this was her favourite part, thinking of new names for each new colour she made). Proudly, she would frame all of her artwork around her room and word had got out about this, she found in the Spring and Summer Neopets were queuing up to see her art, and would ask her to invent a beautiful new colour for them, always pleased with what she gave them on the piece of paper to take home, rainbow poogles, snot techos and jelly chias were just a few on her freshly painted list.

      One Summer afternoon, Naia had just finished painting up her newest piece (a rainbow poogle) when the poogle had turned to her. ‘This is wonderful’ the poogle sighed, looking at how beautiful he looked on the piece of paper, ‘if only I could be this colour really..’ Naia frowned at the poogle ‘maybe, I could paint you? It won't stay on but... You would look just like this until the paint washed away?’ The poogles face immediately lit up at this ‘you... You would do that for me?!’ he stammered ‘I would look... Like the painting, for a little while?’ Naia beamed at him and began to slowly paint the colours onto the poogle, taking care not to mix any or miss any parts of him. Once finished she led him to the stream where he admired his colours, the look on his face was priceless, he kept turning to admire every angle. ‘Naia, thank you. I, I am so happy’ he said, his eyes welling up with tears. Naia smiled and wiped them ‘don’t mess up the paint now’ she teased and the poogle nodded, understandingly and went on his way with a new spring in his step. Satisfied, Naia smiled to herself and began to pack her paint pots away, the thought of helping someone become so happy carried her home.

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     Words of Naia’s creativity had spread and the Neopets were looking to Naia for some colour in the darkness that had surrounded Neopia in the ruin of the Faeries. Naia would happily paint beautiful temporary colours onto them to brighten up their day, letting her creativity run wild but often finding she had limits. The Neopets would always appear disheartened when the colour had washed out. Naia never had any problem doing this but she found she could not keep up with all of the Neopets requests and found herself overwhelmed with the amount of Neopets coming to her requesting a new colour. Nevertheless, Naia kept on helping them, knowing her work and creativity would put a smile on their faces, and that to her was enough.

      After finishing up a usuls purple paint job she smiled and looked down at the young Neopet. ‘Thank you Naia, I look beautiful, I -’ the usuls praise was cut short as it began to rain, washing all of the colour off of the usul, and she began to become the colour she felt - blue. Naia gasped sadly at the usul, I am so sorry... I haven’t found a way to get it to stay on yet..’ she replied looking down at the floor. As she did this, she felt a hand touch her shoulder. She looked up and saw Fyora smiling at her. ‘I have a way to make all of the colours you give out stay, follow me’ she said, leading Naia to a fountain of water. ‘This is the rainbow fountain, Naia’ Fyora said, smiling down at her. ‘Now this water is limited, so I will make you a faerie who can offer out quests to Neopets you deem worthy - any colour goes here... well... We have a few for the lab scientist to keep for himself, you know, the less nice colours, oh and I believe Royal should be earnt..’ she smirked, rolling her eyes. But - any other colour you can gift to a Neopet here and it would be theirs permanently.

      Naia gasped happily ‘any colour you mean, like the ones I’ve drawn?’ Fyora’s face lit up ‘Of course Naia, I must say, I was very impressed with the snot and custard colours, now that takes a lot of imagination to draw something so… different’ Naia felt herself blushing as she looked into the fountain. ‘So I am the faerie of this fountain... How will I know when a Neopet is worthy of a colour?’ she replied, looking to Fyora for guidance. Fyora turned as she was walking to look back at Naia ‘oh, you will know, everyone will want your quests, but you’ll know deep in your heart those Neopets that deserve them.. Oh and one last little thing. All those Neopets you painted in the meadow?’ she waved her staff ‘Consider those the first colour changes of the fountain..on me’ with a wink, she disappeared within a cloud of pink smoke. Naia resumed looking at herself in the fountain water, catching herself smiling she thought of all the Neopets in the meadow with their beautiful colours staying on, the purple happy usul and all of the future Neopets she would help with their goals.

      The End.