The Adventures of Draikin and the Light Faerie

     ”Well, how very, very sad,” the mincing Yellow Ogrin, Blau, taunted Draikin as the Elephante guards led the Ixi back to his room. “The littlest prince has lost his pretty playmate! Tsk. Tsk. And lost whatever respect your father, King Blackfawn, may have had for you, too, no doubt. What a pity!”

     They had reached Draikin’s room, and the Elephante guards thrust him inside.

     “You’ll get yours one day, Blau,” Draikin said to the scrawny Ogrin through clenched teeth over the shoulders of the hulking guards.

     “Oh suuure I will.” The yellow Ogrin nodded in false sympathy. “You just hold your breath till then.” Blau laughed and laughed as the heavy door was shut in Draikin’s face.

     Trapped. Trapped. And no way to even get word to Ciara about what had happened to him. Draikin sat on the bed and put his head in his hands. He knew the guards were still outside the door. Besides, Blau had obviously been following him already if he knew about Ciara.

     It was hard to believe that it was only this afternoon that he had played with her in the clearing, trying to retrieve his hat. Blau must have been there even then. How else would the creepy little Ogrin have known what he did unless he had been spying on them this very afternoon? Draikin went to the window. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, but the thunder still rumbled distantly, like a memory of the storm. He looked out at Foothill Forest stretching before him, and at the clouds that had gathered above Meridell. In their midst, occasionally lit up by the lightning, hung Darigan Citadel, Ciara’s home.

     He would never give her up, that much was certain. His father had said how much he had changed, and Draikin knew how those changes had occurred. It was having a real friend for once, someone who listened to him and respected him. That respect had changed him. It had helped him begin to respect himself.

     If they were no longer to spend time together here, then they would have to spend time together somewhere else. But who would give refuge to such an unlikely pair? The rebellious, youngest prince of the Royal Ixis of Meridell and a light faerie that was Lord Darigan’s ward? They were not likely to be welcomed anywhere in Neopia that he could think of. Anywhere except, perhaps, the Citadel itself.

     That was it. If they were to spend time together at all, Draikin would have to get permission from Lord Darigan. Which meant that he would have to find a way to get to the citadel itself.

     The young Royal Ixi began to pace the floor, racking his brain for anyone who could help him. Travelling to Darigan Citadel was simply not a common problem in Meridell, as most citizens preferred to stay far away from it. But at a sudden flash of lightning that lit up the room, Draikin knew who would know what to do. He would go and ask Illusen.

     Illusen. The guardian faerie of Meridell could surely help him—if he could find her. He knew her glade was not far from Meridell Castle, though he had never gone there by himself before. He also knew that it was the custom for people from Meridell to go on quests for her, and not the other way around—but he would have to take his chances.

     Now to escape!

     The door was simply out of the question. There were guards by it, and surely Blau was nearby as well. Besides, the hole beneath the castle wall was being shut up now by his father. He looked to the fireplace, thinking of climbing up the flu, but a chambermaid had lit a fire in the grate earlier, and the embers were still glowing. Finally, he returned to the window. He was only on the second floor. He leaned out into the drizzling rain and saw that below his window were some hedges lining the castle wall. Perhaps, if he could drop into them gently...

     Draikin looked around the room but saw nothing that might help him until he came to the large oak bed in which he slept. Immediately, he pulled the sheets and blankets off the bed and began tying them together into a long, silky rope. He attached one end of the rope to the bedpost and fed the other end out of the window. He went to his dresser and took a small asparagus dagger his father had given him long ago. Finally, taking a deep breath, Draikin climbed out the window and began shimmying down his makeshift rope towards the ground.

     Everything was going well until he reached the end of his rope and found himself dangling a few yards above the ground. Also, the hedge was a bit further off than he’d estimated, looking out of the window. He tried to swing himself towards the hedge, but as he kicked off from the wall, he realised that he was swinging right in front of a parlour window! In fact, as he sailed too and fro, he could see his two brothers and some other Royal Ixis, sitting inside and listening to a Faerie Ixi play the harp. The window was open and he could hear the pretty melody. Just as one of his brothers turned toward the window, Draikin let go and plummeted down into the hedge.

     Wet branches and leaves slapped at his arms, legs and face as he crashed through them before thudding into the soft earth. While he was still collecting himself, he heard voices approaching from inside. Instantly, he ceased all movement and lay still.

     “I’m sure I heard something!” It was his brother Erutan’s voice at the window, followed by a female voice.

     “Me too!” Peering up through the dripping branches, Draikin could see his older brother and several of the female Royal Ixi’s peering from the lighted window.

     “What is it now?” His other brother, Evale, had joined the group at the window. “We’ve made poor Minuette stop her lovely performance!”

     “I tell you I heard something,” Erutan continued. “I don’t know what it was, but it sounded odd.”

     “My brother,” Evale scoffed. “In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a storm outside! I’m sure that’s what you heard. Ladies, let’s resume our seats and enjoy the rest of our evening.”

     Shivering as much from his nerves as from the rain that was soaking him through, Draikin watched through the branches until everyone had gone from the window; all but Erutan, who stood for another moment looking out at the dark courtyard. But as the sound of the harp began again, even he returned to the parlour. Draikin crept out from beneath the hedge.

     Draikin looked across the courtyard at the high walls of the castle. Getting beneath them was no longer an option, but getting over them seemed impossible. There was only one rainbow fruit tree in the courtyard, higher than the walls, and it was near the front gate, and not even very close to the wall. Still, suddenly he had an idea! It was a dangerous thought, but it was the only way, and he began to creep toward the front of the castle.

     The rainbow fruit tree stood tall, about midway between the castle door and the castle wall, and he could see the shadows of the enormous Elephante guards marching back and forth in front of the front gate. Taking a deep breath, he galloped out across the front courtyard and began to climb the tree. An Elephante guard spotted him and sounded the alarm.

     Both of the heavy guards lumbered towards the tree, but Draikin had climbed that rainbow fruit tree a million times, and he scrambled up and out onto an especially long limb, praying that his plan would work. Beneath him, the two Elephante guards had reached the bottom of the tree.

     “’ Allo there! ‘Alt in the name of King Blackfawn, what?” shouted the first guard, who was pink and massive.

     “Harry, I think that’s the blinkin’ king’s son,” said the other one, who was just slightly smaller and blue.

     “What? Nahhh,” Harry answered. “What would the king’s son be doin’ out here climbin’ trees in the rain at this unholy hour, Tom?”

     Tom, the blue elephant, scratched his head. “Well, the littlest son, Draikin, was locked up tight in his room earlier, don’tcha remember, Harry? He was disobeyin’ his royal dad, and they shut him up.”

     “Why yes, I do remember that now,” Harry replied, nodding. The Pink Elephante looked up at Draikin, who had perched atop the tall, thin branch. “Say now, what do you mean out and about climbin’ trees at this hour, young Master? Time for wee Ixis like you to be in bed.”

     “I’m not wee, and I don’t wish to go to bed!” Draikin shouted down to the pair. “You’ll never get me out of this tree.”

     The two Elephantes began chuckling.

     “Tom, this fellow thinks we can’t get him outta the tree, hey what?”

     “That’s quite funny, that is!” Tom laughed. Harry reached up his long trunk and grasped the tip of the branch that Draikin was clinging to. Carefully, he began to pull the branch down towards the ground, so that it bent like a bow, dripping with rainbow fruit and one small Ixi. This was the moment Draikin had been waiting for. He whipped his little asparagus Dagger from his breeches.

     “Thanks a lot, fellas! I’ll be seeing you,” he shouted to the guards and cut through the branch that Harry was holding. Instantly, the branch flew upwards, and Draikin let go! He soared through the air and over the wall, surrounded by rainbow fruit, and he barely had time to register how completely amazing it was to fly before he crashed into another tree outside the castle walls. Branches slashed at him as he fell, until finally he dropped out of the tree and into a blackberry bush.

     Though sore, Draikin scrambled to his feet, checking himself over. Other than some nicks and bruises from the tree, he was alright. He shook his head in wonder. It had actually worked! He knew the guards would soon be after him and that Blau could lead them to the glen where he usually met Ciara, so dazed though he was, the young prince tore off through the forest towards Meridell Castle and Illusen’s glade.

To be continued…