Faerie Fanatics: Part One

     I was silently sitting in my Neohome, reading the latest issue of the Neopian Times (the best newspaper in Neopia!). It was Faerieland's usual gorgeous, sunny afternoon, as it can't rain above the clouds.

     As I was flicking through the Times, there was a large headline that caught my eye: RAINBOW FAERIE MISSING!

     I gasped. "What in the name of Fyora?" I read the article in deep fascination.

     Late last night, the Rainbow Faerie, otherwise known as the Fountain Faerie, disappeared, her fountain left unguarded. Neopets have been rushing towards her Pool since early this morning, enjoying their new looks. It is unknown how this happened, or what caused it. We only hope someone can stop this massacre before it becomes too much for the citizens of Faerieland. Story continued on page 4…

     I immediately shot out of my chair and pelted as fast as my stumpy legs could take me to the Rainbow Faerie's Fountain. I didn't intend to paint myself, although I would love to be Disco, but I was kind-hearted and didn't want to do anything so dishonest.

     The Rainbow Pool was swarming with bustling Neopets like a group of Grarrls stampeding through the clouds at a stray piece of meat. All of a sudden, there was an explosion of sparks and an ecstatic Acara ran past.

     "I can't believe it! I am finally Faerie! Look! I'm Faerie!!! I CAN FLY!"

     Now, here I should explain something else about myself. When someone does something awful and heartless like this instead of trying to help the situation, I can't help but get extremely angry and yell at the person. Sometimes it gets nasty.

     This was no exception.

     I reached out and grasped the Acara and yelled at her. "How could someone be so heartless? This is so wrong; everyone should be trying to find the Fountain Faerie instead of using this awful predicament to their advantage!"

     The Acara just looked at me blankly and writhed out of my grip. "Can I help you?" she screeched in rage, clutching where I obviously had hurt her.

     "Oh, I'm sorry. It's a habit of mine," I muttered uncertainly. I was embarrassed, as I always was when this happened.

     "Right," wondered the Acara. "What was it you said?"

     "I meant that someone has to help find the Rainbow Faerie instead of taking it to their advantage," I explained. "It's really horrible!"

     The Acara looked thoughtful, and seemed to smile slightly, as if a plan was falling into her head. "Oh no!" she cried in disgust. "Now that you've said all this, I am starting to regret my choice. How about we help each other find the Rainbow Faerie, huh? It's the least I can do."

     I thought this was very kind of her, but I still wasn't in the position of forgiving her - yet. However, I couldn't turn down this offer.

     "Of course! I'm Enemy," I said, shaking hands (or paws, whatever) with the Acara.

     "Thanks. I'm Shara," replied the Acara, returning the hand/paw shake. "I hope I can make up the anger I caused you."

     Then came the hard bit. What now? Where do we start? I asked this to Shara, and she decided to inspect the pictures in the Neopian Times article about the disappearance. I've read many mystery stories in the Times and most of them have photos as highly important evidence, so I agreed.

     We huddled back to my Neohome and scanned the photos related to the article. Not much help, only photos of the Fountain and a dark figure running away in the nigh-- hang on a minute!

     "Look at this!" I shouted excitedly to Shara. She leaned over and stared at the picture I was pointing to.

     "Whoever's behind this must be a Kyrii! Look at the ears, at that hair! It's unmistakable!" I yelled.

     "Okay, okay, you don't need to yell," snapped Shara. "But, now what?"

     All was silent, except for a few Moaches chirping somewhere and hubbub outside.

     "Well…" I began. I tried quickly to think of something, as I was embarrassed for Shara to think I was brain dead, but now even the Moaches had stopped.

     "How about we look in a Neopedia somewhere and look up famous Kyrii, or more likely, a famous Kyrii who is trying to get more attention," said Shara, scratching her chin.

     "How can you be sure it's a celebrity?" I asked. Hah! Argue with that! I thought.

     Shara just yawned and murmured, "Look at its hand. How many normal Kyrii run around with expensive rings and jewelry like that?"

     As usual, she was right. In the five minutes I've known her she's won every argument. The rings on the Kyrii's hand were absolutely massive! I'm surprised he or she wasn't struggling to keep their hand up.

     I sighed. "Well, let's get to the Library and find a Neopedia…"

     ***

     We bolted over to Faerie City, and entered the Library. The Library faerie greeted us with a cheery hello.

     "Hello!" she cheered. "Welcome to the Faerieland Library!"

     "Aren't Libraries supposed to be quiet?" said Shara rudely.

     "Oh that's just a minor detail! Can I help you?" asked the Library Faerie. Shara seemed to get quite annoyed, so I led her away.

     It took a long time to find a Neopedia that had anything with famous Kyrii. There weren't many famous Kyrii anyway. That was a good thing, less suspects.

     Shara (typically) found one finally and we looked them up. There were only two really popular Kyrii, Capara, the Cheat master and beauty stylist and the Island Mystic, the psychic who lives on Mystery Island. I thoroughly enjoyed playing Cheat and Shara is a mad fan of Capara, so we went to see her first. I was excited, even though she could be guilty of something as awful as kidnapping the Rainbow Faerie, but I was excited to meet her.

     But it wasn't as we had hoped.

     ***

     Strangely enough, Capara wasn't at any of the Cheat tournaments around Neopia we could find. So we checked the Grooming Parlour and of course that was where her presence was found.

     "Oh my gosh! There she is! She is SOO beautiful!" squeaked Shara, giggling and pointing over to the most stunning Kyrii I had ever seen. Literally. Capara's hair gleamed from the incoming sunshine, her fur moving in sleek movements. She was just so elegant.

     Capara came stomping our way and banged right into us. "WHOA! Watch it, will you? Beautiful celebrity walking here!" she huffed.

     I immediately remembered why we were here, and got straight the point. I glanced at her fingers, and I was completely astonished! She wasn't wearing any rings! I leaned over to Shara's ear to tell her, but she was too sidetracked to listen to a stupid Skeith like me.

     "Oh gosh! I am SO sorry, Capara! Are you OK?" she babbled. She started to pat her hair.

     "Whoa! Do not, I repeat, DO NOT TOUCH THE HAIR!" Capara screamed, in fact so loudly even people outside the shop stopped to stare in at the pretty celebrity.

     "Oh! I am SO sorry, Capara…" began Shara, but Capara held up her hand.

     'Enough! Out of the way, I need to go," snapped Capara in annoyance. "If I hang around you commoners any longer I'll get a bad reputation!" With that, she huffed out of the shop, pushing away all onlookers to get away from the 'bad reputation'.

     "What a snob!" I retorted. "She didn't kidnap the Rainbow Faerie though. She wasn't wearing any rings!"

     Shara gasped. "What?!" she screamed.

     "Yeah I know. Weird…"

     "No! You think she's a snob? How dare you?!" Then, quite unlike how I thought she was, she sulked out of the shop. Maybe another one of her multiple personalities, I thought. Oh well, at least I can continue on my own now.

     Then a troubling thing hit me. A thought that is, not an expensive bottle of perfume.

     What if Capara had just taken her rings off?

     There was a simple explanation! I read in the Neopedia that this was the only shop that Capara bought stuff at. So, this must be the only shop where a Sales History has her name in it. So all I have to do is ask the shopkeeper to ask if she had ever bought rings at this shop. Simple!

     I walked up to the owner of the Parlour, a Usul with overly heavy makeup splashed all over her face (it must be a her, how many males do you see with make-up on?), and asked her the question.

     However, she just glared at me tiredly. "You are, like, so dumb! Haven't you even been here before?" she said in a girlish tone.

     "As a matter of fact, I haven't," I replied. "Can you kindly just answer my question? It's highly important."

     "Ooh la-di-da fancy-talker," said the odd Usul, laughing hysterically. "Well, is it's so, like, important to you, then… WE DON'T EVEN SELL RINGS! And Capara is, like, my best friend and I would, like, know if she ever wore rings. Which she doesn't," she added in a smart-alec overtone.

     "Ok. Thank you for your contribution," I said, and galumphed out of the shop, hearing the Usul attempt unsuccessfully to stifle a giggle.

     ***

     The Beauty Parlour owner was extremely helpful. Never thought that would cross my mind. Anyway, now that I knew Capara never wore rings, there was only one suspect left.

     The Island Mystic.

To be continued...