The Water Faerie Necklace: Part Three

     But it needs to be found

     A necklace does not give somebody power

     It has come from within

     A moral deed is one sign

     That there is power in you

     But along with

     A lighthearted joke

     An icy mind for quests

     A strong heart and body

     And a little bit of luck

     The necklace can do its job.

     The scroll was written with a rigid hand trying to write calligraphy. Nothing else but the strange poem was written on the scroll.

     “A joke,” Julie said. “It was probably Kaleigh trying to scare me. Or the Tombola man; it was something else he found in his shop.” She threw the scroll into the trash can. “Good riddance,” she said.

     Suddenly, smoke wafted into her nose. She turned around and saw bright blue smoke coming up from the trash can. The scroll was gone.

     ----------------------------

     “Good morning, Julie,” said the Tombola man. It was Saturday, and Julie was visiting Mystery Island to talk to the Tombola man. “I see you are still wearing the necklace you bought the other day.”

     “Yes,” said Julie. She reached to finger the stones. It had become a habit of hers. “It is strange, though, because I cannot take it off.”

     “You cannot take it off?” the Tombola man echoed. He started to sweat a bit. “My my, that is strange.”

     Julie laughed nervously. “So, anyways, did you by any chance send me a scroll a couple days ago?”

     “A scroll?” The Tombola man racked his brains. “Not that I remember. What did the scroll look like? Did it say anything?”

     Nodding, Julie said, “It was parchment-colored and tied with a blue ribbon. It had some sort of poem written on it, but I cannot remember any of it now. It mentioned a necklace once or twice.” There was a pause. “Do you know what else is strange? I dreamt about a scroll Wednesday night, right after I bought this necklace.”

     “Well,” said the Tombola man, “it seems that you have had some strange happenings that past few days. You can look around my shop if you want.”

     “I don’t really want to buy anything,” said Julie. “I just wanted to ask you about the scroll.”

     “Oh,” the Tombola man said. “If I were you, I would talk to Fyora.”

     “The Faerie Queen?” Julie asked. “Why?”

     “Maybe she can help you take off the necklace,” said the Tombola man. “She’ll probably know something about it because it belonged to the Water Faerie.”

     Julie was astonished and fingered the necklace again. “This necklace belonged to the Water Faerie?” she whispered. “Nereid?”

     “I thought you knew that,” the Tombola man said. He started to get very nervous.

     “I just thought that it was a regular old Water Faerie necklace,” Julie replied. “I didn’t know that it belonged to Nereid.”

     “Yes,” said the Tombola man, “Nereid gave me this necklace a long time ago.”

     “Why?”

     The Tombola man was sweating buckets. “I don’t know,” he lied. “It was such a long time ago, I have forgotten.”

     “Oh,” said Julie. She stared around the Tiki Tack shop awkwardly. “I guess I should be going now,” she said. She exited the shop and called, “Thanks for the advice!”

     The Tombola man grabbed a stray rag and wiped the sweat from his brow. He was surprised that he did not blow his cover and had no idea that lying came that easily to him. He sighed and said to himself, “Hopefully the girl will reach Fyora... before anything else happens.”

     ----------------------------

     “I have heard a great deal about you,” Fyora said to Julie when she first saw her. “I understand that you are wearing the sacred Water Faerie necklace, or am I wrong?”

     “Sacred?” Julie repeated. It was so funny that she could laugh. That morning she had thought that she was wearing a regular Water Faerie necklace that a thousand other girls owned, but a clasp that didn’t work. It was strange how wrong she was; apparently her necklace belonged to Nereid the Water Faerie and was sacred.

     “Well, I suppose you do not know its power,” said Fyora.

     “I had no idea that it had power.”

     “Yes,” Fyora said. She started to pace around the room. “You see, young child, this necklace belonged to Nereid. It was made by the same Pet who created the Snow Faerie’s parka. I believe his name is Finn and he lives somewhere here in Faerieland, but I am not entirely sure. Nereid wanted this necklace made because she believed that Water Faeries were underappreciated because they did not have the same amount of power as Light or Earth Faeries. Apparently Finn created this necklace with too much power in it, too much power for any single Pet or Faerie of Neopia to have, so Nereid, a good, kind soul, hid it in the Tiki Tack shop. You have been the first person to own it ever since.”

     Julie stared at Fyora, her mouth ajar. “Do you mean that I hold more power than any single Pet or Faerie right here in this necklace?” She held the largest blue stone in her hand, not able to take her eyes off of it.

     Fyora shook her head, and for a brief second, Julie was disappointed. “You see, Finn created the necklace so that only a Water Faerie could unleash the power. You, of course, are not a Water Faerie, but a Wocky, and this necklace has no power when its owner is you.”

     “I understand,” said Julie. She hung her head. She thought that the necklace she found was special, but it was just a piece of junk around her throat unless she was a Water Faerie.

     “So,” Fyora said. She finally stopped pacing and held out her hand. “So, I would like the necklace back so I can do what needs to be done to it.”

     Julie was silent.

     “Child, I need to destroy this necklace just in case the wrong Water Faerie gets her hands on it. Nobody deserves to have the amount of power in this necklace.”

     “There is a problem,” Julie said.

     Fyora wrinkled her brow. “I know that you do not want to part with it, but something has to be done to it.”

     “That’s not the problem,” said Julie. She inhaled slowly. “The problem is that I cannot take it off. I’ve tried my hardest but it will not budge.”

     “That is ridiculous,” said Fyora. She walked over to Julie and laid her hands on the clasp of the necklace. With all her might she pulled at the clasp, but it would not come off. “Strange,” she said. “But surely it must come off.”

     “I’ve tried everything,” Julie said. “Nothing has worked, trust me.”

     Fyora started pacing again. She mumbled something that Julie could not understand. Her voice got louder and louder until Julie could hear her. “This cannot be! It just cannot be! I know it cannot be, but somehow it is!”

     “Excuse me?” Julie asked softly. Fyora did not hear her. She just continued pacing and mumbling. “Excuse me?” Julie tried again. There was still no answer from Fyora.

     “You cannot take the necklace off,” said Fyora.

     Julie gulped. “That is correct.”

     “You cannot take the necklace off!” Fyora threw her hands in the air, clenched her fists, and had some sort of a mini-tantrum. “I cannot believe it! It is impossible! Any normal Pet would be able to take it off easily, but you cannot! It’s absurd!”

     “What is absurd?” Julie asked.

     Finally, Fyora settled down. She unclenched her fists and spoke much more clear. “Listen closely,” she said, leaning in closer to Julie. “If any normal Pet were to put on Nereid’s necklace, they would be able to take it off easily, because the necklace does not like being worn by anybody other than a Water Faerie. But if a Water Faerie were to put on the necklace, they could not take it off unless they followed the instructions of...”

     Julie asked tentatively, “Of what?”

     Fyora never finished that sentence. “Have you gotten a scroll recently?” she asked.

     Julie paused. Her entire body was cold, and for some reason, she could not move a muscle. How did Fyora know about the scroll she had received? She did not want to answer Fyora’s question

     “Have you gotten a scroll recently?” Fyora asked again.

     Reluctantly, Julie nodded. She thought that Fyora was going to have another tantrum, but she remained calm. “Do you remember what it said?” Fyora asked.

     “Not entirely,” Julie replied. “I read it, threw it into the trash can, and it disappeared. Is that bad?”

     Fyora placed a hand on her forehead as if she had a migraine. “Yes,” she said. “It is very bad. That scroll had the instructions needed for you to take off the necklace! Without its instructions, you could be wearing this necklace for the rest of your life! You could be stuck with all of its power, because I believe, dear child, that you are a Water Faerie!”

     Julie was taken aback. “I am not a Water Faerie!” she screamed, and immediately felt sorry for screaming at the Faerie Queen. “I was born a Wocky!”

     “Maybe on the outside you are a Wocky, but on the inside, your soul is that of a Water Faerie.”

To be continued...