Jhudora's Revenge: Part Six

     “Our follower is a her?”

     Edna said nothing but sat on the ground for a moment. She closed her eyes, concentration clear. As Vendette looked around, he saw a green gruslen approaching them, as if there were a leash around its neck and it was being dragged along. It was clearly putting up a fight, but it had no choice in the matter.

     Edna stood next to Vendette and caught the gruslen.

     “Vendette, this is one of Jhudora’s pets. I think this one is Sarah, but I’m not sure. It could be Daisy. Be careful not to get your paw anywhere near her. She’s not a friendly gruslen.”

     Edna held Sarah by the neck so that no matter what the gruslen tried, it couldn’t hurt anybody.

     “She sure is a fighter.”

     “She belongs to Jhudora, what did you expect?”

     “I guess you’ve got a good point. Still, she’s such a nasty little thing.”

     “Yes, she is. I don’t know how she and her sister came to be with Jhudora, but they now serve as her bodyguards.”

     “Awfully small for a bodyguard, isn’t she?”

     “Yeah, but her mean makes up for it. She’s not the kind of pet or petpet you’d want trying to attack you. Hence why I’m holding her in such a way that she can’t do much of anything other than complain.”

     “How far are we from Jhudora, anyway?”

     “Who knows. I don’t even know where we are now. I figure at one point she’ll be impatient enough to take us to her. Plus, with Sarah, Jhudora has an even easier time tracking our movements.”

     “Erm, Edna, did Jhudora mess with your brain or something? Why would you want her to do that?”

     “Don’t get smart with me. If you must know, this just makes it easier for us- less work on our part. It’ll even tire out Jhudora, although I’ll admit that it won’t be by much.”

     “I can’t wait to get my claws on her...”

     Suddenly, Edna’s countenance became serious and foreboding. “Jhudora is mine. You’ll have enough trouble with her bodyguards and servants. Leave Jhudora to me.”

     “I take it you have a history?”

     “I’m no light faerie, but not even I would lower myself to Jhudora’s level. She has always thought that we are equal in heart, yet that she is more powerful. She thinks that she’s better than me because she’s a faerie and I’m a pet. Our rivalry is very strong, though few even know that it exists.”

     “Wow.”

     “That’s why you will leave Jhudora to me. This isn’t a fight to be won with weapons. This is a fight to be won by determination, concentration, and raw power.”

     “Can you do it?”

     “Of course I can. I can probably do things that Fyora herself can’t do. I just restrain myself.”

     “How much longer do you think she’ll wait?”

     “Not too much longer, assuming I know Jhudora like I think I do.”

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

     “Typical Edna! She is so irritating! I’d love to pound her into that soil right now!”

     Jhudora growled and tried to calm herself, despite her intense anger. She wanted to take on all of Neopia, with the full knowledge that she would win. Edna was taunting her. Edna knew that Jhudora would grow weary of waiting, and so she purposely made Jhudora wait, wandering aimlessly, just waiting for Jhudora’s patience to snap.

     “Fine, if Edna wants a lift up here, I’ll give her one!”

     Jhudora briefly considered setting all kinds of traps for the pets, but she decided against it.

     “I can beat them without all that. Setting traps would be like admitting that I’m afraid of them. Isn’t that right, Daisy?”

     Jhudora seemed to preoccupy herself talking to Daisy, now sitting to the left of her chair.

     “Yes, that’s why it’ll be just her against me, and I have no doubt that I will emerge victorious.”

     Daisy simply stared at Jhudora and made no reaction whatsoever to Jhudora’s words.

     Finally, ready to snap, Jhudora spent a few seconds focusing her power and prepared to bring Vendette, Edna, and Sarah.

     Moments later, smoke filled the air in front of her as the two pets began to materialize.

     “There you are, right on time.”

     A smug Edna was more than happy to speak freely with Jhudora. “I see your patience reached its end. Of course, you never really were a patient one.”

     “I’m still not. Now, enough with these games. The time has come for your rematch, Edna. You couldn’t beat me before and you cannot beat me now.”

     Vendette, not wanting to get involved, couldn’t stop his response. “You’ve battled before?”

     Jhudora laughed. “I wouldn’t call it a battle. More of a trouncing.”

     Edna growled furiously through her clenched teeth. “You used backstabbing underhanded tactics to defeat me, and I was little more than a child at the time.”

     “You’re still little more than a spoiled child. Why not just run home to mommy now with your tail between your legs?”

     “Because I have a secret weapon.”

     “What? Did you bring some bubbles?”

     Edna smirked. “Something like that.”

     Jhudora rolled her eyes and snapped. Instantly, her Aisha and Grarrl minions appeared, both confused yet prepared to fight Vendette.

     Vendette saw the two pets and growled. “You! You kidnapped my sister!”

     The Aisha shrugged. “Just following orders. And besides that, she isn’t really your sister, but that’s another story.”

     While Jhudora preoccupied herself with fighting Edna, Vendette was losing terribly to Jhudora’s minions. Despite his training and skills, he was unable to defeat his two opponents.

     Whenever Vendette blocked one attack, another would find its way in his direction. It was a barrage that Vendette was not prepared to face. Had the battle been one-on-one, Vendette would have won with ease. However, Jhudora’s minions were more than Vendette could handle.

     After ten exhausting minutes of fighting, Vendette finally collapsed, unable to move.

     Jhudora, despite being busy with Edna, managed to get her two minions to take Vendette to the dungeon in a cell next to Addieana’s.

     Between grunts of pain, Edna managed to speak to Jhudora. “So, Judy, had enough?”

     Jhudora merely laughed. “I’m in a prime physical condition, and here you’re practically gasping for air, yet you ask me if I’ve had enough? That is so clichéd. You know how I hate clichés.”

     “Only when you’re not the one being cliché.”

     “Saying cliché is cliché. Just give up already. This is getting boring.”

     “Is that so?”

     As Edna was speaking to Jhudora, Edna’s meowclops, who had been stashed in Edna’s bag, had managed to tackle Daisy, then Sarah, leaving Jhudora alone with Edna and her petpet.

     “Didn’t you know that only us pets have petpets? Faeries aren’t supposed to have them. Don’t worry too much, though. My meowclops happily remedied you of that little problem.”

     “You did what?!”

     Infuriated, Jhudora turned around and saw her two Gruslens on the floor, both unconscious. Edna took advantage of the opening that Jhudora had just created and tackled Jhudora to the floor.

     “How would you like another fluorescent blue line scarring your otherwise flawed complexion?”

     Jhudora scoffed. “You can’t do that; only Vendette can.”

     Edna smirked. “Is that a bet you’re willing to make?”

     Jhudora saw that Edna’s tail was glowing blue and when she touched it to the floor, it left a bright blue streak.

     Jhudora refused to admit defeat, but when faced with the horror of another pet altering her physical appearance, she growled and vanished in a puff of smoke.

     Despite her intense weariness, Edna managed to find Jhudora’s dungeon. There, she saw Vendette in one cell and Addieana in another. She didn’t see Jhudora’s minions, but she suspected that they had gone with Jhudora.

     Addieana jumped up with joy when she saw Edna. “Edna, it’s so good to see you! They came in a few minutes ago and left Vendette there. I haven’t been able to wake him, and I’m worried.”

     Between heaving breaths, Edna addressed the Aisha. “There was a fight. I tricked Jhudora into leaving. If you help me, we can get Vendette out of here. I’m very weak, so I can’t help us leave yet. Once I’ve rested, I may be able to call Fyora to help us.”

     “You can call Fyora?”

     Edna grinned. “You think all I can do is scare a few hoodlums in the Haunted Woods?”

     Addieana smiled. “No, I guess not.”

     With Addieana’s help, Edna managed to drag Vendette out of his cell and into the main corridor of Jhudora’s castle.

     After a day of rest, Edna was able to send to Fyora a message from Jhudora’s hideout.

     Vendette, however, had not regained consciousness, much to the worry of both pets.

     Midway through the second day, Addieana noticed a small string of smoke. It started to stretch and grow little bits at a time. Edna saw Addieana staring at it and watched the small bit of smoke herself.

     After about five minutes, the small string of smoke had become a billowing cloud. In a quick burst of light, Fyora appeared.

     “Hello, Edna. It took forever to find you.”

     “Can’t you track me through my message?”

     “I can, but it’s very difficult. Hence why Jhudora couldn’t do it. Now, what are we doing here?”

     “This is Jhudora’s hideout; an addition to her cloud. You remember Addieana, right?”

     “The daughter of the king and queen? Of course. I see that she has finally been found. Glitzern was rather worried about her when she was captured and Jhudora realized who she was.” Fyora nodded to the two pets behind Edna. “Hello, Addieana.”

     Edna interrupted Fyora. “Yes, now, I don’t know if you know about the situation with Vendette and Jhudora.”

     “I had heard of it, yes.”

     “Well, she finally trapped them. When it was just Jhudora and I, I used my secret weapon. You see, Vendette’s claw has the power to leave a fluorescent blue scar on anything. I knew that Jhudora feared more than anything else a scar, so I made my tail glow that same blue and added some paint to it. When I dragged it across the floor, it left a blue streak. Jhudora vanished after that. Then I went to get Addieana and Vendette out of their cells.”

     Fyora smiled. “You may be cranky and mean, but you have a good heard and you are a true and loyal friend. Plus, you’re as much of a trickster as Jhudora.”

     Edna shrugged. “More’n one way to bathe a Gruslen.”

     “Interesting saying.”

     “Either way, can you help us?”

     “Certainly.” Fyora nodded to Addieana and Vendette. “You two will need to go to the healing springs.”

     Fyora spoke softly and the two pets vanished, leaving Edna and Fyora alone to talk.

To be continued...