Seeded: Part Five

      “Why is it green?” Isabelle asked. Sweat plastered her forehead and she impatiently brushed aside a piece of hair. Ziya’s spell had left her exhausted, but the hovering ball of magic had her intrigued. “I thought you said that in your vision it was dark?”

      Ziya flipped through the spell book on the ground beside her, her small dark faerie fingers fumbling with the fine pages. Eventually she gave up with a huff. “I can only guess,” she said, looking up at the orb. “I mean... magic is a piece of us. Originally the Seed was comprised of the magic that made up those light faeries. Dark magic, ironically enough. But you...” She smiled one of her rare smiles. “I guess you changed it. Made the magic your own.”

      The earth faerie watched the Seed, listening to its gentle hum like a mother listening to her daughter breathe in and out as she slept. It looked like a giant green firefly, patiently waiting for them... but waiting for what?

      “What do we have to do with it?”

      Ziya reached for the book again, thankful that the answer was obvious this time, standing out in crisp black ink. “Well, we can basically do whatever we want with it. It’s raw magic. It’s extremely powerful... the strength of a hundred faeries combined.” The dark faerie gazed at it in awe. “Funny little bauble. It caused so much trouble, yet it looks so innocent up there.”

      Isabelle fiddled with a grass blade and stared at the dark faerie across from her. Ziya’s my best friend, she thought. Without her, today I’d be... She shivered, not wanting to think about it. But she knew about her friend’s difficulty with magic. Ziya had never complained about it outwardly, but Isabelle knew it bothered her inside. And right now, she realized there was a way to put an end to that.

      “Ziya,” she said cautiously, “why don’t you absorb the Seed?”

      “Me?” Ziya exclaimed, her dark eyes widening. “Isabelle, I don’t think you understand. All the power... it’s only been used for a good cause once in history.”

      “And you can be the second,” Isabelle pressed, leaning forwards. “You could be one of the greatest faeries in all of Neopia, do wonderful things with it.”

      “Or I could do terrible things,” Ziya said darkly. She shook her head. “No way. I refuse. And besides.” Her eyes fell down on the book in her hand. “I managed the spell to free the Seed from you. I can perform magic, it’ll just take some work to be really good at it.” Then she locked her gaze with Isabelle. “And I’d rather be great because of myself, not because of some weirdo power inside of me.”

      Isabelle nodded. “Okay then. Fair enough.” She glanced up at the ball of power, leaning back against a tree. The bark felt rough on her back, scratching her one good wing. “We still need to do something with this Seed, though. We can’t leave a raw ball of energy floating in the middle of the woods.”

      “What about your wing?” Ziya said slowly. “I’m sure the Seed has enough power to make you a new one. And then you could finally fly.”

      Isabelle’s heart leapt. It was true. She would finally be able to take to the sky, spread two wings instead of one and be lifted off her feet. She could already imagine the breeze blowing all around her, and the sunlight on her skin and the voluminous clouds. It’d be freedom, utter freedom.

      However, before she could respond, there came a rustling sound from some of the trees. Without a word, the two girls immediately got to their feet, Ziya clutching the spell book in her pale white fingers, and Isabelle holding a tree for support.

      Three robed figures suddenly surged forward, stopping when they saw the Seed’s light above their heads, illuminating their skin in an unflattering greenish tint, like evil storybook witches.

      “The Seed!” one of the light faeries cried. “They haven’t absorbed it yet!”

      “Stay away!” Isabelle yelled, staggering forward. She could feel her pulse in her ears, drowning out the hum of the Seed. She was afraid, but she refused to have the faeries have their way. “Don’t touch it!”

      “It’s our magic,” another hissed, her blue eyes cold. “It’s ours rightfully. You were merely a vessel.”

      “It’s Isabelle’s magic now,” Ziya said firmly, joining her friend in the center.

      “What does it matter whose magic it is?” the final faerie smirked. “It’s all a matter of who gets to it first!”

      She suddenly pointed a finger at them, her mouth beginning to shape the words of a spell. Isabelle yelled “Duck!” just as a ball of fire flew over her and Ziya’s heads, fizzling into nothing as it landed in a damp patch of dirt.

      “Grab the Seed!” the faerie shouted.

      One light faeries surged forward, but Ziya charged towards her, knocking her to the dirt in a tackle.

      “Get off me!” the faerie screeched, trying to shove her off.

      “Isabelle! Get it!” Ziya cried, struggling to keep her pinned to the ground.

      Isabelle didn’t need to be told twice. She ran towards the Seed, but another faerie yelled, “Ventus Aero!” A sudden gust of wind came out of nowhere, knocking her on her back.

      The two light faeries reached up to pluck the Seed from the air, but Isabelle couldn’t let that happen. She dug her nails into the dirt, focusing all of her might, and poured the little bit of magic she had left into the ground. Giant vines suddenly tore out of the earth and wrapped themselves around all three of the light faeries, rendering them immobile.

      “Good work,” Ziya said, breathing heavily as she got to her feet. Isabelle noticed her lip was cut, but it didn’t look too bad.

      She turned back to the imprisoned faeries and then her jaw dropped. The vines, which had sprouted from the ground thick and healthy were beginning to decay. Not enough magic, she realized, and she didn’t have enough energy left to recast the spell.

      “Isa!” Ziya shouted, pushing her friend forward. “Grab the Seed! Hurry, before it’s too late!”

      Isabelle’s heart raced. The faeries were free; the vines had failed. She needed to act now. Without another thought, she ran towards the orb, jumping into the air at the same time as the closest light faerie. They almost collided...

      ...but Isabelle felt her fingers wrap about the Seed first.

      There was a blast of green light so intense that Isabelle thought for a moment she was blind. And then she was suddenly catapulted off the ground high into the air. Her head spun with vertigo as she flew upwards and finally stopped, floating about fifty feet off the ground with the Seed held tightly in her hands.

      She wiggled her wing and realized she still only had one protruding from her back. The Seed was the only thing keeping her in the air.

      “Oh Fyora,” she breathed, looking down at Ziya and the light faeries far beneath her. Her eyesight blurred for a moment and her heart sped up.

      The Seed pulsed insistently and she felt its power slowly slipping back inside of her, calming her racing nerves. What do you want? it urged her. Choose quickly, there isn’t much time.

      “Get down here!” one of the light faeries screamed, her voice echoing sharply up to her ears. She yanked Ziya towards her and held the struggling dark faerie in her grip, digging her nails into her arm. “We have your Seer friend here! Give up the Seed now!”

      Ziya! Isabelle thought in a panic. It had been bad enough that the light faeries had made a young Isabelle the center of their evil scheme, but dragging Ziya into it made it completely unbearable. She couldn’t lose Ziya, not now after everything she had done for her. She felt her eyes sting with tears and suddenly knew what she wanted to use the Seed for.

      Isabelle clenched the Seed, drawing on its power. “You three will never use anyone for your evil spells ever again!” she yelled out, her voice magnified so that it echoed angrily through the woods. Power flooded her veins, hot and fiery, and she gripped the Seed tighter. “You are nothing but cowards. Powerless, tiny, insignificant cowards!” And with her final exclamation, there was once more a flash of green light.

      Isabelle slammed her eyes shut, opening them only when the light had died away. The faeries had vanished, leaving only a startled Ziya on the forest floor below.

      She looked at her hand where the Seed still hummed gently. It had shrunk compared to before, but only by a little, and with ease it lowered her back to the ground.

      Totally out of character, Ziya lunged towards her and wrapped her in a hug as soon as her feet touched the ground. “Isabelle! Oh Fyora, thank you!”

      Isabelle let go of her friend and smiled. “Thank you, Ziya.” She looked around, wondering if the faeries had perhaps retreated into the woods. “Are they really gone?”

      “Well, kind of.” Ziya held out her hand and unclenched her fist. Lying on her palm were three small brown seeds. “You turned them into seeds apparently. I should have known, you and your earth magic.”

      Isabelle shook her head. “I didn’t mean to, but I guess it’s better this way. One of the faeries was Lerea; she has those two little girls. If something really bad happened to them...” Isabelle shivered. The light faeries may have been trying to harm her, but she’d never be able to forgive herself if she had completely hurt them. “We should probably bring them back to town, alert the elders. Maybe they can get a hold of Fyora to turn them back and deal with them.”

      “Sounds like a plan.” Ziya stared at Isabelle’s hand where the Seed was nestled, purring like a complacent Angelpuss. “There’s still juice in that,” she commented. “Probably just enough for your new wing. Ready to cast the spell?”

      Isabelle broke down and laughed. It felt so good, but Ziya just stared at her at if she had sprouted an extra head. “What?” she asked. “What did I say?”

      The earth faerie grinned. “You know what I realized when I was up there? I’m a bit afraid of heights.” She glanced down at the ball of power and shook her head. “Besides, why waste the power of one hundred faeries on one stupid wing?”

      Ziya laughed, her weary eyes brightening up instantly, the starlight reflecting in her smile. “Way to be a selfless weirdo, Isabelle. So what do you want to use it on then?”

      Isabelle looked up at the night sky peeking out through the overlapping tree branches above her head. “I don’t know exactly. Whatever it wants,” she said simply, and she tossed the Seed up into the air.

      The Seed soared straight upwards, higher than she could have possibly thrown it, and hundreds of feet into the air it exploded like a green firework. Small green embers rained down from above, landing in the trees, in their hair, and on the ground, glowing like Christmas lights before fading away.

      And somehow, the same phenomenon happened all over the world. Neopets and faeries alike left their homes to watch the shower of sparks as Isabelle’s magic Seeded its way throughout Neopia, slowly but surely beginning to grow inside of people as spouts of good.

The End