Beneath the Darkness

     Giving up, Rowan sat up and flicked her tail across the low ceiling. As she glanced around at her few possessions, her reflection in a dull mirror in the corner of the room caught her eye. A red Kougra as average as can be stared back at her, with drooping ears and dull green eyes were due to hours of unprofitable boredom.

     "Rowan!" a voice boomed from above, causing her to jump. "Come upstairs now and clean up these books!"

     Rowan sighed and headed upstairs. Her owner was always telling her to clean things; she was his unpaid servant. He'd found her one day, and, needing someone to help him with his work, he "adopted" her. His work was very unique: he used everyday items - like a Pink Kau Plushie - and some ancient faerie magic books to make magical plushies, items, or potions. Rowan guessed he worked for Kauvara or some other magician, but he never deigned to talk to her about it.

     Rowan knew she should be grateful for his care. He did give her food and her own room, after all. But all the same, her paws itched to be free of this place, of him.

     As she emerged into her owner's study room, she found magic books, plushies, and the odd eggy omelette scattered all over the floor. Sighing, used her teeth to pick them up one by one and place them on the shelves.

     "Go back to your room," her owner's deep voice rumbled again, his face never emerging from the pages of whatever tome he had lost himself in today. Fuming, she pounded back to her room and slammed the door shut.

     Lethargy settled over her as the sun set and the room grew slowly cooler. Her limbs seemed to sink into the floor as she laid there, helpless, useless. She shut her eyes against the blazing horizon sun shining straight through the window. The cool blackness soothed her, like the way the word home sounded, soft and safe, making her calm and sleepy...

     Suddenly, what seemed like seconds but what must have been hours later, a huge crash rattled the foundations of the house. Sitting bolt upright, Rowan didn't even have time to shout before a rag was shoved roughly into her mouth and a cloth was tightened over her eyes.

     "Mmf!" She kicked and gasped for breath, her heart racing: whether in exhilaration or fear, she couldn't quite tell.

     As she struggled, she felt her paws lashed quickly together by coarse ropes. She heard a few grunts and a shout, then the odd weightless sensation of being hoisted into the air before receiving an agonizing blow to the head. She spiraled back into the cool blackness that had once been her home, her haven.

     --

      Blearily, Rowan tried to sit up but quickly realized it was impossible. Next she tried opening eyes, but all she could see was grey with flecks of light, a translucent fabric. Dazed, she tried to concentrate on the jumble of voices from above her.

     "Drat," a deep voice hissed. "Look at 'er. She's not even painted!"

     "Why did you drag us all the way to get her?!" a different voice shouted. "You said we would get a reward for a nice, painted pet!"

     "It's not my fault, I--"

     The second man grunted, and then there was a series of scuffling sounds and soft thumps – a fight, Rowan thought. Finally coming back into her senses, she managed to wiggle fiercely against her bonds as the people – or Neopets – above her continued to brawl. Suddenly a softer, gentler, but still urgent voice sounded in her ear. Rowan jerked in surprise, barely suppressing a shriek.

     "Don't move," it hissed. She felt a paw hurriedly untying her bonds and pulling off the blindfold. Two small paws pressed on her back and Rowan scrambled out of the wagon, unnoticed by the furiously fighting men. "Hurry," the same voice said.

     Rowan turned and saw who had freed her as they ran on the sandy ground towards a small market. It was a small spotted Zafara, with an unusually long tail. She led Rowan behind a building, sat down in the dust, and grinned as she began to clean her fur.

     "Whoo," she breathed. "Well, wasn't that entertaining. How did you get mixed up with that ugly bunch?"

     Rowan was completely at a loss for words. "I - well, uh, I just - you - what?" she stammered weakly.

     The Zafara's grin spread even wider. "I'm Mehl," she said cheerfully. "So who are you?"

     "Er - my name's Rowan," she said uncertainly. "I think - I dunno what just happened. I think - I guess - I was pet-nabbed," she finished, almost with a shrug.

     Mehl considered her with narrowed eyes. "You don't seem too upset by it."

     "Yeah, well, my owner wasn't exactly - nice," she said lamely.

     "I see." Mehl smiled again. "Well, come on, I got a nice little place here and you can heal up." Rowan followed her into the little house. It was comforting and simple, with straw couches and a messy bed.

     "So what's your story?"

     Rowan studied the other Neopet carefully. Instinct told her she could trust this Zafara – she had just rescued her, after all – but how could she know for sure? Her heart still pounded so loud she was sure the whole world could hear it. I'm free. Free. But free was just a word - what did it mean for her, really? Free to live in a straw hut with a stranger?

     "Well, it's nothing special," she said cautiously. "I was adopted, see..."

     Before she knew it, she was telling Mehl everything. It was magical, almost, to be talking to someone who actually cared to listen.

     "Thank you," Rowan finished in a rush. "For saving me... from the pet-nabbers, and from my house. Thank you!"

     "It was nothing," Mehl shrugged. "I couldn't exactly just stand by and watch. Come on," she beckoned. "I'll show you around!" Snatching Rowan's paw before she had time to protest, Mehl led her out a back door and onto the street.

     The market road was crowded with people and Neopets, pushing wooden carts full of fruits or cheap trinkets, waving and giving free samples. Villagers stood arguing with vendors, trying to haggle off cheap merchandise. Neopets were gamboling around, playing with petpets and laughing as they got caught up in clouds of dust. Rowan stared at everything with wide eyes, amazed by all the things she wasn't allowed to see at home.

     "Welcome," said Mehl over all the noise, "to the Lost Desert!"

     The tent Mehl led her to next was a small, completely insignificant tent made out of plain grey burlap. No one crowded the entrance. Mehl glanced at Rowan with another mischievous grin before striding over to it and entering.

     The inside was hardly more interesting than the outside. Dull rugs, dusty furniture, and old relics were tossed haphazardly all over the floor. Carefully picking her way through torn cushions and tattered carpets, Rowan followed Mehl to an old black Uni snoozing in the corner.

     "Vensri," Mehl said. The old Uni's eyes snapped open. "Vensri, look, I've got a friend!"

     His eyes glowed. "Ahhh, yes, my dear, you see? I told you...."

     "You were right." Mehl smiled. "Rowan, this is Vensri. He's the village prophet. He told me I'd meet someone soon."

     "Prophet?" Rowan muttered.

     "He can tell fortunes and stuff," Mehl whispered back, sitting down and curling her spotty tail around her paws. "He's pretty good, actually. Here, Vensri, this is Rowan." Mehl pushed her towards the Uni, and Rowan tripped over her own tail and flattened her ears in embarrassment. The Uni titled his head down and stared into her eyes. It was slightly disconcerting: his eyes were cloudy and grey, but it was quite clear that he could see her almost as if he had a sixth sense.

     "Mmmm...." he muttered, closing his eyes. "You - you are - danger. In danger. You need to beware... faerie."

     "W-What?" Rowan stammered. She glanced at Mehl, whose eyes were suddenly wide.

     "Yes... the faerie, the darkest one of all. She seeks you, your...." His eyes opened again. "You must find a way to... defeat her."

     Rowan's mouth dropped open. "But I haven't done anything; who is this faerie? Why does she want me? What do I do?"

     "You learn," Vensri repeated. "You learn to defeat. You must... Seek her. Seek her before she seeks you. Go. Now."

     Mehl pushed Rowan, stumbling, out of the tent, without saying goodbye to Vensri. Rowan glanced back at Vensri –he was following her with his sightless gray eyes. His expression was impossible to make out.

     "Mehl! Stop, what just went on?! Who is he?" Rowan hissed. Mehl didn't answer until they were once again behind her home.

     "I told you, he's the prophet," she said. "He's never wrong. We've got to get out of here."

     "But what's this about the faerie, the darkest one of all?"

     Mehl rolled her eyes. "Oh, nobody. Obviously she could bear no relation to The Darkest Faerie! Come on!" Mehl zipped into the house, leaving Rowan standing utterly dumbstruck in her wake. But she had hardly a minute to even gather her thoughts before Mehl was back with two bags in her jaws. She quickly tossed one to Rowan.

     "The Darkest Faerie started out as just a regular dark faerie - evil and all, but just what we could call "average" evil. But she eventually starting pet-nabbing strong pets, powerful faeries, and even people - she knew how to take their power. So Fyora imprisoned her for one thousand years....

     "And then she escaped. Now she's hiring cronies to do her dirty work. She wants every powerful Neopet, every faerie, to make herself stronger and get revenge on Fyora. Vensri was one - but he fought and got away. At a cost. And now she's targeted you. Your owner, I bet, since he experiments with magic, you told me. Wants to get to him through you."

     "But he doesn't care about me," Rowan burst out.

     "I don't know, I don't know, just move!" Mehl moaned as they hurried out of the town. "Maybe it was an accident she heard of you, but either way, she's looking for you now. That's probably why you were nabbed – she hired them!"

     It was at least two hours before Mehl permitted them to stop. They flopped down under a low tree, the sandy hills having changed to the outskirts of a dank-looking forest. Mehl opened her bag and tossed Rowan some food, while swishing her tail around to clear out the sticks and leaves so she could have a clean resting spot. Mehl began to eat in silence, and Rowan wasn't anxious to break it; she was too caught up in her own thoughts.

     How could this faerie want me? What do I have to give her? She licked the remnants of her meal off the ends of her whiskers. Those men that had pet-nabbed her... She had thought they were just pet-nabbers who thought she was painted and wanted to sell her off illegally. Maybe they were actually working for this faerie...

     "Why are you helping me?" Rowan said suddenly. Mehl blinked.

     "What?"

     "You. Why are you helping me now? We just met. You don't owe me anything. What are you doing here with me?"

     Slowly Mehl set her food down, taking the time to wrap it neatly back into her bag. "A while ago, Vensri told me something too," she said softly. "He told me I'd meet a friend that would change my life. I thought he was raving, but... I think it's you."

     Mehl's ears were pricked hopefully toward her, her eyes wide and honest. Rowan took a deep breath and forced the fur on the back of her neck to lie flat. She had nothing to lose by trusting Mehl – it had certainly worked out so far. Rowan sighed. "I just... don't want you to get hurt, I guess, for my sake. You barely know me."

     "Hey, it's my choice! Besides, what's life without a little adventure? Besides," Mehl sat up on her haunches now, her tail swishing side to side eagerly. "I know where she might be!"

     "Really?"

     "Yes," Mehl said. A shadow of her old grin flickered for an instant on her face when she saw Rowan's jaw dropping. "She lives up north, that way. In the Haunted Woods, but a corner that Balthazar, or anyone else, has never found. It's just a guess, but that's where I think she will be. We'll head off tomorrow then, yeah?"

     "Yeah," said Rowan. Forcing a smile, she flipped over to her back to stare up at the stars. They twinkled vaguely back down at her, cold and indifferent, yet comfortingly familiar at the same time. She was glad Mehl was coming, but also frightened – what might this faerie be like? How evil is evil?

     Mehl woke her at the crack of dawn. Rowan managed to scramble up groggily and pack up her things before Mehl demanded that they set out. "There's no time to settle down!" she exclaimed, as sprightly as ever. Rowan, on the other hand, tried very hard not to be frightened by the snapping of a twig or the squeak of a stray petpet as they ventured deeper into the woods.

     Mehl knew a lot about The Darkest Faerie. All day she told Rowan what she knew. Light harmed her, weakened her. Defeated her. They could use that to their advantage.

     "We've got one light," said Mehl, pulling what looked like a mirror from her pack. "Dr. Sloth, apparently, used these big reflectors when trying to make Virtupets float and when converting everyone into Mutant Grundos. If any light at all is around, it'll magnify it, really bright, like it is now. Vensri had this and gave it to me as a gift, years ago."

     "Good," said Rowan. "We can scratch that metal edge against rocks, too... See, it makes sparks!"

     "Brilliant!" purred Mehl. "Let's settle down for tonight... We're getting closer, and need our rest, after all."

     "Closer. That's a relief," said Rowan drily. Mehl grinned, and they settled down like they had before. The forest darkened quickly, and Rowan nodded off with the sound of rustling leaves and creepy noises behind her.

     In the morning, they set off like they did the day before. It was quiet for most of the trip, until Mehl suddenly stopped in her tracks and pawed the ground anxiously.

     "Shhh," she whispered. "Something's there." Sure enough, Rowan could now hear a rustling in the bushes beyond. Three dark shapes emerged, with glowing golden eyes.

     "Spirits," Mehl hissed. "Her henchmen, she creates them, they're like the Shadow Usul." Mehl grabbed the reflector out of her bag, while Rowan, nearly frozen with fear, scooped up a stone with her tail. Scraping it against the back of the reflector, a spark shot out. Deftly Mehl twisted the mirror until it caught the light and magnified it into a flame. Without a sound, the light dissolved the shadowy shapes into nothing less than a second.

     "That's not too hard," Rowan said.

     "Oh yeah?" Mehl hissed, her eyes wide and fearful. "Look behind you."

     Hundreds of the same dark, ghastly shadows were emerging from within the trees surrounding them. Rowan hurried around, trying to pick up stones with her paws and scrape them against Mehl's reflector.

     "We can't - take them all - like this," Rowan panted.

     "Yes, we can," Mehl hissed back. She grasped the reflector in her two front paws, and sprung as high as she could into the tree above them. She hopped higher and higher among the branches, until she reached the very top. Rowan watched fearfully, spirits closing in on her, until Mehl titled the reflector. It caught the sunlight above and shot it into the dark forest, annihilating all the spirits at once. Gasping, Rowan watched Mehl scramble down and they faced a silent forest.

     Silent - except for one, faint hiss.

     "Well. I see you've come."

     A huge shadowed appeared from whatever nowhere it was to which they had banished the other spirits. Long, billowing robes took form and vibrant eyes glowed from under a hood. Pale hands and a sharp face shone in the darkness as The Darkest Faerie emerged.

     "You," muttered Rowan.

     "Yes, me," said the faerie, almost unconcernedly. "I thought I'd be meeting you here... Rowan." Her eyes met with Rowan's, and she felt a sudden, burning pain like lightning, forcing her to shut them tight. The faerie laughed; a high, cold, mocking jeer.

     "You are already too weak! You cannot even meet my eyes! And what about your little friend here? Has she come to supplement me as well?" She advanced towards Mehl, extending a pale hand. With one careless flick of the wrist, Mehl was blasted off her paws. Something clinked against the ground as she flew. The mirror!

     "What do you want with me?" Rowan panted, shaking with anger.

     "With you?" The faerie laughed again. "I want nothing from you, you worthless little Neopet. You have no use to me. I want your owner."

     "Yeah? Well, he's not here," Rowan shot back. "And he's not coming. He doesn't care what happens to me."

     The faerie's eyes darkened. "He isn't coming after you? To protect his dear Neopet?"

     "No," Rowan growled firmly.

     She screeched in fury, shaking the leaves on the trees. But then she turned her violent gaze back on Rowan, who managed to stay still this time as the pain seared through her body. It lessened as she fought it, silently resisting the faerie; Rowan wasn't sure if her determination was born out of courage or out of an inability to do anything else now but stand her ground. The faerie forced a smile. "No matter. I shall just have to seek him out then, shan't I?"

     "No!" Rowan repeated angrily. She didn't much care for her owner, but she would not let this faerie anywhere near the innocents near his house.

     "No? No?" the faerie mocked, the pitch of her voice ever increasing. "You expect to resist me? Even with your foolish little friend, you've no chance! You do not even know me!"

     Rowan snarled and dashed at the faerie, attempting to shove her to the ground. She missed – but that didn't matter. "I know you," Rowan gasped, inching slowly to one side, to the place where she had heard that serendipitous clink. "You're The Darkest Faerie... and your weakness is light!" Rowan snatched Mehl's reflector disk and angled it to a small open space in the thick covering of leaves above. Light shot through the woods and onto the faerie. Rowan heard her high, cold laughter again but did not care; the light would finish her soon. The laughter died after a minute or so, and Rowan let the reflector drop.

     The faerie was still there.

     "What?" said Rowan, astonished. The faerie's eyes gleamed, and she had started laughing again. "But - but the light...."

     The faerie strode over, and smashed the reflector disk with her foot. Hundreds of pieces of glass littered the forest floor, catching bits of sunlight like fallen stars. "As I said," she hissed. "You do not even know me."

     She pulled off her robes, and they fell in a silky pile around her. And it wasn't The Darkest Faerie underneath them. It was a faerie with a patched, ragged dress, and tiny tattered wings.

     "You're - the Grey Faerie," Rowan gasped.

     "Yes." The faerie smiled. "You all suspect her, The Darkest Faerie, that SHE'S done everything I've been doing these past years. I did use her secret, after all, of capturing power from others. But no. She's still plotting her revenge on that fool of a Faerie Queen, Fyora.

     "Everyone thinks I'm so sad, so poor, so weak, that they never paid any attention to me. It was ideal. After all... did they think that I would grovel in submission to my weakness? My sadness? No! I will get revenge on that Dark Faerie that stole my wings, my name - and I know I have that power. Your owner's magic is a mere stepping stone on my way to greatness! I can find her. I will find her - and take over the rest of Neopia while I'm at it!"

     "No!"

     It was Mehl. Without the Grey Faerie noticing, Mehl had struggled to her paws and snuck behind the faerie. Leaping onto the faerie's shoulders, her back paws pinning her arms to her sides, Mehl covered the faerie's vibrant eyes with her front paws. "Rowan! Shout for help!"

     Not knowing what it would achieve, Rowan let out a yowl at the top of her lungs. Three Pteris nesting in nearby trees heard the cry and took it up, flying above the woods, echoing the cry. A stray Lupe dashed into the clearing where Mehl and the Grey Faerie struggled and howled alongside Rowan. Soon Neopets and people were approaching from behind every tree, encircling the Grey Faerie. Mehl leapt off her back and turned to face her beside Rowan, growling and glaring.

     "How are you feeling now, faerie? So all-powerful?" Rowan smiled.

     The grey faerie screamed and advanced towards the Kougra. "You little - !"

     She never finished. Two light faeries zoomed from the circle, accompanied by a young Gelert, and bound the faerie with unbreakable magic.

     "I can't wait to see what Fyora decides to with you now," said the Gelert coolly. "Maybe she'll let you stay with the Defenders of Neopia, to be another person Neopians can learn about and fight. You'll be meeting the rest of them on the way to see the Queen."

     The grey faerie hissed at him, but could do nothing else.

     "I - I'm glad that's over with," Rowan panted. "How did they all get here so fast? Who are they?"

     "They're the Haunted Woods Defenders," Mehl said. "A section of the Defenders of Neopia... Some of the Neopets that live in this neck of the woods are part of them. Those Pteris, I guess. I got you to scream 'cause I thought they might come. And it worked!"

     "Thank you," said Rowan, laughing. "I'd be toast without you right now!

     The Lupe that had joined Rowan in howling for help now approached them. "We've arranged for your transport back to your hometown," he said. Behind him, two Unis were harnessed to a comfortable-looking wagon.

     "So, where do we have the pleasure of taking you two today?" said the nearest Uni, a burly green one.

     "Lost Desert," Mehl said. "Thanks!" She hopped lightly onto the wagon, waved to the friendly Lupe, and beckoned with her tail for Rowan to follow her. As soon as Rowan's tail was curled safely inside, the Unis took off towards the south.

     Rowan scanned the horizon anxiously for hours, then finally -

     "Look!" Rowan shouted happily. "It's Vensri!"

     The old shadow Uni was indeed waiting for them in the village. His eyes were a clear blue, sparkling and twinkling with the delight of seeing them safe.

     "I knew you could do it. I knew you would find the truth," he said, galloping and leaping on the spot. "Welcome back." He nudged both Rowan and Mehl gently with his horn, smiling, and they both giggled and followed him inside, curling up to rest on two perfectly made beds in the center of the room.

The End