The Moderately Evil Faerie: Part One

      The small yellow Kacheek in an Altadorian tunic was shaking as he nervously held out the small container. Jhudora held out her hand. The Kacheek just began to shake more vigorously, so she simply snatched it from him. Without checking to make sure it was correct, Jhudora sneered, “I’ll spare you this time.” The Kacheek turned as quickly as he could and darted out of the room. Jhudora waited until the Kacheek was gone before looking down at the container in her hand. She smiled and let out an excited, childlike squeal of joy. It was white face powder straight from Shenkuu. She held it close to her heart as she hoped up from her throne and made her way to her bedroom. Though she tried to keep herself from skipping like an overexcited Quiggle, she couldn’t keep herself from at least galloping like a proud Uni Once she was in her room, she slammed the door behind her and threw open the door to her wardrobe. As she tossed the container in her hands up in to the air, it was engulfed in a green glow as it slowly levitated to her vanity.

      In front of her was a smorgasbord of clothing from all over Neopia. She leaned into the wardrobe and hugged the clothing. She could smell the campfires of Neovia next to the crisp chilly air of Terror Mountain. She pulled herself away from the clothes and began to rifle through them. She smiled brightly as she pulled a beautiful Neovian gown out of the wardrobe. She tossed it up into the air before using her magic to neatly lay it flat on her bed. She then began to search for a cloak that could realistically hide her wings.

      Jhudora wasn’t simply an evil faerie. No matter how many airs she put on, she still was a faerie with the same emotions of an Earth or Water faerie. No matter how dark she was, putting a smile on a Neopian’s face always made her heart swell with joy. The problem was two-fold, however. The first problem was simply that she needed to maintain order in Neopia. If one of the most evil faeries were to suddenly open a soup kitchen, then the entire order of Neopia would begin to crumble. Without darkness, there is no light. While younger and less famous Dark faeries were free to be as kind and loving as they wanted, Jhudora had a reputation she needed to maintain. The other problem was simply that only the darkest of Neopians would be able to see her charity as just that – charity. Doing favors for Dr. Sloth would never be her idea of charity. If she were to hand a paint brush to a young Neopian with dreams of being beautiful, that young Neopian would assume that the paint brush was cursed and run away screaming.

      She pulled a silver cloak out of her wardrobe and smiled. If she could pin it down to not reveal her wings, it would work marvelously. She had used it before with wonderful results. At least, much better than the coats she had asked her questers for that were based off of Taelia’s. After placing the cloak on her bed, she looked down at the bottom of her wardrobe and mulled over her choices of shoes. She always had trouble choosing shoes for her disguises. She always made sure to choose something that was as opposite to her own fashion choices as possible, but she always missed the height boost of her usual gaudy platform boots. She settled on a demure pair of brown boots and used her magic to set them next to her bed. She turned to her vanity and smiled. She petted the silver wig next to her makeup before sitting down and scanning the products in front of her. She had powders and paints from all over Neopia, but she had a special fondness for the products from Shenkuu. She had learned that a certain powder from Shenkuu that turned most Neopian’s faces white would lie on her purple skin in a way that would give her the pallor of a grey faerie. The only drawback was that the powder was extremely prone to smearing, so her hands and arms were always covered in gloves. Before she picked up the powder to whiten her skin, she stopped and began to debate what kind of look she was going for. She was a bold person and always wanted to finish off her look with the cherry red lip paint from Shenkuu, but she knew that it would be strange to see a grey faerie with such a bold and stunning face. She sighed and picked out some understated slate colored eye shadow and a muted natural colored lipstick. It almost pained her to look so plain, but she needed all the help she could get to hide in the crowd. She glanced behind her at her bed to make sure that all of her clothes were in order before taking a deep breath, facing the mirror on her vanity, and beginning the process of transforming.

      Hours later, a strange grey faerie with a hunched back was standing in a field right outside of Altador. The faerie smiled brightly as she felt the sun against her face. As wonderful as the sun over Altador felt, she opened the parasol by her side and held it over her head in an attempt to keep her makeup from melting. Jhudora smiled as she looked out at all of the Neopians around her enjoying their life. Though the presence of a strange, hunchbacked grey faerie caught many of the Altadorians off guard, no one had run away screaming. She slowly rolled her parasol back and forth on her shoulder as she made her way closer to the gates of the city. As she was walking, she heard a scream. She turned quickly, her dress fluttering as she searched for the origin of the scream. In the distance, she saw three strange faeries with two sets of wings each circling around a few feet above the ground. She suppressed her first instinct to spread her wings and dart over there and instead began to run to the scene to investigate. As she got closer, she heard the faeries jeering and taunting a young Neopian. As she got closer, she realized that they were taunting a young Kacheek. She stopped in her tracks when she realized that it was the same Kacheek who had given her the powder that was currently on her face. This would be her apology for being so rude to the Kacheek so that she didn’t break out of her persona earlier.

      Before calling attention to herself, she studied the scene to understand what was happening. The faeries were tossing a small parcel between themselves, hurling insults at the crying Kacheek all the while. However, one thing that confused her beyond anything else was the fact that the faeries’ skin was a pale blue. She put that out of her mind and entered the circle, scooping up the Kacheek. She held the Kacheek close to her and yelled, “Give him back his package!”

      The faeries suddenly stopped, their eyes wide with shock. The one holding the parcel was the first to speak, “Oh? An ugly little grey faerie wants to stop us?”

      Jhudora stood her ground and nodded. She could feel the Kacheek’s heartbeat slowing as he realized he was safe. The faeries all laughed in unison as the one holding the parcel tossed it to her sister. Jhudora snarled and jumped in the air, her hidden wings flapping just enough underneath her cloak to boost her up high enough to steal the parcel. As she fell back to the ground, she handed the parcel to the Kacheek and gently placed him on the ground. In complete and utter terror, the Kacheek ran away as quickly as his small legs would allow.

      The faeries began to close in on Jhudora, their faces contorted in rage. Their hands began to glow brighter and brighter the closer they got. Jhudora took a deep breath and weighed her options. The commotion had driven most of the Neopians in the area away, so she had a feeling her cover wouldn’t be blown as long as she didn’t let her wings unfurl. Her eyes began to glow green as she muttered under her breath, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

      The other faeries all landed as they realized what was happening. There was only one faerie whose eyes glowed green like that.

      “Be quiet and no one will be hurt,” Jhudora whispered.

      The other faeries all nodded. There was a pause before Jhudora stopped whispering and simply asked, “Why is your skin blue?”

      The other faeries stared in incredulous shock. The one in a floor length dress responded, “We’re the minions of The Betrayer. I . . . thought people would recognize us.”

      Jhudora stared at the faerie who had responded. She didn’t feel ignorant for not actually understanding what the faerie was saying.

      The faerie with straightened hair added on, “We’re the Dark Faerie Sisters. Spite, Malice, and Vanity. Our sister was The Darkest Faerie.”

      The math began to add up in Jhudora’s head. She glanced at all of them before gasping, “You’re those faeries!”

      Spite stared at Jhudora, her hand beginning to glow blue again. Vanity looked over at Spite and sighed, “Spite, this is not the time to feel spiteful just because someone doesn’t know who you are without being told. She’s obviously too young to remember.”

      Spite rolled her eyes as the flame around her hand extinguished. Malice glanced over at Vanity. They locked eyes as if they were communicating telepathically. After a few moments, Malice slowly nodded and looked back at Jhudora. Malice slowly and methodically began to speak, “Jhudora, we are dark faeries and we travel Neopia to cause pain and suffering. Without our leader, we’re reduced to simply trolling the land to torment Neopians in small and insignificant ways. We do so because we are dark, spiteful, vain, and malicious beings. Why would you travel Neopia disguised as a grey faerie and stop us from doing the things we were born to do?”

      Jhudora stared, her expression blank. Gears began turning in her head. The farther along her thought process progressed, the incredulousness on her lips became more and more of a smile. Once she had gathered her thoughts, she responded, “Because every faerie under Fyora has goodness in their hearts. No matter who you are in Neopia, you will always have the feelings of kindness, compassion, and empathy. Those feelings are what make us who we are, and without them . . . we aren’t Neopians.”

      Spite held her hand up over her mouth as she began to giggle. Jhudora continued, “A Dark Faerie must always put on a show. They must act evil and heartless so that the balance of Neopia will stay intact. But that doesn’t mean that a Dark Faerie doesn’t have those emotions that every other Neopian has. I have those emotions. I want to be good. Jhudora, the most evil Dark Faerie, isn’t allowed to be. That is why I hide my identity and leave my bluff to be kind to all of the helpless Neopians.”

      Malice smacked Spite in the back of the head as Spite’s giggle turned into raucous laughter. Malice and Vanity locked eyes once again. They continued to stare at each other for a few long moments before looking back at Jhudora. Vanity smirked and replied, “Oh, Jhudora, you’ve shown us the errors of our ways. Would you teach us how to be selfless like you?”

      Spite groaned and began to voice her complaints. She received another quick smack from Malice as she began to realize that there was a plan forming in the minds of her sisters.

      Malice glared at Vanity for her level of sarcasm. She looked at Jhudora and slowly stepped towards her, grabbing Jhudora’s gloved hand in her own. “Jhudora . . .” Malice began, her eyes filled with sympathy, “We want to learn how to be just like you. Selfless and kind.”

      Jhudora smiled brightly. She pulled Malice in closer and threw her arms around her, “Oh! Vanity! We’re going to have so much fun helping out Neopians in need!”

      Vanity raised her hand slightly as Malice’s eyes were wide in shock and discomfort, “I’m Vanity. She’s Malice.”

      Jhudora blushed beneath her makeup and quickly let Malice go, “I’m so sorry, Malice. I promise I’ll learn all of your names soon.”

      Malice sneered as she backed away from Jhudora. However, as soon as she realized the façade her and her sisters were going to need to put on, she smiled brightly.

      Not noticing the initial sneer, Jhudora grinned and announced cheerily, “Get ready for the boat ride to Faerieland, girls, because we’ve got our work cut out for us!”

      To be continued…