Young Jhudora and Queen Fyora: Part One

      It was a cool Summer night in the outskirts of Faerieland. A young Jhudora curled up against the old dark faerie sitting beside her on the wooden bench. Jhudora yawned slightly as she stared into the green fire in the firepit. As the embers flew up into the dark sky, Jhudora’s eyes lazily watched them rise and play among the stars. Once they vanished into nothingness, she would look down at the fire again. Though a multitude of her dark sisters were singing and playing various instruments as loudly as they could, Jhudora was slowly lulled into a shallow sleep.

      The older faerie simply let out a soft chuckle as she ruffled Jhudora’s hair. Jhudora opened her eyes and glanced up at the faerie. Jhudora quickly cleared her throat before asking, “Elder, why are we celebrating?”

      The Elder smiled brightly and replied, “We’re celebrating because this is the anniversary of a very special day. This is the anniversary of the treaty that allowed us to stay in Faerieland.”

      Jhudora looked up at the night sky and nodded, “Because the other faeries thought we were evil.”

      “Sadly, yes…” The Elder sighed and also began to stare up at the sky. Her blue skin and raven black hair glistened in the night, “We don’t look very much like faeries, do we?”

      Jhudora laughed softly, “If we don’t look like faeries, who does!”

      The Elder continued on, ignoring Jhudora’s attempt at levity, “I have hopes for you Jhudora, high hopes. I believe that nothing will ever make Neopians or faeries accept my appearance. Red eyes and sails of red between the bones of my wings. But you, you have sweet, purple eyes.”

      Jhudora bit her lip and glanced back at The Elder. She quickly diverted her gaze to the ground.

      The Elder smiled brightly and put one hand on Jhudora’s shoulder. She stood and motioned for Jhudora to stand up with her. Jhudora smiled brightly as she realized what was about to happen. With one flick of The Elder’s wrist, the faeries began to play a downtempo song that Jhudora knew by heart.

      The Elder began to hum before slowly singing. Jhudora chimed in. The song was an ancient hymn passed throughout the ages. The words may have had meaning in the beginning. By the time Jhudora learned it, however, mistakes in transcriptions and shifts in language had rendered the lyrics nonsensical. Jhudora prefered it that way. She loved the way that the lyrics always made her feel as if they were describing her exact situation every time she sang it.

      The Elder gently grabbed Jhudora’s wrists as they began to dance around the fire pit together. As they twirled and sang together, the music abruptly stopped. The Elder turned to see what had caused the interruption. The Elder gasped when she realized what was happening.

      A dark faerie with blue skin and blue eyes quickly made her way to The Elder and held up a piece of paper with a drawing of The Elder.

      “Vayn…” The Elder gasped, “Did you read the text?”

      Vayn sighed, “I can’t read New Fae, but I can hear it well enough to know that bad things are about to happen.”

      The Elder turned to all of the faeries she cared for and cleared her throat. Then she stood still, unable to speak. She turned back to Vayn and grabbed the paper before studying every inch of it.

      There was complete silence until a young blue skinned faerie in the crowd called out, “Please clear out, we will speak on this matter in the morning.”

      As the faeries slowly dissipated, another blue skinned faerie made her way to The Elder.

      “Vayn . . . Mali . . . Spyre . . .” The Elder glanced back and bit her lip before adding, “Jhudora . . .”

      Spyre slowly began to tug on her hair and whispered, “What happened?”

      The Elder handed the paper to Mali and fell to her knees. Mali slowly read over it and gasped, her hand racing up to her mouth in shock. She closed her eyes before resolutely making her way to The Elder’s cottage. The Elder grabbed Jhudora’s wrist to help herself stand. Once she was on her feet, she quickly guided Jhudora back to her cottage along with the other faeries.

      Once they were inside, they all stood awkwardly around the wooden table in the kitchen. Spyre was the first to sit down. She took a deep breath before stating, “I’m the dumb sister who can’t understand New Fae. What does it say?”

      The Elder also took a seat, pulling Jhudora onto her lap so that she could wrap her arms around the young faerie. “The queen has stated that blue skinned faeries are not dark faeries. Dark faeries have purple skin. If we’re not dark faeries, then we must not be faeries.”

      Mali slowly reached for her bottom set of wings. Both herself and her sisters had abnormal wings. One larger set on top, and a smaller set near the small of their backs.

      The Elder glanced down at Jhudora and switched to New Fae. “Mali, you can speak New Fae, correct?”

      Mali sighed and nodded, “You don’t want Jhudora to hear?”

      Jhudora perked up when she heard her name. The Elder gently covered Jhudora’s ears with her hands. The Elder took a deep breath before whispering, “And your sisters. They frighten easily. However, you know them better than I do. Do you want to let them know?”

      Vayn bristled slightly before gently ushering Spyre out of the room.

      The Elder sighed before continuing in New Fae at a normal volume, “They know that without us holding the dark faeries together, they’ll be easy to banish from Faerieland. Without us screaming about treaties, they’ll be able to round up the dark faeries and put them somewhere else.”

      Mali took a seat and stared blankly towards The Elder. The Elder hugged Jhudora close to her as they sat in silence.

      Jhudora piped up, speaking Dark Fae, the only language she knew, “What is wrong? Why are you so quiet?”

      Mali took a deep breath before asking The Elder in New Fae, “What will you do about Jhudora? She’s like a humble petpet to you. She doesn’t understand the world. If she were to be parted from you, she would not survive a night. And where do you think they’d take the dark faeries? I think I know. Anywhere where she would need to fight for her life on a daily basis.”

      The Elder whispered to Jhudora in Dark Fae, “Dear Jhudora, please run up and play with Spyre. She’s around your age, isn’t she?”

      Jhudora nodded and slid off of the Elder’s lap and made her way to the adjoining room.

      The Elder stood and made her way to a stack of papers. Every page was a notice that Vayn had brought from the city. The Elder slowly picked up the notices and began to shuffle through them. She whispered, just loudly enough for Mali to hear, “It said that this was the last royal decree of this queen. I remember seeing that there was a princess who was to be coronated soon.”

      The Elder found the correct notice and slapped it down onto the table. On the notice was a drawing of the princess who was to be coronated. The Elder turned and began to rummage through her sewing supplies.

      Mali took the notice and stared at it. She began to read it and laughed. The Elder glanced back at Mali and shot her a toxic glance. Mali sighed and apologized in New Fae, “I’m sorry, but do you really think a new queen will make Faerieland magically stop hating dark faeries? The light elders in particular will despise use no matter what.”

      The Elder threw all of the purple, pink, and white scraps of fabric she could find on the table and sat down. “Please let me see the drawing as a reference.”

      Mali sat the notice down and looked up at the ceiling.

      “You understand that I have a right to be selfish,” The Elder whispered in New Fae as she furiously sewed, “In this situation, I can’t save everyone. I might not be able to even save myself. So I will save the one faerie who I might be able to save.”

      Mali leaned back in her chair, “And it isn’t us.”

      “We’re all blue skinned. We’re going to be ejected from Faerieland as soon as they find us,” The Elder quickly ripped two buttons off of her dress, “However, Jhudora would be beautiful by their standards if it weren’t for the wings and the skin. Jhudora has nothing but love in her heart.” The Elder glanced around the room. With a snap of her fingers, a pillow from her bedroom was on the table in front of her. She ripped the pillow open and pulled out the down stuffing.

      “The notice, the one about the princess,” Mali sighed, “When did it say the coronation was happening?”

      “You know we have trouble keeping our calendars in sync,” The Elder looked up at Mali, “But I do know that it’s soon. The current queen is working her hardest to make sure that her final conquest is absolute. We don’t have a month at this point. It might be tomorrow that we’re ejected.”

      Mali took a deep breath before standing. She stared out of the window at the fire pit. The green flame was still burning, though with less intensity than before. Mali stood in silence as The Elder sewed away.

      The silence was broken when The Elder stood and announced in Dark Fae, “It’s time for you to go home, Mali. Please sleep well.”

      Mali nodded. Her sisters slowly crept into the kitchen. Mali silently turned towards the door and exited, her sisters following closely.

      The Elder made her way into the bedroom where Jhudora was hiding. The Elder had finished her project. She held it up in front of Jhudora, smiling brightly.

      “It’s a doll!” Jhudora gasped, “It’s a pretty doll!”

      “Her name is Princess Fyora,” The Elder shook the doll a bit so that it almost seemed like the doll was dancing, “But soon she will be Queen Fyora. And Queen Fyora will make everything alright for dark faeries, I promise.”

      Jhudora gently took the doll before hugging it tightly. She simply held the doll close to her and began to sing the old hymn that she knew by heart.

      The Elder gently ruffled Jhudora’s hair. She whispered, “Hold Princess Fyora tight, tonight. I want her to protect you.”

      Jhudora nodded slightly. She looked up at the elder and whispered, “Thank you, Elder.”

      The Elder reached for the oil lamp sitting on the cabinet, “Sleep well.”

      With that, the Elder took the lamp, leaving Jhudora alone in the darkness.

      To be continued…