Angel and Illusen

     "Shoot, Kat, come on!" Glitter the faerie Acara was cheering. She was hovering next to a black-haired girl, aiming for the target.

     "You can do it!" squealed Fluffy, jumping up and down in excitement.

     Kat gently adjusted her aim and squinted at the circular target. A few interested Meridellians came to see what she was made of. After a little concentration, the girl finally let go and watched the arrow fly towards her quarry. At last its flight ended as the point hit the target right in the middle.

     "YEAH!" shouted Sweet. "I knew it would make it!" He hugged his owner's legs.

     However, Angel the Eyrie wasn't even watching. "Can we go home already?" he whined.

     "Not till she finishes several more rounds," answered Fluffy the white Aisha. "Can't you see that Kat is making an improvement?"

     "I see no point in watching arrows fly and hit stuff for kicks," declared Angel, turning away from his sister. "We should've just gone to the farm." Fluffy shrugged and turned back to the game, not seeing her sibling walking away.

     The Aisha tapped the shoulder of a striped Kacheek. "Did I miss anything?"

     "Nope," Sweet replied. "Kat is concentrating on her aim."

     "Oh."

     ***

     "Who needs them? They're no fun anyway." Angel walked past the bustling Meridellian crowd, pushing aside a baby Lupe in his frustration. "I'm bored, and nobody's asked where I want to go!" He added some stress on the "I" as he plopped on a tree stump next to a beautiful clump of trees. The Eyrie didn't even notice the long line of pets going deep into the glade, as Angel was too busy staring down at the grass.

     "Well, well, who do we have here?" asked a gentle voice after a few moments. Angel perked up and craned his neck to see who was standing behind him.

     It was a faerie. A tall faerie with auburn hair streaked with green was the culprit. She had a smile on her face, bright eyes and was wearing simple clothes that matched her hair. Beautiful green wings adorned her back. Obviously she was an earth faerie, thought Angel, staring at her wordlessly. He stood up and tried to greet her, but the Eyrie didn't know what to say.

     He was snapped out of his thoughts by a sharp remark by a nearby royal Cybunny, who was clutching an expensive-looking book. "Hey!" she yelled. "Move it or lose it, kid! I'm here on a special quest for Illusen, and I can't wait for my prize!"

     "Now, now, Luna," said the faerie, seemingly not minding the female Cybunny's rudeness. Illusen walked back to her shady glade and came out with a small bottle of what looked like honey.

     "THANK YOU!" The scowl on Luna's face was immediately replaced by a huge grin as she snatched the Honey Potion roughly out of Illusen's hands. The little pet ran towards her owner who was waiting nearby. Both of them hugged and they went off, waving to the pretty faerie.

     Now that Luna and the young blond boy had gone, the earth faerie turned back to the skunk Eyrie. "I haven't seen you around these parts," said she.

     "I'm…you can call me Angel," he answered. "Hey! I think I know you - my owner does quests for you. Do you know her? She has black hair, glasses, kind of tall - "

     "Why, yes I do," replied Illusen. "Oh, she only needs to do a few more quests and the Leaf Shield is hers. But she got too busy to do some more because of all the writing she does."

     Angel nodded. "So…you run quests here all the time, right?"

     "Yeah. Sometimes it gets really hard." The earth faerie grinned, a tired sort of grin.

     "Well…I'm not doing much today. Want me to help you?"

     Illusen smiled again, this time a grateful one. "Oh, Angel, that would be quite wonderful! Here, you stay here and keep track of everyone who brings me back the needed stuff. And tell me what prize they get!"

     The skunk Eyrie obediently got to work. He gathered up the collected plushies in one pile, a stack of books Illusen needed in another, and so on. Angel had everyone state their names, and how many quests they had done, and the faerie would appear with an armful of goodies to give out to all her loyal friends.

     ***

     They went through nearly everything in just under an hour, and after that, both of them were quite pooped.

     "I'm pooped," said Angel.

     Illusen looked at her young apprentice. "So Angel, tell me about yourself."

     The Eyrie looked at the faerie thoughtfully. Glancing around the glade, he opened his mouth and started to narrate the story of his life. As every word sounded within the solitude of Illusen's forest, every syllable brought the two acquaintances closer. Angel felt as if all his troubles were slowly being relinquished while the conversation with his new friend went on and on. Every now and then someone wishing for a quest would interrupt, and the young skunk Eyrie would leap into action and instantly help the earth faerie.

     "…And then, I decided to leave Kat's Ultimate Bullseye game to find something new. My family is getting so boring." Angel scrunched his body up on a small tree stump and scowled at the ground. "At first I used to enjoy the moments, but these days…you know…"

     Illusen sighed sympathetically, and knelt beside the stump Angel was scrunched up on. "Oh, come now," she said softly. "Nothing's boring if you look at it in a different perspective. And looking at things in different perspectives keep boredom away!"

     Angel stared at her.

     "Well, what I'm trying to say is, give your family a chance. Try to see things in a new way and find out what they enjoy. I know there are some things they do that you may not like as much as they do, but there is one thing I know you will all have in common."

     "And that is…?"

     "Love. You love each other, don't you? Through all the pains and sufferings, the good and the bad, your owner's Neopian Times acceptance and rejection letters?"

     Angel wanted to say something more, but he closed his mouth. Apparently Illusen had said enough for him to understand. His frown curled upward…into a smile. He opened his black and white arms and hugged his new friend.

     "You're right," he said. "Wow…you really ARE smarter than Jhudora, are you?"

     She grinned and put her finger to her lips. "Don't spread it around, or else I'd find her wand at my throat."

     He nodded, and they both giggled softly, at the thought of that dark faerie storming toward them, hacking her way through the forest and steaming mad…until Angel perked up and said, "Well, I've got to go. It was nice meeting you, Illusen."

     The earth faerie nodded curtly. "And if you need me, you know where to find me. Don't forget what I said though." She winked.

     The skunk Eyrie hugged her one last time and replied, "Thanks again," before he disappeared into the bustling Meridellian crowd and took flight towards his owner's archery game. He heard cheering from somewhere and craned his neck to listen. The voices sounded extremely familiar to him…

     "Hooray! Kat beat her own record!"

     "Hey! Wait up!" Angel fled towards the back of a faerie Acara and instantly collided into her. "Glitter!"

     "Angel?" His sister looked back at him, perplexed. "Where were you?"

     "Just chatting with a good friend," he said, glancing at Illusen's Glade one last time. Something told Glitter's brother that this would be the last time he'd miss another family thing…never again. Smiling a sincere smile, he followed the Acara over to where the rest of their family was rejoicing.

The End