The Tooth Faerie's Magic by ssjelitegirl
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The moon was rising when the door of a small cozy house
opened and a faerie stepped in. She was carrying a bag that gave a quiet rattling
sound. The faerie seemed tired but she still had a smile on her face. A shadow
Uni who had been sleeping on the rug in front of the fireplace looked up and yawned
widely.
"That took a while," he said. "What's going on
in Neopia? With that rate they'll all be toothless in less than a few months."
The Tooth Faerie put her bag down and stretched
her back. "It's not as bad as you think," she said. "There are so many pets
out there, millions of teeth and every day some new pets are born."
"And you're the only one who takes their lost
teeth away," the Uni remarked, getting up and sniffing the rattling bag. "You
could use an apprentice or something."
"I'm doing fine," the faerie claimed, sitting
down behind the table and starting the dinner that had been waiting for her
there. "Listen Thorn, do me a favor and bring me the book, will you?" Thorn
nodded, trotted away and returned with a huge book.
"Dinner first, business later," he warned; the
faerie laughed and kept on eating. Thorn had been a young little foal when she
had found him in the woods on a cold winter evening. She had taken the Uni home
to take care of him and in a couple of weeks Thorn was fit again. However, he
didn't completely leave the kind faerie. He was a wild Uni, careless and free
but he often visited the Tooth Faerie to help her with her job and sleep in
front of her fireplace when it was too cold and windy outside to fly.
"Twenty thousand and three, twenty thousand and
four…" he counted, keeping an eye on the teeth. "Ooh, that one looks nasty,"
remarked then, pointing at a long yellow fang.
"Balthazar," the Faerie commented. "He really
has to stop buying food from Meridell. Stone Soup… seriously."
"That's it for today," Thorn said, looking as
the Tooth Faerie's quill wrote down the last tooth. "I still don't understand
why you're doing this job. Giving people Neopoints for their lost teeth… come
on, that doesn't make much sense."
"Most things in life don't make much sense,"
the faerie smiled. "But you're commenting my job without ever even seeing how
it goes. Would you like to come with me tomorrow?"
The Uni glanced at her, then shrugged. "Why not?
Might be interesting. I'm gonna hit the hay now, good night." He curled up on
the rug again and the Tooth Faerie smiled widely. She had never understood how
Thorn was able to live in the wild when he spent most of his time sleeping.
Perhaps his shadow fur worked as a camouflage, she didn't see any other explanation.
The next morning when the sun was rising, the
Tooth Faerie flew out of her home and whizzed down over the edge of Faerieland.
Thorn was by her side, yawning widely and rubbing his eyes with his front leg.
"Why do you start your day so early?" he demanded.
"Because it takes a lot of time," the Faerie
responded. "Let's see now…" They headed for Neopia Central where Thorn spent
the whole morning yawning and fluttering by the Tooth Faerie's side while the
kind-hearted Faerie gave out Neopoints to all sorts of pets who had lost a tooth.
Eventually after the 3487th tooth the Uni looked up at the sun and announced:
"It's almost midday, you know."
"Ah yes, lunchtime," the Tooth Faerie nodded.
"Well then, let's pay a sister of mine a little visit, shall we?"
The Soup Faerie was very glad to see them. "Actually
you have about 29,560 Neopoints with you, and I won't even get to the sum you
have at the National Neopian Bank," she remarked, giving Thorn his third bowl
of soup, "but I'm always happy to help my sisters out."
"And I don't have a single Neopoint so you can
always feed me," Thorn said with his mouth full. The Soup Faerie smiled and
looked at her sister.
"An apprentice or something?" she asked.
"The 'something'," the Tooth Faerie replied.
"I just wanted to show him what my job really is about."
The Soup Faerie laughed. "Let me guess. Teeth?"
"Is there supposed to be a lump of dung in here?"
Thorn wondered. The Tooth Faerie finished her soup and stood up.
"We have to get going now," she said. "Thanks
for the soup. Come on Thorn, our next stop is Tyrannia and it will take a while
there."
"Yeah, the land where Neopets eat twigs and stones,"
Thorn muttered. "I think there's a piece of dung stuck between my teeth…"
It took them almost three hours to finish with
Tyrannia and Thorn's wings were exhausted. The Tooth Faerie looked at him with
a regretful smile and said:
"Okay then, off to Terror Mountain. I hope you
brought warm clothes."
"You simply couldn't tell me in the morning,"
Thorn groaned, moving his wings as quickly as he could to prevent them from
freezing while the Faerie took the Neopets' teeth and gave them Neopoints in
return, just as always.
"Almost done," she finally said, landing in the
snow as Thorn silently thought that his wings would probably fall off if he
moved them again. "Now there's just… come on Thorn, it will only take a minute."
"It better be. My wings feel like… actually they
don't feel like anything. What are we doing in front of Snowager's lair?" Thorn
asked rather nervously.
The Tooth Faerie had entered the cave already.
"I'm the Tooth Faerie, my job is to retrieve all teeth that have ever been lost
in Neopia and that also goes for the Snowager. Come on, it won't hurt you as
long as you're with me."
"Have you asked it about that?" Thorn demanded,
following the faerie. They walked for a little while until they reached a huge
pile of treasure which reflected back from shiny walls made of ice. And on top
of that pile, there it was. The Snowager, the powerful ice worm that always
guarded its treasures viciously. Many Neopets had tried to steal something from
it and several succeeded. That's why it was so suspicious about all Neopets
and that's why Thorn was so nervous to go near it. Besides, the worm was awake.
It was holding its massive head near the ceiling of the cave and looking down
at the two.
"Give it to me," the Tooth Faerie said, reaching
out her hand. For Thorn's surprise the Snowager simply bent its head down and
opened the huge mouth. An icy fang fell out and the Tooth Faerie caught it.
"And this one in return," she said, throwing
a small keychain into the pile. "Have a nice day." She walked out of the cave
again and Thorn galloped out as well.
"You see," the faerie explained as they left
Terror Mountain, "things go a little differently with the Snowager. It doesn't
care about Neopoints; it only wants treasure, that's why I gave it the keychain.
And the tooth itself if useful as well."
"What exactly do you do with all the other teeth?"
Thorn asked, glad to finally feel his wings again.
"That's really my own business," the faerie replied.
"But Snowager's tooth is special. You'll see what I mean when we get back. Off
to Roo Island now."
They got back when it was really late and the
moon was shining over Faerieland again. Thorn was terribly tired but now he
was extremely curious about the Snowager's tooth. The Tooth Faerie had time
though, she had dinner and took the book to write down each and every tooth
they had collected that day. The Uni used that time to take a nap.
"Hey Thorn, you wanted to know about the Snowager's
fang?" a voice eventually woke him up. Thorn stood up, yawned widely and followed
the Faerie to the other room. A second later he was fully awake.
Thorn had never been to that room. Usually he
just slept in front of the fireplace. The room he saw now was rather small,
it also had a fireplace but there was a cauldron in there. The walls were covered
with shelves and there were dozens of books on them. The Uni could see several
potions in a cupboard in the other end of the room. That room had no window,
only the fireplace lit the surroundings.
"I thought you only collected Neopets' teeth!"
Thorn gasped. "You never said that you also dealt with those potions and spells!"
"Usually I don't," the faerie agreed, "I don't
have much time for that. Sometimes I mix up a thing or two though, like all
the faeries. Haven't you ever wondered where toothpaste comes from?"
"Snowager's teeth?" Thorn asked suspiciously.
The Tooth Faerie laughed, went to the cauldron and poured some thick white liquid
into it.
"No. This tooth is useful for something else.
Hand me that jar, will you? Now, this may take some time but the result is worth
it."
She added several mixtures and potions, read
a few spells and once in a while looked in an old tome. Thorn curled up in an
armchair and watched her. The chair was comfy and soft but he wasn't sleepy.
An hour slid by and finally the Tooth Faerie took Snowager's fang, said a short
spell and dropped the fang into the boiling liquid. It sizzled and thick fume
emerged from its surface.
"Is it supposed to do that?" the Uni asked, peering
at the cauldron. He could barely see the Faerie through the fume.
"It'll fade away in a minute," the Tooth Faerie
replied merrily. "See?" The fume was already disappearing. "It's done now. Come
and see." She picked something out from the cauldron and held it in front of
Thorn's muzzle. The Uni saw that same tooth the Snowager had given them but
it was now hanging on a chain that seemed to be made of ice. The tooth was shining
and sparkling.
"You took it out from boiling liquid and it's
entirely made of ice?" he asked, raising his brows. The Tooth faerie laughed.
"Magic, my dear," she said. "The tooth now has
magical powers. It's called Snowager Tooth Amulet and it's quite rare. The Snowager
doesn't lose teeth every day."
Thorn looked at the cauldron. It was empty. Then
he looked at the amulet.
"What do you do with that now?" he asked.
"Do you want to have it?" the faerie asked back.
Thorn glanced at the amulet once more. "Is it
powerful?"
The Tooth Faerie giggled a bit sheepishly. "Not
that powerful. Like I said, my job is to collect Neopets' teeth. I don't make
invincible Battledome items on my free time. But there are definitely Neopets
out there who'd love to have it - maybe for a gallery, maybe for a gift, maybe
just because it's shiny and can be worn around one's neck. If you don't want
it then someone else will have it. I don't decide who though." She went out
of the house and Thorn followed her. The Tooth Faerie reached her hand out and
threw the amulet into the air. It sparkled in the moonlight and then the soft
wind carried it away.
"Someone will find it," she said. "I hope it
will bring them some joy." She looked at Thorn and smiled. "Do you want some
borovan?"
They went back inside.
The End
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