Jhudora's Weakness: Part Four

     A few minutes later, Ro came out of her 'vision'.

     "Hey Ro," I joked, "When you said Night Vision, I never thought you meant Night Vision!"

     My Neopets snickered at my attempt at humour.

     Just then, we all heard Jhudora's voice.

     "You who dare spy on me, you shall not survive! I send to you…the Cave Chia! An opponent you can never defeat!"

     The Cave Chia appeared in front of us with a little * pop *.

     Ro laughed nervously, "Uh…yo, mom, I have a problem here…"

     This was not good. Ro could not beat the Cave Chia yet, she still wasn't trained enough. So I did the only thing I could do. I attacked the Cave Chia myself. What, you didn't know I was a ninja in training? Well, I am.

     I jumped over the Chia's head, spun around and blindfolded it. I jumped over the club that was being swung at me, and kicked the fire stone body basher out of its hands. Angry now, I kicked its feet out from under it, and watched it fall on its back in satisfaction. However, it jumped right back up, and swung at me with a fist and a club. I avoided the club, but I was caught on the shoulder with a fist. I winced; I was going to have a huge bruise there tomorrow. I pushed it down, and rolled it away. The last thing I saw of it, it was still rolling far in the distance.

     KK stared at me in horror. I realised I looked a little messy from the fight. Nina came out from behind a tree; Blue stared at me in astonishment and Ro shouted about how proud she was to have an owner who could beat the Cave Chia.

     Before Jhudora could send another opponent, Nina said to me, "Mom, the only way to get the faerie out of the dungeon is to go back into the dungeon."

     I realised that was true. And so I thought of a plan, and gave everybody a script. Well, a verbal script.

     So when Jhudora appeared, we were ready.

     KK began crying, "Jhudora…please, I totally don't want to fight! Do what you, like, want with me!"

     I gave a mock gasp, "KK! Surely you don't mean that!"

     "I've had enough of this adventure. I just want to go home…" muttered Blue, winking at me.

     "Ro?" I turned to her, faking desperation. "You're with me, right?"

     Before Ro could answer, Jhudora grinned cruelly said "I have plans for you. You all will survive. And I will do what I want with you. Starting with this!"

     She snapped her fingers, and this time we were in a different dungeon. The faerie was there, just as we hoped she would be. But, unfortunately, a glass wall separated her from us. Her hands were chained to the wall, and the key hung mockingly just above her reach.

     Suddenly, I remembered Ro's vision.

     "Ro!" I said urgently, "What did you see?"

     "Yo, she was saying 'They'll never find out how to escape!', and dude, then she was all 'muahahahah!' and then she said 'All they have to do is find the key.'"

     "What key?"

     "Dude, I dunno!"

     I contemplated the situation. We were stuck in a dungeon, the keys weren't in sight, Kolta was sleeping, we couldn't talk to the faerie, and we had to find a "key" of some sorts. Things were not looking too good for us.

     I was startled out of my reverie by the sound of KK's voice.

     "Mom! I, like, totally just realised that we, like, don't even know the faerie's name!"

     "That's beside the point, KK. Right now we have to figure out how to communicate with the faerie."

     KK sighed. "Mom, that's, like, so totally easy!"

     "It is?"

     "Like, yes!" she said impatiently. "I can, like, totally cut a hole in the, like, glass with the magic from my, like, horn! It's, like, one of the few things my, like, magic can do!"

     We all stared at her in wonder. None of us knew that she had any magic. I was almost happy about going on this 'adventure', because it helped me learn about my Neopets. I contemplated what else they could all do. Nina was probably much more intelligent than I gave her credit for, Ro much more talented at battle, KK much more magical, and Blue…well, I had yet to find out what Blue could do. But knowing her, it would probably be something spectacular.

     KK reared up, and placed her fore-hooves on the glass. Lowering her head, she closed her eyes and placed her horn against the glass, and moved it in a circular motion.

     When I saw nothing had happened, I quietly said to KK, "KK, nothing happened. What's wrong?"

     KK sniffed and started crying,

     "It's, like, my magic. Mom, my magic totally won't work!"

     I had really had enough of this. Whenever we came up with an idea, something set us back a little.

     Nina looked at Ro and said, "Ro. Use your night vision again."

     "Why?" Ro asked.

     "Why, because it will probably drain some of Jhudora's magic. It is clear she cast a spell upon this place, preventing anyone from using magic."

     "Yo, dude, isn't my ability magic?"

     "No. The faerie used magic to bless it on you, but your ability in itself is not magic. But, because you can use it to see things, it will require magic. But you will not be using magic; technically the night vision is using the magic. And there is nothing in this spell about objects or abilities using magic most likely so it will drain some of Jhudora's spell."

     "Smarty-pants," grumbled Blue.

     Ro sighed, and I saw the familiar effects that told me Ro was using Night Vision. I watched impatiently, and then heard Ro's voice speak urgently.

     "KK! Yo, try your magic now, dude!"

     KK sighed, and repeated the motions. This time, there was a spark of blue light all around the circle she drew, and suddenly, the glass fell out with a clink.

     At the clink, Ro came out of her trance.

     "Psst!" Blue hissed, shoving her nose through the hole.

     The faerie jumped, spun around and looked at us. There was a flash of annoyance in her eyes, but it was so quickly replaced with relief that I was almost sure that I had merely imagined it.

     As usual, just when something really exciting was happening, one of my Neopets says something really stupid. This time it was Blue's turn.

     "Mom, I don't want to be Tyrannian any more. I think I want to be spotted."

     I rolled my eyes.

     "That's a decision you could have told me about later," I said.

     Blue glared at me, and turned back to her conversation with the faerie.

     "Are you all right?" she asked.

     "I think so. But my wrists are going to get excruciatingly sore."

     "Ask her what her name is!" urged Nina.

     "Okay," agreed Blue. "So, what's your name? We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Blue, this is Ro, KK and Nina."

     "I can't tell you my name," the faerie said.

     "Why?" asked Blue.

     "Because I am not at liberty to reveal my name," the faerie replied quite stiffly.

     Blue frowned, and turned away from the hole.

     "What do you guys think?" she questioned.

     "I think that there is most definitely something suspicious about that faerie." Nina said.

     "Yo, I agree."

     "Like, me too!"

     "Same."

     I nodded my agreement, and then began pacing back and forth, going over the whole thing in my head. I thought to myself, why won't she tell us her name? Does that mean we have to guess it? Are we even allowed by her to guess it? Or even better, if we did guess it, would she tell us we guessed right or try and deceive us by telling us we guessed wrong? It was a rather large puzzle.

     "Let me try," requested Nina, and moved over to the hole. "Is it at all possible for us to guess what you are called? Will you tell us if we have guessed correctly or incorrectly?"

     The faerie paused for what seemed like eternity, mulling things over in her head before slowly nodding it up and down.

     "But you may have only 3 guesses."

      "Yes!" I pumped the air up and down with my fist. I don't know why, but for some reason the faerie's name seemed crucial to our returning home.

     So we all huddled together, and came up with many suggestions, turning them over and looking at them from every angle before eventually discarding them. This problem had all of us perplexed and after a while the flood of possible names seemed to slow and in time it came to a complete stop. There was a period of about five minutes of utter silence while we all wracked our brains for anything that had potential. Suddenly, we all gave a little jerk, and stared wide eyed at each other.

     "Do you think…"

     "Yo, s'it possible?"

     "Like, maybe…

     "Quite probably, really."

     We all spoke at once, before KK turned towards the opening in the glass.

     "Is your name…" She paused, unsure whether to go on or not, seeking reassurance and getting it from us, "…The Key?"

To be continued…