Lupina IV and the Ring of Power: Part One

by thegreatlupelover

Magic Rainbow

Lupina IV sprawled on the floor reading a textbook. She turned and scribbled something down on the parchment that lay beside her, then turned back to the textbook. She was the great-granddaughter of Lupina, friend of Rosy and Emala and Lily, the Lupe who had twice saved the world. Lupina still remembered sitting on the knee of her great-grandmother when she was just a few weeks old, listening to stories of the olden days when the old weathered Lupe was young and strong. Lupina the first always told Lupina IV that she was a spitting image of herself at that age.

A long time ago, Lupina I's owner, Amy, got permission from the Neopian Council to have more than one pet. Because of this, she also got a larger plot of land in Happy Valley. She adopted another fire Lupe, Zakani, a male. He and Lupina I became deeply in love and had two pups. The first, a boy, was named Jonathan. He was born with a Lupe Moon Charm, like all descendants of the Moon Lupe, but it was not quite as strong as the other pup, Lupina II's. The feminine members of the Moon Lupe race had generally stronger charms than the males. Lupina II had given birth to Lupina III, Lupina IV's mother, after marrying Manota, a male Lupe. Then Lupina III had married Nyinka, Lupina IV's father. Then came Lupina IV, along with her brothers Nyoki and Morian.

Of course, all of Lupina I's descendants had gone through the Moon Lupe Initiation, standing under Lupe Moon Falls on the night of the Lupe Moon, or full moon, from midnight to dawn.

Lupina IV had just left the sprawling home of Amy's granddaughter, Myra, to go to the Neopian School of Magic. She had had her initiation a couple months ago, but her parents decided that they wanted her to got to a magic school to hone her powers and gain new ones that the Lupe Moon Charm of the Moon Lupe did not give you.

So one month ago, Lupina IV, along with Nyoki, Morian, Rosy IV (descendant of Rosy I), Amana (Rosy I), Lyria (Lily I), Lily IV (Lily I), Ablo (Lily I), Emala IV (Emala I), Kyrano (Emala I), and Loyrav (Emala I). They were all the children who were descendants of Amy's original four pets. They had gone to the school, which was located in the woods about 20 miles from Neopia Central. They had gotten all their schoolbooks a few day's before. Although they had lived in Myra's huge NeoHome for all their lives, their mouths dropped open at the sight of the NeoHome before them. It was colossal. Gargantun. Mammoth.

The door was opened by a tall woman. Her long red-brown hair was piled loosely on top of her head. She wore thick square glasses. She had on a white blouse and a long gray flannel skirt. "Hello," she said in a no-nonsense manner. "You must be the new students. Of Myra's. I am Ms. Carma, the headmistress." She eyed the teenage girl as if she weren't old enough to have so many NeoPets. "Well, welcome to the Neopian Magic School. Come on in and I'll show you to your rooms." She turned and walked inside. The young pets followed.

***

I slammed shut the book. "Got it!" I exclaimed. Ms. Carma, the headmistress, had given us a week off from classes, but not homework. In fact, she was giving us the biggest assignment yet. Our job was to complete two potions that we hadn't done yet in class and exhibit their effects at the end of the week. I had just finished writing down the list of things I needed for my first potion. When I drank this one, it would allow me to change my color at will - for the rest of my life. I needed two gallons of water from the Rainbow Pool, one of each paint brush, one of each Transmogrification potion, one of each magical Chia pop, 5 ounces of powdered Golden Ivy Leaves, and a powdered Purple Grasper. That would cost a lot, but I didn't need to worry. Myra's pets knew what "Ultimate Riches" meant. Myra inherited 100,000,000,000 (that's 100 billion) NP, and gave each pet of hers a bank account with 10,000,000 (10 million) NP in it. I had only used about 100,000 of mine in the Training School, and I was still really rich.

Ms. Carma gave me permission to go into Neopia Central. I started off early. It was a long way, even using the ability Fly.

As I took off, I touched the Lupe Moon Charm around my neck for good luck. It was a Lupe Moon Charm of the Moon Lupe, my ancestor. All the descendants of the great Moon Lupe were born wearing Lupe Moon Charms with extraordinary powers. To come into that power, you had to be initiated.

My thoughts turned back to Myra and my family. We lived in a huge NeoHome, a mansion, in Happy Valley. We had a 10-room library. Great-grandma used to spend all her time in there, reading. She was the first Lupina, the one that saved Neopia a couple times. A tear came to my eye. Great-grandma had passed away a year ago. She was buried in a little cemetery in back of our NeoHome, with Amy, her friends, and their mates. Amy's husband was still alive, guiding Myra. He was a sad old man, who spent most of his time in his study. But he was very kind and was always willing to help us...

Before I knew it, I was in the middle of the bustle and commotion of Neopia Central. I took a million NP out of my bank account and bought all the ingredients. Then I went down to the Rainbow Pool to get the water. I presented a permission slip Ms. Carma had given to me and the Guardian of the Rainbow Pool let me in. I took my water, did a quick spell to make my items trail behind me, and flew back to the school.

I got back at about dinner time. After storing my ingredients in my room, I went down to the cafeteria for a quick meal.

I finished dinner in a hurry and went back upstairs. I had reserved the potions classroom, and I wanted to get in there and make my potion.

I found the potions classroom unoccupied. I laid out my ingredients and set my cauldron on the table. I looked down at the recipe, and poured the two gallons of Rainbow Pool water into my cauldron. I then proceeded to drop in each paint brush. It is well known that paint brushes dissolve in Rainbow Pool water. I put in the powdered Golden Ivy Leaves and Purple Grasper. I also added a bit of an Air Spell, since air is a shifty element and would help me shift.

I hung the cauldron over the fire and read the latest copy of the Neopian Times. In half an hour it was done. I left it to cool and turned to the comics. I saved the comics for last because they were the funniest section. I giggled and chuckled through the latest editions of The Neopian Laugh and Neocomics. By the time I got over a fit of the giggles, my potion was cool. I looked down into it. The Rainbow Pool water was less because of all the ingredients I had added. It was really only enough now to fill a potion flask. I gulped the potion down.

I felt a sensation of floating, drifting, whirling and twirling like a leaf on the wind. Then it stopped. I gave it a command in my mind to turn me Faerie. I looked down at my fire-colored coat. It shimmered. It was turning blue. Two butterfly-like wings erupted from my back. I was a Faerie Lupe.

Soon, I was shimmering from fire to Faerie to split to cloud to Christmas to skunk to stone to white to blue to green to yellow to red and back to fire again. Tomorrow, I'd give myself a day off. And the next day, I'd prepare a second potion.

To be continued...