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"Run," hissed Skeithena to Ghicaccio and DellaNeve. "Run
to Faerie Castle. I'll meet you there." And when Ghicaccio and DellaNeve were
about to ask how exactly they'd meet them there, Skeithena shouted, "RUN NOW!"
They ran, and Jhudora glanced at Skeithena, still
smug. "What, do you think it'll do help if they run? I mean, you and Luperusse
are still here. Bound by my magical contract." She laughed. "Come then Luperusse.
Skeithena, you can watch as Luperusse is enslaved."
Skeithena sneered back at her. It's probably
the first time she's ever sneered at someone, Luperusse decided. "Well Jhudora,
O great Dark Faerie of Doom, we're not bound by the contract. At all!"
"What?" said Jhudora and Luperusse simultaneously.
Jhudora said it in scepticism and horror; Luperusse, on the other hand, said
it in scepticism and delight. Ixi, however, stayed silent and simply watched.
The clever Yellow Skeith folded her arms. "Look
at my signature."
Jhudora inspected it. "I see nothing wrong,"
she insisted.
Luperusse interrupted. "Use your Magnithingymajig
Spell." He winked at Skeithena. "The Uber-Darkness Faerie's library sure helped."
The angry Faerie shouted, "No! You visited the
library instead of DellaNeve! Brats, you are," but she performed the magnifying
spell and looked at the name. It was very messy, but it was clear that the name
was not 'Skeithena'. The name was 'Starbright'.
"If the Darkness contract paper is signed,
but the one (a non-Dark Faerie) who signs it signs the name of the current Uber-Light
Faerie's daughter, then the non-Dark Faerie need not pay their part of the bargain.
However, the Dark Faerie must pay their part of the bargain," recited Skeithena.
"There's more, if you want it," she added, enjoying the look of horror on Jhudora's
face. "If the non-Dark Faerie signs the contract with the Uber-Light Faerie's
name, however, then it will be as if the Contract never happened. Therefore,
Jhudora," said Skeithena happily, "you've got to free all of us." She'd
obviously learnt the whole scroll off by heart.
"No!" said Jhudora desperately. "You're lying!"
"Try to enslave me, then," said Luperusse, confidently.
He trusted his sister.
"Yeah, go ahead!" said Ixi. He seemed to trust
Skeithena too.
Jhudora tried, but it failed. Luperusse actually
had Jhudora's spell performed on him about twenty times before Jhudora gave
up. She sighed, throwing the Jhudaberry in the bin. "Okay, you won this one
then. I was going to make you vaporize Ixi, if I'd enslaved you, Luperusse."
Ixi looked at Skeithena. "I'm "sorry" for being
such a bigheaded Ixi. I won't be again, promise! And I'll never be mean to Skeiths
again."
Skeithena grinned. "I forgive you! C'mon, let's
get out of here!"
"WAIT!" shouted Jhudora in triumph. She performed
her magnifying spell on the contract again, and in tiny print were the words:
Oops, DellaNeve won't be freed, whether this is signed or not. Haha.
"I suspected that you sneaky NeoPets would be up to something. And that fine
print isn't your or my part of the bargain. So it applies whether
or not you sign your name as Starbright or not."
The Lupe and Ixi turned their heads and looked
at Skeithena, who sighed unhappily. "Yes, that's true. DellaNeve will be going
back to the Ice Caves."
"I expect that you'll go to save him, then,"
said Jhudora scornfully. "You pets never learn, you're always trying to be such
big heroes. Well, I bet you'll be finished off in the Ice Caves. Nice realistic
statues of four sad NeoPets. One Jhudora-coloured Lupe, one Baby Lupe, one Yellow
Skeith, and one Faerie Ixi! Excellent decorative ornaments, the tourists will
say!"
"Ignore her," said Skeithena encouragingly to
her brother and Ixi. "We'll do it! But we have to go and see Ghicaccio first."
Jhudora wasn't finished yet though. She let them
go, but not without saying, "Have fun having icy blasts shot at you up in the
dark cave, my pretties!"
***
"Yes, Della just disappeared - " sobbed Ghicaccio.
"We'll find him," said Luperusse. So much teamwork
seemed to have made him a bit less grumpy. "Really, Ghicaccio. I promise. We'll
find Della and we won't freeze!"
"You don't even know where in the Ice Caves to
go," Ghicaccio pointed out.
"The coldest and darkest part of the Ice Caves,"
said Ixi thoughtfully. "Cold"ice. Dark"cave. Yeah, DellaNeve's imprisoned in
a cave made out of ice!"
Skeithena laughed. "Don't be stupid, Ixi. Of
course he'd be in a cave made out of ice, it's not called the Ice Caves
for nothing."
"Yeah, I wasn't thinking," Ixi agreed. "When
we left, Jhudora said this: 'Have fun having icy blasts shot at you in the dark
cave.' Does that ring a bell?"
Ghicaccio turned pale. "Are you saying the Snowager
is guarding my brother?"
"I bet he is! Clever," said Skeithena admiringly.
"Even I hadn't thought of that."
"Let's go to the Snowager's then!"
***
"I know you are noble, but it is ridiculous to even consider going to the Snowager's!
Many daring NeoPets have gone - alone - to the Snowager's lair and haven't been
seen again!" said Fyora, frustrated at the stubborn NeoPets. Especially Ghicaccio"
"What about my brother?" retorted Ghicaccio.
"If we don't go he'll never be seen again! He mightn't even live. When
I was enslaved by Jhudora, she told me that any NeoPet there for more than three
days would freeze. Forever."
"Yes, that's why I don't want you to go. You
may be young, but you're not immortal you know. It's the coldest part of the
Ice Caves. I'm not so worried about you going into the Ice Caves, but it is
known that in the deeper parts of the Snowager's Cave, the best treasure was
there. And that it was ten times colder than even Terror Mountain."
"We're going, and nothing's going to stop us,"
said Ixi.
Fyora bit her lip. "Very well then. I suppose
I cannot stop you, either. Good luck, my children"and take care of yourselves."
Ghicaccio nodded. "Thank you Your Majesty. We're
very grateful." There were tears in her eyes. "I want my brother back, and I'll
freeze in Terror Mountain if that's what it takes!"
***
"I'll take you to the Ice Caves," said the Air Faerie kindly. "You may ride
on my back."
"Aren't we too heavy?" asked Ghicaccio, widening
her Baby Lupe eyes cutely.
The Uber-Air Faerie laughed. "Bless you my child!
I can carry the heaviest of you - that's you, Luperusse, not Skeithena, unless
I'm very much mistaken - and my sisters, the other Air Faeries, will carry the
others." She shivered. "I'm not going right into the Ice Caves though, it's
very cold there. There won't be any help up on the mountain. My sister the Snow
Faerie is often busy, and she rarely goes down to the Ice Caves. Especially
not for a bunch of NeoPets she doesn't even know."
"Okay," said the Baby Lupe.
"Hey!" said the Air Faerie, as though she'd just
realised that Ghicaccio was there. "Ghicaccio, the other day your owner sent
me your Moltenore!"
"Pants!" said Ghicaccio delightedly (Pants On
Fire was the name of Ghicaccio's Moltenore). "Yay, Pants!" She hugged the Pants
On Fire delightedly.
"What, your owner sent you a Moltenore by mail?"
Ixi said incredulously. His owner (who wasn't going to be his owner soon) was
quite well off, but Anna was a Neo-billionaire, with enough money to buy a super-rare
Moltenore.
The baby Lupe grinned. "Yeah, Pants doesn't mind.
Let's go, I'll be even happier if I get Della back, as well as Pants."
The Neopets jumped on the Air Faeries' backs
and the odd-looking group flew off in the direction of Terror Mountain.
To be continued...
The Ice Caves is going to be a very cold and dangerous adventure for our
heroes"but that's coming in the next issue! Meanwhile, feel free to Neomail
me with any comments, complaints, questions, suggestions, or just to have a
friendly chat! Thanks and have a nice day :)
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