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Awaken the spirits
Lae watched in horror as her owner fell the ground.
Suddenly, the whole room went quiet.
"Sari?" Lae yelled, and rushed forward. No one
made a move to stop her. She fell down by Sari's body, and gave it a rough shake.
"Sari, wake up!" Lae almost cried. "Sari?" Sari didn't move.
"You!" Lae yelled, turning to face Mr Brown.
He looked shocked. His usually calm face was a blotchy purple, like badly mixed
blackcurrant ice cream and his eyes were wide and frightened. It was obvious
he never expected this.
"I never… I didn't… I…" he stammered.
Drushii had finally broken out of her cage,
and flew over. Immediately, she grabbed Lae to stop her launching herself on
Mr Brown, disgust clear in her eyes as she stared at Mr Brown.
"You killed her." Drushii spat. "You don't deserve
the ground you stand on."
"I hope you can live with yourself," a usually
placid Jeronik replied, his voice full of cold anger. Lae felt herself hiss;
thanks to Mr Brown, he had taken away the one thing Jeronik had, innocence.
If we get away from this, Lae thought.
I'll make that… thing pay. Instead, she looked down at Sari's body. If
Lae didn't know any better, she would've said Sari was merely asleep.
The three pets turned back to look at their
owner, and a single tear fell down Lae's face, mingling with her fur and dampening
her cheek. "Sari…" she whispered. "You can't leave us. Who else can I argue
with?"
***
Headache. Big headache. The last thing I remembered was jumping out in front
of Jeronik to stop him… Oh. Great, I was dead. I was lying on a dark marble
floor, a dim light barely illuminating the floor around me. I wasn't wearing
my pants and robe either; I was instead wearing a pair of white pants and a
white shirt.
"This is the thanks I get," I mumbled, standing
up. I was quite confused, wasn't I meant to get angels, fluffy clouds and harps?
Not… a rather annoyed Faerie.
"Why did you do it?" she said, coming very close
to rage.
"Do what?" I asked, ignoring the splitting headache.
"You sacrificed yourself. You released the
jewel!" the Faerie almost yelled. For a second, I didn't quite understand
what she meant. And then I suddenly realised.
"They killed Jero?" I wailed.
"No," the Faerie said, regaining some of her
calm posture. "Jeronik is not the jewel." OK, now I was confused. He was the
jewel, and now he wasn't. Eh? I thought. "Pardon?"
"I lied," the Faerie said, suddenly sounding
apprehensive as she studied my reaction. Cold shock was slowly numbing my senses
and, without realising, I started to talk.
"What do you mean, you lied?" I asked quietly.
I realised with a nasty jolt the implications of that statement; she put Jeronik
in danger. Of all the stupid, pigheaded ideas…
"Jeronik is not the jewel, stormydreamer," the
Faerie said, using my Neopian name. "You are."
Breath in, breath out, I thought numbly.
I couldn't be the jewel, I mean… how? Wasn't the jewel meant to be, well,
pure of heart or something? I mean, I tried to steal the jewel for crying out
loud! This just was… illogical. "That's… impossible," I said eventually
in a small voice.
"When I feared for Jeronik, I decided to hide
the jewel more effectively. I believed you would hide the jewel, and continue
to protect Jeronik. In fact, I believe you were born for the purpose." She paused,
allowing me to process the last few minutes.
"So when did I become the… jewel?" I asked quietly.
"One night, a month previous," the Faerie replied.
"I came one night to transfer the jewel from Jeronik to you. I watched the next
day, you appeared unusually quiet, complaining of a headache."
I remembered that day clearly; I had felt different,
as though something had been changed within me. I was correct! Wait 'til
I tell Lae.
Ah yeah. I wouldn't.
"You are not dead," the Faerie replied, as if
she had read my mind.
"I know I... a… what?" I stopped suddenly. "If
I'm not dead… why am I here?"
"The jewel cannot be taken forcefully," the
Faerie said softly. "True, it is released, but to its rightful owner, which
is you." She paused. "By destroying you, it merely … released the jewel."
"So… how do I go back?" I asked at last.
"You only need to say you wish to go back,"
she said. "Your time has not yet come to leave that plain of existence."
"Well, that fills me full of confidence," I
replied slowly. I took a last look at the Faerie. It struck me then just how
knowledgeable she looked; perhaps I had never looked at her properly before
but I could see the lines of wisdom etched into her face. She looked older,
wiser and yet still kept the young look in her eyes.
"We will meet again, Sari," she replied with
a small smile. "Of that, I am certain."
"Thank you," I replied at last. I took a deep
breath. "I wish to return to the ones I love," I said loudly and suddenly felt
the ground shake. I turned to look at the Faerie, only to find her gone. As
the ground tossed me to one side, I wondered why on Neopia I ever followed the
Faerie's advice…
To be continued…
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