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BigPigWig___ the little blue Moehog pulled the covers
back over his head. It was cold in his little house, and bright sun was shining
into his window. Outside of the window he could glimpse the snowy hills of Meridell.
All in all, it seemed a good day to stay in bed. Suddenly, BigPigWig___ sat
up, worried. There was a strange smell in the house-specifically, the house
was not smelly enough.
"Wumpy!" BigPigWig___ called, worried. There
wasn't an answer, not even a groan. It seemed that the snow Sludgy was not in
the house.
BigPigWig___ hopped out of bed and looked around.
Feepit was sitting on the kitchen counter, nibbling a piece of vegan cheese
and looking into BigPigWig___'s rare and expensive Faerie Kacheek mirror.
"Rrrawrrr," said Feepit, pulling back his lips
and baring his front teeth. "Irrr!" Feepit waved his hands and arched his back.
"Why Feep!" said BigPigWig___. "You look just
like a Drackonack!" sludgy Feepit beamed.
"Feep," have you seen Wumpy? BigPigWig___ asked.
"Feep," said the Feepit, and pointed to the
front door. Sure enough, the front door was open a crack, letting in blowing
snow and the bright sunshine.
"C'mon Feep." BigPigWig___ swept the Feepit
up with his hoof. "I think I know where Wumpy went."
The hills of Meridell were covered with shining
white snow as far as the eye could see. The sky was clear and as blue as a blue
Moehog. Far in the distance you could just make out the shining towers of Meridell
Castle. But BigPigWig___ was most interested in a small trail of sludge shining
atop the snow. The trail lead off to the left, over a hill and towards the Meridell
rubbish dump.
BigPigWig___ sighed, pulled on his hat and scarf
and started into the snow. It was cold at first, but after a few minutes he
felt warmer and even began to enjoy the way the snow fluffed and flew under
his swift little hooves. Up and down a few more hills, and BigPigWig___ and
Wumpy found themselves staring at pile upon pile of stinky, snowy sludge.
"Okay Feep," said BigPigWig___, setting the
Feepit down. "The pile of sludge that has eyes and moves will be Wumpy."
"Feep," said Feepit, and began to cautiously
examine the closest sticky, gooey, mess.
But BigPigWig___ had just begun to carefully
step around the brown banana peels and rotten berries, when a voice called out
from the top of a nearby hill.
"Bi-pa-wa! Gotta Faer!"
This was Foo_Coo the yellow Aisha. Although
technically Foo_Coo and BigPigWig___ were adopted brothers, BigPigWig___ almost
never saw him. Foo_Coo lived in a remote pocket of the lost desert where he
spent all day chasing after grackle bugs and scarab beetles. Foo_Coo really
only came to check on his favorite stock, Balthazar's Faerie Bottling, and occasionally
to borrow money from BigPigWig___ to buy more stock. Since Foo_Coo never sold
his shares, BigPigWig___ never got any money back, but that didn't bother him
too much.
Right now, Foo_Coo looked very cold. He wasn't
used to this wet, snowy climate, and he wasn't wearing so much as a hat. But
Foo_Coo was smiling and excited and holding up a large jar with a huge cork
stuck in the top.
"You got a… Faerie?" answered BigPigWig___,
starring at the jar. Foo_Coo ran down the hill so fast that he fell and slid
the last third on his stomach. But that didn't bother the Aisha, who kept his
hands up and hung tightly to his jar even as he slid right into BigPigWig___'s
hooves.
"Gotta Faer! La!"
BigPigWig___ looked.
BigPigWig___ carefully took the jar from Foo_Coo.
The creature inside certainly looked like a Faerie. It had pointed ears and
frizzy black hair, but it seemed to be mostly wings. The wings were shaped like
Jhudora's, sort of bat-like, but Jhudora has beautiful dark purple wings that
match her lovely purple hair. This Faerie's wings were a plain tan color, and
she was wearing a simple white dress that looked suspiciously like an old handkerchief
held on with a piece of string. The Faerie was sitting down and pounding the
bottom of the glass with her tiny fists. She seemed to be shouting something.
BigPigWig___ couldn't make it out through the glass, but it didn't sound at
all like "Let me free young Neopet, and I will bless you."
"Are you sure this is a Faerie, Foo?" asked
a confused BigPigWig___. "Are sure it isn't some sort of wild PetPet?"
Foo_Coo responded with a roar so loud that BigPigWig__
jumped back. The Faerie responded with a long, high pitched and unintelligible
chatter.
"Uh, Foo, where did you get this?"
Foo_Coo proudly held up a huge Butterfly net.
BigPigWig___ had been so distracted that he hadn't even noticed that Foo_Coo
had it strapped to his back.
"Faer-lan. Las' night."
The Faerie screamed so loudly that even through
the glass the sound was frightening. She then lay down with her arms over her
head and her feet jammed against the opposite side of the jar. She pushed against
the sides of the jar so hard, trying to straighten out her little legs, that
she turned a very unattractive red color.
"I can't say what kind of it is, Foo. It can't
be a Water Faerie because it doesn't have a fishtail, and it's not glowing,
so it couldn't possibly be a light Faerie. And Dark Faeries are usually purple,
or some other…dark color, aren't they?
"Maybe it's an Earth Faerie. It certainly is
dirty."
"Awaggah!" shouted the Faerie, who was now jumping
up and down, flapping her wings as best she could in the confines of the jar.
The Faerie's head struck against the cork with disturbingly loud thumps.
BigPigWig___ gently set the jar down on the
ground a few feet away from Foo_Coo. He hoped that would calm the Faerie down.
"Well, Foo. I'm impressed."
Foo_Coo beamed. BigPigWig___ had never seen
him so happy.
"Now, don't you think you should let it go so
it can bless you?"
"Nyaa!" screamed Foo_Coo jumping so high in
the air that BigPigWig___ gasped. "Keepa Faer! Keepa! Mine! Keepa!"
The Faerie pulled back her lips with her hands,
revealing a row of not very dangerous looking tiny teeth. She stuck out her
tongue and snarled at the Neopets.
BigPigWig___ choked back a giggle. "Look Foo,"
he said, "you've been up all night, and you're not used to this cold weather.
We'll play with Faerie for a little while, then we can let her go, and maybe
she'll bless you…"
Foo_Coo was opening his mouth to scream, when
there was a loud popping noise near BigPigWig___'s hooves. Looking down, BigPigWig___
saw that Feepit was sitting on the muddy ground, holding the glass jar in both
hands. A very happy (and especially sludgy) looking Snow Sludgy was sitting
opposite Feepit and holding the huge cork.
"Wumpy!" cried BigPigWig___ happily. Wumpy rolled
his eyes, which eventually settled on the cork. Then Wumpy lifted the cork to
his slimy mouth and took a nice big bite out of the brown disk.
"Wumpy! Don't eat the cork!" BigPigWig___ was
so worried, that he barely noticed that the Faerie was crawling out of the glass
jar into Feepit's lap.
"Ooooarrr!" howled Foo_Coo, and dove for the
Faerie, who deftly flew up and sideways around the screaming Aisha. Foo_Coo
landed squarely on top of Feepit. The Faerie whizzed up around Foo_Coo, and
grabbed his long ears. She flew straight up, flapping her wings furiously. The
poor ears were sticking straight up and Foo_Coo was standing on tip-toe. He
looked like he was about to come off the ground.
"STOP IT!" screamed BigPigWig___ angrily, taking
a swat at the nasty little sprite. The Faerie was forced to let go of the ears,
letting Foo_Coo tumble back down onto poor Feepit. The Faerie flew towards BigPigWig___
with her arm sticking out and her hand in a little fist. She whacked BigPigWig___
squarely in the nose, and with that, she changed direction and flew straight
off in another direction. BigPigWig___ hoped that she know that Faerieland was
in a different direction altogether.
Foo_Coo was howling senselessly, Feepit was
struggling to get out from under Foo_Coo, and streams of sticky, smelly sludge
were dripping from Wumpy's mouth, making little puddles with bits of cork floating
in them.
BigPigWig___ sighed, picked up the empty jar
and what was left of the cork, and threw them into the rubbish dump.
"Come on Foo_Coo. You take Feepit, and I'll
take Wumpy, and we'll all go to the coffee shop and warm up with a nice Sludge
Frappucino. It will help Wumpy digest all that cork, too. And from now on, maybe
you'd better leave Faerie catching to the professionals."
The End
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