I raced furiously through the now raging winds, with Burnticicle close behind,
screaming at me to stop. His words, probably telling me that it was too dangerous,
were lost in the screeching wind. The sky was darkening, confirming my suspicions
of what the 'weapon' of destruction was. A long time ago, when I was reading back
issues of The Neopian Times for a research project in Socials class, I came across
a fascinating obsession with obelisks... towers of faith, wisdom and power from
what I had heard... Something about Faerieland crashing into another world...
or a monster arising from the sea had been worked into it... Now that I thought
about it... The whirlpool that was once Maraqua would more than likely be where
it would arise from... The very centre of this triangle was the centre of Faerieland,
the Faerie City. Somewhere in the heart of the peaceful city, was a dooms day
device that controlled the weather. I wasn't sure if the whole 'creature rising
from the sea bit' was true... but I did know that the storm would probably destroy
Faerieland, or pull it towards one of the obelisks.
It was at this point that I noticed that Burnticicle was struggling against
the wind. We were traveling at speeds ten times what we were before, and Faerieland
would be reached at any moment, if he could hold on. At these winds, if he fell
into the ocean, he'd be knocked unconscious, and drown. I grabbed onto his wing,
and held him up... It was a stupid thing to do because he couldn't fly when
I was holding him, so I was basically holding him up all by myself. Water tornados
were forming all around, and it was nearly impossible to see... A ray of golden
light was in my path of view, so I aimed solely for it. It seemed so close...
I recognised it as the eye of the storm, meaning that it was about to get a
whole lot rougher before I managed to get into the light. I had long since been
swept out of my thermal path, and had no idea how quickly I was spinning around
the funnel of the hurricane. Just as I was about to make it to the eye, Burnticicle
slipped from my grip. I tried to fly after him, but I was swept away... I struck
the ground with a huge force, knocking me instantly unconscious... I wasn't
awake to see Burnticicle land safely nearby.
When I woke up, I was surprised to see that it was so calm out... Like a pleasant
sunny day. The powerful winds rushed by on either side, and it was easy to see
that this area was the centre of the problem. I flew to the Faerie City, searching
for anyone to talk to. A piece of yellow paper, singed at the edges flew by
me... It said:
"Fyora went to investigate the strange energy found flowing from one of the
destroyed obelisks... but it appears to have ceased. Something or someone is
trying to make them work, and the imbalance could destroy Faerieland I demand
that it be evacuated right now."
I looked around. The place was totally empty. A purple column of light was
rising from the centre of town, so I flew up to see it. A huge tower, built
from the most obscure items stuck out like a sore thumb. I couldn't understand
how something like that could have gone unnoticed for so long. I flew around
the tower, trying to pinpoint it's power source. It wasn't hard to find, a long
cord reached out of it leading off in the general direction of the castle.
The castle looked different than it had earlier in the day... Some of the
walls were singed, and there were trees and parts of the castle broken everywhere.
I guessed that either the storm passed through here, getting larger and further
all the time, or there was resistance put up against the Dark Faerie. I suddenly
realised that burnticicle was missing... I deeply resented myself for letting
go... As I realised that he might be gone forever, I burst into tears.
As a torrent of tears that I had been holding back for the last few months
flowed by, I realised that my life was no longer important... It was far more
important to stop Jhudora than to worry about my friend, no matter how much
I cared about him. I pushed forward, deciding to seek my revenge out on Jhudora,
and not myself. I ran through the castle aimlessly, hoping that eventually I'd
find Jhudora. I instead found the source of the machine's power. A huge tank,
filled with squished food items were being mixed with various chemicals, forming
a high-density fuel. The fuel was being pumped to the machine, and was powering
it. I stepped forward, trying to remember all that Burnticicle had taught me
about abilities. Unfortunately the mere thought of burnticicle made tears well
up in my eyes, and broke my concentration. I tried again to concentrate, and
soon enough the feel of a spark attack started to well up in my body... I put
my arms forward, careful not to cross them, or to aim them to the side. I was
just about to use the attack when Jhudora spoke.
"Well, well, well... you again... and I don't suppose you're here to do a
quest," she said, sinisterly.
The temporary lapse in my concentration caused me to zap myself with my own
spark attack. Luckily, my attack wasn't strong enough to do a lot of damage
to myself. Though that was a good thing, it also made my heart sink, it meant
that I wouldn't have been able to damage the tank either. Jhudora burst out
laughing.
"You? You plan to stop me? Such a pathetic little untrained pet?" She laughed
cruelly at me, pointing out my ignorance.
"Yes I'm going to stop you! You can't be allowed to do this!" I shouted, feeling
stupid and helpless even as I said it.
"Give me your best shot!" she said, laughing at me.
I powered up a demon breath attack that burnticicle had taught me less than
a week ago. I blasted her right in the face. She laughed.
"Don't tell me that was your best shot?" she said, still taunting me.
I decided that using a light attack might be more painful to a dark creature
like her, so I used a bright flash attack. The Dark Faerie screeched as the
bright light engulfed the room. As the light faded, it revealed that she had
been unharmed, but she obviously was very, very angry now.
"You little twit! You can't hurt me with minuscule light attacks like that,
no matter how bright they are!" She screamed angrily.
She created a ball of dark energy above her, and smiled in a sinister way.
I knew that that was it; I had no chance against some one as strong as here...
It was all over. I braced myself for the attack that I knew was to follow. Surprisingly,
instead of the blow to me that I expected, I heard her yell out and heard the
sound of her ball of energy destroying a wall.
"Are you all right Shadow?" an all too familiar voice said.
"Squirely!" I shouted happily. "What are you doing here?"
"It's a long story, and I'd rather not go into it right now, but I followed
you because I knew you were up to something," he said, obviously out of breath.
The Dark Faerie screamed, and eyed me. She looked all around for the source
of the attack that had struck her from behind. Blinded by rage, she saw a bit
of movement from the corner of her eye. She turned and blasted her own reflection,
and the mirror shattered. A shard of glass flew out, narrowly missing me.
"What's wrong? Can't find me?" Squirely teased.
"I have one of your friends captured you know, a Lenny I found earlier...
I'll order my troops to destroy them if you don't come out where I can see you!"
She bellowed.
I couldn't believe what I had just heard... Burnticicle was alive... but more
importantly he was captured. I had to trick her into telling me where he was.
"Yah right, how could you get your little minions to carry out orders from
in here?" I asked.
"I wouldn't under estimate her," Squirely echoed from a corner, I was unsure
of the direction.
Suddenly, without warning, Jhudora blasted the area to my right. A small squeal
confirmed that she had hit squirely.
"You fool, I had no plans of calling for aide, I merely wanted to pinpoint
your invisible friend's location," she said, powering up for another dark ball
of energy. "Now where were we?"
I looked in squirely's direction, and wondered how badly he was hurt. Being
invisible obviously had downfalls as well as perks. I watched Jhudora's energy
ball grow larger and larger, and pondered the thought of trying to counter it,
or deflect it. I stepped back, cutting my foot on shard of glass still behind
me. With a sudden burst of energy, Jhudora blasted her energy ball. Without
thinking, I kicked the shard of glass up with my tail, deflecting it on an angle
so that it flew off in another direction. Jhudora watched in horror as it struck
the tank that created the fuel for her machine, igniting it and starting a chain
reaction that seemed to follow through the long cable.
"You....." she hissed, grabbing me by the neck. "How could you? How dare you,
you little pitiful creature. How dare you ruin my plans... A lower class weakling..."
Jhudora's grip on my neck tightened, and I couldn't breath. Jhudora was going
mad with rage, to an extent that I'd never seen before. I felt myself starting
to fade away... my lungs were burning with a single desire to breathe... I felt
the room starting to go black as I struggled vainly. Just when I thought it
was over, that there was no hope for me, a voice yelled at Jhudora. I heard
it echoing through the room... Who was it? I wondered as my mind was all muddled
from the pain and lack of air. I felt myself drop to the ground, where I could
breathe once more. I landed on the same shard of glass that had saved my life
earlier, and it cut into my back. All around me was shouting and attacks, but
I couldn't comprehend the situation. I closed my eyes and wished that the noise
would go away, so I could sleep... At some point I felt myself get picked up
by someone, but I didn't know who. Then I lost consciousness altogether.
I don't know how long I was out, but I remember waking up. I ached all over...
the room was too bright and white... I wished someone would have painted it
a darker colour.
"Hey cj, I think she's awake," I heard Stelth_Bomber say.
I tried to tell Stelth_Bomber to get out of my room, but my words came out
all strange. I wasn't fully awake.
"I can't believe she survived a fight with Jhudora herself!" Burnticicle said
from somewhere far away. "I guess I never gave her enough credit; she must have
been a lot stronger than she realized."
"It wasn't her strength that won the fight, it was her wits. She figured out
Jhudora's plans all on her own, and in the end it was her ingenious use of a
broken mirror that kept her alive." Squirely said.
I don't know how, but I managed to sit up, as I felt my wits return to me.
I looked around the room. My family was there, as well as burnticicle. The Faerie
Queen herself was seated on the other side of the room.
"What happened?" I asked them, my memory clouded of the day's events.
"You prevented a huge tragedy from happening." The Faerie Queen explained.
"Don't worry about your injuries, I'll have the Water Faerie come in and heal
you later on."
"After we got through storm, you got knocked unconscious, so I went ahead,
thinking that I needed to get you help. I didn't know anything about Jhudora's
plans until after I reached the city, and saw that everyone was evacuating.
I heard that the Faerie Queen was in Tyrannia, so I realized that no one would
be able to stop her. I managed to sneak into the castle unnoticed, but Jhudora
confronted and captured me before I made it to the power source. When Fyora
finally got her, her first concern was to free the prisoners, in case the generator
blew up the castle when it was destroyed. We had no idea how close we were cutting
it until we reached the main room, and found the tank destroyed, and Jhudora
about to finish you off. If the storm had raged on for a few more minutes, it
would have reached all three of the resting places of the old obelisks, and
that would have been the end of Neopia itself." Burnticicle told me.
"I knew about the obelisks... I read about them a long time ago." I said dumbly.
"Why is it that you wanted to see me in the first place?" The Faerie Queen
asked me.
"I wanted you to make me strong, so the other Neopets wouldn't tease me as
much..." I said, explaining the whole situation of the last few months.
She nodded. "Do you still want to be strong?" she asked, somehow seeming to
read my thoughts.
I shook my head. "After going through all that, I never want to even consider
battling as an option again! I just want to be left alone and be happy." I said,
for once not upset with my life.
The Faerie Queen smiled. "I doubt that you'll be teased anymore, seeing how
you saved Neopia. News travels fast around here, and I doubt that anyone will
want to mess with you if you tell them that you defeated Jhudora single-handedly,
regardless of how strong you really are," she said, winking.
I laughed a little, but the laugher still pained me. At some point yesterday,
I had broken something, and I couldn't remember when.
"Now you just rest, and the Water Faerie will heal you tomorrow, okay?" Christine
said.
They left the room, and I caught Nickey say something yet again.
"What is it with you and acting motherly towards her?" she snickered.
"I don't know, I guess it's just because she's such a sweet little thing;
it's just so hard to let her get hurt." Christine said, shrugging.
I didn't hear the rest of the conversation, but I didn't have to. Somehow,
through it all, the most important thing I saved was my own self-respect. These
days, I still get picked on sometimes, although not by Vince or Chantelle, and
certainly not by my gym teacher, who had received a personal visit from the
Faerie Queen to... lighten up his methods. Sure, we'll all get teased when we
do something stupid, but I've learned to take it all in stride. Today I'm the
one being teased, tomorrow it'll be someone else. Amusingly enough, after news
got to my school, I was almost a hero. Chantelle and Vince were among the first
to try and suck up. Of course, through it all, I've learned that it's personality,
and not strength, that matters the most.
The End
Disclaimer: Most of the pets mentioned in this story are real pets, including
Night_Shadow_Stalker, Nickey151, Stelth_Bomber and Squirely123, (All mine.)
Devynleigh and Burnticicle are pets belonging to my friend a_cute_lil_punk_chic
and the other pets are fictional. I wouldn't mind comments on my story, and
what you thought of it. I tried to mention the issue of how the Lab Ray would
effect how a pet felt about itself, but kept that part in the background. I
also dealt a bit with things that might seem realistic when thinking about a
real NeoSchool. | 
