The Search for Jackie
The thing with Jared was never settled. Soon
it wasn't just the thing against Jared, but it was against Alex's parents, too,
the king and queen. They obviously did not approve of their son mingling with
"commoners", as they put it. Jared cooled off after a few days, but his father
never did. Somehow the governor of the North-eastern province found out that
his son and his two friends were whooped by a girl. He was enraged and came
to eliminate her herself, but when he heard it was a SERVANT girl, and that
she was hiding, he tore his room apart.
Jackie was having doubts that the Duchess
would allow her to stay there, seeing as though everyone in the whole country
(who was of noble birth (and therefore, the only people that really MATTERED))
was against a "commoner" being better than a "noble".
Alex felt as though his eyes had been
opened. He realised suddenly that everything Jackie had said about no one listening
to her because of her station, and how she could be arrested for sharing her
knowledge. He knew it had to stop, but he also knew that the bottom of the totem
pole was NOT the place to try and change all of it, especially when his best
(and only) friend was in danger.
The week passed by all too swiftly. Jackie
came out of her hiding space and gasped in horror at the carriage. It was the
most beautiful thing she'd ever seen, but Jackie had this feeling about it,
and so far her feelings had never betrayed her. "Alex! Don't let me go!" she
pleaded, "If I do, you'll never see me again. I'll never come back."
"You're crazy, Jackie."
"No, I'm not. I knew something was wrong
when Jared lunged himself at me. I knew something was wrong when I was 8 years
old and a bookcase almost fell on me. I KNOW when things are wrong. It's just
something I do. And I KNOW that if I get in that carriage, I'll be gone and
lost forever."
While Alex tried to convince Jackie that
nothing would happen, Skira was talking to the driver. "I don't like that girl.
She feels too much. She's right, though. You know the plan."
The driver nodded and Skira handed him
a bag of gold. "For your trouble," she said, then turned to face Jackie
and Alex. "Come now, Jackie, nothing's going to happen to you! It's perfectly
safe. It got HERE safely, didn't it? It's not going to crash or anything."
Jackie shook her head violently. "That's
not what I'm worried about!" She whirled around to face Alex again. "I don't
know what it is, but it's not the safety of the carriage! Don't make me go!"
"Hush, you're going to make people come
running out here, and then I'll NEVER see you again."
"You'll NEVER see me again if you make
me go, either!"
Finally Jackie agreed to go, but it took
at least an hour. As she was being driven off, Alex was running beside her,
shouting things at her. Jackie laughed and told him to go back, that he couldn't
go with her.
"I wish I could!" He shouted as he dropped
behind, "I WILL see you again, Jackie! I will!"
When he reached the palace again, Skira
leaned up next to him and said, "I guess it's just you and me now, isn't it?"
in her whiniest, high-pitched voice EVER.
Skira made Alex nervous....
Two months after, a problem arose in
the Duchess's area of ruling. Alex asked if he could come, and his father beamed
with happiness, and rambled on and on about "Finally taking interest in his
station". Alex almost wanted to laugh and shout, "I'm not going for the experience!
I'm going for my best friend!" Just to get him to shut up, but he new if he
did that, then Jackie's cover would be blown.
When they reached the castle, Skira was
waiting to greet them. She ran out and hugged Alex. "I'm so glad you came!"
"Where's Jackie?" He whispered into her
ear. He stood back and looked at her. Her face was twisted with an expression
of one who had bad news. "She wasn't right. Tell me Jackie wasn't right about
never making it here." Alex was panicking.
"You'd better come with me." Skira grabbed
his ear just like Jackie had before, which made Alex want to cry. Jackie was
right, he thought, She was right and I didn't bother to listen. I'm just
as bad as every other person of nobility. I'm so stupid!
Skira led him to a place where no one
could hear them. "Jackie's not here."
"She was right! Why didn't you tell me
earlier?"
"She's not here because..."
"What? Tell me!"
"She was too close to you."
"What do you mean?"
"She was invading my territory."
"Skira! YOU didn't send her away, did
you?!? DID YOU?!?"
Skira was crying now. "I regret I did
it now, but I paid the driver to send her to a city far away in nowhere land
and dump her off. I didn't want you to see her again because I was in love with
you, and I knew that you liked her."
"She was my FRIEND, Skira! Not my girlfriend!"
Skira's eyes burned with anger at Jackie,
and her voice took on a deep and evil tone. "She would've if I'd let her stay
with you. She didn't deserve that space. I did. She was a lowly peasant girl-"
Alex had already walked away. He wished
he had listened to Jackie. Listened to her when she said she didn't trust Skira,
listened when she had told him that he'd never see her again, and more than
ever he wished he'd had listen to her pleads. Skira was just another person
who looked down on Jackie because of her station. It's not right, something
said inside of Alex, It's not right and you know it. You should do something
about it. But what could he do? No one ever listened to him.
Later that night he went to go see Skira. "Do you REALLY regret what you did?"
"Yes," she said, looking at the
ground in shame, her voice being normal and not the high squeakiness she usually
used.
"Why?"
"Because it makes you sad." Alex could
see a tear fall from her eyes.
"Oh, stop crying. I know of a way we
can get her back." Skira's face lit up. "Really! How?"
Alex remembered how Jackie said the Skira
would do anything for him, "You and me travel to the place where you had your
driver leave her, and then we find her and bring her back!"
"Sounds like a plan. We can leave tomorrow
morning."
"Sounds good. Start packing. Hey, where'd
you say you sent her anyway?"
"The Capital city of Lapil."
Alex's eyes went wide, and his mouth
dropped open. "ARE YOU INSANE?!?!?!?!?"
"What? I wanted a place where I knew
you wouldn't look."
"Did you ever see your driver again?"
"Of course I did! Why wouldn't I?"
"Because people who go there are never
seen from again, that's why!"
Skira shook her head. "Remember what
Jackie said about being afraid of what you don't understand? Maybe people just
choose not to come back."
"Now why would they do that? King Olcan's
EVIL!"
Skira shrugged. "I dunno... just thinking
out loud."
"You REALLY sent Jackie to Armistad?!?"
"Yes. She'll be fine, leave her alone."
Alex turned and walked out of the room,
thinking of HOW in the world they would get into that dark and gloomy land,
find Jackie, and get out before something happened to them. He sat in his room
and thought about it, coming up with nothing. He looked at maps of Lapil, and
tried to find a way around main roads and big cities that were known for strong
warriors, but none of it would work, and he knew it. Either he'd never see Jackie
again, but live, or he could see Jackie, and possibly be stuck in that desolate
world forever.
How did the driver make it? he wondered
to himself. He asked Skira who her driver was, and Alez went to go talk to him.
"How did you get through Lapil without
being harmed?"
"Luck, I suppose."
"I find that hard to believe. Listen,
you left my best friend in the most horrible place on the face of Neopia. Now,
I'm going to get her back. Tell me how you did it!"
"Well, there was a group of bandits who
attacked me on the way out..."
"How'd you get rid of them?"
"Gave them some of the NP Skira paid
me."
"That makes since..."
"You're a prince, right? Just carry some
NP and such and pay anyone who tries to hurt you. Most people take that and
go."
"Thanks for the help!" Alex felt like
he had SOME sense of assurance, even if it was sort of cheating. He told all
this to Skira, and she said she'd go get some jewels and Neopoints.
The next morning, Alex and Skira got
ready to go. They were going to be dressed in plain traveller's clothes, and
they weren't going to take very many things with them (Skira was rather put
out over this), but they WERE going to be riding two of the Unis in the Duchess's
stable.
As they were riding out the gate, Alex
heard someone shouting behind them. He told Skira to stop and they turned to
see who was shouting at them.
It was the driver.
"Wait! Wait! Hold on!" he shouted, "I
didn't take her to Lapil!" He cried at the top of his lungs.
"WHAT?!?" Skira was enraged, "You mean
you didn't do as I commanded?"
"No, and I'm sorry, but I didn't want
you two to go into Lapil. It's dangerous."
"Where did you leave her?" Alex asked,
relieved that they wouldn't have to brave that harsh land.
"I drove her to the outskirts of Nova,
then I just left her beside the road."
"You didn't even leave her in a
city?" Alex was trying to keep himself from shouting.
"No, your highness. I'm sorry about that,
too. I gave her some food and three coins-"
"THREE?!?" Alex couldn't stop himself
this time. "You know perfectly well you can't leave a girl out in the middle
of nowhere with nothing! Three coins isn't even enough to buy a loaf of bread!!"
"I wasn't thinking."
"NO YOU WEREN'T!" Alex nodded to Skira. "To
Nova!" He shouted, as he rode off at high speed. Skira wasn't prepared for that,
and she tried to get her Uni to move.
"To Nova!" She shouted, "Hey, come on!"
The driver chuckled. "That won't work."
"How do I get him to move, than?"
"How did you get stuck with the most
stubborn horse we own? To get him to stop, say 'Cut it out, you!' but to get
him to go, you have to do this." The driver took a big breath and shouted with
all the volume he could muster, "GET MOVIN' YOU LAZY OAF, OR I'LL FEED YOU TO
THE MONOCERAPTOR!" That got the Uni moving. Skira caught up with Alex in no
time at all.
When they reached the place the driver
had told them he left her, Alex began looking around. "Okay, if I were Jackie,
where would I have gone?"
"To the nearest city?"
"No, this is Jackie... she probably chased
the carriage halfway across the planet, throwing rocks at it."
Skira couldn't help but laugh.
"Well, it IS what she'd do. But then
she would've come back and then what?"
"She would've gone to the nearest city."
"Where is the nearest city?"
Skira looked around her. "Over there!"
She pointed to a few buildings to the east. "I bet she would try there first."
Alex nodded and they rode towards the
tiny village.
No one knew of a redheaded Kyrii there.
No one did in the next village they tried. Or the next, or the next. They covered
every possible place she could've been on both sides of the border. There was
nothing. They finally went back after two weeks, and they tried to get back
to their normal lives.
Skira snapped back into normality perfectly,
but Alex never did. When he worked on his fighting with his teachers, he remembered
Jackie telling him they were horrible teachers and that she could've done better.
When he saw Jared, he remembered how he had tried to attack Jackie. When he
saw anyone working at the palace, he remembered Jackie saying about the network
of communication, and every time he saw the Eyrie statue he thought of the secret
passageway that leads to it. Years went by (6 years to be exact). Alex was 17,
and the only one in his family who hadn't been married yet. His parents were
always nagging at him about getting married, and they often sent him to visit
available girls that they thought he should be with. He would go and be as polite
as possible to those he visited, but he would always come home and think about
what life would be like if Jackie were there. Six years and she still hadn't
left his mind.
It came time for him to go visit another
young lady. It was some girl named Aledia who was two years younger than he
was. The first day he arrived, Aledia came up to him and said, "Look. I don't
want to marry you, so don't get your hopes up."
Alex looked relieved. "Thank you! I get
shipped off to these things all the time, but I'm not looking for a wife either."
Aledia smiled and said, "Good. I'm in
love with a young man who works here. You can go to your room, and when my parents
think we should go do something, I'll send someone to call for you, k?"
Alex nodded and followed a short man
who showed him his room and brought his things. As the man was leaving, Alex
asked if he could have lunch in his room, because he was starving from the trip
and that's what they did back at his home. The man nodded and left.
Less than five minutes later there was
a knock at the door. "Come in," he said. It was a Kyrii about his age.
His heart felt torn in two as he saw she had straight blonde hair, and that
she wouldn't look up so he could see if she had green eyes.
"Your lunch, sir," she said in a quiet
voice, then she went to stand beside the door.
Alex wasn't used to this. She stood there,
watching his every move. He tried to act like it didn't bother him, but it did.
It bothered him greatly. When he had finished eating, the girl came and picked
up his tray. She walked to the door, then set the tray down on a table and ran
over to him, fell down on the floor in front of him and looked into his eyes
with her own tear-filled emerald green ones.
"ALEX! It's me!"
To be continued... | 
