After the Pound story, what happens to the happy ending?
It isn't always happily ever after. Nothing is forever...
"C'mon!" The Usul bounced happily into the forest.
Her brother and sister slowly followed. They were all Pound pets - this was
the happy ever after life, after the Pound had been long forgotten. Her brother
and sister skipped joyfully after her. AceraGurl123 was a male Shoyru, nicknamed
Ace; Criklea a Moehog, now painted Faerie. The Usul, Gaendana, was a happy go
lucky pet, younger than the others. After their adoption with a caring owner,
Ace, Criklea and Gaendana had settled in well. Life was idyllic.
They were now wandering through a small wood,
just outside Neopia, trying to pick flowers. There were no flowers to be seen,
unless you counted the thorny masses poking out from between sinister trees
but they were still happy, just wandering about. Gaendana was even humming.
The shadows and lurking evil in the woods would have warned most pets off, but
they were the goodies - evil couldn't hurt them, or so they thought.
A small spiral of black appeared in the shadows
and began to spin, until a Dark Faerie materialised from it. She watched the
happy trio, especially the little Usul.
"A new pet..." she murmured and, decided, made
a sudden move.
From behind a tree, stepped the Dark Faerie.
She laughed evilly and grabbed Gaendana.
"You're mine, little Usul!"
Gaendana cried out. Ace and Criklea came running
but began to back off. Only in story books are there heroes, but in real life
are villains.
"Save me!" screamed Gaendana, not trying to struggle,
the tears pouring down her face.
"We don't have any weapons. Our owner said we
all lived in peace and wouldn't need any!" said Ace.
"And that bad things never happen to good people,"
ended Criklea.
The Dark Faerie laughed again. "Your owner's
wrong, precious. Bad things happen all the time. In this world, you need weapons.
Skipping and picking flowers isn't going to stop someone hurting you. And this
cute little Usul..."
She lifted Gaendana's trembling head with a forefinger.
"Well, she'll be my pet. It's an honour. A pet
of a Dark Faerie - powerful and evil. My little dark one. What's your name,
sweetheart?"
"Her name's Gaendana and you leave her alone!" shouted Ace.
The Dark Faerie snarled and sent a blast of black
magic towards Ace. It picked him and hurled him away. He lay, sweating on the
ground, his body contorted with pain.
"Don't mess with the Dark Faerie!" the Faerie
snapped.
She tenderly examined the quivering Usul in her
arms.
"Gaendana... in Ancient Neopian, your name means
One of Night. Perfect for you, my darling. Come, I shall make you mine. Unless
anyone cares to stop me?"
Ace got up from where he'd lain, still racked
with pain, and, without a look, turned away.
"Come, Criklea."
The Faerie Moehog spread her wings wide and didn't
look back as she took to the skies.
"We're sorry, Gaendana, but we can't do anything,"
called Criklea.
"I'm sure you'll be happy!" Ace called back as
he too flew away.
Even as Gaendana was taken up to Faerieland,
she began to nurse the bitterness in her heart. To think that her adopted family
would not try to save her, but condemn her to a Dark Faerie! She began to hate
the pets, plotting revenge. She was innocent, young, naïve. But her family had
deserted her, while the Dark Faerie accepted her. Rejected by goodness, she
must turn to evil to fulfil her. As the Dark Faerie held the Usul, she smiled.
The dark was growing inside her. After the initiation ritual, she would be hers...
The Usul was still shaking as she was washed
carefully, dried and painted with ritualistic dark runes. She was then taken
to a small room. It was adorned in black, a shrine to evil, with a small altar
in the centre. Around the edge, strange figures were carved. It was a place
devoted to the darkness. At first, she shrank from the evil that pervaded in
the room, but soon she sensed the power of it. It would fuel her nightmares
and empower her. No longer, Gaendana, a small abandoned Usul, but Gaendana the
Great, a strong mighty Usul with the power of night! She embraced the evil,
opening her small heart to let it soothe over her bitterness and stoke her anger.
It whispered promises to her; promises she knew it would keep.
She leapt from the Dark Faerie's arms, taking
strides to the small altar and placed herself on it, no longer afraid. She opened
herself to the evil, let it wash over her. As the Dark Faerie began to chant,
Gaendana felt the new power grow inside her. Her neck fur turned purple, her
eyes glowed. She even felt the very start of wings. The evil was beginning to
take her, shape her, transform her...
A door was flung open and in stalked the Faerie
Queen, her face radiating with a terrible anger. The hero Gaendana no longer
wanted! She felt the evil twist inside her, begin not to slip away but change.
Still the seed of evil lurked within her, still Gaendana shrank from the harsh
light of the Queen's magic but she yet was not completely one with the Dark
Faerie. She was different. She looked down at her paws, and saw only shadows.
She was insubstantial as smoke, as...shadow. She was part of the shadows.
The Faerie Queen thrust aside the Dark Faerie
to bend over Gaendana.
"What have you become, my child?" asked the Faerie
Queen worriedly. She gasped in horror as she saw her.
"You are Gaendana, One of Night, no longer. Nor
a good Usul. You are changed. You are the Usul of Shadow!"
Fyora shot an angry look at the lurking Dark
Faerie.
"Good can save evil but not what lurks between.
Your appearance has changed but it is not too late for your heart. You can save
yourself still, if you will accept your fate and lay aside your bitterness."
Gaendana shook her head and rejected the offer.
"I am the Usul of Shadow, the Shadow Usul. I
am changed forever, Fyora. I am fated to lurk of the edge, one of the many shades
of grey between white and black. I am me, and I will not change again." She
fell quiet.
Fyora did not speak but released the Usul, letting
her go.
Gaendana bowed her head and slipped off the altar,
using the shadows to lurk in and creep away from the Faeries. Even to this day,
she lurks still. The Shadow Usul seeks revenge, for what has happened to her.
She seeks not the Faerie Queen, who turned her, nor the Dark Faerie, who took
her. She is not beholden to either of them. She is proud to be a, nay The, Shadow
Usul. She is the only one, unique and wonderful. She delights in the shadows
and in her power. But she seeks only two...
Ace and Criklea. They know she is hunting them.
They have gone from Neopia, off the face of Neopia, with Gaendana's treacherous
owner staying with them. They let the shadows take her...
They have made her what she is today. She is
proud of her new form, and would not wish to be a simple, plain Usul again.
But it is her shadow nature that urges her towards those who betrayed her and
it is her shadow nature will enable her to exact her revenge.
She has abilities, power, the shadows... and
patience. Let them run - no one can escape the shadows of their past forever...
The End | 
