The situation had already been solved: the army kidnapped
Fyora!
Apparently, the shock of seeing the Faerie Queen
appear in front of them while they were robbing the Hidden Tower was overcome
easily when they realised she was as weak as a newborn Neopet.
They were already armed with powerful weapons,
and they were invisible, so it was easy for them to knock Fyora out. The Faerie
Queen let out a faded scream before falling on the floor, unconscious.
The other Neopets that were beaten up and hung
upside down with ropes to the walls watched the scene in pure horror. I could
see their faces and guess what they were thinking. They were lost without Fyora.
One of the beasts grabbed Fyora and left the
Hidden Tower followed by the others who were carrying bags full with all the
Hidden Tower items. They joined the other half of the army and the thieves,
who were getting ready to leave the place.
The map had already been found, almost everyone
in Faerieland had been beaten up, and Fyora had been captured - the plan went
better than we could ever have imagined. Sloth couldn't even speak, he was just
so stunned.
Maelstra appeared in the room followed by the
army and the thieves and the room was quickly full again. Sloth clapped and
everyone cheered.
"The plan went wonderfully well! Congratulations
you lot!" Sloth grinned, "Maelstra, could you undo the winged invisibility spell
now? I'd like to see all the heroes!"
Maelstra did as Sloth said and a ton of happy
faced villains appeared. Sloth congratulated them.
"Now, where's the map? And Fyora? Show me Fyora!"
The Hairy Tongue Beast carried the fainted faerie
to Sloth and dropped her on the floor by Sloth's feet. Sloth laughed evilly.
"I have to admit I've waited all my life for
this moment. Now I have to plan a good way to get revenge for everything she's
done to me," His eyes wandered around the room, "But I'll think of that later.
Venera, can you cast a sleeping spell on her so she won't wake up and try to
do something? Thank you."
Venera cast the sleeping fog around Fyora, and
then she said to Sloth, "We have to decide what we'll do to her right away,
so we can leave to search for the artefact."
"Oh, right... I have some ideas, but they're
not evil enough..." He sighed, "Oh well... Pile those Hidden Tower Items over
there, okay? Then pick the weapons you want and keep them. I think I'll keep
the rest of the stuff for you to create artefacts, Venera, what do you think?"
"Sounds good, Frank, thank you," They smiled
at each other, and while the army piled the items in the corner, I approached
the thieves and asked for the map with the location of the artefact.
"Here it is. It's not very detailed I'm afraid,
but there wasn't anything else in there," Zetyra, a shadow Chomby said, handing
me the paper.
A shadow Chomby... it clicked in my head, even
before I had time to look at the precious maps. I looked around and didn't see
Eclipse.
"Where's Eclipse?" I searched the crowd some
more and couldn't find her, nor Licoperdon. Aqua and the Meerca Brothers were
there, though. "Where are Eclipse and Licoperdon?! Did they stay in the palace?"
"No, Dalí. Now that I think about it, I don't
think they even came with us in the first place," Maelstra answered.
"What??" Sloth yelled, angered, "Betrayal...
How did they dare to do this?! They will get what they deserve... No one does
this to Sloth and gets away with it..."
Sloth was visibly upset, and so was I. How could
they have done this? I thought they were my friends, and I believed they were
with us. What a disappointment. But then Zetyra reminded me of the map, and
I forgot about Eclipse.
The map wasn't very detailed, but it showed
an island near Terror Mountain. Looking closely to that island's shape, I realised
what it was.
"Lilac Island!" I shouted, "Look, Frank, this
map shows Lilac Island!"
Sloth leaned to the map and read the indications
Fyora had written on the margins.
"Pah, Fyora couldn't have made this easier for
us! The Crown was sealed inside an enchanted chest and hidden in the Iceberg
that is now Lilac Island!"
One of the soldiers came to us and reported
that they had finished piling the items in the corner and that all of them were
now armed with Hidden Tower weapons. Sloth clapped to get everyone's attention
and began his speech.
"We now know where Fyora's hidden the Crown
of Ultimate Power, and Dalí, Venera, Maelstra, Grargadon, the Ghost Lupe and
I will soon leave on a quest to find it. However, before we leave, I want to
settle an attack plan. I want to weaken Neopia. I want them to need me as a
leader. So I will stay here for a week or so planning our moves carefully, and
only then I'll go on my quest, leaving you detailed instructions on how to act
while I'm away."
Everyone cheered and clapped, and then Sloth
sent the army to the training fields and the thieves to Neopia back to their
intensive stealing. There were only a few people in the room now. Fyora, surrounded
by the sleeping fog, laid in the middle of the room, powerless. Grargadon, Maelstra
and the Ghost Lupe were checking the stolen items, and Venera, Sloth and I were
sitting around the table examining the map.
"There's a lot of good stuff here," Garargadon
commented.
"Hey, look, a jelly Chia Plushie!" Maelstra
squeezed the slimy plushie in her hand and grabbed a doll from the pile, "And
a faerie Queen doll, too."
"Allow me," The Ghost Lupe asked. Maelstra nodded,
and he ripped the doll apart with a strong kick.
"Hey, you three, come here, take a look at this
map," Sloth called.
"It's Lilac Island. Is the Crown there?" Grargadon
asked while sitting down by my side.
"Yes, Fyora wrote here on this side that the
artefact is inside the iceberg Zairiu used to build the island," I answered.
"The Crown will be inside a sealed chest, protected
with an enchantment, I suppose," Venera added, "Fyora loves to protect stuff
with enchantments."
"Speaking of Fyora, what will we do to her?
Will she stay in that sleeping fog forever?"
"No, no, she deserves something worse, something
really evil... I just can't think of anything right now..."
My eyes wandered around the room, and for some
reason, I stared at the pile of items in the corner. And then I thought of something
evil...
"Frank... What if we used Chia Flour on her?"
I said, mischievously.
"Chia Flour?" Sloth thought for a moment, "Dalí,
you are a genius! Chia Flour, of course! Just imagine, Fyora, a yellow Chia!
Brilliant!"
Sloth walked to the corner and brought a bag
of Chia flour to the table.
"Venera, would you like to do the honours?"
Sloth smiled and winked at Venera, and she readily accepted, "But wake her up,
first, I want her to know exactly what will happen."
With a few magic words, the sleeping fog was
gone. Fyora, still extremely weak, opened her eyes, and tried to stand up. She
wasn't able to because she was too weak, so she sat on the floor and looked
around. When her eyes met with Venera's, she shuddered.
"Venera..."
"Tell me, Fyora, how do you feel about Chias?"
The question seemed out of the blue for Fyora.
She answered that she loved them just as she loved any other species of Neopets
"That's good. Because, you know, you'll become
one of them now," And she threw the Flour on Fyora with a very evil laughter
we all accompanied.
"Nooooooo!!" Fyora screamed, as her body mutated
from her elegant figure to a short and round yellow Chia. I just couldn't believe
what had happened. Fyora was now a yellow Chia! I was overjoyed, everything
was going our way!
"Venera, what have you done!?" Fyora cried.
"Oh, I just turned the oh-so-great Faerie Queen
into a yellow Chia and you bet I feel great about it!"
As I was watched the scene and delighted myself
with Fyora's tears and screams, my eyes happened to wander back to the pile
of artefacts. And another evil idea clicked.
"Frank, can I?" I said, pointing to a Baby Paint
Brush on top of the pile.
Sloth crackled, Venera laughed and Fyora cried.
I walked to the pile and grabbed the paint brush.
"Fyora, once a powerful faerie, is now a yellow
Chia back to diapers!" I provoked her, "My dear friends, will you all accompany
me to the Rainbow Pool?"
Sloth disguised himself as a Scorchio, and the
Faeries cast an invisibility spell on themselves and the Ghost Lupe so no one
would notice anything weird, and we were off to the rainbow pool, teleported
by Venera.
But as soon as we got there, Fyora screamed
and cried at the other people, trying to get help.
"Help, please, help me!!" Fyora cried at the
people, "Please, I'm Fyora, save me from Sloth!"
For a moment, we were insecure. Everyone stared
at us for a second, and then burst into laughter. We laughed too at Fyora's
pathetic attempt to escape, and without wasting any more time, I wet the paint
brush with the fountain's magical water. The paint brush shone a little, ready
to use.
Sloth grabbed Fyora firmly, helped by Grargadon,
although it wasn't necessary, since she was too weak to move anyway, and I painted
Fyora who wouldn't stop screaming. We enjoyed that moment and when I was done,
we all laughed at Fyora. All she did was cry.
Venera teleported us all back and made herself,
Maelstra and the Ghost Lupe visible again.
"How does it feel, Fyora? Being a baby Chia...
Wearing a diaper... Having no powers... Yes, because I doubt you are able to
cast a faeries' spell when you are a Chia..."
Everyone mocked Fyora so much she almost fainted
from crying. Sloth interrupted all the mocking when he showed Fyora a White
Frost Cannon.
"This is a special frost cannon developed by
my horde of scientists. It is specially designed to be so powerful that it can
freeze anything for extensive periods of time, like, say, a year," He grinned
and pointed it at Fyora.
"Nooooo, pweeeaaseee, doon't!!! Waaaaaaa!"
To be continued...
Author's Note: What are your comments on this part? Are you enjoying the
series so far? Any advice on what I could have done to make it better, any feedback
or comment, Neomail
me! Everything is greatly appreciated! | 
