Dark Friend: Part Three

     "We surely can get home," Cindon replied. "The situation here is that we are dubious about how."

     "Well, we'd better think of something before I go crazy!" Aillira groaned, and then looked into the sky with a sigh. She knew that Faerieland was up there, somewhere. She just wasn't entirely sure where. She wished that somehow, she would be able to get back home; that she would sleep in her own bed, once again...

     While Aillira was lost in her reverie, Cindon actually tried to think of something. "You know... those hunt activities are rather in vogue, presently..."

     "Huh?" Aillira looked over her shoulder at Cindon.

     Cindon just nodded, "It may succeed... but of course it is feasible that one will cancel, or even neglect the challenge..."

     Aillira rolled her eyes. "Can't you speak English for once?!"

     "That was English," Cindon replied.

     "Normal English!!"

     Cindon sighed. "Faerie Quests."

     "WHAT!?" Aillira yelped.

     "You could challenge someone to a Faerie Quest, have them obtain a method to get to Faerieland, and then we can use that to return home," Cindon explained.

     "Are... you... CRAZY?!" Aillira shouted. "I'm NOT doing that!"

     "Aillira, you are a Faerie," Cindon groaned. "Faeries do Faerie Quests."

     "But I HATE giving out Faerie Quests!" Aillira moaned. "I mean, you ask some random person to get you something, and then wait for who-knows-how-long for that person to bring you the item, if they ever do at all... it's so BORING!"

     "I believe it is worth trying..." Cindon said, "...am I correct?"

     "I'd rather just fly!" Aillira exclaimed.

     "Hmm, rather hazardous..." Cindon thought aloud. "We could become intolerably lost, and fly into the troposphere... besides that, you have not even endeavored to fly for as long as I can recall..."

     "What, you're saying I can't fly?!" Aillira looked insulted.

     "I have not ever seen you fly..." Cindon explained.

     "Oh, yeah? Watch me!" Aillira exclaimed, then she started flapping her wings. After some proper angling and flapping, Aillira was soon airborne. She folded her arms and smiled, giving Cindon a look, "See?"

     Cindon nodded. "So you can fly... but that does not solve our getting lost matter in question."

     Aillira slowly returned to the ground. "We could get a map."

     "Alright, but how do we achieve that?" Cindon wondered.

     "I dunno," Aillira admitted. "Where do you get a map of Neopia?"

     Cindon thought for a few seconds, then he smiled and gave Aillira a look. Aillira's eyes widened.

     "NO!" she exclaimed. "No, I'm not doing it!"

     "It could work..." Cindon told her.

     "Never! I will not!" Aillira folded her arms.

     "Would you rather remain here for all eternity?" Cindon questioned.

     Aillira groaned. "Okay... FINE. Um, hey! You!" she shouted to a green Gnorbu who just happened to be walking by.

     The Gnorbu stopped and turned to Aillira, then smiled. "Alright! A Light Faerie Quest! Now I'll be able to gain a level!"

     "Uh-huh, sure." Aillira glared at Cindon briefly, then turned back to the Gnorbu. "'Kay, I want you to get me a map of Neopia!"

     "Hey, don't Light Faeries usually ask for Trading Cards?" the Gnorbu wondered.

     "Well, I don't like Trading Cards. They're dumb. Now go get me a map of Neopia! I haven't all day!"

     The Gnorbu smiled. "Okay! I'm on it!"

     Aillira watched the Gnorbu run off, and then glared at Cindon. "Now don't think I'll be making a habit of this!"

     "I am certain you will not..." Cindon said with a sigh, "but now I am curious... what shall we do as we await that Gnorbu's return?"

     * * * * *

     "...Don't you think this is cute?" Wanda asked Laura, holding up a shirt.

     Laura looked at the shirt. "Mmm, maybe... but doesn't it clash?"

     "Guess you're right..." Wanda put the shirt back on the rack.

     The family was out on a little shopping spree, currently buying some clothes at Uni's Clothing. Laura spotted a skirt, grabbed it and held it up. "How's this?"

     Wanda looked at Laura and raised an eyebrow. "When will you wear that?"

     "Hmm, I guess it IS rather awkward..." Laura sighed and put the skirt back down.

     Dina looked around; she noticed a rack for baby clothes. She pointed. "Gwo foh me?"

     Wanda looked where Dina pointed. "Aw, I wanna go look at shoes!"

     "Yeah, we should probably look at shoes," Laura agreed with Wanda.

     "Buh I wah gwo foh me!" Dina moaned.

     "But Dina, we're going to go look at shoes," Wanda said.

     "I bon wan foo! I wan gwo foh me!" Dina complained.

     "You can't go over there by yourself; you're just a baby," Laura explained. "You'll get stepped on; you'll be too short to even reach the clothes!"

     Dina groaned, then she looked at Wanda and smiled. She reached out and touched Wanda's shoulder. Wanda jumped a bit, then closed her eyes. Dina closed her eyes, too. After a few seconds, they both opened their eyes again, and Wanda's had become indigo, and Dina's were yellow-green. Laura knew exactly what had happened, Dina and Wanda had just switched bodies, again.

     "Now can I look at clothes for me?" Dina, who was now in Wanda's body, asked.

     "Umm... I... guess..." Laura replied, she looked a little uncomfortable.

     "Gum on, Lah-wuh," said Wanda, who was now the baby Xweetok in Laura's arm. "Led's go look ad foo."

     Dina nodded. "Don't worry, Mama. I'll be fine."

     "Alright then," Laura said. "Just... be careful, okay?"

     "I told you, I'll be fine."

     Wanda thought of something, "Oh! And if anyone asks, yoh Wah-nuh, okay?"

     "Okay," Dina replied.

     Then Dina walked away to the baby's clothes rack, as Laura just headed over to the shoes aisle with a slightly uneasy look on her face.

      "Lah-wuh, is sum-fing wong?" Wanda wondered.

      Laura bit her lip. "I dunno, it's just... kind of weird... how you're Wanda, but... you're Dina..."

      "Lah-wah, we'b done id seh-bwoh dimes, you shuh be used to it!" Wanda replied.

      "I should be, but I'm not..." Laura sighed.

      Wanda thought for a minute. "Oh, is THIS why you neh-buh swab wif Bi-nuh?"

      "Partly," Laura admitted, "but I'm also not really sure I could... is it even possible, me being her mom? It seems so... I dunno... unlikely."

      "I would-en see why you could-en, but thad's gus me," Wanda said.

      Laura just sighed, and started looking across the shoes in the aisle.

     * * * * *

     Cindon and Aillira were wandering the streets of Vladimyr, looking for something to do while they waited for the Gnorbu to get a map.

     "Well... it's a lot different here when a fair's not going on..." Aillira admitted.

     "Rather tranquil..." Cindon added.

     Then a green Usul spotted them. Or, rather, spotted Cindon. "Hey! You're the fortune telling guy! Remember me? I was one of your customers!" she exclaimed.

     "I had a profusion of customers, yesterday..." Cindon explained. "It is difficult to remember just one."

     "Well, my name's Karla!" said the Usul, Karla. "My little sister was there, too! Her name's Trela... remember her?"

     Cindon thought for a moment. "I think I recall a 'Trela'..."

     "Yeah! Well, this is so cool! You're the kind of person you only expect to see once!" Karla beamed. "You know, Trela has, like, the biggest crush on you..."

     "Oh... really?" Cindon sighed.

     "Yep! She tries really hard to hide it, though!" Karla giggled.

     Cindon looked at Aillira with a raised eyebrow, then back at Karla. "Well, that is lovely, Karla..."

     Karla then pulled out a pen and paper. "Hey, this may seem kinda stupid, but can I, like, get your autograph?"

     "Um, certainly..." Cindon nodded. He took the paper in his right hand and the pen in his left and started writing.

     "Hey," Aillira commented, "I didn't know you were left-handed."

     "Actually, I am ambidextrous..." Cindon replied as he finished writing. He handed the paper and pen back to Karla. "Here you go."

     Karla smiled a huge smile as she looked at the autograph. "Wow, thanks! Hah, Trela's going to be SOOO jealous!" and then she walked off.

     There was then a moment of awkward silence. "Wow, Cindon," Aillira burst in. "It seems like everywhere you go, you've gotta have an exploding fanatic."

     "As I have noticed..." Cindon replied.

     "Sheesh... I don't have any fans like that..." Aillira grumbled. "...Lucky."

     Cindon chuckled. "Well, anyway, what shall we do, now?"

     * * * * *

     Dina was looking across the baby clothes, when a Buzz came up to her.

     "Ooh... look at the big baby, buying baby clothes!" he teased.

     "Well, I..." Dina paused, "they're not for me, they're for my sister."

     "Oh, your sister's a big baby, then!" the Buzz said.

     Dina gave the Buzz a look. "No... really. She's less than a year old."

     The Buzz paused awkwardly. "Um... I think I heard my brother calling," and he walked off.

     Dina just sighed and rolled her eyes. She continued searching through the clothes, when she found a cute little pink dress. She smiled, and kept it as she searched through some more.

     After a while, Dina had found all the clothes she liked, and headed over to the shoes rack to find Laura and Wanda.

     "Hey, mama! I found some cute clothes!" Dina said, showing Laura the outfits.

     Laura looked at the clothes and said, "Are they the right size? How much are they?" as she started looking at the tags.

     "I'm sure they're all fine," Dina told Laura.

     Laura finished looking at the tags and nodded. "You're right... they're fine. But it doesn't hurt to check."

     "We shuh bwah-buh-bly be going, now," Wanda said.

     "Yes, we should," Laura replied, then turned to Dina. "Um... I don't suppose you and Wanda..."

     "Oh! Right," Dina said, then she touched Wanda on the shoulder and closed her eyes.

     Wanda closed her eyes, too, and Laura just sighed. After standing there for a few seconds, Dina and Wanda opened their eyes again. Dina was back to being a baby Xweetok and Wanda was back to being a Faerie Bori.

     "Come on," said Wanda, "let's go."

     The family started heading out of Uni's Clothing, stopping at the counter to actually buy the clothes, and went out into the Neopian Bazaar.

     "So... where now?" Laura asked.

     Wanda looked around, and noticed the Gift Shop. "Do you think they sell wallpaper there...?"

     Laura groaned. "I told you, we are not getting new wallpaper."

     "Hey, it was just a random thought!" Wanda replied.

     Laura just chuckled, and they started heading towards the Toy Shop.

     * * * * *

     After a long time of shopping, the Songdream family finally ended up returning home to Vladimyr village.

     "Well, that was fun," Wanda said.

     "Yep." Laura nodded. "Wish we could do it more often."

     Dina looked around, then spotted something. She pointed. "Wuh!"

     Laura and Wanda looked where Dina had pointed, and were surprised at who they saw.

     "Hey, look! It's Aillira!" Wanda beamed. "Hey, Aillira!"

     Aillira turned and looked. "Oh yeah... you."

     "And you..." Laura said, "from the fortune telling booth... what was your name?"

     "Cindon," Cindon, who was next to Aillira, replied.

     "Oh yeah!" Laura said. "Sorry, I'm bad with names..."

     Wanda started walking toward Aillira and Cindon. "What are you doing here? Didn't the fair leave this morning?"

     "Well, you see..." Aillira started, "the fair host was a bit overconfident with how much money he had, and it turned out he was practically broke, so he had to get rid of some stuff he didn't need so much to keep under budget."

     "Sadly, we were that 'stuff he didn't need so much.'" Cindon sighed.

     "Wow, that's bad..." Wanda commented.

     "There's a lesson for you: never overestimate how much money you have." Laura sighed.

     "Uh-huh." Aillira nodded. "And now we're trying to figure out how to get back home."

     "We have a method, but we are currently awaiting a Gnorbu," Cindon said.

     Laura thought for a moment. "I suppose you could stay with us for a while."

     "Yeah." Wanda nodded. "We'd just have to--"

     "Laura!!"

     Wanda was interrupted by a voice. The group turned to look where the voice had come from, and they saw that it was Kiro.

     "Kiro? What is it?" Laura asked.

     "Sorry if I'm interrupting something..." Kiro panted heavily, "but something really weird's going on with Yollinda!"

To be continued...