Roomies: Part One

      She was smiling evilly, sitting in her favorite throne by the fireplace. Staring at the burning embers, she couldn't help but think of her plans for Neopia world domination. Her plans were comforting in their own way, despite the fact that they had never worked; however, she wasn't focusing on her failures. Tonight, she was only thinking about the possibilities of the future.

      The fire twisted and turned to its own random rhythm, enticing yet steadily luring the dark faerie to sleep. As her eyelids drooped and her great leathery wings folded over her body, she couldn't help but think what a great life she had. She didn't notice the shadow that slowly was creeping over to her fireplace...

     ***

      Jhudora woke up to the smell of smoke. Jolting from her dream, she noticed that her lair (cloud and all) was being engulfed by giant red flames. Disheveled, she got up from her throne wobbly and ran to fetch her wand, coughing and choking on the billowing black smoke. She found it on the table besides an issue of the Neopian Times which was open on a article about plushies. However, her wand was seared and blackened, threatening to turn to ash at the very touch. Debating what to do, she paused for a moment. Suddenly, a wave of fire grew in front of her. Startled, she quickly picked up her wand. It had enough power to perform one last spell and when she waved it in a desperate flourish, gallons upon gallons of water erupted from the tip, extinguishing the flames.

      Once the fire was gone, Jhudora's wand crumpled into dust in her fingers. Looking around her destroyed home, she found almost nothing salvageable. The walls were destroyed and stained permanently black, the table was nothing but firewood, and without her wand, she only had enough power to fly and levitate small objects. Sitting down in her throne (which was remarkably unharmed for the most part), she stared at the mirror that hung over the fireplace. The cracks on it looked like spider webs, however, she could catch the image of herself. She was coated in ash, her face was flecked with sweat from the heat, and her clothes were black and limp. Stretching out her wings, she noticed that a few parts of it were smoking and grey. Crinkling them together on her back, she sat down in her throne, feeling angry and defeated.

      "What am I going to do?" she muttered darkly. "Blasted fire! Now I have no lair, no wand and not even a cloud over my own head! All my years of planning and plotting and I never even had a plan if there was such a stupid mishap as a fire!"

      Getting up from her chair frustrated, Jhudora began to spread her wings, ready to fly to clear her mind and get away from the horrific sight that used to be her lair. However, before she could catch a gust of air to take a flight, a small crowd of neopets came into view from the gates of the bordering city. She watched them curiously, until she noticed that they were heading towards her. Once they were a few feet away, they hesitated, afraid of the dark faerie. Getting impatient, Jhudora called out, "Well, what are you all looking at? Can't a faerie go outside for a few moments and not be gawked at by some neopets?"

      "S-so sorry, Jh-hudora," stuttered a male Aisha with small black spectacles. Nervously he approached her.

      "What do you want?" she screamed.

      Taken aback, the Aisha straightened his spectacles and said, "Jhudora, we of the Neohome Planning Committee would like to re-remind you that your insurance covers for the h-house. We saw smoke and... well...was the fire accidental?"

      "Of course!" Jhudora bellowed. "What faerie would set fire to her own house?"

      "Well..." the Aisha mumbled. "If we start construction tomorrow, the house should be rebuilt by next week and you wouldn't have to leave Faerieland. And if my calculations are right..." he said, pulling out a notepad and checking his math, "all of your furniture will be replaced by the end of the Month of Sleeping."

      Jhudora looked around. The air was harsh and cold and the Month of Sleeping had just begun. "Well," Jhudora said, staring at him with her dark eyes. "Where am I supposed to live until then? Do you expect me to stay outside and freeze?!"

      "No, no!" he said quickly. "We have willing faeries who will let you into their homes until the job is done. You will only live with them for a month and it will cost you nothing. Everything is covered."

      Looking at the remainder of her house, Jhudora turned to the Aisha. "Fine," she spat. "What other choice do I have..." And with a final look at her old home, she opened her wings and took flight into the frosty air.

     ***

      The next morning, Jhudora was sorting out her living arrangements with the Aisha, Jim. He was a very busy neopet, working in the Neohome Planning Committee; however, Jhudora had demanded a meeting with him and no one ever refuses Jhudora.

      However, the meeting was very short and was held at the site of her old home. Pre-occupied with his other clients, Jim just handed her a piece of paper from his notepad with the name and address of the faerie who would be her roommate scribbled on it. Then, without warning, Jhudora spread her wings and flew to the address.

      The faerie's name was Jesc and lived on the other side of Faerieland. Flying to her future home for the next month, Jhudora hoped that she got someone good. As Jhudora saw her destination, however, she couldn't help but groan.

      It was the Faerie Academy. The illustrious school was a famous academy that every budding faerie attended. Divided into six sections (air, water, earth, fire, light and dark), the school taught faeries the arts of their powers and how to use them wisely. Jhudora had gone to the school many years back; however, after a few "incidents", she had been expelled.

      Looking at the academy as she flew towards it, Jhudora muttered to herself, "Please let Jesc be a dark faerie, please let Jesc be a dark faerie." However, she had a feeling that Jesc was not going to be like her at all.

      Landing on the neatly trimmed grass, Jhudora looked up at the tall castle. There was a main building and six tall towers made of white stone and all flying the school's purple flag. Tall wooden doors were the entrance and completed the fine-tuned look. Jhudora couldn't help but gag.

      Walking through the doors, however, Jhudora was met with a surprise. This one was unpleasant. Sitting in the secretary's desk was a fire faerie. Her hair was auburn with a few specks of gray and was tied up in a tight bun. Her sharp eyes, however, were hidden behind small pointy glasses. Jhudora recognized the strict faerie right away. It was Mrs. Pierce.

      Looking up, the fire faerie spotted Jhudora. "Well, well," she said coldly. "Finally decided to come back here to finish your studies. Or maybe to wreak more havoc upon this school, young lady?"

      "Nice to see you, too," Jhudora said sarcastically, ignoring Mrs. Pierce's last remark. "And no. I'm not here to finish my 'faerie training' in this school. I'm looking for Jesc."

      A confused look appeared on Mrs. Pierce's face but then realization hit her. "Oh. So you're the faerie who was irresponsible enough to burn down her own cloud." Shaking her head she said, "If you had only paid attention in my class, Proper Uses of Magical Abilities, then maybe you wouldn't be back here. However, I can see now that you are an incompetent fool that can't even-"

      "I AM NOT INCOMPETENT!" Jhudora shouted, causing some of the papers of the desk to fall to the floor.

      Using her wand, Mrs. Pierce casually waved it and the papers re-stacked themselves on her desk. Sniffing snootily, she then said, "That temper won't get you anywhere. No wonder you're a failure." She then continued with her paperwork, calm yet cold.

      Jhudora was about to scream, however, but she knew that shouting would be useless. Anger was pouring out of her and the lights in the main hall were flickering. Searching her pocket, she reached for her wand, but found only the ashen remains. Breathing deeply she muttered, "Where is Jesc?"

      Mrs. Pierce looked at her with an air of smugness and satisfaction. "The fourth tower, room 458," she said. As soon as it came out of her mouth, however, Jhudora turned to her right and headed down the long circular hall, not bothering to look back at the scowling teacher.

      Looking down the hallway, Jhudora tried to remember how the school was set up. As a dark faerie, she had been in the sixth tower, however, she couldn't remember what type of faeries were in the fourth tower. Besides tower six, the only other tower she could remember was tower five for light faeries. (She knew that because she and her friends would constantly play jokes on the light faeries in the neighboring tower.)

      As the first tower approached, Jhudora realized that she was just going to have to wait and see what tower four held for her. Suddenly, however, Jhudora stepped in a puddle of water. Using her wings, she hovered in the air and looked to her right where there was a spiral staircase up to the first tower. Water was dripping off the stone steps and Jhudora realized that it was the water faerie tower. Water faeries were normally quiet and in Jhudora's opinion, just plain boring. She never dealt with water faeries while she was at school. They were too smart to be in the same classes with her anyway.

      Jhudora continued to fly until the ground was dry, however, once she landed she saw the second tower. It looked exactly like the first except this one wasn't soaking, but had vines twisting on the stair railing. With a glare, Jhudora remembered that this was the earth faerie tower, home to her "favorite" faerie, Illusen.

      Back in school, she and Illusen had the strangest relationship. Most people believe that they had always been mortal enemies, but in their first year at the academy, they were inseparable. They did everything together. Same classes, same parties. Illusen even helped Jhudora with a few light faerie pranks. However, during the summer, everything changed. Jhudora was sent to live with her great-aunt Kryta who was an evil faerie intent on destroying all of Neopia. Jhudora soaked in her every word and when she came back to school, she was forever changed. She and Illusen then began their long relationship as foes. (It didn't last long in the school, however. Two months into her second year, Jhudora was expelled.)

      Jhudora shook the memory out of her head and continued walking. After a few minutes, she noticed that her feet were getting warm. Her shoes had been burned in the fire at her home and as she walked barefoot through the castle, her feet eventually began to sting. A tower with a staircase loomed up ahead of her. Tower three was the fire faerie tower.

      Running quickly (her feet were getting scorched), Jhudora made her way to her destination, the fourth tower. In other words, the air faerie tower. There was a cool breeze radiating from the staircase and placing her hand on the cold stair railing, Jhudora walked up the spiral steps.

      Every few steps, a door would appear and it was like that for a few minutes. The tower consisted of a giant staircase and had 100 rooms stacked on top of one another. Jesc was in room 458 so it took a while to get there. Jhudora was tempted to fly up, but the tower was too narrow and her wingspan was much too large. Finally, after a tiring climb, she made it to Jesc's dorm.

      Jhudora wasn't the type of faerie who would knock on someone's door, so she barged in, flinging the door open with such force that the stone wall cracked. The inside, however, was far from what Jhudora had expected.

      When Jhudora had stayed in the castle with her friends, the walls were dark and dank and had dimly lit sconces that barely illuminated their faces. They had slept in small, cold beds with thin sheets, so that they were freezing all the time, and the wooden floor was burned back from the trial and errors of practicing magic. This room, however, was light and bright. Two large, comfortable beds were to Jhudora's right, filled to the brim with plushies. A coffee table between two blue couches was littered with school books a bit further in. There was even a small kitchen that had wind chimes all over the ceiling so that when a breeze blew in a from the large window on the left, there would be a light, tinkling sound. Underneath the window, however, there was a desk littered with papers and small keepsakes and sitting in the desk was a young air faerie.

      The air faerie had dirty blond hair that was hastily thrown back into a hair clip and a faerie pen was behind her ear. She wore a purple dress that was tied with a ribbon around her waist and she was holding a book in her left hand. At the sound of the intruder she stood up quickly, grasping her wand with her free hand and knocking papers of her desk, but once she saw Jhudora, she gave a sign of relief.

      "Hi!" she said in an excited, pleasant and high voice. "I'm Jesc! Nice to finally meet you, Jhudora!"

      Jhudora caught sight of the book in Jesc's hand. It was entitled Dark Faeries, Are They Truly Evil Or Just Misunderstood? Jhudora then turned and looked at Jesc using her vilest glare; however, Jesc seemed unfazed. In fact, she seemed even happier if possible.

      "Oh my gosh!" she said jumping up and down. "I am sooooo excited you're here! This is my second year at the academy, but I've still never had a roomie..."

      "Roomie?" Jhudora asked.

      "A roommate!" Jesc said, defining it for her. She then continued on, talking very fast and excitedly."And I was so unhappy that I didn't have a roomie, but one day I went into my Help Out Neopia class with Miss Nell and I just knew that something special was going to happen! And there was this list saying that a faerie had lost her cloud! I was so sad that I started crying in the middle of class. I know, how embarrassing!" she added to Jhudora who had been glaring at her the entire time.

      "Anyway," she continued, "I signed the paper, but then..." she whispered her voice getting low. "I realized that I was going to be roomies with not just any faerie, but Jhudora herself! So I went over to Miss Nell and said, 'Is this right?' and she said 'yeah', but I said, 'are you sure?' and she said 'positive' and then I said..."

      "Will you stop all that jabbering!" Jhudora shouted, losing her patience.

      "Well sorry," Jesc said a little annoyed. Then, with a shrug she said, "The book warned me about dark faerie tempers. Their just as bad as those mischievous fire faeries in the next tower. They are ALWAYS playing tricks on me! Like just yesterday they..."

      "SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Jhudora cried. Then looking straight into Jesc's eyes she snarled, "Listen. I do NOT want to be in this academy, but seeing that my home is burnt to a crisp and my wand is fried, I have to be stuck with you for about a month. But I am NOT going to spend my time hanging out with a happy little air faerie! Now just show me where I will sleep and then just LEAVE ME ALONE!"

      Jesc looked at Jhudora strangely, however, she didn't show fear, anger, hate or sorrow. It was a confused look, like Jesc was trying to figure Jhudora out. Then with a shrug she said happily, "You'll sleep in this bed and I'll be right here," and then she turned around and sat down in her desk. Humming to herself, she picked up another book from a pile on the floor, (this one entitled Illusions and Images), and began to read it eagerly.

      Jhudora rolled her eyes and plopped herself on the bed, crushing a Red Ixi Plushie. Then she muttered, "Only four weeks, only four weeks...."

To be continued...