Selina and the Rainbow

     However, for one particular light faerie, today would not be just any regular day.

     As the sunlight crept through the window of Selina's room, her body slowly struggled to be conscious, and finally she opened her eyes. Still sleepy, she stretched, yawned, and with a jolt, realized what today was.

     Today was the day she turned fifteen, but that was not any regular birthday for a faerie. The day a young faerie aged fifteen years was the day she was accepted into adult faerie society.

     Selina scrambled to get out of bed, suddenly feeling wide awake. She took great care to comb her long, golden hair, and changed into her best, dainty yellow dress. She had to make the best impression for Fyora's representatives, who would dub her an official citizen of Faerieland, meaning she was an adult. After all, if she ever wanted to meet Fyora (which happened to be one of her ultimate fantasies), she had to start somewhere.

     After eating a light breakfast of Enchanting Strawberry Cereal, Selina, her mother, and her little sister Lilith were off to Faerie City.

     Lilith, who had never been to Faerie City before, was chatting away happily to no one in particular.

     "You know what I heard, huh?" she exclaimed. "What I heard is that if you post ten times on the neoboards, and then you go to the faerie bookshop, you get ten faerie paint brushes! Isn't that cool? Huh, huh, huh? Don't you think that's cool?!"

     "Lilith," her mother said, sounding exasperated. "Have you ever tried that?"

     "Nope," Lilith said. "But I wanna! I will soon, you wanna see?"

     "Don't try it," her mother advised. "You'll only get into trouble. It doesn't work."

     Lilith wasn't fazed. "But you know what else I heard, huh? Do ya? What I heard is that when you get a faerie quest from this fire faerie..." On and on she continued.

     Meanwhile, Selina was letting her imagination flow freely. In her mind she saw Queen Fyora, who had come all the way from her magnificent tower in the sky (where Selina had heard she lived) to dub Selina, in person, a citizen, and to give her an honorable, royal award for some heroic, wonderful deed Selina had done, which happened to save all of the faeries from death, destruction and starvation. Yes, that was Selina's ultimate fantasy, to be a heroine of her fellow faeries, and of all the faerie neopets that lived in Faerieland. Or something of the sort.

     *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

     As the group of three walked on, it occurred to Selina that Lilith's dreamy expectations of Faerie City were not being fulfilled.

     "Oh, look, a puffy cloud! It looks just like a miamouse, doesn't it?" Lilith had been saying. But, now, she started pointing out other things. "But look there. That earth faerie looks sad. Hmm, let's guess what she's saying to that other faerie. Aren't adult faeries supposed to be happy? Mommy, are you happy? How come they're not happy?"

     Selina's mother didn't seem to know what to say. "Maybe she's having a bad day, dear. Let her be."

     Selina, however, was curious. She knew that earth faerie well; she was the shopkeeper of Faerie Foods, and she and Selina chatted all the time. The other faerie was a library faerie. Selina did not know her but she recognized her as the shopkeeper of the Faerieland Bookshop.

     "Mother, I need to talk to that earth faerie over there," Selina said. "I know her."

     Without waiting for a response, Selina headed straight to her earth faerie friend.

     "Claudia," Selina said. "Are you okay?"

     Selina's friend, Claudia, sniffed heavily and said squeakily, "Faerieland..." - she sniffed again - "is in grave" - sniff - "danger, I'm afraid."

     Alarmed, Selina said, "Grave danger?"

     "It's Balthazar," Claudia said. "He's making a great attack. Capturing-" Her voice broke, and she sniffed again.

     Claudia's friend, the library faerie, said, "Faeries. Capturing faeries left and right. We don't know what to do. We think he's trying to start a massive capture or something. Maybe to capture all of the faeries. We don't know!"

     Selina's jaw dropped in horror. "A massive capture?!" she exclaimed. "How many so far? Do you know?"

     "We aren't sure," the library faerie said. "But we think at least a few hundred."

     "Has he bottled them yet?" Selina asked.

     "No. He has them all in a great net."

     "They can't escape without outside help?"

     "It seems so."

     Selina stopped, thinking. How could she help without being captured herself?

     "I have an idea!" she exclaimed.

     "What?" Claudia and the library faerie asked.

     "Well, it's not quite fool-proof yet," Selina said hesitantly. "But... We could gather up all of the faeries... left, that is."

     "And?" Claudia said.

     "Well, we could confuse Balthazar," Selina said. "A bunch of faeries could fly around his face, distract him. And one of us could open the net while he isn't paying attention. Do you think it's possible?"

      Claudia and the library faerie both thought for a moment.

     "I think we could do it," the library faerie said slowly, still thinking. "The only problem is, how would we get all the faeries together? Without Balthazar noticing, I mean."

     "Go around and tell them ourselves, I guess," Claudia contributed. "We could tell them to all pass around the word."

     "Yeah!" Selina said enthusiastically.

     "Look, Joanne and I will go spread the word," Claudia said, indicating herself and the library faerie. "You meet the faeries who come to help at the Employment Agency."

     They agreed.

     By this time Selina's mother and Lilith had gotten bored of waiting for Selina to return to them, and came over to see what was going on.

     "Selina, what are you doing?" her mother asked.

     "Mother, we're going to save Faerieland!" Selina said.

     "From what?" her mother said.

     "Balthazar is attempting to capture all of the faeries! We are going to let them loose," Claudia said.

     Selina's mother stared. "Balthazar... wha?" she asked, unable to comprehend so much information at once.

     "We told you, Mother," Selina said. "Now, please, we are rounding up the remaining faeries to help us! Please pass around the word that we need their help! Tell them to meet us in front of the Employment Agency."

     The decision was made. While Claudia and Joanne set off in opposite directions, Selina headed straight to the Employment Agency, hand in hand with Lilith.

     "Selina," Lilith said babyishly. "What'a you guys doing?"

     "We're saving the faeries from Balthazar," Selina said, not quite paying attention. She was skimming the horizon for any approaching faeries. So far, she did not see any that looked like they were headed for the Employment Agency, as they were.

     "Balthy?" Lilith asked. "I like the name. Balthy, balthy, balthy... Balthy needs to take a bathy! He smells, hahaha! Balthy needs to take a bathy, hahaha!"

     "Lilith, ssh," Selina said as she stopped in front of the agency's great building. "We're waiting for faeries here."

     Lilith continued to sing and ask silly questions while Selina paid no attention to her, waiting, impatiently, for the arrival of her helpers.

     *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

     After what seemed like hours, but was really only about 45 minutes, Joanne and a huge multi-colored rainbow appeared across the horizon. As they approached, Selina realized what that rainbow was. It was hundreds of faeries, darkness faeries, light faeries, earth, fire, water and air faeries. Little patches of red, blue, yellow, purple, and green showed groups of one element that was sticking together.

     "Joanne!" Selina exclaimed. "Look! - Wow! - You - You got so many followers!" Selina stuttered.

     Joanne was grinning broadly. "Yeah! I counted. There's three hundred fourty two."

     "Wow! This is great!" Selina said. "Have you seen Claudia or my mom?"

     "Yeah, I saw your mom. I couldn't believe it," Joanne said. "She had at least double what I have."

     "Amazing," Selina said. "This is just great. I've got a plan. I'll tell you all when they've arrived."

     In another ten minutes, Selina's mom and Claudia arrived in two big groups. Three smaller groups of air, darkness and water faeries had formed by themselves, with a few earth faeries that had been lingering behind.

     Selina called for attention of the group, and by doing so, unintentionally appointed herself leader.

     "My fellow faeries," Selina began importantly. "As you all know, Faerieland is being attacked by our greatest enemy, Balthazar. He has already captured many, but our force is greater then his, and I believe we can stop him. We must stop him."

     Claudia called out, "A thousand! We have a thousand one hundred fifteen faeries."

     A collective gasp was uttered from the crowd.

     "Well, we've certainly gotten off to a good start," Selina continued. "Thanks Claudia. Now, citizens or minors, young or old, light or dark, earth or air, water or fire, we must unite to form one. If we do not, we have no hope. Most of us will probably be captured. Now, I'm not saying this won't be dangerous. It very well could be. But we must try. If we don't, there's no hope. Now, who's with me?"

     Claudia, Joanne and Selina's mother clapped vigorously. Lilith joined in for the sake of clapping. The crowd soon joined in. Applause started in little ripples, but they then all joined in to create a strong thunder of delicate, petite faerie hand against faerie hand.

     Acknowledging support, Selina announced her plan. "What we must do is distract Balthazar. While a cloud of faeries fly about his head, another group must untie his net and release the captives. We may be smaller and weaker, but we are smarter and greater in number. We have the potential to save Faerieland!"

     Applause started up again. Selina continued. "If you were chosen by this light faerie here," she said, indicating her mother, "then you will be the group to distract Balthazar. If you were chosen by Claudia or Joanne, you will be the group to untie. Claudia, Joanne and my mother will supervise their groups, and I will supervise as a whole."

     Hundreds of tiny, pale heads nodded up and down, multi-colored hair creating a wave effect.

     "There's nothing more to be said," Selina concluded. "Let's set off for the Wheel of Excitement, where Balthazar was last seen."

     Selina and the rainbow were off. Soon, they could see Balthazar in the distance. Being much smaller, Selina hoped he could not see them.

     "Faeries!" Selina said. "Now is the time. Split up into your groups. When I count to three, we all head toward our destinations."

     The faeries split up their groups of the elements and mixed into a mosaic of color.

     "One."

     "Two."

     "Three!"

     All at once, hundreds of faeries flew a quarter as fast as sound, charging at Balthazar's head, or the net that lay on the ground beneath him.

     His head soon became invisible, surrounded by an enormous cloud of color, faeries banging into his head, avoiding his grasping claws, buzzing around his face.

     Another group of faeries were working quickly to untie the net. Selina rushed over to help after making sure Balthazar would not be attentive to his net anytime soon.

     "Pull this loop," Selina advised. "You hold this, and here, you pull this." The knot came out easily.

     Another rainbow emerged from the net.

     Selina screamed over the chaos of distracting Balthazar, "RUN!!!!!"

     The faeries all looked up at once, and as their brains processed the order, they all scampered, leaving Balthazar scratched, scraped, confused and faerie-less.

     Once safely away from Balthazar, the faeries were still flying along, when suddenly, they stopped. Selina, who had made sure no faerie were left behind, was in the back of the group, and did not see what caused the stop.

     Whispers of "Selina," "Fyora," "Fifteen," "Heroine," and "Saved Faerieland," traveled through the crowd, which was much bigger than before.

     Selina's mother made her way through the crowd, and when she found Selina, she gave her a big hug and a kiss. "Selina, you're a heroine!" she said proudly, smiling broadly. "Come," she said, and pulled Selina gently back through the crowd, to the front.

     Admiring gazes followed Selina through the crowd, and when she emerged from the crowd at the front, she gasped half gasped with surprise and laughed in pleasure. All of the famous faeries Selina ever knew were right there, in front of her. There was Illusen, smiling proudly, the Space Faerie, Jhudiah, Taelia wrapped up in her coat, as usual, even though it was so warm, the Grey Faerie, looking sad but happy at the same time, and even Jhudora! She was looking grumpy, but nevertheless, she was there. But as Selina stared at her idols, she couldn't help noticing the absence of someone... her greatest idol of all...

     Just at that moment, before Selina could even say hello to the faeries, a great lavender cloud appeared in the sky. Many faeries in the crowd pointed. The cloud came closer, and closer, until it was right next to the crowd. A few puffs of cloud formed a staircase and a magnificent, beautiful faerie stepped gracefully down them.

     "Selina," the Queen of the Faeries said.

     Selina gaped.

     Fyora laughed sweetly. "My dear, there is much to be said. Close your mouth and we'll address this crowd together, shall we?"

     Selina closed her mouth quickly, and stuttered, "Y-ye-yes!"

     Fyora smiled at her and then turned to the crowd. "My good people," she started. "Citizens and children of Faerieland. Today is truly a remarkable day. Today may have started off dreadfully, but it truly ended greatly. In the midst of a crisis, all of you came to help. You came together in the time of need to save the lives of your fellow faeries. It did not matter whether you were fighting alongside an earth faerie, a water faerie, a dark faerie. Just because your element was air, fire or light, did it mean anything to you? You were all too concerned with helping to even stop to think about whether this was normal or not. Do you see? On a normal day, a faerie of an element stays with the same, never varying. Today, we have broken the bonds of segregation, have saved Faerieland and have brought together a wonderful city of all different colors." Fyora placed her arm gently around Selina. "Do you know who made this happen?" she asked. "It was this little light faerie, right here. Why, she's not even a citizen yet."

     Many in the crowd looked impressed.

     "In fact, today is her fifteenth birthday, the day of her acceptance of citizenship. Today she will become an honored adult, to be a member of the Supreme Council of Faerieland. Do you think this is a reasonable thank-you?"

     The crowd whooped and cheered.

     "Selina, shall we have the ceremony now?"

     Selina nodded dumbly. Was this actually happening to her?

     *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

     Outside Selina's bedroom window, smiling Cirrus clouds floated along happily and birds sang their sweet songs.

     Slowly Selina woke up. Smiling to herself, she slipped on a long, flowing dress decorated with flowers.

     When she came downstairs to eat breakfast, her mother said to her, "Are you ready for your first day of being a faerie council member?"

     "I am," Selina said confidently. Any job where she could talk to Fyora on a daily basis, while helping Faerieland, was the job for her.

     While walking to work, Selina didn't notice the lack of knit-tight groups of faeries of one element. She didn't notice the unusual presence of mixed groups, dark faeries with light, earth with air, water with fire, or any other combinations. This was the way things were supposed to be. It wasn't unnatural.

The End