Dreams: Part Five

"Are you going to stare at the clouds all day or get out?"

     "Huh?" I asked, looking around. We had already landed.

     "Oh, sorry," I said, opening the door that had just unlocked.

     When I got out and turned around, the Uni had already started flying down to get some more passengers. I turned back around to face Faerieland and I gasped in pure amazement.

     Instead of green grass or dirt ground as I was used to, soft, white clouds were seen for miles around. Buildings were everywhere, mostly in the center of Faerieland, which I assumed was Faerie City. All of the buildings were straight, tall, and so dazzling that they looked like giant crystals growing from the clouds.

     I had always wanted to go to Faerieland because of all the amazing tales I've heard about it. Unfortunately, Ranea and I didn't have enough neopoints to spend just to go sightseeing. But Faerieland was better than I ever imagined it would be.

     Faeries were everywhere; flying, walking, playing, and helping pets if they were lost or needed help. Pets were lining up at the Healing Springs and at the Wheel of Excitement. I ran over to the wheel to watch.

     A faerie Kiko was spinning the wheel. I watched it go around and around until it started to slow. It landed on the mystery prize. The light faerie in charge of the wheel gave the Kiko a bag of neopoints. He counted how many neopoints were in it, groaned, and then floated away.

     Several other pets tried it, but only a few got a good prize. As a pet walked away from the wheel looking miserable, the light faerie spotted me. She smiled and said, "Why don't you give it a try, little Aisha? It's only one hundred fifty neopoints."

     I blinked as everyone turned their head towards me. I checked my bag of neopoints. I had exactly enough left to spin the wheel. I hesitated, then nodded and stepped forward to hand the light faerie the neopoints.

     I pushed the wheel as hard as I could and it started spinning. I watched it, wondering what it would land on. I held my breath as it started to slow down. It nearly stopped at the Lava Ghoul and I closed my eyes, afraid to see what it would land on.

     Gasps came from the crowd behind me. I knew that what I got was very good or very bad. I opened my eyes. The needle had landed on the sign for…ten thousand neopoints! The best thing there was on the wheel!

     "Congratulations!" the light faerie said, bringing out a bag of neopoints nearly as large as me. She placed it in front of me as I wondered how I would carry it. I eventually decided and slung it over my shoulder.

     I dragged it wherever I walked, struggling to pull the bag, until an air faerie helped me by putting a spell on the bag to make it as light as air. After thanking her, I continued walking around, enjoying the sights. Since the Unis didn't come back until next morning, I had the rest of the day to explore.

     I lifted the bag and tossed it in the air, marveling at how light it was. Ten thousand neopoints was more than I had ever had to my name. I wondered what I would spend it on.

     I didn't even consider the Poogle Races since I hated luck and chance things. The odds always seemed against me whenever I tried. I decided to go to Faerie City and see what was there.

     * * * * *

     After an hour or two of looking around, it was nighttime and I walked back to the entrance of Faerieland. I crouched and looked down from the cloud Faerieland was sitting atop of. The ground was so far below and so many clouds were in the way that it looked like I was floating an endless length from the ground.

     I got back up and looked for the Rainbow Fountain. That was, of course, the reason I came to Faerieland, but in all my excitement of being in Faerieland, I had almost forgot. I found it quickly and headed towards it.

     I could hear the somewhat loud splashing of the Rainbow Fountain's water as I neared it. It was the only thing breaking the silence of the calm night in Faerieland. The Fountain Faerie was busy cleaning up her fountain, though to me it looked sparkling even in the darkness of the night.

     I could see Kreludor's reflection in the beautiful rainbow water. Red, orange, blue, green, yellow, and purple swirled around on the surface of the water yet no two colors ever mixed with each other.

     She looked up and saw me. "Hello, can I help you?" She squinted and looked closer at me. "Oh, it's you! It's almost impossible to see anything tonight. It's pretty dark. Anyway, I was wondering if you'd even come. What took you so long?"

     I shrugged. "I needed a good time to escape."

     "I see. Well just a second." The Fountain Faerie grabbed some of the water in her fountain and threw into the air. Then she pointed her hands towards the water that was now falling back towards her fountain. She then said some words that were too soft for me to hear.

     Suddenly the water falling through the air vanished and the Fountain Faerie's entire fountain lit up with golden light. It was so incredibly bright that I had to cover my eyes. When I moved my paws from my eyes moments later, the fountain was emitting a faint glow. Even the sloshing water looked as if it was shimmering.

     "It's so you can see what you're doing," the Fountain Faerie explained. "You don't want to have something life-changing to happen when you can't even see it yourself. And speaking of which, which color do you want to be?" she asked, but had a strange look on her face that made me think she already knew.

     "Cloud," I responded immediately. There's no other color I would ever rather be, even royal.

     The Fountain Faerie nodded. She chanted a spell and waved her hands towards the water and it started swirling at a very fast rate. The rainbow colors got blurry as I tried to tell them apart from each other. Soon, the water created an enormous cylindrical form, rising out of the fountain and towering above me.

     The Fountain Faerie clapped suddenly and the swirling mass of water scattered and dropped towards the ground or the fountain. They were shaped as raindrops except a thousand times bigger. But the strangest thing about them was their color.

     As they fell, I noticed that one was purple with orange spots on it, another was black and white, and another was dark blue with golden stars. They're paint brush colors! I thought, amazed.

     I looked at the Fountain Faerie and saw that her eyes were speedily searching the giant raindrops, looking for something. It looked like she had spotted whatever she was looking for because she pointed her finger at one and muttered a spell.

     I looked towards where she was pointing. One of the raindrops had frozen in midair, obviously by the Fountain Faerie's magic. It was too far away for me to see its color. It slowly started floating towards where the Fountain Faerie was sitting. It carefully evaded several globs of the strangely colored water falling from above it.

     Finally, it reached the Fountain Faerie and she gently laid it in her hands. It kept its raindrop shape even though it had stopped falling; probably thanks to her spell. She waited until all the water had dropped until turning to me. I noticed that the fountain's water had already filled back up but this time, the water was clear, with no sign of color.

     I turned to the Fountain Faerie who was still holding the giant raindrop in both her hands. It was now close enough to see its color. It was light blue with white blurs covering it. "Ready?"

     Before I could ask what she meant, she threw the cloud-colored water directly at my head. I yelped and closed my eyes, unable to move my arms fast enough to cover my face.

     Instead of feeling the cold wetness of the water, as I expected, I felt a warm, tingling sensation slowly cover my body. It lasted for several moments and when I opened my eyes again, the Fountain Faerie was in front of me, sitting in her fountain, smiling.

     I looked down at my paws. My fur was a light blue and white spots, shaped as clouds, were seen here and there on my new pelt. My dress had somehow grown from its size to fit me as a baby Aisha to a bigger size to fit me now. My white hair had grown so long it nearly touched the ground. The only thing that was strange was that instead of a normal golden 'A' on my neck, my bell remained.

     "So," the Fountain Faerie said, enjoying my amazement, "how do you like being painted cloud?"

The End

Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading! I worked on this for months and am glad I'm finally able to see it as my first Neopian Times entry. This is only part one of my story. I'm in the process of writing part two, but it might not be out in the Neopian Times for a while. Please neomail me with constructive criticism if you know how I could improve my story or just want to give some comments.