Nyla's Embroidery: Part One

      "Good to see you, Nyla, but what I still don't understand is why you don't use those pretty faerie wings of yours to just fly to Neopia Central, eh?" he said.

      Nyla smiled back. "Well, painted pets aren't exactly welcome at the Money Tree, even if you just take almost useless wool like me, and my clothing is too heavy to carry that far."

      "Well, why don't you swim to Neopia Central? I mean, you were a Peophin last time I checked!" suggested Captain Jack.

      "She ain't no regular Peophin, Jack! She's got faerie wings; she can't swim with them!" growled an Eyrie on board.

      Jack frowned. "Well, I guess I didn't think of that."

      The three passengers on the Silver Snarhook rode the rest of the way to Neopia Central in silence after that. When they reached their destination, Nyla bade them farewell, told them to be back in about an hour, and made her way to the Money Tree. She came to the Money Tree at night for three reasons:

     1. Not as many people were there at night to steal the stuff;

     2. It was the time that all of the Neopians donated their junk, which included wool;

     3. Since she had to hide her faerie wings, the dark hid her purple colour, and since it was colder, she had an excuse to wear more clothes to hide her wings and lavender fur.

      Nyla filled the plain wooden bowl that she had brought in her pocket with as many pieces of wool as she could, then set off towards the Shop Wizard to buy a Grackle Bug on a stick and a new bottle of Peophin nail polish; her sister Kaila, a baby Usul who loved to make trouble, had spilled her whole bottle of it last night.

      She returned home on the ferry and immediately began to drill a hole in one end of the stick from the Grackle Bug to make a needle, then asked her owner to make the wool into thread, just like after last time she went to Neopia Central. She grabbed her hoop, stuck her other sister, Zini's, denim coveralls through it, grabbed her new needle and leftover thread, and began to embroider.

      Nyla's embroidery is extremely beautiful. The pictures she stitches seem to come to life on the fabric. Rowzez and other flowers, faeries, pets, and anything else you can think of, she can stitch them all. She embroidered happy faces and Rowzez onto the fuzzy pink blanket Kaila had used when she had the Jitters; she had embroidered flying faeries onto the scarf she wore to Neopia Central; she had embroidered many of Anya's, her royal Uni sister, fancy dancing dresses, and she had embroidered countless flowers onto all of Zini's, her white Kacheek sister, gardening clothes, and many other items in their Neohome. Everyone in her family envied and loved her embroidery, but everyone in Neoschool called her weird, because almost no pet in Neopia embroidered. Now, they had seen her embroidery, on her backpack, on her clothes, and on her sisters' clothes, and even though it was beautiful, they still called her names.

      "Nyla, can you embroider the Meridellian countryside onto my sky blue gown that I am wearing to the royal ball in Meridell to celebrate the Discovery of Meridell? Please? They are holding a best dressed contest and first prize is 5,000 Neopoints! I really want to win, and you have such beautiful embroidery! Pleeease?" begged Anya.

      "Of course I will. Are you going to be dancing there?" asked Nyla.

      "Well, yeah. Remember what I told you the other day?" said Anya. "I am ROYAL Uni, so don't you think that I should go to a ROYAL ball and dance, like real royalty?"

      "Oh, right. Well, I will start right on your dress. Zini's coveralls can wait!" Nyla smiled.

      "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Nyla! I will be sure to win with the dress you embroider!" Anya gave her sister a quick hug, and danced away. Anya had been dancing ever since their owner had painted her royal. She said that since real royalty could dance, she should be able to dance, too, just in case she was a long lost princess or something. The last part was a joke, but she still loved to dance.

      Nyla gathered her embroidery supplies and made her way out to their Neogarden to embroider the gown, where her sister, Zini, who loved gardening, was working with their songflowers.

      "How are you doing, Nyla? Did you finish my coveralls? I need them so that I don't get any dirt on my white fur!"

      "Sorry, Zini, Anya needs me to embroider the countryside onto her gown for this Sunday's Discovery of Meridell ball. Once I finish that, I promise that I will start on your coveralls. Sorry again," said Nyla.

      "Oh, that's okay. I don't really need my coveralls embroidered; I just need to put them on!"

     They both grinned, and then went back to embroidering and gardening.

      ~ ~ ~

      Fyora had a problem. Not a huge one, but a rapidly growing one. It was the month of Hiding, and the Faerie Festival was coming up fast. The problem was, most of the faeries had their clothing ready, but most of the more famous ones, like her, Illusen, Baelia, Ember, and Nereid, didn't. They had searched shops far and wide across Neopia, but had found nothing. All of the clothing merchants they had spoken to hadn't had any gowns in, let alone any they wanted when the merchants described the ones that they could specially make for them. As Fyora left Faerieland and flew over Meridell, she noticed a beautiful Faerie Peophin sewing something onto a gown in a Neogarden. Hmm, she thought, I think I just found where my gowns are coming from.

           ~ ~ ~

      Zini had left the garden long ago, and Nyla was so engrossed in her embroidery that she didn't even notice when Fyora landed right in front of her and said hello three times. Eventually, Fyora put a hand on what Nyla was embroidering and she looked up, startled.

      "I see you like what you are doing, whatever it is. What is your name, and what are you doing?" asked Fyora.

      Nyla just sat there for a moment, then stood up and curtsied.

      "My lady, Queen Fyora, my name is Nyla, and I am embroidering."

      "Call me Fyora, Nyla, please. Your sewing, embroidery, is very beautiful, so beautiful that I would like to ask you to embroider a few dresses for me and some other faeries for the Faerie Festival. Would you, Nyla?" asked the queen.

      "Of course, Fyora, though you will have to wait one week, for I have two other projects to do, if that is alright."

      "Oh, that is alright, Nyla, but I have one request: you pack your bags and come live in the castle with me while you finish the gowns."

      Nyla just gaped at Fyora. HER in the CASTLE? Nyla WAS a faerie pet, so she would fit right in, but in the castle with the beautiful faeries? Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined living in the castle! And what about Neoschool? She would miss a whole month of it if she stayed in Faerieland!

      "May I talk this over with my sisters and owner first, Fyora? I would like to know what they think about this," asked Nyla.

      "Of course, Dear, but I hope you will come to stay with me."

      Nyla nodded. They said good-bye and went their separate ways. Nyla continued to embroider until the light was beginning to fade and her owner called her in for dinner. They were soon joined by Nyla's best friend Nala, a baby Peophin. Nyla had invited her earlier that day. They all had Kacheek cheese burgers, except for Zini because she refused to eat anything in the shape of her own head. She had a tangy Peophin burger, just to get back at them. As they were eating their lime jelly dessert, Nyla brought up the topic of going to Faerieland for a month or so. Her owner froze.

      "WHAT???" screeched their owner. "You? Alone? In FAERIELAND?"

      This was not going well. Eventually, Nyla's owner calmed down enough to let her go on one condition: she had to be tutored for the month of Neoschool she would miss. Nyla agreed to this, and hoped that it would be alright with Fyora, although none of it mattered to her right now; she was going to Faerieland!

To be continued...