The Faerie Dilemma: Part Two

      The big, lavender doors felt heavy against her paws as she pushed against them, hoping that the Queen hadn’t gotten into some meeting while she’d been retrieving information. That would mean that she herself would have to wait behind the faerie for hours until the topic of conversation was discussed and settled.

      “Amaida, come in,” said a low voice steeped in the sound of authority.

      She swallowed deeply and entered the room, having to tug on her robes a little to keep them from being shut in the massive doors. The brilliance of the room would’ve blinded most pets, but she’d been living in Faerieland for a few years now, and she’d adjusted to it, not even having to blink against the glare.

      “I have the information you requested, Your Majesty,” Amaida said, bowing low.

      “Good. Now hand it here.”

      The Queen took the papers gently—as always—out of her paws, and began sifting quickly through them. Her eyes darted like buzzes from one line to the next, and it was only moments before she found what she was looking for. They were set down on the table, and the next thing she knew, two very serious lavender eyes were staring intently at her face.

      “I need you to go down to Neopia, Amaida, I have an urgent mission for you,” said the faerie, leaning towards her. “You have to search for something that is lost and very precious to me called the Sylkonum. I suggest you interview a young Eyrie living on Chia Close and go from there. Once you find the item, press a button on this chain.”

      Queen Fyora handed Amaida a small locket that held a small red button inside. The Kougra quickly took it and hooked it around her neck.

      “Excuse me, Highness,” she said quietly, shaking in her fur. “What makes you think I can do this mission?”

      The wise purple eyes nearly filled the poor Kougra’s vision.

      “I don’t know, Amaida. You tell me.”

      ~*~

      “So this is your room, Nolion?”

      The big starry Eyrie looked at his ex-owner, Rajani, as if he wouldn’t see her ever again, thousands of questions burning on his tongue. Where had she gone? Why was she here? Why didn’t she take him with her? She still looked like the old owner he had known, with the same skin, hair, and even the same jacket, which smelled like it’d been recently cleaned. Yet an odd feeling stole through him. There was something different about her, he just couldn’t tell why.

      “D-do you like it?” he asked, stumbling over his own words. He felt awkward, like a newly-created neopet, and he had no idea what to say to please somebody he didn’t even live with anymore.

      “It’s alright!” said the girl cheerfully as she looked at the items strewn around the room. However, in a little more of a thoughtful voice, she said, “It’s definitely not what your room used to be like.”

      Before his ex-owner had left him in the pound, Nolion had a massive room of his own with toys galore in a huge net, a large CD player for the music CDs he’d gotten at the concert hall, and loads of books to read. They didn’t have the most money back then, but they’d made do with things, and Nolion had enjoyed his life.

      Now he had toys shoved under his bed, several CDs but nothing to play them in, and he was required to clean his own room every day. There was even an omelette on the dresser that he’d forgotten to finish on the previous night. Nolion didn’t like having to clean up his huge messes right before bed, so every time he took something out, he put it back.

      Only he hadn’t had the time to do so last night, so they were both looking at a mess.

      “This is great and all, Nolion,” she said, looking down at him, “but I came here to ask you if you want to come back and live with me,” she said suddenly, and looked down at him. “I know I left you in the pound, but you couldn’t have come with me. Please come back?”

      The starry Eyrie didn’t know what to say. This was his owner! Or, at least, his old one... He owed her his undying loyalty! A ‘yes’ crawled around on the tip of his tongue, threatening to break free. Only he couldn’t open his beak, because something held him back. The memory of when he first saw Booville and Naellie bubbled to the forefront of his mind, and the smile on the Kyrii’s face when she realized she’d become her favorite color.

      Nolion let out a slow breath. He knew the answer to the decision he had to make. There was only one answer.

      “I can’t. I have a family now that needs me.”

      ~*~

      The wind held her up in the air as the Kougra glided, her mind puzzled. Did Fyora know who she really was? Did she know about the quest she’d gone on several years ago? Amaida had taken the job secretly hoping that Fyora would remember her, even though it’d been thousands of years for the Queen, but ever since the beginning she’d been given the same gaze as everybody else that worked in the palace, she’d given up hope.

      However, since Fyora had spoken to her like that, right before she had to leave, she’d been a little confused, thoughts running through her head like, ‘she had to know...’ and ‘but if she did, why would she...’ Amaida felt like her head was about to burst.

      She lowered herself a little and touched a paw to the clouds, remembering how she had once longed to touch the misty things so bad, she would leap off of her bed, hoping against hope that she would gain wings. How ironic was it to know, that doing so had actually gotten her this beautiful coat?

      It’d also given her some more dreams, almost as impossible as her first one.

      I must be nearing Neopia Central now, she thought, looking around for a moment before diving into the huge misty mass floating in the sky.

      Thousands of Neopians wandered the streets beneath her, arguing with the Mynci who ran Hubert’s Hotdogs and debating the prices with the shop wizard. Dozens of owners walked in and out of the pound, sometimes with new pets, and sometimes leaving pets behind. Amaida had never liked that place, because the wailing sound constantly coming from it was louder than the sounds coming from the kadoatery.

      “Now where does that Eyrie live again?” she asked to herself, taking a slip of paper out of her bag and peering at it. Then she smiled at her own stupidity, shoving it back inside. “Oh yeah. Now which way is that street?”

      ~*~

      “HOW DARE YOU SAY NO!” screamed his ex-owner at the top of her lungs, and the next thing Nolion knew, he was lying flat on his back gazing up at a girl he once thought of as the best owner of the world. Dark, twisted vines were rising up out of the ground around her in a circle, burning a hole in his carpet, and as he watched, an amazing transformation occurred.

      The girl no longer had the mousy brown hair he knew. Instead, it was turning into the deepest black he had ever seen, and a long dark green streak ran through it. Instead of jeans and a T-shirt, a gown that looked like a curtain of ivy appeared on the girl, and the colors were the same as the streak in her hair. The jacket had now for some mysterious reason, disappeared, and wings that resembled aged leaves were now spreading out behind her back.

      “You-You’re a faerie!” the starry Eyrie gasped, and tried to scoot back even further.

      “You WILL come with me!” she shrieked, pointing a finger at him that had an extremely long, black nail. Smoke billowed up around him, and fear flooded the Eyrie’s body, for his life, and for the life of his family.

      A knock sounded on the door. “Nolion! Nolion, are you alright? What’s going on?”

      “Help!” he shouted.

      A huge crash sound filled the air as the window suddenly broke, and a purple blur flew in. The next thing Nolion knew, a faerie Kougra was standing in front of him, her wings spread out in a fighting stance, and she was glaring at the earth faerie. He also noticed that she appeared to be chanting something.

      The faerie grimaced, and waved her hands. A loud explosion filled the air, and everything disappeared in a large cloud of black smoke, noise, and chaos. A faint shriek mingled in with everything.

      Nolion’s throat was dry and he coughed as the smoke began to clear away through the window. What’d just happened? Was that really his owner? Could that really be Rajani?

      “Are you alright?”

      The purple and lavender face of the Kougra loomed in front of him, checking him for injuries. Confusion swirled around in the Eyrie’s mind.

      “I-I think so,” he said. “Who are you? What’s going on?”

      “I’m Amaida,” said the Kougra, “and I think you’re mixed up in something really big.”

To be continued...