The Faerie Dilemma: Part Six

      “Good boy,” said the Bori soothingly, petting its head. The beekadoodle let out a soft little trill. “Now what do we have here? A letter?”

      He flipped over the neomail, and immediately his eyebrows furrowed.

      “Apparently somebody knows you’re here, little white one,” he said to Shirin, who was looking up at him with wide eyes. “I think it’s from your owner.”

      Shirin reached out for it and took it, her paws shaking a little. For the next moment, the only sound anybody heard was of the sound of ripping paper as she tore the envelope open. Her eyes scanned the pages for a moment, and then she started to giggle a little.

      It was an odd sound, giggling in the midst of everything that’d been going on. For some reason, Nolion thought it sounded as if laughter shouldn’t be heard at all in that moment. A grin began to spread across the Shoyru’s face, and something mischievous lit up in her eyes. Naellie started to become a little afraid.

      “Shirin?” she asked shyly.

      The Shoyru jumped a little, as if she’d forgotten entirely that they were there. She blinked a little, and then grabbed the blankets, wrapping them around herself tightly.

      “What’s so funny?” asked Booville curiously, though she’d been a little scared herself.

      “My owner, she wrote me a little joke,” said Shirin, laughing nervously.

      “Can we see it?”

      “No, it was an inside joke,” said the Shoyru quickly, shaking her head. “Sorry.”

      Nolion narrowed his eyes. Something was wrong here. He could tell, though he didn’t know why. Meanwhile Shirin just sat shivering, her eyes darting left and right.

      “Well,” said Booville, standing up. “Thanks for your hospitality, sir. Only now we have to go home.”

      “Right,” said Nolion. If they went home, then he could grab some weapons and be less defenseless against Rajani. “Which way is Happy Valley?”

      “You sure you don’t want to stay a while?” asked Gereon. “You just woke up.”

      “We’re sure.”

      “We came all the way up here just to turn around?” asked Shirin, standing up.

      “Mommy just wanted to find you two,” said Naellie, as the Bori once again began to shuffle around. “Where’s my hat?”

      Shirin blinked, and looked down at the floor. The piece of paper in her hand quivered for a moment, and crinkled as she clenched her fist, her tail thumping loudly on the floor behind her. Her hands glowed purple for a moment, and the house rattled.

      “Would you care to stop that? I rather enjoy living here,” muttered the mutant Bori.

      “You’re not going home,” said the Shoyru in a firm voice that startled them all. She was normally very softspoken! “You’re coming with me.”

      A huge gale spread through the house, tearing papers off of the tables and shelves, and picking up the lighter things around the house. The orange beekadoodle squawked and flapped its wings, alarmed. Naellie screamed and clutched Booville’s leg. Meanwhile the Shoyru’s eyes had changed. Now they were a bright lavender, and at every moment, her white scales seemed to get a shade darker, fading until they were as black as the heart of the Darkest Faerie.

      “Say goodbye to reality!” screamed Shirin, and before they could say ‘Pant Devil’, the world went black.

      ~*~

      Frozen snow bit painfully cold at her skin as she came to, nearly squeezing the air out of her lungs because it was all the way around her chest. Her tail and ears simply felt as if they weren’t there as she stood there, but as her mind became clearer, she held herself up, trying to discern where they were.

      It was cold, and that much was at least clear. Her breath came out of her in large puffs of steam, and as she looked around, she could see her family bound up by snow in the same way she was, and both of them were already conscious. Booville looked as if she had the tar scared out of her, and Nolion had his face set grimly, his eyes a mixture of emotions, much as they always were lately.

      “Where are we?” Naellie gasped, struggling a little bit as she shivered, trying to get used to the cold once again.

      “On Terror Mountain somewhere,” said Nolion gruffly, closing his eyes tightly as if he were in pain—which he probably was. “In Rajani’s headquarters.”

      Naellie let out a squeak of terror, and stood still, her eyes huge.

      “It’s alright, guys,” said Booville, glancing over at them. “We’ll be fine. Somehow we’re going to get out of this.”

      “Please reveal that plan to us,” said Nolion sarcastically. “I think this snow is spelled. Normally even Naellie could break out of this.”

      “We could send a neomail,” said the girl strongly at first, and then weakly. When her pets just stared at her, she pouted. “What? It’s not as if you could think of anything better!”

      “We could sing,” said Naellie softly, her face looking brighter. “It says to do that in the ‘Faerie Tales’ book!”

      “That’s just a book for children!” growled Nolion. “How could that help?”

      “Well,” Booville said, raising an eyebrow, “her idea has merit. You know how many of those tales actually turn out to be true? Quite a few.”

      “But what if you’re tone deaf?”

      “I don’t think it matters. Come on, let’s try.”

      “You aren’t serious.”

      “Just try!”

      Naellie, either beginning to get tired of their arguing or wanting to try out her new theory, let out a high note that hurt their ears. Booville winced, and if she could move her arms, she would’ve clapped her hands around her ears. A screeching, harsh melody flew out of the tone deaf Kyrii’s ears, and the other two began to try to get away from the wrath the cacophony of sounds was throwing at them by thinking the happiest thoughts as they could muster at the time.

      The snow started to melt, but not around Booville or Nolion. The pile of slush around Naellie started to get less opaque, and a puddle of crisp looking, clear water spread out around her, becoming wider and wider and wider...

      “I’m free!” she gasped, leaping into the air as Booville started to sing in her own tone deaf—though not as bad as Naellie’s—voice, with Nolion joining in moments later, the only one who sounded remotely good out of the three. The floor was soon soaking wet, and as they broke free of their own snow, not even Booville’s feet were spared from getting soaked, as the water was seeping through her shoes.

      “I wish we had a map,” said Booville. They were in a small cavern, and the only way out was by a steel door with a golden handle. Her shaking hand slid into the sleeve of her sweatshirt, which was unnaturally big on the girl, and reached forward to grasp the handle, her hand protected by the fabric as she touched it.

      The door slid open with a loud, creak and groan, moaning into the hallway and probably alerting the guards which were in fact asleep in the lunch room.

      “Which way to go?” asked Nolion, peeking through the doorframe.

      “I don’t know!” gasped Booville. Naellie just sailed past, as impetuous and carefree as ever, down to their right. The Eyrie and girl looked at each other, confused, shrugged, and followed.

      They ran down past the lunchroom, which was quiet except for the loud snores issuing from it, and down a long, slippery staircase. Nolion and Naellie rushed down it without hardly any troubles, but on the first step, Booville’s foot slipped and only the grace of a wooden stair rail saved her from falling. It was about a minute—or maybe two?—before she found safe footing on the floor.

      After a long while of more running, they came into an area where a loud whirring sound filled the air. It was shocking that they hadn’t heard it before they rounded the corner. With the amount of racket coming from here, wouldn’t it be echoing off the icy walls and through the entire complex?

      One of the doors opened, and several shadow neopets barged out of it, weapons in hand, and eyes glowing the same color of Shirin’s before she’d betrayed them. Nolion gasped as he realized that they were all sorts of neopets, from every corner of the world. The pink Kyrii followed suit, and they all dashed behind the same corner they’d just rounded, in hopes that they hadn’t been sighted.

      “We’re not going to get out of here,” the girl whispered with despair, as a familiar voice raced down to grace their ears.

To be continued...