Faerie Wings III: The Nightmare of Dreamland: Part Six

     "Something catastrophic?” asked Illere. “What do you mean?”

     “I honestly can’t describe it with words,” Brillare confessed, “but the moment I stared into her eyes, I felt my heart pumping widely and my nerves began to suddenly act up. Oddly enough, this has never happened to me before, and I can’t understand why.”

     “At least that awful faerie’s gone now,” Sirena reassured her.

     “Yet who know if she’ll ever come back,” Brillare said solemnly. “Anyway, we should just continue our research and see if we can find any books about Dreamland.”

     Illere looked over at the damage their intruder had caused: A medium-sized crater was lying where a table and two chairs used to stand, and many of the bookshelves in the southwest direction were toppled over, the books scorched. “Yikes. Perhaps we should volunteer to clean this place up,” Illere suggested.

     A Dark faerie with short, dark purple hair gasped when she entered the library. “What in Neopia happened in here?!” she exclaimed. “Did a stick of dynamite explode in here or something?”

     “Oh, hi Delilah,” said Illere. “And no, it was actually a faerie that caused all this damage. She used orbs.”

     “And she just had to scorch the one section where I needed my last textbook!” Delilah groaned. “Talk about rotten luck.” She sighed. “What exactly happened here just now? Who's this faerie you speak of?”

     “We don’t really know who she is,” Illere confessed, “but she was a faerie wearing a cloak and hood the same colour as…as, I would have to say it was a shade of deep purple. She attacked a Light faerie and then she fought Brillare, who flew near the ceiling to counter-attack! The cloaked faerie threw blue orbs at her and at me, and then she just poofed herself out of the library!”

     Delilah’s eyes grew wide. “That sounds terrible! Thank goodness you guys are okay! Do you any of you know why this faerie attacked a Light faerie here, in the Faeriewood library?”

     Brillare shook her head. “Actually, none of us knows why she would want to attack anybody. All we know is that this faerie possesses the ability to lull others to sleep.”

     “Lull faeries to sleep?” asked Delilah. “So does that make her a Dark faerie, then?”

     “I didn’t know Dark faeries could do that,” Illere confessed.

     “Oh, sure we can,” said Delilah, nodding. “In fact, one of our midterms is all about sleep magic. Our teacher, Ms. Delona, told us that we are the only faerie type that possesses the ability to send our targets into a deep slumber for as long as we choose.”

     “So does that mean Dark faeries can control one’s dreams as well?” Illere wondered.

     “I don’t think any faerie type has dream magic,” Delilah insisted. She looked over at Brillare’s worried expression and asked, “Is something wrong?”

     “There’s something going on with Kira,” Brillare explained, her voice growing quiet. “Yesterday her mother reported that Kira hadn’t woken up from a nap, and her body began to glow a strange pink color, too.”

     “Her mother said something about a spell called ‘Dreamland’,” Illere continued. “We’re not actually sure what Dreamland is, and we were hoping that the Faeriewood library could help us find a reference book to assist us.”

     “Well, have you guys checked the second floor yet?” asked Delilah. “That’s where the majority of sleep-related books are, so maybe one of them will touch on the subject of dreams.”

     “I already searched up there a few moments ago,” said Brillare, “and none of the books I found mentioned Dreamland at all.”

     “This seems very strange,” said Delilah. “Whatever this Dreamland spellis must be some sort of unknown spell if it can’t be discovered in the Faeriewood Academy’s library. But if you guys would like some assistance, you can always go and talk to Ms. Delona and see if she knows anything about this Dreamland…thing.”

     “Thanks Delilah,” said Illere. “We’ll be certain to speak with her.”

     “No probs,” said Delilah. “Though I’m curious with another statement you claimed: does Kira really have a mother? Or are you talking about an older faerie that’s living with her?”

     “No, she’s Kira’s mother,” Illere insisted. “They both look the same and have both held the position of Top Air faeries.”

     Delilah nodded. “So a former Top Air faerie is the ‘mother’ of Kira?” She shrugged her shoulders. “It just seems odd that she’s the only faerie I know that actually has a parent.”

     The other three faeries were quiet. Neither one of them thought about the rarity of Kira living with her mother before Delilah brought it up. Besides their friend, there were no other faeries that had any parents or relatives of any kinds. All the other faeries were young while a slight few were older, and a majority of them were teachers or advisors to Queen Fyora. For Kira to be the daughter of Cyprina made them wonder about why she was the only faerie to even have a mother…or any type of family member, actually.

     Hoping to break the sudden silence, Illere coughed lightly. “Let’s go see Ms. Delona right away. Okay?”

     “Oh yes, let’s go,” said Brillare.

     “Would you like to come with us, Delilah?” asked Sirena.

     “I can’t. I have to study right now,” said Delilah. “Good luck with your quest!”

     Sirena waved back as she hurried down the hall to catch up with Illere and Brillare. The three faeries walked up the stairs to the second floor of the academy and down a long hallway until they arrived at the door of Ms. Delona’s classroom. “So now what?” asked Sirena. “Can we go inside now?”

     “We should show some courtesy,” said Brillare, knocking lightly on the door.

     The faeries waited anxiously until they heard a slightly high-pitched voice call out, “Come in!” Ms. Delona, a tall Dark faerie whose violet hair was tied up in a neat bun, watched through her round spectacles as the visitors approached her desk. “And may I help you three young faeries today?” asked Ms. Delona.

     Brillare took a step forward and curtseyed. “Please to make your acquaintance, madam. My name is Brillare, and my friends and I were hoping if you could help us with a problem we’re having.”

     Illere was the next one to approach Ms. Delona. “You see madam, a very dear friend of ours has fallen into a sudden slumber yesterday, and we don’t understand why. Her body is emitting a bright pink light, and the only clue we have is the phrase ‘Dreamland’. We don’t know what this means, though our main guess is that it’s a type of spell unknown to every faerie but Her Majesty, Queen Fyora.”

     “So we were wondering if you could help us find some information about Dreamland,” Brillare said earnestly. “Anything that you know would be really helpful, I mean it!”

     Sirena stepped forward and piped up, “And if you help us out, we’ll gladly give you a yummy chocolate chip cookie!”

     “She’s only kidding,” said Illere with a smile, nudging Sirena with her elbow. “But in all honestly, madam, any information that you have will surely aid us in our mission to save our friend from the spell that has been cast upon her. So please, can you help us?”

     Ms. Delona eyed the three young faeries in front of her once more, as if debating if she wished to tell them anything. After a few moments of silence, she leaned back in her chair and said, “I have heard of many spells that have been forbidden by Fyora, many of them so powerful that they could easily destroy all of Faerieland and even Neopia if mishandled. This Dreamland spell you speak of is a forbidden spell only Fyora has access too, so I’m afraid I can’t assist you with giving you the spell’s chant.”

     “Oh, I see,” said Illere glumly.

     “There is a way I can still help you, though,” Ms. Delona continued. “You see girls; there is a book in the Faerie Bookshop that mentions a variety of different spells whose chants have been kept top secret by Fyora and her associates. Yet in this book you can learn all about these spells, their origins, and what would happen to somebody who has had been struck by any of them. I believe the book is titled The Forbidden Spells of Faerieland.”

     “Oh thank you!” cried Sirena. “Thank you so much for the tip!”

     “Maybe we should also check out the Faerie City public library to see if they hold any copies of the book as well,” Illere suggested, grinning widely.

     Brillare nodded and gave Ms. Delona a gracious smile. “Thank you ever so much for this info. My friends and I will surely go and take our investigation to the Faerie Bookshop.” She curtsied again. “I must thank you once more.”

     Ms. Delona nodded. “Good luck, girls.”

     The three faeries left Ms. Delona’s classroom with happy, glowing faces. They were anxious to visit the Faerie Bookshop to see if the book they had just learned about was still stocked on a shelf, hopefully in a place where it could remain hidden until they'd find it. The faeries were just ascending down the stairs when they heard a piecing scream and the sound of a sudden explosion. Alarmed, they ran down the rest of the stairs and down a narrow hallway until they saw the familiar sight of grey smoke–and a faerie with dark red eyes glaring at them as she hovered over an unconscious Air faerie.

     “So, I see that we meet again,” the faerie hissed from underneath her dark purple hood and cloak.

     To be continued…