Faerie Wings III: The Nightmare of Dreamland: Part Twelve

     "This can’t be!” Kira gasped with disbelief. “I don’t believe it!”

     Suzette stood poised and tall, her shoulder-length black hair styled in a neat bob. Her wings were of the same shape of a Dark faerie’s only hers were light indigo with red interiors. She eyed Kira once more with her deep-red eyes and smirked with her ruby lips. “Do you honestly believe there was only one Darkest faerie in all of Neopia?” asked Suzette.

     “Who are you, really?” Illere demanded.

     “Why did you attack me with the Dreamland spell?” asked Kira.

     “You two already know my name,” said Suzette casually, “though I suppose my origin is still a mystery.” She paused. “Have any of you heard the expression ‘When a faerie princess is born, so does a Darkest faerie’?”

     Kira shook her head. “Are you saying you were born after Fyora’s parchment stated Delilah is to be our future Queen?”

     After a moment of staring at Kira in silence, Suzette nodded. “We Darkest faeries were non-existent after Fyora, your precious Faerie Queen, imprisoned the very first Darkest faerie ages ago. How ironic that a Darkest faerie was good enough to help in discovering Altador, and yet her fate has been left unknown after Faerieland crashed.”

     “That doesn’t make any sense,” Kira insisted. “Why in Neopia would you target me with the Dreamland spell?”

     “It’s because I felt a strong aura coming from you,” said Suzette, “and I knew you were not just a regular Air faerie. Being born with the automatic knowledge of Dreamland and an upcoming Princess Coronation, I mistook you for the next faerie princess and accidentally sent you to Dreamland, using the chants that had been imprinted in my mind when I was born. It wasn’t until you were already imprisoned that I realized you were not the chosen one. Nevertheless, I still loved watching you through an orb and messing with your mentally, like creating that twister or turning you as limp as a doll.” Glaring now at Delilah, she pointed a bony finger towards the Dark faerie and snarled, “But now that I know you’re the real princess, rather than those two other faeries I dealt with, I shall destroy you here right now!”

     “No you won’t!” cried Illere, stepping in front of Delilah with her oak staff clutched in her hands.

     “Dark Swirl!” Suzette chanted as she extended her palm, and a heavy black wind struck Illere and Delilah hard, slamming them towards the vanity. While Delilah was struggling to get up, Suzette threw a dark blue orb towards her and smiled when the orb was absorbed into her target’s body. Immediately Delilah closed her eyes and collapsed to the ground, her body beginning to emit a light blue glow.

     Kira ran over to Delilah and knelt by her side. “What did you do!?!” she gasped frighteningly.

     “Oh, it was just a simple sleeping spell…with a kick,” Suzette smirked. She approached Delilah with a dangling pendant held up in the air with her fingers. “This little device of mine will let me know if your precious friend is embodying any Faerie Queen magical energy. Once it starts to spin clockwise, I will surely remove all the magic to spare your little Dark faerie pal from her responsibilities as the next heiress of the Faerieland throne.”

     Growling, Kira stood up and began to chant a spell before she felt a sudden migraine. Not now! What’s going on? the Top Air faerie puzzled as she collapsed to her knees, feeling woozy. This must be a side effect from being exposed to the Dreamland spell! But how can I save Delilah and fight Suzette when I can’t stand up?

     “Kira, stay strong!” Illere cried as she stood up on wobbly legs. “I’ll fight this Darkest faerie all by myself for now.” Her shoulders still aching, the Top Earth faerie pointed her oak staff towards Suzette and sent a small twister towards her.

     As soon as Suzette stepped aside to avoid the twister, she was blindsided by a yellow orb that exploded on her right wing, forcing her to fall to the ground. “What on earth?!” she gasped angrily, turning to see Brillare, Ardore and Sirena standing in the room’s doorway. “What are you three faerie doing here? Be gone before I destroy you!”

     “Nice try, Miss Darkest Faerie Jr,” Sirena sneered lightly, proofing up multiple bubbles around Suzette. “Bubble Net, surround your foe!”

     “Now absurd,” said Suzette, waving her arms around her to pop all of the bubbles with an invisible wind.

     “Sun of Altador,” chanted Brillare, extending her palms towards Suzette. As a ray of yellow flew towards her, Suzette reflected the ray with her cloak and sent it back to Brillare, who protected herself with a shield made of a big ball of light

     “Now what?” asked Ardore. “I’m not doing anything until you airheads come up with a plan.”

     “We need to distract her,” Brillare commanded. “I’ll keep her busy while you and Sirena imprison her in something.” Raising once arm to the Air, the Top Light faerie created a beam of light that reflect off her palm and darted towards the back of the room.

     As soon as Suzette had her back turned, Sirena poofed up a life-sized bubble and rolled it towards the Darkest Faerie. “Strike!” she exclaimed as her target was absorbed into the bubble.

     Once Suzette was imprisoned, Ardore sent a swirl of fore towards the bubble and heated it until the surface became smooth, clear glass. She smiled and said, “Have fun in your giant Christmas ornament, beauty faux pas.”

     “Hooray! We did it!” Sirena cheered.

     Brillare ran over to check on Kira and Illere, checking to see if they had any severe injuries, and then turned to shower her healing rays over Delilah to break the sleeping spell she was under. “I think Delilah will be okay,” she reported. “A few more minutes and she will hopefully awake from her slumber.”

     “What should we do with Suzette?” asked Kira, whose migraine had died down tremendously. She looked over and Saw Suzette banging furiously on the glass bubble, yelling loudly in her sound-proof prison.

     “I’ll message a palace guard to whisk her far away from the royal palace,” said Brillare. “In the meantime, let’s wait a few more minutes for Delilah to wake up, to see if she’s really alright. Then we must make our way to the grand ballroom for the Coronation Ceremony to find our seats.”

     The rest of the princess ceremony went on perfectly. Delilah, who had recovered from Suzette’s sleeping spell, was welcomed by a trumpeting fanfare as she entered the grand ballroom and walked down a red carpet, Earth faeries showering her with pink flower petals as she passed them. Light faeries tooted their trumpets loudly and proudly. Almost every faerie in Faerieland was crammed into the ballroom, and Kira and her friends had a bit if trouble finding their seats near the front of the platform, where a red velvet throne stood beside Fyora. When she finally reached the platform, Delilah relaxed her shoulders, arched her back a bit more, and held her head high as she waltzed over to the throne.

     “She looks beautiful! Like a real faerie-tale princess!” Sirena breathed.

     “Her dress looks amazing, too,” Kira sighed, admiring the light lavender ball gown Delilah was wearing. With her hair sleeked back and her arms covered with long white gloves, the young Dark faerie looked as if she was the symbol of every faerie’s private princess dream.

     After the ecstatic crowd’s cheered were quieted down, Fyora announced in a proud, booming voice, “It gives me great honour and privilege to introduce our newest princess of Faerieland. Though she may not know it, young Delilah will later go on to become my successor and the future Queen of Faerieland!”

     The faerie clapped and cheered, whistled and shouted Delilah’s name.

     Fyora gestured for an Air faerie to walk up to the platform, and lifted up a silver jewel-encrusted tiara out of the glass case the Air faerie was holding on top of a red pillow. After lifting the crown in the and decreeing “I now pronounce Miss Delilah as our next Princess of Faerieland”, Fyora placed the tiara on top of Delilah’s head and beamed at the blushing Dark faerie. An Earth faerie walked onto the platform and handed the newly crowned faerie princess a bouquet of pink and purple flowers. All the faeries applauded and cheered louder and more enthusiastically.

     “Way to go, Delilah!” cried Illere.

     “I love you, Miss Faerieland!!!” Sirena shouted

     Kira looked behind her and saw Cyprina, her, mother, smile at her with fond eyes. Feeling relieved that Suzette had been sent away in her glass case to Terror Mountain, she tried to her friends and beamed a wide smile to them as Delilah took a seat on her throne. “It feels great to have everything back to normal…well, mostly,” she said, nodding her head towards Delilah.

     “By the way, whatever happened to Dreamland?” asked Illere. “Has Fyora locked up the spell away yet?”

     Brillare shook her head. “Fyora had a Fire faerie torch the Dreamland scroll, so the spell’s chants will be lost forever.”

     Poor Aiken, Kira thought glumly, hanging her head. Without Dreamland around, how would his subconscious mind survive?

     “Kira are you okay?” asked Brillare. “Your face looks crestfallen.”

     “Yeah, I’m okay,” Kira insisted, her heart twisting with pain. “I was just thinking about something.”

     “Is it about our upcoming midterms?” asked Brillare.

     Kira shook her head. “No…I was thinking about how lucky I was to have such good friends as you four!” She grinned. “I’m serious, too. You guys are the best pals a Faerie can ever have!”

     Ardore stepped away from Kira. “You can count me out as a friend, since we were never close,” she insisted, walking to the other end of the ballroom.

     The other faeries laughed. But I really am lucky, Aiken thought Kira wistfully. My friends are the best in all of Neopia. Oh if only you could come and meet them yourself! Then you could be our friend, and we would be even more invincible. I’m certain.

    The End.