Dia in the Spotlight

     Glad to help out! I was really nervous, but I see that it’s pretty normal for these sorts of interviews to happen every year. Thankfully there’s a bit of breathing room before the matches! I hope you’ll be interviewing the others—they’ve been on the team much longer than I have!

     In due time. What can you tell us about yourself?

     Hmm, I’m not sure how to answer that without sounding like I’m bragging. I’m really not that different from most Vandagyres—I love flying, sports, and tea. I’ve also been looking all over for one of those cute Oukin Petpets! I’m not sure why it’s so hard to find one!

     You first joined the games in Year 23, but the Vandagyre revealed themselves all the way back in Year 16! Why the long wait?

     Well, there are a couple of reasons. The first is it took us a while to get to know about Neopia outside our mountain homes. We knew a little about Haunted Woods and Shenkuu, of course, since they are our closest neighbours.

     We also had heard about Faerieland since we do have Faeries in the Backbone Mountains—Air, Earth, Light, and Water ones, mostly, and so we knew about Faerieland more or less, but we wanted to explore further. In fact, it wasn’t until the Year 17 game we even knew about Yooyuball since most of us had never ventured as far south as Altador!

     The second is it took a while for us to gain colours that would help us be on the different teams; I know that for some teams this doesn’t matter so much, but others are very thematic! The third is that the teams seemed a bit unsure about completely inexperienced players joining—though I don’t know how we were supposed to get experience! I mean, we Vandagyre love to play games, and so most of us started trying to learn Yooyuball as soon as we found out about it, so we could be on one of the teams!

     Speaking of, where in the mountains do Vandagyre come from? What’s it like there?

     We mostly live near the Greatest Lake in the Backbone Mountains. The Lake is stunning, and there are lots of waterfalls and rainbows! Some of the prettiest sights are the forests and natural crystal formations there! Our aeries are made with hanging gardens that we think are very beautiful. It can be a bit hard to get to, though, since the Backbone Mountains tend to be snow-covered almost year-round! Fortunately, there are plenty of passes and valleys. Hopefully, we can make those accessible enough to allow folks from around Neopia to visit us, too!

     Do you think there will be a team Greatest Lake in the future?

     Dia giggles. Wouldn’t that be something? I can just imagine the mix-up with Kiko Lake! Then again, no one confuses Roo Island, Krawk Island, and Mystery Island.

     But I think it’s far more likely we’d be named after our largest settlement than the Greatest Lake itself since that’d sound less braggy. I certainly wouldn’t want the Kikos to think we think we’re better than them! In any case, I don’t know if we’re quite ready for that yet. Maybe when Lutari Island gets its own team, we will too. It’d sure be nice, especially since I’ve not heard much about Lutari Island other than there’s a mysterious storm around it. I wonder if it’s related to what happened in Dacardia.

     How did you end up on team Faerieland?

     Once we let ourselves be known to the world at large, I travelled to Faerieland to see it for myself. I fell in love with it on first sight! I must have been among the first Vandagyres to become Faerie coloured. When I found out about Yooyuball, I immediately began applying to team Faerieland! They were impressed with my skills and put me on a list, promising to contact me if ever a spot on the team needed to be replaced. After that, it was just a matter of waiting, though I was sad it came through Elbin retiring due to injuries.

     What happened to Elbin Kroe?

     Oh dear, I was afraid you’d ask that! I don’t think it’s proper to go into the details, but his tendency to be accident-prone finally caught up with him shortly after Year 22’s Cup, and, well, he’s decided to take up Kou-Jong and stamp collecting. He went back to Terror Mountain shortly after being released from the hospital. I am happy to report he’s made a complete recovery and is enjoying his new life with some new friends.

     I see! Are the rumours true that the team is cursed?

     No, and I wish people would stop saying that! Everyone seems to forget that we got to fourth place in Altador Cups XI and XIII! The whole Stadium is full of the strongest preventative magic in Neopia to keep people from cursing or blessing teams from the stands or outside.

     Of course, just to be sure, we go to Fyora before every new Cup and get our auras checked and cleansed. Nothing’s ever come up, though! Even poor Elbin was just a victim of bad luck and clumsiness!

     You probably haven’t noticed, but Jhudora likes the Cup and roots for our team every year! In fact, it’s one of the few things she and Illusen do together! If you know anything about Jhudora, you know she’d never tolerate anyone interfering with something she liked!

     Ah. That’s interesting! So, what do you think the team’s chances are this year?

     I know we’ve been practising long and hard! All I can say is that we’ll do our very best! I certainly hope it’ll be enough to get us up a few ranks. If one more person comes up to me and says, “good pets finish last”, I’ll sock them!

     Well, thank you so much for your time, and best luck, Team Faerieland!

     Thank you very much and take care!