Pystry's Elemental Odyssey: Part Three

     He had been dismissed from Mystery Island's renowned Training School, charged by the Techo Master himself to seek out and interview six Hissis with expertise in the six elemental combat forces: earth, water, air, fire, darkness, and light. The Master had accused him of relying too much on book smarts instead of personal experience. A magical Pandaphant Doll gauged his progress with fifty additional Tropical Jelly Beans per completed element. So far, he had completed two of his interviews, weighing the Pandaphant with a total of one hundred jelly beans, but had stalled out trying to come up with a third. Things would be so much easier were he allowed to visit a library, or consult the Neopedia or even the Book of Ages. Denied his familiar, comfortable tools, Pystry chafed, unable to enjoy the idyllic island weather.

     A shadow over his right head's eyes and the clink of ice cubes roused him from his despondent fugue. Above him stood a smiling Hissi native, offering him a fruity concoction in a tall glass in her outstretched caramel-and-cream-coloured wings. "Thank you, Phidianne. And thanks again for letting Bizhiw and me stay with you while I work on this assignment." He looked out towards the ocean, where his friend, an athletic Lutari, was surfing a perfect island wave. "I'm just sorry things aren't coming along any faster."

     "Don't be silly, Pystry. I'm delighted to have company. Especially Bizhiw. He's very dear to me, as I know he is to you." Phidianne sipped her drink appraisingly, added a sprinkling of Lemoran zest, and peered at Pystry over the rim of her glass. "As for your project, I have a suggestion. Let's go ask the Parrot on the Hill."

     "The Parrot?" blinked Pystry. "I thought that was some mythical creature, part Pawkeet, part Pirapet."

     "It's real, all right," replied Phidianne, "although it's more like a cross between a Kateil and a Floobix. I can't promise anything, but he's helped Neopians on quests in the past, and it can't hurt to try, can it?"

     "It certainly beats sitting around," agreed Pystry. "Lead on, Captain."

     Pystry was grateful to have the guidance of a local Islander like Phidianne. He would never have found his way through Mystery Island's dense, uncharted tropical undergrowth on his own. But there it was, the fabled Parrot. Pystry could hardly believe his eyes. It was so strange to see a creature, pet or petpet, with rainbow colouration only on its wings and not its whole body. The two Hissis moved slowly through the brush, not wishing to alarm him.

     "How does this work?" whispered Pystry.

     "Ask him something."

     "All right then... Hello, Mr. Parrot. How are you?" Pystry bolted upright, nearly jumping out of his boot, as the Parrot screeched "SQUAAAWWK" in reply. Phidianne clutched her tiki necklace by reflex, then exhaled.

     "I'm sorry, I should have warned you about that," said Phidianne with an apologetic half-smile. "He can be a little shrill. Try again."

     "Pieces of Eight!" belted the bird cheerfully. Pystry raised an eyebrow at Phidianne, but she gestured for him to continue.

     "Mr. Parrot, I'm on a quest to learn about the combat elements. Where can I find an expert on them?"

     The Parrot tilted its head threateningly. After a moment, it shrieked, "Wednesday. The Third."

     Phidianne brightened. "That was new. Normally he sticks to a few stock phrases, but I've never heard that one before. This is promising, Pystry. Does that mean anything to you?"

     Pystry darkened. "It rings a bell, but no, I can't place it. If I could just check the Neopedia – " He cut himself short as Phidianne looked pointedly at him. "I know, I know. Not allowed. Let's try again. Wednesday, Mr. Parrot?"

     "SCRAAAWW! You could never afford any of these!"

     Pystry looked at Phidianne with two wry smiles. "Now that I recognise. Captain, could I impose on you for a trip to Faerieland? It seems I have an appointment at the Hidden Tower."

     Even within the new crater that cradled it since its catastrophic fall from the skies, the Faerie City stood out clearly from miles away. Resplendent in the sumptuous pinks and purples that were Queen Fyora's signature colors, the royal castle thrust its damaged spires insistently upwards, as if pleading and promising to return to the sky that was its true home. Pystry cheerfully took the role of guide, showing Bizhiw and Phidianne all the magical sights on the way to the castle. As a battle pet, he knew well the route to the Healing Springs, and the winding path to the courtyard where he had so often brought quest items to the faeries and received blessings of health and combat skills in return.

     "Wow. Things are still so damaged," said Bizhiw, noticing the extensive cracks in the cupolas over the Healing Springs.

     Pystry furrowed his brow. "I saw some of the countryside here during the battle, when Faerieland fell. The fields were torn apart. I don't see any trace of that devastation now. I guess the Faeries made it a priority to heal the land before repairing their buildings."

     A tear rolled down Phidianne's cheek.

     "Phidianne... you're crying. What's the matter?"

     The Island Hissi paused, tasting the air with her delicate tongue. Bizhiw wrapped his arm around her, cradling her against his shoulder. She took a slow breath, and met Pystry's eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize how hard it would be to visit here. The day Faerieland fell was the worst day of my life. I lost everything that day. I – " Phidianne's voice gave out, unable to continue.

     Bizhiw smiled, looking closely into Phidianne's eyes. "And you survived. You took every horrible thing the world could throw at you, and you came out on top." Phidianne saw the glint of a tear in Bizhiw's eyes, and laughed despite herself.

     "Bizhiw, you sweet coconut. How is it you always know the right thing to say?"

     Bizhiw smiled, even more broadly. "Hey, look! It's the Rainbow Fountain. Is there any colour you guys would turn, if you could?"

     Pystry's heads swiveled to glance at each other, with two contented grins. "There's nothing I'd rather be than a Mutant."

     "And I'm an Island girl, through and through, and proud of it," answered Phidianne, lifting her chin pertly. "And you, Bizhiw?"

     "I don't know," mused the Lutari. "I think I'd be happy just about any colour. I do have a secret fantasy, though."

     "Oh, now you've got to tell us," Phidianne cajoled. As Bizhiw had planned, her dark mood had completely vanished.

     "Well... okay. You know how some pets are Gold, or Silver? Some day I'd like to be Copper."

     Pystry frowned. He had never known this about his best friend. "There's no such colour as Copper. And you're already Red. It wouldn't be much different."

     "There's no Copper yet, anyway," replied Bizhiw. "You remember how Oriscus is a Yellow Hissi but wants to be Gold? It's kind of the same thing."

     If there's one thing that can engross Neopets, it's a spirited discussion about colour changes, and before they realized it, the three travelers had arrived at the lavender gates of Faerie City. They fell silent as they entered the main courtyard, awed by the obvious structural damage, even greater here than in the countryside.

     "Pystry, why don't you go ahead to the Hidden Tower?" suggested Phidianne. "Bizhiw and I can chat with the quest faeries. Maybe they can suggest some possible interview subjects."

     Pystry nodded gratefully. "Good idea. Let's meet up at Faerie Foods for dinner later."

     Pystry glided cautiously around the lower turrets, taking advantage of a steady breeze near the castle walls. The castle was a royal stronghold, after all, and the Queen's security didn't take kindly to Neopets just swanning up and flying into open windows. Also, it paid to proceed gingerly when flying in the Faerie City. Pystry's friend Abharī had personally smacked nosefirst in midflight into the invisible Hidden Tower. It was an old Neopian joke, but like most jokes, funnier when it happens to somebody else. Today, though, Pystry had little chance of an inadvertent collision.

     A delicate trail of wispy blue smoke wafted around the Hidden Tower, clearly limning its outside edge. The large cylindrical gap in the smoke revealed the exact location of the tower's invisible walls. Atop a high platform, a Biscuit Chomby was huffing noisily at a Cloud Hissi. The Chomby abruptly spun about, and with a bellow, leapt to the ground with a crash, nearly colliding with Pystry. Within moments the Chomby had stormed away.

     Pystry flew up and alighted on the platform. The Cloud Hissi was shaking his head. "Oh dear," he exclaimed, with a singsong accent that marked him as a native of Qasala. "Good help is so hard to find. And I was really counting on using her Chomby Rocket Belt. Now I'll have to postpone my experiments. Oh well, Fyora will just have to understand."

     Pystry's tongue darted with excitement. "Please forgive my intrusion. My name is Pystry. What kind of experiment are you doing?"

     "Garjan, pleased to meet you," replied the Cloud Hissi with a courteous bow. "You probably wouldn't have heard of me. Only very well-educated Neopets would."

     Pystry held his tongues.

     "I study fluid dynamics. It's an important field, especially in the Lost Desert, where understanding the shifting sands and winds is vital to survival. Queen Fyora commissioned me to join a team of physicists to investigate the mechanics of possibly restoring Faerieland to the skies some day."

     "I thought magic kept Faerieland aloft, not science," pondered Pystry.

     "Perhaps," Garjan replied offhandedly. "But my concern isn't what lifts the castle off the ground, it's the effect of the winds on such a massive structure during its transit. Even slight turbulence, with the right wind shear, could cause severe instability. The whole realm could be torn apart."

     Pystry mulled this over for a moment. "It hardly seems that turbulence could be more destructive than the crash, and the castle survived that."

     Garjan gave a weak smile. "I'm sure it seems that way to the uninformed. If you'll excuse me, I need to see about requesting a replacement. These Brightvale interns are so terribly hard to work with."

     Pystry closed his eyes, and summoned the centering calm of his martial arts training. "Garjan, maybe we can help each other out. I'd really appreciate learning what I can from you about the mechanics of the air. How about letting me help you with today's experiment? That way, you won't fall behind schedule."

     The Cloud Hissi slumped slightly. Pystry couldn't help thinking that Garjan didn't seem that motivated to get started. "I suppose you're right," he said at last. "But let's get lunch first. It's been a busy morning. Let's meet back in an hour... better make that two."

     "Righto, chief," piped Pystry, but Garjan had already flown away. Pystry decided to look through the engineer's notes, to try to brief himself on the day's project, and couldn't help noticing that all the setup and notes had been written by the departed Chomby, not Garjan. He sighed, and watched as his twin exhalations curled and dissipated the ambient blue smoke.

     Two and a half hours later, Garjan returned, landing gracefully on the platform. Pystry tried not to let his impatience show. At least I had extra time to try to make sense out of these notes, so I won't look like a complete dummy, he thought to himself.

     "So, as I understand it, your team of physicists is trying to create a mathematical model of air turbulence, and this particular experiment is to investigate the air flow around the Hidden Tower."

     "Yes," drawled Garjan. "A bit of a waste of time, if you ask me. Turbulence is one of the least well understood forces in physics. We should just follow some basic rules of thumb and not bother with all this measurement."

     Pystry folded his wings, not quite believing his ears. "Well, I'd still like to get started with these tests, for my own project, if that's okay with you."

     Garjan shrugged. "Yes, of course. First, we have to clear out all the smoke from earlier."

     "I'm on it." Corralling smoke was trickier than Pystry expected, but after about ten minutes of strategic Hissi Wind Blasts, the air around the Tower was clear once again. Slightly winded, Pystry descended back to the testing platform.

     Garjan leaned back. "We're going to evaluate the Reynolds number of the Hidden Tower. Let me see if I can make this simple for you."

     Pystry nodded, with a sinking feeling in his gut telling him he'd be biting his tongues a lot that day.

     Garjan held up a small candle and lit the wick. A slender flume of smoke rose from the tip. "Notice how the smoke starts out in a narrow, well-defined column. That lasts for about, oh, six centimetres, before losing cohesion and diffusing through the air. The column has a special name – "

     "Laminar flow," interrupted Pystry, recalling the Chomby's notes, "and the billowing smoke is turbulent flow."

     Garjan looked discomfited. "Yes, as everyone knows. Anyway, in simple terms, the Reynolds number of a fluid measures how much the flow wants to dissipate compared to how much the flow wants to hold together. In the laminar flow, while the smoke stays in a tight column, the forces holding the smoke particles together are stronger, so the Reynolds number is very small – "

     "And when the smoke starts billowing, the Reynolds number gets bigger," interjected Pystry.

     "Exactly. Our job is to look at what happens to the wind as it blows around a turret. We expect that the wind will wrap around both sides, and create pockets of low pressure on the far side. We need to find out where the air stream breaks up, and how strong the air flow in each vortex is. If the vortices are too strong, Faerieland could end up tumbling back to earth before we got it safely to its final altitude."

     "So what exactly do we need to do?" asked Pystry.

     "Let's divide up the work. I'll fire this smoke cannon, which will send a stream of blue smoke towards the tower. You set up the measuring devices, collect the data, and calculate the Reynolds numbers at each location using the formulas in the notes."

     Pystry clenched his jaws. "That doesn't seem quite fair – "

     Garjan smirked. "I already know what numbers we're likely to get. You're the one who wants to learn about air."

     Hours later, Pystry had used up half of a Pad of Graph Paper, filling charts with rows of numbers and plugging values into formulas he barely understood. Garjan helped when prodded, but mostly sat back and snacked on Curried Pasties, and enjoyed the view of the Faeries bustling about in the courtyard far below them.

     Finally Pystry looked up from his additions to the Chomby's notes. "I think I see the pattern. The air pockets on the far side are stable, and there's surprisingly little dropoff in air pressure as the wind circles around the tower." Pystry sketched out a graph of the data as Garjan peered over his shoulder.

     After measuring gusts of wind all day, Pystry was more sensitive than usual to the sudden shift in the air above him. Out of nowhere, a blonde Faerie in a periwinkle dress fluttered down on gossamer wings. "Hurray, someone who can help! Please tell me you have some results for me to bring to the Queen."

     "Why, yes," said Garjan, grabbing the graph paper. "I've just finished with the baseline Reynolds number calculations."

     Pystry's jaws dropped. "You've just finished?"

     "Haven't you written them up yet? This information is very important. I can guarantee..." The Faerie paused, losing her train of thought as a Beekadoodle flitted past. "I'm sorry, I was in the middle of some very important pollen counts when I was sent to find you. Your data is late, you know."

     "We've been very busy, and I've recently lost one of my helpers, and I've had to take extra time to train the replacement," wheedled Garjan as he gestured towards a fuming Pystry. "We're all doing the best we can." He quickly summarized the data, signed his name, and handed the pad to the Faerie. "I'll be needing that back. I can't go on to the next stage until I have that back." With a distracted nod, the Air Faerie darted away like a dragonfly.

     "I can't thank you enough for all your help," smiled Garjan as he took Pystry's hand and shook it. "So, I'll need you to finish the writeup. Just leave it here by the cannon, and I'll pick it up tomorrow." Before Pystry could utter a word of protest, he was gone.

     Pystry blinked, completely nonplussed. "What in Fyora's name just happened?"

     "Are you having trouble, little one?" A voice, high and clear as a handbell, broke the silence. Pystry jumped, startled, as a face appeared in midair, strong yet delicate, framed by lavender hair with pink highlights. Pystry had been so wrapped up in the day's work that he'd forgotten that actual people were inside the Hidden Tower, including Her Sovereign Majesty, Queen Fyora. Her face bore an inscrutable smile of amusement.

     "Pystry, isn't it?" she queried. "I believe you've been so kind as to help me with the occasional Faerie quest." Pystry stammered, tongue-tied, in assent. The queen leaned playfully out the window, rested her chin in her hand, and peered closely at the Mutant Hissi. "It would seem you're on a quest of your own, a Master Quest, if I'm not mistaken." Pystry nodded again. "I'm sorry," she continued, "I don't have time to help you right now. But please accept my thanks for all your work today. I appreciate your thoughtfulness in helping Faerieland."

     "You were watching?" managed Pystry, finding his voice.

     "Indeed. Don't judge Garjan too harshly, my pet. He's still quite young. You'd be surprised how many people forget that just because you can't see something in front of them, doesn't mean there's nothing there." Her eyes twinkled like amethysts.

     "Unseen but powerful forces, like turbulent air," grinned Pystry.

     "Even so." The queen smiled. "And those forces include intelligence, and strategy. Too many people make the mistake of thinking my Air Faeries are flighty and capricious. Tell me, young Hissi, why is turbulence one of the great unsolved problems of science? Are the forces so hard to understand?"

     "They're harder to understand than I had realized," answered Pystry. "But I think the real problem is that there are just too many variables."

     "As there are in most things. The closer you look, the more you see the true complexity of the world. Air Faeries, by nature, seek to understand the world, and become easily distracted in whirlwinds of thought. Garjan's ability to keep things simple shows true acumen, and will serve him well. Provided, of course, that he learns the discipline to buckle down and do unpleasant work when it is needful."

     Fyora looked up at the clouds, basking for a moment in the warmth of the afternoon sun, her eyes closed and tinged with sadness. After a moment, she looked back down at Pystry. "Do forgive me, but I must be taking my leave. We are closed currently for stock taking." She picked up a small glass candy jar.

     The Queen smiled a secret smile. "What's this? These don't belong here. Perhaps they belong to you?" With a graceful wave of her hands, the jar vanished. The air echoed with the sound of jelly beans pouring inside Pystry's Lucky Pandaphant. "I believe your friends are waiting for you below."

     "Of course, Your Majesty," replied Pystry, bowing courteously.

     "And Pystry? When you return to Mystery Island, say hello to my friend the Parrot."

To be continued...