The Mutant Faerie

      Sarah’s big sister Zoie walked in the room and joined Sarah by the window. Zoie was a green Acara and was Sarah’s best friend. As if she had read Sarah’s mind, Zoie said, “I know a way you can get painted.” Sarah glanced at her sister, squinted and asked, “How?”

      Zoie snuck into her owner’s room, making no noise at all. Her owner was still asleep after all, and she didn’t want to wake her. Zoie crept to her owner’s dresser drawer and opened it. Inside was a Faerie paint brush. Zoie grabbed it, closed the dresser drawer and ran out of the room, hurriedly shutting the door behind her.

      “Here,” Zoie said to Sarah, panting and sighing from the relief of not being caught. Sarah’s eyes widened at the sight of the expensive paint brush.

      “Mom was going to sell it for a million neopoints. I saw her put it in her dresser drawer. I figured it would be nicer if she just used it and didn’t spend the neopoints she would have earned to get a yucky paint brush,” Zoie panted.

      Sarah smiled evilly, cackled, and said, “Let’s go to the Rainbow Pool!”

     When they arrived at the Rainbow Pool, Sarah jumped in. She stroked the brush along her fur, loving every exciting moment of it. Her fur turned into a lighter yellow with every stroke until she was covered all over, except on her back. Zoie came over, stroked the brush over her back, and finally painted on Sarah’s new wings. And Sarah was painted faerie.

      Sarah stretched her big wings. They seemed bigger than the wings she had seen on other Faerie Acaras. Zoie stepped back to see if she had done a good job painting Sarah’s new wings. She frowned. She looked worried and a bit frightened. Other pets painting themselves stopped in mid stroke and stared at her, mouths open.

      Sarah smiled, and began to fly up into the sky. She loved the feeling of the air between her wings as she shot up into the air. She stretched her arms out, but her wings got into the way. She dove down and landed on the grass. Zoie was there, looking guilty and ashamed of herself. Sarah grinned at her and asked, “What’s wrong?”

      Zoie looked at her feet and replied, “Well, your wings, they’re a bit too big.” Then she burst out crying and sobbed, “I’m sorry! I didn’t know that they would become so big; I’m not good at painting!”

      Sarah looked bewildered at the sight of her crying sister. Zoie was far too old to cry.

      “Are my wings really that big?” Sarah asked. Zoie nodded. “Well, let’s go home. It’s all right, but I have a feeling that we are going to get into big trouble with Mom.”

      Sarah flew proudly over the heads of other Neopians walking down the street. The Neopians below looked up at her in awe and horror. Sarah couldn’t see what the problem was. So what if her wings were a tad large; they couldn’t be that bad.

     When they got home, the first thing Sarah did was go to a mirror. And the bad thing was, they really were that bad. Sarah gazed critically and terrified at her wings. They were three sizes bigger then a normal faerie Acara’s wings. Sarah shut her eyes, wishing that she had left the paint brush alone, or gotten a professional to paint her wings on. Zoie cringed in the corner worriedly. Sarah sighed, nodded at Zoie, and started to walk to the kitchen to get something to eat. Sarah had a very hard time getting through the door.

     ***

      Sarah wandered around the kitchen, trying carefully not to knock anything over. She began to pour some milk for her cereal, when her owner walked in.

      “What are you doing in my kitchen, you mutant!” It was more of a statement than a question. Sarah’s owner ran quickly to the door, and ran outside. Sarah stared after her, one eyebrow arched. Zoie, who was standing beside her, was also staring, and she said, “Well, that went well.”

      Sarah and Zoie continued to make breakfast. Sarah’s wings knocked down the salt and pepper shakers, the sugar bowl, two recipe books, and spilled the box of cereal. While Sarah cleaned up the cereal, her owner came back. And she had brought the Chia police.

***

     “Let me out!” Sarah shrieked as she rattled the bar of her jail cell. No one answered. Sarah slumped down in her seat, and growled at the grey Kyrii that she was sharing her jail cell with.

      The Kyrii watched her interestedly. “You know, I can fix your wings,” the Kyrii said slowly, observing Sarah’s wings thoughtfully.

      Sarah glared at him but all the same, asked, “How?”

      The Kyrii stood up and grabbed a bag from the ground.

      “It’s what I do for a living. I fix pets whose painting went wrong.”

      Sarah eyed the bag suspiciously and asked, “Why did you get in jail?”

      “I loved my job so much that I became a critic of pets’ coats. Any coat of fur, scales, wings, or anything that I couldn’t resist fixing pet’s coats, even if they didn’t want them fixed. So one day I came across a starry Draik; I started to fix her coat because I saw a bit of red in it, but she got the wrong idea and thought I was robbing her.” The Kyrii rolled his eyes to make a point. “So, do you want your wings fixed?”

     “Sure.”

 ***

      “Mom! We need to go get Sarah! You’ve made a terrible mistake!” Zoie begged.

      “Zoie, calm down! I’m sure Sarah will return home soon, but I cannot believe that you stood next to that mutated Acara and didn’t go get the Chia police as it robbed our house!” Zoie and Sarah’s owner sat next to the fireplace and began to knit a scarf as Zoie tried to explain that Sarah wasn’t a mutant robbing their house.

      “Mom! She was not robbing our house!” Zoie argued.

      “Is she one of your friends? I never said that you could invite a friend over! You are grounded, young lady! Where did you meet her! Oh dear, now we have to neomail her mother and bail her out of jail and explain everything...” Zoie’s owner fretted.

      “Mom. You don’t need to neomail anyone’s owner because you are her owner!” Zoie groaned, exhaustedly.

      “What? Yeah right! I only have you and Sarah! Wait... do you mean to say-!” Zoie’s owner ran off to her room to check on her faerie paint brush.

      “ZOIE! WHAT DID YOU DO?”

      “Mom, we need to go to the police station now!” Zoie yelled as she raced out the door.

     ***

      The Kyrii rummaged through his bag, and pulled out an eraser. Sarah looked at it confusedly, wondering if this would hurt. The Kyrii walked over and began to erase Sarah’s wings when the door flew open and a green Acara tackled him. Sarah yelped as the eraser flew over her and changed some of her light yellow fur to its original blue.

      “Don’t you dare touch my little sister!” Zoie yelled as she used some of her Battledome moves on him.

      “Zoie! Stop!” Sarah shrieked. “He is fixing my wings! He is a professional coat fixer!”

      Zoie and Sarah’s owner stood in the doorway of the cell, staring bewilderedly at what was happening. The head police officer stood next to her, holding the keys and looking equally bewildered.

      Zoie stopped and blushed, saying, “Sorry,” to the Kyrii.

      The Kyrii looked at Sarah and closed his eyes. “This is bad. Very, very bad,” he said.

      Zoie, the owner, and the head police-Chia watched with interest as the Kyrii erased Sarah’s wings. Sarah cringed. Then the Kyrii reached into his bag once more and withdrew a faerie paint brush. He dunked the paint brush in a bucked of water, (“Rainbow pool water”, he said) and he expertly redrew Sarah’s wings perfectly. Then he covered up all the blue spots on Sarah’s fur, and then stepped back to look at his work. Sarah looked perfect.

     ***

      Two days later...

      “And I now decree that Mr. Mark Kyrii and Miss Sarah Acara are free of all charges and are free to leave this jail,” the judge said. Sarah stood up and walked over to the Kyrii, whose name she had quite recently learned, Mark.

     “Thanks. I’ve been in that jail for two years. I never thought I would get out. You saved me. What can I do to repay you?” Mark asked.

      “Fixing my wings was thanks enough,” Sarah said.

      “But it would be nice if we could have one of those paint brushes from that bag of yours!” Zoie said hopefully. Her owner nudged her in the ribs, but Mark laughed and handed her the bag.

     Zoie’s eyes widened and she said, “You know that was a joke!”

      Mark nodded, smiling. “You can keep one; it might not be necessary, but I think you guys deserve it.”

      Zoie grinned and pulled out a pink paint brush. Mark nodded, took back the bag, and walked away.

     “He has all those paint brushes; why doesn’t he paint himself? If I were him, I wouldn’t want to be grey,” Zoie said. As if on cue, Mark pulled a rainbow paint brush out of his bag and started to walk to the Rainbow Pool. Everyone shrugged and laughed.

     “Let's go to the Rainbow Pool now,” Sarah said. “I want to paint you.” Zoie began to say, “Okay,” until she heard Sarah murmur, “Revenge!” so she shook her head no and laughed.

     ***

     When they arrived at the Rainbow Pool, Zoie painted herself slowly. She admired her new bubblegum pink fur and savored the feeling of her changing color.

      “Hey, nice to see you!” Mark said as he walked over to Sarah, Zoie, and their owner. He was now a lovely rainbow color.

      Sarah and Zoie’s owner nodded and said, “Hello. Mark, I was wondering, do you have an owner?”

      Mark shook his head no.

      “Well, then would you like to join our family? I could adopt you,” the owner asked.

      “Sure,” he replied.

     ***

      The three neopets and their owner walked home, Mark telling jokes and the others laughing. When they reached their house, the owner stopped moving and said, “I almost forgot, Sarah and Zoie, you two are grounded for a month and you have to earn the neopoints that I would have gotten for that paint brush back, and you aren’t allowed to have dessert for a year.” The two Acaras groaned and Mark said to his new owner, “They don’t have to be punished; you can sell this.” He pulled a new faerie paint brush from his bag and handed it to his owner.

      His owner smiled and said to the Acaras, “Well, okay, you don’t have to be grounded or earn the money back, but you still have that dessert ban.”

      “Oh, we will earn the money back, because all that means is that we have to play a lot of arcade games to get the money!” Zoie said with glee. Sarah nodded and she, Zoie, and Mark ran off to the arcade.

The End