Trapped!

     She acted like the light faerie she was, always giving to those in need (unless it came to her Hidden Tower items), and being a kind and just ruler. That was how she became an Uber Fire Faerie, since Fyora thought she was qualified for the job. But to Cassandra, it was more like a slap in the face; being that close to being Queen without actually being there.

     “I should be the Queen, not her,” Cassandra thought. “I wonder if there is a way to get her out of the way. Maybe I could have her take an extended vacation, or give her a reason to step down...”

     Then an idea came to her. It was a dangerous plan, one only a fool would try. But if she succeeded in the first part of the plan, the other pieces would fall into place. With a smile, she flew out of the window and down towards Neopia.

     ---

     After about half an hour, Cassandra was in place, in the middle of the Haunted Woods. It was one of Balthazar’s main hunting locations, and most Faeries avoided it, except on a dare. But her plan required her meeting Balthazar. After about an hour of waiting, she heard the sounds of a big thing trying to move quietly. She turned and came face to face with the greatest enemy of the Faeries.

     “Hello, Faerie,” he said, as he dug around in a bag on his shoulder.

     “Balthazar,” Cassandra gasped.

     He finally came up with a clear bottle, pulsating with magical energy that could trap a faerie. However, before Balthazar could pull the top off the bottle, Cassandra smirked. She threw a fireball at Balthazar, hitting him in the chest. The bottle he was going to use on her flew up into the air, and Cassandra caught it before it hit the ground.

     “Thanks for the bottle,” she laughed, before flying off and leaving the injured Balthazar to yell out in anger to the sky, as another faerie slipped out of his grasp.

     ---

     It took Cassandra another half hour to get back to Faerieland. As she landed, she hid the bottle in one of her dress pockets and walked up to the castle. Because of her status, she was able to walk right into the castle without any problem.

     She walked through the halls, eventually stopping at the doorway to the throne room, flanked by two Draik guards.

     “Open. Fyora asked me to talk with her privately,” she demanded, and the guards hurried to pull open the large purple doors to give her access. She walked in, glancing around at the purple walls, open windows, and gold pillars that made up the room.

     As the guards closed the doors behind her, Cassandra walked forward. But with every step, a part of her was bothering her, telling her not to do this. That it was wrong. That she should be content being an Uber Faerie

     “I have to. It’s the only way,” she reminded herself.

     Fyora was at the end, resting in her pink and purple throne, her head hanging over the back. The noise of the slamming door got her attention, though, and she brought her head up to see Cassandra in the room.

     “Cassandra, what is the nature of your visit?” she asked, standing up.

     “Taking something I always wanted,” Cassandra answered.

     With one swift motion, she pulled out the bottle and uncorked it. A fierce wind began to blow, and Cassandra quickly pointed the bottle towards Fyora before it sucked her in too.

      Fyora struggled to break free of the magic of the bottle that was pulling her in, shrinking her down to a small size. But even she wasn’t strong enough to break from the bottle’s grip.

     “Aquam rotona cerzona!” Fyora called out, firing out a purple ball of energy. Cassandra was ready, however.

     “Youitora gorpmira,” she replied, bringing up a magical shield of fire. The spell was weakened from Fyora being drawn into the bottle, and was easily blocked

     With no time to cast another spell, Fyora was unable to stop herself from being sucked inside. Her tiara and wand fell to the floor, at the spot she occupied only moments before.

     As soon as Fyora was fully inside the bottle, Cassandra quickly put the cork back on it before she could escape, and then brought it up to her face to look at the mini-queen inside. Fyora was pounding her fists on the side of the bottle, trying to break free, but no luck.

     “It’s no use,” Cassandra said. “No faerie has ever broken through the magic that keeps you inside. And now, with you out of the way, I can go to the next step of becoming the queen.”

     “You’ll never get away with this,” Fyora yelled.

     Cassandra just smirked and dropped the bottle back into her pocket before running back over to the doors. She opened them a crack and told the guards, “Contact the other Uber Faeries for an emergency meeting inside the throne room.”

     ---

     Everyone looked towards the door as Jedia, the Uber Dark Faerie, was the last to arrive. There were already six chairs in a circle in the middle of the room, and she took the last empty one.

     “We have an urgent matter. Fyora has disappeared,” Cassandra told the others, and there was shocked looks and glances around the room. “I was called in by her, and I got here after finishing up giving a pet a quest. But when I got here, all I found was her tiara and wand, just lying on the floor.”

     “She could possibly be the victim of foul play, and whoever did this must have powerful magic to counter Queen Fyora,” Aira, the Uber Air Faerie, suggested. “Melody, can you find her with your Psychic Blast?”

     Melody, the Uber Light Faerie, put her fingers to her head, closed her eyes, and concentrated. After a few moments, she opened her eyes and brought her hands down.

     “I can’t find her. Either she’s blocked by a magical barrier, or has been taken off world,” she answered.

     “We’ll need to search everywhere then. From the top of Terror Mountain, to the bottom of the Lost Desert, and from Altador all the way around to Mystery Island. I’ll also try and have us gain entry into the Kingdom Islands, so we can search there as well,” Cassandra proclaimed.

     “Let’s keep this a secret,” Splash, the Uber Water faerie, added. “If we tell the general population, there will be chaos.”

     “Good call, Splash. We should also elect a temporary queen, to keep order in Faerieland and beyond, until she returns. The Space Faerie should be informed, so she can search some of the planets off world, as well as Kreludor and the Space Station,” Cassandra added.

     “Cassandra, I think you should be the one to take over temporarily. You were second place in the election, and you have shown leadership in these trying times,” Growth, the Uber Earth Faerie, told them. “Any objections?”

     There were no objections, but as Cassandra picked up the wand and tiara, Melody thought she saw the hint of a smile on Cassandra’s face. Cassandra’s clothes and hair changed to that of the first Faerie Queen, Girdania. In honor of her, the clothes and hair of a new Faerie Queen change to Girdania‘s, which is why Fyora always wore purple and pink.

     “Now go, and find Fyora,” she told them. “I will join you in the search shortly.”

     After they left, Cassandra reached into her pocket and pulled out the bottle containing Fyora. She wasn’t pounding the glass anymore, but she sat there, fuming. She looked up at Cassandra with a mix of anger and defiance.

     “You may wear the clothes of Girdania, but you are no queen,” Fyora told her.

     “Tell that to someone who actually cares,” she answered.

     She walked into the private chambers of the Faerie Queen, placed the bottle on a shelf, and started to walk away.

     “Hey! Listen!” Fyora yelled, but Cassandra ignored her and left, shutting the door to the chambers behind her.

     Fyora sat and fumed, wondering how this happened, and how she could escape. She looked below her, estimating the distance from shelf to floor. After determining that the distance was far enough, she started to put her plan into action.

     ---

     Melody was searching for clues in the Haunted Woods when she heard a twig snap. She quickly whirled around and cast a binding spell that trapped the person in a ball of yellow light. When she got a good look at him, she could see it was Balthazar.

     “Let me out of here, you disgusting faerie,” Balthazar roared. “You’re almost as bad as that faerie that flamed me.”

     That caught Melody’s attention. And now that she got a good look, she could see a large burn mark on his fur, like it was caused by a fireball being shot at close range.

     “When did this happen?” she asked.

     “A few hours ago. She flamed me and then took one of my bottles. I don’t know why she wanted it, or what her name was,” he answered.

     “I think I can guess,” Melody answered, as she started to fly off.

     “Wait. What about this spell?” Balthazar asked.

     Melody fluttered back and answered, “Don’t worry. It’ll wear off... in about an hour.”

     ---

     After returning to Faerieland, Melody rushed into the throne room, and saw it was empty. Exactly what she wanted. She walked to the back of the room and entered the Queen’s private chambers.

     As she looked around for a bottle, she heard the sound of something rocking. She turned to see a tiny lady in a bottle, looking like she was trying to rock it over the edge. She grabbed it and brought it down to eye level, and was shocked to see who was inside.

     “Queen Fyora!” she exclaimed. “How...?”

     “There’s no time to explain,” Fyora answered. “Let me out. We need to get Cassandra.”

     Melody nodded, and pulled the cork off with her hand. As purple light came out, Fyora fluttered her way out of the bottle and grew back to full size. She stretched a bit, glad to be out of that confined space.

     “Where’s Cassandra?” Fyora asked.

     “She had us all looking for you. She joined in the search after a few minutes.” Melody answered.

     “She was the one that trapped me in the bottle. After the position I gave her out of kindness, so she wouldn’t feel so bad, she turns and uses it to stab me in the back,” Fyora said. “Use a Psychic Blast to call the other Uber Faeries except Cassandra. I’ll have her join us after we set up.”

     ---

     Cassandra had no idea why Melody was calling her to the throne room. She said it was an urgent matter, but Cassandra thought she’d be out on the wild goose chase she sent all of them on.

     As she approached, she wondered whether they found Fyora, and if she was waiting for her on the other side of the door. She decided to open it a crack and take a peek inside. She saw the other five Uber faeries standing there, probably waiting for her. Behind the five of them stood Queen Fyora.

     She figured the game was up, but was not ready to surrender. Fighting the faeries six on one, even with faerie queen magic, wouldn’t do her much good. So Cassandra turned to run. But before she could, she saw Airy and Growth standing in her way.

     “How...?” Cassandra started to ask.

     “Easy. We had two normal faeries that bore a striking resemblance to us stand there,” Airy replied. “We knew you may be suspicious, so we set up an ambush so we could trap you here.”

     ---

     A couple of minutes later, the doors opened to reveal Airy and Growth dragging Cassandra, now a Fire Faerie again, into the room to stand before Queen Fyora for judgment.

     “Cassandra, you are charged with treason, false imprisonment, and mutiny. As punishment, you will sit in the same bottle you trapped me in until the next election,” Queen Fyora proclaimed.

     “What? The next election?” Cassandra yelled, her eyes widening. “But that’s 500 years away!”

     “So be it,” Fyora answered, as she pulled out the bottle and pulled the top off, as Airy and Growth stepped back. The same wind swirled around Cassandra, as the magic bottle pulled her in. Knowing that trying to escape was useless, she didn’t struggle as the bottle sucked her in. As soon as she was inside, Fyora corked the bottle again.

     “I’ll have to find a new fire faerie to take over the Uber Fire Faerie responsibilities. As for the rest of us, let’s get back to our normal lives,” Queen Fyora said.

     ---

     Sitting in a bottle inside the private chambers, Cassandra was upset. But she knew that she would get out eventually. And she knew one thing. It would be before 500 years passed.

The End