Princess of Prophecy II: Kalara's Secret - Part Four

      Just then, I saw a green light so bright that I opened my eyes in shock, only to close them again since I was sure I would go blind. I heard Katriana scream, and then I felt a furry hand grab mine and pull me up.

      “Saeryennan...”

      It was Xandra’s voice. Before I knew it, I was pulled into her embrace. I opened my eyes. Katriana was pulling herself up off the floor. She glared at Xandra.

      “You...” she said. “You... Xweetok...!”

      “RUN!” my mother yelled. She grabbed one of Xandra’s hands and I grabbed Xandra’s other hand. My mother ran out of the passages.

      My father was waiting for us in my room.

      “Saeryennan, Kalara, go!” he said, drawing his sword. “I’ll handle this situation!”

      I ran with Xandra and my mother close behind me. Soon, I heard another pair of footsteps. I looked back to find that it was my father, without a sword. We ran into my parents’ room. My prophecy was coming true.

      “You think you can escape me?” Katriana cackled as I bolted the door and pushed a chair against it. Just as predicted, the Faerie’s fire incinerated both the door and the chair. When she walked in, she looked at Xandra for a few seconds before hurling a bolt of fire at her—while laughing with utter malevolence.

      Xandra was faster than Katriana; she quickly thrust her hand out and somehow reflected the fire attack back at the Faerie, who was, of course, completely unscathed by her own magic.

      “Get out,” she said.

      “Um... let me think...” Katriana said. “NO. None of this would’ve happened if you had cooperated with me, Xweetok. That ‘heroic’ Lupe—”

      “I have a name. It’s Alyxandra. Now stay... away... from my family!” She shot two sparks at Katriana. The first one merely bounced off of her, but the second one hit her—hard. She fell to the ground, apparently weakened, but not enough. Her eyes were still blazing with vengeance.

      “Out!” Xandra yelled as she ushered us past the Faerie who was slowly pulling herself up.

      No sooner had I escaped then I felt a warm wind pick me up. I looked around and saw that my parents and Xandra were also floating.

      “Nyvenne!” I cried with joy.

      We landed in the observatory of the Hall of Heroes. The Air Faerie smiled warmly at me.

      “I have to ask you something,” I said to her. “Why did your sister try to take over Altador a few months ago?”

      Nyvenne sighed. Alilire had indeed been her sister. Of course, I could find no reason that she would want to seize Altador... unless...

      “She was working for Katriana, wasn’t she?”

      Nyvenne sighed again.

      “I cannot be sure. My best guess is that she was just going to hold the kingdom over until Katriana awakened, then hand it over. But on the other hand... maybe not.”

      Wait a minute... awakened?

      “Katriana was already petrified when Xandra cast her spell,” I realized. “She stole that mirror thing from... whoever captured her! Which means using the same spell set her free! That’s why she was able to possess Xandra again.”

      “Your father did manage to banish Katriana to the Border Mountains, which is, perhaps not coincidentally, where my sister resided,” Nyvenne replied. “But he couldn’t have done it without a Faerie’s help. And the only Faerie working for him then was S—the Darkest Faerie. She sealed Katriana away. Of course... Katriana is still very powerful... which means she would’ve been able to hack into Xandra’s mind when she was sleeping...”

      “People of Altador!”

      The cry rang out from the highest tower of Altador Palace. Looking out the window, I could see Katriana’s figure half-standing on the window ledge, shouting out her insanity for all of Altador to hear.

      “I am your true queen,” the wicked voice continued. “I was forced off of my throne by the Lupe you know as ‘King’ Altador...”

      I watched her fly closer to the observatory. I gasped, but fortunately she took no notice of us and landed on the porch of the Hall of Heroes, where frightened citizens gathered around her.

      “He came to my land and ruthlessly invaded it. He took control of the land of Miarra, named for my dear mother, and purged it of her legacy. He doesn’t even acknowledge that Faeries once ruled this kingdom anymore. There never was a Miarra.”

      What a liar! She didn’t respect her mother at all.

      “My name is Katriana Miarra, and I stand here ready to regain my rightful place as your queen...”

      No!

      As quickly as I could, I ran down the stairs and out the door. Within seconds I stood facing the horrible creature.

      I stepped in front of her.

      “Listen!” I shouted. “This Faerie isn’t telling the truth! She stole the throne of Miarra from her mother and ruled tyrannically—”

      Before I could say another word, I felt a hot spark hit me in the back. The world turned dark. I must’ve lost consciousness before I hit the ground.

***

      I opened my eyes wearily. I was lying on a perfectly flat rock in the famous Perfectly Flat Rock Quarry.

      “Hey! Princess!”

      I sat up and turned to see a small Starry Ogrin standing beside me. He looked like he was about seven.

      I stood up. “Are you okay, little one?”

      “No one’s okay!” the Ogrin wailed. “The bad Faerie made a force field over Altador so no one can get out, and she trapped the King and Queen inside a crystal!”

      “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll get that bad Faerie to go away. Where are your parents?”

      “They ran away right before the force field was created. Some giant Fire Yooyu was about to grab me when this Xweetok made it disappear. Green lightning came out of her hands...”

      “Where is the Xweetok now?!”

      “She and I escaped and hid here. She found you on the Hall of Heroes porch and brought you here—oh, here she comes right now.”

      Xandra emerged from what looked like some sort of cave with a perfectly flat roof.

      “Saeryennan!” she cried. “You’re awake!”

      Before I could react, she ran right up to me and hugged me tightly.

      “Oh, Xandra... did you just hear what happened?” I said, breaking her embrace.

      She sighed. It was perhaps the thousandth sigh I’d heard since she came to us.

      “We have to save them...” she said. “But I don’t know how we’re going to best Katriana. Only a very powerful Faerie can bring her down.

      A Faerie... Nyvenne? No, she wasn’t too powerful. Alilire had been powerful, but she’d been evil and might’ve worked for Katriana.

      Just then, Xandra’s eyes lit up.

      “I know just who we should go to!”

      We didn’t have to walk very far. The Faerie we were meeting apparently lived in the forest that surrounded the quarry, which was lucky, since we were stuck in Altador.

      When we had ventured deep into the forest, Xandra actually began singing.

      “Oh, Caylin!”

      Suddenly, an Earth Faerie materialized right in front of us. She wore her light brown hair in a ponytail that reached her waist. Her green clothes consisted of a short skirt pleated like a warrior’s, and her shirt had very short sleeves. She carried a bow in one hand and a quiver of arrows on her back.

      “You must be Saeryennan,” she said. “My name is Caylin, and I taught your mother when she was very young. I also taught her little sist—oh my!”

      She had just noticed that Xandra was here.

      “Alyxandra, thank goodness!” she said. “After Fyora became Queen and I left to search for Queen Miarra, I worried. Calphurnia didn’t know about—”

      “Katriana,” I said. “She’s here, and she’s taking over. We need your help.”

      Caylin put her free hand up in the air, and the Ogrin disappeared. She assured us that he was now with his parents, safe and sound. She then took a fallen twig and magically crafted it into a sword. She said it had powerful earth magic and handed it to me.

      The Faerie raised her hand one more time, and we were instantly transported to Altador Palace.

      The palace was so different from what I had known. It wasn’t bright and alive anymore. The place was empty, and the portraits of me and my parents along the throne room walls had all been torn. There was even now a painting of Xandra, and that one had been defaced. Someone had covered her eyes with a thick line of black paint and burned the word “vengeance” in big letters near the bottom.

      “Come on,” Caylin whispered as we crept up the stairs.

      I wanted to find my parents as quickly as I could, so when Xandra and Caylin were not looking, I snuck away and found myself in the room where my father had shown me the map of Miarra. I turned and saw a huge crystal—and my parents suspended inside it!

      I prepared to hit the orange jewel with Caylin’s sword when I felt a hot hand touch my shoulder. Katriana had found me again.

      “Soooo...” she began. “You really thought it would be this easy? Foolish girl.”

     I looked up at her as she chuckled. She now wore my father’s own laurel crown.

     Well, that sight was enough for me. Without a second thought, I plunged the sword into the bottom of the crystal, shattering it.

     My mother and father fell to the floor, looking dazed.

     My father rubbed his head. “What...”

     “KATRIANA!” my mother screeched. She ran out of the room.

     That seemed to bring my father to his senses. He drew his own sword and began to charge at the evil Faerie. I left in a hurry. We needed someone really powerful, like the Faerie Queen herself. Even Xandra said that she herself could not stop her, and Caylin...

     Just as I thought of her the Earth Faerie went flying past me into the map room. Xandra and I raced after her, arriving just in time to see my father holding Katriana’s hands behind her back. He had his crown back on.

     “Xandra, Saeryennan!” Caylin said. “I need you to help contain Katriana while I...”

     She didn’t finish her sentence, but Xandra started to create a magical barrier around us, and I held my sword above the Faerie’s wings.

     Then Caylin began to sing. As she sang, vines shot up around Katriana’s feet, tying her to the floor. Katriana tried to do some kind of magic, but it fizzled out. Then I got why—Caylin, like Katriana, had been born when the previous Faerie Queen was ruling... an era I knew to be full of powerful Neopets and Faeries possessed with great magical gifts. It was the era Xandra had been born into. It was such a shame that such a wonderful era of peace and magic had... faded... and I had Katriana to thank for that. It was undoubtedly her doing, trying to spread terror to every corner of Neopia from her small kingdom.

     Nevertheless, Caylin had great power... and with it she was doing something very unusual. A large emerald began to appear around her. Xandra, my father and I all stepped back as it became more abundant until you couldn’t see Katriana at all. Then there was a flash of light and a small emerald lay in Caylin’s palm.

     I turned to Caylin. “You trapped her inside that jewel?”

     She nodded. “Katriana won’t be bothering us for a very long time.”

     I embraced Xandra, and then my parents. Perhaps now it was time to rebuild that old kingdom of joy; to recreate the world in Queen Miarra’s image, before Katriana stole everything from her and all the rest of us. I thought about it strongly as I greeted Calissa and Nyvenne, and my father’s council. Perhaps one day I could go and search for Queen Miarra. No one knew where she was, but if I found her, a new era could arise.

     But that was something to think about later. Right now, it was time for revelry. Altador had been saved once again.

The End