The Golden Quill: Part Three

      "I grew up much like you, but I was treated better because I was a natural dark faerie. But I wasn't exactly popular among the dark faerie children. I wasn't the strongest of the faeries, and so I too was mocked. I was often called worthless and I was often told that I would never amount to anything. There were few, if any, who were treated worse than I was, not counting you. As I grew up I gained in power just like everyone else, but to put a relatively long story short, I was treated much like you were except for one thing. That one thing is that I made fun of you more than anybody else. Both to you face and behind your back. I guess I thought that if I made fun of you, I'd somehow be cooler or more popular. I really wasn't any cooler than anybody else, but I was willing to do anything to be accepted. For me, that included making fun of you."

      Leeana couldn't help gasping. "You were the one with the plum and black colored dress?"

      Maricia wasn't entirely sure of what to say. "Well, I wore that uniform just like everybody else did. But I'm probably who you're thinking of. I called you 'Weird and Worthless' nearly every day. But I hope that you can understand that I did it for my own benefit, I didn't have anything against you myself."

      Leeana sighed. "Well, I'll admit that it does cast you in a different light, but I can understand why you acted the way that you did and I won't hold it against you. After all, it's not like you were really given much of a choice."

      "Well, I was given a choice, but looking back, I don't know that I made the right one. Unfortunately, it's far too late to change anything now, but at least now we both understand each other's history. It does explain why you tend to be hesitant around dark faeries, especially given that you are one. I'll admit that it puzzled me at first, but it also drew me to you. That and the fact that you cared about others and not just yourself. You impressed and surprised me. I'll admit that I'm not exactly a light faerie myself, but I've gotten over making fun of others in an attempt to make myself better."

      Leeana smiled. "Well, that's not a bad start, anyway. And it's actually not that hard to be nicer if that's how you want to be anyway. I mean, your element doesn't totally control you. It does partly, but it's not like you are the slave of your element."

      Maricia sighed. "Yes, but I enjoyed being mean to you, and I'll admit it. I was so miserable that making fun of you not only made me feel cooler, but I also felt good and happy. I'm nicer than I was as a child, but the change was not an easy one for me. It took a lot of work and a lot of self restraint."

      Leeana smiled again, stood up, walked over to Maricia, and hugged her. "It may have taken a lot of work, but it was all worth it, because that's probably part of why you're here now."

      Maricia shrugged. "That's probably true. I only became your advisor because I supported you when the faeries almost mutinied because you were a dark faerie."

      Leeana looked down. "Regrettably, that's something that I'll never be able to forget. All those light faeries and some air and earth faeries started saying that no dark faerie should be queen simply because she helped the lost queen in the desert. They kept saying that I was not fit to rule simply because I was a dark faerie. The fact that I seem to have some of the light element was lost on them, because they took no note of it and wanted to keep me from being queen simply because a few faeries decided that I should be a dark faerie instead of a light faerie when I could have been either one of the two. It was wrong then and it's wrong now, which is why I try not to stereotype any of the faeries."

      Maricia didn't know how to respond. She had never known any of these facts. She knew that the queen was an amazing individual, but she didn't realize that her queen had to overcome even more than she had to deal with. Even harder to believe was the fact that she had once mocked her current queen. All that information overwhelmed her senses and left her with nothing to say.

      Leeana suddenly laughed. "I can't help but to marvel at the fact that we started out talking about Fyora. She really needs to start her training. It was horrible for me to have to learn so much information in a short amount of time. It's rumored that Flora's descendents are all natural born rulers, so I can't help finding out whether or not that's true. In just a few years, we will start teaching her how to act as queen so that she will be prepared for her future."

      Maricia yawned. "Of course, my queen. But if you would please excuse me, this talk has left me fatigued. May we continue this conversation in the morning?"

      Leeana pondered the question. "I suppose that we have nothing left to discuss, so please feel free to sleep in and start out your day with your official duties."

      Maricia bowed to Leeana. "Thank you, and good night, dear queen."

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

      "And your new president is.... FYORA!! Congratulations, Fyora!"

      As Fyora walked through the halls of the Prestigious Faerie Academy, otherwise known as PFA, she encountered many of her friends who congratulated her on becoming the class president. At least, that was until she encountered Marilena, the meanest dark faerie enrolled in PFA.

      "Just tell me how you cheated. I won't tell anybody, and there's no way that you could have been voted as the president without some cheating. Of course, I thought that air faeries didn't cheat. Speaking of air faeries, what on Neopia is wrong with your eyes? Every other faerie has crystal blue eyes, but yours are some ugly wanna-be dark faerie purple."

      Fyora kept on walking past Marilena, but the faerie's words were not lost on Fyora. She wanted to be like all the other faeries, but she knew that she was different. How could she not know? Her mother had mysteriously disappeared, and she was the heir to the throne. Not only that, she was an air faerie that would take the throne only after a dark faerie had it. That didn't matter much to Fyora or the other dark faeries, but to everybody else that was a sign of bad times. They seemed to fact that after a dark faerie being queen, any type of faerie queen that was after her would be a bad queen. It was a foolish belief, but that did not stop it from hurting Fyora in her attempt to be just like any other normal faerie, heir to the throne aside.

      As she walked through the halls to her private room at the academy, complements of the queen, she couldn't ignore the taunting of the dark faeries and the congratulations from every other faerie, with just a few exceptions. Fyora was just worried that most of her "friends" were only her friends because she was the heir to the throne. Fyora knew without a shadow of a doubt that some of her friends liked her for who she was, but she was also positive that some of her "friends" couldn't care much less about her. They just wanted her to be nice to them when she was the queen. Fyora was annoyed by it, but she knew that there was nothing that she could do about it, even though she desperately wished that there was a way to make it so that only her true friends were nice to her.

      As she walked into her room, Fyora was shocked to see that her room was a mess. It looked as though her room had been put into a blender then put on full power. Her sheets were no longer on her bed; they were under the bed and strewn across her room. Although a trusting person, Fyora couldn't help wanting to believe that Marilena had done it. Fyora would have been thrilled to see the most cruel faerie at PFA suspended or even expelled, but Fyora could never prove anything. After searching through her room, Fyora discovered that her favorite bracelet was missing.

      At about the same time, Marilena was shocked to see that her own room was a nightmare. After sifting through her strewn-about possessions, Marilena was infuriated to see that her books were missing. Although Marilena didn't care too much about her school books, the cost of replacing them was not a cost that Marilena could afford. Not only that, her two favorite books were missing as well. One about the art of pranking fellow faeries and one was a story about an alternate reality in which dark faeries ruled Faerieland. She moved her book cubby onto her roommate's side of the room. She found nothing where the cubby had once been and moved it back. However, as she was putting it back, she saw something slide off the cubby and hit the dark purple carpet. It was a bracelet. Marilena knew that she had seen the bracelet before, but she couldn't place it. She decided to go and talk to her favorite teacher, Ms. Daldreda.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

      "You're sure that you don't know whose this is, but you know that you've seen it before?"

      Marilena nodded furiously. "What do you think we should do about it?"

      Ms. Daldreda smiled slyly. "I'll announce over the PA system that if anybody has recently lost one of their possessions, they are to report to my room. Whoever owns it will have to be able to identify it. At that point, I will sentence her to detention and you can accuse her and get to the bottom of this there."

      Marilena frowned. "But I've never gotten a detention before."

      Ms. Daldreda looked at her curiously. "Why not?"

      Marilena grinned. "I've discovered the art of not getting caught. Anyway, so I'll show up at detention and I can accuse her there?"

      "Exactly."

To be continued...