The Moderately Evil Faerie: Part Four

      Spite and Vanity huddled together as the ship rocked. Their stomachs churned as they watched the pirates on board spar with their cutlasses.

      They felt ridiculous and out of place, but Malice and Jhudora were having the time of their lives. Malice was dressed as a swashbuckling captain while Jhudora went with her usual Neovian attire. Vanity and Spite, both dressed in similar pirate attire, knew that not a single pirate on that ship believed that they were grey faeries. Despite that, Jhudora and Malice were sparring with cutlasses they had borrowed from some pirates who were interested in seeing two faeries pretend to fight. Every time Malice’s wings poked out of her coat, Vanity’s stomach dropped a little bit more.

      “I know you put very little stock into what I say,” Spite whispered to her sister, “But, Vanity, this is a horrible idea on so many levels.”

      Vanity stared at Spite with desperation in her eyes. She took a deep breath before affirming her sister, “Spite, I completely agree.”

      Jhudora and Malice’s sparring was interrupted when a pirate techo called from the mast, “Land ho!”

      Jhudora and Malice begrudgingly handed the cutlasses back to their rightful owners before holding their hands out to help Vanity and Spite up from their current places on the bench. Vanity and Spite took their hands and slowly made their way to the place where they would be let off onto the docks. While they waited, Jhudora quietly asked, “What good deeds can we do in Krawk Island?”

      “Oh, Jhudora, my darling!” Malice smiled sheepishly, “I simply wanted to see Krawk Island with my own eyes! The brackish waters here are nothing like the beautiful ocean surrounding Altador! I simply want to explore. However . . .” Vanity and Spite’s blood ran cold as they realized what Malice was about to say. “My sisters would love to help you find a way to help the poor Neopians here!”

      Jhudora smiled brightly, “Oh! Very well then! Vanity, Spite, we’ll make short work of finding some good work to do! Or. . . of course we could just have fun!”

      Vanity and Spite let out a long sigh of relief. Vanity smiled as she replied, “Fun sounds good.”

      As soon as the plank touched the dock, Malice ran down it and disappeared into the crowds gathered around the port.

      Jhudora turned to Spite and Vanity and nodded, “After you.”

      Unsure of their footing, the sisters slowly made their way down onto the dock, with Jhudora following close behind. Once on the safety of the dock, Jhudora quickly lead them to the island. She laughed a bit and asked, “What is there even to do in Krawk Island? All I can think of is gambling and eating!”

      Spite took a deep breath before revealing at least half of the ulterior motive, “Jhudora, Malice wanted to secretly find more faeries to spend time with us and help you do good! But I’m really scared!”

      “Secretly find more faeries in Krawk Island?” Jhudora looked over at Vanity, “Did you know about this?”

      Vanity nodded, both embarrassed and grateful that Spite had ruined Malice’s horrible plan.

      Jhudora mulled it over a bit before pausing to ask, “Was it three faeries, like you?”

      Vanity slowly nodded.

      “Water faeries?” Jhudora began to hold her gloved hand up to her mouth as it dawned on her who Malice was trying to contact.

      “I . . . this is bad, isn’t it?” Vanity’s eyes widened as she realized how harmful Malice’s overinflated ego was becoming.

      “We need to find her before she hits the water!” She frantically began to point, “You go that way, you go this way . . .” She took a moment to pull herself together before stating, “Fan out, we need to find her before they do.”

      The sisters both ran in opposite directions towards beaches while Jhudora began to run to the beach closest to the port. After frantically running for a few minutes, she saw the almost comical hat that Malice had been wearing lying by itself on the beach. Jhudora stopped for a second and realized how ridiculous this all was. If she had just been happy with her life as a moderately evil faerie, she would be at home playing with her bartmuses. But no. She somehow had to invite three ancient, and apparently crazy, dark faeries into her home because she wanted to be charitable. She didn’t even understand what led her to think any of this was a good idea at that point. After debating letting The Drenched just take Malice to Maraqua, she realized she had to be moral and try to save the Dark faerie. As she ran to the shore, she could see the back of Malice’s head as she bobbed up and down in the water. At least she was still above the surface. Jhudora ripped off her cloak and wig and spread her wings to fly. Just as she was about to reach Malice, Malice was pulled under.

      “Of. Course.” Jhudora spat as she dived down into the water. Once she was underwater, her hands began to glow green so that she could better see what was happening. Beneath her, Malice was being pulled down. Part of Jhudora’s mind begged her to just go back to being evil, but a louder part of her commanded her to be good. She used her giant wings to swim down nearly as quickly as the Water faeries below her. Once she was close enough to Malice, she held out her hand and closed her eyes for a second. After a pause, she opened her mouth and her eyes. Her eyes glowed bright green as she let out a scream muted by the water. As she screamed, a bright green, air filled bubble formed around the faeries. The Drenched fell to the bottom of the bubble right as a barely conscious Malice fell on top of them. Jhudora stared at Malice, her eyes still glowing. The Drenched stared at Jhudora in fear. They knew very little of the world outside of Maraqua and had never experienced anything like this before.

      Jhudora took a deep breath before picking up Malice. The Drenched simply stayed paralyzed in place as Jhudora closed her eyes and the bubble popped. The Drenched were battered by the waves of water washing in while Jhudora simply used her wings to swim back to the surface. Once at the surface, she didn’t bother flying back to the shore. She simply swam so that she could have time to think about what had just happened.

      As she was swimming, Malice began to cough up water. Jhudora rolled her eyes as Malice began to whimper incoherently. Once they were at the shore, Jhudora simply tossed Malice onto the sand and sat down. She stared out at the sea and tried to make sense of everything in her head. She simply couldn’t.

      Vanity and Spite came running to Jhudora, yelling out her name. Jhudora looked back at them and sneered, “That’s me.”

      The sisters dove down onto their knees beside their sister. They shook her while they waited for her to wake up. Jhudora laid on her back and stared up at the overcast sky.

      “I am so angry I can’t even begin to express it,” Jhudora calmly stated.

      Vanity looked back at Jhudora, “Jhudora, please, don’t hurt us.”

      “If you hurt anyone, just make it Malice,” Spite added, “I wanted to go home. I didn’t want to live in a world with lamps. Vanity didn’t want to do this. We wanted to go home!”

      Malice slowly began to sit up. She looked at her sisters and asked, “Did we do the thing?”

      Her sisters stood up and stared off into the distance in opposite directions with their arms crossed.

      Jhudora slowly stood up. She picked up her wig and cloak and looked back at the sisters. She barked, “You’re coming with me whether you like it or not!”

      Malice nodded and scrambled to stand up while Vanity and Spite simply waited for Jhudora to lead the way.

      Jhudora made her way to the port. “And of course, we’re going to have to wait quite a while for our passage to Faerieland.”

      “Can’t you just drop us off in Altador?” Malice rolled her eyes.

      Spite and Vanity’s blood ran cold as Jhudora turned to Malice and spat, “You do not want to know what I want to do right now. You do not want to know how much restraint and kindness I am showing you right now.”

      “I can just fly away if I wanted to!” Malice taunted Jhudora. Her sisters began to let out soft squeaks as they realized what was about to happen.

      Jhudora grabbed Malice by the collar of her shirt and pulled her close before whispering, “If you even think of escaping, I will turn you into a slorg.”

      Vanity and Spite both started yelling ‘no’ over and over at the top of their lungs. The pirates around them had all dropped their work and were staring at the faeries. Malice smirked and turned. The moment her feet left the ground to fly away, she was engulfed in a ball of green light. From that ball of light, a black slorg fell onto the cobblestone path. The slorg was dazed, but completely fine. Jhudora picked up the slorg and tossed it to Vanity. Vanity nodded as she hugged the slorg close to her, hoping Jhudora understood that there would be no problems from her or her sisters after that.

      “Let’s try to find passage on the first ship that will take us,” Jhudora sighed.

      The two remaining sisters quickly nodded as the slorg began to hiss wildly.

      To be continued…