Send A Star

     The nova's arrival brought a smile to Shuupa, who was sitting on a flat rock. Shuupa practised her magic by sending a few dust motes dancing in the air. The spiralling motes were slowly lowered to the ground with a gentle swish of her right arm and moulded back into the earthy soil. The bright glow from the dancing motes let the nova know where to land each night. As Shuupa raised her left arm to wave, she gasped as villagers and tourists were heard arguing behind her as they exited the perched building of a famous orange blumaroo chef.

     "You're wrong!" shouted an elderly nimmo villager, stomping his foot. "It came from the ghost!" The group of strangers talked over each other, arguing.

     "That phrase came from a witch!" a young kyrii tourist yelled over the din. The native villagers turned to him in anger. Humiliated from having caused the chef to combust a culinary concoction moments earlier, the kyrii confidently spoke as if to redeem himself. "And I can prove it! Every time 'knock on wood' is heard being screamed from miles away, a big blast of three different lights are seen shooting up to the sky from its direction. Each ray looks like something from a witch's brew. Then there's a faint echo of someone shouting, 'Have better luck!' That's what I've heard," he retorted with folded arms.

     "Oh, I see, that's what you've heard! We locals know that the origin of 'knock on wood' came from a mysterious spirit in the woods looking to exact its revenge on the one who abandoned it to rot there hundreds of years ago. It's not a witch, but a ghost!" The upset koi's cherry blossom hairpin fell off in the middle of her rant. The nimmo nodded in agreement as he picked up the hairpin and handed it to her. The kyrii and his friend simply looked at each other shaking their heads, not believing a word of it.

     "This sounds like it might go nowhere . . . but it also sounds like things might get bad," Shuupa said quietly to her mote friend hovering by her shoulder. "I have an idea." The light faerie put her hand to her mouth and coughed. The nova, wondering what Shuupa was planning, widened its eyes and excitedly showered down more stardust than usual.

     "Guys! Guys! Look," the nimmo alerted the rest who were still in a heated battle. "Stop. The Light Faerie is watching." The others stopped and immediately looked away and down at the ground with guilt and shock.

     Shuupa glanced at the nova. "I have no doubt that the learned neopets of Shenkuu are able to receive valuable information that proves true." She turned to the nervous koi fidgeting worriedly with her kimono. "For this, I ask that you tell me where these woods are."

     The koi took a step back, her sandals echoing in the now silent environment. "Well, we heard that a recent sighting by a lone hiker on the far outskirts of Meridell, which have been haunted for centuries, was reported to be that of a, well . . ." The shaking koi stopped there, scared to say any more. The light faerie smiled and cocked her head to the side as if to say not to worry. The crowd waited. The koi scrunched up her face then boldly continued, "It was the ghost of a faerie."

     Shuupa was sure this account couldn't be true, though she feared to question the villagers. She herself has relied several times on the helpful information gathered by the town and she didn't want to damage that relationship. She sighed quickly and turned to her best friend. She had been planning to send the nova on an expedition to investigate the woods. "Novy, would you please see if you could find those woods? If the bright lights shooting up to the sky happen often, you might be able to spot them from up in space."

     The nova loved to do anything it could to help Shuupa, but something else was exciting the mind of the little mote. The light faerie knew the nova wanted to glow a different colour and over several months had been teaching it techniques to control the heat and magic burning within it. Flying back and forth eagerly, the nova let out a high-pitched cry to say yes as it imagined beautiful lights emanating from the woods. This was its chance to practice becoming a new nova colour. The nova soon set off on its search for a ghost witch, as the others all went home for the night.

     Flying across the planet for hours, the celestial mote searched for any bright flashes. While it scouted along the way, the shooting nova struggled to synchronize with its core. It appeared as a distant twinkle of yellow light, delighting all those who watched from below, but disheartening the mote. Coming to an immediate halt inside a big cloud, the nova closed its eyes to remember the lessons it learned from Shuupa, then stretched out its limbs, magically expanding its body in size. Feeling confident, it ran through its training routine in the secluded comfort of the puffy cloud. The dancing nova was so focused on its movements that it didn't realize it also emitted a ray imperceptible to Neopian eyes, sending a radio wave out into the vacuum of space.

     Tink, tink, tink. A metallic dome hub was hammered in perfect rhythm. The humming came from a woodland grundo, Neop, working outdoors in the muggy fringes of Meridell. Neop had lived isolated in the remote woods for two decades. Growing up, he designed many advanced machines for himself. He'd studied the technology from books he'd had all his life. He resented the day he'd failed to engineer a biodome for housing plants. The disastrous experiment chemically fused the herbs with his body, turning him from blue to woodland. Neop now concentrated all his time trying to reverse-engineer his plant-like state.

     The grundo was originally from Kreludor, so living among the trees was a burden he worked hard to put up with. One day long ago, he'd woken up in the woods, unable to remember how he got there. Besides him was a stack of books, tools and building materials in a large box with the name "Neop" written across it. At the time, he assumed the name was that of the stranger who'd brought him to Neopia. As the years went by, and Neop never returned, the grundo decided to take the name for himself. His birth name was Uzthalugork, but he became fond of the name Neop because he believed it looked like a misspelling of the word nope, a word he often used during his experiments. It gave him a laugh to pronounce the name almost the same as the word, but the begrudged grundo lost his sense of humour when he became a mundane plant.

     The stars had always been an essential refuge for grundos, leaving indelible inspirations in their minds anytime they looked out into the void of space. Neop was desperate to feel the connection to the stars again. Tink, tink, tink. As he worked, he sang along to keep momentum. "Knock on wood! Knock on wood!" Although he was jaded by his leafy condition, the hard worker still found time to enjoy the little things. Tink, tink, tink. "Knock on wood!" In record time, he finished building his 77th prototype. After starting up the new zap machine, he stepped inside its framework and said, "Maybe this time I'll . . ." Just as he was about to finish, the dome he built began to collapse around him. "HAVE BETTER LUCK!" Before Neop could notice the machine breaking down, the dome's ray gun zapped him, succeeding only in decreasing his strength by a couple of points, and then blasted up into the sky three times as it began to malfunction.

     Resting its weary limbs in the ionosphere, the nova was startled by the sudden energy surging from the ground below. Its innate ability to sense wavelengths of high-energy photons from afar allowed it to swiftly dash down and find its target. The nearby inhabitants had always known about the mystifying beams coming from its neighbouring mass of trees, but assumed its origins to be sinister, restraining themselves from ever exploring. They believed it came from the wretched residents of The Haunted Woods and stayed clear of the place.

     Deep in thought, Neop sulked over his most recent flop. How could it have gone so wrong, again? Each time he tried building the closed transformation dome, he made sure to bolt its walls tightly, yet each time they fell apart. He sighed deeply and continued mumbling to himself in disappointment as he sat on top of the rubble. The grundo often cried himself to sleep, but this was not one of those times. As he looked down in dismay, he caught a glimpse of a few flares from the stardust falling above. At first, he thought they were his own tears until he heard the dazzling sound of the squealing star. Struck with the thought that the missing piece of his experiment was something from outer space, he clenched his teeth and lunged toward the nova to take its stardust. He swiped ferociously at the dodging mote. Unable to grab it, Neop hopped into his makeshift spaceship. He had installed a claw arm on it to catch thieving petpets lurking around his home trying to take his food when he was busy working. Chasing the fast nova around in his clunky spaceship, he followed it all the way back to Shenkuu.

     Meanwhile, inside a mountain hut in town, an ogrin ran a lucrative business of transmogrification potions. The exclusive shop was separate from the other public markets, serving only customers who were natives of Shenkuu. The only other way to obtain those potions was by travelling down the tall mountain over to the next city, so the villagers purchased from Krintora instead. "So now he shows!" Krintora fumed when the tradesman who delivered her weekly inventory entered her shop. "You were supposed to be here hours ago! Time is money, and you lost me a bunch of both!"

     "Be not alarmed, my friend. Hear me out," the faerie pteri replied, swooping his radiant wing out and down to bow. He lowered his head to look down at the ground and continued, "I apologize for the delay and coming empty-handed. You will never believe who I ran into."

     Krintora began to say, "It had better be—" until she noticed the tradesman tilt his head up slightly to look straight at her. It was the custom between villagers and outsiders they did business with to allow the other finish speaking. This tradition deepened the trust between both parties and even strengthened the credibility of the town. Conscience-stricken over her interruption, she said, "Who? Who was it, Phoerin?"

     Closing his eyes with a smile, Phoerin explained. "It was none other than Mira the Space Faerie. I was flying alone over the ocean when she suddenly appeared and asked me for all the potions. She gave me quite a shock! She said they were gravely needed. I could never say no to a faerie." He batted the antenna-like feathers on his head.

     "No, what really happened?" Krintora replied, shaking her head. "I don't believe the Space Faerie would want my entire batch of potions. What would she do with them?! No . . . No, you must have sold them. Didn't you?"

     As the ogrin and pteri argued loudly, they drew the attention of the shoppers outside. When the villagers heard that the transmogrification potions were all sold out, they immediately demanded the pteri bring another delivery. "I tried. I flew around for hours, but no one has any to sell. I'm afraid there won't be any for another week." Shuupa, strolling by and running errands, heard the commotion. She took out a jar of motes and mixing a Neopian Mote and Zen Mote together, she used her magic to surround the crowd with a calming presence. It didn't work. As their anger grew, they became more resistant to her spell.

     Seeing the glowing motes dancing around the crowd, the nova descended rapidly. As it arrived, the stardust from its trail mixed in with the other motes, enhancing the spell to Positive Thinking. The district quieted down as the shoppers experienced an overwhelming sensation. No longer upset with the pteri, they stood still with their eyes closed, basking in their tranquillity.

     Shuupa ran to her friend to thank it. "Wow, it looks like stardust really is the building block of light magic." The nova was happy to help, but informed the faerie about the truth of the ghost witch tale. The two spoke to each other with light magic to convey messages.

     Charging in from above after swerving around many cliffs and the large flying ships over the town, the grundo sped up to reach the nova. Stunned by the big crowd of neopets, the recluse lost focus for a moment and made a wrong turn, causing him to crash land on the market square.

     Now understanding that a little extra magic can power up a spell, Shuupa and the nova teamed up again to combine both of their strengths. When the grundo staggered from out his spaceship, the two quickly cast Lens Flare, the most powerful light spell to deter any enemy attack. Because of the nova's training, its stardust had become more potent, effectively blinding Neop with a temporary vision of a burning sun orbited by beautiful, lush planets. The peaceful imagination was enough to remind him of home, bringing him to tears.

     "Please don't hurt him!" cried out a stern voice. Flying in from behind, the space faerie grabbed Shuupa's attention. "This neopet is innocent." The magic of her staff shone brightly, but it didn't affect the villagers still dazed from the dancing motes.

     "Mira! Have you met this grundo before?" Shuupa turned to Neop and recognized his obvious inner pain.

     "Yes, I have," the space faerie answered as she stepped down to the ground. "Back when I had to deal with the terrible Sloth by tossing him out to space I found a group of grundos living alone on the moon. I was concerned for their safety from the warlords that still followed the menace. Please, Shuupa, allow me a moment." She passed through the crowd to talk to Neop. "Uzthalugork, right?" She smiled at him, then sighed. "I want you to know that I've always seen the best in you. I saw how hard you worked on Kreludor, helping your friends and family build a better home. You are very smart, Uzthalugork. That's why I brought you to Neopia so you may safely continue your amazing work away from the danger of Dr. Sloth's minions. I know your family didn't follow him, and I know that they didn't make it . . . So I took it upon myself to bring you to a new home you could help grow."

     "There's only one home for me and that's among the stars!" shouted Neop, crying. "I thought I could live down here, but now I'm stuck looking like a darn tree all the time. I don't belong here! The science I know has nothing to do with Neopian biology, and this is the price I paid for you bringing me here!" He pointed at himself, emphasizing the growing plants attached to him. He turned around to look away from Mira and noticed his smoking spaceship had been dismantled. "I'm just stuck here on this planet forever, aren't I?" There was the clink of bottles being laid down on the ground behind him.

     While Mira and Neop were busy talking, Shuupa and the nova decided to work together to repair the broken spaceship. Shuupa used a restorative spell and the nova its stardust. They had become an excellent pair and managed to fix most of the damages in a few minutes.

     After placing the last bottle in a row, Mira turned to face Neop. "You may find that a home comes from the heart. I know that your heart is broken, making it difficult for you to see this place as home. Allow me to mend your broken heart with one of these magical brews." She motioned toward the bottles. The space faerie explained the different types of potions. When Neop saw the shimmering bottle with gloaming colours, he began to hope. "Ah, I see." The space faerie smiled at him. "Would you like to try this one? It's called Eventide and will turn you into the colours of a twilight sky with beautiful shining stars all across your head."

     "Stars?! Yes!" he interjected. Grabbing the potion with a wide smile, Neop whispered to himself, "Eventide . . ." The space faerie was pleased to have made him happy. He had always been the bright star that she'd wished to never die out, so she felt very emotionally attached to him. "Thank you, Neop." He drank the potion and stared in wonder as the plants disappeared and were replaced by the layered colours that reminded him of the nighttime sky.

     "Neop? My name is Mira," she told him.

     "Mira," Neop repeated the story of waking up with a box labelled Neop beside him.

     "Uzthalugork, you might not remember much from the war, as you were still very young. When I found you, you were passed out in a crater near your family's home all by yourself. I sensed your suffering from afar and when I saw you I knew I had to help you. I gathered all your favourite things in a box I found. The one you believed to be Neop was really me. I hope that you can understand I did this for you." Mira felt a strong sense of guardianship, loving the grundo as though he were her child. She was surprised to find he lunged in for a big hug and she smiled in relief.

     Shuupa completed the last repair on the spaceship. "Novy, I'm glad I sent you to find out the truth about that ghost tale and that you're OK." The nova cried out in glee.

     "Actually, Shuupa, and Novy, too, is it?" Mira turned to both of them. "I could sense the fear coming from you, Novy, the moment Uzthalugork first tried to attack. I've always known he was desperately trying to change himself, but I believed he'd find the solution on his own. My telepathy told me so. Deep down, he's a good grundo, who never gives up. Truly, Shuupa, the reason I felt Novy so strongly was because of how well you trained it." She flew up a few feet above the ground to get closer to the nova and took out her staff. "In fact, I heard your spiritual message every time you practised your magic. Allow me, Novy, to grant you what you seek." With one deft swish, she illuminated the aura around the nova. Its stardust began to glow light red and soon after its yellow body was taken over by a wave of neon pink. The excited nova squealed angelically as it thanked her profoundly.

     Weeks went by and the town of Shenkuu returned to normal. The space faerie had given back the rest of the transmogrification potions to Phoerin. All the shops were teeming with villagers and tourists, as usual. As the sun set over the mountaintop, Shuupa waited for her best friend. While she waited, Shuupa cast a quick spell of Positive Thinking on herself to test the strength of her growing magic. She was proud of how much she'd learned thanks to the help of the nova. Just then, the nova came down from above. It no longer needed the dancing motes to guide it in order to land.

     Back in his woods, Neop, who now went by Uzthalugork again, hummed along as he worked on his new project. But now the inspired grundo often made the time in between his work to sit down, scratch his forehead and enjoy catching the stardust that fell down. Singing to himself with a pile of twinkling dust cupped in his hands, he saw a faint vision of a familiar face within the sparkles. "Send a star! Send a star!" He smiled as he saw the space faerie smiling back at him from his stardust.

     The End.