Amaida's Wings

      "Ah!"

      Thump!

      "Amai, are you alright?" came a voice from downstairs.

      "Yes!" groaned the white Kougra. She looked around from where she lay on the floor and groaned. Then she whispered, so that nobody but herself could hear, "For the most part."

      Amaida had wanted to fly ever since she had seen a Pteri soaring through the sky after her owner had adopted her. She wanted to feel the air flow over her, and through her, and see the tiny ants that were owners and pets far below. She wanted to touch the water below and not have to worry about falling in and getting soaked.

      She wanted to be painted faerie.

      The Kougra sighed. It was not likely to happen ever. Daisy, her owner, only earned up to a thousand Neopoints a day, and she only had ten thousand now. Plus, she was drawn to rare seeming things, and bought them only to find that they were worth about one Neopoint when it came to the shop wizard. They were lucky to live on Mystery Island. Knowing Daisy, she would've expected to live in Neopia.

      She sighed once more and got up, pulling out her homework. Mr. Boney had given them an extra assignment today after he caught a few of the popular pets spitting bits of paper at the chalk board. Naturally he assumed the rest of the class had been joining in... and the result was a 150 word essay on the adventures of the first known hero of Neopia, Queen Fyora.

      Queen Fyora, wrote Amaida, using a Light Faerie Pen, is a nice lady who loves bowling and wearing lots of purple...

      "Amai!" shouted Daisy from downstairs. "I'm going to Faerieland to go and see if we can get any good stuff."

      "Okay!"

      The door slammed, and Amai was left all alone to study and find out all she could about the Faerie Queen. She slammed down the pen on the desk, not planning to do any such thing, and ran to the window to make sure Daisy was out of sight. Around the corner... and... yes!

      Amai leapt off the bed once more, hoping wings would materialize out of nowhere. But they didn't, and she fell to the floor-once more-and hit her head.

      Stars blazed through her vision, and she stood up rather lightheaded. She shook her head, and once the stars went away...

      "Something tells me I'm not at home anymore," she said out loud. All around her were trees, and ferns, and all sorts of other foresty stuff. Sunlight streamed through the canopy, and Amai was in awe as she saw the beauty of the place.

      All of a sudden, sniffling noises broke through her train of thought. It sounded like a human or faerie sniffling. Amai crashed through the bushes, because if it was a faerie, and she didn't go to help it, retribution would come later.

      A small girl, wearing all different shades of lavender, was crying alongside a tree. She had long, flowing purple hair, and her eyes, besides being puffy and looking hurt, were large and luminous.

      "Are you all right?" Amai asked, looking down at the little girl.

      "Leave me alone!" she said, sniffling, and trying to rub away evidence of tears, and succeeding only in making it more obvious.

      "Well I'm only trying to help," said Amai, the girl reminding her of somebody back home. "I can't very well do that if I go away."

      The girl chewed on her trembling lower lip, and looked at Amai.

      "Well," she said. "The reason I'm crying, is because I haven't grown into my wings yet, and all the faeries my age already have."

      "Is that all?" asked Amai, startled that something as trivial as a faerie coming late into her wings would send somebody off crying.

      "No," said the girl, still sniffling. "I'm the princess, you see, and if I don't get my wings soon, I won't be able to become Queen."

      "What's your name, anyway?" asked Amai. "Mine's Amaida."

      "Fyora."

      The white Kougra nearly fainted with shock. Fyora? The Fyora? This just wasn't possible! Fyora was an adult! A Queen! Sure the little girl had the purple part down... but Fyora? How could she possibly be Fyora?

      "F-Fyora," said Amai, stuttering with the surprise, "m-maybe I can help you find your w-wings."

      "Great idea!" said the little girl, jumping up with excitement. "But first, let's head back to the castle so I can get my staff!"

      Amai blundered after her as she made her way to the castle. Apparently it wasn't in the sky yet, for faeries that didn't have wings. Maybe they didn't know about Balthazar... or maybe he just didn't exist. After all, she had the feeling she wasn't in the present anymore.

      Fyora knocked on the big, huge castle door, and the Kougra could hear the sound travel all the way through the big building, even though she wasn't in it. It was tall, at least five stories, and Amai could see shimmering, floating figures flying in and out of the building.

      "Sorry," said an old, frail looking faerie, everything about her looking droopy, including her wings. "We don't allow visitors."

      Then she looked down, and saw it was the girl. She blinked with surprise, and said, "Fyora dear, come in! Who's your friend?"

      "She says her name's Amaida," said Fyora. "She's gonna help me get my wings!"

      "She is, is she?" asked the old faerie, moving just enough for Fyora and Amai to get through. She glared at her suspiciously, but did nothing else.

      "Yes!" said Fyora. Then she took off suddenly, and Amai was forced to run after her, or get lost. The perk of such a big place was that it was easy to get lost, but the faerie girl seemed to know her way around. She went down one hallway, took a turn to the left, went up some stairs, took another turn left, and went down some stairs. Amai would've gotten dizzy if she hadn't watched her.

      "There's my staff!" said Fyora, running into the forbidding darkness to grab it. It looked just like it did in the present the last time the Kougra had set eyes on it, only it was too tall for the faerie holding it.

      Suddenly a purple flare lit the room, and a bolt nearly hit Amai in the shoulder. As it was, she had to duck to avoid being hit by it.

      "Sorry!" said Fyora. "I don't have much control."

      "You don't have much luck, either!" shouted a harsh voice. A big, burly Grarrl arm shot out of nowhere, and grabbed the girl by the waist.

      Amai's jaw nearly dropped half a mile-despite being on the ground floor-before she darted forward to go help Fyora. The girl was screaming as loud as her lungs could handle, and banging her staff against the big lug's leg. Amai leapt off the ground, tackling the Grarrl, but she was only a level one Neopet, Daisy having never been the battling type owner.

      The Grarrl swung his other massive fist at her, and managed to knock her into the wall. Amai hit it with a thunking sound, but it was only hard enough to let her know she'd have some bruises later on. She slowly picked herself up off the ground, and stared at the Grarrl.

      "I'm going to take her to a place I know," said the Grarrl, smiling viciously with his large teeth. "And you're not going to find her!"

      "I agree with you on that part," said Amai, leaping forward once more, "Because I'm not going to let you take her there!"

      A flash of purple light lit the room, and the Grarrl shouted, letting Fyora go. Amai tackled into him, and managed to make them both fall to the ground.

      "Hey!" Fyora said, fluttering in the air. "I have wings!"

      The Grarrl's jaw dropped, and she raised up her staff, pointing at him.

      "And if I can get wings," said Fyora, "that means I can control my magic, and send you off to some uncharted island."

      Another purple beam shot out of the staff, but instead of hurting the Grarrl, like it nearly had with Amai, he disappeared.

      Amai looked up at Fyora, and started to feel a floating sensation. Her vision was slowly clouded with white, and she started to feel carpet underneath her instead of stone. An aching feeling started to spread across the back of her head, and the next thing she knew, she was at home, staring at the offwhite paint of her bedroom walls.

      "Amai!" said a voice from downstairs. "I'm home!"

      "Daisy!" she shouted, and bounded to the stairs. "You'll never guess what just happened!"

     But as she got to the top stair, her paw managed to get in her way and she tripped, finding herself upside down, and... and... not falling.

      Purple feathery wings flapped behind Amai, and she managed to right herself in the air. She was flying! She had wings! Her fur... she was painted faerie! But how?

      Daisy stared at her, openmouthed, holding a small, blue Wocky in her arms.

      "Amaida?" Daisy asked, a shocked expression on her face.

      "I just had a dream," Amai said. "This is incredible!"

      "I'll say," Daisy said. "I have a faerie Kougra!"

     #

      Amai handed in her report the next day, smiling inside at the fact that the rest of her classmates were doing the same thing Daisy had. Her new sister wasn't surprised, Amai being the first Kougra she saw, but kept on asking the Kougras in her kindergarten class why they didn't have wings.

      "Amaida," said the teacher, looking at her from over his large glasses. "I have to ask how you knew the story of Fyora's first act of heroism. None of the Neopets learn about it until next year."

      Amai shrugged, and said, "I guess I sort of... dreamed it up!"

The End