Of Meepits and Dark Faeries: Part Five

They hadn't really been able to think of an alternative, because they couldn't think of any other methods of knocking her out (at least not cost-effective ones – Slumberberry Potions cost a lot of Neopoints), so they just got some food and some more 48-hour underwater-breathing necklaces for five Neopoints each, so that they could bring a few Meepits along with them. They had tossed around the idea that a light source would defeat Irathatora, considering that the Aisha served the Darkest Faerie, but they didn't really expect that to work, considering that Irathatora had spent a lot of time in Faerieland, in broad daylight.

     They hurried out of the bubble-boat as soon as it landed and swam quickly to the Underwater Fishing cavern in the ruins of Maraqua.

     "Which way did Irathatora go?" Caira asked the Meepits quickly.

     "We saw her go right," an Island Meepit replied.

     "Thanks," said Caira. She gave a seaweed necklace to the Meepit. Meepers gave out some of the remaining seventeen necklaces and Caira and Alexa gave out the ones that Meepers couldn't hold pretty much at random. There were still many Meepits who didn't have necklaces who would be trapped in the cavern, but they could worry about that later.

     "Alexa, can we fish for a minute?" asked Caira.

     "Caira, do we really have time for that?" asked Alexa testily.

     "We might fish up something that could help us," Caira insisted.

     Alexa sighed. "Fine. But only for a minute."

     Caira grabbed two fishing poles and handed one to Alexa, and they began fishing.

     "I think I might have caught something," Alexa said after a minute. She reeled it in and saw that a long metal stick with a shape on the end that vaguely resembled a fish's head was stuck to the hook.

     Alexa pulled it off the hook. "I guess this could be useful, somehow. The end's pretty sharp."

     "It's a Pike Pike, so of course it's sharp – I think I caught something!"

     Caira began reeling it in with difficulty. It was either very heavy or very stuck on something. But it did eventually come up and she saw that it was a long metallic aquamarine-ish-blue-grayish cord.

     The Xweetok twirled it experimentally. "This feels just like my old rope."

     "Can't we get going already?" Alexa said impatiently.

     "All right, all right!" Caira began coiling up the rope.

     Alexa sighed and turned to the Meepits. "Okay, Irathatora's very good at magic and if we don't do this right, we're not going to succeed, and some of us might get hurt. Our best bet is to attack from all angles, because then she'll have a harder time taking care of everyone. Just keep moving, and you'll be all right unless she blows up everything around her or something. But we only want to knock her out, not kill her, so be careful, okay?"

     Everyone said "yes" or nodded or something to that effect.

     "All right, are we ready?" Alexa asked.

     Just about the same thing as above happened.

     "Then let's go."

     "But where is she?" Caira wondered.

     "I don't know, but we'll find her."

     Caira grinned. "That's the spirit." She picked up the fishing poles. "We'd better bring these. I thought of a way to use them."

     "How?"

     "I'll explain as we swim. Let's go, Alexa!"

     They swam out the cavern entrance, with the eighteen Meepits following. Just in case, Caira used her Magic Pebbles ability to make a rock move enough for her to slide the fishing hook underneath it, and then let it fall on the hook, so that if they got lost, they could just follow the fishing line back to the Underwater Fishing cavern.

     * * *

     It took a while to find the right cave, but they eventually found Irathatora sitting next to the statue of the Darkest Faerie. When they did, Caira lifted the rock off of the hook and reeled it in. She grabbed a pebble and tied it to the ends of both fishing poles. She handed one to Alexa.

     "Are we ready?" Caira whispered.

     Everyone nodded.

     "Remember, when Alexa says 'now', we run in and surround her, all right?"

     More nods.

     "All right, then." Caira took a deep breath and activated her Magic Pebbles ability.

     The pebble she had tied to the ends of the fishing line zoomed through the water and circled around Irathatora quickly. It looped around the fishing line to make a tight knot.

     Caira put her fishing pole into the sleeve of her coat, which was tied around her waist, and Alexa put her fishing pole through her belt.

     "Now!" the Poogle exclaimed.

     They charged.

     Caira swung her rope at Irathatora, and Alexa threw a rock at her.

     The Aisha wasn't prepared and was knocked over. When this happened, the Meepits jumped on her.

     Caira's jaw dropped. The rope moved as quickly through water as it did through air!

     You need to focus, she reminded herself. She couldn't act now in any case, however; if she did, she could hit one of the Meepits. So Caira just burrowed into the ground to keep her out of harm's way, watching what was going on so that she knew when it was safe to come back up.

     Alexa ran around to hide behind a large stalagmite and picked up a rock.

     Though Caira didn't realize it, Bob was sneaking up behind her, intending to bite her. Since he was a Tyrannian Slorg with huge teeth, this obviously was not good.

     Fortunately, the Meepits moved away from Irathatora's head, and Caira sprang up to aim a stone at her before Bob could strike.

     Caira and Alexa's rocks flew at Irathatora's head at the same time.

     Irathatora sat up and blasted the Meepits away from her, along with the rocks, which flew at Caira and Alexa, who just managed to dodge them.

     Alexa lit a Magic Torch on the end of her Pike Pike using her Faerie ability and swung the Pike Pike toward Irathatora, which caused a ball of light to leap off and fly at her. It distracted Irathatora and gave Caira a chance to swing her rope at her.

     The Torch would have set the Aisha's ears on fire if they hadn't been underwater, but it still blinded her for a minute. The Meepits took advantage of this to attack more, and Alexa continued hurling balls of light at Irathatora – the Meepits weren't harmed by them.

     Caira stood there, waiting, because she didn't want to hurt any of the Meepits by accident.

     Irathatora could see again now and blasted everyone backwards again. She began sending what looked like small bolts of lightning at Caira and Alexa, who each dodged behind a rock, both of which were blown apart. Alexa continued swinging the Magic Torch-lit Pike Pike toward Irathatora, which still caused balls of light to fly at her, while Caira activated her Air Shield – for once using it for what it was supposed to be for – and started swinging her rope at Irathatora again. However, now Irathatora kept blasting it back whenever Caira tried to strike. The same thing happened when Caira tried using her Magic Pebbles ability again.

     The thought crossed Caira's mind, What were we thinking?

     She gave up and burrowed underground when Irathatora looked in another direction.

     Alexa swung another ball of light at Irathatora, which Irathatora sent flying back at Alexa. Fortunately, it didn't hurt the Poogle at all.

     Caira came back up from the ground behind Irathatora and made a rock fly at Irathatora from behind her back. It hit her this time.

     Irathatora swung around and fired a bolt of lightning at Caira. She barely managed to dodge it, and ran behind a stalagmite – where the fishing line ran out. She turned around to see a Tyrannian Slorg with his mouth open, ready to bite her neck –

     "Caira!"

     Alexa pushed Caira down quickly, but not before Bob's teeth cut through the Xweetok's shoulder. Caira yelped in pain.

     "Caira..." Alexa quickly activated the Faerie ability Temporal Leak to slow time around Caira. She turned around to see Irathatora standing calmly behind her, as if waiting for Alexa to attack, but she didn't.

     Then Alexa remembered something. Slorgs have a kind of venom which can knock out their predators in seconds, but not necessarily kill. It wouldn't kill a Neopet, at least.

     The Poogle grabbed the Slorg and plunged his teeth into Irathatora's arm.

     Irathatora gasped in surprise and in pain. A few seconds later, she fell down and was soon unconscious, and would remain so for about five hours.

     Alexa turned around. Caira was unconscious, too, and still in her bubble of slow time.

     She needed a healing potion for the bite, though, and soon.

     Most of the Meepits were unconscious.

     "Are they all right?" Alexa asked Meepers, who had managed to avoid the lightning bolts.

     "Well, they seem okay," Meepers replied nervously.

     "You know where to get a healing potion?" Alexa asked.

     "I think that Aisha might have one in her pocket," said Meepers.

     Alexa immediately began fishing through Irathatora's pockets. It didn't take long for her to find a bottle of Essence of Everlasting Apple. She reached into the time bubble and poured it into Caira's mouth. The liquid was pouring out excruciatingly slowly. Then again, this might be a good thing, because it was easier to make sure it didn't spill.

     After Alexa had poured the healing potion, she pulled the fishing line out from Caira's coat to give her more freedom of movement once she woke up.

     It felt like it took an hour before anything happened, but finally Caira began stirring in slow motion.

     Alexa quickly removed the time bubble, and Caira woke up.

     "What happened?" Caira mumbled. Then she sat up and grabbed her rope. She was about to start fighting Irathatora again, when she saw Irathatora's unconscious form lying on the ground.

     "What happened?" Caira asked again.

     "This little Slorg here defeated Irathatora," Alexa said, grinning.

     "I did not! You squeezed me and forced my teeth into her! And you're still squeezing me," Bob said, annoyed.

     Alexa loosened her grip slightly.

     "And I'm not a little Slorg," Bob continued. "I'm Bob, the greatest and most intelligent Slorg to ever live! And I could defeat both of you in two seconds flat if I wasn't being squeezed like this –"

     "Oh, shut up," Caira said angrily.

     Alexa raised an eyebrow. "He looks kind of cute, doesn't he?"

     "I am NOT cute!" Bob said indignantly. "I am a genius, and geniuses are NOT CUTE!"

     "You think we should keep him? I like him," Alexa.

     Caira's jaw dropped as she stared at Alexa incredulously. "That Slorg tried to kill me, Alexa!"

     "All the more reason to keep him," said Alexa. "He won't be able to cause any trouble with us to take care of him."

     "I'm not taking care of a murderer!" Caira said hotly. "You can take care of him by yourself!"

     "All right, then, I'll do that."

     "Fine, just keep him far away from me."

     Bob scowled. "I won't stand for this!"

     "And what can you do about it?" Caira snapped. "And you'd better get a muzzle for him, too," she added, "or else he'll annoy the heck out of us with all his self-centered jabbering. Not to mention that he could bite one of us. And aren't we supposed to be getting the Darkest Faerie out of here?"

     Alexa sighed. "Yes, though I think you’re being a little too hard on Bob. He’s cute, and I could start collecting evil petpets." She put Bob in the inside pocket of her coat, which she was wearing around her waist, and zipped it up so that he couldn't get out.

     "As long as the petpets don't try to kill me." Caira tied her rope to the Darkest Faerie. "Can you stay with the other Meepits?" she asked a conscious blue one.

     "Sure," he said.

     "I'll stay, too," said a green one.

     "Could all the conscious Meepits stay?" Caira asked.

     "Yes," said an Island Meepit and a fire Meepit.

     "Then let's go, Alexa," said Caira.

     The two of them dragged the Darkest Faerie all the way back to the bubble-boat, with Irathatora trailing behind on the tangled fishing line. There were a lot of people staring at them.

The End