Baelia's Tale

     Or maybe you have not heard my story; you should know it before I tell my tale of my new name, the one after 'Baelia'.

     Many years ago, a Darkness Faerie had trapped me in a cage. It was a wicked cage, an evil cage. I could find no comfort within it, and it seemed that all my surroundings were taunting my helplessness and hopelessness. Shadows of darkness loomed every second, stretching closer and closer to me. But no shadow was darker than the shadow of the Darkness Faerie. It went on like this for many days; I have no idea how many. It was one of the hardest stretches of time I have ever dealt with. But that was all almost over.

     You see, one day a little Kyrii named Tavi stumbled across my path. She was a bright little thing, brave and noble, as young as she was. Anyway, she asked me how to get me out, and I told him "The lock, it has a name. If you whisper the name, it will open." The Kyrii began a guessing game with the magical lock: she would guess its name, and it would guess one of the three items in her pack. If she guessed right first, I was free. If the lock did, Tavi joined me in my prison. As I said before, that Kyrii had the brains... and the heart. She knew that the strongest spell around the lock was that its name was my name. She found out my name. She whispered it. I was free, completely thanks to Tavi.

     But everyone's wisdom and ability ends somewhere. I told Tavi that, to be truly free, I needed a new name. Big surprise, she did not have the slightest idea how to do that, and I was in the same situation. For a number of months, I lived in solitude and, though my situation was far better than it had been, sadness. No one can imagine the pain I went through; I had no name. I was, in a sense, nobody. You could say I didn't even exist, because I had no name, no way to be different from the nameless trees and rocks. That nameless tree, that nameless rock, that nameless faerie. Oh, Dark Faeries are clever! They knew, and they know now the best way to break me. I was a Grey Faerie before, it was true, but being Grey- with wings- isn't all bad. This was.

     So, naturally, I set out to find a new name, one I could use with pride and pleasure, not embarrassment.

     It was springtime when I made the final decision. I had argued with myself for many weeks on this. The task would be difficult and dangerous, yes, and I had no friends since Tavi, and I had no power to find where she resided. Also, I lived in a very low cloud in Faerieland, and it would be a long trip to get anywhere. But I knew I had to do something... How happy could I be knowing I'd given up all the happiness and bliss I had once known? I had to, had to, had to. Desperately. On the first day of the Month of Eating, I set off in the night; I couldn't know for sure that a Dark Faerie wasn't still watching me.

     I had decided to journey to the Faerie Queen's tower, a long length above my own home in Faerieland. She would be able to grant me a name, I knew, but would she do it? I had to try.

     "Well, Grey Faerie?" The Faerie Queen batted her beautiful eyelashes down at me, or at least where I knelt on her polished and spotless floor. "What would you ask of me?"

     I lowered my gaze to her shiny purple shoes. "If, Queen Fyora, you are willing, could- could you bless me with a new name?" I knew, before I had uttered the words, that I was trying in vain.

     Fyora laughed haughtily. "You expect me to give you a name out of the blue? You must earn that, Grey Faerie!" She turned from me, laughing heartily.

     I held out my arm hopelessly. "But how do I do that? I am powerless without my wings! You must know that! I waved what was left of my wings in frustration.

     The Faerie Queen turned her gaze on me once more. Her eyes were suddenly more serious. "Don't you know? The Soup Faerie doesn't fly much, does she? Yet she still does very much for Neopia. You can earn your new name if you try hard enough. I can tell right now you think only of yourself. That must change before your nameless state can." Fyora took a few steps away from me. "Now get out of my tower, and come back when you are deserving."

     I tried to protest. "But everyone has a name! We were all born with one, weren't we?"

     "Have you never heard the saying, 'Life is never fair'? Well, go hear it. Hear it now. No, you would not remember your past, but you are a Grey Faerie. You were not born with a name. Try to remember back in time; you earned your name then and you can do it again, if your heart is still as pure as it was as a child." Fyora's gaze never wavered from my dark eyes.

      I closed my eyes, attempting to journey back into the shadows of my past. I could remember faint memories of myself wandering through a cold winter town as a young child, though I was sure I was quite warm. That must have been my Faerie power; though I was a Grey Faerie, I wasn't as helpless as any regular Neopian. Stumbling through the dark alleyways and the swirling night, I had stumbled upon a Neopet in need of shelter and warmth... a Kyrii, with flaming red fur.

     My eyes blinked open at once. A Red Kyrii! Named... Tavi! I could remember now. That was why Tavi had been so willing to sacrifice so much for me! I had saved her once, brought her to a loving family and home, though it had taken me many days! And I hadn't even remembered. "Tavi... it was you, you I helped so long ago," I whispered, suddenly longing to see her again.

     Fyora's eyes glowed. "Yes, that was Tavi. She has never forgotten what she owes to you. And you know how that helped you to help her when she was in need.

     "You see, this was the true test. Many Grey Faeries, I'm afraid to say, become bitter at the world for making them what they are. They would rather be a blazing Fire Faerie, an earthbound Earth Faerie, or even a Dark Faerie of Jhudora. You haven't. You are willing to accept what you are. Therefore you can keep memories that aren't pleasant to most inside your heart."

     I blushed from the praise the Faerie Queen was giving me.

     "Therefore, you have proven you deserve a name."

     I blinked. "Are you sure? Is this it?"

     Fyora smiled at me, the first genuine smile I had ever seen on her face. "Of course. But I don't want to spoil you, do I? You shall have the same name you have borne for many seasons, before it was taken from you. The same reward will come now as it did so many years ago, when Tavi found a loving home through you.

     "From now on, forever and always, you shall be known as Baelia. Let no outside force from the Faeries' World, or even within, take it from you. You have proven you are deserving, and so your reward comes."

     I whispered, "Baelia..." The name tasted sweet on my tongue, and I knew it was me. I had expected to have another name, but now I understood why I did not. I needed to represent what I had always been, and always suffered. I had to represent what made me a Grey Faerie.

     I had always resented my position in Neopia, but I now understood why I must be what I am forever.

The End