The Hidden Cloud

     The sun was hot on her face and Morgan quickly fell into a relaxed slumber. Not even an hour later, she awoke to screaming coming from below her cloud. She peeked over the edge to see neopets and their owners gathering around the Rainbow Fountain. Morgan swiftly flew down to the group and was shocked at what she found!

     It seemed that the Rainbow Fountain Faerie had disappeared and left the Rainbow Pool unattended! Neopets were diving in and changing their colour to whatever they desired. Owners were outraged that their pets would change their colour that they worked so hard to get, to a simple colour like yellow or purple. There was arguing going around and a panic started to arise in Faerieland.

     “Somebody get Fyora!” yelled a light faerie, who was trying to stop the panic. Morgan watched as pets were changing from pirate to pink, royal to yellow, brown to camouflage. It was nonsense! The faeries were trying to calm down the pets and owners while trying to block off the fountain from anyone to get through. But only the Rainbow Fountain Faerie had the magic to keep the pets away from the fountain.

     Someone must have beckoned Fyora because the faerie queen soon came to the fountain to control the chaos.

     “Pets, Owners, Faeries!” yelled Fyora. “Everyone must calm down! Now, does anyone know where the Fountain Faerie went?”

     Everyone looked around and shook their heads. But even with Fyora there, pets would still sneak in and dive into the fountain.

     “Enough!” Fyora stated. “We MUST find the the Fountain Faerie. Faeries, keep guarding the fountain. Owners, would you please all split up and search for her? You can discipline your pets later. And if any of you pets are in your right mind, make yourselves useful and help us.”

     As Morgan had no desire to change her colour and participate in the chaos, she decided she would fly up to her cloud and see if she could see anything. She watched as people were searching all over Faerieland for the Fountain Faerie. She witnessed Fyora questioning Jhudora to see if she knew anything of this madness. After all, Jhudora did love madness. She also saw how the faeries were having such a hard time keeping some of the sneaky pets away from the fountain.

     Morgan sighed. She wanted to help out the faeries, as they were her close friends. They took her in and adopted her when her previous owner had abandoned her in the pound.

     Hours went by, and still no sign of the Fountain Faerie. Search parties began to give up and Faerieland was getting even more crazy as news spread about the disappearance. Pets were coming from all over Neopia and even the owners were trying to sneak their pets in to change their colour.

     Morgan looked around frantically. She looked over the Healing Springs, the bookshop, the employment agency, and finally the neohomes. There were so many neohomes! The Fountain Faerie could be hiding somewhere there!

     There was a small pool in the middle of the gathering of neohomes in Faerieland. As Morgan watched the pool, she noticed that there were ripples on the surface of the water and bubbles would occasionally rise.

     “I wonder if she’s hiding there?” Morgan thought to herself. She decided she would take matters into her own hands and go look. Morgan flew down the the small pool and looked in. Alas! There was the Fountain Faerie. Morgan stuck her paw in and pulled her out of her hiding spot in the water.

     “What are you doing?!” yelled Morgan. “Faerieland is in chaos because you ran away from the fountain. You must come back with me now.”

     “I will not come back with you, young pet. I have decided to leave my post at the Rainbow Fountain and just go back to being a normal water faerie,” replied the Fountain Faerie.

     “But you can't!” pleaded Morgan. “Faerieland needs you. The Fountain needs you. You are the only one who has the magic to keep the pets away. They are going crazy. Pets are jumping in and changing their colour to anything they want. Pets and their owners are fighting terribly! We need you to come back and restore peace. This is ridiculous.”

     “I’m sorry.” The Fountain Faerie sighed.

     “But why?” asked Morgan. “Why won’t you come back? Why did you abandon your post?”

     “You of all pets should understand, Morgan,” the Fountain Faerie replied.

     “How did you know my name?” asked Morgan.

     “You were adopted by us faeries a long time ago,” she said.

     “I remember...” started Morgan.

     “No,” interrupted the Fountain Faerie, “you may remember some of it. Do you even remember why you were abandoned to the pound in the first place?”

     “No,” said Morgan.

     “Morgan, you were abandoned by your owner because of your colour,” she explained. “You were a yellow Lupe, and since they are common, your owner decided she did not want you anymore. Sometimes we faeries take in pets if no one else will adopt them. And that’s how you came to be with us. And when we adopted you, the faeries brought you to me to change your colour. And I changed you to faerie so you would be one of us forever. You were too sick to be asked what colour you wanted, so I just made the choice for you.”

     “I love my colour,” replied Morgan. “And thank you all for taking care of me, but what does this have to do with you leaving? You make pets so beautiful and control all of it? Why would you want to leave?”

     “Every day owners bring their pets to me requesting them to be a certain colour, despite what the pet wants to be. Owners are abandoning their pets just because of the colour of their fur. Some pets are very happy with being blue or green, but their owners are greedy and have to have them that rare pirate colour or island. Pets are being traded and put up for adoption, just because of such a silly thing like colour. I had had enough! So I decided I would leave and give pets their own choice of what colour they would want to be. And give them the option of changing their colour, without having to complete a quest for me. Those were just Fyora’s guidelines. Fyora picked what pets I could give the quest to, and rewarded the owner to change the pet’s colour, not the pet. That’s not what I wanted at all,” the Fountain Faerie cried.

     “Oh,” said Morgan. She thought about what the Fountain Faerie had said, and she thought about her own past. It did make sense what she was doing, but Faerieland needed her to do her job.

     “I’ve got a plan,” said Morgan. “We could talk to Fyora. And explain to her that the only way you would come back to the post is if the pets that completed your quest got to choose their colour, and not their owner. And that you could pick what pets got to do your quest, not Fyora.”

     “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try,” said the Fountain Faerie. Together they ventured to the Hidden Tower to find Fyora.

     As Morgan and the Fountain Faerie entered the tower, they found Fyora mumbling to herself, “How dare she do this to us? We cant replace her in times like these.....”

     “Ehem...” coughed Morgan.

     Fyora looked up and saw them there. “My dear Fountain Faerie!” Fyora exclaimed. “I am so glad you have returned to us, dear. Now let's bring you back to the fountain. You had us quite a scare.” Fyora grabbed the Fountain Faerie’s arm as she started to escort her out of the tower.

     “Excuse me, Fyora, your highness,” interrupted the Fountain Faerie. “But I was not planning on coming back at all until little Morgan convinced me to come bargain with you.”

     “Bargain with me?” questioned Fyora. “Whatever do you mean?”

     The Fountain Faerie explained to Fyora why she had left, and Morgan sat and listened as they came to an arrangement to have the Fountain Faerie go back to her old post with the new agreement. It looks as if Faerieland would be at peace once again and surprisingly, Fyora agreed with the Fountain Faerie for the reasons she had left.

     After the Fountain Faerie was happily back at her fountain, Morgan flew back up to her cloud miles about Faerieland.

     “What a long day,” Morgan thought to herself. “This cloud comes in useful sometimes. Now where was I?” And Morgan closed her eyelids and fell asleep on her hidden cloud in the sky.

The End