During the Fall

     An exclusive look at life in Faerieland without the Faeries, from my perspective as a Faerieland journalist.

      When Xandra turned the Faeries to stone, most of Neopia was keen on helping the Faeries return to normal. However, life within Faerieland was particularly chaotic without the Faeries. As there is a sizable Neopet population in Faerieland, they suddenly found themselves without a Queen and without the other Faeries.

     The day of The Faeries’ Ruin, we knew the Faeries were celebrating the Faerie Festival. For whatever reason, I felt a bit ill that morning, so the Neopian Times had sent a friend from the Faerieland Gazette to provide full coverage of the events. As the Faerie Festival was mandatory attendance for most Faeries, none of them were in Faerieland that day. The festival is typically hosted on the ground in a forest. Some of the Neopets did go to the festival, but there was still a sizable population that remained.

     Around noon that day, I suddenly felt an earthquake-like jolt in my paws. Because Faerieland was in the sky, turbulence was sometimes an issue, but Faerie magic typically ensured that it was gentler than this. As such, I ran out of my Neohome.

     At that moment, alarm bells began to ring at the Faerie Castle clock tower. The bells tolled in a pattern that indicated a loss of altitude in Faerieland. Again, this was quite unusual. It would not be the first altitude-related alarm in Faerieland, but usually the bells would immediately be silenced with Air Faerie magic that would auto-correct the altitude. However, the bells kept tolling.

     “W-what is HAPPENING?!” shouted my neighbour, a Faerie Lutari named Frederika, whom we all knew as simply “Rika”.

     All Faerieland’s remaining residents watched in horror as Faerieland started slowly losing altitude.

     “Quick, we must get to the castle, along with other Faerie Pets!” Rika said. She yanked my right paw. I still wasn’t feeling the greatest, so her sudden movements did not help my nausea or headache.

     “Ow! I’m not a Faerie Pet, though,” I replied.

     “You are a reporter; don’t you want to like… report on this?”

     “Oh, well, yes. Good point. Ow my achy head though...”

     “We should hurry though! You can soak in the Healing Springs later!”

     We darted to the castle, and we headed up the stairs toward Queen Fyora’s chambers.

     “Wait! Are we breaking into her room while she’s gone?” I asked.

     “It’s an emergency. Fyora would approve,” she replied.

     “I-I suppose she would.”

     Suddenly other Faerie Pets showed up, flying through the windows. We followed the group up to Fyora’s room.

     A Faerie Chia tapped seemingly random parts to the door, and it popped open.

     “That is a secret code that only Faerie Pets know, and it only works when Queen Fyora is not here and there’s an alarm,” Rika explained.

     We then stepped into Fyora’s Chambers. The Faerie Pets then found their way into a smaller room. I gazed in awe at what I saw. The room was full of strange-looking Faerie instruments and several large screens displaying what appeared to be flight data for Faerieland itself. There were many levers and buttons as well.

     “Normally a few air faeries or Fyora would be in here periodically to monitor and adjust Faerieland’s float in the sky. They prevent Faerieland from running into storms or obstacles and maintain Faerieland’s lock with the sun. You know, since the sun never sets in Faerieland,” Rika explained.

     “So how do the Faerie Pets know what to do here?” I asked.

     “Well, the small amount of Faerie magic that we possess gives us some instincts, but some of us have been trained by the Faeries on emergency procedures.”

     “We have a problem,” one of the Faerie Pets said. “We’re trying to stabilize this, but it appears that there is more powerful magic working against us.”

     “WARNING! STEADILY LOSING ALTITUDE! ETA TO IMPACT: 10 DAYS!” blared a loudspeaker in the room.

     The Faerie Pets took turns looking at each other and then throwing up their paws, realizing that they were not sure how to rectify the issue.

     “Looks like we’re going to have to evacuate Faerieland,” Rika said.

     “Who issues these orders without the Queen?” I asked out of curiosity.

     Rika said nothing and floated over to a megaphone-like device.

     “Faerieland is under an evacuation order. Please find a way off the land!” she shouted into it.

     Of course, the megaphone was how Fyora announced things to the whole kingdom. However, I had thought that Queen Fyora was the only one that could use it.

     “Wait, how do they get off of this land?” I asked.

     “Cloud racers, flying, they’ll figure it out. How do you plan to leave?” Rika asked. “You don’t have wings.”

     “I’m not leaving, I plan on covering this event until the end.”

     Wait. Did I just say that? I guess I’m gonna stay.

     “Uhhh. You’re going to get hurt! Are you sure?” Rika said, sounding shocked.

     “I’ll umm… shelter in a Faerieland dungeon. It’s a safe place under the castle.”

     Rika folded her arms. “I don’t think so, Fyora would be furious if I just let you stay!”

     “I need to write about what happens. Wouldn’t the faeries like to know what happened?”

     “Can’t you do it off of the land?” she insisted.

     A faerie buzz then interrupted us.

     “We could try anchoring ourselves to the ground and flying up,” he suggested.

     Rika shook her head. “You do realize Faerieland is very heavy…” She then shook her head even further as several of the faerie pets proceeded to try this and ended up breaking off a piece of the ground.

     “Hey Rika, you seem like you’re sort of in charge here when Fyora’s out. Could you tell me how you came into this role?”

     The Lutari brought her paw to her chin and appeared deep in thought.

     “Queen Fyora has a Neopet civilian guard that she personally appoints. She has faerie scouts looking out for folks that would be likely candidates to fill in should something happen to the fae. My mother used to be a head cook in the Faerieland kitchens and I guess the faerie scouts noticed how I could take over easily when she was sick or something. Thus, Fyora took notice. Most of the time we just go about our normal lives though.”

          At that moment, Faerieland dropped several feet quickly. I ran quickly to a nearby waste receptacle and vomited into it.

     “Ugh, I feel like I need the tooth faerie to freshen me up after this, but she’s not here,” I lamented.

     Outside, it appeared the evacuation had begun. Neopets loaded their belongings into suitcases. Long queues began to form near Cloud Racer ports. Periodically, Faerieland dropped in altitude, leading to shouts and screams from the crowd. Other than that, though, it appeared evacuations were going fine until one day, dark shadows began to appear.

     “What in Fyora’s name are these things?!” Rika said as the wraiths began to appear. The wraiths tried to attack those evacuating. Fortunately, some of the pets in Faerieland were personally trained by Aethia and fought the wraiths.

     After a period of nine days, Faerieland appeared to get close to the ground. All shops and public places were closed, although there weren’t any faeries to staff them anyway. Faerieland became eerily quiet as many pets had evacuated. And the Healing Springs lost nearly all its healing properties.

     Rika did become frustrated at the elder pets that refused to leave their homes behind. The pets were determined to stay put in the place they called home. They were also essential in fighting the wraiths that periodically tried to raid their towns.

     “Well, I guess you’re not the only one staying put,” Rika said to me. “So do me a favour and keep an eye on—RAWR!” A large wraith appeared next to us. Armed with a small dagger, I tried to stab the wraith which lunged at me and knocked me to the ground. “OWWW!” I yelped.

     Rika had a much larger sword that she swung hard and after several thuds, the wraith disappeared into thin air.

     “Are you alright?!” Rika asked. I looked down to find that I had scraped both knees. However, I seemed to be able to stand up and dust myself off, so I responded with “All good! Thanks.”

     “BRACE FOR IMPACT!” someone shouted.

     I looked to see that Faerieland was suddenly rapidly falling. I quickly dove to the ground along with everyone nearby. “BAM!” The impact sent incredible shockwaves through my body as I fell backwards. “GEO!” Rika shouted. But it was a bit too late, I watched as rubble crumbled on top of me. Fortunately, none of it rolled on top of my face so I could see the sky still as I lay there. The noise was deafening so I could not hear anything else. However, I did not remember much else as the world suddenly went black for a bit.

     “Geo! GEO!” I heard suddenly. The voice was familiar. I could smell a faint lavender scent. I awoke to see an arm, covered in light and dark purple wraps reach toward me. I looked down to see a hand and I reached out towards it with my paws. Slowly I sat up as the arm slowly pulled.

     “Geo, you’re so reckless. Why didn’t you evacuate?” the voice gently scolded.

     “Fyora, you’re ok,” I said weakly.

     “You need to go to the infirmary. You are hurt,” she said.

     “I’m fine, I just need to, ARGH!” I tried to stand but I felt a searing pain in my legs.

     “No, you’re not, you are not fine,” she said. “Hold on, I’ve got you.” She wrapped her right arm around me firmly and gently lowered me back to a sitting position. She quickly cast a spell that caused me to float up into the air. She then whispered something else, and I suddenly fell back asleep.

     The next time I awoke, I appeared to be in the castle infirmary. I was lying down in a bed, with pink linens. I looked to see that my back legs were bandaged. My front paws were still fine though. Next to my bed were bottles of mysterious potion, presumably faerie medicine.

     I turned and saw Lyra the dark faerie, who was busy looking at a patient. She soon wrapped up that visit and floated over towards me.

     “You’re awake,” she said.

     “What happened?”

     “Your legs were crushed under a pile of rubble. You’re fortunate the Faerie Queen warped directly to a spot where she saw you,” Lyra replied. She hovered over next to my bed and began mixing a bottle to light purple liquid with a bottle of lime green liquid.

     “You’ll need to drink a healing potion every hour.”

     “And Rika?”

     “She’s fine and escaped unscathed. She’s cooking for the faeries and pets that survived the fall without serious injuries.”

     “And Fyora?”

     “She’s busy working on rebuilding plans. You’ve been out for about two weeks.”

     “Other faeries?”

     “All of them are back. You need not worry. Now I think it’s time you got some rest.”

     “How long will recovery take?”

     Lyra shook her head and leaned over. She took both of my front paws in her hands and looked at me seriously.

     “I didn’t want to discuss this with you until later… but you’ll not be the same. Your back legs are… well. Umm. I guess I’ll say that you might not have use of them anymore.”

     She paused to smooth out her hair while I digested this news.

     “W-what do you mean?” I asked frantically.

     “I’m really sorry, Geo. But Faerieland we have other ways to get around. You could become a faerie pet and gain wings. Or you could rely on a wing chair that will float you anywhere.”

     “So, there’s no way for them to…”

     Lyra shook her head again. She gently patted me on the shoulder and sighed.

     “We did our best to try and save them. I’m sorry, but this is a lot to burden you with when you just woke up. I’ll step away to give you some time to process this. Please take all the time you need.”

     She stepped away as I stared at the bandages wrapping my lower body. I looked around and saw other pets, some of them walking around while others still laying in bed. There was a familiar-looking purple Gelert in the bed next to mine. Her eyes were closed.

     “Celendra?” I asked.

     The purple Gelert opened her eyes, looked at me and nodded. She then closed her eyes and put on a sleeping mask.

     “You can talk to me, I just need to avoid bright lights,” she said.

     “You didn’t leave either?”

     “The castle is my responsibility when Fyora’s out. I was here to protect it.”

     “Ah, are you doing, ok?”

     “Yeah, I just hit my head. Just a minor concussion. Fyora told me to take it easy until the symptoms stop,” Celandra said, rubbing her head slightly. “I overheard what Lyra told you. I’m terribly sorry.”

     “Yeah…” I said, “I’m still processing it all.”

     “Well, becoming a faerie pet isn’t so bad. But it’s a big change in appearance.”

     “That’s the thing, I still want to remain the same Lupe. So, I think the only path forward is the wing chair.”

     “Well, then. It seems like you’ve made up your mind.”

     “Mostly… but I do think being a faerie pet is more convenient, so I really don’t know… maybe I’ll ask Fyora?”

     “Well, the choice is yours and yours alone. She’s not going to make it for you. It wouldn’t be right,” Celandra replied, shaking her head.

     “She’s right,” said Fyora, who suddenly appeared.

     “You decide what is best for you. Maybe you try the wing chair before resorting to a Faerie Paint Brush,” Fyora said. “But yeah, I’m sorry to hear what you’re going through, Geo. I can’t pretend to know what it’s like, but just know that Faerieland has your back.”

     After a couple more days of Lyra checking my recovery process and me constantly drinking healing potions, the pain in my legs and body started to dissipate. I was able to move my back legs slightly, but as Lyra had said, full use of them seemed out of question.

     Rika then made her way to see me too.

     “Oh Geo, I’m so glad you’re ok, mostly. So, you’ll have to use a wing chair?”

     “Yeah, that’s what Lyra said.”

     “Well, you could also become a Faerie Pet. But I’m guessing that’s a big change…”

     “I just want to be a blue Lupe still! That’s just who I am!” I said passionately.

     Rika, sensing a bit of tension, quickly apologized.

     “Sorry, I should not have tried to suggest something to you. It’s up to you,” she said. “Anyways, I need to go and help fix up some things. Faerieland is a mess. And it looks like Lyra’s got something for you. See ya.” The Faerie Lutari left quickly.

     Lyra then brought up a chair with blue wings in the back and wheels on the side. It had a light blue cushion with cloud patterns on it. The frame of the chair was yellow, like the light faerie element. The right-hand side armrest also had a joystick-like controller. The seatbelt was a shade of Fyora lavender.

     “You can customize one yourself later, but this is what I could find. Remember to buckle yourself in before flying.”

     She paused as I stared at the chair. It seemed comfortable enough.

     “Now just use your front paws to scoot towards it and then you can hang your tail through the back. You can push this button on the joystick, and it’ll use levitating magic to float you onto the chair. There you go, just like that.”

     I floated into the chair and then buckled the seatbelt.

     “Good, but just to be safe, you should stay here for another day. So, unbuckle and push that button again to float onto the bed. Just imagine the direction you want to float to, and you’ll get there. Good, you’ve gotten the hang of it!”

     After another day, I was eager to leave the infirmary to try out my new mode of getting around. I strapped myself in and floated out of the room and around the castle for a bit. The chair seemed to move very smoothly and controlling it was easy. I stayed close to the ground to avoid any gusts of wind.

     However, as I floated around, it became clear that Faerieland needed a lot of repairs. As much as I wanted to help, the faeries took a look at me and decided they didn’t want me to overexert myself.

     “You can write about the recovery of Faerieland,” one suggested. Finally, I decided to take matters into my own paws and tie some rubble to the wing chair. It was able to haul quite a bit of junk away. Eventually, the faeries decided that this was quite helpful, so they allowed me to help out.

     The next challenge I ran into was doorways. A lot of them were quite narrow. My neohome door was wide enough but some shops and parts of the castle were inaccessible.

     “Hi Fyora,” I said one time. “I can’t actually get into your office to interview you, can you come to me?”

     Fyora eyed the doorway a bit and sighed and shook her head.

     “Oh… I’m so sorry about this. You know, you’re not the only one dealing with this…”

     She came through the doorway. In her hand was a draft decree. She then pulled it out to show me.

     “Royal Decree on Faerieland Accessibility,” the title read.

     “I’m going to need your help in finding out what other places in Faerieland need to be fixed in terms of accessibility… especially since we are rebuilding, this is the time to go fix all of that.”

     She paused to shake her head. I nodded.

     “Thanks for thinking about this. I guess I didn’t think much about it until I was in this situation,” I replied.

     “I’m terribly sorry. I hope to have this fixed as soon as we can. You know, the fall of Faerieland injured a lot of folks and this is now a major problem.”

     The next day, Fyora issued her royal decree. It wasn’t long before the decree laid the foundation for fixing up Faerieland to be more accessible. While things aren’t perfect yet, they are much better with shops and most of the castle with wider doorways. Streets also had wider pedestrian corridors to accommodate wing chairs.

     Today, Faerieland has come a long way with accessibility. I fully appreciate all that Queen Fyora has done so far for us. While things aren’t perfect, the awareness has helped ensure the right direction. Not everyone escaped the fall of Faerieland completely unscathed. It’s only right that Faerieland helps those that sustained injuries during the fall.

     We will continue to follow the progress of making Faerieland a more welcoming place to all. Until next time, this is Geo, reporting from Faerie City.