Weathering the Bananza

     A small, sentient Shadow Cybunny plushie cheered from their perch between Gimmer’s Spotted Pteri feathers as Flower the Faerie Ixi examined the wheel items closely. As Indal the Darigan Lupe pulled down to spin the wheel, nearby Faerie Bori sighed.

     “So this is your idea of reliving the fun nostalgia? Going to spin probably the most boring wheel around?” she asked.

     “Daydream, at least don’t complain in front of the manager,” Indal chided.

     “No, she’s right,” Plesio responded as the wheel turned. “There’s really not much excitement, at least not at this wheel.”

     “And I wouldn’t have said that if I didn’t know that,” Daydream said.

     “Yes, it’s been around this long and it’s better than I remember!” Seep declared. “Even if it weren’t, I want to experience it all! Well, as much as we can on our trip, and this was just a hop over from Maraqua!”

     “Well, Tyrannia just has the same old routine, even at the Obelisk, but if you say so,” Daydream responded as the wheel slowed to a stop, landing on the trilobite.

     “Oh, you won. Enjoy it, I guess.” Plesio rummaged in his prize bin and threw a banana to the group.

     “Wha- Hey, since when have bananas been a prize?” Daydream asked.

     “There’re tri-nanas, but it’s not the same. But Flower won’t complain,” Indal said as they put away the banana.

     “Oh, we got way too many of them this morning,” Plesio shrugged. “They’re high in potassium. Enjoy it. Or try to.”

     “That’s weird…” Indal said as the group wandered away. But they did wonder why they saw the occasional banana here and there, and now that they got a better look around, they saw even more. And especially when they got to the market...

     Daydream stared wide-eyed at the food vendors, who had stocked or was stocking their stalls full to the brim with bananas. At one of the stalls paying for a bunch of bananas was Flower, who subsequently returned. “Sorry for disappearing, I ran off and found stalls full of these. Want some?”

     “Why are there so many bananas?” Gimmer asked as she and others accepted a banana.

     “I don’t know,” Flower said. “Maybe an inexplicably good harvest?”

     “I didn’t think bananas were in season,” Indal observed. “Actually, I don’t recall seeing so many fruitful banana trees around here when I went to the Obelisk. No, they’d be tri-nanas, not these...”

     “Huh!” Seep stared. “Maybe one of you can ask around about it?”

     “Why don’t you do it?” Daydream asked.

     “Umm, uhh, I’m a plushie and so i-it’d be weird,” Seep said as they burrowed further into Gimmer’s feathers.

     “Fine, I’ll ask.” Daydream approached a vendor. “Hey, excuse me, why are there so many bananas?”

     “Oh, are you interested? Twenty for one sale! You won’t find a better bargain, especially after the banana drought of Year Twenty-Four-”

     “No! Maybe. How are there so many bananas?”

     “Who knows!” The vendor responded cheerily. “We all woke up and everywhere was bananas!”

     “You mean bananas were everywhere?” Indal asked.

     “Yes! Maybe! My garden’s gone, so maybe it also turned into bananas-?”

     “Okay, thank you.” Daydream walked away. “So, looks like everyone’s preoccupied with this.”

     “Would be a good deal for bananas,” Flower pondered. “Maybe we could stock up?”

     “Sure, bananas are good!” Gimmer agreed.

     “But it kind of looks like everyone will be focused on selling bananas,” Indal mused. “I’m kind of curious. Maybe we should try to figure this out?”

     They split up and looked or asked around Tyrannia, hoping to figure out the secret of the inexplicable bananas. What they did see was those bananas seemed to be scattered everywhere in the Jungle. While the Plateau didn’t have as many, Neopians were bringing them there, including kids annoying Sabre-X by throwing bananas into the Giant Omelette, while Neopians grabbed the omelette anyway. All of the talk around Tyrannia was about bananas, though the group noticed that no one was particularly successful at selling the bananas. It wasn’t until they asked the Wheel of Monotony Quiggle that they got a lead.

     “You see a lot when you have a lot of downtime like I do,” the Quiggle explained. “You see a lot more on the plateau. And last night, while I was watching a storm over the top of Terror Mountain, it felt like it was getting hotter. That’s mostly normal, except some of the waterfalls from the mountain going into the Ugga River looked… strange. It was hard to see because it was so dark, but it looked brighter than normal. Anyway, about an hour later, suddenly, bananas were popping up from all over the jungle ground! A few made it up here, but it was worse in the jungle.”

     “So you think it has to do with Terror Mountain’s storm and the runoff?” Seep asked.

     “You can talk-? Eh, whatever, not the weirdest thing I’ve seen. I don’t know, but it seems that way. I’m no meteorologist, but I’ve watched enough weather to think something’s happening.”

     “Alright, next stop, back to Terror Mountain!” Seep declared. “I mean, we were going back to drop off our goods and these bananas anyway, right? Let’s go to the top!”

     “Well, I think we’re done here anyhow,” Indal said. “Through the caves?”

     After wending their way through the Tyrant Terror Tunnel leading from Tyrannia, they emerged to the scene of a fairly ordinary Ice Caves, with the exception of the occasional Neopian eating a banana.

     “Well, whatever happened on the mountain top probably wouldn’t reach here,” Indal surmised as they made their way to the Top of the Mountain. They emerged from the cave to see…

     “How are there so many bananas?!” It wasn’t that Gimmer didn’t expect bananas, just not littering the snow and sticking out of the rooftops and the most unordinary places, standing starkly yellow and green among the snow.

     “This is terrible…” Seep mused in awe. “Bananas don’t do well in the cold, the unripe ones will never ripen! And frozen bananas are really only good for banana bread!”

     “At least they’re frozen, the ones in Tyrannia will probably rot in the sun!” Gimmer speculated.

     “Really not the point,” Daydream interjected.

     They worked their way down the slope, doing their best to avoid bananas and the deep snow, only to accidentally step on a few with a squelch, and ultimately resign themselves to getting deep in the snow. As they travelled, they felt the snow shift beneath them.

     “Look out!”

     At the unknown voice, the group looked up to see an incoming avalanche of snow and bananas. They all tried to take flight while moving to the side, but they already knew from its speed that they weren’t going to make it.

     They braced for impact only to find that it didn’t come, save for the occasional banana splat against them. They opened their eyes to see Taelia, holding up her hands and magically holding the snow back, though the bananas weren’t all so contained.

     “Please, move now,” Taelia said.

     The pets obliged and took to the skies. Taelia relaxed her grip and controlled the avalanche until it stopped as a pile of snow and bananas.

     “Thanks, that was close!” Gimmer cried. The others nodded in agreement.

     “You shouldn’t be outside, Taelia chided. “The bananas are making the snowy terrain more unstable. I’ve been out there preventing the worst of the avalanches these are creating.”

     “We’re sorry. We just wanted to investigate the bananas,” Gimmer said. “We just came from Tyrannia. They also have too many bananas. They just popped out of the ground.”

     Daydream added: “One of the residents there mentioned a storm over Terror Mountain, and strange runoff leading into the jungle below, where the bananas were found.”

     “So we came to investigate!!” Seep said entirely too cheerily and excitedly.

     Taelia sighed. “Alright, I’ll guide you to a safe area, and I’ll explain while we talk.”

     As the group traversed through the snow, Taelia went on. “It’s true, there was a large storm here yesterday, but not any storm I’ve ever seen. The clouds were yellow, and instead of snow we got yellow mist and bananas. Big ones, small ones. Nearly everyone was asleep, but I spent the night investigating the storm and telling wanderers to take cover.”

     “Sorry, what kind of mist?” Gimmer asked.

     “I think a sort of banana essence; it smelled like it anyway,” Taelia elaborated. “If it’s as magical as I suspect, that probably contributed to the runoff and affected Tyrannia that way.”

     “Do you know where it came from?” Flower asked.

     “No. I’ve been so busy investigating the storm and helping the residents that I haven’t time to even think much about the source. But I do know that magic of this magnitude can only come from either powerful sorcerers, or other faeries. If you want answers, I’d start with the latter.”

     Taelia stopped at the front of a community building before turning. ”Here’s the safe spot. You can rest here, but if you’re inclined to go to Faerieland, I would take one of the nearby underground tunnels to the Ice Caves instead and go from there.”

     The group thanked Taelia and took shelter in the community centre, where others were huddled around, talking about the inexplicable weather and banana recipes for when they got home. The group didn’t spend long there, for they were eager to stop by their home, drop off their stuff, and then make their way to Faerieland.

     “We may have overstocked on bananas,” Flower said with some guilt as she put away more bunches.

     “It’s okay, we all like bananas,” Gimmer assured. “Actually, it’s been a while since we’ve had bananas that aren’t overpriced.”

     “Oh, try the organic section, they’re way cheaper there,” Daydream interjected.

     Flower blinked. “...Sorry, why are bananas cheaper there?”

     No one had an answer for Flower.

     After taking transit and witnessing bananas all along the way, they found themselves at Faerieland. The trees swayed in the gentle wind, steady light shone through the trees, the whole land seemed to sparkle and glow. Including the bananas and peels that haphazardly littered the land, rivers, pools, and the sky.

     “Oh Fyora…” Daydream put her face into her hands.

     “Fyora’s a little busy!” commented an Air Faerie, who was summoning gusts of wind in an attempt to group the multitudes of hovering bananas.

     “As are many of us!” commented an Earth Faerie, looking despondently at the bananas that had smashed against her.

     Flower stepped forward. “Since last night, right?”

     “Sometime around dusk,” spoke a Dark Faerie as she stepped out of some wooded shade, holding a peeled banana in her hand. “The whole land started raining and sprouting bananas all through the night. All dark faeries saw it; couldn’t miss it.”

     “But it really started the day before,” a Light Faerie spoke as she stepped out of the same woods. “It was oddly warm on the eastern coast near Faerieland. Like something was concentrated around there.”

     “But not in an abnormal way?” the Dark Faerie asked while handing the Light Faerie a banana.

     “No, it looked common,” the Light Faerie continued, accepting and peeling the banana and as she looked to the group. “It sounds sizable, but we faeries do sizable world-altering spells all the time. Like how we keep Darigan Citadel temperate, for instance.”

     “Wait, Light too?” the Earth Faerie commented. “I thought I felt something earthen, but it felt common to me too.”

     “Pretty sure this would never be approved!” the Air Faerie shouted as she herded another group of bananas.

     “Like whoever’s responsible for this would seek approval,” the Dark Faerie rolled her eyes.

     “So something happened near the coast, but it wasn’t sanctioned by the Faeries,” Flower summarized slowly. “Would there be any trace of them left?”

     “Maybe, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they hid their tracks,” the Dark Faerie commented.

     “It may be harder to track Light, but maybe you can find a source for Earth,” the Earth Faerie said. “But it’s probably complex. I don’t think it’s just Light and Earth at work.”

     “Well, no need to do it alone,” Flower said. “Maybe some around here can help trace it?”

     “I think there’s already a team investigating the site,” the Light Faerie said, grabbing the rest of her banana and letting the Dark Faerie take back the banana peel. “I don’t know how much you can do, but you could go there, see for yourself, and ask. Here.”

     The Light Faerie summoned a yellow mote. “Follow this. It’ll take you close.”

     After thanking the faeries, the group followed the mote to the east of Faerieland to the coast. The yellow mote proved harder to track than expected, given the numerous floating yellow bananas. But the mote led the group to an oceanside clearing, with grass and low-ground foliage leading up to a beach in the distance.

     They hardly noticed the mote disperse, for there was an unusual scene before them. Faeries and the more magical Neopians were milling and working to and fro around a large, circular, barren patch of dry ground, stark among the otherwise tall grass.

     “Oh my…” Daydream breathed as she looked in horror.

     “That’s certainly unusual,” said Flower. “There’s no way this wasn’t done by faerie magic.”

     “Um, excuse me,” a Purple Mynci with a clipboard walked up to the group. “This is the scene of an investigation. We can’t have you here.”

     “We’ve been investigating too,” Indal said, “as soon as we heard the news, in order to find out what happened-”

     “You’ll need to present authorization to be here,” the Mynci insisted. “Otherwise you’ll just have to wait until we’ve given our report on this spot, with everyone else.”

     The group stared at each other, knowing that they didn’t have authorization. And it was true; without further context and more than their curiosity, it was unlikely they’d be much help.

     “Wait, ‘this spot?’” Flower tilted her head. “Are you saying there’s more than one?”

     “And ‘everyone else’? Do you mean everyone everyone?” Daydream asked.

     The Mynci sighed. “I’m saying too much already, and that’s just speculation...”

     “What’s speculation?” Indal asked. “I understand if you won’t let us in here. But we were told we could ask what’s happening. And we’ve been around. If there’s something you’re missing that’s somewhere else, maybe we can help.”

     The Mynci gave a gruff sigh. “Fine. This isn’t the only spot that’s been affected. At least two circles like these have been spotted, this one is just closest to Faerieland. But with even more reports of banana storms all over the world, we suspect there are more circles too. Or Brisa here does.”

     The Mynci pointed to a nearby Air Faerie, who perked up and walked to the group. “Yes, Casey. It’s true that weather in one place will affect another, but for it to hit Neopia Central, Faerieland, Altador, and now Mystery Island, all in this short time? This circle isn’t more than a day old, and a storm from here couldn’t hit everywhere. Atmospheric circulation patterns wouldn’t allow it.”

     “Not even if they’re really powerful?” Gimmer asked.

     “If they were that powerful, they wouldn’t leave these signs,” Brisa said. “No, this has to be a group. Likely faeries, maybe magicians. Some element that would cause heat, like fire or light, in order to create the temperature contrast needed to create and lift the storm. And definitely water, air, and earth powers.”

     “Earth to make the bananas?” Flower asked.

     “Yes, and also, look at the soil.”

     Brisa pointed towards an earth faerie and several workers who had dug a hole at the edge of the circle. They got close enough to see the stark difference in soil. While the dirt surrounding the perimeter was dark, moist, and healthy, the dirt within the circle was light, cracked, and dry.

     “All of its minerals, nutrients, the building blocks for plant life. They’ve been stripped away,” Brisa continued. “The Earth Faerie likely used it to supplement her own power to create bananas.”

     “Or created an essence to make more bananas,” Seep postulated. “In Tyrannia, the locals talked about yellowish runoff in waterfalls from Terror Mountain before they got their banana storm. And in Tyrannia, the bananas popped from the ground. So it can’t be just bananas…”

     Indal’s eyes went wide. “It’d be essence in the storm or water that makes more bananas!”

     “What?!” Casey cried. “That’s even worse than we all thought…”

     “It hit Terror Mountain and spread to Tyrannia?” Brisa exclaimed. “This is the first we’ve heard of it!”

     “Huh? How?” Seep asked.

     “Because everyone in Terror Mountain hunkered down,” Indal said. “And in Tyrannia, no one knew much or were focused on selling off the bananas.”

     “Oh, but that makes sense with the orography!” Brisa exclaimed. “But the storm locations...”

     “Come, you need to tell us everything,” Casey said to the group.

     The group obliged, telling their story to the two and a group of supervisors.

     “This is bad…” mused an Earth Faerie. “If the essence seeped its way into the ground and water, this could last a long time.”

     “...Is it that bad?” Flower tilted her head.

     “It would disrupt the local ecosystems!” the Earth Faerie exclaimed.

     “Maybe it’s not that bad,” Indal mused. “It sounds like the bananas popped out of the ground nearly simultaneously, and there haven’t been more since then. So maybe the essence was used up?”

     “Oh, maybe,” replied Brisa. “If these bananas are formed similar to raindrops and this required outside nutrients at the start, then maybe they’ve all been coalesced and used up. But that’s just in Tyrannia; maybe it spread further than that. The runoff might not be done.”

     “I’m going to send a team to Tyrannia to check and investigate,” the Earth Faerie promised.

     “Meanwhile, if a storm went to Terror Mountain, it can’t be from this circle or the one that hit Neopia Central. The latter storm dispersed not too long after it struck,” Brisa postulated. “There has to be another circle. And I think I know where. I’ll check the coasts northwest of Neopia Central. It may have started there and travelled across the sea to Terror Mountain, if the conditions were right. Unless I’m still needed here…”

     “Go ahead, Brisa,” Casey said before turning to the group. “Thanks for letting us know about this. Maybe we’ll contact Taelia too, and she can tell us more.”

     “You’re welcome,” Seep said with a happy nod. “Do you think you’ll be able to catch the culprits?”

     “The faeries can’t trace the evidence to any individual or group. It’s possible they’re still working, but probably not. Storms take time to travel, and it’s already sunset, so we think they’re done.”

     “What makes you think there are no more storms after today?” Gimmer asked.

     “You know what day it is, right?” Casey raised an eyebrow.

     “Um, not really, we’ve kind of been around Maraqua and lost track of time-”

     Daydream put her paw to her face and groaned, cutting of Gimmer’s response. “April Fool's day… But isn’t this going too far for a prank?”

     “It is; this is just damaging,” Casey said. “We haven’t been able to even think about smaller pranks.”

     “Well, they certainly had an effect!” Seep cheered. “Just… not a good one.”

     “But if the banana essence that affected Tyrannia really is a one-off, then it could well just be a one-off prank,” Indal postulated.

     “And even though it’s causing damage, there are worse problems than too much food,” Gimmer said.

     “There’ll probably be a lot of waste, and a lot of Neopians tired of bananas by the end of it,” Daydream pointed out.

     “I think I’m tired of even looking at bananas,” Flower sighed.

     “Well, we have a team figuring out clean-up,” Casey said. “The earth faeries and the Meridell Rubbish Dump have taken an interest. But you should do what you can on your ends.”

     “We will,” Gimmer said. “Thanks for the information.”

     “No, thank you. And I’m sorry, we should’ve been more open to reports, or we’d have found out about Terror Mountain and Tyrannia even later,” Casey said. “I don’t think there’s more you can do. But if that changes, here’s my team’s contact information.”

     Casey handed over a business card to the group, and Daydream gave the group's own contact information to Casey in case they had further questions. After saying their farewell and taking one last look at the barren patch, they returned to Faerieland.

     “Think the Wheel of Excitement will be open?” Seep asked.

     “Is that all you can think about?” Daydream rolled her eyes.

     “Of course not, this is huge! I just feel like we should spin it while we’re here. There’s nothing else we can do anyway, unless you want to travel the world finding the faeries.”

     “The team’s right, they’ve probably already laid low,” Flower sighed.

     “But for something this big, I don’t think Fyora will want to ignore it,” Daydream postulated.

     “She still might not be successful, if other faeries can’t find them either,” Indal mused. “What kind of group is this anyway, doing something this big and this damaging?”

     ***

     In a quieter section of the woods on the outskirts of Faerieland, an Earth Faerie walked alone into a grove and looked around. After confirming that the sun was at the right spot in the sky, she tapped on a nearby tree A wave of magic emanate from her. Creatures chattered throughout the wood, but the Earth Faerie nodded, satisfied.

     “Clear.”

     Three other figures emerged from the wood.

     “Standard check. You weren’t followed?” The Earth Faerie asked. As all three shook their heads, the Earth Faerie smiled. “Good. What do you think?”

     “I think that went quite well!” beamed the Light Faerie from earlier with a smug grin. “Everyone’s frantic and confused. And while they found most of our sites and storm tracks, they won’t find us.”

     “Bananas are even starting to make it to Maraqua,” a floating Water Faerie smirked. “No matter what happens, we’ve left our mark.”

     “Our dear, dreadful, the Earth Faerie let out an exaggerated sigh and placed a hand to her forehead, “terrible deeds resulting in a catastrophe of too many bananas.”

     The Light Faerie laughed. “Everyone is so dramatic about it. Bananas will be eaten or composted, and our effects will heal.”

     “Still some lingering effects,” came the voice of an Air Faerie who was laying down on the ground. “I took advantage of the weather patterns, but our storms pushed around some existing storms. There was going to be a storm over Terror Mountain anyway, it just became a colossal storm of bananas.” She gave an exhausted smile. “Even better than I could’ve imagined.”

     “As if there aren’t already extreme storms in Neopia,” the Light Faerie said. “At least this time we gave them something to write home about.”

     “I only wish we could’ve hit more places,” the Water Faerie said wistfully.

     “I told you, I’m done,” the Air Faerie complained. “The Lost Desert is hard enough to target as is.”

     “Still, I feel bad that they were left out,” the Earth Faerie sighed dramatically. She smirked. “Next time we meet, let’s think of ways to make it up to them.”

     The Faeries nodded in agreement and placed their hands together.

     “The Chaos Faeries!” The Light Faerie declared.

     “To a fun, more exciting Neopia!” the others cheered in unison.

     The End.