Faeries Land

     X enia, a young Wocky witch, swung the end of her broom back and forth as she flew over the Faerieland woods on her way to the castle. Below, a tall tree that was cascading rainbows from its clouds distracted her. It looked funny to her. Deciding to check it out, she swiftly flew down to hide behind the tree, stepped off her broom, and pattered over to the Rainbow Fountain. At the center of the pool stood a Faerie protecting it from all around. She allowed only a few Neopets into the pool at a time. Not wanting to risk going up against a Faerie anytime soon, Xenia stayed where she was as she examined the fountain.

     The fountain looked silly. Xenia raised her paw up to her mouth as she giggled. When she lowered it, she saw a pile of Paint Brushes laid on the ground. She thought that whoever left these must have brought them to use at the Rainbow Fountain but didn't know that Paint Brushes could only be used at the Rainbow Pool. So, unable to use them at the fountain, they'd left them, like so much rubbish, in the hope that another Neopian would make better use of them. She looked at all the Paint Brushes and thought how boring it was to paint a Neopet one-and-done. "If anyone wants to change their appearance," she whispered to herself. "They should just find a witch and have her change them into a frog!" She cackled quietly, covering her mouth with her paw.

     Suddenly, Xenia had an idea. Was it possible to paint a Neopet two colours at once? A plan to play a prank on an unsuspecting denizen of Faerieland popped into her head. She nabbed two of the Paint Brushes, then flew on her broom to the highest cloud above the top of the fountain.

     Two Faeries, one Water, the other Fire, were busy talking as they made clouds from evaporating water. "I never expected to be able to work so well with a Fire Faerie again." The Water Faerie, Ivima, smiled at Rospa, the Fire Faerie. "I wish the Grey Faerie were here. She'd never believe such total opposites forming such a great Cloud Faerie duo like us."

     "It'd be nice to finally get to meet Yenil one day." Rospa flitted her flame wings about as she flew above Ivima swimming in the cloudy fountain pool. "All the stories you tell me about her and how she cared so deeply about Neopets make her seem so kind, especially for a Fire Faerie. We are known to be a little tougher than that. Still, she didn't deserve what happened to her . . . ."

     As Xenia continued to eavesdrop, she discovered the Faeries were sad because they had a friend with clipped wings, and as a result, had lost her magic. This gave Xenia another idea to add to her prank.

     When the Water Faerie swam over to sit by the edge of a cloud and the Fire Faerie flew off to take a break, Xenia saw her chance. She slowly approached the Water Faerie from behind, whistling sweetly, and stopped mid-air to ask her, "Why so sad-eyed, my pretty?" After the Water Faerie told her she was just thinking of someone, Xenia let out a long awe of sympathy. "You are very beautiful, and you should be happy your wings are still intact, my dear."

     Surprised, Ivima stood and moved closer to the flying witch, her head cocked to one side.

     Xenia secretly smiled to herself as she continued, "If only I were allowed to help the Faeries, I would gladly use my magic to help grow back the wings of Faeries so I could see them all shine bright with life and colour once more." She let her head droop to play the part. "It isn't fair some of the Faeries seem to have to suffer."

     "How could a Faerie ever grow her wings back without being given a new name?" Ivima asked.

     "A name is not the only way to change your life if you would let me show you."

     "What do you need?" Ivima was excited to get started.

     "A bit of the magic from your beautiful Rainbow Fountain," the Wocky replied with sweet eyes.

     Suddenly, Ivima was crestfallen and uncertain. "I don't think I can. A stranger, using magic straight from one of our rainbows . . . ."

     "No worries about that," Xenia exclaimed. "I've done it before, and it works beautifully without any ill effects."

     Ivima thought of the helpless condition of her friend, then reluctantly agreed to let Xenia in the Rainbow Fountain for just a couple of minutes. If the Fountain Faerie found out, word might get to Queen Fyora, who could drop the Water Faerie's position as one of the only two appointed Cloud Faeries for building the city.

     Ivima let Xenia into the back section of the Rainbow Fountain so the Fountain Faerie wouldn't be able to see her. Xenia, using her magic along with the magic from the rainbow, fused the two Paint Brushes together creating a Two-Headed Paint Brush split to look like a "Y". One side was Rainbow, the other Cloud. She thought it would be funny to see what these two colours would look like together, taking inspiration from the Rainbow Fountain itself. Once finished, she flew away quickly before anyone noticed.

     She searched for a victim for her prank and found a Green Lupe. She lured him closer, then hovered on her broom above him. The witch had no idea how Paint Brushes really worked, or that the Rainbow Pool was needed to even use the Brushes. So, she simply chucked the Two-Headed Paint Brush at him and hoped for the best. There was an unexpected flash of light and smoke, and when it cleared, Trevorance, the Lupe, was suddenly a Rainbow pet! There was nothing about him that showed any sign of him being painted Cloud as well.

     In an instant, an arrow was flying towards the witch. Shoonee, a Pink Kacheek cupid, who'd been gifted her bow and arrows by a Faerie a long time ago, didn't trust the witch near her friend. She'd known Trevorance since he was a baby growing up in Faerieland when he was still a Green Lupe.

     Xenia pulled the arrow from her right arm and used her magic to stop the love spell from spreading any further. She'd managed to escape Trevorance and Shoonee, but only time would tell if she was able to escape the love spell enclosed in the arrow.

     Trevorance and Shoonee raced after Xenia, but they were unable to keep up with the speed of her broom and quickly lost her. Miffed, Trevorance kept running to track her down. Meanwhile, Shoonee stayed back for a moment and found the Water Faerie waddling nearby trying to find where Xenia must have gone, then quickly told her to be on the lookout for a sinister witch before flying off to follow Trevorance.

     Far away from Faerieland, Xenia met up with a man in the forest shadows.

     "You'd better start delivering on your promise," Nigel the Chia grunted, a look of frustration on his face. "Or I'll have my hounds on you." Little did she know, he meant it literally. He did not let her know that Balthazar was behind this scheme of uncovering the truth behind Faerieland's economic decisions regarding the Hidden Tower.

     "I'm working on it," Xenia told him with a grimace. Her arm was hurting, and she could feel the love spell trying to break out of her containment spell.

     "Work harder! If you want the year's supply of free magical ingredients we agreed to, you'd better deliver, and soon, or the deal's off."

     Xenia flew back to the cloud at the top of the fountain where she found Ivima alone.

     "Did it work?" Ivima tried hard not to look excited.

     "Of course it did," the witch lied. "If your friend takes a dip in the Rainbow Fountain today, her wings will grow back, but only if it's before midnight."

     Elated, Ivima rushed away to get permission to leave work so she could tell her friend the good news.

     Meanwhile, Trevorance and Shoonee were both still searching for Xenia. The Wocky witch saw them from afar and darted the other direction, into the city near the Hidden Tower. Drinking a weak invisibility potion and using her broom to fly around the towers of the castle, she looked for an open window she could sneak into.

     Before long, she was inside a small room. She looked around. It was a simple library. No one was inside. The witch skimmed through the pages of a few books, then got bored. Using her magic, she fused the two books in her paws together, making them now look like a mangled mess. She laughed, then fused all the books together. To her surprise, this unlocked the spell needed to be able to see the real book hidden in this library. The title "Neopoints of the Faeries" was written on the front cover and left her open-mouthed. Though shocked, she was more than eager to start reading, and so she did.

     She read for hours. As she was reading, her invisibility potion started to wear off. From the book, she learned all the dark truths behind the Faeries' need for wealth and power. But, before she finished reading the last few pages about Queen Fyora, her arm, still affected by Shoonee's love spell, chose to go against Xenia's wishes. Her paw threw the book out the window, causing it to disintegrate, for the magic imbued in the book disallowed it to ever escape the castle intact. Now, being one of the very few to know of the book's contents, Xenia was faced with a foe, her paw. It tried to cast a freeze spell on her, but she blocked it with her other paw.

     Shoonee, flying around the area searching for any sign of Xenia, saw the rays of light beaming from the tower window. She dashed to see what was happening. Finding Xenia, she started shooting arrows at the witch.

     Xenia fought off Shoonee's arrows while also trying to avoid the magical attack from her own paw. Shoonee cried out for help, but the witch quickly stopped her. Catching one of her love arrows mid-air, Xenia fused it to a mirror that stood on the wall. Shoonee was now stuck in a trance, staring lovingly at her own reflection. This gave Xenia the chance to coerce the Kacheek cupid to tell her how to undo the love spell on her arm. Not herself, she obeyed and told the Wocky everything.

     Xenia was about to break the spell on her arm when Trevorance barged into the library. He had been able to find her using his sense of smell after he saw Shoonee fly into the tower window. She turned around and laughed when she saw him.

     "I'm so sorry." She cackled more. "I could have done way better than painting you a boring colour like Rainbow. Truth is, you were supposed to be Rainbow and Cloud, but I guess you can't expect much from a worthless Brush not made by a witch. Want to become a frog next?" Xenia burst into maniacal laughter.

     Trevorance glared at her. He then stomped his paw and howled. Suddenly, a cloud magically appeared in front of him! It shot out lances of various coloured lights at the young witch and transformed her into what looked like a playing card. Trevorance, all his senses alert, slowly walked towards the card. He pushed it quickly with his paw, wondering whether it was alive. Looking closer, he saw the card was full of text that was written around the portrait of Xenia, who was standing angrily. He looked towards Shoonee, still in her trance. Again, he summoned a cloud as he stomped his paw, hoping to free his friend by turning the enchanted mirror into a card. It worked. Shoonee asked him what had happened, and he told her he discovered he could paint anything into a card, from items to even Neopets.

     Not sure why this ability was sprung on Trevorance, they decided to go back to the Rainbow Fountain and let the Faeries know they had dealt with the witch, bringing the Xenia card with them as proof.

To be continued…