Wow so I finally opened my document back up that has Gelaxa's story in it and...it's really good?! I mean I could write it better nowadays after years of more experience but I had a great premise and stuff.
I had actually TOTALLY forgotten about an entire character, Willa, a young Air Faerie. In the story someone calls her a "grade-school faerie" so I guess she's supposed to be the equivalent of 9 or 10, which is also Gelaxa's age-ish. Because Willa is in Gelaxa's magic-proofed bedroom during the time that all the faeries are turned to stone, she is NOT turned to stone, so it's the adventures of the last faerie left alive, and a magical Gelert who can't control her powers. The narration is by Gelaxa's older sister, Icy, a Xweetok, who used to be Striped. She's now painted Faerie (actually bought the PB because of TFR prize points), and I may have the faerie coloring be a reward from Willa at the end for Icy's help.
They all fight wraiths and stuff and it's exciting and dramatic and there's actually some pretty clever Neopian stuff in there, like using the item Downsize to become small enough for Willa to fly Gelaxa and Icy around. I'm actually not even bothered by sharing such old work because I seem to have put so much work into it that it's pretty good! So far it's about 7,000 words so far, with 4 parts under the cut:
(this was the original title and I still rather like it. Does anyone know if it's too long to fit in the submission box?)
Part 1
My gloved paw slammed into the stuffed leather bag and sent it swinging. I smirked. It almost hit the wall that time; I was getting better. As the punching bag arced back towards me, I pivoted on one leg and flung a roundhouse kick at it. The bag was a little more unwieldy when it was moving, and my foot hit it at an odd angle. It knocked me down.
“Icy, we’re going now! You’re in charge!”
My name is Icy Newen, striped Xweetok, and I like poetry, kickboxing, and quiet, so in a family of ten pets I’m generally out of luck. Especially when eight of those pets are rambunctious Gelerts.
Lying on my back, I flicked my striped tail and hoped no one heard the bump I’d made as I fell. “Okay, Mom!” I yelled back, then added to myself, “Ouch.”
It was early autumn, and the rest of the family was running off again to Brightvale for the Faerie Festival events in town. The big festival events were in Faerieland itself, of course, but there were a few faeries in Brightvale and Meridell who had either chosen to stay or didn’t have the resources to make the trip to the main festival grounds. Every year, they put on a little festival of their own for each other and the Neopet residents of the area. My family had already gone five times that week, and they’d dragged me along the first few times before I completely rebelled. Inevitably, while there some little newcomer to my school would single me out as a senior and try to make friends with me. After about five minutes of some empty-headed pet in a frilly sundress giggling about how she was having so much trouble in history, I was ready to crush something. Plus, faeries were just a little too bright and cheery for me.
Which reminded me that we had one in the house right now. My little sister Gelaxa and her friend Willa, a young air faerie, were playing in the room next to mine. I could hear them chattering through the wall; they were probably having a tea party and pretending to be princesses or something. I got back on my paws and tried another kick at the punching bag.
My door banged open, and in my surprise I completely missed the bag and lost my balance. I caught myself on all fours, trying to make it look intentional.
“Icy! Icy!”
“What?” I snapped, whipping around. Gelaxa, a Gelert with pitch-black fur and a white crescent shape on her forehead, was standing in my doorway grinning at me. Her friend Willa fluttered excitedly in the hall.
“Can we have more pie?” my little sister asked eagerly, wagging her tail.
I rolled my eyes. Of course she’d wait until Mom was gone to ask. She knew I’d do anything to shut her up.
“Fine, whatever,” I snorted. “But don’t eat more than one slice, or Mom will notice.” I’d made that mistake last time I had to babysit. I’m pretty sure I got in more trouble on my end than my little siblings did for taking advantage of me. “And don’t cut into the fresh one on the windowsill. There’s leftover pie in the cupboard.”
“Thanks Icy!” Gelaxa said. She and Willa disappeared, giggling. I heard Gelaxa thumping down the stairs with the faerie’s lighter footfalls pattering behind her.
I turned back to the bag and gave it a punch for good measure before pulling off my gloves and tossing them on my desk. I flopped across my bed and hoped the girls wouldn’t get out of paw from all the sugar. All I needed was for Mom to come back and find the house a wreck from a hyperactive Gelert and faerie.
“Icy, something’s wrong with the pie,” Gelaxa called up the stairs. “It’s kinda…hard.”
“It’s not <i>that</i> old,” I called, sitting up. “Just get a sharper knife.”
“Uh, hello? I’m not supposed to use those,” she called back. “Can you just come down here? It’s really weird.”
I sighed, jumped off the bed, and padded to the top of the stars. The Gelert was standing at the bottom, holding a half-empty pie dish that <i>did</i> look rather odd.
“I dunno what’s wrong,” Gelaxa said. “We just ate some at lunch an hour ago. It looks funny now, and it’s really heavy.” She held it out to me as I came down, and I nearly dropped it when she handed it over—it felt like a brick in my paw.
I sighed. “Gelaxa, you must have turned it to stone. You’ve really got to learn to control those magical powers of yours.” My little sister had been cursed (or blessed, if you were an optimist like the rest of the family) at birth with lunar powers, hence the moon-shaped mark on her dark forehead. But despite all her best efforts, she still couldn’t really control her magic.
“I didn’t do anything!” she protested. “I haven’t used any magic all day! I would have felt it.”
“Then explain how a perfect good pie has turned to stone,” I said, waving it under her nose.
She glared at me and said slowly, “I. Don’t. Know. But I’ve never turned anything to stone before.”
That was true. Energy balls, occasional telepathy, giving life to inanimate objects, even changing a pet’s fur and species like the lab ray, all this she could do, but she’d never turned anything to stone.
“A new power?” I suggested. That wouldn’t be too strange; she discovered some new little thing she could do at least once a year. But not usually something this big. The last two powers she’d discovered were good night vision and the ability to levitate blue objects a few inches off the ground. Needless to say, if this were a new power, it was bigger than anything we’d discovered since she was a pup.
She shook her head. “I usually find those by experimenting. They don’t just happen.”
“Gelaxa?” Willa’s musical voice, now slightly tenuous, called from the kitchen. “These are stone, too.”
We hurried in and found the air faerie holding a plate and spoon. At lunch they had been carved wood, like all our dishes, but now they were made of cold granite. I swallowed.
“This is stone, too,” Gelaxa said, poking one of the chairs at the big kitchen table. It was hard as rock.
“So’s this,” I added, running my paw over a towel hanging beside the pump sink. Its folds, frozen in time and petrified in a rippling pattern from the breeze blowing in through the window above the sink, sent a shiver down my stripe.
“It’s me,” Willa whispered, clutching the chair for support. “<i>I</i> used those dishes; <i>I</i> sat at that chair; and I dried my hands on that towel after I washed up.” Her face was even paler than usual. I thought she’d faint.
“You can turn things to stone?” Gelaxa asked, awed.
Willa slowly shook her head, staring off into space. “No. I… I don’t know. I never have before.”
Gelaxa went over and slipped a comforting paw into the faerie’s hand. “Don’t worry,” she said reassuringly. “I can just change them all back. No harm done.”
Willa nodded slowly. “Okay,” she said, sounding a little better.
Gelaxa cracked her knuckles and looked hard at the dishes, now sitting on the table. She closed her eyes and held out one paw, pads outwards. She began muttering under her breath, “Earth and fire, claw and fur, become again what you once were!” and thrust out her paw. The mark on her brow flashed blue, the dishes glowed the same color for a moment, and then the light faded, leaving behind… a stone plate and spoon. Gelaxa grinned sheepishly.
“Eh, sometimes my spells don’t work the first time. I’ll just try again.” She was just closing her eyes for another spell when the front door burst open. We all looked up as my brother Cumular, a green Grundo, dashed into the room. He pulled his sunglasses off and his eyes settled on Willa.
“Thank Fyora you’re all right!” he exclaimed. His chest was heaving and his face was beaded with sweat.
“What’s your problem, Cumular?” I asked. “Had enough of the festival already? I thought you went with the others.”
“I did,” he panted. He pulled a chair out from the table, noticed it was stone, and hastily backed away from it. “But Mom sent me back while the others stayed to see what they could do.” He mopped his forehead and sat down in a different chair.
“Do for what?” I asked. It wasn’t like Cumular to be dramatic; something pretty bad must have happened. “What’s wrong?”
The Grundo took a gulp of water from the cup Gelaxa handed him. He swallowed and looked at Willa. “When we got to the fair,” he said slowly. “We found, well...” He paused, like he didn’t want to say it.
“All the faeries have turned to stone.”
Part 2
We stared at him uncomprehendingly.
“Turned to… stone?” Gelaxa repeated, eyes wide. Cumular nodded, casting a rueful glance at Willa. The little air faerie choked.
“Mom,” she whispered, then louder, “Mom!” She took to her wings and sped out the front door.
“Whoa, hey kiddo, wait!” Cumular shouted. We all leapt after her and Gelaxa grabbed her arm. “It’s safer at the house,” Cumular said. Willa’s eyes were frightened and full of tears. She yanked away from Gelaxa and flew across the front yard and down the road. We were just behind her, calling her name. Gelaxa, with her long legs, easily got out in front, and Cumular and I were left in their dust.
“What happened?” I gasped to my brother.
“I don’t know,” the Grundo panted. “But just before we rounded the corner to the fairgrounds we heard a commotion. When we got to the fair, pets were running around like they’d gone crazy. We ran to see what was going on, and we were about to ask an earth faerie standing nearby when we noticed.” He gulped. “She’d been turned to stone. They were all like that, all the faeries.” He stumbled on a rock in the dirt road and I helped him back up. He continued. “Not even the faerie pets or petpets. Just the actual faeries. Everyone said it happened so fast; one moment, they were talking and laughing, and the next….” He didn’t finish. He didn’t need to. I could see well enough for myself.
We’d reached the Brightvale Fairgrounds, where the local mini-Faerie Festival was held every year. Usually it was a hive of music, laughter, and street vendors calling out their wares, but today it was like a graveyard, complete with faerie-shaped headstones. They dotted the landscape, and pets and owners milled around them, speaking in hushed tones. The initial shock was over; a stunned silence pervaded the grounds.
Willa’s sudden arrival shattered it. “Mom!” she screamed, pushing her way past stupefied pets to the pastry stand her mother had been running. Gelaxa was right behind her friend. Cumular and I looked at each other and ran to catch up.
“No! Mom!” Willa cried, staring at her mother’s likeness frozen in stone. It looked like the older faerie had just bent down to hand a Faerie Cake to someone. Her moth was open and the corners of it were tipped up, as if she’d just been making a cheery remark to her customer when she was cut off forever.
Willa fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands, trembling uncontrollably as a few tears spilled down her cheeks. Gelaxa was hugging her and I realized she was crying too. My little sister had always been empathetic. I tried not to think about it, what it would feel like if <i>my</i> mother turned to stone. I felt a touch on my shoulder and turned.
“Mom,” I said, and huddled close to my owner as she knelt down beside me.
“Icy, why didn’t you stay at the house?” Mom said urgently. I looked up, surprised. Her eyes were worried, even afraid.
“I—” I began, when a voice cut me off.
“Hey, why isn’t she turned to stone?” The owner of the voice, a middle-aged blue Yurble, pointed an accusing paw at Willa. Other voices muttered through the fairgrounds as pets started crowding around us. Cumular grunted and planted himself protectively at my side, and I got into my kickboxing stance.
“She’s the only faerie who’s still alive!” the Yurble said.
“Maybe she’s behind all this!” a Blumaroo housewife said fearfully. The crows collectively gasped and drew back a few paces.
“She didn’t do anything,” Gelaxa said firmly, wiping the tears from her muzzle and glaring around. “She’s just as clueless as the rest of us.” I looked at the Gelert, impressed. My little sister had more guts than I’d given her credit for.
“Or maybe it was your little girl, Ms. Newen,” the Yurble said to Mom, pointing at Gelaxa. “We all know she can’t control her powers. Or maybe she can, and she’s been planning this all along!” Angry shouts flew from all sides now.
Mom stood her ground and calmly said, “Gelaxa doesn’t possess magic this strong, and turning things to stone is not one of her abilities. I think we all need to sit down and talk this out.”
“Talk? Talk?” the Yurble spluttered. “Look around you! Every faerie in Brightvale is a statue, <i>except her</i>.” He jabbed a paw at Willa.
“Torren, she’s just a girl,” Mom said to the Yurble. “I don’t even know that Queen Fyora could do something like this, let alone a grade-school faerie. We all know Willa—she’s lived here her whole life. And her own mother has been turned to stone. Do you think she’d do <i>that</i>?”
Torren shifted uncomfortably. “Well, maybe not…”
“But it could still be your little pet!” the Blumaroo housewife said. The crowd got even noisier.
“Maybe it was both of them!” another voice yelled. Ripples of agreement rolled through the crowd. I swallowed. This was getting out of paw.
“Well, we can’t just let them go,” yet another voice shouted. “We have to figure out if they’re behind all this.”
“Get them!” someone else shouted.
“Get the witches!”
The crowd surged forward at Gelaxa and Willa. Gelaxa growled and held out both her paws. The mark on her forehead glowed, and a blue bubble began to form around her. She pushed it outwards, and it enveloped Willa, Mom, and me and Cumular. The mob bumped against the bubble but couldn’t get past it.
“Run!” Gelaxa grunted. I knew that holding up such a large forcefield would quickly drain her energy, so I grabbed Cumular and Willa’s arms and dragged them to the back of the cake stand, where there were no angry Neopets. Hopefully with all the confusion and the filmy window of the forcefield, most of the mob wouldn’t notice where we went. We pushed our way out of the bubble and ran along the edge of the woods surrounding the fairgrounds. We’d just reached the road when someone shouted, “Look, there they are!” The exclamation was followed by a small explosion and a puff of smoke from the front of the mob, where Gelaxa was. The crowd wavered between two targets before surging after us.
“Go, go, go!” Gelaxa gasped, dashing up to us just ahead of the crowd. Her forehead glowed again and a tree branch cracked and fell onto the path between us and the mob. The front line backed off hurriedly, but it wouldn’t stop them for more than a few seconds. We ran.
The rest of my brothers, all Gelerts, were up in their treehouse when we raced into the front yard. “Hurry! Hurry! They’re right behind you!”
“Boys, get in the house,” Mom commanded. They disappeared from the treehouse window and a rope ladder tumbled down the side of the tree. We ran in the house and the rest of my siblings quickly followed. The last brother slammed the door shut behind him, and I threw the bolt home.
“All the windows are locked,” said my oldest sister, a pretty cloud Gelert. Mom had sent her and the others back to the house when the crowd had just started forming. “Three blankets and three bundles of food are on the kitchen table, too.”
Mom turned to me. “Icy, I want you to get the supplies and take Willa and Gelaxa out the backdoor. Go to that secret fort in the woods, and try not to leave a trail. You’ll be safe there. Wait until one of us comes to get you. We should be able to settle this peacefully, but you’ll be safer at the fort.”
I frowned. “Why me?”
“Because you’ve got a level head on your shoulders and you know how to fight,” Mom replied. “I need you to protect the girls. Now go. Hurry!”
I cleared out some fallen branches from the entrance to the secret fort. It was a huge bush that mounded over a little hill deep in the forest behind our house. The inside of the bush was leafless, and years ago we’d cleared out the dead twigs and dug a little ways into the hill to form the perfect secret hideout. The entrance was a small slit in one side of the bush, almost invisible if you weren’t looking for it. During the winter the hideout was completely exposed, but right now it was shrouded with a thick covering of leaves, a few of which were just starting to change color.
“Gosh, I haven’t been here in forever,” Gelaxa said, scrambling into the fort.
“Yeah,” I agreed, dusting off my paws. “We kinda stopped coming after we built the treehouse. And it’s a good thing, too, ‘cause it means our old trail is almost completely overgrown. It’ll be tough to find us.”
Willa said very little as she helped us reopen the fort and spread out our blankets on the leaf-strewn floor. Every now and then I’d see a tear fall from her cheek. I didn’t really know what to say or do, or even if I could do anything at all for her. Her mom had just been turned to stone, and the whole town was blaming her. That was a lot to deal with.
We settled down inside the fort and covered the entrance again. The late afternoon light filtered down through the canopy and played on our faces as we munched on the cookies we found in our food bags. Gelaxa started telling Willa stories to pass the time, about the days when we were all little kids playing in this fort. I was surprised Gelaxa even remembered; she’d been only a pup at the time. Maybe unusually long memory was another of her magical abilities.
In the middle of a hilarious story about the time the boys had dug a pit just outside the fort, covered it with leaves, and forgotten about it by the time they came back, my ears pricked up. I clapped a paw over Gelaxa’s mouth. She made a muffed grunt of annoyance, and Willa’s smile, which had finally made a comeback, disappeared. They tilted their heads and listened intently to the forest sounds around us.
There it was again: the snap of a twig just outside the fort. I held my breath, hoping it wasn’t one of the angry townspeople coming to look for us, and my paw clenched into a fist.
“Boo!”
My paw went flying, and before I could correct it, it had slammed into our stalker’s nose. He tumbled back down the hill, hands clapped over his face.
“Owowow! Icy!” Cumular cried, rolling around on the leaves holding his nose. “Can’ you take a joke?”
“Oops,” I said, and pushed my way out of the fort to the Grundo’s side. “Sorry. I thought you were the mob.”
“Right, cuz deh mob to’ally makes almos’ no noise at all when it smeaks up on you,” he grunted, nose pinched tight. “Am I bweeding? I mus’ be bweeding.”
I rolled my eyes and helped him up. “You’re fine. I didn’t hit you that hard.”
“Are they gone?” Gelaxa asked him, poking her head out of the fort.
“Well… sorta,” Cumular said, sitting up and releasing his nose. It looked… mostly okay. Maybe a little swollen, I noted ruefully. I needed to work on my reflexes.
“They broke into the house eventually and started searching it,” Cumular continued. I snorted in disgust. “But then Mom was able to talk a little sense into them, and they started discussing it like civilized Neopians. They still haven’t really come to a conclusion, so Mom thought it best for you girls to stay back here for now. Oh,” he added, grinning and picking up a large wicker basket sitting on the ground nearby. “And she sent dinner.”
We talked some more inside the fort, over a dinner of stew and hot, golden-crusted bread. We lit a small fire, too, and roasted some marshmallows Mom had sent along. As I licked the sugary goo off my paw, I was still wondering something.
“Why isn’t Willa stone?” I said, to no one in particular.
Cumular took a swig of lemonade and said, “Mom had an idea about that.” He turned to the younger girls. “I’m guessing you were in Gelaxa’s room right around the time all this would have happened.” The girls looked at each other and nodded. “Well, Mom thinks Willa’s still okay because of the faeryllium.” I nodded, wondering why I hadn’t thought of it before.
“The what?” Willa asked.
“The faeryllium we mixed into the paint before we redid Gelaxa’s room a few months ago,” I replied. “It’s an element scientists discovered a number of years ago, and it acts as a magic-dampening field.”
“Sometimes when I’m sleeping,” Gelaxa said. “I accidently shoot out energy balls while I dream. Everyone kinda got tired of replacing scorched wallpaper, so we decided to try the ‘ryllim stuff. I haven’t had a problem since. Actually, I can’t use any magic in my room at all.”
Cumular nodded. “And Mom thinks the faeryllium kept out the spell.”
“But what about the pie, and the plate?” Willa asked.
Cumular shrugged. “They were still speculating about that when I left.”
“I know why!” Gelaxa said, wagging her tail. “With dark magic, if it can’t fulfill its exact purpose, it will sometimes do the next best thing. Willa might have left some faerie dust on the pie, the plate, and the towel, and since the magic couldn’t get to her, it targeted the next best thing: traces of her.”
“Huh. Cool,” Cumular said. He shrugged. “Anyway, it doesn’t bring us any closer to figuring out who’s really behind all this.”
“Someone—or something—very powerful,” Gelaxa said. “I couldn’t even come close to reversing the spell on the stone plate and spoon.”
That was a sobering thought. Gelaxa might not be able to control her magic very well, but she was still powerful. Whoever did this was way beyond her league.
By now it was almost dark, and a few stars peeped through the leaves overhead. Willa wiped her eyes on her sleeve; she was crying again.
“Oh, Willa,” Gelaxa said sympathetically, squeezing her hand.
“I’m sorry,” she said, sniffling. “I’ve caused you all so much trouble.” She shivered and pulled her blanket around her shoulders.
“Psh, it’s not your fault,” Cumular said, waving his hand. “Cheer up, kiddo. We’ll figure this out.” He gave her his characteristic lopsided grin and winked at the little faerie.
“Gelaxa?” I said, noticing that my sister was staring blankly out the entrance of the hideout.
“Something’s out there,” she whispered, eyes never straying from the dark slit that led out into the night-wrapped forest.
“Hey, maybe it’s one of the others,” Cumular said. He funneled his hands across his mouth and took a deep breath. “Hey guys—oomph!” Gelaxa leapt across the campfire and pounced on the Grundo, cutting him off. “Ouch!” he said. “Gosh, you and Icy both! What’s your probl—” Gelaxa clapped a paw over his mouth.
“Will you shut up?” she hissed. “It’s not one of the others.”
Something wafted by my shoulder, and I whirled around. Nothing. “Probably just the wind,” I said to Gelaxa. And maybe to myself.
“It’s something alive,” Gelaxa whispered, letting go of Cumular. “Or… something not alive.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Gelaxa, are you feeling okay?”
“Whoa!” Cumular barked, jumping up like he’d been bitten. He looked around nervously. “No, I felt it, too.”
“There!” Willa squealed, pointing to the entrance. My heart jolted; peering into the hideout were two points of purple light, like two malignant eyes staring straight at us.
“That’s not the wind,” Cumular said tightly.
Part 3
“It’s a wraith,” Gelaxa gasped, staring at the eyes. The Gelert was shaking all over.
“It’s here for me,” Willa said, clutching at my fur.
“Well, it’s not gonna get anyone,” Cumular said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Not if I can help it.”
“Icy!” Willa squealed, and I felt her hold on me slip. I whipped around in time to see the air faerie being dragged into the darkness behind us. Something had gotten in through the back of the fort. I leapt after Willa and grabbed her hands. Two more eyes turned and glared at me from the darkness, and Willa was nearly tugged from my paws.
A bright blue ball of energy whistled through the air and slammed into the eyes. All was illuminated for a moment, and I saw a ragged shadow, rimmed in angry purple, that didn’t light up with the rest of the shadows. A deafening screech rent the night air and Willa tumbled back into the fort. I turned to see Gelaxa with another energy ball ready in her paw and the crescent mark on her forehead blazing in the dark.
“Thanks,” I said.
“They’ll be back,” my little sister replied grimly, reabsorbing the energy ball back into her paw.
I looked around. The eyes had vanished, and an eerie silence fell. The four of us drew nearer to the campfire, facing outwards. All was quiet. It was almost worse than the scramble itself.
“Are they still there?” Cumular asked. Gelaxa nodded wordlessly.
“They’re waiting,” she said. “They’ve come to finish what the other spell couldn’t.” Willa shuddered beside me.
“Where did those things come from, anyway?” Cumular asked, rubbing his hands like he wanted to get something off them. “Did they turn the faeries to stone?”
“No,” Gelaxa said. “Wraiths only possess the power of fear, and a few minor magical abilities. Other than that, and being kind of undead, they’re just like you or me. Well, you anyway.”
“I’ve heard of these wraiths,” Willa said. “My mother used to tell me stories about them when I was little. She said when the first faeries came to Neopia they banished the wraiths, and ever since have protected all of Neopia from their return.”
“And now they’re coming back,” I said. “There’s only one person who can stop them now: you.”
Willa hugged herself nervously. “But what can I do? I hardly know any faerie magic!”
“We’ll help you,” Gelaxa replied, determined.
Willa smiled at her friend. “Then we need to get to Faerieland. That’s the seat of all the faeries’ power, and we might be able to find spells in the archives to help us.”
“Right,” Gelaxa said with a nod. “The two of us might be able to manage some kind of reversal spell. Or at least something to keep the wraiths away.”
“I hate to be the wet blanket,” Cumular said. “But we’re kind of surrounded by evil shadows intent on dragging us off in the bowels of the earth. Can we iron out that wrinkle first?”
“The river,” I said. I’d been thinking about it since Willa mentioned Faerieland. “If we can get to Cumular’s canoe on the river, we can get away by water.”
“Wraiths can still travel over water,” Gelaxa said skeptically.
“Maybe,” I replied. “But at least we’ll be out in the open in the moonlight, where they can’t sneak up on us so easily.”
“And your powers are strengthened by moonlight, aren’t they, Gelaxa?” Cumular asked. The Gelert nodded.
“Then it’s settled,” I said. “We head for the ri—”
“Gah!” Cumular yelped, lashing out. “Girls, I think our guests are back!”
Glowing purple eyes appeared in all directions, creeping through the leaves and branches. Gelaxa fired up an energy ball in her paw and held it high. I gasped. The ghostly blue light illuminated the shadowy forms of dozens of wraiths all around us. Willa whimpered in fear, but then I saw a determined look come over her features. I tightened my paws into fists beside her.
“I dare you!” I shouted to the eyes. They dared a bit faster than I’d anticipated, and three wraiths lunged forward, straight at me and Willa. I threw a right jab at the nearest wraith and was glad to find that, though it was noncorporeal, my paw still seemed to damage it, clearing a misty hole in the center of what looked like its body. It groaned, I hoped with pain, and retired, but two more wraiths took its place.
I saw that Cumular had snatched up a burning stick from the fire and was swinging it at a cluster of eyes. Gelaxa was shooting out energy balls as fast as she could, but I doubted she could keep it up for long. Willa was whipping bursts of air at the wraiths, sending them tumbling back into the bushes.
“Grab my tail!” I shouted to Willa. She looked confused, but complied. I faced the entrance to the fort and punched at a wraith that stood in the way. Then I grabbed Cumular’s arm in one paw and ran to the entrance, dragging my brother and yelling at the top of my lungs. The three of us tumbled down the hill outside the fort, right underneath the wraiths hovering a few feet off the ground. Gelaxa bounded out after us, and we were free of the shadows… for the moment.
“Let’s move, girls!” Cumular shouted, shoving us down the path in the direction of the river. The whispering horror of the wraiths fell away behind us as we crashed through the underbrush. I prayed we were going the right way.
“Follow me,” Gelaxa said, sprinting ahead of me. “I can see.”
Thank goodness for magical night vision. If Gelaxa had even the slightest scrap of moonlight to work with, she could see in the dark almost as well as the middle of the day. Then again, it was hard for the rest of us to see her dark fur as she ran. I grabbed the end of her long tail, Cumular grabbed mine, and Willa flew just above my head.
“Almost there!” Gelaxa said, though she spoke a little late. We suddenly came out of the trees and I saw moonlight sparkling on the water. Gelaxa squealed, scrambled to a stop, and was knocked over as I barreled into her. With Cumular dragging along behind, we slid down the bank and splashed into the river. It was freezing. I came up spluttering.
“<i>Almost</i> there?” I exclaimed. I hated cold water. “Almost?!”
I could see Gelaxa’s sheepish grin in the moonlight. “Sorry, sis. But hey, at least we won’t need a bath!”
“Least of our problems!” Cumular said, hauling us to our paws. “Hop in!” He had tugged his canoe off of the bank and had it floating calmly nearby. “It’ll be a tight squeeze, but we’re all friends here.” He sounded as though he was giving one of his normal summer outings down the river.
We scrambled in and Willa alighted beside us. Cumular and I took up the paddles and shoved off. It might have been the wind, but I thought I could hear the hiss of the wraiths coming up the path to the river. I dug my paddle deeper.
“I’m going to try a mirage spell,” Gelaxa said, cracking her knuckles. “I can mimic the light playing on the water, and they might not see us behind it. But you’ll have to stop paddling, or they’ll find us by sound.” She looked to me for approval.
I glanced back at Cumular, sitting in the stern. The windy sound was getting closer, and the chill of the wraiths was starting to creep back into my fur. I looked back at my sister.
“Do it.”
Gelaxa took a deep breath and stood up, and we had to steady the canoe to keep from overturning. The Gelert closed her eyes, and her forehead began to glow as she intoned the spell: “Moon and water, wind that keens,” she chanted. “Join to make this ship unseen!”
Nothing seemed to happen. “Uh, Gelaxa?” Cumular said. The Gelert held up her paw as she stared at the bank where the wraiths would appear. Her forehead was still glowing.
Purple shadows suddenly burst from the cover of the forest and lined the banks, moaning and sighing as they cast their eyes back and forth. I realized I was holding my breath, but I didn’t let it out; they were so close they’d surely hear it. I was surprised they didn’t hone in on us from my heartbeat alone—it was making a racket. The four of us paused breathlessly in the canoe, feeling terrifyingly exposed in the middle of the moonlit river.
Some of the wraiths crept down to the water like dark waves of fog. Others began gliding up and down the bank, searching for us. A few disappeared back into the forest, but none of them looked at us. Gelaxa’s spell had worked.
The river tugged at the canoe and we began to drift away from the crawling shadows. After a few moments Gelaxa signaled to us and Cumular and I began to softly paddle, hardly making a splash. Once we’d rounded a bend in the river, Gelaxa’s blaze went out and she collapsed in the bottom of the boat, exhausted. Willa helped her sit up and hugged the Gelert tight as she started shivering.
“We forgot the blankets,” the faerie observed.
“We forgot the food,” Cumular replied with a snort. “Now <i>that’s</i> a catastrophe.” The younger girls giggled, and even I smiled. Paradoxically, once Cumular was on the water, nothing could dampen his spirits.
“You girls get some sleep,” he added. “Icy and I will keep watch. When you wake up tomorrow, you’ll see the whole ocean from Brightvale Harbor.”
“And then to Faerieland,” Gelaxa murmured, and closed her eyes.
Part 4
“Yeah. That might be a problem.” Cumular stroked his chin thoughtfully as we gazed up at the notice board in Brightvale Harbor town square. What had caught our attention was… our own faces.
<i>Wanted</i>, the poster read. <i>For aiding and abetting a faerie fugitive. Reward.</i> Smack in the middle of the parchment were pictures of me and Cumular. Willa and Gelaxa were on another poster together, something about being dangerous suspects in the mystery of the faeries.
“They’re not gonna let us on that ferry,” I said. “It’s kinda hard not to notice the ONE FAERIE in all of Neopia who isn’t turned to stone.”
“But we <i>have</i> to get out into the ocean under Faerieland,” Willa said. “The usual lifts are useless without the faerie technicians, and I’m not strong enough to fly all the way there.”
“We’re not guilty,” Gelaxa said. “Can’t we just explain that to the ferrymaster?”
“This is the real world, Gelaxa,” I replied irately. “It doesn’t work that way.”
Cumular squinted out over the docks. “Hey, we might not have to worry so much about getting to Faerieland. It’s coming to <i>us</i>.”
I turned to look where he was pointing, a distant cloud with a pinkish hue. Weird. It sure never looked that close on maps.
“Faerieland is falling,” Willa said quietly.
“Aw, don’t say that,” Gelaxa said. “It’s a clear day, that’s all, so we can see it from all this distance.” But Willa shook her head.
“My mother once told me that if the power of the faeries was ever destroyed somehow, Faerieland would fall from the sky and ghosts and ghouls would overrun Neopia. I always thought they were just stories.”
“Well, this does seem like a time for ghost stories and old nightmares to come alive,” Cumular said with a wry smile. “We just need to get up there and see what we can do.”
“They’re still not gonna let us on the ferry,” I repeated.
“That’s why we stow away,” my brother replied.
“Cumular!” Gelaxa said, horrified. “That’s… that’s stealing or something!”
He waved his hand dismissively. “We’re still gonna have <i>tickets</i>. Icy and I will buy them—they’ll never recognize us. We look like every other green Grundo and striped Xweetok in Neopia. No sweat.”
“Would now be the time to mention I’m not a fan of this plan?” I said.
“Sure,” Cumular said. “But we’re still buying the tickets.”
We bought the tickets right then, mid-morning, but didn’t use them until that night. Cumular and I actually used our tickets to get on the ferry via the normal gangplank like all the other passengers; the other two tickets were just conscience-savers for Gelaxa and Willa. They took the stealthy route, Willa flying her friend low over the water until they reached the lifeboat on the side of the barge. They were to sneak under the sailcloth that covered the lifeboat and wait until Cumular or I got them out. As much as I hated to admit it, my brother’s plan was a good one, and no one recognized the two of us.
Within an hour we were steaming along just underneath Faerieland. “Aren’t we stopping?” Cumular asked of another passenger.
“Sure,” said a Lenny sailor, coiling up a rope by the railing. “Once we reach the Faerieland stopping point. We have a while to go yet.”
“But it’s <i>right there</i>,” Cumular said, pointing up as the dark shadow of the faerie cloud blocked out the stars.
“But it’s not our stop,” the Lenny said blankly.
I nodded to Cumular, and we made our way behind the cabin to the lifeboat.
“Hey!” I hissed. “It’s us!”
The canvas sheet covering the lifeboat came to life, and two heads poked out from underneath it.
“Time to go, girls,” Cumular said.
“We’re there already?” Gelaxa asked.
“As there as we’re gonna get by boat,” he replied. “We’ll have to fly from here.”
The stowaways crept out from their shelter and looked up at the sinking cloud, barely tinted purple in the moonlight.
“It looks terrible,” Will said softly, gazing at her people’s former home.
“We’re not helping it standing here,” I said. We just needed to get this over with.
“So,” Cumular said, putting his hands on his waist as he looked up at Faerieland. “How are we gonna do this?”
I pulled out two Downsize tablets. “Already thought of that. These will shrink us so Willa can carry us up. But… I only had two equipped.”
“I should go,” Gelaxa said. “There was never any question about that.”
I glanced at Cumular. “You stay here.”
The Grundo looked both disappointed and relieved. “Thanks. I’d go, but… I’m more useful when my feet are near the water.”
I smiled a little. “You’ve gotten us this far, bro. Thanks for that.” I punched his shoulder affectionately, but he reached over and hugged me tight.
“Be careful,” he said, his voice partially muffled in my neck ruff. “What would I tell Mom if I came home without my two favorite sisters?”
I hesitated, then hugged him back. “We’ll be fine. I’ll take care of them.”
Cumular let go and grinned up at me. “That’s what you’re best at.” And he punched me back. Then he ruffled the fur between Gelaxa’s long ears and squeezed Willa’s hand. “Good luck, girls. I’ll be waiting for you.”
Gelaxa and I gulped the Downsize tablets, and she made a face. Battledome concoctions <i>do</i> taste pretty bad if you’re not used to them. Moments after the tablets had gone down, I felt myself shrinking. Gelaxa seemed to stay the same size, but the boat, the faerie, and our brother suddenly got huge. Gelaxa’s eyes got wide, and she flopped to the floor, gasping for air.
“I don’t feel good,” she moaned.
“It’s shrinking sickness,” I said, patting her back awkwardly, as if it would help. “You’ll feel better in a minute.”
The Gelert’s breathing eventually became normal, and she stood up shakily.
“Let’s do this,” she said, a light of determination coming back to her eyes.
Willa picked each of us up in one hand—we were no bigger than toys now—and took to her wings. The wind whistled past my now-tiny ears, and the stars seemed huge. I’d never used a Downsize pill outside the Battledome; the world was beautiful from this perspective.
Faerieland rushed to meet us, a sinister cloud that blocked out the stars on all sides as we got closer underneath it. My paw slipped off the edge of Willa’s palm, and I scrambled to get back up. Then I realized why I’d slipped—I didn’t quite fit in her hand anymore. The Downsize was already wearing off.
“Willa, GO,” I yelled, as my body grew another size. I was now flopped across Willa’s hand, with just my belly still resting on it. I looked over at Gelaxa and couldn’t see her dark shape, but I assumed she was in the same position. Willa’s ascent slowed, her wings straining against the sudden weight. Faerieland seemed an impossible distance above us.
“We have to get there!” I shouted. “This is our only shot!”
“I know,” Willa cried desperately. “I’m trying!”
We grew another size, and Willa struggled to hold us. We started dropping.
“Your dress is blue!” Gelaxa said, sounding oddly excited.
“So?” I snapped. Fine time for her to start thinking about fashion.
“I can levitate blue objects!”
That’s right! We’d just discovered that power a few months ago.
“<i>Do it</i>,” I shouted, just as we grew back to our normal size. We plummeted towards the ocean, Willa’s wings beating futilely. I screwed my eyes shut, praying Gelaxa could—
And then our descent halted. I opened my eyes and saw Gelaxa’s forehead mark glowing blue. Willa’s light blue dress was glowing, too, and it was lifting us back into the sky like a magical hammock. The terror disappeared from the young faerie’s face, and she started to laugh.
“It tickles!” she giggled.
Gelaxa smiled but remained silent. Her eyes were closed in concentration. We started to rise again, smoothly. Willa had the two of us clasped under her arms, and I could only imagine how hard she worked to not drop us while her dress ferried us up.
As soon as we were close enough, I leapt from Willa’s arms onto the cloud. I was half afraid it would give way like a normal cloud, but I landed on something fluffy and firm. I kneaded the ground a few times with my paws. I’d never been to Faerieland before, and this was really something. Willa and Gelaxa floated down beside me.
“What now?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Willa said quietly. “I sort of hoped there would be other faeries here.”
I looked up at the buildings framed against the starry sky. It was ominously dark, and ominously quiet.
In a rewrite I maaaay not go with first person. If I DO go with first person, I'll need to color everything just a shade darker, because Icy is really a very cynical Xweetok. I'm not sure why she's so mild in this draft. X'D Cumular's character is still pretty much spot on so he wouldn't require much work, but I would work on Willa and Gelaxa to make them seem more like the young children they are--or else change their age to 12/13 or so ("middle school age").
I feel that I introduced Gelaxa's powers very well, even foreshadowing the levitation of blue objects in the first part, which came in handy in the fourth part. To write parts five through [whatever number] I would need to look back through the events of TFR and decide which plot points I want to use for the story. Then I can write an outline for the rest of the plot. Whee!
" )
