Three And A Half Faeries 2

Three (And a Half) Faeries and a Baby (Chapter Two)

The Chez Weewoo was in a state of complete panic. The word that Jhudora was having a baby had somehow spread far and wide throughout Neopia almost instantly. Fyora and Illusen had arrived at the same moment and were doing what they could to help.

“Boil water! Boil water!” Illusen called out, sending the Chez Weewoo’s waiter Cornelius the Bruce into the kitchen.

“Breathe, Jhudora,” Fyora told the Dark Faerie in a calm, soothing voice. “Take slow, even breaths. Now just relax.”

Jhudora was seated at one of the tables near the dance floor, elbows on the table and her chin propped in both hands as she fumed with inner fury. She was glaring so hard that the paint on the opposite wall was beginning to peel.

Cornelius returned after a moment with a pot of boiling water and a cup. Illusen immediately set a tea bag in the cup and poured water over it, then set it before the Dark Faerie.

“This will help to calm you down,” Illusen told her. “Peppermint tea, your favorite.”

“It is after all just a baby,” Fyora reminded her. “Its not like the world is coming to an end.”

Jhudora looked up at her skeptically. “Has anyone checked?”

“Did you honestly believe that this would never happen?” Fyora asked. “You’re 1224 years old, in the very flower of your youth.”

“Its not all that bad!” Illusen tried to reassure her. Then she noticed a mortog wearing a delivery cap under one of the tables. She hurried to collect it. “Oh, Jhudora! The poor Delivery Lenny was just trying to do his job, you know! He probably drew the short straw at that.”

“Oh, don’t have a Kau! Besides, you know that my mortog spells are timed to wear off after a few hours.” Jhudora frowned. “Most of them.”

Illusen released the temporary mortog in the kitchen - anyone else would have realized that this was not perhaps the best place - and joined Ariana.

Jhudora’s apprentice was holding the little bundle of profound terror, still securely tied up in its cloth wrapping just as it had been delivered. Jhudora had insisted that it remained in what she called ‘the original packing materials’, as if it was an item that could be returned. The Dark Faerie apprentice had so far resisted the temptation to look inside.

“What if she doesn’t accept it?” she asked discretely.

“Then it’s your’s,” Illusen told her. Ariana looked frankly terrified for all of two seconds before she knew better.

“You’re a wicked Faerie.”

Illusen shrugged. “Jhudora and I are twins. There’s more of me in her and more of her in me than most people suspect. But to answer your question, Jhudora won’t reject the child. She just needs a little time to get used to the idea. She’s always done things her own way.”

“No kidding.”

Illusen was trying not to laugh at such a time, when her sister was likely to explode in a purple and green cloud of frustration. “I remember when we were in school. She used to take lunch money from the Pant Devil.”

“But she left the other kids alone?” Ariana asked, trying to imagine a school-aged Pant Devil. The Short Pant Devil?

“She used to say that they were no challenge. But if anyone was in trouble, she always just happened to be there to protect them.” Illusen smiled fondly. “She has a big temper, and a heart to match. So what do you think about all of this?”

Ariana sighed. “I think I just became half Faerie and half babysitter.”

They looked up as several members of the Guild arrived with a crib (you can find those with the shop wizard?) Ariana placed the bundle inside, and Illusen helped her in unpacking the arrival. Whether Jhudora was ready to accept and acknowledge or not, the little...whatever needed to be let out some time.

Jhudora knew that Ariana and Illusen were beginning to unpack the little baggage, and she was unable to bring herself to look. But when she glanced down, she found a Mango Meepit sitting on the table offering her the biggest peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie she had ever seen.

“Oh, for...” She was halfway through her mortog spell when she caught herself, and accepted the cookie. “I expect that you’re popping with curiosity.”

“Do you think it’s a boy or a girl?”

“It’s a Faerie,” Fyora reminded her as she lifted the Meepit down from the table. “Now take yourself someplace safe.”

“Congratulations, it’s a Lupe,” Illusen declared, holding up a blue baby Lupe with Dark Faerie wings. A little girl, of course.

Jhudora just stared for a moment before she stood up. “That does it. We’re going to see the Baby Faerie.”

“Baby Faerie?” Ariana asked, confused.

Illusen smiled tolerantly. “Where do you think babies come from?”

Ariana had to turn that one over in her mind a few times; she thought she had an answer, but probably the wrong one given the place and circumstances. But by then Jhudora had stormed out of the Chez Weewoo followed by the others, and she hurried after them.

                                                 ~ ~ ~

Far away in my classic neohome in Brightvale, I had been helping Piksie practice her Kendo. Curiously, there are few things in Neopia more dangerous than a young Aisha with a length of bamboo. I paused and pushed up my mask.

“I sense a great disturbance in the Force.”