Three And A Half Faeries 3

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

After a brief flight to Faerie land, Jhudora and her companions arrived at the cloud of the Baby Faerie. This was a matter of some relief for Ariana, who was not yet used to such long flights especially wearing a Dark Faerie gown. At least Illusen had carried Jhudora’s newly-delivered baby Lupe. A white Lenny met them at the door and escorted them to the Baby’s Faerie’s parlor to wait.

“You do understand of course that a baby is not something that can be returned,” the Baby Faerie insisted as she entered moments later.

Ariana had been curious about what a Baby Faerie must look like, unable to shed the image of someone matronly. Like all Faeries she was young and abnormally slender, barefoot in a white gown and long white hair so that she somewhat resembled the Lennies who made her deliveries. Even her wings were feathered, so that she looked rather like the Before Picture of the Grey Faerie. She settled into the chair across the round coffee table from Jhudora. Ariana was holding the tiny Lupe on the sofa between Illusen and Fyora.

A Lenny arrived with tea and a tray of cookies, offering one to Jhudora.

“No, I already. . . ,” she paused and reached into the front of her gown and pulled out the peanut butter cookie that the Mango had given her earlier.

“I can understand that you’re upset,” The Baby Faerie continued. “Many people are. But please believe that I make certain that babies are sent only to those who have initiated the process themselves.”

“Are you trying to imply that I somehow summoned the Delivery Lenny?” Jhudora demanded as she slipped her cookie back into the front of her gown.

“That’s just how I’ve always determined who is ready to receive a baby,” she explained. “When two people get involved that closely, it’s a good sign that they’ll be together long enough to take care of the little bundle.”

“Oh no, no! That blue Lupe and I have a purely platonic relationship.”

The Baby Faerie just regarded her patiently.

“I mean, even Plato must have fooled around a little.”

The Baby Faerie just regarded her patiently.

“He’s a Lupe, for pity’s sake! Its like kissing Scooby Doo!”

The Baby Faerie just regarded her patiently.

“Oh, you don’t miss a thing, do you?” Jhudora demanded in frustration.

“I do require accurate information.” The Baby Faerie held out the tray for Jhudora to take a cookie. “Think of me as the anti-Santa. Its when you get on my naughty list that I send you a present.”

“So just what is really behind this? You didn’t create Neopia’s first Dark Faerie Lupe hybrid just to surprise me.” She glanced at the cookie she was holding as if she had no idea where it had come from, and poked it down the front of her gown. “After all, aren’t hybrids against TNT’s sacred rules?”

“Since when have the Faeries worried about TNT’s dictates to the Users?” The Baby Faerie ask. “They may run Neopia, but we rule it.”

“And you’re evading the question. Is this one of those Children of Destiny?”

“There is a prophecy that would normally to be mailed to you with your invoice,” the Baby Faerie admitted reluctantly, and began to recite.

‘The child of blended heritage,
Part User, Pet and Faerie.
The Greatest Faerie of them all,
Albeit short and hairy.

The Faerie Lupe and Half-Faerie,
Shall together act as one.
And from the choices they will face
Will the world be lost or won.’

Jhudora considered the meaning of those words for a moment, frowning. “You made that up.”

“Most assuredly not!” the Baby Faerie insisted, passing the tray of cookies yet again. “Children of Destiny are a joint project between myself and the Prophecy Faerie, and she supplies the prophecies.”

Ariana looked perplexed. Baby Faerie? Prophecy Faerie? What kind of insane bureaucracy was at work in this place?

“Oh, please! There must be five children destined to save Neopia delivered each week in Neopia.”

“No more than two a year, three on Leap Year. That’s the rule.”

Jhudora nervously poked yet another cookie into the front of her gown; by this time both Ariana and Illusen were beginning to wonder how they must be stacking up in there. A certain Dark Faerie was going to have a belly button full of crumbs.

“And why should that involve me,” Jhudora asked.

“You were chosen because you are Jhudora, the second most powerful Dark Faerie of all time and a secret force for great Good,” the Baby Faerie told her plainly. “You will be there to protect her until she can protect herself. You will teach her what she needs to know. And you will be there to make certain that she never surrenders to the lure of Darkness. Because if she doesn’t save Neopia, then she will surely destroy it.”

For once Jhudora had nothing to say. She glanced over when the Lupe cub began to stir restlessly and make little Lupe noises.

“You need to take her,” Fyora told her firmly.

“What does she need from me?”

“She’s hungry,” Illusen explained patiently. “You know, hungry. She needs her mother.”

Jhudora needed a moment to realize what she was implying. “Oh, you have got to be kidding!”

“You’re going to have to assume your maternal duties soon enough,” Fyora reminded her.

Ariana took the little Lupe cub and placed her in Jhudora’s lap, showing much the same caution she would have used in feeding a crocodile. Jhudora held it up with similar trepidation. “Leaping Lutras, would you look at the sharp baby teeth on the little cur! And hungry too!”

“They do need be fed soon after delivery,” the Baby Faerie reminded her. “And try not to spill your cookies, dear.”