Destiny?
I spent the rest of the day in kind of a daze. My mind was still reeling from what had just happened. Melody fixed dinner, karma, a kind of strange vegetarian pasta with olives. She remembered to pick those nasty things out of my helping even. I ate it without really tasting anything. After that Sabreur suggested a movie. I fell asleep halfway through and woke up the next morning in my bed, still dressed, with a massive ache in my shoulders and neck.
I groaned and literally rolled out of bed. My back was just one massive lump of pain. I drew my magic to me and loosened the muscles and healed the damaged areas. The pain faded and I stood. Better see to my pets. They were probably in the same state.
I found Terraile in her room, listening to music. She turned it down when I entered.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Oh, I'm fine. I hurt like heck this morning but Aldrai fixed that. He did that for all of us."
"Really? That was nice of him."
"Yeah. Try to be quiet when you go downstairs, I think everyone else is still asleep."
I nodded and padded downstairs. Sure enough, Sakuko and Netsuko were curled up on the couch, Sabreur in the recliner, and Melody on the floor with a pillow under her head. Infernus and Melody's three pets were piled in a heap by the sliding door to the backyard. I couldn't remember when they had come over.
I tiptoed over to Aldrai's room where I could hear voices. I slipped in and found MoonFall and Aldrai awake and talking.
"I was just about to go get everyone up and make breakfast," the island uni said, "Faerie pancakes sound good?"
"Sure."
She nodded and trotted from the room.
"So Aldrai," I said, sitting on his chair, "How're feeling?"
He ducked his head in a half-nod.
"Pretty good. Ya know… I've been thinking about this crash."
"And?"
"Well, I've always wondered why I've had magic. I mean, you have yours, Terraile has her bow, so why do you need me? And then… there's this crash. And Terraile can't heal because she uses dark magic and you can only tend to one at a time… and there I am. I think, I don't know, maybe it's my purpose to use my magic to help others. Maybe it was destiny at work yesterday."
"Perhaps," I said thoughtfully.
"I mean, maybe that car crash was supposed to happen. So I'd learn what I'm supposed to do with my magic."
"But the car crash was a bad thing," I said gently.
"Good things can come out of bad, right? I mean, the flood and all was bad, but you got me out of it. And… the Shadows were bad but you became the Essence out of that. That's good, right?"
"I'm not so sure. Yeah, it comes in handy sometimes, but all in all, I'd rather have stayed a normal Neopian family."
"But what about the power you have?"
"There are some things more important than power… ah, sounds like MoonFall is done with the pancakes."
I smiled and stood, heading for the door. Aldrai watched me leave.
Aldrai took his new revelation quite seriously. We returned to the marketplace a couple days later with Sabreur and Infernus as I still needed groceries. My car wasn't fixed yet so we went via air. Infernus carried Sabreur in their unique hangliding way, I flew on my own, and Aldrai used his magic to shift into the Christmas zafara color. We landed near the bakery and I quickly slipped inside to see if there had been a recent restock.
Sure enough, the kacheek had just put out oodles of fresh newly-baked bread. I practically pounced on them and started buying stuff up faster than he could put it into bags. I loooove bread. I managed to buy up enough to keep my pets fed for a couple days before Un-eairkagh dragged me out of the store.
"We need a balanced diet!" he cried.
"But bread is an important source of nutrients," I argued.
His eyes drifted over to the chocolate factory and then to Hubert's hotdogs.
"Oh fine. We'll get some other food for the week."
I sprung for lunch while we were out. We ate near the rainbow pool, sitting on the grass. We weren't the only group out there either. A lot of pets and owners were gathered around the Money Tree, giving or taking items and money. Aldrai watched them for a while. He then stood and walked over. I quickly pushed myself to my feet and followed.
"Mommy… I'm hungry," a young chia was crying.
"I know… I'm trying."
Aldrai gently touched the chia's shoulder and handed him one of our sandwiches. The chia's eyes lit up in gratitude and he eagerly started eating it.
"Thank you…" his owner said, her eyes shining, "I've been trying for so long."
Aldrai shrugged.
"I understand."
I quickly switched to my magical sight and indeed saw the currents of power gathering around Aldrai. I frowned, unsure of what he was doing. Then there was the blinding radiance I had seen yesterday. I narrowed my eyes at the brilliance and continued watching. He reached out a paw and lay it on the chia's head. The light wrapped around him… the same way it did when Aldrai changed his color. Aldrai stepped back a step, still trailing white radiance and the chia gasped in utter amazement. He now sported faerie wings. Aldrai had changed his color.
"How… how did you know?" he asked in a whisper.
Aldrai just smiled and walked away. The two watched him go. They didn't even notice me, not even when I walked back over to the group and sat down.
"Wow Aldrai!" Un-eairkagh said, "That was awesome!"
"Thanks," he said smugly, "Just trying to use my magic for something good."
I grinned weakly and exchanged glances with Terraile. She appeared worried. We finished our lunch quickly and hurried through the rest of our shopping. For some reason I didn't want to stay in the marketplace anymore. I blamed it on the heat. I think they believed me.