COVER ART BY:
 leonXIII

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"Argh!" Zarra sighed as she fell onto her bed. "I thought he'd never stop crying."

After a few minutes of soothing silence, the royal zafara looked about her room at all of the amazing posters she had hung around it.
"I bet you never had to waste an afternoon bathing a baby scorchio," she remarked toward a large image of Hannah that displayed upon her closed, bedroom door.

Zarra's attention then turned to a ‘Twisted Roses’ poster that appeared above her vanity.
"And I bet the only screaming you guys hear is from all of your adoring fans," she said before closing her eyes and imagining herself standing front-and-center at the Tyrannian Concert Hall.

With another sigh, Zarra turned her head and looked at the Kayla poster that proudly adorned the all-important spot of her wall that was directly above her headboard.
"Oh, Kayla," she said lightly. "I wish I could make amazing potions like you do."

TAP, TAP, TAP

Zarra was snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of something lightly knocking upon one of her stained glass windows.
Curious as to what it could be, the zafara leapt from her bed and made her way over toward the window.
"Hello?" she said as she tried to figure out what might be awaiting her on the other side.
Her statement was soon answered as the form of a tiny faerie appeared before her.

Excited about her visitor, Zarra eagerly opened the window and let her guest in.

The faerie flew about her room before taking a seat upon one of the bedposts and remarking, "Nice room."
"Thanks!" she replied happily before sitting down next to her guest.

The faerie made herself comfortable before saying, "I heard you talking about making amazing potions and thought I'd pop in and see what sort of magic you were up to."

"Amazing potions?" Zarra said with confusion before realizing that her guest must've overheard her talking to her posters. "No, no. I was simply remarking on how I wish I could make amazing potions like Kayla."

"So you aren't up to any magic?" the faerie asked with hopeful eyes.

The zafara shook her head before replying with, "Unless you consider working miracles with a variety of baby products magic."

"Oh," the faerie said while putting her hand to her chin. She then grew a most curious look as she asked, "Would you like to make some magic?"

"Of course!" Zarra answered anxiously.

The faerie flew up and stared directly at her before saying, "Then close your eyes and let's get to it!"

Zarra didn't quite know what closing her eyes was going to do, but she wasn't going to argue with her special guest.

TING

"Huh?" she wondered upon hearing what sounded like a small chime.

"Open your eyes!" exclaimed the faerie.

Zarra opened her eyes and, to her surprise, found herself in the middle of a small laboratory.

The faerie zipped around the room as she merrily cheered, "Go for it! Make some magic!"

"Okay," Zarra said nervously as she took in all the strange potions, bottles, and papers that were scattered before her.

"Is everything okay?" the faerie asked.

Zarra picked up an empty flask and looked at the label for one of the purple liquids on the table. Sadly, though, she couldn't make out what the label said the fluid was.
"Well," she began while using her other hand to pick up the purple liquid. "This looks like a good color to start with."

The little faerie flew around Zarra's head and added, "Yep, sounds good to me!"

Feeling confident, the zafara went about grabbing various liquids and pouring them into the flask until she had it filled to the very top.
"This isn't so hard," she thought while holding her masterpiece before her. "Actually, this is-"

BOOM!

The mixture suddenly became unstable and blew a massive cloud of purple and blue sparkles straight into Zarra's face.

THUNK!

"Huh?" she wondered as she stumbled back into something.

CRASH!

"Oops," she nervously said upon realizing she had run into a nearby table and knocked over some bottles that were upon it.

BANG!
FIZZ-POP!

The sounds of various potions and mixtures becoming active echoed deeply within the room.

"Wow!" the faerie cheered. "You're amazing!"

Zarra couldn't understand how the faerie could possibly be delighting in such a frightening situation. Things were exploding everywhere and she couldn't see any of it or what it was doing due to her face being covered in purple and blue sparkles.
"We got to get out of here!" she screamed.

"Oh," the faerie pouted. "And it was just getting fun."

BANG!
POP!

"Please!" Zarra pleaded.

The faerie sighed before landing on top of the zafara's head and saying, "Close your eyes."

TING

Zarra opened her eyes and, to her relief, found herself back in her bedroom.

"Now what?" the faerie asked.

The zafara couldn't believe how the faerie wasn't the least bit frightened by what had just happened
"What do you mean?" she asked.

The faerie flew up, landed on Zarra's shoulder, and said, "So potion making isn't for you? There's certainly got to be other things that you'd rather be doing than changing diapers."

"Well-" she started to say.

"-I know," the faerie answered before she could finish. "How about a little adventuring in those treasure-filled Pirate Caves?"

Zarra thought for a moment before answering with, "Sure! Why not!"

The faerie flew around her head and said, "Alright! Now, close your eyes!"

Zarra closed her eyes tightly.

TING

The zafara opened her eyes and was surprised to see, and feel, herself inside a dimly lit cave.
"You're amazing!" she commented to the faerie.

"I know," the little faerie answered.

PATTA-PATTA-PATTA

Before Zarra knew what was going on, the sound of footsteps followed by the blurred image of a brown-haired usul came into the room she was in.

"RUN!" the usul exclaimed as she flew past Zarra and the faerie.

"Was that..." the zafara began to say as the sound of something scraping hard against the cave walls grew louder and louder.
"Quick!" the faerie exclaimed as she flew toward Zarra's waist. "Pull out your Rugged Zafara Sword!"

Zarra questioned how she had her sword as she pulled it from its sheath on her left side.
"Okay," she said with an intent look on her face. "I'm ready."

Seconds later, a massive hissi burst into the room.

"AH!" Zarra screamed as she took in its immense size.

The faerie zipped around the frightened zafara and cried out, "Now's your chance! Get it!"

"ARE YOU NUTS!" she proclaimed. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"Oh," the faerie pouted. "You're no fun."

Zarra took a moment to face the ever approaching, massive hissi before looking back at her colleague and screaming, "NOW!"

"Close your eyes," said the faerie

TING

Although the familiar sound had chimed, Zarra still held her eyes glued shut.

"You can open them now," the faerie said.

The zafara released a deep breath and said, "Thank goodness."

"So now what?" the faerie asked.

Without thinking, Zarra exclaimed, "HOW ABOUT SOMETHING THAT ISN'T SCARY OR EXPLOSIVE!"

The faerie was blown back by Zarra's exclamation.
"No need to get all huffy," she said. "I've got just the thing."

Knowing the drill, Zarra closed her eyes.

TING

"Zarra! Zarra!" cheered what sounded like a large group of Neopets.

The zafara opened her eyes and saw before her a microphone and a closed, stage curtain.

"How's this?" the faerie asked.

"Perfect!" she exclaimed while taking a moment to adjust the microphone.

"And now!" cried a deep voice. "I give you, Zarra!"

Cheers sounded from what seemed like everywhere as the curtain raised to reveal a sold out crowd within the Tyrannian Concert Hall.

The drummer hit his bass drum three massive times to begin their first song of the evening, but Zarra couldn't recall a single word of her song.

Seeing that she was in trouble, the drummer started over. However, like before, the lead singing zafara still said nothing.

"Boo!" came an angry attendee.

"We paid for you to sing!" came another.

By this point, Zarra was in a complete panic.
"What am I going to do?" she thought as the audience grew even more frustrated. "I can't remember a single lyric!"

"Let me guess," the faerie began. "You want out?"

Zarra briefly faced the angry crowd and closed her eyes before replying, "Please!"

TING

"Well," the faerie said once they were back in Zarra's room. "That's it for me."

Exhausted by her experiences, Zarra was only able to say a simple, "Bye," before the faerie went flying out of the window she had come in through.

Just then, the sound of an unhappy, baby scorchio came echoing into the room.

Zarra sighed upon hearing her baby cousin's infamous cry.
"Well," she said as she slowly made her way toward his room. "You may be a pain, but you're definitely all the adventure I need for right now.”