Act 1: Star Light, Star Bright, May You Grant My Wish Tonight

Neopia, a world filled with many Neopets like some originating from the light and others from the dark. Such as the one they called the Darkest Faerie. Once a hero of Altador, now a cold and lifeless statue for the crimes she committed across the lands of Neopia. For many of years, the Darkest Faerie was kept at bay and hidden away within the deepest parts of the oceans.
However, the spell faded away allowing the Darkest Faerie to roam Neopia causing chaos once again. Then thanks to the help of two brave heroes, saving the land from her dark powers and bringing peace back into Neopia. As for Darkest Faerie, she was returned to her statue-like state again. Now sitting lovely in the center fountain of Faerieland.

For our two heroes, they went on a little adventure of their very own. As the years went by, the two heroes Roberta and Tormund Ellis became parents of two children. One child was a female Lupe, with blue fur, light blue hair, and purple eyes. The second child, a male Acaras with bright yellow fur, black hair, and brown eyes. Their names were Marilyn and Eric Ellis.
Sadly the brother and sister couldn't stay together forever, due to a horrific accident that happened years ago. Marilyn was in the care of her mother Roberta and Eric was with his father Tor. The siblings do visit each other whenever they could but as they became the age for their training, their father and mother have prepared for them.

In the castle's library of Brightvale, where Marilyn was but fast asleep with piles of books beside her. Then a thump on the table woke her and made her stand up from her seat, rubbing her sleepy eyes. She looks up seeing her mother Roberta, with a wand in her hand.
Marilyn was wearing a light green tunic with lilac sleeves, dark blue amulet on her collar, blue pants, and leather boots. Her mother, Roberta was looking at her with such a fierce look on her face, wearing her blue and white sorceress cloak.

"Um… Hello mother." Marilyn spoke up with a nervous tone. Roberta then smiles at her,
"Marilyn, you seem to be taking things quite easily with your studies. May I ask you, which is the most powerful mote?"

Marilyn grabs the closet books in front of her, "Eh ...Fire...No wait, light." She replies, flipping through the book.

"No Marilyn. That would be the supernova, my dear." Roberta sighs.

"That was going to be my third guess."

"Marilyn, we have been studying this for weeks now. You have to learn each mote before we can advance to the next stage."

"I'm sorry. I don't think I'll ever become a great sorceress like you, mother." As Marilyn sat back, she looked down at the table.

Roberta then sat down next to Marilyn and held her hand.

"I wouldn't say I am the greatest, but you. I know you will become something so grand if you keep believing in yourself."

"Oh, thank you, mother."

"Now let's get back to reciting all motes."

Marilyn nods and goes back to reading her books, she pouted as she looked through each page of the book. Thinking her mother's pep talk would help her gain the confidence to tell her once and for all that she does not desire to be a sorceress, but a knight. Sadly that is her brother's fate, to become a knight like their father. She rarely sees both of them, due to the all knight training they were going through, in Meridell. Luckily, Eric and Tor will be visiting her and Roberta for the Starlight festival tomorrow.

A festival which comes only once every 100's of years, when the night sky is covered with shooting stars. Marilyn was so excited since she and her family were all going to be together for tonight. They would get to walk around the town square filled with music, dancing, and food.

Meanwhile in the kingdom of Meridell, in the courtyard training area of the castle, where Eric and his father were doing some training exercises. Eric was wearing a cobalt tunic, with grey sleeves and pants legging, and dark grey boots. Tor was just wearing thin chain armor with a Meridell crest.

They were practicing sword fighting. Eric just swung his sword at his father, but Tor blocked the attack with his and swung Eric's sword out of his hand, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Now the score is seven wins for me and zero for you so far this morning. Eric, you need to work on your stand and have a stronger grip on your sword." Tor puts his sword back in his sheath. Let his hand out for his son.

"Sorry, father. I'll do better next time." Eric grabs his father's hands and he pulls him back up. He sighs as he picks up his sword off the ground.

As did Tor, since Eric wasn't getting any better at his training but he can't just give up on him.

Like Marilyn, Eric does not wish to follow in his father's footsteps, but he doesn't have the heart to tell his father the truth. Or more like afraid of what his reaction will be when he does tell him.

"Well alright, let's start with basic stands once more and we'll end the day there. Since we have to pack for tomorrow." Tor folds his arms together.

Eric nods. "We get to visit Marilyn and mother for Starlight's festival tomorrow."

"Yes, we will get to see Marilyn and your mother. We get to spend more time together." Tor sighs again and looks the other way. Which made Eric lose his smile.

Whenever Marilyn is mentioned, his father would get a depressed look on his face. Which was confusing for Eric, since after their 16th birthday their father was always overjoyed when Marilyn came to visit them. He would spoil her until her visit was over. Many would think that Marilyn was Tor's favorite out of the two siblings, but Eric knows that wasn't true. Since both, he and his father barely get to spend time with her and their mother.

But he could also remember something that happened in the past, almost as clear as day back in the kingdom of Faerieland. He and Marilyn were ten years old. Eric was alone in the dead of night, peeking through a small crack at the door seeing his father and mother were having some kind of dispute inside the other room.

"I can't believe this is happening! Why! Why her?!" Tor shouts frantically as he pastes backward and starts banging on the wall.

"Tor, please calm down. You might wake up… Eric." said Roberta, as she sat down in a chair, she quietly whispers to herself.

"I'm so sorry, Marilyn. I'm so sorry Marilyn." She cries as she repeats the same worlds

Tor stops and looks back at his wife, with her head looking down at the floor crying. He kneels and holds her hands. Bring her close to his face and start to sob.

"Roberta, it's not your fault. Please have hope, Marilyn will recover from this." He looks up at her and wipes her tears away and embraces her.

"But Jerdana said she might not-" Then she was cut off when the door was pushed open by itself. They both look down to see Eric on the floor, due to him trying to see better, he accidentally pushes the door.

Both Tor and Roberta were surprised to see him up and possibly heard everything. Tor gets up from his knees and walks up to Eric, then just scoops him up into his arms.

"What are you doing up this late? You're supposed to be in bed, young man."

"I couldn't sleep without Marilyn. Where is she? I haven't seen her all evening." Eric answers his father.

All Tor could do was sigh since he couldn't tell his son the truth and neither could Roberta. She gets up to walk over to them and rubs her son's cheek, giving him a weak smile. Eric softly yawns as his eyes slowly close.

That ended the flashback to that very night, he never really asked his father or his mother what happened to his sister. Whatever did happen to her, caused him to never see her again until their 13th birthday. Both their parents claim that Marilyn was away and that was all they told him.
The next day came rolling in for the trip for Brightvale. Both Eric and Tor walked through the castle's gates, while up stuck in her room, Marilyn was sitting down and looking at her reflection in the vanity mirrors. She sighs as she looks up at the gold-colored dress hanging from the mannequin, that her mother prepared for her, to wear at the festival.

Marilyn was against wearing the dress for tonight, especially since she was hoping to join in on the obstacle course races and other games at the festival. And wearing a dress isn't the ideal clothing to wear for events like that.

Then she heard a knock on the door. Sighs before saying "Come in." She looks back at her vanity. Thinking it was her mother, checking on her to see if she was ready.

"I'm sorry that I'm not ready. I just don't think that it's a good time to wear a dress, mother."

"Then don't wear it."

Both her ears pop up and her eyes widen, from the sound of that voice. She turns around to see it was Eric.

"Eric!" She gets up and runs into his arms. Giving a good tight squeeze like a hug.

"You came!"

'Yeah, yeah ...Sis, you're hugging me tight." Eric's was slowly turning blue as Marilyn kept on hugging him.

"Oh sorry about that." She lets go of him and pats his chest, letting him catch his breath.

"It's just so good to see you, again. Wait, how did you know this was my room?"

"Easy, you always kept the same room since we were kids. Plus it's the only one with a balcony close enough to the ground to escape from." He points at the balcony leading out to the garden.

"Oh right." She smirks.

"Anyways how's your magic-" Then Eric gets cut off when the sound of their father calling for him.

"Oh no, it's the father. He finally notices that I left him when he said that we should start running laps around the castle."

"Come on, Eric. Let's go."

"Go where?"

"To the town square, before it's too late." Marilyn runs out towards the balcony and jumps over the balcony bars.

Eric shrugs it off and just follows her over the balcony. Outside in front of Marilyn's room was Tor, thinking that Eric was maybe inside. He hesitated to grab the doorknob since he was a bit nervous to see Marilyn again. He felt that he didn't spend enough time with her since his duty at the other kingdom and his training with Eric took most of his time nowadays.

"Come now, Tor. She's still your little girl. And then the next thing you know...I'll be walking her up the aisles on her wedding day." Tor puffs as he gathers all his courage.
Just as he was about to open the door, he was stopped by a familiar voice. "Tor?"

He looks up to see Roberta, wearing a dress with a lovely shade of purple. Tor couldn't help but look at her as if she was an angel that came from the heavens. Just like how they met when she fell from the sky off the Faerieland.

"R-Roberta? I mean hello. It's been a while and you look really lovely, my dear." He coughs.

"Oh thank you." She giggles from her husband's reaction.

"I thought we would be meeting you and Eric in the throne room?"

"That was the plan until I mentioned that we should get some extra warm-up training before the festival." He walks up to Roberta and then kisses her hand.

"But that can wait." He gives her a wink which just made her giggle some more.

"Oh stop it, Tor. We are all here to spend the holiday together."

"Right after the festival is over and the kids are asleep. You and I can share a glass of red Juppie and then we could -" He was hushed by Roberta's finger, placed on his lip.

"Perhaps." She winks at him and walks right past him to the door, which made Tor take a deep breath and rubs the back of his head. Thinking he was one step of ahead his wife.

"Marilyn dear, are you ready? And is your brother in there with you?"
Roberta opens the door slowly to Marilyn's room when she didn't hear a reply back, to see no one was inside. Both mother and father sigh, knowing that both of their children have fled.

"I guess that they both went to the town square." Tor rubs his chin.

"That was your best guess?" Roberta smirks with her arms folded.

"Well yes, but knowing Eric. He would have his head buried in a book somewhere, would be my second guess."

"Why are you making it sound like a bad thing?" Roberta raises a brow.

Tor then trembles at the sight of her making that face. "I...I don't mean that in a bad way. It's… Just he has to focus more on his training that's all."

"Well, I think it's a good thing that our son still has a good sense to read once in a while with all that training."

"Ro, what is that supposed to mean? I give him enough time to himself to do whatever he pleases."

"I'm just kidding. Besides I wish just Marilyn was a bit more like that, so she forces more on her spell books, other than spend so much time going outside the castle."

"Well, I think that going out for some fresh air might be a good thing for her since…" Just as Tor was talking, he stopped himself before he brought back the past.

But it was a bit too late since Roberta knew what he was about to say and she just looked away from him.

"Ro ...I'm sorry ...I didn't mean it like that…"

"I know Tor."

Then there was silence between the two, Tor just rubs the back of his neck but Roberta shanks her head and just looks at Tor with a smile on her face.

"Besides all in the past, right…" Roberta just as was about to walk away, Tor instantly grabbed her hand and pulled her in for a hug. Holding her tight in his arms.

"Ro, please don't tell me. You still blame yourself for what happened all those years ago. She came back to us."

"B-but Tor…" Roberta starts shedding tears as she speaks. "She doesn't even know that she lost three years of her life."

Tears still came running down her cheeks, as well for Tor since he finally starts shedding tears.

During their parent's reunions together, the siblings were just taking a small stroll in the kingdom town's square. Where the festival was being held, many of the citizens were still setting up booths, tables, and a small stage where musicians would be playing. From even looking at all the fun activities they could still do, before the festival started.

"Wow, this has to be one of the best events for everyone everywhere. I can't wait for it to start. The night sky is going to be filled with wishing stars tonight." Marilyn cheers with glee.

"Yeah, even back in Meridell. Everyone was so excited about tonight."

"Oh yeah, so how are things in Meridell, Eric?"

"Well, the same as always."

"Then what about your knight training?"

"That...I don't wish to talk about it."

"Oh, how come?"

"Then how is your magic lesson going along?"

"Umm, I don't want to either."

They both stop and sigh at the same time, easily knowing that both of their training is not going well for one another.

"I just don't want to be locked up in the library all day." Marilyn pouts.

"Oh please, I would rather do that, than run around with a heavy suit of armor all-day."

As the siblings vent to one another, they both shared a laugh on how their situations were so similar.

"I guess you and I are stuck in the same boat."

"Yeah, we are…"Unless we tell both mother and father that we don't want to be a knight or sorceress. Or the other way around." Marilyn grabs Eric's hands, filling excitement for her idea.

"Wait what?" Eric was confused as his sister grabs his hands and starts jumping up and down.

"We can tell both mother and father that we want to switch places!"

"Switch places? What a minute, who said anything about me wanting to be a sorcerer ?" Eric pulls his hands away from Marilyn and folds his arms together.

"Oh come now, Eric. I know you want to study magic. I have seen all those spellbooks in your room back in Meridell."

"W-what? You have?! How many times have I told you to not snoop in my things, Marilyn."

"I wouldn't call it snooping since the books were out in the open on your desk."

Eric sighs "Fine, yes I do want to study magic more than anything. I'm not fit to be a knight."

"And I'm not fit for magic. I can barely remember all the motes."

"But we can't just tell them that we want to make a switch, what if it hurts them."

"Eric, it will hurt them more if they find out that we're just doing for their sake. We can make our choices."

"But I'm just scared what the look on father will make if we do tell him." Eric squeals thinking how frightening their father will react.

"Oh please, mother is much more frightening than father when she gets mad. So do you want to be able to swing a wand then sword any time soon?" Marilyn pouts as she folds her arms together.

"Well I…." Before Eric could finish his sentence, he was stopped by the delicious aroma in the air. "Mmm, those omelette smell so good."

Eric was practically drooling when he turned to see a booth selling omelettes. He then ran up to the booth with Marilyn right behind him.

"Hold up Eric, do you have any money? Because I don't."

"Umm… No, but we are nieces and nephews of the king. So maybe the cook could just give it to us for free?" he shrugs.

"Eric, you can't just use our family title to get a free omelette."

"Okay sorry. I didn't plan on us leaving the castle without mother and father."
"Hmm, maybe we can earn some money." Marilyn puts her hands on her hips as she looks around where she stood.

Then few children ran past her and Eric to join in a huge crowd in the center of town. This attracts both Marilyn and Eric's attention, so they walk towards it and manage to slip through the crowd to see what was in the center. There they see a male Kyrii with silver hair and white fur. He was wearing a blue trench coat, along with dark brown pants and cobalt black boots. The Kyrii seems to be some kind of magic show. Lighting two hoops with fire and tossing them up in the air, he takes out his wand using his magic to stop both rings in mid-air and cause them to spin together. Everyone was aw at the trick.

"Now Ladies and Neopets alike, I will be…"

As he announces for the next part of his performance, he looks around at the audience, seeing all their smiles. Then his eyes stop at Marilyn and the very sight of her makes him almost lose control of the flaming rings. He shakes his head to refocus and gather his strength to blast the rings by a beam of light from his wands. Turning the rings of fire into a swarm of butterflies.
They all flutter across the sky, with their beautiful wings shiny by the sun. The coward was amazed by the sight and some of the butterflies fluttered through them, even one landed on Marilyn's finger.

"Wow, it's so beautiful." She looks at it with such wonder in her eye.
"Not as beautiful, milady."

Marilyn looks up to see the Kyrii with a blue rose in his hand. Marilyn blushes as he hands her the rose.

"Oh...Thank you. And your show was so amazing!"

"Heh, you're far too kind. I was so stunned by your…" Before the Kyrii could finish his sentences Eric was just standing in between Marilyn and the Kyrii pouting.

"Okay, the show is over. Let's go, Marilyn." Eric faces his sister and gently pushes her away from Kyrii.

"Come on, Eric. Don't be rude."

"Didn't you say we have to find a way to make money to buy us some omelette."
"Yeah but…"

"I can give you some money for your omelett."

"What…" Eric looks back at the Kyrii.

"Thank you, but we can't just take your money." Marilyn shakes her head refusing the Kyrii's kind offer.

"No need to worry, I'll be happy to. Besides, it's part of a new trick I'm working on."

"Let me guess, you're going to pull a coin out of my ear?" Eric just folded his arms with an unimpressed looked on his face.

"Well not exactly." The Kyrii walks up to Eric and gently puts his hand on Eric's chin. He then pulls his mouth down, revealing a coin right on top of Eric's tongue.

"Ta-da."

Both Marilyn and Eric were surprised, seeing a classic coin trick but with a twist. Eric was just standing there with his tongue sticking out and the coin still on his tongue. He takes the coin off his tongue and looks at it with confusion.

"But how?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets and you better hurry those omelette booths are going to be sold out." He points at the long line at the omelette booth.

"Oh no!" Eric makes a run for it to the booth, passing Marilyn by.

"Eric? Oh never mind." She pouts with her hands folded and turns back around to the Kyrii.

"Thank you and so sorry about my brother."

"No need to worry, he seems like a nice fellow. So I'm guessing you two are here for the Starlight Festival?"

"Yes and my family too. Are you going to perform tonight?"

"Yes, but sadly I won't be since I want to enjoy the festival."

"Well maybe we can see you later tonight?"

"Maybe." The Kyrii gently takes Marilyn's hand and kisses it.

Making her blush again and even playing her pendant around her neck from his gesture. Then Eric comes back with a hot plate of omelette and grabs Marilyn's hand.

"Come on Marilyn, I just horn the castle's horns. We got to go back." He pulls her away.

"Whoa, okay okay. Bye, we'll see you later." She waves goodbye to the Kyrii as she and Eric run back to the castle.

"Farewell. This will be the last time we will ever see each other again ..." He whispers to himself as waves back and sighs while watching them run towards the castle. Then he looks down to see a little blue pendant on the ground and picks it up. It was the same pendent Marilyn was wearing.

He picks it up believing it must have fallen off from her tunic. He smiles, "Or maybe just I will get to see you one last time."

Back at the castle, Marilyn and Eric stuck back into her room from the balcony.

As Marilyn tries to pull her brother back up. "Eric, why are you so heavy?"

"Hey, I'm just a big bone."

Marilyn rolls her eyes when finally pulling Eric up, all his weight causes both of them to fall on the floor.

"Big bones, you say?" Marilyn looks at her brother as he shrugs at her.

Just as they were getting up from the floor, there were two pairs of feet in front of them, which belonged to their parents. Looking down at them with their mother, having her hands on her hips and their father's arms folded. They had a look of pure amusement at their children, seeing how they could try to sneak back inside the castle.

"What are we going to do with two?" Roberta couldn't help hold her composure and start laughing.
"I say we should lock up these bandits for breaking in." Then Tor starts laughing along with Roberta.

Both Marilyn and Eric look at each other as their parents laugh at them, but it wasn't long for them to laugh as well. After their small family reunion, they made their way to the throne room to meet King Hagan, a green male Skeith and the King of Brightvale.

He is the uncle to Roberta and a Great uncle to both Marilyn and Eric. when walking in, they were announced by the servers as King Hagan was sitting at his throne. Both siblings walk up to King Hagan and first bow down, he then gets up from his throne to hug them both.

" Ho, ho, ho. Look at you two. My, my, my, Eric. You grew so much the last time I saw you." He lets go of them and pats Eric's head.

"Thank you, uncle Hagan. I'm very happy to be here to celebrate with you and everyone else." Eric smiles as he rubs the back of his head.

"Me too. I can't wait for shooting stars." Marilyn shouts with glee.

" As am I, my children. And by the looks of it, the sun will go down soon and the night sky will appear for the festival to start." The King points out at the window, seeing the sunset from the horizon.

Once again the two siblings bow and they both walk back towards their parents. After their parents were greeted by the king, they all walked out of the throne room and into the hallway, where they ran into Seradar. An old purple Gelert, a sorcerer who taught Roberta magic back when the Dark Faerie attacked.

"Master Seradar!" Both Marilyn and Eric ran up to the old Gelert and hugged him.

"Why hello Marilyn and Eric. Have you two used some potion to grow so much?"

"No. of course not," Marilyn replies.

"How have you been, Master Seradar?" Roberta walks up to him and she too hugs him.

"I'm well, my dear. I'm very happy to be here with you all for such an amazing event tonight, but first I need to meet with King Hagan."

"Glad to hear. Allow us to walk you there." Tor shanks Seradar's hand and leads him to the throne room.

"Marilyn and Eric, please go on ahead. We'll catch up with you two." Roberta tells them as she follows Tor and Seradar back to the throne room.

"I guess, we can go to the…" Just as Marilyn was about to suggest something, she noticed something wasn't right.

"What is it?" Eric asked.

"Oh it's probably nothing, but I'm going to go back to my room to check on something. Be back in a second." Marilyn quickly runs back to her room before Eric could say anything.

As Marilyn runs back into her room, she first walks up to her vanity table. Looking through each drawer and her jewelry box. She then looks under the table and around the floor looking for something.

"Where is it? I know I had it on when we left the castle earlier." She snatches her head filled with confusion.

Then she hears shouting from outside of her room, she walks out on her balcony to see some of the castle guards running around the garden.

"I wonder what that was about?" As she was about to walk inside, she looked back again to hear someone jumping onto the balcony.

Marilyn was about to scream when the stranger covered her mouth and pulled down on the floor out of sight from the guards. She struggles to break free from the intruder, he hushes her.
"Ssssh, they might hear you."

Marilyn breaks free before she could punch the intruder the light from her room reveals it was the Kyrii from before. He was still on the floor, bracing himself before Marilyn had a chance to hit him.

"Hey, you're the Kyrii from earlier."

"Yes, yes and now please let's go inside." He gets up and pushes Marilyn back inside before any of the guards walked by.

"Okay, but you do know that it's wrong to sneak into a castle."

"Oh I know, however, I was not allowed access back at the front"
"I see but what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to return this." The Kyrii pulls out Marilyn's pendant from his coat and hands it to her.
When Marilyn first saw her pendent, her eyes were filled with sparkles as she took it back and pinned it back on her tunic.

"Thank you so much. I would never forgive myself if I lost this forever."

"Oh really, that pendant must be very important to you."

"It is. This pendant was given to my father and mother by one of the 12 Heroes. It protected them from Dark Faerie's spell. Now they passed it on to me and my brother. In light hoping that the pendant's power would protect us."

" Your parents must be wonderful." Kyrii gives weak smiles from hearing Marilyn's words.

"They are. Oh, would you like to join all of us at the festival?"

"Are you sure? I don't want to intrude."

"No, not all. The more the merrier I say."

Marilyn smiles which made the Kyrii blush, he starts to rub the back of his back and whispers to himself.

"Glad to know you never changed."

Marilyn's ears twitched as she barely heard what the Kyrii said. " What was that?"

"Oh… Um, nothing. I just said to you...reminded me of an old friend of mine." He quickly responded with a face more flushed.

"Do I?"

As the sun sets down and the night sky appears with a bright full moon and shining stars across the sky. Some stars were already raining down, causing the whole kingdom to cheer as the festival was now finally beginning. However, there was one star shining so bright and coming down so fast that it came crashing down onto the castle causing a small earthquake. It landed right in the throne room, it was a somewhat huge boulder with three gems attached to.

After the small earthquake passes, Marilyn runs out of her room hearing the sound of a crash.

"What in Neopia was that?!"

To Be Continued….