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Untitled Document
So far, so good. I had resisted the urge to go insane after
six hours of solitary confinement. But I still hadn't come up with a plan, and
Marvin wasn't helping.
As I said before, when I'm bored, I sing. And
so, in six hours, I had covered every song in the Christmas charts (Including
a lot I didn't like), Every song from every album I own, Every Neopian song
I could remember and most of the Christmas carols as well. Currently, I was
hesitantly singing some old folk song in French that I could only remember half
the words to. My French wasn't exactly fluent either.
"Une a rennee, sur la planche, something, something,
something else. Oh, Marvin, this isn't working! I need a plan…"
And then it came to me. The moment I thought
of it I decided I had gone mad. It was the oldest trick in the book. The guards
were sure to have seen it on TV in every old spy movie…
Except that this was Merridell.
They didn't have TV.
They might not know this one.
They might, but…
It was worth a shot.
I groaned loudly, keeling over sideways stiffly.
I paused, and then groaned again.
"All right, first singing, now what?"
"I don't… don't… feel… well…"
"Oh yeah?" The guards were talking through the
crack in the door. There were no little keyholes or anything for them to see
me. I maneuvered myself closer to the entranceway.
"I… really… arghhhh…"
There was some frantic muttering. It seemed
like I was a more valuable prisoner than I thought.
Outside, the two guards (Who for some strange
reason, were named Bob and Dave.) Were arguing.
"She's a Darigan spy, the king'll destroy us
for letting her die!"
"But Dave, what if it's a trap…"
"Oh come on, Bob, that's the oldest trick in
the book."
"But Dave…"
"Be serious! No one in their right mind would
try that."
"BUT Dave…"
"I'm opening the door, Bob…"
"But DAVE…"
The door creaked open. I was lying there, perfectly
still.
"See? What do you think is wrong with her? And
wasn't she a Pteri before?"
"BUT DAVE!!!!!"
"I told you, no one in their right mind would
try the old 'I don't feel so good' ploy…"
"BUT SHE ISN'T IN HER RIGHT MIND! SHE WAS TALKING
TO A PINK ELEPHANTE NAMED MARVIN!"
"Oh…"
I grinned. "Nighty night." And hit him. Rather
hard.
Bob was too petrified and probably, too stupid
to raise the alarm. I was on my feet before he had even reacted, and when he
tried to run I brought him down with a flying rugby tackle. I have brothers,
so I learnt a lot about this stuff.
"Keys?"
He handed them to me. I nodded.
"Throne room?"
He pointed to the key for the throne room door,
and then pointed in the right direction as well. "Vault?"
He shook his head. I frowned.
"Explain?"
"O-o-only the k-k-king can get into the v-v-vault!"
"Okay then. Thank you."
I got up. Bob looked rather relieved. Halfway
to the door, I remembered.
"Oh, sorry." And hit him. He keeled over without
a sound.
Now, from here on it was plain sailing. And
even Marvin couldn't stop me.
"How does this work exactly?"
"It's simple. Our elementary particles have
been rapidly decomposed and replaced with streams of ectoplasm which retain
our shape via some kind of post-mortis integral memory."
"I see." Which was basically four pets telling
big lies.
"Okay, I don't see. But the fact is, I can walk
through walls, and THAT is groovy." Waterlily skipped sideways, through several
tapestries and four feet of stone.
"There are only so many Ghost pets. Lupe's aren't
one of them. That's not groovy." Shadow shrugged. White scowled.
"Hey, I have to be a Shoyru, so don't complain.
We have to find Chrissy."
There was some commotion ahead. They all leapt
sideways, into the walls, and a platoon of Draik guards passed them. The fat
one in front was giving the orders.
"Find the prisoner before she gets to the vault!
Darigan must not get the Orb!"
A few moments after they had passed, Elenna
stuck her head out.
"Good old Chrissy. At least now we know where
she is."
White nodded, quickening his pace. "Lets hurry.
We have to get to that vault soon, or…"
"Or what?"
"CHRISSY!"
I was holding a piece of wood that until recently
had functioned as a chair leg. Now it had several dents in it.
"Thing's didn't quite go to plan, so I had to
improvise. What are you lot doing here?"
"We're trying to stop you…"
"Why? Immacolata, Elenna, Waterlily! Why are
you here when I SPECIFICALLY told you to stay put? That's it, you're all grounded."
"But CHRISSY…"
"Listen." White had taken control of the situation.
"Chrissy, we have to get out of here. NOW."
"Just ten more minutes. I just need to get a
hold of this orb thingy and we can go."
"No, Chrissy, do you have any idea what'll happen
if you steal that thing?"
"Yep. The trick in diplomacy is to hold all
the cards, or at least sound as if you do. And if I get this orb, I hold ALL
the cards. End of war."
"Start of new war…"
"Won't happen. Trust me, I know what I'm doing.
Now will you give me that Ghost potion?"
"No."
"Please?"
"Only if you agree to get out of here."
"Okay."
"Right." Shadow handed her a vial. I drank it
in one, changing into a Ghost Draik.
"Right after I get this orb."
"Oh, Chrissy..."
"Don't worry, I have a plan. Hmm, Draik, groovy.
I could get used to this."
I danced through one wall, tail slithering behind
me. Glancing at each other, the rest of them followed. Finally, things were
going my way.
To be continued...
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