“This is a-awful!” said Isfet. She was near tears. “Sakhmet…it’s almost completely
gone!”
Most of the wall had been destroyed and the ruins of several tents lay ripped
on the sand. Isfet sniffled. Lance and Emila just stared. From the descriptions
that Isfet had given us we hadn’t expected it to be so bad. Isfet was sobbing
now. She had come across some Lost Desert food.
“This was m-my favourite,” she sobbed. “Oh, I loved this. Oh, it's Peopatra’s
tent. All those p-poor little P-PetPets!” She caught her reflection in a puddle
or mud. The volume of her crying doubled.
“Snap out of it!” Lance said sharply.
“B-But it's all so saaad!” she wailed. SMACK! Lance had slapped her
out of it.
“I know it’s sad,” he said. “But if we get caught it’ll be much worse because
then we won t even be able to help.”
“Yeah, ok,” said Isfet sulkily. Suddenly we heard a shout.
“YOU NUMSKULL! I TOLD YOU TO LET NO ONE IN!!!”
“That must be Dr. Sloth,” Emila whispered.
“Quick! Hide under that tent!”
“We dove underneath Peopatra’s ruined tent.
“WHO WERE THEY?!” Sloth rumbled.
“Uhh…let’s see…there was a um…Wocky named…uh…Isfet….an Aisha named...er…Emila….the
Lance Faerie…and this girl…and they….I forgot!” The Grundo scratched his head.
“YOU FOOL! GO Sloth CLONES! FIND THEM!”
At this several Sloth clones stopped fighting and spread throughout the city.
The Grundo followed them hoping to be of some help.
“That Faerie sounds dangerous,” said one clone.
“What kind of Faerie was she?”
“She was all furry and white,” said the Grundo.
“And she was called the Lance Faerie.”
Emila started laughing and Isfet joined her. Lance covered their mouths. I
couldn’t blame them. The look on Lance’s face at being called both a Faerie
and a girl was extremely amusing. The Sloth clone turned sharply at their laughter.
“You wouldn’t happen to have any magic that could help us here, would you?”
whispered Isfet.
“I’m not sure,” I whispered back.
“Not sure?! How can you be not sure?!” she whispered frantically. I could see
that she’d be screeching soon.
“Calm down,” I said. “We’ll think of something," I added to myself, I
hope so.
The Sloth clone came nearer and nearer until…. “I think it came from under
here.” He slowly began lifting up the tattered tent. Please let him stop,
Please let him stop, I thought.
"Aha!” he shouted. We just stood there.
“I have a plan,” mumbled Lance so that only we could hear him. “Play along.”
“Who are you?” demanded the Sloth clone.
Lance drew himself up. “I am the Lance Faerie.” He pointed to me. “This is
my Cybunny comrade.” He motioned to Isfet. “This is my chief of guard.”
“And this,” he said as he turned to Emila. “Is my hideous mutant slave.” How
he could keep a straight face was beyond me. “Do you dare challenge my magical
abilities?!" he demanded of the clone. The Sloth clone rolled his eyes and walked
away.
“WHO WERE THEY?” Sloth’s voice boomed. “A delirious Cybunny and couple of his
friends,” replied the Sloth clone. “Shall I throw them out of the city? “NO.
LEAVE THEM. THEY MAY PROVE TO BE QUITE AMUSING.”
***
We were still in Sakhmet. Things had gone from bad to worse for the NeoPets
fighting Dr. Sloth. As we watched the city walls (what was left of them anyway)
we fewer of the Grundo Commanders and more of the Sloth clones.
“This is depressing, said Emila shaking her head sadly.”There are too many
clones and too few NeoPets that are strong enough to beat them.”
“There is no hope for Sakhmet,” said Isfet, tears in her eyes.
“Yes, there is,” said Lance. “Neopia will not be beaten. If only we could help…”
He sighed.
“Maybe…we can,” I said.
“What do you mean?” asked Emila. “There has to be something we can do,” I
replied. Soon there was nothing but Sloth clones left.
“Soon they’ll all be gone,” said Lance triumphantly.
“They’ll get the Sloth clones and then Sloth will have to surrender!” said
Emila smiling.
“Sakhmet will be saved!” cried Isfet joyfully. I smiled with them. I just couldn’t
bring myself to tell them that it probably wouldn’t be that easy. We heard someone
shouting behind us.
“It s Sloth,” I said. “But I can’t make out what he’s saying,”
“Maybe he’s surrendering, said Isfet hopefully.
“I don’t know,” I said. “It seems too easy.” Suddenly, a huge shadow loomed
across the sand.
“BEHOLD,” called out Sloth. “THE ROCK MONSTER!”
We looked up at the monster. It was huge and every bit of it was rock. It roared
like mad, rabid beast. All the NeoPets who had been fighting the Sloth clones
stopped and started to attack the rock monster. It was horrible. Most of them
could barely get a hit in before the monster tossed them a hundred feet in the
air.
“Those poor things!” said Isfet bursting into tears. Lance was pacing back
and forth.
“Calm down, Lance,” said Emila. “There’s nothing you can do.” Lance made an
impatient noise.
“Lance,” she said.
“I know, I know,” he said.
We watched the rock monster get a tiny bit weaker every time a NeoPet managed
to hit it before they were knocked out.
“Maybe.…” I said.
Finally we saw three NeoPets, a Lupe, a Usul ,and a Shoyru. They used their
strongest attacks.
“I think they’ve got it!” yelled Emila as the monster stumbled.
“Now!” shouted the Shoyru. They all attacked at once; the Lupe used a water
attack, the Usul used a fire attack, and the Shoyru used a light attack. The
three attacks hit the rock monster all at once it exploded into dust.
“Yes!” shouted Lance.
“Woohoo!” cried Emila.
“Never mess with Neopia!” yelled Isfet tears streaming down her face.
“Sakhmet is saved,” I said.
All around us NeoPets were shouting and laughing. I heard a laugh from above
and looked up. It was Sloth.
“Fools, he muttered.
“We got him,” the Shoyru said wearily.
“Finally,” said the Lupe.
“Look!” said Emila pointing.
We turned. The pieces of the monster were moving.
“WRAAAH!” said the monster as it came back together. Everyone was shocked.
“I don’t believe it,” said Emila.
Isfet was near tears. But Lance…Lance was definitely the worst. His eyes were
huge.
“The…the…Tyrannian…Monoceraptor….
We heard Sloth’s evil laugh from above….
To be continued... |