Dark Passages by lotr_luvr_2002 |  |
"No, no, don't take them! Leave them! Take me
instead! Noooo!"
I woke up at once. I was sweating heavily, pale,
and very cold. Something had been trying to hurt my beloved pets, but who?
All I remembered were two dark shapes. One was very large, and terrifying. The
other was smaller, but just as scary. What could they be?
My thoughts were interrupted by my door opening.
In came my four pets. Legolas_Greenleaf_10, whose nickname was Legolas, was
in the lead. He is a blue Lupe, and the oldest of the group. Arwen_Rosy_10,
whom we called Arwen, was 2nd. She is a red Poogle, and 2nd oldest. Arawathiel,
a Christmas Kougra, is 3rd oldest, and 3rd in line. Astaldohithion, whom we
called Astaldo, was last, and also the youngest. He is a green Shoyru.
All of them gathered around my bed, and jumped
onto it. They began squeezing the life out of me, which was what they called
"hugs". After I made it out of their tight embraces, I said, "Good morning,
you all. Why are you guys in such good moods?" I suspected there was a reason,
since in the morning they were usually very grumpy. But they kept up their innocent,
loving act.
After a while I got them off of me, and went
to the kitchen of my NeoHome to make breakfast... but it was already there.
I looked back at them. They were all wearing very big smiles. I smiled back,
and began my breakfast. It consisted of burnt french toast, undercooked scrambled
eggs, pancakes made of an unknown substance, and some extremely sour orange
juice. They stood around me, expecting me to eat it, so I did. It took all of
my energy not to gag, but I got through it.
"How did you like it?!" "Isn't it delicious?"
"I knew you'd like it!" "I made the eggs!" I was at once taken over by exclamations
from my Neopets. All I did was smile, though, and say, "Why are you doing this?"
At that, they all looked at each other. Legolas stepped forward and replied,
"Umm… well, Ali... we were wondering... if... if you could take us to the Art
Center in Neopia Central."
I sighed, because Neopia Central was so far
from our home in Faerieland, where we lived on a cloud. But since they had tried
to be so sweet and good to me, I gave in. "Okay," I said. "But we have to stay
together, all right?" My pets cheered at my reply, and got ready to go at once.
They all loved to go to the underground Art Center and explore the passages.
I worried quite often over them, though, because not all of the passages there
have been found... and who knows what was lurking down there…
***
We arrived in Neopia a few hours later, after traveling by a magic car, a
kind Faerie was nice enough to lend me. I led my pets down into the dimness
of the Art Center, and we made our way down a dark corridor. We emerged into
a large room, in which we usually made our plans for where we would go that
day.
"I wanna go down this passage!" Astaldo cried,
pointing a claw into the darkest passage of them all, which happened to go downhill.
I was a bit skeptical about this one, since we had never gone down it before,
but all of my other pets wanted to go down it as well, so I decided it would
be okay if we stayed together.
We descended down the narrow passage in line.
I was in front, Astaldo was behind me, Arawathiel was behind him, Rosy was behind
her, and Legolas was last in line, since he was the oldest pet. The passage
was very dark, and smelled of rot. I wrinkled my nose as I came to smell it,
and wished we had chosen a better-smelling passage. However, my pets were very
excited to be coming down this one, since it was the most forbidden-looking
passage of all.
"Go faster!" Legolas called to me. I was moving
very slow, so that I would not step into anything unpleasant. I began to move
a bit quicker, and my pets grew happier. My back began to ache from being bent
over because of the short height of the passage. It didn't bother my pets, though,
because they were all much shorter than me. I moved faster, thinking that the
sooner we reached a big cavern, the sooner I could stand up straight.
My pets told me to go faster, so I told them,
"This is the fastest I can--" but I was cut off. I was starting to fall down
into a hole. I heard each of my pets let out a shout as they fell above me.
I was gathering speed as I fell, and wondered how far underground this hole
would go. I heard my pets yell for me, but I hit a floor, and everything went
dark.
***
I awoke to chains rattling. I opened my eyes. I was in a dimly lit room, which
was dank and smelled foul. I could make out the forms of my pets around me.
Each was bound with chains around their feet and paws. However, I was unchained.
I found this very strange.
A deep voice started to talk. It was quite far
away, yet I could still hear it clearly, since it was very loud. "Mwahahaha...
last time using those stupid Grundos didn't work… this time I will rule all
of Neopia! Mwahahaha!" He was interrupted, however, by an ear-splitting sound.
Even now, I cannot describe what it sounded like; it was so horrible.
"Yes… yes… you will rule as well, Monoceraptor,"
he replied. My heart stopped. It was Sloth and the Monoceraptor. Alone these
things are very stupid, but together... I couldn't bare to think what would
happen. Dr. Sloth can be very stupid, but if teamed up with someone like the
Monoceraptor, he could be very dangerous.
I began to grow more observant of my surroundings.
Not only my pets were lying around me, chained up. Many more Neopets were chained
as well. All of them were knocked out cold, as mine were. But I was the only
human there.
"Now where did I put that manual…" Sloth said
more quietly. It seemed he was using something not made by him, for a change.
It was actually quite smart of him. Everything he creates turns out going very
wrong. Again, the ear-splitting noise rang in my ears. The Monoceraptor seemed
to be speaking to Sloth.
"Ah, thank you, Mr. Raptor," he replied. I wanted
to see what they were doing, so I slowly crawled to a doorway which stood open.
I stayed beside it and peeked my head in. It was a very large room, with a high
ceiling. The Monoceraptor was on one side of the room, just sitting there. Sloth
was running about, checking things.
There was a very large machine in a corner.
It was silver, and had buttons on a panel on one side of it. There was a door
into this machine, which I supposed the Neopets would go into. Sloth stopped
running about, and began to read the instructions aloud.
"Put being into mutator. Go to side panel, and
press buttons 1-4-3-7 for mutation, or buttons 1-4-6-7 for un-mutation. Press
Mutate button when satisfied." Sloth read, and looked at the button panel. "Hmm…
now... if I mutate the Neopets, it says here that they will be under my command…
uh oh... where did I put that remote control?"
A screeching noise met my ears again, and Sloth
went over to the table. He picked up some papers, revealing the remote control.
"Now, if I use this, they will be under my complete control…" he said, and began
to laugh.
At this point, I was terrified out of my mind.
What could I do? There didn't seem to be anything I could do to free
the pets. Sloth was almost ready, and I didn't even have a key, let alone the
knowledge of how to get out of there. I began to sweat heavily, and my breath
came in short spurts. Then another thought came to my mind. What was he going
to do with me?
I was so busy in my thoughts that I made more
noise than was necessary. Sloth turned, and saw me. He began to smile evilly.
"Hello, Ali... feeling better?" he asked. I just stared at him, unable to speak.
How did he know my name? "Ah, well, be that way, then. I bet you're wondering
why you are here, aren't you?" This time I managed to nod.
"Well, I'll tell you. I have heard a lot about
you, Ali. You are very famous around Neopia, you know -- especially for your
genius. Well, I need your help. If you are willing to help me, you may rule
Neopia with the Monoceraptor and I. If you are not… well, you are gone," he
laughed a bit, and looked at me again. "So, what is it?" I didn't know what
to do.
I looked back towards my pets. I loved them
dearly, as I'm sure other owners loved the pets that were also in that room.
I couldn't let them be mutated to help Sloth and the Monoceraptor take over
Neopia. I just couldn't. A light seemed to appear beside me, and I looked towards
it. A little Faerie was there, looking at me. She looked familiar, but I could
not place her. She flew towards my ear and began to whisper to me.
"Don't do it..." I gave her a look saying that
I would not. She smiled, and said, "Good. Now, listen... I will give you some
magic -- just enough to assist you in getting these pets out, and away from
here. I cannot think of how to move them, but I am sure you can. Stall Sloth,
and get them out. I will be waiting…" and with that, she touched my arm. The
spot she touched began to glow with a purple light, and it went into me. I had
magic. She gave my one last encouraging look, and left.
I had more courage now, and I was actually able
to think straight. I had to come up with something to stall Sloth and the Monoceraptor.
"Tell me more about how you need my help," I said to Sloth. He began to speak,
but I did not really hear. I was thinking of what to do. How could I stall both
Sloth and the Monoceraptor? An idea came to me.
When Sloth had his back turned, looking at the
machine and speaking to me at the same time, I looked towards the Monoceraptor.
He was looking at Sloth. I looked around quickly, looking for an exit from this
place. The hole, which we must have fallen from was just above the Monoceraptor.
If I could distract both of them and somehow get all the pets together, I could
get through that and leave. But how could I get up there?
I felt a fluttering. I looked at my back, where
I saw wings!! I had grown wings! Now this would work. I whispered a bit of a
spell I made up quickly in my mind, and all of the pets were in a large, feather-light
bag, unchained. I picked up the bag, and placed it beside me, where Sloth and
the Monoceraptor couldn't see it if they looked my way.
My hands began to burn slightly. I shot some
fire onto the stomach of the Monoceraptor, who began to howl madly. I grabbed
the bag, and flew towards the hole. Sloth had been distracted for a moment by
the fire, but regained his wits as he saw me flying. He started to grab for
me. He caught my foot. I panicked, and began to tug wildly. It was with no prevail,
though. He was much stronger. After a moment, I remembered I has magic, and
I laughed. How stupid I was being! I shot a little more fire towards Sloth,
and he immediately let go. I flew up into the hole, and shot through the passage.
I didn't slow down until I was in Neopia Central.
But there, I did not even stop. I flew up to
Faerieland, and stopped in front of the Palace. I set down the bag and let the
pets out. The Faerie I had seen in the cavern appeared there, and transformed
into Fyora, the Faerie Queen! My jaw dropped. Fyora smiled, and said, "Wonderful
job, Ali. I couldn't have done better myself." My cheeks reddened, and I managed
to get out, "Thank you.."
Fyora smiled again, but began to talk more seriously.
"Now, I got all of the faeries together. Now we must go and defeat Sloth and
the Monoceraptor." I nodded, and followed her into the palace. Hundreds of faeries
were there, each ready to battle. Fyora began to speak to them.
"This is Ali. She saved the Neopets from the
clutches of evil Dr. Sloth and the dreaded Monoceraptor." Applause surrounded
me, and my cheeks reddened some more. Fyora went on. "However, they are not
defeated yet. I called you all here because we need to finish them. Ali got
the Neopets out of the way of danger, and she is also going to assist us in
defeating Sloth and the Monoceraptor. Is everyone with me?"
An uproar of "Yes!" began, and Fyora smiled.
She motioned for me to come to her, and I did. She grabbed my hand, and we were
at once in the room all the Neopets had been chained in. All the Faeries were
with us. They paraded into the next cavern, which Sloth and the Monoceraptor
were still in, moping. When they saw us, they are once got ready to battle.
However, we were much quicker, and had them chained up before you could say
"Borovan!"
We flew the cage to Mystery Island, and into
the volcano. They were put into a magical, high-security prison. They were each
put into different cells, which were covered in many charms and spells, which
could only be broken by the Faerie Queen. Everything was okay now.
***
It has now been a few months since that adventure. I bet you're wondering
what happened after that. Well, I got a reward for saving the Neopets, and for
helping to defeat Sloth and the Monoceraptor. I was made into a Faerie! Yep,
a real Faerie! I am now Alexandra, the Earth Faerie. My pets all live with me
in a cloud Forest up in Faerieland.
Sloth and the Monoceraptor are still locked
up in their prison, and very unhappy. Besides them, everyone is happy. The other
owners got their beloved pets back, and now there are 2 less monsters to worry
about. Everything is okay... for now.
The End
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