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Also by blubblub317
Ayrauna's mind was spinning for what seemed like eternity.
'Round and round it went, vibrant colours dancing inside of it.
"What's happening?" she cried with her eyes
wide in terror. Never in her life had she felt so dizzy and confused. Abruptly,
though, it stopped, and she fell to a ground of lush green grass. Next to her
sat a trembling Makiki.
"Is that you, 'Rauna?" the Island Gelert asked,
groaning.
"Yeah," she replied hoarsely.
"What in Neopia happened?"
"I don't know." Slowly, she surveyed the area
for any trace of something familiar. Nothing was found. "I really don't know,"
she added in a whispered and anxious tone.
Makiki gulped, wiping a dead leaf from his cheek.
He was so nervous that his heart seemed to be thumping in his throat, and sweat
hastily trickled down his spine. The Gelert slowly leaped up from the soft grass
and began studying his surroundings.
"HELLO?!" Makiki cried in a desperate tone.
There was no reply; only the soft twittering of a Pawkeet flying overhead, and
the two friends could be heard in the still afternoon day.
Ayrauna unhurriedly stood up from the grass
as well and hesitantly cocked her head towards Makiki. "I just don't understand
this," she began with tears slowly welling up in her lively green eyes. "How
did we end up here?"
Makiki heaved a soft sigh. "I don't know. All
I can remember is a terrifying voice speaking to me. Then my mind just went…
blank."
"Terrifying voice?" Ayrauna muttered questioningly.
"Wait a minute, I heard a voice too!"
The two friends exchanged a very long and thoughtful
gaze. Then without warning, the memories began flooding their minds and the
two friends swiftly realized what had happened.
"PANGO PANGO!" they cried in unison.
"Of course! Pango Pango was furious that I had
given him those items that he called "junk". Then he told me I would have to
suffer his consequence! THIS is the consequence!" Makiki rapidly proclaimed.
Ayrauna nodded in agreement. "It all makes sense
now!" she exclaimed, "Pango Pango was mad at me as well because I had given
you the items. So now we both get the consequence! And look where we are right
now. In some secret jungle where we don't even know how to get out!"
Makiki listened intently to Ayrauna while she
explained why she had landed in the jungle as well. When Ayrauna spoke the last
two sentences, a feeling of shame immediately overtook Makiki's once frightened
emotion.
The Gelert looked down at the effervescent grass
and mumbled, "I'm sorry, Ayrauna. This is all my fault. I was the one who took
your backpack and dumped it into the Cooking Pot. I was the one who got Pango
Pango furious. And I was the one who got us stuck in this entire mess."
The Gelert timidly looked up at the Ayrauna.
A tear slowly made its way down his left check. The Zafara stared at the poor
Gelert with a look of sympathy spreading over her features.
He must feel really bad right now, she
thought to herself.
"It's okay," Ayrauna said softly as she snuffled
back the rest of the tears that would've fallen.
"No, it's not," he murmured in reply. He shed
another tear. Ayrauna bit her lip, unsure of what to say next. She simply sighed,
surveying the area once again. It had not changed at all.
"We should start looking around for something
we recognize," the Zafara finally proclaimed.
Makiki nodded slowly. "Yeah… l-let's go," he
stammered. He shuffled toward the right and Ayrauna followed him.
The forest all looked the same; large, tropical
trees, all bearing sweet-looking fruits, Pawkeets and the occasional Weewoo
fluttering overhead, and various sorts of stubby green bushes.
"We'll never find our way out of here," Makiki
finally groaned, sinking dejectedly to the ground. "Makiki!" Ayrauna exclaimed
in a loud sort of matter, "We can't keep going on like this! Either we find
a way out or sit here and cry!"
"BUT HOW CAN WE FIND OUR WAY OUT?!" the Gelert
yelled angrily.
Ayrauna was strongly taken aback by Makiki's
sudden outburst. Makiki looked quite taken aback himself.
"I-I'm r-really sorry, Ayrauna," The Gelert
stammered, ashamed of his previous action. "I'm j-just s-scared t-that we'll
n-never find our way out of here."
"Don't worry, Makiki," Ayrauna whispered ever
so softly, "we'll find our way out."
All of a sudden, a smile slowly spread across
the blue Zafara's face. Makiki caught the smile and let a grin escape his lips
as well. Soon, the two friends were beaming and laughing with tears streaking
their faces for no apparent reason. It was a grand mix of emotions that were
churning inside the friend's stomachs and there was no way the two could put
an end to it unless their emotions decided to do so.
A matter of minutes quickly passed by and the
friends had grown aware, once again, that they were lost in a mysterious jungle
and they desperately needed to find a way out or else - the two friends couldn't
even think about the petrifying thought.
As before, Makiki and Ayrauna began walking
down a dirt-strewn path with the hefty, tropical trees towering over them and
giving them the impression that they were minuscule critters. However, this
walk was different, for Ayrauna could feel that someone was following them.
The eye could not hand over the proof. Instead, it was a gut feeling that she
knew she had to respond to.
Without warning, Ayrauna stuck out her paw in
front of Makiki and whispered, "Shhh. I think someone's following us."
Makiki retorted exasperatedly, "Following us?!
Ayrauna, I'm sure, and I'm 100% positive, that no one is following us! The only
thing I've heard during this stupid walk is our feet crunching the plants and
the calls of whatever creatures live here."
The gut feeling that Ayrauna had once taken
in silently flew away like a wisp of smoke.
"You're right, Makiki," the Zafara said. "It
was dumb for me to believe such a silly thing."
CRUNCH!
Makiki instantly shot Ayrauna a gaze of fret.
"What was that?" he asked, his eyes growing wider by the second.
"I don't know," Ayrauna whispered, her quivering
voice carrying a heavy frightened tone.
All of a sudden, a dark shadow began towering
over the frightened companions. The sounds of crunches were growing louder and
louder.
Makiki's eyes were twice their normal size and
Ayrauna was now drenched in, scared stiff as the mysterious creature approached
them.
Ayrauna let out the words that she had been
dying to shout ever since she had established the dreadful gut feeling, "Makiki…
RUN!!!!"
The two burst away, panting heavily. They swerved
between trees, bushes, fallen branches and other obstacles. They were holding
each other's paws tightly, and both of their hearts' were thumping wildly. They
ran for a lenghthy time, but finally Makiki collapsed in exhaustion.
"C'mon!" Ayrauna yelped, shaking her friend
violently.
"I… can't… go… on…" he moaned. "Go… on… without…
me. Save… yourself…"
He gasped for air. Ayrauna gulped, tears rolling
down her cheeks. She couldn't abandon Makiki, no matter what. She slid to the
ground, cradling his head in her paws. She heard the sound of footsteps not
too far in the distance. The Zafara sniffled, letting out a long, scared groan.
Suddenly, she felt a lanky paw grab her shoulder.
She froze.
"Are you real?" a voice panted from behind her.
Ayrauna still did not budge. This voice was
not fierce or threatening, as she had expected. It sounded tired, raspy and
soft… almost childlike in tone.
"Are you real?" it repeated.
Apprehensively, Ayrauna turned her head around.
She discovered a gaunt, yellow Wocky, its fur matted, greasy and wild. It had
a large scar stretching across its right cheek, and its teeth were worn and
yellow.
"We are real," Ayrauna whispered.
The Wocky broke out in a weak grin. "Have you
come to rescue me?" It asked.
"No," Ayrauna gulped. "My friend Makiki and
I were somehow transported here. D-do you know how to get out?"
The grin immediately faded. "The same thing
happened to me a while back," the Wocky murmured, trembling.
Ayrauna's eyes grew wide, and she bit her lip.
"How long have you been trapped here?" she inquired feebly.
The Wocky titled its head, thinking for a good
moment or two. "About seven months," it finally declared.
Ayrauna's eyes shot around the jungle area surrounding.
Seven months in the wild? This seemed like a joke, yet deep in her heart, she
knew it wasn't.
"What's your name?" the Zafara simply asked,
shifting her hold on Makiki.
"Carren," the Wocky stated. "And you are…?"
"Ayrauna," Ayrauna replied. "A-and as I already
said, this is Makiki."
Carren nodded slightly. "How'd you get here?"
she asked.
"Pango Pango g-got angry because of an offering
Makiki made. I was the one who originally owned the items, so well, when he
took Makiki, I came as well." She chuckled timidly.
Carren nodded again. "I see."
Suddenly Makiki let out a lengthy, worn-out
groan. His eyes slowly opened, and he stared up at Ayrauna. "What happened?"
he murmured.
"Nothing," Ayrauna whispered, "just go back
to bed."
"Come on," Carren began, "I'll lead you to my
home. You and your friend can stay there with me."
Ayrauna let out a small grin. She was grateful
that Makiki and her had found shelter. Plus, if Carren had been living in the
jungle for seven months, that meant she knew where the food and the water were
as well.
Carren shuffled to Ayrauna's left side and began
marching down a crammed path. The exquisite plants and tropical trees stole
every inch of space that Ayrauna and Carren could spot. Ayrauna tripped many
times during the walk for Makiki was very heavy to carry. Her back was beginning
to sore and bruise from all the pressure that had pushed down on it. Luckily,
Carren's shelter wasn't too far off from where they had met. Minutes later,
the trio arrived at a dark, grimy cave which was certainly not a habitat where
three pets could live in. However, it would have to do. "Why don't you two get
settled in?" Carren proposed. "I'll go fetch some wood for a fire."
Ayrauna silently nodded. When Carren had left
the area, she exhaustingly plopped down on the ground and slid Makiki off her
raw and painful back. She gazed at her large surroundings. Never would she have
imagined that she would be living in such a filthy shelter and that she might
never see her family and classmates again. The excruciating thought sent tears
flowing down her beat-up cheeks.
Carren shortly arrived with a bundle of large,
wooden sticks. She walked into the cave, showing them off to the Ayrauna.
The Wocky glanced down at the Zafara and proposed
another idea, "Why don't you sleep along with Makiki. I'll wake you two up when
it's time for supper. The fire will be burning outside."
Ayrauna bobbed her head up and down, too lazy
to even show emotions. Carren strode back outside.
Exhausted by all the days' grueling events,
Ayrauna finally collapsed onto the cold, prickly ground and fell off into a
deep and dark slumber.
To be continued...
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