It Begins
About 199 years ago all the NeoPets in Neopia were wild. All the Lupes lived
in separate packs hunting weaker NeoPets for food (especially Chias). One of
these Lupes was blue and his name was Rome. He lived with his older sister,
Lunar and his mum and dad. His dad was the leader of the pack. They lived in
a cave near a large forest.
One morning Lunar found him reading an extremely thick book with a brave looking
yellow Lupe on the front.
"Are you reading about Garon
again?" Lunar asked.
"Of course! He's my hero! Someday, I'm going to have great adventures just
like him," Rome replied.
"That's nice but we have to worry about the present," she said like she didn't
care,and she didn't. "We're running low on food in the winter stash and we need
to help Dad get some more."
Rome sighed. "Oh, all right."
He reluctantly followed his sister outside of the den and met up with his dad.
"You guys ready?" his dad asked.
"Yup," Lunar replied.
"I guess so," Rome said.
"I'd expect a bit more enthusiasm from you," Dad said to Rome.
"Well, I figure that by the time I should be hunting for the pack, I'll be
having adventures far away," Rome replied proudly.
Then his dad wittingly replied, "How are you going to get food if you don't
know how to hunt well?"
Lunar cut in, "He's got you there Rome!"
Rome thought for a couple of seconds and then replied, "Well.... I'll eat plants!"
His dad looked at him and said, "Rome, you're one strange boy."
After some brief hunting lessons they split up to find some food. As they went
their separate ways, Dad called out, "I smell some Zafara around here, keep
your eyes peeled."
Rome went into a large forest, not to hunt though, to pretend he was Garon,
having a great adventure. He began to notice that the deeper he went into the
forest, the more he felt like he was being watched. He smelled Zafara as if
it was right next to him, but when he looked over there was nothing but dead
leaves. He noticed one of them was a bit blue in colour and moving a bit, so
he went to pick it up. Rome was surprised when he felt fur and even more surprised
when the leaves started to run away from him!
Out of curiosity he ran after them. They went up a large tree and went on
a high branch. Rome noticed that the leafs were in the shape of a Zafara and
about two seconds after they got to the branch they turned into a blue one!
Rome was kind of freaked out. He had never seen anything like this, but what
freaked him out the most was that he had never read about Garon seeing anything
even similar to this!!!
"I know! It's an alien!" he thought to himself. "Ummm me Lupe name Rome who
you ummmm are you - wait! Let me start over - I mean me start oven - over...
me Rome, you who???" Rome said in "alien talk".
The Zafara stared at him and said, "Whatever, you know, a young Lupe like you
shouldn't be this deep in the woods all alone. Did your pack abandon you or
something?"
Rome looked at her angrily and said, "Of course not! I was just helping my
dad get some food for the pack you mean alien!"
"OK kid, let's get this straight. I'm not an alien, I'm a regular Zafara with
a camouflage ability that you or any of your friends will never have so don't
bother asking about it."
"Well, I need to help my dad get some food for dinner and the stash so I better
go now."
"Let me guess, for the first course you're going to have Zafara, the second
course Cybunny and for the grand third course you're going to have Chia, Chia
and Chia!" she said.
Rome was so angry at her that he could bite her, well, that is if her could
reach her. "We hunt to survive and we certainly don't eat three course meals!"
The Zafara faded away and Rome was still yelling at her.
Behind some trees Lunar and Dad were watching him yell angrily at what appeared
to be nothing.
"Do you think he's gone crazy?" Dad asked.
"Probably that Garon book."
"We should get rid of it."
"Tomorrow morning?"
"Good idea."
His dad cleared his throat. "Rome! There you are! You shouldn't go this deep
into the forest, your mum was worried sick!"
On the way home Lunar asked, "What happened to you? You look like you've just
seen a ghost."
"Maybe I have Lunar, maybe I have."
To be continued... | 
