"OW!" exclaimed Midnight. "What the!?!"
"Huh?" said the voice that was coming from on top of her. "You're not a ghost
or spirit! They don't go 'Ow'!!"
"No, I'm not a ghost or spirit!!" Midnight said in an angry tone. "Now get
off from on top of me, whatever you are!"
The thing then got off of her. When she got up and turned around, there was
a yellow Shoyru standing.
"I'm sorry!" said the Shoyru. "I didn't know NeoPets lived here, besides me!
And you're almost impossible to see in the dark, because you're Shadowed! I'm
Ace."
"It's all right," said Midnight with her voice calmed down. "You didn't know.
And I don't blame you in these parts, really. My name's Midnight." Then from
behind Midnight, the Sword lit up from under some leaves. She walked over to
it and picked it up. Ace stared at the Sword in amazement.
"Is that," he started to say slowly, "is that what I think it is?"
"What do you think it is?" said Midnight as she glanced at the Sword.
"I think... it's the Ancient Sword!! But it can't be!"
"You... know about it?"
"As a matter of fact, yes! That Sword!! Why do you have it? It should be under
the Tree!!" Ace looked at her very strangely, being able to see her finally
with the help of the glowing Sword.
"I can't believe you know about this Sword! I thought nobody knew except my
sisters, brother and me!! How do you know about it?" Midnight returned the strange
look and took a step back.
"I... I can't tell you."
"Why not?"
"I don't know who you are or anything, but I don't work for Leon. I'm not
on their side at all!"
"You know who Leon is too!! Hmm... to be honest with you, I don't know if I
can trust you or not."
"Well I feel the same way about you!"
"What's going on?" came a voice from behind Midnight. It was Misty. "Who are
you talking to, Midnight?"
"A Shoyru named Ace," Midnight said as she glanced back at Misty, but she
quickly returned her look to Ace.
"Who's that?" Ace asked.
"That's my sister, Misty," Midnight said. "But I wanna know who you are! How
do you know about the Sword and Leon?"
Ace sighed and looked at the glowing Sword hard. He then looked at Midnight
in the eyes.
"I'm a guardian," he said at last.
"Guardian?" said Midnight almost to herself. "Guardian of what, then?"
"Of the... cave."
"What are you talking about?"
"I was put here to guard a cave not too far from here. I don't know why I
must. I was teleported to this strange planet to guard the cave. You see, this
lion appeared in front of me in a dream. I don't remember anything he said or
anything that happened in the dream, except about me coming to this planet to
guard this cave, and make sure no travelers enter. I woke up after he said that,
and thought it was just a dream. Then, when I fell asleep in my warm bed again.
Sorry, I really can tell you no more. I really miss my owner. I've been here
for weeks!"
While Ace was telling Midnight all this, Misty's ears seemed to perk up, and
she came up beside Midnight. Misty stared at him strangely.
"Well, we have to enter this cave you're talking about," Midnight said. "We
have absolutely no choice. We have to!"
"I know my job, and I know I can't let you in that cave. Sorry, but it's out
of the question!"
"Listen, Ace, you have no idea why we even have to go in that cave. So don't
try to stop us, OK?"
"You're right, I don't know why you want in there! It's not the way to the
gold Tree! The cave leads to a dead end!"
"Listen, we're going in that cave. And that's final!"
And at that, Midnight turned around and walked back to where they were resting.
Misty looked at Ace and saw that he looked very troubled. She jumped up and
slowly followed Midnight.
When they finally made it back, Misty quickly went back to where she was sleeping,
not saying a word to Midnight. Midnight was this time standing up with the Sword
in hand. She didn't dare to sit down, afraid she may fall asleep again.
At the crack of dawn...
"Wake up, guys!" Midnight went to each of her siblings and shook them to wake
them up. "C'mon, we're off to the cave!"
Shane yawned. "But it's the crack of don!" he said as he rubbed his eye. "Why
so early?"
"Someone's trying to keep us out of the cave," said Midnight as she looked
down at the Sword that was in her paw. "Ask Misty, she'll tell you what happened."
As they walked, Misty explained to them what happened, and everything that
Ace had said. Midnight said nothing about it.
Before long at all, they finally came to the cave. There were two very large
rocks that were leaned up against a large hill. Together, they formed a hole
that went inside the large hill. Looking in this hole, they could see nothing
at all but darkness.
"We're finally here!" said Shane aloud.
"Sshh! Quiet!" whispered Midnight as she turned around to look at Shane. "We
don't want Ace to know we're here!"
"Midnight..." Misty said as she looked down at the necklace around her neck,
"there's something I need to tell you about Ace."
"NO!" came Ace's voice from behind a tree. He jumped out, and then jumped
in front of Midnight, blocking the entrance to the cave. "I will NOT let you
in here!"
"How do you plan on stopping us, then?" said Midnight. She grinned as she
leaned up against her Sword. "It's four against one! There's no way you can
stop us!"
"I'll do what I have to!!" exclaimed Ace. "I refuse to let you get by!!"
Ace tripped Midnight with his tail, and as she fell, he grabbed the Sword.
Before Midnight realised what hit her, he jumped in the air and kicked her in
the head. Jen and Shane took flight. Shane flew at a super high speed, and quickly
grabbed the Sword from Ace, and at the exact same time he did that, Jen tackled
Ace, and he flew through the air a bit and hit the ground.
Misty just watched, occasionally glancing down at the Gold Leaf necklace. Midnight
jumped up, and Shane gave her the Sword.
"Had enough yet?" she said as she looked down at Ace on the ground. He sat
up.
"I'm only doing what I was told to do," he said slowly. "For all you know,
I could be saving you from something inside that cave!"
Just then, they heard a laughter coming out of nowhere. The NeoPets froze
and listened.
"It's Blaze and Daze!" shouted Misty. "Let's get out of here!! I mean, I know
you all must be scared... I could stop them, but I need to go with you to protect
you."
"You can't escape!!" came Blaze's voice, again out of nowhere.
Then they both came running up to the five NeoPets from the forest. Midnight
got in front of everybody and held her Sword out. They were still pretty far
away, but running at great speed. Ace jumped up. "We can't run from them, they're
too fast!" he said to Midnight. "And we can't fight them, either! Far too strong!"
"He's right," said Jen. "Remember all the abilities they have?? We can't even
fight them with the weapons the Lupes gave us! We have to think of something
else!!"
"They may lose sight of us in the CAVE," Midnight said as she grinned at Ace.
"No time to plan anything, fools!" said Jen. "Just run for the cave, NOW!"
Shane grabbed Ace's wing and rushed him into the cave along with everyone
else.
"Ow!! Let go!!!" exclaimed Ace.
"Do you want to become a fire Shoyru?!" said Shane as he pulled Ace's poor
wing. "Because you will be one, if you stay out there!!"
To be continued... | 
