On the Inside: Part Four by gryphonsong |  |
Thumbtack Stars
"What do you mean the faeries and the Neopets have escaped?" Dr. Sloth bellowed.
"Well, you see, sir, a guard..." Mr. Diddums, Dr. Sloth's secretary Diddler,
stammered nervously as he sped up faster to keep up with Sloth's long-strided,
angry paces.
"Which guard?" Sloth demanded.
"A fire Shoyru name Zownar, sir," Mr. Diddums said quickly.
"Zownar, eh?" Sloth said, stopping for a moment, leaving Mr. Diddums panting
at his heels before he began walking again, causing Mr. Diddums to groan. "Have
the Gelerts hunt for them, tell them to bring back this... This... Zownar, and
give her to me to deal with."
"Yes, yes, of course, sir," Mr. Diddums stuttered and hurried away, leaving
Sloth to ponder about his next move in this game.
"King Triano would like to know of this..." Sloth muttered with a demonic
laugh. "That little pawn is no King... Simply a decoy for all to follow... 'Maybe
he'll come 'round,' they'll think, because he's a sweet fickle petpet..." Sloth
chuckled as he entered the Playroom to "play" with his remaining prisoners.
***
Keeta heaved the large double doors closed behind her, the image of the two
Snowagers settling into their new surroundings imprinted in her mind. The doors
closed with a boom and Keeta was startled out of her thoughts so badly that
she jumped, and she jumped again when Jay called her name softly from behind
her.
"What?" she snapped.
He blinked. "I just wanted to tell you that Fyora wants to see you and Flame
ASAP."
Keeta sighed. "She wants me now?" He nodded. "Okay..." she said and walked
by the startled Air Faerie. She could faintly hear him muttering 'you're welcome'
in a hurt tone. She sighed again. Things just seemed so... Unusual. She was
used to everything being the same, she woke up, got yelled at by her parents
to hurry up to get to school, get to school, get yelled at by teachers and get
taunted by the majority of the student body, come home, get yelled at by her
parents because she was on the computer too much or she had done something else
wrong and then she would go to sleep and start it all over again. All the while,
just hoping for something magical or wondrous to happen, to change her status
in the world. Now that she had it, she was scared to death of it. That's what
always happens, it seems.
"Keeta? Keeta?" Flame's voice echoed in her head for a moment before Keeta
was snapped back into reality.
"Huh? What?" Keeta muttered.
"Fyora's going to see us now. Are you okay?" Flame asked curiously.
"I'm fine, just fine, Flame," Keeta said, blinking her eyes for a moment before
walking after Flame into Fyora's chambers.
"Ah... The Fire Girls..." Fyora chuckled and beckoned them forward. The two
obliged her slowly. "I have something for you both..." She reached back behind
the large throne-like chair she was sitting in and brandished two gleaming swords.
The blades were a swirling pearl-white, silver, and black. The hilts were a
gleaming gold with intricate carvings etched into them and a glistening ruby
embedded in the center. "Ah, but there is more," Fyora said with a smile at
their witless stares. She pulled out the sheaths and belts, they were plain
leather, the sheath held a single sapphire and the belts held strange jewels
that were yellow, purple, black and green.
Keeta took in her breath. "Queen Fyora... They're beautiful! But..."
"But what?" Fyora asked with a warm smile. "They're yours, they will serve
you well. They are the only two Star Swords left on Neopia. You, Keeta, have
the Falling Star. You, Flame, have the Young Star."
"Thank you," Flame said before Keeta could continue. She bowed and Keeta quickly
mimicked.
"You may leave, both of you. I believe LoveChargoun has a plan for us all
to hear," the Queen said just as Chargoun called out for all to assemble.
***
"Dr. Sloth and his armies are already searching for us. Having vanquished
the Light Faerie's decoys." Chargoun nodded to the Uber Light Faerie who gave
a curt nod in return. "We've tracked their movements thanks to NickATours and
FuzzFuzzJubJub." He nodded to the yellow Wocky and purple Jubjub, who nodded
smugly back (well, more like an entire body-roll for Fuzz, who was caught by
Nick before he went tumbling off of his chair). "They're a few miles out of
the Ice Caves and just past Happy Valley, we'll probably find them in the forests
near there.
"We'll split up into two groups. Half of the faeries and soldiers will drive
them to the west from the east, starting near Tyrannia; the rest will come from
the south. The Snowagers will split up, as well, and we will either corner them
in the ocean or pin them to Terror Mountain where we will either destroy them
or force them to surrender. Understood?" The group agreed, and so the plan was
decided.
Storm in a Bottle
Chargoun crouched low in the underbrush with Flame at his side, Walfoulm
at his other. The Snowagers were the signal. When they emerged from the ground,
the attack launched. The soldiers had crouched, unmoving, in the icy forest
for a fortnight, allowing the Snowagers to create two tunnels, not only for
themselves, but as a secret, collapsible retreat route that could go untraced
in case of failure. The enemy had been sighted the entire time, searching the
same area over and over again.
Chargoun dozed after a moment, and silently cursed himself for doing so as
the two Snowagers erupted from underground with an echoing roar. Sloth's army
was taken aback and they were yelling orders to their soldiers. Chargoun did
the same, ordering his fraction of the army to reveal their weapons and press
forward.
They roared forward, a loud, raucous mass pelting forward at a far larger
enemy. Chargoun, an archer, was positioned just within range of the camp and
he began firing with a makeshift bow and arrows. He hadn't even hit a dozen
of Sloth's soldiers when Sloth himself appeared. He laughed sardonically and
threw a strange looking negg in his mouth. In a few moments, Dr. Sloth had grown
to be five times his size, nearly matching the male Snowager's height. "You
foolish renegades! You think that you can beat me? Ha! You may have the guts
to try, but you don't have the skill or luck to win!" Sloth laughed loudly in
the NeoRenegades' faces, causing the entire army to cringe. "I mean, look at
you, you're only half the size of my fraction of my army here!"
That was when Keeta stepped forward, her wings were stretched out gallantly,
her mighty sword held tightly in her palm, cutting into her skin as she squeezed
it in anger. She stood tall and her gaze was fierce. "Well, Sloth, we may not
have luck, but even I have more skill only one of my little toes than you have
in your entire army across Neopia. By the way, Sloth, where's King Triano? Are
you hiding him out of fear of making you look like a weakling to be siding with
a meagre Pepito? Give it up, Sloth, you only used Triano because he could get
rid of a lot of us Neopians just by looking innocent and cute. You have no need
for Triano, do you? You plan on slaughtering him like you have so many other
Neopets and PetPets before him!" She screamed.
Sloth recoiled. "You... You... You little child! How dare you speak to me,
Ruler of Neopia, like that!" He stammered.
Keeta snorted. "Who are you? My father?" She snorted again. "I don't listen
to him when he tells me pathetic things like that, why should I listen to you
when you say it?"
Sloth was shaking now. Without thinking, he grabbed a large, foul-looking
potion from a pile of potions, neggs, weapons and other various items. He uncorked
the liquid and tossed it. He aimed for Keeta, but missed. It hit a blue Lupe,
who just happened to be LoveChargoun, who was running up to defend Keeta, should
the need arise. He collapsed, groaning and moaning, Keeta fleeing quickly to
his side as the NeoRenegades froze and Sloth laughed, his army smirking.
Chargoun struggled to his feet, his feet growing out of proportion, his nails
growing. His fur darkened and some fur on his back stood on end, spikes, and
turned black as pitch. Metal popped up on his back and covered the top of his
head, his ears grew large and his eyes grew increasingly angry. He staggered
forward, gaining his balance, he launched himself at Sloth, clawing at his face,
attacking him, snarling and biting. After being thoroughly beaten, Sloth flung
Chargoun away, but, like a boomerang, he launched himself back.
Flame, with a heartfelt war cry, attacked after him. The battle continued.
Tears and blood intermixed and flowed in rivers away from the mountains. FlamingFireCannon
and other Scorchios and Shoyrus, including Zownar, dived at Sloth from the sky.
Sloth finally freed himself of them and scrabbled for another potion, only
to find a fire Shoyru landing splat in his face, Flame's Young Star clutched
in her hands. Sloth fell back and gasped. "You... You're Zownar!" He recovered,
grinning evilly. "I've got something fun to do with you..." He grabbed a potion
and threw it at Zownar just as she struck him in the chest, driving her blade
into his bloated body. The potion hit her face and she fell out of the sky with
a saddening cry as Sloth fell to the ground with a defeated moan.
The world of Neopia was silent in that moment. Triano arrived soon after,
shaking in his scales, he flopped out of his litter and looked at the scene,
tears filling his little beady eyes. He looked at the dying and the wounded.
He averted his gaze and stared intently at the ground. "I am sorry," he announced
in his slurred speech. "I did not mean for it to turn out this... This way..."
He choked on his words and broke down sobbing. He found himself, strangely,
being comforted, being patted on the back by a large paw. The mutated Chargoun
looked down at him with grim sadness and happiness intermixed in his stern face.
"We understand, Triano, we understand," he said softly before embracing
the petpet. He released Triano and turned back to Zownar.
"Are you all right?" He murmured to her as he walked over.
She looked up, and Chargoun was taken aback. Her eyes had almost no visible
pupils, they were a reflection of the stars, and one look into her eyes and
you could see eternity. She closed her eyes and looked down. "I am fine, but
the price of this war... It's not all right." Chargoun nodded solemnly, understanding.
A gasp erupted from the crowd of warriors from both sides, none loyal to Sloth
any longer. Chargoun turned and saw, with wide eyes, that Sloth's body had disappeared.
"Do you think he's dead?" Moonstruk asked softly from behind him.
"No. He's hiding, recovering. He'll be back. He always is," SkyDancer said
grimly, stepping up beside her friend. "But for now, we are safe." She turned
her head to Keeta and Flame. "As long as you two take care of your Star Swords."
"For now," Chargoun said loudly, drowning out the talk that had erupted. "We
must recover." His last words echoed in Keeta's head and she closed her eyes
and took a deep breath.
***
Keeta opened her eyes slowly and looked up at Bo, her chestnut thoroughbred,
who had his head down, sniffing her hair. After a moment, he began to nibble
at the light brown locks that were visible beneath her helmet. "Bo!" she said
in anguish and shoved his chestnut head away. He snorted and stamped. With a
dramatic throw of his head and roll of his eyes, he pranced of, sniffing the
ground for some source of food.
Keeta got up and didn't bother to dust herself off. No one was around; no
one had seen her fall. Had she fallen? Was it all a dream? She shook her head
before walking over to the light brown horse in the center of the arena. Seeing
her out of the corner of his eye, he jerked his head up and trotted away, causing
Keeta to groan and jog after him. It would be one long, hectic day.
The End
Author's Note: A large thank you to IndianaJadedBlueJay who helped me write
"On the Outside" but didn't even bother editing 'On the Inside' (mainly
because it was written at 1:30 in the morning) and to SilverGryphon128 who always
edits and critiques my weird writing. Also, many thanks to all the Neopets and
their owners that I used, glad I got your permission (except for Sugababy262 *cough*)
and to those who've edited this and "On the Outside". Feel free to Neomail
me. |
