Special Delivery
We were on our way to the shops later that day,
we were going to the Battle Magic Shop to equipped our pets with weapons as
all of mine had been taken and Bong said hers were old-fashioned, like crossbows
and things. On our way into town we past my NeoHome, I looked sadly about it
longing for things to go back to the way they were before and that's when I
noticed it. Propped up against the door was a long thin package. I halted and
held Brain_Stew's arm.
"I don't remember that being there," I said.
"Well let's go check it out," he said already
heading up the path, Bong and I followed slowly behind him. Brain_Stew looked
down at the package there was an envelope stuck to its side, he plucked it off
and handed it to me.
"I guess you should read this," he said handing
me the envelope; I turned it over to reveal a little pink faerie on the back.
I opened it looking sidelong at Bong, there was a note written on pink paper.
Dear Amerock201,
I am aware of your current situation and I have
sent you this item to help you. I entrust you will with this quest and I am
sure you will make Neopia proud once everything is back to the way it was. Tell
no one of what is happening; this is between you and your companions. If the
rest of Neopia knew, it would cause mass panic and things would become out of
control. This is real, and I'm counting on you to keep your wits about you.
I have every hope for you Amerock201.
Yours truly,
The Queen Faerie
I folded the note and placed it in my pocket
absently frowning slightly, the note was a little unclear about what I had put
myself up to, but the Queen Faerie obviously thought was up to it.
"Well?" asked Brain_Stew, "What'd it say?"
"Oh, erm, nothing important. What's in the
package?" I asked. Brain_Stew picked it up and handed it to me.
"Look for yourself," he said, I took it from
him and ReelBigKougraFish peered at the package suspiciously, I started to unwrap
the brown paper that covered the strange parcel and revealed a large heavy handle
covered with large jewels, which I took hold of and pulled from the parcel,
a long metal blade followed it, a sword. It shone and shimmered in the sunlight.
"Wow," said Kathlon staring at the mystical
sword, "Now I know that's gonna come in handy." I looked at the Sword in wonder.
"How did the Queen Faerie know about what's
happening?" I asked.
"Beats me," answered Brain_Stew, I peered
back inside the brown paper to check that there wasn't anything still left in
it, and there was, there was a long sheath for keeping the sword in. It was
made of leather and had a strap so that I could hang it over my back. I slid
the sword back into its sheath and flung it over my back. It was fairly heavy
but nothing I couldn't put up with. We turned back to the road again and carried
on down the path to Neopia Central's shops.
We soon arrived at the shops and Bong had
decided to buy us all a coffee from the coffee shop in the Arts Centre, so we
sat there for a while watching the many happy Neopians that passed the window.
The shopkeeper, a little yellow Shoyru wearing a cream coloured apron and matching
hat approached us ready to take our orders.
"Can we have three Pinanna Cappuccinos and
four Tiger Squash Ice Cream's please?" asked Bong as she pulled a large leather
wallet full of Neopoints from her pocket.
"Certainly," replied the Shoyru smiling and
scribbling down our order on a piece of paper, "That'll be 1771 NP please,"
Bong counted it out and handed the coins over. "Thank you, I'll be back with
your drinks and ice creams in just a minuet."
I had never been in the coffee shop before,
come to think of it I'd never been in the Arts Centre that much either, but
as I looked around I could see so much going on that it would be easy to stay
here all day just watching the storytelling contest or the drawing classes.
Soon the Shoyru appeared again with our order, the placed the ice creams in
front of Kathlon, Taba, ReelBigKougraFish and _Thean_, and the Cappuccinos in
front of Brain_stew, Bong and I. Things seemed to escape my mind as I talked
and gazed out of the window. Kathlon and _Thean_ had found out they had a lot
in common, Kathlon was in training to become a sorcerer and _Thean_ was a great
wizard himself, although Kathlon only had a few magical abilities, it seemed
that _Thean_ was a master at the art of wizardry.
It also appeared that Brain_stew had gotten
over his initial impression that Bong was a good-for-nothing-know-it-all, and
was starting to think otherwise. Things were back to they way they should be,
if only Zutore were with us. I watched as a young green Eyrie took the stand
for the poetry competition, Zutore had been green before we had painted him
fire and this little Eyrie reminded me of him.
The Eyrie began to recite his poem, his owner
standing proudly to one side of the stage. The Queen Faerie was right, I couldn't
disturb this, everything here was the way it should be, happy and peaceful,
and I had no right to disturb that.
I felt the sword dig into my back as I leant
back in my seat; it shocked me back to my circumstances with Zutore and the
Clan Of Ligmoore. The book, The Binding Of Ligmoore, was in Brain_Stew's bag,
which ReelBigKougraFish was guarding.
After we had finished our drinks and ice creams
we headed on down the road to the Defence Magic shop were Bong bought Gelert
Tail Armour, a Gelert Helm and Gelert Lightning Speed Boots for _Thean_. She
also bought two Large Metal shields of Kathlon and Taba.
We crossed the street and entered the Battle
Magic shop where she bought ReelBigKougraFish a Kougra mask and Kougra claws.
For Taba she got a Yellow Frost Cannon and for Kathlon she got a Blue Frost
Cannon.
"You don't have to do all this you know,"
I said, as Bong stood at the checkout ready to pay. Taba was bobbing up and
down playing hide-and-seek behind his Yellow Frost Cannon, while ReelBigKougraFish
was running riot round the shop with Brain_stew close on his heels trying to
catch him.
"Nonsense," replied Bong with a smile, "I
want to, and besides, I have all this money and never spend any of it on things
I really need. Just junk like playing betting games that I never win. And anyway,
if we do run into trouble on our journey, we'll be fully equipped to protect
ourselves."
I smiled; it was good to have a friend like
Bong. Just as the final Neopoints had been exchanged, the Grarrl that ran the
Battle Magic shop gazed over his shoulder and leant over to talk to us.
"Look's to me like your going on an adventure,"
he said casually.
Bong looked suspiciously at the Grarrl, then
at me.
"What of it?" She asked.
"Nothing, nothing," said the Grarrl holding
up his hands in defence. "Where are you going? Do you know yet?"
"Not as such," I said suspiciously, "Why?"
"I've got just the thing for adventurers like
you," he said quietly, he bent down to fetch something from under the counter;
Bong passed me a guarded look and looked down at the small wooden box that the
Grarrl had received. He looked over his shoulder again, checking that no one
else was watching, but there were hardly any people in the shop at that moment,
so he had nothing to worry about. He carefully opened the box and there, in
amongst a bed of silk, lay an amulet of some sort. Its dark blue core shone
in its silver casing, attached to it was a thin silver chain.
"What is that?" I asked in awe, the Grarrl
carefully picked it out and placed it in my hands.
"That my friend is an Amulet of Teleportation,
one of a kind. It'll take you to wherever you want to go in an instant,"
the Grarrl said quietly. "It'll come in very handy I'm sure, the best thing
for adventures, and it'll get you out of some close situation if need be."
Bong's expression had changed to being completely
in favour of this strange and unusual item. She looked at me like a little child
that had seen a toy it could just not live without, pleading me to let her have
it. I smiled at her.
"I think you deserve to buy yourself something
nice after all that you've done for us," I said smiling widely.
Bong turned to the Grarrl and I placed the
amulet back in its box.
"We'll take it!" said Bong happily.
I turned to see Brain_stew come running up
behind us out of breath after chasing around after ReelBigKougraFish.
"You couldn't help me out a bit could you?"
he asked between breaths, I smiled rolling my eyes and followed him. ReelBigKougraFish
let out a little yelp as he saw us coming towards him and he scurried of round
the corner as fast as he could.
***
A single ray of light broke down through the trees of the Haunted Woods the
rest of the surroundings was near enough pitch black. Zutore opened one of his
red eyes and peered around anxiously. For the past few weeks Zutore had been
cowering in the forest, despite its many dangers. He had promised himself that
he would not give up hope, he would find his owner, but it had been over a month
and his faith was starting to falter. Zutore bowed his head and told himself
silently that his owner would never come for him, she had up and abandoned him
and there was nothing he could do to change it. Tears started to well in his
eyes and he sobbed as they rolled down his sharp orange beak. He stared up through
the trees at the dark and starless sky, the same way he had done every night
for the past 28 days. Who was he kidding? He knew his owner would never come
for him. He sighed and laid his head on the ground and stared to dig a small
hole with his paw. He peered closely at his flame-licked paw; there was something
different about it. It was fainter. Zutore hurriedly brushed the mud off and
looked again, his paw was defiantly fading, he held it up to his other paw,
extremely worried by now and looked hard at them both. He wasn't imagining things,
his paw was disappearing, it reminded him of one time he watched a pet get painted
invisible at the Rainbow Fountain, it was just like this. Soon his whole arm
was fading from existence, he tried to shake it off but it was useless, it spread
like water across him and soon nearly all of his body, save his head, had been
engulfed. Zutore craned his head to try and escape, but the thing kept on coming,
he managed to speak a single word before he disappeared from sight.
"Amerock!"
To be continued...
Please feel free to Neomail
me; I like to hear what people like you think of my work. I am on almost every
day and I am on my summer vacation so I should have more time to come on to Neopets.
Bong (the_lil_bong) doesn't come on as much as I do but I'm sure she would like
to hear from you. Brain_stew (Brain_stew_22) on the other hand, has a very busy
lifestyle and hardly ever has time to come on, you might not want to send him
quite so many as he doesn't have time to reply to you. Well I hope you will keep
reading to find out what happens next. | 
