"Hey..." said Riggo when he woke up in the
afternoon. "Where's Liji? She didn't go off to that shrine, did she?"
Baroo shrugged.
"I don't know! I just woke up!"
"Oh, I am going to kill that little Aisha!"
Riggo's face was red again, and his ears were fuming.
"No! Don't!" Baroo pleaded.
"It's just a figure of speech, I won't
really kill her!" the Lupe laughed.
"Well, don't even say it, then! We have
other things to worry about! Like our lives, maybe!" Riggo was still laughing.
"Oh, for heaven's sake! Let's just get up and look for her!"
"Okay, okay!" Riggo laughed some more.
"Gee, it's not that funny!" Baroo
was getting tense. How come nothing ever comes out right? He just wanted to
play a nice game of Wheel of Excitement, and now he was lost in the desert,
his friend was lost, and he was stuck with a laughing Lupe.
"I think the shrine was over here,"
the Lupe said after he had come to his senses. "If she left, that it most
likely where she would of gone."
"Maybe she was kidnapped," Baroo suggested.
"No. Why would they have taken her and
not us?" Riggo asked.
"Good point," Baroo smiled. "Well,
maybe she went off looking for civilisation."
"Without us? No, she isn't that stupid.
She must be at that shrine," said Riggo.
"Perhaps she was sleepwalking," Baroo
suggested.
"No, she's never sleepwalked in her life,"
Riggo walked on, "Come on, she could be in trouble." So they ran.
They ran for hours. Night came, but they didn't care. Something could be wrong
with Liji.
Around midnight, when the stars were shining
their brightest, the winds picked up. They ducked down into a ditch in the sand
to avoid the chilly winds and the harsh, jagged sand particles. They were down
there for quite some time. The winds didn't even start to slow down until the
sun began to peak over the horizon. They leaped out of the ditch and ran again.
"I hope Liji's all right," said Riggo
in a concerned tone, "She's very young. I wouldn't want anything to happen
to her." Baroo nodded in agreement.
Liji was still crying and waiting to die on
the little hill of sand. She looked up and saw Riggo and Baroo running towards
her in the distance. She slumped back down. It was probably just another mirage,
a hallucination, a play on the mind. But it was real. They came running towards
her and hugged her. She hugged back. She couldn't believe it!
"Oh, I am so sorry!" she said after
what had to of been the ten-thousandth hug. "It's just...I had a nightmare,
and I couldn't get back to sleep. Then I had the strangest feeling that something
was terribly wrong with the shrine! Following my conscience, I took off. I didn't
have enough time to notify you. But even if I did, it wouldn't make any difference.
It's gone."
"Uh...Liji, it's right over there..."
Riggo began, but was interrupted.
"WHERE? WHERE?" she hopped up and
down and side to side.
"There!" Baroo led her to where it
stood. She burst into tears.
"I am so stupid!" she felt the beautiful
sculpture and adored it's symbolism once again.
"Yes, you are!" Riggo laughed. "I'm
just kidding..." Liji's face was red. "Umm...uh, let's just go, shall
we? Eheh..."
"Oh, come on, you two! We need to get out
of here, pronto!" Baroo began to lead the way through the dunes and the
ditches beneath the scorching sun. They didn't talk much, so they could save
their energy for walking. They didn't complain about the heat, for they were
used to it by now and their bodies could handle it.
"How long do you think we've been walking?"
Liji asked by midday. She stared up at the sun in the exact centre of the sky.
She looked down. She didn't have a shadow.
"Not long enough," said the determined
Kiko. He was tired of all the arguments and complaints and being lost and all
of the other obstacles the team encountered. He just wanted to get out of that
desert in a peaceful mood.
"We should be almost there," said
Riggo in a hopeful tone. "Just beyond the horizon awaits town full of surprises!"
"Oh, don't get your hopes up to soon. We're
probably going to be going at this for a couple of days or so," said an
irritated Liji. All of her complaints were really sinking in. She needed to
get back to Neopia; she couldn't stand the desert a second longer! But she decided
to just grin and bear it until they got back home.
"Hey, do you have anymore water?"
Baroo asked Riggo. Riggo stopped. A look of horror came over his face. Liji
and Baroo stopped too, waiting for the reply. Riggo laughed.
"HAHA! GOT YOU! HAHA!" he pulled out
his glass bottle of water and gave it to the angry Kiko.
"Don't do that again," he said, took
a swig, and passed it to Liji.
"You, know we may almost be there. I have
a good feeling that there are some other Neopets close by," she took a
drink and handed the bottle back to Riggo.
"See, I told you!" he took a sip himself
and packed it away, "But you guys didn't believe me!"
"Well, we can't go off of just feeling
alone," said Baroo. But as they climbed up the side of the dune, they saw
a sight that could make even the coldest day warm.
"It's beautiful!" Liji cried, dancing
around.
"It's very entertaining," said Riggo,
staring at it.
"Oh, I made it up myself..." Liji
blushed.
"No, not your dancing! THAT!" he pointed
to the glorious sight.
"We made it!" Baroo cheered.
They were standing before a village. They seemed
to be having a festival of some sort. They were dancing and chanting around
a large, gleaming bonfire. Upon closer inspection, Liji noticed that they were
desert Poogles. The other two ran down to join the celebration, whatever it
was, but Liji stayed behind.
"Hey, why don't you come?" said Baroo,
looking astonished, "Neopets! Come on! Civilisation! Well...sort of..."
"You go on ahead. I'll stay here,"
said Liji, sitting down on a dune. Riggo walked up to the little Aisha.
"Come on!" he said, pulling her up.
"You've been complaining about missing being with other Neopets and such.
Come on!"
"O-okay..." Liji was scared. They
were the Poogles from her dream. She gulped. She saw the chief Poogle. She whimpered
and whined as she followed the Lupe up to where they were dancing. All the Poogles
turned and looked. The chief Poogle put out his hands as a gesture to stop the
dance. Liji ducked behind Riggo, but peeked to see what was happening. To her
surprise, the chief was smiling. He laughed.
"Ah, wanderers, I see," he chuckled
again, "Welcome to our home. We are the Poogles of the Lost Desert. Not
many Neopets know about us. Please, join in for the holiday! This is Poogle
day, you know..."
"Oh, yes...the nineteenth of Gathering!
We've been out here so long, I lost track of the time!" Riggo looked up
at the chief Poogle. "Happy Poogle Day!"
"Come, join the dance! You'll learn the
steps quickly..." the three Neopets stepped into the circle of Poogles
as the chief began the dance again. They tried to get it right, but they kept
goofing up. They ended up laughing, making the other Poogles laugh as well.
The inferno burned high and low as evening progressed into night. They kept
dancing until the chief poured a bucket of water on the fire, and then another,
and yet another, until it left the Neopets in the mist of darkness. The chief
led them into a temple, where they all gathered around a tall, golden pillar.
Liji looked at it, and gasped. The shrine!
"That's the shrine!" she ran through
the crowd towards it. It definitely was the shrine. She stared at for a while,
and turned around, facing the chief. She pointed her finger at him.
"You stole it! You stole it from the desert!
How dare you!" the chief was taken aback. He stared her down. The entire
temple was silent. He laughed again.
"Stole it? Me? The chief Poogle? I think
not! It was stolen from our tribe centuries ago, dumped somewhere in the desert...we
searched day and night, even abandon Poogle day for a dew years. That was a
big sacrifice, but not for the ancient shrine. This was built thousands upon
thousands of aeons ago, and we even believed for a moment that our eternal search
would never end. It is quite a large desert, you know, but that didn't stop
us. It wasn't until yesterday we came across it. Even if today wasn't Poogle
day, we would be celebrating just as much."
"Oh," said Liji, realising the truth
behind the situation. "Oh, uh...sorry." The chief laughed yet again,
approaching the shrine looking at the panels, when he suddenly gasped.
"You are...you are..."
To be continued... | 
