Blue Dragon got up and rubbed his head. His dragon skull
must have been smashed against something, for he had the worst of headaches.
He surveyed his surroundings, although that action had no result as the only
thing he could see was white. "Well, this is just great," Blue muttered. "Those
weatherpets don't know what they're talking about."
Blue pulled out a small device that he called
a Portable Dragon Encyclopaedia. It was like a pocket dictionary, only it had
information on almost everything. He pressed a button on the GPS uplink, but
the only thing he got was static. Blue groaned. "This blizzard is blocking the
sky. I can't get any reading from the satellite." Blue put the PDE back in the
pocket of his arctic parka. "Looks like I'm on my own."
***
Legionnaire and Azure had taken refuge in a cave in the side of the mountain.
Legionnaire, however, was not taking the blizzard fiasco well. "I hope Bluey
isn't out there freezing to death. I mean, what would life be like without that
loveable dragon? It would be like...a sandwich without cheese!"
Azure put in her two cents. "Shut up, Legionnaire!
Blue's a frost dragon. I'm sure he's the best one to be out there. He'll survive,
just you watch!" As Azure turned back around, Legionnaire saw a tear glisten
on Azure's cheek.
"I do hope you're right, Azure..." Legionnaire
replied, turning back to face the raging snowstorm.
***
Blue pressed on against the blizzard. The blizzard was strengthening now, and
the evening was rapidly approaching. Even the strongest frost dragons would
not survive a blizzard in the dark. A map was now filling in on Blue's PDE which
he periodically glanced at.
"What I really need is to find the side of the
mountain," Blue said to himself. "Then I can start climbing and maybe I'll have
a better view of the landscape."
Blue pulled a pair of binoculars out of his pack
and scanned the horizon. Blue could still see nothing through the solid plane
of white. "Oh, right," Blue said to himself, smiling. "I must be getting forgetful."
***
Bastet and Darkmoon were wandering around in the snow, only opening their mouths
to argue. "Darkmoon, I know where I'm going!" Bastet stated.
"Oh really? I'm sure I saw that same tree five
minutes ago."
"Shut up! Maybe if you could find a scent once
in a while we'd find Bluey!"
"Hey! Cheap shot!"
The two proceeded in no real direction, Darkmoon
complaining about thirst, hunger, and fatigue the whole way. Finally, Bastet
stopped atop a small hill. "Darkmoon, do you see what I see?" Bastet questioned.
"If you'd tell me what you see I could answer,"
Darkmoon replied.
Bastet pointed to a crashed transport airplane
embedded in the snow. "Over there, dimwit. Isn't that an airplane?"
"Yeah! And I think I see pets there too!"
***
"Well, this is weird," Blue declared, examining his PDE. "The map indicates
there's a Satellite Uplink nearby. Maybe if I find it and hook up my PDE, I
can download the map and find my pets!"
Blue found which way the Uplink was and started
walking at a brisk pace.
***
"Legionnaire, do you hear that?" Azure said.
Legionnaire primed his ears for any kind of noise,
without result. "I don't think so."
"It's faint, but it's there. It sounds like
some kind of beeping."
"There are many kinds of beeps, Azure. You need
to give me some kind of clue as to..."
"Radar noise. It's hard to describe. Think of
a radar coming on and you'll hear the noise."
"Where's it coming from?" Legionnaire inquired,
examining the horizon.
Azure perked up her ears. "This way. Come on,
follow me!"
Legionnaire and Azure both left their cave, carrying
their arctic gear with them.
***
Bastet and Darkmoon slid down the icy hill, rushing toward the crashed airplane.
There was a group of Neopets around it, most likely the former passengers.
A Grarrl in a full Neopian Army soldier outfit
noticed Bastet and Darkmoon first. "Hey! You up there!" The Grarrl waved to
get the duo's attention.
Bastet and Darkmoon came down and greeted the
group of Neopets. "Hello! Is everything okay?"
The Grarrl, who was most likely the leader of
the group, spoke up. "Ah, glad you found us, young ones. We're freezing out
here."
"The blizzard was too strong for our plane.
We couldn't see past the snow and hail and so we crashed," a Zafara, wearing
a hard hat and wielding an engineer's toolkit, explained.
"There's an army outpost near here, I think.
If you could help us carry all our equipment, we'd be glad to let you wait out
the blizzard there," a Draik, who was the second engineer, offered.
"That would be great! But three of our family
members are still lost somewhere," Darkmoon said.
"Don't you worry, little Gelert. There's a GPs
Satellite Uplink in the outpost. Once we get there, we'll tell you exactly where
your family members are," a Lupe stated. Darkmoon resented being called 'little,'
but decided not to offend an army Lupe.
Bastet and Darkmoon were quickly loaded down
with as many of the army troop's possessions that they could carry and the six
of them departed for the outpost.
***
"Ah-ha! There it is!" Blue finally came in contact with the Satellite Uplink
he was chasing. He closed his PDE and stuck it back in his pocket. "Apparently,
the Neopian Army has an outpost here. I wonder if they'd let me in..."
While searching for a possible entrance, Blue
came across a sight even more interesting - two of his Neopets! Blue spotted
Azure and Legionnaire making their way through the arctic landscape.
"Legionnaire! Azure! I've been looking all over
for you!"
"Bluey! We've been looking for you!" Azure shouted.
She ran up to Blue and gave him the biggest hug she could.
"Where have you been, Bluey?" Legionnaire asked.
"I've been wandering around in the blizzard.
I swear, it's been getting worse every minute..." Blue answered.
"So that's where the radar noise has been coming
from," Azure observed, walking up to the outpost wall and examining the large
satellite dish inside the installation.
"Yeah, I've been tracking the very same radar.
It's a good thing you have exceptional hearing, Azure, or else we'd probably
still been lost," Blue stated.
Legionnaire cut in. "Let's not forget that Bastet
and Darkmoon are still out there somewhere..."
***
"So why were you in an airplane in weather like this?"
"A routine exploration mission. When we got
back, the blizzard had started. We needed to get back to the outpost before
too long, or else our superiors would think we were lost over Meridell. Even
though the war is over, there are still some anti-aircraft defences in the area
that need to be cleared. We never actually passed Meridell, but army commanders
are paranoid these days," the Draik engineer said with a slight smile.
"Why does the Neopian Army need an outpost in
Terror Mountain?" Bastet questioned.
"Well, you're a nosy little Aisha, aren't you?"
the Grarrl said, smirking. "Even we don't know what the Neopian Army's planning.
When the war erupted in Meridell, the Army started setting up outposts pretty
much everywhere. I think Neopia might be descending into anarchy..." the Grarrl
quickly remembered that the pets he was talking to were both civilian and young.
"...but that's just my perception. I'm sure nothing like that would happen."
Bastet and Darkmoon exchanged each other puzzled
glances.
"Terror Mountain Outpost, straight ahead!" the
Lupe announced. "And it looks like we've got a couple visitors."
Bastet and Darkmoon immediately recognised one
of the figures at the outpost. "Bluey! We found you!" The two pets quickly dropped
all of the cargo they were carrying.
"Hey, you want to be careful with that? That's
government property!" the Zafara yelled.
"Bastet! Darkmo-uh!!" Blue tried to call out
the names of his Neopets, but was tackled by both of them before he could finish.
"Glad to see you're doing all right."
"We sure are! And if it wasn't for these pets,
we would have never found you!" Bastet said, gesturing to the four army pets.
"Actually, you guys never told us your names."
"Well, my name's Ike," the Lupe stated, bowing.
"I'm known as Christopher," the Grarrl said.
"My name's Repair," the Zafara reported, making
a little peace sign with his fingers.
"And I'm Disarm," the Draik said. "We're just
your average bunch of engineers and soldiers."
"Pleased to meet you. And thanks for leading
Bastet and Darkmoon here," Blue replied.
"Now, if you don't mind, we'd really like to
get inside the outpost. We don't have thermal outfits like you do. You're welcome
to come inside if you want. I'm sure our commanders at the barracks will give
you a place to wait out the blizzard," Disarm offered.
"Oh great, barracks quarters..." Darkmoon said,
a bit louder than he intended.
"Hey, I like this guy. He speaks his mind,"
Ike declared, putting one of his paws on his hip and the other on Darkmoon's
head.
"Of course, you need to make sure there's something
in it!" Bastet stated, triggering Darkmoon's nasty look.
"Are you sure army commanders will be generous
enough to lend us a place to stay?" Legionnaire inquired.
"Believe me, the soldiers in this outpost are
as different from the regular army as they can be," Christopher said, smiling.
***
Top of Terror Mountain, the next morning...
"Come on, guys! Just a little farther!" Azure
reported. The five adventurers were at the very top of the mountain now. Azure
stood at the top, overlooking Happy Valley and most of the Neopian Ocean.
"Hold on, Azure! We aren't as young and nimble
as you," Legionnaire replied, using a walking stick to support his weight. Legionnaire
wasn't used to climbing.
"Geez, Legionnaire, I'm older than all of you
and I feel like I can wrestle a Skeith!" Blue said, stretching his wings and
his arms.
Darkmoon retorted, "Of course, you're a dragon
and you'd have the advantage."
"Look at that view! I'm so glad we finally made
it up here!" Bastet exclaimed.
"You know, sometimes just being with your pets
is better than being at the top of any mountain," Blue stated. "The fact that
I'm with all of you makes this view all the more spectacular."
"That was very philosophical, Bluey," Azure
observed.
"Yeah, nothing like what you usually say," Darkmoon
added.
"Aw, shut up, little Gelert," Bastet responded,
in a cute baby voice.
"Little? Why you..."
Darkmoon and Bastet argued as Blue looked out
into the sky. "Yes, being with your pets is the greatest part of being an owner,
no matter how immature they're acting."
The End
Author's Note: Legionnaire, Bastet, Darkmoon, and Azure are indeed all
my pets. Be sure to send me a Neomail if you liked my story. However, all senders
of hate mail will be sent into Terror Mountain without proper arctic gear and
will not be granted access to the outpost. Support the technocratic intellectualism
and thanks for reading! | 
