Missing Pieces: Part Two

by Catnip4

The sun rose from behind the mountains with a color of happiness. It drenched over the whole town, making it bright and cheerful for the new day. Of course, the weather outside always matched the mood of the city. If it was stormy and rainy, so were the pets and people. Pets were on leashes held back by whistling owners and Kougras and Lupes and other wild animals pounced upon buzzes and flowers. Meara was now at least two miles away from the adoption center, and she was proud of that. Her mouth opened wide to release a yawn, and her skinny legs stretched out to the sky. Meara stopped by the money tree to hopefully pick up some food before she started on her way again. Pets that belonged to generous owners road were sitting along the pathway to the tree, and carried goodies of all sorts. One Flotsam came up to Meara and looked at her thoughtfully and handed her a leather sack filled with food.

"Wow! Thank you so much!" She put the sack onto the paved dirt and opened the new bag she had just received. Meara took the pink diary from her mouth she had been carrying and stuffed it along with the other things. She lifted it up, over and onto her back, and once again, started her long journey to find the owner she lost. Determined as ever, Meara was now swimming across a pond to the other side. It was far to wide to go around, but maybe somehow she would be able to have the power to make it across. Quiggles and Nimmos leaped from green lily pads into the water. Meara, struggling, wished she had awesome speed in water like them. Her envy didn't stop her. Suddenly, one Nimmo leaped right on the lily pad beside her. "Hello there, little one. Are you in need of some help?"

Meara, wanting to do everything by herself threw him a sharp glare. "No thank you, I'm fine all on my own!"

Trying to flash off some swimming talents she didn't have, Meara looked at the waters she was just about drowning in. A slim, awkward figure sped by her very eyes. She was suddenly very frightened, and now wish she had accepted help from the Nimmo She turned back to see if he was still willing to offer, but it seemed that the whole pond had became a ghost town. The figure was now closer to the surface. The thing had fins too, but not any other part of a NeoPet she had seen. It couldn't be a Tuskaninny, she thought, for Tuskaninnies were much more beefy and didn't really have much of a skinny body shape. Oh, but this one looked more like a human. The image was of a head with hair, two long bony arms, a tail and fins, and a scrawny, stretched out neck. Now Meara wanted to get to the other side more than ever. It seemed that this oddly shaped thing in the water was gaining on speed and was right underneath Meara. A patch of curly, brownish blond hair floated on the surface of the pond. Extremely curious, Meara swam closer and dug her paw into it. She lifted the heavy blotch of hair up to wear she could see it. Meara gasped at the sight of what she saw. She dropped it right back into the pond and swam as hard and quickly as she could. Meara could hear the soft strokes of someone behind her. She could hear a rough sound of something hitting the water repeatedly Meara was terrified. What would she do? This monster would surely catch her! She finally ran out of breath. She could no longer try to get to her destination. She didn't have enough power. Letting herself sink to the bottom, the last thing she saw was another quick glimpse of the human-like fish.

Meara suddenly opened her eyes. Her eyelids felt like heavy blankets. It took her so much power just to lift them up. Her eyesight weary and blurry, she looked straight up to the sky and clouds, but a shape was blocking its path. A pale, bony face looked right into her soft, blue eyes.

"Wake up please," said the face. Meara rubbed her paws against her eyes and sat up to look at the thing she saw swimming in the pond. It almost took the shape of a mermaid.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Meara yelled. She ran as fast as she could behind the nearest bush she saw. "WHO ARE YOU!!!!!????"

"I am Elsa, the Water Faerie. I rescued you from drowning. Oh well, my deed is done. Good-bye." The faerie jumped back into the shivering waters.

"Wait!" Meara called to her. The faerie once again emerged out of the depths and listened carefully. Maybe, Meara wondered, this faerie could help me with finding Sheli.

"Do you know where Sheli is?" At this question, never even hearing of this name ever in her life before, confused, she coked her head sideways and lifted one of her eyebrows in astonishment.

"What do you mean?" Meara sighed.

"She was my owner and--well, let's just put it this way. Do you know how to bring certain people back to life?" Elsa looked back into her brain to see if she could capture the information she needed.

"Nope. Not that I know of. But I do know that--no way, that would be too dangerous."

Meara ran up to her and yelped out like there was no tomorrow, "Tell me!!! TELL ME PLEASE!!!! I MUST KNOW!!!! I MUST GET MY OWNER BACK!!!!!"

Elsa nodded like she knew how Meara felt. "Well, if you're that determined--"

"Yes! Yes! I am!"

"Well, if you're that determined the dark faeries will bring a soul back to life for a very hard price. I don't think you'd be up to it." Meara leaped upon Elsa's stomach.

"I am! I am up to it! Tell me where they are! Please!"

"Well," replied Elsa, "All right. Here is a map of all Neopia." Elsa showed Meara a weathered, crumpled unfolded paper. "The dark faeries live--right--there!" The faerie pointed her finger at a spooky piece of land with bats and strange, twisted, tied up trees.

"Spooky Forest." Meara now felt a bit scared about all this. She might not be able to do it. Elsa started to talk again.

"You are on Mystery Island. The place I brought you to when you started drowning. This is all the information I know of that would help you. Goodb--Wait! I forgot! I can't let you go away and try to defend yourself without any attack powers or abilities!" Meara was confused.

"How do I used them?"

"All you do is shout out the name. Okay here we go!" Elsa shot a strand of blue light from her fingers and it circled around Meara. Elsa called out so many names of abilities, she couldn't remember them all.

"These powers I am giving you all come in handy when you are in battle." Elsa took a deep gulp. "Especially when you are...battling...dark faeries." The powers grew stronger and weakened Meara. "Water of Life! Water Breathing! Water Jet! Heal!"

The light of blue suddenly came to an end. "You may be on your way now. Good-bye and Good luck." With a wave of Elsa's hand, Meara set off into Neopia, and trying to find the haunted woods.

To be continued...