Missing Pieces: Part Three

by Catnip4

Meara turned the map sideways, upside down, and around again. She then looked up at the greenery scene she was used to. Her eyes again peered at the crumpled map and sighed. Out of nowhere, an eerie voice came from behind the trees. It was a shy little thing, playful, but just about invisible! You could see straight through its stomach. As Meara gasped in astonishment, she finally knew what her eyes had been drawn too. One of the deadly ghosts of Neopia--The Swamp Ghoul. "Dum dum dum!" Meara heard from the ghost. She started running--running as fast as her little legs could carry her, and that wasn't far. The ghost started chuckling and pointing. He came right in front of Meara and picked up her leather purse. He ran around with it, hoping Meara would play a game of "Try and Get your Bag Back."

Meara swiftly raced up to jump on top of him, but as soon as Meara leaped into the air, he was behind a tree. "Ow!" Meara cried as she tried to recover from crashing into the ground.

"Why are you so mean?" At this question, the swamp ghoul grew stationary. It was almost as if he was in a block of ice.

"Well," Meara said at rudeness of the ghoul for not answering her, "If you're not going to answer that question, you can answer this one. Can you take me to the Haunted Woods?"

It seemed as if this swamp ghoul was friendly, although annoying, and looked over her shoulder at the map.

"Hhmmm...he he he!" The ghost giggled loudly.

"I want food!" Meara shuffled her paws through her leather bag the ghost used for the game of chase and tried to find some food. "How about a cherry pie?"

The ghosts' face looked scrambled and unhappy. "Nah...what else yas got?" Meara pulled out at least ten other food items.

"Um, chicken, asparagus, frosted donut, uh...crackers, chocolate milkshake.."

"NO!" The ghost shouted in disgust. Meara once again sighed. "You are too picky, way too picky for a ghost! Okay, the only other things I have is Pasta and Eyeballs and Bat Cookie from my owner."

A smile quickly spread across the ghosts' face. "Deal! Okay, hop on my back!" The ghost lifted off the ground like an airplane, and Meara shrieked at the sight of her feet not on land and held tighter to the ghost's arm.

"Can you hurry it up!?" she said. And as they flew higher, Meara could see the ocean and the underwater world, she remembered visiting that! The mysterious Island! How lovely that tour was! She was carried around in a basket by Coconut Natives! The space world, Sheli hadn't gotten to that place yet, but it did look wild. Sheli thought it was too dangerous for a pet as young as Meara to wander off by Sloth's lair.

"Maybe when you're older.." Meara could remember Sheli saying that. And a tear as sparkly as a crystal dripped down her snowy white face from homesickness and her wonderful owner.

***

The ghost made a quick landing. He was still munching loudly. Crumbs of the bat cookie fell out of his mouth and onto the dirty ground of the Haunted Woods.

"Okay! Thanks for the food!"

The ghost waved back to Meara as he turned away. As soon as Meara looked at the twisted, curvy branches of the dark trees, a sudden chill ran down her back. The branches formed together like folded hands, and the shape almost appeared as a cave.

"A Cave!" Meara shouted to herself in excitement. "The dark faeries must be hidden in there somewhere!" All her fear leaked off her, like dropping a pile off rocks off your back. She skipped merrily, even though the place did not match the cheerfulness of her skip, she kept everything to herself, not being scared when she saw unusual things happen. It was the haunted woods, wasn't it!? And she knew that this place was known for being strange! She passed a big, black cauldron with liquidy, foaming, neon green goo bubbling over the sides.

"Hello Dearest!" a creaky, old voice called out to her. Meara could spot an elderly witch with a wooden spoon stirring the concoction to the right. She then saw a big, haunted house. A mummy almost ran into her, but she stopped him by a pull of one of his strands of cloth.

"What'd ya want! Leave me alone!" The mummy yelled in her face.

"Just one quick thing," Meara questioned. "Where do the dark faeries live?"

The mummy pointed to the black red-roofed castle and went on his way. Meara stared at the faeries' lair for a long time. It looked pretty scary. She walked up on the dusty sidewalk. The bricks jiggled as her paws touched wobbled across. She climbed the dirty, never swept stairs that creaked like her door at home that was going to get fixed. Meara took a good look at the doorknob. It was in the design of a lion's head. Slowly and a bit terrified, Meara turned the knob to the right...

To be continued...