Mushroom for Phila: Part Three

     "That's where the whispering came from," Kat stated as her dark ears moved back and forth. "Listen."

     Indeed, now everyone could hear ominous "trespassers, trespassers" all around them. Ice shook her head as if trying to shake the odd feeling off her and looked at the old temple.

     "Shall we go in or shall we try to find the other end of the path behind it?" she asked with a frown.

     "We don't have much choice here," Tsuki replied, landing in front of them - he had once again looked around. "The temple stands tightly against the end of the plain and it's impossible to get behind it unless Ace wants to burn the whole place down."

     "Well then, let's knock and roll," Shad suggested with a grin and trotted up the stairs. He examined the huge dark door with his nose twitching and then reached out to grab the massive knocker. It had the shape of a Kougra's head.

     "Heavy," he commented, took the brass knocker between his teeth, raised it as high as he could and then let it fall down again. There was a loud and deep BOOM against the door that echoed for a while. Shad grabbed the knocker again and slammed it once more. The other pets gathered around him and they waited there together, silently and a bit nervously.

     Then the door opened very slowly. There was nobody in sight but the whispering got louder. They could see a dark hallway lit by several long candles. Everything was made of dark wood and there were no windows. A wide staircase led upstairs.

     "Hello?" Kat called and the walls echoed back. The whispering changed.

     "Trespassers…"

     "What do they want?"

     "Are they visitors?"

     "Yes," Tsuki said. Now the voices remained silent for a short while.

     "What do they want?"

     "To talk to the master of this temple," Tsuki said.

     "They want to see the Mistress…"

     "Shall their wish be fulfilled?"

     "Mistress shall decide that…"

     "Go upstairs," the voices finally announced in a whispering choir. Tsuki went up and the others followed him. The staircase led them to a broad hallway and at its other end was another huge door. As the pets approached it, it slid open very quietly, uncovering a huge room made of that very same dark wood and lit with the same long candles. There was someone sitting in the middle of the room. Tsuki stepped closer.

     It was an old Kougra. She was wearing a white robe, her fur was completely white without a single stripe on it and she had very long thin hair that was flowing on the floor by her side. She seemed to be meditating but as the Shoyru's steps echoed on the floor, she opened her eyes. They were light blue, without any pupils.

     "It has been a while since Neopets last came to see me," she said slowly. Her voice was low and rather friendly. "Who are you, kids?"

     "We seek a mushroom to cure our sister," Tsuki replied. "It should grow near the lost city of Geraptiku. Can you lead us there?"

     "Many mushrooms grow in this jungle," the Kougress said. "Many are poisonous. Only a few are a cure. Which mushroom do you seek and which illness does the young Aisha have?"

     Kat and Shad glanced at each other. "Who told her that Phila was an Aisha?" the same question reflected in their eyes. Tsuki had understood the same thing as he said:

     "You are old and wise, Mistress. Can't you tell us that yourself?"

     The Mistress chuckled. "True, young Shoyru. I know who your sister is and I know what's wrong with her. It is the rare Marakha-fever and only the Marakha Mushroom can cure it. The fever is carried by small insects which hardly ever leave the jungle and die after biting a Neopet. So the fever is getting rarer and rarer; your sister would never have gotten it if she hadn't gone too far into the jungle…"

     "Is the mushroom hard to find?" Ice asked. The Mistress's blue eyes stopped on her but they didn't look at her. "She's blind…" the Ixi thought with surprise.

     "I do not use my eyes for seeing any more," the Kougress smiled. She had understood Ice's thoughts. "No, the mushroom is easy to find. It grows by the gates of the old city. To find the city, you must follow the same path you have followed since. But many threats await you there, the journey will not be easy."

     "Can you lead us to the place where the path continues?" Saura asked. "It should be in your temple."

     "It is," Mistress nodded. "Go down the staircase and turn right. There is a small door that leads to another hallway. The door at its end leads you to the path. But be careful. You need to work together as a team and a family in order to succeed."

     "Thank you, Mistress," Kat said and turned around. The Neopets left the room but the old Kougra suddenly called: "Wait, Zafara."

     Saura turned around. "Yeah?"

     "Take this," the Mistress said, reaching out her paw. She was holding a small bottle with some green liquid in it. "To get through, you must feed it to the hungry one." She ignored Saura's surprised face. "Go on now."

     "I could use a lunch break," Shad complained as they went down the stairs.

     "As soon as we're on the path again," Kat promised. "I wouldn't want to stay here for too long… this place is a bit creepy." The whispering voices led them down to the dark door and as the Uni pushed it open, they found themselves on the path again. The sky was still hid behind the treetops.

     "There are no edible plants here," Saura commented as they sat down to eat. "Easy on the resources, I don't know when we'll have a chance to get fresh fruits again."

     After lunch they went on. The jungle looked the same all the time: trees, bushes, no sky above their heads, just the green light that filled everything. Tsuki looked around all the time with his eyes narrowed and suspicious. Eventually he flapped his wings and fluttered away above the path.

     "Tsuki has some hunch," Kat remarked to Ice. "That can't be good…"

     "Whoa!" they suddenly heard Tsuki's shout somewhere in front of them. Everyone gasped and dashed forward. But before they could run for even a few feet, something whizzed towards them above down the path. Huge green vines, flexible and fierce, wrapped themselves around the Neopets' legs, necks and bodies before they could do anything. Only Ace was left behind, it was once again furious and the vines couldn't touch it.

     "Saura, is that the…?" Shad yelled over the whizzing of the wind as the vines pulled them all out of the forest and on a huge plain. The source of the vines was there, in the middle of the plain. It was a giant plant and it had jaws. And long fangs, dripping with drool. Tsuki was hanging above that mouth wrapped in a vine.

     "The King's Vine, precisely," the Zafara yelled back. "And it seems to be... hungry?" His eyes widened. "Hey…"

     In the meantime Kat had stabbed the vines that were holding her with her horn and managed to get loose. Now she boosted towards the plant's body and attacked it fiercely. Tsuki was lunged away and the King's Vine turned to Kat, mobilizing all its free vines to attack her. But the Uni was agile enough to dodge it.

     "Kat!" Saura shouted as Kat flew past him. "Take this!" He threw the Uni the green bottle. "Feed that to the plant, fast!"

     "This better explode or something!" Kat gasped, rocketing towards the mouth. She dropped the bottle, dodged another vine and whizzed away, jabbing another vine on the way.

     "Cool… it's working!" Shad said more to himself than to anyone else as the vines slowly stopped wriggling and let them down on the ground. The King's Vine didn't care about them any more; it was only gnawing on the green liquid that seemed to be rather gummy.

     "Let's go already," Ice called, trotting past the vine. On the next second she fell over, gasped and started coughing frantically. The others hurried to her.

     "Ice, what hap… ugh!" Now they could all feel what had happened: the liquid the plant was gnawing on had a terrible smell.

     "Jellified chewing dung!" Kat gasped, crawling farther away from the plant. "Now I've seen everything!"

     "Well, everyone knows that plants love fertilizers, right?" Tsuki replied, wiping his eyes that were watering. "The next time I come here, I'll bring a whole sack of dung for it. Preferably Battle Dung," he added with a grim frown. "Saura, where on earth did you get that?"

     "The old Kougra gave it to me," Saura replied. "Ice, how on Neopia did you get past that thing the last time you were here?"

     "I never met it," the Ixi replied. "I could've sworn that this is the right way… but apparently things have changed over the years. Let's go on."

     The next couple of miles were peaceful. The nature still stayed the same and there wasn't much sky to be seen but as Shad remarked, things couldn't go much worse after the King's Vine. Ace eventually showed up too, it had obviously had no problems getting past the Vine.

     "So that was one of the many threats the Mistress predicted," Kat said thoughtfully. "What could be next?"

     "In this jungle I don't think you'll have to wait for long," Tsuki replied; he was walking with them once again. They turned around the corner and suddenly came to a crossroad. Six narrow paths met at one point, forming a small plain covered with soft grass. A huge desert Aisha was sitting there by two pathways, looking at the pets with a very strict face. He was about the size of an Eyrie.

     "Bingo," Shad commented as Ice stepped forth. Her ears were twitching with excitement.

     "Now I understand! I came down one of these pathways." She looked at the other roads. "There's one road that takes us straight to the city. Hey again, you there."

     "I remember you," the big Aisha agreed in a deep voice. "The Ixi who got past me the previous time. This time it won't be that easy."

     "I see you've gotten some company," Ice replied with a grin. Now the others noticed that the ground in front of the Aisha was covered with little Wadjets. They were everywhere, crawling around and hissing quietly. That explained the Wadjet from before.

     "In order to get to your destination, you must get past me," the Aisha declared. "To do that, you must solve my riddle."

     "What a cliché," Kat said with surprise.

     "Only when you don't have to face it," Tsuki replied. "We only have one chance for guessing."

     The Aisha nodded. "My Wadjets will attack if you give me the wrong answer and they are poisonous, I warn you."

     "Things have gotten stricter since the last time I was here," Ice commented with a frown. "Fine, what's the riddle?"

     The Aisha glanced at her and slowly said: "It begins when the Neopet is born, lasts while the Neopet lasts and ends when the Neopet dies but never began and will never end. You can only answer once."

     The pets looked at each other.

     "Reassuring," Saura said. "Tsuki?"

     The Shoyru shook his head. "As you know, our owner still hasn't had a chance to buy the Grimoire of Thade where all the riddles in Neopia are written. If I had read that…"

     "You would've gone insane," Shad remarked. "Everyone knows that. But the Grimoire of Thade isn't the only book with riddles." He grinned widely and stepped forth. "I know the answer. It's actually even too easy."

To be continued...