The Greatest Treasure of All: Part Five

      Aaron sat up and rubbed his eyes sleepily. "Whoa, did we really fall asleep here? This is terrible; I bet our mums are worried sick about us…."

      "Yeah," said Katrina sadly. "But we can't worry about that now! Just imagine how proud they'll be of us once we find the treasure! They'll forget all about us not coming home last night."

      "Well, I guess you're right," said Ricky. "So where are we even supposed to go next? I forgot what the clue said."

      "I remember it," said Katrina, "word for word:

     Complete the quest of a desperate cook

     And he'll give you knowledge beyond a book."

      "Oh ok," said Ricky. "The Kitchen Quest, right?"

      "Right," Katrina answered.

      "And what do you think the knowledge is?" Ricky continued. "The location of the treasure?" he said hopefully.

      "Maybe," Katrina replied, smiling. "There's only one way to find out."

      They all started over to the Kitchen Quest, which, thankfully, was not that far away from the Training School where they had fallen asleep.

      As soon as they were within a metre or two of it, a very loud Flotsam began to call out to them. "Hey, you there! I need your help! I need ingredients for another meal to serve to Mumbo Pango. He's always asking for food, and I can't keep up! Please, you must help me!"

      Katrina looked at the note again. It said that they had to complete his quest. "Okay," Katrina agreed.

      "Thank you! Okay, here's what I need: a Creamy Cloud Ice Cream, a Sour Blue Slushie, and a Gummy Kacheek Tail. You have two hours and ten minutes."

      Katrina, Ricky, and Aaron all looked at each other, worried. They hadn't even thought about how they would do the quest - they didn't even have any Neopoints!

      "Well? What are you all standing there for? Go!" the chef urged them.

      "Well, you see, there's a small problem…" Katrina said hesitantly.

      "And what would that be?" asked the Flotsam cook impatiently.

      "We're broke," Aaron blurted out.

      "Broke?!" the Flotsam cried. "Why would you accept a quest when you are broke? Now what am I going to do? Mumbo Pango wants his lunch in two hours, and I don't have anything to give him!"

      "Um, don't worry," said Katrina, trying to reassure him. "We'll find some way to finish this quest. We've got to."

      "What does it mean to you?" said the chef angrily. "You aren't the ones that will have to face Mumbo Pango's wrath when he goes hungry at my fault… or rather, at yours! This is a lot more important to me than it is to you!"

      "I wouldn't be so sure about that," said Aaron. "We really need to finish it to, and I bet you know why."

      The chef turned away, but Aaron was sure he saw a slight grin on the Flotsam's face. "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about," he said. "But I need those items fast, so go! Go make some Neopoints if you have to. Go play some games or something. If you finish, I will reward you well."

      "Oh yeah, we've got to play games! Duh," said Katrina. "I can't believe I didn't think of that before; it's so obvious. We probably should have played before we accepted the quest so we would have had more time…. But there's no use trying to change the past. We have to go play some games, and fast!"

      "Yeah," said Ricky. "But what games are there around here to play?"

      "Mynci Beach Volleyball. And that's lucky, because, I must admit, I'm pretty good at that," replied Katrina with a proud smirk.

      "Yeah, pretty good at losing!" said Aaron, bursting out in laughter. Katrina's sinister glare told him that he had better stop. "Sorry, I couldn't resist…" he apologized with a sheepish grin.

      They ran to the volleyball net as fast as they could. When they got there, two Myncies (one red and one blue) stood waiting for new challengers. "Hey, look, some competition," the blue one said.

      "Yeah," said the red. "Let's beat 'em!"

      Much time passed and Pawkeet feathers flew, but Katrina, Ricky, and Aaron bump-set-spiked their way to victory. All the while, Rita and Dreamer jumped up and down on the sidelines cheering for them. After all games were finished, they had earned 1,900 Neopoints between them.

      "That should be enough to get us the items," said Katrina. "I think they're all pretty cheap."

      They waved good-bye to the Mynci brothers, who were on the floor pouting about their defeat. Then they rushed off to the Island Market to buy the items.

      "What were the items we were supposed to get again?" asked a forgetful Ricky.

      "A Creamy Cloud Ice Cream, a Gummy Kacheek Tail, and a Sour Blue Slushie," Katrina reminded him. "Now let's try to hurry. We only have about forty-five minutes left!"

      The Shop Wizard was ready to assist them when they arrived. "What do you seek?" asked the magical Jubjub.

      "Well, first of all, we need to find a Creamy Cloud Ice Cream," Aaron told him.

      "All right… let's see what we have. Creamy Cloud Ice Cream… User neopetsroxlyktotally has two in stock for 1200 NP each, and user 54321omg12345 has one in stock for 1030."

      "We'll take the 'omg' dude… or whatever," said Katrina. The Shop Wizard closed his eyes and concentrated, and with a swish of his cape the group was transported to the user's shop. They purchased the item and went back to the Wizard.

      "That was fairly expensive," Katrina noted. "I hope the other items are cheaper. We only have 870 Neopoints left.

      "Okay," she said to the Shop Wizard. The next thing we're looking for is a Gummy Kacheek Tail."

      "Very well, Gummy Kacheek Tail…. User 1plus1equalz2lol has one in stock for 799 NP, and user kacheeksrsoawesomeya has one for 640."

      "Oh no…" said Aaron. "I hope the other one is super cheap, that's all we can afford now!"

      "Well, we'll just have to see," Katrina told him. "The second one, please. And by the way, I like the name."

      The five were sent to the shop, and they bought the Gummy Kacheek Tail. Upon returning to the Shop Wizard, they had only 230 NP remaining. Katrina asked for the final item, the Sour Blue Slushie, and the Wizard told them, "The cheapest Sour Blue Slushie available belongs to user cheapstuffshop, who has four of them priced each at 350 Neopoints."

      "What? Are you absolutely sure that's the cheapest? Please, search again! Try again!" Katrina pleaded.

      The Wizard tried again, but came up with the same results. "I'm sorry," he said, "But that is still the cheapest anywhere. It really is a quite good deal, and you should take advantage of it."

      Indeed, it was a good deal, but they were still a hundred and twenty Neopoints short. They knew they had to do something quick to earn that few extra NP. But what?

      "What can give us 120 NP fast?" asked Katrina, trying to brainstorm.

      "I don't know," said Ricky. "It has to be something close-by and free."

      "And it can't be Mynci Beach Volleyball, because we already reached our maximum for the day," Aaron mentioned.

      "Well, we could play another game, right? Like Gadgadsgame," suggested Ricky.

      "No, that takes too long," said Katrina. "We've only got about half an hour left for the quest, and maybe less if others start buying all the slushies from that guy's shop!"

      "What other things are there that we can make some NP off of on this island?" wondered Aaron. "We've already done the Tombola… wait, no we haven't! That was yesterday! It's the next day now, and we can play it again right now for free!"

      "That's great!" said Katrina. "And it's really close, so we just might be able to make it! Now, let's just hope we win…."

      They raced to the Tombola stand, where, fortunately, there was a short line. (While in line, they noticed the wagon of sand bottles they had left there yesterday, but they didn't have time to bother with it at the moment.) When they reached the front of the line, Aaron was the one to stick his paw in and grab a ticket. He pulled it out slowly, not wanting to look, too afraid that it would be a losing number. Then he saw it. On the little ticket was the number 25. "Yes!" each Aaron, Ricky, and Katrina cried in triumph. They had won.

      "Congratulations," said the Tiki Tack Man. He wasn't very happy to see them, apparently remembering them from the previous day. Your prize is 127 Neopoints and this item…."

      He presented them with a bag of Neopoints and a Lu Codestone. "Thank you so much!" said Katrina very excitedly, taking only the Neopoints and not caring about the codestone, or anything else besides finishing the quest as fast as possible.

      They started running back to the Island Market to buy the Slushie. Once there, they were completely out of breath, but Katrina managed to ask the Shop Wizard, "Sour Blue Slushie… cheapstuffshop… still in stock? .... Have points… need to buy fast."

      "As a matter of fact, he does have a Sour Blue Slushie in stock left, but only one. You must hurry and get there," responded the Shop Wizard, who, amazingly, had understood what Katrina had asked.

      He teleported them to the shop of user cheapstuffshop, where they quickly purchased the slushie and headed back toward the island kitchen to give him the quest items.

     They had to run fast, even though they were already tired from all the rushing. Suddenly, Ricky collapsed to his knees on the sand halfway there.

      "I can't make it, guys," he said, gasping for breath. "Don't let me slow you down; you must go on without me. Good luck," he finished, and fell completely to the ground.

      But Katrina knew him all too well. "Ricky, cut the drama. There's no time for jokes here. We don't have much time left," she said very calmly for someone whose friend had just collapsed from exhaustion.

      Ricky got up immediately, brushing himself off and muttering, "Man, you just know how to take the fun out of everything, don't you?"

      They resumed their journey back to the chef, and they seemed to get there just in time. The chef was mumbling something like, "Oh no, oh no, they've failed, failed, no time, no time, the meal, the meal, Mumbo Pango…." When he saw them approaching, he jumped for joy, literally leaping a foot into the air. "You're here! Do you have my ingredients?"

      "Yes, we do. Here's the Creamy Cloud Ice Cream," Katrina said, handing him the item. The chef took it from her and dumped it into a boiling pot. "And here's the Gummy Kacheek Tail." She gave that to him as well. "And finally, the Sour Blue Slushie. This recipe better be fantastic, after all we went through to get this stuff!"

      "Thank you so much!" said the Flotsam. "Don't worry, it will be great. Now, to reward you for your help, I shall give you this." He produced a golden key and a silver paper from under his table and handed them to Katrina. "Oh, and I also have some knowledge for you."

      "Knowledge?" said Ricky. "You mean, like, where the treasure is? Oh, do we use the key to open the treasure chest? What is the treasure, anyway? Is it -"

      The Flotsam laughed. "Treasure? Boy, children sure have crazy imaginations these days. Anyway, here's my secret: There is a special recipe with two parts. Do you see that key there? That is Part One."

      A booming voice was heard from a distance: "Do you have my food yet?"

      "Oh, no, it's him! It's Mumbo Pango, and he doesn't sound happy. If you will excuse me, I have to go right away." With that, he poured the now cooked contents of the pot into a cup and sped off like lightning with the cup in his hand, leaving the kids trying to picture a Gummy Ice Cream Slushie.

To be continued...