The Adventures of Trina: The Return of the Staff - Part Two

     Cassie spun around and then paused almost instantly. “Is that the staff that I think it is? The real one that you-know-who used?”

     Pat walked over to Trina to get a closer look. “Trina? You know what that is, right?”

     Linny froze with fright and couldn’t mutter a word, no matter how many questions eroded her logical explanations.

     “I can’t believe it. I just can’t. It’s the Staff of Alhasutek, the real thing! I studied this last year! Who would put it here? My history teacher said it was destroyed for good! This is an important artifact in Neopia’s history!” Trina said eagerly.

     “Someone didn’t want to destroy it for a reason, that’s for sure. Most likely it still has some useful power left over, and someone’s just waiting for the perfect moment to use it. Do you think Fyora knows about this? Should we turn it in to her?” Pat stared at the staff, shocked.

     “No! Don’t turn it in just yet! We should see how much it’s worth first! It may be sold for millions or billions of neopoints! Maybe we show it off, or we can defeat the Snowager first, or-” Cassie yelled, but was rudely interrupted by Trina.

     “Or we can get in HUGE trouble! It caused an enormous amount of peril to the Lost Desert before, and we definitely don’t want it to happen again anywhere else. I’ll hold on to it for safe keeping for now, and I’ll fight to protect it with all my strength; you know I will.” Trina cautiously placed the delicate staff in her backpack. Her thoughts beamed in an instant with endless suggestions, some wise and some not-so-wise.

     Linny finally spoke. “Don’t do it, Trina! What if someone or something finds out that one of Neopia’s most powerful weapons still exists and is in the hands of a Wocky? I say we bury the staff back where it was, tell Fyora, and pretend that absolutely nothing happened.”

     “Listen to her, Trina. This must be done,” Pat mumbled in agreement. “Powerful knowledge can be dangerous, even more hazardous in our case.”

     “But this is the only item that can lead us to fame! You know how badly I want to prove I can be the world’s greatest archeologist! It’s my dream, and I can’t ask for anything more. Please, just give me a chance, just this once. I’ve waited my whole life for this. I will be sure that someone else will not know that I have it.” Trina pleaded to her friends with her eyes widened as she gaped in their uptight faces. “You can always trust me.”

     “Fine.” Linny sighed.

     “Okay.” Pat nodded.

     “Just this once, no second chances,” Cassie added, almost rolling her eyes.

     Trina stood up and let her backpack rest on her shoulders. “I would stay here and look for more rare treasures, but I think we should get out of here now before something happens.”

     “Uh, Trina...” Linny interrupted with a shaky tone.

     “What?” Trina asked, turning to face Linny.

     Unexpectedly, the flashlight went out, leaving them in complete darkness.

     Although it wasn’t visible, Linny’s face had become pale. “There’s something moving under my foot and it doesn’t feel pleasant.”

     “I feel something too.” Pat tried to sight something in the darkness, but it seemed impossible to do so.

     “Ouch!” Cassie shrieked, and it echoed throughout the passage.

     Before someone could say anything more, the flashlight went back on. Trina pointed it at her friends’ feet. Small dusty fat green snake-like creatures were rolling around hastily in the sand beneath them. There were about 8 of them, but she didn’t bother to check her counting skills. One of them revealed their sharp yellow fangs and slithered toward Pat. They needed to get out of the place now, or else they would have to pay for their intrusion the hard way.

     Without waiting another horrific second, Trina yelled as loud as she could. “RUN!” she scurried over the hideous creatures, seemingly faster than record-breaking running speed. “RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

     Trina’s friends followed right behind her.

     “What are those things?” Linny didn’t dare to look back.

     “They are Mutant Cobralls. They're not your everyday painted Cobralls; these seem to be very ancient-poisonous-valuable-artifact-guarding ones,” answered Trina.

     “HISS...”

     Trina took a glance at what was behind her, both ears twitching. The ugly petpets were right behind them. She noticed something even worse that forced her take another peek behind her. Instead of 8 Cobralls she saw earlier, there were now about 50 of them rushing on their trail.

     Trina hadn’t a clue where she was going; she just needed to get away safely from the Cobralls with the broken staff and her friends. “Let’s keep going until we find some sort of exit. Also, whatever you do, don’t look behind you, don’t stop running, and don’t get bitten! There may not be a cure!” she pointed out.

     “Okay!” Pat kept running without deliberation.

     They could hear the hissing of the Cobralls getting louder by the second. Trina started to weaken from the running and her ears began to hurt, but she couldn’t stop now. She kept on running continuously straight until she felt something in front of her.

     SMASH!

     Trina and her friends ran into a solid wall made from sand and stone. They all started searching for more places to run, but they felt nothing more. The only thing they could see was the glow of shiny bright yellow eyes of many Cobralls coming toward them.

     The Usul screamed in complete panic. “Trina! There’s no way out!”

     “They don’t put these ends in for no reason! There must be something here!” Trina started rapidly punching the walls and digging, but to no avail. She quickly punched the sand ceiling above her. She felt it lift up slightly, but it was stuck.

     “Help me push this door up!” Trina demanded.

     They all jumped up and down pushing the trap door up, hearts thumping. It seemed to be blocked by something heavy, sand. The mutant Cobralls were only mere seconds away from them now. Together and not stalling, they pushed as hard as their tired arms could and the door opened. Linny, Pat, and Cassie climbed out of the chamber like hungry Spyders, and threw themselves on to the golden sand of the desert. Unfortunately, Trina was still inside. There wasn’t enough time to get her out.

     “USE THE STAFF!” Linny managed to yell while fearfully trembling like a leaf on a tree in a windstorm.

     Ignoring the endless hissing of Cobralls, the frightened Wocky grabbed her backpack and pulled both parts of the staff out. She quickly clamped the broken parts together like a race of puzzles. She held the staff tight in her frail paws and closed her eyes, hoping it would work. A screeching zapping sound vibrated her ears. Trina opened her eyes. Her wand had an eerie white glow surrounding it and felt much colder than it had in her backpack.

     All that remained were many blue Kadoatie hair brushes on the ground below her. In relief, she placed the staff back in her backpack, and then Cassie helped her climb out of the trap door.

     “Are you okay?” Pat asked Trina with an anxious stare.

     “Yeah, this staff is just so amazing.” Trina dusted sand off of her fur while panting and trembling.

     “Where are we?” asked Linny.

     Trina looked around out into the distance. She couldn’t believe that they had gone so far. There were pyramids that were very far away and everything behind her was even further, but she managed to see it. There was some palm trees and a walled city. She could tell it was the grand city of Sakhmet.

     “I see the city. Let’s head over there before the desert heats up even more!” Trina declared and pointed at the walls.

     Without any delay, the weary four began to march slowly toward the city, hoping that something better would happen. They hiked on for about an hour in the desert. When they finally got almost halfway, they noticed something strange. Two Neopets nearby were dressed in lots of unnecessary layers of desert clothing, like as if it was about to snow, hard.

     Trina began to feel a strange feeling in her spotted fur. Had someone found out about the staff? Before she could ask about turning back, two brown Meercas covered in shiny gold jewelry and long white sheets walked in front of them, blocking their way. One was wearing a massive golden scarab necklace and the other was wearing a tiara with a small silver Geb attached to the front.

     “Excuse me, would you like a grand tour of the entire Sakhmet City? Free ice cold beverages and tasty snacks are provided. Admission is absolutely free of cost! We normally wouldn’t do this, but since you look so exhausted we can make an exception. What do ya say?” the Meerca with a giant golden scarab necklace spoke in a very girly voice, accent higher than usual.

     “That’s very nice of you, but we really have to get going.” Cassie tried to walk in front of them, but they bounced in front of her.

     “The city isn’t going anywhere, but we are. It’s totally free!” the Meerca with the tiara added, “Sounds great, huh!”

     Trina gave out a quick deep sigh. “Fine, I guess we can go for a while.”

     “Before we go, we must definitely introduce ourselves. I’m Stacey, and this is Mer... I mean, Cindy, my sister,” the Meerca with the necklace said annoyingly.

     The four pets introduced themselves and followed the two Meercas off into the heart of the desert. The tour guides spoke rarely and seemed to not care how blistering the heat was.

     “I want a bottle of water, please,” Pat told Cindy.

     “I’m sorry but we are all out right now. I’ll go get some more once we reach the city; that shouldn’t be long from now,” replied Cindy.

     They walked on the flat desert sand for another hour. Their feet were so sore that they could hardly feel them. Bored, Trina looked down at her watch. It was almost 2 P.M.

To be continued...