We Are Meepit: Part One

The Meeting

It was a stormy day in Neopia when they attacked.

    We all knew it would happen someday; we all knew that there was evil behind their cute little beady eyes. But they had put off the ambush so long that we had recklessly assumed that it was only a rumor, that it would never happen.

    But it did.

    Neopets clutched their Battledome weapons tight to their chests, looking up worriedly at the sky, where a wave of pink petpets blocked out the sun. They raged at the Neopians, attacking and fighting while the Neopians clumsily tried to wreak damage on them. Those neopets were mostly unsuccessful; though they were small, there was an unbelievable number of them.

    They were the meepits.

    And so was I.

    *

    It was late autumn when I received an invitation in the neomail. My owner, Lyssy, a repulsively kind and girly Uni, intercepted the neomail but, like the naive, vain neopet that she always was, she was not even curious enough to open it. Instead she gushed over me. "Aw, Clyde, lookie here... there's a neomail for you! It isn't for me or Alex or Papa, it's for you!" Alex was Lyssy's sister, and Papa her owner.

    I nodded and walked over, sticking out my paw for my letter. She happily handed it over, and pranced off to who-knows-where. I ripped the envelope and pulled out the small piece of parchment. My blue eyes squinted to see the tiny writing on the neomail.

    To whom it may concern,

    You are a meepit. Obviously. Well, so are we, and we are a single body of intelligence, cunning, and strength. The ambush planned years ago is up for debate at a meeting tonight. Won't you come? It is in the secret location at Terror Mountain.

    Sincerely,

    Head meepit Jonas

    I gripped the neomail tightly. Finally I had been invited to a battle discussion! As meepits, we all went through basic training and learned where all of the secret locations were, in case we were ever called to duty. Well, this was my chance. At long last I had been one of the carefully selected meepits to carry out an attack on the Neopian population.

    I quickly disposed of it; if Alex, a grey Kougra much smarter than her sister, noticed it, our plans would be thwarted, and I most certainly did not want to be the one blamed for discovery. I wondered what time I should leave. It didn't say in the confidential letter. But if I were to get there in time, even from my humble abode in Tyrannia, I had to set out then.

    Using my high IQ, I devised a way to exit the house without revealing to anyone that I was leaving. I pushed a piece of furniture to the door and jumped up on top of it. Then I turned the doorknob, opening the house to a world of desert. I leapt out of the house, not caring if the door was still slightly ajar. I was free.

    My first few footsteps kept me in the Tyrannian Village. But before long I was at the border, as our house is very near to the borderline. I was able to peer into Terror Mountain, a tall, snowy mountain of icy terrain and terrible terror. It was the perfect place to request a meeting. I eagerly jumped over the borderline onto the ice, but I foolishly slipped. I slid on the ice to the edge of the mountain, where I lay, shaking snow off my pelt, feeling incredibly foolish, and watching the stars floating around my head due to my dizziness.

    I was more careful after my slide. I trekked through the snow carefully, feeling the ground before I stepped. It took longer, but still, I made it, sore and tired, to the top of Terror Mountain at the very bridge between afternoon and evening.

    I gazed at the wonderful view below me. Such spectacular land Neopia had, and one day we meepits would rule all of it. I smiled and walked over to the Igloo Garage Sale, and then farther behind it, until I reached a crack in the ice, and an icicle jutting out just below. Smiling as I remembered what I had learned in meepit training, I raised my shaking paw and shoved the icicle into the mountain.

    I stood there, amazed, as the crack widened into a hole small enough for a meepit to crawl into. What greeted me beyond that hole was only darkness, but I knew that this was the way to the meeting house in Terror Mountain. I slunk into the hole and was startled as a rumbling like an earthquake shook me. I covered my head with my paws, but then looked back. The hole was sealed again.

    The space was tight, even for a meepit, but still I crawled, inching along ever slowly, getting more anxious each moment. I was a bit of a claustrophobic petpet; I immensely disliked small areas. This was a tunnel of ice, and a very long one too; I knew it was made to resist the enemy, but that didn't make me resent it any less.

    But eventually, I emerged into a spectacular ice palace.

    The walls and ceiling were completely glittering ice, sparkling ice, pure ice. A large couch was made of ice, and about fifty meepits sat on it. Thirteen other couches resided in the ice palace, and each had about fifty meepits as well. It was every meepit in Neopia, it seemed, crowded here to watch this meeting and discuss our battle strategies.

    I took a seat on the couch with only forty-three - yes, I counted - and turned my beady eyes to the center, like everyone else.

    "Hey, Clyde!" whispered a voice. I turned to see who I was sitting next to. It was Katelynn, the meepit next door.

    "Hey, Katelynn. So you got invited too?" I greeted her.

    She laughed. "Almost every battle-fit meepit did, Clyde. I think Jonas is really serious about the attack this time!"

    I nodded excitedly and turned back to the center of the ice palace. Suddenly I noticed a pedestal rising high into the sky. On top of it sat a meepit, purple robe around him, golden crown perched on his head. He raised his paws and everyone cheered. When he lowered those paws, everyone quieted again. I was fascinated.

    "Welcome, meepits of Neopia!" boomed Jonas' loud voice, thick like ice cream. "I am going to take this opportunity to thank you all for coming! However, friendly chat cannot last long. We have much business to be taken care of this meeting!"

    Katelynn shifted eagerly in her seat, and whispered, "I bet he's going to announce the attack!" I just nodded, captivated.

    "For years meepits have existed on the surface of Neopia, secretly training ourselves to be elite! Then we trained the younger generation, and, at last, we have a meepit army! Several have seen through our plot, but few truly believed in our malevolence! That is all about to change!" Jonas declared.

    We all cheered.

    "On the first of the thirteenth year, we shall attack the Neopians and claim Neopia as our own! WE ARE MEEPIT!"

    "WE ARE MEEPIT! WE ARE MEEPIT!" the crowd repeated.

    I had never seen anything so inspirational as that meeting. I listened to the Head Meepit and agreed with everything he said, and truly began to believe that meepits could declare utter dominance. Surely we could rule Neopia better than any of those Neopians!

    The meeting was perfect, one of the best experiences I’d ever had. I could have stayed there for hours, but the meeting only lasted two. When it was over, we spent at least another fifteen minutes applauding the great Jonas, until he and his pedestal lowered and disappeared under the icy floor.

    "Best battle strategy ever! We wreak havoc on them during the first wave... all of the meepits attack, or, at least, almost all of them. Then in the second wave, we bring down the Faerie Queen! And if a third is necessary, we use full fighting power!” Katelynn told me.

    "I know, I was here, and I listened to all of it! It's just great! I hope I get to be in the first wave!" I whispered to Katelynn excitedly. She nodded back frantically.

    "Me too! The Neopians won't stand a chance! There are millions of meepits - I heard that there's this many at every other secret location on the planet!" she revealed.

    I gasped. "There are one-thousand-seventy-six other secret locations! And there's this many at all of them?"

    "At least! We're really going to win!"

    "You bet!" I responded, confidence outlining my voice.

    The side of the wall fell, revealing a tunnel much bigger than the one I had crawled through to arrive. Every meepit swarmed like a river to the tunnel, where we learned that we were to wait there for the first day of the thirteenth year.

    I walked down a narrow pathway to where Katelynn, I, and three other meepits were going to wait. The first day of the thirteenth year was only two days away.

    *

    I opened groggy eyes to realize that it was New Year's Day. I cheered in celebration. "Today's the day! Today's the day!" I yelled eagerly.

    Katelynn rubbed her own beady eyes. "I know. I just can't wait! We'll get further instructions soon."

    'Soon' turned out to be only a few minutes later. A meepit marched in, his whole figure reeking of dominance. "You are all to exit through the nearest tunnel! It will bring you to Neopia Central, which is where we launch the attack! Then you must wait for the signal! Are we clear?"

    "Yes, sir!" we responded.

    "Good!" he boomed, and he exited.

    Katelynn and I marched into the tunnel and walked for what seemed like forever, until we saw a gap in the tunnel, light flowing from it. I climbed the wall and popped out through the gap, to find the army of meepits. I quickly joined them, and we marched to the center of the town.

    Jonas was lifted into the air by all of the meepits. "From this day forward, Neopians, meepits are the ones who shall rule Neopia!"

    Shocked faces stared at us. Then there was a cry.

    "Never!"

    "Yeah, you'll never take our world!"

    "Neopia is free!"

    "You meepits are going down!"

    And thus, the battle began.

To be continued...