The Misadventures of Yaru

The Misadventures of Yaru and the Quest of a Lifetime, or at Least One Afternoon

"This will be your last stand, Gors the Mighty!" the white Lupe shouted.

     "We shall see, young Lupe," the enormous meepit bellowed.

     The Lupe raised his Shock Wand above his head, preparing to attack. "Goodbye..."

     "Yaru. Yaru!" The Baby Lupe turned away from his game to see Jen, his owner, standing the doorway to his room. She had pale skin, and shoulder length, ebony colored hair. "I seem to recall telling you to clean your room." He could tell by the tone of her voice that she was furious. She was generally extremely nice to him, but could be awfully mean when she needed to be. "I decided I would come and check your progress, only to find you sitting here in the Tigermouse Nest playing Neoquest." She moved slowly into the room, nudging toys out of her way with a foot as she went. "There isn't even enough room to walk. The floor isn't just some giant shelf where you can throw things." Her face showed that she was slowly becoming angrier. "Put the game away, now! I still can't understand why you thought it would be all right to play that now."

     "Well, it all dates back to the ancient Neopian Empire."

     "Save it," Jen said flatly. "I want you to put the game away, and tomorrow you are going to clean your room."

     "But, Jen..." Yaru pleaded.

     "No buts. In fact, you aren't allowed to play any games until this room is clean. Now go to bed." She left the room before Yaru was given a chance to argue. She didn't enjoy being so stern with him, but if she didn't put her foot down, the young pup would just sit around all day playing games. "Fyora only knows what all those games have already done to his mind." As she walked across the hall to her own bedroom she muttered to herself, "Sometimes I wish there were such thing as a caffeine faerie. Neocola isn't enough to energize me for Yaru's antics every night."

     After closing the board game, Yaru turned his lights off and made his way to his bed. It was hard to see where he was stepping in the dark, but he attempted the dangerous journey regardless. In the pitch black he stubbed his foot on a toy lying recklessly upon his floor. He slapped a tiny paw over his mouth to avoid crying out in pain. With a leap of faith, he jumped onto his Judge Hog bed and grabbed his foot. It was still throbbing in pain. "Stupid toys," he muttered. "Why can't Dr. Sloth invent a machine to clean rooms?"

     ~~~

     Yaru picked at his plain omelette. It was his favorite breakfast food; all the other omelettes had too many different flavors in them. He wasn't really hungry this particular morning. He knew that once he finished his food, Jen would force him to clean his room. It was something that he wasn't looking forward to.

     Jen came into the kitchen holding the Neopian Times. She sat down across the table from Yaru. She took a sip from her breakfast tea before snapping the Times open. "Can I have the comics section? Please!" she heard on the other side of the paper. Looking over the top, she saw Yaru staring at her with pleading eyes.

     "Oh, all right," she mumbled, giving in. She took out the comics section and handed it to the Baby Lupe. She smiled when she saw his tail began to wag once he buried his nose in the comics. "Finish your omelette and drink your apple juice."

     "All right," Yaru replied absently. He was so absorbed in the comics, a flaming robot could pass by and he would be none the wiser. He picked up his cup of apple juice and took a sip. The cool beverage tasted so good that he took another sip before taking another bite of his omelette. It made Jen happy to hear Yaru giggle every once in a while. She was not the biggest fan of the comic section, but when she did occasionally venture into it, she found them quite humorous. She would let him enjoy the morning a little while longer before forcing him up to his room.

     Gerald came stumbling down the stairs with little grace. The Red Eyrie was not a morning person; he had never been one. His feathers were ruffled and his eyes looked heavy on his face. He entered the kitchen dragging his feet, making scuffing noises as he moved. He grabbed the last omelette, which coincidently was cheese, his favorite flavor. He then moved and took the glass of orange juice waiting on the counter for him before sitting down. Before he started on his breakfast, he rubbed his eyes in hopes of revitalizing them. It was too early for him.

     Jen closed the Times and looked over at Gerald. "A little early, is it?" she asked cheerily. A grunt was the only reply she was offered. Gerald hated how Jen was always so energetic in the morning. How could she be so alive at this hour? Actually, she always seemed to radiate energy that others didn't. "I need you to watch Yaru for a little while. I need to go into town and get us some food; we are almost out of things to eat."

     The pup looked up from his comics with a look of distaste plastered across his face. "Are you serious? You are leaving him in charge? It is going to be like Meridell's dungeon while you're gone." His comment was replied with an exhausted Eyrie sticking his tongue out at the Lupe.

     "Quit overreacting," Jen said. "It is not like it will matter if I leave him in charge or not. Once you finish your breakfast, you need to go clean your room. You didn't forget last night, did you?"

     Yaru's tail dropped quickly. He hadn't forgotten, but he had hoped that she might have. The atmosphere in the kitchen no longer felt welcoming to the Lupe, so he downed the rest of his apple juice and hopped out of his chair. Jen got up as well. Unlike Yaru, she made her way for the front door instead of the staircase.

     Yaru had no intention of cleaning his room once she left; he planned to play Neoquest until she got back. Only then would he clean his room. He made his way up the stairs slowly, so that he would be able to hear the door click shut behind Jen. Once he heard the glorious sound of a door clicking shut, he ran the rest of the way to his room.

     He closed his door behind him so that he would not be disturbed. Without hesitation, he began to rummage through the toys, canvassing the floor in hopes of finding his game. Today he was going to finally beat Neoquest on Insane mode. But as the minutes passed, he began noticing that there might be a problem. He couldn't find his game. He searched frantically for a little while longer, until his worst fear was confirmed. Jen must have taken his game and hidden it from him.

     Yaru could just simply clean his room, but he was determined to play the game. He scratched his chin as he pondered as to where she could have put his game. It only took him a few minutes to realize where it must be. Snapping his paw, he shouted, "The storage closet!" Excitement filled his heart as he ran down the hall to the closet. It was where she hid his presents before his birthday and the day of Celebrating. It had to be where she hid his game.

     He opened the door slowly, expecting some sort of trap. Sometimes he amazed himself with how clever he was. Peering into the darkness of the closet, he inhaled what was one of the strangest smells he had ever encountered. There were no lights in the closet, and the smell always bothered him. It reminded him of the Dank Cave from Neoquest. It looked scary, and he didn't know what kind of creatures could be lurking in there, waiting to devour a poor, defenseless Lupe. He ran back to his room to grab his toy sword. "Now I will be able to defend myself."

     Yaru stepped with caution into the storage closet. As he ventured deeper into the stacks of boxes, the floor slowly turned into mud. Looking around, he noticed that he could no longer see the brick walls that lined the closet. In their place were palisades of rock. The boxes seemed to have disappeared, as well; only stalactites and stalagmites remained. It didn't take long for him to realize where he was, Dank Cave. There wasn't any other logical explanation. His knees trembled in fear. So he gathered his strength and tightened his grip on his sword before venturing any farther.

     As he rounded a corner, he saw him. The most disgusting beast ever to plague the citizens of Neopia, Xantan the Foul. "I'll teach you to come here, fool!" the pile of sludge shouted.

     "Well, we will see about that," Yaru replied as he raised his toy sword overhead, running as fast as his feet would carry him. "Eat blade, you fiend!" He struck fast and hard. Xantan must have been caught off guard because he was putting up little resistance. In fact, all he managed to do was move after Yaru attacked him. "I see that the weakening spell the Circle of Twelve put on you was quite effective, Xantan." He let out a battle cry as he moved in to finish the beast off.

     "Xantan?"

     Yaru's battle halted immediately. Reality blurred back into his field of vision. The cave walls reverted back to brick, and the mud on the ground disappeared. Gerald stood in the doorway to the storage closet with a questioning look on his face. "I came up hear to see why you're making all this noise. Hey, why were you hitting my fuzzle with your toy sword. I have been looking for that."

     Yaru turned around to see a brown fuzzle lying helpless on the floor.

     "Never mind, I don't even want to know." The Red Eyrie moved quickly to grab his toy and leave the Lupe alone to his business.

     Yaru had had as much of the dark closet as he could muster. He didn't even feel like looking for his game anymore. It was too dangerous. He would just clean his room and finish Neoquest tomorrow. As he made his way down the hallway, dragging his toy sword behind him, he was struck with an idea bright enough to illuminate all of Kreludor. "If she was going to hide it anywhere, she would have hid it in her own room."

     Jen's room was decorated with pink colored Fyora furniture. As he made his way to the Fyora inspired bedroom desk, the world began to warp once again. This time he found himself in Two Rings tower. There was a small wooded chest in front of him. After a very thorough examination of the chest's contents, Yaru was certain his game was not in it.

     It was when all hope of finding his game had been lost that he heard noises coming from behind him. He whipped around to see his worst nightmare staring him down. "Jahbal," he whispered. He must be the one who took Neoquest out of his room. Jahbal hadn't spotted the Lupe yet, but he was getting closer by the second. Yaru remained still and quiet, waiting for his chance to pounce.

     He jumped and attacked with all of his might. "For all of Neopia, I will destroy you." Yaru could tell that his wrath was being delivered with every blow. Jahbal could do nothing but cower behind his wings, protecting his face. "Stop it. Stop it already."

     The Eyrie took in a breath, obviously preparing himself to cast a spell. Yaru closed his eyes and began swinging his weapons wildly and with even more force. He would not lose to Jahbal, not here. "Stop it, Yaru!"

     He knew that voice. He immediately stopped attacking the sorcerer. He opened his eyes and found himself once more in Jen's room. Gerald stood in front of him with an angry expression on his face. Yaru could tell that he was furious, and he was about to get an earful of earsplitting cries of anger.

     Luckily a noise that came from downstairs saved him from his punishment.

     It was the front door opening. "I'm home!" Jen exclaimed.

     Gerald looked at Yaru, and opened his mouth to say something. Only to close it a second later. He slowly turned around and left Jen's room. "You got lucky, weirdo," he added as he went out of sight.

     Yaru waited a few seconds after he had left, making sure that he was gone, before running down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Jen, Jen, Jen!" h e said energetically. "Where did you hide my Neoquest game? I can't find it anywhere."

     The shocked look which that spread across Jen's face wasn't the answer he was looking for. "You lost it? I don't have it. You probably just lost it somewhere in that messy room of yours."

     She had to be joking. He had spent the whole morning searching the house for his game. It had been a waste of time because it was still in his room. Before Jen had a chance to ask if he had cleaned his room, he was already throwing toys around his room in the attempt to find his game. After a few minutes of getting nowhere, he began to think of the best way to go about finding his game. "If only it wasn't so messy in here, I could probably find it with ease." On that note, the young Lupe began straightening up his room, putting toys where they went. It only took a matter of minutes before his room started to look like a room and not a Safety Deposit Box that had exploded. However, he was still unable to find his game.

     Fortunately his room wasn't completely clean yet, which meant he could still find it. There was a pile of junk in the corner remaining. He picked up a pile of his dirty clothes and put them in his clothes hamper. Turning back to where they had been, he saw it. Lying there, where it had been waiting for him all day long. His tail began to wag exaggeratedly. Grabbing his game, he jumped onto his bed and began to play. Today he would beat Neoquest on Insane mode.

     Unbeknownst to the Baby Lupe, an ivory skinned human was watching him from the other side of his doorway. Last night, after Yaru had fallen asleep, she had slipped in his room and purposefully hidden his game in the corner under all the mess. That way the only way he would be able to find it would be if he cleaned his room. She turned around with a smile on her face, with the intention of returning to the kitchen and reading more of the articles in the Neopian Times. Maybe she would treat herself to some ice cream. She deserved a treat for devising such a well executed plan.

The End