An Unlikely Group of Heroes: Part Seven

     "Oh, really, Jared? Well then why don't you solve it?" Callista challenged.

     "Hmph," Jared sniffed. "I don't see why we don't just grab a random key, stuff it in, and hope for the best."

     "What if the room caves in, or Neopia explodes, or the stones disintegrate? Don't do it!" I sobbed.

     Jared rolled his eyes. "There are twenty-six keys. Each one seems to have a letter of the alphabet on the end of it. I say we try 'J,’ for Jeran." He snatched the particular key off the wall.

     "No, no, no!" Callista shoved him aside, a 'C' key in her hands. "This one is better."

     "Why don't we try to solve the riddle?" I pleaded. I didn't want for the room to collapse, for us to be trapped here until who-knows-when, and for the faeries to remain captured forever. "What did the ghost Usul say? Oh... 'You see us, now, for what we are, floating, flying, fearsome to most, but... but....' Oh, I've forgotten it!"

     "'But drop just this, and you'll see by far that we are really quite the hosts,'" Jared finished, his eyes still darting from his 'J' key to the large lock on the treasure chest. "But I don't know what it means. I highly doubt you do, either."

     "Well, the first part is about ghosts, right? 'You see us, now, for what we are.' Well, they're ghosts. But I don't know what the second part means. Do you?" I glanced at Callista.

     "Something about hosts? I don't know. Hosts rhymes with ghosts, though. They're only one letter off. Ugh, I'm so hungry." She patted her stomach, a doleful look on her face. "I wish I had more scone left."

     "My Fyora, Callista, you're brilliant!" Jared had a look of excitement on his face.

     Callista smiled smugly. "Thank you, Jared. See, I'm brilliant I didn't even try. Imagine what I could do if I did try, Shirley. Why, I could be the next Kauvara the Kau!"

     Jared rolled his eyes, and snatched another brass key off the wall. "This is the key!"

     "How do you know?" His fingers were gripped firmly around a key with a large G on the end, a series of brass vines weaving their way around the letter. I eyed the object suspiciously. "What if you're wrong?"

     He shook his head confidently. "No, this is the right key. Didn't you hear Callista? 'Ghosts' and 'hosts' are only one letter off! If you drop the 'g' off of 'ghosts,' you end up with 'hosts!'" He bent down over the treasure chest, inserted the key, and turned it.

     At first, there was nothing. Then, a low rumbling....

     * * * * *

     "Where could it be?" The cloak figure was shaking with fury. His dinner had run a bit—well, a lot—over. In fact, it had lasted a good four hours longer than he'd expected. He had an excuse, though: he had guests with him there to celebrate his imminent success. He growled, and then turned to look at the Darigan Kyrii. "It was on this table when we left, Remhart, where is it now?"

     "I d-d-don't know, Sire," the Kyrii stammered. He was presently searching underneath the table in an attempt to avoid the red-eyed gaze of his master. "Maybe the wind blew it away."

     "There are no windows here," the figure snarled, slamming his fist on the wooden table. He then spun around and marched over to the first of the cells. "You there. Faerie. Did someone come in and steal it?"

     "Steal what?" Illusen was smirking to herself, but she knew the dark outline could not see her expression through the walls of the bubble. "Besides," she continued, "I can barely see you through this bubble. How would I be able to see if somebody came in to steal anything?"

     The cloaked figure growled and lumbered back to the kitchen. Perhaps he'd accidentally taken the paper with him....

     * * * * *

     "Now look what you've done, Jared! We're doomed!" I moaned.

     "Oh, shut up. It was just the chest opening." Jared indicated the open box, and two brown packages in the middle. "See?"

     The packages were lumpy and messily tied. I tentatively picked one up and opened it. Inside was a roughly cut black gem. The other bag held the same.

     "Well, come on! Let's go! We have to get back to the Citadel!"

     "I think not," a raspy voice said from the shadows.

     * * * * *

     After being dismissed oh-so-rudely by the man whom he called Sire, Noit had taken refuge with his cousin, the infamous Edna. She had given him her typical glare, her right eye angled toward him and her left eye facing some other unknown object.

     "Fired, eh?" she'd cackled with glee before offering him a questionable green liquid. He'd kindly accepted it, watering a nearby potted plant with it when the Zafara had turned her back. When the plant later wilted and turned brown, Noit had been rather glad he had had the brains to not drink whatever had been in the cup.

     Edna had frowned at the dead plant, mourned the loss of such a faithful shrub, and tossed it out of her tower window. Noit followed the plant out the window and watched as the its clay pot shattered into a thousand little pieces. It was then that a rather awkward pile of leaves caught his eye.

     Beneath the leaves he found a pair of cloud racers. "The twerps!" he spat, recalling a group of four pets whom he had seen earlier that day.

     He'd followed their trail, asking the few pets whom he encountered if they'd seen his "lost siblings." Some were helpful, others wary, and a few shrugged indifferently. Eventually he'd wound up at the Gypsy Camp, a curious place to be, he speculated. He'd approached a beautiful Aisha and asked her if she'd seen his brothers and sisters. The Aisha looked him up and down a bit suspiciously, he thought, but directed him toward Neovia anyway before continuing her dance. It was quite his luck that he had seen the pets entering the front doors of a tall house ahead of him in Neovia. The Lenny wasn't with them, he observed.

     He had apparently used up all his luck, however, for when he tried to enter the property by way of a creaky, wooden gate, an irate Gelert had charged at him, screaming some sort of nonsense and brandishing a hefty shovel. Noit had fled and waited for the Gelert to hobble back into a wooden shack before attempting again.

     He now stood in the shadows of a dimly lit room. The pets had managed to find some sort of object, wrapped in brown paper. He hadn't come early enough to find out what exactly had been locked in the chest, but he figured it couldn't be good for his master (ex-master, he thought bitterly to himself). Slowly he emerged from the shadows.

     * * * * *

     "I think not," the raspy voice repeated. It belonged to a familiar Shadow Kyrii. My hands gripped tighter around the stones. "Give me the packages."

     My eyes flashed down to the stones, and I frowned. We had to escape him, but he was blocking our only exit.

     "Shirley," Callista whispered in my ear, quietly so that the Kyrii couldn't hear us, "we'll distract him. You run, get to the Citadel. Ready? On three. One..."

     I gulped, my palms sweating. I hardly seemed like the best choice out of the three of us. After all, I was wearing a dress and grew tired climbing stairs. Jared was much faster, I was sure.

     "Two..."

     I glanced at the packages in my hands. I wasn't very graceful either. I was prone to accidents, to tripping and falling over the smallest of twigs. Even without leaves, branches, and pebbles in my way, I often tripped over my own two feet. Shirley knew this; she often made fun of me about my clumsiness.

     "Three!"

     I took a deep breath and began to run.

     * * * * *

     I darted up the stairs, past Callista and Jared, who were taking turns pulling the Kyrii's tail, yanking at his mane, and tugging on his cape. I knew they couldn't keep hindering him for much longer. I sprinted as fast as my short legs could carry me, wishing I was a Kougra or a Shoyru, so I could run, or even fly, much quicker.

     Somewhere, far above me, there was a series of dull rings. One o'clock. I frowned. Time had flown by, and dawn was only a few short hours away. The first golden rays of sunshine would smile upon Meridell shortly before six, I figured. They would never touch the Citadel, though; it seemed to live under a constant veil of darkness, hidden by large gray clouds.

     Ten minutes later I was still running, surprised that I wasn't panting yet. I had left the mansion, kicked open the creaking gates (Argus the caretaker chased after me a bit, but he was old and couldn't walk, let alone run, very well). Neovia was behind me now, the cobblestone pathway a blur of pale speckles beneath my feet. The mist seemed to magically part in front of me as I struggled onward.

     Sometime later, I heard the familiar tambourine and music of the Gypsy Camp. A smile appeared on my face as I began to run faster, waiting for the first glimpses of the multi-colored bandwagons. A few minutes passed, and then the vague orange glowing of a roaring fire shone through the mist. I headed towards there, knowing escape was near. I passed the Aisha dancers, the musicians with the tambourine and the flute, and rushed down a muddy trail.

     The normally fearsome disfigured silhouettes of the trees of the Haunted Woods seemed insignificant now as I fled. I passed the gaping red mouth of a the grotesque Chia that marked the entrance to the long-since broken Carnival of Terror; it was no more than a blur of green and orange. I barely noticed the haunting moans of the Brain Tree and the ghostly sounds coming from the Castle of Eliv Thade.

     Edna's Tower was close; I could see the distinct outline in the distance: two green horns against a backdrop of dark green, nearly black, tree leaves. I was careful to dodge a dead plant, surrounded by a ring of shattered clay, as I passed the tower. Funny, I thought to myself, I hadn't noticed that before. I ran around to the back of the tower.

     The cloud racers had been uncovered, I noticed. The protective blanket of leaves had been brushed off. I was in too much of a hurry to worry, though. I hopped in the nearest racer and turned it on. It hovered, sputtered, and then fell back to the ground.

     "Out of fuel?" I read the three blinking words as they glowed bright red on the dashboard. I had no choice but to run through the forest alone. Sighing, I abandoned the cloud racer and tore off through the woods.

     * * * * *

     I was running, surrounded by nothing but darkness, complete and utter darkness. I stretched my paw in front of my face and saw nothing. Even the stars provided no vague twinkling light through the thick leaves of the trees around me. It felt like I'd been running for hours, or so the sore muscles in my legs were telling me. I was fatigued, tired, exhausted beyond belief, but still I persisted, forcing myself to continue placing one foot in front of the other.

     I trudged on, grasping the packages in my hands all the tighter. Time was running out. I was sure of it. It was probably nearing dawn, and by then it would be too late. I glanced downward at my hands, seeing nothing. I could only imagine the small brown objects in my paws, imagine the branches that whipped against my legs as I raced forward.

     As the seconds ticked by, I saw an inkling of light ahead of me. I blinked my eyes in disbelief. Slowly, yet surely, I was approaching an exit from this interminable field of darkness. Yet light—did it mean that I was too late? No, I thought to myself. I could not fail. Too much depended on me.

     The light grew closer and closer and finally I reached it. I was almost sure that it was dawn already, that whatever evil mastermind was behind this plot had succeeded, that I would never get to ask Illusen for her autograph. When I left the darkness and saw not the sun shining in front of me but the bright headlights of a familiar faerie racer, I felt myself exhale with relief.

     "Get in," Jared commanded, gesturing the back seat, which was currently occupied with an empty tank of fuel.

     I gratefully jumped in, my legs burning from exhaustion. "Where's the Kyrii?" I asked, breathless.

     "Well, we were running and he was chasing us, and we were approaching Edna's Tower when she came out and started yelling at him. Apparently she thinks he poisoned her plant or something." Jared grinned half-heartedly, and I noticed that his backpack was lying dejectedly on the bottom of the racer.

     I picked it up and looked inside. "Jared! Your action figure! It's broken!"

     "Yeah, well, he kinda fell on it." Jared shrugged. "It's okay, it was just a doll," he muttered, his voice breaking slightly.

     * * * * *

     We arrived at Meridell shortly before dawn, I should suspect. The sky was still a dark velvety color, but the stars were gone, and the moon was fading quickly. It was not yet tinted with hints of orange, red, and purple, though, and for that I was thankful.

     Jared parked the cloud racer behind Illusen's Glade. There we saw Callista, who was patiently waiting for us alongside Henry the Lenny and Dylan the Shoyru.

     "You three should've waited for us!" Dylan chastised us, glaring at us through his spectacles.

     "Yes, yes," agreed Henry. "Why should we get to miss out on all the fun?"

     We marched through Meridell together, looking much like a group of defeated soldiers. Callista, Jared, and I looked rather slovenly, with our clothes torn and ragged and our hair in varying states of disarray. Dylan and Henry were at the back of the group, taking in the scenic Meridell view.

     "I've never been to Meridell before," Henry mused, poking Turmaculus curiously. "I should like to stay a couple days. What say you, Dylan?"

     "Oh, I think I'd rather go to Brightvale and visit good ole King Hagan." Dylan was fluttering along, his wings flapping softy.

     Nobody was up so early in the morning. We passed Meri Acres Farm, and not even Farmer Gelert was up. Save for Illusen, he was the earliest riser in Meridell.

     The dark outline of the Darigan Citadel soon loomed above us.

     "Great," I muttered. "How will we get up there?"

     "Not to worry," a familiar voice sang from behind us. "I, the valiant and noble Norbert, shall carry you up!"

     "Norbert?" Henry strode closer and examined his brother. "The look suits you." He nodded approvingly.

     Norbert smiled. "I rather like your Split look, myself, Hen."

     With Norbert carrying Jared, Henry carrying Callista, and Dylan attempting to carry me (Norbert and Henry thankfully came to his aid before he could drop me), we all arrived safely in front of the castle.

     "What do we do with these?" I asked, turning the brown packages over and over in my hands. "Where do you think they go?"

     "Why, in the staffs of course!" Norbert was already proceeding down the narrow walkway down which we had traversed earlier.

     "Staffs? What staffs?" Jared was now jogging along after Norbert's long strides.

     "The staffs, my dear boy, the staffs!" Norbert patted Jared on the back and grinned. "Didn't you see that shadowy figure with the glowing staff? Just get the stone in the shiny ball."

     "How do you know this?" I panted between breaths. Apparently I hadn't completely recovered from my long run through the woods.

     Henry rolled his eyes. "Norbert knows everything, and nobody knows how."

     * * * * *

     When we arrived at the chamber, it was empty, other than the twelve faeries and a faint glow coming from a wooden staff in the middle of the room. I couldn't believe our luck.

     "They just left it here?" I asked skeptically. Bad guys weren't this foolish, I thought to myself. They had to be cunning, especially these guys: kidnapping twelve of Neopia's most powerful faeries was no easy feat. They had even managed to capture Queen Fyora and the Space Faerie. Not even the villainous Dr. Sloth was a match for the latter, I thought to myself.

     "Well, come on, let's have it!" Norbert had picked up the staff and was tapping his wing against the silver orb. "I wonder how we're supposed to get the stone into this ball. There's no opening or anything," he mumbled to himself.

     "Oh!" Callista grabbed the piece of paper from Jared's backpack. "See, you say this chant, and it gets absorbed into the orb! I can't quite read it, though. I was telling Shirley earlier that it looks like 'luminescence.' What say you, Shirls?"

     Luminescence. The word sounded familiar, but at the same time it didn't sound right. I couldn't place quite why. All of a sudden, the scene came back to me: the dark tree silhouettes; Jared, Callista and Norbert standing in front of me; the murmuring wind, and a low word spoken by a deep, husky voice.

     "Luminescera!" I gasped. The others turned around and stared at me, a puzzled expression glued to their faces. "That's the word!"

     I snatched the staff away from Norbert. It was warm in my paws. "Unwrap one of the stones," I ordered Callista, aiming the orb toward the package.

     Callista raised an eyebrow at me, took the brown covering off of one sparkling black gemstone, and placed it carefully on the table. "Luminescera," I muttered.

     Suddenly, everything was gone.

To be continued...