Oivend and the Adventure of Token and Future: Part Three

     "I haven’t seen you two around, lately. Are you new to Neovia?"

     "Y-yes." DaLila stumbled as Oivend, controlled by his hunger, didn’t even notice the monster.

     “Well then, welcome to Neovia!” he chuckled, throwing his humongous arms in the air.

     Oivend looked up at the welcoming, and nearly fainted at what he saw.

     “Don't be frightened, young Neopets. I was made this way by a curse a long, long time ago...” Bruno sighed.

     “Oh, yes. We recall the tale. It’s... it’s just that we’re lost,” DaLila answered.

     Just then, a green Ixi walked in, staring down Bruno.

     “Bruno! There you are! It’s no wonder that I would find you in the Crumpetmonger.”

     Bruno gave a guilty expression as the Green Ixi saw the Gnorbu and Cybunny staring with awe.

     “Oh, I’m sorry. I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Bruno, and this is my sister Sophie,” Bruno said.

     “I-I’m Oivend... and this is DaLila.” The little Gnorbu stumbled upon his words, obviously frightened.

     “You two seem troubled. You said you were lost?” said Bruno.

     “Yes. Oivend here lost his owner, and we were lost in the woods of Neopia when we came across Neovia and...”

     As DaLila rambled on in detail about their journey to Bruno, Sophie slowly made her way to Oivend, eying the interior of his cloudy mane.

     “Is that a...”

     Sophie picked the chain from Oivend’s fur, holding the light faerie token in front of her eyes.

     “Why, a light faerie token! I haven’t seen one of these in ages!” she exclaimed.

     “What is it, Sophie?” asked Bruno.

     “Where did you get this?” Sophie said to Oivend, slightly harsh.

     “A-a-faerie dropped it. I was going to give it back...” Oivend was completely and utterly terrified of the swamp witch.

     “Hey, paws off!” DaLila yelled. “That’s Oivend’s, and he found it fair and square!”

     Sophie backed off just a bit.

     “Whoa, no need to get testy. I was just so surprised to see one; those things are quite rare.”

     Oivend and DaLila were silent.

     “Do you know what it does?” she asked.

     Oivend and DaLila shook their heads.

     “Each faerie token grants each holder special abilities based on the type. This is a very special one...”

     DaLila and Oivend pressed against the suspicion.

     “A light faerie token... again, very rare, will magically increase your stats and make you feel more powerful, of course. But this token may also protect you from any negative effects with a magical aura... and, above all else, will lighten the way on your journey.”

     Oivend widened his eyes in awe.

     “You have nothing to be afraid of, young Neopets. With this token, you have all the protection you need.”

     ~~~

     “Well, that was weird...” said DaLila as they walked out of the Crumpetmonger. Again, they set off to continue their journey in finding their way home. However, the two realized how far they were from home. And even though they could have easily found their way from their abilities, senses and intelligence, they overwhelmed themselves in the act of a superior desire for adventure. And so, they continued to walk to wherever they came across.

     After a while of going through the woods once more, their surroundings became less and less ’haunted’. The trees were back to normal, and everything seemed okay...

     “You know, I don’t really feel so powerful with the token,” Oivend finally proclaimed.

      DaLila continued to listen in silence.

     “Sophie said all those things about this token protecting us, but I’m not too sure. It’s like it’s not set or anything... or it’s broken.”

     “Hmm...” DaLila pondered in thought.

     After thinking everything over, DaLila finally answered her friend.

     “You know, it’s probably just because we don’t need protection just yet. And besides, it looks as if we’re going the right way, anyway. The woods look familiarly like Neopia.”

     Or so she thought...

     It was beginning to get dark out, and the trees around them were beginning to disappear. As they walked on there became less and less of them. Soon enough, instead of trees in their view, they saw high elevation upon the horizon. The weather got a bit more cooler, and, it started to lightly snow.

     “Oh, great. Now where are we?” asked DaLila.

     “AAAAAAAALLLLLLL AAAABBBBOOOOOOAAAARRRDDDD!” DaLila and Oivend lifted their ears to the sound, and looked around.

     Way to their left, they faintly saw the view of water, and a ship boarding passengers.

     As they came closer, they found that the ship was indeed very large. Bustling Neopets went on the boat as a Christmas Tonu greeted them.

     “Hello, you two. Would you like to take the boat to Happy Valley? The next boat is quite a time away.”

     DaLila and Oivend looked at each other. And before they knew it, they were on their way to Happy Valley.

     The ship was crowded with Neopets huddling together. Some with other pets, some with petpets, and some with their owners. Oivend sighed.

     “Tum te tum tum...” Oivend hummed to himself, then stopped when he felt a strong force of snow hit his back.

     “Ouch!”

     Turning around, Oivend and DaLila could see the hundreds of Neopets, either dressed in sweaters or painted Christmas, were singing and dancing in the snow. Snowball fights were made, laughter was hears, slushies and ice creams were sold, and people surrounded the Advent Calendar in wonder. Wintery petpets like Garooda, Gabar, and Wreathy all hopped and played in the white ground with their pets. As the pets got off, Oivend had to duck down to dodge another snowball.

     The two pets smiled.

     The entire day Oivend and DaLila had their fun. They went to the slushie shop, where they were greeted with a merry “Frozen drinks to tempt and tantalize any Neopet!” by a striped Eyrie with a dark purple scarf. DaLila purchased a Raspberry slushie for herself, and a Black Cherry slushie for Oivend.

     While slurping their slushies and passing by skipping pets, they followed up to Terror Mountain, ignoring their aching feet from the high elevation. They saw a Green Tuskaninny hang from a cliff from a mere rope, several multicolored Poogles frolic and play, a small igloo surrounded by Neopets, 2 Chias, and an exchange of several items and neopoints, and most of all... they saw a large ice domed igloo, where the beautiful snow faerie Taelia stood outside, watching over the mountain. They stood there in awe.

     While DaLila stood and admired Taelia, Oivend had his eyes off in another direction...

     “Hey, DaLila... look.”

     DaLila matched Oivend’s gaze to the same place... the Toy Repair Shop.

     They had thought the same thing.

     Inside, a grumpy old Red Bori held a wooden hammer behind a blue table. The log cabin was warm and cozy as a fireplace roared on the side.

     "Give me one o' yer broken toys, and some Neopoints, and I'll see if I can fix it fer ya!" he said.

     Oivend took the token chain from around his neck, and gave it to the Bori. He made a face.

     “Bah, there doesn't seem ta be anything wrong with that!!” he said.

     “But, Mister, I don’t know how to work...” but before Oivend could finish his sentence, the Bori had pushed them out the doors.

     “Well, he was useful,” DaLila said, sarcastically.

     “Mm,” was the only thing Oivend could say.

     The two followed down the mountain to Happy Valley, but instead came across the Ice Caves, a place that was... well... icy, full of Bruces, Poogles, Lupes and Aishas playing about. A Wocky stood outside her house, holding up and advertising scratch cards and sorts, an igloo decorated by spikes and crystals was shown, and a large, gigantic negg home stood proudly with wings. They assumed, that this huge negg themed version of a dwelling, was the Neggery. They looked around in slight confusion.

     “Hmm... this must be the Ice Caves. I heard about this place. It’s the one part of Terror Mountain where...”

     “AHHH!”

     Oivend cut DaLila off by screaming in terror as the towering, monstrous striped Grarrl attacked an Electric Kacheek in the Ice Arena, just a few feet from where they stood.

     Oivend ran off, and DaLila chased after him. Oivend hid in a huge ice cave, and the Cybunny, once caught up with him, breathed heavily in unison with him.

     “Are you alright?” she asked.

     “Yeah... that Grarrl just attacked out of nowhere... it frightened me...”

     Before Oivend could go on, DaLila stopped him, eying what lay behind them.

     In the center they saw a massive pile of treasure... thousands, possibly millions of rare Neopian items such as Neggs of all sorts and several toys and scratch cards; the biggest hoard they have ever seen. On top of the pile of treasure they saw a massive worm made out of ice, sleeping deeply. They knew right away that it was the Snowager.

     “It’s... the Snowager!” DaLila exclaimed.

     The ice worm shifted its position, and an item fell from the pile, only a few feet equidistant between the worm and them.

     “Shh!” Oivend said. He couldn’t dare think of what he’d do if it woke up.

     DaLila stared at the item on the floor. It was a Yellow Gelert Plushie. Eh, what are ya gonna do?

     DaLila slowly crept her way towards the plushie, fully aware of every move the worm made.

     “What do you think you’re doing?!” asked Oivend.

     After careful steps and a heck-load of sweat, DaLila grasped the plushie, and swerved around to Oivend with a happy look on her face. Oivend, however, was frozen with terror.

     DaLila turned around, and met the gaze of the icy Snowager staring into her eyes.

     The Snowager opened its mouth... and with a loud piercing roar, thousands of tiny ice shards came raining down on our two Neopets, and their hit points had decreased to quite a low level. They became bruised and pained as their fragile bodies ran out of the cave. Oivend, of course from being a Gnorbu, was the last to come out due to his lack of agility.

     He despised that fact.

     The two gasped back to their normal breathing rate.

     “Are you... okay?” asked DaLila.

     But Oivend was knocked unconscious.

To be continued...