Dangers Inside the Notebook

     “Settle down!” Chris laughed. The starry Shoyru shot up in the air and began to chase his Faellie. Now there was a pink and starry blob racing through the house. Finally reaching Ello’s speed, Chris grabbed her tail immediately halting her to a stop.

     “Oh alright, fine, you caught me,” Ello giggled. Chris let go of her tail and she perched herself comfortably on his shoulders. “So what are we going to do today?”

     “Today we are going down to the marketplace and look around, so I can get inspiration for my story telling entry,” Chris answered.

     “Oh, right,” Ello acknowledged. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather play football?”

     Chris laughed at how tomboy Ello was. “No, we can do that when we get back. Now let’s get going. I don’t want to put in my entry too late.”

     Chris grabbed a starry notebook and pencil, then flew out his front door. Chris and his family lived in Mystery Island, two miles away from the fantastic beach. Neopia Central was at least three hours away, which is why the two left at an early hour of 4:00 in the morning. But because the two could fly and it wasn’t a cloudy day to soar through the sky, they might make it in two hours.

     The cool mist hit Ello’s face from her flying through a cloud. She didn’t want to avoid them in her flight today, because each light and delicate spray kept her alert. She looked down below at the bright blue sea, sparkles radiating from the warm sunlight. “This is my favorite place to be, Chris, soaring through the sky.” Ello smiled.

     “My favorite place is my nice warm bed,” Chris stated.

     Ello rolled her eyes. Chris was such a sleepyhead. So for the rest of the flying trip there wasn’t much talking, but every once in a while Ello would check to see if Chris was still awake. There was one time Chris fell asleep while flying, but Ello shivered at that flashback and thought about something else.

     Finally, after exactly two hours of flying, Chris and Ello landed in Neopia Central’s marketplace. By now it was 6:00 in the morning and only a handful of shops were open this early. Luckily Chris and Ello’s favorite café was open this early and they rushed in there to get some hot chocolate.

     Before they could enter, an abrupt and powerful wind passed between Chris and Ello, knocking the notebook out of Chris’s paws. The notebook then began to blow away further into the marketplace, dancing in the wind.

     “Ah, great,” Chris huffed annoyingly.

     “Don’t worry, Chris, I’ll get it!” Ello assured him. Before Chris could tell her no, she shot off after it, leaving Chris standing there in the cold.

     Ello could see the notebook, and tried her best to pick up her speed. But the notebook was flying much faster than she was because it was getting help from the wind. Finally the wind died down and the notebook fell in front of a dirtier part of the marketplace.

     Landing and grabbing the notebook, Ello wiped off the mud that got on it. Her tiny paws chilled from holding the notebook because of the cold wind it was entrapped in. Ello then made her way back to Chris and handed it to him. They then entered the café.

     “Hey, hey, Chris, how’s it shaken?” Chancycowan asked. Chancycowan was a Halloween Kougra and manager of Strawberry Café. She stood behind the register counter, a big smile across her face.

     “Not much, dude,” Chris greeted back. He and Chancycowan had been friends awhile, since their two owners were best friends.

     “Hi, Chancy!” Ello greeted happily.

     “Ello! How are you, little buddy?” Chancycowan asked.

     “Good, but I’d be great if I got a small hot chocolate.” Ello grinned.

     “You got it, little dude. So one small hot chocolate and how about you, Chris?”

     “Blueberry muffin,” he answered. He handed Chancy fifteen points and took the hot chocolate and muffin and sat down. “Here you go, Ello,” Chris said, handing her the hot chocolate.

     “Thank you.” Ello smiled appreciatively, taking the cup. The warmth of the cup soothed her almost frozen paws.

     Chris took a bite of his muffin then took his notebook. He tried to open it, but as soon as he did the notebook closed itself shut! Puzzled, Chris tried again, but the notebook immediately shut itself. “I can’t get this open!”

     “What do you mean you can’t get it open?” Ello asked, dumbfounded. To demonstrate, Chris pried the notebook halfway open before it slapped shut again. “That’s weird,” Ello agreed. “I think you should try opening it one more time.”

     Chris nodded and once more opened the notebook. This time it opened completely. “It worked!” Chris exclaimed happily. He then looked down at the pages, “Hey wait... this isn’t my writing. I think this is- AH!”

     “Chris!” Ello cried. In front of her eyes, Chris got sucked inside the notebook! “Oh no!” Ello dashed over to the notebook and then got sucked in as well! The notebook then closed, and lay there on the table of the café.

     ~*~

     When Ello opened her eyes, she saw a cluster of dark clouds nestled above her. Opening her eyes further, she then realized she was not in the café anymore, but outside on hard, black gravel. “Chris? Are you here?” Ello wondered out loud. “Oh, I hope you’re here.”

     “Don’t worry, Ello, I’m right here,” a familiar voice assured her. Turning around, Ello then saw Chris sitting behind her leaning against a huge rock.

     “What happened, Chris?” Ello asked, flying on top of his shoulders.

     “We got sucked into the notebook,” Chris answered. “I’m not sure how, but I do know this isn’t my notebook. You must’ve picked up another person's notebook. Probably belonged to a witch.”

     “I’m sorry,” Ello apologized, “I thought it was yours.”

     “Don’t be sorry, Ello, it was an accident. All we can do now is use our wit and figure out how to get out of here.” Chris smiled.

     Ello smiled as well. “Okay, you’re right. We’ve got to figure out how to get out of here.” She then looked around to see what was here. She didn’t recognize where they were, but guessed the darker parts of Tyrannia’s plateaus. All around them was gravel, with a few dead trees and rocks lying around. Then above them were the dark clouds that blocked the sun. “Whoever wrote in this notebook sure didn’t like pleasant places,” Ello commented.

     “Well, sitting here is clearly not doing us any good. We should start walking, I’m thinking towards the West. The clouds don’t seem to be towards that way too much,” Chris suggested.

     “Alright,” Ello agreed. So the two started to flying West. This wasn’t very exciting, because nothing changed from where they were sitting down to when they were flying. The same black gravel covered the ground, the same dark clouds floated above the sky and nothing had seemed to change.

     However after an hour of flying, Chris and Ello then began to see sunlight peek its way out of the blanket of clouds. “We might be getting closer to getting out of this place!” Ello squealed with excitement.

     “Good thing too!” Chris exclaimed. They got closer and closer and soon they entered a jungle terrain. High trees towered over them and the color green overwhelmed their vision. But there was sunlight which made this place better than the last one.

     Now the two were tired of flying, so they slowly hiked their way through the jungle.

     “Maybe you could just forget the storytelling and write a short story for the Neopian Times.” Ello grinned.

     “Yeah, I might do that,” Chris agreed.

     “ROAR!” a deep territorial voice hollered.

     “Hide!” Chris squeaked. He grabbed Ello and dashed under a huge bush. The ground began to shake and the leaves and trees began to swivel left and right. It got worse and worse, until the footsteps stopped- and there only a few feet away was a Mutant Grarrl!

     The Grarrl sniffed the air, and stuck out his long red tongue. “Intruders in my jungle,” he growled. “I will eat them!”

     It took every ounce of Chris to not scream and run. He knew he couldn’t outrun the Grarrl; it was too big. His and Ello’s best chance was to stay hidden and hope the Grarrl didn’t find them.

     But it didn’t take long for the Grarrl to walk towards Chris and Ello, and soon he was right in front of them. Then the Grarrl moved the leaf, and found Chris and Ello! “Intruders! I shall eat you!” he hissed.

     “RUN!” Ello screamed.

     ~*~

     The clock stroke 12:00 and Chancycowan finally got on break. She grabbed her bagged lunch and got out from behind the counter. “Sweet lunch break.” She smiled. She then sat down at one of the tables to eat her lunch. After munching on a pastrami wrap for a while, Chancy then noticed a notebook sitting on her table. “This has to be Chris’s,” Chancy said, seeing the starry pattern of the notebook.

     She then started to eat her lunch again. “Come to think of it, I never saw Chris and Ello leave here, or say goodbye,” she said to herself out loud. Looking to her left Chancy then saw a cup, the same one she gave to Ello for hot chocolate. “Why would Ello leave this here?” Chancy thought. She then picked up the cup to find it was still full. “Weird.”

     Just then a Christmas Zafara entered in the café. He had a dark purple cloak covering his face, and awkwardly stood in the room, seeming to be looking for something.

     Chancy put down her sandwich and approached the Zafara. “May I help you?” she asked.

     The Zafara took the cloak’s hood off and revealed his face. “My name is Florence, and I’m looking for a notebook I believe to be here. Did you happen to see one?” Before answering, Chancy started giggling slightly. “What is so funny, Miss?” Florence asked, clearly not amused.

     “Ha ha ha, it’s just Florence is a girl’s name, ha ha,” Chancy giggled. She then stopped when she saw Florence’s expression. “Sorry, sir. In fact I did see a notebook; there’s one on the table in the corner over there. However, that happens to belong to my friend Chris.”

     “No, this belongs to Chris,” Florence corrected, holding up a starry notebook. “We switched notebooks by mistake.”

     “Oh, I see. Well, I think Chris and his Faellie Ello were reading or writing in it. They disappeared, though, but I’m sure they’ll come back,” Chancy told Florence.

     Florence’s expression then dropped. “Oh no, you mean they opened the notebook?” he asked. He then dashed over to the table!

     “Hey, wait a second, sir!” Chancy cried, following after him.

     Florence took the notebook and opened it- his eyes growing wide. “I’m too late,” he murmured solemnly.

     “Too late for what?” Chancy questioned.

     Florence held up the notebook to reveal a picture of Chris and Ello being chased by a mutant Grarrl. “They’re trapped in my story.”

     “Well, get them out!” Chancy cried, worried for Chris and Ello.

     “I can’t. A witch put a curse on my story so whoever goes inside must finish the story. It’s dangerous, if they’re unable to. If they can’t finish the story, they’re trapped forever in my book.”

     “Well, what’s your story about?” Chancy asked.

     “A mutant Grarrl terrorizing Neopians,” Florence answered.

     Chancy rolled her eyes. “Next time try writing comedy, not horror,” she growled. “There has to be something we can do to help them.”

     “I’m afraid all we can do is put our hope into your friends and maybe they’ll get out,” Florence sighed heavily.

     ~*~

     “Watch out!”

     Chris instinctively ducked, dodging a punch from the Grarrl! “Thanks, Ello!” Chris cried. He and Ello were now flying through the air, trying to get away from the Grarrl. Except this Grarrl was a mutant, which meant he had wings as well. So now the three of them scrambled in the air!

     “Give up, you two! You’ll never defeat me.” The Grarrl smiled deviously.

     “We will too!” Ello objected.

     The Grarrl laughed at her remark. “Silly Faellie, I’ll use you as a toothpick once I’m through eating your owner.”

     “Not a chance!” Ello yelled. She shot up high in the air, going above the clouds! She then twirled her body and dived down straight towards the Grarrl, pounding him in the back!

     The Grarrl grimaced with pain! How could such a little Faellie penetrate him so hard?

     “That’s it, Ello! Let’s do what we did earlier and fly around fast,” Chris ordered. He then kicked his flying into speed as well.

     Soon there was a starry and pink blob flying all around the Grarrl, too fast for him to stop them! Every time they went around him they pounded upon him, and soon the Grarrl stopped flying and landed on the ground. “Alright! Alright! Just stop it!” he growled.

     Chris and Ello stopped in the mid air, and eyed the Grarrl. “We’ll stop if you stop trying to eat us,” Chris warned. “If not we’ll keep going.”

     “Okay, you win,” the Grarrl huffed, “I can’t take any more. Just go.”

     “How do we get out of here?” Ello asked.

     The Grarrl pointed to the skies. “Just keep flying up,” he told them. “Now go!”

     “Thank you!” Ello and Chris hollered. They then shot off towards the sky, leaving the Grarrl in his jungle.

     ~*~

     “So... is this your first story?” Chancy asked Florence. The two sat at the table, awaiting Chris and Ello’s fate.

     “No, I’ve actually written twenty stories in these notebooks,” Florence answered.

     “I see. So why was your book cursed by a witch?”

     Florence let out a deep sigh. “She cursed it because I accidentally got mud on her dress. So now every story I write is a danger to whoever reads it.”

     Chancy felt bad for Florence. “I’m sorry,” she sympathized. “That’s really too bad.”

     “Quite alright,” Florence assured. Just then the book in his paw began to vehemently shake! Then the whole café began to rumble! Quickly Florence opened up the notebook- and out flew Chris and Ello!

     “You’re back!” Chancy squealed excitedly. She pounced on Chris, giving him a huge hug!

     “Chancy... you’re... squeezing...me,” he stuttered, her grip on him so tight he couldn’t breathe.

     “Oh, sorry,” Chancy apologized, letting go. She then hugged Ello but not as tightly. After Ello broke free, Chancy then cleared her throat and explained, “This is Florence. He’s the one that owns that notebook. You two must have switched notebooks. See the reason you got trapped within the story was because a witch put a spell on Florence’s book. But you two are back, and everything is as it should be.”

     “Sorry for the mix up, Florence. By the way, you should really change your story. Mutant Grarrls everywhere would be insulted by your story.” Chris grinned.

     “That’s okay. You two seem to have broken the witch’s curse on my notebook,” Florence said. He then tucked the book away in his cloak and handed Chris his notebook. “Good day to you all. I’m very sorry for what you had to go through, and I’m very thankful you broke the curse.” He smiled.

     “No problem, dude. Bye!” Chris grinned. Florence then left the café and descended outside.

     Ello then burst out laughing.

     “What’s so funny?” Chris asked.

     “Ha ha ha, his name was Florence. That’s such a girl’s name,” Ello laughed. Chancy and Chris then laughed with her, and the three sat down to lunch.

The End

Chancycowan belongs to my friend meowbob191 just so you know. I hope you liked my story. I'd love feedback. Whoo!