How I Met Sophie

     *Background noise*

     Oh, here it is! I have to confess I'm not very tidy as you can see. Eventually this can be a really big problem so I advise you to keep the rooms of your neohome as neat as you can! By the way, I can't remember accurately when I wrote the story in my diary... maybe it was two years ago or even five!

     *After passing pages, pages and more pages for a long long while* Okay I found it! Let's start! *hawks*:

      It was rather a cold and cloudless night. I had been walking all day southwards. I was heading to Lost Desert. Unfortunately I was lost in the middle of the Haunted Woods and no matter how far I walked I couldn't find the way out of there. My greatest wish was to travel around Neopia and visit every corner of every land that had been discovered so far.

     When I was little, my granny used to read me a book every night. The stories used to be about sailor Kougras who lived awesome adventures around the Krawk Island and fast faeries who ran faster than Poogles. I can also remember a story about when the Dr. Frank Sloth was a friendly villain (if that really happened... stories are just... well, stories).

     I was walking down a narrow path. On my right, a few miles away, I could see the Brain Tree. His brain shone in the middle of the night, as if it had fallen from Kreludor. His eyes were as red as the Shishkafruit from Brightvale, and his mouth was like a huge black hole. I was so freaked out that I started to walk faster until I reached the deserted fairground.

     I slowed down looking from right to left and realized that that place was not as deserted as I thought in the beginning. There were some attractions opened but there were no public. After hours of travelling aimlessly I decided to amuse myself playing Cork Gun Gallery. Luckily, I had brought with me a big bunch of neopoints just in case and since it was my first time playing the game, the attendant lady explained me the rules.

     "... I mean it's so easy that even you could do it," the blue Aisha said finally, her raucous voice filled with sarcasm. I gave her a withering look and she smiled at me.

     "Okay," I said. "I will show you how good I am at doing this even if it's my first time," I said through my teeth.

     BANG!

     "Oh!" she cried sadly. "You hit something," she said as she was turning around to look for my prize. After a while she turned again and gave me a Kiwi-Pear Gummies.

     "Thank you," I said with my chin up. I grabbed my deserved prize without saying anything else. The shop assistant turned away mumbling some harsh words and started to clean a tinny cupboard. Sensing that the unfriendly shop assistant wouldn't say her farewell I left the place and walked again into the darkness.

     Minutes later I arrived at the Coconut Shy. This time the shop assistant was and old Quiggle. How come there were no young Neopets around?

     "Knock down a coconut and win TEN THOUSAND NEOPOINTS plus a very special and exclusive prize!" he said with a rough voice. He looked quite bored and therefore I assumed no many people used to come here to play.

     "Okay," I answered. "I will teach you how we do it."

     BANG!

     "Ach!" he cried sadly. "The game isn't rigged after all!" he added with a crooked smile. He turned around and began to look for my prizes. Moments later he turned around again and gave me an Angry Evil Coconut and a bag with ten thousands neopoints.

     "Great! Today is my lucky day!" I said happily. Unable to hold back my emotions, I began to jump for joy.

     "Kids!" he muttered as if he had known that I would react in that way. "It will better if you go away from here, little boy. This can be dangerous," he warned me, his eyes shining.

     I wasn't really sure if I should take his advice or go on my own way. I just thanked him and got out of there. Once I was outside I didn't hesitate and went on down the path. As I was walking, I noticed that the sky had turned pitch black. With a bad feeling I decided to go back. I walked, walked and walked for hours but I couldn't find the exit of The Deserted Fairground. I was starting to get nervous when I saw a poster with little glowing lights. "This could be the output," I thought, filled with hope. I went up to where the cartel was and what I saw terrified me. In front of me there was a huge mouth with sharp, yellow teeth, and deep within the hole, there was a lane.

     "I gotta get out of here now!" I said loudly, without caring if somebody could hear me.

     "Freeze! Where are you going, little Meowclops? You've arrived just in time, because the show has just started. You don't want to miss it, right?" said a gruff voice in the darkness.

     Suddenly I realized the owner of the voice: The Chia Clown. I had seen him before in the Neopian Times, on TV and in magazines. In photographs, he may look funny and quite ridiculous, but in that moment the only thing I could feel was fear.

     As a reflex action, I began to run, and he, with his big feet, soon reached me.

     "Do you really think you can get away from me with your pathetic paws? Oh, please! Don't be ridiculous!" he said with a grating voice. And without warning, he sprayed water all over my face.

     "I have to think of something, and quickly," I said to myself, scared stiff. Since I hadn't been in a situation like this before I didn't know what to do... I was about to scream for help when a voice come from nowhere.

     "You again? I can't believe it! Don't you realize that your games are not funny at all? Your show ends now!" said the same voice. When I could finally see the owner of the voice the first thing I noticed was that she was an Ixi. Her hair was long and wavy and she was wearing strange hat with and an odd dress.

     The Chia Clown cursed her under his breath and the green Ixi raised her hands into the sky. After that, everything happened too fast. In a blink of an eye a warm light surrounded us and the Chia Clown vanished into the air, his laughter echoing throughout the place.

     "How...? But he was...?" I muttered. I was literally trembling from head to toe.

     With a quick movement, the green Ixi approached to me. I didn't know if I should run or stay still, but since my little legs seemed frozen I didn't do anything. Then, she wrapped me in a tender hug. I remember that she smelled like Chokato Ghostkersandwich.

     "He is gone and he will never bother you again," she said and added, "I promise you."

     And since then, I began to love her. Up close, she was much prettier. Her skin was soft and clean. In fact, I realized that she was the most beautiful Ixi that my eyes had ever seen before. Still, there was one thing that worried me.

     "Who are you?" I asked, knowing that she also could be an evil person, but her beauty amazed me.

     "My name is Sophie, and I'm a good witch," she confessed. "In the Haunted Woods I'm also known as the Swamp Witch. I live alone in a shack that rests in swamplands. I spent my whole time making potions and spells," she continued "Would you want to come with me? Live together, how do you think? Lately there haven't been any neopets around this area and judging by your face you seem to be lost. It's dangerous to walk nearby these days. At least stay at my house for a few days," she asked. She sounded really worried, but I couldn't say why exactly.

     I couldn't reject her offer. Besides she was right, I had nowhere to go.

     "Of course I will," I answered. "And thanks for saving me," I said in a rush, blushing.

      ...

      Since then I have lived here with her. And I can tell that these have been the best years of my life.

     *A noise of something falling to the ground*

     Did you hear the that? I'm sure it was another Sophie's ingredient. Telling stories is always very tiresome and makes me really hungry. I'm off to grab some food. See you next time!

The End