A trip to the Seven Wonders of the (Neopian) World: Part Five

     Arriving at the Deserted Fairground, Seamus felt a sense of dread. He had been warned about how run-down it was, but he wasn't expecting it to be quite this run-down. If it wasn't for the few tourists wearily walking around and the stalls manned by staff members, it would be easy to presume that this was an abandoned ghost town.

     "What a shame," thought Seamus. He had seen sketches of the fairground when it was first opened, it was truly an astonishing place to visit and now, well, he couldn't wait to leave in all honesty.

     He walked through to centre of the fairground, whilst the Neopians who ran the game stalls tried to tempt him to play. But Seamus was having none of it, he knew he only had limited Neopoints remaining and was sure that he didn't want to spend them playing games on stalls which looked as though they could fall apart at any moment. However, he noticed one of the stall holders watching him. Wherever Seamus walked, the stall holders eyes seemed to follow him.

     Seamus wasn't afraid, to be honest he was more annoyed by the stall holder.

     "Why are you watching me?!" Seamus seemed to lose his temper.

     "Ssssssorry," the stall holder replied. "I jusssssst noticed you ssssseemed to have a wallet full of neopointssss. I thought I could help you ssssspend them. The names Sssssidney."

     "I don't need any help spending my neopoints, thank you."

     "Are you ssssure? I ssssell sssscratchcards, sssscratchcards where you could win upto one million neopointsssss."

     "I've tried scratchcards before, I'm not lucky enough. I don't want to waste my neopoints."

     "I'll ssssell you two for the price of one."

     "No thank you. Good bye," Seamus promptly turned on his heels to start walking the other direction.

     Seamus continued his journey around the fairground. It was run-down, grotty and he really wished he could just get on the transport to his next destination, but he still had two hours until that was possible. He decided to lay under an abandoned stall and have a nap.

      **********

      Seamus awoke to the sound of cheers. He looked around to see where the cheers were coming from. At the scratchcard stall a group of tourists looked overjoyed.

     "Huh, I guess people do win on them things," Seamus mumbled to himself.

     He looked up at the clock tower, he had half an hour still until he could leave.

     "I suppose one scratchcard will do no harm."

     Seamus made his way to the scratchcard stall, giving the group of overjoyed tourists a quick smile as he passed them.

     "I'd like to take you up on your two-for-one scratchcard offer," Seamus told the stall holder.

     "Sssssorrry. That wasss a one-time oppurtunity."

     "Really?" Seamus said sounding disheartened.

     "If you aren't interesssted, then leave now so Sssidney can get ssome peace and quiet."

     "No, no, it's fine. I'll just take the one." Seamus said as he took some Neopoints out of his wallet.

     "Thanksss for buying a ssscratchcard!" Sidney handed Seamus a Crypt of Chance Scratchcard. "Good luck..."

     "Thanks," Seamus replied whilst struggling to scratch the scratchcard with his wallet still in his hand.

     "Want me to hold that for you while you ssscratch your card?"

     "Ummm, sure. I guess so." Seamus handed his wallet to Sidney. He carefully scratched off the spaces one-by-one.

     He had two matches with one space left to scratch. Seamus held his breath and hoped. He scratched the final space and... it didn't match.

     Sidney looked at Seamus, "You sscratched the wrong thingss!!"

     "Sure," Seamus said half-heartedly whilst reaching for his wallet. "Thanks for nothing, I guess."

     Seamus was already in a bad mood about this failed trip and this had put him in an even worse mood.

     "At least it's nearly time to leave now," Seamus reassured himself, trying to focus on the positives. He made his way to the abandoned rail station and waited for the train to take him to his final destination, the Tyrannian Concert Hall.

      **********

      After what felt like the worst train journey of his life, across some trecherous terrain, Seamus finally arrived in Tyrannia. This was the final part of his trip, although he hadn't gotten long in Tyrannia due to his boat back to Altador leaving shortly, he had one final experience to look forward to. A chance to hear a concert played live in the Tyrannian Concert Hall.

     Seamus could hear the sound of music playing from the concert hall. The music seemed to travel through the air, it sounded amazing from out here, he could only imagine how good it must sound inside the hall!

     As Seamus made his way to the hall, he admired the other sights of Tyrannia. For a place which looked so basic and primordial, it certainly had a lot of shops and modern day features. He liked Tyrannia, in some ways it reminded him of home. It wasn't busy, but it had enough people for you to feel comfortable (unlike the deserted fairground) and there were many shops which reminded him of the shops back home.

     "I wish I had a little longer here," Seamus thought.

     But, he had no time. He had to get to the concert hall or he was going to miss the show!

     He arrived at the concert hall and immediately joined the queue which seemed to extend all down the side of the building. As he was stood in the queue he looked up and admired the architecture. It was amazing. Massive carved blocks of stone formed the building, what was so interesting about this is that when the concert hall was built the Neopians who built it wouldn't have had any of our modern day technology to help them carve and transport these pieces of stone, so how had they done it? It had been a question that had plagued historians for a long time now. Seamus was contemplating this question as he slowly made his way through the queue. He was so caught up in trying to think about the answer that he had completely zoned out.

     "Excuse me, tickets please!" A large Grarrl guard seemed to be angrily shouting at Seamus.

     "What?" Seamus responded as he was shocked out of his train of thought.

     "This is my third time asking now. If I have to ask again I'm calling security. Tickets. NOW."

     Seamus fumbled around in his pocket to get his wallet, "Sorry! I was in a world of my own."

     The Grarrl just stared at him.

     Seamus finally managed to get his wallet out of his back pocket. But when he opened it, his ticket wasn't there! "Um, one minute," Seamus told the guard.

     The Grarrl could be seen to be getting more and more frustrated. Seamus felt all around his pockets and turned his wallet inside out.

     "I'm so sorry... I don't know where it could have go..." Before Seamus could finish his sentence it dawned on him. His wallet. He had handed it to Sidney when he was scratching his scratchcard. He wasn't paying attention, how could he have been so stupid?! Of course he was the type of character to steal from him, he had that vibe to him.

     "Yeah, that's what they all say. Get out of my line."

     Seamus feeling ultimately defeated left the line. He couldn't believe he had been so stupid to trust someone like Sidney. He was about to miss out on a once in a lifetime oppurtunity all due to his stupidity at the fairground.

     Seamus found a rock to sit on. He sat down. At this current moment he was feeling the worst he had felt the whole entire trip. Everything that could have gone wrong on his trip, seemed to go wrong. How could he be so unlucky?

     A tear began to roll down Seamus's face. All he wanted was to be a great adventurer and explore all of the places he had been dreaming of visiting as a child an instead he was sat here. A failed trip. A disasterous trip. He just wanted to go home. With his wallet empty Seamus saw no choice but to head back to the boat, the boat that would take him home.

      **********

      As he approached the boat, he finally felt completely stress-free for the first time on this trip. He had never wanted to see his family and friends more.

     He boarded the boat. (Luckily the crew members remembered him as this could have been another disaster as his ticket had been in his, now empty, wallet.)

     He went to his room and rested his head, this was certainly one journey he would never, ever want to repeat.

      **********

      When Seamus finally saw the shores of Altador, he felt relieved. He noticed all the familiar sights and for the first time it felt like he was seeing the true beauty of them. The Hall of Heroes, the Altadorian Archives and the Illustrious Armoury store were all beautiful buildings. He felt so grateful to live in such a beautiful place. He had no plans of leaving Altador again any time in the near future, the exploring could be left to the professional adventurers.

     However, perhaps Seamus will be able to find an adventure in Altador... Perhaps, this is not the end of his story.

      To Be Continued...