Rosalina and the Way-Weird Beast

     “NO! I refuse to agree with this arrangement!” Margo shook the bars fervently. “You can't take Rosalina! She doesn't, um, know what she’s saying!”

     Rosalina sighed. “Of course I do! And besides, do you honestly expect me to run the apothecary shop by myself?” She turned to the Werelupe‒who was snarling at her and bearing his surprisingly shiny white teeth‒and said, “You may remove my dear Margo and escort me to your finest guest room, please and thank you.”

     “You’re NOT staying! I refuse!” Margo fumed, kicking the bars.

     “SILENCE!” The Werelupe turned from Margo to Rosalina. “If the little girl is willing to take your place, peasant,” he growled to Margo, “then let it be! I’m not going to waste my time with‒”

     “Excuse me?” Rosalina gasped, placing her hands on her hips. “Who in Neopia do you think you are??”

     The Werelupe groaned. “What do you want?”

     “I would like to inform you, hairy beast, that I am not a child,” Rosalina said matter-of-factly, “and if this agreement is to work, you must understand‒”

     “Enough!” The Werelupe turned back to Margo. “Now, what I was trying to say‒”

     “Hey! Don’t interrupt me, you uncultured heap of fur and possible petpetpets!” Rosalina made a show of shaking her head furiously.

     “Rosalina, be careful,” Margo whispered. “Try not to anger the Werelupe that has taken me prisoner.”

     “Fine.” Rosalina sighed. “But in agreement, we must all state that I was right in this situation while the big hairy thing acted very rude and should be shamed for an eternity.” She smirked, feeling all of her initial fears toward the Werelupe melting away.

     Facepalming, the Werelupe released Margo and dragged her to the staircase. “Just get out of here!” he snarled viciously. “Leave your idiotic sister here while I give you this one chance to escape!”

     Margo wriggled out of her captor's grasp and hurried to Rosalina. She gripped her sister's shoulders. “Why in the name of Fyora must you be so impulsive??” Margo crooned. “Don’t you realize what’ll happen to you if you stay??”

     “Oh, don’t worry about it,” Rosalina said, waving her hand. “I’ll find some way to escape this rundown prison-mansion-thing.”

     “You,” the Werelupe pointed at Rosalina, “get in there! This cell shall be your home for as long as I see fit! And the other Xweetok should leave right away!”

     Margo leaned in and whispered, “Please, do take care of yourself. And for the love of Neopia, do NOT push that man’s buttons.”

     After a quick hug, Rosalina watched her sister hurry out of the tower room and clip-clop down the stairs. Although she felt like running after her and possibly hijacking a carriage on the way home, she stood her ground, knowing she made this decision to save her sister rather than it being something she would benefit from. And, if she had to be totally honest, she was no longer afraid of the annoying Werelupe that seemed even angrier than he was a few minutes ago. Oh well, at least I can hang out around here before I magically escape, Rosalina thought. In the meantime, I’ll see what food this place has.

     “Come with me,” the Werelupe mumbled, heading towards the stairs. “I’ll show you to the ‘guest suite’ you’ve been dying to see.”

     “Ooh, so I get an actual guest room after all?” Rosalina squealed.

     “Hurry up!” the Werelupe snarled. “I don’t have all day.”

     “Fine, Mr Impatient,” Rosalina sighed, following behind. “But this suite better have its own fireplace.”

     ***

     “There! Happy now?” The Werelupe pointed to a stone fireplace that stood across from the canopy bed.

     Rosalina took a glance around the room and shrugged. “Eh.” The dimly-lit room was furnished with a pale purple and white striped wallpaper and shabby purple carpeting. A round magenta and purple rug lay in front of a four poster bed coating with layers of dust. Everything else in the room, from the wooden vanity table and chair to the floor-length mirror half-covered with a white sheet, was unappealing and neglected of any thorough dusting. Rosalina secretly hoped she wouldn’t be forced to clean up this room; the last thing she needed to do around this creepy house was clean a room she was most likely going to escape from in a day or two.

     “Well, this room is certainly...uh…” Rosalina coughed. “It’s something, all right.”

     “If you insist on being our guest for who-knows-why, then you must follow some strict rules,” the Werelupe instructed.

     Whatever. Rosalina yawned.

     “Firstly, you are not allowed to leave your room unless I say so,” said the Werelupe. “Secondly, you must eat all of your meals here. You are not welcome in the dining room!”

     Ooh, must be a faboo place to eat food, Rosalina thought.

     “Thirdly, you must be prepared for any given hour of the day to administer your medicine.” The Werelupe stopped to give a sharp glare. “I sincerely hope that your tactics will suffice much better than your sister’s.”

     Rosalina shrugged. “Eh, we’ll see what happens.”

     “Don’t give me that!” The Werelupe spat. “Either you give me results or I show you my wrath!” He snarled, then turned to growl as the starry Meepit from before crept into the room, sniffing the air.

     “Oooh, how precious!” Rosalina picked up the Meepit, who squirmed in her arms. “What an adorable little thing!” she cooed, snuggling the Meepit to her cheek. “Is this precious bundle of joy yours? Can I call him Precious? Oh, he is just SO CUTE!”

     “That Meepit isn’t mine,” said the Werelupe gruffly. “But he has been roaming the manor for a week now.”

     Rosalina gave the Meepit another hug. “Wouldn’t Mr. Snugglyboo be the cutest name ever? Or Mr. Snuggles?”

     The Werelupe grunted and left, slamming the door shut before locking it. Rosalina was initially too infatuated by the squirmy Meepit to feel afraid by her captor’s startling actions. After deciding to name her new friend Beanie‒the name came to her after twenty-eight minutes of thinking and gushing over the little darling‒she tried opening the door, only to find it was definitely locked.

     “What a possessive, hairy creepazoid,” Rosalina hissed, kicking the door. “Now how am I supposed to escape this place? A magic portal? Shrink ray?” She turned to Beanie. “Any ideas, darling-boo?”

     Beanie was busy gnawing on a footstool before looking around the room and scurrying to a window next to the bed. He jumped exceedingly before disappearing underneath the bed, reemerging a few seconds with a cough.

     “So there are no secret tunnels underneath the bed, huh?” Rosalina examined the window, frowning at the rose-shaped bars that covered it. “For the love of Fyora, who designed this house??” she shrieked. “Geez, did Mr. I’m-hairy-and-scary plan for every single possible escape route to be blocked for giggles or something? What’s his deal?”

     Frustrated, Rosalina flopped onto the bed, sending a cloud of dust upwards. “This place is going to bore me to snores, my precious petpet,” she sighed, scooping up Beanie and holding him in her lap. “Now how will I escape? Do you think the Draik from that Meridell Castle game will come and break us out?”

     Beanie squirmed.

     “I AM SO BORED!” Rosalina shouted to the ceiling before flopping back down.

     After a long silent spell, with the only sounds being Beanie scurrying around and nibbling on various wooden things, a loud knocking sound thundered through the room. “Girl! I shall be serving you dinner now!” The Werelupe yelled, as if he’d expected Rosalina to be halfway out the window by now.

     Rosalina threw a pillow at the door. “I refuse to eat whatever you have!” she shouted. “Though if you can manage some carrots for Beanie-boo, that’d be great!”

     “WHY YOU INSOLENT FOOL!” There was a loud clattering sound, as if the Werelupe dropped something before he walked away.

     Great, now I’m going to be hungry! That n00b has officially crossed the line! Rosalina rolled onto her stomach, fuming.

     Beanie scurried over to Rosalina before running towards the room’s other window. Curious, Rosalina followed the Meepit and, when she approached the window, was surprised to see it had no protection bars. At first the thought of a strange creature crawling through to attack her and Beanie was frightening. Then a more rational thought came to her: they could use this window to escape!

     Rosalina looked at the bed’s lacy canopy. “With that, we’ll surely get out of this horrendous place, Beanie,” she reported to the Meepit, who had scurried back underneath the bed.

     The canopy was long, but in order to escape successfully, Rosalina knew they needed a second sheet to form some kind of climbing rope. Luckily the bed was covered in a white sheet that, once tied to the canopy, created a rope Rosalina estimated was the right amount to reach the ground. Three wire hangers were converted into a mangled grappling hook, which was tied at the other end of the canopy.

     Ha! Wait till Margo learns of my daring escape, Rosalina thought as she admired her quickly-thought-up invention. Now all I have to do is get out of here and get home. Then I shall laugh at Margo’s smug face as I pet our adorable new Meepit who would need adoption papers! She laughed out loud. This plan is going to work for sure!

      To be continued…