Even before Skarl's father was king, even before even the eldest of neopets would remember- there lived a Lupe king called Phacro. To his great 'empire' of Meridell citizens, he was held in high esteem. Phacro was a strong political figure, and very intelligent. However, to those who knew him personally, he was a tyrant.

He had become king at a young age, and married an even younger girl the day he took the throne. Phacro was getting older with the years, and obviously, his once young wife had aged aswell. She also had yet to bare any children for him. This, to the dastardly Phacro was unnaceptable, and so he decided to look for other younger, more beautiful distractions.

After dark, Phacro made it a new habit of his to go out and search for unfortunate peasant girls who happened to be out alone late at night. The rest here, is understood, and then after the filthy King was satisfied, he would return home before the sun rose, and sleep for most of the day.

He did this almost every night, and it made him very tired and lazy. He slept all of the time because of his midnight "adventures", and the kingdom wondered why their king wasn't doing what he should be doing anymore, and not to mention they wondered why so many girls were being attacked.

Chariiot just happened to be one of these unfortunate peasant girls. She lived in a small cottage with her cruel drunkard father, and was forced to do most of the household chores-though She was normally happy and optimistic despite this. However, for a few months now, she had been feeling very strange. One night, she was out late feeding her chickens, when a mysterious figure attacked her. She never told her father this had happened, for she was ashamed. Her father finally agreed to take her to the doctor in town though, because she kept complaining of pain, and this was the beginning of our Noxir's real tale.

Chariiot, this young girl of only about 12, was told that she would have a baby within one or two weeks. Her father was enraged, and he dragged her home and beat her. He told her she was stupid and an embarassment, and he finally told her to leave and never come back.

Scared and bruised, she ran far far away into the frorest. She was hoping to find some village that she could escape to, and just kept running. It was very dark, and suddenly she tripped on a log, and fell. She rolled down a rocky hill, and finally stopped at the bottom. Her leg was broken, and she was disoriented.

There, in that cold, muddy pit, she sat for days and days. Just when she thought the worst had come, she began to give birth. This is how Noxir was thrust into and ill-timed and unwelcomed existence.

Chariiot cursed the baby, and put him in the mud beside her, ignoring his cries. She yelled out, until slowly her screams became weaker and weaker.

A mysterious dark figure approached her because he had heard her cries, and picked up the baby. "Take it." She said. "It is the demon of the king, the cruel, filthy king who bestowed this great, unwanted 'gift' upon me. Tell the child when it's older that I hated it, and that his royal father is a fiend..."

Chariiot died there in that foggy, wet wood, as her unwanted child was carried away by some mysterious stranger.

This stranger, as it turned out, was a Darigan Kougra named Cryptican. He brought the child to a large hut hidden within the forest, where inside sat about 10 other Darigan pets around a fire.

This collection of Darigan pets, was really more like a refugee camp for the pets who had escaped Darigan's army and his cruel reign. These pets were either forced to be turned into Darigan pets, or they were once born into his army, but they all escaped because they were just different than all the others. These few, had compassion and love(unlike your stereotypical Darigan pet) and therefore, they raised the abandoned Noxir.

They did not believe he deserved to die there with his mother, and they thought the story behind him was interesting. An illigitimate heir to the Throne? Could the King really have done this horrid act?

Eventually, Noxir grew up strong, and when he was about 18, he decided that it was time for him to say goodbye. His adoptive family often told him stories about Meridell when he was smaller,and he had always wanted to go there when he was old enough.

Now he was old enough, and he was off.

Eventually, after all these 18 years, war between Meridell and Darigan's army broke out. Everyone knew it was inevitable, due to the kings increasingly lazy defense strategies.

Noxir unknowingly entered himself into this battle, the day he decided to take a job in the garden at King Phacro's castle. He had always loved plants. He enjoyed the colors and watching them grow and change.

One day, it was dreary and rainy in the garden. There was not much to do, so he decided to go inside the castle and look around. Servants hurried here and there, and royalty lounged around eating and sipping sweet drinks. Noxir had been admiring the expensive decor, when suddenly the giant doors into the castle swung open, and in came two guards holding their weapons up against two Darigan Kougras-One of them was Cryptican.

They proded them into the king's quarters, and Noxir curiously followed, hiding behind and old armored statue.

Kill them!", King Phacro yelled, and with that, the two pets were beheaded. "No! What are you doing!", Noxir screamed, and then ran over to the lifeless bodies of the only family he knew.

Why did you kill them? They were my family!" Noxir sobbed.

King Phacro looked at Noxir, and then looked at the Darigan Kougras, and then back at Noxir-who loked very much to the king like a scrawny blue Lupe, and not a darigan Kougra. "Get this lunatic away from me, he's obviously...very confused." The guards, chuckling, took the overwhelmed Noxir and threw him into a prison cell. He slid across the muddy floor of the cell, and hit the wall with a thud. What would he do now?

That night Noxir dreamed the sweetest dream. A beautiful, mezmerising, white, winged female Gelert approached him in a flowered meadow, and took his hand. They flew together above this meadow, and suddenly the grass blowing around in themeadow below turned to waves in a stormy sea. They pulnged down towards it, and when they hit the water, Noxir awoke.

He shook his throbbing head, and discovered that his cell hadn't been locked. He casually walked out, until one of the guards spotted him, and began to chase him. Noxir ran as fast as he could into the woods. When he had lost the guard, he sat down next to a small stream. He was breating heavily, and bent down to take a drink from the cool water.

There in the water, he saw a most confusing reflection. There on the surface of the water, he saw across from him the upside-down face of a female white Gelert. When he looked up, there she sat on the opposite shore, on a boulder. What was strange, was that she was the same Gelert as he had seen in his dream. His jaw dropped in awe. this is impossible.. Noxir thought to himself. The Gelerts feathery wings spread open, then she tilted her headand she simply smiled as if she knew exactly what he was thinking.

This was Cereus. The minutiae of their days getting to know eachother is too detailed and really too insignificant to mention, but all of those days where they slowly developed a love for eachoher were so important to this story. What formed over the course of these times together, was a bond stronger than any worldly thing. The love they shared was immense, and it grew with each and every passing day.

They decided to live together in the small village that Cereus came from, but eventually the two returned to Meridell, and they purchased a small cottage on the outskirts, near the woods where they first met.

Their days together were bliss, the only problem was that suddenly the war, at this point, had evolved and had gotten very intense.

Darigan's minions often randomly stormed and ransacked the villages of Meridell, and one day, Noxir and Cereus happened to be unfotunate enough to encounter these minions. The minions stormed into their village, and into the houses of innocent families, approaching closer to their home every minute.

As Cereus and Noxir simply sat reading in their home, the door suddenly swung open violently, and in the doorway stood a large Darigan Eyrie. He was wearing an eyepatch, and holding a sword. Without a word, the Eyrie pointed it at Noxir. Noxir started to back away towards their back door and towards Cereus. "Please, don't hurt us!" Noxir pleaded, but it was no use. Howver, for one swift second, this Eyrie looked away to beckon his other minions to come inside the house. It was then that Noxir took his chance and Fled with Cereus.

Noxir grabbed Cereus's paw, and they ran out the back door into the forest behind their home. The minions were close on their trail. "Cereus..." Noxir said, "Stay here, I'll come back for you." He hid her behind a thick area of brush, and continued running. The Minions didn't notice Cereus hiding behind the underbrush, and continued to follow Noxir through the tangled woods.

Eventually, after about 20 minutes of running around in the woods to escape the fiends that were after him, Noxir arrived at a clearing. He could see the ocean beyond the grassy hills of this clearing, and assumed there may be a beach out there somewhere if he kept running, and so he did.

Much to his dismay, the field did not slowly slope into a beach. Instead of this, the land sharply ended, and turned into a steep cliff drop-off. About two-hundred feet vertically below was the ocean staring angrily back up at Noxir, and it's violent waves were crashing against jagged rocks.

He was trapped now. The hoarde of minions quickly encroaching on him on one side, and on the other he faced a fatal fall to the ocean below.

Noxir despearatley tried to talk these darigan pets out of doing what their sharp swords were intended for, but it was no use. Words had no effect on these hypnotized Darigan drones. They marched closer and closer, ignoring his pleas for his life, and they had bloodlust in their eyes.

With no way to escape, Noxir took a chance and charged the mob of minions. He managed to stike and slightly injure some of his attackers, but there were just to many for him to have any chance. While Noxir was preoccupied with defending himself against one minion, another sprang fourth from behind him. A sharp sudden pain inflicted Noxir for a brief moment, and then, blackness. He had recieved a sword through the heart, and in shock, he stumbled and fell backwards over the looming precipice that had made an escape route impossible.

His body hit many of the jagged rocks on the way down, and was mangled by them. Finally he plunged, bleeding and lifeless, into the water. His body was tossed around by the waves that had now been turned red, and then slowly drifted farther and farther out to sea. Apon seeing this, the minions slyly smilied, and then left.

This was the end of Noxir as those of the past knew him, and the beginning of Noxir as we know him now.

Sometimes it is unclear to him if what he experienced 'after death' was actually a memory, or just something his mind created to explain such a strange phenomena of his returning. When trying to recall it, he often describes many strange occurances, starting with blinding light as the very next thing he remembered after falling to his death. A small glowing entity took him by the hand, and led him on a boat, through a gateway, and finally to a figures silhouetted by the brightness behind them. The figure welcomed him to the world beyond, and Though it was peaceful, Noxir's mind was frantic. His first and only thought was of Cereus, because he knew that he was not with her any longer.

I must go back!" Noxir cried over and over. An ethereal whisper answered him. What this whispering voice said to him is all a blur. He cannot recall it's exact words, much like most people cannot recall exactly what someone says to them in a dream, but he remembers that it finally made a bargain with him. Noxir could return to neopia, if he could find a soul to replace his with. A dagger appeared infront of him, and when Noxir took it, the voice told him that the dagger's purpose was to draw blood from the pet whose soul would replace Noxir's in death. He was greatful that death had given him another chance.

Noxir's youth and impulsiveness at this split second was his very downfall, because by agreeing to this bargain, it meant that he chose to return forever as a spirit to neopia. His only thought was that living with Cereus forever would be more heavenly to him than the afterlife could ever be. He did not consider that she may not be around for eternity as he would. He did not consider many things that he should have. And this, ruined him.

After this strange encounter with the unknown, Noxir then remembers seeing his own lifeless body sinking to the bottom of the ocean. It was odd seeing himself dead, but even more perplexing, was wondering who he was now.

As mentioned, he was once an average blue Lupe. However, now that he had returned from the dead essentially, he was completely different looking. He was now a ghostly glowing teal color, with massive feathered wings. He also now had strange markings on his shoulders, which are still a mystery to him today. He shook himself off, and wondered if all that he had experienced had really happened. However there, in his paw, was the dagger. It was proof to him that all of this was infact real, and he knew what he had to do. After some confusion, his thoughts reverted back to Cereus(as they always did) and eventually he found his way back to the spot where he had left her hiding.

Cereus!" He called out. A shivering Cereus popped her head cautiously from where she hid, and apon seeing Noxir's new body, she became frightened and started to run. Noxir yelled out to her and caught her before she got too far away. After some convincing and calming down, the two were reunited and happy once again.

Some time had now passed after this strange incident. The war had died down and they were together and still very much inlove, but as you must know, misfortune has a habit of following Noxir everywhere. On this day, after leaving him alone for years, it found him once again.

One day, while Noxir was out gathering dinner items at the marketlace, Cereus decided to clean their cottage up a little bit. She swept and re-arranged the furnitre, and under their bed, she found a small wooden chest The day Noxir returned as an apparition, he hid the dagger away in this chest so he did not have to think about his evil bargain it. He forgot about it for a very long time, but death was getting impatient. Time had finally run out for Noxir to choose, and so death would choose on its own.

Cereus opened up the chest, and was marveling at the daggers shiny golden surface. She was pondering its uses and perhaps even its worth, when Noxir came home and opened the door with a thud.

Startled, Cereus jumped a bit, and the chest bobbled in her hands. The dagger had been bounced in just the right way, so that it popped out of the chest and fell making a sharp metalic sound as it hit the floor. On the way down, it had grazed Cereus skin, and a small pool of blood began to form on her arm.

Noxir screamed out in horror, but it was too late. Cereus's blood had been drawn by deaths dagger, and she collapsed. And so, he had accidentally chosen Cereus, the love of his life, to be the soul in exchange for his.

He sat there and embraced her dead body for days, sobbing. Finally, he was able to leave his house and bury her. He took one with him white feather from Cereus' wing, and the necklace Cereus always wore. Noxir ran far far away, never to return again.

Today he still holds onto the necklace with the feather now attatched, in memory of her. He was able to leave her body that day, but she still haunts his thoughts ever second of every day. It has been perhaps...a hundred years since he had lost his one true love, but he has and will always remember her. Cereus.

Today, he regrets everything he has ever done. If only he could change the past...