Intro

deep in the heart of haunted woods, just passed the deserted fairground... alongside an old crumbling building surrounded by tombstones, lies an garden. Poison ivy has snaked around the cracked statues, the charred ground is choked with weeds and blackened flowers; ash covered bones are scattered everywhere. It appears to be abandoned, ravaged by the harshness of time and many many fires. The only sign of life is the flicker of flames between scorched trees...a fire that burns not from a candle or torch...but from a six foot tall insect....despite his fire red pupils his eyes peer at the world with cold indifference. The creature, taking only a glancing notice at you, trots over to a single brilliant white rose that seems to have poked though the dead earth. He pulls it out of the ground and with a flick of his wrist, sets the elegant plant

ablaze.

He then takes notice of you, smiling grimly though his stitched up mouth as if to greet you. Brushing off the flower's ashes as he approaches, The ruki then pulls out a small, slightly charred, notebook from under his shell. He places it in your hands and stares anxiously at you. just as you start wondering why he hasnt spoken, he seems to sense your puzzlement and taps his mouth with his claw....it is a clear gesture that he cannot speak. So, following his instruction, you open the notebook

the notebook

Hello. My name is Taliny, Tal for short. But most refer to me as The Gardener. You seem intrigued by me? by this so called "garden", perhaps? I know you are curious...I can see it in your eyes.
To begin with, yes, this place is known as the garden of the haunted woods. I know what you thinking; how could a field of dead grass and burned foliage be a garden? You see...It was once very radiant, filled with many beautiful flowers, trees, birds and neopians of all shapes and sizes. There used to be a elegant white mansion, home of a wealthy gardener and a beautiful greenhouse used to be right behind it. He and his large family loved plants and sold the most beautiful flowers in the area.Alot of rich ladies and gentlemen from the nearby town loved to spend their days in the lavish garden...or so i was told. But then one day all you see around you was made into a graveyard.Flowers died, cropped failed...All due to a plague fell upon the land. Many succumbed to it. legend says it was the workings of a angry witch bent on revenge back in the very early days of neopia...I believe Eruo knows that story....he is our storyteller after all. Anyways, The soil beneath your feet houses a ladybrith of underground burial chambers. The rich and well-to-do are buried here, encased in the best coffins and covered in the wealth they had in life. Ah...yes...I feel drawn to this area.. it is my job to protect it. The rich were very materialistic people and could not let go of their fortune, so I feel it is my duty to keep robbers from raiding their graves and disturbing their eternal rest. But that's not the only thing that disturbs the dead here....animals...flowers...anything that can breath life into this wasteland must be removed. And the only way is to burn everything. Eruo tells me it anger the spirits if i dont. they are jealous of the living...Even though Eruo is blind he can see them...speak to them...and read their emotions. He has contact with original gardener alot; always quietly tending the greenhouse that is no longer there, forever waiting for his wife who disappered and never returned. I know everything about this place..about the people... who am I really? I am the eldest of four brothers...four neopets who have been chosen to guard these forgotten graves....and perhaps destined to break the curse upon this land someday.
We are not brothers from the same parents, that is true. But by faith we all came to the same place. And here is were we stay. Waiting. Watching. Hoping for happier days to come again.



My Story

Alone and abandoned...I do not remember my creator. I was far to young...perhaps only afew days old. It seems like a common starting point for many a neopet tale, doesn't it? Anyway, after many years in the pound, I found myself in the hands of a adopter. After afew weeks of being cleaned up, painted, and cared for, I was re-admitted to the pound. Turns out, that person was more or less a foster parent to abandoned pets and helps them gets adopted by loving owners... But sadly, even a lowly fire Ruki holds little appeal among the masses who seek UCs, Krawks, Dreiks and other such lavishly painted trophy pets. After another month of that horrid place I decided to leave the pound on my own accord....there are pets in neopia whom exist without owners, so why couldnt I? Well. Sometime between then and now I lost my voice and became an undead so to speak. But it is a blank memory that i do everything in my power not to remember. Not something I wish to talk about in detail, I'm afraid, but it made me realize how important humans are..and how cruel the world is...Anyway, It wasn't soon after I found myself drawn to this old graveyard. And here I stay... keeping the peace...tending the graves...Watching over my brothers. forever cursed to be as silent as the sleeping souls of the long forgotten. But at least I have a place to call home, be it ever so grim.


Appearance

I am not fully insect, but sort of a mixture between bug and mammal. This allows me to be more mobile and fast, with a running gallop similar to a uni. I have a shell and thick plates but for the most part I lack a true exoskeleton like bugs would normally have.. my bones are on the inside. i cant explain the fire though...But if i had to guess, there may have been abit of magma mixed in with the fire paintbrush and the two blended. When im out of town, i like to dress formally; A flame resistant suit, hat and hand wraps are usually to my liking.

You place the book on a nearby headstone. You see the ruki in the distance...he nods at you, then once again disappears into the night.