Ness turned around to face the old retired pirate. Once, Kannon Fotter was feared across all the seas of Neopia. Now, he sat in front of Little Nippers passing out free - and mostly unwanted - advice.

"The shopkeeper said that's all he could give me for the beaten up plushie I just gave him," Ness said. "He was just being nice, too. I have to visit Tyrannia, Cap'n Fotter...it's where we came from."

"Why would ye want to go back there? Those dung-loving scoundrels did run your kind out'n their stinky land. Stay on the isle. Fer goodness sake, it's named after ye, isn' it?

Ness took a deep breath and smiled.

Cap'n Fotter chuckled again. "I see there's no changing yer mind. Here, then, me Krawkie lass, this might be helping ye get where ye wants to get." He reached into his vest and pulled out something that glinted in the noon sun...

"Th...thank you!" Ness stammered.

"'Tis nothing," was the reply.

"Oh, but this is just what I need! I wish there were some way to repay you..." Ness trailed off.

"Ah, just ter see ye so happy is enough for me." Cap'n Fotter paused. "Though there is one thing that might'n go and make me happy..."

"Anything!"

"When ye reach Tyrannia, ye will see a plateau in the distance. On that plateau, there is a famed Lair O' The Beast. Ten years ago, I lost me best pal in there - a little Pirakeet named Sal. I would be very greatful if ye could bring 'im back - if 'e's still alive," Cap'n Fotter replied.

"I'll try my very best," Ness replied with a determined glint in her eye, "and thank you again!" she called as she ran off to the docks.

"I wish ye good luck," Cap'n Fotter mumbled. "Ye will need it."

Ness ran as fast as she could towards the docks, but was stricken to find that...

She climbed up the rope ladder that led to the ship and was greeted by an old Techo. "Hello miss! Welcome aboard the Lost Techo - that's the name of me ship! 'Tis a beauty, ain't it?"

Ness looked around at the Lost Techo. It was anything but a beauty. Whatever, she thought, I heard those pirates are a bit queer in the head.

The Techo continued, "Techo's the name, First Mate Techo. Me friends call me Techo, and I reckon you'll be too. Come along. Let me show you your cabin."

On the way to her cabin, an old Grarrl approached them. "G'day to you, Techo. How's the weather? Better be good, or I'll make that stupid weather-boy, JubJub, walk the plank. And who's this young snapper here?" he said, glancing at Ness. "What?!? You're a gal! Techo, how many times do I have to tell you that gals are prohibited from my ship!"

"Sorry, Captain, sir! I jus' noticed the young lady had a one hundred dubloon coin, and so I..."

"What did you say, Techo? A one hundred dubloon coin! Well than, miss, welcome aboard the Lost Techo. Why don't you come to my cabin today at noon. Let's have a little talk..."

"Don't you worry none, girl," said a Pteri sitting on a barrel. "He's a nice fella, and he loves yer kind - boiled in a pot and with a side of snorkle puddin'."

With that, the Pteri laughed maniacally. Ness edged away from him uneasily, backing into Techo.

"What's the matter, lass? Oh, you've met ol' One-Legged Pteri. I'd stay away from him."

"Why?" asked Ness. "Is he dangerous?"

"Oh, no!" said Techo. "He's mostly harmless, really. He just don't bathe much, if you catch my meanin'." Ness nodded knowingly, and Techo paused to look up at the sky. "It's nearly noon, ye know. The Cap'n don't like tardiness."

Ness muttered a goodbye and turned toward the captain's cabin. She noticed that One-Legged Pteri was still laughing. He caught her gaze and smiled menacingly. Ness ran the rest of the way and threw open the door.

"Hello."

The speaker was the Grarrl and his words were not spoken as a greeting. Ness stammered a reply.

"You say you have a one hundred dubloon coin."

Ness said she did.

"Where're you headed?"

"Tyrannia."

"How strange. It seems that is where me'n the crew were headed exactly. Ye have business there?"

"Well...yes, I suppose."

Well, gal, I'm willin' to take you across the seas. One condition only - along with yer fare, of course. It seems that there is a monster over there - a great, overgrown mutant Pirakeet named Sal. We mean to capture him and let people look at him for ten neopoints a piece - and well, we always need an extra pair of hands."

Ness was just thinking of an appropiate response when Techo burst in the room, breathless.

"It's the Pteri..."

With that he and Grarrl raced to the deck. Ness hestitantly followed. They did not have to look long for the Pteri. He was standing on the railing near the bow, singing and yelling at the top of his lungs. Ness covered her ears. He sounded like a squeaking chalkboard combined with someone torturing a Jubjub.

"Stay back girl," Techo whispered. "You never know what will happen when you drink some of these potions..."

No sooner had he said this then the Pteri began to glow a rather eerie shade of pink. Ness, the Grarrl and Techo turned to look at each other forebodingly. Then the pink glow stopped. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ye stewpid flying heap of sea slug! How many times have I told yew to stay out of the cargo!" The Grarrl roared.

But the Pteri wasn't paying attention. He still felt weird.

The next few minutes became a blur in Ness's memory. She remembered a growing Pteri, getting larger and larger. Everyone else was running. Some were abandoning ship. The next thing she knew was that she was no longer on a ship, or in the ocean for that matter. All she could see were clouds and dark, dense trees...

Suddenly, everything got quiet for Ness. All she heard was the steady WOOSH, WOOSH of wings above her and the occasional breeze in her ear. Everything seemed to be getting hotter too...

Ness jerked awake. She didn't know how long she had been asleep. She had been dreaming of an omelette, a giant one at that, but she didn't know why; and she had been dreaming of some kind of dinosaur. What was it called again? Chanbi? Chonpy? She couldn't quite remember, and trying to hold her dream memories was like trying to hold water in a bucket full of holes.

As Ness thought about her strange dream, she didn't think about what had happened before she had fallen asleep. Suddenly she remembered, and in remembering, realized that she wasn't flying anymore, for the steady beat of wings was gone. She also realized that some strange, rattling and terribly frightening breathing was right next to her...

Ness, petrified out of her skin, took deep breaths. She inched her way around the edge of the creature, fumbling across stone in the darkness. A tiny noise made Ness jump.

Ness looked down at something which stuck out in the enveloping blackness. It was a stick cage. Inside was an adorable, scrawny creature - a Pirakeet. It must be Sal, Fotter's petpet! she thought.

Well aware that the huge beast was yards away, Ness took apart the cage and lifted Sal out. Then, Pirakeet in arms, Ness dashed along through the darkness.

"Going so soon?" came a voice, just as Ness had spotted light at the end of the tunnel. Next to her now stood the dinosaur from her dream - Chompy or Chimby or whatever, and a nasty-looking one at that.

"One-Eye Knarrg's the name, Cap'n One-Eye Knarrg, and I believe you have something of mine..." He nodded to the Pirakeet. Ness was about to explain that it belonged to Captain Fotter when...

"Wh-what? I thought that Sal was Captain Fotter's! You stole him, didn't you?" Ness narrowed her eyes, approaching the huge Captain.

The Captain strangely chuckled. "Well, lil Sal here used to be Cap'n Fotter's, but he gave him to me when he decided he couldn't take care of him anymore! Then he realized that Sal was worth a lot and wanted to take him back and sell him! I couldn't see me lil Sal here be sold, so we ran off to this here cave and have been here ever since!"

Ness backed off and sat on the nearest rock in the cave. She was about to say something, but was interrupted by a voice behind her.

"Ya haven't done what I've asked now, have ye?" It breathed behind her neck...

"C'mon missy, nab that Pirakeet now 'er else I'll send you to live with the fishes!" Cap'n Grarrl yelled.

"B...But it's not a mutant..." Ness stammered.

"WHAT!!" Grarrl roared.

Sal scrambled back into his cage.

"Just wait 'till the sun goes down," the Grarrl said, "that thing 'ill become so big it'll be able to eat a Skeith whole."

"Wait a minute, Grarrl!" Knarrg said. "Sal's as harmless as a JubJub with the Neoflu!"

As Grarrl and Knarrg were arguing, Ness noticed that the thing that had been sleeping had woken up and was quietly moving towards Grarrl. All of a sudden, it lunged onto Cap'n Grarrl, biting and clawing at him...

"Some Cap'n you are! Orderin' Techo to make me swollow that stuff! Look at me now!" he raved.

During the fight, Ness noticed that Pteri had his leg connected to a chain that was attached to a heavy ball. Just as the Krawk was wondering why Pteri was chained to the ground, a nasty SMACK meet her ears as she was knocked out by Cap'n Knarrg.

Ness woke up later to find a tied up Cap'n Grarrl and a sleeping Cap'n Knarrg. Only Pteri lay awake.

"Pteri?" Ness asked timidly.

Startled, the Pteri arose quickly and stared at the Krawk. He seemed just as timid as she was. "Yea?" he whispered.

"Why are you tied up?"

"Well, I know old Cap'n Fotter, and he sent me to find the who owned the potion that turned 'is poor Sal into a mutant. I knew Grarrl was a bounty hunter for Sal and that he would lead me too 'im, and he might own the potion. I was only on the ship a day or two when you, lassie, came on deck. I found the potion while you were with the Cap'n, but Techo was on to me and made me drink it down. When all the ruckus started, I took you to Tyrannia, only to be sent down by a well-thrown stone by Cap'n Knarrg," Pteri explained.

Just as Pteri finished though, green feathers seemed to fly everywere. In the cage that held Sal, the Pirakeet filled the whole cage, she was huge! Not only that, a shadow appeared at the entrance of the cave.

"Well, if it ain't me lass and laddo!" Cap'n Fotter said. "Just in time, too! Well, a file here can help ye both." He smiled oddly as he handed Pteri a small file.

As Pteri worked on his chains, the Krawk was dying to ask Cap'n Fotter something, but was afraid of the answer. "Cap'n? Knarrg here told me that you wanted Sal back only for money reasons, is that true?"

"I wouldn' lie to you lassie, but 'tis true. Well, it was. I've since won meself more dubloons than you could count! I found 'em in a sunken pirate ship and I have no need for Sal now but as a pet," Cap'n Fotter answered.

Ness breathed a sigh of relief as Sal was let out of her cage, and Pteri snapped the Krawk's chain in half. She, Cap'n Fotter and Pteri were hoping to make a clean getaway when, just outside the cave, all the pirates of the Lost Techo ambushed them.

The rest was all a blur. Ness remembered only one thing. She and Cap'n Fotter left on Sal, but Pteri had to stay behind to distract the crew, and Ness never saw him again.

A year later...

Hi! I'm Pteri! I star in my own game Pterattack. It's a better life than I could have hoped for. I used to be a pirate, a good one at that. I remember the day I saved a lassie Krawk and old Cap'n Fotter. I know they're okay, but one of these days, I'm going to show them that I ended up okay too!

The End