The other villagers rolled their eyes. "He's back again," groaned one.

"I swear one of these days, that Whinny is going to snap in half under the weight of that Quiggle! Even one as small as he is!" said another.

It was true. For as small as the Quiggle was, he was still easily twice the size of his "mount." It didn't seem like it was bothered much by the weight though. It stood proud as a knight's steed.

"A nutty one that Monty is," said the mayor, walking by, "always roaming the countryside defending us from "evil 'monsters.'"

"Yeah! Like that vicious bush that was attacking my barn last night!" laughed a farmer, "That loon put lance straight through my barn wall!"

Oblivious to their insults, Montgomery strode proudly through town. In his own eyes, he was protector of the village, brave knight and vanquisher of evil.

Sadly, nothing much really happened in this peaceful little village, so sometimes, his imagination got a little out of hand...

But he knew, one day, true danger would rear its ugly head and he would prove himself to be the greatest knight of the land!

The day he wished for came soon for the ambitious Quiggle, as one night, a strange darkness overtook the nearby woods...

Yep, all was as usual, until...

"Montgomery! Monty, help!" cried out the Cybunny, Arianna - who was being dragged into the woods at the South end of town.

Monty froze for a moment... and then yelled, "Diedre! Hyah, hyah!" The Whinny sprung into action, hurdling towards the South end of the village. Monty's heart was racing - a real challenge!

He came upon the southern end of town, along the treeline. Despite his speed, Arianna was nowhere to be seen. Monty circled around for a little bit, staying at the edge of the forest. A moment later, though, a familiar squeal could be heard from deep inside the woods.

Montgomery jumped off his loyal Whinny, Diedre, and told her, "Look. The woods are too thick for you, I need you to stay right here, alright? Don't move from this spot."

Diedre grunted approvingly.

Montgomery set out into the woods, running as fast as his little legs would carry him. As he ran, he made a call for his Horus, Imhanteph. The wise Petpet appeared a moment later, landed on his shoulder, and accompanied him on his journey. The Petpet began to warn him of a danger nearby, but Monty continued to run, oblivious to the sound of running footsteps behind him...

Back at the village (several hours later) some people were getting nervous. "I dunno," said one villager, "He was always annoying, but he was always here, ya know? It's not like him to ride off on an adventure and not come back to brag about the monsters he killed! And why did he leave Diedre?" Several others agreed.

Soon, someone noticed that Arianna was also missing. "To think," someone said, "he goes off on his first adventure... and gets petnapped? It figures, just when he has a chance to be useful! Well, we should get together a search party or something..."

meanwhile, several miles away...

"Uhhh..." groaned Montgomery, sitting up slowly, "What was that?" He felt his head slowly, finding a very large bump. His faithful little Horus sat nearby, shaking its head slowly at this foolishness. "Well," said Montgomery, "can you at least help me find a way out of here?"

As he stood up slowly, Montgomery noticed he was in a large treehouse. As he looked out a window, he realized why he didn't have a guard. Miles upon miles of trees surrounded the one he was in! Anyone would be crazy to try to find their way out of there! But then again, Montgomery wasn't just anyone... and he was most decidedly crazy.

Back at the village, a search party had been formed. Carrying lots of rope, torches, and any available weapons (mostly scythes and pitchforks), they started off into the forest.

Montgomery was lost, hungry, cold, and his feet ached horribly. As he looked up at his Horus, he noticed the poor thing was just as bad off, probably worse considering it might feel guilty for allowing his owner to get lost. Suddenly, Imhanteph sat up a little straighter, as his eyes trained on some bushes in nearby that had begun to move...

"How did you find me?!" The Whinny stared up at him like he was a fool. "Oh yeah," he pulled sugar cookies out of his pocket and the fragrance filled the air, "here!" he threw one down to his faithful steed. Montgomery never missed a snack. Diedre happily bit into a cookie and neighed. "Get me out of here!"

"How do you suppose we do that?" came a reply.

"Wha... Diedre is that you, why didn't you tell me you could talk?"

"Oi! Monty you are crazy!"

The bushes rustled again and Arianna stepped out, "Oh! That explains an awful lot!" Montgomery sighed with relief.

"How do we get you out of there?" Arianna said glancing up at the window, only to see that Montgomery wasn't sitting at the window any longer, "Monty where'd you..." she started.

"Get me out of what?" asked Montgomery now standing beside Arianna.

She swatted him hard, "How did you get out?!" Arianna said as she crossed her arms gruffly.

Montgomery pointed to the front door, "It wasn't locked," he stated simply.

Arianna smacked her forehead, "Of course not, not with your dumb luck!"

"Hey! what's that supposed to mean?" asked the Quiggle in a hurt voice.

Montgomery and Arianna, followed closely by Diedre, plodded through the slowly darkening forest. They passed tree after tree after tree until Arianna broke the silence, "How do you know where to go?"

"Well," said Montgomery, "you see I have been following these footprints."

"Really?" said Arianna.

"Yep, as far as I can tell they have walked this path often because the footprints are deep!"

"Oh no," was Arianna's reply.

"Oh yes," snorted Montgomery, "one of them is about my height wearing an iron plate of armor, the one behind this pet is less clad and steps lightly and wears a cloak that brushes the ground much like yours."

Arianna smacked her head again, "goodness your good at this, aren't you Monty!"

"Oh most defin..." he didn't get a chance to finish as Arianna smacked him hard across the forehead again. "Ow, what was that for?!" cried Montgomery.

"I can't believe we've been following our own footsteps! You're not allowed to lead us anymore!" Diedre neighed in agreement.

"Oh please let me lead again, I won't goof it this time..." she smacked him again, causing him to stumble backwards onto a pile of leaves. He was about to say something, but a mysterious snap sounded beneath his feet and...

"What was that about my luck again?" he shouted to Arianna. His quirk was met with silence, and a glance down determined the reason why.

Arianna and Diedre were surrounded by a ring of green and brown Aishas. With a gasp, Montgomery realized that these must be the legendary Protectors of Malfious Woods. Many stories were told of these mysterious creatures, but no one had ever laid eyes on them... and returned to tell the tale.

"What do they want?" he whispered down at Arianna.

"I'm not sure, but they don't seem to be aggressive," she replied. "It's almost as if..."

Before she could finish the thought, the helpless Quiggle heard a whoosh of air, and looked up just in time to see Imhanteph swooping towards the rope holding him. The Horus slashed out as he went by, and Montgomery went tumbling to the ground on top of his companions.

The surrounding Aishas watched impassively while the trio untangled themselves. Once they had managed to right themselves again, a shimmering silver Aisha stepped out from between the trees. She spoke in a soft, purring voice: "Friends, I am sorry that we had to bring you here like this, but we the Protectors desperately need your help...

Arianna smiled as if she were silently laughing. "Let me get this straight, you have an evil you can't fight and want me to help you?" she paused for a moment before she continued."Well, I can see why you want me, with my beauty and skill, but why do you want Montgomery? He's the one that had us wandering around for hours following our own tracks."

Montgomery blushed red and looked at the springy green moss that partly covered his feet. "She is right you know," he mumbled, and even though he had been dreaming of this sort of problem since he had been saving barns from bushes, now that he had the chance to finally prove himself he felt he wasn't ready for it.

Still the Aisha stared patiently, waiting for the outcome.

Arainna couldn't help but feel amazed that Monty was giving this once in a life time chance up. The worst part, though, was that she was to blame. Especially after what they'd been through, there was no way she would let him give this up, even if it didn't turn out right. "Monty," she said, quietly and changing her opinion of the Quiggle completly, "I'm sorry. You and I really should accept."

The Quiggle looked up in surprise, taking the apology quietly and feeling a flower of pride at the thought she was confident he could do it.

"All right," he said, taking charge once more, "we accept."

"As you should." The silver Neopet answered solemnly. "All right. Now, your task to save these woods and this world is this: you must defeat the dark lord in single combat, and prevail, for if they win you'll be tortured until you help them defeat us. Now to tell you about our past. We...

Arainna turned to look at Montgomery and he nodded back to show how enthusiastic he was about this. The silver Aisha suddenly turned and walked deeper into the woods. They followed closely behind, not knowing the things that were in store for them.

A short distance away, Montgomery could see a majestic structure. As they walked nearer, it became clear that it was an arena of some sort. Arainna could not contain herself anymore. "What is this place?" she asked. "Why are we here?"

"We have to give each of you some training so that your mission will not end in a loss," The silver Neopet answered calmly. He then took out a piece of paper which unfolded and stretched all the way from his hands to the ground. "By dawn, all of you would be ready for the task ahead." The silver Neopet clapped his hands and several Aishas came to lead them into the arena. "See you at dawn," the silver Aisha said, before turning and disappearing behind some trees.

In the arena, Montgomery and Arainna were taught various skills such as sword fighting, basic magic, pathfinding and the most important of all, teamwork. Before sunrise, the both of them were so tired from the training that they fell asleep while fighting the punch bag.

"Time to wake up!" A voice echoed through the arena. Montgomery and Arainna woke up with a startle. "The invaders are here!" The silver Neopet shouted out aloud.

Montgomery and Arainna picked up their swords and rushed out. "Take this, it will assist you in your battle..." the silver Aisha said, as she handed them a totem. Arainna gave shrug and both of them ran out of the arena...

Monty looked up and down the Aisha defence line. They were outnumbered at least five to one. There was no hope in plain battle. He knew what had to be done. He looked at Arianna, who held her head high. A glint of fire shone in her eyes, and she nodded.

"Minions of the Dark Lord!" Monty called out. "I have a challenge! You may choose a champion, who I will fight myself. If I emerge victorious, you surrender. If you win, we shall yield! Do you accept?"

From the enemy ranks, there came laughter. A voice as cold as ice, as sharp as a sword, and as malicious as the Pant Devil spoke. "I, the Dark Lord, accept your challenge. You may even have two champions, you pathetic fools! Come, into the arena!"

A shadow stepped out. It wore a black cloak that hid its face, but two red eyes shone from under the hood. In the greenish claw coming from its right sleeve was a huge battle axe with a crystal blade, topped with a skull carved from ruby. He led the way into the arena.

As Arianna and Monty walked after him, Montgomery accidentally dropped the totem. Arianna moved to pick it up, and as both her and Monty reached for it, their hands touched it at the same time. It seemed to split! Soon Monty was holding a green crystal orb, and Arianna held a dusky pink one. Each had a silver chain. Monty hung the green crystal around his neck, and entered the arena...

"Shut up you stupid Quiggle and let's get this show on the road," the Dark Lord said, pulling back his fist from where Monty's stomach had been.

Helping Monty up Arianna said, "This isn't one of your imaginary monsters, Monty. This guy is pure evil, we can't hold anything back if we want to beat him." Monty looked up at her and nodded his head in agreement. "Let's give the village something to be proud of!"

Standing he drew Excelsior and said, "Have at thee, fiend." and charged the Dark Lord. Taken completely back by such a ferocious attack, the Dark Lord was unable to bring his axe to bear in time to stop from receiving a vicious blow to the side.

However, for a beast numbering in the top one hundred most powerful pets, this was no more than a minor setback. Seeing that Monty's momentum was going to care the quiggle far past the Dark Lord, he deciced to help Monty in getting there. Swivelling quickly on his heel as the sword wounded his side, he let fly a mighty kick, sending Monty into the arena wall.

Turning, the Dark Lord, left the unconscious Quiggle where he lay and began to advance on Arianna. The cybunny stood her ground bravely, knowing that she probably wouldn't survive for long. Brandishing her Cybunny Sword bravely in an attempt to drive back the Dark Lord, she shouted, "Monty are you alright? Monty GET UP!"

Slicing downward, the Dark Lord shattered the madly slashing blade into hundreds of pieces. Arcing his axe back around, and preparing for another blow, the Dark Lord looked down at the terrified Cybunny and said, "It looks like my troops will enjoy a nice meal of Haussenfeffer tonight." Grinning maliciously, the Dark Lord swung his axe down on the Cybunny. Suddenly there was a powerful green flash and the Dark Lord was sprawled against the wall of the arena.

Getting up, Arianna saw Monty standing at the other end of the arena, With the glowing amulet around his neck, "Hey Arianna!" he shouted. "The amulets are designed to protect who ever is wearing the other one. Cover me while I take his hitpoints down to zero!"

Picking Excelsior up off the ground, the Quiggle turned to the recovered Dark Lord and said, "You have had your day Dark Lord, and NOW, YOU LOSE."

Once more the Quiggle charged toward the Dark Lord, but this time the Dark Lord managed to get his axe up in time. Using a mighty Quiggle leap Monty sailed through the air and descended on the Dark Lord, bringing down Excelsior with such force that both weapons shattered.

After the shards had settled though, the Dark Lord remained motionless. "Stunned aren't you?" asked Monty, grinning.

"No Monty, quick he's been frozen, you have to finish it quickly!" said Arianna, running up. "C'mon Monty lets use the amulets, fast!"

"No Arianna, we've lost. The amulets combined won't do enough damage, and then he'll unfreeze and finish us off." Arianna simply stared at him astoundedly. Just then a familliar hoot sounded behind them, immediately followed by a neigh, Imhanteph and Diedre had come to assist.

"I have an idea," said Monty. "Imhanteph and Diedre are always hanging out with the Turmaculus whenever he's awake, so they're a fairly high level, 10 or 11. So all we have to do is channel the power of the amulets into the Petpets and we should do enough damage to defeat him."

"Good, then lets do it." said Arianna.

Turning toward the Petpets, the amulets began to glow. Soon, this glow grew so great that it engulfed the Cybunny and the Quiggle. The glow then left the pets and surrounded Imhanteph and Diedre. The final blow was ready to be dealt.

The Dark Lord felt as if he had been left in a freezer. He couldn't tell what was happening, all he knew was that when he could move again, he was going to destroy those two bothersome creatures. Suddenly he could see again and he knew that the moment had come for his victory. As he got up though he saw an extremely strange sight. Before him were two glowing forms. Then, a second later all he could see was darkness, and he felt as though he had just been trampled by a stampede. Soon, however he could feel nothing at all.

Coming back to their senses, after the drain of the amulets, the two warriors looked down at the Dark Lord and knew that, at last (at least for a time) that the forest was safe, and that it was time to return to the village...

"If they even believe us," the Cybunny replied. Monty looked at her in surprise and noticed a slight smile of pride on her soft features.

The silver Aisha suddenly appeared in front of them. "Congratulations," she said, "the shadow creatures have been defeated." Sure enough, all the shadows were gone as if they had disappeared into thin air. "We are eternally grateful to you."

"We couldn't have done it without the training and the totem you gave us," Arianna said a little shyly.

"And my two wonderful Petpets," Monty added as Imhanteph landed on his shoulder and Diedre stepped up beside him.

"You'd best get back to your village now." The silver Aisha handed them each a small bottle filled with some kind of potion that glowed a light blue. And with that the silver Aisha faded away into nothing.

Monty looked nervously to Arianna who just shrugged and swallowed her potion in one gulp. He followed suit. Suddenly, Monty's head began to swim and he blacked out...

...The Quiggle wasn't sure what it was that awakened him, but, next thing he knew, he was laying on the ground in a forest clearing with Arianna nearby. Sunlight poured through the tree tops casting different shadows on the undergrowth. Monty sat there in the peacefulness for a moment before the memory of what happened came rushing back.

Arianna awoke at the sound of Monty's stirring. "Was all that real or a dream?" she asked Monty. Monty was about to reply that he didn't know when Imhanteph came swooping down with a dusty pink orb on a silver chain clamped in his beak. They heard a small neigh and Diedre galloped in with a green orb on a silver chain in its mouth. The Petpets dropped the orbs at the surprised pets' feet.

"Well, I guess that answers that!" Monty exclaimed. Just then they heard the sound of distant voices floating through the trees.

"Monty! Arianna! This isn't funny anymore! Where are you?"

"It's the villagers," Monty said. The search party had finally found them. "Let's not tell them what happened. They won't believe me anyway."

Arianna looked over to see if he was joking, but his face was dead serious. He had always wanted an adventure like this so he could tell the villagers about it and now that it happened he had decided not to. "We're over here!" Arianna yelled back, still staring at Monty.

The search party burst through the trees. "Where have you been? It's been nearly four days!"

"We got lost," Monty lied quietly.

"You old fool! The village is only a few yards away! Come on, let's go home. The village wasn't the same without you."

The search party headed back to the village leaving Monty and Arianna to themselves. "Monty, why didn't you tell them?"

"If I told them about the Protecters of Malfious Woods they would send out search parties to look for them. If the villagers found them they would disturb the peaceful home they had built. I don't want that to happen to them after all they did for us."

He's right, Arianna thought, maybe he isn't as crazy as everyone says.

The two friends walked hand in hand back to their town. Neither of them noticed the brown Aishas that seemed to fade out from the trees behind them. A silver Aisha stepped out from amongst them and whispered, "Thank you, once again, good friends," and then faded back into the Malfious Woods.

THE END