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"Tsuai, it's your time. Zafaras don't get to live forever
you know." The many Kougras around me snickered and laughed. Their leader was
a gold Kougra. He almost reminded me of an angel, with his shimmering hair and
silver eyes… the angel of death.
I couldn't move. Terror and agony were keeping
me down. There was a pounding pain in my left wing and I could tell that one
of my forelegs was broken. My beautiful white fur was soaked with sweat and
there were tear stains dragging themselves down my face. They were tears caused
by fear. My vision was spinning and blurring. Every time I blinked my sight
worsened. The gold Kougra had stopped moving towards me and was staring down
at my broken and tired body. His hysterical laughing was all I could hear.
Through my blurred vision I saw a bright yellow
flash that disappeared as fast as it had come. A strange purple form had appeared
where the flash had been. The Kougra wheeled around with a look of utter surprise
in his eyes, yet he could not mask his annoyance. I blinked and my vision swirled
away. When I closed my eyes again I was lost in a spinning blackness…
"Wake up…" said a strange voice.
"Kiriu, she won't wake up."
"If she doesn't wake up soon, she'll starve.
Let's just hope she gets up soon."
I stirred. "Kiriu! Kiriu, I think she's waking
up! …Kiriu?" I slowly opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling as my vision
focused. "Kiriu, where are you?"
I turned my head and saw a young Lupe running
around the room. By the way he walked I could tell he was less than a year old,
but by he look of it he hadn't seen his owner for months. His feet were a huge
compared to the rest of his body. He turned to face me and I noticed that he
showed a great sadness in his eyes.
Around his neck was a necklace. It had a long,
thick, black, cord with a large green stone mounted on a gold frame. It glittered
beautifully in the morning sun. There was a strange grace to it, this shimmering
green stone against his bright sky blue fur. It almost seemed as though it was
meant to be that way…
"Are you alright? You didn't look to good when
we found you." I tried to turn the rest of my body to face him and moaned. I
had totally forgotten how much my broken arm had hurt. " Yeah… that one arm
is broken and you've got a nice little gash in the back of your wing. Oh, Kiriu
where are you?"
As he continued to search the room, I saw a
small Ariax flutter in through the window. She dropped a note and attempted
to fly away again. Just before she took off, the Lupe ran forward and grabbed
both of her wings. With her only way to escape pinned to her sides she started
to peck at his hands leaving bruises wherever she hit him.
He flung her across the room and made a break
for the window. She caught herself in midair just as he slammed it shut. "Hey!
Ryo, why did you close that window? I was gonna leave!" screamed the Ariax.
"Of course you were leaving! I was stopping
you!" Ryo turned towards me. "Oh… uh, what's your name?"
"Tsuai."
"Well, Tsuai, my name is Ryokin, but you can
just call me Ryo. This is my petpet, Kiriu."
"Yeah… I wouldn't call myself yours 'cause I'm
hardly ever here." Kiriu had a small grin spreading across his face. " You'd
better read that note. It's from The Neopets Team."
Ryo picked the note off the windowsill. "Shouldn't
we wait for our owner to get back? We did see him today even though he didn't
take us with him…"
"He won't care, but…" Ryo was already ripping
apart the envelope and nobody heard what Kiriu had to say.
"No… he couldn't have… how could he do this
to us?"
"What? What did he do?" I asked.
"Listen… 'Dear Kito_suto, we of The Neopets
Team have received report that you have been trying to hack into other people's
accounts. We will be freezing your account in 2 hours. We have already frozen
your bank account and you will no longer be able to shop in any stores, or send
your items to another account. You should spend this time sending your pets
to the pound; otherwise they will be deleted with the rest of your account'.
H-how could anyone do this to us?"
It was now apparent why Kiriu had been so happy.
The letter had said nothing about petpets. She was finally able to leave. She
could be free. "Well I'll be going!" said Kiriu very pleased when nobody made
any comment. "Oh, and, Ryo, that friend of yours is going to be deleted, too.
Seeing as she has nowhere else to go… she's ours now!" And with that, she flew
straight through the door.
"I-is that true?" His face was full of tears.
" Tsuai, is that true? You really have no owner?" I nodded. He put his face
to his paws and started to cry even harder. "What are we gonna do? My owner
has probably logged of already and I'm pretty sure we can't run away with you
like this…"
"Yes we can. It's my arm that's hurt not my
legs." I was only trying to reassure him. I was sure that I probably would not
be able to leave this house. We were both trapped.
***
As I sat up in bed, a new pain coursed through my arm. I felt as though someone
had set fire to my arm and it was spreading throughout my whole body. I felt
my muscles tense. I tried to stand and fell backward. I couldn't bear it. I
knew the tears were welling in my eyes. I couldn't stop them; these tears of
defeat were all that was telling me that I was still alive. I couldn't stop
my life, but it would be ending soon anyway. I couldn't control that.
After what seemed like eternity, Ryo stood up
and walked across the room. He ripped the letter in to shreds, then, walked
out of the room. He returned holding two sandwiches. "We might as well eat.
You must be starving!" He tried to force a smile. I took the sandwich and he
walked away, sobbing.
I took a bite out of my sandwich, even though
I didn't feel the slightest twinge of hunger. I watched my new friend as he
sat back down and started touching the stone he was wearing around his neck.
The emerald colored stone began to glow. Soon it was so bright that I had to
close my eyes. Then the light faded.
I saw next to Ryo, a strange green Lupe. This
was no normal Lupe. He had two wings, long wings that seemed to be the only
thing solid about him. The rest of his body was bright neon green and his self,
his whole being, was clear. As though he was made of glass, or could he be a
ghost?
The stone around Ryo's neck had gone black.
This strange green Lupe was the glowing light, this strange green Lupe was what
gave it color, what gave it life.
I looked at the clock. We only had about ten
minutes before The Neopets Team would be here. The Lupe was trying to get Ryo
to wipe away his tears, trying to tell him that they could think of something,
but it was no use. We had already given up.
Time was ticking by. Nobody said a word. We
sat in silence. I was watching the strange Lupe as he paced back and fourth
trying to think of something.
Ryo ate his sandwich then stood. He walked over
to the winged Lupe and whispered something into his ear. The Lupe looked at
me then, shook his head. Anger, and annoyance flashed in Ryo's eyes, but he
quickly masked them as another wave of sadness washed over him. He walked back
to the window and sat on the windowsill. The angel of death was coming again.
I had just realized who that gold Kougra was.
He was Toranou the Kougra owned by one of the members of The Neopets Team… the
one who deleted people's accounts.
My ear twitched. I saw both of Ryo's go back
in a gesture of fear and anger. He was growling, and his tail kept flicking
back and fourth. He bared his teeth and started to snap his jaws at everything
around him. I new exactly who had just knocked at our door.
Ryo was too frightened to open the door and
the green Lupe couldn't do it because he wasn't even supposed to exist. I had
to go. I sat up in bed again and the same pain coursed through my arm. I slowly
stood as though I was trying to get used to a cold pool. I felt all my muscles
tense and my arm burned angrily. I slowly walked forward, trying my best not
to cry out.
I finally reached the door. I grasped the knob
as if I was holding on to life itself and slowly opened the door. I heard a
loud bang and I was on the ground. The golden angel of death entered the house
and stared down at me. "Ha! I get to kill two birds with one stone, as the saying
goes." All of the pets around him laughed. " Tsuai, we will be deleting this
house in less than 30 seconds. I'd run if I were you." So he turned around and
left.
I watched in horror as the house around me began
to shred. Behind the house was only blackness. There was a horrible pain in
my foot and a thought came crashing down upon my mind. I was being deleted.
I felt myself cry. I could not hear my own screams
but knew they were escaping my throat. My own voice cracked with fear and pain
as I called for someone to help me. No one would hear me, and I could tell my
short life was over.
***
I was falling through darkness. I could see the remnants of the house above
me; some unknown force was slowly shredding them. The same force was destroying
me. As I fell I could see the small white pixels that used to be my feet. I
could no longer feel the pain in my wing and in arm. All I could feel was the
pain of my being deleted. My tail had now begun to be demolished as well.
I was screaming my pain and fear. Help me! Somebody
help me please! Nobody heard. Nobody came. I could no longer see any foot past
my ankle and the fin at the end of my tail was gone. The only thing I could
hear was my own heartbeat. It drowned out all of the other noises. Distantly
I could hear the wind buzzing past my ears.
I tried to unfold my wings, anything to stop
this fall, but they were stuck to my sides. As I plummeted lower and lower I
noticed that the darkness around me had started to close. It was almost like
it was being condensed. I couldn't breathe. The darkness had closed around my
lungs. The shredding had now reached my knees; it was half way down my tail.
I had no idea where Ryo was. I just hoped he was all right.
A bright flash had suddenly destroyed all the
darkness. I was able to breathe. As I inhaled, the light faded and the darkness
was back. Constricting my throat, stopping my breath. I saw the same purple
form as I had before, when the angel of death had come for me. Only this time
I saw it clearly.
It was a winged Zafara kind of like myself,
but it was purple, and its body was clear like Ryo's green Lupe. The wings were
the only solid part of its body. They were strong and I knew that this strange
Zafara could fight with the wind current that was pulling me down.
I saw her inhale deeply, hold it, then dive
into the thick darkness that surrounded me. She grabbed my arm and pulled. I
didn't budge, I couldn't; the darkness was keeping me where I was.
She looked at me; her vivid blue eyes were filled
with fear. She looked away and tried to move me away from the darkness again.
She flapped her strong, muscled wings as hard as she could. We slowly made our
way out of the darkened cloud and into more darkness. Only this dark let you
breathe.
After I caught my breath, I tried to help the
Zafara fly, but I realized that I could not sense I only had my waist and up
to fly with. Plus one of my wings had begun to shred itself, so I just let her
fly.
She continued to fly up and up and up. It seemed
to last forever and we were running out of time. I no longer had either wing
and the shredder had started to work its way up to my shoulders. I could see
light ahead and it kept getting brighter until we burst through some kind of
barrier.
I waited as my eyes got used to the light. I
could feel that my wings were coming back to me. I could feel my feet and my
tail also returning. I saw many things around me, but none of them were Ryo's
house.
I could see a large forest, a group of birds
migrating south for the winter, and a small Ariax fluttering down towards a
small pond. "Kiriu?! Kiriu it's you!" I knew that voice from somewhere… I flew
from the Zafara's grasp and landed next to the Ariax. " Hurry! Catch her before
she flies away!" Then I knew whom that voice belonged to. It was Ryo! He had
made it!
I quickly grabbed his petpet and held him tight.
It seem that my arm and wing were better now. I felt no pain. " Thanks!" Ryo
smiled at me. It wasn't like all the other times he had half-heartedly smiled.
No, this time he was truly happy. "You made it through the darkness!"
"Thanks to her." I pointed at the spot where
the purple Zafara had been a minute ago.
Ryo walked to the place where I was pointing.
He bent over and picked up a necklace just like his, walked back, and handed
it to me. "Of course. She's your guardian angel."
The End
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