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It was midday at this time, and in the territorial area
of Terror Mountain, the weather began to slightly warm up. However, this change
in temperature was barely noticeable. Justin the Elephante was still sitting
on his rear in the snow, cleaning the cloud colored cheese off of his paws while
his partner, Jonathan, now grasped the codestone they'd found earlier in the
snow. An evil expression settled into the green fur on his feline face as he
twirled the small stone within his grasp. There was so much he could do with
such a powerful object! Neopia would quake at just the sight of him in a few
days' time..
"So, Justin, are you sure you were holding
this stone when you made that wish? I'm pretty sure this has something to do
with it."
Justin shrugged. He did remember that he had
possession of the stone at the time, but he didn't remember if he was actually
holding the codestone in his grasp when he made the wish. "Gee, Big J, I wish
I knew... but I'm as sure as I always am!"
Jonathan groaned. If Justin was saying he was
as sure as he always was, that wasn't very sure. Instead of asking questions,
Jonathan held the codestone and then proclaimed, "I WISH THAT A BAG OF A MILLION
NEOPOINTS WOULD FALL FROM THE SKYYY!!" in the loudest, scariest voice he had
ever emitted. Justin wailed and plugged his ears, replying,
"I wish I had a... uh... hearing thing. Oh yeah,
a hearing aid!"
As they commanded, a large bag filled to the
brim with Neopoints fell to the ground. On the side of the bag in large, bold
letters read: "1,000,000 Neopoints". Also, to Justin's delight, a small hearing
aid fell on top of his head, although he did not have much use for it. A few
moments passed, and there was no sound coming from any direction of the mountain.
Jonathan stood still, panting while his eyes roamed over the large sack of Neopoints
that had fallen before him. Justin burped and began playing with the little
aid for his ear with interest.
Jonathan screamed and began to dance around his
money. Justin yelped too, but he didn't know what he should be so happy about,
and asked, "Hey, whose birthday is it?"
"No one's, Justin. This stone is magic -- it
grants wishes! And if you'd like, I can make every day your birthday.."
Main Street, Neopia Central
Krawker, Jyrosen, and Saigru were tiredly sprawled about the living room. The
air conditioner had cooled the air, making everyone overly tired despite the
situation they had at hand. Saigru, who had deemed himself the leader of their
research group, quietly placed the stone atop the table in the center of the
room. As much as he wanted to go to sleep, or devour an ice cream cone, there
was plenty of work to be done.
"Okay," the Kougra began, scratching at one
of his thick eyebrows while trying to develop some sort of plan for action,
"we have to figure out where the rest of the stones are, right?"
"Right," Krawker replied, closing his eyes while
thinking to himself for a moment. The room fell silent with the exception of
the air conditioner's steady hiss of cool air, however he soon replied, "I think
that's really impossible, though."
Jyrosen snorted and Saigru smiled at the same
moment, withdrawing a piece of paper and a pen from a chest of drawers. "Um...
okay Krawker. I think that you forgot this thing grants whatever wish we ask
it to." At the top of the paper, Saigru inscribed Stone locations in
his wobbly handwriting and then tossed the stone to his older brother. "Here,
Jyrosen, why don't you give it a go?"
The shaggy white Lupe nodded with a slight gulp,
trying not to reveal the fact that he was quite frightened of making the wish
that was the most important to them in practically saving the world of Neopia.
Krawker smiled, noticing the tense state of his brother, but then watched while
waiting for the response that the codestone would give. Jyrosen cleared his
throat, and then slowly spoke: "I wish that the location of the other enchanted
stones, such as this one, will be revealed to myself and only myself at this
moment."
Saigru wailed, "There could be tons of other
stones, Jyrosen! What if the codestone only tracks down the locations of just
other Har codestones? Or just codestones in general? What if--"
A loud rumble shook the interior of the living
room as the Har codestone fell onto the floor, vibrating almost angrily while
rays of light magically appeared out of its surface. The three brothers stared
with surprise towards the unexpected actions of the stone, and then a large,
movie theatre-like screen made its way onto the surface of one of the walls.
A booming voice came from seemingly nowhere as large words appeared on the side
of the wall.
"
CODESTONE ONE: NEOPIAN POUND ENTRANCE
CODESTONE TWO: MAGIC SHOP
CODESTONE THREE: BRACKNELL ROAD
CODESTONE FOUR: RAINBOW STREET
CODESTONE FIVE: MAIN STREET
CODESTONE SIX: DISNEY THEATRE
CODESTONE SEVEN: NEOLODGE FOUNTAIN
CODESTONE EIGHT: WISHING WELL
CODESTONE NINE: MONEY TREE
CODESTONE TEN: TERROR MOUNTAIN"
After projecting the images of the words upon
the wall, the codestone's light quickly faded and the rumbling effect within
the room ceased. The loud, unfamiliar voice suddenly stopped its proclamation
and everything went back to normal. Krawker, sweating rather nervously, looked
to his brothers. Jyrosen simply stared at the while running his paw over its
surface, as if longing for the words to reappear. Saigru still didn't seem pleased.
"Ten? Only ten? But, it doesn't seem right, I would've expected a lot
more to be found."
Krawker sighed and use the back of one of his
claws to wipe the sweat off of his forehead. "It doesn't matter. We need to
get to work before time runs out."
***
Justin and Jonathan were now trampling around in circles almost mindlessly,
still in Terror Mountain. Jonathan continuously blabbed about how much wealth
the two could gain off of their new codestone and how their life would instantly
change from living in the dumps to owning the most famous mansion on the whole
planet. Justin, however, did not listen to a word that his friend was saying.
He was still quite hungry and in his opinion, walking in circles was the most
boring thing in the world for two people to do, especially when they now had
a stone that would produce any effect they asked it to. As Jon rambled on, Justin
crawled slowly on his knees, becoming rather tired and wanting to do something
actually fun.
"There's just SO much that I want to do," Jon
continued, and then stopped, realizing that Justin wasn't paying much attention.
Sometimes he wondered how his best friend in the whole world could be so.. strange
sometimes.
"Justin, what's up with you lately? Did you
hear what I said before?"
Justin paused and then looked up towards Jonathan,
who honestly looked rather loony, his green fur drenched in snow and his eyes
widened to their fullest extent. The Elephante shook his head, for he hadn't
been listening to anything his friend said "No, no, what now?"
"Welll..." Jonathan began, emphasizing the "well"
so it sounded as if his tongue was five feet in length. "I said that we should
each have three wishes off of this thing and then I'll hide it until we need
it again. That's why I said it was going to be difficult, because there's so
much that I want to do. Now do you remember?"
"Yeah, yeah, right. Um... so, are we going to
leave Terror Mountain anytime soon? I'm cold."
"Actually, no," the Wocky explained, "I think
it's safest to use our wishes up here where not really anyone can see us. This
is, after all, where we found the stone in the first place."
Justin released a large groan and fell onto his
back on the ground. As Jonathan watched him disgustedly, Justin snatched the
stone out of his friend's paw. "I wish that Jonathan would stop being so bossy."
Jonathan snickered at Justin's wish choice although
it only took a few moments for it to take effect. The Wocky suddenly felt somewhat
light-headed, but then shook it off. Instead of demanding an explanation he
smiled and asked, "So, Justin, what do you want to do with the stone?"
Neopian Pound
Jyrosen the Lupe stood wearily on the sidewalk in front of the entrance to
the Neopian Pound. Within one of his paws he clutched a magnifying glass in
order to make his vision enlarged while looking for the codestone, and within
the other paw he held onto a walkie-talkie that he and his brothers had managed
to find in the attic earlier in the day. His widened eyes scanned the lawn,
trying to look for a crimson colored patch anywhere on the outside of the pound.
"Okay, there's nothing in the front. Maybe it's
in the back," he sighed and then slowly walked to the back of the large establishment,
hoping to be able to find the codestone before someone else did. The booming
voice that had rung within his ears earlier, proclaiming Codestone one: Neopian
Pound still haunted his thoughts as he looked for the stone on the surface
of the grass.
The wind blew and swayed the trees rather gently.
Jyrosen looked upwards, suddenly alert, and then noticed a small, round object
falling out of one of the trees a few feet away. His eyes lit up, and still
clutching the walkie-talkie and magnifying glass, he quickly ran towards the
tree and caught the soaring object within one of his paws. After gasping for
a few moments, the Lupe blinked and looked towards his paws. As expected a round,
crimson colored codestone was now within his possession.
Jyrosen grinned happily and pressed a button
on his walkie-talkie. "Found it."
Kauvara's Magic Shop
Krawker_oth the spotted Krawk sat upon a log outside of Kauvara's magic shop
while listening to his older brothers talking through their walkie-talkies.
"Found it," Jyrosen had proclaimed happily.
Saigru replied, "I found one here on Bracknell
Road on the lawn of a house. It seems most of them haven't been found yet, if
we move quickly the rest should be easy to find."
So his brothers had each found a stone and were
now looking for their second, and Krawker felt the pressure on himself to find
the one he'd been searching for over the past half hour. He didn't want his
brothers to tease him about being small and young, and not being able to find
a simple stone... but his enthusiasm for the task quickly began to fade as it
became obvious that this stone would not be easy to find.
Using a paw to wipe at his face try and rid some
of the frustration that he was feeling, Krawker managed to stand upon his feet
with support from his wobbly knees. His eyes roamed around the appearance of
the Magic Shop wearily. "I might as well give up." The Krawk whined, and reached
for his walkie-talkie in order to inform his brothers that someone would have
to come and help him.
However something caught his attention out of
the corner of his eye. As he turned and looked ahead, Krawker gasped. The overhang
of the front door to the Magic Shop cradled a rusty red colored object on its
edge, which appeared to be the one-of-a-kind codestone he was supposed to find.
"Finally!" He smiled, and began scrambling up
a tree planted near the door in order to reach the shop door's overhang.
To be continued...
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