TrailMixed, Gyka, Flamie_500, Chelses, Sahe, Exlund, and Yamakarasu were ready
to leave when they heard a tapping on the window. There was a head bobbing in
and out of sight because the window was pretty high so the pet had to jump.
Flamie_500 had Sahe on his back so Sahe could open the window and peer outside.
It was Cadbury_Bunny. He had an urgent expression and quickly put out, "You
must find the hidden village first!"
"How did you know about that?" questioned Sahe.
"There's a group of rebellious Usuls by the town hall plus the fact I have
a Usul sister, what do you think?" said Cadbury impatiently, "now the queen
knows about it too and she is sending out a whole army out! So be careful! You
know how the queen feels about pets leaving the Strannams without signing out!
It's like running away! I collected Pozialle back as an order from the queen,
but anyway remember, you must not be seen."
With this, Cadbury_Bunny ran out of sight. Flamie_500 wobbled from Sahe's weight
and then fell. Sahe went flying across the room and fortunately, landed on a
soft mattress.
"All right, it's almost night now," said Chelses, "shall we wait till tomorrow?"
"Um, Chelses?" said Exlund, "don't you remember? We must leave tonight of two
reasons, one is because we are going without signing out so we have to go pass
the guards sneakily and that'll be harder in daylight. Secondly, we have to
leave before the army does. I know General Pozialle, he likes to act quickly,
so we must act quicker."
"OK, about passing the guards, how exactly do we--" Gyka's question was interrupted.
"Distract and run," said Yamakarasu smiling.
"Is that the only plan we've got?" moaned Flamie_500, "every time, it's the
same plan!"
"Well, it never failed us," said Yamakarasu crunching on an apple now, "so
why not keep using this one?"
"OK let's see," said TrailMixed spreading out the map of Strannams out on a
table, "we are already positioned northwest of dis map an' hm, de map doesn't
tell us much 'bout de mountains, but ah expect that we'll come across some kinda
forest area or somefing."
Chelses folded the map up and squeezed it into a backpack saying, "Whatever
we do, I'm sure we can come across any danger before us. Remember the first
Kontana Scroll we had to piece together? We did that, didn't we?"
"Yeah, but Chelses, this time it's way more dangerous," said Sahe still massaging
his head from the fall, "this time, we won't even be in our own territory, we
are playing a dangerous blind game."
"General Pozialle has arrived," announced a voice.
Queen Kihalai placed her book back on the shelf and turned to Pozialle who
came and sat down opposite her in the office. He had a solemn face and was determined
to do the quest that lay before him. Kihalai smiled to ease the tension and
said, "I have heard of such excellent reports of you, Pozialle, and I hope that
you are well enough to do this job."
"Yes ma'am," answered Pozialle promptly.
"Now do you understand what you must do?" Kihalai questioned.
"Yes, to find the hidden village of the Usuls," answered Pozialle, "and to
retrieve the Kontana Scroll as well as the honorable Vivarosa and Noro."
"Precisely," smiled Kihalai and she snapped her fingers. Her personal bodyguard
appeared next to her in less than a second and Stefang bowed.
"Stefang, I want you to help Pozialle in setting up the exact route and plan
to cross the mountains," said Kihalai, "it won't be easy I suspect as the last
and only one who ever crossed it was Kontana himself, a reason the mountains
are named after him. As soon as you are done, come back here, because I dare
say that a bodyguard and consultant is necessary in times like this."
"No, it's called looking for our fellow citizens Vivarosa and Noro," said Pozialle,
"doing right to our own land."
"But there is no such village," said Kikugoku firmly.
"On the queen's order, we must go," said Gotenks79, "and there is such village,
Kiku, have you seen the mob of Usuls by the town hall?"
"That's the point, Gotenks," said Kikugoku, "even if there was such a
village, the Usuls obviously don't want us to go and pry. I thought you'd known
better, Gotenks, but I guess you still got a lot of Usul history ahead of you.
I mean, you don't even know the name of the village and know about it as much
as Cadbury." He threw Cadbury a quick searching look.
"Listen guys, we can't think properly if we continue arguing," Stefang interrupted,
"now Kiku, if you don't want to do this, then go home."
Kikugoku stared at Stefang for a moment and then turned to the planning without
a word. Stefang looked around the room and then continued.
It was 9 o'clock at night NST. Gyka and Sahe were hidden in the bushes by the
gates. There were three men and five NeoPets on guard on the north gate. The
two NeoPets waited. Suddenly, there was the sound of horns and blinding lights
appeared. It was a huge truck and one of the men guarding ran towards it and
peered through the window. There was a thump and Gyka and Sahe knew that TrailMixed
and Exlund just knocked the man out.
"Hey, stop!" cried the other two guards running forwards each carrying two
weapons pointing at the truck with two NeoPets by their side.
Yamakarasu jumped from the bushes on the other side and gave the two NeoPets
a kick, then slid between the two men making them crash into each other. While
the men and NeoPets were trying to revive themselves, Gyka and Sahe jumped out
from the bushes and ran towards the little office to open the gates which were
closed by magic so no one could escape. There were 3 NeoPets waiting inside
and they jumped out facing Gyka and Sahe.
"Uh-oh," muttered Sahe, "Gyka, quick!"
Gyka started hopping around doing cartwheels and bounced around professionally,
puzzling the three NeoPets guards. Sahe took out a skateboard and stepped onto
it. He ran towards the NeoPets on the skateboard towards the three NeoPets.
They were going to crash, but they didn't as Gyka punched a Quiggle out the
way and Sahe slid past the Kyrii by an inch. Sahe grabbed the skateboard off
his feet and slammed it at the Shoyru, then jumped to avoid an attack by the
Kyrii. Gyka punched the Kyrii and finally the three NeoPets were off guard.
He waited outside to take care of the NeoPets if they ever start stirring again
while Sahe jumped inside the office and pushed the button that let the gates
open.
Flamie_500 and Chelses hopped out of the truck with nets in hand and tied the
beaten guards up. Exlund signaled for Chelses to watch her back as a human guard
struck from behind. Chelses cartwheeled out of the way kicking the guard in
the face by doing so while Flamie_500 shot a Grand Lightning Beam at the man
before TrailMixed hopped out of the truck to tie him up too.
Yamakarasu, with the other two human guards, threw them into a tree nearby
and signaled for Exlund to drive the truck through the open gates. Gyka and
Sahe ran out of the little office and hopped into the truck next to Exlund.
Yamakarasu, Chelses, TrailMixed, and Flamie_500 tied the total of 8 guards into
one group on a tree, then ran after the truck out.
"But if they are tied up, how are they going to close the gates again?" asked
Chelses worriedly.
"It'll be OK," said Exlund putting a paw on her shoulder, "now let's all get
our bags and be set off."
"And the truck?" questioned Sahe.
"Staying right here, so they won't be able to track us down," said Flamie_500,
"because all motors inside Strannams are registered and stuff, you know."
"All right come on, let's go," said Gyka nodding his head towards the darkness
ahead of him.
TrailMixed lighted the road light by pressing a button by the side and walked
on with everyone looking around exclaiming, "Ah've never done dis befor'. Y'u
know, crossin' de Kontana Mountains."
Yamakarasu laughed hollowly and said, "No one has except Kontana." Her voice
was filled with fear just like everyone else. They were walking along the familiar
routes outside the gates until the routes stopped and turned either right or
left, but nothing that went on. What was going on was seemingly a dark forest.
They all slowly stepped forward fearfully and were all looking on with awe.
Chelses hopped forward and said carelessly with a grin as she turned, "Come
on, it's just a forest, like home."
Chelses turned back towards the forest and facing her was about a dozen pairs
of eyes. She screamed and ran back hugging Trailmixed and Yamakarasu crying
softly. Sahe narrowed his eyes and lifted his hidden Jubjub hand (inside his
fur) ready to light the Magic Torch. Exlund held his hand down and whispered,
"Too dangerous."
"What are you talking about," whispered Gyka frowning, "dangerous is not knowing
what they are and they secretly jumping out and attacking."
The numbers of eyes increased and soon they seemed to be surrounded by eyes
and darkness of the forest. Then one of them walked towards Flamie_500 causing
him to jump back. The animal jumped forward and Flamie_500 closed his eyes fiercely
crying as the animal started licking his face, "Get it away from me! Ah! It's
eating me up!"
Without warning, Sahe turned on his Magic Torch before Exlund could stop him
which illuminated all around them including the animal. TrailMixed laughed and
stepped forward to stroke the animal, "It's such a cute little cat."
"It's such a cute little cat."
The others grinned with relief as the dozens of cats and other harmless animals
appeared in the light. It appeared to be a friendly forest after all. They went
a little further and soon they fell tired and hungry. After eating a rough dinner
of rice and chicken, they went to sleep in the middle of the forest. They took
in turns in watching and successfully, never met any trouble so far through
this night. Chelses and Exlund looked at the time... it was 3 am NST. They woke
everyone else up and handed berries around for a quick breakfast.
"3 o'clock? That's only 4 hours of sleep! You are crazy!" Gyka turned trying
to go back to sleep, but Yamakarasu pulled him up again.
They were back on their tracks and by 4 o'clock in the afternoon, they had
gotten out of the forest and into a clearing. Ahead of them was mountains after
mountains. Suddenly, as they were starting for uphill, sounds of bells reached
their ears. They turned and saw a guy in a horse carriage with huge stacks of
hay on the carriage behind him. He gave the NeoPets a toothless grin and called
out, "Ah ain't seen 'any ov yoo kinds 'round, yoo sur' got ze righve 'lace?
Noo 'un ever c'ozed zat bit ov m'untains."
The guy was dressed in dirty rags and speaking very strangely, in a stronger
accent than TrailMixed tried. Well, actually, he wasn't even speaking in the
same accent as TrailMixed. What he said meant, "I never see many NeoPets around
here, are you sure you are in the right place? No one ever climbs those mountains."
"We are crossing to get to the Village of Viemo," blurted out Exlund.
The guy, as if he never heard him, said, this time a little bit clearer, "'ere's
a magical key. You'll find ze good Wizard Confons when you're there. Tell 'im
Digglers told you ter find him fer help. Yup, ze name's Digglers. See youz 'round."
Gyka caught the key in his hands and stared at the guy. Digglers gave them another
toothless grin and winked, then made his horses go on. The friends stood looking
a lit zoned out as the weird guy disappeared, then turned back to the mountains.
Suddenly, Chelses tasted something small and icy that melted... it was beginning
to snow.
To be continued... | 
