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"I do remember a faint thing that Victor said before he
became the great me. Though I can't quite remember it… T'was this morning! I should
be able to remember," said Doumeh.
"Don't push yourself to remember anything when
you were good," said Dr. Sloth. "The Darigan orb erases all of that."
"Does that mean my magic will not return to
me?" said Doumeh angrily.
Sloth looked a little speechless, but said,
"Once the evil locks into your magic it should return."
"I was there," said Ara gently. "He said he
wanted his wife and daughter sent to safety."
"We shall give him his wish," said Sloth, smirking
afterwards. Laura walked in and stood next to her friends. She, as well as Nick
and Darren, were somehow invisible. Ara caught Dr. Sloth's idea, "The queen
going to the dungeons… as we may need her in the future. The princess, hmm…
she is smart that one… I'll take care of her." The three of them started laughing
before the scene changed once again.
This time, it was near the doors of the city.
The sky was dark and standing in front of the doors, was Ara holding a sleepy
Keira. Nick watched carefully, he knew the doors were locked shut once you got
inside and he was curious to see what Ara would do. There were lots of carvings
on the door that neither of them had noticed before.
"Once Keira is out of the city," said Ara quietly
to herself. "The citizens will only have a faint memory of her… if she happens
to come back, which is incredibly impossible, they won't recognize her right
away." Ara placed her hand on the ground, she pressed down and her hand sunk
into the dirt. She pulled out a crystal Kougra tooth strung onto a chain.
She shook off the extra dirt and fit it into
the center, which had a carving of a roaring Kougra. One of the two fangs in
front was missing. The tooth fit perfectly in the empty space, and a glow flowed
through all the carvings, twisting and turning. The doors opened and everything
went dark.
* * *
"Are we out?? Are we out of Smellyworld?!" asked Darren frantically. He, as
well as the others, noticed they were back in the tallest tower - the portal
glowing behind them. "Keira we - Keira?" said Darren looking around for her.
She wasn't anywhere. He attempted to go back into the dream portal, but it was
locked. His large purple claws lay flat against the portal, as if it were a
door.
"Even if we did get out of place," stated Nick.
"Would you really want to leave such a mystery behind? All of Neopia could be
destroyed if such a great evil gets out."
"Well that certainly sounded brave," said Laura.
* * *
Keira was experiencing something totally different. She didn't go back with
her friends. Instead, she was in the same area where her lifelike dreams took
place. The Haunted Woods at night. She stood in a meadow as the breeze whipped
at her face. There was someone walking towards her from behind, she could hear
it. Keira turned and saw Dr. Sloth at a brisk walk towards her. "I'm not scared
of you," she said right to his face.
She saw something silvery reflecting the moonlight
-- could this be a sword? She took off at a run, but found herself almost falling
off the edge of a muddy slope. It leads down to a murky moonlit lake. She couldn't
turn left nor right. Giant trees stood there with their thorny branches. She
debated whether to fight him, or jump into the water. Both sounded risky. The
patch of land she was standing on became loose and fell down the slope, taking
Keira with it.
Although Keira couldn't tell which way was up
or down, she kept swimming as fast as she could. She came to a stop, the water
changed from murky to clear in one moment. She was being pulled down, but she
didn't dare look to see what it was. Something grabbed her paw and lifted her
up out of the water and onto dry land. "Are you okay?" asked the rescuer. This
didn't sound like anyone out to get her, but more like a friend.
After coughing up some water, Keira looked up
to see who had saved her. It was her mother. Aurora looked at her with a warm
smile as the moonlight made her white coat shimmer. They hugged each other,
and that's when Keira noticed the scenery had changed. She was on one of the
many sandy beaches of Mystery Island. She got to her feet and looked around.
"I thought we were in the Haunted Woods?"
Aurora watched her daughter look out onto the
ocean before saying, "In dreams, anything can happen."
"So this is a dream??" asked Keira.
Aurora nodded. "Your friends took you to the
tallest tower after you had slipped into the spill of the memory ball. Loyal
friends, that's a very good thing to have."
"Wait one second… if you're here, you must be
trapped inside the tallest tower? Why couldn't you just walk out of here?"
"It's not that simple Keira. First, you must
defeat King Doumeh and bring back the good in him. Tonight there will be someone
to visit you. They will help you in your journey. Wait for four knocks… any
more or less than it is not the one."
Keira looked back at the ocean, "How am I going
to get past them? They probably want to destroy me now…" She turned back and
her mother had vanished. She looked around and found that Ara was running at
her at a rapid pace across the beach. Keira ran towards the jungle, jumping
over shrubs and dips. She leaped up into a tree, an advantage she had over Ara
- or she thought.
Ara was now up in the trees too, leaping from
one to the other. Keira jumped to a palm tree, but when she was in the air,
the leafy top had gone and all that was left was pencil-sized branches. She
screamed as she fell from the air. She could hear Ara laughing behind her, coming
closer and closer. Keira landed on one of the small branches, holding on for
dear life.
The branch couldn't support Keira and so it
tilted downwards, Keira screaming once again. She was now hung upside down and
to her surprise, Ara completely missed her. Keira made a sigh of relief, when
she noticed how flexible this branch really was. She let go of it and dropped
to the ground.
"Miss me?" said Ara suddenly from behind her.
Keira ran as fast as she could through the now dense jungle. Up ahead was a
swirling blue vortex, which she went into. She was in the tallest tower now.
No one was in the hall except herself and maybe a few spiders.
* * *
Keira managed to sneak into her room where she hoped to find her friends.
They weren't anywhere. Noticing it was about 8:00 pm, she went down to the entrance
hall. She glanced over to where the deck was, and saw Doumeh and Ara standing
outside. Keira looked around for a hiding spot. The only thing there was an
empty iron knights' armor. She slipped into it, which wasn't very comfortable.
Cedric walked down the grand staircase and down
onto the entrance hall. He walked over to Keira dressed up as a guard, "Guard,
what are you doing here? Are you not on the hunt for the four Neopets?" Keira
was very glad that her helmet covered most of her face.
"I am patrolling um… uh… the door in case… a
citizen tries to take advantage of the time and enter the castle," said Keira
in her lowest voice.
Cedric looked surprised, "Well, well… I didn't
know you were so smart." He walked towards the deck to talk with the king and
queen. It had been over an hour now, and everyone looked to be going to bed.
Once and a while a guard would pass asking if she'd seen anything. There was
a knock at the door. Keira counted them, "One… two…" and that was it.
She opened the doors, standing there was another
guard. "I haven't seen anything," said Keira.
The guard replied, "We will keep a look out.
Although we may have a lead and I am told to change shifts with you."
"Change shifts?? Why should - hey, is that you
Nick?"
The guard took off his helmet, and in fact it
was Nick. "Keira?" he asked.
Keira took off her helmet, "I'm so glad your
safe!"
"As well as yourself," replied Nick happily.
"This brilliant idea Darren thought up, knocking out some guards and stealing
their armor. It's nice to finally punch someone."
Keira laughed. They both knew their time was
limited so they said goodbye and put their helmets back on. Once again, another
hour had passed and the castle was very dark now. A second person was knocking
on the door now. Keira counted, "One… two… three… oh come on…. Four!" She opened
the door. Standing there was none other than the island native they met back
in the market place.
"Hello there," said the island native. Keira
took off her armor, as she didn't need it anymore. "As you may know," he said.
"I am here to help you. Not in a way you may think, but in a very important
way… yes indeed." He had in his hand the beaded necklace he was making when
they met him. He handed it to Keira and said, "I knew this time would come.
This necklace will bring out your most powerful magic, which I know you have
in you. You are very brave Keira, taking on such evil as this.
"Your magic will come when you most need it.
During it, you may also loose something that you very much treasure." He gave
Keira the feeling that she shouldn't ask questions. "Your worried it's your
father? No, no… but it could be. If you destroy Doumeh, King Victor will return.
Not to worry young girl… not to worry."
"You know that the entrance to Smellyworld is
through a crystal tooth, correct?" said the native. "You should know that once
the doors close again, the tooth would appear in a different location. In great
luck, I happened to have it with me." He gave the tooth to Keira and continued
to say, "Keep it with you at all times possible. Well then, time for me to go."
He smiled and nodded to Keira before turning
and walking away. "One more thing!" he said, turning back to the Kougress. "Your
friends are waiting for you on the deck." He grinned once again. Keira looked
over to the deck and saw her friends there, which she didn't notice before.
She turned to say thank you to the island native but he had gone.
She put the crystal tooth around her neck, as
well as the beaded necklace. It had a mixture of small and large beads, the
largest in the middle. They were all tropical colors, green, blue, yellow, etc.
A white symbol was on the largest bead, which was a thick round one. The symbol
was a white Kougra paw, and engraved in the center was a star. She met up with
her friends on the deck and told them everything.
"Let's make a pact then," said Darren. "Whatever
happens, destroy the evil before it does so to Neopia."
"Right!" said the others. They planned the battle
to begin tomorrow night.
* * *
It was finally sunset, after a long day of camping out at the local gardens
to escape the guards. They moved through the city sneakily towards the great
dung-covered castle. They were just a few houses down when the green streetlights
came to life. The group decided to enter from a secret passage that Keira remembered,
where her and Cedric used to sneak out. They made it safely. It was near the
edge of the gardens, behind a large leafy tree.
"Everyone ready?" said Nick. Laura was armed
with a bow and arrow. She hoped the things Nick taught her would come into use.
Nick had his sword, and Keira had her magic abilities. Darren… well he was a
weapon himself. His sharp claws and beak can become quite dangerous. Everyone
was set. They got behind the tree and opened the small creaking door. They were
in.
Meanwhile, in the castle, Doumeh and Ara were
about to put their plan into action. They stood on the balcony peering down
at the city.
"They are strong, and have the tools to create
deadly weapons," said Ara, talking about the citizens.
"Once we find that tooth, which shouldn't be
too long, we can exit the city," spoke Doumeh. "Together, we will seek out evil
and join forces. We will become the greatest and most powerful in Neopia!!"
Ara laughed and then said, "I will go down to
the city and explain to them how exactly, we want our battle equipment to work."
Back with Darren, Nick, Laura, and Keira… they
were now on the second floor walking through a small, twisting hallway. "Look
at this," said Keira while looking out a large arch window. The others took
a look too. The whole city was at work. The faint sounds of medal being made,
sharpened, and threw in a pile filled the air. Carts rolled by filled with shiny
new battle equipment. At every house and street corner, was a torch lamp.
The fire made a light glow around the city as
the night arrived. The friends continued their way. Minutes later, they appeared
in the castle's large dining room. It, like many other of the large rooms, had
a balcony. This time, it was against one wall only with small staircases on
either side of it. Under the balcony, were the double swing doors that led to
the kitchen. The other walls had huge towering windows that showed the dark
night sky.
Although this was a dining room, the dining
table itself was not set up yet. Marble lamps were set up on each corner. The
top of the lamps, shaped like a large upside-down bowl that contained a lit
torch.
"So, you have finally come to your senses,"
said a voice from behind them. It was Doumeh himself. He snatched Keira's key
(to the city doors) away from her. "Come to accept your deadly fate, correct?"
Keira knew it was too risky to get it back. The king threw it behind him, and
the guard standing there caught it. Doumeh began one of his magic spells.
Darren, Nick, Keira, and Laura all backed up
so they could have a large space to battle. The spell Doumeh was creating was
one of his electric ones. He formed a purple ball and sent it out at them. The
battle had begun. Keira knowing she had magic too, put her paws out in front
of her. The electric ball was strong, it almost knocked her off her feet, but
she blocked it. It flew back into the air a few feet and made a small explosion.
Laura jumped forward and aimed one of her arrows.
-FLING- Cedric leaped over Doumeh and caught the arrow just before landing.
He smashed it under his large paws. "Time to see what I can really do!" said
Keira. She got up in the front and put out her paws, waiting to see the magic
flow out of them. Except, nothing happened. An embarrassed Keira tried to do
a few motions with her paws to get it to work.
Cedric and Doumeh burst out laughing hysterically.
"Think you can do magic, do you?" said Cedric laughing. Keira remembered having
troubles with magic when she was younger, she couldn't quite get it. Her father
helped her accomplish a spell once, the shock blaster.
Something that could surprise your enemies even
when they knew it was coming. She put her paws together and slowly took them
apart to reveal a glowing white string. It looked like gum stuck to her paws.
Keira sent it out at Cedric and Doumeh, and the sticky goop turned into flying
goop. It looked like a small comet speeding through the air. It hit Cedric and
he went flying… making a clumsy land on the floor.
He was now next to Nick, whom he battled with
once he got to his feet. Darren fought him too, although Cedric had only a small
amount of the Darigan Orb power, he was still quite strong. Laura took a place
on the balcony, shooting arrows whenever she had a clean shot.
With Doumeh taking on Keira, this battle looked
endless. Half an hour later, they were still battling. Keira had taken a few
small hits, but she kept at it.
"Cedric!" yelled Doumeh over the action. "Let's
finish this, we have work to do!"
Cedric, battling as fiercely as ever, took on
both Darren and Nick. Laura was now occupied with an Elephante guard. Doumeh
began one of the most powerful spells known to the royal family. He put his
paws in a cup form and whispered a spell.
Appearing in his paws, a black star. He looked
at Keira across the room, his eyes lit with the reflection of fire. It seemed
as though only him and the island Kougress were there. Keira got ready for this
one and she knew it would be big. Nick happened to look over towards the king's
spell, and recognized it immediately. He remembered it from an event that took
place in his past.
"Whatever happens," recited Nick to Darren.
"Defeat the evil."
To be continued…
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