A Story of Skyfire: Part One by chipster33 |  |
Ylana pulled back her blue hair that was dangling in her
face, and wiped the many beads of sweat that hung on her brow. It would not do
for hair or sweat to get in her eyes in the middle of the challenge. Then she
massaged her muscles on her arms, which were aching terribly after all she had
done today. How much more would she have to endure? Better, yet, how much time
would she have to do it in? She glanced at her wrist where a fluorescent watch
from the Space Station, as was the ray gun strapped upon her waist, was strapped
and which rather quickly showed the seconds passing by. Ylana gasped when she
saw she had only five minutes left.
I must hurry,Ylana told herself as she
jumped off of the platform on which she was standing.
The Acara did a backward flip in the air,
and landed gracefully on the next one, which was just a tad bit higher than
the last. Her feet gripped expertly on the slippery stone of the cave as she
landed, which was a good thing too since it was an awful long thing down. Suddenly,
a giant spiked ball on a chain flew from out of nowhere. Ylana leapt back out
of instinct, but even though she avoided the spiky orb, she was at the very
edge of the stone platform.
Ylana flapped her blue arms in a helpless
attempt to regain her balance, but it was to no avail. The Acara's feet slipped
and she plummeted towards the ground.
"Not after all my hard work! No, I won't
let myself fail now!" Ylana screamed.
She outstretched her arm in a flash and
grabbed the ledge of the stone, allowing her to hang over the impermeable darkness
below. She strained her muscles in her arm to pull herself back up to the top.
It was more than she could bear, pulling one whole Acara with one tired, aching
arm, but she managed it. In less than ten seconds she was back up on the platform,
a grim smile of pride perched on her face.
Ylana then, making sure to avoid the spiked
ball, jumped upon the next platform. This one was extremely narrow in the center,
and Ylana knew that even the smallest thing that would throw her off balance
would make her fall. Carefully, she approached the center and spread out her
arms like a gymnast. She placed one paw in front of the other, not looking down
at the darkness below. Sweat from her nerves collected on her arms, but she
did not turn back. She was halfway across the walkway when she noticed a large
dip that was filled with water. Ylana knew that if she stepped on it she would
surely slip and fall, so what would she do?
I'll jump it, that's what! the Acara said
to herself. She backed up, poising herself for the leap she was about to make,
and then leapt into the air. She soared over the puddle, and landed perfectly
on the other side. She smirked at the accomplishment, then continued onto to
the edge of the platform, where it widened again.
She jumped to the next platform and took
a look around. It was extremely large, over than ten times larger than the rest,
and eerily silent. Walls also surrounded it on three of its sides.
Something's not right,Ylana thought to
herself. Her keen eyes scanned the area, looking for something that shouldn't
have been there, that was out of place, and finally she spotted it. On the northeast
wall, there was a huge crack.
"Now what do we have here?" she muttered
to herself as she walked over to inspect the crack. It didn't look natural at
all; more like something had run into the wall at a high speed and forced it
there. "I can't imagine what would have formed this..." Ylana whispered, and
as she did such, a huge burst of steam burst over her from the crack. Then the
wall shook with rage, and the Acara spotted two blood red eyes from peering
behind it. "Oh Fyora..."
The wall shook once more and shattered
like glass, scattering stones everywhere. Then Ylana saw the creature that had
done it, a Tyrannian Skeith who must have been fifty feet tall. It roared, spreading
bits of its yellow phlegm over the cold cave walls, as well as Ylana. The Acara
stared it straight in the eye, knowing what she had to do.
Ylana turned on her heel and ran.
However, she did not get far. The Skeith
slammed its gigantic brown tail in front of her path, causing Ylana to jump
back.
"Okay then, I suppose I'm going to have
to fight you then... But be warned, I am not just an ordinary, run of the mill
fighter! Behold the blue Acara that will introduce you to a rather untimely
fate! Behold the blue Acara that will spread justice throughout the land with
her advanced knowledge in martial arts! Behold the blue Acara that shall defeat
you in less than two minutes! Behold Ylana Skyfire!"
At that Ylana leapt in the air, her ray
gun withdrawn. With that she blasted the Skeith with it on full blast. The beast
howled in excruciating pain, but Ylana did not stop. This was her foe, she had
to defeat it, and she would not stop until she did. The Tyrannian Skeith staggered,
and slowly made his way towards the edge of the platform. He looked down over
it forlornly, then looked a Ylana with a pleading look in his eyes.
Any other Neopian would've felt a pang
of guilt right about now, and many would have stopped fighting with the Skeith
and went over to try to help it instead, but that was not Ylana's way. She smiled,
her eyes alight with wicked pleasure, and murmured, "Sorry buddy, but you're
going down." She gripped the trigger on her ray gun tightly, sending out a red
hot blast which forced the gigantic beast into the gorge below.
Suddenly, the surroundings around Ylana
began to fade and the cave turned into a large white room.
A voice appeared from a speaker box overhead,
and said in a bold voice, "Very good Ms. Skyfire, or should I say the Flaming
Sky. You completed our challenge with one minute and forty-eight seconds to
spare. You are now apart of the Defenders of Neopia. Welcome to the team, from
what we can see you will do a great job."
A door at the end of the room opened,
and a large Moehog in yellow and black spandex walked in. He carried a tight
purple suit with a "FS" in red and a purple mask along with him. He handed them
to the Acara, who was trying to suppress a large grin. She had done it; she
had become a Defender of Neopia. Of course, that was only the beginning of her
plans...
***
Ever since Ylana Skyfire was born on Mystery Island, she had been an outcast.
All the other pets there had families who were into the tourism business, and
they were very rich. Ylana's, however, tried to scare away the tourists by dressing
up as angry natives. Not only did it never work, but the I'm-gonna-eat-the-tourists-since-I'm-an-angry-native
business didn't make a whole lot of Neopoints. So poor Ylana was left to fend
for herself by doing odd jobs here and there, and even at the end of the most
excruciating labor she only got enough to buy herself a Zeenana or two. This
meant that she had no really good Battledome weapons, no cute Mystery Island
petpet, no fabulous coat color to call her own, and no one who liked her.
"HEY YLANA!" mocked a pretty Island Wocky.
"How many tourists have your savage parents devoured lately?"
Ylana turned to the Wocky with a frown
on her face, trying desperately not to cry. All the young Acara had wanted to
do was to go pay Master Techo a Codestone that she had found after hours of
digging in the sand on the island's beaches since he had given her a lesson.
That's all. Why did this Wocky have to bring up her parents? She hated the mere
sight of her parents, and when someone mentioned them it made it all the worse.
"I- I don't know Sunari," she said.
"Oh! Poor little Skyfire, did they abandon
you?" she inquired in mock pity. Then Sunari turned around to her cronies and
whispered loud enough for Ylana to hear, "No wonder if they did. They might
be savages, but no one deserves that ugly of a daughter!"
"No, they didn't abandon me!" Ylana practically
screamed, trying to ignore the last comment. "They're out in the forest somewhere."
"Oh, so there out hunting, are they?"
a Maraquan Draik snickered.
Ylana was about to protest, but she stopped
since she knew it was true that they were. Her parents were natives, the violent
kind, and they didn't take to Mystery Island being colonized. So that meant
that they didn't use any of the new island conveniences, like the Tropical Food
Shop, and they wouldn't be caught eating anything that the place sold. So instead,
they hunted. It was mostly fish, but occasionally they would venture inside
the forests to get something bigger. The Acara moaned at the thought of what
they would bring home this time, and prayed it wasn't a tourist. Why her parents
still took care of her was beyond Ylana, since she opposed everything they stood
for. This didn't make the other pets on Mystery Island like her anymore, however.
No, to them she was always like her parents, a savage.
To be continued...
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