Lost and Found: Part Two by the_wanderer128 |  |
Many weeks had passed, since young Lupo had been taken
off the streets of Neopia Central, and he had learned much. Over the weeks the
human, whom Lupo now fondly called "Father," had tutored him on how to read,
write, and speak properly. Lupo was a quick learner too. Already he'd read thirty
different books and clamored for more everyday.
One day, while Lupo sat on the front porch of
his Neohome, he saw his human walking back from the shops, with a small plastic
bag in hand. Lupo could not make out its contents, but felt confident he would
know soon enough. "I have something for you," the human said, smiling wide.
As always, regardless of his mood, Lupo naturally felt the urge to respond with
curiosity. "What is it, father?"
The human pulled out yet another book for Lupo.
"Ta-da! It's your six-month anniversary present." Lupo was at first confused
by what he meant by this, but then he remembered that it had been six months
since he had been taken off the streets.
"Oh? What book is it?" Lupo said as the human
crouched down next to him and laid the present on the ground in front of him.
"Go ahead. Read it," the human urged him.
"The Gallery of Evil," Lupo read, aloud.
The human looked proud for a moment. "Just think:
six months ago, you could barely speak, let alone read. You've come a long way,
Lupo." Despite hearing about his achievement, Lupo bowed his head, sadly. His
human could not help but notice this.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Lupo only heaved a
long sigh, and turned silently back into the house with his new book in tow.
He walked into his bedroom and closed the door behind him. The human decided
to leave him alone for a while, assuming that it was just a simple case of the
blues. But there was more on Lupo's mind than he was aware of.
While he was greatly appreciative of his surrogate
father's generosity towards him, there was a question in Lupo's mind that always
seemed present, since the day he had gained enough knowledge to think of such
things: "Who were my real mother and father?" This question was like a spike
that had been driven into his mind, and would not leave until his question was
satisfied with an honest answer. This made him feel gradually more depressed
as time wore on. He began to remember how he spent the first months of his life
in the back alleys. He wondered how and why he was placed there to begin with.
Was it because he wasn't good enough? Or was it something that had a perfect
explanation that he could not remember about? Whatever the reason, he knew that
somewhere out there was his real mom and dad.
To take his mind off the ever more depressing
thoughts, he decided to read through the Gallery of Evil. Through its many pages
of content, he saw many different things: monsters, evil scientists, and Neopets
gone wrong. Yet, above all others, as Lupo flipped through the pages, one name
appeared, that caught his attention: "Balthazar." Lupo saw a picture of a rather
muscular Lupe, clinching a bottled faerie in his paw. Lupo had read books about
faeries in weeks past, and none of them mentioned anything about some bounty
hunter that goes around capturing faeries. As he read the detailed file on Balthazar,
he realized the startling similarities: Balthazar, like Lupo, had apparently
been abandoned when young, and simply left to die in some wretched place. New
feelings of empathy and pity overwhelmed Lupo's train of thought, and Lupo suddenly
felt that he had to meet this Balthazar. But by doing so, it would mean leaving
the one who had graciously taken him in, and taken care of him. At that moment
though, it did not even matter to him, so he wasted no time in packing some
essential items for his trip.
While he felt reluctant to leave his human behind,
he decided it would be better if he simply told him where he was going. As Lupo
walked out of his room, with a backpack full of rations and maps strapped to
his back, his human approached him with a hot bowl of soup. "Hey Lupo, I brought
you some dinner, to cheer you up," he offered. But Lupo turned his face away
from him. He wanted to tell him, but he was finding it difficult to get the
words out. His human, growing impatient asked, "Lupo, what's gotten into you?
You've been behaving like this for almost a week. Tell me what's wrong!" Lupo
immediately took this as his cue to inform him of his intentions. So he turned
around and looked his human in the eyes.
"I'm going to the Haunted Woods," he said, with
a nervous sigh. His human looked at him shocked. It obviously didn't sit too
well with him. "Tell me you're joking." Lupo shook his head.
Even more shock appeared on the human's face.
"Now you've lost your mind, Lupo… The Haunted Woods? Do you realize that you
won't be coming back alive if you go there?"
"Well you are half-right. Yes, I probably won't
be coming back. No, I WILL be leaving the woods alive," Lupo said, with complete
resolve in his words.
When he looked at his human's face again, he
saw it twist with pain, and anguish. So Lupo decided to inform him of his mission.
"I'm going there to meet Balthazar. It's simply something I have to do. Hopefully,
you understand."
"Well I don't understand. You are going to the
Haunted Woods, just to meet Balthazar, and not return here?" the human asked,
now hot with anger. Lupo once more shook his head.
"I'm not just doing that. I'm trying to find
out about who my parents were." Lupo bowed his head. "That is why I have been
so unhappy. That is also why I never tried to make friends."
The human's anger faded, being replaced with
pity. "Lupo, you never told me this. Why didn't you?" he questioned.
"You wouldn't understand," Lupo answered."I just
want to find them so I can ask them why."
"Why, what?" the human asked. Lupo looked up,
with contempt towards his unknown mother and father brewing in his heart. "I
want to ask them why they left me there, in the alley."
The human sat down next to him, and asked him.
"If you were given that opportunity to see your real parents, you would only
ask them why they abandoned you in the alley?" Lupo nodded his head in reply.
"You're not the Lupe I took in, then." Lupo looked
up in surprise at him. "Father...I-"
"No Lupo," the human interrupted, "You shouldn't
be vengeful towards your parents, despite what they did to you, if they really
did leave you there. You should simply try to make a better life for yourself."
The human said, smartly.
But Lupo remained unconvinced. "Father, you do
not understand! I never knew them! I only want to find out who they were!" Lupo
yelled. The human reeled backwards at Lupo's intensity.
"Lupo, please don't do this to yourself. It's
not worth it," he pleaded. But Lupo ignored him, his mind now completely focused
on finding Balthazar. "Goodbye, Father," Lupo said, quietly.
Lupo then dashed out the front door, and into
the still night air, leaving the human that had fed and sheltered him standing
in the doorway, sighing and shaking his head, only hoping that Lupo would come
to his senses. "Good luck, Lupo. I just wish I knew that you are doing the right
thing…"
Lupo ran non-stop away from the town that had
cursed his existence. At least that was how he felt about it. He never wanted
to return home again, for it brought back too many bad memories of his early
life. He ran past groups of traveling Neopets on their way to the safer part
of the Haunted Woods, where all of the attractions were. A trio of Blumaroo's
looked on curiously, as Lupo sprinted past them. Another group consisting of
Kougras and Wockies hissed at him angrily, when he nearly knocked them over
as he ran on by. But despite the attention he received from onlookers, Lupo
never let up in his run, and continued onward to his destination.
After a day of running, he came to the edge of
the Haunted Woods at last. In spite of its unwelcoming appearance, he entered
the forest of gnarled trees and dead shrubbery, without haste, as he wanted
to fulfill his mission as quickly as possible.
The air smelled strange in this place. Lupo wrinkled
his nose at the many foul smells in the air, realizing it was a nearby swamp
that produced these smells. He was cautious not to make his presence known here,
since he knew that many horrid creatures lived here. Yet, he was looking for
one. But he didn't consider Balthazar horrid, or evil; just someone he could
relate to in his problems.
Suddenly, Lupo heard a faint snap of a twig coming
from close behind him. Lupo gulped and turned around to see what was trying
to sneak up on him. As he did so, his eyes met with another pair of amber-colored
eyes that seemed to pierce his soul. Lupo took a step back, but quickly knew
what it was. Lupo promptly greeted the silhouetted figure that stood before
him.
"Hello, Balthazar…"
To be continued…
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