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Sloth and his Grundo companion crashed back into their secret
lair in the Haunted Woods. The evil villain emptied his sack and out came a bound
white Aisha, still wriggling and trying to escape.
"What do you plan to do with me?" asked Fluffy
nervously. "What do you want from me? Do you want my prized rainbow Aisha plushie?"
"Of course I don't want your silly little plaything,"
he hissed. "Bonehead, strap our young visitor to the chair!"
Bonehead grabbed Fluffy, pulled off the rope,
and then put her onto a chair, strapping her arms and legs so she could not
move.
"I want something even more than your insolent
toy. I want YOUR INTELLIGENCE!" boomed Sloth, his voice echoing off the walls
of his lair. His Grundo companion shuddered again, cowering behind his clipboard.
"What do you mean?" asked Fluffy. She was trying
to sound brave, but her voice shaking slightly.
Sloth turned to look at the nervous strapped
Aisha, wearing a fake grin. "Well, you and I have some similarities. I was scorned
several times back when I was young myself. I can see that your siblings pay
not much attention to your extraordinary, intellectual gift. You see, I can
watch everything from my monitors. Now, you and I shall rule the whole of Neopia!
You and I! We shall harness the bountiful land and use it to our advantage!!"
The villain laughed evilly. "Neopia shall be ours…if you will sign this contract."
He pulled out a scroll from his cloak. "Once you sign this, we will become united,
we will become one force-one intelligent force ready to conquer and des-I mean,
take control! Bonehead, the quill, if you please?"
"Sir, I can't find it," answered the brown Grundo,
looking underneath his master's table. "Do you mind lending a hand, master?"
***
Back in the Neohome, Kat and her three remaining pets were worried about the
loss of Fluffy.
"We don't know what Sloth is capable of," said
Glitter nervously. "He could be zapping her with some kind of ray thingy!" She
started shivering in her seat.
"I know," answered Kat grimly. She was busy putting
down plates of strawberry jelly and sausage and pepperoni omelette in front
of the three. But they seemed too worried to eat, even Kat herself. They just
sat around the table, lost in their thoughts and concentrated on what to do
about the missing Aisha.
Finally, when the silence was deafening and their
tummies were growling, Sweet finally took a large bite of his jelly. After chewing
and swallowing quickly, he said, "I heard Sloth say something about a spooky
forest. Do you think he's in the Haunted Woods?"
"The Haunted Woods?" repeated Angel. "I…I don't
like it there. It's spooky, and scary and…the very place Sloth would hide!"
"But she's got our sister!" argued Sweet. "She
may be a pain in the neck at times, but she's family, and she has her uses…"
"Who's going to teach us algebra and biology
when no one can??" screamed Glitter, pounding her fists on the table. "We have
to get Fluffy before we-I mean, she gets in trouble!"
The three pets began eating faster and more furiously.
As the last crumb was finished, Angel, Glitter and Sweet stood up and ran to
their rooms. Kat shrugged as she took the plates and silverware to the sink.
***
"You idiot!" shouted Sloth at his Grundo assistant. "Next time, you put quills
in the proper places, and don't leave them lying around again!" He snatched
the feather pen away from Bonehead and shoved the scroll and quill onto Fluffy's
lap.
"If I wanted to sign that, which I don't, you'll
have to remove the straps," answered the white Aisha.
"Look, I'll let you go free if you sign my contract
and aid me in my conquest!" answered Sloth.
"How am I going to aid you in your conquest if
you free me?" sighed Fluffy. "For an evil genius, you sure aren't a genius."
The villain groaned and whispered to Bonehead,
"She's good…really, really good."
***
"Are you sure you guys are going to be okay?" asked Kat nervously as she packed
a Lupe Warrior Lunch Box with some sandwiches and juice. "The Haunted Woods
is a very unfamiliar, strange and downright frightening place, and I don't want
to lose any of you."
Sweet nodded and replied, "We'll be fine. We're
ready to risk anything to save Fluffy!" He grabbed the lunch box and opened
the door. But before he or any of his siblings could make a mad dash to the
door, the striped Kacheek stopped and put down his backpack and lunch box beside
the doorway and then walked back to his owner.
He gave Kat a nice big hug. "I promise we'll
all be okay," he mumbled. "We'll be careful, and we won't be back until Fluffy
is safe."
"We're going to miss you, though," added Glitter.
She and Angel gave their owner two more hugs. A tear dripped from the girl's
eyes.
"I'm going to miss the three of you," replied
Kat sadly. "In fact, I'm going to miss you just as I miss Fluffy right now.
Good luck, and I'll attend to your petpets for you."
The Kacheek, Acara and Zafara stepped out of
the Neohome, and waved goodbye to their slightly tearful and worried owner,
who was standing in the doorway, waving back, with four petpets at her feet.
Then, she slowly shut the door, giving her pets one last look.
The trio stood in silence, looking longingly
at their home. "What now?" Angel asked all of a sudden.
Sweet unfolded a map that Kat had given him.
"Well, the Haunted Woods isn't that near, but it's not too far either. We can
walk the distance, anyway."
"Not me," said Glitter, unfolding her wings.
"I'm flying all the way to stinking Sloth!"
"Fine, fine. Just don't laugh at us when our
feet get tired," replied Angel. "Which path do we take, the one on the left,
the one on the right, or neither?"
The striped Kacheek traced something on the map
with his paw. "We take the left path. It's the shortcut." He led his siblings
on the worn-out path.
"You better be right," said Glitter grimly. "Otherwise
we would probably be waltzing our way towards a creature who'd want to eat us
for breakfast."
"I'm sure about this," mumbled Sweet in reply,
still gazing intently at the map in his paws. "It says so on the map, and Kat's
never given us a defective map. She won't lie, either."
Angel shuddered as the Neohomes became fewer
and farther between, and more large trees dotted their surroundings. "I don't
like the looks of this," he whispered. "It looks like we're headed away from
Neopia Central, away from safety."
"But that's where we want to go, right?" said
Glitter, pulling out a Sugar Bunny from her pack and biting off its head. "You
do want to find our sister, right, Angel?"
The blue Zafara nodded, but he still wore a worried
look on his face. The trip went on and on, with Sweet checking the map to make
sure he and his siblings were on the right trail, Angel's eyes darting about,
watching for monsters, and Glitter soaring over her brothers' heads.
Several minutes passed. Angel took a sip of his
juice, since he was feeling a bit parched from the journey. The trio was quiet,
and they barely noticed their surroundings changing drastically. The trees were
now not only large and tall, but also sporting huge branches that looked like
scary hands with long claws, waiting to reach out at any unsuspecting creature.
These treacherous-looking branches made Glitter decide to land beside her brothers
and walk instead of fly. The sky grew darker because of all the trees blocking
most of the light. They couldn't see any other Neopets aside from themselves
around these parts.
All of a sudden, a howling noise met with the
trio's ears. The fur on their backs stood on end. Angel clung tightly to Sweet,
and Glitter hung on to Angel. They all froze and listened for the sound.
"Well, at least we now know we're in the Haunted
Woods, right everyone?" asked Sweet nervously, looking around at their surroundings.
"That must have been the wind."
"Or…something else…with huge scary teeth, and
large claws waiting to slash at us…"Angel shuddered and kept looking around
again. "It's even scarier being in the Haunted Woods alone…without our owner…without
anyone to ask for directions…"
"Let's keep walking," said Glitter, putting an
arm around Angel to reassure him. "Maybe there's someone here whom we can ask
for directions to Sloth's secret lair."
Sweet stifled a laugh. "Well, since it's secret,
no one knows where it is! We can meet a couple of trustworthy creatures around
here, but there's no guarantee that they know where that evil villain is hiding,"
he said knowledgeably.
The same howl arose, and the trio clung tightly
to each other again, surveying the forest for the source of the howls. Sweet
scratched his head in thought and said, "I think it's a WereLupe howling," he
answered. "But don't worry, he won't attack yet…they only attack strangers at
night."
"But it awfully looks dark enough to be night
out here," remarked Glitter anxiously.
"Oh, and we don't have to worry about him…YET!"
whispered Angel, his voice shaking again. "Sure, he might not mind us now, but
just you wait…" He wasn't looking at where he was going, and so collided with
the trunk of a tree.
Angel looked up at the tree he had just bumped
into-it had a face. An evil, cunning face could be seen on the tree's trunk.
Instead of having leaves, the tree had something like sausages stuck in the
midst of its branches. Actually, they weren't sausages. It was actually a brain.
"Uh-oh…" mumbled Angel. He was really frightened
now.
To be continued...
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