The Shadow of the Usul by Pyphracket |  |
Halloween was drawing near. Boodles a small red Usul was getting frantic. What
was she going to be for Halloween? She had been the Faerie queen last year,
the Light Faerie the year before, a princess before that... She had been all
cute and cuddly every year for...since she was born.
In fact, she was the cutest Usul ever. She was the kindest, most sweet hearted
Usul ever. She wouldn't hurt a fly. If you stepped on an ant, she would cry
and whisper to the dead ant on your shoe, "Please be happy don't worry. You
may get better. Poor ant." And she would continue like this for hours. She was
concerned about every little thing. If you were comfortable standing near her,
if you liked sitting or would you rather stand? But inside all of us there is
some evil. Well the problem with Boodles was all her evil was concentrated in
her shadow. It was just like any other shadow. It followed her everywhere she
went. She stepped left. It stepped left. She jumped through the trees, it followed
like a persistent happy dog nipping at her heels. But now Halloween was drawing
near. What was left that was cute for Boodles to be? She decided this year that
she would no longer be cute and cuddly, but that she would be worse.
Fearful and frightening. "I know," she whispered, "I will be a skunk! Everyone
is afraid of skunks!" Being cute, cuddly, and all around nice to everyone all
her life Boodles wasn't the best at scaring people. But a skunk was what she
wanted to be. She counted her Neopoints and asked the shop wizard, "Do you have
any skunk paint brushes for sale?"
"Well, little missy," he said as he peered over piles of paper that had requests
for items on them-they filled his small tent, "I have one here for 10,000 NP.
That's sort of cheap for a paintbrush."
"10,000 Neopoints? I don't have that much Neopoints!" She looked downward in
sorrow as she walked away. She knew she shouldn't have given away her last Neopoint
to the Money Tree this morning. But there were others who needed it more than
her... How would she become a skunk for Halloween? It was hopeless. Unless...
A thought struck her. Of course! SHE could do it! EDNA!
The witch of the Haunted Woods would help her!
It was three days before Halloween and Edna was preparing a batch of Transmogrification
Potions. She had accidentally turned her servant, originally a monster made
from sewn together body parts, into a giant fluffy pink cat. Lugg had only dropped
the eggs from the milk carton once...or twice...okay maybe he threw them down
in a fit of rage when Edna asked him to dance like a ballerina for the witches
ball. He hated pink, especially pink tutus, and now that he was a giant pink
cat it made him all the grumpier. As the green bubbles grew in her cauldron,
Edna looked out over the edge of the top of her tower. Down below a small Usul
was approaching the tower.
Edna stood at the side of her tower and shouted, "What do you want?" Down below
the small quivering Usul shakily stammered out that she was named Boodles and
wanted to become a skunk Usul but was too poor to afford a paint brush. Edna,
also wanting to be a skunk Usul in her youth but couldn't because she was a
witch, took pity on her. "Fine. Wait there I'll come on down."
Lugg grumbled as he set down the boiling hot cauldron on the lawn in front of
the tower then he returned inside to bandage his, now burn covered, arms.
"How lucky you are, Boodles," Edna smiled as she lifted Boodles chin up so
the Usul would look directly into the witch's eyes, "I was just making a Transmogrification
Potion to change Lugg back into his old sewn body part self, but you have a
greater need. He's just selfish. I've almost completed the potion. I just need
to put in an item that will decide what creature you wish to be. For that maybe
a skunk tail will do. Let's see what I have." Edna reached inside her robes
and pulled out a small scraggly piece of black fur with a white stripe down
it. "Excellent. First try! I rarely find anything the first time." She dropped
the tail into the cauldron and the potion bubbled violently for a moment flaring
into a bright white then calmed quickly to an eerie ebony black. "Go ahead my
dearie. Take a sip."
Edna spooned some potion into a bottle and held it out to Boodles. Boodles
quivered. She hesitated for a moment then quickly took the bottle from the wrinkled
green hands and downed the drink in one gulp. Then she belched. "My my! What
a crude thing to come from such a delicate creature," Edna cackled. Boodles
just frowned. She had never belched before! She was always polite, kind, and
perfect but now that she had - Boodles gasped. A tingling feeling had suddenly
overwhelmed her body. She felt lighter than air and yet heavier than concrete.
She was hot and cold, ice and fire, peace and war, pins and swords! Then she
collapsed unconscious. When she came to a few minutes later Edna was leaning
over her. "Are you okay?" she croaked. Boodles nodded. How strange. Boodles
looked down at herself. She was still a red Usul The potion hadn't worked. She
cried. Edna crooned softly then said, "Wait. All potions do something. Especially
this one. It guaranteed a change somehow. What is different about you?" Edna
searched Boodles over, but nothing had changed. Brushing a branch aside that
hit her on the head she rocked back onto her heels not sure what to do. The
branch hit her again. Then again. It seemed insistent. Edna looked up and gasped!
There sitting on the branch was a pitch black Usul with a purple bow. No. It
wasn't pitch black. It seemed to change colours with the shadows. It was the
shadow of Boodles. It was a shadow Usul! The eyes glowed and Edna realised what
was wrong with it as well. It was pure evil. Boodles had no evil in her because
it was all within her shadow.
The Shadow Usul screeched and tossed the tree limb at Edna, knocking her to
the ground. Boodles cried out in fear. Frozen in fear, Boodles watched as the
shadow Usul grew and grew, looming up against the tree's side. The Shadow seemed
to take a deep breath then screeched a deafening screech again and again. This
seemed to snap Boodles back. Her body operated again and only one thought was
left in her mind, "RUN!" Boodles fled the clearing and ran crying and
scared away out into the wilds of Neopia where nothing had been discovered.
She was never seen again, as for the shadow Usul It was free. It had one thought
in its mind to create havoc. Evil was set loose on Neopia in the form of an
evil shadow.
The End |
