Lost Desert
I awoke with a start. The last thing I remembered was finding a crack in
the wall that had been a door. My NeoPets and I had walked inside, and then
we had mysteriously fallen unconscious.
We were in the Mummy
Maze in the Lost
Desert. Everything was fine, and then we found the door. Why did nobody
mention it when they explained the game? I got up and waited for my NeoPets
until they, too, were up. I walked across the room and felt the wall for the
door: Nothing.
I blinked, and the five of us began to search the wall, feeling it for cracks:
Still nothing. Jainny stared at the wall, a blank expression on her face. "OK,
this isn't funny!" she cried.
Santannaa inspected the wall, then she threw her arms up in despair. "We should
find our way out. The door is gone. Either that or you can only open it from
the outside."
I stared at her in shock. I was about to object, but then thought better of
it. I shut my mouth and nodded. We headed down the corridor. The walls were
made of hard sand. We stopped as we came to a split end.
The path was split in two. One path led to the right and the other left. We
decided to take the left fork. We followed it until we reached a door. Opening
it, I saw the door suddenly disappear. We wandered for a minute or two, and
then found ourselves facing three doors. We try the first and then find ourselves
facing a vicious Lupe!
We quickly dashed back behind the door, slamming it behind us. I leaned against
it, trying to ignore the roar of fury that came from within. We tried the next
door, and we're in a place that was white everywhere.
I turned, and saw that the door was gone. We began to head north, and the mist
slowly cleared the farther we got. We were in a small village--a candy village!
The houses were made of gingerbread. The flowers, plants, everything was candy!
We were tempted to eat the houses right away.
We slowly walked the path, looking around. Finally, I saw a family of NeoPets
head toward us! "Who are you?" one asked. "What are you doing here?" said another.
Soon they were all talking at once, asking question after question. I answered
as best I could, by introducing us and explaining our situation. We asked a
few questions of our own.
Jainny was talking with a young Kiko. "Where are we?" Jainny asked, glancing
around in awe.
The Kiko laughed. "Candy World!" She was jumping up and down proudly.
Santannaa looked at her. "Explain."
"We were all in the Mummy Maze when we found that secret door! We all walked
in, and then I found a box with a necklace. I put it on, and I thought, 'It'd
be cool if there were gingerbread houses!' And then, poof, there were gingerbread
houses! And then I began to wish for all kinds of things. It took a while, but,
well look!" She gestured to Candy World proudly.
We then noticed how incredible large these people were. They needed healthy
food! "How do you get out?" I asked innocently.
The Kiko looked at us. "Well, we haven't found a way yet." Then, she noticed
our looks of horror and shock. "Yet," she repeated.
***
We spent the next two days wandering Candy World, looking for a way out. We
had gotten to know everybody. The Kiko we had met two days ago was the leader
and the founder, and her name was Jazn.
She had been willing to help us look for a way out. Finally, we walked on until
I thought we had been traveling for years. The mist was growing again, and soon
Candy World was lost. We all headed off, camping in the middle of the mist,
and the walking back away from the candy and food.
Then, I heard Jazn and Mairey shout, "Look!" We turned to follow the pointing
paws. Then I saw what they were looking at. It was the same Lupe I had met in
door one!
Santannaa tugged at my arm. "Maybe we can open the Lupe from there!"
Mairey shook her head. "The door from the jungle closed."
I sighed. "True, but do you maybe think that there's another door we might
have missed?"
They seemed to consider this. Jainny nodded and shrugged. Slowly, we walked
over to the Lupe, careful to keep ourselves hidden. We circled around a tree
we spotted. How it got there was a mystery, but we never bothered to think twice
about it. An unknown world called Candyland wasn't exactly normal either.
We watched him intently, and I saw him take a sharp turn left and disappeared
along a path. We looked at each other questioningly, but we followed wordlessly.
Suddenly he stopped and made a leap. We waited a minute or two, and I peered
over the edge. I could see nothing but clouds. We all looked at each other fearfully.
"Jump off a cliff?" Jazn gasped. "No! I--"
I cut her off, "Look we have no choice!" I stood at the edge, staring down.
I could see nothing. I took a few steadying breaths, and I leaped off with a
scream. I spread my arms wide, and plunged down. I twisted my head to look,
and I saw my pets. Jainny was still up with Jazn, talking to her.
"Look, you have to go down! I'll hold on to you, if that makes it any better."
The two held hands and leaped off together, falling down with us. Jazn screamed
wildly, gripping Jainny like a lifesaver.
When we landed, there was no sign of the Lupe anywhere. Finally, we gave up
looking. We were on water. I heard Jazn struggling to breathe. My NeoPets were
swimming over to me, and Jainny carried Jazn over to us. We all swam back to
shore. We picked ourselves up.
The five of us were covered in seaweed and mud, plus we were drenched. I laughed
suddenly when a NeoPet stared at me in shock. We were safe and at the shores
of Haunted Woods. Mairey gripped the necklace she had gotten from Morlinia--just
to make sure she still had it. She frowned when she thought it grew a bit warm…
To be continued… | 
