Balthazar.
The not-so-friendly Lupe who's very name causes faeries to tremble. But you
have to wonder, why does he stuff pleading, crying faeries into jars? True,
for the money, but I think it goes deeper than that. Here I have written the
story of Balthazar.
Balthazar was once a normal Lupe living with a pack of Lupes in the Haunted
Woods. Even then he was not loveable, and spent most of his time training. He
could easily defeat most of the other youths in the pack, and could even challenge
most of the older ones without fear of loss. His hope was to defeat the current
leader of the pack, Alzar, and rule the pack alone.
"Mercy, mercy, please have mercyyyyyyyyyyy!" the young Lupe cried. Balthazar
snarled swept the younger Lupe aside with an easy swipe of his paw. The younger
Lupe hit the ground and lay there, whimpering and looking fearfully up at Balthazar.
"Don't be a sentimental fool," Balthazar snarled. "We have no money, did you
forget? How do you plan on getting better weapons?"
The blue Lupe, Tanzon, gazed up at the older Lupe with wide, terrified. "B-b-but
it isn't right. The faeries will be so mad..."
A red Lupe Balthazar's age glanced up from Tanzon. "Balthazar, is raiding the
Money Tree really that good an idea? I mean, they say the Faerie Queen herself
watches over it..."
Balthazar laughed. "Yeah right, and what is she going to do? Maybe you should
go back to playing with your Chia plushies!"
Another Lupe Balthazar's age spoke up from the left. "But what makes you think
we'll have a greater chance of getting something from the Money Tree than everybody
else?"
Balthazar smiled evilly. "Very simple. We will not be directly raiding the
tree. We will stake out at the tree and keep an eye out for rich donors. Many
pet owners are more concerned with paint brushes and having the prettiest NeoPet
than fighting in the Battledome. These sorts of people are more likely to donate
anyway. We choose one that looks especially rich--and especially weak--and follow
them home. Then we rob them."
Tanzon's eyes widened in pure terror. "R-r-rob them? You mean take their money?"
Balthazar snarled. "What do you think I mean, idiot?"
Tanzon cowered backwards. "I think--" he swallowed as Balthazar loomed over
him. "I-I-I think we shouldn't do it. I'm not going along with it!"
Balthazar lowered his muzzle so that it was level with Tanzon's face. "You
are either with us or against us. Are you sure you want to stay home?" He bared
his teeth and gave a little growl.
Tanzon swallowed. "I'll be there! I'll be there!"
***
Sara_J123 hopped happily along. "I'm so happy we almost have enough for that
faerie paint brush! We've been saving forever!" Sandypup123 gazed fondly down
at her Usul.
"I know. We've been saving up for this ever since we visited Faerieland and
saw all of the beautiful faerie pets. Now all we have to do is trade in this
black paint brush we won and we'll have enough!" Sara_J123 grinned.
"Are you sure you want to donate that Grand Lighting Beam you found? I mean,
we could sell it for a fortune," Sandypup123 smiled.
"I know. But do you remember the 10,000 Neopoints we found the first time we
came to the Money Tree? It was enough for me to finally play some of the betting
games we got so much money off of. I'm not interested in fighting anyway. I
hope someone really special gets this, someone as needy as we were." Sara_J123
nodded.
"I guess it's our way of giving back." Sandypup123 smiled and leaned down to
put the donation on the tree.
Suddenly a green shape erupted out of the bushes behind her, sending her sprawling.
Her Usul gave a cry of surprise. The green shape revealed itself as a green
Lupe. It turned around and snarled at the Usul.
"Don't move and I won't have to hurt you too," the Usul snarled. She had never
fought before, and this Lupe looked awfully tough. "What do you want?" she yelled.
"All I want is your money and the Lightning Beam," the Lupe answered, standing
next to the groaning owner.
"But that's ours!" Sara_J123 cried. "You can't have it. We worked hard for
it!"
He growled. "I will ask you one more tim--"
Suddenly he gave a grunt of surprise as something hit him on the head. He turned
around to see Sandypup123 holding the Grand Lightning Beam like a club.
"Sara_J123, catch!" she cried, tossing the Beam.
The Lupe snarled. "You FOOL!" He whirled and slammed Sandypup123 into the tree.
"Sandyyyyyyyyyy!" Sara_J123 cried, hurling herself at the Lupe, armed with
the Grand Lightning Beam.
Balthazar limped home, the Beam in between his teeth, 90,000 Neopoints hanging
off his back and a black paint brush sticking out of his mouth. His little rebellion
rushed out of the trees.
"Balthazar, we were worried what took you so long?"
"Did you get anything?"
"Is that 90,000 Neopoints?!"
"Did you fight?"
"You must have been confronted by the Faerie Queen herself!"
"Don't be an idiot. If he fought the Faerie Queen he'd be scorched right now."
"No one's ever fought her before, so how do you know?"
"PIPE DOWN! All of you," Balthazar snarled at his babbling followers.
"Did it work?" Tanzon whispered.
"Yes. I'm full of stuff, aren't I?"
"But that cut--"
"I'm FINE!" Balthazar snarled. He should never have underestimated the power
of any NeoPet when cornered. He had a huge wound down the middle of his forehead
and many other cuts all over his body. He had barely survived.
"That looks bad," the red Lupe said. "Maybe you should go to the Healing Springs?"
"Good idea," Balthazar answered.
***
The faeries were agitated. Who could have done such a thing? An owner and
an Usul, only barely alive and only that because of the prompt appearance of
the Water Faerie. They were resting now in Faerieland. The Faerie Queen was
determined to get to the bottom of this.
The Uber-Water Faerie herself sat at the springs she had created and tried
to regain her magic after most of it had been spent on trying to heal the attacked
NeoPet and owner. It had been a tough job, even for her, and she had told all
of the smaller Water Faeries to turn away all but the most pets most in need
of her healing. So she was surprised when a Lupe limped into the spring.
He was obviously very wounded. She leapt down from the spring and dashed over
to him.
"Oh! How'd this happen?" Balthazar paused. How could he say this so that she
wouldn't know about the incident at the tree.
"Umm... well, there was this fight..."
"Don't listen to him," the Faerie Queen said, flying down from above. Balthazar
looked up and snarled. Now he was in trouble.
"I have talked to the faeries who witnessed the whole scene." The Faerie Queen
looked directly at Balthazar. "They saw you running away from the scene of the
attack."
"Um, well, you see..." Balthazar thought fast. "Yes, I was at the crime
scene. I saw the whole thing. I tried to save the Usul, but he was too strong... the creature was too strong...
I didn't stand a chance. I had to run
away."
The Faerie Queen's brow creased. "Water Faerie," she said, gesturing for her
to come closer. She whispered something in the Faerie's ear and the Faerie flew
off. Balthazar watched, wondering what his fate would be. They couldn't get
him in trouble. They had nothing on him. Suddenly the Faerie came flying back.
In her arms was a wounded Usul. It was torn up pretty bad. What was worse, he
recognised the Usul. Sara_J123. He snarled. Not her.
Sara_J123 looked up and cried out. "That's him! We were so close to getting
to becoming a Faerie... he stole everything. Now I'll never be a Faerie!"
Poor Sara_J123 started to cry.
The Faerie Queen lifted her hand and summoned all the other Uber-Faeries, as
well as the lesser faeries. They all gathered around.
"This Lupe," she said, glaring at the attacker, "has attacked a NeoPet outside
of the Battledome in order to rob them. What shall we do?"
All of the faeries started talking at once.
"Take all of his weapons!"
"Throw him out of Neopia!"
"Make him work for the Usul!"
"Put him on a desert island!"
Balthazar gazed around angrily. They couldn't do this to him! He just had to
hope that the Faerie Queen didn't listen to all of these horrible suggestions.
"I have decided!" the Faerie Queen announced, and all of the faeries fell silent.
"No faerie shall ever bless or help you ever again. You shall be allowed to
roam free, but you shall never have the use of the Healing Springs." All the
faeries gasped. In the long history of Neopia, the faeries had never refused
to help someone! That was their job! "Leave, Balthazar, and never let us hear
from you again!"
Soon it was all over the news. Balthazar became an outcast, with huge scars
where his wounds never healed properly. Even the members of his old gang turned
on him, and as they found faeries to be blessed with they grew much stronger
than him, using attacks like Life Drain and Fiery Gaze to defeat him. He swore
revenge on the Faeries who had humiliated him. To make matters worse, he soon
heard news that Sandypup123 and Sara_J123 had fully recovered. In return for
all of the harm caused, the faeries had turned Sara_J123 into a Faerie Usul
and gave her enough Neopoints to buy a house in Faerieland and to start Sandypup123's
Faerie paint brush collection, which she gives out to hopeful NeoPets like herself
dreaming of becoming a Faerie. Balthazar found a way to get back. He went out
every night and caught faeries, stuffing them in jars and selling them to NeoPet
owners.
To this day Sara_J123 is still hopping along the clouds, and Balthazar is
still catching and selling faeries to get his revenge. One day he hopes to buy
all of the artifacts of the Hidden Tower of the Faerie Queen and build his own
tower--Balthazar's Tower of Terror. The Neopians will compete for his favour
and all Faeries will tremble at his name!
The End | 
