On a fine winter morning in Neopia, four NeoPets were on a camping trip in
the woods. They are three sisters and one brother of the four. The oldest is
a female shadowed Kacheek named Midnight. The second oldest is a spotted female
Pteri named Jen. The second youngest is Misty the striped Aisha. Then, the youngest
of the four, is a Brown Shoyru named Shane.
Three dark green camping tents were already set up in the snow of deep woods,
and none of the NeoPets could be seen. Except for Jen, who was still trying
to set up her tent.. She flew from one side of the tent to the other, making
sure everything was secure, and that the tent would be good enough to sleep
in. Here and there when she saw a pole in the ground that wasn't in far enough
or any other errors, she would fly over to it and fix it with her beak. Finally,
she stopped flying and stood in front of the tent. She let out a sigh.
"It's not easy putting up a tent with wings and a beak..." she thought to
herself. "But it looks like I have finally finished it! Now I need to find the
others."
A few seconds after she thought that, the others came running past trees swiftly,
jumping over stumps in the wood and dodging rocks in the snow. There was Midnight
and Shane running side by side, and Misty running up ahead of them much faster.
Midnight and Shane were both carrying sticks, but Misty carried nothing. When
Misty got right in front of Jen, she stopped very suddenly without a slip in
the snow, and without slowing down. Misty looked behind Jen and saw the tent.
She then started to laugh. Midnight and Shane then ran up.
"What took you so long?" laughed Misty. "I wouldn't be surprised if you just
finished the tent just now!"
"...Yeah right!" said Jen. "I've had it finished for quite a while now."
"Yeah, whatever," replied Misty with a grin. "Say what you want. I know you,
and I know how you lie!"
"Hey, you don't know what you're--"
"Don't you two start this again!" Shane cut in. "Don't start another argument!
Why must you guys argue all the time anyway?"
"Because!" both Misty and Jen answered at the same time. Then Midnight laughed.
"Watching you two fight is better than watching a movie!" she said. "Wait,
let me get the pop corn before you start again! Now, we're lucky our owner let
us go on this camping trip! She expects you two to behave and get along."
"OK, OK," said Jen. "We'll stop. Anyway, now that we have fire wood, what
should we do? I don't wanna be bored all day."
"We should go hiking in the woods or something," said Misty. "We can go fishing,
too. We have the fishing polls and all. The pond isn't too far from here.."
"Yeah, let's go fishing!" said Midnight. "That'll give us something to do."
Shane went into his tent and then came back out with a bucket of worms and a
fishing pole.
"Hurry up and get your stuff then everyone!" he said. "I wanna get going."
A little later, they all had their stuff, and were all on their way to the
pond. Misty carried her fishing pole in her mouth and ran ahead of everyone
else, as she usually does. Shane was flying beside Jen, who was carrying her
fishing pole with her beak. Shane was holding both the bucket of worms and his
own fishing pole. Midnight ran close behind Misty carrying her pole.
After running and flying through the trees for a while, the woods ended very
suddenly and opened up into a large, flat field with snow laying lightly on
it. In the middle of the large field there was a pond. There was no ice on top
of the water. Above them they could see a clear blue sky without a single cloud.
Shane took about 5 steps over to the pond, tripped over something, and landed
flat on his face.
"Oww..." moaned Shane. "What in Neopia did I trip over?"
Midnight stooped down and looked at the snow where Shane was. She saw a long
lump in the snow, and saw Shane's footprint where he had tripped. She brushed
off the snow.
"Wow guys," she gasped, "look! It's a sword!" Midnight grabbed the hilt of
the sword, and held the sword up to the sunlight. To her surprise, it wasn't
that heavy. It was about the length of a Kacheek, but a little longer. The hilt
was dark green, but the very bottom of it was gold. The top of the hilt was
also gold, and was shaped to curve around the bottom of the sword. It almost
looked like splashing water at the beach. The sword was like silver. But with
the sun hitting it, the sword looked almost like pure, glowing gold.
"What's a Battledome item doing out here?" said Shane.
"It doesn't look like a regular Battledome item to me," said Jen.
"No, not really," said Midnight. "But then what is it?"
Just then, blue lightning came from the sky and hit a tree back in the woods.
All four of the NeoPets jumped when they heard the crack of lightning.
"B-blue lightning?" stammered Misty.
"Something weird is going on.." said Midnight almost to herself. "C'mon, let's
go see what happened!"
They all quickly got up and ran into the woods. They finally came to a very
large tree that was split down the middle. The very top of the tree lay on the
ground next to the NeoPets. And there was the very large stump with a huge crack
in it in front of them. A green smoke came up from the crack in the stump.
"Wow, the lightning did all this!" said Jen. "What's going on here?"
"Green smoke.." Said Midnight. "Very weird indeed.."
Midnight looked inside the crack, and to her surprise, she couldn't see anything.
It was completely and totally black in there. She put her paw in it, and realised
that she couldn't feel the bottom of the stump. Very puzzled, she stepped inside
the stump. She could feel the bottom, but it was felt perfectly smooth and flat.
She walked farther in with the sword still in hand, and then disappeared.
"...The stump isn't large enough for her to just walk in and disappear.."
Said Shane. Then Shane put his foot inside the crack, walked farther in, and
disappeared just like Midnight.
"How can they both fit in there?" thought Jen. Misty said nothing, but walked
in after them. Jen sighed and went in after them.
Inside the stump, they all stood next to each other, but could see nothing.
They were all astonished, there seemed to be a room inside this stump! But the
stump was far too small. The floor the stood on was very smooth, flat and cold,
like stone. The crack which they had entered was now kinda far away. But then,
like magic, the crack just closed up with a small glow. They all gasped.
"What is this??" yelled Jen. "Doesn't anyone have a clue?"
Then suddenly, the room lit up. The floor was stone, and the walls, and the
ceiling. They were standing in a long hall that seemed to go on forever both
ways. Midnight looked down at her sword and saw that it was glowing, and that's
what lit the hall. While it glowed, it hummed lightly, which brought spirit
into her heart. Midnight brought the sword close to her face.
"This isn't a Battledome item," she said slowly. "There's something about
this sword.."
Then, she felt a tug, and realised that the sword was moving on its own, and
trying to get away from her grasp! She let go, and the sword immediately floated
into the air in front of the NeoPets, still glowing and humming. There was a
flash of purple light. They all shielded their eyes as the purple flash appeared
and reappeared, each time brighter than before. Suddenly, it stopped. They all
opened their eyes to see the image of the Faerie Queen standing in front of
the sword!
"Don't say a word," said the Faerie Queen. Her voice was very calm and soft.
"Let me explain what's going on here. First, I'm not the actual Faerie Queen.
I am an image of her. Like a video of me, but it's not me in the flesh. Just
an illusion being caused by me, with the help of this sword. "Now, you are going
to start a quest. This sword here is called the Ancient Sword of Neopia. It
is very powerful, and a very important part to Neopia. If this sword is ever
destroyed, Neopia will also be destroyed. This Sword is the thing that protects
Neopia from total destruction. If it were gone, Neopia would start getting earthquakes,
floods, and winds strong enough to blow a forest down. It would blow up in three
days if the sword wasn't here. Now, this sword is usually in a hiding place,
under a huge golden tree. But something somehow took it away from the tree,
and then lost it before it could destroy it. Now you've found it, and it has
to be taken back to the tree where it can be safe in hiding once again."
"So you want us to take it back?" said Midnight with a rather startled look
on her face.
"If you don't, whatever took it will find it again, and destroy it," said
the Faerie Queen. "Then Neopia will be gone forever."
"If he found the sword last time, what's stopping him from finding it again
after we put it back?" said Misty.
"He won't be able to find it again," replied the Faerie Queen. "The Sword
will automatically, after being put back, use its powers to make him forget
where he found the Sword. And if you destroy the thing, it won't be able to
find it again."
"So you want us to trash the thing?" said Shane. "What makes you think we're
capable of all this??"
"I know not what all of you are capable of. But I can get no one else, and
I cannot do it."
"Why not?" asked Jen.
"I'm not able to use my powers, or do anything, for that matter. This thing
cast some kind of spell on all us Faeries, and we can't do a thing but wait
here at the Gold Tree. He's looking for the Sword now. His minions can be anywhere.
Even in this very hall." "How do we get there?" said Midnight with her eyes
shifting from side to side, half expecting to see something jump out at her.
"The Sword will tell you. Hold it up in the air for directions, and say 'The
Golden Tree'. Then it will show you. It doesn't always work though. Normally
it would, but the sword is losing its power from being so far away from the
tree. Don't let anything happen to the Sword! I have to go now. Good luck!"
Then with a puff of smoke she was gone. The Sword fell to the ground, still
glowing and humming. There pets were completely silent. Midnight picked up the
Sword.
"Well, what do you guys think?" said Midnight.
"I have no idea," said Shane.
"I'm pretty freaked," said Jen.
"I think this is gonna be great!" said Misty. "This is just like on TV! Midnight,
use the Sword and let's see which way down the hall we should go. Left or right."
"Just like that?" said Midnight. "Without giving any of this any thought?"
"Yup," replied Misty.
"Cool. Watch out evil thing, we're on our way!"
She then lifted the Sword into the air.
"The Golden Tree," she said. Lighting came from the tip of the sword, and
the lighting shot through the air, and shaped into a box. But then the box disappeared.
"It's not gonna work," said Shane.
"Then which way should we go?" said Misty.
"Let Jen show the way," said Midnight. "She's good at navigating and things
like that. Let's let her lead."
"I'll show which way to go, but I don't want to lead," said Jen. "Let Midnight
walk in front. She's the one with a weapon. I'll just choose the directions."
"Great!" said Midnight. "Let's hope we go the right way. The fate of Neopia
lies in our hands!" "Don't remind us," said Jen. "Anyway, let's go left."
Midnight took the lead and started walking down the hall. The light followed
them as they walked. Far back behind them in the dark, two yellow eyes glowed
in the dark, with its eyes on the four pets. They then disappeared.
To be continued... | 
