They reached their home to find Annala lying on the floor, gasping for breath.
Fanger ran to her and tried CPR, but no effect.
"It's no use!" he said. "And none of us have the power to heal!"
"Even if we could heal, I don't think it would work!" Sport said. He went
over to her. "Grandma, are you OK?"
Annala stopped wheezing and lay still. She stopped breathing. There was a
dead silence, broken by Cloud sobbing.
"Grandma, please… wake up… please wake up…" she sobbed, nudging her with her
muzzle. Annala didn't wake up.
Sport hung his head and whined. Eniad went over and lay down next to her grandmother,
crying. Fanger let out a howl of misery.
They lay there for a while, crying and whimpering. Eniad wiped a tear from
her eye.
"What was the cause of her unfortunate ending? Of all Lupes, why did she have
to go?" Cloud sniffled.
Sport licked his sister's face, trying to comfort her.
Fanger looked slightly panicked.
"I… I gotta call Mum and Dad… I gotta do something…" he said, trying not to
snap. Eniad knew he was going to panic.
"Fanger, calm down. Everything's going to be OK," Eniad said, trying to calm
him down.
"Calm down? CALM DOWN?! That's a good one! How can I CALM DOWN? Our GRANDMOTHER
is gone, Natsirt's followers are going to take over Neopia, and we're all going
to be destroyed! HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN, ENIAD??? HOW???" he
practically screamed.
"Fanger, this is no time to panic!" yelled Sport. Cloud looked at him in awe,
as Sport was usually obedient and respectful to Fanger.
"This is the perfect time to panic, you nitwit! WE'RE ALL GONERS!!!!! WHAT'S
THE POINT OF LISTENING TO YOU RIGHT NOW WHEN I'LL JUST BE SEEING YOU IN THE
GIANT CREATE A PET IN THE SKY???" screamed Fanger at the top of his lungs.
Eniad couldn't take it anymore. She slapped Fanger hard across the face, leaving
a giant scratch.
"Now, you listen to me! If you don't shut up right now, I'll cut you up into
a giant green ribbon!" she snarled at him. He flinched as she raised her paw
again. "I'll use these claws again on you if I have to!" Fanger silenced.
Cloud gently put Eniad's paw down. "We have to think of what to do next. If
what Grandma said is true, we have to stop Natsirt's followers from restoring
him."
"How are we going to do that?" asked Sport.
"I think we have to get all the kidnapped Lupes's powers back. And we have
to rescue our parents, too," Cloud went on.
"But we have no idea where to find Natsirt's hideout. And he could be sending
bounty hunters or something to find other sorcerer Lupes," Eniad broke in.
Cloud thought for a moment. Eniad turned on Fanger. "Do you have any ideas,
wise guy?"
He thought about something. A smile slowly crossed his face.
"Guys, come with me," he said, and headed off deeper into their cave. His
siblings followed him. He led them to a blank wall with a chip in the center.
"Occara maluna edina garuto hewana," he said it like a password to the wall.
Cloud looked at him funny.
"Secret entrance spell," he said casually to her. The wall slowly started
rising up, leading them to a strange cavern.
"Fanger, why didn't you tell us about this wall?" asked Cloud.
"It was my secret when I was a pup. I'll explain later." He led them to a
wall with a weird inscription on it. It had hieroglyphics of Lupes on it.
"I don't know what the inscriptions mean. I never knew," he told Sport, who
had started to examine the wall. There was a dusty part if it, and Sport wiped
it off. There were two Lupe paw prints embedded in the stone. They were very
big paw prints. Sport put his up to them. His were too small. Cloud and Eniad
tried next. No luck. Then Fanger tried it. His paws were exactly like the prints.
They turned white, and glowed. The wall began to melt away, seeping right through
the floor, revealing a wonder that made them all gasp.
It was a room made of pure gold. There were sorcerer things of all kinds:
maps, atlases, parchment, quills, and scrying stones. There was a red velvet
box near the back of the room. They ran up to it. Eniad opened the box. Inside
were four pendants, shaped as a moon, star, comet, and sun. She picked up the
star chain and put it on. It covered up her star scar, and she felt magic rushing
through her veins. Her eyes turned blue, and soon her coat was completely covered
in stars. Seeing this, the others took their pendants. Sport put his on, and
his eyes turned yellow, and a sun pattern appeared on his coat. Moons appeared
on Cloud's and her eyes turned red, and Fanger had green eyes and sported comets
on his pelt. Eniad turned to her siblings and said only two words: "Let's go"
The scrying stone continued going around in a circle as Eniad held it above
a map of Neopia. They had tried scrying before, and weren't very good at it.
But it was their only hope of finding Natsirt's followers.
Suddenly, the stone pointed on the map to a cave about thirty miles away.
"That's where he is," Sport said quietly.
"Isn't that the Snowager's cave?" asked Cloud. "We could get obliterated by
that overgrown worm!"
"We just have to take our chances," Fanger said determined.
The Lupes set off for the Snowager's cave, a great power resting upon their
hearts, knowing that this was a life or death matter. Eniad's leg had healed
when she had put the pendant on, and she no longer limped. Cloud was frowning
in thought, and Sport silently was trying to think up a strategy of how to stop
the evil Lupes from retuning Natsirt.
"I think we have to distract them, and perhaps try to injure them so they
can't use their powers. I don't know how they are going to bring Natsirt back,
though," he said to them as they ran.
"A spell, or a circle of Lupes is probably what they're going to do. Or maybe
a potion," Fanger suggested.
"They're probably going to do all of those things. Make a potion, get in a
circle, and say a spell. It would make sense for them to do that." Eniad added.
They traveled for hours and hours. It was about 11:00 pm until they reached
the lair of the Snowager. As they got closer to the cave, they heard a growling
sound.
"It's asleep," said Cloud, as she called upon her vision and saw right through
the wall that blocked them. "Fanger, try your spell again."
"OK. Occara maluna edina garuto hewana," he told the wall. It opened to reveal
the Snowager, sleeping soundly on its pile of treasure. Fanger tiptoed inside,
but stepped on a stick. It cracked loudly in two.
The Snowager opened an eye. It straightened up and roared, causing small stones
to fall from the ceiling.
"Great job, Fanger!" Eniad yelled at him furiously. The Snowager reared back
and fired an icy blast at them. Eniad froze it with her powers. Fanger levitated
and kicked the Snowager in the face. It snapped at Fanger, nearly biting his
foot off. Sport blasted it from behind. The Snowager knocked him away with his
ice-cold tail. Cloud conjured long chains, which bonded the Snowager's jaws
together so they couldn't blast them. It tried to roar, and Sport blasted it
backwards into the wall. It collapsed on the ground, apparently knocked out.
"Let's get out of here!" Fanger panted. They crossed the room and found a
narrow passageway. They climbed in, Fanger in the lead.
When they saw the light at the end, they rushed to it. When they were out
of the tunnel, they saw… Prisoners.
Sorcerer Lupes and Lupesses were tied to the wall, in what looked like a trance.
Clyde and Anuo were among them.
"MUM! DAD!" yelled Sport, and he rushed over to them. They didn't move. When
Sport touched his father with a paw, Clyde woke up, his eyes black.
"Dad? Can you hear me?" asked Sport.
"I hear only the wonderful voice of my master, Natsirt," he said dully.
"DAD! It's me, Sport! You're son! Can't you see me?"
"I see only my wonderful master, Natsirt."
"Forget Natsirt! LOOK AT ME!" screamed Sport.
"Sport!" said Cloud. "Stop. He's hypnotized. He doesn't know its you."
Sport silenced. He started crying, tears running down his face. Cloud put
a paw over his shoulder, comforting him. She turned to her older siblings.
"Will they be all right?" she asked, nervously.
Eniad and Fanger looked at each other.
"Of course," Eniad said, smiling. I hope, she thought to herself.
They made their way deeper into the cave. Sport kept looking over his shoulder
at the room that kept the hostages. He kept complaining that he wanted to go
back and try to wake up his parents, but Eniad kept saying that it wouldn't
work and they needed him to help defeat Natsirt and the rest of the evil Lupes.
"If we destroy them, will they just disintegrate?" asked Cloud.
"All sorcerer Lupes disintegrate when they are destroyed by another sorcerer
Lupe. Or Lupess," she added.
"SHH!" Fanger suddenly said. They listened. They could hear footsteps. Eniad
sensed danger.
"OK, on the count of three, we jump out and attack him," Eniad said. "One,
two, three!"
They rounded the corner. A stone Lupe with a tattoo shaped like an X on his
shoulder was standing there. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw them.
Sport burst ahead of everyone and blasted the Lupe with magic from his scar.
It struck him, and he disintegrated.
"Sport!" Cloud said in awe.
There was a fire in his eyes they had never seen before. "Come on," he growled.
They walked on. Another five minutes later, they saw bright orange light, like
fire. They stepped into a big room, filled with about one hundred sorcerers,
mainly Fire Lupes. There were also stone Lupes and black Lupes. There were torches
hung about the wall, flickering as Lupes walked past them. They spotted the
giant black Lupe they had fought in the ravine. They all seemed to be brewing
potions, setting up crystals in a circle around a big fire, which was the source
of light they had seen, and whispering loudly to one another. No one seemed
to notice the four brightly colored Lupes with celestial pendants around their
necks near the exit.
"That's odd," Cloud whispered. "Wouldn't they have seen us by now?"
"Shh!" Fanger hissed. After a long while that seemed like hours, the Lupes
all gathered into one big crowd. The big black Lupe went to the front of them.
"My fellow dark sorcerers," he began. "I would like to welcome you all to
the rebirth of Natsirt, the most powerful Sorcerer Lupe in the world!"
Everyone clapped and cheered. He went on.
"As most of you know, all of our combined power will not bring our all powerful
leader back from his grave, so we have taken many others hostage. Before we
begin and say the spell that will restore our leader, we shall absorb the powers
of our hostages."
"Sir!" said a stone Lupe from the crowd. "Why don't we just destroy them?"
"Because, fool, if we destroy them, we are also destroyed! Do you not know
anything?" the black Lupe snarled, obviously annoyed.
"No, sir," the Stone Lupe stopped talking, looking sheepish.
"Anyway, we have sent a servant to go and get the hostages. Hmm, he should
have been back by now…"
Eniad laughed silently.
"But we can simply summon them here," said the Lupe. And he simply touched
his tattoo, and the hostages appeared out of nowhere, their parents amongst
them.
To be continued... | 
