The pets walked in a single file line down the long hall. They said nothing.
The only thing that could be heard was their footsteps and the hum of the Sword.
They walked some time, and then Misty finally broke the silence.
"Did you guys hear something?" she asked. "I keep hearing this weird noise."
"What kinda noise?" said Midnight.
"It was like a hiss..."
"You must be hearing things," said Jen. "All four of your ears hear things
all the time."
"Says who?" said Misty. "I'm telling you, I heard something!"
"Then how come we didn't?" said Jen.
"Because you guys only have two ears!"
"Sure, throw that in my face!"
"OK!"
"Stop it you two!" said Midnight. "If there is something in here, it's gonna
hear you guys, and will find us. So cut it out!"
Just then, they all heard a growl. They all froze, barely even breathing.
The growl started soft, but then got louder as it went on. Suddenly, the growl
filled the entire hall. Then, a giant cat-like thing jumped at them. Startling
Midnight, she dropped the Sword, and it landed safely on the ground. The cat
was dark blue, and had yellow piercing eyes. Its fur was very shiny. Its claws
were already sticking out of its paws as it snarled at the four terrified pets.
It had six very long tails. It was much too large to be a Kougra, and it looked
nothing like one. Midnight grabbed the Sword.
"Get away!" she shouted. "What do you want with us?" She tried to sound brave,
but her voice quivered as she talked.
"The Sword," it answered.
"You can't have it!"
"Then must I take it?"
"I guess so."
The other three pets jumped behind Midnight, seeing as how she was the one
with a weapon. The giant cat sighed.
"I won't hurt you," it said. "I can take the Sword without harming you."
"Why wouldn't you want to hurt us?" Midnight asked.
"That's not for you to know. Now give me it!"
"No!"
One of the cat's long tails reach over towards the Sword. Midnight slashed
it with the Sword, and the cat jumped back with a roar.
"You're going to wish you didn't do that!" it said. "My name is Leon. Get
ready!"
Leon then let out a loud roar and tackled the four pets. They all flew back,
and Midnight dropped the Sword. She quickly without thinking got up and grabbed
the Sword. She held it straight out in front of her.
"Go away! Leave us all alone! You can't have the sword!" shouted Midnight.
"It does not belong to you!"
"If I'm correct, it doesn't belong to you either!" said Leon.
"Bah. Leave!"
"In your dream--"
Before he could finish, there was different loud roar. Leon cowered. He then
jumped over the four pets and ran the other way. The four pets let out a sigh
of relief and sat down on the floor.
"What was that all about?!" said Jen, still quivering a bit.
"I have no idea, but I bet he'll be back," said Midnight.
"Then what are we waiting for?!" exclaimed Misty.
"Yeah!!" said Shane. "Let's get out of here, and fast!"
They all jumped up and looked ahead, and suddenly saw that they could see
end of the hall! There was a strong light shining through a square opening brightly.
They all ran to the opening. Once they made it out, they found that they were
in a deep forest. Leaves completely covering the ground, and dead trees everywhere.
They heard another roar out of no where.
"Leon?" said Jen.
"No, it's something different," said Misty. "The roar is different from Leon's."
Midnight looked at the Sword that was still in her hand, but was not glowing
or humming anymore. She sighed.
"I wonder how much longer we're gonna be traveling..." she said to herself.
She then held the Sword in the air and said "The Golden Tree."
Once again, lightning came from the tip of the sword, and started to form
a box in the air. Then, inside the lightning box, an arrow formed and pointed
straight ahead.
"Well, everyone ready?" she said.
"I wanna rest," said Jen. "We've been walking for half an hour!"
"Yeah, let's rest for just a while," said Shane.
"If we do, it can't be for long," said Misty with a frown. "If we stay in
one place for too long, something may find us. Like this other thing that's
roaring."
"Let's find a place to hide then," said Midnight as she looked at the sword
in her hand. The arrow was still in the air. "OK, we need to find a spot where
we can rest."
They started walking in the same direction as the arrow was pointing. On the
very first step they took, the arrow had disappeared, and the Sword looked normal
again. As they walked around trees, bushes and rocks, they saw little critters
and things fly through the top of the trees and crawl on the ground. After walking
for about ten minutes, Midnight pointed to the right. There was a large rock,
and a large hole under it. They all walked over to it.
"Things should have a hard time seeing us in here," said Midnight. "Let's
hide in here and rest for a while."
They were all able to fit under the rock comfortably. Midnight didn't go in
though. She decided to keep look out while the others rested. She sat down and
leaned up against the rock with the Sword in her hand. Slowly, she felt sleep
fall upon her. She suddenly felt very tired. Her head started to nod. Finally,
she fell into a slumber, and slept with the Sword still tight in her hand. While
she slept, there was a rustle in the leaves behind the rock.
She had a very weird dream. In her dream, she saw Leon standing in darkness.
She didn't know where Leon was at, just deep in darkness. Leon's eyes were set
on Midnight. Midnight tried to protect her self by sticking the Sword out in
front of her, but suddenly realised that she didn't have the Sword! She felt
fear creep up her spine as she tried to think of what happened to the Sword.
She looked from side to side, and suddenly realised she was also in darkness.
Leon stepped forward.
"What happened to the Sword!?" she thought to herself in haste. "I need it
to destroy Leon if I have to!! What am I going to do?" She felt sweat going
down her forehead. Then she heard a roar. It wasn't coming from Leon though.
Leon cowered at the sound. Then she heard thunder.
"Midnight!" she heard someone calling her name. It was Misty!
"Midnight! Wake up!" she yelled.
Midnight opened her eyes and saw her two sisters and brother standing over
her. She quickly sat up and reached for the Sword. And there it was, next to
where she was sleeping.
"I had the weirdest dream," she said slowly.
"Well, tell us later then," said Jen. "Misty said she thought she heard something."
"Yeah, let's get out of here," said Midnight.
Midnight stood up with the Sword firm in her hand. She seemed more protective
of it than before.
Before too long they got back on track. Walking past trees and rocks, and
following the path the Sword said to follow. Jen flew while everyone else walked.
Nobody said a thing.
After a while of walking, they came to a fork in the path. One path went left,
and the other went right. Midnight used the Sword to see where to go. The Sword
did nothing.
"Well, I guess we'll have to depend on luck again," said Midnight. "Which
way should we go?"
"I'll lead!" said Misty. She hot in front of everyone else and went right.
After a while of walking, the path was gone completely. They walked for a
long time just guessing which way to go through the trees, Misty being the one
who actually decided.
"This is getting us no where," said Jen. "Let me lead!"
But Jen leading wasn't any help either. They seemed to be going in circles.
Since Jen was no help, Midnight took the lead. This time they didn't go in
a circle. This time they went in a triangle.
Now it was Shane's turn. Being the youngest of the group, they all thought
for sure that he wouldn't get them anywhere. Shane flew up above the trees.
After a minute he came back down.
"All we have to do is turn left!" he said with pride. "We just need to take
a few steps left! And we're out of the forest."
Everyone looked to the left of them, and realised that this whole time the
end of the forest was only ten steps away! They could see the last few trees,
and a huge field beyond them! Everyone except Shane fell over anime style.
Once they had gotten outside of the forest, they saw a very large and flat
field full of dark green grass in front of them. The farthest the eyes could
see were the mountains far, far away from where they stood. Wind howled.
"We aren't in Neopia," said Jen. "I've just realised it! There isn't a place
like this in all of Neopia!"
"But then where could we be?" Shane asked, looking rather confused.
"Look guys!" said Midnight. "There's a house over there!"
Far up ahead of them in the middle of the field, they now saw a small house
that looked kinda beat down.
"Funny, I didn't see it before," said Misty.
"Let's see if anyone's living there," said Jen.
They started to walk forward, when they heard a loud howl. They all stopped
and froze. Something small quickly whooshed by Midnight suddenly, and then the
Sword had disappeared! Without time even to think, something huge jumped on
top of Midnight. She could remember no more for a long time.
To be continued... | 
