"We have to find a place to stay and a job to work. I only have 100 Neopoints
left," Shaktar said when we reached Mystery Island.
"What?!!!" I said in amazement.
"Yeah, I think we spent too much on junk food."
"Hey, I know, I remember there was a restaurant or something in Mystery Island
which provides you with meals three times a day and a place to stay, but you
have to help cook. The pay is thirty Neopoints an hour for an assistant. I think
the place was called 'Chicken's Best'," I suggested.
"'Chicken's Best'? What kind of place is that?" he asked, laughing at the
name.
"A place that will give us pay, food, and a place to stay."
"Oh, well, where would that be?" he asked as he took out a map and started
walking forward.
"Uh, bro?" I said, warning him.
"What now, Can't you see I'm reading the map? Ouch!"
"I tried to tell you."
"Who would put this arena in the middle of the street?"
"You can't put an arena in the middle of a street! We're not even on a street,
this is an island, remember? Hey, Rong, you're awfully quiet. What's wrong?"
I asked.
"Nothing, I'm just looking around."
Then due to my brother's sense of directions, I think we went all the places
on Mystery Island except "Chicken's Best". We went to the Tiki Tack, Harbour,
Tiki Tours, Techo Safari, Training School, Island Arena, Rock Pool, Cooking
Pot (very close to what we were to looking for, but still not it), Sacrificers,
Trading Post, Island Market, and to the Tropical Foods.
***
"Are we there yet?" I asked.
"No, I still didn't find it. Let me look at the map again," Shaktar replied.
"Well, why don't you just ask someone around her instead?"
"Look, just let me do things my own way, okay? Stop bossing me around! Stop
giving me advice when I don't want any!"
"I was just trying to help."
"Then stop helping me!"
"Fine then, I won't!"
"Fine!"
"Guys, guys, where's the brotherly love?" Rong interrupted.
"Well, it was his fault, he started it first," Shaktar said.
"I did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"STOP!!!" Rong shouted.
"Would you just stop fighting already? We are finding a way to save my village,"
Rong said.
"I would if my obnoxious brother here would apologise first," I replied.
"I AM NOT OBN..."
"Hey kid, are you okay? You don't have to yell to get people's attention.
Okay?" a man with a wooden head wearing a flower shirt came up to us.
"Okay. By the way, do you happen to know where 'Chicken's Best' is?" Shaktar
asked.
"'Chicken's Best? Why, I never heard of that name, unless you meant Kitchen
Quests."
"I guess so."
"Sure, just walk north of here and you'll meet the water chef, he's a real
nice guy. Oh, before I forget, here's a prize for you," he said as he handed
my brother a bottle of green sand.
"Uh, thanks," he replied. Then we started left the Kitchen Quests place.
"Hey, this says 'Property of Tombola Man'. Do you suppose he's the Tombola
Man?" my brother said.
"I suppose so," I replied.
"I'm sorry, Leli, we shouldn't have argued."
"I'm sorry too, Shaktar."
"Okay, let's go in, now that we had that done," Shaktar said.
"Hello, I'm here applying to be an assistant chef," he said.
"Oh, good, very good. Well, first thing you need to know is I'm the water
chef, you can also call me WC if you wish, and the Mumbo Pango is asking for
food every five minutes. I will take care of the ingredients, you help cook.
Okay?" the water chef told us.
"All right, when can I start?"
"As a matter of fact, right now would be great. Could you bring this to the
Mumbo Pango right now?" he said as he handed my brother a Runny Seaweed with
Fishy Pancake.
My brother handed the food to Mumbo Pango, who looks like a really (I mean
really, really) big coconut with legs, arms, and leaves coming out of his head.
Shaktar put us in his room and continued working until midnight. I can tell
he was exhausted. That night, we came up with the idea that the little NeoPets
we were looking for must be either in the kitchen, or in the garbage.
The next day, while my brother was working, Rong and I went searching, but
we couldn't find any little NeoPets in the kitchen, so we decided to search
in the garbage. A Puppyblew was able to sniff us out. A little Bruce pulled
us in quickly before he got us.
"Ya know, ya gotta be careful when out there. No telling what could happen.
Name's Ben. Yours?"
"Rong," Rong said.
"Oh, you speak Peace."
"Yeah."
"Not me, my name's Leli," I said
"Watcha doing here? Ain't nothing here worthy."
"We're looking for our second clue. Do you know where it is?" I asked.
"Zzzz..."
"Oh, he fell asleep."
"Wait, he's mumbling something. Listen," Rong said.
"Terror Mountain is the place ya wannta be. Terror Mountain, place of (mumble,
mumble)."
We left the Bruce there and went back to Shaktar. We told him the whole story
that night. He decided to work for one more week to earn enough money for out
expenses. After one week, we set off to Terror Mountain.
***
The whole place was very festive; it felt like it was Christmas, when it was
actually in the summer. Everyone was jumping and dancing in the street with
winter clothing.
"Now, what are we supposed to do?" my brother asked.
"What are you doing? You're supposed to sing when you talk," a Korbat came
up to us and sang.
"I'm sorry," my brother sang back.
"Good."
"Ask for a food shop," I whispered to my brother.
"Excuse me, do you know where I can find a food shop here?" Shaktar sang.
"There's one up ahead called the 'Slushie Shop'."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
"Okay, bye," Shaktar sang as he headed for the Slushie Shop.
"What are you doing?" a Blumaroo sang.
"What do you mean?"
"You're supposed to dance when you're walking."
"You guys are so going to pay for this when we get back," my brother said
to us as he danced towards the Slushie Shop.
Shaktar pretended to be a news reporter and searched the kitchen and garbage
can, but there was no one there. The he searched the candy cane outside of the
shop, and sure enough, there was another little NeoPet.
"Hello, anybody in here?" Shaktar yelled.
"Who are you?" the voice replied.
"I'm Shaktar," my brother sang.
"Stop the singing! Stop the singing!" a Grundo came out yelling.
"What happened? Why do you hat the singing and why does the NeoPets over here
sing?" I asked.
"It all started with the Dr_Death. He put a spell on he people so they would
sing and dance when he's around," he explained.
"He's not around now," Rong said.
"Wait, I didn't finish, yet. The reason being is Dr_Death died unexpectedly
without lifting the curse. Then my wife finally got mad at all the singings
and went to another place with the children. Now, I live in misery day after
day."
"Do you think he's still haunting this place?" I asked.
"Yes, some say he's still around, taking any shape of any NeoPets that he
likes and pretending he was normal."
"Someone's coming. Let's leave," Shaktar said.
We went a way for the moment and came back later that evening, with a very
surprising new.
"Hello?" Shaktar said into the candy cane.
"Hello, how may I help you?" a little Chia came out and greeted us.
"Who are you?" my brother asked.
"Uh, uh, uh, sing."
"Who are you?" he sang.
"Why, I'm the owner of this candy cane. No, no, I just live here actually."
"Where was the Grundo that was here earlier?"
"What Grundo? I live here alone. No one has ever visited me since the shrinking
incident, which I supposed you know?"
"Yes, we know about it," I sang.
"But, but," Shaktar said.
"Listen, I don't think he knows about the conversation we had earlier, let's
just leave," I whispered to Shaktar.
"Bye-bye!" the Chia sang.
We sadly went away when Shaktar was hit on the head with a note wrapped around
a rock. The note said, "The search is not over, oh, no, no, to the top of the
mountain, here we go!". Then, we decided that it might be a trap, or it might
be where we need to go next, we talked it over many times and finally decided
to go to the mountain top.
***
The place was deserted when we got there. Shaktar walked around, but there
was still no sign of life. We thought that the note was just a joke, until my
brother saw a notice board up ahead. I noticed on the board were strange words,
but I think Rong understood because he was staring at it intensely.
"Rong, do you get what it says?" I asked.
"What are you talking about? All it says is 'House For Sale'. Can't you read?"
my brother said.
"We're not looking at that! We're looking at the small print letters," I replied.
"That's too small for a regular NeoPet to read."
"Exactly! That's exactly what the NeoPet who wrote this message wants."
"Well, what does it say?" my brother asked.
I didn't exactly know what to tell him, because the inscriptions were as follow:
For those who can read this, we can be reached by tapping on this letter thrice
'k'.
"It says, 'For those who can read this, we can be reached by tapping on this
letter thrice 'k'!" Rong suddenly shouted.
"How did you know?" I asked.
"It's Peace."
"Okay, then let's tap on the letter three times," my idiotic brother suggested.
"Wait! We don't know if it's dangerous or not," I said, but it was too late
because Rong already tapped on the letter thrice.
The ground began to shake violently, and the earth began to part away! We
fell and fell an endless ride until what seemed to be an eternity that we landed
in a dark cave.
"So what do we do now?" Shaktar said.
"You know, you've got to come up with a new saying, I mean, every time we
got to a new place, you always begin, So what do we do now?," I said.
"It's true! I want to know what you're doing too! I already get enough neglecting
at home; I just want to be included."
"When did you ever feel that?" I asked.
"Lots of time, you would always invite your friends to come over and said
to me, 'Keep out, this is an adult zone, you're too young to go in, or else!'.
Then I always have to go and find something else to do, which I guess is why
I get good grades because I usually go and study after that. I remember when
we used to play together when we were young, hide-and-seek, tag, tug-o-war,
all those games, then you started to grow away from me. I really want to be
your brother, I don't want to be just some outsider. I want to be included too!
And here, I'm trying to help you, what do I get in return?" my brother broke
down into a sob.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know it hurt you that much. Tell you what, if you stop
crying and help us with the rest of the journey, I promise to include you more
in our activities," I said.
"Okay... sniff… sniff… hey, where's (sniff) Rong?"
To be continued... | 
