The two Lupes and the Harris clustered round a hole in
the roots of a tree. It was just big enough for Eden to squeeze through, but
what lay behind was completely in shadow. Eden nodded. "That's it."
Moonshadow shivered slightly. "How can you be
so sure?"
The yellow Lupe shrugged. "Call it a hunch."
In her mind's eye, she could see a little Lupe puppy, trying to break free.
Trapped behind roots. Roots that belonged to this very tree, she knew. Kyla
moved forward. "Me goin' in first. Smally, no 'ttention."
Moonshadow nodded. "You're right, I suppose.
Little petpets don't normally attract as much attention as two hulking great
Lupes crawling in." The Harris smiled, took a deep breath, then dived down the
hole. Moonshadow followed more slowly, then Eden came after them, wondering
all the time what was going to happen.
She was amazed at what she found as she crawled
along the tunnel. Along both sides were engraved pictures, scenes from history.
The dim light from behind her illuminated some. She was not extremely surprised,
but still quite dismayed to find that they were mostly depicting the ferocious
battles between the Creator and the Destroyer. Scratched below one with stunning
detail on the two clashing figures, she read the words, "The Ultimate of Good
and Evil". She looked back to the way she was going and crawled on. The tunnel
grew larger until she was able to walk on all four paws. She muffled a startled
shriek when she brushed into a large cobweb, and shuddered. She was anticipating
the next shock when it came. Her cynical side had been expecting a skeleton
or two, but when she passed through a large cavern with a lake in it and glanced
at the water, she had not expected five different grins from a pile of flooded
skulls. She shivered as she realised that there were more, and hurried on. The
tunnel suddenly sloped more steeply downward, and she slowed down to stop her
self from slipping. The darkness increased, and she didn't see the sharp drop.
Before she knew it, she was flat on her back and sliding wildly down.
Eden landed with a bump that snatched her breath
away from her. She looked up into the blank, emotionless eyes of a purple Zafara
holding a spear. It lowered it and prodded Eden until she got up. The Lupe glanced
around her and saw a red Skeith and a green Buzz keeping a close eye on Kyla,
and no less than five Neopets surrounding a growling Moonshadow. This, at least,
made Eden smile slightly. At least until a green Chomby marched over and waved
his spear, indicating that the three of them should be dealt with. The Zafara
switched grip on the spear and raised it as if to stab Eden. The others copied
her example, but Eden threw caution to the winds and yelled. "Halt!" The shock
of it more than anything else made the Zafara pause, and Eden took that chance
to snatch the spear from her grasp and snap it over one knee. The Zafara blinked,
and her eyes narrowed before Eden started speaking. "What do you mean by this
insubordination? Were you given no orders concerning us?"
The Zafara nodded and spoke flatly with no expression.
"If two Lupes, one yellow and one silver, enter, slay them."
Eden raised an eyebrow. "But your master said
nothing about a yellow Lupe, a silver Lupe and a Harris petpet?" The Zafara
shook its head. Eden nodded, keeping up the pretence. "Then he made an error.
We are to be taken straight to him, no matter what he is doing. It is vital
that we are shown where he is." Moonshadow gulped quietly, and her eyes widened
slightly. The Zafara paused for a moment, then, almost reluctantly, saluted.
The spears were removed and Moonshadow and Kyla stepped forward to Eden as the
Zafara wheeled about and marched away. The trio paused only momentarily before
following.
The purple Zafara led the group past ranks of
armed Neopets, practising manoeuvres. Eden and Moonshadow looked about with
a horrified fascination, but Kyla only glanced at each face in frustration.
She shook her head. The Zafara stopped and saluted at a cave entrance. Eden
spoke quietly. "He is expecting us. We need no introduction."
The Zafara nodded, then frowned slightly before
marching away. Eden paused a moment, took a deep breath, and entered the cave.
Moonshadow and Kyla followed into the darkness. The Lupe led the way through
the cave, straining her eyes to see the next corner. They followed the path
around an extremely sharp bend and bright green light assailed their eyes while
a sudden mist rose up and masked their view anyway. A quiet chuckle began in
front of them, and rose up to an almost insane laughter. Eden fought hard against
every instinct in her to back away, and stepped forwards through the fog instead.
All of a sudden, the going grew harder, and she had to push her way forward,
as though she were trying to walk with a heavy weight tied to her legs. She
pushed forward still, and fell to her knees. She refused to stop and crawled
on. Moonshadow and Kyla had to stop crawling and tried ineffectually to move
forward. They called out to Eden, but she kept moving. Moonshadow yelped in
surprise as she started sliding backwards, and Eden moved forwards faster at
the sound. She burst into the cavern where the Destroyer stood, and surprise
and dismay passed through its mind, though quickly banished as Eden got to her
feet. The Lupe looked up at him. "So. I was expecting you to arrive in my
humble abode soon, Opifex-eversor."
Eden smiled slightly. "But we got past your minions."
The Destroyer laughed. "I control them! Their
minds are mine! They will only ever do as I order them to!"
Eden blinked. "Do you mean... You let us in?" The
cloaked figure nodded slowly. Eden narrowed her eyes. "So why the fog? Why make
it so hard to get to you if you'd already paved the way for us?"
The Destroyer answered quite civilly. "I wanted
to know something. I can see everything, past or present, but I cannot see the
future. The other, my age old foe, can see present and future, but not past."
Eden nodded. "No doubt you won't tell me what
you wanted to know, so I just have one more question. Why don't I just kill
you now and be done with it all?"
The Dark Lord chuckled. "Because you would
fail. You would be destroyed, and Rick... Rick would be all alone in the world,
and soon turned to my will."
Eden took a step backwards in surprise. "But...
you... Rick's..."
The Dark Lord raised one of his cloaked arms
and pointed behind the Lupe. "Dead?" Eden turned slowly and the wall
behind her shimmered before turning transparent. She saw a pale green bubble
floating in mid air, and Rick curled up inside. He looked pale, despite being
coloured in fire. Eden frowned at the sight of another Lupe in another bubble,
only this one was older, and was a light blue. "Who...?" She murmured, a faint
memory nagging at the back of her mind. Perhaps from a picture, of maybe even
just a description...
"Don't you remember?" Asked the Destroyer,
with a mocking hint in his voice.
Eden frowned, then her eyes widened slightly.
"Is that... my father?"
The Dark Lord waved his hand slightly and the
wall turned opaque again. "Now you know the full extent of your annoyance.
With you still alive, both of these, the only immunes left, refused to give
up and give in to me."
Eden turned back to him. "Why bother about them?
You boast so much about your power, anyone would think you didn't need two more
creatures so much. Unless of course you're weaker than you seem."
The unexpected insult made the Dark Lord straighten
up slightly. His voice was laden with menace. "I am never weak.
Those two have more power than you can possibly imagine. With them on my side,
the "Creator" would not stand a chance! It was a shame you could not be turned
to realise your full potential! But instead, you chose to defy me, me,
and try and stop me! And now you will have to be destroyed." Eden backed
away from the cloaked figure and found herself up against the wall as the Dark
Lord raised his arm and gathered his energy for the fatal, magical, blow...
***
Outside of the cavern, Moonshadow hurled herself at the tunnel, hoping to break
through the fog from sheer brute force. She met only a small, initial resistance
as the Destroyer drew from the power he had used to create the barrier. She
burst though into the cavern as the Destroyer fired and Eden threw herself to
the floor. Kyla came flying through from the tunnel and took in the situation
at a glance. She dived at the Dark Lord and tried to distract him by attacking.
Eden crawled out from the corner she had gotten into and turned in time to see
the Destroyer blast a small ball of dark magic at Kyla, singeing his cloak as
the petpet fell away. Eden felt a huge wave of anger build up inside her, and
was immensely surprised when a huge white ball of magic appeared in front of
her and sped towards the Dark Lord. He dodged it, but shock radiated out from
him. Eden raised both paws and the wall that concealed Rick and her father disappeared
entirely with a loud crack. She fired white magic at the bubbles, and they burst,
dropping their captives unceremoniously to the floor. The Destroyer fired at
Eden as her back was turned, but she sensed it coming and side-stepped out of
the way. It rushed instead towards her father, but screeched to a halt a yard
in front of him, shuddered for a moment, then flew back at twice the speed.
The Dark Lord nearly didn't dodge in time. It shattered the wall behind him
into a thousand pieces, and dust rose up quickly and blocked everyone's view.
When the dust cleared enough to see, the Destroyer
had vanished. Eden's father raced over to her with Rick right in front of him.
She hugged Rick fiercely as soon as he reached her, and joyfully flung her arms
around her father. Smiling, the blue Lupe stepped back from his daughter, but
then a frown crossed his face. "We still have a job to do, my child. The Dark
Lord has only fled the battle scene, not the battle itself." Eden nodded.
Moonshadow looked down at Kyla's limp body, and
then up into Rick's eyes.
"She would want us to free Layla. We have
to defeat the Dark Lord, for her sake." Rick murmured.
Moonshadow nodded as Eden came over. "I'll save
my tears for later, when every Neopet is free to shed them." Eden smiled sadly
at Moonshadow's heartfelt words. Her friend straightened up and tried a smile.
"Shall we?" Eden nodded, and followed the Dark Lord's example, teleporting the
four of them out of the cavern with her newfound powers.
Eden hadn't specified where the four were to reappear, instead just sending
them to "wherever the Dark Lord was". They emerged in the middle of a large
field, and saw the Dark Lord mustering his troops at the one side. The cloaked
figure stiffened, then turned. He and his army marched forward as Eden and her
small group walked to meet them. Eden and the Dark Lord met in the middle of
the field alone.
The Destroyer spoke first. "Curse you, Opifex-Eversor!
Curse you to hell for all eternity!"
Eden smiled sweetly. "Nice to see you too." Her
eyes narrowed. "This is the end of the line for you."
The Dark Lord gave the impression of a sneer.
"Perhaps your line is shorter than you think, Lupe. Shorter than mine, and
to reach its end first!"
The two opponents glared hard at each other,
then wheeled about and stalked back to their forces. Rick yelled a warning.
"Eden! Look out!"
The Lupe whirled and had a moment to glance a
ball of dark magic speeding towards her before there was a huge explosion. The
Dark Lord laughed, thinking he had won, and fired another ball at Moonshadow.
There was a white glare and the ball of dark
magic was folded up in a silver shield. It tore back to the Destroyer as Eden
appeared in front of Moonshadow. A cheer rose up from the other three as the
Lupe sent another ball flying towards the Dark Lord's troops. It hit, but it
did not destroy. The Neopets caught in the blast shook their heads, and frowned,
then sprinted over to join Eden's side as their individuality returned. The
Dark Lord raised both arms and tried firing four different balls from different
directions at Eden. Trapped in the middle, the Lupe raised a protective shield
and teleported out, letting the balls crash into each other. From her higher
vantage point, she sent five white magic balls at the assembled army, freeing
more Neopets, although some remained standing behind the Dark Lord.
Eden fired a huge ball of white magic at the
assembled army, and freed a group of Lupes. One of them, a shadow painted Lupe,
immediately glanced about, then spoke rapidly to the others. There were a few
grins and the group remained standing where they were. Moonshadow had no time
to be puzzled, and threw herself to one side to avoid more dark magic. Rick
held his paws about shoulder width apart and began chanting. Eden's father joined
in. The Destroyer retreated behind some of his troops and Eden had to block
her own attack to prevent them being hit as the Dark Lord did something similar
to what Rick was doing. A green light suddenly shot out from between his cloaked
hands, and he threw a lightning bolt at Eden. The Lupe raised a shield that
absorbed the energy, and the Destroyer raised his shields as well, chanting
a far more powerful spell. Eden could do nothing but free more of his troops.
And now she was tired, almost too tired to battle any further. The Dark Lord
dropped his shield and stepped forward to throw the magic at Eden, and the shadow
Lupe's group struck. All at the same time, they leaped forward and attacked
the Destroyer, distracting him from Eden, and risking their lives as the Lupe
gasped then charged up and threw the most powerful attack she could. The Lupes
dived out of the way and the cloaked figure looked up too late, and was hit
by the magic with a blinding flash of light and a spine-chilling scream. There
was a sudden silence, then cheers broke out from everybody. Those who had remained
behind the Destroyer were about to run when Rick and Eden's father threw their
completed spell at them, erasing the fear and evil that had made them remain.
Eden teleported into the cave and brought Kyla
back out. She found the shadow Lupe hugging Rick with tears on both their faces,
and the rest of their family standing to one side and laughing. Most of the
Lupes from the group were also making delighted reunions with lost friends and
family. Eden approached the shadow Lupe as she broke away from Rick. "You must
be Layla." The other Lupe nodded, and Eden continued. "Then Kyla, or Riva, was
yours." She held out the sad little bundle and Layla took it, cradling it close
as Eden hugged her and they both shed tears of grief.
Later on, Eden, Layla, Rick, Moonshadow, Eden's
father, and all of the freed Neopets gathered around a little mound in the ground
as Layla, Rick, Moonshadow and Eden said a few words. There were smiles and
hugs as the Neopets eagerly left and headed home again, to owners and warm fires.
Rick looked up as Layla came over. "Well, I suppose that's it. But you can always
buy a new Petpet."
Layla winced, then forced a laugh and gave him
a friendly shove. "Haven't changed a bit, have you? Open mouth, insert foot!
Are you entirely heartless?"
Moonshadow loped over, and grinned, giving Rick
a meaningful glance before darting her eyes in Eden's direction. "Not quite,
Layla! Not quite."
***
Eden frowned. Her father gave her a little half-hug. "What's up now?"
The yellow Lupe looked up at him. "I don't quite
understand everything..."
The blue Lupe laughed. "Nobody ever does, but
ask me, and I'll explain what I can."
Eden smiled. "Well, when I found the Destroyer
in the cave, he said that he had created the fog, that nearly stopped me, to
find out something. But he never said what he wanted to find out."
Eden's father paused, then nodded slowly. "I
can tell you that. The fog was a sort of test. It mimicked what would happen
in the battle. You were brought to your knees, and defeat seemed imminent, but
the plight of friends brought out the strength inside you, and almost instantly
you overpowered the Dark Lord."
Eden shuddered. "But he also said that it was
a shame I could not be brought to realise my... full potential?"
Her father frowned. "He meant your magical and
spiritual power. He thought it was a shame you were not on his side. For then
he would have won easily."
"Tell me... What would have happened... if I had
lost?"
The blue Lupe looked out towards the fields,
where Neopets of all shapes and sizes were laughing and playing, framed against
the now setting sun. "Look Eden. The perfect picture, capturing joy and hope
in a moment." His daughter smiled slightly, then he continued. "Savour it, my
child, for it would never exist, nor the like of it be seen again, had you lost,
or not found the courage to fight him. Neopia as we know it would swiftly become
a place of terror for those who resisted the Dark Lord, and but a prison for
those who could not fight, instead of the safe, happy haven it is."
The yellow Lupe looked back up at him. "I'm glad
I won." Her father smiled. Eden paused. "Two more things."
"What are they, then, dear daughter?"
"Well, first of all, I had a dream about a Lupe
pup, stuck behind the roots of the tree, you know, the one that marks the entrance
down here. Can you explain that?"
Her father nodded slowly. "The pup was a symbol
of the spirit of you, Rick and Layla as well. Perhaps even me a little. All
of you were bound to this place in different ways, and you all wanted desperately
to be freed, but you couldn't escape. Rick had to obey the Dark Lord to some
extent, or his family would have been slaughtered. Layla was under the Dark
Lord's control, with no will of her own left, until you freed her. And you,
you, my dear daughter. You couldn't escape your fate. You had to come here."
Eden nodded slowly, and watched the games out
in the fields for a while before asking quietly, "My name." Her voice grew in
strength, and a smile crept onto her face. "Why on earth did mum call me Opifex-Eversor
of all things? And come to that, why did the Destroyer always call me that,
instead of Eden?"
There was a long pause, and then Eden's father
sighed. "Do you believe in destiny?" Eden looked at him quizzically. He continued.
"Your mother did, you know."
Eden laughed. "She still does."
Her father smiled. "She wanted to give you name
that really meant something. She read all the Latin books she could find, which
no doubt made her dream about Latin all night long. Worse than cheese!" Eden
grinned. "Eventually she found something. She found opifex, and she found eversor.
Creator and Destroyer rolled into one. No doubt the Dark Lord hoped it was a
sign. The creator destroyer. Rather ominous."
Eden shrugged. "But I didn't help destroy the
creator, so I suppose he was wrong."
Her father nodded. "I quite agree." He glanced
up again, and the Neopets were coming back, towards the way out, laughing and
playing still. The sun was a mere slit on the horizon. "Come on Eden. Let's
go home."
***
A stream of darkness drifted. It thinned out, and then pulled back together.
It floated on, up, and into the night sky. It couldn't be seen, unless it flowed
across the path of light from a star. There was no creature there to hear the
faint whisper, just the impression of sound, like a hiss, a voice sighing. "Opifex-Eversor...
it is not over yet..."
The End | 
