Headstones & Ink: Reports of a Lenny Recorder

     *******

     Quilldust left her most recent archival report on the desk of the Head Archivist of the Haunted Woods that evening, before she packed her work bags to begin her favourite part of work: trawling the local graveyards for new leads into research. She made her way to the current graveyard she was working on this week with haste.

     As she arrived, it was another lonely night in the Haunted Woods graveyard, as mist slowly settled across the morose and quiet landscape. The cold headstones stood attentive to the rising full moon as only a Miamouse stirred. That is, until you came across one hidden edge of the graveyard, where there was a flurry of feathers, paper, and ink.

     "By Fyora, you think some Neopet would be a bit more attentive..." You may have heard mutterings and quiet scratchings of a quill and ink on parchment, if you listened carefully. You may turn a corner around an ancient willow to find a Mutant very intent on their current quest.

     The Mutant Lenny wore an expression that would stop any Neopet from coming closer, as Quilldust ground her beak and continued taking notes on several scattered pieces of parchment. She was taking a rubbing from an ancient headstone, placing a parchment on the stone and rubbing charcoal over it to get the impression. This way, the carving could be preserved for later study. However, these headstones were quite old, using a dating system prior to Y1, even, and were not well known by even the residents of Haunted Woods.

     Quilldust had finally finished taking her notes on this region of the graveyard and clacked her beak in excitement as she started gathering her supplies together into a briefcase. She was so preoccupied with stuffing papers into the oversized case with ink-stained wings that she didn't notice a sudden drop in temperature. The mist gently swirled and made the air even more opaque. As she turned to go, the Lenny found herself face to face with a morose Neopet with yellow eyes. Startled, Quilldust squawked and tripped, falling through the Neopet as its body partly dissipated into mist, before rejoining after a moment.

     On the ground now, Quilldust took a better look at the sudden intruder with wide eyes. It was a pale blue Aisha with drooping antennal ears. Their eyes were narrow, as with most Aishas, but there was a distinct yellow glow within them. Quilldust noticed they hovered up and down slightly and adjusted her gaze to the lower half of the Neopet, only to notice their torso ended in a wispy tendril.

     ACK! Quilldust could only exclaim as she struggled to regain her footing.

     "W-who are you?" She found her bravado again once she got to her feet. She wasn't used to being caught off guard.

     "...who indeed." The Aisha could only hover above ground with a morose expression. But she had an interest in the Lenny. "I may need your help, young Neopet," she said, testing the recorder's nerve.

     Quilldust narrowed her keen yellow eyes. Her mind raced, thinking about ghost stories. Ghost Neopets weren't totally unknown, but they weren't common, either. And she knew they could be dangerous, that ghosts were often after revenge, or to get live Neopets to do their work for them. Ghosts were complicated....

     She put on her bravest, Mutant face. "What do you need?"

     The ghost was surprised and looked hopeful for a moment. "I-I'm...looking for something. I need help, I think, I can't seem to quite find it."

     Quilldust ground her beak, thinking about all the work deadlines she needed to meet. And this ghost wasn't even sure what they needed!

     "Find someone else to run your errands! I'm busy." Quilldust was unwilling to be taken advantage of, even by graveyard spectres. She turned in a huff and started walking the way out.

     "No! Wait!" The ghost exclaimed, panicking now. She appeared in front of the irate Lenny, who continued walking straight through her. "I don't know who I am! Not any Neopet can help me! I've been watching...I need someone with attention to detail."

     The young archivist fell for the flattery bait. She cocked her crooked beak over one feathery shoulder, eyes narrowed. "What can I do?" she asked plainly.

     The ghostly Aisha floated back to her gravestone and rested her paws on the cold stone, although she could not feel it. "I think I've lost something. Tell me who I am and help me find it."

     Ah, a riddle, then, Quilldust thought, her gears already turning. She couldn't resist the opportunity to solve a mystery. It was her job, after all. The Mutant Lenny crouched down to read the ancient stone, peering at the weather-worn letters.

     "Aster P. Inouye," she read, taking some notes on the recorded dates. The ghost suddenly brightened.

     "My name...", she whispered, as she clutched her paws to her chest. Now remembering, Aster's pale countenance seemed to brighten a little as her antennae wiggled to life.

     Quilldust observed a bit dispassionately, unconvinced that she wasn't being tricked. "Seems like a trip to the archives is in order, then," she stated, leading the way for the both of them out of the ancient cemetery.

     *******

     Keys jangled as Quilldust opened the old doors to the archive, setting her briefcase down on a worn desk. As she worked here for her day job, Quilldust was more than familiar with navigating the labyrinthine and confusing Neopian Archives. The Archives consisted of many, many rows of well-organised file cabinets and drawers. She referred to the notes she had taken in the graveyard and began thumbing through many ancient documents. Aster, the ghostly Aisha, gently followed the Lenny around the building, grateful to finally have a tether to the living world.

     "A-ha!" Quilldust pulled the file out with a flourish as dust settled around the pair.

     "One Aster P. Inouye. I suppose you are the real deal, huh?" The two read the file together:

     Aster P. Inouye

     Cause of death: perished in the fire of 5 BN.

     Quilldust couldn't help but give a consoling look to Aster as she rested a wing on the ghost's shoulder, or about where the shoulder should be.

     "I'm sorry, Aster...Looks like we might need more information, though."

     Quilldust didn't hesitate to cross-reference the information skillfully, skating through the cabinets to find further information.

     "Let's see...fire of year 5 BN...here it is!" She pulled yet another file.

     "Says here it was a fire in a section of the library. Wonder if it took out a few books? Looks like there were multiple casualties as well. I'm sorry to bring up these memories, Aster, but it may help with what you need."

     Even though the recovered memories were painful ones, Aster felt herself becoming stronger.

     "Yes, I remember books. The smell of old books was my favourite scent, nothing like it. I think I am remembering now. Can we go to the library, young one?"

     "Of course we can," Quilldust continued, now feeling quite embarrassed by her earlier dismissal of Aster as a possible fraud. She knew now that solving Aster's problems would be her first priority.

     *******

     Luckily, the resident library was attached to the Haunted Woods Archives. As it was nighttime, the ancient library was dark and quiet, expanses of shelves looming before them in the shadows. As they entered, Aster felt new emotions coursing through her. Quilldust let Aster lead them to where they needed to go. After much wandering through shelves taller than either Neopet, Aster stopped before a particular section in a dark recess of the library and hesitated there.

     Quilldust took a quick glance at the numbering system and recognised the section as "Natural History – Botany". The Ghost Aisha didn't make a move to continue, so Quilldust began looking through the books contained here. Her feathered wing brushed the spines of ancient texts - "Neovian Botanical Medicine I", "Haunted Woods Flowering Plants Volume II", "Local Botany of Southern Meridell".

     "It's here! We are missing something here!" Aster wailed, head in hands as unknown memories coursed through her. Quilldust tried to ascertain the problem. In front of Aster was a noticeable gap in the shelved books. Elsewhere, the shelves were packed end-to-end with books, but here was an open gap. She brushed a wing across the empty area and saw that there was a layer of dust there. Were there books missing from this section?

     "I tried to save them, I did everything I could! I couldn't do it! Oh, those poor Neopets. It's all my fault," Aster wailed again.

     Quilldust tried to prevent the feathers rising from her nape. She attempted to console the upset Aisha.

     "Aster, were there books lost in the fire? Is that what happened?"

     Aster could only moan in reply, lost in the haze of memories. The Lenny had brought the archival documents with her and flipped through them again to look for clues.

     Aster P. Inouye

     Occupation: Local Medicinal Botanist and Librarian

     Degree: Medicinal, H.W. College

     Study Focus: Neovian Pox

     Quilldust made her way to the historical section of the library and pulled a few tomes of ancient history from the high shelves as the Spyders in the rafters, upset at the intrusion, pulled away from their webs. For the large book labelled “5 BN", she turned to the index and searched for "Neovian Pox". Finding the pages of interest, she read on.

     "...In year 5 BN, we record several cases of the Neovian Pox, of which there is currently no cure...several succumbed to the disease...local herbalists have attempted to alleviate the symptoms, but no known local plants have proven effective..."

     "...deaths include: Neal Hemberger, Zephyr Neal, Talborus P. Quakely, Holly Irwin, Judith Inouye, Finn Inouye..."

     Quilldust flipped a few pages forward.

     "….current botanists are developing a potential cure using local species, but only time will tell if their method is effective..."

     "Neovian Pox...why does that sound familiar," Quilldust mused, as she wandered to the most recent historical section. She pulled a tome from last year, Y26, and again checked the index.

     "Y26: cases of Neovian Pox: 25 in Haunted Woods, 14 in Neovia, 13 in..."

     It's still a problem. They didn't find a solution, she realized. She followed the sound of Aster's crying back to where the forlorn ghost was hovering.

     "Aster, did you find a cure? Do you know how to prevent this disease?" She asked the Aisha gently, not wanting to upset her but determined to find out the truth. Quilldust held the Aisha's hand in her own wings to console her.

     Aster instead was wringing her long antennae ears in her hands and shedding tears. She was so upset that she could not answer. When her moans reached a fever-pitch, her ghost-form expanded and swirled into the upper air of the library, her sobbing still reverberating through the quiet shelves. Quilldust tried to maintain her composure. She was witnessing a true ghost haunting. As Aster's crying seemed to be coming from the roof of the building now, Quilldust stepped outside and tried to decide what to do next.

     Her training was in dealing with the factual and observable. How was she to solve a ghost haunting? They didn't train her at university for this!

     The Lenny paced for a while in the darkness of night, the cool air calming her nerves, but only slightly. Ok, what would a Seeker do? What would Professor Lambert do?, she thought to herself. She sat down on a large boulder and held her head in her wings as a full moon began to peek over the dark clouds, illuminating the clearing.

     As the moonlight reached the ground in front of her taloned feet, something began to emerge from the ground there. First, it coiled, then it gently pushed up the earth above it. A green tendril emerged into the moonlight, and Quilldust watched it in awe as it bloomed at the end into a beautiful sparkling purple flower, shining in the light of the moon. The Lenny recorder took this as a positive sign.

     Without moving, she called to her distraught friend, whose cries were still coming from the library roof.

     "Aster? Miss Inouye? Can I talk to you about what happened when you were still alive?" She held her breath for the answer.

     The distant crying stopped, and she looked to the roof to watch for her ghost acquaintance to float down. Instead, Aster materialised out of the ground, rising headfirst directly in front of Quilldust and through the small flower that had emerged.

     The flower held special interest for Aster. She knelt down to it, folding her ghostly tail, and gently cradled its delicate petals in her translucent paws. Aster looked at the slightly broken ground where the flower emerged.

     "This flower...it's called a Moon Flower, it only blooms in the light of a full moon," Aster began.

     She suddenly looked at Quilldust with clear eyes.

     "I know what happened now, Quilldust. The memories came back to me. It's painful, but...I think I need to show you something."

     Aster didn't wait for a reply as she entered the library again, materialising straight through the brick wall.

     Quilldust scrambled to her feet, not willing to lose this momentum, and ran to the entrance of the building, entering through the door accessible to non-ghost Neopets. There she sprinted through the shelves, looking for the Aisha's ghostly glow. She found it in an abandoned section of the library, where there were no books or shelves. Aster was kneeling on some ancient wooden floorboards there. Quilldust knew this area to be part of the original building's design – the new sections were added onto the ancient building.

     Aster floated through the floorboards, and Quilldust let out an undignified SQUAWK in surprise, before panicking about what to do next. She grabbed the metal rod they used to move books on the higher shelves and began prying up the floorboards in haste.

     "Oh, Head Librarian, please forgive me for this in the morning..."

     *******

     Sometime later, wooden boards and dirt littered everywhere, Quilldust had uncovered a hidden recess in the floor. In the settling dust, there lay a wrapped package covered in a layer of black ash and dirt.

     "This is it, young recorder. This was my life's work. Please handle it with care," Aster told her gently.

     The Lenny stepped down and gingerly grasped the package, which was covered in a thick layer of ash, seemingly undisturbed for many years. She undid the rope ties and opened the fabric wrappings. There lay a set of hand-bound books titled "Black Flowering Vines as a Potential Cure for the Neovian Pox: Volume I" with the author listed as "Aster P. Inouye".

     "Aster, I don't understand. If you found this cure, why wasn't it in the Archives?" Quilldust asked in confusion.

     "Yes, I did find the cure. However, the fire found it faster..." She referred to the library fire, which destroyed several important records in the past.

     "I spent my last breath making sure it wasn't destroyed," she continued. "There was only enough time to bury my records before the flames got to them. I couldn't make it out in time, so no one knew I had done this."

     "This was why you couldn't rest..." Quilldust finally put the pieces together. "I-I'm so sorry, Aster. But you're a hero for doing this. I can share these results with Neopia now."

     Quilldust, a Neopet quite unused to giving hugs, found herself embracing the botanist.

     "Thank you, recorder. You've helped me find myself," Aster told the young Mutant.

     *******

     The next morning, Quilldust placed two brand new reports on the Master Archivist's desk. They were titled "Aster P. Inouye" and "Previously lost medicinal botany records of the Haunted Woods".

     In addition, she carried extra copies of these reports for an important meeting with a professional in the field today. First, she would be heading to Neopia Central to meet with Dr. G and Nurse Glee, confident that they would be very interested in this new information.

     If anyone were there to witness it, upon a certain Aisha's grave in the Haunted Woods Cemetery, there suddenly grew a twist of vines and flowers, curling out of the ground in broad daylight. The vines reached up and curled around the headstone and bloomed into the most beautiful black flowers. Since that day, the grave has always been covered in Black Flowering Vines, although no one planted them there.

     The End.