The End of Neopia

     Larry the Striped Shoyru tossed his 21 NP into Neopia Central's Wishing Well, whispering his dream into the echoing tunnel as he did. A mystical light shone briefly, and out popped a Snowager Stamp. He pocketed it with a deep sigh as he trudged off to his next task.

     It had been decades since he last saw another Neopet. Something had happened one day long ago, but Larry was not quite sure what it was, and all of his efforts to figure it out had been unfruitful. The day before the incident, Neopia was bustling with the movement of its inhabitants, sneaking past the sleeping Snowager in Terror Mountain, bouncing Hassees from a tree to collect Doughnutfruit, and posing for their picture to compete in the next Beauty Contest.

     But the next day, all of Neopia was as silent as the Catacombs below Neovia. Sabre-X was gone because the creature which laid the eggs which made the omelette was gone. The Rainbow Pool was seemingly permanently dimmed, its rainbow shimmer replaced by a grey smudge. Larry spent a few hours every day talking to the ghost of Coltzan, but otherwise he had grown used to quiet solitude as he went about his daily routine.

     "Anything new?" Coltzan asked.

     Larry was leaning against Coltzan's shrine, kicking at the sand as it swirled around his feet. He let out a brief chuckle.

     "New?" asked Larry. "You've been dead for years. Anything new for you?"

     "You know me," said the King. "Nothing is new for me. Day after day continues as it always has, and will into eternity."

     Larry scoffed. "Well, don't worry about it," he said. "I am not even dead, and it seems the same for me."

     King Coltzan smiled at Larry. "I am not worried about it."

     Larry bent down, tracing the sand into swirls with his hand. "Actually," he said, "there have been some new things. Last month I got another retired avatar from the Wheel of Celebration. I am so grateful the wheel was left open when…" Larry's voice trailed off, never quite knowing how to talk about the day that everyone in Neopia vanished. Tears welled up in his eyes despite the distance from that day.

     "Anyway, I only have 7 more retired avatars to go! It is always an exciting time when I get a new one. It should just be a few more years now. And speaking of new…" he said as he rummaged in his pocket. "I completed the Snowy Valley stamp page for the 10th time." He stuck his freshly acquired Snowager Stamp to a page of a book covered in brightly-coloured blues, reds, greens, and whites, and handed it to King Coltzan. "This one is for you."

     King Coltzan chuckled. "Avatars, stamps," he said. He waved his incorporeal hands through the stamp book, unable to grab it. "There is no one else around to see them. Do they really matter?"

     Larry's face fell, and so did the stamp book, now hanging heavily by his side. The King regretted what he said to his friend.

     "Larry, I am sorry," said King Coltzan. "Of course, I am happy for you accomplishing your goals. I can't quite put it into words in a way that you will understand. Perhaps it is a frailty of yours, just as my lack of ability to hold the stamp book is a frailty of mine. I am unable to derive pleasure from the acquisition of new avatars, just as you are probably unexcited by the acquisition of new gross foods. Just because I do not enjoy nor understand acquiring avatars does not mean it is a worthless task, and does not mean you cannot enjoy them."

     Larry appreciated having such a friend as King Coltzan to spend his days with. He was certainly more hospitable than Mumbo Pango, and a better conversationalist than The Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity. And he would certainly never tell him about the fetid section of his Safety Deposit Box, giving evidence to the time he tried to collect 100 of every gross food. Accomplishing that particular goal, he found, didn't scratch the itch he was trying to scratch, but he had been too scared and weak of stomach to open it up and deal with the problem.

     "And besides," said King Coltzan, a sly smile curling on his lips. "If you want to talk about stamp avatars, I have one I'd recommend above others."

     "Thanks, Coltzan," said Larry. "Your wise words always mean so much to me. Your words go deep, and that's just what I need sometimes. I guess there is something else new. I have been feeling it for a while. I am growing more and more unsettled. I do not know how else to explain it except as a solid and thick discontent, lying heavy like a blanket over everything. Do you ever feel like that?"

     "Hmm," said Coltzan, rubbing his chin. "I do not know much of blankets, except for a blanket of sand, but that is quite heavy. I have seen this in you for months. I am glad you can put words to it. What do you think about it?"

     "It is maddening!" yelled Larry. "I just want there to be someone else out there. One other person! Are you sure there is no one else?"

     "You would know better than me," said King Coltzan. "I cannot travel much farther than the area around my obelisk. Have you asked the Tiki Tack Man? I know he gets around more."

     Larry shrugged sheepishly. "He and I have not been on the greatest of terms. He shut down his Tombola stand asking for donations, and I refused on principle. Sure, I have the Neopoints, but why would I do that and have him turn around and give me booby prizes? And there is no one else to donate, and so…" The tears welled up hot again in Larry's eyes, choking his voice as it left him.

     King Coltzan glided over to Larry and patted him on the back, his hand passing through Larry's striped wings and shoulder and causing a chill to run down his spine. "This might be a good opportunity to build a bridge with the Tiki Tack Man. Seems a simple thing to give him a few thousand Neopoints and win back a friend. In times like these, that is a small price to pay, don't you think?"

     "You're probably right, again, King Coltzan," smiled Larry

     "I suppose the apology is dearer to part with than the Neopoints," King Coltzan smiled back. "Larry, when I first met you just a few years after my shrine was built, you were such a joyful and lively Shoyru. I liked bestowing gifts of Neopoints and dubloons on you, and even more liked teasing you by giving you nothing at all!"

     Larry laughed.

     "I do not want you to lose that joy, Larry," continued Coltzan.

     "And you?" asked Larry, pointing to the grey hue of the shrine.

     "Yes," intoned King Coltzan, standing up straight to a kingly height, though his sly smile never faded from his face. "Yes, the grey shrine. That is another matter entirely. I wonder who I have to see about getting that fixed. Well, no matter. Don't you have more dailies to attend to? Off with you, young one." King Coltzan gilded back to his obelisk, and his ghostly form began to fade from view.

     Larry lifted himself up with a beat of his wings and began heading out from the desert. "Same time tomorrow?" he called back to King Coltzan.

     King Coltzan's head popped back into view once more in front of the shrine, as others may pop their head through an open window. "I am looking forward to it." And with that, he disappeared into a mist, mixing with the blowing brown sand of the desert.

     "Hey, one more thing!" called Larry, turning around quickly. "Do they have Bilge Dice and Invasion of Meridell beyond the grave?"

     But Coltzan was gone. "I guess I will have to ask him about that tomorrow."

     Larry always felt better after talking to Coltzan, but it was a long time until their meeting tomorrow, and the unsettled shadow of loneliness rushed over him as he left the glow of the obelisk. He was left with his thoughts and them alone as he trudged onto his next daily task in Neopia.

     The darkness he felt seemed to take on a new character, and he looked up and realised he was passing through the Haunted Woods. The Deserted Fairgrounds seemed particularly deserted now, the quiet echoing unusually loudly. The Brain Tree rustled its branches and called out to him, "Mortal, there is much work to be done! Look at these lists of missing Neopians! We can presume many of them are dead," he said, a little too gleefully. "Come help me!"

     "Not today, Mr. Tree," said Larry. "I'm not really feeling it." He trudged on along the dark path, crunching dead leaves underfoot, the tree's brain left pulsing in frustration behind him. Thin, bony trees shone white on either side of him in the moonlight.

     "All I want is just one friend in Neopia, someone who is not a ghost or a tree! Someone who can walk! Is that too much to ask for? Should I ask the Wishing Well for this? It can give me everything else I ask for, but can it give me something I actually need?" Larry screamed these thoughts out loud. It did not matter too much whether he said them out loud or quietly in his head, as he knew there was no one else around to hear them.

     That is why it was so strange when Larry heard a voice call out from behind him, "Hey! Wait there!"

To be continued…