Corbin and Kell Get a Petpet

     “No one will notice it’s us skulking around the Haunted Woods, there’s too many unsavoury characters,” Kell said, adjusting his moustache.

     There were reports of something causing a disruption in the Haunted Woods, on the dark paths between Esophagor and the Castiel of Eliv Thade. Usually, it would have to be something really out of the ordinary of Haunted Woods to bring Corbin and Kell out monster hunting, but Neopia has been so strange lately.

     As not to raise suspicion, they were going to pose as carnival game repairmen, lost on their way to the Deserted Fairground.

     “I still don’t understand,” Corbin complained, “why we can’t join everyone else in Neopia figuring out why everything’s going grey? That seems like a bigger problem than something going bump in the night in the Haunted Woods. That’s practically the attraction of the place!”

     “Dude, seriously, I do not want to get tied up into an apocalyptic scenario. All that happens is we save the day, and some other Neopet, or worse, faerie, gets credit for all our hard work.”

     Corbin wrinkled his nose. “I still don’t understand what you have against faeries.”

     “And you never will. Come on, let’s go figure out what we’re hunting.”

     Corbin and Kell asked a lot of Neopets hanging around the Haunted Woods if they knew about anything strange happening, and every single one of them talked about how grey some of the lands are.

     “But besides that,” Kell kept insisting.

     They just looked puzzled. “That’s anyone’s talking about. I don’t want to go grey,” said a Ghost Yurble.

     “No one does,” Corbin said, mournfully. “I don’t think it would be good for my luscious locks.”

     Later, in the middle of drinking his favourite Neocola with a slice of Bullseye Creme Pie, Kell grumbled that they hadn’t made any progress toward the mystery anyway.

     “What exactly did you hear was happening?” Corbin asked.

     “I didn’t want to bias the investigation, but here it goes: there was a Baby Neopet, lost in the woods on their way to getting their first Spooky Petpet. Understandably, they were scared out of their minds.”

     Kell took an obnoxiously huge bite of his slice of pie, and Corbin gestured at him to hurry up with his story.

     “Anyway, in the dark, the Baby Neopet kept hearing a sound.”

     “Sounds are really common in the Haunted Woods, Kell,” Corbin said. “I don’t know if you know this, but again, it’s kind of in the name.”

     Affronted, Kell said, “This wasn’t the normal ghostly moans or animal howls! I get that’s what this whole place is about. This was an even scarier sound.”

     “Scarier than the sound your stomach made when you ate all the leftovers at the Spooky Food Eating Contest?”

     Kell didn’t take offence. “Yes! It went,” he said, and then lowered his voice to a whisper, “squish....squish....squish.”

     Corbin waited for Kell to say more, and when it was clear that he wasn’t, he said, “That’s it? That could have just been a Maraquan Aisha, making sounds with their tail!”

     Shaking his head, Kell said, “I don’t think so. That’s why we have to investigate.”

     Still sure that Kell was trying to get out of helping the rest of Neopia with their crisis, Corbin went along with it. After all, they did want to be small-time monster hunters, and getting involved elsewhere had been thankless in the past.

     Which is how they ended up in the woods, in the dark, with the wind creaking the trees and the leaves rustling. Their flashlights shone on the path so they wouldn’t trip on exposed tree roots.

     “Do you hear that?” Kell whispered.

     There was a moaning coming from the misty woods. And worse, it was coming closer.

     “What do you think it is?” Corbin whispered back.

     The moaning grew louder. The pair of monster hunters crouched behind a tree to watch, even though Corbin would have never admitted to being scared.

     “Could be a form of monster,” Kell said. “Maybe we’ll be local heroes again.”

     “That would be nice,” Corbin said. “I got all updated lore books after the last time we made the Neopian Times after we saved those kids from a rampaging Monoceros."

     The moaning was so loud it almost drowned out the end of Corbin’s sentence. Corbin and Kell jumped from behind the tree, startling the moaning thing…

     …which was a Zombie Kau, thoroughly enjoying their Haunted Candy Floss. The Zombie Kau screamed, and then said, “You startled me!”

     Everyone caught their breath, and Corbin and Kell apologized. “We were searching for something in the woods. Something that made an unusual sound. A squishing.”

     The Zombie Kau’s eyes lit up. “I heard a squishing sound! It was closer to the Game Graveyard. You’re right, that was the most unusual sound. I’m used to the ghostly rattling of chains or the growls of monsters in these woods.”

     “See!” Kell said to Corbin. Then to the Zombie Kau, “Thank you, enjoy your haunted food!”

     If possible, the woods were even darker near the Game Graveyard. “It’s lucky we like these kinds of conditions,” Corbin mused aloud. “Maybe you’re right, and us getting involved in the grey lands is too big for us.”

     “After this, we need more food,” Kell said. “That Haunted Candy Floss looked positively delicious.”

     They walked, keeping an ear out for the sound. For a while, all they heard was the crunch underneath their own feet, and everything else was eerily silent.

     “What if there’s nothing?” Corbin asked.

     “No, there’s something,” Kell said. “The Zombie Kau confirmed it.”

     Corbin held the rest of his doubts to himself. They had investigated on less intel than this before. Still, the idea of heading to eat and play games had its own appeal. He was just thinking that they could call it a night and come back later when he heard it.

     Squish.

     Squish.

     Squish.

     “Shhhh!” Kell said.

     “I’m shhh’d!” Corbin said back.

     Then they heard it again.

     Squish.

     Squish.

     Squish.

     “What do you think it is?” Kell whispered.

     “Maybe it’s a monster,” Corbin whispered back.

     They both held their breath, creeping quietly down the path as to not alert the thing making the noise to their presence. As they got closer, the squishing sound only got louder.

     Until finally, it was in view.

     “Oh,” said Kell.

     “Awwww,” said Corbin. “It’s so cute!”

     It was a Petpet, a Ghost Tentacle, waving its little tentacle in a manner that seemed quite distressed.

     “Are you lost, little guy?” Kell said, not hesitating in scooping the Ghost Tentacle into his arms. “Are you hungry? Because looking for you worked up quite the appetite.”

     “Always thinking with your stomach,” Corbin said.

     “Hey, I’m still thinking about that Candy Floss!”

     The Ghost Tentacle really was cute. His little suction cups clung to Kell, and now that he felt safe, he was smiling in a way that made Corbin smile, too.

     “You know,” Corbin said, “maybe we need a Petpet. This guy needs a home, and we could use the company. It gets a little old with just you for company.”

          “Hey, that’s rude,” Kell said, but his reaction was muted, like the Ghost Tentacle was already working his magic on muting Kell’s more outrageous behaviours. “What should we call him? Ghosty?”

     The Ghost Tentacle frowned.

     “That’s a little unoriginal,” Corbin said. “We found him by his squishing noises, so maybe Squishy?”

     The Ghost Tentacle frowned even harder.

     “He’s sensitive about that,” Kell hissed. “Let’s call him Herbert.”

     “Herbert?” Corbin was astounded. “Seriously?”

     But the Ghost Tentacle cooed contentedly.

     “He likes it!” Kell said. “Welcome to the family, Herbert.”

     To show Herbert he was truly welcome, Kell insisted on getting double the amount of normal food from Spooky Foods before playing carnival games. “He needs to know he’s welcome. Plus, we get to know what he likes.

     To Herbert’s credit, he seemed to like everything, but especially the Roasted Spyder on a Stick.

     “I think he fits right in,” Corbin said.

     After all, family is what you make it, and they chose Herbert.

     The End.