The End of Neopia

      And eventually, Boingus and Larry did stop. They met an ever lessening slope, and the Striped Shoyru and Yellow Blumaroo collapsed upon it. Larry held his head and swore he could see a halo of Angelpusses flying around him. The world beyond was still spinning, and he thought he would be sick.

      Boingus was laughing. "That was fun, we should do that again sometime!"

      Larry looked up the long ramp back to where they had come from. The crack which served as the entrance was not visible, though he did hear the rumbling voice of the Snowager call down from it: "Great job, friends! Best of luck on your journey."

     Larry did not intend to continue on this journey. It was not his choice to start. Looking back, he considered how he might reach the crack. The floor of the tunnel was covered in ice and snow. It would be impossible to scale on foot. He could try flying, of course, except that the tunnel was quite narrow in parts. He looked then to Boingus, still gathering himself as he lay in the snow, laughing. Turning back would mean leaving Boingus, and despite their apparent large differences in what "fun" meant, Larry was growing a soft spot for the guy.

     "Boingus, did you know that would happen?" Larry asked.

     Boingus was wheezing and wiping tears of joy from his eyes. "I've slid down that tunnel many times, but never with a buddy. Was it even more fun together? Oh, were you worried? No need to be! You saw the Meepits come through this way. Did you really think they would all follow each other to their doom?"

     "I don't really know what to think about Meepits," said Larry. "I don't know what to think about any of this. Hey, if you have been down here before, do you know where it goes?"

     "These tunnels go lots of places," replied Boingus. "Some fun, some scary. One old friend, whom I haven't seen in a long time, said he found a path that led to a place he called Jelly World, but there was obviously something wrong with him. I guess if we're following the Meepits, they'll tell us where we're going. Look, you see in the distance? There they are, let's not lose them! We're still racing, you know!"

     Boingus bounded away down the icy tunnel, and Larry, hesitating a beat, took off after him. The rock and ice of the tunnel burned coldly underfoot as they journeyed downward. The multicoloured Meepits trailed ahead of them, apparently still unbothered that they were being followed, drawn ever forward to whatever their goal was. It was not long down this path that the cool of the earth ebbed and the rocks began to feel good and warm to the feet.

     "Ah, I know where we're going," called Boingus, smiling to himself.

      "And where is that?" asked Larry, still having a hard time finding fun in this adventure.

     But before Larry heard an answer, he ran straight into the back of Boingus, who had stopped dead in his tracks. "Hmm, that's new," said Boingus.

     The Blumaroo was gazing at the walls. Larry looked too. Besides the noticeable lack of ice, there were carvings in the wall.

     "'Help us," read Boingus, looking at one message scrawled in the stone. "Hmm…I wonder what that means."

     "Look at this," said Larry, his hand rubbing across some markings. "'Forget it. There is no hope.' You have never seen these messages before?"

     "Never," said Boingus. He continued hopping down the pathway. "Larry, I found something else I have never seen before. Come look!"

     Larry flew quickly down the tunnel and was shocked. The stones of the tunnel had been carved completely away, and behind them was a tangling coil of red, green, and blue wires. In spots, the wires looked chewed, revealing metals of gold, silver, and copper. A group of Meepits looked up guiltily from chewing on the wires and stared at them with their dinner-plate eyes.

     "Er, pardon us," said Boingus, backing away from the Meepits. "Look, Larry, some of the Meepits are still headed down the tunnel. Let's follow them before we lose them."

     "BRAWK!" came a screeching voice, echoing in the tunnel. "Lose them? What is there to lose?"

      Larry looked at Boingus, who only shook his head and shrugged. "Come here, little ones," screeched the voice again. "It has been a long time since I have graced anyone with my presence."

      Boingus and Larry cautiously moved deeper in the tunnel and found that one side was mined deeply into a mess of chewed rock and wires, creating an alcove. Small groups of Meepits clustered and continued to vandalise the subterranean wires, which apparently ran underneath Neopia.

     In the middle of the cleared room sat a large creature with burning red eyes. They sat like gems atop a curved statue, undisturbed since first carved. And yet, this statue moved. It spread its red wings and took up the entire space which the Meepits had carved, shadowing over the two smaller Neopets.

     "You…" started Larry. "The Down For Maintenance Pteri!"

     "I'm sorry," said the large Red Pteri. "Am I getting in the way of you two playing some game? Don't mind me. I don't come around much these days, do I?"

     Larry remembered seeing the Down For Maintenance Pteri all the time decades ago. He was a far more fearsome omen than even his cousin, the Black Pteri. While the Black Pteri threatens death, the Down For Maintenance Pteri actually gave him a taste of what he imagined it would be like. It felt as if he was disconnected from the world and his own body. He longed to return to it, and in the end, he always did, but the absence always felt like its own eternity. He had forgotten the fear he felt when he saw the red feathers flying overhead, taunting him and the other Neopians before casting them off into the abyss. He had assumed the Pteri was gone, along with all the other Neopians.

     "Boingus," whispered Larry to his companion. "We need to get out of here." He held onto Boingus's arm and began backing away slowly.

     "Get out of where?" asked the Pteri with a deranged smile.

     Larry took one more step and gasped. Rather than stepping down on a smooth stone, he stepped down on warm, enveloping sand. He turned around, and stretching as far as he could see were the waters surrounding Mystery Island. The smell and taste of salt filled his mouth, and the crashing waves and warm sun blanketed him. He turned back to see the Down For Maintenance Pteri and his Meepit cadre sitting higher up the beach, the Meepits somewhat disconcerted to be chewing on coconuts rather than wires.

     Boingus, ever ignorant to the severity of a situation, giggled and clapped. "Do it again, do it again!"

     The Down For Maintenance Pteri gave a self-satisfied laugh. "As you wish," he said, flapping his great red wings, buffeting the companions with a whirlwind. When they looked again, they were back in the cave. "I could have been useful when you were speeding up for no good reason down that icy path, don't you think? Maybe slow you down enough to where you could actually get the Snowroller avatar? You do still need that one, don't you, Larry?"

     Larry could only stammer. "How do you know about all of that?"

     The Down For Maintenance Pteri calmly spread and examined his feathers. "I have my ways…lots of powers, as you see. Or, at least I did. There's no need for me very much these days, is there?" He didn't give time for Larry or Boingus to respond. "But I know more than that! I know you are following the Meepits, and I know where they are going, and I know what you want to know more than anything."

     "When the Roo Island Merry Go Round will run again?" Boingus exclaimed.

     The Down For Maintenance Pteri settled his eyes on Larry. "In a sense," he said. "I know what happened to Neopia. Come, look here."

     He shuffled over to an area of the wall eaten by the Meepits. "Come, come," he beckoned, and the two adventurers obeyed, albeit Larry cautiously. The large Red Pteri loomed a little too closely for comfort behind them. "Do you see what is written on these wires, just under the surface of Neopia?"

     Larry leaned closer, straining his eyes in the dim light. A message was scrawled in an oddly clear, monospace script: /* THIS IS A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH */

     "These messages you are seeing were written by…" started the Down For Maintenance Pteri, peering down his beak at his visitors. "Yes, you know. I see you understand. Even you, Boingus. The missing Neopians. They are still out there, and they need your help."

     "They are still out there?" asked Boingus. "That is great, where are they? I am sure they want to play in Neopia again. Or at least, I want to play with them."

     Larry was not quite ready, as usual, to be as exuberant as Boingus. "Where…where are they? What do we need to do?"

     "BRAWK!" crowed the Pteri. "You're already on the right path. Follow the Meepits. They are very helpful for my purposes. I will not tell you anymore; I want you to learn for yourselves that you can trust me. I imagine, if you are like most, you hold a quite negative (although I would say, distorted) view of me. I hope by the end of this, we are better friends." The Down For Maintenance Pteri began smoothing his feathers. "Well, best be on your way, right guys?" quipped the Down For Maintenance Pteri. "I will be here when you need me. Oh, one day you will need me, don't worry. I am a Red Pteri, not a red herring." He hastily pushed Larry and Boingus out of the alcove in a brash display of feathers, making them feel like a young Pteri learning to fly.

     "But wait, what if we…" started Larry, turning around to question the dubious dialogist, but when he looked, the alcove was gone. There was only smooth, solid stone without a hint of exposed wire.

     "This is becoming quite a fun adventure," smiled Boingus. "We are almost through the tunnel. Don't forget this is a race. Look, the Meepits are really far ahead now, let's not lose them!"

     Larry, ever wishing he could just go back to the Lost Desert and talk to King Coltzan about more mundane topics, carried on, casting fearful glances back through the tunnel, dreading to see a set of eyes, watching and waiting, threatening to rip him out of existence as he knew it. But nothing bad happened. The tunnel began to rise steadily, growing warmer and more humid, until they arrived at its exit!

     "I beat you!" said Boingus, bouncing around the Striped Shoyru. "I bet you didn't know we'd end up in Tyrannia."

To be continued…