Balthazar - The True Story

     The child Lupe, badly raised by his family under the name of Balthazar, whimpered when he saw his owner heading off onto the gloomy horizon, through a thick, swirling fog and into the darkness. He struggled into the forest, trying to find somewhere to go.

     He ran into several quarries, injuring himself quite badly. Once he slipped off a small cliff and banged into a mossy, slimy rock. Tasting the blood in his mouth, he gave a single spit and carried on with his desperate search.

     The forest looked as haunting and spooky as ever. The poor child Lupe shivered in the bitter, subzero temperature, his ears pressed against the back of his head. He travelled for hours, hungry and thirsty, hoping for help, searching for shelter. There was no sign of anyone or anything until he came across some dark faeries, hovering in the sky.

     "Help!" he cried. "Help me, faeries, help me!"

     The dark faeries stared at him and screeched with unkind laughter, pointing and jeering.

     "We wouldn't help YOU!" shrieked one of them.

     They all sniggered at him, imitating and mocking him. Balthazar whimpered down below.

     "Please," he begged, his tongue and throat aching from the lack of water, and his stomach so hungry it ached with pain. "I was abandoned and I've got nowhere to go, please, please, please help me!"

     The dark faeries screamed with laughter, jeering at him and calling him names.

     "Oh, please help me!" whimpered Balthazar.

     One faerie picked up a rock and hurled it at the small child Lupe, jeering unkindly. Balthazar yelped, frightened, as it caught his left paw. The rest of the dark faeries sniggered amongst themselves, also picking up sticks and stones to throw at him. Some of them hit him, some didn't. Poor, injured and petrified Balthazar shot out of their way, howling and crying.

     The faeries threw the last of the sticks and stones and sneered after him as he took off into the distance of the twisted, dark wood.

     Poor Balthazar never forgot what those horrid dark faeries did to him. He was badly bruised and scratched, his pads were cracked, his throat and tongue were sore and parched. He was also in desperate need of food. The injuries from the sticks and stones didn't help, as dust from the earth mingled in the cuts and made them sore and infected. But that wasn't what bothered the poor child Lupe. It was inside that hurt the most. He needed help, and all those awful faeries could do was jeer at him. It tore him apart.

     He suddenly spotted a faerie hovering nearby. Not one of the dark faeries, but just looking at it made him burst with anger. His blood ran boiling hot, his head pounded, his eyes turned red and all the hairs stood up on his back. He spotted an old, moss-covered jar lying in the dirt nearby, picked it up, and crouched behind the tree not to be spotted.

     He blended in with the camouflage of the leaves around him. Lurking in the shadows, he prowled and stalked the Faerie, who was completely unaware of the approaching Lupe.

     Balthazar suddenly streaked forward out of the shadows with a swift swish of the jar, catching the faerie with ease. He gave his first, evil grin as he sealed the lid taut across the jar containing his prize.

     "Ahh, you will bring me good fortune," he snarled for the first time, showing the Faerie his daunting sharp teeth, with glinted and reflected the moonlight. The faerie shivered uncomfortably as Balthazar punched holes in the top with his claws and bounded off to Neopia to sell the faerie.

     At Neopia, he managed to find a ground where several pets were selling things for good prices. Balthazar stood behind a log with his faerie in the jar. Lots of pets seemed interested in buying the faerie; they offered to buy it for good prices, but Balthazar didn't like any of them. He was having no luck in finding a good price, until an evil-looking Gelert sauntered up to his log and offered him three hundred thousand Neopoints for the faerie. Balthazar accepted, flashing his evil, toothy grin, as he passed over the faerie and took the two sacks containing three hundred thousand Neopoints altogether.

     None of the pets who had offered to buy the faerie knew who he was, but he would get well known soon. They'd all find out he was Balthazar the Bounty Hunter, so he'd have so go in some sort of disguise.

     "That should be easy," he drawled quietly to himself. "Disguise myself and sell faeries for hefty profits. Should be a pretty good way to make money. "

     Balthazar slipped back to the Haunted Woods, pleased with himself.

     "If I keep capturing these foolish faeries, I'm sure to get good profits!" he growled, his toothy grin flashing evilly. That's what he did, and became Balthazar the Bounty Hunter, feared by many.

      ****

     He grew up as Balthazar the Bounty Hunter, his hunts for faeries much longer. He prowled in the shadows, lurking behind trees, camouflaging in the trees, cloaked in the midst of the Faeries, slipping around in the darkness with swift movements, like a ghost. He swished the net which was now his, and captured several faeries, which he dropped into the jar and sealed tightly, poking holes in the lid.

     He wrapped an old, black, hooded cloak round him and swept off to Neopia Central to sell the Faeries, getting them for a hefty price of five hundred and seventy-seven Neopoints. Sniggering to himself, he made his journey back to the Haunted Woods.

     Balthazar had fashioned himself a wooden hut in the haunted woods, which was where he kept his nets and jars and plans. He also lived in the hut some of the time. The rest of the time he was prowling about the Haunted Woods, hunting faeries or selling faeries for large prices at Neopia.

          His first kill of another Neopet was on another hunt for Faeries. He was carrying several jars of faeries in his leather satchel to go to Neopia, when a precocious, foolish Shoyru bounced up to him. "You're Balthazar," he announced stupidly.

     "I never would have guessed," snapped Balthazar sourly as he pushed past the annoying little pet to go to Neopia.

     The Shoyru rushed up to him again. "But what you do is wrong," he told Balthazar, unwisely. "Hunting Faeries is wrong."

     "What would you know, you pathetic little pet?" snarled Balthazar, his hackles rising.

     "Well, hunting faeries is bad, and -"

     Balthazar lifted a huge blue paw and knocked the Shoyru flying. He bounded up to the groaning pet and sank his sharp white fangs into it, tasting the hot blood flowing in the Shoyru's veins. Swiftly, he dropped the Shoyru into a nearby river and made his way to Neopia to sell the faeries.

     Thankfully for Balthazar, nobody had seen his kill. He sold the jar of nine faeries for four hundred thousand Neopoints in Neopia, before making his way back to his hunt. His eyes were narrowed as he pushed trees and bushes out of the way to get back to his hut.

     That night, he went on another Faerie hunt. He lurked in the misty, dark shadows, stalking the faeries, which weren't noticing anything at all, just fluttering about dismissively. Balthazar held his net at the ready, and sprang, catching eleven faeries in one go. He plucked them out of the net, dropped them in the jar and sealed the lid, later making airholes.

     "You all will make me very rich. Muahahahaha. Don't worry, you will fly again... and we will meet again. Don't you worry...."

     He looked up at the faeries that got away from him, and growled as he made his way through the dark haunted wood.

     "I prowl through the darkness, hunting all of you. There's no use hiding.... Your fate is sealed in my jars!" And with that, he swept over to Neopia to sell the bounty for a hefty profit...

      -

     Beware of Balthazar - he is a Lupe that hunts through the night, ever on alert for a faerie's fading light.

The End