Lost in the Lost Desert Scroll Repository

      I collapsed against a bookshelf and groaned in frustration. This was getting ridiculous!

      "We've been in for three days!!! Three days!!! I'm going nuts from looking at all these scrolls!!! How the heck did we get into this mess?!?"

      Next to me, my gold Shoyru, Aarliiyanna, let out an exasperated sigh.

      "Didn't I tell you to take that left at the 'Asparagus Recipes' section? You should never leave home without a map!"

      It was true. I was hopeless with directions. What in Neopia had compelled me to investigate the Lost Desert Scroll Repository anyway? I had no interest in scrolls or history and I DEFINITELY was not interested in 'Asparagus Recipes', 'How to Play the Viola', 'Desert Mathematics', or any other section of ancient scrolls that I and Aarliiyanna had stumbled upon thus far. The only thing I wanted to read now was an 'EXIT' sign directing us out of this place.

      "I think we're in the basement!" exclaimed Aarliiyanna. "The air here is kind of damp so we must be underground."

      "Yeah," I said. "We did go down that huge flight of stairs."

      Suddenly a message flashed above our heads:

      SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED! YOU FOUND A TANGY CHEESICLE!

      "Yay! Food!" Aarliiyanna cried.

      Thank Fyora for random events. They were the only thing keeping us fed over the past three days.

      "This looks great," quipped Aarliiyanna. "You want some?"

      I looked at the cheesicle, then shook my head. Sure I was hungry, but not hungry enough to eat frozen cheese on a stick. I hoped that I would never be that hungry.

      "Okay, your loss!" said Aarliiyanna, and devoured the cheesicle in two bites.

      We came across another flight of stairs and climbed up them (or maybe it was the same flight of stairs and we'd just been going in circles for the past couple of days). All of a sudden, something scuttled by my feet. I jumped three feet in the air.

      "What was that!!!!!"

      "I think it was a petpet!" cried Aarliiyanna. "Let's catch it and see if it can lead us out of here!"

      The petpet, a spotted Khnum, stared at us for a second, then took off running as fast as it could down one of the narrow corridors. We hurried after it up another flight of stairs and past several dozen shelves of scrolls. Finally we cornered it in a section of scrolls marked 'Pasta-Based Artwork'.

      "Okay on the count of three, I'll grab it," I whispered to Aarliiyanna. "One...Two...THREE!!!"

      I leapt at the Khnum, who jumped nimbly out of the way. I crashed into the shelf of scrolls and was promptly buried under a pile of scrolls adorned with pictures of artwork created entirely with pasta. When I unburied myself from the pile of scrolls, I saw Aarliiyanna crouched in a corner, petting the now docile Khnum.

      "There's a good boy," she cooed. "You're lost in this place too, huh?"

      Indeed, the Khnum did look pretty dirty and worn out. It had probably been wandering around this place longer than we had. Which meant that it didn't know the way out either. Just great. And now we were even more lost.

      "Look! I think he wants to come along!" exclaimed Aarliiyanna with a huge smile on her face.

      The Khnum did seem to have bonded with Aarliiyanna and had nestled itself comfortably between her golden wings.

      "You know we still need to find a way out of this place!" I sighed.

      "HEY YOU OVER THERE!!!" a voice suddenly called out.

      Walking briskly towards us was a gigantic Yurble dressed in a chef's outfit. He seemed very surprised to see us.

      "Thank goodness!" I cried as I ran up to him. "Please tell us how to get out of this Repository!!!!"

      "I wish I knew," the Yurble grumbled. "To tell you the truth, I signed up to be the chef here months ago but in all that time, I hardly ever got any customers and I completely forgot where the exit was! You guys wouldn't believe how big this place is!!!"

      I glanced at Aarliiyanna and she glanced at me.

      "Yeah," we said in unison. "We would."

      The Yurble glanced at us for a moment. We were a motley crew. We were all covered with dirt and grime, the Khnum's paws were coated with thick muck, Aarliiyanna looked more brown than gold and I was covered with a fine layer of scroll dust. We had seen better days. The Yurble stared at us for a second more and then seemed to make up his mind.

      "Okay, I'm coming with you!!! We can stick together until we find a way out of this maze!!!!"

      "The more, the merrier," I exclaimed. "Welcome aboard!!!"

      We set off once more, weaving our way through the virtually identical corridors. All of a sudden a gigantic creature appeared in front of us, blocking the entire hallway. It let out a huge roar.

      "AAAAHHHHHH!!!!" shrieked Aarliiyanna. "A Qasalan Mummy!!!!!"

      "What's it doing here?!?!" I yelled.

      "I don't know but it looks like it wants to fight!" yelled the Yurble chef.

      I turned to him.

      "Can you fight?"

      "Not at all!!! I may look fierce but actually, I'm on level 1!!!!!"

      Level 1?!?!?! That didn't help, and the mummy was getting closer!!!! Somehow I didn't think that either me or the Khnum could take out a Quasalan mummy (even if we combined forces). Completely out of options, I turned to Aarliyanna.

      "Aarliiyanna! Do you think you could fight that thing?"

      "I'm not sure!" she cried. "I'll try to hold it off!"

      She flung herself at the mummy. She was definitely not in top shape, and if this were the Battledome, I would never ask her to face such a foe in this condition. But we were out of options. It was either this or watch the mummy duke it out with a level 1 Yurble chef... and that wasn't really an option.

      The mummy growled and swung out a bandaged hand, knocking Aarliiyanna aside. She hit the ground hard. This was not good; the creature was strong and poor Aarliiyanna was weak from wandering around the Repository for days. There was no way she could win this! She pulled herself up off the ground and threw herself at the mummy once more. Once more she was knocked aside. This time she didn't get up. The mummy crept towards her and I jumped into its path. The creature stopped directly in front of me. I was shaking but somehow managed to hold my ground. The creature leaned closer to me...

      "Do you know the way out of this place?" it rasped.

      "What?" I asked, unsure that I had heard right.

      "Do you know how to get out of here?" it repeated. "I took a wrong turn at the Lost Desert Plot and wound up here. I've been lost for days!"

      "You and everybody else here," I sighed.

      "Do you mind if I stay with you until we find a way out of here?" the mummy growled. "I have to get out of here fast- there's this Lost City that I need to attack."

      "Why not?" I mused. "Let's go over there and join the rest of the group."

      We went to join the others but suddenly the floor started to shake. The Scroll Repository may have been well built but under the weight of a full grown Shoyru, a spotted Khnum, a 400 pound Yurble chef, a teenage girl, and - oh yeah - a two ton Qasalan Mummy, the floor was beginning to crumble.

      "WATCH OUT!!!!!" cried the Yurble chef in alarm.

      The warning came too late. The entire floor caved away beneath us. We plummeted several feet and landed in one big heap (except for Aarliiyanna who flew down gracefully and landed beside us with the Khnum on her back). It took us a while to get untangled. I was stuck under the Yurble chef with my foot lodged squarely in the Qasalan mummy's eye. It was a rather interesting experience that I hope never to repeat. When we had untangled ourselves, I took a look at our new surroundings. There in front of us was a sign. It read:

      EXIT.

      We stumbled out into the sunlight, glad to be free again. The mummy turned to look at us.

      "It's been fun, guys," he growled. "Now to get back to Sakhmet."

      He left over the dunes. The Yurble chef glanced nervously at the hole we had made in the Repository floor.

      "I hope this doesn't come out of my pay!" he grumbled.

      He left in the opposite direction the mummy had gone. Now me, Aarliiyanna and the Khnum were alone on the desert sands. Aarliiyanna looked at the Khnum, then at me, her eyes filled with hope.

      "Can we keep him?"

      "Sure, but be sure to take very good care of him!"

      "I will!" she promised.

      "So where should we explore next?" I asked her.

      "I hear the Temple of 1000 Tombs is supposed to be lovely this time of year!"

      "Well what are we waiting for?" I asked. "Let's get going!"

      Aarliiyanna stared at me for a moment.

      "Do you think we should get a map?"

      "Nah! It's just one little temple! No way we can get lost in that! Let's just explore it a little bit!"

      ...And so we set off for our next adventure!

The End