Visions and Vanishings: Part Two

     "Ok, Farren, calm down. It's all over now," said Salthar calmly. "Just tell me what you saw."

     "It was horrible. I've never had a foretelling as bad as this. There was so many things happening in this, it was very hard to follow," Farren rambled. Realizing the urgency on Salthar's face, he continued.

     "First, I was in the crowds of the Altador Cup, then I went into the dorms of the teams, and they were all looking for one team; Team Meridell. Immediately following that, the host came in, wondering where they were, because they needed to play next. I then saw Dr. Sloth for literally half of a second."

     Salthar looked as though he was just told all the neopoints he owned had been given to the Money Tree. "I have to go to the Altador Cup to tell them? Or Meridell? Or the Virtupets Space Station?"

     "I know, it's hard to find where the problem came from. I would search all three, and see what you can find out," suggested Farren, and Salthar nodded in agreement.

     "Alright then, Farren. If you see anything new in your vision, send me a Neomail at once! It probably won't reach me for a few hours, considering that the system has been quite slow lately," Salthar said, looking at the fear on Farren's face. "Oh, but don't worry. You most likely won't need to warn me about anything. I'll be fine, I'm a ghost!"

     As the two said their good byes, Salthar vanished into thin air, much like he always did. That left Farren alone, wondering what he had seen. Trouble at the Altador Cup, that was for sure. What else happened? Farren thought Sloth was behind it, but why had he simply been sitting behind a desk, and not tormenting the Meridell Team? Surely his vision would have shown that...

     ***

     "THIEF! THIEF! INTRUDER!" screamed one of the Kacheek guards, pounding a large, red button. The alarms turned on, emitting repetitive alarms. Within seconds, Salthar had been captured, and sent to one of the cells in the Virtupets Space Station.

     Dr. Sloth walked down to the steel prison cell to see how his new thief was.

     "Tell me who you are, and what you wanted," Dr. Sloth began, looking at Salthar deep in the eye.

     Salthar was thinking quickly of a perfect lie to tell. He wouldn't tell Sloth his real name, nor ask him anything about the Meridell Team. This could have given too much away about Farren's gift.

     "My name is--er--Garret, and I was here to... polish your lasers," Salthar said pathetically, but it seemed to have worked on Dr. Sloth. On the contrary, he looked quite pleased with himself.

     "Ahh, my pride and joy. Yes, my lasers are the best there are, and they are indeed getting rather dusty. Perhaps you should do your task, of course, under special guarding. You could have just gone through the guest visiting, you know," Dr. Sloth said, opening the cell, and grabbing Salthar by the arm.

     They walked down winding halls of metal steel, and dangerous looking machines that looked very complex. There were guards strolling the place, and there were also inspectors running tests on different machinery to ensure that it worked. They then turned into the observatory, which had a huge, clear window which was viewing Neopia. Eventually, which seemed like miles, they arrived in a huge room with hundreds upon thousands of lasers. Salthar gulped.

     "Y-You mean you want me to wash... all of these?" stammered the Kyrii, looking at each oddly shaped laser.

     "That's what you came for isn't it?" snapped Sloth. "Because if it isn't, I could have you zapped by one instead."

     "Of course it is what I came for," Salthar said quickly. "I just wasn't informed that there were so many."

     Sloth held a small, pocket laser, and pointed it at Salthar, who clutched the cloth, and began spraying and wiping.

     Walking out, Sloth shouted something, making it audible for probably half the station. "And don't try to evaporate out of this room; the steel won't allow it. Bye, Salthar."

     ***

     Farren was pacing back and forth now, wondering what to do. He was very worried about Salthar. He had never been gone for over a day, and it was nearing that time. The Gelert realized how difficult the situation had been, but what if Salthar had gotten into trouble?

     Trying not to worry about it, Farren walked over to the Food Shop and sat down at a table. The waiter walked over to him. "Welcome to Neopia's Food shop. What can I get you?"

     "Just bring me some water," muttered Farren. Then, at that moment, another figure walked into the shop. Actually, it was more than one figure, it was a whole crowd. But... it couldn't be!

     "Everybody, we're having a celebration here! The Meridell Team won their first day in the Altador Cup!" yelled one of the members, and everybody in the shop cheered. Everybody but Farren. His heart sank.

     How was it that the Meridell Team wasn't still trapped? Or had they ever been trapped? If Salthar had freed them, surely he would be back then. Farren jumped out of his seat before the water had reached his table, and he ran over to one of the members, who was cheering and eating some delicious looking food.

     "Excuse me, sir," began Farren.

     The team member turned around. "Oh, you want an autograph?"

     The member began to sign a piece of paper, when Farren hit it out of his hands. He looked insulted.

     "I don't want an autograph, I want you to tell me some information," Farren said urgently.

     "Oh, I get it. You want an interview! Of course I will," the member said, pulling up a chair, and sitting down. Farren sighed, but didn't object. This was the easiest way to get the information from anybody that was famous.

     "Ok, first question," began Farren, pretending that he was excited to meet him. He grabbed a piece of paper, and pretended to write. "Alright, what was it like to be at the Altador Cup?"

     "It was fantastic! The rooms were perfect, and the crowd was louder than ever," began the member, but Farren cut him off.

     "Second question. Were there any troubles on your first day back?" Farren asked, hoping that he would get a good answer. Perhaps his vision, then some things might make a little more sense.

     "Nope, not really. It was mostly perfect, but the service wasn't that excellent. I ordered a gourmet Whole Wheat Sun Pancakes, and they didn't arrive for three whole minutes! I had to wait," whined the member, but this proved to Farren that his vision hadn't been true. But that would have meant that the vision had to be tampered with.

     Dr. Sloth, thought Farren. He must have been controlling his foretelling so that he made it appear that Meridell had been captured by him. He showed himself to make sure he knew (or thought) that Sloth was behind all this. But for this all to be true, Sloth had to know about Farren's gift, and that was impossible. Or was it?

     Farren darted back to the Wishing Well, and put his head into the water. There was so many metal pieces and machines, Farren saw that it was clearly in the Virtupets Space Station. He soon saw the figure of Dr. Sloth, and the other figure, Salthar.

     What Farren saw was horrible. He saw Sloth hanging Salthar from his wrists, and had a huge laser pointing at him. He was yelling something.

     "Too bad your friend isn't here to help you. Then again, he wouldn't want to see you end like this," laughed Sloth evilly.

     The vision ended abruptly, and Farren took his head from the well, and glanced all around to see if anybody was around to help him.

     What if this was merely another one of Sloth's tricks, though, and he was just doing that to get Salthar back?

     He didn't want to risk letting Salthar be in danger. Farren walked up to the Transportation Center in Neopia Central, rented an Eyrie for 30,000 neopoints, and flew up to the Virtupets Space Station. It was rather difficult to get the Eyrie go into space, so they had to rent out an Alien Aisha to guide Farren into the depths of space.

     Finally, he reached the guest area, and walked inside. This was definitely where Salthar and the vision was, but where were they?

     Farren walked down random halls until he came across a few guards. "What are you going here?"

     "I'm here to talk with Sloth," said Farren.

     "He's... busy right now," said the guard, looking down at a watch as though he couldn't speak without reading off of it.

     "What is he busy doing?"

     "Listen, kid," began the guard, constantly glancing down at his watch. "All I know is a Kyrii had been breaking and entering, and he is going to be executed in less than thirty seconds."

To be continued...