The Ghost Of King Coltzan

     I was walking down the corridor when I heard something. I turned around and saw no one there. Before I go too much further, I'd better tell you who I am and what I'm doing here. My name is Clair, I am a Lutari and I live in The Haunted Woods.

     I was on a school field trip to the Deserted Fairground with my classmates.

     As I turned back around to keep looking through the little haunted house that was part of our tour, something was telling me to turn back and return to the rest of my class mates, but I turned around anyway. I should have listened to the feeling telling me to go back to the others, because as soon as I turned I saw what looked like a ghost. Screaming, I ran to tell the others, but naturally, no one believed me.

     When we got back to school, I was as white as a ghost, and when people asked me what happened, I told them and they didn’t believe me, yet again. After school was finished, I decided to go back to the haunted house and try and get proof. I walked towards the entrance and tried opening the door. I got a massive shock when the door slowly opened by itself. As I inched in further, things turned weird, lights were already getting turned on and it sounded like others were walking down the hallway, so I went to investigate. There was no one there, so I started drawing in my notebook that I had brought along, this house was very cool and I wanted proof that I had been here and had seen the ghosts. Surely someone would believe me then, wouldn’t they? I was scribbling down things as I saw them.

     I was walking down a nearby corridor, when a ghost appeared. This ghost looked familiar. I tried to draw it, but when I looked up, there was nothing to see. I know I had seen this ghost somewhere. I took another book out of my backpack and flipped through the pages. Landing on a particular page, I gasped. It was the ghost of King Coltzan, but what was he doing in the Haunted Woods? I thought his coffin was buried in The Lost Desert. Something must be wrong, otherwise he wouldn’t be here. I went out the back to have a look around and I saw a murky swamp out there and got the feeling that something had happened, so what was I supposed to do? I wanted to turn around and leave but then someone appeared in front of me. It looked like a witch.

     "Don’t go, he needs help". I was completely confused what she was saying and who "he" was. I tried asking her what she meant but she was gone. She looked oddly familiar too. Sure hope it wasn’t Edna, she creeps me out. But then again, all witches do. I then decided to think of someone who could help me and realised that Jason from school could, he was pretty good with this sort of thing.

     That evening, I tried to go over to his house, but no one had seen him, and he wasn’t home. That made my job that much harder to do. I had to find him, so I set out once I got everything of mine together. I found Jason at the Haunted Weaponry.

     "Hey, Jason" I yelled out.

     "Clair"? Jason looked shocked.

     "What are you doing here? I thought you didn’t like this shop"?

     "Change of plans" I said sarcastically. "I need your help with something".

     Jason looked at me weirdly. I sighed heavily and told him the events of the day, and why I needed his help so badly. At first, he told me off sternly and said I shouldn’t be so superstitious, but then when I told him about seeing King Coltzan’s ghost, he was totally on board. So, we went back to the haunted house and Jason got to work, looking around the area that I had seen Coltzan’s ghost. Fifteen minutes later, I was still confused and was about to suggest leaving for the night, when Jason came back to me and said that the witch must have been Edna, because Sophie wouldn’t have stepped foot into a haunted house, and Edna was always trying to get new comers to collect items for her spells. Talking about the ghost was obviously exciting to Jason, and he suggested going to the swamp and checking it out. I obviously had no option but to accept, because I sure wasn’t going to stay here alone. When we got down there, there was an eerie feeling and we knew that the swamp was hiding a secret of some sort and it was big.

     After that we went home to our families and I told my parents about my day and my dad, Gary, said that Lutaris could swim and hold their breath underwater for at least ten minutes, but Jason being a Gelert, would have trouble. So he suggested that Jason keep watch while I investigated the swamp

     The next day, I got up early and went and got Jason and told him the news. We left to go to the Haunted House, and when we got there, Jason got some rope out and I looked at him, confused.

     "I don’t want anything happening to you, no matter how good of a swimmer you claim to be".

     I smiled and slipped into the shallow part of the swamp.

     Jason tied part of the rope around my stomach area and held the end part.

     "Good luck Clair. Just tug on the rope if you run into any trouble".

     I nodded, went under the water and swam a few metres down. When I got down to the bottom, I saw a skull and a couple of bones, and a crown nearby. Suddenly, flashes of King Coltzan flew through my mind and I gasped without realising and took in a breath full of water, and started to lose air. I tugged on the rope and Jason pulled me up. Coughing and spluttering, I looked at Jason.

     "King….Coltzans….bones…". I managed to get out.

     Jason was the one who gasped now. Without saying anything, he grabbed out his book and flipped pages.

     "It says here that King Coltzan’s body was supposed to be buried in The Lost Desert, so how is it that his bones ended up in Haunted Woods"?

     I was just as confused as Jason was. It was getting late, so we packed up our books and rope and started heading towards the front of the house. We were almost to the front door when we were blocked suddenly from the same ghost from the school trip. Coltzans ghost! The ghost started to glow and roared.

     "You have found and recovered my bones and crown! Everywhere they go, I am forced to follow! Please, please take my bones to The Lost Desert so that my spirit can rest in peace once more!"

     I was just about to agree when Jason cut in.

     "King Coltzan. How is it that your bones ended up in this Haunted Woods swamp if they were originally in The Lost Desert"?

     The ghost turned and looked at Jason.

     "You see, the Meerca Henchmen are known around The Lost Desert for stealing all sorts of things. A few months ago before their final arrest, they broke into my crypt and stole a few of my bones and my crown, but before they could steal all of my bones to auction off to the highest bidder, they were caught red handed by the Defenders of Neopia squad, and the parts of my bones that they managed to steal were hidden in this swamp. No one had any idea where they had hidden them, and to this day a lot of Neopets are still looking. The Lost Desert and Haunted Woods might be far apart, but the Meerca Henchmen sure know how to work together".

     Jason and I looked at each other sadly. It was the most horrible story we’d ever heard. Who would be so awful as to steal someone’s bones to sell? Of course it just had to be the Meerca Henchmen.

     "Don’t worry Coltzan. We will get your bones back to The Lost Desert" I said, with Jason nodding alongside me.

     I swam back down to the bottom of the swamp, with Jason holding the rope again to pull me up. I grabbed the bones and crown and held on tight. Jason then pulled me up a few minutes later. Shaking the water from my fur, I then put the bones and crown in my backpack, and we then departed for the exit. As Jason and I walked out of the haunted house, King Coltzan started to glow again and started slowly disappearing, his ghostly form getting sucked into the backpack I was carrying the bones and crown in. I’m guessing that’s what he meant by he goes where ever his bones go. Dad was waiting for us outside.

     "How did you go? Find anything interesting"? He asked.

     Jason and I explained what we had found and what we saw. It took him a while to comprehend what we were going on about, and only when we showed him the stolen bones and crown did he believe us fully. That night, he contacted Defenders of Neopia by Neomail, and explained to them that we were the ones who discovered them.

     "Well, thanks to you kids, we can return these to their rightful resting place in The Lost Desert. You both will receive recognition and thanks".

     Twenty minutes later after taking all of our statements, the Defenders of Neopia left and Jason and I were left to think about things. As I was wondering how Coltzans spirit was, whether it was finally happy now, I felt a breeze come through my window and I thought I heard a voice say ‘thank you both’. I am probably just tired.

     Jason left half an hour later and I got into bed. I lay there thinking about the events of the day. Slowly but surely, counting Baabas, I drifted into a deep sleep. What seemed like a long time, Dad came into my room and sat at the end of my bed.

     "Coltzan’s bones have been returned to their resting place, and to stop anymore thieves from gaining entry into the tomb, they have put guards at the front entrance".

     He layed the newspaper down on my bed and smiled. Jason and I had helped a ghost find peace at last. It didn’t start out like that but ended well enough. As I got out of bed, brushed my teeth and tail, and headed out for the day, I was happy to know the Meerca Henchmen won’t be able to steal anymore of those bones, and that King Coltzan was finally happy.

     The End.