Sanity is forbidden Circulation: 197,257,326 Issue: 975 | 13th day of Sleeping, Y25
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The desert adventures of Coltzan and a Weewoo


by witfer

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Ethan ruefully surveyed the giant stack of dusty scrolls in front of him. Extending a careful wing, the Weewoo delicately picked one up and placed it on a shelf above him.

     "One less... a thousand more to go," he complained loudly, staring at the pile. He still wasn't quite sure what made him voluntarily clean up the court archives. Of course, he liked reading the scrolls, but that had nothing to do with sorting them out, did it?

     "I guess I had to volunteer to do something," Ethan said to himself. All the citizens of The Lost Desert were committed to the rebuilding effort; it would be very selfish of him to hide in his room and relax while everyone else was struggling to rebuild the city they all loved.

     Still, he wished to do something that was a little less... dusty.

     "Achoo!" The Weewoo was thrown back by the force of his sneeze and stumbled into the pile of scrolls... and could only watch in horror as they spilt all over the floor.

     After the dust cleared itself, he was still standing there, dumbfounded clutching a scroll he had been trying to save from the avalanche.

     "Oh, that was really convenient," Ethan said angrily, staring at the scroll in his wing. His eyes suddenly widened as they passed over the contents of the scroll.

     A minute later, the mighty Weewoo flew frantically across the palace halls, calling for the king.

     "King Coltzan!" he shouted, rushing into the throne room. "There's something you need to see..."

      * * * * *

     Meanwhile, Coltzan and his beautiful Queen, Amira, were overlooking the construction of their kingdom. Ever since the defeat of Razul, Coltzan's horrific enemy, the kingdom was slowly recovering from the curse. The citizens had turned back into regular Neopets (except Wolf, who had grown used to being a living dead Lupe), the land was prospering and the harvest was at its best.

     Although the rebirth of his home filled his heart with joy, what truly made him happy was the one who helped make it all possible: Amira. He glanced over at his wife and smiled. "It won't be long now, Amira. With the curse lifted, our city will prosper and Lost Desert will once again be the place I remember from my youth. I wish you had seen it in its prime."

     Before Amira could answer, a shrill voice could be heard echoing off the walls in the throne room. "King Coltzan! Let go of me! I need to speak to the King and Queen!"

     Coltzan and Amira hurried into the throne room to see a young Weewoo being restrained by two Geb’s palace guards.

     "Forgive the interruption, your Majesty," said one of the Gebs. "We tried to hold him back, but we'll take care of him!"

     Although Coltzan hated to be interrupted, especially when spending quality time with Amira, something about the look on the Weewoo's face told him something was terribly wrong.

     "Guards, please!" shouted Coltzan. "Let the Weewoo speak. What is your name?"

     When the Geb's finally released their grip, the Weewoo bowed low before the Lupe. "Ethan, your Majesty. I volunteered to help organize the scroll archive when I came across something important."

     Ethan held the scroll out to Coltzan, who took it carefully.

     "Inscribed in this scroll," he continued, "there is the history of your lineage. It talks about a curse..."

     "The curse has been lifted, young Ethan," said Coltzan softly. "When I married Amira, I know I was tricked into releasing my enemy, but I beat him and now we are at peace."

     Ethan shook his head sharply. "It's not about Razul, King Coltzan. It talks about your mother."

     Coltzan's gentle reserve sharpened into a knife-edged mixture of curiosity and wariness like a startled Weewoo leaping from grazing to flight. "Impossible!" he exclaimed. "She's dead -- she has been ever since soon after the curse fell."

     "No," Ethan answered, slowly shaking his head. "She isn't -- at least, according to this scroll. Your nemesis has been holding her in reserve."

     "What are you talking about?" Coltzan echoed sharply, eyes narrowing as dark possibilities darted through his mind. Cruel enough was the curse that had been put on his people as a whole; what must his mother have suffered, trapped alone and kept alive long beyond her time for... what?

     For that matter, WAS she on her own?

     "Yes," the Weewoo answered in response to his question, and Coltzan forced himself to stop his circling train of thoughts and pay attention. "He has kept her alive somewhere, in case he was defeated. As to why there aren’t many details, it’s just…-"

     "Wait, let me read." It was everything Coltzan could do to keep from barking the order, and only a great show of restraint kept the scroll intact as he drew it open. His eyes flew over the words, slowly understanding their meaning, and then forced his mind to accept them.

     "Fast," he shouted, "we need to go to the scroll room, and see if Razul has written anything else!"

     Ethan and the guards nodded and stepped hastily aside to allow Coltzan to dart between them, his lithe, street-born wife loping swiftly to match his pace while the others fell in behind them. They reached the archives within a few seconds --still far too slowly for Coltzan's taste--.

     As he scrolled through the pile of parchment, Coltzan had to force himself not to keep staring at the last bit of the scroll that Ethan brought him, to confirm to himself that its threatening ending wasn’t some sick kind of joke. He didn’t think it was; but still, it was hard to make something like that get through his reality grid.

     "Coltzan!" Amira's voice forced its way through the dust, and Coltzan turned back to her as she added, "I think I've got something."

     Coltzan didn’t stop for a second when he walked over to see what item of potential interest his wife had brought. No words were said as she held her hoof up. It was the kind of thing to find in the chaos of a clearly disorganized scroll room.

     The item under consideration was a little, elliptical golden object that looked as though it belonged to a necklace, but had disposed of the chain. It would explain the minuscule hook on the top where one would normally fit. Coltzan took it slowly with his own paws, not smudging it with the sweat he was sure covering his palms at the moment. He slowly brought it up to his eye, and gradually, as though bracing for the worst, Coltzan flipped it over. The sight that met his eyes made him gasp.

     “What is it?” Amira asked, seeing the obvious breakdown and fright in her husband’s gaze as it remained unwaveringly fixed on the object she had handed to him. Coltzan shook his head, but passed it along for her to view herself. Amira took the artefact back and brought it up to eye level. The feeling that appeared on her husband’s face was apparent on her own face as well.

     Nevertheless, those expressions were there for good cause. Etched onto the back of it, in crude handwriting, appeared the words ‘You’ll never find her’. Whatever was going on in Amira’s mind was nothing compared to Coltzan’s. His thoughts were rushing hysterically after reading the malicious phrase.

     “She is still alive somewhere,” Coltzan whispered. Anxiety filled his thoughts, while one hand still grabbed the rugged old scroll, and Amira placed the ruby-encrusted charm back in his palm. "May I see that, Coltzan?" she asked, pointing to the scroll.

     "Of course, my Princess," replied the King slowly. She removed the parchment from his grip, but he hardly noticed.

     As Amira unrolled it, Ethan watched her face closely. Coltzan seemed unlikely to talk, but perhaps more could be gleaned by observing the reactions of his wife.

     Amira’s cheeks became pale as her eyes skimmed down the page. "It talks about your mother's confinement," she said slowly. "She is still alive in fact, if we can happen to trust this scroll. And here it looks like the door is being unlocked..." Amira became gradually quieter, staring at the document as she blew a few layers of dust away. "By one wearing that necklace."

     She gave Coltzan an uneasy look, but his face might have been carved from stone. "You are not going to put that on, right, Coltzan?" she asked. "We all could possibly fall into a trap, you know! What if your mother isn't really alive at all?"

     "You may have a point," Coltzan replied, at last, still holding the golden artefact absently. "But answer me this: if it was you who were imprisoned, would I take that risk? I definitely would. It is the same for my mother. How could I live with myself without knowing?" In his grip, the artefact began to shimmer. Ethan watched in mute amazement as a newly formed chain sprouted from its sides -- an unbroken length of gold. "Just my size," remarked Coltzan softly.

     Tears rose to Amira’s eyes as she felt a known surge of terror arise within her. But she could not deny to her husband something that was so decisive to him. Swallowing hard against the lump in her throat, the Aisha gave a nod.

     The last thing she saw was Coltzan's smirk before he lifted the necklace's chain over his head, then a flash of light immersed from the stone at the medallion's heart. It filled the room, and Amira, whose eyes were wide open, was left with neon-blue swirls in front of them as the red light died away.

     Amira waited eagerly for her eyes to clear, fighting the urge to rub them. When the whirling colours finally faded, the Aisha’s heart sank.

     She was by herself in the room.

      * * * * *

      Coltzan, for his part, could see nothing besides an eternal whirlpool of light and colour. He felt weightless, lighter than air, as if he had never existed.

     Without any caution, the lights and colours came to a jarring halt. Coltzan felt dizzier than he had ever felt in his life, because the world seemed to be twisting around him. He tripped into a sandstone column trying to set his own feet on the rocking ground. All he knew was that he was suddenly on his knees, and the world was steady and familiar.

     Coltzan looked around with knocked-out eyes, still hanging onto the pillar for support. The room was empty, from the ground to the vaulted ceiling, but it was lit brightly with torches, making it possible for him to see everything clearly.

     With a growing sense of foreboding, Coltzan realized that he was back in the old Lost Desert, and he looked around at what had once been a beautiful palace.

     Coltzan took a step forward and one step back, still contemplating the wonderful room, trying to figure out its former use. He crossed to the other side of the room and he found nothing but more tapestries. "I'm in the dinner hall," he realized. "If I am correct, there should be a door, leading to the entrance hall."

     He headed there, and there was a set of huge, oak doors that looked as though they hadn't been used in years. Coltzan walked towards them, with his heart beating almost as fast as his feet were moving. He couldn't help thinking that maybe he should have listened to Amira and accepted that his mother wasn’t alive after all.

     "Too late to run now," he thought out loud, placing his hand on the rusted doorknob, slowly turning it. And then, as though an alarm went off, the floor started shaking and rumbling.

     All around him, a curtain of dust was falling. Coltzan realized that he was moving downward, yet, how could that be possible? He then looked at his feet to find that a square, stone slab about three feet across had started sinking into the ground all around him and he was going down into darkness. Lightless air roared in his ears as he braced himself for impact.

     But it never came. There seemed to be no ground underneath his feet. It seemed as if he was stuck in midair with no feeling of stopping or even slowing down. Maybe he was still falling; but if that was the case, why was the air around him so absolutely still?

     He suddenly was breathing heavily, but couldn't hear his own breath. Coltzan was almost shocked to feel the icy aspect of the amulet, whose heat appeared to have been sucked out of it by the infinite and oppressive darkness. When he tried to stand up to head somewhere, a red light seared across his vision.

     The darkness started to disappear. Coltzan, blinking, took a step forward while being shocked to find cold and solid ground under his feet again. His eyes adapted to the blurriness when a familiar voice suddenly sounded on his left...

     "My son."

     Ripples of shock danced their way up Coltzan's spine. He had not heard that voice for a long time -- not since...

     "Mother?"

     He looked to the right and left, and turned behind him, searching for her. Only a dense fog appeared in front of their eyes, slowly suffocating his vision. "I can't see you, mother!" he shouted desperately into the light.

     "Follow this path, my son," she called gently. The amulet on his neck started burning once again, and the chain extended... The necklace was leading him towards her...

     It happened that the old scroll hadn't been a lie at all... "I am here!" he screamed, more loudly than he might have under normal circumstances. However, the fog kept growing and the world was darkening around him, and all he had left was the strength of his voice. "I am here to rescue you..."

     There it was the door that was embodied in the scroll. He had found it -- in a few seconds her mother would be in front of him, and they could go back home, to live in their palace in the city. His paw started trembling as he extended it. The necklace's ruby glow bathed the doorknob, and it clicked open. However, he wasn’t expecting what happened next: the King threw himself headlong into the doorway…

     … And once again, he fell.

     He thought the fall wouldn’t stop ever, until a soft bunch of the silvery substance from above cushioned his landing. "Mom?" he asked, panting as he raised himself back to his feet, squinting in the darkness. Only the yellow light of his ruby provided any hint of his surroundings.

     "You have finally arrived," she whispered, her face pale and oddly impassive. "I have waited many years for this. Many years indeed..."

     "You have had an extended imprisonment, Mother," he said soothingly. "Everything will be alright from now on."

     "Is that what you have told yourself?" she aggressively said, and her voice went from weak to strong and deep... "All these years, and you only managed to fail me time after time." Her neck thickened, her skin darkened, and to Coltzan's horror, it was no longer his mother who stood before him, but an unwelcomed face indeed, his longtime enemy Razul.

     "Razul," he screamed, putting his hand instinctively at his sword belt -- but there was no sword strapped there.

     "I set up this curse long ago, using your mother's life force to tie myself to this place. I attached my life to hers to ensure that this would never happen. If for some reason you escaped from your destiny, and mine, I would be here to put an end to it..."

     Razul raised a clawed hand, and a burst of burning fire stumped from his fingers. Coltzan barely had time to get out of the way. "If I must fight to defend my kingdom, then I shall..."

     The only issue was that he didn’t have any protection. He no longer had a hold of his weaponry and the room was fully empty except for Razul, standing before him, with fire dancing in his dark eyes.

     "What’s the problem?" Razul shouted out the words as if they were poisonous. "Weren’t you going to fight me? Aren’t you going to defend your kingdom as you said you were going to?" He blasted the ball of fire and Coltzan barely missed getting hit by it. "I don’t think running is the same as fighting."

     Nevertheless, Coltzan didn’t know what to do. There wasn’t any sword in his sight and the necklace that took him to the wicked place would taunt him out of the corner of his eye. Glowing, then fading; getting hotter, then colder.

     Then he realized the necklace had been the thing that took and was keeping him there. If he managed to take it off and somehow put it on his enemy, maybe it could stop Razul from leaving as well while bringing him back home at the same time.

     Razul noticed Coltzan’s attempt at freedom and began to laugh. "The necklace is possessed with spells and won’t come off without the person who wears it reciting the chosen phrase that the previous wearer, me, put on it, one that I seriously doubt you will ever get to figure out. For that, don’t believe you’re going to be able to flee out of this fight so easily. Get ready for combat now and prepare to surrender as your mother did before you."

     Coltzan was speechless. All his plans were failing him one by one. His only hope had been the necklace that wouldn’t come off without a code that his hated rival of all people had picked.

     He could possibly pull things off if he knew the solution, but what could it possibly be? What was something that Razul believed he wouldn’t understand, yet had replicated so many times before.

     And then he figured it out.

     "You’re wrong", Coltzan said to his enemy, putting his hand back on the necklace. "I am aware of the password you chose, and it’s wrong, just as you are wrong."

     "What do you mean?" Razul shouted while his eyes were flaring with anger. "How DARE you talk to me like this, you insolent coward!?"

     Coltzan recited the same words his nemesis had yelled at him earlier: "Power is best preserved by fear."

     After a few seconds, the necklace chain broke and fell into Coltzan’s paw. He knew he only had moments before its magic wore off him and he was sent back to the palace, so with renewed energy, he shouted towards his enemy.

     "NO!" Razul yelled, trying to throw more fireballs at him, however, it was too late. The necklace had been locked around his neck.

     And then in a flash of scarlet, a triumphant Coltzan returned home.

      * * * * *

      Amira and Ethan were nervously waiting in the library when a wounded Coltzan reappeared, but alive.

     "Coltzan!" the Aisha screamed, seeing her husband appear before her eyes. She rushed over to him and gave him a hug as an unstoppable shelf of tears went down her face.

     "Where is your mother?" Amira wondered, looking up into the bright eyes of her husband.

     "She is no longer here," Coltzan said sadly, "as she was long ago."

     In the best way possible, he then explained his ordeal to the two as Amira bandaged his wounded arm with a roll of bandages she had the guards bring her. At the end of the story, Ethan finally asked, "King Coltzan, Razul isn’t coming back, is he?"

     "Of course not," Coltzan said firmly, nodding to the Weewoo. "The worst case scenario would happen if he manages to get the amulet off him, which won’t happen in view of the fact that he has to decipher the new password that I, the person who last wore the amulet, thought of the second I took it off me. There’s no way he’ll know what that is, trust me."

     "What password did you choose?" Amira asked curiously as she finished dressing the wound on his shoulder.

     Coltzan gave her wife a little smirk. "Love."

     The End.

 
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