Samrin's Inspiration

     "How do you know?" Asked Samrin, thinking about how frightened his Petpets must be. "And how far back?"

     "Not far," said Gilbert. "I'll show you how I know." The crew turned around and headed back down the tunnel towards Meridell.

     "Yes, here we go," Gilbert said, pointing down a narrow tunnel branching from the main path. Everyone stopped, but was not sure how to react. How could Gilbert be so certain?

     "Are you sure?" Samrin asked nervously. Working on his Pick Your Own farm for so many years had helped Gilbert develop a keen eye for subtle details. He had an excellent eye for finding rare berries on his farm, and apparently for finding the signs of a sled being dragged in a dimly lit cave.

     "I'm certain. If you look at the ground, you can see slight lines where rocks have been pushed aside caused by what's most likely a sled. If you look closely, you can see slight lines turn up this trail," Gilbert said proudly.

     "Gilbert, you're a genius! Thank you!" Samrin said giving him a quick hug.

     "Not only that, but I think I know how he collected the Petpets. I've been noticing small fibres along the trail, which I believe we will find more of up this tunnel," Gilbert said, holding up a fibre.

     "I know those fibres! Burlap! He's using potato sacks!" Alton added. Gilbert nodded, picking up another fibre off of the ground up the new tunnel and displaying it.

     "Then there's no time to waste. Let's go!" Charlie said. The Weewoo contributed to the conversation with a hearty clucking noise.

     They picked up the pace, but Samrin felt more tension with each step he took. The path went up a gradual, but steady incline. A few minutes later they came across a door with a slight glow around its perimeter. A deep wolfish voice emitted from within. Samrin slowly and quietly opened the door a crack and saw Balthazar standing by a giant steaming cauldron. His voice became more audible.

     "I really can't believe I got all of Samrin's Petpets," Balthazar belted out a cruel laugh. "With this storm, he won't even notice you guys are missing. And when he does, there would be no trail to follow." Samrin turned around and whispered to his friends.

     "Balthazar is in there and I heard some of my Petpets stirring. I'm not sure how many there are," Samrin said. Alton peered in quickly, then closed the door quietly.

     "There are twenty-three," he whispered. "And those are my potato sacks. He must have visited my farm before yours."

     "Remarkable," Charlie said. "You could count them that quickly?"

     "It's kinda my thing," Alton said. Alton had spent so many hours counting potatoes throughout the years, that he turned it into a game. He was seldom wrong when it came to counting. Samrin, however, began to look pale. There should have been twenty-four Petpets.

     "Are you sure you didn't count twenty-four?" Samrin asked, trembling. Alton shook his head. The Weewoo began to flap its wings and clucked as though it was trying to explain something to Samrin. Samrin remembered about the Babaa back home. "Wait, Belina, my Babaa, is in the barn." A sense of relief overcame everyone, but they knew they had to come up with a plan quickly.

     Charlie scanned around for anything that could be useful and got an idea. "Alton, do you have any potatoes on you?" He asked.

     "Of course, I never leave home without a few. Why?" Alton said.

     "I have an idea. I need two potatoes, and Gilbert, we will need your scarf too," Charlie said as he pulled out the lace from the hood of his rain jacket. Alton handed him two potatoes from his pocket. Charlie tied a potato to each side of the lace and asked Gilbert to hold onto the scarf before explaining the plan in detail.

     Balthazar diced up some vegetables and added them to the steaming water.

     "Ahh, Petpet soup is my favourite. It will keep me good and warm on this cold winter day. All I need to do is add a bit more seasoning before adding my key ingredients," Balthazar said to himself, wafting the soup. He was interrupted by a cooing sound from within the tunnel.

     "What's that?" Balthazar said, his interest peeking. He poked his head out the door and saw a White Weewoo strutting aimlessly around. "Another Petpet for my soup! What good timing!" Balthazar ran out of the room towards the Weewoo.

     Meanwhile the four friends made themselves hidden behind the opened door. Charlie, missing no opportunity, jumped out from behind the door and threw at Balthazar his handmade bola that he made from the potatoes and lace. The weapon wrapped tightly around his ankles, dropping Balthazar down like a sack of potatoes.

     "Now!" Charlie screamed. Gilbert and Alton appeared next, each holding the end of Gilbert's scarf. They wrapped it around Balthazar's arms, tying them tightly together behind his back. Samrin picked up the Weewoo and ran into the room to rescue his Petpets.

     "Great work, little guy!" Samrin said, nuzzling the Weewoo's head with his cheek.

     "We have to be quick!" Shouted Charlie. "I don't know how long that will hold him." Balthazar snarled and growled, shouting out threats as he twisted and turned on the ground. It already looked to Charlie as though the lace around his legs was loosening.

     At the far side of the room, several large cages sat on the floor, two of which contained Samrin's Petpets. The other cages were empty, but they were large enough to contain larger specimens, such as Faeries. The stacks of bottles suggested that this was one of Balthazar's Faerie bottling facilities.

     Still holding the Weewoo, Samrin ran up to the first cage and opened the door. Alton quickly joined him and opened up the second cage. Samrin herded up his Petpets and led them out of the room as Alton picked up his potato sacks and followed.

     Charlie and Gilbert urged Samrin to take his Petpets up the tunnel, and not back the way they came. They would be running deeper in the cave, but it would be too risky to try to herd the Petpets past Balthazar. He would have easily been able to grab or bite at them as they passed. Before joining the group himself, Charlie ran into the room to grab the sled.

     The tunnel was still at a steady incline, but a faint glow up ahead revealed that they were approaching an exit. The tunnel echoed with Balthazar's frustrated grunts and snarls, making everyone run much quicker.

     When they approached the exit, the snow had not stopped. In the higher altitude, the wind seemed much stronger and the visibility had worsened.

     "We are going to lose sight of the Petpets if we don't put them in the potato sacs," Charlie said. As much as Samrin did not want to put them in the sacks, he agreed it was the best option. They placed the Petpets into the four potato sacks as evenly as possible and put them on the sled. Charlie and Gilbert sat in front, while Alton and Samrin were to sit in the back after giving the sled a push. Samrin encouraged the Weewoo to go in a sack, and vowed to it that he would hold onto that sack the tightest.

     "What's up, dudes!" A Yellow Wocky approached on a red snowboard. "You guys sledding down the mountain?! Knarly!"

     "What're you doing here, Edgar?" Alton asked.

     "Catching some serious drifts, man. I was going to wait out the storm, ya know, but seeing you guys like this has totally inspired me to just go for it," Edgar said, playing his snowboard like a guitar.

     "Balthazar is after my Petpets. We are trying to make it back to the barn," Samrin said. Balthazar roared from within the cave, his voice getting closer as he vowed to get even with them.

     "Whoa! Then go ride like the wind, dudes! No time for chatting," Edgar said. "Meet'chas at the bottom! Follow me!" The Yellow Wocky continued downhill, pulling tricks as he snowboarded. Samrin and Alton pushed the sled as hard as they could before hopping on themselves.

     They had only started downhill when Balthazar sprung out of the cave, running furiously towards them on all fours. He sprung in the air and hit the end of the sled just hard enough to rock it back and forth. The sled zigzagged a bit in the powdery snow before Charlie was able to get full control of it. He looked back to see if everyone was okay, but Samrin and the burlap sack he was holding onto had fallen off.

     The sack slid far from Samrin's reach and stopped. An Angelpus, Doglefox, two Babaas, a Wibreth and a Weewoo flooded out of the bag and scattered in all directions. Balthazar paused and started to laugh under his breath. He turned to make chase after them.

     "No!" Samrin shouted, but demanded that everyone on the sled stay where they were to keep the remaining Petpets safe.

     "There's six on the loose, including the Weewoo," Alton shouted and wished him good luck as they continued down the hill. The Weewoo stubbornly tried to make his way towards Samrin. Balthazar had his eyes on the Wibreth that struggled in the powdery snow with its bony legs.

     "Don't worry, I'll round them up!" Edgar shouted, grabbing the empty burlap sack. "Now this is Extreme Herder! Whoo!" The visibility was terrible, but Edgar zigzagged effortlessly, grabbing at the loose Petpets. If he could accurately count potatoes in a storm of vegetables being tossed around, then counting Petpets in a snowstorm should be a breeze. The hardest part would be catching them, but being a champion snowboarder made that an easy task too.

     Balthazar was seconds from grabbing at the squawking Wibreth who was still struggling in the deep snow when Edgar hopped off of a drift and landed on Balthazar's head, knocking him over. Edgar grabbed the Wibreth and placed it into the sack. Though widely spread out, the other four Petpets were much easier to catch, counting each one as he added them to the sack. Edgar struggled a bit with the weight, but successfully continued down the hill. Samrin gave a loud cheer.

     "I'll try to come back for you and the Weewoo!" Edgar shouted up to Samrin, though Samrin doubted that would be possible.

     Balthazar meanwhile picked himself back up. Samrin turned back to see the White Weewoo still struggling towards him. Balthazar also spotted the bird.

     "Quick! Slide down the hill!" Samrin shouted, realizing Balthazar was much quicker on the snow than he was and would get there first. Balthazar leaped at the Weewoo, but missed when it quickly hopped just enough out of the way. The Weewoo began rolling haphazardly down the hill.

     Samrin had to get to him. He lay down on his belly and tried to slide down. Slowly, he went. Then faster. Much faster than he thought he would slide, catching up quickly with Balthazar and the Weewoo, who were already much farther down the hillside. But something did not seem right. All of the snow around him seemed to be moving. The commotion on the newly-fallen snow had created a small avalanche and before long it scooped up Balthazar and the Weewoo.

     Finally the snow stopped. The storm had also subsided and the air became eerily quiet. Samrin's legs were buried and he struggled desperately to free them. He looked around to see the Weewoo struggling in the snow, but before he could get to it, Balthazar plucked it straight out of the snow and high into the air. Balthazar looked at the helpless Blue Kacheek and laughed wickedly at him.

     "Well, guess it's Weewoo Soup today! Well, minus the soup," Balthazar laughed and opened up his large mouth. Samrin felt defenceless when he realized there was nothing he could do. Suddenly, a little red berry hit the side of Balthazar's head, followed by a potato, then by an old boot.

     "Let it go!" Shouted Charlie, Gilbert and Alton in unison. Balthazar started to laugh.

     "And who will stop me? You were lucky last time, but I'm much bigger and stronger than the lot of you!" Balthazar threatened. The question was answered when a series of objects began pelting against him, including frozen vegetables, snowballs, sticks and stones.

     "Leave it alone!" A voice yelled out followed by the angered voices of a whole community of Neopians. They began to throw whatever they could find at the monstrous Lupe. Balthazar snarled and dropped the Weewoo. He grew frustrated with the difficulty of grabbing a quick snack and retreated towards the cave's entrance at the bottom of the mountain. Cheers echoed in the air.

     Edgar approached Samrin and helped him out of the packed-down snow. The Weewoo joined the celebration and hopped up into his arm. Samrin felt emtional. He could not believe what he was seeing. Everyone came out to help him.

     "And we don't want to see you come back!" Shouted an Orange Yurble holding a pitchfork. The Yurble walked up to Samrin and patted him firmly on the back. "Don't worry, he won't be coming back any time soon. The Slorgs are all sleeping for the winter, so I have all the time in the world right now to keep other vermin off of our land."

     "And we will make sure he never comes back, not even during the growing or harvest seasons." An Orange Bruce called out. "That's enough of that Balthazar terrorizing you and your Petpets!" Everyone cheered in agreement.

     Samrin could not have been more grateful for all of the help he got saving his Petpets. Help from the community, his close friends, and even his new Weewoo friend, who was always by his side.

     Charlie, Gilbert and Alton accompanied Samrin on his walk home to make sure all of the Petpets, which were now roaming freely, made it to the barn safely. Then, once the Petpets were fed and the barn doors were locked and double-checked, they said their farewells for the day. Samrin cherished the moment when his Babaa, Balina, saw all of her friends again. She had to greet each one with the same amount of energy which none of the other Petpets could match. They were all ready for bed.

     "You must be hungry," Samrin said to the Weewoo. "Let's get something to eat." It showed its approval by dancing around in a couple of circles before Samrin picked it up and walked back to the house.

     The house was still warm, though the logs in the fireplace were nothing but smouldering embers. Samrin kicked off his boots and hung up his jacket before adding a couple more logs to the embers with some kindling to start the fire back up. The Weewoo perched on the armchair and watched.

     For dinner, Samrin prepared a warm pot of vegetable soup with some fresh bread he made the day before. The Weewoo's meal was supplemented by some high-end Wibreth fodder as an added treat. It was a well-deserved meal.

     The day seemed long, but the sun was now just setting. He looked out the window and saw hues of peach and orange begin to colour the underside of the remaining clouds. It donned on him then that the White Weewoo who had kept him company was no longer around. A cool draft kissed his nose. He looked over to see his front door open a crack. Samrin walked up to the door and saw tiny footprints of a bird walking out into the snow, then disappearing. To his relief, no other footprints, other than his own, were there.

     "It must have flown away," Samrin said to himself, "I wasn't aware Weewoos could fly." He felt a little blue that it had left, but understood that it also had a home to go back to, and perhaps had a family waiting for its return.

     He sat down in his armchair to process the day. It was not a good day, but it could have been much worse. He was grateful the day ended well and that he could finally relax. He looked over at his side table. A white tail feather lay on his leather-bound notebook. The day was ending and he was no closer to finishing his story. He had planned to have at least his rough draft completed for the Neopian Times, but how could he have predicted the day he had.

     Samrin did not understand why he was finding it so difficult to run with one of his ideas. The Weewoo seemed to thoroughly enjoy all of the ideas he read to it. Was he overthinking things? He paused for a moment to clear his mind as the salmon clouds outside darkened to pinks and purples. Then he realized something.

     Throughout the years, the Neopian Times had published comics, articles and stories from Neopians far and wide, covering many world events, such as rivalries, wars and charity events. Meridell had seen its fair share of hard times. Throughout these times, Neopians as a whole have worked together, building a strong and powerful community.

     Today was no different. In a time of dire need, his friends helped him without any obligation of their own. They wanted to help. And when their help was not strong enough, the whole farming community of Meridell got together to fight for what was right. That is how it was on the farm and that is how it always will be. Neopians helping each other out. And looking at the broader scope, the Neopian community as a whole was no different when it mattered most as witnessed time and time again.

     Samrin wanted to publish a story for the 1000th issue of the Neopian Times. Initially, he felt it had to be perfect, but his vision of perfection was muddled. Perfection was not what was important. What was important was that his story should come from the heart. The same type of heart that built the beautiful community he was a part of. Both as a citizen of Meridell and as a Neopian.

     Samrin picked up the feather and smiled. He would write an entertaining story about Neopians working together to make the world a better place.

     "Yes, I think that would make a great story!" Samrin smiled as an idea popped into his head. It may not be enough to get published because of the copious amount of talent out there, but Samrin knew of a few Neopians who would appreciate the story anyway, especially one little Weewoo. The evening was still young. He still had time. But first, he had to make himself a cup of strongberry tea.

     The White Weewoo perched itself high in the snow-covered pine tree by the frozen pond where it watched Samrin skating as a free spirit earlier that day. From the same tree, it could see clearly through the window into Samrin's house. It sat and watched him as he sat comfortably in his favourite armchair working hard on his newest story. He had found his inspiration. The Weewoo cooed proudly. To the west, the sun shone its final rays of the day. It, too, would soon be leaving. Tomorrow was a new day with new talents to inspire.

     The End.