Jhudora's Weakness: Part Two

     "Yo, d'ya think there are any baddies for me to beat up?"

     "Oh. My. Gosh. Like, this is totally gonna ruin my look!"

     "I'm scared."

      I gave up. I sat down on a log and banged my head on a tree.

     We were in some kind of jungle/rainforest. It was tropical, there were vines and huge trees formed a canopy way above our heads. Two screeching Myncis ran along a branch.

     I wondered what Jhudora had in store for us. Then, Nina, ever the intelligent one, spoke up.

     "According to a book I was reading, there are usually ancient civilizations in unexplored parts of Neopia."

     "Yeah, I think that would, like, totally apply to us," KK said sarcastically.

     I was surprised. I didn't think she even knew what being sarcastic meant, let along be able to use that tone of voice.

     I sighed, and stood up.

     "Well, we may as well explore."

     "Yes!" Blue jumped up and scaled a tree, her Kougra claws digging into the bark.

     When she came down, I chided her for her foolishness.

     "We don't know anything about this place. The inhabitants may be savages, or even cannibals. From now on, we all stick together."

     "Yo, dudes, which way do we go?"

     I rolled my eyes. "Why don't we work out where we are, first?"

     "But, like, you totally already told us to explore!"

     "Yes, well, everybody is allowed to make mistakes. Now, lets find out where we are."

     "Fine." And so it began.

     "We cannot possibly be in Terror Mountain," put in Nina.

     "We, like, aren't in the Lost Desert either."

     "We aren't in Faerieland."

     "Yo, what about Tyrannia?"

     "Nah. Myncis aren't native to Tyrannia."

     "I got it!" I snapped my fingers. "Myncis are native to Mystery Island. Therefore, we must be on Mystery Island!"

     "Yes!" gasped Nina, "and if we go in a straight line, we will eventually come to the ocean, and we can then follow it to the Tiki Tours boat place!"

     Happily, we all set off. But we didn't realize how hard it would be. We tripped over many roots, found places so thick with trees we couldn't get through, KK shrieked so many times because her mane was caught, or her hoof was chipped and the vines kept getting in our way. We got so exhausted and dehydrated we became delusional. We all seemed to think that the forest was out to get us, though the way things were going, it probably was.

     KK tripped over another root, and it was enough for her. She became hysterical. She fell down sobbing and laughing.

     "Isn't it funny?" She half laughed, half sobbed. "We were rich, now we are lost, and I-" she burst into a fit of giggles, choking with laughter.

     "KK!" I gasped.

     Just then I realized I was clutching a vanilla milkshake.

     "OH, guess what everybody! I have a milkshake!"

     Everyone clamoured to get at it, except KK, who was still lying on the ground, sobbing now.

     "No! Everybody gets an equal proportion," I stated.

     Thereafter, I let each of my four Neopets have a sip, then had a sip myself and threw away the empty container, finding it now useless.

     We continued on our journey, only slightly refreshed. We traveled around, and the jungle never seemed to end. By the end of the day, we were lost, tired, and had no want to go on.

     "Like, I totally need my beauty sleep!"

     "Yo, even if there were baddies, I'm too tired to fight them."

     "Geez, I never thought adventuring would be so tiring!"

     "Some studies I did stated that you need a certain amount of sleep to stay sane."

     "Okay you guys, how about if we explore for one more half hour? If we don't find anything, then we can look for a safe place to sleep."

     Personally, I was really tired as well, but I didn't like the prospect of having to sleep in the wilderness. I had never been camping, and that probably had something to do with it. But seeing as how my pets and friends were so tired, I figured I may as well let up a bit. But first I needed to make sure sleeping in the wilderness was a second alternative to sleeping in a bed in some sort of civilization.

     "It sounds agreeable to me."

     "Like, whatever."

     "Sure."

     "Fine, yo."

     So we set off yet again. About twenty minutes later, we reached a clearing. Inside the clearing sat a faerie. A grey faerie, chained to a stump and looking very dejected. Nina felt very sorry for her, and started forward. Blue climbed a tree and walked on long limbs, crossing to different trees, until she was over top of the faerie.

     Back where I was, Ro began to growl. She was suspicious of the faerie. KK told me she needed some accessories for her outfit. I burst out laughing.

     When Nina reached the faerie, she began to sympathetically ask questions.

     "What happened? Who are you? Who did this to you?"

     The faerie smiled slightly, a tear rolling down her cheek.

     "I used to be the queen. Fyora was a simple maid, but I liked her. She was good, and kind. Then, one day I made a huge mistake. I went by myself to see the dark faeries, and try and make peace with them. I left Fyora in charge of the castle, to have her rule as queen, until I returned. The dark faeries combined their magic and took away mine, chaining me to this stump. But if I were to be free, I would let Fyora continue to be queen, and would myself visit everywhere on Neopia, helping young Neopets in need."

     She smiled again, "I decided that years ago."

     I walked up to her. "Maybe we can help."

     "There's more of you?" the faerie gasped.

     I nodded, and KK trotted elegantly over to me, Ro stalked towards me and Blue came down the tree and stood with me.

     "We'll help you, or at least try, but can you please tell me where we are?"

     "This is the realm of Jhudora, and other dark faeries. Jhudora's dream is to populate it with pets, turn them into zombies, and use them to take over the world. She has already teleported a tribe of savage Myncis here. You all are the first civilized pets. I'm afraid you are in grave danger."

     All my pets gasped, then Ro bravely spoke up.

     "Yo, dude, I can defeat anything she throws at me!"

     The faerie let another tear roll down her cheek.

     "Not so, brave one. I'm afraid she's much more powerful than you think."

     "The sooner I get, like, home the better. I, like, totally need a trip to the, like, grooming parlour!"

     "I guess we aren't on mystery island, are we?" asked Nina.

     Before the faerie could respond, there was another burst of purple light, and the flaming Meerca appeared, the same Meerca that Ro had lost to, last night.

     Ro leapt into action, somehow her battle items appeared out of nowhere. She threw an immense rubber axe of doom and a seasonal battle duck at the Meerca, at the same time conjuring up a fireball. Ya, you know the saying; fight fire with fire. Then, Ro whipped out her Scamander blade and jumped at the Meerca, slashing, while throwing the rubber axe again. She healed a few points, and eventually, she won. I was so proud of her!

     Ro panted, and I could see she was injured. The faerie looked at me and said "Crush the leaves from the this tree," She gestured behind her, "and spread the juice on her wounds. In a few hours, she'll be good as she ever was."

     Smiling, I graciously thanked her, and applied the moisture on Ro.

     "I think we had better be going," said Nina, "We have to find a place to sleep."

     I agreed with her, and told the former queen that we would return tomorrow to plot how to escape this place with her. We continued our search for a place to sleep, and we found one. It was a nice place. Three tree's roots seemed to link together, forming almost a gate around a slight hollow in the ground. I lay myself down, and Nina curled up with me. KK slept on her feet, standing beside us. Ro slept in a ball under KK, and Blue slept above us all in the nook of a tree.

     It took us a while to fall asleep, because we kept imagining that the wind was voices, and the trees looked frightening…just as scary as the haunted woods, only worse, because we didn't know how to escape.

     When we awoke, we didn't want to open our eyes. I heard Blue gasp, then she sprang out of the tree. She shook me awake.

     Grumpily, I forced open my eyes and rubbed the sleep from them. "What, Blue? I'm tired, and I just want to sleep."

     "Mom!" she gasped, "We're surrounded!"

To be continued…