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A cold, sharp blast of wind pierced through the night sky
as seven shivering Ixi cubs cuddled up together under the silver moon. However,
one of them, the oldest, the wisest, the toughest, did not stay with the others
that night. It was the month of May, also known as the Month of Hunting. Not only
that, the winter in Terror Mountain had not worn off yet, it was still extremely
cold, more than usual.
Jentekai was her name. The leader of those Ixi
cubs. She was a fierce, red Ixi and those seven other cubs were her younger
siblings. The parents of them all had been terribly wounded by a group of Grarrls
several years ago, and they had died the next morning. Jentekai barely even
remembered them. It was because of their death that Jentekai was now so fierce.
She did anything for her younger brothers and sisters, even become a thief.
Yes it was true that Jentekai was a thief, a very sly one too. Angered about
her parents being gone, she had become a ruthless Ixi, the only ones she cared
about were her siblings.
It was that very night on the top of Terror Mountain
that as her siblings slept under the cold, icy snow, Jentekai crept into the
shadows to save her family.
If only I could get some needed things from
the Snowager, then I could keep my brothers and sisters alive up here, she
thought while thinking about her sick sister, Narlaki who was suffering from
Floppy Tongue, her brother, Tomakei, who was constantly itching of Neomites,
and the rest of the diseases that might come from this cold weather.
Jentekai quietly scampered from shadow to shadow
through the tops of Terror Mountain. She stopped and hid for a few moments to
catch her breath behind the Happy Icy Fun Snow Shop. Laughter came from inside,
each giggle sending chills up her spine. After a few minutes, she left the shop
and didn't stop until she reached the entrance to the Ice Caves.
The moon was now high in the sky, casting its
silver light upon the entrance. Jentekai hesitated, but then sprinted as fast
as she could into the cave.
"Whoa...whoah....WHOAH!!!!" she hollered as crystals
beneath her came loose and she slid down an icy hill into the darkness. The
cave was very dim. Plus, it was night time which made everything very obscure.
"OUCH!!" Jentekai whimpered as she slammed into a crystal stalagmite jutting
from the ground. She blinked a few times to calm her vision and focus. Despite
the fact that it was extremely dark and biting cold, the cave was beautiful.
Ravishing crystals glistened all over the icy walls and glaciers of diamonds
formed as stalactites and stalagmites in glittering patterns. Scattered about
were several buildings made of shards of ice and glowing with every bit of the
little light that made it in the cave. "Wow..." she whispered to herself. Sure
she had been in the Ice Caves before, but she was very young at the time. Her
parents had carried her up to the top of Terror Mountain and ever since their
death, Jentekai had never left that spot...until now.
She searched for the legendary Snowager which
she'd heard about often from passing by Lupes or Bruces. She could only hope
it would give her what she needed.
"Hey you!" Jentekai swung around. A bundled up
Chia stood there in a large red coat holding a snowball. Jentekai frantically
shook in fear. Had she been caught already? No no, she wasn't doing anything
wrong, at least yet. The Chia spoke. "Have-"
"No I'm not headed towards the Snowager!!" she
cried out of anxiety, squinting her face in fear for what she'd just done. The
Chia blinked. After a moment of awkward silence, he spoke.
"I was just going to ask if you've seen a Bruce
with a purple coat around here anywhere. We were having a snowball fight."
"Oh," Jentekai said in embarrassment. She gave
a nervous laugh and slowly walked away.
"Hey wait!" called the Chia. Jentekai turned
back around. "You say you were going to visit the Snowager? Well...I...just
happen to know that it is very dangerous to do that so..I...uh...could I come?"
Now it was Jentekai's turn to blink in astonishment. She didn't exactly want
to bring the Chia along, she was a thief herself afterall, but his face was
so anxious to come along, she couldn't help but say okay. "All right!" cried
the Chia. "By the way, my name is Daleyen."
"Okay, well come on." Jentekai said and they
both set out. Daleyen lead the way to the Snowager. They entered a vast cavern
and the cold chill inside the cave got terribly worse. "Wow...no way!" Jentekai
whispered with amazement. As they approached the middle of the cavern, little
tiny gleams of light came from an enormous pile of rare Neopian items. Thoughts
of all the money that could be made off of these items and finally being able
to buy a Neohome for her siblings and living the good life, and her brother
and sister not sick anymore zipped through her head like an angry mosquito.
Jentekai began to run towards the items but Daleyen
stopped her. He then pointed at the giant guardian of all of this treasure.
Atop the giant hoard of rare items was a worm, not just any worm though, a worm
like a dragon made of ice. It had hollow, blank eyes that sent chills down both
Neopet's spines. The colors of cyan and teal reflected off its icy body.
"The Snowager," Jentekai said to herself. It
was awake, but it had not yet seen them. Daleyen motioned with his hands to
keep quiet and unseen. The young Ixi nodded. She slowly crept over to the side
of the pile where the Snowager was not facing, and reached for an item...slowly..carefully....
BAM!!!
Jentekai woke up with a searing headache lying
down next to the entrance of the cave. She only remembered seeing a humongous
icy tail come pelting at her, getting the wind knocked out of her, and flying
in the opposite direction faster than a Poogle in the Poogle Races. Jentekai
wobbly stood up. It took a moment for the room to stop spinning. Daleyen was
distracting the Snowager somehow, he had apparently gotten an item from it and
was keeping it from attacking her. Of course, Jentekai was no amateur at fighting.
She ran after Daleyen who was terribly worn out.
"GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!" she bellowed.
"ARE YOU CRAZY? YOU LEAVE! I CAN HANDLE THIS!"
Daleyen hollered back. But Jentekai wouldn't dare leave him. She grabbed an
item from the Snowager's treasure, ran as far away from Daleyen as possible,
and made hollering noises at the Snowager. Sure enough, the Snowager left Daleyen
and followed Jentekai. She ran around the hoard of treasure several times, rolling
on the ground and ducking and jumping to dodge the Snowager's tail. Suddenly,
an icy cold blast of air swirled around her and then hardened. Jentekai was
frozen. She could not move, could not make a noise, could not hear anything
except her own heartbeat. Her breath fogged up the icy around her face. All
she could see was the large head of the Snowager's come bolting at her, dagger-like
fangs protruding, through a tiny speck of ice that acted as a mirror to see
behind her.
Suddenly, it was as if everything was in slow
motion. Jentekai knew this was the end, knew she would never see her brothers
or sisters again, knew she would never see Daleyen again, knew she would see
her parents for the first time in a long time. She closed her eyes in fear of
knowing what was coming. A sorrowful tear came out and slid down her furry face.
The tear reached her chin and froze, leaving a glistening line of ice down her
face.
The Snowager was now a few feet away... one foot,
half a foot, and inch... half an inch.... The roar if it could be heard through
the silent block of ice which she stood in. Jentekai screamed a helpless scream,
overpowering the maddening sound of her heartbeat, and then it stopped. The
Snowager stopped. It was not moving. Jentekai looked into the far corner of
her eye to see the Snowager completely still. Suddenly, two shadows appeared
in view through the fogginess of the ice she was in, and a few moments later,
Jentekai was free from the ice block. Daleyen and a faerie stood before her.
"I went to go get help, so I got the Negg Faerie,"
Daleyen said joyfully. Jentekai smiled.
"But how did you stop her?" she asked. The Negg
Faerie looked at the Snowager.
"Fire Muffin," she said simply. "Those little
sparks come in real handy once and a while, but we'd better go, it won't last
long. I threw it at the Snowager and its burn must have shocked the Snowager
enough to stop moving. Come on, let's get out of here!"
Jentekai, Daleyen, and the Negg Faerie quickly
sprinted out of the cavern and into the Ice Caves. It was early morning. A few
rays of golden sunlight peered through the entrance and exit of the cave, lighting
it up brilliantly.
"Thank you," Jentekai said. "For saving me and
helping me, I'm sorry I don't have anything to give you." Daleyen looked as
though he could hold back his little Chia smile no more.
"Heehee! Look at this!" he cried. "I know how
much you must have wanted out of that treasure, so I picked up these on my way
out." He pulled out from behind his back a Tongue Shrinker and a Neomites Injection.
"Healing stuff! Sorry I don't know if you even need these or not but they were
the only things that I was able to get."
"No no!" Jentekai cried. "Those are EXACTLY what
I needed! Thank you! Thank you!" She rushed over and gave him a great big Ixi
hug.
It was just a little while later that Jentekai
left her two new friends. The Negg Faerie had to stay to work at the Neggery,
and Daleyen still had to beat his friend at their snowball fight, but of course
he promised to visit. Jentekai waved goodbye to them and left the Ice Caves
to the top of Terror Mountain. She happily skipped along in the morning sun,
holding the two healing items on her back. She arrived a little while later
to see her little brothers and sisters still curled up together.
"Where were you?!" they all jumped out and shouted
as she approached them. She only smiled.
"Where are Narlaki and Tomakei?" she said. Her
siblings moved out of the way to show one pale red and one pale blue Ixi lying
on their sides, terribly sick. Jentekai opened each of the injections and let
her brother and sister take them. Instantly, the color of their fur became more
bold and they both stood up. Everyone cheered and began playing about, celebrating
as if it were Christmas.
It was just last night the Jetenkai wanted to
be living the rich and "supposedly" happier life. But at that moment, she could
have wanted nothing more than what she had right now, and that was her family.
The End
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