It was raining outside, a condition that led to all three of
us gathering in my house to chat and let our pets visit. My brother had drug
himself out of his lab (that I built for him, in my house) and was actually
being social. Never mind the fact he doesn't have a NeoPet and spends all day
cooped up inventing stuff. Melody was here, along with her Kougra, Padiglione.
So were Chaos_blaze with his Eyrie Tyrael, and Drcao with his Techo, Fezheta.
We were sitting around the table, drinking soda, while our pets played in the
next room. I cringed as another crash signified another mess to clean up.
"Next time, we meet at Drcao's house," I muttered.
He just shook his head and took another drink.
"Hey guys, you been following the invasion of Sakhmet?" my
brother asked.
"Duh," Melody replied. "This concerns all of us."
"It's pretty inspiring stuff though," Chaos_blaze said thoughtfully.
"All the NeoPets, banding together to save the city."
"That's nothing," I said. "I've saved the Neopia."
There was silence, then everyone burst out laughing.
"No, I'm not kidding!" I said. "Listen. It happened several
weeks ago…
"I was walking to the Haunted Woods, my Eyrie was with me.
It was a sunny day, and there was no other person in sight. I had some of that
powder you made, bro."
"Yeah, I remember that. It was cool stuff."
"That's right. It creates a big flash of light, colours, a bang,
sparkles, etc. Anyway, I was going to show it to you, Chaos_blaze. We were walking
through a field, when there was a big flash of light a little ways away. It
looked like a meteor had hit or something! Me and Un-eairkagh ran over there,
curious, and we couldn't believe what we saw. It was a man. He was just standing
there, his back turned away from us. He held in one hand this animal horn, totally
black and carved with strange runes. I still don't know what kind of an animal
it was from, but the thing just seemed, wrong. It seemed to suck light into
it, and exuded power. I got goose bumps just being near it. Eair was scared
too, cause he just kinda sunk into the grass and lay there, utterly petrified.
Then the man turned around. He looked a little confused. I was pretty speechless
myself. I remember he was wearing this cool quartz amulet.
He asked me, "What is this place?"
I said, "It's near the Haunted Forest." He shook
his head and said I needed to be more general than that. So I told him it's
Neopia. He seemed pretty satisfied with that. I asked him where he came from.
"From a petty world of no consequence," he replied airily.
"So you're not from Neopia?" I asked.
"No, of course not. What is that?" he asked, pointing at Un-eairkagh.
"That's my NeoPet. His name's Un-eairkagh, and he's an
Eyrie."
He just nodded, still staring at Eair.
"Why are you here," Eair asked, finally finding his voice at
last.
"I'm here to take control of this world," he said grandly.
I couldn't move for a second. We couldn't contend with two
people trying to destroy us! First Sloth, and then, whoever the heck this guy
was.
"How do you plan to do that?" I asked calmly, as if trying
to take over the world was the most natural thing in the world.
"With this!" he cried grandly, brandishing the horn. Lightning
crackled around it and then dissipated with a roar. Un-eairkagh cowered, but
I didn't move a muscle. I had the first glimmerings of a plan. This guy was
new to our world, and if I could bluff him well enough, I might be able to save
us all.
"You mean you need an artifact to use magic?" I said incredulously.
"What do you mean?" he demanded angrily.
"Well," I said, doing my best to sound confused. "We can use
magic anytime we want. Can't you?"
"You mean every citizen of this planet can use magic, freely?"
he said slowly.
"Yeah. We always have," pretending to be astonished.
He got a malicious grin.
"Prove it," he said calmly.
"Well, okay."
I had already grabbed a handful of the powder and clenched
it tightly in my right fist. Contact with air would set it off.
"Spirits of air, I summon you!" I cried, throwing the powder
in the air. There was a bright flash of light and a loud whooshing noise. The
man had staggered back, and gaped at the blue sparkles slowly drifting to the
ground.
"See?" I said sweetly.
He gaped at me a few minutes, swallowed hard, and backed up
a couple dozen paces. I continued to gaze at him with what I thought was a speculative
look. He waved the horn in the air and said something, and vanished with a burst
of light. Returning to wherever he had came from, I guess.
"You are so full of it," Chaos_blaze said, laughing.
"No, I'm serious!" I said.
Just then, there was another large crash, and we all leaped
to our feet to see what our pets had destroyed. All four were sitting sheepishly
in the next room.
"You knocked a hole in the wall!!" Melody shrieked.
They just hung their heads.
"Alright, everyone outside!" I ordered.
My friends collected their wayward pets and directed them outside,
scolding them soundly. Un-eairkagh stayed behind.
"I'm sorry," he said, ashamed.
I just shook my head in disbelief.
"A hole in the wall."
"I heard you telling your friends about that guy."
"Yeah, they don't believe me."
"Perhaps that's for the better," he said quietly, then walked
away.
It was several hours later, my friends had all gone home.
I was in my room, thinking. What had Un-eairkagh meant, that it was for the
better? Oh well. I stood and walked over to my dresser. I pulled it open and
dug to the bottom, pulling out a strange quartz amulet. I rolled it in my hands
thoughtfully.
"And after he vanished, I looked around the spot, finding in
the middle of a patch of scorched grass, his amulet. The knot must have come
undone," I said out loud.
I put the amulet back in my drawer. The story was finished.
The End | 
