"All right, I have no clue where the tree is in the Haunted
Woods," I confessed, "but I know that we sort of drop from here, and we should
land somewhere on the edge of Neopia. From there we go south."
"Sounds good to me," Phoenix said. "Lead the
way, Encyclopaedia."
It was early morning, and we were walking around
Faerieland. Only a few Neopians went by, too preoccupied to notice us. This
time yesterday I was spinning my web hopelessly, and now I had two good friends
and a place to go to. I couldn't see anything better, but the feeling of being
on top of the world didn't last.
We reached the edge of Faerieland.
"I could fly down," Phoenix suggested.
"Okay," I said. "But what about Bip and I?"
"I could bounce down with you, Dylan," Bip replied.
The very thought made my eight legs tremble,
but, having no other choice, I went along with it. When Phoenix started to slowly
fly down, I carefully gripped Bip. He only had two short arms, but I held on
tight to them. Then--
Boing! Boing! Boi--
We were airborne, and falling! I was terrified
as we fell all the way down. Spyders aren't afraid of heights, but we're not
the best skydivers. So the drop seemed to me like an hour, but it was probably
only less than a minute. When I saw that we were nearing the bottom, I gingerly
let go of Bip, and smoothly landed.
BOING! "Be right baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!"
Bip called.
I shook my head and sighed. He'd be bouncing
forever!
"I'm here!" Phoenix shouted down to me. He flapped
his tiny Floud wings until he touched the ground. "Spin a web--that'll stop
him!"
Of course! Quickly, I set to work spinning a
little web. I preferred the corners of walls to build on, but here I had no
choice. It would probably take him a minute to go up and a minute to come down--not
enough time to spin a fine web, but I could make a crude one he could stick
to. And sure enough, he landed right on the web. He almost bounced back up again,
but he was caught.
"Ahhh!"
Bip's bouncer was stuck in the web. He ripped
out of the web and toppled sideways into it. But that was enough--he was grounded.
"Are you okay?" I asked him.
"Yeah," he said. "Um...Dylan, I appreciate you
trying to help and all, but could you cut me lose?"
I did, and soon enough the three of us--Bip bouncing,
and Phoenix flying, and I crawling--were on our way to the tree. "I can't remember
the name of it," I told them, "but it's something like the Knowledge Tree or
Brain Tree. We can ask it when we get there."
For most of the day we were traveling on flat
terrain, and by nightfall we reached the edge of the woods.
"I can't see very well in the dark," Bip pointed
out.
"Neither can I," Phoenix said. "I'm not one of
those fancy light-up petpets."
"Well, I'm pretty much nocturnal. I can point
you guys in the right direction if you keep close."
"Okay, Dylan," Bip said, bouncing slightly. "B'eh!
I'm tangled in something!"
"It's just a bush," I sighed, pulling him out
of it. "Okay, Phoenix, you have to hold on to Bip while you fly. I'll go beneath
you and tell you where to go."
"Got it," Phoenix agreed. He held onto Bip, and
began to hover above me.
"Okay, fly until you reach that tree over there,"
I directed. While he flied, I crawled, and we spent a good hour or two traveling
like that. The red eyes that seemed to watch us from every direction didn't
daunt us. Most of them were probably other Spyders, anyway.
Finally Phoenix and I were too tired to go on
much farther, and we settled by a tree to sleep for the night: three petpets
without a clue where we were headed, but determined to get there. The night
faded like a blur, and I can't remember much of it. It was quiet, so quiet I
was afraid that if I so much as sneezed everything would explode. I was unsettling,
but at last I fell asleep.
In the morning, a bit of light peeked through
the canopy of the woods enough for Bip to see where he was about to bounce,
so he bounced along as Phoenix and I talked.
"How old are you?" Phoenix asked, still a bit
sleepy.
"Around four hundred days," I replied. "Petpets
don't have birthdays."
"I'm 328 days old," he said. "I always keep track,
and Flouds look dumb, but I'm really smart."
"Yeah," I sighed. "It's too bad that Neopia is
made for the humans and the pets."
"Petpets aren't that important. We really are
only there to make the pets happy, and if we're not good-looking or expensive
enough, we get chucked out or sold."
"I guess."
He looked up at the breaking sky, or what was
visible of it through the trees. "Encyclopaedia, have you ever wondered why
some petpets are born wanted, or can turn into Neopets, but others are destined
to suffer a horrible fate?"
Again with the "Encyclopaedia" insult. Just because
I knew a lot, he had to joke. "I think those petpets who can turn into Neopets
have the worse fate, Phoenix. A good lot of them are only bought to make the
owners look rich. The same for painted petpets. It's us, the commons, that have
all the fun."
He didn't seem to understand that.
"I mean, we're bought because we're loved, and
are special in our own way, not because we look glamorous. And every petpet
can change his or her destiny."
Phoenix was silent for a moment. "I guess you're
right," he admitted. "My owner thought I was all fancy and expensive, but when
he found out about things like Moltenores and Kookiths, I was thrown out like
a broken toy. My owner didn't even bother to sell me."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay. But what about you? Why are you alone,
Encyclopaedia?"
I sighed. Would he ever give up that nickname? "I
ran away. My owner was about to merge me with a Poppit to make a Spoppy."
"Bip?"
I laughed. "Eek, that would be horrible! But
no, it was another Poppit. I ran away, and haven't seen my owner since." I tried
to picture the once-familiar face I never wanted to see again. "A Red Shoyru,"
I said. "I don't remember his name. He was my owner."
"Mine was a Chia, some kind of fruit Chia. Gross,
really. All he did was eat!"
We laughed together for awhile, and then Bip
returned with some berries for us to eat. Poor Bip, I thought. He
seems like he's a month old. And he probably is. Most likely dumped before he
could learn to talk.
"We must be almost there," I said after much
silence, munching on my last berry. "The middle of the Haunted Woods is supposed
to be pretty settled. We'll find it."
We set off, and soon enough, we found it. There
were some shops, a witch's house, a moaning pile of mud, but in the centre of
the little village was a huge tree with a pulsating brain.
"Hello, come to do my quest?" he asked with a
vile grin.
"Quest?" Phoenix asked. "Who are you?"
"I am the great and mighty Brain Tree! If you
get the information I want, I shall reward you with anything you seek."
"Can you tell us where the Hidden Tower is?"
"Usula Nimmo died a long time ago, and I need
to know where, and when, for my records. You must go and find this information
out. Return to me within 46 minutes, and I shall give you a prize," he announced.
I looked at Phoenix. He shook his head. Bip didn't
know, either.
"Um..."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Go ask the Esophagor!"
He lifted a root and flung us toward the pile of mud.
"Feeeed meeeee. Soooo huuuungry..."
Now I understood. Next to the mud pile was a
battered sign that read:
THE ESOPHAGOR
"If we feed you, will you tell us something?"
Bip asked it.
"Feeeeed meeeee. Youuuuu caaaanot fiiiiiiind
meeeee fooooooood."
"You can say that again," I said, disgusted that
he'd ask for help and sort of insult us. Why would a pile of mud want food,
anyway? "Come on, guys. Our common-petpet trio won't get any help here." I dragged
Bip along and Phoenix followed.
"Mister Brain Tree, my friends and I here really
want to know something. Phoenix here has been known to explode and set things
on fire. I can bite really, REALLY hard, and get all my other Spyder relatives
in the forest here to spin enough cobwebs to make you look like a Brain Mummy,
and--"
"You must tell me what I need to know first,"
the tree interjected. "When did--"
"--and my little Poppit friend here has the power
to annoy like only Poppits can."
"Ahh!" it said, holding up its roots to protect
itself. "I'll tell you anything you want to know! ANYTHING! You didn't tell
me that Poppit was annoying! I hate annoying things! NOOOOOOOOOOO! I...."
Bip looked at me and rolled his eyes while the
Brain Tree rambled on. Phoenix had a look of admiration on his face that seemed
to say, "Dude."
"We need to know where the Hidden Tower is,"
I told the tree. "How do we find it?"
"Keep the Poppit away from me!" he yelled, closing
his eyes. "Go up to Faerieland, into Faerie City, and look to the left of a
big castle-thing in the centre You'll see a lot of wannabe Faeries there, practising
their flying skills. When you hear a thud sound and see one drop in mid-air,
go there. That's the Hidden Tower. The door is easy enough to find--just feel
your way around for it, it's always open. GO!"
As we ran out to avoid the roots that kept trying
to whack us, I shouted out to Phoenix. "And that, my friend," I called, "is
skill."
To be continued... | 
