The sky grew darker, and so did her imagination. Even with the light of the full moon filtering down, tree branches still seemed to become grasping claws, and bushes were now crouching monsters. The glowing yellow eyes of what she hoped were only Korbats stared at her from the trees.

From the nearby bushes she heard the loud snapping of a twig. Karli froze in fear. "H-h-hello? Is-is anybody there?" she stammered. Her voice was met only by low growl emanating from the bush next to her. Karli backed away slowly.

Suddenly leaping out of the bushes and knocking the Acara to the ground, was the fiercest, most ferocious-looking WereLupe she could have possibly imagined. It roared savagely and towered over the frightened pet, who was desperately trying to scramble away backwards, too horror-struck to take her eyes off the beast.

The WereLupe lounged and snapped it's jaws at her. Karli finally managed to get onto her feet, and began running for dear life. She could hear the pounding feet of the creature right behind her. Knowing she could not keep this pace for much longer. She looked desperately for a way to escape. To her left she spotted a tall tree. I hope Lupes can't climb a trees, she thought.

Karli skidded around and ducked. The WereLupe shot past her, it's weight not allowing it to be as quick and agile as the Acara. Karli wasted no time scampering up the tree. Just as she hooked her paw around the first branch though, she felt a searing pain in her leg. Looking down she saw the Lupe gripping her furry, checkered leg in its jaws. She scratched at the huge muzzle with her other clawed foot, causing the beast to momentarily drop down snarling, but immediately it lunged back up. Karli had safely gotten to one of the higher branches though, far out of its reach. She huddled on the branch as the Lupe endlessly paced around the bottom of the tree. Eventually, exhaustion overtook her, and she fell into a fitful sleep.

When the sun rose the next morning, it took a while for her to realize where she was. The WereLupe had left, and the forest didn't look nearly as foreboding in the light of day. She hopped out of the tree, her back leg stinging as she landed. She quickly ran home, grabbed her books and headed for school. Arriving early, she decided to head towards the library and find out how to properly treat a WereLupe bite...

Ahh! It's followed me! her mind screamed, while her heart beat a thousand times a minute. "It's gonna EAT ME!!! Aaaaagggggghhhhh!!!"

She ran through the gates closing them quickly behind her not even daring to look behind. Karli had always had an overactive imagination. To her everything was ten times worse than it actually was.

"Ohh!" she sighed. "My leg, it's stinging!"

As she limped towards the library, Karli saw her friend Shelley the red Ixi coming towards her, with a confused expression on her face. "Why on earth did you scream and close the gate on me Karli?" she asked, then immediately noticed the strangely colored gash on the Acara's leg. Her eyes widened.

"That's a WereLupe bite!" she gasped. "Quick, follow me to the library!"

Shelley and Karli were the best of friends and always shared the same ideas. As quickly as possible, they raced to the library to look up the cures for WereLupe bites.

They'd searched for no more than five minutes when Shelley found something. A book as red as ruby with the name WereLupes and their Effects stood out on the dusty book shelf. She was quite anxious about the title; it didn't sound very promising.

"Effects?" whispered Shelley to herself trying not to alarm her best friend. She quickly scanned the pages until she came across the section on bites.

"Oh my goodness!" she shouted so loud that she made Karli jump out of her skin. She ran over to Shelley who stared at her friend with eyes of terror.

"What is it?" Karli asked, tears welling in her eyes.

"You're not going to like this."

They peered at the page, and it read...

At that moment, Karli burst out into even louder tears.

"Don't cry, Karli," Shelley told her best friend. "It does say that there's a cure..."

"Fortunately, there is a cure," the passage went on. "The bitten victim should find a bottle of gold sand, and a WereLupe fang. Crush the WereLupe fang into dust, mix that with the gold sand, and on the night of the next full moon, they should throw it onto themselves, and then return to their normal state permanently..."

Karli had dried her eyes, and was now giving a hopeless sigh. "How in all of Neopia are we going to find gold sand! They don't even sell it in the marketplace! And who would be crazy enough to go and get a WereLupe fang?"

"I don't know Karli, but if you want any hope of being normal again and not going on a biting-spree, then we've got to find those," Shelley told her. "I think the first thing we should do is go to the marketplace, and see if they do know anything about the gold sand. It must exist somewhere..."

The two friends left for school. After school was done, they ran straight to the marketplace. They visited several shops they thought might have it, but the shopkeepers had never heard of gold sand. The two friends started to leave the marketplace, when they noticed this really old and creepy store a little ways off. The store's name was "Magic, Nature, and Spells". It apparently looked run-down, yet they walked over anyway. As they reached the porch, the steps creaked under their weight. Karli and Shelley took one step, then another, and finally got to the door. The friends looked at each other for some courage, and opened the door...

Shelley followed her friend into the shop, poking curiously at an old book. To her chagrin, the pages crumbled into dust at her touch. "I don't think anyone's been here in a long time, Karli," she said sadly. "We'd better go."

"Then who's that?" Karli pointed at a dusty desk, nearly lost amid the clutter of arcane objects.Slumped over it, and apparently snoring, was an old Eyrie, whose head rested on another ancient book.

At the sound of Karli's voice, the Eyrie's eyes flew open, and he stared wildly around the shop for a few moments before his gaze came to rest on the two friends. "What? What?" he squawked. "Who are you?"

"We're looking for some gold sand and a WereLupe fang, sir," Karli said boldly. "Can you help us?"

The Eyrie blinked his eyes. "I suppose...gold sand, eh?" He left the desk and began to wander among the crowded shelves, occasionally picking up a bottle, glaring at it, and replacing it.

Karli and Shelley followed him, each beginning to suspect that the old shopkeeper was more than a little odd. "He didn't even ask why we needed the sand," Shelley muttered to the Acara. "He's definitely strange."

"At least he's looking for it," Karli replied. "That means he knows what it is, which is more than the other shops knew." Shelley nodded. "Let's go back to the doorway. He'll come find us when he gets the sand... and this place is really starting to creep me out." The two made their way out of the tangle of shelves and to the bright sunlight of the door, where they sat down and waited for the Eyrie.

The old Eyrie came back shaking his head. "Sorry," he said. "We're all out of gold sand and WereLupe fangs. I know where you can get some, though."

"Where?" asked Karli. "Please, sir, tell us."

The shopkeeper seemed a little surprised by her eagerness, but he picked up a book and opened it to an illustration of a very creepy looking place. "The golden sand is only found naturally in this area of the Haunted Woods..."

Karli swallowed hard, "Are you sure this is the correct place?" she asked, but the Eyrie was already asleep again. No matter how hard they shook, the Eyrie simply did not wake up. "What a strange guy," muttered Karli under his breath.

Shelly looked at Karli. "Well, we better get going?"

"Are you out of your mind?" screamed Karli.

"But it's our only chance!"

"I'm not going," said Karli stubbornly.

"Fine, then you can be a WereAcara for all you want and start to turn everyone around you into Werecreatures! I am utterly disappointed in you. Are you going to endanger the lives of everyone around you just because of your fear? Besides, I am not the one being affected by this and yet I am willing to accompany you into the Deserted Fairground! Do you not feel ashamed of yourself?" retorted Shelly.

Karli realized her mistake. She hung her head in shame. "I'm sorry. Let's go."

Shelly smiled. "Remember, whatever happens, we must stick together. We must be there for each other in times of need."

Karli nodded, and they set off for the Deserted Fairground. It was a long way, but with accompaniment, Karli felt pretty safe and secured while venturing into the depths of this eerie and unfamiliar land. Perhaps it was her friend's strength of will that gave her the courage. At last, they reached the gates of the deserted fairground. Suddenly, Karli noticed that Shelly had disappeared.

"Shelly, where are you?" Karli screamed in fright, "Don't scare me!"

"I'm right here silly." Karli saw Shelly opening the grimy and rusty gates of the Deserted Fairground. "Let's find the golden sand quick and get out of here," said Shelly.

The pets slowly made their way into the fairground...

"I don't like this place very much Shelley," muttered Karli, her eyes scanning the area. "It feels... weird."

"Look," said Shelley calmly. "I know this place is scary but we have to find this gold sand. Besides, you're with me, the bravest Ixi in Neopia! So come on. Pull yourself together."

With those words, Karli felt a little braver, especially with Shelley by her side. Together they walked on through the eerie darkness not aware of the creatures that surrounded them.

They hadn't gotten far when Shelley saw something in the distance.

"Do you see that?" asked Shelley pointing to a wheel of some sort.

"Yes. It looks like the Wheel of Excitement. Lets check it out."

As they got nearer the wheel they could clearly see all the different sections on the wheel. However, only one caught Karli's eye.

"It's the gold sand!" she gasped. "We can win it from the wheel! Come on let's give it a spin!"

"Hey don't be so quick to judge the wheel," Shelley warned. "It is in the Deserted Fairground after all."

Karli took her friend's words into consideration, and examined the wheel first. To their horror, some of the sections didn't seem real. They were too gross to be real. However, one stuck out more than any other.

It was a picture of the fairground only it was infested with WereLupes and other hideous creatures. Karli shuddered.

"Well we can't just stand here. We have to do this."

Without a second word, Shelley advanced towards the wheel. After a few moments of thinking, she spun it. It spun round and round and the colours were a blur. As it slowed down both their hearts lurched as they watched; hoping that the pointer wouldn't land on something awful.

The picture of the gold sand was getting nearer and the wheel was slowing down dramatically, almost coming to a stop. Shelley and Karli closed their eyes; they just couldn't bare to watch.

As they opened their eyes, they were overcome with a sudden shock...

Shelley tried to overcome her fear, but found she could only shreik, "Spin the wheel! SPIN THE WHEEL!" Karli was frozen with fear. The words hardly reached her mind, and when they did, she found she couldn't move her legs. They felt like bars of iron held down by quicksand. The creatures were coming closer. Karli wasn't moving any faster, and Shelley was rooted to the ground. "S-s-sp-spin th-the wheel! I c-can't do it again fo-r-r two hours," Shelley stammered, her teeth chattering.

Karli finally gathered herself and was reaching for the soggy wooden edge of the wheel, when suddenly the creatures pounced. Karli suddenly felt her legs come back, but now she was prancing about in fear, crossing her fingers. "Please, please, please... golden sand, golden sand!" Meanwhile Shelley was having problems of her own dodging creatures, and by the second getting farther away from her friend. The wheel stopped. A glistening bottle came out of the air and landed in Karli's trembling paws. "RUN FOR IT! RUN, SHELLEY! RUN!" she screamed, and found herself running faster than she ever had, whisking out of the ground gates with Shelley shortly behind her.

They panted hard, trying to lock the broken chain hanging from the gate. "T-that w-w-was a-" Shelley hardly had time to finish the sentence when a huge claw scraped over the gate at her. She screamed and dodged, then the two found themselves running for their lives again.

"Where to now?" Karli shouted with the little breath left in her.

"I don't know! Why don't we go back there and pull a tooth out?"

"That's impossible!" Karli shouted back. They had come to a marsh, panting hard for breath. "G-go back there? Are you crazy? The place is swarming with WereCreatures!"

Shelley shot her a strange smile. "Exactly. We just have to..." she trailed off. They heard something rustling in the bushes and held each other tightly by the fur, trembling uncontrollably. Karli thought she saw a red glint in the foliage, but couldn't speak. "M-m-m-maybe i-it'sss a-a-a K-K-K-Korbat..." Shelley moaned miserably.

They heard branches being trampled under paw. "O-o-o-o-o-r-r-r- a-a L-Lupe..." Karli muttered. Then a horrible image came to their minds.

"O-o-o-r-r-r a W-Were-L-Lupe!" they screamed. It seemed as though the next thing that happened came right on cue, because just then a huge foreboding figure jumped out of the foilage, making the two pets jump out of their fur...

"Oh, good it's you. I didn't mean to frighten you, but there was something I forgot to tell you," said the figure in an old, almost cheerful voice. It walked over to the duo, and held up a lantern, and what the girls saw was none other than the old shop owner they had met earlier.

"It's-It's you," Shelley said, out of breath and traumatized. She looked at Karli, and found she was frozen with fear, then, she fell back, and woke from her spell.

"Aww..." Karli said rubbing her bottom, which she had fallen on quite hard. She looked up at the old Eyrie, and screamed again. "AHHHH! A WERE-EYRIE!"

"Oh dear no, I'm not a were-creature. My goodness, I come to offer help, and get treated like a wild beast! Kids these days, no respect..." he muttered to himself.

"Oh, I'm s-sorry, I wasn't thinking, I d-didn't get a good look at y-you," Karli said, still frightened.

"Yes, and I suppose that WereLupe bite messed up your eyesight?" the Eyrie said, looking at Karli's leg, then back at her.

She looked down at her leg, then got her thoughts back in order. "Oh! Oh no sir," Karli said, a little embarrassed. "But, how did you know?" she asked.

"A WereLupe bite, isn't a hard bite to miss, and it looks like you've got a bad case, if I do say so myself."

"So then, why did you come out here to find us?" Shelley said, she had been itching to ask him for a while.

"I came to tell you that the book you obviously got the information from, was out of date," the Eyrie said. Karli and Shelley looked at each other nervously, not daring to ask for what they really needed. But they knew they had to.

"And what was it that Karli needs?" Shelley asked slowly.

"You can't just go pulling out any old were-tooth." he said, looking at the two very closely, making sure they took in everything he said. "You need the tooth of a silver WereLupe." he said, and a flash of thunder and lightning shook the sky. "Oh boy, this is just like one of those horror movies," the old Eyrie said, looking up at the now rainy sky.

"'Oh boy,' is right," Karli said under her breath. "One minute he's about to give me a heart attack, and the next he's talking about horror movies."

"Um, sir? Where exactly are we going to find a silver WereLupe to get a tooth from?" Shelley asked the Eyrie, after thinking about it for a little while, but when she looked at him while asking the question, she found he had fallen asleep again. "HHHHEEEEELLLLLLOOOOO!" she yelled in his ear, but the old Neopet just flinched and rolled over. Shelley walked away and sat on an old stump.

"My gosh how strange is he?" Karli said, poking him in the side. But when she looked at Shelley, she looked very worried. "What's wrong?" she asked her.

"We have to go back to the Deserted Fairground," Shelley said.

"What?! Are you crazy?!" Karli yelled.

"No, when we spun the wheel, in the picture of the evil creatures, I saw a huge silver WereLupe standing behind them all..."

"Maybe, but did you forget it is full moon TONIGHT!?" Shelley reminded her.

"I-i-it's a-a-a," stammered Karli.

"Yeah, it's dusk, so we have to do something soon," agreed Shelley.

"No, I m-mean it's a g-giant W-w-ereLupe and it's st-standing right b-behind you!"

Shelley screamed and they took off, running as fast as possible. In her pure terror, Karli easily outdistanced her friend, but turned back instantly as the Ixi's terrified scream echoed through the woods.

Standing right behind her was the biggest Lupe she'd ever seen, shining a bright metallic gray in the now rising moon. It had her cornered against a large oak tree.

The silver beast lunged at her, but she managed to dodge it. One of the creature's fangs buried itself in the old tree, right where Shelley's head had just been.

Furious, the WereLupe yanked as hard as it could, but still couldn't loosen it. Finally, with a sickening crack the tooth broke loose from its owner's mouth. The WereLupe fell hard to the ground in surprise.

"A silver WereLupe tooth!" Shelley screamed.

Taking advantage of the Lupe's state of shock, Karli wrenched it free from the tree. She laid the tooth on a flat rock, and picking up another in her hand, smashed the tooth into dust. The WereLupe was quickly gathering itself, and began snarling. Karli dumped the tooth powder into the jar of golden sand, and froze.

"Quick, what are you waiting for? Dump it on your head!" Shelly screeched.

But it was too late, the moon had emerged from behind the mountains.

"No!!" Shelley yelled. She leapt onto her friend, and forced her to the ground, knocking the silver WereLupe back over again in the process. She grabbed the bottle of sand from her friends clenched hand and dumped it on her.

"Karli! Karli! Are you okay?" she yelled, shaking her friend's shoulders.

Karli's eyes snapped open. "Will you please get off of me?"

"Yeah, it's you again!" Shelley hugged as hard as she could.

However, the girls' happy moment was interrupted by an angry snarl from behind them...

Suddenly, with a whooshing sound and a whirl of feathers and talons, the WereLupe's eyes flashed, and it gave a horrific roar that reverberated across the entire fairgrounds.

"It's him! That lazy ol' shopkeeper! He's come to help!" Karli cried gleefully.

Indeed, the old Eyrie apparently still had some of his youth to spare as he struck gracefully out with his walking staff at the WereLupe's head. Stumbling back, the Lupe clutched its throbbing head with a set of gargantuan paws. The Lupe sprung back, and started to charge at the Eyrie with incredible power. But the Eyrie casually stepped to the side with the shift of his claws, causing the WereLupe to run headlong into a solid maple tree.

Karli and Shelley, mouth gaping open in disbelief, tiptoed up to the fallen Lupe, and examined it. Its eyes were shut. However, Karli said, "Look! He's still breathing." Sure enough, the Lupe's sides were rising and falling with raspy breaths taken by the wounded creature. It was a sight that Shelley and Karli felt depressed to lay eyes upon.

"Just think, that WereLupe is really a normal Neopet, unable to restrain his condition, forcing him to destroy. Isn't there something we can do?" Shelley queried.

The Eyrie contemplated, then struck an idea.

"Quickly, do you have any more gold powder?" the Eyrie asked.

"Yes! We do." Karli answered glancing at the bottle.

"Listen to me, when you looked at the wheel, what did you notice?" he asked urgently.

"Uh, it spun really fast...?" Shelley trailed off, watching the fairgrounds intently.

"Exactly," the wizened Eyrie said, "if we threw the sand and dust in front of it while we spin the wheel..."

"The powder will spread out, healing all the other WereCreatures!" Karli finished enthusiastically.

Dashing into the foreboding fairground, they dragged the Lupe on a makeshift sled hastily constructed out of sticks and brambles. Approaching the wheel, growls and snarls from dozens of WereCreatures made the trio's skin crawl. The evil shadows enveloped the ground, edging closer and closer as they hurriedly raced to the wheel.

"Hurry, get ready. I will spin the wheel!" yelled the Eyrie.

Strongly grasping the wheel, he threw his weight downwards, and with an almighty squeak the wheel lurched and spun. Karli tossed the sand mixture into the air in front of the wheel, which was creating a fan-like effect. The Eyrie beat his wings furiously to direct the cloud of dust. The golden cloud ascended onto the shadows. The WereCreatures slowly looked up, dazed with the brightness of the shimmering dust.

"It's working! It's really working!" Karli cried in delight.

"Astounding, in all my years..." the Eyrie breathed.

The monstrous creatures' features blurred together, and morphed into the normal faces of the confused Neopians. The giant Lupe's fur became less shaggy, and his body gave a great shudder. The Lupe was revived. He stared at his paws in wonder, and then viewed his heroes.

"T-thank y-you ever s-so much." he stammered. The shock, mixed with relief, was priceless. He ran up and gave a big Lupe-hug to the Eyrie and the two girls.

All the other Neopets filtered out of the fairgrounds, stepping brightly towards their long-awaited homes, hoping never to return. The silver Lupe remained, and his eyes filled with tears of joy.

"Thank you again, I am in your debt for life," he said nobly.

"It's nothing at all..." Shelley and Karli blushed.

And with that, the Lupe sprinted off happily to his home. Karli, Shelley, and the shopkeeper just stared in awe.

"Well, I believe I've had enough adventure for one day," he said.

"Me, too." Shelley sighed.

"I must get back to my shop. I need to catch up on some sleep..." the Eyrie said, winking.

Karli and Shelley skipped off, without a second glance back at the nightmarish fairgrounds. It didn't look as scary as it had before. Happily singing a song, they turned around when the Eyrie yelled, "And I'm NOT lazy!" They just laughed and continued on their way. After all, the next day was a new beginning, and would promise to be a day filled with luck and joy.

The End