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Untitled Document
"Hiloka?" the white Lupe said in an awful, high pitched
voice.
"Yah!" the Ghost Lupe said, jumping back. "Y-you're
not Hiloka!"
"Hiloka?" the Lupe repeated. "Who's Hiloka?
You're last victim? Where were you on the third day of gathering?!?"
"Woah!" said the voice that sounded so much
like Hiloka's. "Slow down Eraicko! Hi, I'm Heather, and this loud Lupe here
is Eraicko." Then a girl with dirty blond hair got out of the bushes.
"You were the one talking?" the Ghost Lupe stammered.
"Yes. I am not a reporter for the Times, but
I wanted to write a biography on you! I mean, if you're a ghost you must have
a reason why you didn't die like a normal creature! And to me that would seem
like an interesting read!" Heather said with a smile.
"Okay," the Ghost Lupe said, hopefully they
would forget about Hiloka. It was so easy; he would just lie to them like he
did to other writers.
"Great! Okay, question number one-"
"Wait a second!" Eraicko cried. "You're just
letting Heather interview you so that we'll forget about that Hiloka person!
I bet you weren't even planning to tell the truth! After all, all the interviews
you have done before are so different!"
The Ghost Lupe backed away nervously. He was
so sure they had forgotten about Hiloka, and that they would not figure out
his secret.
"So, who is she? Was she your last victim? I've
never seen you actually hurt anyone, but I've heard rumors that you have! Or
was she something else?" Eraicko said, a thin smile spreading across her lips.
"Hiloka is no one that concerns you! Forget
about her if you know what's good for you!" the Ghost Lupe growled and then
disappeared with the wind.
"Oh my gosh," Eraicko muttered.
"Yeah. I can't believe he didn't let me interview
him!" Heather whined.
"No you dork! He was so sensitive about that
Hiloka person! She has to be important to him in some way, but how?" Eraicko
muttered thoughtfully.
"Well, we could check the library! They have
everything."
"Great!" Eraicko cried. "Come on, let's go!
It's a long way to Neopian Central, even by boat."
"I hate boats!" Heather whined. "I want to fly!
The Uni Express has a discount this week! Five hundred Neopoints a passenger!
That's about half the regular price!"
"You sound like the commercial! And did you
realize that you make that much a week and if you spend that money we won't
have enough for food! And I am not eating omelettes again!" Eraicko snapped.
"You won't have to! You'll eat jelly, I know
the way to Jelly World. Anyway, it's my money so tough!" Heather said arrogantly
as she started on the way to the Uni Express Port.
Reluctantly, Eraicko followed her and waited
in line for tickets.
"Two tickets please!" Heather said smiling.
"That'll be one thousand Neopoints!" said the
Kiko at the counter.
Eraicko cringed as her owner handed over the
money, but she knew she could not stop her. Also, even though she hated to admit
it, Eraicko really liked flying.
After Heather and Eraicko arrived in Neopia
Central they hurried over to the library.
"Where do you think we will find information
on Hiloka? I've never heard of her before!" Heather cried.
"Neither have I but we have to look! This might
reveal something important, I don't know what but I have a feeling it will,"
Eraicko said with stars in her eyes.
"You'll really excited about this aren't you?"
Heather asked.
Eraicko smiled, "Well, it is a great lead! And
if you can write a story about this I'll never have to eat omelettes again!
I mean, who wouldn't want to buy The Secret of the Ghost Lupe?"
"The Secret of the Ghost Lupe?" Heather
asked.
"That's what I'm going to call this story when
we write it! Look, we're here!" Eraicko cried as they arrived at the black iron
gate of the Neopian Library.
The pet and her owner walked in and looked at
the rows and rows of books.
"It's going to take a long time to look through
all of them," Heather said reluctantly.
"We won't have to. Hiloka's probably old if
she knows the Ghost Lupe and I don't think it's his most recent victim, he probably
would have been less sad about it if she was," Eraicko said thoughtfully.
"You thought he was sad?"
Eraicko nodded, "Yes, I could see it in his
eyes. I think it might have brought back bad memories. I'm not sure though.
Come on, we need to get to work!" And with that Eraicko ran off and grabbed
a big book off the shelf and started searching the index.
Meanwhile, Heather grabbed a table and some
chairs and pulled a few helpful looking books off the shelf.
"What should I look under in the index?" she
asked Eraicko.
"Hiloka I guess. But if they don't have it looking
under the Ghost Lupe wouldn't hurt either," Eraicko replied.
Heather nodded in reply and started searching
through the index.
Two hours later, and no knew information, Eraicko
and Heather were getting tired.
"How do you spell Hiloka again?" Heather muttered.
"H-I-L-O- Oh, now I forgot!" Eraicko cried.
"Oh well, it doesn't matter. We're never going
to find Hiloka!"
"Hiloka?" said an old feeble Uni.
"Yes! Yes! Do you know Hiloka or anything about
her?" Eraicko and Heather cried at the same time.
"Yes, but not so loud! I maybe old but I'm not
deaf! Besides, this is a library!" the Uni said while pulling up a chair. "It
was seventy five years ago and I was a young whipper snapper then. Boy I used
to party harty! I remember one time-"
"Yes, yes. That's very nice and all, but we
really want to learn about Hiloka? Would you mind telling us?" Eraicko said
impatiently.
"Okay! Gosh, young people used to listen to
their elders in my day. Of course, my day's over and you kids want to hear about
Hiloka!" the Uni said spotting the growing annoyance on Heather's and Eraicko's
faces. "She was a beautiful white Lupe from a rich family. Our families were
friends you see.
Her life went on like normal, but then she fell
in love with a dazzling young blue Lupe named Jonoq. He was a great knight and
was very rich. She fell desperately in love with him. They got married and spent
their honeymoon at a big hotel on Mystery Island. All of their friends were
there and I thought that they were perfectly happy, but one day they left. A
Nimmo said that he had taken them to a small island on Jonoq's request and Jonoq
had told him to return in a week. At first we thought that he had gone mad,
but then the maid, who had been spying on them, said that it was actually Hiloka
who wanted to get away because she wanted some privacy. We waited a week but
they never came back. The Nimmo said that Hiloka didn't want to leave. We gave
them a year to sort out their priorities and then we went to the island to see
how they were doing. When we got there though, something was horribly wrong.
It was abandoned. We found two houses and in
one there was a broken window, but that was it. We searched and searched but
didn't find Hiloka anywhere," the Uni said with a frown.
"What happened to Jonoq?" Heather whispered.
"Jonoq? Oh yes, Jonoq. We found him a little
way from the house. He was- he was- Oh, I can't say it! You know what I mean
don't you?"
Eraicko and Heather nodded. It had been such
a sad story they couldn't bring themselves to talk.
"Oh, I've blubbered on long enough! I need to
go. Good-bye girls!" the old Uni said as she walked off, fighting to keep back
tears.
"Goodbye," Heather and Eraicko managed to mutter.
The owner and her pet sat there a while, going
over what they had been told in their heads.
"Well, now we know about Hiloka," Eraicko said.
"But I don't see how she has any connection with the Ghost Lupe. Unless-"
"Unless he kidnapped Hiloka and killed Jonoq!
Think of it, it would be the perfect crime! Her parents where rich and he thought
that he could hold her for hostage and give a big fat amount of Neopoints when
he gave her back! But since he was unknown back then and no one else was on
the island no one ever knew how they where doing on the island until they found
Jonoq a year later! The Ghost Lupe probably abandoned the kidnapping, but dragged
Hiloka along any way because he might have liked her by then! Who knows, the
Ghost Lupe might still have her now!" Heather cried.
"Eew! That means she'd be a little old lady
like that Uni! Poor thing!" Eraicko cried. "But what about Jonoq? He was rich,
why didn't he kidnap him to?
"Well, my guess is that Jonoq was to powerful
for the Ghost Lupe to control, so he just dumped him."
"I'm not sure if that's totally accurate, but
it's the best lead we have! Come on, let's go find the Ghost Lupe!" Eraicko
said.
Then Heather and Eraicko ran out of the library
to go find the Ghost Lupe.
To be continued…
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