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Untitled Document
Pianto and Marana walked carefully down the yellow, jelly
streets. All around them, creatures of all species and colors stared at them.
They gawked and awed at the weird creatures that had found their ways into their
land. All the creatures looked just like regular pets, except that they were made
of jelly.
A blue, Blumaroo-shaped jelly pet stepped out
in front of the two travelers. Pianto and Marana stopped, not knowing what to
do or say. The three looked at each other for a moment. Finally, the jelly-pet
spoke.
"Welcome, travelers," he greeted with a friendly
tone, spreading his blue arms wide open. "You look as though you have come a
long way and are quite weary. Come, eat, rest, you're friends here."
Pianto and Marana looked exchanged strange glances.
They hadn't expected such a warm reception. But, never the less, they followed
the Blumaroo, glad to be accepted.
***
Pianto and Marana sat in a large room, munching away. The meal was comprised
entirely of jelly (of course) as was everything else in the town. Not to say
it was bad. The Gelert and Cybunny, not fully realizing just how hungry they
were until they saw the food, went right to work devouring the buffet.
"I'm the mayor of this town," began the Blumaroo,
"Mayor Jojo Jeltin. And you two are in Jellyworld. By the way, just how did
you get here?"
The explorers explained how they had arrived
there between mouthfuls of Lemon, Lime, Grape, Blueberry, and Cherry jelly.
They told of their happenings on the ferry, being captured by the Jubjubs, the
Myncies, and up to meeting the Great One.
When they were finally finished with their story,
the mayor and a group of others who had heard of the explorers and wanted to
hear the story were left in awe, jaws dropped to the floor.
"Well, it seems that the two of you have come
a long way and survived many life-and-death situations. We would be honored
to have you two as our special guests."
Pianto broke into a smile of which he hadn't
had in quite a while. "It's good to finally meet some friendly people on this
trip, ones who don't want to eat me," he thought to himself.
"And as our guests," the Mayor continued, "we
would be grateful if we could show you around our great city."
"Ya, you bet!" Marana and Pianto burst out at
the same time, wanting to walk off the big meal they had just had.
***
"And this is the Jellyworld Library." The mayor had been showing Marana and
Pianto the town for nearly an hour now. It was quite fascinating although more
than once, Pianto had to resist the urge to eat the buildings. Marana continued
to glance around, as though she was searching for something.
Finally, she couldn't keep it in anymore. "So,
where do you keep the gold?" she blurted out, the smile on her face seemingly
about to stretch itself off. Mayor Jojo returned her smile with a bewildered
look.
"What gold, dear?"
Marana looked stunned. "You know, the treasure.
The treasure the poem talks about."
The mayor plainly didn't understand. "Hunny,
there's no treasure here. Only jelly."
Marana did not attempt to hold back her disappointment.
Tears began to well in her eyes. "You mean, we came all this way for nothing?"
The mayor appeared as though he didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry but there
is no gold here. No treasure at all. Just jelly." Marana, heartbroken, began
to trot sadly back to her hotel room.
***
Pianto found Marana sulking in her room. A few hours had past since she had
made a fool of herself in the street. "So, how you doing?" he asked, walking
in.
Marana looked up from where she sat on the bed.
"The poem was wrong. We came all the way here, but there's no treasure. We traveled
all this way for nothing."
Pianto leaped up on the bed next to her. "Not
exactly, this town, these people… they're the treasure. After all, the poem
never actually said anything about gold, just that we would find 'the treasure
that we seek'.
This didn't seem to make the Cybunny feel better.
"But what are we going to tell everyone when we get home?" she asked, drying
her eyes. Pianto looked at her sympathetically. "We can't tell them anything
about this place. If we do, everyone will come here and it will destroy all
of these peoples' way of life. You and I have to keep this secret."
Marana looked up, terrified. "But, what do we
say when they ask what we found?"
"Just tell them that we didn't find anything,
that we came all this way and found nothing at all."
Marana thought this over for a minute. Then
sadly, her head tilted towards the floor, she nodded her agreement. It was the
right thing to do. The next day, Pianto and Marana said their goodbyes to the
townsfolk and set off, their journey finally complete.
***
Night had fallen by the time the fire Gelert and white Cybunny reached the
outskirts of Neopian Central. The two stood on a ridge, just outside the city
limits, overlooking the city. As the sun fell behind the tall buildings, Pianto
turned to Marana.
"Umm… I'm glad you came with me," he mentioned
nervously, swallowing the lump in his throat.
"I'm glad too, I guess," she replied, smiling
sweetly. As the two entered the city limits, Marana gave her partner a playful
shove.
"Hey, don't think I've forgotten about that
plushie. You still owe me a new one!"
Dang! Pianto thought. I had hoped
she'd forgotten about that!
Epilogue
Pianto and Marana remained friends from that moment on. Needless to say,
both of their owners were overjoyed to see them again. The two never told about
Jellyworld or the pets that lived there. Even though this adventure was over,
Pianto felt that his adventuring days were far from over…
The End
Author's note: I hoped you enjoyed this story, I LOVED writing it. I appreciate
all feedback, so fell free to Neomail me. I'll be writing a sequel soon, so
look for it.
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