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Keira opened her eyes, just as Nick and Darren were packing
up. Nick noticed she was up and said, "It looks like we've just been going in
circles, but we can't give up." Keira got up and helped them pack. Darren noticed
a patch of green mist floating in a certain hall. Coming closer, and closer. "I
wonder what's in there?" asked Darren.
Nick and Keira finished packing and looked down
the mysterious hall. They stood on either side of Darren. Nick took a step forward,
"Shall we?"
"No doubt," said Darren. The three friends walked
down the hall and into the mist.
They started getting tired. The mist was making
them sleep. Nick was trying to remember what the island native said, "Tree covering
a door. Open your eyes." He noticed his eyelids were half closed and felt so
heavy. He forced his eyes open and told the others to do so also. Darren opened
his closed eyes and was standing right in front of a door with a palm tree engraved
on it.
"Guys! Look at this!" he yelled happily. Nick
and Keira met up with him.
"This is it! It all makes sense now," said Keira.
They all pushed the door open to find the victory for all their hard work.
Darren yelled with excitement, "Jellyworld HERE
WE COME!"
"EWWWW! Aw, gross!" they all said with disgust.
It smelled horrible -- with dung everywhere. Dung buildings, dung flowers, dung
castle, everything! Except for the streets. Once they were away from the door,
the doors locked shut. Keira grabbed some Faerie Kougra masks and passed them
around. They all put them on immediately.
"Amazingly, these block out the smell. Why'd
you bring masks, anyway? asked Darren. "It's brilliant!" Keira smiled behind
her Kougra mask.
So now the group is walking in a city, which
was filled with dung wearing Kougra masks. The street lanterns lighted the cobblestone
streets as they walked. There were actually some Neopets walking around… just
like if it were a normal Neopian city. Of course, this was not normal. They
walked only a block when a white arrow came out of now where, heading straight
for Nick. -ZOOM- Darren and Keira only had time to look when they heard
the sound.
Nick caught the arrow with his paw only an inch
before it struck him. He looked up at the neopet that shot the arrow, it was
a white Lupe with blue flames standing on a rooftop. "Oh sorry 'bout that,"
she said as if it were no big deal, "didn't see you there. I was just practicing
my archery. You three new, huh? Well I better give you a tour. But I must say,
you are quite the strangest Neopets..." She was looking at their Kougra masks.
Nick noticed they were standing on a fallen bullseye board.
Darren took off his mask for a moment, "Uh,
anything to get this smell away first?!" The Lupess was scared to see a Darigan
Eyrie and fled the scene.
"Oh man!" said Darren. He put his mask back
on and they continued walking around the city. Darren pointed out a sign on
a house next to a dung smoothie shop that read, 'Anti-Dung Smellerizer'. They
decided to check it out. Keira rang the doorbell, which sounded like a whoopi
cushion.
A blue Kacheek answered the door, "Hello? How
may I help you?"
"Can you tell me what this anti-smell thing
is?" asked Keira.
The blue Kacheek smiled, "Certainly, it is a
powder that prevents the odor of dung from getting into your nose. So only fresh
air can enter. Quite useful, many have bought from me. The king does not approve
of this but it works quite well. 9,000 Neopoints per pouch."
Keira reached into her bag. "I only have 2,983
NP," she said as she frowned behind her mask.
The Kacheek thought for a moment, and then said,
"Well, for a pretty young lady like you, I can make an exception. I don't want
to see you wearing that mask all your life."
Keira smiled, "Thanks! Thank you so much!"
The Kacheek kindly gave her a small brown leather
bag and told her, "Sprinkle a bit of this on your nose and within minutes, you
will begin to smell fresh air!" Keira thanked him again and the group walked
away to sprinkle some 'Anti-Dung Smellerizer' on their noses. The white blue-flamed
Lupe they saw earlier was peaking at them from on top of a roof.
She was just getting up when she slipped on
the dung roof and fell off the side and into a fruit stall. The group had just
finished sprinkling the powder when they turned and saw the Lupess lying in
a smashed fruit stall. The Pteri who owned it had a whole alleyway full and
was doing things over there. He heard this and came running to the broken stall,
which was just outside the alley.
"Laura!! What in Neopia happened?! Get out of
there now!!!" yelled the blue Pteri. He shooed her away and began mumbling angrily
to himself as he fixed up the place. Nick, followed by Darren and Keira, started
chasing after the white Lupess. Nick turned and gave them a nod. They understood
this, Keira going to her right and Darren going to his left. Nick started running
after Laura again, whom gone over a wall. He jumped over this easily and started
running down the dark street after her.
It had been a few blocks when Darren, out of
nowhere, fell from the sky and landed in front of Laura. She skidded to a stop
right in front of him. She saw Nick running toward her from the opposite direction.
So, she started off toward her left when Keira made an impressive leap in front
of her. The three of them surrounded Laura under a lonely streetlight.
Nick spoke first, "Laura, why were you spying
on us?"
Laura's blue-tipped ears were folded back. "No
reason," she replied calmly. "I had no intentions of hurting you."
Nick stared at her right in the eye, nothing
moving, except his thin green cloak blowing in the slight breeze. He finally
backed off as if to say he believes her. "Hey! Don't be so tense," said Darren
to Laura, breaking the silence.
Laura calmed down. These were supposedly her
friends now, not enemies. "Still available for that tour?" asked Keira.
Laura smiled, "Certainly." Laura, Keira and
Darren walked down the dark street and back into the green-lighted streets of
Smellyworld as she gave them her tour. One was missing… it was Nick. He had
stayed behind still in the one-lighted street. He had the feeling someone was
there. He stared at a two-story building's window for a while.
He thought he had seen a grey shadow there earlier.
"'Guess not," he said to himself, and then went to catch up with his group.
Just when he was leaving, the grey shadow appeared, watching him leave. It laughed
evilly and disappeared out of sight.
* * *
It was about midnight, and earlier, Laura had offered for them to stay at
her house for as long as they wanted. Laura's home is on the second floor only.
Nick woke up from his place on an old ruined sofa near the window in the bedroom.
He looked around, as he didn't have a chance to before because he was so tired.
Laura's home was a small, one bedroom house
with a few couches and tables here and there. She had a few dung items, but
other than that her house was amazingly clear of dung. Nick looked out the window
and saw the great castle towering over the other buildings. He heard the others
in the living room chatting away.
Nick got up and joined them. "Nick, glad to
see you're up," said Laura. She was sipping a cup of hot chocolate… hopefully
it really was chocolate! She was sitting beside Keira and Darren whom were sitting
on the floor unpacking things from their backpacks.
"Laura was just starting to tell us about their
king," said Darren.
"Oh yes, right," said Laura as Nick was making
himself comfortable on the floor next to Darren. Laura continued to say, "His
name is King Victor and he has been acting odd for a while. Very quiet too,
ever since this dung trend started coming along… which was about a year or two
ago. That's also when the queen and princess were kidnapped."
She continued to tell them more about Smellyworld,
"We can't escape. The doors have been locked shut supposedly by a spell and
the sky is blocked from us getting out. We can't even climb the walls surrounding
the city!" After a long chat about Smellyworld, they were very tired. Keira,
Darren, and Laura headed for the bedroom, bundling up for the cold night.
Nick stayed in the living room. He sat by the
window rethinking their discussion over and over again. Laura had said that
at exactly 3:00 am, a green mist comes from the castle and turns things into
dung. So that is why she keeps her doors and windows locked shut very tightly
so the mist can't come in. Nick looked down at the cobblestone streets and saw
the mist turning a leftover stall full of fruit, into dung. It just melted away
into little piles.
"This had to have been a spell that backfired,"
said Nick to himself. He remembers that Laura also said that the dung wouldn't
cross the barriers. Nick searched around. He supposed one would be by their
local food gardens. He couldn't see it, but knew it was there. Nick took his
thoughts off the mist and started daydreaming about an intense battle with punch
bag bob.
"Man, would I love to punch him in the face
right now," he said quietly. It had been about ten minutes now and the mist
had gone away. Nick was getting tired and was just getting up when he saw someone
walking on the streets below. It was now too dark to see much but he could just
make out a tall black thing with green hair and a shadowy grey figure walking
next to it.
To be continued…
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