Invitations and The Arrival
"Let's give a hand to the valiant loser, Grelish4475!" Even though the image
flickered, the sound was good, and the Sorcerer watched three holograms with
an interest bordering on boredom. He turned to his right hand man, a Lenny named
Fortilius, and boomed out in a deep voice: "You told me this contraption would
show me my next target, and anything else that we need to see in the Neopian
world. Have you been..." He pointed a long, dagger-like claw towards the trembling
Lenny. "Lying to me?"
The Lenny shook with the talon tickling his throat. "Lendolin, l-look at the
p-projection now. We have found your first targets!"
Lendolin glanced at the now stable projection, and knocked Fortilius into
a clammy wall with a careless sweep of his paw. One hologram showed a shadowed
Shoyru walking out into an arena, with a red glint and glow in its eyes. Another
one showed a fire Shoyru holding an Attack Fork and a goblet of blue-black blood.
The last one showed a starry Shoyru plunging an ice scimitar towards a pet,
laughing the entire time. He gazed at the images with a predatory hunger.
"There they are, two of the most evil hearted NeoPets in all of the dimensions,"
He paused to glance at Fortilius, who was still senseless from the blow. He
grinned evilly, showing four inch-long teeth, and patted a glowing white glass
ball, filled with images of screaming pets.
"And easy targets..."
Fortilius straightened up. "But what about the starry Shoyru, sir? Isn't he
a target? He is certainly strong enough." For once, Lendolin looked troubled.
"I am not sure, Fortilius. He seems to have too much light in his heart. He
may cause us trouble when he arrives at our isle. But maybe I am getting too
nervous about these things. We have swayed many a good-hearted NeoPet to our
cause. Why should I be worried about a puny little Shoyru?"
"Shall I send out the invitations? Sire?" Fortilius choked out.
"Yes," Lendolin replied with a regal tone. "Of course..."
Meanwhile, at the Battledome, three Shoyrus walked down an empty concrete
hallway, laughing and bragging about their own victories. The fire Shoyru, scith_2000,
was particularly boastful. "Then, that dumb Poogle tried to hit me with a wet
snowball. Easily avoided! You would think that he had never been in the Battledome
before."
"Scith, that's because that Poogle had never gone into the Battledome before!
You broke him in with a loss!" the shadow Shoyru piped up. "Because of that,
he might go to the pound for losing his first fight!"
"Well, Shalecasha, you would know all about that losing thing," a starry
Shoyru snickered. The two male Shoyrus laughed and high-fived each other. Shalecasha
punched them both, sending starrynights19 and scith_2000 stumbling back a few
steps. A fight was beginning to start, when a white Usul came running up toward
the trio, his tiny feet padding on the cold concrete.
"Are you guys... the Shoyrus named... pantpant... Scith_2000, Starrynights19...
pant... and Shalecasha?"
"Yeah, so?"
The Usul pulled out three papers and handed one to each of the Shoyrus. They
were written in some strange language.
"These came for you while you were fighting. Almost everyone in the Battledome
got one." He scratched his head. "Good luck figuring them out."
The bunch of Shoyrus translated the messages and read them in silence. Starry
rubbed his head.
"These look like invitations," he said slowly.
Scith gave Starry a weird look. "To what, exactly?"
"It's an invitation to a battling tournament, you dolt!" Shalecasha shouted
happily, and ran over the paper again. "If you come, you will receive a priceless
treasure..." Her eyes sparkled with the prospect of riches. "I wonder what it
could be... A Rod of Dark Nova? An Alien Aisha Sceptre? I'm going. No butts
about it." She looked at Scith and Starry and sneered. "Are you two going? Or
are you going to chicken out and run to your owners?" She laughed heartily,
dropping her parchment in merriment while Scith and Starry boiled over with
anger.
"I would have gone even without the offered door prize," Scith said hotly,
striking the cement with his Attack Fork. "I would have been driven to fight
because my thirst can never be quenched."
She turned to Starry. "And how about you? Are you going to go and kick some
NeoPet booty?"
The starry Shoyru seemed hesitant about the idea.
"I think maybe this is where my brother has gone. He went off into the woods--"
"And they never came back," Shalecasha said with fake pity riding on every
word. "I've heard it before, and I don't need to hear it again!"
"Well, how would you feel if one of your family members disappeared?!" Sensing
a fight, Scith got between the two arguing Shoyrus.
"All right you two, if you're going to fight, do it in the Battledome,"
Scith said, keeping them from tearing at each other's throats. Once they had
calmed down, Scith turned to Starry. "Well," Scith inquired. "Are you going?"
Before Starry could say "Yes", a bright red light began to emanate from the
papers. The insubstantial rays of crimson light seemed to become solid, and
began to wrap itself around each Shoyru. All eyes went round. "What's happening?"
Shalecasha asked, surprise and a hint of fear in her voice. The solid lights
now began whirling around the group, and with a loud popping noise and a gasp
from Starrynights19, the whirling stopped, the red light faded, and the dizzy
Shoyrus could look around. They seemed to be on some tropical isle, and it looked
completely normal, except the sun didn't shine with it's yellow light.
"The sun..." Scith whispered. "It's brown."
To be continued... | 
