Thunder rolled as they ran down the hall. Strangely, the thunder did not scare
them as they ran. It even comforted them deep inside. But after the thunder,
there was a rumble in the hall. The Neopets all stopped dead in their tracks,
for the rumble shook their hearts with fear. The rumble stopped, and the Neopets
were silent, looking blankly straight ahead of them. The strange music got louder.
Voom-vom, voom-vom. Strange voices murmered lightly through the dark hall, but
the words were impossible to make out. Then, a piercing laughter.
"YEEEHAHAHAHAHA!!" it roared. The laugh was so high pitched, that for about
10 seconds after the laugh the Neopets could hear nothing. As it screamed, the
Neopets thought that they were in another dimension, and that pure evil had
grabbed them by their hearts. Shane fell to his knees when he could finally
hear.
"I never imagined that there was such evil in the world..." he said quietly.
His voice quivered as he spoke, and it almost didn't seem like Shane talking.
"When I heard that laugh... I thought that I was in the midsts of evil itself."
"I think... we were..." Midnight said. Her voice was the same as Shane's.
"We can't... we can't go find Misty and Jen." Ace said. His voice was worse
than the others. "I'm sure that whatever made that laugh already has them; and
if we go on, it will have us too..."
Midnight faced Ace with fear and loss in her eyes. She was silent for a second,
and then finally spoke. "I don't know what to do; chances are they're gone...
forever... but I don't know, Ace. What if that scream, laughter of whatever
it was was just trying to scare us?"
"If it was, it did a good job..."
"You can stay behind if ya want, but I'm continuing..." Midnight turned around
and slowly walked down the hall. With hesitation, Shane got up and followed.
Ace watched the two walk down the long dark hall. When they were almost out
of sight, he jumped in the air and flew after them.
The rest of the way they heard nothing more. Everything was silent, except
the gentle hum of the sword. After a while, they made it to the sharp turn of
the hall. They gasped at what they saw. Misty and Jen were laying on the floor,
not moving. They were in a small square room. The walls, floor and ceiling were
all the same as the hall's. A stone pedestal stood between the two Neopets laying
on the floor, and on top of it sat a glass orb. The orb had a purple tint to
it mixed with black. Midnight's sword lit the room well, and where it shone
on the glass orb, the orb reflected green, instead of regular white shine. With
a shriek, they all ran up to Misty and Jen.
"Misty!! Jen! Please wake up!!!" Midnight shouted. Ace checked for a pulse
on Jen. All became silent as he checked. Shane and Midnight watched Ace intently.
His stern stubborn face soon turned to sorrow and grief. He sighed.
"It looks like we've lost her," he said.
Midnight and Shane didn't answer. They turned their heads back to Misty. Midnight
checked for a pulse.
"She's gone," she said. All faced their heads toward the ground. Midnight
and Shane started sobbing.
The sword suddenly started to glow brighter. Slowly, it became more and more
white and beautiful. It became so bright and brilliant that it seemed to have
more beauty than the sparkling stars high up in the sky, and more light than
the sun had. The three Neopets gazed at it with huge eyes as it glowed in Midnight's
hand, and they soon stopped crying. First it scared them, but then they were
comorted. The brilliant white light didn't blind them. They had no need to shield
their eyes. For a split second, the felt absolute perfect peace in their hearts,
and they no longer grieved for Misty and Jen. The light died down. Midnight
had her eyes closed, because of the perfect peace she had just felt. She slowly
opened them again, and felt the sword tug in her arm again. It was trying to
leave her grasp once more! She let go. The sword moved at what seemed the speed
of light and hit the orb. The orb fell to the floor and and smashed into pieces.
The sword then fell to the ground.
"What just happened?" asked Shane. Midnight thought that he looked as if he
were in a dream.
"Guys, the floor!!" shouted Ace. He jumped to his feet as the floor started
to fall apart. It was crumbling into tiny pieces of glass. The whole room shook
as the others jumped to their feet. The area on the floor that the smashed orb
was on made a loud shriek, and it shattered. But the black shadowy floor still
seemed to be there. Midnight grabbed the sword.
"We have to get out of here!" she screamed.
They started to run back toward the hall, but soon saw that it was doing the
same thing. They heard another shriek from underneath them, and learned that
the area of the floor they now stood on was shattering also. After the shrill
shriek, they were actually standing on nothing! They started to fall into whatever
it was, but Shane and Ace quickly took flight, and Ace grabbed Midnight's paw.
In her other paw she held the sword now tighter than ever. They gasped.
"I think," Ace said quickly as he looked at Midnight with a look of total
terror, "I think that the entire floor is gone!!! I think that the floor was
just so dark that it was as dark as a shadow!! And now the floor's shattering
and crumbling and falling down below to who knows where!"
"Into nothingness..." Midnight thought. Then she suddenly shouted. "Misty!
Jen! They must have fallen down with it!!! I don't see them anywhere!!" she
looked down below her and looked frantically. But she saw nothing, except shadows.
It was completely dark. Midnight turned her look to the sword in her paw. It
no longer glowed, but she could see it, and everyone else. She first frowned
and closed her eyes as she got ready to cry. Then her face of sorrow turned
into a face of anger. Ace thought he could almost see a dark red flame in Midnight's
eyes as she opened them. Shane turned to Midnight. He tried to smile, but it
looked more like a frown than anything.
"They were gone, Midnight," said Shane as he now sobbed. "There's nothing
we could have done to save them..." Shane held his sword close to his face as
he cried. His voice now became very loud and hoarse. "I swear, I will get my
revenge!!!" He held his sword straight up into the air as he said this.
The rumbling stopped. The Neopets no longer saw a floor, ceiling, or wall.
The stone pedestal was not there, either. The Neopets just saw complete darkness.
All they could see was themselves and their objects. They seemed to be able
to see into infinity when they looked around them. Then, a low gurgle started.
It started almost as a whisper, and then got louder. The gurgle suddenly became
very deep and loud. It slowly started to try and speak something, but words
were very hard to make out. The Neopets shuddered and shut their eyes tightly.
"...Zzzheyare grine..." it went. It hissed as it gurgled these hideous words.
Its voice was like a loud whisper that hissed and gurgled. It cackled after
muttering these strange words, if words is what they were. "Zzzheyare grine,
feowls..." Its breathing now became very loud. The Neopets shook with fright.
Ace dropped Midnight out of fear. Before she could yell, she hit the ground
with a loud thump. They were only about 5 inches above the ground. The thump
was much louder than it should have been. The other two landed next to her.
Midnight stood up and held the sword in front of her.
"W-who are you?" she stammered. She tried her best to sound brave, but failed
greatly. Her voice quivered and shook as she spoke, and her body shook crazily
with fright. "Show y-yourself, you... thing you!"
"Mreaha.. shvat uh grave non-freatening ket shoo gare..."
"Um... please go away? W-we... don't want any trouble. Just please, go away..."
Midnight almost lost her grip on her sword. Despite the fact that she almost
dropped it, she didn't, or couldn't tighten her grip on it. Shane and Ace hid
behind Midnight and shook with fright.
"Gwrhat? Geho shavay? Shhhhaa... Hlphleakling.. I hram shier tooo shelp yah..."
Midnight could not hear all it said easily, but she heard it enough for her
face to light up a second. Then her face turned back to fright. "You are here
to... help us?"
"Mrah.. I shrall try tooo spreak mrore clearily.. Mryes, shelp. Zhey yare
grine, Miztay and Jhen. Wifthz meh. Shhaa.."
Midnight suddenly stopped shaking and stammering. A small flame of hope burned
in her heart. She lowered her sword. Shane and Ace looked at her as if she had
completely gone crazy. As a matter of fact, they really thought she had. She's
putting her guard down with a beast like this? Shane held his sword up slightly
ready to spring into action if he had to. He gulped.
"They're with you?!?" she exclaimed. "But where are you?!? I mean, we saw
Misty and Jen there on the floor! They're ok?!? How can that be?"
"Svhat shoo shaw on zthe shfloor svhas an illushen.."
"An illusion!! I can't believe it, they're ok!" at this she dropped the sword
and jumped in the air with excitement. Ace shrieked.
"Midnight, the sword!! You can't just, just drop it like that! Pick it back
up, quick!!"
Midnight quickly realized what had happened and reached for the Sword. But
it had disappeared. Midnight stifled a scream and gulped. She fell to her knees
and stared blankly into the darkness.
"N-no.." she said in a hoarse whisper.
"Midnight, Shane, Ace.." came a familiar voice to Midnight's head out of nowhere.
Midnight said nothing, but listened intently.
"Was that... Misty?" said Shane slowly and in a low voice.
"Yes, it's me!" answered Misty. They jumped up and looked all around them,
but Misty was not to be seen. Midnight answered in a loud shout.
"Misty! MISTY!!! Where are you!?!" she shouted.
Misty and Jen suddenly jumped down in front of the three terrified Neopets.
They were so startled that they all fell back with a yell at the sight of Jen
and Misty. They all quickly jumped back up with a laugh of joy. Shane was the
first to say anything at all besides the laughter of the other two.
"You're--" but he stopped short. He had glanced into their eyes. Midnight
and Ace both stopped laughing at the same time and froze when they heard Shane
stop short. They also got a glimpse of their eyes. They were dark, very dark;
and there was a literal blue flame on the inside of them. They stood perfectly
still in front of Midnight, Shane, and Ace. Fear danced in Midnight's heart
at the sight of their eyes, but she could not draw her own eyes away. It was
the same for Shane and Ace. They felt their own eyes burning now. Ace tried
to shout, but as he moved his mouth, nothing came out. Then, the three terrified
Neopets could see or hear no more for the longest time.
Ace's memory came back to him. He was concious again. He kept his eyes closed,
afraid of what he may see if he opened them. It felt like he was laying on his
back on a cold, flat stone. The air chilled him to the bone and his head ached.
He felt completely miserable. After awhile, 30 minutes of trying to remember
what had happened or so, he slowly opened one eye. He was surprised to see trees
way up above his head. He opened the other. He assumed it was daylight, but
it didn't look like it. Hardly any light was here. He could just barely see
the paw in front of him. He learned that he was in some sort of forest, but
not a regular forest. The trees were black, and they were all dead. They were
everywhere. Nothing lived there, not even bugs, it seemed. In front of him and
to his left and right, the trees went on forever. He was laying on a huge flat
black stone with Midnight and Shane, laying on their backs at his side. Their
arms were at their sides. Ace rubbed his eyes as if he were a child waking up
from a nightmare.
"Where am I?" he thought. He dared not speak in this dreadful place, afraid
of what evil things may be living there. Then, as if something read his thoughts,
a voice answered him.
"The Forest of Night," said the voice. He turned around and saw Misty and
Jen standing at the end of the long flat stone. That didn't surprise him so
much, because after what happened back in that black place, he expected anything.
But what DID surprise him, was the Golden Tree that he saw far behind them at
the end of the black trees. The leaves were pure gold, but the trunk of the
tree was the darkest brown ever known. It looked to be a mile away. The dead
black trees ended within three-fourths of the tree. All the grass around this
most beautiful, glorious tree was the deepest dark green grass that was ever
seen in Neopia. The leaves were so big that they were size of a Kacheek's head.
The leaves were falling lightly to the dark green grass. He jumped up and danced
with excitement.
"THE GOLDEN TREE!"
To be continued... | 
