Playroom
As Flame and Keeta left on their journey, Jay was stranded. He was tortured
in dozens of terrible ways. His screams and pleas were heard all the way across
the fortress where LoveChargoun, the blue Lupe, shuddered.
"That's what awaits us. Torture, all of us..." Chargoun put his head down and
closed his eyes, suppressing another shudder.
"We can escape, I-I know we can!" Myricabra, the faerie Zafara, insisted. "WizardWalfoulm
is still back at the cave with the others. They'll help us, they have to!"
"And what makes you think that they're strong enough? All the strongest warriors
are here! Rotting while they live, leaving death with nothing to take," NeverForgetGriffiane,
the purple Eyrie, bellowed.
That silenced them. The silenced stretched for a long, long while. A click
and creak from the door broke the silence and caused all the pets' heads to
shoot up. They all saw her. A fire Shoyru with a Million Degree Sword in one
hand and a ring of keys in the other.
"Let's get you out of here," Zownar said and raised the sword to the ceiling.
The Neopets looked at each other for a moment before shooting up faster than
you can say 'asparagus pie' and followed Zownar to an iron door where Jay's
cries were loudest. It was a pitiful, bone-chilling sound.
"Where are we?" Myricabra asked with a shudder.
"The Playroom," Zownar said darkly and advised them to hide in a small storage
room, very similar to that of which Flame and Keeta had hid in, and she sheathed
her sword and put a key in the lock. The pets hurriedly obeyed and closed the
storage room door just as Zownar opened the door to the Playroom.
Jay's yelling was condensed to a soft whimpering as Zownar entered. The pets
didn't know what was going on, but the next thing they knew, a battered and
bruised male air faerie and a fire Shoyru walked out of the room. Jay leaned
on Zownar's short body and led him to the storage room where the Neopets were
hiding. Jay collapsed instantly. MissingMoonstruk was there in an instant. She
put the tip of her horn just above Jay's softly beating heart. Reversing her
Heal ability was a little tough, but she managed to heal him. Jay supported
himself with an arm while Moonstruk collapsed to the ground; the healing had
taken quite a lot out of her.
Zownar nodded politely to Moonstruk before announcing, "I've found a back route
out of here. You should all seek a safe haven immediately. You friends, Keeta
and Flame, have left already and are in pursuit of the Snowager. You should
go to your NeoRenegade friends and think of what to do next there."
"Why are they going after the Snowager?" Trader_Jr, a fire Zafara, asked.
"The Snowager is currently imprisoned with her mate inside of her cave. They
are unable to escape and their eggs have been extracted from underneath the
treasure and destroyed. Dr. Sloth knew that they would be a large threat, as
put together, the two Snowagers are nearly unbeatable," Zownar explained.
"What about the other faeries?" Jay asked, looking at Zownar carefully.
"They are imprisoned here and are under the tightest of securities," Zownar
informed them.
"We should free them," Myricabra suggested and got a 'yes's in response.
Zownar sighed. "There is just no way that we could possibly do that. Many have
tried, far stronger Neopets than any of you. Please, you must understand that."
MissingMoonstruk rose on unsteady legs and hobbled over to Zownar, looking
her straight in the eye, her gaze stern. "The faeries have always helped us,
always saved Neopia when it was in the greatest perils. If the Snowager is unbeatable,
then with the faeries extra help, we will be unstoppable. Even the greatest
can be beaten, but the greatest of the greats cannot be stopped," she said softly.
Zownar looked down and sighed again. "I'm not sure... You will probably all
be captured..."
"Bait," Jay interjected. "I'll be bait. If we can cut some hair off of Moonstruk's
mane and tail then we can put it together in a wig with magic and I'll wear
it, looking like an escaped faerie. They'll put their guard down as they let
me in and you can attack them from behind."
"Isn't that a bit degrading on your part?" Chargoun asked with a raised brow.
Jay scowled. "Would you rather try it, Chargoun?" The Lupe shook his head furiously
as Zownar pondered the idea.
"Let's do it," Zownar announced.
***
A Nimmo and Grundo guard escorted the struggling Air Faerie into the steel
chamber. A Shoyru and a Scorchio stood outside the door with Fire and Ice Blades.
The Air Faerie was thrown in carelessly and deftly shackled to the wall.
A loud thump was heard just outside the door and the guards inside called out,
only to hear that everything was fine. They looked at each other and shrugged.
They began to turn around, but then fell into two heaps, having been hit in
the head with magical pebbles (courtesy of MissingMoonstruk) and A Million-Degree
Sword (courtesy of Zownar).
"Who's there?" Fyora, the Faerie Queen, called out fearfully.
"Don't worry, Lady, we're here to help you," Myri told her as she fitted one
of the guards' keys into the lock of her bindings.
"Thank you, dears," Fyora said to them all after all of the faeries were freed
of confinement.
"No problem," MissingMoonstruk said smugly.
"Now we just have to get you all out of this fortress..." Zownar said, biting
her lip.
"That will not be a problem," the Uber Light Faerie said, waggling a finger
at them with the other hand on her hip. "I believe that now that I'm freed I
can teleport us out of here. Come, now, gather around me so that I can get you
all within range..." The pets and faeries did as they were commanded and the
next thing they knew, they were far from the fortress and in the Tyrannian forest.
The pets stood in awe at their quick change of surroundings.
"Sloth will notice this, you know," the Uber Darkness Faerie said with a frown.
"Well, of course he will, sister, but my decoys have bought us some time..."
the Light Faerie said with a twinkle in her eye.
The Space Faerie, not far away, crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "You
Light Faeries, everything is just a big game to you, isn't it?"
The Uber Light Faerie and her three remaining minions nodded vigorously, large
smiles appearing on their faces as the Darkness Faeries and the Space Faerie
rolled their eyes.
"Hm... I don't seem to remember you being one of my people," the Uber Air Faerie
said to the deeply flushed Jay, who was about 20 different shades of red and
purple at once. Myri giggled and flew up to Jay's head, pulling off his wig.
The Air Faerie gasped. "Oh! Oh dear, I'm sorry!"
"It's okay..." Jay said uncomfortably, slowly backing away from the group of
faeries.
"Now," Fyora said quickly. "We must find your NeoRenegade bunch quickly if
we're to get away from Sloth's reach fast enough."
"Come on!" Chargoun said, already leading them to the NeoRenegade Cave.
To be continued... | 
