BACK OUTSIDE THE now burnt hospital in the other town, Gina's weak and feeble
paws tried indecisively to run, but she only ended up on the ground sobbing
for Wingman.
"Will I ever get there?" she would cry. "Will
I ever see him again?"
This time, she found herself walking right back
towards the hospital. What remained of it now were hot, grey ashes that lay
in huge heaps upon the ground.
Gina wiped her eyes and looked up. It was daylight.
She had been lying there on the ground for the whole night. Did she faint? Was
it a coma or something? She didn't know, nor did she know exactly how long she
was there. She paused, and peered into the ashes, and was sure that she saw
a glint of gold moving but doubted it was a Neopet. She edged further crawling
along the ground to make a cautious approach, still eyeing the golden glow.
For a moment nothing made sense, then her mind jerked in frenzy.
"GOLDY!" she shouted, with enough puff to blow
the ashes off Goldy20001's face, and to her great surprise the ashes hadn't
burned him. In fact they hardly fazed him at all. He looked oddly different,
his colour change was immense but his eyes were the same and he was recognisable
as Goldy20001. The colour was recognisable now as Gold.
Goldy20001 jerked his head up in surprise, scattering
hot ashes behind him.
"How did you know me?" he demanded, but it seemed
more of a shocked expression to Gina.
"I just saw your gold tint, and thought you
might be the lost Shoyru the next town's been about," said Gina shivering, pointing
with her ears in the direction of the burned forest. Goldy couldn't see the
forest, but he knew it was there, the remains of it, further along the path.
"A red Shoyru was here yesterday too. He helped me, but he was taken by another
Shoyru," she continued, voice trembling more and more, "and…"
"Calm down," said Goldy20001 with a sigh, "I'll
find Wingman, get you home and then I'll find my friends."
Gina looked shocked.
"Is that his name?" she started, voice trembling
once again. "Have they found him? Is he alive? Will I ever see him again?"
Goldy looked puzzled. He turned his head away
and stared up at the daylight sky. Silence fell for what seemed like minutes.
He frowned, then turned back to Gina and shrugged. There was nothing much he
could do. Gina squinted.
"But keep calm," he said quickly, destroying
the previous silence with a loud but somewhat soothing voice. "Tears and hysterics
are only going to slow you down. Hold those until after all these troubles,
because I need to find Shoyru."
"I would be very grateful if I could come with
you," said Gina weakly but politely. Goldy smiled and nodded, even though he
didn't feel much like smiling. Then Goldy spotted the burns down Gina's left
side and face.
"You may as well come, so you can recover,"
warned Goldy. "When you're in a condition like this, it's a bad idea to stay
outside unprotected. Hurry, now."
Gina was surprised to hear a change in Goldy's
voice, a change that made her want to hurry. She rose to her shaking feet and
tried to stand up again, but she collapsed.
"I'm starving," she moaned, "and I can't even
stand."
Goldy took a huge gulp and straightened his
face. He squatted down on the kerb and rested his arm on his knee. Another moment's
silence suspended where they were resting.
"We'll have to stay here and hope for help,"
he said finally. "I can't leave you here, and I can't carry you all the way
across the burned forest. We might fall, and you could die."
"I'd rather risk that than stay here and let
us both starve," said Gina abruptly, and wished she hadn't. Goldy had leapt
to his feet.
"There's nothing to it," he concluded. "So I'll
have to carry you." He leapt onto his tiptoes and projected his wings far away
from his body, ready to flap. He grasped tightly onto Gina's front paws, and
took a deep breath. "HOLD TIGHT!" he cried as he soared high into the air, slightly
dragged down by the weight, but he threw himself forwards and around corners
at colossal speed. Soon they were entering the burned forest, dipping sharply
and heading for a near-collision course.
Gina could hardly contain herself.
"Look! Goldy, you're gonna hit the ground! Climb!
CLIMB!"
At once Goldy ceased the dive and rocketed upwards
and out of control. He jammed down his left wing to block out the rushing air
and made the ride shakier, but then, gradually smoother. Gina was clashing her
teeth together in fear, and Goldy was gripping on tighter and tighter. Soon
they were flying over the path that led into the town. Goldy was tired, and
Gina badly shaken. He stopped flying just as they had stalled towards the ground,
suspended about 1 metre from it, and fell, body slamming the floor straight
on. Gina had fallen heavily, but on her paws. She couldn't believe it. She jerked
her head up at the Japanese writing on the open gates.
Goldy was too stunned to move. Gina slipped
her head underneath Goldy and let him slip onto her back. She crouched low and
crawled towards the hospital that Shoyru lay in. Goldy remained quite still
on her back, and didn't show any signs of slipping off. She crawled further,
legs still shaking, nearly collapsing again, but showing no mercy she stood
straight and walked briskly indoors.
"OUCH!"
Gina turned around sharply and suddenly realised
that she'd dropped Goldy on the hospital floor. She crawled along the floor
of the hospital and slipped him on her head again. She crawled further indoors
until she was next to a stretcher, then she stood and let Goldy slip onto the
stretcher from her head.
Goldy felt the soft cover of the stretcher and
smiled.
"Thanks," he said calmly. "Go upstairs and you
might find the others. They've already gone through a whole load of trouble.
I'll be fine."
Gina smiled back, but feebly. She left Goldy
to recover and crawled around the corner towards the lift.
"Gina!" said a voice behind her. She whipped
round again and saw Geraldine with Shoyru's stretcher. He was conscious, but
only blinking. He did nothing else.
"Hey sister," Gina said back. But Geraldine
wasn't happy.
"Why didn't you come straight here?" she said,
shedding a tear in frustration. "Why? This Shoyru would have had better treatment!"
"But I wasn't fit to move, Geraldine!" Gina cried.
From around the corner she heard hushes from Goldy, trying to tell her to keep
quiet and calm. Shoyru opened his eyes again and stared at the ceiling. To him
it seemed an odd colour, brown, maybe black with brown 'spots', but to anyone
else it would seem a perfectly normal creamy colour. He panicked. This showed
as a very low groan and then a squeak.
"It's the colours he can see," Geraldine explained,
as Gina stared at Shoyru, who looked okay but was squeaking in pain. "The colours
he sees are inverted, like say if he saw something white it would appear black
to him. You see what I mean?"
"Yes," said Gina. "Where are the 'others'?"
"They're upstairs in Ward 693. It's quite a
climb up the stairs. I think with your condition," she continued, waving her
ears at the burns on Gina's side, "you'd better take the lift. Over there. Go
on, Mother will be waiting for you.
***
Back in the Ward, Voltager was pacing slowly around the room, muttering to
herself. She didn't know what to say, yet Linda and Red were pushing her to
tell about the lift. Red edged her on. "Go on, I'll help you a bit," he whispered.
"But I can't cover for you completely. You have to tell. What if somebody needs
to use it and can't use the stairs?"
Felicity sat crouched on the bed, watching them
as they paced around the room with Voltager, watching her every move. At last
Voltager gave up, and sat down on the bed next to Felicity.
"Will I get into trouble for this?" she whispered
in a hiss. Felicity nodded calmly, but Voltager sank to her knees on the floor.
"I give up!" she cried. "I'll tell you all about
the lift!"
To be continued... | 
