Sometimes, one can unknowingly do great injustices to
a living creature. So it was with one particular citizen of Neopia who has become
famous for his cruelty towards the race of the dainty faeries, stripping them
of their freedom and imprisoning them within glass prisons until they are sold.
Yes, this story is about Balthazar, the notorious Lupe.
Balthazar wasn't always such a confident Lupe
who emanated evilness though. When he was young he was a withdrawn and self-conscious,
constantly on the receiving end of verbal abuse from others his age. This was
due to a certain feature on his face that many, himself included, considered
ugly and embarrassing.
Snaggletooth!
Snagglefang!
You're
a disgrace!
Your
ugly yellow tooth
Protrudes
right out of your face!
The neighbourhood Neopets would like to chant
this wicked, scarring little rhyme every time Balthazar came within view of
them. The poor Lupe would quickly retreat to the relative comfort of his home,
but his mother nagging at him to get out there and 'be a Lupe' didn't do much
in boosting his self-confidence. Eventually, Balthazar hardly ventured out from
his home and had no friends, save one - Rahne (pronounced rain), a female Air Faerie.
Rahne was the only true friend Balthazar ever
had, and probably ever would. The unlikely pair would often hide in the Air Faerie's cosy little home situated in a fairly deserted and quiet forest. There,
the forlorn Lupe would pour out all his woes and troubles to Rahne and she would
nod sadly, sympathising with him, but at the same time slightly frustrated that
she could do naught to halt this dreadful teasing. Her mystical powers did not
include altering the will of other beings, after all.
One springtime day, Balthazar espied a young
female Lupe about his age and almost instantaneously, he knew he had fallen
for her. The heart was all aflutter and the mind grew faint, just looking at
her. The female's name was Alexis and she was of the colour faerie, meaning
she had lovely wings, which sparkled and glittered in the sunlight. It was hard
not to notice her, really, and even harder not to fall in love with her.
The young male Lupe could spend hours and hours
staring at a picture of Alexis he had somehow managed to obtain, and always
resolved to himself that today he'd go to her and profess his love of her, he
would not falter or stammer or stutter. Today would be the day! Nevertheless,
he never was able to muster up the courage to court Alexis until late one summer
day.
Balthazar dressed himself up in the neatest clothes
he could find in his wardrobe and nervously brushed himself off repeatedly,
mind already rehearsing suitable pickup lines. Finally, he picked up a bouquet
of flowers and walked out of the door of his house; his stomach engulfed by
torrential butterflies and was jittery for the whole duration it took to walk
to Alexis' house.
Poor Balthazar never had even a smidgen of a
chance in wooing Alexis.
The moment he reached her house, he could hear
a male and female voice laughing and generally having a good time. Balthazar's
heart sank, for he recognised the female voice to be that of Alexis and the
male voice that of the local bully. However, he had come so far and was not
willing to back down. He had nothing to lose, after all.
Striding up to the front door, the edgy Lupe
rang the doorbell and the door opened almost at once. It was Alexis, and the
sight of her almost took his breath away. She wasn't so kind to him, however
as he soon found out.
"Well, well. Look who we have here, Brutus!"
Alexis laughed scornfully, her upper lip curling in what was unmistakably scorn,
even as Brutus the Bully advanced upon Balthazar.
"Hah! It's Snaggletooth! What brings you here,
midget? What's with the flowers anyway, huh? You'd better not be trying to court
my Alexis, wimp."
"What, court me? You gotta be kidding, Brutus.
He wouldn't stand a chance against you! Besides, he's so ugly, stupid, horrendous…"
"And Snaggletoothy! Y'can't forget that!"
So it went on, the cruel duo mobbing poor Balthazar
back and forth in turns until he could bear it no longer. The venom-filled barbs
stabbed at him, stabbed and twisted and ruined his heart until he could bear
it no longer. A great sob escaped his jaws and he turned, dropping the lovingly
handpicked flowers, and dashed out of Alexis' garden.
It was in a certain evergreen glade, at the very
heart of the forest in which Balthazar liked to frequent, that Rahne found Balthazar
sobbing his heart out, great tears welling out and dripping onto the already-wet
ground around him.
"Balthazar? Friend, what have they done to you?"
A fresh flood of tears gushed out as the heartbroken
Lupe poured out his wounded heart and injured soul to the Air Faerie.
The tender Air Faerie could never bear to see
anyone in such pain and agony and was soon trying to calm Balthazar down, comfort
him to the best of her ability. Eventually the deluge of tears lessened and
stopped, although they had left rivulets in Balthazar's facial fur, which wouldn't
go away for a long, long time. It was then that Rahne left Balthazar in that
peaceful forest to calm his heart.
As Balthazar roamed listlessly around the woods,
he heard contemptuous laughter and bristled very noticeably. Then all at once,
in a flash of purple, six Dark Faeries floated down and surrounded him, trying
hard to not to snort derisively but failing miserably.
"Hey fellow. What's wrong today? Got a bad fur
day?" The first one pointed to the rivulets on his face and cracked up, along
with everyone else.
"No no, you have it all wrong. It's just a bad
fang day." Another faerie snickered out and sniggered evilly.
"He's just a pathetic little baby who cries
at everything. A disgusting creature with an equally disgusting fang. A weakling
who'll never amount to anything. Mommy's pup! Little whelp!"
As they chanted on and on, a sizeable number
of faeries joined the original six until the whole forest seemed to be filled
by them. It was not only Dark Faeries who taunted Balthazar; there were faeries
of Earth, Fire, Water, Light and Air. The faeries went on and on, ignoring the
horrified Lupe. Only when they saw that Balthazar was utterly broken and crushed
did they depart, leaving behind a tragically shattered life.
Somehow, in his emotionally-wrecked state Balthazar
managed to find his way back to his home, throwing all his belongings into a
suitcase and ran away, never to be seen again by anyone in that little village
- Alexis, Brutus and even his family. Not even Rahne ever found him again, although
she searched for him far and wide.
In a rock cave untouched by any living being,
Balthazar huddled miserably and began thinking. His sorrow soon turned to anger,
his anger to bitterness and the bitterness finally to a burning desire for vengeance.
He had been reduced to this despicable state by faeries, all by faeries. Even
that wretched Alexis was painted Faerie! In his troubled mind the male Lupe
connected everyone who had injured him mentally to faeries, faeries, faeries.
Pulling out a framed photograph from his baggage,
Balthazar growled angrily, his hackles rose and all of a sudden he howled loudly
to the sky, the blood-chilling clamour resonating around and around until its
echoes finally died down. Ripping the picture from its frame, Balthazar shredded
it into four neat pieces, got up and finally stepped viciously on it. Staring
down at the ruined photograph, the Lupe whispered to himself bitterly.
"Never again."
It was a picture of him and Rahne side by side,
smiling happily.
Well, you can figure out what happened after
that. Balthazar did get his revenge of all of faerie-kind, robbing some of them
of what they held dear - freedom. He turned bounty hunter, capturing faeries
in magical glass bottles and selling them for a huge profit. The whole of Neopia
was shocked by his audacity and immediately condemned him, displaying the cruel
Lupe side by side with Dr. Sloth and the Pant Devil in the famed Gallery of
Evil. His story was twisted until it seemed like he was the one who wronged
the faeries. This caused millions hated him, and millions still do.
But could you really blame Balthazar for what
he has turned into? Or are you just doing an injustice to a living creature
just by being misinformed. Balthazar is not the wicked monster some perceive
him to be.
I pity Balthazar.
The End | 
