Terror Mountain, 2 years ago...
The rickety shutters of the hotel on top
on Terror Mountain swayed in the light breeze of the early dawn. The fluorescent
sign, which burned brightly in the ever fading darkness, flickered slightly,
"The Red Chia" it read in a perky shade of pinkish-red. Dim light could be seen
through the front window, accompanied by the clanking of dishes, caused by the
heavy-eyed Poogles who cleaned furiously through the night to satisfy the customers
of the early morning. Through the window and into the dim light of the living
room, a figure could be seen, cleaning the last dishes away before others were
set anew. Unknown to the unlucky figure, behind them crept a dark, ghostly creature.
Eyes burning red and with a ghastly grin that could make the bravest Lupe quiver,
he raised his paw into the air, and with one last bloodcurdling scream, let
out by the victim, the attacker brought down his lethal....
***
"Red Chia Plushie?!" Blue exclaimed, placing the Daily Neopia on the table.
"What kind of criminal mastermind goes around wielding a Red Chia Plushie!?"
Blue raised an eyebrow to her three Neopets who stared, wide-eyed at their mother
as if she had just told them they wouldn't be eating today.
"Isn't that story terrifying Blue?" Natt
said, the hair on her back standing up.
"Oh yeah Natt, I'm shaking in my boots,"
Blue said dryly, raising her eyebrows.
"Sneakers," Cumulo said from Blue's feet.
Blue craned her head to look under the table. There sat Cumulo, a toothy grin
plastered widely across his face.
"What?" Blue shook her head at the Triffin.
"You're not wearing boots," Cumulo said,
nodding, "you're wearing sneakers!" he exclaimed, grinning even wider.
"Riiiiiight," Blue nodded, swinging her
head back up to a sitting position.
"Do you think it's true?" Talmox the Ixi
asked, still staring at the opened newspaper. The front page read: "Mystery
At The red Chia: Two Years Since Tragic Incident".
Blue looked back to Talmox, who was now
looking at her. "No Tal, I don't believe a word of this," Blue said, smacking
the paper, "I mean, how can you murder someone with a Red Chia Plushie?"
Blue shook her head and said, "In Fyora's
name, who wrote this pile of sludge anyway!"
"Clarence D. Chia," Oputuk said, craning
his neck around the edge of the paper, his massive head obscuring her view.
"How do you know?" Blue asked, leaning
back, as so Oputuk wouldn't smack her with his head.
"I read it while you were looking at your
sneakers," Oputuk said, turning his neck and smiling at her.
"For your information I was talking to
your pet," Blue stated, placing the paper over Oputuk's head, "I think I'll
go down to the Daily Neopia Headquarters and speak to this Clarence fellow,
he sounds like he's full of baked beans." Blue walked over to the fridge and
opened it, only to be greeted by the loud hiss of Bartamus the Cobrall who was
busy gulping down another can of neocola. "For the last time Bartamus!!" Blue
roared, grabbing the upset and sticky Cobrall "One a day!" She placed Bartamus
onto the floor and he slithered away hastily.
"Told you you should have gotten me a
Noil," Talmox said, looking at Radar, Natt's green Noil, who now lay on his
back on the paper which had just been serving as a hat for Oputuk. "They're
simple and sleep all day." Talmox smiled at Blue.
"No, that one's just broken!" Blue said,
pointing to Radar. "So who's coming with me to the D.N.?" Blue asked, grabbing
her baseball cap off a hook.
"Not me," Natt said, shaking her head,
"Enough spooky stories for me, I don't wanna get messed in with the people who
write the stuff."
"I think I should go find Bartamus," Talmox
said, rolling his eyes and slinking out of the kitchen.
"Fine then, Oputuk and Cumulo, you're
coming with me." Blue pointed to the the two.
"Why us?" Oputuk asked, picking Cumulo
up off the floor and placing him on his back.
"Because no one else wants to come, and
because I said so!" Blue smiled, ushering the two frazzled pets out the door.
***
"I'm sorry Miss, but Mr. Chia is a very busy Neopet," the Uni Secretary said,
not looking up from her computer screen.
"But this is important!" Blue pleaded,
"It's about the article he published today, about The Red Chia." Blue leaned
on the counter and gave the secretary a Lupe puppy look.
The Uni glared at the desperate Neopian
for a moment. "Please get your dirty paws and bad sense of fashion off my desk,"
the Uni said, looking back to her laptop.
"Why you--" Blue growled, making a leap
for the ignorant Neopet, only to be grabbed by Oputuk's tail.
"Calm down Blue," Oputuk said, "The last
thing we need you is you getting thrown into the Neopian Penitentiary."
"Yeah, then we wouldn't be eating," Cumulo
chimed, smiling at Blue.
"Oputuk put me down!" Blue wriggled feverishly,
trying to free herself from the grasp of the massive Neopet.
Oputuk struggled to keep his mother from
going into a fit of rage and possibly tearing the whole office apart, not to
mention the whole building.
"I'll put you down if you promise not
to go clinically insane," Oputuk said shakily. Blue took several deep breathes
and stopped fidgeting.
"Fine," she said, sighing heavily. Oputuk
placed his seemingly calm mother down.
Blue smoothed her hair out before bursting
through the door which read:
Clarence D. Chia: Writer Extraordinaire
"Yeah right," Cumulo muttered, catching
a glimpse of the sign as he waddled into the office after Oputuk and Blue.
"Sorry Miss, no autographs today," a pudgy
looking green Chia said, his stubby legs poised on his desk. Blue sighed impatiently,
already flustered at the rude comments bestowed upon her by the Uni.
"For your information, I'm not looking
for an autograph."
"Well, what can I do for you then? I'm
on a very tight schedule you know," Clarence said, straightening his Kadoatie
tie and pulling his small polka-dotted blazer over his slightly to large green
belly.
"And that Uni said Blue had a bad sense
of fashion?" Oputuk muttered as Cumulo waddled into the office, muttering something
about "false advertising".
"I'm here about that article you wrote
about the Red Chia in today's paper," Blue said, giving the bobbly-headed hul-a-roo
on Clarence's desk a shove.
Clarence sighed and rolled his eyes, brushing
his mop of hair from his face. "You're the third one today and I haven't even
eaten lunch!" Clarence said, dropping his tree-stump legs from his desk, making
a loud thud as they hit the floor.
"By looks of that extra thirty pounds
under that blazer, he might try laying off the lunch for a few days," Cumulo
whispered to Oputuk.
Oputuk smiled widely as they received
a squint-eyed glare from Clarence.
"That article is a load of dung if you
ask me," Blue said, drawing Clarence's attention back to herself with a stinging
comment.
Clarence appeared unmoved. "Listen sweet
cheeks," Clarence said, propping his feet up on his desk again, "I write what
the people and Neopets of Neopia wanna hear, not the truth, because the truth
is boring. And it gives me hives," Clarence added with a shiver.
Blue scowled and said, "Fine! I'll prove
to Neopia that your story is fake, I'm going up that mountain right now!" Blue
leaned over Clarence's desk, poking the plump Chia with a finger. Then turning
on her heel and storming out the door.
Blue sighed again as the masked Chia cackled
evilly, ripping the stuffing out of yet another red chia plushie.
"This plushie," he hissed, his cape flowing
as he waddled...yes...waddled, his way around the company.
As you may have guessed, Blue, Oputuk,
and Cumulo had arrived at the Red Chia, only to be greeted by a masked Blue
Chia had been taunting them for the last hour.
"Yes!" Oputuk yelled, obviously frustrated.
"For the tenth time, we see the bloomin' plushie!"
The Chomby's eyes bugged out as he yelled
at the annoying chia and his fetish for red chia plushies.
"Make it stop," Cumulo whimpered through
his fleece scarf. The Triffin appeared to be the only member the the party which
was slightly frightened by the pudgy chia.
"This is what Phantom will do to trespassers
little lives."
"Last time I checked we didn't have tree
floss for bodily organs," Blue said, crossing her arms over her chest and stepping
forward. "If you're so keen on tearing our insides to shreds, why haven't you
done it already instead of boring us with your annoying laughter and plushies?"
The chia stopped chomping on the stuffing
he had ripped from the plushie and dropped the abused fabric to the floor. "You
try to confuse me!" the chia roared, holding his head.
"Well if you weren't so dumb then maybe
you wouldn't get so confused!" Oputuk yelled, fed up with the antics of this
new found stranger.
"You mean to Phantom, Phantom sad!" The
pudgy chia plopped down on the creaky floor with a thud, causing the boards
underneath him to creak dangerously.
"Smooth Oputuk, very smooth," Cumulo said,
suddenly overcoming his fear and taking the Chia's side.
"Well excuse me, but who was the one cowering
before a chia with bad English!?" Oputuk countered, poking Cumulo with his tail.
Cumulo, having no answer to the insult,
grumbled angrily and sat down on the floor.
"Both of you stop it now!" Blue yelled,
glaring at the arguing Neopets. "Now, Mr. Phantom--"
"Call me Wilbur," the chia answered, sniffing
loudly.
Blue raised an eyebrow, but quickly became
sympathetic once again. "Wilbur, why have you been bothering reporters and scaring
away any Neopets that come here?" Blue asked, taking a seat next to the heartbroken
chia.
"Neopets afraid of Wilbur, they no like
Wilbur because he chubby and talk funny," Wilbur answered, blowing his nose
loudly into his cape.
Blue sighed and spoke again, "That may
be wrong of them to judge and make fun of you Wilbur, but that doesn't give
you the right to try and hurt then for what they did to you. Two wrongs don't
make a right you know?"
Wilbur sniffed loudly again and spoke,
"You nice to Wilbur, Wilbur like funny haired girl..." The chia smiled widely,
pulling his mask away to reveal a wide smile and his eyes sporting a massive
pair of glasses which magnified his eyes greatly.
At the last comment, Blue's eyes flashed
in with anger, but soon became sympathetic again. "Why don't you leave this
place, Wilbur, and let them renovate it, then maybe they'll let you run the
hotel and you can make Neopets happy, instead of hurting them." Blue placed
a comforting hand on the Chia's shoulder as she stood.
Wilbur got shakily to his feet and sniffed
once more before her smiled, "Thank you funny haired girl, you make Wilbur happy,
Wilbur go and do what funny haired girl said!"
Wilbur bounded gleefully away down the
hall, only to hit a weak floor board and crash to the basement.
"I think we should call the paramedics,"
Blue said, wincing as she heard Wilbur hit the floor.
"And a speech tutor," Oputuk added, only
to receive a smack from Blue.
The End
So there you have it! The Mystery at the Red Chia solved, well for
the most part, I never did figure out why Wilbur loved those red chia plushies,
maybe it's genetic...who knows? | 
