 Ralphy and Dizzy: Wannabe Adventurers
by tyleraapje
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Once the pair had felled the towering structure of neoblocks
that had been blocking their way, Ralphy, a blue Anubis, looked over some of the
injuries the falling pieces had inflicted on both himself and Dizzy, a Halloween
Spardel. Aside from a few bumps on their heads and one of the blocks getting lodged
inside Dizzy's Halloween outfit, the pair had sustained little harm during the
assault. The two proceeded on into the zomutt petpet tunnel that was now visible,
but it contained nothing more than a stray neoblock and some magic smelly socks
that had apparently escaped today's laundry. And so the two friends pressed onward
into the next obstacle of their adventure, the petpet pipe maze. Several feet
high and seemingly endless in all its twists and turns, the pipe maze posed a
difficult challenge to the would-be adventurers. Ralphy managed to spy their next
goal, far into the distance at the end of the maze, an open book lying innocently
on the floor just past the maze. Returning his attention to the task at hand,
Ralphy noticed that the flooring of the pipe maze was covered in places with piles
of sludge. If they weren't careful, this was going to get messy.
The two friends approached the entrance to the
pipe maze carefully, and Ralphy noted that the piles of sludge seemed to be
spaced out enough that if they took their time, he and Dizzy might, just might,
be able to avoid getting themselves covered in the smelly stuff. Slowly working
his way through the pipe maze, Ralphy voiced encouragement to his friend who
was trying to follow him step for step. With each pile of sludge they successfully
passed without incident, Ralphy grew more and more confident. After some time
spent crawling through the pipe, the pair of friends came to a Y-junction in
the maze. Taking up his responsibility as the leader of the two, Ralphy decided
that they needed to move towards the right and so he led his friend Dizzy deeper
into the curving pipe.
Finally, Ralphy spotted the end of the maze and
breathed a sigh of relief. He signaled to his friend that they were nearly out
of the woods and in Dizzy's excitement over the good news the pipe began to
vibrate strangely as Dizzy bounced up and down in glee. Ralphy warily glanced
back to the end of the pipe and saw that it was now covered with something,
apparently shaken loose by Dizzy's performance. He convinced his friend to calm
down and they slowly crept the last few steps to the blocked exit.
Peering closely, Ralphy realized it was a piece
of paper taped to the rim of the pipe and shaped like a circle, so that it acted
like a cap to the end of the pipe. He tentatively nudged it with his paw but
found that it stayed firm, as if not paper at all. He pushed harder and still
could not make it budge. Dizzy decided to lend some help but in the process
drenched the paper with his lolling tongue and Ralphy ended up having to gently
push him aside before they both drowned in a sea of drool.
Then a strange thing happened. Words suddenly
began to appear on the wetted surface of the paper that was blocking their path.
a cell with neither door nor lock
my captives never choose to depart
though I can keep none for long
when it is their time exit.
put an "n" before that which I am
and you'll have what you need
After staring blankly at the lines of the riddle,
Ralphy and Dizzy began to wonder if they'd ever make it out of the maze. Settling
down for a much needed snack and hoping to fuel their brains into figuring out
how to solve the riddle, Ralphy opened up a small bag he'd had tied around his
neck. Inside were a couple of slightly melted chocolate neggs, just the right
kind of energy boost the two adventurers needed. Nibbling on his negg, Ralphy
re-read the riddle on the paper and then it suddenly hit him...."egg"...and
with the letter added to it, it became "negg". Reluctantly pulling the partially
eaten negg from his mouth, Ralphy cautiously offered the negg to the paper,
certain that it wouldn't be so easy. As the chocolate negg's gooey surface hit
the paper a furry blue paw reached in through a gap between the rim of the pipe
and the paper and grabbed the negg out of Ralphy's paw. Calling out in shock,
Ralphy stepped back from the blocked exit and then realized that the paper was
being lifted by someone or something. Their way was now clear!
The pair tentatively stepped out of the end of
the pipe maze, with Dizzy still licking the tips of his paws, having just finished
his negg. Ralphy looked back towards the maze, but saw no sign of who or what
had been on the other end of the blue furry paw. Only slightly troubled by this,
Ralphy returned his attention to his friend and their final goal, a book. The
book appeared to be some sort of journal and it was opened to a page that contained
a single entry.
1st Day of Celebrating, Y2
...Having rafted my way to a tiny island off
the coast of Neopia, I knew that I still needed to set sail for a small town
that lies on the outskirts of my frosty destination (I think the old Nimmo said
it was called Happy Village, or something like that). After asking around for
a while, I heard about an elderly Zafara, who is rumored to live out by the
beach. Supposedly, this Zafara owns a sailboat that he uses to take tourists
out to the icy climate. Plus, I hear that his fee is quite reasonable. After
all the supplies I just bought I certainly hope that is true...
These words jogged Ralphy's memory of a story
he'd heard his owner recite many times before about an adventurous Gelert named
Elwyn. The passage was from a bit of the diary he'd kept during his journey.
It told of how he made his way to Terror Mountain and discovered the many delights
of the little village called Happy Valley. In fact, Ralphy recalled that Elwyn
had arrived just in time to visit the Advent Calendar there and had received
a negg, which had been the answer to the riddle Ralphy and his friend had encountered
just before!
Wonderingly, Ralphy reached out to take hold
of the book, when all went dark. Startled, Ralphy and Dizzy frantically pushed
against the darkness which seemed to be both soft and fuzzy and smelled of Peophin
fragrant soap. They'd been covered with a blanket! Rolling and bumping against
each other, the two friends continued to struggle as a muffled chuckle began
to rise in volume.
"Just what do you two think you are doing?" asked
a deep voice.
They were frozen with fright. Images of Dr. Sloth,
Lord Darigan and Jazan danced in Ralphy's head, while Dizzy just appeared to
be preoccupied with the sudden discovery that his Halloween hat wasn't on straight.
With a sudden swoosh the blanket was removed and the two friends were left blinking
in surprise.
With a chuckle, AapjesLittleHelper gave Ralphy
an affectionate pat on the head. "Playing adventurers again, are we?"
Ralphy looked up into the electric Gelert's smiling
eyes. "We just wanted to be like Elwyn and have an exciting journey so we too
could write about it and be famous."
The Gelert's smile broadened as he produced two
brand new journals from behind his back. "Good thing our owner thought to get
you these then, eh?" He gave one to Ralphy and one to Dizzy, who still looked
slightly confused about everything. "Be sure to include the bit about the chocolate
negg. Mmmm... tasty thing that was." And with a wink the Gelert turned and left
them to themselves.
Ralphy looked at his friend Dizzy, holding up
his new diary and said, "I think I'll call it, 'The Amazing Adventures of Ralphy
and Pal!' What do you think?"
Dizzy gave his friend the paws-up signal and
he and Ralphy wandered off for more adventures to write about.
The End
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