Shad and Saura: A Week in Bogshot - Part Four

     "Let's just say... " Shad was crawling under the windowsill, making sure that he wasn't seen outside. "Remember that book we always called 'interesting little myth'?"

     Saura came to the window. "Which o... ohboy."

     "Zombie Unis," Shad replied grimly with a nod. "Guess all stories have to start somewhere, aye?"

     There weren't many of them. Only about seven ghost Unis had surrounded the hut, galloping around it and sometimes trying to smack it with their hind hooves. Surprisingly enough, they hit every time but the walls never even trembled. There was no sound either even though the thudding of ghostly hooves was loud and clear.

     "What do they want?" Saura demanded, backing away from the window.

     "Go and ask them," the Lupe suggested sarcastically. "Maybe they'll... now what?" Saura had gone across the room and pulled the Meowclops out. The petpet seemed terrified and nervous.

     "I won't mess with anyone a witch's petpet is afraid of," he declared, letting Clopsy go. "Let's go back to sleep and think about it in the morning. They obviously can't get in, so no need to worry about it right now."

     The morning arrived sooner than they had thought. About half an hour after the sun had risen and the sounds disappeared, there was a loud fierce knock on the door. When Saura opened it, he found himself looking at the village people. Not very surprisingly.

     "The zombie Unis plagued us last night!" one old Techo announced. "You must help us!"

     Saura blinked. "Oh. Mhm. Okay, well, I suppose I can see about it... "

     "They were everywhere!" another nervous voice emerged from the crowd. "They ran in and out and scared my little babies so that they couldn't sleep all night!"

     "Yeah, and they neighed and moaned and stared at us," someone else declared.

     Shad had appeared on the doorway too. "Hey, wait, you said that they ran ummmpf... "

     "We'll look into this," Saura said firmly. "And let you know. Have a nice day." He closed the door and let Shad's mouth go.

     "First rule of witchcraft," he said firmly. "People may ask for your help but they don't like you. So don't let them know too much. If they learn that the zombies were here too but didn't bother us, they might get all suspicious and come with torches and pitchforks, you know. And we wouldn't want that, now do we?"

     "Isn't that the point of being a witch, to be able to avoid all those troubles?" Shad asked with a frown. "They're expecting us to solve their problem, you know... "

     "And we will, or at least try our best." The Zafara went to the cauldron.

     "Can you use the cauldron?" the Lupe asked.

     Saura grinned. "Come here and watch." The two leaned over the cauldron and the waves on the liquid changed at once. It was not really willing to help, but at least paying attention.

     Saura's eyes narrowed. "Show me what happened at Bogshot last night or the Meowclops's litterbox may land in the wrong place."

     The surface cleared at once and a greenish, somewhat dark image appeared. Shad's ears pricked up and Saura raised his eyebrows. The Unis were running in and out through the walls of the houses, dodging the panicking villagers. They didn't break anything as they ran through all objects and they didn't show any emotions whatsoever. It was impossible to understand why they were doing this or what they were trying to achieve.

     "Inside," Saura said and the picture changed to show the kitchen of one house. The zombies avoided the living but ran through every object without harming it. Not much of a plague but definitely a nuisance.

     "They couldn't get in here," Shad stated, sitting down. Saura nodded and thought for a moment.

     "Something's protecting this hut," he said. "If we find out what it is, we may be able to use it to help the villagers."

     Shad shrugged. "Maybe they just don't like to mess with Sophie?"

     "They tried to get in, didn't they?" Saura looked around. "Think. What could it be that protects the walls of a house from ghosts?"

     "A spell," Shad said. "Sophie probably keeps her house safe from any trouble she can think of. Ghosts should be a common problem in swamps, especially when you're a witch."

     They went outside to examine the hut and see if there was anything that looked like it was meant against ghosts. The two were soon very wet and muddy but the search was no use. Clopsy was sitting on the windowsill, looking at them very curiously.

     "What do we know so far?" Saura asked, fingering the wall under the window. "They hit the wall but it didn't make a sound. But it was still resistant."

     Shad's yellow eyes gleamed in his half-grey, half-brown face. "Meaning that it's not a magical item of some sort. Those tend to lose their power in time, especially seeing the climate of Bogshot - all wet, you know. Items don't last long."

     Saura nodded. "Yeah, it had to be a spell or a potion sealing a spell. Okay, off to search through the books."

     "We could just call Tsuki," Shad grunted, referring to their stepbrother who knew most Neopian spells and sometimes spent time inventing his own ones. "If he doesn't know this spell then I'm Queen Fyora."

     "How are you planning to contact him?" Saura asked, rubbing the mud off in front of the door. "It'd take days to get there. And I can bet my tail that the correct spellbook is in there somewhere. We just need to find it."

     They spent two rather interesting hours digging through spellbooks. Some of them tried to sneak away and some were locked but Saura said that it wasn't probably a very complicated spell so it had to be in one of the lighter books.

     "If she has loaned it to Edna or something then I'm so going to kill her as soon as she gets back," Shad growled, flipping through "1001 Potions."

     "Dunno, whatever it is, it's protecting us." Saura grinned. "Eh, let's take a break and have something to eat, shall we?"

     They couldn't find anything else the whole day and when the evening was closing in, Shad grimly predicted another rude awakening for the morning. They went to sleep and wondered to themselves what would happen if they didn't find the spell.

     At about midnight the Unis appeared again and this time Saura woke up as his sleep wasn't as deep. He sat up with a frown, went to the window, made sure that the zombies didn't get through this time either, went back to bed, turned the other side... and hopped out.

     "Shad!" he yelled. "Get up and check this out!"

     The Lupe groaned, scratching the soft rug he was sleeping on - he found it more comfortable than beds - got to his feet and glared at Saura. "What?"

     Saura was bending over the cauldron. "Here's our spell, Shad! Remember how strongly it glowed last night? That's the thing protecting Sophie's house!" The potion was indeed glowing as brightly as the night before, making Saura look like a born malicious witch.

     Shad came up to him, glancing at the bubbling potion. "Nice. Are we going to put it in bottles and give to each villager?"

     "We don't know how much potion it takes to protect a house," Saura replied grimly, "and if it wants to protect other households than Sophie's. But I guess it's worth a try."

     The next morning the villagers gathered behind the door of the hut again. This time Saura gave them tiny bottles with a couple of tablespoons of the green liquid in each of them. "Don't break them," he warned, "I don't know if Sophie wants to get it back when she returns or if it even helps. Just put them somewhere safe and let me know tomorrow."

     "What if it doesn't work?" Shad asked when Saura closed the door with a sigh. "We've tried pretty much everything now."

     "Sophie will be back in three days, guess they can wait till then when all else fails," the Zafara grunted. "But I'd still like to get this thing done." He went to the kitchen to start making breakfast. Shad stayed in the living room to look through more books. It wasn't much use and when they heard the zombie Unis that night, they sincerely hoped that the potion would work for the village.

     "Can't they just drive them away with torches and stuff?" Saura asked desperately, glaring at the huge glowing cauldron before turning the side.

     Shad looked up from his rug. "Hello? They're Unis, remember? We have two of those back home, in case you've forgotten. Big hooves. Sharp horns. Very heavy. And with a serious attitude. I don't think these ghosts belong to those vain little ohmygod-I-chipped-a-hoof-Unis. Seriously."

     "Let's just hope that the potion works... " the Zafara sighed and fell asleep.

     It didn't. The next morning brought another rude awakening and when the two brothers sat down in the kitchen, they were completely out of ideas. The villagers hadn't seemed very friendly and Saura had a deep scowl stuck on his face when he was boiling the eggs.

     "We've missed something," he said. "The villagers said that the potion didn't glow one bit. Sophie had to use something else... something we haven't managed to find yet."

     Shad nodded, slouching by the table and glaring blankly at the wooden spoon in front of him. "She sure could've left some notes, eh? 'How To Cope With Missing Children, Werelupes and Zombie Unis - the short guide for witch replacements.' Wouldn't have been that hard, really."

     Saura nodded grimly. Shad poked the spoon in front of him. Stupid witch stuff... and stupid witch life, making them responsible for a whole village. Can't they take care of themselves? Shad felt like grabbing that same spoon, brewing some Mortog potion and feeding it to the villagers. "There, drink it all and you'll never have any zombie problems again... "

     That same spoon...

     His eyes widened.

     "Saura!"

To be continued...