A Jelly's Journey: Part Two

Also by sunset_rose285

Before Bryan had even taken five steps in the direction of the skyplane that had carried him to the Darigan Citadel, his foot caught underneath an exposed tree root, and he pitched forward, landing quite gracefully on his face. His backpack shot forward and opened up, emptying itself of its contents. Max appeared blissfully unaware that anything unusual had just occurred.

     Great. Even when I'm hundreds of feet up in the air, the ground still manages to injure me.

     Pulling himself back onto his feet, Bryan noticed all the leaves and debris that had attached themselves to his sticky jelly body. Groaning, he started picking up his belongings. Angrily shoving the last of the food inside his bag, he reached for the Neopian Times. But before he could tuck it back inside the bag, he noticed something odd. The advertisement that just hours ago had shown a depressed Acara now showed two pictures. In the upper left corner was a confused looking Ogrin scratching his head, while in the lower right was the same Ogrin with a shining Filamen over his head, having an epiphany.

     Been Subjected to the Ramblings of a Madman? Want to Know More About Your Origins? Have Leaves Stuck All Over Your Body?

     If you answered yes to any of these questions, maybe it's time for you to gain some knowledge from an entertaining source you'll never forget!

     Visit our office at 250 Dirty Dirt Road, Tyrannian Plateau to get informed today.

     After staring in shock for a few moments and then determining that he really wasn't hallucinating, and the new ad really was printed on the page exactly where the previous ad was before, Bryan came to the conclusion that if he was going to start following the directions of a piece of paper that appeared to be able to think independently, he might as well do it right. Securing Max firmly under his left arm, he began his long trek to Tyrannia by way of parachute, Flotsam shuttle, Pteri lifts, Gnorbu-back, and foot.

     Arriving in style, in record time, and sparkling clean as the leaves had thankfully detached themselves while the Pteri had been flying at breakneck speed, Bryan stepped onto the Tyrannian Plateau feeling hopeful that someone here would have the answers that he was looking for. At the end of Dirty Dirt Road was an enormous wheel whose size would rival Darigan's spikes any day. A Tyrannian Quiggle with a large sundial strapped to his wrist stood in front of the wheel. Bryan approached him.

     "Hi, excuse me." Bryan looked down at his name tag. "Can you help me, Percival?"

     "You want to spin the wheel?"

     "Pardon me?"

     "The wheel." The Quiggle pointed behind him. "The big round thing with all the drawings on it."

     "Yes, I know what a wheel is, thank you very much."

     "Oh, sorry. Working in Tyrannia, you never know what kind of customers you're going to get... So do you want to spin the wheel? It gives good prizes."

     Not seeing much besides a few oddly shaped rocks in the distance and a large chunk of fried egg on the mostly barren Plateau, Bryan figured there was nothing better to do. He stepped up to the wheel and spun it with all his might.

     "So... What do I do now?"

     "You wait," the Quiggle replied, grabbing a mug of ice cold tea and taking a seat on his comfortable looking dung sofa.

     The monotonous "click click click click click click" of the wheel was the only sound to be heard for miles around.

     THREE HOURS LATER

     *Click... click...... click...... click.........*

     The silence was deafening. The Quiggle twitched out of his sleep stifled a yawn before shuffling over to the wheel to check the result. The peg had landed right in the middle of the section with a crude drawing of a red winged beast on it.

     "Ah, right. So, to collect your prize, you want to go into that there cave. I think you have to climb up a rope at some point, but just keep going until you get to the end. It's definitely worth it. Mmhmm. Yup." He shifted around uncomfortably.

     Bryan looked up from the mansion fit for a small family of Royal Cybunnies that he had just built out of pebbles and looked in the direction that the Quiggle had pointed.

     "That cave?"

     "Right. That cave."

     "You mean the one that says..." Bryan squinted to read the wooden sign that had been posted at the cave entrance by a well meaning explorer. "Lair of the Beast: do not enter if you value your life?"

     "Yup, that's the one. Mmmhmm." The Quiggle was pretending to find something interesting in the clouds, clearly avoiding Bryan's gaze.

     "If you say so..."

     Hesitantly, Bryan put his backpack on, gathered Max in his arms, and set off towards the entrance. Twenty feet inside was another plank of wood that read "Seriously, you shouldn't have come here." Another twenty feet was marked with the sign "The prize really isn't worth it, you know" followed by "Really, you don't want to go in there" and "I'm telling your mother!" With every step, Bryan's surroundings grew darker until it was impossible to see.

     "Well... Whatever prize that has to be kept in a pitch black cave away from the prying eyes of the masses has to be worth something... Right, Max?" The only answer he received was the hollow echo of his own voice.

     Soon, the only way he could tell what direction he was moving in was to guide himself with a paw on the wall. Turning a corner, he saw a light shining down from above at a rope that disappeared into the level above. Making quick work of the rope, Bryan and Max were quickly standing on the second tier of rock, face to face with a gigantic screeching, flapping beast of terror. Its foot long talons actually looked quite friendly next to its long, serrated beak. Doing what anyone would do if they were faced with a gigantic monster that looked quite hungry, Bryan turned around and ran.

     This, however, was not a very wise decision, as the Pterodactyl was only flapping because he was happy to have a visitor and not because that visitor happened to look like a large serving of dessert. For some reason, the Neopets that landed on the beast space on the Wheel of Monotony no longer wandered into his lair. Unfortunately, no one knew this at the time. The last time the Pterodactyl got lonely, he flew out of the volcano to find some new friends to keep him company and ended up scaring an entire village away.

     Bryan bounced away as fast as he could while carrying his Spardel, but the Pterodactyl, upset that his only visitor was leaving so soon, decided to give chase. Left, right, middle, right. Soon, Bryan had no idea where he had come from and had even less of an idea as to how to find an exit. He could still hear the beast's screeches not far behind. The rock beneath his tail began to feel softer and more bouncy. Bryan wondered if fatigue was beginning to set in. After getting stuck at a dead end, he hastily made his way back and looked for another tunnel. Suddenly, he saw it to the left: light.

     Almost slipping from changing directions so quickly, Bryan sped towards the opening. With a last burst of energy, he emerged into the cool summer air, tired, but completely unharmed. He skidded to a stop a few feet from the edge of a very tall cliff. The screeches of the lonely Pterodactyl were getting closer and closer with every passing second. Bryan searched his surroundings for any viable plan of action.

     Bryan looked down, only to notice that the ground that he had been standing on was, in fact, the side of the mountain. The enormous mound culminated in a hole that revealed it was filled to the brim with boiling, bubbling jelly lava.

     So now that Bryan was feeling exceptionally more uncomfortable that he was not only standing on the edge of a very tall mountain and being hunted by a very large beast with very large talons, but he was standing on the edge of a very tall volcano that sounded like it was about to erupt with boiling hot lava at any moment in addition to being hunted by a very large beast with very large talons, his search for options became more frantic.

     Inching to the very edge of the cliff and fearfully peering down, Bryan saw that far below lay a series of tall, thin pillars that led to a ledge that looked short enough to leap off of and still keep all limbs intact. Bracing himself for the long drop, he took a deep breath and let his tail do the work. He felt his tail connect with the rock of the first pillar, and Max let out a bark of joy.

     Feeling a rush of exhilaration at the possibility that he could make it out of the dangerous situation with nothing more than an exciting story to tell, Bryan became confident. A little too confident, as it turned out. He overshot the second pillar and plunged down into the forest below while screaming and clutching an overjoyed and barking Max.

     The forest was a lifesaver. The intricate web of vines that connected the valley of hundred year old trees slowed Bryan and Max's descent and they soon came dead stop, hanging from the vines, twenty feet above the ground.

     That's it. From now on, the only adventures I have will be to the Food Shop and back.

     "Hey! Who's there?" A strange voice filtered through the foliage.

     For a wild moment, Bryan thought that he had stumbled upon the family of the Pterodactyl. He began to think of a plan of escape, but his thoughts were interrupted by the vines as they snapped under his weight and deposited him unceremoniously onto the forest floor. Laying flat on his back, he could see the vines above that had saved him still held their grip on Max who was looking happier than he had in years.

     "Like whoa, Charlie! It's another one!" Slowly, a blob of green entered his line of sight. Focusing on it, Bryan realized that it was a translucent green blob... Jelly? He rolled over onto his stomach.

     "Hey, dude! I'm Ben. That over there is Charlie." He motioned to the Jelly Chomby in the clearing behind him. "Say, you got any bacon?"

     "What?? Uhh, where did you guys come from?"

     "From back over there. We've all been here a while. Teaches us to follow the advice of a magical newspaper, eh mate?"

     "Wait. Magical newspaper? You mean the 250th edition of the Neopian Times?" asked Bryan.

     "Yeah. There's a whole group of us the magical ad appeared to. We were all unhappy with our lives and wanted to know more about where we came from. Did the whole insane Lupe, monotonous wheel, chased by the winged beast thing, all of us. Anyway, how about that bacon?"

     "Oh yeah." Bryan opened his backpack and dug into the pocket, looking for the strips of bacon he had packed for Max that morning. Finding them, he handed a couple to Ben.

     "Aw, righteous, man!" He nibbled vigorously on the ends of the pieces.

     "So the ad was meant to bring us all together? Why?"

     "Man, you sure aren't the sharpest piece of gelatin around, are you?" Ben slurred through a mouth full of bacon. "It's so we can see that we aren't the only pets in the world going through this, and so we can make new friends. Duh." Ben grinned.

     Bryan grinned back because all of a sudden, he realized that he no longer felt like the whole world looked at him as an outsider. This was where he belonged.

     "Dude, is that your petpet up there? I think he just drooled on me," Ben said, staring upwards.

     "Oops! Sorry about that. It's the bacon smell. His favorite food. Forgot all about him for a second, though. Ehehe." Bryan bounced on his tail and snatched Max out of the tangle of vines. He removed a leaf from Max's fur and tucked him back under his arm where he happily wagged his tail.

     "Aw, I think your petpet and I will get along real well. I love bacon. It's the one thing I miss about life in the city." Ben paused, looking a little sad. "But come on man, I'll show you around! We've been here for a while, so we've taken the liberty of making this place a little more comfortable. We've dug this hole in the ground, and it's filled with water from this hot spring nearby, and it's totally our pool now."

     "So there are a lot more of you guys?"

     "Oh yeah. You'll make the twelfth. Only Blumaroo though. Anyway, we also have this righteous hammock that we made out of these vines. Dude, you should see it. It's like the size of an Elephante. Follow me!" Ben and Charlie both turned and made their way back to the village. Ben continued to ramble on about the amazing things they had made during their time in the valley.

     A tugging at his shoulder made Bryan glance down as Max poked through his backpack looking for bacon. In the process of searching for the food, the Neopian Times became dislodged and fell onto the ground. As Bryan picked it up, he noticed that underneath the giant headline about the special 250th issue, the advertisement had changed for the final time. Now, it had a brightly colored picture of a beaming Jelly Blumaroo standing next to a Jelly Kacheek with the words "Friends Till The End. Welcome Home."

The End

Authors' Notes and Disclaimers:

Bryan and Ben are still friends. When we said "Friends Till The End" we meant until THE end... Not the end... Well, you know what we mean.

In order to tell the exciting story of Bryan the Blumaroo, we had to make up a few details, such as the rantings of a certain insane Lupe. We firmly stand behind the belief that said rantings are merely the creation of Number Five's delusional mind, and no such place actually exists in Neopia.

Similarly, the name of the Tyrannian Quiggle who runs the Wheel of Monotony may or may not be Percival. He refused to answer our question until our wheel stopped spinning, and well, that had yet to occur at the time of publication.

The insane Lupe, Number Five, who first planted the idea into our minds during a rousing game of Cellblock, has since escaped from the dungeon, finally having won a game against Master Vex. After several weeks in hiding, authorities were finally able to lure him out with a trap that involved a fully stocked size 300 shop having a 1NP sale on jellies. He is now residing in a jelly padded room under the watchful eye of many doctors who will prevent any such thing from happening again.

Also, the authors should not be held responsible for any readers developing a sudden craving for lemon gelatin, Blumaroo-shaped or otherwise.

Thank you for indulging our imaginative side, and we hope you enjoyed Bryan's tale.