The Legend of Paraiso: Part Two by jeanaet
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Down in the southernmost part of Neopia, where ice and snowstorms
prevail, a young teenage girl pushed forward against the wind. In her arms was
curled a tiny baby Yurble, and behind her trooped a blue Xweetok and faerie Wocky.
The Xweetok carried a very wet Ditsy and the Wocky a very irritated Niptor. A
blue Drackonack hopped along between them.
"Jeanie, where are we?" the Xweetok screamed
over the wind.
"I told you, Aile, there isn't a name for where
we are," Jeanie called back. She paused and pulled her pack off of her back,
holding Trohanex (the baby Yurble) with one arm. She pulled a thick fleece blanket
out and wrapped Trohanex in it before setting him lightly on the ground. The
blue Drackonack dashed around Jeanie and into the blankets with the baby. Nexy
squealed with delight and stroked the petpet with excitement.
Jeanie knelt down beside the Yurble and began
to rummage through her pack. Finally, she pulled out a map.
"Oh, so this place is mapped but it doesn't
have a name?" the Xweetok said.
"Don't get smart, Ailemea," Jeanie said sternly.
She attempted to hold up the map but the blizzard wind snapped at it and nearly
yanked it from her hands. She snarled unhappily. "Aile, make a bubble shield
around us."
"I thought I'm only allowed to use abilities
in the Battledome," Ailemea said.
"Aile," Jeanie said, her voice rising.
"I'm going, I'm going..." the Xweetok said,
stepping into the midst of their small group. She looked around, measuring up
the ring. "Umm... Soqai, you stand next to Jeanie." The faerie Wocky stepped
forward beside her friend's owner. "Okay, Nexy, melt some of the snow." The
baby Yurble sat up. He wrinkled his little forehead in concentration for a moment
then smiled.
A few minutes passed and then unexpectedly the
baby opened his paws. "Bloom!" he cried and a ring of fire that melted a lot
of the snow appeared. Immediately, Ailemea threw open her paws as well. However,
nothing happened. She glowered.
"Bloom?" she said, opening her paws again. The
melted snow formed into a sphere-like wall and encircled them. The wall blocked
off the fierce wind and it was suddenly dead quiet in their little sphere.
"Finally," Jeanie sighed, opening the map. She
stared hard at it, walking across it a few times with her fingers. "Well this
doesn't seem right."
"What isn't right?" Aile asked, dashing to Jeanie's
side. She took one look at the map and groaned.
"What?" Jeanie asked. The Xweetok snatched the
map out of her owner's hand and turned it upside down, then handed it back to
the confused teenager.
"No wonder we aren't finding our treasure,"
she groaned. "We are supposed to be in Terror Mountain - not the land so uninhabited
it doesn't have a name!" Jeanie frowned and looked closer at the map.
"Oh..." she said, understanding.
"That's right, oh! Now... just call an Eyrie
and get us out of here," Aile said miserably, sinking down into the snow beside
Soqai who patted her comfortingly on the back.
"Don't be silly," Jeanie said looking at the
sky. "Eyries rarely fly down south and even if they do they wouldn't fly in
such weather. We will just have to go closer to the sea and then make camp."
"Whatever - the faster we get off this icicle
continent the better," Ailemea said. Jeanie frowned. Aile sighed. "What now?"
she asked.
"Which way is the sea?" her owner asked. The
Xweetok groaned. Soqai stared at the two of them.
"Why don't you just ask Nexy?" the Wocky asked
softly. Aile and Jeanie blinked in confusion. Soqai sighed patiently. "Yurbles
have an excellent sense of direction. So do males. Why don't you just ask Nexy?
He is our best chance!"
"He's just a baby," Jeanie said incredulously.
"Let's try it," Ailemea agreed and strolled
over to the baby Yurble that had taken to rolling around and making baby sounds
at Aros, his Drackonack. Aile knelt down beside the baby and set Haelee down
beside Aros. The soaked Ditsy looked blearily at Aros before collapsing into
sleep.
"Nexy?" Aile said. The Yurble popped up.
"Bloo?" he said curiously. Aile smiled.
"That's right, where is the big blue?" she asked.
Without hesitation, the Yurble pointed. "Excellent," Ailemea said, scooping
up Haelee. "Now, I'll just make this bubble movable and then we can go." She
handed the Ditsy to Soqai who watched Aile curiously. The Niptor (Jeanie) nuzzled
the wet cardboard affectionately.
"Okay..." the Xweetok said. She closed her eyes
and concentrated. Then, she opened her paws and cried, "Bloom!" Nothing happened.
She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Nexy?"
The baby grinned toothlessly at her. He threw
out his arms and cried, "ZHOOM!"
Aile shrugged.
"Whatever, you're the boss..." She closed her
eyes again and threw open her arms, as if she were about to embrace Jeanie.
"ZHOOM!" Right as she said this, what seemed like strings seemed to thread themselves
around her arms and legs. Curiously, she stepped forward. The bubble moved forward.
"Excellent," she said, smiling.
The small group trudged along for what seemed like
hours, joking and teasing each other along the way. After a while the blizzard
stopped, but they frowned as the sky continued to get darker. Finally Soqai
cried out.
"Look! Water!" The bubble broke immediately
as Ailemea dashed towards the water. Jeanie and Soqai yelled after her but she
did not stop until she reached the edge. She sighed happily, dipped a paw into
the water, and pulled it to her mouth.
"YUCK!" she spat it out violently and backed
away from the icy edge. That must have been her downfall, for immediately the
chunk of ice underneath her broke away from the rest of the land and dropped
her into the water. Of course, she screamed, but she got only a lungful of water.
She floundered frantically in the water and was positive she was doomed. Right
as she was about to give up, a strong... something pushed her up from behind
and shot her out of the water and back onto the land.
She coughed and hacked the water out of her
lungs, Jeanie shrieking and crying over her. Soqai looked over her, worried.
"Are you okay?" the Wocky asked. Ailemea nodded,
coughing still. A thump beside them made her look up. A blue Flotsam scrutinized
her. Then, she nodded and expertly slapped Ailemea on the back. The rest of
the water flew out of her lungs and she stopped coughing.
"Thank you, Oreh," she croaked. "I was sure
I was a goner when I fell in."
"Oh, that wasn't me; the Giant Squid was passing
by when you tried to get a drink," the Flotsam mused.
"What are you doing here?" Jeanie asked, clinging
to the struggling Xweetok.
"Oh, I finished with the lab and the shop so
I thought I would come to find you guys," Oreh said.
"What happened at the lab?" Jeanie questioned.
"Gender change," Oreh said, wincing. "I'll never
get used to it." Jeanie chuckled and wrapped a blanket around Ailemea.
"Well, I think we all need to eat some dinner
and then get a nice rest," their owner said.
"I'm not arguing," Aile said, shivering in her
blanket. "I don't want to think about how that salt is going to ruin my fur."
The group laughed and Jeanie passed around an omelette to each.
After eating, they all curled up in blankets
and fell asleep.
Ailemea woke earlier than the others the next
morning. She pulled her mirror out of her own bag and looked at herself. Her
shriek woke everyone, but only Trohanex stayed awake after they had all seen
what was wrong. The baby crawled over to her and picked up a large random bottle
lying on the ground. Aile watched as he melted some snow and poured it into
the bottle.
Yawning, Nexy handed the bottle to Aile and
then pulled her shampoo from her bag. He handed that to her as well, and then
crawled back to Jeanie and curled up once more. Aile smiled after him and then
carried her precious items away from their circle. She had gone no more than
a few yards when the ground dropped beneath her and she fell into darkness with
a ear-piercing scream that woke everyone up once more.
Everyone leaped to their feet (or fins) and
ran to where the Xweetok had disappeared. A large circular hole showed where
she had fallen.
"Aile? Are you okay?" Jeanie called, her tone
full of worry. Nexy echoed her in his own baby words, his tone just as worried.
"Ailemea?" Soqai called softly. Oreh looked
determinedly down into the hole. Finally they heard a rustle.
"Ailemea!" Jeanie cried. "Are you okay?!"
"I'm fine," came the short reply. "Just bruised
- not to mention Trohanex's bottle shattered and the ground is horribly muddy."
The group looked up and smiled at each other. She was fine all right. "Can you
send me a light or something please?" Jeanie glanced at Nexy who flexed his
fingers at her.
"Nexy is sending you down some eternal flame,
sweetheart," Jeanie called.
"Joy," the Xweetok's voice replied.
"Koomie koomie!" Trohanex cried, flexing and
wriggling his fingers. A ball of flame appeared and the Yurble threw it into
the hole. It went farther... and farther... and farther... until all they could
see was a mere speck.
"Okay, how is she not dead again?" Oreh asked
quietly. The others shrugged. They watched the speck of flame go around a small
circle of darkness. Finally Ailemea spoke once again.
"Uh, guys, you might want to see this."
To be continued...
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