Shades of Darkness: Shadow is Arising - Part Six

"Pudding!" I yelled up the stairs of my Neohome. "Guess what I got?"

     My Kougra came running down the stairs to see the Electric Blue Paint Brush in my hand.

     "Yay! I'm going to be painted!" screamed my Kougra. We ran down to the Uni Taxi station so we could go to the Rainbow Pool.

     Pudding was bouncing off the walls by the time we reached the Rainbow Pool. I gave her the brush and she ran of to the Aisha who was painting pets. Pudding gave her the brush and the Aisha gently stroked it across her back. Pudding's fur changed from red to dark blue with lightening stripes.

     "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" screamed my Kougra as she came running up to me.

     "None needed; you've wanted to be painted Electric forever," I replied as we began to walk away from the pool.

     We were walking down a side street back to the Uni Taxi when I noticed a blue lump lying in the middle of the road. I ran towards it along with Pudding. It was an Eyrie, but hurt really badly. Its body was covered in scratches and cuts, some of them open. One of its legs looked broken.

     "Pudding, go to the hospital and get help!" I cried to my Kougra who then took off running.

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     "He's still alive," said a Gelert paramedic as he inspected the Eyrie. "Let's get him to the hospital.

     The Gelert lifted him onto a blue paramedic Uni who then took off towards the hospital.

     "C'mon Pudding, we should go see how this ends."

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     We paced the hospital waiting room while the doctors had the Eyrie in the ER. Neither Pudding nor I could wonder why anyone would just leave the Eyrie there in that alley. We stood in the waiting room for hours until a Gelert doctor burst through the ER doors.

     "He'll live," said the doctor. "But now the real question is; who is his owner? All those cuts and bruises he has aren't normal. It looks like he's been in a fight, and if that's the case, the owner's in trouble. He doesn't look like the result of the Battledome."

     "I just found him like that," I said. "When he regains consciousness, he'll have to tell us something."

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     Pudding and I returned to the hospital the next day. We walked down the various halls until we found the Eyrie's room, which was small compared to the rest of the single pet rooms. He sat in bed, eating whatever the hospital called breakfast.

     "Hi," I said as we walked into the room.

     "Who are you?" asked the Eyrie.

     "I'm Mackenzie, and this is Pudding," I said pointing to Pudding. "We found you yesterday in that alley."

     "Err. What alley? And how did I get there?"

     "We found you yesterday hurt and unconscious in an alley in Neopia Central. Pudding alerted the paramedics and they took you here. You were unconscious all yesterday. We didn't know if you would even live."

     The room was silent for a long time until the Eyrie spoke very softly "I don't want to go back there."

     "Go back where?" I asked him calmly.

     "Back, to that…place. I don't want to fight so someone can place a bet on me to win. I'm sick of living in a tiny cage. I'm sick of getting beat up. I'm sick of being treated like I have no opinion," his voice grew louder as he kept talking. "I must have been left in that alley because I lost the fight; he had so much money on me to win. I lose, so he throws me away like a broken toy! I'm not going back to that prison of a farm! I AM A PIT PET NO LONGER!"

     "Please, tell me what happened," I asked him calmly. "You won't go back there, I promise."

     "Alright. I'll tell you, just don't send me back there," said the Eyrie. "I was captured and brought there. It's a small farm on the outskirts of Neopia Central. The owner captures pets and brings them there to train them as pit pets. They are badly abused, sometimes they are sick and HE does nothing to help them. Pit pets battle with nothing but brute strength. People bet on us, sometimes millions. Yesterday was a big fight for me. HE had bet five hundred thousand Neopoints that I would win. But I didn't win, so he dumped me in that alley."

     I noticed a note of hatred when he said the word 'he'. 'He' must have been his previous owner.

     "I'm not going to send you back there, but you will need a new owner. You could ether go to the pound, which isn't a good idea, or you could stay with me."

     "I'll stay with you! After all, you did save me, and the pound doesn't sound very nice!"

     I smiled. It would be good to have another pet around.

     "Do you have a name?" I asked him.

     "Well, I like Dark_Intrepid."

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     Dark_Intrepid came home with me a few days later. We went bedroom furniture shopping with him so he could pick out some things. After much debate, he decided to buy Funky Blue and Orange furniture, which was delivered to our house the next day. He loved the bed since it rotates.

     I had completely forgotten about the Shades with the coming of Dark_Intrepid, but the headlines the next day made it fresh in my mind;

     "Torono_Darkshadow Takes over Terror Mountain"

     "Hey what's this?" asked Dark_Intrepid who just came in from outside, swiping the paper from my hands. "Who's Torono_Darkshadow?"

     "Okay Dark_Intrepid, I need to tell you something really important," I began. "Torono_Darkshadow is the leader of the Shades. Shades are very dangerous. They can possess you, and they are currently free and roaming around Neopia, so be careful."

     "Yeah, but it's not likely that these things will attack me," said Dark_Intrepid.

     "They attacked Hop."

     "Yeah, well I have more fighting experience then Hop. I could fight off these Shade things if I wanted to."

     Dark_Intrepid always had this proud attitude. I was about to protest when I saw through the window a blue form fall and hit the ground with a thump! I ran outside to where it landed. It was Pudding who was tied up with rope. I untied her just as Dark_Intrepid was coming over.

     "DARK_INTREPID I AM GOING TO FRY YOU!" screamed Pudding. She jumped up and tackled him.

     "Hold on a second guys, what happened?" I asked them.

     "Dark_Intrepid seemed to think it was funny to tie me up on the roof!" said Pudding, who was now putting Dark_Intrepid in a headlock. "I was trying to untie myself when I accidentally fell off!"

     "But it was funny!" said Dark_Intrepid laughing even though he was still in a headlock.

     I started to laugh at them. "Okay Pudding, let Dark_Intrepid go." Pudding released the headlock. Dark_Intrepid took off flying so Pudding couldn't try and hurt him again.

     "C'mon Pudding, lets go inside."

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     Dark_Intrepid was soaring over Mystery Island. Not wanting to go home, he decided to fly around just for fun. He dived down ward toward the street, then back up again, right in front of a masked stranger. Dark-Intrepid turned south and then flew over to the Tombola stand; oblivious to the stranger was sketching his picture.

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     The stranger was really an assassin Darigan Scorchio in disguise. But he, however, was not here to destroy, but to find Torono_Darkshadow another host. The Eyrie seemed perfect, as he was childish, and didn't care about anything more then annoying people. He would report all this back to Torono, and see if he liked this. The Scorchio took flight after the Eyrie. He was flying back to his home. Well, he might as well find out about the Eyrie's family.

     The Scorchio had hid in the bushes in the front yard of the Eyrie's house. He sketched more pictures, and then flew off to inform Torono.

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     The Scorchio ran up the steps to Torono's office. He knocked on the door, which swung open for him.

     "My Lord, I have found you a new host!" said the assassin. He handed Torono his pile of pictures, who studied them with interest.

     "Good work, here's you're Neopoints," said Torono, giving the assassin a bag of Neopoints. "I have another task for you."

     "What kind of task my Lord?" asked the assassin.

     "Well, more like two tasks. First, I want you to destroy the Kougra in this picture. My assassin a few months ago apparently failed to do it, as he never returned. She is the last of the Bluesaphires. She might be a mage; I don't want one of them interfering with my plans. Second; capture that Eyrie and bring him back here. He is a perfect host. I am offering twenty thousand Neopoints for both jobs done."

     "Thirty thousand," haggled the assassin.

     "Twenty five thousand, no more," answered Torono.

     "Done."

To be continued..