Dreaming Upon a Full Moon: Part One

      The thing about Kreludor is that it’s always there, unlike the sun. The sun drowns out the moon and clouds in attempt to overpower them. In contrast, Kreludor peacefully sits in the sky and seems to be waiting for something or someone -- I’m not sure which.

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      The day was Monday, the 19th day of Sleeping and I was out for my usual, morning walk under Kreludor and the newly arisen sun. It was when I stepped out of my cottage that I noticed it. Kreludor ---- Neopia’s moon -- seemed to be larger and shine brighter than ever before. It was such a beautiful sight to see and my eyes reflected the glow of Kreludor as I gazed upon it that morning. Oh, it was such a lovely sight that morning. Clouds drifted in the sky and Kreludor followed me as I walked, occasionally hiding behind a cloud. I spent quite a long time outdoors walking to and fro, just for the sake of seeing Kreludor in its brightest stage.

      Finally, at about 11 AM, the sun started to overpower Kreludor and I found it was time to head home and end my three hour journey. During which, I had made it all the way to the courtyard at the Hall of Heroes, quite a way from my home town of Parr, which was about an hour away from Altador. Finding myself extremely hungry (I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet), I stopped at Exquisite Ambrosia and grabbed a bite to eat. By the time I had finally made my way home, it was already a quarter past one.

      “Glimson,” my mother shouted the second I walked in the door. She had a stern look on her face. “Where have you been?”

      “Nowhere in particular,” I said to her, shutting the door on my way in.

      “You’ve been gone since seven AM,” she said, glancing at the clock, “and it’s 1:17 PM. That’s over six hours.”

      “Yeah,” I said. “That sounds about right, actually.”

      “And you tell me you’ve been nowhere in particular?” Her tone changed dramatically; it was much harsher than before.

      “Yep.”

      “So you took a six hour walk? That sounds highly suspicious.”

      “Well, I wasn’t walking the whole time. I was watching Kreludor; it’s so bright today and it’s beautiful. Then, I stopped to eat at Exquisite Ambrosia at about 11 am and walked home after that.”

      “So you went to Altador,” she questioned me, like Fauna, the gather. In this case, she was gathering information. She continued, “To look at Kreludor, when you could have just walked outside and looked at Kreludor?”

      “I admit, it does sound rather suspicious.”

      “Yes, you admit right.” She folded her arms. “If you were me, would you believe you?”

      “Well,” I said to her, “I’m not really sure, to be honest with you.”

      “But,” she lightened her tone, “somehow I believe you. You are free to go.”

      “Phew, that was close,” I mumbled, walking into my bedroom. I lay down on my squishy bed and just stayed there for a while, gathering my thoughts. Kreludor somehow put so many questions into my mind. Was Kreludor following me? It sure seemed like it. Also, how do you get to Kreludor? Do neopets live there? Oh, that would be so amazing.

      I pondered these questions for a while, entering into a dream-like state, which was soon interrupted after Siona entered my room. “Glimson,” she asked, “was that tale of yours made up?”

      “No, not at all,” I responded.

      “Oh, okay. I believe you,” she said, entering further into my room. Siona was a pretty cool older sister.

      “Siona,” I asked her, sitting up and facing her, “what is Kreludor like and who lives there?”

      She sat down beside me on my bed. “Well, it’s just what you think it would be like. I’m pretty sure a lot of Grundos live there and probably some other Neopets too. It’s not heavily populated, though. I heard that whenever team Kreludor arrived last year for the Altador Cup that they brought these cool Kreludorian foods and shared them with all of the other teams.”

      I listened to every word she said, making sure to retain all of her information. “Wow.” I paused to let everything in and finally said, “How do you get there, Siona?”

      “Oh, on space ships. Also,” she said, with a child-like look in her eyes, “I bet you could fly there!” I was a silver Shoyru and Siona was a checkered Meerca, so it was quite possible.

      “You’re right! I could!”

      “You would just need to learn how to fly better and for a longer period of time.”

      “Yeah, I know. I’m definitely not the best flyer. But I could learn. And you could fly with me! I would take you and you could ride on my back!” I said, racing through my words. A certain kind of excitement hung in the air as we discussed our plans, both knowing that our dream of going to Kreludor would never come true.

      “If only dreams did come true,” said Siona, after a few minutes of silence.

      “They can.” I looked into her green eyes and she seemed to understand, although I myself really had no idea what I was talking about. Our conversation ended shortly after I spoke these words and we each went our separate ways.

      Later, at the dinner table, I asked Mom a question. “So Mom,” I said, “Can Siona and I go the bookshop after dinner?”

      She looked down at her salad, topped with a traditional Parr dressing, along with carrots, olives, cucumbers and bits of savory, juicy meat, and sighed. “Well,” she said, first looking at Siona and then at me, “I guess you two can go to Parr’s bookshop after dinner, but you two are not going to Altador.” She stared directly into my brown eyes when she said the last part.

      “Okay, Mom.” I took a bite of my salad, which was the same as Mom’s, but without the olives. “By the way, your salad is really good tonight. Did you do something different?”

      “Nice try,” said my little sister, Kaylea, a purple Poogle. “No way is Mom falling for that.”

      “Falling for what?” asked Siona, giving her a death stare.

      “Girls,” Mom looked at all of us, “that’s enough. Yes, Siona and Glimson, you both may go to Parr’s bookshop after dinner. And, if Kaylea wants to go with you two, then you will let her.”

      “Oh, I don’t,” said Kaylea, stubbornly. It was in our plans to buy some books about Kreludor, so it would be best if Kaylea didn’t come with us. She would most likely ask us questions every two seconds if she did come with us. For example, she would say in a snobby voice, “Why do you need so many books?” or “Don’t you have enough books already at home?”

      Siona and I hurriedly finished our salads and pieces of chocolate cream pie and rushed out the door into the dark night. The time was 6:18 PM and Mom said we had to be back by 10 PM at the latest.

      “Okay,” I shouted to Siona as we began our walk to the bookshop, “if we want to go to Altador’s bookshop too, we really need to hurry. I am guessing they will have a lot more books in Altador’s bookshop about Kreludor than in Parr’s, because of the size of Parr’s.”

      Siona and I hurried our pace, breathing heavily as we hopped through the streets. She said, in as little words as possible, trying to conserve energy, “Yeah, good point. But really, if we want to get the best information on Kreludor, we would need to go to Shenkuu.”

      “That little city north of here?” I questioned. We were coming pretty close to the bookshop and were making great time. “Why would they have information on Kreludor?”

      “Glimson, the city of Shenkuu is designed around Neopia’s moon. I’ve only been there once,” she explained as we walked through the door of the shop, “but it’s about three hours away on foot. It’s pretty high in the mountains, so it’s a fairly difficult journey.”

      “Oh,” I said, disappointedly. Siona and I started to look through shelves of books on all sorts of subjects, ranging from magic to the favorite foods of a Quiggle. The strangest book we saw was called A Tooth Story, which I don’t even understand why someone would want to read a story about a Neopet’s teeth. I knew we were getting close when I saw a book entitled Altadorian Archives.

      A Wocky salesman saw Siona and me looking through shelves and shelves of books and greeted us. “Good evening, ladies. Is there anything I can help you with?” he said.

      “Well,” said Siona, a little bit unsure of herself, “do you have any books on the subject of Kreludor?”

      “Well,” he said, pointing over to a certain section of the store, “Over here we have a few books about the history of Kreludor. Honestly, I don’t think you two are going to find many books about Kreludor in Parr.”

      “Would Altador be a better place to look?” I asked, looking at the section of books he pointed us to. They had one book about Kreludor entitled Kreludan Facts and it looked interesting. I picked it off of the shelf and looked at the price tag. It was only 750 NP. What a bargain!

      “It would certainly be better than Parr; they would definitely have books about constellations and stars and things on that line. But Shenkuu would be the ideal place to go to look for books about Kreludor.”

      Siona gave me one of those ‘I knew it’ looks and said, “So if we were to walk from here to Shenkuu and we left now, what time would we arrive?”

      He looked at a clock, thought about it for a second and then said, “Well, let me see. I would say you two would probably get there at about 9:30 to 10 on foot. But,” he said, looking at my broad, silver wings, which seemed to sparkle, “if you flew, you could get there no later than 7:30!”

      I looked at Siona and we both agreed that we would fly there, although knowing I was not the best flyer. I estimated we would arrive at 8. I stood in line to pay for the book and Siona was looking through the shelves. It seemed like she was looking for a book of a particular topic. Relieved, she found what she was looking for and handed it to me. The book was entitled Learn to Fly.

To be continued...