Lost Legacies: The Amulets - Part Two

"Whoa whoa whoa, calm down! We're both stuck in a mess and we're not going to clear it up if we don't work together." Carrie offered her paw. Trev shook it hesitantly.

"So, where are we," snapped Trev at Carrie, not convinced that you were meant to be nice to the person you were trying to rob.

"You think I know?" Carrie yelled at Trev, towering over him. Trev held his head high and looked straight back at Carrie, who was two times as tall as the brave little Yurble. This guy's pretty bold, thought Carrie. Trev was thinking the same thing about Carrie.

Both their thoughts were pierced by a scream; their heads whirled around to the direction it came from. For the first time, they noticed their surroundings. They were on the top of a hill, and behind them was a forest. In every other direction, was in fact, also the same forest. The duo both sprinted towards the sound, both trying to outrun each other, and they reached the edge of the forest at the same time. Glancing at each other, they went in. By the time they got to a clearing where the scream had probably come from, it was empty, except for a pile of ashes surrounded by a circle of rocks-the remnants of a fire. Trev ran to the other end of the clearing.

"Carrie! Over here! Tracks!" Trev called, beckoning the Shoyru and gesturing at the tracks. They ran right through the clearing, printed into the wet grass, and appeared to belong to around four Unis, but they didn't know which way to follow.

"Wait," said Carrie, "Uni tracks are pretty easy to follow; see how there's a "U" shape here? That's like a Uni shoe, if you change it into a "V", then it points the way we want to go!" Trev smiled at Carrie, he couldn't help it. For a rich spoilt brat, maybe she wasn't so spoilt, after all, and she certainly wasn't a brat.

Carrie started following the "U" prints when Trev stopped her. "If we want to know the whole story, I figure we should back-track the prints first, to know what's going on," Carrie nodded to this suggestion and they turned around.

They followed the tracks for what seemed 3 hours and still nothing. Just tracks…endless tracks…Just as Trev was about to make this remark to Carrie, the trees grew more dispersed and more light was shining through the ceiling of leaves. They were almost there.

*****

"Please, darling, don't cry," A Zafara patted her son. Their daughter had just been kidnapped and the people who tried to stop them were killed. All the brave ones, gone. Their little peaceful village had been assaulted and torn down to rubble in less than an hour, it had been simple. Show up, grab hostage, kill rebels, run away.

"I'm going outside," the son muttered, and without a second glance he went outside. He sat down on a stump where his sister had been playing not too long ago, but it seemed like a year ago. He let tears run down his face and cried out in anguish. Breaking into even more tears, the little people left in the village who were also mourning about dead friends shook their heads at the baby zafara in sympathy and turned back to what they were doing.

No one noticed two strange looking Neopets walking into their village. "Hey son, what's wrong?" Carrie asked the baby zafara, who was still wailing.

The zafara looked up at her with big glassy eyes and snapped, "Like you care," and went back to bawling.

"Oooo bein' smart eh?" Trev remarked.

The baby zafara looked up. "No, actually, I'm 15 years old. It's just that the Boochi came along, I think two years ago, and zapped me. I hate my look, everyone who doesn't know me says to my mum, 'Awww he's so cute!'" The zafara hunched his shoulders into a hump and turned into a sulking baby.

"So, what's your name?" Carrie asked the 15 year old baby.

"Methuselah. My mum read it in a book somewhere and liked it. I hate it. Call me Matt."

"Why were you crying?" Trev asked, and noticing a cottage with a bawling family inside it, added,"And everyone else as well?"

Matt took a deep breath. "Well, this morning, my sister was outside when five riders came and took her. People tried to stop them, but they were all killed." He shivered. "Luckily for you, the bits left were cleared up before you came. They were an awful sight!"

Trev scratched his head. "But…what would they want with your sister?"

"I have no idea." Said Matt flatly, as if he had recited that answer many times before.

Carrie decided to get to the point. "Well actually, we heard a scream in the forest and decided to follow it, we found a clearing and the remnants of a camp, maybe we're on the trail of your sister?"

Matt's eyed lit up with hope, "You really mean it? Two other people have said that to me today," he admitted.

"Of course we're not lying! If you come with us, we'll show you." Trev insisted.

"Fine, but if I don't tell my mum first she'll throw a fit and think that I've been kidnapped too! How long is the walk from there to here?"

"'Bout two hours," Carrie and Trev said in unison.

Matt gave a low whistle. "Blimey, that's ages! I don't think my mum will let me, but then again, she might."

*****

"Here it is," gestured Trev at the clearing. "The tracks are still visible…and look like they've been stomped heavily into the ground by some heavy Uni. Or maybe the rider was heavy. Who knows?"

"Gee, I really want to go home now that I'm here. I still don't really get why I came out here in the first place, it's not like I'm going to save her or something. Oh well, you can come with me, I'll see to it that you can stay for a while," and with that, Matt turned and walked back to the village. Carrie and Trev followed reluctantly, they would be stuck again and wouldn't be able to get back home…their thoughts were quickly extinguished as a thickly woven net was thrown over them and they were dragged off, being bumped again and again along the ground until they fell unconscious.

*****

Trev groaned and got up rubbing his head. Honestly, he thought, I'm going through just too much today. Carrie and Matt were also getting up next to him, thinking the same thing. Looking around, they saw that they were in some kind of a glass cylinder. What?? Trev looked again. Yes, definitely glass, shaped in a cylinder…trembling, he looked up. A lid?!?

"Um…guys?" Trev said uneasily. "I think we're in a jar!"

A large overgrown Lupe in frayed shorts and a morning hairdo stepped into view.

"BALTHAZAR!" gasped Carrie, and collapsed as her knees gave away.

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Who's Balthazar? And why are we in a jar?"

"Balthazar is a Lupe who has a grudge against faeries, and catches them and enchants them to fit inside a jar. Then he does whatever he wishes to them, normally it's just to let them fade away in his cupboard until they lose all their magic- then they become grey faeries," recited Trev, nearly coughing up a whole Neopedia.

As Balthazar kept grinning stupidly at them through the jar, Carrie asked Trev, "How do you know so much about him?"

"Oh, I've robbed him once," Trev said as-a -matter-of-factly. Carrie gasped at her, but Matt continued to look puzzled.

"What the heck are you two talking about? I've heard of something like this," looking at Trev, he added, "But the rumors I've heard are that he catches any living thing except for faeries, mostly petpets."

Trev and Carrie exchanged glances. What was going on? Everyone from Neopia to Kreludor knew that Balthazar despised faeries: it was a fact of life…unless…they were in a different world. This thought flashed through both of their minds, and Carrie felt a bitter taste in her mouth. They turned back to Balthazar.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT??" hollered Carrie to the air holes in the lid. Balthazar smiled through the glass. Trev covered his ears in time; but Matt, being a bit slow, winced and squinted his eyes shut.

"Nothing, nothing at all!" he laughed. The three in the jar did not like the sound of it, however.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SISTER?!" screamed Matt, his spit flying and getting the walls of the jar wet.

Pausing in mid-laugh, Balthazar tilted his head in question at the inhabitants of the jar. "What sister? I only caught you three today, faeries have been patrolling everywhere, I don't dare step out! I caught only less than 5 faeries in all my history-I bet that if the faeries got a hold of me they'd kill me!"

Carrie and Trev both gasped. Something was desperately wrong. Balthazar? SCARED of faeries? No way!

"Why are they patrolling the forest?" asked Trev, taking an opportunity to work out what had happened since the fight in Carrie's SDB.

Balthazar sighed, "Something went wrong in Faerieland, I hear. I'm not sure what, but it's got all the faeries uptight and worrying, they're patrolling for rebels or something, I'm not sure-"

"What?! My sister's not a rebel!" Matt's eyes were wide in shock.

"Oh, so do you think they took your sister? Well you never know, but most likely it'll be them. What's she done that would be disturbing?" asked Balthazar.

"Well, she was always a restless one," Matt smiled as he recalled, "A few months ago, she suddenly got really interested in fighting and battling-I know I know, that's something I should have taken up, defending my village and such. Well, recently my sister was out most of the time buying weapons, she's collecting as many as she can, but our family is so poor that we can't support her much, she's done most of the work herself. Well, she had all the Faerie Amulets, Illusen's Staff, an Air Faerie Crown, an Air Faerie Fan-"

"Wow, she has a lot of faerie stuff doesn't she?" observed Trev.

"Yup, she's a great fan, my sis, treats then like gods!" Matt proudly announced.

"Maybe someone doesn't want her thinking that?" Balthazar remarked, "Anyways, I'm not meant to be talking to my captives, I guess I should put you on my shelf until you go grey-bye bye!" and with that, Balthazar shoved the jar violently into a cupboard and slammed it shut.

To be continued...