The Magical Transporter

          Calleigh walked through the forest together with her Neopets. She liked it here, since the trees covered the paths with shadows and Pteri’s were making sounds in the trees. Many Neopets lived here happily together. They played with each other and talked with each other. While they did this, there owners met and became friends. But because everyone is different not everyone seemed to like each other. For example there was Skylark, a boy who only had one Neopet, a Lupe called Henchen. Skylark taught him to get wood for him for the fire. For some reason he also liked Calleigh and loved to show her his tricks with Henchen. Calleigh wasn’t really interested. He was just annoying; everyone could learn his Neopets tricks like that. Moreover, he told her in a way that made you feel he was better than all the others and that wasn’t true. So Calleigh tried to ignore him as much as she could.

     Today she hoped she wouldn’t see him. She watched her faerie Ruki, called Katniss, play with another Ruki. Katniss was a nice Neopets so she liked to play with others. Calleighs other Neopet, called Amy, was playing at the fountain with a Maraquan Acara. Amy herself was a faerie Pteri. Calleigh looked around to find somebody to talk too. All her Neopets had fun, but she was all alone and could just watch.

     As she walked a little further along the path, she noticed a shining thing in one of the trees. She looked at the tree and tried to see what it was. Amy came to her and asked what was going on. Calleigh told her about it, she couldn’t reach the shining thing. Amy flew up and grabbed the thing from the tree, and the thing started to glow. She wished she hadn’t grabbed it, but it was already too late. She dropped it in front of Calleighs feet and flew away. The thing started to glow even harder. Calleigh and Amy found themselves being sucked into it. They tried to resist and just run away, but nothing worked. They disappeared, leaving no trace of what had happened. Katniss saw it happen. She stared at the place her owner and her sister disappeared in. She knew they had to be saved, so she ran out for help.

     Amy and Calleigh fell down on the grass. They stood up and looked around. They didn’t know where this was, but it sure wasn’t the forest. There weren’t even trees growing here. Instead all you could see was grass. Far in the distance you could see some mountains and that was it. What was that shining thing that took them here? Amy landed on Calleighs hand and told Calleigh her theory.

     ‘I think that shining thing was a transporter. You play key quest right? Well, do you remember those purple portals on the board? This shining thing is just the same. We have been transported to another place in Neopia. I have no idea where yet, but I can fly up and find out. We need to find a way out of here and tell someone about the transporter. It shouldn’t be lying in that forest. Who knows what could happen. More people and Neopets could disappear. We can’t let that happen. People would start to worry. The defenders of Neopia would have their hands full looking for missing Neopets’.

     ‘A transporter,’ Calleigh answered. ‘What was it doing in the forest? I have never seen one before. Someone must have dropped it while walking through the forest. We have to stop this person. You think it’s Doctor Sloth? He could use these things to dominate Neopia. He can make everyone disappear and then tell everyone how to find them back and be treated like a hero’.

     ‘That is possible,’ Amy nodded. ‘If it’s Doctor Sloth we have to hurry. He can do a lot of things while we are trying to find a way out. He is plotting something this very minute. I go search the sky to see where we are. Why don’t you search the area to see what you can find there? I know there isn’t much to see here, but there could be some trace’.

     ‘Good idea Amy,’ Calleigh said. ‘Let’s get started’.

     Amy flew up and looked around. The grass area was huge, was this Mystery Island maybe? Or could it be one of those islands that you could only see when having a treasure map? Or was this the Laboratory Island? Was the mad scientist plotting something to make more people use it? Amy flew a little further. The mountains didn’t seem to get any closer. It could be Mystery Island. Mystery Island didn’t have mountains, but what could the mountains be then? The towers in Faerieland perhaps? Or the Terror Mountains, they were really far away from the Island. Or the pyramids from Lost Desert? It could be so much that Amy got confused. She looked down to see where Calleigh was going.

     Calleigh was exploring the grass field, looking for anything that could tell her where she was. But the grass revealed nothing. There weren’t any traces of Neopets other then Amy. Did nobody live here? Why? Why would a place like this exist? How could there be growing healthy grass if nobody ever came here? There should be someone who worked on this place to make it look nice for visitors. She also noticed there were no weeds. Did this someone only do it occasionally so nobody would know? But why would he or she want to keep this place secret? It was so calm here. It was a perfect place for a picnic with your Neopets. Something was wrong here but Calleigh couldn’t figure out what it was yet.

     Amy flew down and landed a few metres away from Calleigh. She noticed nothing extraordinary. The sky was blue, the grass was green. Well, green. Amy took another look at the grass. The grass was weeping in the wind and it changed colour every now and then. Amy touched the grass with her wing and moved it. The grass didn’t change much colour; it was just a change of tint. This wasn’t supposed to happen to normal grass. Amy tried to pull the grass out but it wouldn’t come out of the ground. Amy wiped down some earth, and found out what was wrong. The grass was made of plastic. Not normal plastic where bottles were made off, but special plastic. Plastic that looked liked grass, felt like grass, but could change colour. Plastic that couldn’t me removed from the ground. The earth was also weird. It was some sort of sand and it seemed to stick to the grass, making it impossible to remove any of it.

     Amy wasn’t sure if they were on an Island anymore. They were possibly somewhere in a building, a laboratory maybe? Were they testing what you could do with plastic? Did they want to build a whole new Island made out of plastic, so people had more space to live? It was a weird thought, but who knew.

     ‘Calleigh, come take a look at this!’ Amy shouted.

     Calleigh walked to Amy and kneeled down before her.

     ‘This grass is not real,’ Amy said. ‘And the earth is too. Touch it and move it. It changes tint and it sticks together. Where do you think we are? You think it’s a laboratory where they test plastics? I don’t think were supposed to be here. We need to get out of here. It’s probably a mad scientist doing weird testing. Who knows what could happen, this stuff could be dangerous’.

     ‘Your right,’ Calleigh said. ‘I have no idea what you can do with plastic earth and plastic grass and possibly plastic trees. I guess only evil persons, such as Sloth, come up with things like that. They don’t have much imagination’.

     Amy laughed. ‘Let’s try to find a way out. I saw nothing when flying so I guess its grass and more grass for quite a while. Let’s go that way’.

     Amy pointed to the left.

     ‘Sure,’ Calleigh answered. ‘For now there is nothing more then to try and find a way out. I really like to see something else than grass soon’.

     They walked on an on. They headed in the direction of the mountains, but they didn’t seem to come any closer. They also didn’t see any other people or Neopets that they could ask for help. The trees rose up at both sides. They decided to go to the forest, in the hope they could find someone there.

     It wasn’t a forest. All they saw was a long line of trees. Between the trees there was a path made of grass. Something did change slightly though. The path became smaller and smaller, forcing Calleigh and Amy to walk behind each other instead of next to each other. The trees came closer, making everything dark. Calleigh started to feel uncomfortable. She couldn’t really see where she was going; she wished they had stayed on the grass field. Amy felt too scared to fly around. She could hit something.

     They didn’t notice they were being followed. A few metres to their left a small Neopet walked with them. It was a mutant Neopet who was good at hiding, therefore she couldn’t be seen. She looked at the two people who were walking in her territory. She wanted them to go away; her owner had promised her nobody would come in here. So why were they here? This place needed to be kept secret. She had to confront them, but when? What should she say and would they listen to her? She knew they’d be stuck soon, so that could the perfect opportunity to get them talking. She would block the way they came from.

      To be continued…