Everyone Has a Name: Part Three

    Loreli the yellow Elephante had directed them to the friendly Shop Wizard. Sruthair had to explain to his owner that the Shop Wizard wasn't really a wizard, just a JubJub with a pointed hat and cape. The friendly Shop Wizard led them to a shop where they could stock up on some cheap food. Now, they were following the Lenny's advice and heading toward the Haunted Woods.

    There was just one problem. They didn't know how to get there. The Meerca had an idea of the general direction the Haunted Woods was in - south and a bit to the west - but that didn't help much.

    The morning waned into afternoon as the two meandered down the path. At a bend in the road, they stopped for lunch.

    "Omelettes were the only thing I could afford, Sruthair. They're not my favorite, but I suppose they'll have to do for now." Demon pulled two omelettes out of her bag and felt her fingers brush against something soft. Handing them to her Meerca, she put her hand back in the bag and felt around.

    "Oh." Suddenly Sruthair remembered the newbie pack. "Dump it out. Let's see what she gave us."

    Demon turned the bag upside-down. She noticed the glowing things first, of course.

    "Paint brushes? Why would I want paint brushes?" One blue and one red paint brush glowed from the middle of the pile of items.

    "You can change my color with those - turn me red or blue instead of green. Paint Brushes usually sell for a lot. I've heard of some colors selling for heaps of Neopoints." He watched the hope rise in Demon's eyes. "But you can't sell those. You can either use them or drop them on the side of the path somewhere never to be used again."

    "Do you want to be painted?" Demon picked the Starter Blue Paint Brush out of the middle of the pile and examined it. Touching the paint satisfied her that it was wet; she wondered how it managed to stay on the end of the brush. Despite her best efforts to wipe the paint off her finger, it refused to disappear.

    Sruthair just laughed. "That stuff doesn't come off, Demon. That finger will be blue until you get a different color of paint on it. And no, I don't want to be painted. I like being green, thank you."

    Demon was hungry. She grabbed an omelette and started eating while she sorted through the newbie pack. Sruthair was ahead of her. He had already eaten his first omelette and was working on his second.

    "Oohh, I'll take that." Sruthair's tail shot out and wrapped around a book that Demon rescued from under some cardboard and a plush toy. The Magic Paw. "If I read it, it'll make me smarter. If I read thousands of books, I can even earn a badge." While the prospect of getting his very own trophy was exciting, Sruthair wasn't sure he wanted to spend all those hours reading.

    "Cool. You'll have to tell me what it's about when you're done." At last, Demon identified the soft fabric. "What's this supposed to be?"

    "An Ixi. Ixis are native to Meridell, which is why you haven't seen one yet. Most of them like to keep to their farms and potato counting. When they can be convinced there are better things in life than mounds of potatoes, they make excellent companions. And their plushie forms make excellent toys," he announced as he made the second omelette disappear.

    The Meerca let out a burp befitting his round belly. Demon finished her omelette and started repacking her bag. The last things to go back in the bag were some cardboard critters.

    Only one of the two made it into the bag. The second one hopped out of Demon's hand and over to Sruthair. It looked up at him with a sad face.

    "What is that?" Demon asked. She had never seen cardboard spontaneously come to life before.

    "Awww... look. He wants an owner too. Look." The Meerca pointed to the thing's face. Like him, it was green. "I think I'll be his owner." Sruthair ginned widely and the cardboard imitated him.

    "Since when does cardboard spring to life?" Demon asked again, watching the critter with a skeptical eye.

    "Demon, you're in Neopia now." The Meerca decided it was time for a lecture. "Strange things happen here all the time and no one thinks about them twice. See, nothing is strange here. Magic is everywhere, all around you. You'll have to get used to it sooner or later, especially the bit about things that shouldn't be sentient being sentient. That, and things moving around."

    "Okay. I've got to get used to everything moving. Got it. You still haven't told me what that thing is."

    "It's a petpet. A pet for Neopets." Sruthair picked up the cardboard critter and started playing with him.

    "Like a Meepit?" Demon asked. "The Lenny tried to explain it to me but I didn't get it."

    "Exactly like a Meepit. I'm your pet. This is my pet. I won't confuse you by telling you that petpets can have pets too. They're more like parasites than pets, but they're still called petpetpets."

    "Huh?"

    "Don't worry about it. You'll just confuse yourself. Just help me make sure this little guy doesn't pick up any bugs."

    "The cardboard thing is like a mini Neopet and it's alive. It's also not allowed to get bugs. I think I can manage to remember that." She zipped up the bag and stood up. "Let's go. The Haunted Woods awaits."

    Despite the fact that Demon had no idea where she was going, she automatically took the lead. Sruthair followed. The day was warm, but the trees provided enough shade to keep the heat off the human's neck and the Meerca's tail. They chatted and played some as they walked along. It wasn't until sunset neared that Demon noticed something a little odd.

    "Sruthair?" She stopped and looked around, puzzled.

    "What?"

    "It didn't take this long to get from that fork in the road to Neopia Central, did it?"

    He came to a stop next to her and spun around, pivoting on the tip of his tail. "No, it didn't."

    The two looked around, but there was no sign of the fork. They walked back in the direction they had come, but it was still missing.

    "This is pointless. If we'd passed it, we would have noticed, right?" Demon sat down in the middle of the path with a frustrated flourish.

    "I don't know about you, your head being up in the clouds and all, but I definitely would have noticed."

    "No, I don't think we passed it yet. But we should have. The fork, the clearing, and the creepy vortex thing." Demon looked up, scanning what she could see of the sky through the tree tops. It was blue with hints of fluffy whiteness, infuriating fluffy whiteness. The spinning vortex had somehow managed to disappear into thin air. No, that's impossible, Demon shook her head. That vortex is thin air.

    "Lost, are you?" A smooth voice approached from out of the shadows. "Where is it you're headed?" The figure emerged, gowned in a black cape. He was tall and green and carried a diabolical aura about him. Demon and her Meerca didn't know who he was, so they greeted him with smiles.

    "The Haunted Woods, sir. Is there any way you could point us in the right direction?" Demon asked.

    "Of course. But are you sure you want to go to the Haunted Woods? I've heard Meridell is much more peaceful this time of year." He paused and waited for an answer. One never came. "Very well. To the Haunted Woods you will be pointed."

    "I'd appreciate that."

    "You're almost there. Go down this path and watch the woods to the right. There's a path about twenty minutes away from here, but it takes some looking to find. Must be because all the officials want folks to stay away from there." He laughed a very practiced, very evil laugh.

    "What officials?"

    "The beings in this world that stop people from having a good time. Namely, Fyora, but her minions cause all sorts of trouble for me, too." He laughed again. It was music to Demon's ears.

    "Who are you that the Faerie Queen tries her hardest to make sure you don't have any fun? You must have done something to make her mad." Demon was liking this guy more and more.

    "Call me Frank if you have to call me anything," he answered.

    "Well, Frank, you can call me Demon. Is there anything I can do to repay your kindness?"

    "In fact, there is. You can take this." He withdrew some sort of potion from one of his cape's many interior pockets. "It's a new brew of mine and I want to get it out in the world. You know, let people see what it does before it goes on sale. Create a bit of demand. Of course, you can do whatever you want with it. Feed it to your Meerca, sell it, whatever."

    "What does it do?"

    "I'm not exactly sure. Though, if you do decide to feed it to your Meerca, something interesting might happen." He pointed vaguely toward Sruthair and slipped back into the shadows.

    "Frank?" Demon called out as she picked the potion up off the ground where he had been standing. He was gone.

    "I'll take that." Sruthair snatched the bottle and uncorked it.

    "Do things disappear as often as they animate around here?" Demon asked.

    "Of course. This is Neopia." The Meerca prepared to drink the potion, but stopped. "I think I'll save this 'til we get to the Haunted Woods. Frank was nice enough to give it to us, the least we can do is make sure plenty of people and pets get to see it, right?"

    "Absolutely. Now, let's find that path." Sruthair hid the potion away in his owner's bag and the two set off to find their way to the Haunted Woods.

    Somehow, Demon knew the wilted trees in the distance had something to do with the path they were looking for.

 To be continued...