Lucky Me: Part Nine

      “Where do you think you all are going?” he interrogated them. “Don’t you think that it’s a little bit late to go out for a walk?”

      “Well...” Sam stammered, “we were just...”

      “Kind of....” Sasha continued.

      “I mean... just a... ummm... little bit...” Sage tried.

      “We were only trying to get out of the house for a while because we have been sitting in there all day and thought that we should get out for some exercise,” Aura came in for the save. She had lied to Amanda so many times in the past that it came naturally.

      “Oh.” He smiled. “I’m glad that you wanted to get out of the house, but I have other plans for all of you.”

***

     “LET US GO!” Sasha screamed for the hundredth time. Anthony was definitely working alone on this ceremony, but he was making sure that there was no way out for them. He had bound them all by the paws and Aura thought that soon they would be gagged too because of Sasha’s mouth. “YOU CAN’T KEEP US HERE! WE’LL GET OUT AND THEN YOU’LL BE SORRY BECAUSE WE’LL KICK YOUR....”

      “BE QUIET ALREADY!” Anthony yelled over Sasha, which Aura had thought to be pretty much impossible. “CAN’T YOU SEE THAT I’M STILL GETTING THINGS TOGETHER!” He had been like this the whole time since he brought them out to the shed. Sasha would continue to scream and yell at him when he would walk by to carry out a box that was in his way or to get a piece of chalk, but now it looked almost completed.

      Four circles were drawn onto the floor one in red, one in blue, one in green, and the other in purple. There were lines extending from them to the center where Anthony was currently working furiously with the white chalk. “This better be worth it,” he kept on mumbling while he worked. “If I did this all for nothing I’ll be so mad that I’ll...”

      Aura didn’t catch the rest of it, for something in the window had caught her eye, but from the looks of it no one else was looking at the window except for her. It was an outline of a head, but not the head of a human, but one of a neopet. Then as soon as it appeared it was gone, but Aura was sure that she wasn’t just seeing things. Something had just been in that window, but was that thing going to help them, or was it on Anthony’s side?

      “There, it’s done.” Anthony sighed and sat down on a box while drinking out of his water bottle.

      “I thought that you were supposed to draw the circle around us,” Aura commented, remembering what the book had said. “I don’t think that it would work otherwise.”

      Anthony wiped his mouth on his sleeve and smiled. “Nice try, but I know how to set this up. I’ve been studying this ritual for months now and there is no way that I could possibly mess it up after I’ve practiced fifty times.”

      “Fifty!” Sage stammered. “Why fifty! That’s like a lot of times!”

      “Yeah, I know.” Anthony smiled. “This way there would be no flaws once I had you all here, but unfortunately I never guessed that you would know what I was doing, so that came as a bit of a surprise to me. However, I did manage to get you all here and that’s what counts. Now hold still while I get you to your circles.” Anthony got up and started by picking Sage easily up from his bandana and dropping him in the red circle, but Sam was much more of a challenge to move into the blue circle.

      He kept on moving his head, trying to hit Anthony when he walked by to try to take him, but slowly Sam was moved into his blue circle. Next came Sasha, but she wasn’t really much of a challenge. All she did was scream and yell and tell him to let go, but that didn’t stop him from getting her into the green circle.

      Last was Aura, but she wouldn’t go without putting up the biggest fight of all because she had the one thing that the others didn’t have- large wings. True Anthony had tied them down, but the ropes were no match for her wings training of ten miles everyday nonstop flying and she had easily broken free; however, there was nowhere to go and soon he had gotten her (or more like tackled her midair) into the purple circle and had tied fifty pound weights to each of her paws so she could try to fly away again.

      “Finally.” He sighed and sat back down on his box while looking at his watch. “Only five more minutes and then it shall all be over with.”

      “JUST LET US GO!” Sasha screamed. “LET US GO, LET US GO, LET US GO, LET US GO!!!!!!!!”

      “BE QUIET FOR THE LAST TIME!” Anthony yelled and then tied a piece of cloth over Sasha’s mouth. “You by far are the worst neopet a owner could ever have!” Aura could tell that Sasha had been really hurt by this comment because she failed to try to speak again, which was hard to watch. Here Sasha was, Aura’s friend and sister, being tied down and there was nothing she could do about it.

      Then a little beeping noise came and Anthony couldn’t help but smile as he went to get the book that was lying next to his box. “The time has finally arrived,” he boasted and opened his book. He flipped through a couple of pages before stopping on one. “Soon you four will be Gikyu’s power sources!”

      So that’s the sorceress’s name, Aura thought as Anthony stepped into the center where the four lines met, Gikyu....

      “Now, let us begin,” Anthony stopped at the center of the circle and faced the moon. Then, he began the chant,

     “Oh, great Zafara sorceress of the old

     Come back now on this blue moon’s cold

     I call you now to return to your rightful land

     Then you shall do as I command

     Now come back to the land of the living

     So you can do all my bidding

     Come back now, Zafara of the old,

     I call on thee!”

      Nothing happened. Those weren’t the words, Aura excitedly thought as Anthony waited for something to happen, so then nothing will happen, which means that Gikyu won’t...

      Then a black smoke seeped out from the center of the emerged points, and Aura closed her eyes as she felt a strong pain go through her chest where her necklace lay.

      “Finally!” Anthony proclaimed as he watched his masterpiece unfold before him. “Now I will be able to control Neopia, and no one will be able to stand in my way! No longer will people look down on me, for now I shall be their master. Everyone shall bow down to me! I shall be all powerful, and no one will ever stop me!”

      Then Aura heard an icy cold scream come out of the smoke. A scream so terrifying that it sounded like all the screams of terror and fright had been united into one scream that would scare the living soul out of anything in its path.

      Suddenly she could keep her eyes closed no longer, for some unseen force was prying them open. At first all she could see was the black smoke, but soon it began to thin to reveal a Shadow Zafara dressed in a black robe with long black hair. The smoke still lingered around her as she turned to look at the one who had called her, Anthony.

      “Oh great Gikyu,” he said, getting down on one knee, “I am Anthony, the one who has released you from your...”

      “Where is she?” Gikyu spoke slowly with a commanding voice that startled Aura. “Where is the other one who denied me my victory over Neopia?”

      “I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Anthony stuttered. “All of them are here...”

      “SILENCE!” she boomed and Anthony cowered away in fear. “Five were there on that day when I was imprisoned, but only four are here now. Where is the last pendant! Where is the pendant of light!”

      Only now did Aura see that Gikyu had a pendant too, one with a black gem in the center. It must be the pendant of the dark, Aura thought as she struggled to stay upright like Sam, for Sasha had already fainted and Sage was lying on the floor, too exhausted to keep balance.

      “I did not know that there was a pendant of light,” Anthony confessed as he emerged from the box he was hiding behind. “It never occurred to me that there might be another, for no book ever said anything about five warriors.”

      “FOOL!” she yelled and Anthony cowered back to his hiding spot. “Of course you would not find her, for she already has her pendant, and did not want anyone to know of her legacy! But now I must have her pendant to destroy it! My dark pendant’s power will be weak until I have destroyed its opposite! NOW FIND ME THE GIRL!”

      “Yes,” Anthony humbly said, “but how might I find her?”

      “That won’t be necessary, for I have found you,” a voice calmly said from the front of the shed. Then a blinding white light came, and Aura felt power running through her once again.

      This must be her, Aura thought as she felt the power rushing through her body, This is the fifth pendant. The last one that we need to defeat Gikyu once and for all!

     As the light cleared away, Aura saw who the last pendant owner really was. A young Pirate Shoyru was at the door with her light pendant in her head, still gently shining from when she used its power.

      “So,” Gikyu said with a strained voice, “you have decided to show yourself, have you? I must say that that is very brave of you, for you do know that know that you are out in the open; you most surely shall die.”

      “It would appear that I am out in the open,” she said with a calmness that unnerved Aura, “but I shall not be the one to die here today, and neither shall you. No one has to die, but if you insist, then a battle is what you shall get.”

      “I accept your challenge!” Gikyu screamed and lunged at the Shoyru.

      Everything happened so fast that Aura couldn’t keep up. First she had felt pain, then saw a bright light, and then there was nothing but darkness.

***

     One week later.....

      A week went by and no bad luck had befallen Sam, Sasha, Aura, or Sage. They now were all living happily at Amanda’s, and Anthony was nowhere to be found. Jemina was coming over regularly, and everything seemed to be going back to normal for Aura, but she knew that her adventure would not stop there.

      She was going to find that fifth pendant some day, and figure out what truly happened on that day so many years ago.

The End

Thanks for reading! Currently writing more! Also, thanks pure__spirit for great idea!