A Hero's Journey: The Curse at Lakeside

     “It’s not?” said Mipsy, gaping at her. “Then…who was it?”

     * * *

     “So, let’s get this straight. The elders want us to investigate a string of weird Jetsam attacks on their fishing boats in the Eye of Meridell,” Mipsy began as she and Rohane walked away from the town hall in Lakeside – a tall stone building adorned with ornate columns and large double doors. “If we can figure it out, talk to the Jetsam or whatever, they’ll pay us, and then we can go on our way to the lost city in the Trackless Wastes down south.”

     “That’s pretty much it, yeah,” the White Blumaroo answered, unrolling a map and pointing to the eye-shaped lake located to the northeast of the town. Several red Xs had been marked on the water, a distance from the shore, surrounding a circle also drawn in red ink. “According to Chief Elder Nikalo, these are the areas where the fisher-folk reported encountering Jetsam who were supposedly bigger than normal, who didn’t talk to them, and who just attacked them and their boats until they left the Eye. And the middle is supposed to be where the Jetsam community’s settlement should be.”

     “But the Jetsam have always lived peacefully with Lakeside, which is why this is all so weird – ow!” The Acara tripped on a small stone and kicked it aside.

     “Are you okay?”

     “I’m fine!” After breathing in and out, Mipsy continued. “The Jetsam would normally never attack fisherfolk, that’s what the elders said. And if they’re bigger and scarier than usual, something probably happened to them. Like a curse.”

     Rohane scowled as he rolled up the map and tucked it under his arm. “Cursed…do you think it was…”

     “Ramtor? I bet, if he wanted to keep everyone in Meridell too busy to fight against him.” Mipsy sighed and shook her head. “Hey, remember the part where Elder Erinels said some of the fisher-folk reported that something seemed to be glowing underwater, where the Jetsam settlement is? That could be the source of the curse.”

     “Others are saying it might just be the sunlight or something. But there’s only one way to find out.” He paused in the middle of the cobbled path and looked at the Blue Acara. “Do you know a spell that can help me breathe underwater?”

     She deflated, instinctively gripping the wand at her side. “Oh. Sorry, I…never learned it, because I don’t need it. And it’s not an easy spell to learn.”

     “Oh.”

     Mipsy grimaced. “I’m really sorry, maybe I should’ve asked you before we took this job…if you knew how to swim. Because at some point, we’ll either have to get in the lake, or, uh, get knocked into it if we’re unlucky.”

     “It’s not that, I’ll be at a pretty big disadvantage then. But we…don’t really have a choice, do we? We’re running low on both money and supplies, and this is our best chance.”

     “Hey! Heeeeeey!”

     The two of them turned around to see a yellow Gelert passing by. He waved at them and smiled.

     “Rohane, it’s…uh, what’s his name…”

     “Hathiet,” the White Blumaroo said, waving back. “Do you need anything from us?”

     “Oh, no, no,” Hathiet answered, shaking his head. “Just wanted to say hi, and I heard from Elder Parel that you’re going to look into what’s going on in the Eye of Meridell. Thank you so much, we’ll finally be able to fish in peace again, with our neighbors not trying to take a bite out of us. But I have to ask – is it true, you know Sir Reynold of Trestin? The great knight?”

     “Yes, he was my father – “

     Before either Rohane or Mipsy could act, Hathiet stepped forward and took Rohane’s hand in a hearty handshake.

     “During the wars, Sir Reynold and his squad kept us and our Jetsam neighbors safe. And we heard you vanquished Zombom, too. With you taking the lead on this mystery, it’ll be solved in no time.”

     While Mipsy shuffled awkwardly on her feet, Rohane said, “Uh, Mipsy and I will do our best.”

     “Thank you, thank you!” Hathiet dipped his head respectfully, his face lighting up as he went on his way. “The fishing community will be indebted to you forever!”

     When he was gone, the Blue Acara turned to her companion.

     “No pressure, I guess? What do we do now?”

     “We come up with a plan,” said Rohane. “Maybe over dinner.”

     * * *

     ”I got this, I got this, I – ahhhh!”

     Mipsy screamed as the Bearog came lunging at her, fangs and claws bared. It was as if all her wizardry knowledge had been scrubbed from her mind, and even her wand had frozen to her side. She closed her eyes and braced herself for pain and hurt, but instead, she heard the cry of the Bearog, the metallic song of a drawn sword, and a thump in the grass.

     The Blue Acara opened her eyes. At her feet was the fallen Bearog, and over the creature was Rohane, breathing hard, his sword in his hands.

     “I’m sorry!” she blurted out. “I was going to cast a fireball or something, but my mind went blank, and I…I…”

     * * *

     “Mipsy? Uh, Neopia to Mipsy?”

     “What?” Mipsy gasped and blinked. She was standing beside Rohane on the bank of the Eye of Meridell, the morning sun climbing steadily into the sky. The lake was deceptively still and peaceful, without a single vessel on the water, except their rowboat swaying gently by the pier. The White Blumaroo, dressed simply in a shirt, trousers and boots, was loading the last of their supplies into the boat. “Sorry, did you say anything?”

     He shook his head and gestured for her to step into the boat. “I said, you remember the plan, right? You’ll have to scout ahead and come back as soon as you can and fill me in before our next move. Hopefully there’s a Jetsam, or anyone, we can still talk to, so we don’t have to fight.”

     She nodded in agreement as she sat down and watched him clamber into the boat after her. “That’s true. Maybe we won’t have to fight.” As Rohane took up the oars, she scrabbled around in their supplies and unfolded the map. “Wait, I can use magic to propel us close to the Jetsam settlement.”

     “Are you sure?” the White Blumaroo asked, not without a touch of worry as he took the map and studied it. “But not too close, so they don’t see you.”

     “Yeah, I got this! I mean it, this time!”

     Turning around and leaning forward, Mipsy spoke a spell that blasted a jet of wind from her wand, launching them forward and away from the pier. Rohane made a strangled noise of surprise, hanging on to the side of the boat with one hand as he clutched the map with the other.

     “I think you can slow down now, Mipsy! We’re almost there!”

     “Okay, okay, slowing down!”

     After pulling her wand away from the water, the boat immediately slowed until it was floating a distance away from the shore. The Blue Acara shaded her eyes and gazed out at the buildings of Lakeside visible from among the trees of the surrounding forest.

     “It’s nice out here. I mean, it’d be nicer if Ramtor wasn’t causing trouble or cursing anyone.” Mipsy cleared her throat and smoothed out her ultramarine tunic over her leggings. She looked over the map Rohane was still holding and tucked her wand into the belt of her tunic. “If anything happens…well, I guess I’ll find out even while I’m down there.” She chuckled softly. “Anyway, I’m off to look for clues!”

     The White Blumaroo smiled and nodded. “I’m counting on you.”

     * * *

     ”I’m counting on you.” He said that. He’s counting on me. So, I better make this count!

     Mipsy looked around as she swam, at one point waving away a fish that had gotten a bit too inquisitive. She could almost forget that the Jetsam community of the lake had been cursed to become monsters, and with only the sound of the water in her ears, she found herself relaxing a little.

     I’m an Acara. This job is perfect for me. I’ll find everything Rohane and I need to undo the curse.

     It did not take long for her to find a circle of huts and stone structures in varying degrees of disrepair surrounding a large stone Jetsam statue mottled with quartz and pebbles. A few Jetsam milled about; all of them were larger than average, with grim expressions, blank stares, and large fangs, and none of them spoke beyond grunts and incomprehensible mumbling. Mipsy ducked behind a rock to take a better look at the statue, which had a coat of scale armor and a spear with a barbed tip. But those weren’t the things that caught her attention.

     Set into the neck of the statue was a gemstone as big as her fist that pulsed sluggishly with a bright aquamarine glow.

     The Acara waited, her nerves taut like bowstrings, as she watched the Jetsam swim out of sight or duck into their huts. Then, after steeling her resolve, she glided upward as smoothly and silently as she could, toward the gem. She touched it and winced.

     Well, found the source of the glow. Ugh, it feels weird.

     After trying to yank the jewel from its place with no success, she slowly pulled her wand from her belt and tapped the jewel, whispering a spell. A transparent cloak of white light draped itself over the gem before dissipating. Next, she created an orb like a candle flame on the tip of her wand and placed it against the gem. The surrounding water began to heat up, but nothing else happened.

     It repelled my magic? How? She cursed softly before trying another spell, and watched, flummoxed, as the beam of light simply glanced off the gem and shot into nothingness.

     * * *

     Rohane jumped in his seat when Mipsy surfaced, clambering back into the boat.

     “What did you find?” he asked.

     “All the Jetsam in the settlement looked…different. Bigger, scarier, with sharper fangs. I don’t know if I can talk to any of them, but more importantly, there’s a statue at the bottom with a gemstone this big, glowing Blue – if the Jetsam are cursed, that’s probably what’s causing it,” Mipsy said. “Especially because it repelled my magic.”

     The White Blumaroo gaped at her. “What? What doesn’t it repel, then?”

     “Just because something repels magic – “

     They heard a thump from underneath their boat, which swayed in the water. Both of them grabbed hold of the sides and yelped when the boat began to rock, and the surface started to ripple.

     A Red Jetsam wearing a tooth necklace burst from the lake, leaping high and baring his teeth as he prepared to land into the boat. But Rohane stood up, drew his sword, and slashed at the Jetsam, which veered away to avoid the blade and fell back into the water.

     “Mipsy, are you okay?” He dropped his sword to pick up the oars, nearly overbalancing as something – or someone – bumped into the starboard side.

     “Yeah, I’m good! What’s the next part of the plan? Maybe we can talk to this Jetsam…trying to throw us overboard!”

     While Mipsy had her wand at the ready, Rohane continued. “How deep down is the gem?”

     “Uh, about…eight feet or so. Hey!” The Acara waved at a Jetsam swimming alongside their boat – the Red one that almost leaped into their boat. “Can we talk? It looks like there’s weird magic in y – fine, enough talk, eat my spell!”

     “If the curse is coming from the gem, how do we get rid of it?”

     Meanwhile, the Jetsam got a face full of wooden oar.

     “We could take it from the statue or break it…but my magic won’t work on it.”

     Rohane frowned in thought, his brow furrowing more and more deeply until he finally said, “Then I have to break it.” After he stopped rowing, he glanced at his sword, and then touched a dagger strapped to his waist. “But you have to cover me.” He began to remove his boots.

     “Are you sure?”

     “We don’t have a choice, do we?”

     The two of them stumbled in the boat as another Jetsam – this one with shell bangles on their fins – attempted to overturn it until Mipsy created a misty magical cloud into the Jetsam’s face to distract them. Meanwhile, the Blumaroo stared down into the lake and the faintly pulsing glow several feet below before taking a slow deep breath and diving into the water, Mipsy following close behind. She watched as Rohane kicked toward the statue and attempted to pry the gem from it with his dagger.

     Grasping her wand tightly, she turned to face the Jetsam swimming toward them, going over every incantation she could think of. I can’t freeze up now. Not this time.

     “Last chance, we can still talk this through!” the Acara shouted.

     A wave crackling with magical energy rippled toward the pack of Jetsam, shoving them back. Water and bubbles coalesced into a shimmering wall of spikes; the Jetsam with the bangles, still somewhat confused, got close enough to touch one spike and recoiled.

     But though the Jetsam were cursed, they were not dumb.

     As Mipsy pushed her wall of liquid spikes toward them, one Blue Jetsam suddenly drew back, and sped toward her at top speed, diving under her bulwark.

     “Look out!”

     Rohane whipped around just in time and immediately swam toward the surface for air. The Jetsam gave chase, but Mipsy brandished her wand, and something popped like a holiday cracker, struck the Jetsam, and knocked them out cold. They sank to the bottom, which distracted the other Jetsam for a while, and the Blue Acara breathed a sigh of relief before slapping herself on the cheek.

     We’re not out of the woods – out of the lake – just yet!

     It did not take long for Rohane to dive back down and begin striking the gem with his dagger, bracing his feet against the statue, but for a moment, Mipsy was distracted by how the gem’s light had begun to look fractured.

     It did not take long, either, for the Jetsam to return.

     Mipsy swung her wand wildly like a sword; the water in front of them shimmered and crackled like ice. Three of the Jetsam drew back, but three broke through her barrier. One bared her fangs and closed them around Mipsy’s arm.

     “Owwww!”

     She was flung around as she tried to break free. From the corner of her eye, she saw Rohane slash at the necklaced Red Jetsam with his dagger. He missed – and a larger Jetsam with an ornate medallion charged toward him with a roar, shoving him against the statue so sharply that a stream of bubbles burst from his mouth. The other Jetsam wrapped his fins around his legs and started dragging him down.

     “Rohane!” Mipsy cried, kicking out at her captor and firing a spell into her face.

     The big orange Jetsam had grabbed Rohane’s wrist, but with a muffled grunt, he twisted the dagger around and managed to stab his opponent in the fin. As the Jetsam howled and let him go, the White Blumaroo immediately kicked out at the Jetsam pulling him deeper, who yelped when a jet of hot water from Mipsy’s wand struck them square in the chest.

     Her eyes met his, and she offered her free hand. “Give me your dagger.”

     But Rohane shook his head vigorously, tapping the dagger against the cracked jewel harder and harder, almost desperately, before sliding the blade into the largest crack and pushing down on it until a shard came free, and seemed to float slowly, leisurely, in the lake as the gem’s light stopped pulsing. The Jetsam suddenly stopped where they were before they could gang up on their quarry again, and they all shrieked as they were engulfed by a bright, blinding blue glow.

     Mipsy didn’t linger to watch what happened next; she paddled upward, glancing around to find Rohane swimming as quickly as he could, dagger still in his grasp, exhaling what was left of his air before they surfaced together. He spent several seconds coughing and gasping for breath as he clung to the boat for dear life and tried to clamber back into it, only for his legs to remain dangling in the lake. Mipsy, on the other hand, immediately climbed into their vessel, grasped the swordsman’s arms and yanked him on board, where he lay and continued coughing.

     “Are you – “ The Acara sighed as she rummaged in their supplies and found a dark blue traveling cloak. “Never mind, that’s a dumb question. Of course you’re not okay!”

     “No…I’m fine,” he croaked in between gasps as he finally pulled himself into a sitting position.

     They paused when they noticed the water around them ripple, and several Jetsam rose from the depths to surround their boat. Mipsy dropped the cloak and grabbed her wand, and Rohane reached – somewhat wearily – for his sword. Belatedly they noticed that the Jetsam seemed smaller than before.

     “Wait,” the orange Jetsam wearing a medallion said, holding up a fin. “I am Chief Kelliel. We just want to thank you, for freeing us from the curse. And to apologize, for attacking you – and everyone who comes to the Eye.”

     The Jetsam with the tooth necklace nodded, glancing away. “Our minds were locked away for so long…it was Ramtor who came to this lake and turned us all into monsters.”

     “I knew it,” Mipsy whispered as she draped the cloak around Rohane.

     “What are your names? So we can thank you properly,” said Kelliel.

     “I’m Mipsy, and this is Rohane.”

     “Right now, we must restore and rebuild our settlement and see if Ramtor has left any more nasty surprises for us, but please, if there’s anything we can give you…both of you…you may find us here again. Thank you, Rohane and Mipsy.” Kelliel smiled, baring his teeth before he and the other Jetsam vanished below the surface.

     “Both of us?” she said before she could stop herself.

     “What do you mean?” said Rohane, raising his eyebrows at her. “Both of us broke the curse.”

     “No, you broke the curse.” The Acara folded her arms across her chest and sank in her seat. “The stupid jewel was magic proof. You were the one strong enough to crack it, and you did that while fighting off every Jetsam that got past me. Even the entire plan was your idea. I just…wanted to take the lead, for a change, and show you I’m not dead weight. I’m an Acara, this entire gig was right up my alley!”

     “But you’re not dead weight!”

     “You could’ve finished this job all by yourself, just like how you beat Zombom, how you’re always saving my – “

     “That’s not true!”

     The two of them stared at each other. A gasp snagged in Mipsy’s throat, and Rohane sighed softly before pulling the cloak around himself more tightly.

     “Sorry. But I meant what I said. Maybe I broke the jewel, but I couldn’t have done it without you. You were the one who scouted ahead, who told me magic wouldn’t work on it. But you still used your magic to hold off all the Jetsam and watch my back. I knew I could count on you.”

     At first, the Blue Acara just looked at him skeptically, before letting out a breath and giving him a small smile.

     “Thanks. I haven’t been adventuring for long, but I’m going to keep learning more and more spells to help you, especially if we’re going to take on Ramtor one day.”

     “Ramtor…” Rohane sat up straight and gasped. “Mipsy, did you get a piece of that gem? I didn’t think of it...probably because I was too busy thinking of needing to breathe. We might need it.”

     “Oh!” She shook her head. “No, but I can grab one – no, don’t move, I can do it myself, especially now that Chief Kelliel and his clan are not cursed anymore.” Mipsy then held up a hand. “You said you can count on me, you said I’m not dead weight…so don’t try to do everything yourself, either. I think I can start asking them questions about when Ramtor showed up here, too.”

     “That’s…a good idea.”

     “You think so?”

     “Yeah, I’m too tired to think of another plan right now anyway.”

     Mipsy snorted and broke into a peal of laughter.

     “Guess I’ll be making the plans this time.”

     The End.