Assumptions

      One day in the Haunted Woods, everything seemed to be normal - or as normal as the Haunted Woods can get. But unknown to any of the residents of the Woods, even the Brain Tree, they were soon going to be visited by two Neopets, one willing and one less so.

     The self-proclaimed leader of the two Neopets was the yellow Blumaroo known as Damarr, who, instead of enjoying her time in the sun, was trying to desperately drag her best friend through the metal gates as the withered trees stared at the duo.

     "Come on Fantax, it was your idea to go the Haunted House," argued Damarr, "you said you were always tempted to go!"

     "Tempted? Yes. Actually wanting to go, not so much." whined Fantax the spotted Wocky, who was both tired of having her leg yanked and of being brought closer to the foreboding castle.

     As they finished getting past the gate and out of the spooky trees' gaze, Damarr stopped carrying her friend's leg. While she was helping Fantax up, she couldn't help but marvel at the land of the Haunted Woods.

     "Man, this place is sure different than Brightvale!" said the spellbound Blumaroo, "No king in site and no owner to drag us to the Motery for the fourth time in a day."

     "Yeah." said Fantax as she got her bearings, "Speaking of Brightvale, what do you say to us heading home now?"

     Damarr spun around quickly. "You're kidding, right? We just got here and we haven't even gotten close to the Haunted House yet."

     Fantax opened her mouth to continue the argument, but silently shut it, knowing that regardless of what she said,

     Damarr's mind would not be changed. She glanced down at her fur collar and proceeded to brush the dirt out of it when she heard the familiar sound of a tail bouncing away.

     Quickly popping her head up, Fantax saw the silhouette of her best friend hopping away, going right past the moaning Esophagor. Afraid of getting lost in these creepy woods all by herself, she scurried after her friend as their destination became even more clear to her - the Haunted House.

     After finally catching up to Damarr and trying desperately to catch her breath as she continued to jog beside the bouncing Blumaroo. She couldn't help but to ask her to slow her hopping down to a bit more of a relaxed pace. Thankfully, Damarr quickly noticed how exhausted her best friend sounded and slowed down considerably.

     "Sorry Fantax." apologized the Blumaroo, "I guess I just got too excited about getting to the Haunted House as soon as possible."

     "It's okay." sighed the Wocky, "But I have no clue why you're so excited about this. Don't you hate spooky stuff?"

     Damarr shrugged, "Yeah, usually. But after hearing all of those stories of the ghosts, demons, and other strange and horrible creatures that live in that house, I can't help but get excited."

     Even through her fear, Fantax couldn't help but smile. As usual, her friend had an excellent point, she had heard those same stories and those tales were what got her excited to visit the very house standing in front of them. But she still couldn't shake the uneasiness that she was feeling, almost as if her body expected someone or thing to jump out of nowhere.

     Almost as if Fyora herself had read her mind, before either of them could say anything, there was a puff of purple smoke in front of them and suddenly there was a tall figure standing in front of them. The figure's skin was as purple as the smoke that she had appeared from, along with a darker shade for her short, but still curly hair. Fantax was about to ask the strange figure what was going on, when she noticed the almost black, spiked wings on this person's back and she knew immediately what was going on.

     "It's a Dark Faerie!" screamed the Wocky with her fur now standing upright, "Quick, run!"

     The two pets quickly ran past the Faerie as she slowly turned her head to follow them with her green, piercing eyes. They ran past the glowing fire from the Gypsy Camp, but stopped in front of the gates to the Deserted Fairground.

     "Should we go in here?" asked Damarr, "We could probably lose that Faerie super fast!"

     But before Fantax could respond, a familiar puff of smoke appeared in front of them, blocking the gates to the fairground. Even before she had fully appeared behind her puff of smoke, the two had already scurried away to attempt to find some way to escape from this Faerie. But their plight was suddenly stopped when a large branch fell down in their path.

     Glancing up to see where the branch could have come from, their answer was briskly answered as they noticed the pulsating brain perched on top of a large tree. The Brain Tree.

     "Where are you two going in such a hurry?" boomed the Brain Tree, asking one of his infamous questions. Luckily, this was one that they both knew the answer to.

     "We're being chased by this Dark Faerie and we don't know what she wants, but we know Dark Faeries are bad news." answered Fantax, stumbling over her words in terror.

     Unfortunately for the two, the Brain Tree's reaction to that answer wasn't to lift his arm and allow them to escape. Instead, the tree let loose a loud ground-shaking laugh.

     "Don't be ridiculous, pets." said the Brain Tree between laughs, "There hasn't been a Dark Faerie in these woods since Jhudora herself came here to search for The Darkest Faerie."

     "But we're not being ridiculous, Mr. Brain Tree." replied Damarr who was still shaking, "There is a Dark Faerie in these woods and she's after us!"

     Before another word could be uttered, there again was the large purple puff of smoke. But before they could figure out some way over the Brain Tree's limb, they heard a booming order from the tree himself.

     "Stop!"

     Almost as if they were treated to an ice cream from Mr. Chipper in Happy Valley, they were completely frozen in place. The two looked up to see the Brain Tree turn towards the new arrival and they were surprised to see a large grin appear on his wooden face.

     "Jezzy!" boomed the Brain Tree, "Long time, no see!"

     The Dark Faerie turned her gaze away from the two pets to face the tree and did something that neither of the two had expected. She threw her arms out and attempted to wrap them around the tree.

     "Brain!" exclaimed the Faerie, apparently named Jezzy. "I haven't seen you in ages!"

     Damarr and Fantax turned their heads to face each other, completely confused on what was happening in front of

     their eyes. But almost as if they were invisible, the Faerie and Brain Tree continued their talk.

     "Whatever brings you to the Haunted Woods?" questioned the Brain Tree.

     "Well, it's a funny story." began Jezzy as she turned back around to face the still extremely nervous Blumaroo and Wocky, "For the past hour, I've been trying to keep these two out of danger's way."

     "Wait, what?" exclaimed Fantax, "Then why were you chasing us?"

     Jezzy sighed, "I wasn't trying to chase after you, I was just trying to explain what was going on. But each time that I tried, you both would just run away screaming."

     The two couldn't help but to hang their heads down to look at their feet and could only utter two simple words.

      "Oh... Sorry."

     Jezzy put her hands on her hips and looked back at the Brain Tree and then back towards the two ashamed pets. The Dark Faerie approached them, as they both hoped that they weren't about to be turned into Mortogs. Instead of doing any magic, she stretched out her arms, putting one on each pets' shoulder.

     "It's fine." Jezzy began, "I'm sort of used to people running away from me, but I wish people would first listen to me instead of jumping to assumptions."

     The pets couldn't think of anything else to say, other than apologizing to Jezzy yet again. But instead of listening to their apologies, she just shook her head.

     "You already said you were sorry, no need to repeat yourself." she said, "Besides, I guess I should say sorry for scaring you both.

     "I just didn't want you to go into the Haunted House without your owners or anyone else, it can be dangerous in there if you don't know what to expect."

     "Well, we accept your apology." said Damarr with a slight smile on her face, "But then we have a small question for you."

     She paused, as if for dramatic effect and then after what she felt was a reasonable amount of time between sentences, she actually asked Jezzy the question.

     "Will you go through the Haunted House with the two of us? We'd really appreciate it."

     Jezzy stood, shocked as no pet had ever asked to join them before. However, she quickly shook off her shock and excitedly agreed to go with them. So after the three said their farewells to the Brain Tree, they once again headed to the Haunted House.

     And all three of them had a blast, the trio spending pretty much the whole time screaming throughout the attraction. But none as loud as Fantax when a Spyder suddenly fell onto one of her paws as Jezzy and Damarr tried to brush it off.

     Once it was all done, Jezzy offered them a ride in her purple puff to bring them back home to Brightvale and to the gratitude of Fantax's leg, they both accepted. When she dropped them off, they promised to come see her again in Faerieland very soon and also, to never judge a book by the cover ever again.

     The End.