Sophie's Spellbinding Discovery

     An explosion sounded through the trees in the forest, shaking their leaves and causing the critters throughout to scatter in shock. Under the cover of a thick patch of tree leaves, fluorescent green smoke rose out of the chimney of a dilapidated shack, causing the leaves the smoke touched to immediately sizzle and burn before disappearing into the air. Inside the shack, Sophie the Swamp Witch paced around her large, bubbling cauldron. Her beloved Meowclops snored softly in its bed, completely unfazed with the explosion that had just shot out of the cauldron.

     “This isn’t working…” Sophie grumbled to herself, flicking through the pages of her current spell book as she tossed another Twirly Fruit over her shoulder and listened as it landed in the cauldron with a plop. The bubbling liquid inside hissed but didn’t explode like before. Sophie shrugged and continued to flip the pages haphazardly. The gloves she wore stuck to the pages, and she growled in irritation. She reached her hand into her chest of ingredients, feeling around until she finally found what she needed.

     Sophie swayed under the weight of the Codestone before she dropped it sloppily into the cauldron, watching as the liquid splashed up against the side of the pot as it bubbled and hissed through the swirling green brew. Sophie waited in anticipation but again… nothing.

     “This is USELESS!” Sophie whined, causing her Meowclops to jump up in surprise. The Petpet looked at her with an annoyed expression as it attempted to re-fluff its bed with its paws.

     “All of these spell books in my collection and not a single one I can actually use!” Sophie huffed. She tossed the book over her shoulder in frustration, listening as it plopped into the cauldron and sizzled into dust. Oh, well.

     Sophie walked over to her bookshelf, stuffed to the brim with various spell and potion books from all around Neopia. The spines were dusty and some were rotted with age, but Sophie was proud of her collection. Hundreds and hundreds of books just waiting to be read and for their secrets to be discovered. Her shelves had long ago overflowed so that more books were stacked in piles on the floor and scattered over furniture.

     Sophie sat on the floor with a thump and started pulling books off of the shelves. She didn’t know what she was looking for, but she figured she’d know when she found it. She listened as her Meowclops gave a dramatic yawn and trotted over, nuzzling itself against Sophie’s side.

     “Want to help me find my next spell book?” She asked her beloved Petpet, giving it a loving scratch on the head. The Meowclops nodded and went to work, burying itself in the shelves and pushing books out onto the floor with its paws.

     “Light Faerie Spells, nope, tried all of those… Potions of Brightvale, definitely not in there…” Sophie continued to mumble to herself as the pile of books spread out on the floor grew. Suddenly, a large object thumped her square on the head, making her feel dizzy as the book bounced into her lap.

     “That was very rude!” She growled at the Meowclops, who had climbed high onto the shelves and was sitting happily on one of the empty spaces. It continued to stare at her, its tail twitching excitedly.

     “What’s so important you had to…” Her voice trailed off as Sophie looked at the book in front of her. It was thick and smelled like mildew, the dust leaving a light coating all over the book’s covers and spine. Sophie gently brushed a loose cobweb from the top as she held the book in front of her face.

     “Jhudora’s Secret?” She whispered the question, trying to wrack her memory for when she might’ve obtained this book. She’d had no idea she even had it, it must’ve been buried amongst the others. There was a giant lock on the front, heavily rusted from what looked like years of abandonment. Sophie tried to pull it open to see the pages, but the lock held firm.

     “What good is a book that I can’t even open?” She grumbled. Her Meowclops gracefully leaped from its shelf to the ground next to Sophie and climbed into her lap.

     “You want to give it a try?” She asked, holding the book in front of the Meowclops’s face.

     The Meowclops held up a paw and extended a single claw, showing it off to Sophie as it smugly stuck the claw into the lock and began to dig it around. The room seemed to buzz as Sophie nervously watched the Petpet focus on its task.

     Finally, after several minutes, a small click echoed in the shack as the rusty lock fell off of the cover and toppled to the floor.

     “You did it!” Sophie cheered and the Meowclops waggled its tail in excitement. Sophie felt her heart pounding with anticipation as she cracked the book’s spine and started leafing through its pages. She brushed her gloved fingers against the text, taking in all of Jhudora’s words and musings. There were stories, histories, and most importantly… potions. Pages and pages of recipes for spells, curses, anything Sophie could ever need. She felt like she’d been pouring over this book for hours when she felt her Meowclops nudge her side.

     She looked up to see the sun had fallen across the sky and the forest looked like it was glowing with the sunset. Sophie quickly stretched and stood up, gathering supplies from her chest and piling them on the floor next to the book.

     “This is going to work, it’s going to work…” She mumbled to herself as she quickly depleted her stash. Again, she felt her Meowclops nudge her side. She looked down to see her Petpet staring at her with a worried expression. She sighed and bent over to scratch its head softly.

     “I know I’m distracted but… we don’t have any time to waste, buddy.” She paused, not wanting to speak her fears out loud, but feeling she had to.

     “I think it’s starting to spread.” She whispered.

     Sophie held her gloved hands in front of her face and stared at them, willing them to prove her wrong somehow. She slowly began to pull off each glove, one at a time, and dropped them on the floor as she came face to face with the reality.

     The grey was spreading.

     Sophie had noticed her fingers starting to turn grey just a few days ago, and already the grey had spread halfway down each hand. She had heard of the grey curse taking over Neopia, but she never thought that anything could hurt her in the safety of her home. No creature would ever dare.

     Until now.

     “I know there’s got to be a potion, or a spell, or just something in this book that can help!” She reassured herself, looking to her Meowclops for support. It stared at her silently, clearly feeling as afraid as she was.

     “Fine.” She huffed, quickly grabbing the gloves and shoving them back onto her hands, hiding the painful reminder of what was happening to her.

     “I’ve got work to do!” She declared, picking the book off of the ground and reading the first recipe that she came across.

     Her Meowclops watched in ominous silence as Sophie began her next brew.

     The End.