The Mystery Of The Lost City of Geraptiku

Recently in Mystery Island a new city has been unearthed, a city that has no shops, no games, and definitely no vegetable shops with Quiggles that attempt to convince you that cheese-covered betroots are delicious. Instead, ashes cover the remains of houses, and large holes in the smouldering straw rooves point to something a little more sinister…and mysterious. Again, the Island lives faithfully to its name.

No doubt residence have been curious about the ruin. I mean, a charred city with the title ‘Lost’ is bound to raise some native eyebrows. And what about the fact that our delightful slaughter statue where every staff member excusing one met their painful fate, is gone? Also-perhaps the most curious notion of all-this is not the first place left to rot by Mystery Island residence. What is happening to Mystery Island as we know it?

Being the somewhat inquisitive Neopian that I am I decided to again lift my reporter’s pencil behind my ear and search tirelessly for the reason-or reasons-that Mystery Island is becoming more and more empty and dark.

My first plight was destruction. Of course, this has only happened once, and the ruins of Maraqua remain, possibly never to be reconstructed to their original glory-but strangely some of the areas of interest are again alive and in full progress. (I refer to the Bubbling Pool.---) Maybe this is the fate destined to our Mystery Island? Perhaps the contents of the jungle territory will all succumb to being inexplicably torched by non-existent beings and it will be renamed as ‘Lost Mystery Island’. But then again, there are other areas of Neopia that are burnt and their parts haven’t begun to be destroyed. Take the Lost Desert, for instance-King Coltzan’s once-elite palace has now shrunk to the level of those who only visit to unearth ancient history and a mystery which has long ago been solved. So it might not be burnt, but the weather in the Lost Desert is so hot it might as well count. (Trust me, I have a Neohome there.)

On the topic of the Lost Desert, I considered other options. Such as, what if the city of Geraptiku was similar to the Desert-it was demolished long ago and only recently has a brave explorer (or then again, might I add ‘idiotic tourist’) discovered the whereabouts of it? Or, what if the city was part of the Lost Desert a long time ago and, being transported in a questionable way of either Faerie magic or Virtupet science, kept some of it’s founder’s name? Thus, it was never originally ‘The Lost City of Geraptiku’, it was just ‘Geraptiku’ and being moved caused it to keep part of the name of the Lost Desert.

Thoughtful on this first option, I discarded it as possible but extremely unlikely. The mystery of the staff’s murders attracted thousands-perhaps millions-of Neopian citizens and by one time or another someone was bound to have tripped over it before now. That opened a new window, that perhaps is was discovered some time ago by an unknown ancient explorer that wrote of it’s co-ordinance but somehow perished and took the secret of the city to his grave-and it all clicked into place.

Perhaps that explorer was the celebrated Ghost Lupe, wanderer of Mystery Island. It is claimed that he died in combat whilst trying to save his princess-and what if this princess was a royalty in Geratpiku? What if he discovered the city, only to find rebels or evil forces attacking the peoples of it? Attempting to save the Princess, he was lunged at and died…a strangely fitting but fogged story. Indeed, perhaps that is why he lurks near the Abandoned Island Areana, protecting further disturbances to Geraptiku, or maybe for another reason? It seemed likely, but still unclear -- and with my other theory still patiently waiting, I returned to that.

Transportation of a whole city, by either Faerie or Sloth, would be a timely, costly, and possibly useless pastime. Faeries are peaceful beings, and only attack when insulted on the principles of being ugly or unprofitable when doing quests. For Sloth and his army of mutant Grundos, however, there are quite a few reasons for doing so. Perhaps Sloth travelled to some unknown world or land and discovered a place rich with minerals needed for his robot army. After stealing the resources of the city, the residence discovered their supplies stolen, attempted an attack on him and his forces and, possibly being of a stronger temperament, Sloth mercilessly destroyed the whole city. Wishing to leave no evidence for perhaps further unknown peoples who stumbled upon that world or land, he used the rules of science to transport it to the most desolate and rural area in Neopia-Mystery Island.

Again, this theory is easily arguable. This incident would have had to have occurred before the whole ‘Sloth vs. Space Faerie’ affair, as Sloth is now locked away in some space prison that no one has seen; but then why would Geraptiku only have appeared recently? Yes, it might have been there forever and no one discovered it, but as I said above that is highly unlikely. Another point of possibly correction is that Mystery Island is not necessarily the most desolate and rural area in Neopia. There are many other places where many would be too afraid or it be to dangerous to stray, such as the top of Terror Mountain, the Haunted Woods, Tyrannia, or an unused field in Merridel near the rubbish pile? And what about the Lost Desert? It seemed to be that all these theories returned to this place of burning sun and steaming sands. Then there was the Faerie concept. But Sloth had one more possibility up his sleeve.

What if there was some sort of ancient war between Mystery Island and Virtupets Space Station, and the city was destroyed in the process? I deemed this as impossible. If there ever was a war, wouldn’t the robots easily defeat primitive natives who fought with arrows and spears against lasers and power guns? And what was to stop Sloth taking over other uncivilised civilizations, such as Tyrannia or Meridell? (Sloth, if you’re reading this you’re not to get any dominationitive ideas!) It seemed impossible and highly unlikely so I passed it off so that I could return to the question of the Faeries.

Dark Faeries such as Jhudora have a wicked history of being…well, wicked! Perhaps the city was once part of Faerieland and the residence did something-or someone from Geraptiku-to insult the vain Quest-giver-outer-er. Another possibility but highly unlikely one. Anyone under the rule of Queen Fyora would be instantly turned to dust if they even plotted to destroy a city in her land.

Finally there was the Lost Desert. Famous for being Lost perhaps the city really did originate from there. After all, anything mysterious could have happened between it’s first settlements and when Brucey B chased his Lucky Coin there. There is, if you haven’t noticed, an eerie link between the Lost City of Geruptiku and The Lost Desert-that the city boasts part of the name of the Desert, and the Desert contains mystery, part of the name of the Island where the Lost City is situated. Confusing, but true.

A drop of Slorg slime away from a million truths, I tilted my hat to the case. The Lost City of Geraptiku remains Lost-Lost without a history, a possibility, or a reason for it’s existence. There are so many theories on what the city is and why it remains as scorched and black as ever-but someday the truth will be found. I am sure of it.

You may make up your own decision on it-who knows? -- it may be the fitting piece in the jigsaw that surrounds Geraptiku.

Until then, this is _cherryblossom_40, detective extraodinaire, signing off.