Just Say the Word: Part One

The crowd of anxious Neopets watched silently as a Green Bruce reached into a large container of many slips of paper. The Bruce revealed a tiny slip of paper, flipped it over, and read what was imprinted on it.

     "And today's Word of the Day is… Angelpuss!" exclaimed Nate, a Green Bruce with thick, black glasses, a blue shirt, and a brown and yellow tie.

      Nate ran the Word of the Day competition that was held every single day. Neopets from all around Neopia would either gather at the competition to submit their word of the day suggestions personally, or Neomail their suggestions to Nate. The winning word was selected in front of the Rainbow Pool everyday.

      Running the Word of the Day competition has always been Nate's favourite job ever. Especially after what is soon to happen.

      A Green Gelert in the very back of the crowd of Neopets gasped. "That's the word I suggested! YES!!!"

      "Yes, yes, congratulations," Nate smiled, "and don't forget to come back tomorrow and submit a new word of the day, everyone! G'bye for now!"

      The Neopets chattered amongst one another as they exited the area. A few ran up to the Green Gelert to congratulate her, and others just left while pondering what word they could submit the next day.

     ***

      It was late at night. Nate was at his house. He had just left the Word of the Day Headquarters a little over an hour ago. It was approximately 11:59 PM. Nate hopped into bed and removed his glasses. He had just begun to fall asleep when the doorbell rang.

      "Hmmm…" Nate mumbled sleepily, "now, who could that be?"

      He slowly lifted himself out of bed and strode to the front door. Nate touched the doorknob with his flipper, and the clock struck twelve o'clock midnight. Nate pulled the door open to find a withered, Blue Acara in raggedy, brown clothing.

      "Hello…" the Acara said, faintly.

      "Oh, erm… hello!" Nate greeted the Acara.

      The Acara reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, slip of paper. She handed it to Nate, and uttered, "For the Word of the Day, I wanted to submit a little early."

      Nate blinked, confused. He flipped the slip of paper to discover what it said:

      Lew Vet

      "Er… that's an odd word," Nate folded the slip of paper in half.

      "Okay…" moaned the Acara.

      Suddenly, the front door slammed shut.

      "Oh!" Nate cried. He quickly opened up the front door to find an empty front porch. The Blue Acara was nowhere to be found.

      "Hello?" Nate stuck his head out the front door and scanned the darkened front yard, looking for any sign of an Acara. "Hmm…"

      He shut the front door and went back to bed, but not before placing the Acara's word of the day suggestion in the large, glass jar that had always held the suggestions.

     ***

      "All right, people," Nate said over the crowd of very loud Neopets, "it's time to select a new Word of the Day!"

      Nate reached his flipper into the jar of papers as the crowd watched in awe. He grasped a slip of paper and removed it from the jar.

      "And today's word of the day is…" Nate started. He stopped when he saw what was printed on the slip of paper:

      'Lew Vet'.

      "…is… lew vet."

      "What?"

      "Huh?"

      "What'd he say?"

      "What the heck is a lew vet?"

      "Cheese!"

      The crowd muttered amongst one another, but only to discover than no one knew what 'lew vet' meant.

      "I… er… apologize," Nate said, "this suggestion was given to me by a child. It was obviously a joke. Don't worry, we'll have a regular word of the day tomorrow."

      The crowd shrugged it off and left the Neopia Central area, homeward bound. Nate continued to examine the slip of paper.

      "I find it rather odd how I selected this gibberish out of the hundreds of THOUSANDS of other words in this jar…" Nate scratched his chin, "I'm sure it's just a coincidence, though."

      "Hello," came a soft, eerie voice from behind Nate.

      Nate spun around to spot the same raggedy, Blue Acara from before… the same Blue Acara who suggested 'Lew Vet' as the word of the day.

      "Oh… um… hello, little girl," Nate greeted a the Acara, a little spooked.

      "I see I won the Word of the Day contest," said the Acara, "and… I'd like to submit another word…"

      The Acara opened up Nate's flipper and placed a crumbled up piece of paper in it. She then closed Nate's palm, causing him to ball a fist. Nate simply looked down at his flipper, and unfolded it. He took the slip of paper and read it:

      BK Lac

      "Okay, little girl, why did you-" Nate started. He looked up to find that the Acara was gone. She had disappeared yet again.

     ***

      The next day, 'BK Lac' became the word of the day, and half the crowd left, deciding never to return. The Acara showed up yet again, and handed another slip of paper to Nate. This one read A Ed Eh Tons.

      "You won't be seeing me for a while," she had said to Nate, "this is my last word of the day suggestion. But don't worry, this isn't the last time you will see me."

     ***

      "Who is this Acara?" Nate pondered aloud, "And what does she want from me?"

      Nate sat at the desk in his bedroom. He was examining the Acara's word of the day suggestion.

      "I just… urgh! I don't understand any of this! Why would she give me such odd words?! And why do I keep selecting them?!"

      Suddenly, Nate grabbed the slip of paper the Acara had handed to him earlier that day. He suddenly ripped it up into tiny pieces and tossed it into a nearby trash bin.

      "Never again will I let gibberish be selected as the word of the day!"

      Nate grabbed the jar full of slips of paper and selected one from the top.

      "'Kyrii'! This will do. MUCH better than those darned words the Acara gives me…"

      Nate placed the paper that read 'Kyrii' on top of all the others in the jar and hopped into bed, where he lay for about three hours before finally falling into a deep sleep.

     ***

      Nate waited patiently with the jar of papers tucked under his arm as the usual crowd of Neopets filed into the area.

      "This word better not be some freaky made-up word!!" called an audience member.

      "Don't worry… it's not." Nate smiled.

      Nate spun around so that the crowd could not see him. He quickly and secretly flipped over the top slip of paper to find that it read 'Kyrii.'

      "Excellent," Nate whispered.

      He turned to face the audience and gladly reached into the jar. He removed the top slip of paper and flipped it over. It read 'A Ed Eh Tons'.

      "No…" Nate said, softly.

      He ripped the slip of paper in half and tossed it into the rainbow pool. He then pulled out another slip of paper, and another, and another.

      'A Ed Eh Tons'.

      'A Ed Eh Tons'.

      'A Ed Eh Tons'.

      Nate let the glass slip out of his flippers. It fell to the soil below him and shattered, leaving the crowd shocked. Every single slip of paper read 'A Ed Eh Tons'.

      "Fellow Neopians…" Nate said, softly.

      The crowd leaned forward, eager to hear what Nate had to say.

      "…we won't be having a Word of the Day today…"

      "That's it! I'm outta here!" yelled a Yellow Yurble in the back of the crowd. She stomped out of the area, steaming. The entire crowd followed her, muttering angrily.

      Nate dropped to his knees and stared at the remains of his glass jar. The wind speed picked up a little, causing the slips of paper to be blown away, carried by the wind. They glided gracefully through the air, circling Nate, and then disappeared along with the wind.

      "Why is this happening to me…?" Nate said aloud.

      He looked up to spot that same, Blue Acara from before, staring at Nate. She blinked once, and then spun around and ran away, never looking back.

     ***

      It was late at night. Once again, Nate said at his desk, examining the words of the day for the past three days.

      "That Acara said she'd be submitting no more words of the day," Nate said, "so these will HOPEFULLY be the only words of the day that scare everyone away,"

      The slips of paper the Acara had given to Nate lay on his desk, with the 1st word on the left, the 2nd word in the middle, and the 3rd word on the right.

      "Hmm… Lew Vet BK Lac A Ed Eh Tons… kinda sounds as if it… fits together…" Nate observed.

      After staring at the words for who knows how long, Nate noticed something quite odd.

      "Wait a moment," Nate whispered, "Lew Vet… if I switch the arrangement of the letters around… I get… 'twelve'…"

      Nate quickly jerked opened his desk drawer and removed a small magnifying glass. He held it over the second slip of paper and examined it.

      "Hrmm… BK Lac…" Nate began. "Easy! 'Black'!"

      He moved on to the next slip.

      "A Ed Eh Tons?" Nate scratched his head, "Hmm… this one is a bit… confusing… maybe I should sleep on it…"

      Nate got up from his seat at his desk and started for bed. Suddenly, he turned his head around to look at the slip once more.

      "Wait… 'Tons'… spell it backwards and ya get 'Snot'… ew. But wait… if I switch the 'N' and the 'T' around, I get Ston. Take the 'E' from 'Ed' and get 'Stone'!"

      Nate picked up a black marker that was laying on the side of this desk and crossed out the letters 'S', 'T', 'O', 'N', and 'E'.

      "Now… what's left? 'A', 'D', 'E', and 'H'. Easy! That spells out 'Head!' Now… put the two words together… and ya get 'Stone Head'… interesting…"

      Nate took out a clean sheet of white paper and wrote 'Twelve Black Stone Head' down.

      "Now… what could this mean?" Nate said aloud, "… wait! The first time the Acara showed up was at 12 Midnight! That could be what the 'Twelve' means! Yes! I am GOOD!"

      Suddenly, the large grandfather clock in the room next to Nate's bedroom struck 12 Midnight. Nate literally hopped out of his chair and screamed loudly.

      "Gosh! I have REALLY got to get rid of that dang grandfather clock…" he said. "Okay… now… what could 'Black' mean… hmm… okay, I have no clue. And 'Stone Head'? Umm… my best guess would have to be the Techo at Techo Mountain."

      Nate gave the word 'Black' a good, long stare. "I don't know what 'Black' could mean in all of this… hmm… but wait! It's 12 o'clock twice during the day! Noon and midnight! At noon, the sky is blue. Yet at midnight, the sky is black!"

      Nate placed the piece of paper into his desk drawer and plopped into bed. "Tomorrow, out of curiosity, I'm taking a trip to Techo Mountain!"

To be continued…