The Curse of Maraqua

The Maraquan region of Neopia hasn't revealed its past for a long time. Such a mystery intrigues many, and they have dove into the depths of history, to reveal nothing, or whatever little evidence they find literally destroyed forever, lost in the minds of those who cannot take the responsibility. But I, reader know, what befell Maraqua…on that fateful day…

     Marissa the Maraquan Acara and Theresa the Maraquan Uni were playing around in a coral reef, ducking and diving between the holes and swimming around wildly, playing as long as their hearts desired.

     That is, until the boats came.

     There were two boats, Captain Scarblade's boat they all knew too well. Marissa and Theresa surfaced above the water, keeping out of eyesight.

     The other boat, the Lobster Pot, they had never seen, though they knew that it was also another boat that sailed the ocean, continuously firing at Captain Scarblade's boat, the Revenge.

     A loud bang erupted from the Revenge, and a cannonball hit the water with a splash. A huge cannonball was fired from the Lobster Pot, and it nearly hit the Revenge. The two ships traded blows, a cannonball for cannonball, until the Revenge began to throw explosives at an alarmingly fast rate. Theresa and Marissa ducked down into the ocean as the Lobster Pot exploded in an astounding burst of fireworks.

     Theresa's keen eyes detected a small, white thing floating down towards the bottom of the ocean. She and Marissa dove down, careful to avoid the debris from the Lobster Pot.

     "What do you think it is, Theresa?" asked Marissa.

     "I don't really know. It looks like a small clam," answered Theresa.

     Theresa's thought wasn't much off the mark. A small clam, polished until it shone with a soft glinting light, was what had fallen. Marissa examined it fully.

     "Hey, it's a box!" she said, pulling it open.

     Inside was a black pearl, of such enormous beauty in which no pearl has received before. But this beauty, and Theresa perceived, was not the type of beauty of a normal pink or white pearl, but the dark beauty of something only meant for an evil and deceiving purpose.

     "Marissa, I don't think that looks too good," said Theresa cautiously, backing away from it. Marissa didn't answer. Theresa looked at her anxiously, thinking something bad had befallen her. Indeed, something had.

     Theresa saw Marissa stare at her, her eyes blank like a hypnotized person. Theresa backed away, swishing her tail angrily. But Marissa wasn't after her. She was simply looking at her, trying to hypnotize her also. Theresa fought the pain in her head, and screamed silently. Marissa was becoming a slave of the pearl.

     Inside of Marissa's head a battle was waging against her and the dark faerie, who was slowly invading her mind. A soft soothing note was heard as Marissa flowed back through her memories, hearing a piano key being struck softly, as she struggled to get out of the web of memories she was tied to. As she did, the dark faerie had totally occupied her full mind, and was preparing to destroy Maraqua.

     Theresa, however, was swiftly swimming away from Maraqua, determined to stop Marissa's enslaver. The pearl was what was invading Marissa's mind, and soon would invade others by using Marissa. Theresa was not going to become one of them, a walking, hypnotized army, like that of the poor Meridellian peasants in the war between Kass and Skarl.

     Theresa scanned the landscape, looking for a place to put her new living quarters in, until the Maraquan Uni found a small rocky cave that was just on the outskirts of Maraqua.

     She heard voices, and saw two Maraquan Aishas, probably sisters, emerge from the cave.

     "What do you want?" they asked.

     "I was looking for shelter to put my new living quarters in…for there is a bad thing in Maraqua…" Theresa said hastily.

     "Maraqua, you say? We may be able to help, there is another room in the cave, and we are tired of having only each other for company," said one.

     "I am Caylis, and this is Isca," she added.

     "The thing that is invading Maraqua, perhaps even now, is a black pearl. We found it amongst the wreckage of the Lobster Pot, and within it is a strange power that has enslaved my friend Marissa into a walking hypnotizing machine," said Theresa.

     "I dreamt something like this in my dreams," said Isca, putting her hand over Caylis's shoulder. "Come, you may put your new living quarter in our cave. We will try to help you save Maraqua," she added.

     A week later, Theresa had fully moved in to their home. A Maraquan Cobrall swam by her face as she ate breakfast with Isca and Caylis.

     "We must destroy the black pearl," said Caylis, her gray eyes seeming to be tinged with red from fury. Theresa peeked out of the window. A large group of Maraquan inhabitants were coming nearer, Marissa leading them.

     "We may have company," Theresa warned, gobbling down her breakfast hurriedly. Caylis and Isca looked out of the window, and saw that the Maraquans weren't coming towards them, but towards Maraqua.

     "They're destroying Maraqua!" cried Isca, shielding her ears from the earsplitting noises of glass cracking and the destroying of many homes. Theresa looked out of the window again. Some were destroying houses, others were destroying Maraqua's meeting hall.

     "My house!" she shrieked, her eyes daring to watch the hypnotized people batter her house with rocks, smashing the windows and pounding at the door with clubs.

     Non-hypnotized inhabitants ran away screaming, and one, by a twist of fate, knocked on their door.

     An old, bearded Koi stood at their door, pounding on it furiously.

     They let him in.

     "King Kelpbeard!" exclaimed Theresa, bowing low. Isca looked at Caylis uncertainly.

     "King Kelpbeard, I know why the people are destroying Maraqua. They have been enslaved by a cursed black pearl, cursed by all the likes of evilness, from a dark faerie to even a pirate. I could not warn you, nor could Isca or Caylis, for they would have enslaved us too," explained Theresa.

     "I see," said King Kelpbeard. He scratched his head, deep in thought.

     "I remember, if memory serves, one of my upper-land spies, who is a Quiggle named Darin, that Captain Scarblade had conspired with a dark faerie to create the ultimate mind-enslaving machine. Of course, the captain of the Lobster Pot, Captain Zagaar, stole it from him, and was trying for the domination of the whole of Neopia. Of course, he wouldn't even get past Maraqua without Scarblade stopping him, but he tried anyway, and this is what he created. A living, breathing horde of minions," said King Kelpbeard.

     "We're going to have to destroy that pearl," said Caylis, gritting her teeth. Isca and Theresa nodded. The next day, their plan went into action.

     Isca slipped silently out of the house, her slender figure sliding along in the water, noticing her sister Caylis swimming quickly towards Marissa, Theresa's friend.

     "Hey, over here, come and get me!" snarled Caylis angrily, rolling her eyes in a very rude manner. She was the bait, and Isca was going to help her too.

     Isca came up and tapped Marissa in the shoulder. "You can't catch me!" she said playfully, and the Maraquan Acara took off in pursuit of the fleeting Isca. Caylis was left to deal with the rest of the enslaved minions.

     Meanwhile, Theresa was hiding in a big coral reef, her front hooves ready, waiting for Isca to come. It did not take long, and she soon saw Isca sliding towards her, out of breath and breathing heavily. Ashen-faced, she slid into a hole in the reef.

     Marissa soon came, swimming through the reef straight at Theresa. She did not see her hooves coming, and soon stood still in shock as Theresa smashed her front hooves into the pearl's case and smashed it open, the pearl exploding into smithereens as a blast of water exploded into it.

     Marissa stood agape, her mouth just hanging there like she couldn't pull it up. The whole horde of hypnotized Maraquans stopped chasing Caylis, and turned to stare at the beautiful water faerie swimming through.

     "I am Nereid, the water faerie. I have come to help restore the peace, and search for the ones who fled when you destroyed the city upon no fault of your own. I cannot help but thank Theresa, Isca, and Caylis for destroying the pearl's power for me. I did not fire that water blast, Theresa. It was you who did it," said Nereid, gracefully touching Theresa's head, and gathering a search party.

     Marissa hugged Theresa, tears streaming from her eyes. Theresa was soon enveloped by Caylis and Isca's hugs too, and they cried all they wanted to.

     Reader, I know how this happened without even taking a look at the library. For reader…I am Theresa…and Maraqua still flourishes under the ocean floor, and more secrets are there-for the ones who are willing to look for it.

The End