Escape From the Tomb

      "Tess! Tess!" I called. Tess was my Wocky, Forsakenpriestess. I hadn't seen her all morning and I was VERY worried. She had a knack for getting into mischief. Just the night before, she'd gone to see Jhudora and got the dark faerie so thoroughly annoyed that she gave Tess a poisonous lollipop. And of course, Tess ate it. I guess dark blotchy spots appeal to her. In any case, 3 trips to the healing faerie later, she was as good as new and ready to do some more damage.

      I got down on all fours and began peeking under the sofa. All I could see were dust bunnies the size of Terror Mountain. Turning around, I was startled to see Tess smiling at me with wide eyes.

      "What are you doing, Charis?" she asked. My panic began to evaporate and I seated myself in my chair again. I took a sip of coffee, ignoring Tess's question. She lowered her head and began pawing at the carpeting.

      "You know, you're the best owner EVER, right?" she said in a sugary-sweet tone. I took another sip of coffee. Did I dare ask her what she wanted? Or did I just act like I had no idea why she was suddenly complimenting me? I did neither and quickly changed the subject.

      "Where were you all morning?" I asked. Tess lifted a paw and used it to point at her room. I glanced at her room. It was covered in plushies, many of which had lost their heads. I think she'd started a collection while I'd been sleeping.

      "And while we're chatting..." Tess began. I groaned, bracing myself for the worst. "I was wondering if we could pay a visit to Geraptiku. Fae told me that she and her owner went there and they found treasure!"

      Ok, so she could've asked for worse. It wasn't like I was all that terrified of some lost city anyway. What was there to lose? I nodded and went back to reading my newspaper. Tess bounced around the room, knocking over and breaking a bottle of brown sauce that had been left on the table. I waited until she had calmed down before I spoke.

      "We'll go tomorrow morning. If there really is treasure, I expect swarms of people to be going and we'd best get there early," I stated reasonably. I doubted Tess would be getting much sleep in her state of excitement but either way, this gave me time to do a little research on Geraptiku. As soon as I'd finished reading the Times, I made sure Tess was safely in her room doing plushie experiments.

      "Do you have any duct tape?" she asked when she noticed me. In her paws, she held the head of a Scorchio plushie and the body of Count von Roo. I really don't know why I was so completely surprised. I grabbed the duct tape from the kitchen drawer and rolled in to her room before heading over to the library. The first thing I did was ask the librarian to pull out the Neopedia. Its small print and large pages would scare any reader but not me. I began searching for a Geraptiku article.

      After a solid hour of searching, I came to the horrifying conclusion that there WAS no article on Geraptiku. This worried me more and more as it began to sink in. The only book I could find on Geraptiku was a list of digging sites. It was clearly a book for insane treasure hunters but I borrowed it for Tess.

      The next morning, Tess woke me up around 4. She had groomed herself already and was quickly pulling me out of bed by my ankles. When I was also ready, we headed off and found ourselves in Geraptiku a few minutes to 6. Geraptiku was quite an empty place. There was a lone petpet stand and a few abandoned houses but nothing else really of interest. Except for the deserted tomb, I guess. It stood tall in the distance behind a few trees. Tess pulled me into the petpet shop before our treasure hunt began and we looked around a little but we were soon on our way. It took us about an hour just to REACH the tomb. I was tired and completely out of breath but Tess seemed ready for anything.

      "While we took a rest stop at Mystery Island some of the natives were talking about this place!" she exclaimed in awe. "They said not to enter if you value your life, yet remarkable treasure awaits!" She bounced up and down, smiling and rolling around in excitement. I was standing, stone still, numb with dread.

      "Maybe we shouldn't go in then!" I said in horror, but Tess had already opened the door of the tomb and was inside. The door refused to open all the way and while Tess could fit under it, I had to bend down. It took quite a while for me to get in but I did, hoping that nothing bad would happen while we were in there.

      We began to walk into the darkness of the tomb, hearing the strange door shut behind us. Tess didn't care but I was frightened. We kept on walking. And walking. And walking. After many hours, even Tess had lost her excitement and was just tired and grouchy. But we had to keep walking, in fear that something was in the tomb with us. True, our imaginations might have gotten the best of us but at the time it didn't matter.

      The hours turned into a day. And then another day. And then finally, we came upon a flight of stairs. We went down those stairs for a long time and then arrived in a room with barely any light. It was the treasure room! Tess's excitement returned and she raced to a large pedestal that stood in the center. A large treasure chest was at the top, just waiting to be opened. I began to lift the lid. It creaked slightly and Tess stood on her hind legs to get a good look at what was inside.

      Inside was nothing. Not so much as a crumb of food. No money. Nothing. Someone had already taken the treasure. Tess broke down in tears. My stomach grumbled. We made our way out of the room, hoping to get out soon.

      It was many days before we did get out. Three to be exact. We were tired and hungry. Mostly hungry. When we got home, we raided the fridge until we had made up for the meals we'd missed. Then sleep took us over.

      The next morning, I was seated once again in my furry arm chair, catching up on the news and sipping coffee. Tess came up to me and hugged my leg.

      "You know you're the best owner ever, right?" she stated. Putting the paper down, I glared at her.

      "No, we're not going back, Tess!" I said. She groaned and with a sigh of defeat, returned to her room to duct tape plushies together.

The End