Shattered

      ...Where is this? It’s dark. There’s no floor, no walls, no ceiling. Just a dark, silent abyss. How did I get here? I cannot remember. My memory is shattered. Shards of scenes flit through my thoughts, never enough to form a full image. There is nothing here. I briefly wonder how I am breathing before pushing the thought aside. Better to worry about what to do. I grab the bits of memories flying around in my mind and start trying to piece something together.

      Cold. Warmth. A kind pair of eyes. A sibling laughing. A paint brush. An egg. Commotion. A falling cloud. A teal monster. Curses. Cures. Faeries. A dress. A scroll. Battles. Flames. Birthdays. Holidays. Tears. Fury. An embrace. Her.

      The flurry of thoughts assault me like a hailstorm. Out of the chaos, a single image emerges. A human’s face. I’m not sure where the word comes from, but I immediately think of her as Mother. As I think of her, the image shifts. It changes from the ignorant, innocent look of a child to that of a thoughtful adult. I had seen her grow up. A memory comes together.

      She was the first thing I ever saw. She was holding me when I woke up, a tiny cub in her arms. Even back then, I could recognize her as a youngster, but it didn’t bother me. She said hi and gave me my name. Wait… What is my name…?

      There is a faint light now. My thoughts are clearer. I suddenly get the feeling that I am not supposed to be awake. I wonder why? What happened? This is not how this place is supposed to look. The images are starting to come into focus and I know that this void is not normal. I try to think… Why…

      I grew up with Mother and two siblings, a brother and a sister. I cannot remember my brother, just that he used to be around. Used to? Eventually, Mother grew old enough to plan ahead, and our family grew. Things changed. A magic brush made my fur change from red to a light blue. My sister turned white. Our stances changed. We started wearing dresses. My fur changed again, this time to black. Fire? She called it fire. I learned to fight. More siblings came and were transformed.

      The void is still changing. Forms are emerging. This is not a void. The world is forming around me. I still do not know what is happening. Where is everyone? I realize that my own body is barely visible. I want to remember…

      There were lots of other families. We all banded together several times. A ship lost its navigator. We found him. A town was haunted. We solved its story. We discovered a land of fire. We stopped an evil sorceress. One day we fought each other. Huh? There was a war over some squabble between groups. Such silliness…

      She was always with me. We were friends. We ARE friends. I will see her again. The humans live in a different world. She’ll come back when this one is whole again. I can make out distinct shapes now. Everything is being restored. Restored?

      ...That’s right. The world was broken. The people who watched over it went away. They said there would be new people. And that they would fix it. They are fixing it.

      SERVER MALFUNCTION

      I remember those words. I don’t know where they came from. I fell asleep right when they rung out. I think… I was supposed to forget that. There is something strange about this world. What does it matter? The world works fine. There is nothing a single Neopet can do anyway. I would probably get attacked by Meepits or something. Huh… I can remember now... Maybe I am linked to the world. Maybe we all fell asleep because it was damaged.

      I watch it all come back. The space above me returns to black while the area below me turns white. I can feel the ground under my feet again. The white changes to brown. Dirt. Dots of light shoot up into the sky. Stars. With a flash, Kreludor comes back into being. Kreludor was not always there, was it? The world used to be so different. I did not even realize that it had changed so drastically. Faerieland starts to form in the air until it remembers that it is supposed to be on the ground now. The twisted trees of the Haunted Woods spring up near it. The dirt in the area south of that realizes that it is supposed to be sand and shifts. A rainbow shimmers into being off to the north. I think I can make out buildings. Beyond that, a portion of the world turns white and leaps up to be Terror Mountain. The area east of it changes colour, presumably becoming Tyrannia. Several islands form to the west of me before knitting together. A couple castles rise up off to the north. Water forms all around as Mystery Island returns under me. I realize that I am standing where our Neohome is supposed to be. As the walls start to fade in around me, I drift back to sleep.

      I’m not sure why I wrote this. No one will believe me. Everyone says that I must have had a strange dream. I guess I should be grateful that they did not label me as crazy.

      If you are reading this, take it as you will. Maybe you are the one who will finally believe me. Maybe you will think it is just a piece of fiction. Or maybe you woke up during the downtime too. That is what they’re calling it. The new group that watches the world now that is. Something about Myncis and Meepits interfering with their work, forcing them to put everyone to sleep for a little bit. I think they tell the humans something different. I’m positive that Mother knows something she is not telling me, but I cannot get her to talk. She said nothing when I told her this story. Now she just agrees with my siblings that it must have been a dream.

      I don’t care if you call me crazy. I know the world’s secret. I cannot oust it though. This story can be explained away as fiction, so I should be safe. I refuse to be locked up with those Jelly World fanatics. So I leave you with this last message....

      To everyone who remembers the old days. Back when Faerieland floated. Back when the NC Mall did not exist. Before pet trading. Before Moltara. Before Neohome 2.0. We are a community. We have discovered new lands. We have found new colours. We have welcomed new species together. There have been changes before. There has been downtime before. Items have broken and been fixed. The people watching over this world have not been the same the entire time. Yet we stayed. We did not give up on Neopia when there were problems before. So why is everyone saying that Neopia is doomed? We’re not doomed. The community cannot die unless it lets itself. The world broke. You all thought it was the end. But it wasn’t. We came back. Us, your loyal Neopets. We have been there for you for years. We watched some of you grow and mature. We watched some of you grow old. We have helped some of you through rough patches in your lives. So please.

      Don’t leave us.

      The End.