Cali & the Faulty Fairground

     Cali scratched her ears, then stood, unrolling her yoga mat next to her bedside table. Cali completed her routine in order – first focusing on stretching her legs, arms, then ears. After becoming absorbed in her routine, she completed her workout with a final inhale, exhale, then opened her eyes, rolled her mat up, and padded into the kitchen.

     Something was slightly off in the kitchen. Entering, she shuffled about, unsure of what was amiss. She ran her paw over her Chokato Table, the centerpiece of her blue-hued kitchen. It felt as if she was running her hand over paper, instead of smoothly painted ceramic. Cali shrugged. Maybe her fur was getting shaggy, was all?

     It was then that Cali caught sight of her Gallion Wall Clock. Its arms weren’t moving and the tail wasn’t swishing.

     Odd, Cali thought. I just changed the batteries yesterday. Maybe they were defective? Anyway, maybe she had been breathing deeply too much during yoga. She felt her head swimming. Breakfast would remedy everything, as it always did.

     ---

     Feeling refreshed after a satisfying breakfast of scrambled eggs and a cup of coffee, Cali hurriedly dressed for work into a white jumpsuit with red stripes. Smoothing down her collar with a finesse, she quickly grabbed her paper bag lunch from the fridge and rushed out the door to the Coconut Shy in the Deserted Fairground. Luckily for Cali, her commute to work was only a five-minute jaunt, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to enjoy such leisurely mornings.

     Though the Fairground was usually a ghost town (no pun intended), it was typically at least bustling with the stall and Fairground game staff. Today, however, Cali was greeted with no “good mornings” from the regular staff. There were no ghost Neopets milling about, either, rooted to their location by nearby mossy headstones. No stray clown Chias seemed to be hiding around the corners of tents and stalls as they usually did, intending to spook her while she was still half asleep. In fact, Cali realized she wasn’t even sure where the Coconut Shy stall was. In her mind, the layout of the Deserted Fairground seemed blank, like an empty white page.

     At least the Deserted Fairground wasn’t too large. She was sure whatever strange feeling she was having was due to over-caffeination. Or under-caffeination? One or the other. She scanned the horizon for the dusty Coconut Shy stall, padding slowly along the dirt footpath through the Fairground.

     As she plodded forward slowly, steadily, almost cautiously, she noticed more oddities: the Wheel of Misfortune was standing still, though there was a purple Shoyru staring at it expectantly. This Shoyru, too, seemed frozen. Cali now quickened her pace.

     Bagatelle and the Cork Gun Gallery, too, were empty of visitors. The game operators seemed frozen in time, their eyes wide and glazed over.

     At the end of the path was the Coconut Shy stall where the Quiggle game operator was frozen mid-gesture while righting one of the coconuts on their tin stands. Cali poked his shoulder a few times, calling his name, but was only met with silence and a statue of her once boss.

     “Ssstrange, issn’t it?”

     Cali jumped, startled, turning to see Sidney, the blue Nimmo who operated the Deserted Fairground scratchcard kiosk.

     “Sidney! Oh, thank goodness, you’re … you’re … normal!” Cali scurried over to the Nimmo, wrapping her paws around him with a squeeze. It felt like hugging a tattered bag of pokey wooden sticks.

     Once Cali released him, Sidney brushed off his clothes as if dirty (hugging isn’t a very popular greeting method in the Woods, after all).

     “Yessss, I’m normal. And ssstill not sselling sscratchcards.”

     “Do you have any idea what happened to everyone? Or why you’re normal? And what do we do? How will I make my living if my boss has been turned into a statue?!”

     “Sssshessh. Relax.”

     Cali shut her eyes and tried to count while inhaling through her nose, then exhaling through her nose, just as she did when she was struggling with a new yoga pose. After a few breaths, she calmed.

     “Sssee? Everything iss normal.” Sidney said shakily.

     Cali thought that Sidney was trying to convince himself, too.

     “Well, did you see what happened? I mean, you’re always here Sidney. No offense.”

     “Ssomeone hasss to work around here. I did, but don’t know what he wasss doing. Just passssing through.”

     “Did you catch his name? Or what he looked like?”

     “Wearing a blue hooded cloak. Ssaid hiss name wasss Chet Flash. And no to ssscratchcardss, sso musst be cheap.”

     “Chet Flash,” Cali said to herself, mystified, then more harshly, “What kind of silly name is that? What is he, a character from a storybook or a comic? It must have been a pseudonym.”

     Sidney shrugged, already edging towards his kiosk.

     “Sidney! Don’t you want to help me figure this out?”

     “Ssorry. Sscratchcardss to sssell,” Sidney coughed out, then shuffled out of view.

     ---

     After trying to find any additional information or help from others around the Deserted Fairground, Cali found she was out of ideas. At Spooky Food, Haunted Weaponry, and Spooky Furniture the tune was the same: no information, sorry, and no, they couldn’t help Cali. Sighing, Cali gazed at Castle Nox, looming high over the Fairground, wearing a stream of mist like an evening shawl.

     “This couldn’t be Nox’s doing, could it?” Cali wondered aloud.

     “Ha! I think Nox has better things to do than tinker with the Deserted Fairground,” the purple Shoyru from the Wheel of Misfortune said, padding over to Cali.

     “Oh! You’re not frozen? How? You were just a second ago!”

     “Yeah, you think I don’t know that?” the Shoryu spat. “It was freaky. Like I was asleep for a little. A dream-filled sleep. Anyway, just a few minutes ago I blinked awake, and the wheel was working as normal.”

     “Did you see what happened? Before you … fell asleep?”

     “Fell asleep! I was put under a spell. There can’t be any other explanation for it. And whoever did it is going to sincerely regret it.”

     Cali’s eyes caught sight of a scabbarded Sword of Ari mounted to a belt around her hip. “I don’t think I’d like to be the person who did it.”

     The Shoyru’s eyes became a fire. “And how do I know it wasn’t you?”

     “Because why would I ruin my livelihood? As bad a pay as it was. And the Haunted Woods is my home, you know?”

     The Shoyru seemed to fizzle. “Fine. Well, do you want to figure out who did this, then? I heard you’re seeking a travelling partner. I’m Raya, by the way.”

     ---

     After both purchasing a scratchcard each, Cali and Raya were able to extract more information from Sidney about the cloaked stranger. They then made their way to Cali’s house, packing up backpacks for their journey.

     “I don’t know what’s east of here, actually,” Cali said, pausing to scratch her head, a frying pan for their journey in her left paw. Sidney had only said that the cloaked stranger was hurrying east through the Fairground.

     “I can do the navigating. I’m from Neopia Central, so I’m pretty used to travelling this way and back,” Raya said, picking at her leathery wings. Her pack sat woefully empty beside her at the kitchen table.

     “Hm. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I can’t picture where things are today. Let me go get my map.” Cali said, and scurried to her bedroom, throwing open the drawers of her beside table. She rifled through the cluttered drawers, but found no map.

     “It’s missing!” Cali called, pacing into the kitchen. “I look at it all the time! Where could it be?” Cali demanded.

     Raya shrugged. “Don’t ask me. Let’s just go, okay? I have a compass. Sidney said east. So let’s go east.” Raya stood and opened the front door, raising her eyebrows expectantly.

     “But – but your pack! You didn’t pack anything.”

     “Don’t need it. Plus, the longer we spend here, the further away Chester gets.”

     “It’s Chet,” Cali protested.

     “Is it? Who knows?”

     Cali nodded reluctantly, shouldering her pack, and locking the front door behind her. It wasn’t often, if ever, she left the Woods. And without a map! If only things could be normal, just like Sidney said, she thought as she took one last glance at the Deserted Fairground before following Raya into the tangled, creaky forest of the Woods.

     ---

     It wasn’t long until Cali began to fret. First, she began wringing her paws together nervously. Then, she began humming madly to herself to try to distract herself. She tried her calming breathing exercises, which did not work, either. Finally, Cali couldn’t contain herself: stranger or no, polite or not.

     “I think we’re lost.” Cali said.

     “Yeah, how long did it take you to figure that out?” Raya said, continuing to plod forward confidently.

     Cali halted, the panic settling in. “So you have no idea where we are? What if we’re trapped here forever? The Woods are winding and confusing and, and, I wish we had a map! Or help! We need help! HELP!” Cali began to yell at the seemingly endless walls of crooked, leafless trees. A few trees facing them gazed at her with perplexed expressions.

     “Help? Do you need help?” A blue Zafara strode up to them, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

     Raya shook her head. “I really think you’re the issue here, Cali. I don’t know why all this weird stuff happens only to you.”

     The Zafara stared at them patiently, smiling, and adjusted her large, round, glasses. “What can I help you with? I know everything about Neopia!”

     Cali and Raya exchanged looks. Raya shrugged. “Can’t hurt. Okay … what’s your name?”

     “I’m Sarah! And I’m here to help.” Sarah said, her voice lacking intonation.

     “Sarah. Okay, Sarah. We need to know who Chet Flash is and what he’s done to the Deserted Fairground.”

     Sarah nodded, and looked away thoughtfully. “Searching … searching … Adobe Flash … end of Flash … Deserted Fairground … Coconut Shy … Bagatelle … Deserted Fairground Scratchcards …”

     “Okay! Okay. That’s enough, Sarah. Thank you,” Raya said.

     “She’s a real piece of work,” Raya whispered to Cali.

     Raya straightened, shrugging her shoulders. “Okay, let’s try: end of Flash and Deserted Fairground.”

     “Oh! Okay! End of Flash means games won’t work. HTML5 will be implemented in due time.”

     “What is that? HTML5? What’s going to happen to us? And my work? My livelihood?” Cali’s eyes were beginning to fill with tears.

     Sarah blinked. “Oh. HTML5 is a wizard who put a spell on certain parts of Neopia to make them easier to use. They’ll be fixed in due time, but he works slowly. Your livelihood will be okay and you’ll still have a job. Here’s something for you until the Coconut Shy starts up again.”

     Bloop! A golden cluster of sparkles appeared before Cali, materializing into a floating bag of neopoints.

     “Sweet!” Cali exclaimed, all appearances of crying gone as she clasped the heavy bag of coins in her paws.

     Raya frowned. “What about me? I was a statue for who knows how long. I could have missed my next shift at the Pharmacy.”

     “Oh!” Sarah said. “Sorry about that. Here’s something for you, too. Oh, and a map. It won’t have moving illustrations, though. We’re working on it.”

     Raya took the smaller bag of neopoints and the folded parchment map from their hovering places.

     “Can I help you with anything else?” Sarah asked.

     Raya shrugged. “I think we’re good.”

     “Okay! Then you may not see me again, because I’m being reassigned to different tasks instead of the help desk. Enjoy the rest of your day in Neopia!” She said, then a flicker of blue light filled the forest, and she was gone.

     “So, I guess everything is going to be normal again.” Cali said, smiling. Her ears flicked about cheerily.

     “Yeah, someday, anyway,” Raya grunted.

     “Thanks for helping me, even if we didn’t get very far,” Cali said.

     Raya frowned. “Yeah, well, who takes the map? We only have one. And we’re both lost.”

     “I have a great idea! Let’s have some tea and cookies in celebration at my house. It’s the least I can do!” Cali said.

     “Well, I suppose I can always call in sick to the Pharmacy,” Raya grumbled.

     “Perfect! And don’t worry, my stove still works! Except not my clock. I hope we don’t burn the cookies.”

     The End.