Bedtime Story

     Her sister, Princess, sighed. "Fine, but it's going to be a short one."

     "Hooray!" cried Xanica.

     Princess began, "Once upon a time there was a beautiful Aisha princess named Nashimi who lived deep within the Lost Desert. She spent her days in a cool oasis, lounging by the water and enjoying the breeze. One day a horrible storm was coming and the princess got horribly afraid."

     "How come all your stories are about Aisha princesses? How come she's never a Draik princess?" interrupted Xanica.

     "Aisha princesses don't interrupt stories!" Princess snapped.

     "Sorrrrrrryyyy," answered Xanica.

     Princess continued, "As I said, a horrible storm was coming. 'We must evacuate. This storm is going to destroy the entire Lost Desert,' the princess thought.

     She gathered her most trusted advisors from the four corners of the desert, Buntuktamen the Shoyru, Manini the Ixi, Taniki the Grarrl, and Bob the Scorchio."

     "Bob," laughed Xanica, "what kind of name is Bob?"

     "Grrrr," Princess growled. "Bob is a very distinguished name!"

     "Whatever you say, sis," giggled Xanica.

     "Do you want me to finish this story or not?" asked Princess.

     "Ok, OK, I was just asking," Xanica replied.

     "Now, where was I," said Princess. "Oh yes, Nashimi gathered her most trusted advisors to the oasis.

     'There is a great storm headed towards the Lost Desert and we must evacuate or everyone and everything will be lost. I have gathered you here to help me form a strategy for notifying the people of the Lost Desert. There just isn't time to check every tent!' Nashimi explained.

     'Eeeeeeeeeekkkk!' squealed Manini. 'Storms scare me!'

     'That's why we must formulate a plan to help evacuate! Any ideas?' asked Nashimi.

     Manini thought for a moment, then answered, 'I have an idea. We can design a device that emits a high frequency squeal. That will get people out of their tents.'

     'We already have a device like that, we call it Manini,' said Bob, with a smirk.

     'This is no time for jokes!' scolded Nashimi.

     Taniki turned to Bob and whispered, 'It was pretty funny, though.'

     The five friends talked over the next few minutes when suddenly a light bulb went off over Buntuktamen's head."

     "Hey, who turned on the light?" Xanica said angrily.

     "Sorry, I was just checking on you," said the two girls' mother. "I'll go now, sweet dreams."

     "Good night, mom, and turn off the light!" answered Xanica.

     Princess began once again, but felt herself starting to get tired. She decided it was time to wrap this story up quick like and in a hurry. "Buntuktamen suddenly had a great idea, we'll have the Faerie Queen fix this mess. So they summoned the Faerie Queen, she showed up and saved the day. The End."

     "Hey! I refuse to let you leave with that deus ex machina ending!" Xanica told her.

     "Day you ex whattica?" Princess replied.

     "No, it's deus ex machina, a plot resolution that comes out of nowhere, it's usually only used by people who don't know how to end a story correctly," explained Xanica patiently.

     "Well, Miss Smarty Pants, if you think you can do better, by all means continue," Princess told her smugly.

     Xanica paused for a moment and began, "Buntuktamen suddenly had a wonderful idea.

     'Let's see if we can enlist the help of King Coltzan's ghost!' Buntuktamen told them. 'We can go to his shrine, and ask him to warn the inhabitants of the Lost Desert. Since he's a ghost, he can do it much more quickly than we can on foot.'

     'That's a fantastic idea,' said Princess Nashimi. 'But how do we know he'll agree?'

     'Leave that to me,' answered Bob. 'I may just have something he wants.'

     The five brave pets set out on a journey to Coltzan's Shrine. They were determined to convince him to help the people of the Lost Desert.

     'I am so thirsty,' gasped Manini. 'I'm completely parched.'

     'We've only been walking for five minutes,' Taniki smugly replied.

     'Well I'm sorry, I didn't know we'd be on a mission to save the Lost Desert today, okay?" Manini retorted. 'Had I known, I'd have brought some water.'

     'Quit fighting guys,' said Nashimi. 'Here, Manini, take my water.'

     'Thank you!' exclaimed Manini, thirstily gulping down every drop of water.

     Suddenly beyond the horizon, Nashimi spied a threat! It was a swarm of evil sand bugs! Sand bugs are a phenomenon that not many Neopians are familiar with; it is said their bite causes the victim to turn into a pile of poo smelling sand!

     'Sand bugs!' screamed Nashimi, 'they can only be destroyed by water. It turns them into mud bugs, a far less dangerous insect.'

     Everyone turned to look at Manini who was wiping the last droplets of water from her mouth.

     'Oops,' said Manini.

     'Run!' exclaimed Bob.

     The princess and her four not-so-brave-at-the-moment advisors took off running. They soon spotted a mini oasis on the horizon, and not a moment too soon. The sand bugs were quickly coming upon them. They ran towards the beautiful water hoping against hope it wasn't just some sort of mirage.

     A moment later they reached the water, and using broken pottery around the oasis, scooped up water to fling at the sand bugs. Each time the water came in contact with the sand bugs it would make a BLOOP! sound alerting the friends that the sand bug had been changed into a mud bug. The friends furiously flung the water around in the hope that they could defeat the lecherous bugs.

     BLOOP! BLOOP! BLOOP!

     One by one the dangerous sand bugs transformed into gentle mud bugs. The largest of these gentle mudbugs approached the group. As if by magic, he spoke, 'Thank you brave soldiers for rescuing us, we were afraid we'd be trapped as dastardly sand bugs forever!'

     'Do you mean to tell us you had been transformed?' asked Nashimi.

     'That's what I just said!' the large bug exclaimed. 'You see we were supposed to be doing a quest for Edna the Witch in the Haunted Woods, but the items were too expensive! So we just left. Well, turns out she really needed the items, so she came looking for us. She was so angry when she found out we weren't obtaining her items, that she turned us into these horrible sand bugs! Thankfully, we have been rescued.'

     'We're happy to help,' Nashimi told him, 'but we must be on our way now. We have to enlist the help of King Coltzan's ghost in order to save the Lost Desert.'

     'Hey, do you want a ride?' asked the mud bug. 'We could morph into a giant bug and give you a ride.'

     This was just the break the friends needed. Now they would make it to Coltzan's Shrine in time.

     Moments later the group arrived outside of Coltzan's Shrine.

     'Who goes there?' boomed a voice from the Shrine.

     'It is I, Nashimi, Princess of the Lost Desert. I have come to ask your aid. There is a terrible storm coming close, and the citizens of the Lost Desert may be in peril,' answered Nashimi, recognizing the voice of Coltzan's ghost immediately.

     'Peril you say?' asked the ghost. 'That could be a problem, what can I do to help?'

     Nashimi quickly explained the situation to Coltzan's ghost.

     'I will warn the citizens they should evacuate immediately, so rest assured,' the ghost told the group.

     The group cheered as they saw that the Lost Desert would now be safe. They watched on the horizon as all the Lost Desert citizens began migrating to safer ground in the Haunted Woods. Finally, as they saw the last of the people make it to the woods, they breathed a sigh of relief.

     'Yay, the people are saved!' cheered Manini.

     'Yeah but what about us?' asked Bob.

     Almost before the words were out of Bob's mouth, the dark clouds began rolling in, surrounding the group. The sand was lifted into the air by the wind and began forming great sand tornados! The group was in the middle of the desert, completely surrounded with nowhere to go…."

     "So what now, Miss Know-it-all?' Princess broke in. 'How are the friends going to escape this?"

     "Hmmm, I hadn't thought of it," answered Xanica. "Now I don't know how to end the story."

     "Can I try?" peeped a voice from the door. A young shadow colored Krawk walked into the light. It was Princess and Xanica's sister, Aaliyiani, the youngest of the family. She continued, "I think I can end the story."

     "By all means, little one," smiled her big sister, Princess.

     "I think it should go like this," Aaliyiani started. "The group realized there would be no running from this horrible storm. Manini started panicking and squealing wildly. Bob sat down and began rocking back and forth. Taniki and Buntuktamen were doing their best to calm their panicked friends down. Nashimi got an idea.

     'The mud bugs!' she exclaimed, 'they can protect us!'

     The group ran quickly to the area around Coltzan's Shrine. The giant mud bug which had carried them was still there!

     'Mud bugs, we need your help once again!' cried Nashimi. 'We have managed to evacuate the citizens, but have forgotten to escape ourselves.'

     The giant mud bug walked towards the group. As it got closer, the group realized it was coming straight at them! Maybe it was going to eat them now that it was a giant mud bug instead of thousands of tiny ones! When the mud bug approached it suddenly reshaped and covered the group. It was forming a tiny cave over the group to protect them. They listened as the storm whirred around outside, as they were protected in their mud bug cave."

     "The End," said Aaliyiani.

     "Wow," gasped Xanica, "that was quite an ending, little sister. It's a good thing you came in at the last minute and saved the day!"

     *wink*

The End