For the Altador Cup: Part Five

     At that moment, Sam was walking towards the Colosseum. He needed to figure out a new play, one that would put all of the other teams to shame. Once he reached the great, circular building, he began walking through his favorite set of twisty, cool passages. He thought about all that had happened, and about himself.

     Sam was actually older than anyone knew, or even guessed. Sam had been born over a millennium ago, when Altador first flourished. He had been a happy child, with loving parents, and a lovely home. Everything had been perfect, until the Great Betrayal.

     When the Betrayal happened, Sam was still but a little tyke, with dreams of being an athlete. When the Darkest Faerie attacked the city, she had tried to kill his family. Begging her not to, Sam had promised to help her, as long as she would keep them safe. Tricking him, she gave her word. Sadly, for Sam, a few days later she betrayed him. He did not find out, until right before Jerdana froze the city in time, that she had lied.

     After that, when the city was restored, Sam was alone. He wandered the streets of Altador, wishing for a way to get his revenge on the Darkest Faerie. One day, he met a kind faerie Wocky, who took him in and treated him as her own. That was the beginning of his friendship with Tilly.

     During the time of revealing constellations, and odd happenings in the Hall of Heroes, Sam dutifully did his part. Finally, when he destroyed the statue of the Sleeper, he had had his revenge. This wasn't the end of his thirst for fulfilment, though. When the time came to create the Altadorian Yooyuball team, he saw his chance for becoming an athlete. He became the replacement for Winberto Seliz.

     Just as he turned a corner, finally providing him a view of his destination, he heard quick hoof beats sounding on the ground just behind him. Whirling around, he stood face to face with a very distressed-looking, panting Ellie.

     * * *

     Taking a few steps backwards, Trinna surveyed her trap. The first part was a very fine-woven Maractite net, resting atop a trap door. Underneath the door was a pool of burning hot lava, which she had enchanted so that it could not be frozen by any potion, or tampered with by any but the most able magician. This would be the part of the trap that would take Sam down.

     Trinna had considered long and hard about the problem of Tilly. Not only did Tilly have wings, but she also had limited magic on her side. Eventually, Trinna had called Ellie in to help her. Together, they had used Trinna as a test subject, at last managing to create something that could hold her.

     This part of the trap was made up of a lever that pulled a faeryllium mesh cage down, and a button that pulled a padded cage down over it. The walls of this cage, along with the floor of the entire room, had been soaked by Ellie with a magical repellent made by Trinna. If Tilly tried to use magic, it would bounce back and affect Tilly instead of her target.

     With a final, lingering glance over her work, Trinna left the room to go fetch Mira and Kira, who would wait for Ellie to come with the soon-to-be prisoners. Meanwhile, Trinna would go get the Altadorian Council, and the Cup Committee. This was going to work.

     * * *

     "Ellie, what happened?" asked Sam, as Ellie caught her breath.

     "It's Simpree! She's awfully sick, and we need her to play! We're not sure what to do," she replied.

     Simpree? She's our best defender! We can't do without her! he thought. "Here, you'll need to fly me. We need to go get Tilly, and get to Simpree. I'm sure Tilly can whip something up that'll help her."

     "Alright." Taking his arm, Ellie sprang into the air, and set a course for Tilly's house.

     As they flew Sam marveled both at Ellie's strength, and at the sensation of flying. How can faerie pets do this all the time, he thought.

     More quickly than he expected, they reached Tilly's house. As soon as Ellie set him down, he ran inside.

     "Tilly! Simpree's sick, and we need you to come cure her. Ellie says it's urgent," he cried.

     "Simpree? Hold on! Let me just get my medicine kit..." She grabbed a small red pouch that contained all the ingredients she thought she would need, and ran outside.

     "Here, Tilly, you can help me fly Sam. It'll be faster," said Ellie.

     "Alright," Tilly replied.

     Each grabbed one of the Kougra's arms, and took off. They went over houses and parks, and reached the Hall of Heroes in no time.

     "Come on!" cried Ellie. "We put her in Trinna's room."

     The group sped down the hallways, with Sam in the lead, and Ellie in the rear. Finally, they reached the room in question, and Sam and Tilly burst through the door, landing directly on the perfect spots to get caught in their respective parts of the trap.

     Kira quickly deployed the net, and opened the trap door, sealing Sam's fate. Mira pulled the lever, then pushed the button, cutting Tilly off.

     Bewildered, Sam looked around.

     "Wha... What's going on?!" he demanded.

     Ellie turned to him and smiled. "That's what you get for kidnaping innocent pets. And what you get for trying to sabotage Meridell!"

     "You know?! How do you know! Tilly!"

     "I promise, I don't know more about this than you! I've been properly dousing the cookies with memorandum, just like you said! It must have been..." Looking towards the door, Tilly trailed off. There stood Trinna, with the head of the Altador Cup Committee, and King Altador himself.

     "Memorandum, eh?" said King Altador. "Let's just say I'm disappointed to hear that my good people were messing around with memorandum."

     "You can't do this to us!" screamed Sam. "We were only trying to help! Without us, this competition would be hopeless for Altador." He was obviously about to lose all of his composure. Right on queue, he began, "All my life, I've lived here. I've seen this city in its weakest hour. I lost my family to this city! And yet I still try to help them win!

     "Do you know why I did what I did? It's a very simple reason, really. I want to win. I've always wanted to win. I will not be happy until I win. So I devised a plan. It was a good plan. No, it was a great plan. I was going to kill two birds with one stone, and sabotage the other teams while strengthening mine.

     "Wanna know how I pulled it off? Of course you do. It was a genius plan, after all." Here he paused, tilted his head back, and cackled. "Now, where was I? Oh yes. How I was going to win the Altador Cup, no matter what it took. I got the idea from the Betrayer herself, the murderer of my family, the destroyer of homes, the wreckers of lives. Those who she needed, but who wouldn't pledge loyalty to her were sent to the dungeons, where they were given a dose of a strong potion, that made them forget who they were. The Darkest Faerie would then go and tell them something false, and they would believe it! So I asked Tilly if there were a potion she could make that could do this. She told me of memorandum, and its marvelous effects. That was when I decided to confide in her my vision."

     "I didn't know how twisted it was!" screamed Tilly. "I just thought I was being loyal to my home, Altador, by helping him! PLEASE DON'T SEND ME TO THE DUNGEONS!" she wailed.

     Sam shot her a cold look. "As I was saying. That was when we decided that I was to catch the players I wanted, and she would use memorandum to make them think that they were playing for Altador. You saw how we murdered Krawk Island. We are unstoppable. We did this for you, King Altador, and everyone who lives in this fair land. We would have gotten away with it, and we would have won, if it weren't for that awful faerie Xweetok! LET ME AT HER! I'LL MUTILATE HER SO BADLY, THEY'LL THINK THAT SHE TOOK A TRANSMOGRIFICATION POTION!" Sam screamed at Trinna, who still calmly stood just behind King Altador and the official from the Cup Committee.

     King Altador looked at Sam as if he were the slimiest of all slorgs. Finally, he spoke. "I am more than disappointed in both of you. We live by the laws of justice in this city. We do not cheat! We do not steal! And most of all we do not take innocent pets from their homes for our personal gain." Now he turned to Ellie. "Miss, if there is anything I can do to make up for this horrible behavior..."

     "And let me assure you, team Altador will be disqualified from the cup, and all of the players taken off of the memorandum, and returned to their proper teams," said the head of the Altador Cup Committee.

     "That's all I really wanted. Oh, and King Altador, please reward the other real players on the Altadorian team. They were hurt, purposely, so that their 'substitutes', the stolen players, could be on the team. None of this is their fault," replied Ellie.

     "Will do," said the King. "Now, I'm afraid, we must part. I have various duties to attend to, and so does my friend here. I want to name you, Trinna, and you, Ellie, honorary citizens of Altador for the services you provided here. Mira, Kira, I'm giving you a promotion. You will now be in charge of all official Altadorian transportation. Goodbye to all, and to all good luck."

     With that sentiment, King Altador and the official from the Cup Committee left, taking Sam and Tilly with them. This left Trinna, Mira, Kira, and Ellie.

     "So, you know, the Mystery Island versus Faerieland game is tomorrow. Would you three like to come with me to see it?"

     "Yeah!" said Mira and Kira.

     "Of course!" said Ellie.

     "Well then," replied Trinna, "It's a date."

     "We must be off then," said Mira.

     "We'll see you tomorrow!" said Kira.

     Together, the twins exited the room.

     "I guess that just leaves us," said Ellie.

     "Yeah," replied Trinna.

     "Gosh, this has been so exciting, and scary. I'll be glad to get back to team Meridell, though. I might hate Skarl, but I love my homeland, and I love my team."

     "Yeah. I'll be there, at your game, in the stands, rooting for you. I guess I'll need to start my Ambassadorial duties, too. Talk about an interesting adventure to start off a long trip."

     "We'll still be friends, right, even though we have to go our separate ways?" asked Ellie.

     "Of course," replied Trinna. "And you know, team Meridell better win, now, after all we've been through so that you can be there. It's really amazing what some people will do, just for the Altador Cup."

     Arm in arm, they walked out of the room.

The End

Author's Note: This is the end of the story. I'm the writer, and that's my final word. =P I got a lot of neomail about my last series, about how I should have continued. It's my choice, 'kay? Anyway, I hope you liked the story. None of the characters are based on real people, although Ellie turned out to greatly resemble someone I know in real life. Feel free to drop me a neomail, if you liked it, or even if you didn't. Just don't use chatspeak, because chatspeak is EVIL.