We Are Meepit: Part Two

The First Wave

The battle was underway. Our backs to each other's, Katelynn and I struck the Neopians with our pink meepit paws.

     "Clyde... there's a lot of them!" she whispered to me.

     I nodded. "I know! But there's a lot more of us!" I responded.

     It was true. An ocean of meepits raged at the Neopians, getting under their feet and ruthlessly attacking. Hit points fell from neopets like the rain spat from the sky. It was thunderstorming, great weather for the hardest battle the Neopians had ever encountered. Despite the Neopians' large number of Battledome weapons and hit points, we meepits never threw in the towel.

     I rushed at a Neopian and knocked the wind out of her. The pink Kougra retaliated with a fire muffin. I nimbly dodged it, flipping in the air, and withdrew my Sword of Skardsen. Jonas had given each of the fighting meepits one. We hadn't known how the Head Meepit had obtained the neopoints for millions of Swords of Skardsen, but we didn't object, and were pleased with our gifts.

     So now I held the sword in the air threateningly, as the pink Kougra backed up. I wobbled a little; the sword was heavy, and I was small.

     "Um... wait a minute..." the pink Kougra stammered, suddenly frightened. She glanced at her assortment of weapons. "This isn't fair! I want a Sword of Skardsen too!"

     "Neopia isn't fair either. Soon we meepits will rule" was my answer, and I sliced the air with my sword. I saw the pink Kougra's breath catch in her throat, and she dropped her weapons and ran. I eagerly collected a Healing Potion II. Then I looked around for another adversary, still carrying the sword in order to discourage even the bravest Neopians.

     Suddenly I realized that Katelynn wasn't there.

     "Katelynn!" I yelled hoarsely, voice thick with worry. "Katelynn, where are you?"

     And then I saw her. She was stuffed in a cage with about fifty other meepits, each looking sadly at the battlefield. Those were the meepits who had lost the battle already, who would be condemned back to a normal life with a normal owner, except they'd be carefully monitored. There was no way to save them.

     Katelynn recognized my voice immediately, and spotted me rapidly. "Clyde! Oh, Clyde..." she called. "I'm captured! Help!"

     "I - I can't." Admitting defeat was one of the hardest things to do, and I hung my head in shame. "Katelynn, there's no way!"

     "Then keep fighting!" she screeched, as a purple Lenny picked up the cage and started to take the meepits away. "Keep fighting and make me proud, Clyde!"

     "Okay!" I responded loudly. Keeping my promise, I jumped to the side and sparred with a cloud Lupe. He was more aggressive than the pink Kougra, and he was stronger; he didn't have weapons, but he didn't need them. He attacked me and sent me flying. I countered with a slice from my sword and a sip from my healing potion. Unlike the pink Kougra, he was not swayed by my impressive weapon. We fought endlessly, me fighting only with the sword, and him fighting with no weapon at all. At last we came to a draw, but I healed myself by draining the healing potion. The cloud Lupe had no such healing material, unluckily, and he lay on the grassy floor as I moved on to continue fighting.

     My next opponent was a faerie Uni. Horrified, I recognized her instantly.

     "Lyssy!" I snarled.

     Lyssy gaped. "No way... Clyde? I never thought I'd have to fight you!" She looked pleadingly at Papa, who I distinguished from the crowd with ease. He nodded, and Lyssy groaned. The vain Uni was distracted, and I took advantage of this, thrusting my sword at her.

     Lyssy was knocked to the ground and didn't get up. I had forgotten how low in hit points she was, but remembering the fact pleased me immensely. I grabbed her Healing Potion III, and moved on, slightly withered but still in the thick of the battle.

     Then I heard a voice. "Retreat!" it screamed loudly. I recognized the voice as Jonas', the Head Meepit, and I ran from the battlefield. Was it not going well? Were the meepits - dare I say it - losing? I was frightened by the need to retreat; I thought we were winning. But maybe a good many more than I had originally thought had met the same fate as Katelynn.

     I scrambled to fall into line with the other meepits. We marched through a tunnel, and I realized that it was the route to the Faerieland secret location. I turned out to be right; as we moved, the tunnel turned from muddy earth to light and fluffy clouds.

     I dared to ask the meepit in front of me what was going on. "Hey... I'm Clyde. Why did we retreat, do you think?" I whispered.

     He turned around and stared at me a second, before sticking out his paw. I shook it. "I'm Rayd. Good to meet you, Clyde. We retreated because we had done enough damage to the Neopians and they were weak. We couldn't risk losing any more fighting force - several have been carted off to the Petpet Protection League, where 'good homes' will be found for them."

     "I know. Katelynn was captured," I replied sourly.

     He glanced at me sympathetically. "Was she a good friend?"

     "Only the best," I answered.

     The Faerieland secret location was close. Before long the lone path melted into two. Some of us took the right, and others took the left. I wondered why the entire fighting force was being brought into the Faerieland secret location; there wasn't enough room for millions of meepits, even if the Faerieland secret location was the biggest of all one-thousand seventy-three secret locations in Neopia - and three on Kreludor.

     Eventually we arrived in a large room. There were thirteen couches of cloud laid out on the cloudy floor. The whole place sparkled. It reminded me of the Terror Mountain secret location, and made me remember the meeting, where it all began, and where Katelynn still stuck by my side. I took a seat next to Rayd, and found that I was fortunate to be able to sit on a couch; millions of meepits sat on the floor. There was not an inch in that room not covered by meepit, except for a small square in the center, where we knew Jonas would soon rise from.

     Rayd nudged me in the side. "He's gonna explain everything, and in a much better way than I did." I nodded in acknowledgement, and turned my thoughts back to the captured meepits. The battle may have been won, but good friends were still lost to us.

     Then Jonas rose on a patch of cloud into the sky. He looked down at all of our unblinking eyes. "Welcome, meepits! As you know, we have won the first wave! I have brought you to Faerieland because two groups of meepits will have the opportUnity to bring down Fyora!"

     I hoped I wasn't a part of one of those groups. Sure, it would be a true honor to fight the queen herself, but it would be hard. I didn’t want to be known as a failure if my group didn’t succeed in making the faerie queen surrender.

     "On a sadder note, however, numerous meepits of these troops have been lost - the PPL has captured and imprisoned them. We will work to get them back - that I promise you - but the most urgent thing to do is to dominate Neopia, for then we will take back our lost troops!" Jonas declared.

     The entire palace erupted in a loud, everlasting cheer. Apparently I wasn't the only one who had lost a friend; several meepits were sobbing as our leader said those words. They evidently didn't think that he was right; perhaps they would rather get the lost meepits back than fight.

     But the majority of meepits supported Jonas, just as we always had. Even grieving for Katelynn, the reality of Jonas' words sunk in, and I knew that he was right. Rayd was grinning with delight; he must have liked the idea too.

     Several meepits stood up; they wore flat blue caps and were trying to look authoritative and dignified, although one tripped as he rose. "Over this way!" they directed. Yells of "You, sir, over there!" and "Get moving!" began to disturb the air, and we were herded like babaas into lines. Rayd was behind me in our group.

     "We rest for two nights. Neopia may be preparing for our next attack, or the naive Neopians may think that they have won. Whatever the case, two groups of about fifty each will storm Fyora's castle, and the others will attack all around the globe!" our group leader informed us. "You will be notified if you are chosen for the Fyora group."

     My neck fur bristled. "Oh, I hope I won't be chosen..." I whispered to Rayd. "All the responsibility!"

     Rayd looked at me oddly. "Are you kidding? I'd love to be the one to bring down Fyora! Maybe Jonas will make me a head officer!"

     I shrugged. "He's already got a lot of head officers... would he really need another?"

     Rayd grinned. "Well, if he ever did, I'd be a shoo-in!"

     Rayd was strange to me. I was never quite the ambitious type... that is, I was ambitious, as are all meepits, but never as ambitious as wanting to force Fyora to surrender. With her hidden tower of weapons, perhaps all of the meepits would be doomed to a PPL fate, just as Katelynn was. But Rayd still wanted to try. I just wanted to fight with the others and win the war.

     The palace was turning dark. I stared at the palace's clouds a while, and then curled up to go to sleep. Within minutes I was out like a light, still clutching my Sword of Skardsen.

     *

     I woke to find Rayd gone. Puzzled, I sat up. No other meepits had disappeared; the others were blinking sleep from their eyes and yawning. I anticipated the day ahead; I wanted to find out who all was going where. I wanted to know where I fit in.

     The battle was to take place tomorrow. The second fight. No one knew what would happen, but it could end up being the biggest battle of all. The battle that decided the meepits' fate.

     Suddenly a door slammed, and in walked a broadly grinning Rayd. He walked over to me excitedly. "What is it?" I questioned.

     "Clyde! You're never gonna believe this!" he declared.

     "Believe what?" I asked, now wide awake.

     "I'm the leader of one of the Fyora groups! And as leader, I can choose a sort of deputy, a second-in-command during the fight... I chose you, Clyde!"

To be continued...