Avatar Goldmine

     The Black Pteri swooped down to ground level, to face Rysony. And he rushed to get his battledome set out the bag and on the way began the battle by charging some mud from a couple of nearby puddles directly at the black Pteri. The Black Pteri laughed evilly 'Is that all you've got, you amateur?!'

      Suddenly, Rysony felt a sharp feather sting him sharply in the stomach, and he instinctively started to clutch down, holding onto his stomach in pain. The Black Pteri had attacked Rysony with a Hawk Feather, a sharp (hardly heard of)weapon that can be thrown.

     As Rysony was clutching down to his stomach in great pain, he realised Black Pteri hadn't inflected any pain from his previous attack. Unfortunately, The Black Pteri had avoided Rysony's attack by using a powerful charm called a 'Thyoras Tear'.

     Rysony, was determined not to let this setback bring him down. He had also remembered his big sister telling about the Purple Sticky Hand having the ability to steal weapons from their opponents. So, he very wisely decided to recover Black Pteri's attack by using a Lesser Healing Scroll, especially as he knew the Thyoras Tear attack, gave the Black Pteri a complete defence for one turn. Hey, his sister may be the Battledome warrior but that didn’t mean he hadn’t picked up a thing or two watching his sister train relentlessly day after day. As Rysony was recovering from the attack, the Black Pteri suddenly grew 40 times their original size using Supersize Gargantuplex, which was another setback for the poor usul.

     Rysony hadn’t recovered to his full health, as he continued battling while clutching on his lower left stomach, where the Black Pteri had previously attacked him. Rysony decided it was time to use the Purple sticky hand, which stretched to an impressive length, and managed to steal the 'Thyoras Tear' leaving the Black Pteri vulnerable. At this point Ry smiled weakly, knowing he had a chance to defeat the Black Pteri. Things suddenly seemed to turn for the better, as The Black Pteri released the power of ‘The Hawk Wand’ on Rysony, causing some damage but ironically the wand broke and ended up also hurting The Black Pteri, resulting in the Black Pteri to fall to the ground.

     Rysony decided to finish off the attack while the pteri was on the ground. Rysony limped, screaming CHAARGE! Using all the energy he had remaining, he attacked The Black Pteri in the stomach with a Gilded War Hammer.

     Rysony barely stood, slowly losing consciousness, as the Black Pteri lay still on the ground. He fell backwards, to a massive THUD to the back of his head.

     As hours passed by, the next thing Rysony knew, he had woken up floating on a pink cloud, with hundreds more pink clouds floating around him, and a dozen beautiful fairies, all dressed in different colours. He had never felt ever so relaxed, to his left he could hear the rivers rushing by. He felt a soft hand stroke his hair and sat up startled to see a beautiful faerie with long blonde hair and blue eyes that gleaming kindly down at Rysony.

     She reminded Rysony of a beautiful water goddess in a book that Ellen used to read to him, when he was younger.

     Rysony then exclaimed ‘Where am I?!’ ‘Am I dead?’ As he swarmed her with a half-dozen questions. The beautiful faerie chuckled softly and said ‘No my dear, my name is Marina, the water faerie. You are in Faerieland Healing Springs, and you are very much alive.’ Rysony then quickly interrupted, ‘but how did I get here?!’ Marina smiled again, ever so calm to say, ‘You were hurt after your battle with Black Pteri, my dear.’ As she removed a black feather from his hair. ‘Don’t worry he is a powerful one, but I’ve restored your hit points’

     ‘My friend Kate will transport you back to Mystery Island, where you can speak to The Mystery Island Mystic’ As she continued.

     ‘Oh, and before I forget, I found this in your pocket’ Marina handed over Rysony an interesting looking square icon, with a picture that looked like the Black Pteri on it. ‘This is an avatar, you obtained this as you defeated the Black Pteri. Congratulations! Maybe the Island mystic can explain more when you see him.’

     Rysony looked at Marina confused ‘Right...’ as this green little bird, with blue bug eyes, green and red dipped wings, to match its shiny red nose fluttered over to where Rysony was sat. Marina spoke as ever so humbly ‘Excellent, this is Kate, the Kateil. She will be transporting you over back to Mystery Island, where you were previously.’ As she blew a kiss on Rysony’s forehead, as Kate fluttered her wings excitedly, to then raise her wings to take Rysony under her wings. Rysony looked at Marina the water faerie, puzzled. Marina nodded with a smile. Rysony was still unsure but decided to trust Marina. He jumped on Kate’s back and gripped the back of her head tight with both of his hands as they took off. Rysony looked back to Marina, to wave a thank you as Marina waved, shouting back ‘You’re welcome back anytime!! Stay safe!’

     After what felt like several hours of flying through rain and thunderstorm, they arrived in more familiar surroundings, Mystery Island. Rysony suddenly felt a shudder, as he started to get flashbacks how the Black Pteri very almost put an end to Rysony’s adventure, and his own life, just as his adventure was only getting started.

     Rysony made his way to the Mystic, slopping through the soggy grass after the hours of rain earlier. As he entered the hut, the mystic like yesterday was ever-present and welcomed Rysony warmly ‘Welcome back to my little hut. Ahh, I guess you’ve defeated the black Pteri and came here to have your fortune told, eh? Yes, very well.’

     Rysony leaned his head forward, so he could listen to the Mystic carefully as he gripped the ‘Black Pteri Avatar’ tightly in his hand. The mystic started preaching ‘Yes yes, very well. Congratulations on defeating the black Pteri! The Mystic shouted excitedly. ‘I see you’ve got the avatar from defeating him, very well done!’ He exclaimed. The Mystic explained how the avatars are extremely valuable in the Neopets community. ‘Now, I want you to keep that handy as you’ll need to collect several more avatars so you can qualify for the Top avatar collector avatar! You’ll then gain the next clue to where your sister, Meggily is.’

     ‘But...’ Rysony said confusedly.

     ‘Ah no buts!’ The mystic shouted annoyedly. ‘You must find out where the secret avatars are, ask other Neopians to help you if you must! Best of luck, my friend.’ As Mystic smiled calmly.

     As Rysony walked out after visiting Mystic, he decided to explore the area before hunting for avatars. Rysony smiled as he saw a bunch of people like Ellen negotiating angrily for various expensive items at the trading post. He waved hello at Jhuidah the Island Faerie as she continued to mix the magical cooking pot. Rysony stopped to glumly look through the window at the prices of Maraquan Refugee petpets, knowing he couldn’t afford any of these wonderful petpets right now.

     He continued to roam around peacefully when Rysony saw the tombola. Rysony ran excitedly, as he had remembered how he and his sister used to repeatedly play the tombola trying to win paintbrushes, so they could become Royal boy/girl!

     As Rysony approached the ever-mysterious Tiki Tack Man, who was adorned with a traditional tiki mask, wore an impressive Hawaiian shirt, that looked and smelt like it hadn’t been washed for years. The Tiki Tack Man welcomed Rysony by exclaiming excitedly ‘Welcome to my Tombola! Great prizes to be won, just put your hand (or paw) in, pick up a tombola ticket, and see what prize you win. Anything ending with a 0, 2 or 5 is a winner!’

     Rysony put his hand in the pot, wondering if he’ll ever win the Royal boy/girl paintbrush, as he and his sister used to discuss their dreams of being a royalboy and royalgirl. He also thought the paintbrush would be something he could surprise Meggily with, if, o, when, he did find her. Rysony closed his eyes and grabbed a paper ticket to pull it out. He read the number ‘56’ As the Tiki Tack Man said disappointedly ‘Oh dear, that's not a winning ticket :( ... but you win a Booby Prize!!!’ As he handed over a tin of Olives and 141 Neopoints.

     ‘Excellent, it’s not a paintbrush but it’s a little change and food to get me going today’ Rysony thought to himself’, as he waved a thank you to the Tiki Tack Man.

     As Rysony wandered out of the Tombola, he bumped into a tall lady, with glasses as she was fussing with her colour coordination. ‘Hey!’ she shouted towards Rysony ‘Do these colours go together?’

      ‘Um yeah, I guess’, as Rysony shrugged.

     ‘Thank you so much, my name’s Quartz and this’s Effs, short for Effervesces, my beloved plushie Cybunny. ‘Pleasure to meet you!’ As she smiled politely.

     ‘And you!’ Ry replied.

     Effs stood next to Quartz exclaiming optimistically ‘Umm, when can we go to the Deserted Tomb’ ‘I mean, I could get you the avatar Mummy!’ ‘Never, my darling. You know it’s too dangerous’ Effervesces bowed down in disappointment, as they walked away.

     Ry sighed feeling guilty, thinking of what Eff had said to Quartz about Deserted Tomb. As dangerous it sounded, Rysony decided he had to start somewhere on his journey to find avatars. So, he strolled over to this gigantic tomb and thought ‘Yep this is it.’ He almost decided to flee when like magic the stone door opened with a slam but he stood his ground. Rysony put on a determined face, knowing there was no turning back after this. Maybe to never see sunlight ever again.

     To be continued…