Notes from Kreludor

     Jemilat ruefully shook her head at her sister’s antics. The woodland korbat was fluttering in loops around Neopia Central’s golden paths. “Stop messing around and focus! And give those back to me, I actually need them! You’re so silly.”

     The pair of siblings were on their way to the book shop to pick up the books on their reading list for the semester. Jem, the ever studious overachiever was looking forward to classes resuming while Tal, the hyperactive daydreamer was already mourning the loss of vacation time.

     “I promise we can swing by the petpet shop on the way home and pet the cute warfs,” Jemilat offered, gently plucking her glasses off Tal’s face. “Now come on. Let’s get our books!”

     Tal immediately began sneezing upon entering the store, grumbling under her breath about dusty old books. Attuned to ignoring her, Jem pulled her sister towards the used books section and began browsing. “We’re looking for two copies of All About Neopia for history class…”

     “Ugh boring!” Tal exclaimed. “Check this out! All About Juggling - a practical skill. I probably don’t even need to read it to pull juggling off.” Tal plucked a few books off the shelves and tossed them in the air.

     Jem rolled her eyes when they promptly clattered to the ground before scooping up the fallen books and pushing Tal into a different aisle. “Just in time!” she whispered as the blue nimmo shopkeeper hopped off his stool to investigate the sound. “You’re going to get us kicked out before we finish finding all of our books. We have a whole list. Science Textbook, Math Workbook, Extinct Neopian Languages…”

     Tal grinned. “Okay, no more juggling, but you have to admit that learning about extinct languages does not sound like a lot of fun! Doesn’t seem useful either. Can we please browse and look at fun titles before we get our school books? Pleaaase?” She batted her eyelashes at Jem with a hopeful smile.

     In response, Jem pulled a dark red curvy shaped book off a shelf. “Boomerang Throwing Techniques,” she read out loud. She was about to launch into a monologue of why no one would need to truly know boomerang throwing techniques when a piece of paper fluttered out and fell to the ground. “Wait, what’s this?”

     “Isn’t it weird to write a book about boomerang throwing techniques? More useful to learn how to win the NeoCola Machine instead,” Tal slowly read out loud. “The NeoCola Machine? Wait the one at Virtupets Space Station?”

     “Truly, this is why we need to focus on our textbooks and pick up All About Neopia, Jem said dryly. “The NeoCola Machine is in Kreludor!”

     Tal blushed and nodded. “Probably true. Speaking of, look at this one! 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings. Maybe something I could use, eh?” As she began flipping through the pages to look for fun passages to read aloud, another scrap of paper slid out of the book.

     “You should come to Kreludor. We don’t have any meetings, you’ll always look smart,” Tal read. She looked up and laughed. “I like that logic. We should go there! Wait for real. We should go there instead!”

     “To Kreludor?” Jem exclaimed. “We still need our books!”

     “Ok not instead,” Tal amended. “After. Let’s get our textbooks and then go. Kreludor has a bookstore too! It could be such a fun adventure. Please?”

     Jem grumbled but she knew she had already lost. Plus she had never been to Kreludor so that could be fun. While the jubjub carefully searched for the books on their list, Tal continued to pick up random books and share her findings. Out of the fifteen random books she picked up, about half had little notes eluding to Kreludor in them.

     “It’s someone’s idea of a joke, obviously,” Jem explained as they left the bookshop arms full of texts. “But since we got everything we needed, I guess we can go to Kreludor and check it out.”

     Tal cheered. “It’ll be so fun!! Personally, I am looking forward to checking out the cafe but we can swing by Booktastic Books too for you since you love reading. Hey, maybe we’ll find more notes!”

     It took the siblings a few hours to reach Kreludor during which Tal hypothesized the origin of the notes the entire time. Jem gently rejected everything Dr. Sloth related. (“Just because Kreludor is where Dr. Sloth discovered grundos really doesn’t mean anything. I’m sure he has better things to do than write random notes. Also, how would he get in and out of Neopia Central without being seen?”)

     After a quick stop at the grundo cafe and one order of sticky glob sticks later, Jem and Tal were standing at the entrance of Booktastic Books. The two greeted Bernard, the shopkeeper and headed to the back of the store to poke around.

     “I can’t believe we followed random notes to a different land!” Jem exclaimed.

     “Super fun, huh?”

     “Kind of super dangerous,” Jem corrected.

     “But you’re here and you’re having fun! Plus lots of people come to this bookshop with no knowledge of the notes we found. It’s not weird to be here! Check this one out. Nerkmid Values. Oooh you never let us gamble those but we should try it one day, let’s get this one!”

     The two poured over dozens of books for hours but no more hidden notes emerged. Much to Tal’s surprise, she found herself immersed in the books she was picking up. “I’d buy all of them if I could,” she declared. “I want to know more about constellation spotting and collecting moon rock.”

     Eventually, the two decided to head home, chalking up the little notes to someone’s idea of a joke. As they made their way to the shop entrance, no more than one book in hand each (at Jem’s insistence), Tal decided to make her move.

     “Excuse me, Bernard,” she said, handing over her Neopoints to the shopkeeper. “This might sound a little strange, but earlier today, my sister and I were at the bookshop in Neopia Central and found some notes in quite a few random books in there. They all had silly little notes referring to Kreludor. Would you happen to know anything about that?”

     “You found them!” The orange grundo beamed, delighted.

     He then proceeded to explain. He and the nimmo met each other when they were researching how to open bookstores in their respective homelands several years ago. The two befriended each other but Bernard had always had the bolder sense of humour.

     “It’s just a joke,” he explained. “My dear fellow shopkeeper has known about the notes for a long time and he doesn’t mind. In fact, his business probably does better than mine! But every once in awhile, a few curious young readers like yourself find these notes and make their way over to Kreludor, and eventually my shop. I keep telling that silly Nimmo to leave notes in my books but he’s yet to do so that anyone has seen. Maybe one day.”

     The two siblings giggled, amused at the tale of the one-sided note writing game. “Let’s leave him a note today!” Tal said, digging through her purse for a pen as Jem handed her a random copy of The Big Book of Intermediate Evil Plots.

     “You can’t buy that book though!” Jem instructed. “The last thing we need is you actively learning how to cause trouble.”

     Tal huffed but did not disagree. She finished scribbling her note and shared it with her sister and Bernard. It read: There’s a magical experience waiting for you in Neopia Central.

     Bernard chuckled when he read the mischievous korbat’s note. “30% discount for you two creative kids! You’ve made my day and I’ll enjoy telling my old friend about these shenanigans…”

     Tal and Jem left Booktastic Books that afternoon, hands full of books, minds full of happy and adventurous memories, and hearts full of appreciation for Neopian literature of all kinds.

     The End.