Ramona and The Snowager

     “Excuse me,” the young Bruce cried. “Can you help me find the Snowager? I lost my owner in all of the snow. We were headed that way; I hope he’s there waiting for me.”

     Ramona felt bad for the young Bruce, as she could see tears in his eyes. She was just about to take a break from running the Slushie Shop and go for a walk anyway. A longer walk to the Ice Caves wouldn’t be too much trouble, and she could use the fresh air.

     “Sure,” Ramona said, smiling. “Let me just lock up and I’ll take you there!”

     “Oh, thank you!” the young Bruce shouted, tears streaming down his face now. She could tell he was so relieved.

     Ramona put a ‘Be back soon!’ sign on the door and locked the door. She put the key back in her pocket and turned to take the short journey with the young Bruce. After all, Ramona thought, what could possibly go wrong?

     As Ramona and the young Bruce started walking, the young Bruce kept talking. “My name is Jeremiah,” the young Bruce said. “But my owner calls me J. He’s new to Neopia and just moved here 10 days ago. And that’s how old I am! We heard the Snowager hibernates during the Winter Starlight Celebration, so we wanted to go check it out! But then the snow got really bad, and I couldn’t see where I was going, and all of a sudden, my owner was gone! Oh, I hope he’s there waiting for me!”

     “Don’t worry,” Ramona said as they arrived outside of the Snowager’s cave. “I’m sure he is!”

     As they walked into the cave, the air felt weird. It was eerily quiet, usually the Snowager snored loud. Ramona and Jeremiah both looked up at the same time and saw the Snowager staring back at them. Odd, the Snowager usually hibernates this time of year.

     “Um,” Jeremiah whispered. “Isn’t it supposed to be sleeping?”

     “Yes,” Ramona replied. “He’s always sleeping this time of year. Well, usually.” Ramona wasn’t sure why he was awake, but she suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

     “Ramona, look!” Jeremiah shouted. He was pointing at a scarf in the Snowager’s mouth. It was bright blue with yellow stripes. The blue seemed to match Jeremiah’s skin. “That’s my owners’! I know it is! He has a blue and yellow scarf for me and my brother, a yellow Jubjub. Where’s my owner? You don’t think…” Jeremiah paused, ears welling in his eyes again. “Did he eat my owner?”

     Ramona wasn’t sure, but she didn’t like the look of things. She started to open her mouth to tell Jeremiah that they should leave, when suddenly both Neopets felt a strong gust of wind pull them towards the Snowager. Ramona quickly realized the Snowager was sucking them in, and he looked like he wanted to eat them.

     “Ramona, what do we do?”

     Ramona looked around, but she didn’t know how to save herself, let alone Jeremiah too. Everything felt hopeless, when she noticed there were icicles jutting out of the sides of the cave. If she could grab one, she could buy herself time to think. All she needed to do was try and walk sideways. Could she do it with the gust of air pulling her inwards?

     It was hard, but Ramona started to move closer to the walls. “Jeremiah,” Ramona shouted. “Walk to the wall and grab one of these icicles. If we can hold onto the wall, we may be able to pull ourselves towards the door!”

     Jeremiah looked nervous, but he tried with all of his might to walk towards the wall Ramona was now standing against, holding on for dear life. Soon Jeremiah reached the wall and grabbed the icicle next to Ramona’s.

     “Okay, now we need to grab each icicle behind us to pull ourselves closer to the entrance,” Ramona said, reaching for the icicle behind her. She was just barely able to reach it and was able to pull herself back towards the entrance just a few inches. Now, the question was, would Jeremiah be able to reach?

     It took concentration and strength, but Jeremiah was just barely able to reach the icicle Ramona just left and pulled himself closer to Ramona. The Snowager looked desperate to eat them, but it looked like they would make it out of here alive! Both Ramona and Jeremiah kept pulling themselves closer to the entrance, one icicle at a time. The further away from the Snowager they were, the easier it was, as the gust of wind was not as strong. Before long, both Ramona and Jeremiah were out of the cave. Thankfully inside of the Ice Caves there was no snow, so they could stop to think of what to do next.

     “Now what do I do?” Jeremiah cried. Tears were streaming down his face. “My owner is dead! I can’t live on my own, and I can’t go to the pound! I’d never get adopted!”

     Ramona started patting Jeremiah’s back to try and comfort him. “It’s okay Jeremiah, we don’t know if the Snowager really ate your owner. He’s probably just fine, and out there somewhere looking for you!”

     Jeremiah sniffled. “You really think so?”

     Truthfully, Ramona did not know if his owner was truly okay, but it was not looking good. Of course, she couldn’t tell Jeremiah that. “Let’s go back to my shop, we can warm up and catch our breath there while we figure out how to find your owner.”

     The duo started making their way back to Happy Valley, where the snow had let up a significant amount. They looked around for clues of where Jeremiah’s owner could be but did not see any. They reached the Slushie Shop and found a long line of Neopets and their owners waiting for Ramona to come back. Ramona quickly ran to the shop, removed the sign, and unlocked the door. As she stepped inside, Jeremiah was right behind her. He was ready to work, which was good because Ramona would need the help to get through this rush.

     Both Ramona and Jeremiah were happy to be busy; it was a welcome distraction from the problem at hand. As the line started to die down, however, they both realized they needed to come up with a plan to try and find Jeremiah’s owner.

     “Maybe we could put up missing posters?” Jeremiah asked once the last customer left. The shelves were empty, so the duo started to restock while they worked on a plan.

     “I think that only works when owners do that for their Neopets,” Ramona said, sighing. “I think our best bet would be to go around Terror Mountain and see if anyone has seen him.” Ramona sighed. “I don’t know if I can help though, you saw how busy it got when I left for a few minutes.”

     Jeremiah sighed and looked out the window. “I understand, it was crazy, and everyone was mad. I just don’t want to get lost again.”

     Ramona definitely did not want that to happen either. Suddenly, she had a great idea. “Let’s ask the next few customers if you can tag along with them. I’m sure we can find someone who is going around Terror Mountain!”

     Jeremiah ran back over to Ramona. “That’s a great idea! Do you really think someone will help?”

     “Sure,” Ramona replied. “There’s plenty of helpful Neopians!”

     Suddenly, the door to the shop opened, and a bundled figure walked towards the duo. “Excuse me,” the mysterious stranger said. He started to say something else but stopped suddenly and stared. “J, is that you?”

     Jeremiah got a look at the owner’s face, and suddenly turned to Ramona. “Ramona, it’s my owner!” Jeremiah ran and gave his owner a hug. “We thought the Snowager ate you!” Ramona noticed Jeremiah was crying again.

     Jeremiah’s owner started laughing. “Now why would you think that?”

     “Your scarf!” Jeremiah replied. “The Snowager had it in its mouth!”

     “Oh, my scarf blew off in the wind when I entered the Ice Caves. I never made it to the Snowager. Once I realized you were gone, I started looking for you. I tried to check this shop earlier, but it was closed, and no one in line had seen you! Now let’s go, we still never got to see the Snowager!”

     “No! I don’t want to go!” Jeremiah shouted.

     “Okay,” his owner replied. “Well let’s at least check out the rest of Terror Mountain!”

     Jeremiah and his owner said their goodbyes to Ramona and headed out the door. Ramona was so glad his owner was okay; she really had thought he had been eaten by the Snowager. Ramona took a deep breath, and chuckled when she thought of her little adventure. And here she thought today would be another boring day. Ramona continued with her work, and silently told herself that she would never go back to the Snowager’s cave.

     The End.