My name is Jeemie. This is my petpet, Elio the Wheelie. He's not painted,
or special, or anything. But he is a expensive Space petpet. He's not as
good as a Diddler (you can play a game whenever you want!), but not as bad
as a Screwtop. (Who wants a screw for a petpet?) But he's Elio, and he's
my Wheelie.
My brother and sisters have petpets of their own. One of my sisters has a Poppit, and she practices her battling with him. My brother has a Sharky, and him being a Kiko, enjoys swimming with him. And my other sister has a Baby Blu. She likes to feed it. But us? We like exploring new lands and conquering scientific matters, even if we have to make the lands made up and the matters pretend.
Just yesterday, we were playing in our basement. Even though we live in an apartment building on the second floor, the owner of the building liked us so much that he let us buy an area of the basement that wasn't being used. So, we built a wall to seperate the section from the rest of the basement and we put some of our stuff in.
When we were in the basement, I was leaning against the wall, watching my sister Katreek practice her cheerleading. Elio was sitting next to me, watching in confusion. Suddenly, I felt myself falling backwards. I jumped up, and watched the wall behind me dissolve into a cave!
Katreek, who had stopped cheerleading, stared at the hole, and then looked up at me. "Should I go get Mom?"
I nodded. While she ran out the door to get her, I ran to my lab desk and took a long rope from a drawer. Then, I went into the toy closet and dug around in the toys until I found my wooden cart. I strung one end of the rope through the handle and tied a tight knot. Then, I went to my mom's craft bin, and I took out an old ribbon spool. I strung the rope on it, then attached the spool to a peg on the wall. I went back to my desk and grabbed some tools. I put them in my cart. I was about to start off down the cave when I heard some gears turning and some squeaking. I looked behind me. Elio held up a small scrap of rope. Then, right before my eyes, he tied the rope around him, attached the other end of the rope to the cart, and started pulling it.
Dumbfounded, I followed. The rope was a good idea; there were many twists and turns in the cave. The stone that surrounded us was black as night, then it turned redder than red sand. Eventually it turned a deep, rich blue, then faded into a forest green so lush that it looked like velvet. After a while, we stopped. I took a slurp from the water bottle I put in the cart (always be safe!) and Elio took a sip from his oil pack that he keeps with him. It was while we were sitting there that I heard it. It started out quietly, then the growls got louder and louder. Suddenly, the roars broke.
"Shut up and get in the jar!" The voice was rocky and gruff. A high pitched scream pierced the air.
"Don't touch me! I'm not going in the jar!" I looked at Elio, he looked at me. We put our drinks back, then quietly tiptoed towards the sound.
A corner loomed ahead of us, and the voices echoed more than ever. Elio unlatched himself from the cart, and we creeped forward. Our chins brushed the dirt floor, our knees scraped the walls.
When we rounded the corner, a blast of bright line shone all around us. Regaining our vision, we looked around: bottles and bottles of faeries, all around us, on shelves, in piles, thrown on the floor.
A silhouette of a Lupe standing on two legs contrasted with the glow of the faeries. He held a small purple creature in his hand. "You are the queen, and you're gonna make me RICH!" He laughed evilly and then stuffed the being into a small jar.
He pocketed it and turned around. That's when he saw us. He smiled and stared. I was horrified. I do not battle, and therefore had no weapons with me.
"Get up!" he bellowed. I didn't want to get hurt, so I followed his orders and stood. "Who are you?"
"My name is Jeemie, sir," I responded.
"And why are you here?"
"I was exploring, sir."
"Well," he began, "do you know what this is?" He held up the purple orb in the jar.
"Is it...is it the Faerie Queen?"
He nodded, amd a sly smile crossed his face. "Little Kacheeks shouldn't have seen this. So..."
At that moment, Elio squeaked in front of me. "Oh, look, a little Wheelie," the Lupe said. "I could crush it with my bare hands." He picked his foot up, as if to squish Elio. My eyes widened. I was about to run forward and scream, when suddenly...
"WHIRRRRRRRRR!" Elio jumped out of the way, but left a small pile of nails where he stood, each nail facing upward. (In case you didn't know, to robot petpets, nails are the equivalent of...erm...bodily wastes.)
The strange Lupe slammed his foot on to the nails. "OWWWWWIE!!!" He grabbed his foot and began hopping around. Elio strategically placed small piles of nails wherever he thought the Lupe would land next.
As Elio and it fought, I looked closely at the tall Lupe. Blue fur on his back, yellow fur on his face and stomach, ripped clothing...could it be?
"Are you Balthazar, sir?" I asked.
He stopped hopping. I saw red blood from his foot oozing from his fingers, and brown footprints wherever he hopped. "Well, duh," he replied.
"So that's why you have faeries!"
"Yes, it is!" His eyes glowed red for a bit, then turned back to their natural color. He smiled a sly grin. "Now that you know who I am, you and I have to talk a bit..."
He pressed a button on the wall. Suddenly, the opening behind me, where I came in, closed. A seemingly thing layer of steel protruded from the wall. Elio ran from Balthazar's foot to the door, and began banging on it.
"You're not gonna get anything," he laughed. "Now, as for you..."
I trembled. Balthazar stepped toward me. "Why do you hurt the faeries, sir?"
He gave me a cold, hard stare. Then he cleared his throat.
"When the Faerie Queen turned me into a Lupe, I felt more pain than everyone else. When someone's favorite pet died, I felt more pain then they did. When someone lost all their money, I felt more pain then they did. When someone was forced to leave this once beautiful land, I felt more pain then they did. I wanted to be a human more than anything. I decided that the only means of revenge was to get back at the Queen. And so I did. My goal was to catch each and every faerie out there. Then, when all her loyal minions were caught, bottled, and sold, I would catch her. Since, as you must know, being so smart, without most of her sisters, daughters, and children, which all faeries are, she would be powerless.
"But Neopia betrayed me. After people bought the faeries from me, they gave them to their pets. The pets released them. The faeries gave the pets an ability, and then they flew away. Few people know this, but the only reason pets get abilities when they release a faerie is so the faeries have help. You were happy when you got an ability, weren't you?"
"Yes, sir," I said carefully.
"Of course you were. So was everyone else. So, when the faeries needed help, they could just fly up to a pet and say, 'Hi, remember me? I gave you your Bless ability. Well, I need some help...' and the pets would go along with them.
"So that put me back at square one. I caught faeries, sold them for a good price, but people released them back, and the circle continued. I needed a better way to capture the Faerie Queen. So instead of selling the faeries, I decided to keep them. And that resulted in the Magic Shop, my main distributor, raising their prices. And people hoarded more faeries, sold them for higher prices. But then, people lowered their faerie prices. People didn't want faeries as much. This was a good thing, for me. So I continued to catch faeries. Finally came the day when very few faeries were left in the wild. Have you ever wondered why you never see faeries outside of their bottles?"
"No, not really, sir," I responded.
"Well, the reason is ME! I caught most of them! I stored them in my underground caves! And you just happened to live on top of them! And today, I caught my prized possession! THE FAERIE QUEEN IS MINE! MUAHAHAHA!"
He started raving. He held up the Faerie Queen's jar. In the light of all the other faeries, I could see that that jar had engraved glass. On the cork was a scene depicting a faerie being captured.
A purple orb floated in the jar. The details were blured, since the engravements made the glass blurry. Suddenly, there were small clicking sounds.
A blast of sound came from all the other faeries, making similar clicking noises. Suddenly, Elio stopped banging his head against the door. He had made a pretty good dent, but his head was damaged.
He rolled himself to the center of the room. He started clicking, making noises like the faeries. As Balthazar and I watched, something miraculous happened. Elio looked up at the small lightbulb at the top of the room. It was made of clear glass, not frosted. It made sort of a prism around the room.
The room was circular. Seven pillars were in the room, each dividing the circle into seven walls. On one wall had all the fire faeries. The next wall had water faeries. The next had earth, the next had dark, the next had light, and the next had air. The remaining wall was where the door used to be.
The light from the faeries shone into the prism. There was no lightbulb. The light coming from the prism was purely generated by the faeries. Suddenly, the room went dark. All the faeries had magically stopped glowing. What was going on? Then, a beam of light came from the fire faeries. It was not a large beam. It was small and precise; you could see exactly where it started and exactly where it ended. Another beam came from the water faeries. Then one from the light faeries, one from the dark faeries, one from the earth faeries, and one from the air faeries. Each beam of light shone directly into one side of the prism. Then, a rainbow colored beam came from the center of it. The shone down, directly onto Elio. He began to rise.
"Elio!" I whispered to no one.
He kept rising. He gradually began to glow in rainbow colors. Suddenly, the beams of light switched their gaze from the prism to Elio. A huge rainbow beam of light lit up the room, and he fell to the ground.
I ran to him, on the floor. That's when I realized that Balthazar had been silent for a long time. I looked up at him. A huge grin was plastered on his face. Suddenly, he made a lunge at Elio. I tried grabbing him, but Balthazar grabbed him first. At least, I think he did. He touched my pet, and he screamed. His paws glowed a deep red. Suddenly, all of the Fire Faeries burst out of their jars. He put his hands on the cold walls, to try and cool them. Then, they turned an icy blue, and the dark, water, earth, and air faeries erupted from their jars. Balthazar screamed, and then a blinding light flashed. Finally, the light faeries came out from their jars. As the large Lupe fell to the floor, all the faeries joined in a circle around the prism. They spun in circles faster and faster until they began to glitter and glisten. Then they broke apart and flew to the door. With one glare from the Queen, the door burst open. I stared as all the faeries flew above us out the door. Mom's gonna be surprised, I thought. After they all passed us, I realized that Balthazar was still there. I looked at Elio, and we ran.
Elio hopped into the cart, since he was injured from the headbanging. I pushed the card back along the rope with all my might. Finally, we made it home.
"And just where have you been?!" Mom exclaimed. "You should tell me before you go off into mysterious caves in our basement!"
My brother and sisters have petpets of their own. One of my sisters has a Poppit, and she practices her battling with him. My brother has a Sharky, and him being a Kiko, enjoys swimming with him. And my other sister has a Baby Blu. She likes to feed it. But us? We like exploring new lands and conquering scientific matters, even if we have to make the lands made up and the matters pretend.
Just yesterday, we were playing in our basement. Even though we live in an apartment building on the second floor, the owner of the building liked us so much that he let us buy an area of the basement that wasn't being used. So, we built a wall to seperate the section from the rest of the basement and we put some of our stuff in.
When we were in the basement, I was leaning against the wall, watching my sister Katreek practice her cheerleading. Elio was sitting next to me, watching in confusion. Suddenly, I felt myself falling backwards. I jumped up, and watched the wall behind me dissolve into a cave!
Katreek, who had stopped cheerleading, stared at the hole, and then looked up at me. "Should I go get Mom?"
I nodded. While she ran out the door to get her, I ran to my lab desk and took a long rope from a drawer. Then, I went into the toy closet and dug around in the toys until I found my wooden cart. I strung one end of the rope through the handle and tied a tight knot. Then, I went to my mom's craft bin, and I took out an old ribbon spool. I strung the rope on it, then attached the spool to a peg on the wall. I went back to my desk and grabbed some tools. I put them in my cart. I was about to start off down the cave when I heard some gears turning and some squeaking. I looked behind me. Elio held up a small scrap of rope. Then, right before my eyes, he tied the rope around him, attached the other end of the rope to the cart, and started pulling it.
Dumbfounded, I followed. The rope was a good idea; there were many twists and turns in the cave. The stone that surrounded us was black as night, then it turned redder than red sand. Eventually it turned a deep, rich blue, then faded into a forest green so lush that it looked like velvet. After a while, we stopped. I took a slurp from the water bottle I put in the cart (always be safe!) and Elio took a sip from his oil pack that he keeps with him. It was while we were sitting there that I heard it. It started out quietly, then the growls got louder and louder. Suddenly, the roars broke.
"Shut up and get in the jar!" The voice was rocky and gruff. A high pitched scream pierced the air.
"Don't touch me! I'm not going in the jar!" I looked at Elio, he looked at me. We put our drinks back, then quietly tiptoed towards the sound.
A corner loomed ahead of us, and the voices echoed more than ever. Elio unlatched himself from the cart, and we creeped forward. Our chins brushed the dirt floor, our knees scraped the walls.
When we rounded the corner, a blast of bright line shone all around us. Regaining our vision, we looked around: bottles and bottles of faeries, all around us, on shelves, in piles, thrown on the floor.
A silhouette of a Lupe standing on two legs contrasted with the glow of the faeries. He held a small purple creature in his hand. "You are the queen, and you're gonna make me RICH!" He laughed evilly and then stuffed the being into a small jar.
He pocketed it and turned around. That's when he saw us. He smiled and stared. I was horrified. I do not battle, and therefore had no weapons with me.
"Get up!" he bellowed. I didn't want to get hurt, so I followed his orders and stood. "Who are you?"
"My name is Jeemie, sir," I responded.
"And why are you here?"
"I was exploring, sir."
"Well," he began, "do you know what this is?" He held up the purple orb in the jar.
"Is it...is it the Faerie Queen?"
He nodded, amd a sly smile crossed his face. "Little Kacheeks shouldn't have seen this. So..."
At that moment, Elio squeaked in front of me. "Oh, look, a little Wheelie," the Lupe said. "I could crush it with my bare hands." He picked his foot up, as if to squish Elio. My eyes widened. I was about to run forward and scream, when suddenly...
"WHIRRRRRRRRR!" Elio jumped out of the way, but left a small pile of nails where he stood, each nail facing upward. (In case you didn't know, to robot petpets, nails are the equivalent of...erm...bodily wastes.)
The strange Lupe slammed his foot on to the nails. "OWWWWWIE!!!" He grabbed his foot and began hopping around. Elio strategically placed small piles of nails wherever he thought the Lupe would land next.
As Elio and it fought, I looked closely at the tall Lupe. Blue fur on his back, yellow fur on his face and stomach, ripped clothing...could it be?
"Are you Balthazar, sir?" I asked.
He stopped hopping. I saw red blood from his foot oozing from his fingers, and brown footprints wherever he hopped. "Well, duh," he replied.
"So that's why you have faeries!"
"Yes, it is!" His eyes glowed red for a bit, then turned back to their natural color. He smiled a sly grin. "Now that you know who I am, you and I have to talk a bit..."
He pressed a button on the wall. Suddenly, the opening behind me, where I came in, closed. A seemingly thing layer of steel protruded from the wall. Elio ran from Balthazar's foot to the door, and began banging on it.
"You're not gonna get anything," he laughed. "Now, as for you..."
I trembled. Balthazar stepped toward me. "Why do you hurt the faeries, sir?"
He gave me a cold, hard stare. Then he cleared his throat.
"When the Faerie Queen turned me into a Lupe, I felt more pain than everyone else. When someone's favorite pet died, I felt more pain then they did. When someone lost all their money, I felt more pain then they did. When someone was forced to leave this once beautiful land, I felt more pain then they did. I wanted to be a human more than anything. I decided that the only means of revenge was to get back at the Queen. And so I did. My goal was to catch each and every faerie out there. Then, when all her loyal minions were caught, bottled, and sold, I would catch her. Since, as you must know, being so smart, without most of her sisters, daughters, and children, which all faeries are, she would be powerless.
"But Neopia betrayed me. After people bought the faeries from me, they gave them to their pets. The pets released them. The faeries gave the pets an ability, and then they flew away. Few people know this, but the only reason pets get abilities when they release a faerie is so the faeries have help. You were happy when you got an ability, weren't you?"
"Yes, sir," I said carefully.
"Of course you were. So was everyone else. So, when the faeries needed help, they could just fly up to a pet and say, 'Hi, remember me? I gave you your Bless ability. Well, I need some help...' and the pets would go along with them.
"So that put me back at square one. I caught faeries, sold them for a good price, but people released them back, and the circle continued. I needed a better way to capture the Faerie Queen. So instead of selling the faeries, I decided to keep them. And that resulted in the Magic Shop, my main distributor, raising their prices. And people hoarded more faeries, sold them for higher prices. But then, people lowered their faerie prices. People didn't want faeries as much. This was a good thing, for me. So I continued to catch faeries. Finally came the day when very few faeries were left in the wild. Have you ever wondered why you never see faeries outside of their bottles?"
"No, not really, sir," I responded.
"Well, the reason is ME! I caught most of them! I stored them in my underground caves! And you just happened to live on top of them! And today, I caught my prized possession! THE FAERIE QUEEN IS MINE! MUAHAHAHA!"
He started raving. He held up the Faerie Queen's jar. In the light of all the other faeries, I could see that that jar had engraved glass. On the cork was a scene depicting a faerie being captured.
A purple orb floated in the jar. The details were blured, since the engravements made the glass blurry. Suddenly, there were small clicking sounds.
A blast of sound came from all the other faeries, making similar clicking noises. Suddenly, Elio stopped banging his head against the door. He had made a pretty good dent, but his head was damaged.
He rolled himself to the center of the room. He started clicking, making noises like the faeries. As Balthazar and I watched, something miraculous happened. Elio looked up at the small lightbulb at the top of the room. It was made of clear glass, not frosted. It made sort of a prism around the room.
The room was circular. Seven pillars were in the room, each dividing the circle into seven walls. On one wall had all the fire faeries. The next wall had water faeries. The next had earth, the next had dark, the next had light, and the next had air. The remaining wall was where the door used to be.
The light from the faeries shone into the prism. There was no lightbulb. The light coming from the prism was purely generated by the faeries. Suddenly, the room went dark. All the faeries had magically stopped glowing. What was going on? Then, a beam of light came from the fire faeries. It was not a large beam. It was small and precise; you could see exactly where it started and exactly where it ended. Another beam came from the water faeries. Then one from the light faeries, one from the dark faeries, one from the earth faeries, and one from the air faeries. Each beam of light shone directly into one side of the prism. Then, a rainbow colored beam came from the center of it. The shone down, directly onto Elio. He began to rise.
"Elio!" I whispered to no one.
He kept rising. He gradually began to glow in rainbow colors. Suddenly, the beams of light switched their gaze from the prism to Elio. A huge rainbow beam of light lit up the room, and he fell to the ground.
I ran to him, on the floor. That's when I realized that Balthazar had been silent for a long time. I looked up at him. A huge grin was plastered on his face. Suddenly, he made a lunge at Elio. I tried grabbing him, but Balthazar grabbed him first. At least, I think he did. He touched my pet, and he screamed. His paws glowed a deep red. Suddenly, all of the Fire Faeries burst out of their jars. He put his hands on the cold walls, to try and cool them. Then, they turned an icy blue, and the dark, water, earth, and air faeries erupted from their jars. Balthazar screamed, and then a blinding light flashed. Finally, the light faeries came out from their jars. As the large Lupe fell to the floor, all the faeries joined in a circle around the prism. They spun in circles faster and faster until they began to glitter and glisten. Then they broke apart and flew to the door. With one glare from the Queen, the door burst open. I stared as all the faeries flew above us out the door. Mom's gonna be surprised, I thought. After they all passed us, I realized that Balthazar was still there. I looked at Elio, and we ran.
Elio hopped into the cart, since he was injured from the headbanging. I pushed the card back along the rope with all my might. Finally, we made it home.
"And just where have you been?!" Mom exclaimed. "You should tell me before you go off into mysterious caves in our basement!"