Disclaimer: You know the drill, I don't own the Neopets site
Author's Note: I admit I don't know how Adam and Donna came up with the name for this terrific world, or what the conversations might have been like. Hopefully I wasn't TOO far off the mark. ; But the bit about the Idea is the truth. Neopia can't get better if we don't help them add bits of the Idea...
Lenny Library- You are standing amid numerous tomes set in shelves that stretch to the ceiling far above you. All is silent save for the faint rustling of pages as Neopets quietly page through books full of forgotten lore. Well, almost silent, for you suddenly hear a crash and a squawk of outrage.
"Oh shuckie duckie! There goes the whole shelf!"
You race over and find an old but graceful Lenny with feathers the color of fine ash standing before a pile of books and scrolls.
A scroll rolls to your feet and unravels to reveal an ancient painting of a Lenny with feathers as dark as the night sky and speckled with tiny points of light as though it holds the night sky in its feathers.
The elderly Lenny spots you and follows your gaze. "Ahh, there you are, you little dickens you," she says, walking over and picking up the scroll, tenderly rolling it up again.
"Who is that a painting of?" you ask, "I've never seen a starry Lenny look like that before."
"That, my dear human, is a painting of the Lenny known as Nightwing. She is a legend of her own, and the greatest legend our somewhat unpopular species lives to remember. She rebuilt our world you know."
Seeing your curious gaze, she leads you to a couch and offers you a cup of hot borovan. "Let me set the scene for you and then I will tell you the tale...."
The sun sets slowly over a dusty, cracked fountain. Only a few steps away is a muddy pond, the only one in a barren, dead land. The last bird swoops in over the crumbling remains of what had once been a mountain and lands with all signs of exhaustion. The world is slowly dying, and the last members of each race of race have gathered in helpless desperation to see if they can discover some way of saving their once beautiful world. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of creative thinking so much as hysterical arguments and flaring tempers. No one seems to know what to do.
In the distance, an alien sound pierces the air, unnoticed by the arguing creatures. That sound is a shriek of pure joy and wonder.
A long legged bird sprints across the dusty ground, laughing in triumph and dancing about in a most comical fashion. In her bill is a scroll of paper.
An old and worn white horse with a horn and drooping wings lifts her head listlessly from the fountain and stares. "What are you so happy about Nightwing?"
Still laughing, the bird hauls the horse up, twirling with her over the cracked dirt, "Our world will live! Oh Ancestors our world will live!"
"What are you going on about you crazy old bat? No offense, Sirgol," A wrinkled, fat dragon beast amends to a worn bat next to him.
Finally, Nightwing strides regally to the center of the group and proudly displays a scroll with the image of a strange creature upon it. She stands on two legs with gauzy, purple wings sprouting from her back. She wears a purple dress and has purple hair.
Nightwing gestures grandly to the picture with a glittering wing, "This creature is called a Faerie. This one in particular is thought to be the legendary Fyora, Queen of the Faeries. There is a chance we can summon her to save our world. But we have to be ready to do anything needed to get her here, which in turn means we must do it unanimously."
The answering growls from the creatures assure her that they are ready to do anything they must.
Slowly, Nightwing brings a rounded yellow crystal into the dim red light of the sunset. The light catches the crystal and shines through it until it seems to glow with its own warmth.
"Our world is dying," she says sadly, tenderly caressing the stone with her beak, "...and so are we. There's nothing we can do to stop it. But... there is a way to restore it after we are gone... I must ask you the ultimate request. To give yourselves, completely. All of your hopes, your fears, your loves."
"For our world..." growls the fat dragon beast, placing his massive paw upon the stone, "...anything..." The dragon shimmers softly in the dying light and fades away, his saddened eyes are the last things they see.
One by one, the last of the creatures put their last energies into the gem, until only old Nightwing is left, a tear sliding down her beak and falling silently onto the stone. "Thank you my old friends," she whispers.
Then she throws the gem high into the air so that the last rays of the sun catch it and makes it blaze brilliantly. Nightwing takes a deep breath and her cry echoes over the demolished land that was once a flourishing world.
"Fyora!"
There are no living creatures left to see Nightwing darken to a shadow and vanish. No one living to see a book, bound in dark material with sparkles like the night sky fall to the ground. No one to see the still glowing gem to fall and land on the book as silently as a feather falls. The world falls silent except for the tired breeze blowing dust around.
Then...in the darkness... a purple light flickers into being. It expands and grows brighter until a creature with delicate purple wings appears.
"Oh my," she whispers, looking around. She takes a step... and her foot bumps into the book. She kneels and tenderly opens the dark cover, looking in at images of a world that no longer exists.
Places... objects... and creatures... strange creatures romping in grassy fields. Creatures that are playing, laughing, crying, fighting, lovingly caring for families ...living. Images of each type of creature.
Sadly, Fyora closes the book and touches the still glowing stone on the cover. She brushes away a bit of moisture on the stone from Nightwing's last tear. "Oh you poor creatures..." she says softly, and very sadly, "I cannot help you. I do not have the power to create a whole world..."
Darkness shimmers. A strange two-legged creature somewhat similar to Fyora but wearing different clothes places her hand on the Faerie Queen's shoulder. It is the Space Faerie. "We do not, but there are two creatures who can. I have seen their world. They have the power to do what needs to be done. Take the book with you; there's no point in leaving it here."
The two faeries stand together, and slowly fade from sight, leaving the empty world to quietly fade from existence.
Far, far away, on an alien planet called Earth, two of its creatures, like wingless faeries prepare to go on with their lives. These are creatures known as hyoo-muns.
The ultimate spell... the most powerful magic known to living creatures... is cast upon a very special group of people. That spell is the Idea. The Idea is so complex, so detailed, that the two original humans cannot hold it all. The Idea was fragmented into thousands, perhaps millions of pieces and a bit of it is dropped into each hyoo-mun's mind. Slowly two hyoo-muns, known as Adam and Donna, gather together the pieces of the Idea and begin to build...
Over time, more hyoo-muns with bits of the Idea step forward and add their bits to Adam and Donna's pieces. And the world slowly sprouts into being. As the Idea comes together, so does the world, becoming more complex and beautiful as it goes.
"Let's call it...Neopia..."
Slowly the sun rises upon a strange, brand new world. It's a rough world, newly formed and not quite as well defined as other worlds. But the grass there is green and flourishing. And on the ground, a cluster of eggs begins to rock and move about.
One by one they crack open, revealing a new and strange looking creature each time. Abruptly a dark egg breaks open and a small, long legged bird tumbles out with a squawk. Unsteadily, she totters to her feet and looks around curiously. This long legged bird has been dubbed the Lenny.
Slowly she brushes her wings off and shakes the dust from her feathers. Then the sunlight falls upon her feathers and she lifts her beak up to shout in triumph but not in the insane mad scientist way. Her cry is of joy and wonder, on the very edge of song, "I'm alive! I'm alive!"
But the song refuses to be restrained and soon a beautiful sound pours from her as she sings in sheer joy of living.
And from within the other eggs, even more of the baby creatures hear her and struggle free, a fat dragon creature called a Skeith, a tiny horse with a horn and wings called a Uni... and more fantastic creatures. More members of the old world return to populate the planet as the creatures held in the complete Idea are brought to the light....
The ash gray Lenny smiles at your thoughtful look, "Believe it or not, that's the legend as we Lennies know it. It may have changed a bit over the years, but the basics of it are still true.
After you have left, the Lenny rubs a strange, rounded, yellow crystal about her neck, then tsks at her dusty wings and shakes off thoroughly.
"I swear, this old library collects so much dust..." She brushes at her wings until they are a dark color with tiny speckles, like stars in the night sky. Nightwing sneezes, and gently rolls up the scroll, putting it away after carefully cleaning it. "Ah my old friend, the years take their toll don't they?" she murmurs to the scroll, "But I'd say being a Lenny, even as unpopular as we are, is still an honorable thing."
Then softly, she hums an ancient tune of joy and wonder as she wanders out of the Library and into the warm sunlight of her world.
The End...or the Beginning?