Ah, Hello. I'm Revive. Yes, I am rather small, I know. I'm a pygmy demon krawk... care ask anything of it? What d'you mean, "a demon?!" Yes, I'm a demon! It's not like I can change what I am and what I've done! One's past is written in time, and time can't be erased, you know. No, I'm not going to grow into a huge, blood-sucking monster right before your eyes and eat out your entrails... I don't get any bigger than this, and I don't find devouring entrails especially enticing anyways. Just because I'm a demon doesn't mean I'm evil. I've risen, so to speak, from my past... Oooh yes, I used to be evil... more than simple evil, I was nothing short of the co-commander of a whole army of demons! See this mark on my shoulder? I was branded by them; it's the mark of their evil army. They're gone now, though. All but two of their kind were destroyed...
Yes, it seems so long ago, now, when I sat atop Khemran's shoulder instructing the troops what to do. It wasn't so long ago, though, really. I remember the battles so well, but they feel so distant at the same time... Khemran was their leader, and a magnificent leader he was, however evil. His fur was a mix of gold, black, and bloodstains, and his gold eyes, even though one seemed to be fixed in a permanent squint by a forked scar that ran across it, could pierce through your soul if he looked at you the right way, the evilest of all evil zafaras... they were all zafaras, the whole clan of them. Demon zafaras. I was the only one there that wasn't a zafara. They attacked my own clan, a clan of magic-bearing pygmy krawks, when I was small (yes, smaller than this, even), and killed off everyone... except me. They saw something in me, a sort of determination and sensibility that I still posses to this day, and instead of killing me, they took me in and began to train me as one of their own. I had a brilliant mind for strategy, and by the time I was a young adult, barely of age, I had advanced through the ranks to the rank of second in command in their army. I was the military strategist and commander, and I sat atop the shoulder of the very leader himself, Khemran. A brutal job it was... and I did my job well. One after another, we decimated clans and families under the command of Khemran and myself... each one came to the same fate as my own had so long ago, and each time, I would look across the barren war-scape, reeking of death and destruction, and I would smile. I was proud of what we had done, the crucial role I played to make it happen... and I laughed along with Khemran when we spoke of all the disgusting, inferior creatures we had destroyed.
I not only had the most brilliantly strategic mind in the entire army, but I also possessed a power that none of them had ever seen before I came along... a power that none of them could even so much as comprehend. It wasn't a power like anything they had ever encountered before, because I was born with it. Many of the krawks in my old clan possessed special powers, powers that were passed down through family lines, and my power was the ability to, if need be, create horrible illusions... hallucinations inside the minds of the enemies, enough to make them lose their minds! I could destroy entire ranks of warriors simply by making the leader go crazy with a bit of thinking and a wave of my hand, though I could only do this so much before I became exhausted, so I only used my powers in dire situations.
It wasn't long, though, before our all-powerful forces were challenged. We were in Tyrannia at the time, relaxing and celebrating around a cook fire in a cave after we had wrecked havoc on some unknown little village, when they came. They were a massive army, led by, to my immediate amusement, a faerie bruce who called herself General Hessia. She had a small stature (albeit huge compared to myself, but remember that the rest of our army was large enough for me to comfortably fit atop their shoulders), and a dainty look about her, so when she walked into our cave carrying her pretty little feather-topped staff and demanded that we surrender to their noble army or prepare for battle, I had to restrain myself to keep from bursting out laughing aloud! The only thing that looked more pathetic than this faerie-winged bruce who called herself the general of an army was the fuzzy little something-or-other that was buzzing along behind her, flitting around near her shoulder. It was tiny, no bigger than a bumble bee, and covered in pink fur. It had light grey wings that fluttered so fast that they created a sort of buzzing sound, and floating above the tiny creature's head was something too small for me to identify, but it seemed to glow gold, whatever it was.
"Well, answer me!" the bruce said, putting the wing that wasn't on her staff on her lavender-feathered hip and cocking her head. My eyes snapped back to her from looking at her bizarre furry bug, and as I looked into her eyes... they were purple eyes, like mine, and suddenly, for the first time since I had started training with these fearless, senseless demon zafaras, I felt the slightest twinge of doubt. It only lasted for a fraction of a moment, though, and I looked up at Khemran, who looked back down at me. He smirked down at me knowingly, and without another thought back to that twinge of doubt, I nodded my consent.
"We're preparing for battle now, Ma'am," he said, turning back to the bruce, a hint of spite in his rough voice as he said the last word.
"Alright, Sir, we'll see you in the wasteland you created outside this cave," General Hessia said, turning and walking out of our cave, adding on her way out, "and don't you even think of running off."
With that, Khemran set his meat down and stood up from where he had been sitting and stood before us, his menacing, battle-scarred glory lighted dimly by the cook fire and outlined by the midday sun behind him, "We've been challenged, troops. Never before have we been challenged... this army that challenges us must be either very powerful... or very stupid. I suspect the latter, but nevertheless, prepare for battle!" at the last word, he threw a ragged fist into the air and then stooped down to scoop me and my little horn-topped staff up onto his shoulder, "Prepare to march on the enemy... NOW!" and with that, without a second thought, we charged the enemy, and what a grave mistake that had been. We didn't know what sort of an army they had or how they were arranged. We didn't even know who they were, except that they were lead by a little bruce with a fuzzy pink bug and feathery staff...but the second we charged into battle I knew we had underestimated... and there was no turning back.
Their army was massive. It consisted of Neopets from all corners of Neopia, many of them runaway survivors from clans we had destroyed, others simply soldiers that had volunteered to help destroy us, but they all had one thing in mind... to create peace by destroying us! Our army, though, regardless of our grave underestimation of their army, was a force to be reckoned with. We fought with everything we had, with Khemran and myself shouting orders from above, standing atop the cave we had just moments before been eating and laughing in. Khemran used his sword, a double-edged sword that seemed to be so encrusted with dried blood that it could no longer be cleaned, to ward off any enemies that tried to invade our command-post, taking them out, no matter how many, with a quick swing or two of his sword.
The battle lasted well into the night, and judging by the moon, it was near midnight when General Hessia came at us, a huge white glow forming around the end of her staff as she flew at us from above. Khemran couldn't fly! We were done for if we didn't think of something to counter her attack... and fast! Desperately, without thinking before I attacked, I conjured up the most massive illusion I could and launched it straight at Hessia's mind. The last thing I remember from that night was a giant explosion of white light and my head hitting the ground.
I don't know quite how long it was before I woke up, but it was sometime around mid morning when I came to. I opened my eyes and stared up at the sky for a moment. It was an odd color of orange, characteristic of the dusty, fiery lands of Tyrannia, and I couldn't hear anything except a couple birds singing off in the distance somewhere. Everything seemed still. Then, in the corner of my vision, I caught a glimpse of an airax circling down from the sky, and I sat up to look around, but when I did, the sight that met my eyes was appalling. Heaps of bloodstained fur and flesh seemed to litter the barren valley as far as I could see, broken weapons and armor lay abandoned, and the caws and growls of scavengers echoed through the valley periodically as if it was the inside of a huge, hollow drum, and each disgusting cry was a hand beating down on it. My eyes widened, and I walked slowly to the edge of the overhang I was on to get a better look... Everything was dead. Everyone was dead. The entire battleground was dead. There's no other word to adequately describe what it was... it was simply dead. Yet somehow it seemed strangely peaceful. I stood there at the edge of the cliff, paralyzed... hypnotized by the sight for the longest time, unable to blink, unable to move, until I heard a faint buzzing sound, like a tiny pulse of life in the dead valley.
I turned towards the sound, my trance broken, and to my surprise, I was face to face with the tiny little bug that followed behind General Hessia... or had followed behind her, at least. It was tiny, even compared to me. It was small enough to fit in my hand... The tiny pink creature was clutching, as best it could, a little purple feather that was nearly as big as the little bug itself. I started to shake, my vision blurring with something unfamiliar filling my eyes, as I reached out a quivering hand and gently plucked the little creature out of the air. It... He made a weak, squeaky buzzing sound as soon as he touched my hand. The little fellow collapsed into my hand, a limp pile of fluff and I pulled him closer to my face, peering at the creature as his tiny body vibrated so very slightly every time he breathed.
"That's all that's left..." I whispered, "All that's left of your friend," I nudged the feather with a claw, "We're the only ones left. We're on our own."
Was I crazy? I was talking to a furry pink bug. I had to be crazy, that made no sense... Sage. That was his name, the bug's name was Sage. How in Neopia did I know that? I don't know, but that was his name. "You're Sage..." I said, mostly to confirm out loud what I had been thinking, "Your name's Sage."
To my surprise, as soon as I said his name, the little thing suddenly became alert and stared up at me with two sad green eyes. I small buzzing sound came from somewhere within all the fuzz.
I couldn't help but smile a little, "I guess you and I are all each other have now, huh?"
Sage buzzed, almost happily, and his tiny, film-thin grey wings seemed to droop less.
I took my hand and gently set the little creature atop my shoulder, in just the place I had rode on Khemran's shoulder so many times before, and I stood up straight. It suddenly occurred to me that I was free, now. The ones who had captured me so long ago were all dead, now. I was on my own. I could do what I wanted, and what I wanted now wasn't anything I could have possibly imagined wanted even so much as a day before. What I wanted now was to take care of my new friend and somehow redeem myself after all the things I had done...
"Come on, let's go Sage," I said, walking over to where I had been laying and picked up my staff (which was, remarkably, still intact), "I'm off to go make something of myself, are you coming with me?"
"Buuuuzzuzzuzzu!" the little bug vibrated his wings and lifted off my shoulder, darting around my head and shoulders just as he had done with Hessia, never straying far from me. I smiled... obviously his answer was yes.
And so we began the most important journey I would ever take. Of course, I'd been many places with the Dark Ones, but this journey was different. This time, my quest had a meaning other than destruction. Little did I know, though, as I walked out of that barren deathland with my staff in one hand and a a furry little bug at my side, what this journey really meant, because I didn't see the two eerie golden eyes peering out of the cave at me as I left, one fixed in a permanent squint by a forked scar that ran across it...
It wasn't long before I found myself climbing up the icy slopes of Terror Mountain. It was growing dark, and I decided to find a cave of some sort to stay in for the night so I wouldn't be stranded out in the dark. Besides, I was getting tired. Even Sage was getting tired, as he had long since ceased buzzing along behind me and was now resting on my head, buried as best he could in my hair. I suppose it was cozy for him up there, since I'm sure the cold air was dowsing his energy as much as mine. If I hadn't been her already a few times on expeditions with the Dark Ones, I would've been astonished at how cold it could be here, even in the dead of summer as it was now. There was hardly any snow, though, much to my relief, since at my size, even a few inches of snow would be enough to slow me down considerably, not to mention freeze me solid, being cold-blooded and all.
Finally, I found a little cave, just big enough for me, Sage, and a fire to fit comfortably in. I hiked up to it and peered in to make sure it wasn't already occupied, surmised that it wasn't, and eagerly climbed in and sat down on the ground shivering, "Here we are, Sage. This's were we'll be staying for the night," I said, my teeth chattering. The cave was warmer than it was outside, but now that I wasn't hiking, the coldness suddenly seemed to all catch up to me, "Brrr... I'm gonna build a fire," I said, a wisp of my own visible breath puffing from my mouth as I stood up and picked my staff back up from where I had set it on the ground of the cave. Sage flittered off my head as I stood up, and seemed to peer curiously over my shoulder as I scratched a symbol of sorts into the thin ice on the floor of the cave with the pointed, bronze-tipped end of my staff. It was dark magic, but I couldn't think of any other way to build a fire in an icy cave on Terror Mountain when the sun was already setting and there were no trees in sight... When I lifted the tip of my staff up, a fire burst up where the symbol had been, and I felt Sage dart behind my back with an alarmed buzz. I turned and scooped him from the air with both my hands and sat down cross-legged before the fire, holding the little creature in my hands and letting out a deep breath, not quite a sigh, as my body began to warm up almost instantly.
"Buzzzuuzzuu!" Sage buzzed, almost scolding.
"Ah, I'm sorry Sage," I said softly, "I guess I shouldn't do that now, eh?"
"Bzzzzz!" he replied sharply.
"Alright, alright..." I muttered, and began looking around the little cave we were in, now that I was warm enough to think straight, "It's a nice cave, don't you think? I think maybe we should stay here a few days. I need some time to think before we go too far."
Sage hovered up to my shoulder and made a small buzzing sound that I inferred to be an agreement.
"I'm getting tired..." I murmured, more to myself than Sage, and shoved my staff off to the far back corner of the cave before laying down a little ways off from my magic-built fire and curling up to go to sleep. Just before I drifted off, I felt Sage's tiny body land on top of me and make himself comfortable.
The next day was, for the most part, altogether uninteresting. I had pulled out a map that had been stashed in one of the horns on my staff (which were hollow and removable, and thus perfect storage spaces for coins, maps, and other such things), and Sage and I spent most of the morning chewing on ice and looking at the map trying to decide where we should head next. There was no food whatsoever here, so far as I could figure. I was beginning to wonder how some pets could actually live up here. We'd have to go soon, or we'd starve, but for now, I was here to do a bit of soul-searching, so I put away the map after a while and leaned back against the wall of the cave, "Hey Sage?"
The little pink bug flitted over to me and buzzed curiously, so I continued, "What do you think we should do? I mean, here we are, all that's left of either of our clans, and we're just sitting here in a cave doing nothing and eating ice. There has to be something out there better than this. I know someone out there needs us for something... I just know it... Why else would we have survived like that? There's got to be something huge planned for the two of us, I know it," I sighed, "I just don't know what it is."
"Buuurzzuu..." Sage buzzed vaguely, and alighted on my knee, appearing to be in deep thought.
I sighed again, "You don't know either, huh?"
Nothing of any notable interest happened, in fact, until that evening just after sunset. I had just coaxed our dying fire back to life when I thought I glimpsed something that looked almost... gold, outside. I blinked, and it was gone, so I forced it out of my mind with the assumption that it must have just been a couple last traced of the sunset or the newly revived fire reflecting off the ice. Something at the back of my mind told me differently, though, and after a while, I decided to consult the only one I could on the matter...
"Sage?" I asked, turning my head to see the little bug hovering around my shoulder more clearly, "Did you see something... odd, earlier? Something outside?"
"Bzzzu?" he flitted in to my line of vision and buzzed inquisitively. Obviously he hadn't seen anything.
"I guess It really was just the fire playing tricks on my eyes, then," I said, though I didn't feel especially reassured. I absently started scratching something in the ice on the ground with a pebble.
"Buurrruzu?" Sage flitted down and watched the pebble as it etched into the ice, creating a design so abstract that even I didn't know what it was. When I lifted the pebble from the ground, though, I thought I caught another flash of gold, though, along the lines I'd just scratched into the ice. This time, though, it seemed clearer, and I couldn't simply pass that off in my mind as the fire reflecting oddly. I dropped the pebble and backed away from the patch of ice I had been scratching.
"Sage, didn't you see that?" I asked, alarmed, as the little bug seemed more alarmed by my reaction than what the ice had just done.
"Bzzuuzuu??" he buzzed, bewildered, and I looked between him and the now harmless looking scratched ice, beginning to shiver.
"S-sage... I think... I don't know... but I think someone's after us," I stuttered, "Sage, we have to get out of here. I don't know what it is or who it is or how I even know..." my voice weakened to a near whisper as a spoke, "But I know it's not safe here," I scooped my little companion out of the air and set him on my shoulder before picking up my staff, kicking a mix of ice and dirt onto the fire, and walking out of the cave. I was used to this, traveling all over and never really staying in a place long enough to call it home, but something felt different about it now. I gave the little cave a little pat as if to thank it for its shelter, and then walked out into the dark, windy night with Sage clinging to my shoulder for dear life, so as not to blow away in the icy winds that seemed to be blowing particularly hard tonight.
"I know of a harbor near the base of the mountain," I kept saying in an unsuccessful attempt at reassuring myself and Sage, "We should be there by early morning, then we can decide where to go from there..."
It was around 5 in the morning by the time we reached the harbor, and the icy wind had died down to a cool, salty breeze. Sage and I entered the harbor unnoticed, and before anyone did notice us, I hid behind some boxes and peered out at the rough wooden arrival and departure schedule, scanning it with my eyes until… There! It wouldn't be long before a cargo ship from the Lost Desert would be coming. I had decided on the freezing, windy trek down here that our next stop would be the Lost Desert. It was a good place to hide for now, being so lowly populated, and I needed supplies more than anything right now, which I could easily bargain for in the market area there. Now all I needed to do was find the cargo that would be going on that ship so I could effectively stow away…
I slipped quickly out from behind the pile of boxes and dashed as quietly as I could over to some more boxes and crates a few feet over. I checked the water-warped, salt-encrusted tag hanging from one of the boxes, read "ship to Meridell," and then moved on, in the same way, to the next stack over, jogging over silently, checking the tag, and running off to the next stack to check it. Before long, I had found the crates that were to be shipped to the Lost Desert, and had managed to pry an exceptionally loose lid off of one to peer in. It was full of soft furs of some sort, I dared not wonder what they came from, and at the moment, I was very grateful that I had found such a comfortable place to stow away, though I hadn't the slightest clue why the Lost Desert wanted furs. I climbed right in, followed by Sage, and I covered the two of us in on of the furs to hide us better and keep us warm.
We had obviously gotten into our crate just in time, because only a few minutes later, we heard a grunt as our hiding place was lifted off the ground and carried anything but gently to what I hoped was the ship to the Lost Desert, where our crate was not set down, but slammed down as if the sailor carrying it had dropped it instead of leaning down to set it on the floor. Moments later, another box was slammed down on top of ours in a similar manner… I was starting to wish I had stowed away in a box labeled "Caution: Handle with Care!"
It was a few hours before we even set out to sea, and regardless of how warm the furs were, the crate was anything but comfortable. After the first hour or so, though, I managed to fall asleep curled up as comfortably as possible inside the crate. I was dead tired after walking down a mountain instead of sleeping the night before…
Around what I assumed to be about 10 in the morning, a deafening honking noise and the rumbling of the boat beginning to move awoke me abruptly and unpleasantly. I blinked blearily, forgetting where I was for a moment, and then I remembered… I was hiding in a cramped crate full of itchy furs on a cargo ship headed for the Lost Desert so I could bide time before getting attacked by whatever or whoever was after me. I almost let out a groan right then and there, but I caught myself and remembered we didn't want to be heard. Instead, I decided to try and scope out my surroundings by peering out one of the little slots in the side of the crate I was in. Outside the crate was a group of sailors, most of them sitting around a card table, setting up a game of Kacheekers and talking with each other. We were out of the harbor, now, so the sailors were relaxing.
"I can't wait to get outta here," one sailor, a muscular looking scorchio, said in a deep voice, "I hate cold weather!"
"Well, it's a good thing we're going to the Lost Desert next, then, eh?" replied the shoyru beside him. I let out a sigh of relief… at least we were on the right ship.
"Easy fur you ta say!" snapped a small acara with ragged fur, a peg-leg, and various scars, on of which ran right across his nose, "I hate the Lost Desert!"
"Ah, shuddup Gimble, you hate everything!" a tall, rough-looking aisha wearing a fur cape around his shoulder whapped the whiney acara upside the head with a chunk of what appeared to be driftwood. The aisha appeared to be of higher rank than the rest of the sailors there.
"Owwww! Wha'd ya do that fur?" groaned the acara, Gimble, as he rubbed his head. He had a higher pitched voice than the rest, perfect for whining.
"'Cause yer stupid!" the burly scorchio re-entered the conversation sounding as unintelligent as he had before.
"I am not!" complained Gimble, looking insulted.
The shoyru, seeming to be the most rational one in the group, stepped in, "No, you're not stupid, just incredibly whiney. Come on; let's play Kacheekers instead of arguing about climates and Gimble's whining!"
Just about the time I decided their conversation was of no use to me and was about to stop listening and go back to sleep, I heard a low chuckle coming from beside the crate I was in. I was startled, and turned around to peer out the other side, out of which I saw gray fur and a reddish brown vest of some sort. I pressed my nose and hands harder against the side, trying to get a clearer look at whoever was outside my crate, but when I did, the side of the crate came clear off and I came tumbling out practically into the lap of whoever was out there! It was a lupe, a thin, scruffy, medium height pirate lupe who appeared, despite the massive size difference, to be around the same age as me: a young adult. I froze, staring up at him. The only sound I could hear for a moment was the buzzing of Sage alighting back down on my shoulder after being knocked flying by the fall. Every other sound was temporarily blocked from my mind… but then everything rushed back louder than ever when the lupe began to speak, "Ah, so finally the stowaway shows his face," the lupe smiled down at me, a sincere smile, so far as I could judge, "I saw your tail poking out earlier, and I was wondering what could possibly be small enough to hide in that crate that had a tail like that. Now I know."
"I…" I was lost for words.
The lupe put the crate back together and picked me up, sneaking off away from where to other sailors were (who were too busy bickering to notice anything had happened anyways). Once we were away from everyone else in a cabin that I presumed belonged to him, though the fact that there were more beds here unnerved me a bit, he resumed speaking, "My name's Lukos. I'm new to the ship, not very high ranked, but I love it here. I came with Gimble –I assume you saw Gimble? Short scruffy acara? Never stops complaining?"
I nodded, so he continued, "Anyways, don't worry, I won't turn you in or anything… You can stay in here with me an' Gimble until we get where we're going, if you like. Believe me, you don't wanna stay in a crate of furs for 3 days, especially not once we get into warmer waters. What's your name, by the way? And the little pink fella that follows you around?"
"I'm Revive," I heard myself say over the pounding of my heart, "and this is Sage."
"Alrighty then," Lukos said, then pointed to a laundry hamper beside the cot he was sitting on, which was considerably bigger than the crate I'd snuck on in, "and that is your bed."
"You mean… I can…" I sputtered, quietly so no one outside might hear me, "Thank you!"
"'Course you can," Lukos smiled, standing up from his cot as I crawled into the laundry hamper, followed as always by Sage, "I know it's no fun to get in trouble, or to hide in cramped spaces… me an' Gimble used to be pirates, y'know," he winked, and went to the door. Looking back at me one more time, he warned us, "If anyone comes in besides me or Gimble, which is doubtful, but if they do, hide under those clothes, ok?" ad with that, Lukos opened the door and was gone, leaving me to sit pondering in the laundry hamper, and believe me, after that encounter, I had a lot to ponder. Unfortunately, since we were technically still hiding, I didn't want to risk talking aloud to Sage like I normally did.
'He's like me,' I thought to myself, 'Lukos is just like me. He used to be evil, and Gimble too, but now they've found where they really should be. I haven't found that yet, though…' I almost envied them, but I knew better. I knew I still had to search, so I simply curled up in the laundry hamper that had been so kindly given to me as a bed, pulled a dirty shirt fully over myself, and went to sleep. That's what I'd spend most of the rest of that three-day sail to the Lost Desert: Ponder and sleep. It's about all I could do without being discovered.