My legs were working as fast as wheels as I ran from the monster. Occasionally, I would shoot a beam of light behind me towards the monster, and sometimes it would seem to slow him down for a second, but not for long.
I had just escaped the terror that was the Techo Caves. Winding mazes and horrific monsters attacked me from within, but I had eventually escaped, even though I never did see the mysterious mountain ruins among the Techo Mountains. I still pondered this as I decided to spring on to all fours and begin running away when I had come face-to-face with a monstrous Chia.
Across the great plateau and over some small foothills I ran, and then through a small forest before I reached the southern coast, where it was so cold that it had formed a small tundra.
'Ice!' I had seen it on Terror Mountain, when I was in the present, but I couldn't even imagine seeing it here. I slipped and slid on it, until I came right to the edge. I stuck out my claws and stuck on, and I never fell into the water.
I sighed in relief, partly because the run through the forest had shaked off the Chia, partly because I didn't fall in the ocean. I was just about to gulp down a healing potion when, suddenly, something worse happened: a giant chia, which looked a lot like the storm giant chia, lumbered towards me from the other side of the tundra.
When I saw the frost giant chia, I choked on the healing liquid. It crashed towards me, stomping its giant feet. When it was about to attack me, there was a large CRACK! noise coming from the ice. I looked down to see that the tundra was starting to break. The ice was breaking, and I was floating away!
Alarmed, I was about to leap back to the main land when I still had the chance, but the frost beast stopped me; I knew that I would be killed if I tried to jump back. I had no choice but to remain there, on that little piece of ice, as it floated to who-knows-where.
I awoke, surprised. I only remembered that night had begun to fallen when I dozed off to sleep- on a frozen piece of water! Astonished, I sprang up, blinking against the morning sun. Mountains had started to appear in the horizon, and I was sure that those were the Techo Mountains. In minutes, I was at the shore, in a small, ruined room covered with ice!
'What could have layered this entire room with ice?' I wondered aloud, stepping off the iceberg and on to the mainland. As soon as I did, there was a large rumbling and the ceiling shaked. Icicles fell and cracked on the ground as a huge blumaroo, seemingly made out of ice, appeared out of basically no where. A guardian- guardian of ice! Guardian of ice... magic!
In its massive paw was an enormous staff, with a crystalline orb at the top. This was a very powerful staff of ice magic, and most probably held the source of the entire boss's power. I knew that I had to either defeat the monster or get that staff in order to pass through his icy wrath.
I whipped out my Life Staff and shot a spell at it. WHAM! It appeared to hit its target, but the Ice Guardian just shaked it off and sent a freezing attack at me. I got out of its way just in time, even though my tail received the biggest chill ever.
I went from behind and shot multiple beams of magic at its back. It seemed to take a lot of magic just to make a small crack in the ice. When I finally managed to actually damage it, the beast turned around to strike again, and I began running. While I was trying to escape for my own defense, I tripped over something on the ground.
Most Neopets would think that fallen on the ground is a bad and embarrassing thing to do, but not this time. A huge ray of magic had erupted from the Staff, and by falling, the attack missed. I looked back to see what I had slipped on, and found a small, yellowing piece of paper. I picked it up, and began to read:
'One crack in the back, one in the tail, one in the paw, one in the front, one at the head, in that order and the guardian shall be dead.'
It was the most unusual sentence that I had ever read, and I simply looked at it for a moment before coming back to my senses. I think that it had meant that in order to defeat the icy monster, I had to create one crack in its back, one in the tail, one in the paw, one at the front, and one in the head, in that order. It already had one on its back, and now I had to aim for its tail.
Still on the ground, I crawled silently away, so that I was facing the back. I concentrated on one special, powerful move, and focused it towards the tail. A huge beam of bright, eliminating light erupted from my Life Staff, and hit the tip of its tail. Another crack had appeared, and the guardian spun around, ready to strike. By the time it was fully turned, I was once again behind it, and focusing another attack at the back of the paw clutching the staff.
Before it knew anything, another crack had appeared on its body. Enraged, it spun around, and this time I knew I had to face the music. Its front had already been somewhat damaged by me in the beginning, if you remember, and now it was just about to get damaged again. This time, instead of a full out attack, small spikes of magic erupted from its staff. I dodged them, as I sent stronger beams of Life magic towards the monster, all hitting the same place.
BAM! BAM! BAM! went my attacks and its, and finally, I had managed to dent a crack in its strong frontal ice. Small droplets of water had began dripping out of its wounds, as I went for the final attack, going behind it once again to hit its head. As the attack was firing, however, the guardian of ice magic turned around, extremely fast, and very luckily for me, the beam of light hit its face, straight on. Steam started to erupt from the ice that was all around me, and then a huge explosion seemed to take place from where the guardian was. I stepped back, realizing that in all of that twisting and turning, I had come to the exit/entrance of the room. Quickly, I dived behind a wall in a great hallway, and only heard a loud BOOM! coming from the guardian of ice magic's room.
A large cloud of steam smoked from the entrance, and then all was silent. Blowing away all of the steam, I stepped back inside to see what had happened. The guardian had, well, melted, along with its room. The ice had completely disappeared, and flowing into the ocean, sinking my iceberg! Now I couldn't even get out of here that way, even if I wanted to.
I was about to leave when I saw the guardian's staff hovering over a small piece of ice, which was all that was left of the boss. I ran up to it, and grabbed a hold of it. It felt icy cold, and glowed blue for a second before it was completely mine. Since it was a stronger staff, I was going to use it at the time- at least, until I found the guardian of life magic.
I stepped back into the hall, taking in all the features. Four hallways ran to four other rooms. It was very predictable that the rest of the guardians were probably inside them. The ruin was quiet. Too quiet...
A desert emerged in my view as I stepped inside the nearest room. I had barely taken two steps inside when a huge wall of fire erupted over the entrance. Realizing this, I quickly ran from the doorway as fast as I could, without turning back. I wanted to face the guardian of fire magic as fast as possible.
I dashed to the very end of the room, to my doom. I turned around, afraid to see what I would see, but I saw it anyhow: a grarrl, which seemed to be made out of fire. I picked up my ice staff, knowing that it was useless since ice was weak against fire, and shot beams of light at it. Whenever it came even close to the guardian of fire magic, my attack just melted into water. Then, the monster would launch an attack of its own.
It melted into water when I tried to strike it... I thought of some sort of strategy to defeat the monster somehow. What am I to do? What is... water! Water and ice!
An idea sprang up in my head. I fired strong, freezing attacks towards the ceiling, hoping that it would work. This attracted the fire guardian to fire at those spots, and of course, the ice melted into- water! The guardian was not exactly the smartest one, either, because it kept standing under the water. After many attacks of ice, it finally began to steam, and before I could get away, it erupted into steam.
The desert and the mountains inside began to tumble and fade away, and everything was gone. All there was was a damaged stone ruin, and a small pile of sand with a fiery red staff hovering above it. I quickly reached out and grabbed the Firedrop Staff. It felt warm in my clutch, as if I was putting my paw over a soothing fire. I quickly replaced the Iceheart Staff with the new one, and set out from the room.
Night had fallen when I left the seventh cave once more. It took the rest of the morning and half the afternoon to defeat the remaining three guardians. I had gained experience and three new staffs. The one that I had preferred using was the Moonstone Staff for Life Magic, which glowed depending on the phase of the moon.
I silently crept around the Plateau, expecting monsters of all sorts to lash out at me from the shadows of a nearby tree and tear me to pieces, but nothing came. I didn't know how to get to the lost city of Kal Panning, which was where Gali Yoj had sent me to go. Hopelessly lost, to be wandering the world aimlessly... I felt like the Percival, the Grail Knight.
At last, at the crack of dawn, I saw a small lake. In the middle of the lake was what appeared to be a great ruin. It was as sad to look at as a fallen warrior, as mysterious as the fog, and as dangerous as a deranged, power-hungry Eyrie. All the senses in my body told me to turn back out of fear, but I knew I had to continue anyways. Slowly, I walked across a small strip of land which leads to the island, and silently as it was possible, I entered the destroyed city which was once the great city of Kal Panning.
The undead were unbearable. Hordes of them lashed out at me like the waves of the ocean. The only difference was that the waves of the ocean went back into the ocean. The undead just kept on coming and coming and coming, as if they were sent there to fight me for some unseen purpose. I had used up a large amount of my healing potions when I finally came to what seemed to be the city's center. The undead seemed to have stopped interrogating me when I finally managed to arrive. I found out why when I stepped in a small room that was the Heart of Kal Panning.
'Hello?' I asked, silently as you may please. Suddenly, the bones of the dead rose from the ground and covered all the entrances and exits of the small room. A great twister of teal began to surround me, trapping me right in the center of the typhoon. A gust of wind came from a hole in the ceiling. It formed to become a creature which appeared to be in Aisha. It was dressed in tattered clothing, had fangs, and its eyes were red.
'Are- are you Faelinn?' I asked, meekly. The creature merely made a hissing sound, and lunged to attack at me. I quickly dodged it, and shot an attack at it from my Moonstone Staff. It seemed to be impervious to all my spells, as it continued thrashing towards me. The bones were too strong to break, and every time I tried to destroy the barricades the twister would send me hurtling back. I was trapped in the Heart, and I covered my eyes with my arm, preparing to die.
However, when I lifted up my arm, the light of the Keledrian Medallion shone in Faelinn's face. I removed my arm from my face and looked up at the horrific leader, remembering the words of Gali Yoj. Slowly, I removed the entire Keledrian Medallion, and reflected its light towards the Aisha.
Slowly, she began to fall to the ground. There was a great rumbling, and I thought that the city was slowly caving in on itself. But, after a few seconds, I realized that some sort of magic was doing the exact opposite of my thoughts: The city was repairing itself!
Gusts of wind blew sand from blocking certain passages; walls were fixed; the undead slowly fell back into their graves, finally put to peace. Their leader, Faelinn, was slowly having the strength drained from her body. She glowed golden for one split second; her hair spreading out as she screamed, 'SERVATIS A PERECULUM! SERVATIS A MALEFICUM!'.
Then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped. I noticed a couple of healing potions and a small key lying next to the spot where Faelinn had stood only moments before. Quickly, I stored them away, and then nervously walked towards the fallen figure of Faelinn, which had become a ghost. Slowly, I asked her, 'Faelinn?'
The ghost looked up at me, as if it were just noticing that I was there. 'Yes... I am Faelinn... the ruler of Kal Panning.' When she said this, she looked sadly around her city. 'Never mind... I mean the ex-ruler. I do not deserve to live for the city!'
She hissed, as if in pain. Then, she looked at me again. 'However, fate has told me to inform you of all you need to know about the matter... I am aware of what is happening in the land... all the darkness; the creatures rendering out against the people...' She sighed, shaking her head. 'It's all so horrible... and I know the reason. Listen to my story, I will tell you.'
'Long, long ago, there were twelve great beings in the world of Neopia. They are the Circle of Twelve, existing in the time of the Great Empire. The Circle ruled the land for many years, until bad things began to happen, such as the betrayal of Xantan, the breaking of the schism, and the destruction of Kal Panning. The worst thing to happen was when they began to notice that Jahbal, one of the members, began to get a bit power hungry. They soon realized that he was, in fact, extremely desperate for strength and would do almost anything to get it. They managed to lock him up in a dreadful place called the Two Rings, which is a small mountain range that is shaped like, well, two rings. Many dreadful monsters roam the area around there, and everyone who has gone in has never come out- well, it's not like you can come out, anyhow. In order to prevent anything from entering or leaving, a barrier was cast like a dome around the mountains. After many centuries, when the time of the Great Empire had ended, Jahbal had gathered enough strength so that he could break through the barrier and unleash his evil into the outside world. Many monsters slowly began emerging, and the once peaceful land of Neopia was now a barren of battle. If you would like to try and fight him, the only way to get into the Two Rings is through a small door in a small cave to the south. The door was locked, and the key ended up in my possession. It is now yours, to be used whenever you wish, or if you even want to use it at all. I will now leave, for I can finally be put to sleep. Good luck- the fate of Neopia depends on it.'
As if Faelinn was a drop of water, the Ghost slowly dropped to the ground and disappeared, just as suddenly as she came. Looking back, I saw the exit of Kal Panning, wondering slowly to myself- could there really be such a creature in existence? I knew that the only way to find out was to go and look for myself. As silently as I could, I crept out of the city as the sun began its slow rise in the sky for another day, and yet another quest in the world of Ancient Neopia.