The gates must have been fully transparent, because when the Aishas looked up at it, they saw nothing. The entrance to the fabled City of the Wind seemed impenetrable, and since they could barely see them, it was impossible to climb.
'And to think, it was only twelve hours ago when we were just regular Neopets walking down Palamor Street,' commented the Orange Aisha to the other two.
'And only three hours ago we began to run for our lives,' said the Purple Aisha to the other two.
And all they said was true. The three Aishas were Lukinonia, Panika and Granion, and they were on a very dangerous quest to piece together the fabled Gem of Fyora so that peace and harmony could come back to the Cities of the Sky. So far, they had survived the Pathway of Light and the Shapeshifter of Darkness, and now they were at the front gates of the City of the Wind, where the first piece of the broken Gemstone was said to reside.
'Hellloo?' said Granion, knocking on the invisible gates. 'We come in peace, unless you don't!'
No one answered.
'Well, this stinks,' said Granion, slumping down. 'What do we do now?'
'Here, I'll try,' said Panika slowly. She stepped up and knocked on the gates three times.
A shimmer appeared, and suddenly the Purple Aisha could see the gates, which looked like the same kind of material they were standing on: wind blowing so hard it seemed like it was solid.
'Panika! Granion!' she screamed, twisting around. 'I can see them! I can see the gates!'
But before she heard a reply, a gust of wind began to pick up Panika! It blew her straight into the city before she could even make a sound.
She had entered the city and had seen the gates, but her clueless friends were staring wide-eyed at the gates that, with a loud creaking sound, snapped shut.
Panika rubbed her eyes, which seemed to be glued shut, as she slowly got up. She was a bit dazed, and her bed seemed to feel a bit harder than usual. She thought that she was just tired, and that it probably didn't have anything to do with something that related to surprising or unusual.
And boy did she think wrong when she opened her eyes.
The Purple Aisha expected to see her bedroom wall, which was covered with Usukicon Y6 posters. However, she saw a beautiful street that was tiled with a wind-like design, and glamorous buildings that seemed whispered as if they were wind going through an autumn forest. The trees were even more luscious than the ones in Neopia; they were fully covered with beautiful, golden leaves that never fell off, even in the blowing breeze. Little animals were scurrying about, minding their own business. Two young Baby Neopets sat on the small patch of grassy lawn outside the nearest building.
Panika loved all things Baby, and she thought that these Neopets were just adorable! She ran up to them, and managed to make out that they were the two cutest Baby Lupe and Kougra she had ever seen.
'Hello there!' said Panika in a sweet voice. She had been a babysitter once, but that is a tale that was never repeated and eventually lost in time.
The babies looked up at her curiously. They were playing with a large Blue Bouncy Ball that, if it were heavier, could probably squash them flat.
The Baby Kougra cooed quietly and threw the ball towards the Lupe. The Lupe jumped (or tried to) but it was too small; the ball flew right over its head and on to the street. The two young Neopets looked at each other for a moment and began to cry loudly.
'There there now, don't cry!' said Panika soothingly. 'I'll get your ball for you!'
The Aisha ran up to the baby's ball and picked it up. She turned around to give it back to them, but instead a terrible sight met her eyes.
The lawn was withered; the street just nearby was a deathly black and the tiles were chipped and cracked; but the most horrifying thing was the Babies.
Well, that's what they were supposed to be. Instead of cute Neopets she found very ugly and strange Mutant Neopet Babies sitting on the dying (or dead), charcoal black- was that once grass?
Now I like Mutants sometimes, but these were the most NAUSEATING things imaginable.
The Kougra was completely covered in slime; its eyes like small rubies and its mouth a gaping hole. The only way you could tell that it was any normal colour at all was the occasional patch of regular skin, which completely matched the strange description of the Mutant Kougra.
Its companion, the hideously mutated Lupe, seemed to be withering away before them. Its skin appeared to be chopped and rather bumpy, and the only way you could tell that it was Mutant (or even a Lupe at all) was its bushy tail which was constantly wagging and the head, which was hidden with a Lupe skull. Its yellow eyes were slits, and the red pupil glowed like the eyes of a vicious monster in an extremely dark cave.
Panika's vision only lasted for two seconds. She blinked her eyes and everything was back to normal, including the babies. Fearfully, she threw down the ball very roughly at the Kougra, and without looking she ran down the street.
'Panika?' shouted Granion, his voice echoing throughout the sky. 'Panika, are you there?'
'No sign of her,' said Luki, coming back from the trapdoor that led back to the Pathway of Light.
'Where has she gone?' wondered Granion aloud. 'It isn't like her to disappear without a trace. She must have left behind something!
'Oh she did, alright,' said Luki, looking past her friend.
Luki walked over to the gates and picked up a half-used bottle of Cloud Usul Perfume.
'How can this be?' thought Panika fiercely. 'Those babies were so cute... how could they become so ugly like that?'
She was walking down the street at a very high speed, unaware of her friend's desperate search for her at the gates.
She shook her head to clear those ugly thoughts. It must have all just been a... hallucation. Yeah, that's right, a hallu-
'Young Aisha! Watch we're you're going!'
Panika was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't even notice the Blue Robed figure that had just come out of the large Town Hall and had walked right into him.
'What are you doing out on the streets right now?' he demanded. He looked like a Kyrii, but you couldn't really tell since he was almost completely covered with his sparkling blue robe. 'Everyone must report to the Great Hall for lunch! No one is allowed to be roaming the streets except the Win Spellas!'
The Aisha could only stammer. She had walked in two hours ago, and lunch was regularly at noon. And what were Wind Spellas?
The blue-robed Kyrii looked at her closely. He examined her with his golden-blue eyes, which was the only thing that could be seen in the mysterious darkness of the hood he was wearing over his head. Then he gasped.
'You are not one with the city!' he exclaimed, rather all of a sudden. 'You are an outsider! But how did you pass the gates?'
Panika was clueless as this blue-robed figure, who must be a Win Spellas since he was roaming the streets during lunchtime. She guessed that the Win Spellas must have been something like the council here, but she didn't have much of a clue.
'I- I just pushed the gates and then a huge wind picked up and- and-' she didn't really know much after that.
'Only the residents of the City of the Wind may push the gates and enter!' declared the Win Spellas. 'I don't know how you got here, but I cannot let you keep roaming our sacred streets!'
He grabbed the startled Aisha by the wrist and began pulling her towards the building next to Town Hall.
Luki bent and picked up the perfume.
'This is all that's left of her,' said Luki, holding back tears. 'I cannot live when there is a remainder of her just lying here!'
With incredible and unusual force she threw the Perfume over the invisible gates. She expected it to hit them and fall back down, but instead it went all the way over and landed with a small 'clink' somewhere on the street behind the gates. This was not known to them, but in fact it fell through a loose street-tile and into a nice soft, dirt hole.
'Well, that was a bit stupid of you,' said Granion as his friend burst into tears. 'But I'm sure she'll come back eventually...'
'She's gone, isn't she?' sobbed Luki. 'First mother and now her! Who's next? You?'
'Well, that's the bright way of looking at it,' replied Granion. 'For now, let's just keep our hopes up.'
'Well, I hope you're right,' said Luki, looking down at the rushing wind that was their ground. 'I hope you're right...'
Meanwhile, Panika was trying very hard to keep her chin up. The Win Spellas that was pulling her to lunch was digging deep into her wrist and it began to get REALLY painful.
They entered a large building. Inside was a small room with two great double doors with candles burning on brackets around them. A great red carpet flowing from it and reached all the way towards the exit, unwrinkled and fit the entrance of a king. There were two smaller doors on each side, though the struggling Aisha could only glance at them for less than a second. Five paintings of Neopets that were similar to the Kyrii that was dragging her right now looked humbly at them. Panika could just make out a male Grarrl and Kougra, and a female Yurble and Kacheek. The Kyrii that was holding her now was at the very top of all the paintings. He appeared to be a higher rank than the other five of his fellow council members.
The Win Spellas pulled Panika through the great double doors into a wondrous hall. Many people were dining and laughing at the hundreds of tables. There were multiple dishes that were extremely mouth-watering: mashed potatoes as golden as gold coins; succulent roast chickens that made the mind wander if you took just one sniff of it; stacks of saucy veggie balls that made asparagus balls seem like disgusting Rock Sprouts; multiple green peas with glorious yellow butter melting in them; multiple fruits and vegetables that seemed to be begging for Panika to eat them-
'Master! I have an intruder with me,' said the Kyrii towards a high table. Panika looked up, her mouth full of saliva. If the Win Spellas had not been clutching her so tightly, she was sure she would let her stomach take control of her and jump on to the table, grab as much food as she could, and eat it in seconds.
The Win Spellas who Panika had seen in the paintings were dining up there. They were looking down at Panika with mild interest. However, no one reacted as much as the person that was sitting at the High Seat: the Leader of the City of the Wind.
'Who are you and what do you want with our beautiful city?' demanded the Leader. He was a large Skeith who wore a royal cape and crown. His eyes were golden with a hint of blue, just like his Win Spellas. He was looking at the Aisha angrily, but he looked as if he usually were a very generous person.
'I- I-,' the Aisha spluttered. Saying that she was here to try and get the first piece of the Gem of Fyora was a less than satisfactory answer. She knew that they would probably fight to the death for it, which also included her death. 'I came to see if the- the- Cities of the Sky are real!'
It wasn't her best idea but she couldn't think of anything else. She knew that if she didn't manage to think up anything else, then it would be bye-bye Panika. She hoped that her friends wouldn't be too depressed.
'So you're just another one of those treasure hunters, are you?' sneered the Leader. 'The council of Win Spellas will now have an emergency meeting!'
They huddled up together at the high table. Panika soon learned their names: Brawly (the Grarrl), Coga (the Kougra), Kiki (the Kacheek), Jonie (the Yurble), and Kowani (the Kyrii). The Leader's name was only mentioned twice: Sympathonio.
'Hmmm, what odd names,' thought Panika to herself. Kowani had dragged her all the way to the High Table, told her to stay, and then joined his fellow council members. She realized that all of the eyes in the entire Great Hall must have been looking at them.
After a few minutes they broke and the Leader, Sympathonio, faced Panika.
'You have been able to gain entrance to this city. We do not know if you possess even one ounce of magical blood in your veins, but since you have been able to get all the way here, you may stay until a trial which will be held two days from now. This trial will decide if you will be able to leave our City and return to the lands of Neopia in peace or not.'
Sympathonio then smiled graciously. 'Now, come join us in our merry feast!'
He snapped his large fingers and a Gelert dressed in gold set a beautiful chair next to Sympathonio. The Leader then gestured for Panika to sit down next to him. Nervously, Panika sat down on her royal seat. And when she did, she had another vision.
The tables were death-black with spikes at the end and it was starting to crumble away. The people were cackling and sneering at her, their fangs showing and their long, bony fingers pointing at her cruelly. Their eyes had no pupils; they were all just white, and their clothing was completely black; torn and unwashed for centuries. The mashed potatoes were just a lump of the Stuff, and it didn't look very appetizing; the chickens were Duck Necks with grubs poking out of the empty eye sockets; the saucy veggie balls WERE Rock Sprouts, and even more vile than the regular ones; the peas were actually green worms that were covered in a mass amount of dirt; the fruits and vegetables black, rotten, and beginning to turn to dust.
She gasped in horror and blinked her eyes furiously. When she opened them again she saw just the regular great hall with its domed roof, tiled floor, tables, food, and Neopets. The ones in the front rows, who wore green robes, were looking at her curiously. No one else seemed to care; they were sitting too far away to hear or see. She then noticed that the Neopets in the hall were wearing strange colours. The Win Spellas were wearing blue; the Neopets in the first few rows wore green; the Neopets in the rows after that were dressed in scarlet; near the middle they were dressed in canary yellow; near the end was a sea of brown; and at the very, very back of the hall, she could just see the Grey-robed Neopets. They looked grave and weren't talking at all, and were looking longingly at the green-robed and scarlet-robed figures. She guessed that the city must have been divided into many categories and rankings, which went from Grey to the Win Spellas. Looking around the High Table, she also saw two other small tables devoted to Neopets wearing gold. She remembered that one of these had presented her chair, and guessed that these were the king's servants.
'So, young Aisha,' said Sympathonio. He was digging into a chicken (or it SEEMED to be a chicken at least) and taking a sip from his golden goblet. 'Do you believe in the Cities of the Sky now?'
Panika was still too startled to answer properly. She only managed a very silent agreement before pulling up some of the green peas and sniffing them expectantly.
'And if you leave, you will return to Neopia and act as you did before you discovered our great City?'
'Yes,'
'And that you will tell no one?'
'Yes,'
The conversation went on like this throughout lunchtime, and it's not really important anyways, so we'll just move right on. Panika didn't dare eat any of the food, and covered up by saying that she wasn't really hungry. After lunch, she stood up and her seat was whisked away in a blink of an eye.
'Umm, Sympathonio, sir?' asked Panika in a shy voice. Where will I stay until my trial?
'Hmmm...' the Skeith stroked his chin, thinking. Luckily for him, his problem was solved about five seconds after.
' 'I'll take her in, master,' said a voice.
Panika wheeled around to find the golden-robed Gelert that had set her chair in place looking meekly at his master and their guest. 'I can take her in... I have a spare bed... she can stay with me...'
'Are you sure, scrub?' said the Leader, staring question-marks into his servant. His name was Stevineal, and he was the Junior Commander of Spells. Soon, when he was well trained and the official Commander retired, he would take his place. He had a nice shy-looking Gelert face, but a bit on the runty side. The King didn't like him at all and found him unfit for the position of the new Commander.
'It would be an honour,' he said, bowing deeply.
The Leader thought for a second and then appeared to make up his mind, which was quite small really.
'If you so wish it, then our honourary guest will be at your place of residence until Tuesday of the 3rd week of the Month of Running, when her trial to decide if she leaves or not is decided by the decision of the Win Spellas! You may leave.'
'I thought I noticed something about you,' said Stevineal, pouring his guest some Strongberry Tea. 'The way you reacted whenever you saw the truth of our city.'
He sighed and sat down, sipping his beverage. After lunch, Stevineal had lead Panika to his home, which was set in the Gold Area. The houses there were quite small, but they were big enough to hold training materials, a kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a living room. Luckily, Stevineal had a spare cot which he offered to Panika.
When they had reached his house, the Gelert brewed some tea and sat down in the living room. Panika slowly began to explain what had happened: her entrance; the Baby Neopets; the Win Spellas; the vision of the great hall. She didn't tell him about her quest for the Gem of Fyora, though. She wasn't sure if he could be one-hundred percent trusted just yet.
'So... do you like reading?' asked Stevineal. Panika nodded, taking another sip of the Strongberry Tea. The Gelert had assured her that their Tea was a rare delicacy and was not affected when the City had mutated. The Strongberry was a rare retired fruit which she had never tasted before, and with each sip her tongue felt as if it were going on an amusement ride. In seconds she had drained half her tea cup, and when Stevineal asked her if she liked to read or not, there was only less than a mouthful left in the cup.
'Well, I'm sure you'll like this then!' Stevineal said with a smile. He stood up and gestured for the Aisha to come. Sipping away the last bit of the delightful drink, she stood up and followed her new friend down the small hallway of his home.
This one hallway basically led to every room of his residence. At one end was the exit to the street of the Gold District. At the other end there was his large training room. Then there were four other doors: one that led to the kitchen; one that led to a bathroom; one that led to the living room which they had just come out of; and one that finally led to his bedroom.
'You'll be sleeping in the Living Room tonight. There isn't enough room inside my little bedroom,' Stevineal said as he opened the door.
They stepped inside. Along one wall were the door through which that had just through and a window. Pushed up against another wall was his bed, which was small and tidy. But along the two remaining walls were-
'Oh my gosh!' exclaimed Panika. She ran up to the remaining walls of Stevineal bedroom. 'Books!'
And there certainly were books, and a good deal of them too. Many scrolls littered one shelf, some containing scary incantations and some containing very amusing stories. The other shelf was crammed up with books; some were novels and some were reference books. Panika grabbed one, plopped down on the gold-carpeted floor and began to read with great interest.
Stevineal smiled warmly. 'I'm glad you like them. Dig in, because there's four whole hours before dinner and you sure have a lot of reading to get done!'
As Panika ate an actual meal at Stevineal's house, Luki and Granion looked at each other with worry. They had not brought food with them at all. They had not brought water. They were as dry as a bone and as hungry as an unfed Skeith. They looked at each other pathetically.
'Granion, do you think we're going to SURVIVE to see Panika again if she somehow managed to survive?' she asked weakly.
'I hope so Luki, I hope so...'
It was very cold when the unseen sun set at the gates. They were hungry. They were tired. And all they wanted to do now was sleep...
The next day, Panika spent almost all of her time shut up in Stevineal's bedroom while he went to training. She read many books and scrolls with great speed and interest. Unlike most Neopets, she managed to remember everything that sparked her interest, and boy that's a LOT of things.
However, one thing incredibly sparked her interest. She noticed an old and forgotten book at the very top bottom shelf. She took it, blew off all the dust, and saw that it was entitled: 'The City of the Wind'. Interested, she opened it. On the first page, it showed a picture of happy Neopets singing and dancing at what seemed like the square where Town Hall was. They were so happy that Panika could almost seem to hear their cheery songs.
'The residents of the City of the Wind were very magical and happy people. Almost all of them possessed magic which they used to do powerful spells. They did their part to keep the Cities of the Sky from falling under evil.'
Still interested, Panika flipped the page and a horrible sight met her eyes.
On one page was the piece of the Gem of Fyora. It was chipped and it looked as if it were crying. It missed its other counterparts, and Panika was sure the other two pieces yearned for it also. She read the text, which was beginning to fade away.
'However, when the fi ing began, the City Wind fought for the ent re Ge of F ora. However, in the , they agreed to take o e pi ce and live with it. The Gem, when it br k , put a bit of its in every piece. The piece the C took had the power to off evil spells and the mind. It would also increase the bea er's m agical a b l t e . The City took it and b i und r T l and it d all of their energy.'
The page was so worn that some of the lettering had completely faded away. Panika was the most interested in the part where it was buried, but before she had a change to reread that, it crumbled right before her hands. A gust came from the open bedroom window and it blew the dust of the book away.
'No!' shouted Panika. That was her guide to getting out of here FAST! Something was rotten about this place, and she didn't want to stay here long. Plus, what were happening to Luki and Granion?
The wind whispered around the gates. Two Aishas were slumped against it, tired and exhausted.
'What's happening?' mumbled Luki.
'I don't know,' Granion croaked. 'All I know is, there must be a way into that dreaded city,'
Luki suddenly had an idea. Quickly, she got up, and took out the vial she wore around her neck.
'Your mother's tear?' asked Granion. 'How will that help us?'
Without answering, Luki silently poured a drop of the salty, midnight-blue liquid at the gates, and stepped back to see what would happen.
Panika was still reading through all the books. She wanted to see if there was another copy of 'The City of the Wind', but she didn't find it. For once, it seemed like just about all the books in Neopia seemed to be here except for that one read. She quickly hurried over the scrolls and began unrolling them at the speed of light.
'Curse of the Bees, no... Spell of Ultimate and Extreme Evil, no... Hide What's Outside: A Manual for Casting a Spell of Beauty, no... Beginner Spells...'
Many scrolls were like that. Panika took down 'Beginner Spells' and looked through it. She saw some very basic spells, like Fire Lighting and Water Summoning. She pocketed it, hoping that Stevineal would understand. One scroll seemed to be rather untouched. She opened it up and saw that it was a map of the Cities of the Sky!
'Hello; what's this?' It was a very detailed map. At the bottom-left corner there was Palamor Shrine, and then the Pathway of Light, which seemed to lead off in many different directions. After that there was the City of the Wind, which appeared to be very large and complicated. A path led from behind to a place called the Forest of Mist, which was twice as large as the City and by looking at the little sketch, appeared to be a very dangerous and vile traveling area. The Forest of the Mist led to the City of the Clouds, which appeared ruined but not twisted like the City of the Wind. It was a bit smaller but not by much, and was atop a large cloud.
A small line called the River of Vapor led from the City of the Clouds to a large vapor waterfall and at the top was the entrance to the City of the Stars, high up in the sky. Just a little pathway separated the City of the Stars and the Tower of Air, where they had to place the Gem of Fyora on the Shrine of the Heavens. She pocketed this too.
After looking through the other scrolls, she finally gave up and plopped down on the bedroom floor. The door burst open and there was Stevineal, dressed in his robes of gold.
'We must be present at the Great Hall for dinner.' he said. 'Though you know that you cannot eat anything, you must pretend to do so, or else the Win Spellas will get suspicious.'
He led the Aisha from his bedroom and out the main door. They slowly walked to the Town Hall, and were constantly joined by other golden-robed and sometimes green-robed pets, who asked Stevineal what it was like having an 'outsider' for a house guest. At this, Panika burned with white anger, but she knew it was wise to probably keep her comments to herself.
They entered the Great Hall slowly. Candles burned on brackets that were attached to the walls. The Win Spellas were still looking humbly at them both from the paintings and the High Table. Panika glanced at the two doors that she had seen when she first came into the Great Hall. Stevineal said that one door led to the kitchens, while the other door was locked at all times. No one knew what was behind there except for the Leader and Kowani, who was the Kyrii that dragged her into the Great Hall near the beginning, if you remember.
'Ah! Our guest!' said Sympathonio warmly. 'Come join us in our merry feast!'
Panika sat down near the leader once again. Stevineal smiled nervously and winked at her before going to sit at his own table. Panika had to fake eating something, but how was she going to do that?
She looked down at the seemed-to-be delicious food. She had to do something; she couldn't risk getting caught. Slowly, she leaned over the table, and picked up the bowl of mashed potatoes, and once again had a vision.
The King was grinning evilly, though he was smiling cheerily just moments before. His skin was rotten; his eye sockets were completely vacant (she didn't know how she was supposed to eat again after seeing that), his robes torn, battered, and darker-than-night black. His council, the Win Spellas, was all hideously mutated, gross, and could make you lose appetite if you just looked at them. They were even grosser than their fellow citizens, but not as disgusting as their King. Panika wheeled around to see the Gold tables, but her vision was over. Disappointed, Panika pulled the mashed potatoes toward her and spooned some on her plate.
'That's a good girl!' exclaimed the king richly. 'Now eat up; your trial is first thing tomorrow and you don't want to be hungry!'
She picked up a spoon and looked at the mashed potatoes with disgust. Their smell was simply alluring, but she knew that if she took one bite then it was bye-bye Panika.
She looked shyly around. The King and the nearest Win Spellas were looking down at her with interest. Slowly, she raised the mashed potatoes slowly towards her mouth. They were getting closer... and closer...
And then, of course, she got an idea. She dropped the spoon on the floor, faked a 'Whoops!' and bent to pick it up. When she did, she crawled under the table and to the other side. Raising the drape just a little bit so that her spoon could fit, she launched the potatoes at one of the green-robed citizens in the first row.
He leapt up in fury and looked around him. Panika used a Levitating Spell and slowly it floated over to the Neopet that was just behind him and cleanly into his hand. He didn't even notice his hands hold the spoon so it looked like he just recently launched something. Panika then got another spoon, and crept back to the chair.
She had an explanation at hand, but she didn't need it. The green-robed Neopet had thrown some green peas at the person behind him, and that kicked up a SERIOUS food fight. Panika looked with wonder as just about everyone in the hall began throwing food, from green-robed to grey-robed. The commotion gave her the perfect way to escape without tasting some of that dreadful food.
She crawled from her seat at the high table all the way to the great double doors. She slipped through them, and began running as fast as she could without looking back.
The frightened Aisha ran down the streets to go hide somewhere- but where? The great food fight was going on and she could slip away quite easily to almost anywhere in the city. The visions of the real City of the Wind were starting to come more often now. That's when it hit her: the Grey Area! Surely it must be run down and poor enough so that she could hide there in safety.
Unfortunately, she was correct about the terrain. 'Oh those poor people!' she thought. But this was no time for sympathy; she had to find a ruined, broken-down house somewhere. The trouble was that there weren't any houses; just apartments. She had to run almost all the way down the little, crowded street to find it: a collapsed apartment building that seemed to have crumbled and then completely forgotten about. She hid in one of the sturdy-looking rooms that remained and quickly tried to remember the words in the book.
The City took it and b i und r T l and it all of their energy.
In her mind, she tried filling in the spaces.
iThe City took it and buried it under T l and it provided all of their magic energy.
She felt as if a mysterious force was guiding her. However, she still couldn't work out the T l thing. It looked like two words, but she wasn't really sure. In her mind's eye, she probed the page out of memory as hard as she could.
And then she saw it.
The distance between 'T-l' was actually longer. It looked as if the entire last sentence had been pasted over. She was sure that the first and last words were true. She didn't know how, but it's one of those compulsions you get when you know that something's the truth and something's a lie.
To her luck, whoever pasted over it hadn't done a good job. She probed at it closer, and saw that it was 4 words. She could just make out 'Temple of ??? ???l'.
Well, she was getting somewhere. However, she felt her magic weaken. She knew that she must hurry. Again, she used all of her might to probe at the page.
The third word appeared to have 7 letters and began with an H and two of the same letters in the middle, plus a small letter that looked like a small line next to an arch.
Her mind was beginning to tire, so she could only think up one word: Hidden. Temple of Hidden ???l.
She thought of something that meant to hide and also ended in L. Her mind was almost ready to go to sleep and obviously she didn't bring a thesaurus with her ('Now that SERIOUSLY is a surprise,' Granion would say) and she couldn't summon one. Only one word popped up in her head: Veil.
Her mind sharpened almost immediately. She said it aloud: 'Temple of Hidden Veil'. But where was she to find that? The city was very large, and she was on the run.
Quickly, she thought about everywhere she had been to: the Great Hall, the Home of the Mutant Babies, the Entrance Street, the Ruins of the Grey Towers, Stevineal's house...
None of those places could possibly hold a map of the city. The residents of the Home of the Mutant Babies were in the Individual District and all of their actions were monitored. The Entrance Street obviously didn't have a large town map somewhere on it. The Ruins where she solved the mystery of the location of the Gem obviously didn't have a map; nothing was there except rock that was mostly covered in moss. Stevineal's house didn't have a map and none of his books did either, plus she didn't have the key to his house. The Great Hall had its huge dining room, the kitchens (which must smell utterly vile) and the Secret Room-
The Secret Room! There wasn't much of a chance that she would manage to get inside or that there was a map of the City inside, but it was her only hope. Quickly, she scooped up her hopes and thoughts and ran from the ruin.
'I don't believe it didn't work!' said Luki, slumping back down against the gates. She would just slowly sit here and die, and there wasn't anything that Granion could do.
In fact, Granion wasn't doing anything. He was just sitting there, his stomach rumbling like an earthquake. They would lie here forever, and their bones would be swept away with the wind.
She even began to hallucinate. She saw a flying figure in the sky, flying towards them with great haste.
It was obviously something that was coming to eat them, or worse.
But when it got closer, she saw, astonished, who it was.
'Granion! Wake up!' Luki shook her friend.
The Great Hall's small room was deserted. Sounds that the food fight was going drifted through the bottom of the great double doors. She heard a large SPLAT as a strange something hit the doors, but they were strong and didn't even shake. Panika's visions of the truth were coming more often now and getting more hideous as we speak. The small room she only saw for half a minute:
The Great Double Doors were twisted and the colour of burned black, yet it didn't seem to have suffered any harm. The portraits of the Win Spellas matched their descriptions from inside the hall. The door that led to the kitchens was framed with spikes and if you went through it, the scene would look like you were being swallowed by an extremely hungry monster, for the spikes looked like teeth and they were dripping with saliva. The other door that led to the Secret Room was, to Panika's surprise, completely normal.
She quickly ran over to them and turned the knob. The door swung open inward without a creak or a squeak. Panika entered, closing the door behind her very swiftly.
Nothing was in there except a round carpet. On it was a small shrine. And in the shrine was a small scroll. Curious, Panika ran up to the shrine, picked up the yellowed parchment, and unraveled it.
It was a rhyme:
Where do you find the Gemstone of mine?
Where will you look; where does it hide?
A pure heart and a touch of gold,
Will break the spell and shatter the mold.
'What is this supposed to mean?' wondered Panika. She repeated it over again, but nothing happened.
She tried to piece it together.
'Where do you find the Gemstone of mine?'
It sounded like Fyora wrote this, since it said 'Gemstone of mine'.
'Where will you look; where does it hide?'
This, of course, meant that it was hidden somewhere. She already knew where: the Temple of Hidden Veil.
'A pure heart and a touch of gold,'
A pure heart must mean a good heart, but she didn't know about the 'touch of gold' part.
'Will break the spell and shatter the mold.'
It sounded like if she managed to get the piece of the Gem, it would break the spell that was hiding the true city because it said 'shatter the mold'.
She was at a start, but a slow one. It still didn't really give good clues.
She looked around the room again. Nothing changed; everything remained the same. She turned around to face the door, but the door was gone. Instead, there was an inscription on the wall:
To find the Gem you must face the heat;
Down, down, under your feet,
To win you must use the powers of your heart,
For the evil will perish but the good will be smart.
And suddenly, a great wind began to pick up. The rug was beginning to glow, and slowly it disappeared like a lift, with Panika still on it!
The rhyme was coming true. The first two lines still burned in her mind:
'To find the Gem you must face the heat; Down, down, under your feet,'
That meant that she must be going underneath the City! But to where?
The lift halted to a stop. She stepped out cautiously, and her first thought was, 'It's BOILING down here!' But, when she stepped out, she felt a cool gust of air around her. It was like a calling from the Secret Room, now miles above her. She had yet another idea, and quickly pulled out the Spells Scroll. She used the Cooling Spell and felt her body return to normal temperature. Now she could look around freely.
It was a whole field of flames. They were licking an unseen ceiling, but not burning it through. The only walk able ground was inflammable dirt that Panika had seen many times in her Gardening Book, though this wasn't the time to remember its name. She hurried forward and a tongue of flames nearly scorched her, but she jumped out of the way just in time. A small sign, oblivious to the heat around it, was stuck right next to the pool of fire. It was very old, but you could still make the lettering out: 'The Great Hall'.
Areas of flames were under every structure of the City above her. That didn't really help much, but it gave her hope. The Temple must be above one of these licking flames, but where was it?
Panika took off from the Great Hall Sign and passed many great fires and fire-proof signs, but none of them read about any Temples. Some areas of fire were as large as many football fields all grouped together (these were usually living areas) and some were as small as a sandwich (these had no signs but their names were encrypted in the dirt). Finally, she managed to find an area whose flames had died out. A fallen sign was lying in the direct next to the huge pit in the ground. It was only barely readable:
'Temple of Hidden Veil'
However, it looked as if the Temple of Hidden Veil had crumbled and so did the flames underneath it. All that remained was a small glint in the multiple holes in the ground, and that must be-
'The Gem!' exclaimed Panika. 'Yes!'
She jumped down without thinking, which was also a first for her. She grabbed the glint that was the Gemstone, and then landed rather clumsily. She steadied herself back up, and looked around.
Nothing was there except for burnt dirt. However, it looked as if the dirt hadn't been burning for quite a long time, and probably wouldn't start burning again all of a sudden.
She looked up and realized her incredibly stupid mistake: How was she supposed to get out of the pit? She was about to reach for her Spells Scroll when, all of a sudden, something appeared at the top of the pit.
It was Stevineal.
'Stevineal!' shouted Panika. 'Can you get me out of here?'
Stevineal smiled wickedly. 'So you still haven't realized it, have you?'
He jumped down into the pit, landed a few feet away from our Aisha hero, and turned to face her.
'I had to gain your trust, even if it meant feeding you actual food and letting you contaminate my home.' he sneered at her.
Panika was very confused. 'What do you mean?'
The Gelert sighed. 'And you're supposed to be the smarty-pants of the bunch? Pah!' he cackled. 'If you really do not know what I mean, then I will show you.'
His body began to twist; his flesh began to transform. He wobbled and shuddered like a piece of Jelly that was being shaken around on its plate very harshly. Panika looked away, but the transformation was already complete.
Panika gasped with fear and horror.
'It's-'
'Yessss, you finally realize!' it hissed.
'I thought we finished you off!'
'Nooo,' it replied. 'After you fled from meeee at the Pathway of Light, I was revived and brought back to lifffe more powerfull than ever!'
Panika backed away in fear. It was the Shapeshifter of Darkness, and he was back. He must have taken the form of Stevineal to try and gain her trust, and it sure did work.
'But you acted as if Sympathonio actually knew you!'
'He diddd, oh yes he diddd,' hissed he. 'The real Stevineal was hidden away so that my massster's plans could be put into better efffect. Now, I cannot let you leave alivvve!'
It sprang out of the hole with a large leap. It was so dark it looked as if someone took a huge paintbrush and dotted the picture with a large gob of black paint. When it got to the top, it turned around and looked down at the trapped Aisha.
'Good-bye forever, you lousy Aisha!'
And with that, flames leapt up from the pit. They were very weak and couldn't hurt her, but she knew that soon they would be licking tongues of flame and would burn her to ashes. She knew she HAD to find a way out. She quickly remembered the Gem of Fyora in her paw.
'I cannot let the gem get incinerated!' she thought. Quickly, she took opened her paw and was about to throw it out of the pit when she remembered the words from the scroll:
A pure heart and a touch of gold,
Will break the spell and shatter the mold.
A touch of gold... she looked at the piece of the Gemstone in her paw. It was a beautiful topaz-golden and its rays of light seemed to light up the entire pit.
A pure heart and a touch of gold...
A pure heart! A touch of gold! Without thinking it through (again) she quickly embraced the Gem as if she were hugging it. It was stupid, but it was an idea.
Will break the spell and shatter the mold!
Surely all of these flames were not part of the real City of the Wind. And this had to work. It was her last hope.
The Gem began to glow beautifully golden beneath her arms. She nearly dropped it in surprise, but instead she tightened her arms. And suddenly, she began to glow golden! Slowly, she floated up out of the pit, through the ground itself, and was in the Sky of the City of the Wind. Looking down, she saw the ruins of an old temple, but she only gazed at it for a second. She looked up once more and knew what she had to do
I call upon the powers of wind, cloud and star!
Powers of the sky oh so heavenly far;
Gem of Fyora, I call upon your light,
To break the spell and make the City shine bright!
That she shouted shrilly into the night air. There was a loud CRACK! sound as the spell over the city was broken, and Panika floated slowly back down the ground. She looked around and saw that everything was- mutated! She had broken the Spell that had hidden the hideous mutation and had faked their rich city, but the citizens weren't too happy! They rushed out of the great hall in droves, and they SERIOUSLY wanted to get her! She quickly realized that she was very, very close to the gates, but if she made it there in time, how was she to open them?
'Might as well get a bit of hope,' she said to herself. Quickly, she turned around and began running for the gates.
In ten minutes time, she was there.
And they were sealed shut.
'This is SO not good,' she said, turning around. The citizens were coming towards her, led by the Win Spellas and Sympathonio himself.
'You will not escape our city!' he said. His once jolly voice was like a hideous monster in the whispering night, and it chilled right down to the marrow.
Panika turned around to run, but tripped over a loose tile. It flew somewhere on the street and was broken by stampeding feet that night, but it isn't really important. What was important was the thing UNDERNEATH the loose tile.
There was a tiny, square hole of dirt. And half-buried in that dirt was:
'My Cloud Usul Perfume!' exclaimed Panika in surprise. She quickly pulled it out and examined it. It was beautiful, but how did it get here?
Suddenly, she had another idea.
'Citizens of the City of the Wind,' yelled Panika over all of the truly horrible shouting and threats they were giving to her. 'Your greed and envy has hideously mutated you! Look what you and your beautiful city have become!'
They stopped for a moment and looked at one another and at their surroundings. Then, Sympathonio spoke.
'We deserve to be the master of the entire Gem of Fyora!' he screamed. 'Its magic will make our magic even stronger and we will rule all Neopia with it from its sky!'
'Well, that didn't work,' said Panika to herself as the mob began to charge at her once again. 'There's only one thing to do now.'
She sprayed the Cloud Usul Perfume on herself and felt herself becoming cloud-like. She began to float up, up, up over the gates.
'You will not be forgotten!' yelled a Win Spellas. 'You will be hunted down! You are never safe! Never...'
Panika was set down upon the gates and quickly cared for. However, she was almost immediately healed.
'What happened, Panika?' demanded a fully-revived Luki.
'Yeah, what gives? Why couldn't we open the gates?' shouted Granion angrily.
'And how did you get over them?' said a new voice.
It was the Faerie Aisha. What happened with Luki and Granion? Well, in a nutshell, the same Faerie Aisha that had brought Karolina's spirit to Neopia temporarily had learned of their distress and came to save them. Then, they all sat anxiously, waiting for Panika to return. The plan was that if she didn't reappear in five days, they would find a way in and confirm if she was alive or dead. Now that she was back, they were all very happy.
'Well, I'll answer your question first,' said Panika, nodding towards the Faerie Aisha. 'The Cloud Usul Perfume was something they detested, because it was of the Clouds. I read somewhere in the City that if anything that wasn't blessed by the Wind would be removed from the City immediately with an ancient magic, and I used that to my advantage.'
They looked at her in awe. 'Panika, you really are the smartest out of all of us,' said Granion, breaking the silence.
'Well, I guess that's true,' said Panika. 'As for what happened in there... I'm sure it'll be safe to tell you tomorrow,'
And she fell asleep, leaving her friends looking down upon her with stunned faces.