Alone in the World
By BubbleFlower
(Rated PG for thematic elements, romance, and mild violence...)
The last remaining of Lord Kass' forces have fallen, and as the last ray of sunlight appeared behind the darkness of the Darigan Citadel; the evilness of Lord Kass have finally perished behind all of his own evilness driven by invisible demons. And Meridell, again, was at peace… Although the fallen brave knight that have courageously fought against the darkness forces and made many victories during the battle received no credit for all of his brave deeds, nor his brave sacrifice of himself.
Inside the Meridell Castle, King Skarl sat soberly on his throne, looking at the little girl aisha that was sobbing on the staircase. Lisha the young knightess, little sister of Jeran the fallen knight, have received the letter her big brother wrote before going to the fatal war. It seemed in the letter that he was prepared for death already… And was right, death was the only thing that awaited the blue lupe knight inside the battle with the one and only Lord Kass. Now, fallen off the citadel at last, forever will he ever see his dear sister again…
Sitting there and crying with her tear-stained glasses held tightly within her yellow paws, Lisha stared up into the wide-open window that rested next to Skarl's throne. She could imagine her older brother Jeran jumping from there with a humorous and victorious expression on his face… And she'd hug him, never wanting to be far from him ever again… Then they'd celebrate the wonderful victory of the battle against Kass…
Lisha sobbed into her already teary plaid skirt, her wide imagination giving up before her mind. It was no use imagining… She has came this far with her friends, and finally found her long-lost brother in Meridell. And now, only to have him lost again… And not only lost, but gone from the world forever and ever…
A red zafara in a starry magician's robes and hat with the same plaid skirt as Lisha quietly walked down the stone staircase and sat next to the sobbing aisha. It was Kayla, one of Lisha's best friends that have followed her to Meridell in search of her brother some time ago. Now, she worked a potion maker in the lab of the castle. "It's okay, Lisha… I know Jeran met his end and all, being your brother… But why not let's just cheer up for once here? The battle's won, and…"
"Battle's won?" Lisha cried weakly, tired from all the shedding of tears. "King Skarl got all the credit and victorious cheers, but he didn't even do anything… It's Jeran that did it all! And he just had to make the ultimate sacrifice when Boris and Morris could have… Tried to save him…"
"There…" Kayla quickly cut in. Count Boris and Morris was Lisha's other two best friends that followed her to Meridell, and had gone to battle along with Jeran, and didn't come back from the war yet. "I know you are most upset about your brother, but I think we should start worrying about those two also… They have not arrived yet, and maybe they are in danger too, maybe even…" she stopped the sentence, not wanting to say the word that Lisha's brother have met his fate to.
Suddenly Lisha leaped up and hugged Kayla tightly, crying soberly into her starry robes. The red zafara sighed in sorrow and gently patted the depressed aisha as her robes were stained with bitterness. Crying even harder, Lisha could only mumble out: "That vampire want to be and that goofy short thing? I… Don't care…"
The door opened, revealing a green quiggle in fake lupe ears and a blue blumaroo in a vampire cape and royal white suit like the shorter quiggle beside him.
"Morris… Boris! You are okay!" Kayla shouted, hopping up from the staircase she was sitting on and sprinting over to the blumaroo Boris, leaping and hugging him tightly while Morris slowly trotted over to where Lisha still sat, not lifting her head to the quiggle coming to her.
"Ow… Hey, Kayla, careful! I just skinned my arm…" Count Boris said, laughing as the zafara hugged him even tighter. "I know Jeran met his end, but… I'm sure Morris got some tricks this time to cheer Lisha up, we trained on the way…"
"Lisha?" Morris muttered, quietly looking down at the aisha. "Look uh… I'm… Sorry about the thing with Jeran… And that uh…" he paused, looking backwards at Boris, who gave him a wink of encouragement. "Lisha, I have to admit… During all this time, I have a feeling for you… And that I…"
He didn't get to finish, for the aisha suddenly sprinted up, slapping the shorter quiggle hard in the gut before running upstairs and leaving Morris looking at her back as she ran, holding his injury and tears appearing in his own eyes silently.
"What's with her?" Count Boris muttered, walking beside the quiggle. "Maybe she's just depressed… Ever though about leaving her alone for a second or so?"
The day ended so slowly, and it was nearly forgotten that Jeran, Meridell's bravest knight, actually met his death the very same day. Lisha was still locked up in her room, lost in her own sober emotions, while Morris trotted back and forth in his own room, thinking of a way to cheer the aisha up. It just happened to be a slightly shorter day for those two.
Stars covered every single inch of the beautiful night sky as Lisha stared out of the window, a cool breeze making her shiver. She wished on a star before that the war would be over, but it was just out of certain luck that her brother was lost too… Now she didn't think it was perfectly safe to wish upon the star again, that her brother would be back with her…
She heard the door being knocked behind her, so without looking over her shoulder she bolted out rudely: "Who is it! And what the hell do you want anyway?"
Morris slowly opened the unlocked door, shivering at the coldness of the room and the aisha's invisible cold glare. For a long while he just stood in the doorway, unable to move forward or speak anything but just blinking and staring at the aisha's back, his hand nervously rubbing his midsection in vain. Lisha still did not turn as she muttered coldly at him: "What's wrong with you again, your stomach hurting again? Get a potion from Kayla before a zap you into a pile of mold with my wand."
Still nervously rubbing his midsection, the quiggle left the room and gently closed the door before he could get attacked by a angry fierce Lisha. "Ouch… Did I scrape my side or something? Why do I always have a pain when she's around?"
Kayla and Boris weren't having half as bad time as the other two with Jeran's death. The blumaroo had an interesting time with the zafara in her lab as she experimented her newest potion on a mortog, turning it into different colors and sizes. It put them in interest for a while, and until the sky finally darkened with moonlight they finally thought it was too late.
"Well… Thank you for the fun, I never though you were so fun to be with when Jeran was still around…" Boris smiled, getting up from the chair to stretch out his sore tail. "Want to… Sleep in my room?"
"Sure…" Kayla blushed suddenly as she followed him to his room, laying down on his bed with the blumaroo as the covers are being pulled over them. She quickly whispered to herself: "Could it be? I'm actually sleeping with him… No, it's only a harmless sleepover, nothing serious at all… Nothing at all…"
"Lisha really is taking it pretty hard, eh?" Boris whispered beside her. "In my opinion… Morris, that goofy quiggle… He really fits with Lisha, doesn't he?"
Kayla laughed mischievously as she suddenly rolled over, pinning the blumaroo to the bed. "Jeran or not, I own you forever." Laughing in a flirting way, they dazed off to peaceful slumber huddled together warmly within two robes and a cotton wool cover.
Trotting back and forth in his room, the quiggle finally leaped on his won bed from exhaustion. His midsection was in pain from a sharp graze he received from Lord Kass' attack that nearly knocked him off the citadel, if Jeran hadn't saved him… Maybe that's way Lisha's so angry with him; because if Jeran had left him to fall off the citadel and die, Jeran would have survived the battle with Kass? The thought of dying made his mind twirl up more…
Shaking his head in fright from the thoughts, Morris rolled off the bed, feeling a sharp pain in his stomach. He looked down only to see his wooden sword that he used during the battle on the ground, its edges cutting into his midsection. He quickly pulled the sword's edge out, only to crumble to the ground as a second wave of sheer pain struck him again. He could see his white suit stained with splatters of bright red… And lying there, the quiggle cradled his gut in pain, too hurt to even call for help or get up.
"I deserve this," the words flashed through his head. "I was useless, and I deserved to die… Maybe that will even make Lisha happier…"
The wooden door slowly opened, to reveal a scared Lisha looking down as the crumpled body of her quiggle friend, and quickly she hurried to his aid. "Morris! What… What have you done to yourself!" Ripping a piece from her plaid skirt, she hurried on to bandage his torso, although that did not help soothe the pain one bit. The green quiggle twitched inside her arms as she ran out of the room to Kayla's room and knocked: empty.
"Kayla?" the aisha yelled, banging the door open with her shoulder and staring at the empty bed and lab. Not thinking to the fact that Kayla might be with Boris, she twirled around. The whole castle did not have any medicine or medical tools except for Kayla's… And now, her friend was left to die.
"Morris… You idiot…" she cried, finally dropping to the ground with the quiggle still half-unconscious in her arms. "Did you even attempt suicide? Did you even… Care what will happen to me if you die?"
"So, you do care?" Morris coughed out, trying to force a weak smile despite of the great pain. "You actually cared for me…Eh?"
"I… After Jeran died, I don't know anyone else I could love…" Lisha sobbed, her glasses getting wetter. "Except for you, Morris… I hope you understand, but… I love you…"
"I love you too…" the quiggle mumbled weakly, pain shooting through his midsection like fire as two familiar neopets, Kayla and Count Boris hurried from Boris' room.
"Is he…" Kayla gasped, but quickly calmed down. "We must get him to the lab, come on."
Picking up the quiggle again, Lisha hurried behind the others again to Kayla's room, Morris limply lingering in her arms like a beaten rag doll.
Morris felt himself falling down and down into the eternal darkness that surrounded him, unable to see to hear anything but his own screaming. Finally he heard other sounds going on around him, he heard Lisha crying, and the talking of Boris and Kayla. Although he could not feel or understand one bit of what they were saying he could understand that they were gathered around him, and close to him. Then he saw Jeran again, falling off the edge of the citadel and into the endless depths below… The sight made him wince and feel pain shooting inside him everywhere.
"Lisha? Lisha?" he yelled inside his head, searching in the endless waves of darkness that is slowing pulling him down even more. "I'm going to hell, am I?"
"Morris…" he could hear Jeran talking to him now, in a gentle tune. "Let's see what have you done so far… You're alive and well, aren't you?"
"Yeah…" the quiggle said inside his head again, still unable to see anything except for blackness.
"Well, now I'm gone… I want you to take care of Lisha… My sister for me." The voice of Jeran continued. "You've all grown up so much since you all arrived at Meridell, and now I hope you can… Well, have wonderful romance with Lisha now… I entrust you with the duty of taking care of her now, for me. Go ahead… Make me proud…"
"Me?" Morris felt a wave of soberness. "I can't even take care of myself, and you want me to…"
"Hey, everyone have their childish moments in life…" Jeran continued. "I know Lisha is taking my death seriously, and that she's being rough… But that's what most people do; they only discover love within them when their loved one is in danger, that's why. The reality in a knight isn't the strength, height, or energy, it's the courage to do it… To sacrifice, to do things for good even if it means drastic endings to themselves… Do you understand my point?"
"Yeah…" Morris said in his head again, and before he felt the darkness taking over again he saw Jeran smiling at him with an expression of trust and pride. "I will never forget you, Sir Jeran…"
"Please, Morris… Wake up…" Lisha muttered quietly, checking him for a pulse. "I can't bear the thought of losing two friends in one day, especially if the day is meant to be a holiday of some sort… You can do it, please…"
The quiggle was placed on a table, with Lisha bending over him and the other two neopets behind her. Kayla has already performed all her best spells and potions, though none of them did the slightest trick to knock the quiggle out of his dream state. Boris just stood there and watched the two female neopets hurry over his best friend, hoping that he knew something that would help them.
"It's… It's useless…" Kayla finally cried, dropping down the potion that she was holding to the ground and exploding in a watery shatter. "It's bad enough that Jeran's been lost. And now I suppose that today will be considered more like a tragical mourning than a holiday celebrating…" without saying another word, the zafara turned her cloaked back to the two, silently sobbing to herself as Boris quickly rushed to her need.
Suddenly, the yellow aisha saw the small body before her twitch. "Morris? Speak to me, are you still okay?"
"Never mind… I was only trying to catch that butterfly over there! Ah!" Morris opened his oversized eyes, which were large even for a quiggle, and rolled off the table in an ungraceful leap. "Don't sue me, King Hagan! I mean no harm to your oversized hats!"
Lisha smiled as she helped the smaller quiggle to his feet before whispering to herself: "That's great… The old Morris is back now…"
Boris and Kayla turned, and smiled as the yellow aisha bended down to the short, still half-dizzy Morris and without thinking, pressed her lips down on his. The quiggle blushed suddenly at her roughness, but calmed down as he brushed his hand along her aisha ears, until closing them on her smaller set of ears before pressing his lips farther too. For a long time, neither of them withdrew from the everlasting kiss. Jeran might be dead, but nothing in the world will erase true love from a knight.
Author's Note: Whew! My first ever fanfic about Neopets… Please review to say did you enjoy it or not! Again, Meridell and all characters are from the site. I didn't find any Battle for Meridell romance fanfics about Lisha and her friends yet, so I decided to make the first one… Hopefully I can later see some other fanfiction about those characters! Thank you! Thank you!