"The beach! We're only a little ways off from Terror Mountain!" Tanya laughed as she and Prince finally found the way out of the forest.
"Hey, there's an Island over there, we can swim over to there and take a brake before making the final swim to Terror Mountain."
"Good idea, only, I'll fly!" Tanya giggled. "I would offer to carry you, but I'm not strong enough."
"It's OK, I could use the workout anyway." Prince laughed as he hopped in the water, headed for the little Island. When they finally got there, they found an interesting welcoming comity.
"Hey, another Lupe!" the Skunk Lupe laughed as he tackled Prince. Prince was less than thrilled than to be thrown to the ground after a long exerting swim.
"Hey, you leave him alone!" Tanya yelled thinking that the Skunk Lupe was attacking her new friend. She started making a ball of light energy to throw at him, but he jumped off Prince and ran yelping away, something about how the Mutant Lupe should run too.
"Tanya, it's OK." Prince yelped before she tried to blow the poor Lupe's head off. "He's just happy to see me. It's OK!"
"But, a light Faerie, they're the most vicious Faeries to us Lupes!" the Skunk Lupe yelped from behind a bush in a little jungle of sorts.
"I'm sorry, I thought you were attacking Prince. You can come out, I like Lupes."
"What!" the Skunk Lupe seemed puzzeled but he slowly came out of the bush. "How could a Light Faerie like Lupes?"
"I guess I was never taught to hate you guys. This is Prince, and I'm Tanya."
"I'm Stripes by the way. I'm attempting to make a pack here."
"That's a big goal." Prince interjected. "I was the future alpha of one of the last packs out there, and everyone in it, except for me was killed by a Wocky. I only survived because I had left the pack to go on a solo hunt for a midnight snack. There was one other pack around the time of mine, but I think they were all killed too. It'll be hard for you to find enough Lupes to make a pack, or a mate."
"Where are you off to?" Stripes asked politely with a nod.
"We're headed to Terror Mountain." Tanya smiled brightly.
"Good luck with that!" Stripes waved them goodbye as they swam and flew off to the base of Terror Mountain.
"Who are you?" Rex yelled as he finally found another Lupe. But she was different from most Lupes. Rex had never seen any pet ever like her, and she looked so different from him that he wasn't even sure she was a Lupe.
"I am the Lupe Princess, and you are Rex, the Christmas Lupe, you seek other Lupes, and I have been following you."
"Why? How do you know who I am?"
"You silly pup! I am all knowing! I have come here to give you a gift that will enable you to do whatever you wish, without a time limit."
"Why would you help me?"
"Simple really, I am interested to see what you will do with this gift. I have only given it to one other, and if you find him, you should understand why I give you this!" she yelled. Rex felt great pain and howled as loud as he could, and the Princess laughed and vanished in a puff of smoke. Rex fell to the ground, wondering what had happened, he felt different. While he was pondering what gift the princess had given him, he got up off the ground, and discovered his new power.
"NO!"
"Miss Vira, I have come to ask you of your knowledge on a certain subject." the Ghost Lupe bowed as he entered Vira's little meadow of cursed flowers.
"Who's there? How dare you enter my meadow!" Vira looked up from poisoning a rose. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you, I thought you were that stupid baby Uni that's been pestering me for a while. Yes, what is it you need information on?"
"I came here to ask you if you know why Lupes are hated nowadays. I presume you know something, as I know that you are as beautiful as you are intelligent." he bowed politely to the Acara.
"I apologize, but I only know that it was because of one of those Faeries, I'm pretty sure it was Judorah who caused Neopia to hate Lupes. This isn't exactly my business, so I pretty kept my nose out of it." she shrugged.
"You're right, thanks for your help." he bowed again. In his time, one was always expected to be extra polite to the beautiful women, something that hadn't changed with him over time. "I have someone else to ask for information, I'll head over to him now. Thanks again."
"Good luck on your search." Vira added, returning to her poisoned Rose.
"Hey Ruby, welcome home!" Tala greeted Ruby at her usual return from school. After a little hug on the doorstep, a risk the two had recently been taking a lot, Ruby had a proposal.
"Wanna go get some ice cream?"
"What? But what if someone sees me?"
"Simple, I got a Gelert costume recently, and I think that if you put it on, you'd look pretty convincing. How about it?"
"Sure, let me try it on first!" Tala raced off with the costume and returned looking very much like a Gelert. "How do I look?"
"Like a Gelert, you look positively normal! Let's go!" And the two friends headed out to get ice cream.
"What flavor do you want Tala?" Ruby asked at the ice cream stand.
"I'll have chocolate." Tala stated from behind Ruby. She was still nervous, even with the costume. She knew that she was less aggressive and calmer now that she was friends with Ruby. She assumed that Ruby had tamed her for society, but she knew better than anyone that she'd never be accepted by anyone other than Ruby and Sapphire.
"Strawberry please!" Ruby politely asked. The two returned home with a mint ice cream for Sapphire. "See, no one saw you!"
"Yeah, but I don't think I'll risk it again, that was pretty close, and I'm not sure a costume can fool the stand owner for long."
"You're right, but once it should work fine! And you can go out on Halloween, saying you're dressed up as a Lupe!" the two laughed.
"Oh, where am I?" Santa slowly rose to her feet. For a moment, she forgot where she was. "Why?"
"Come closer." the Desert Aisha was sitting a ways off, looking into what appeared to be a crystal ball. They were in a dark pit of some kind, with no windows, and what made Santa worried, no doors. The crystal ball seemed to be the only source of light. Santa slowly walked up to the Aisha. "Look into my ball, I can show you all the other Lupes in Neopia."
"That could take a while." Santa politely stated.
The Aisha laughed. "Not as long as you might think, there are only a few others. Now let's see, here's a Lupe, what do you think of his life?" Santa looked into the ball and saw a Mutant Lupe and a Light faerie swimming and flying over and through the ocean. "They're on an exciting quest, would you like a life of excitement and danger, where there's always something new and interesting around the corner?"
"No thanks, I'd prefer not to be risking my neck every few minutes."
"Ah, a tricky one to please. What about this Lupe?" Santa looked in the ball again and this time, saw a totally different scene, with a white Lupe and a pink Kacheek, getting ready to brake into a building of some kind.
"I'll pass on being a thief Madam." Santa stated politely.
"Well then, I guess I'll have to really work to top those two lifestyles!" the Aisha laughed.
"You! Why on Neopia are you trying to brake into Fyora's library?" a dark faerie asked of Heart and Kbai as they snuck around the library.
"Look, we…" Heart started.
"Shut up Kacheek, I was asking the Lupe!" the dark faerie snapped.
Kbai growled. "We're trying to find out some information, and this is the only place to find it out, now will you let us go?"
"Possibly, or I could just put a curse on you! I haven't practiced my voodoo talents in a while, it always works best on Kacheeks." she grinned maliciously and plucked a fur off Heart's head.
"Leave her out of this, what do you want?"
"I already told you, I need to practice my voodoo talents, and I'll use the Kacheek. You may leave Lupe, and take the Kacheek with you!"
"Look, we've come this far, and given up Kbai's left fang, all because we want to learn why Lupes are hated. You're not about to stop us now, not after all we've done." Heart yelled in a moment of courage.
"What did you say!"
"You heard her!" Kbai stepped in front of Heart, her tiny courage giving in on her. "We want to know why Lupes are hated."
"You, want to, really?" the dark faerie stammered. "I wish you luck. May you succeed in your mission." she nodded and walked off, discarding Heart's fur.
"Why did she not want to stop us?" Heart asked.
"I don't know, but we'd better keep an eye out, I'm not sure if dark faeries want to help us or not. I wonder if life in Neopia ever made sense." Kbai sighed.
"Meridell, I've finally made it. Looks like I'd better travel during nighttime, it's pretty busy now!" Kaisa thought to herself as she entered Meridell at about noon. She knew it would be dangerous in Meridell more so than any other place because it was Illusen's home. She now knew the full extent of Illusen's wrath.
"Are you lost? You shouldn't be here, Meridell's not safe for Lupes." Kaisa jumped as she heard the voice. There was the little red Zafara she'd seen in the forest. "Lady Illusen's the one in charge of Meridell since the death of the kings. Do you need a place to hide? I live in the forest near Illusen's glade."
"Thanks." Kaisa followed her, but cautiously. The Zafara didn't know that Kaisa knew about the other Lupe she'd housed. Kaisa spent the night with the Zafara and the next morning, she was ready to face Illusen. She gulped as she hid in the bush by a clearing, where Illusen the earth faerie sat.