The Cursed Paintbrush- Transformation

"After he!" yelled Aqua as Thaerin took off with the cure… Illusen tried to use her Staff on the Shadow Usul, but he just dodged them easily like in fast motion… He boomed with mirth as he sped away towards the Marketplace, the potion in his mouth. All three of us ran after him, but he was just too fast for us to catch up to!

"Oh no! These were the only ingredients I've got and I can't make another…" sighed Illusen with regret…

"We'll go after him," said Aqua quickly as I panted for breath… Running is hard work! Before I could say anything, Aqua took off towards the shops!

"Bye Illusen, I hope we can get the potion in time!" I said as the Earth Faerie waved gaily to me… She was so kind…

"I also hope you don't transform in the middle of running…" advised Illusen. Oh yeah, I sort of forgot about that… I thought. I just wonder how my Neopets are.

"Thanks anyway!" I added with a smile as I ran off to join with Aqua.

Heehee, thought Hubrid Nox, The plan was working perfectly… Now to get the Earth Faerie! The vampiric Chia grinned as he saw the two humans run off…Then with a flash, he disguised himself as a... Lupe! (The natural enemies of Chias)

Aqua was just ahead of me, but I had to pause for breath every couple of miles (How many kilometres is a mile?)… I'm not the athletic type you know! I ran past vegetables and local farms as Aqua tried to grab Thaerin, but he was sliding past her fingers like liquid soap. "You'll never get me at this rate," yelled Thaerin as he glided past us like one of those ice-skaters at the rink. "We'll see about that!"

I lost track of how many times we tried to catch the sneaky Shadow Usul… 45 times… Or was it 48 times? Anyway, we were unsuccessful! Until Aqua grabbed his furry tail!

"AAHH!" yelled the Shadow Usul, he turned to ram Aqua in the ribs, but luckily he missed and landed near the Turmaculus, who was having an afternoon snooze.

"Zzzzzz…" snored the giant Pet-pet as many Neopians tried to wake him up.

Suddenly, Thaerin winked at us and just plain vanished… Aqua and I were defeated with this method, so we decided to walk back to Illusen's glade. But Illusen wasn't there when we returned! Instead, a large, dark blue Lupe sat in the middle of the room. He snarled at us as we backed away quickly to outside.

"This is weird, very weird…" Aqua said "I'm sure she was there a minute before."

"Where's Illusen!" I exclaimed. "She's gone!"

Meanwhile, underneath the Lupe… There was a secret trapdoor and Illusen was trapped inside in the cramped space… "Hello? Can anyone help me?" she yelled. Illusen remembered that a strange Lupe asked her whether he could do a quest and she obliged, but then the Lupe growled very fiercely at her… He also snapped his teeth at her. She was so surprised she lost her balance- and fell into the trapdoor that was not there previously… Unfortunately, she wasn't carrying any of her weapons or magic with her at the time…! She felt hopeless, how would anyone know she was in this air lock? Anyway, Faeries can't die… Illusen realised.

Aqua stared at me, I couldn't figure out why… Until I realised why she was!

"Sabrina…? Are you alright?" Aqua said… I stared at myself and suddenly felt the immense pain course through my body; I dropped to my knees… I looked at Aqua desperately, but she could do nothing to help me as I struggled to breathe. "Please, Aqua… Help," I managed before I transformed… Aqua was looking at me in fear… What did I become this time! Heart beating rapidly, I looked at myself… What I saw was… AAAHHH! I didn't want to admit it, but I looked like a monster from someone's worst nightmare! Or possibly my worst nightmare…!