Hey, sorry I didn't update for so long, I went to summer camp and had writer's block when I came back. Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Emma's throat got tighter and tigher with fear as she climbed down the ladder. gripping the ladder so tightly that her knuckles were white.
She took several deep breathes, and tried to look down.
It's just a ladder, Emma, she told herself. It just happens to be a very long to fear.
But yes, there was fear. Fear that her foot might slip off the rung and she would fall. She clenched her teeth in fear as she went down. About half an hour later, Emma glanced down again. She was more than halfway down.
I can do it, she told herself. I can.
She descended for about ten more minutes when her arms and legs began to get tired.
Oh no! Emma thougt as sweat dripped down her forehead. What if I don't make it?
She forced her hands to stay clutched to the ladder rungs and her feet to stay on the lower rungs.
After about another hour, Emma finally reached the ground. Now, she just had to wait for her Neopet to get down.
While she waited for her neopet, Emma looked through her Inventory, which was really a huge brown bag that was meant to be slung over her shoulder. Emma had already memorized what was in her inventory, but she'd only seen those things on her computer screen and not in real life.
Emma stuck her hand into he ory bag and touched something slimy. On instinct, she pulled it out.
Yuck. It was some Lost Desert food, a mummified banana, left to rot in the inventory. It was now a gooey mess inside a bag of bandages and stuck to her hand like glue. Disgusted, Emma shook it off, watching the mush fall to the ground.
Emma dug her hand into her Inventory bag again, this time careful of what she pulled out.
The thing she pulled out was one of those boring cardboard petpets she got in her newbie pack when she first signed up for Neopets - a Frogler. The petpet's cardboard was slightly bent and it scuttled around weakly on the palm of her hand. None of her neopets had wanted that Frogler, but she couldn't give it away or donate it. So Emma set the petpet down on the ground and watched it scuttle away. She hoped it would live better without her or her neopets.
Next, Emma pulled out a red, heart-shaped berry that someone had obviously taken a bite out of. It was gross, but it was still fresh and Emma was very hungry from climbing down the ladder so she ate the other half. When her Neopet finally came down on the ground, the two got into a small boat and rowed to Mystery Island.
The ocean between Mystery Island and Faerieland was strangely calm. They saw quite a few "free" Maraquan shoyrus swimming around on the surfface (if a Neopet is "free", that means it's not owned by a human)
Emma checked her watch as the boat floated closer and closer to Mystery Island. Why did things on Neopets have to take so long? First, the ladder, now this!
When the boat got close enough to Mystery Island, Emma decided she might as well swim to Mystery Island to make things more interesting. She pulled off her sneakers (there were fluffy bits of cloud sticking to them) and peeled off her socks. Then, Emma dipped her hand in to the water to feel if it was the right temperture for swimming. The water was the right temperature for swimming.
"Do you want to swim too?" Emma asked her neopet.
Her neopet did not want to. Instead, the neopet wanted to follow Emma in the boat while Emma swam to the island. So, Emma jumped into the water.
The water was surprisingly chilly, despite the warm temperature of Mystery Island. Emma shuddered and began swimming. Maybe she'd warm up if she moved.
After what seemed like forever, Emma and her neopet reached shore. She dried herself off with a Tooth Fairy towel and with her neopet she got ready to take in whatever she might see next.