The next day was bright and sunny, and very, very hot. Lucia had discovered a cool spring, and she jumped in it, still in her traveling clothes, glad to be in fresher water. It was very relaxing, and she let herself drift away for an hour, enjoying swimming around, getting out and pushing a watching Hoban in, laughing at his comical grimace and playing a game of Coco Catch with Seli and Hoban. Seli would flutter up and catch the coconut in her paws, then bat it to Hoban, who would then toss it fast at Lucia, and so they played that game for several more hours, happily absorbed in its simplicity. Hoban grinned when he caught a paticularly hard one, and Lucia laughed when Seli caught the nut in her mouth instead and tried to toss it that way.
The same doubt lurked at the back of their minds, waiting to pounce at the right moment. They had managed to push it back the first time, but the next day was rainy and chilly, with some distant thunder and bright lightning flashing away. The tropical rain poured down, but Lucia worried that the shower was too long to be typical. It rained and rained, a cubic mass of falling raindrops. She had climbed a slippery tree and sat at the top, pondering and gazing inland. She turned and saw Hoban trying to fish from a low rock, and she waved and called out. He turned his head, smiled, and waved back, mouth opened to reply, but then his eyes flew wide open. He clutched the rock, now partly in the water, and the thunder got louder. Lucia heard a call, and saw Seli fly over to her in alarm.
Lucia leapt down from the tree and dashed across the sands. She waded into the water, to Hoban's rock. The water had gotten very deep, so she was swimming with churning strokes. Hoban grabbed her outsreched hoof, and she pulled harder on his arm, trying to free him. Realizing force was best, she secured her hold on his paw and heaved back, wings straining. They flew upwards, then crashed onto a larger outcropping. A gigantic sharklike thing came with them, then it flopped back into the water, teeth still bared in a soundless cry that it had been foiled. They huddled together on the rock, saw the last gleam of a silver-bright fin, then the strange being vanished back into the water.
"What was that?" she asked Hoban. He just stared blankly back at her, shook his head, eyes still a little dazed. Then she saw two long scratches running down the other's leg. "You're hurt! Here." she exclaimed. She passed a gentle hoof over it, then it closed up and some color went back into the yellow Aisha's pale face.
"I am quite advanced in healing skills. I believe it is a water faerie that blesses you with the Heal power, and I have studied with the Healing Springs faerie." She answered to Hoban's unspoken question.
Just at that moment, Seli fluttered down from the palm and nudged a coconut toward Lucia. She murmured a soft word of thanks in a strange jumping growl, and Seli responded likewise, only in welcome.
"Earth Faeries know much of the languages of animals, and I also learned it firsthand and with the Library Faerie."
Hoban noddded, and his soggy cap slid back and fell off his head. With a muttered curse, he grabbed it and put it back on.
"You have long been with the Faeries, it seems." His tone was flat, nuetral, but Lucia thought she could detect a glimmer of...Jealousy? In those fathoms-deep eyes. She looked away into the jungle, sighing inwardly. Too many questions about her past. She hoped Hoban would never meet DarkestDusk, a Peophin who all too much history, history best forgotten by those she told it to. But Lucia never forgot. Hoban would have a field day questioning her.
"Not only with the Faeries, but with other great beings. Like..." She hesitated, unsure whether she should mention her lineage. She decided against it in a sudden flash. 'He might not trust me ever again, and both of us will be in more danger if someone else got to know about me.' "...Like the Aisha Enchantress, the Kyrii Explorer, Jake the Explorer...he was funny, but rather prone to sarcasm sometimes. I have questioned Jazan, and held a small council with Fyora and Taelia..." He sat silently until Lucia finished with the council. Seli had flown over and settled in his lap, and he was stroking the Faerie Seti absentmindedly, until she fell asleep under his soothing stroking. Lucia pointed toward Seli. "You two get some sleep. I'll take first watch, you take second, Seli will take-"
"Third." He finished for her. Then Hoban crawled a short ways off and fell asleep, head resting on a small pile of sand covered with a leaf.
The night passed uneventfully, apart from Lucia waking up Hoban, then Hoban waking up Seli for the different watches. But had Lucia's keen eyes been watching in the hour before dawn, when all is still, she would have seen a slight unnatural ripple on the cold waters, and a little bit of a fin vanishing into the surf. But the Seti saw nothing but for darkness and moon gleaming on sand and rock.
Now Lucia took it upon herself to explore the island. She insisted that the others should stay, but they insisted that they would follow her no matter what. So now she found herself resignedly hacking away, the leader of an adventrous trio: Herself, Hoban walking rearguard, Seli curled upon his shoulders.
Hoban groaned, "How much farther? You know i'm used to clambering about a ship, not tramping about some Fyora-forsaken palace of weeds!"
Seli snarled at some gigantic scribblets on the ground, and they scurried away. Now it was Lucia's turn to moan in complaint and disbelief.
"What?" Questioned the Navigator.
"See for yourself. But for your sake, be careful!" She gestured in front of her, and flung a fore-leg out to stop him from falling into a deep and wide crevice that just rose out of the dense underfoilage. He stepped back, eyes wide, and Lucia muttered something very impolite under her breath, eyes fixed on the gaping hole. Seli curiously flew over to it, and was going to fly over, but Lucia snatched her tail and pulled her back- just in time! A cloud of angry steam shot up, and it would have boiled the petpet alive.
"I guess this is it. Let's go back." said Lucia, turning tail on the obstacle and heading back the way they had come. Hoban lingered for a few seconds, but a screech arose from the depths of the jungle, and he jumped and hurried to catch up to his partners. They slept the entire night without posting watches, for the long hike and trudging through sticky mud and over clinging roots had left them exhausted. The moon waned, and now it was cut in half. Slowly, at first imperceptibly, the air chilled on that tropical island.
Lucia awoke shivering. She gave a start when she saw little icicles hanging down from trees, and wondered why little white things were drifting down. Then her mind cleared. Snow?! This was a hot and humid island? How could there be snow? But there it was, lazily descending from the heavens. She looked up at the thick grey clouds, and gave vent to a tiny rant of more colorful adjectives. The clouds had a slight purplish tint around them, and far off in the distance, she could see it was clear skies and sunny warm airs. Magic. Lucia got up, noting that it was falling more steadily now, and the flakes were getting larger. She shook the other two and whispered,
"Get up. There's going to be an 'ell of a snowstorm soon. Don't ask me why, or how. We need to get to shelter. I saw some suitable boulders with a good dry cave. We're heading there to last it out." Indeed the two did not believe her at first, but their eyes took in the scene and they nodded, then silently packed up what few belongings they had and followed Lucia. She led them up a little climb over strong boulders, and pointed out a cave. It was quite dry inside, and fairly cozy. They lit a fire and sat silently, not wanting to say anything about their misfortune to land on an enchanted- indeed likely evilly enchanted- island. Finally Seli broke the melancholy silence with a little whimper of hunger. She fiercly nudged a coconut against the wall, and it broke. She ate and drank out of it eagerly, not caring about what a coconut Jubjub would say if he saw that moment.
"Rawprrrr" she p'rred and r'ared for a little while after finishing, then took a pile of leaves and settled herself down upon their odd furry softness. The corners of Lucia's mouth creaked a little upwards.
She commented, "You know, Hoban, what our dear little friend is sleeping on right now, those leaves used to be used for lavratory paper in Mystery Island. They still are, in the native parts." Hoban chuckled and replied,
"Hopefully she doesn't know that." He indicated Seli, who was quite oblivious to their animated discussion. She was busy dreaming about pink clouds in the shape of bananas, and flying Snowbunnies giving her full powers over Coltzan's Shrine. (Note-Not Possible)
Lucia laughed softly, a clear trill. Her blue eyes were alight with merriment, but soon it was replaced by hopelessness as the enormity of the situation engulfed her. Two inexperienced Neopets and a petpet were trapped on an enchanted island, and evil things lurked the water while temperatures and land formations could change drastically in the space of a night. They could not fly out. They were trapped. For-
'No! Not Forever! ' But her words rang hollowly in her ears, and now Hoban looked at her, his face reflecting her own desperate thoughts. How would they escape? How would they escape, before the evils of this island destroyed them?
The wind began to howl with an unearthly noise, and Lucia willed some rocks to move to mostly block the entrance, letting in some fresh air, but not all. They huddled together, unwilling inhabitants taking refuge from a cold tropical storm.
-Authors Note- : I would just like to thank Hoban for letting me put him through some more near-drowning and near-death-at-sea again, although this story is stationed before the Cyodrake's Gaze comic. Which is not mine, it is from Neopets. Thank you TNT for creating that comic; it inspired me partially to create this story, if you are reading this right now. Thanks for all the reviews! ;D I'll keep on writing and writing! (Even if there are no reviews when you read this, I'm sure you will post one for me! -.^)