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Me: School's almost out! YAY!!

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Amy's POV

It did not take long for Saura and I to get right back on the road on to Bogshot Swamp after our little interruption. Alright, I admit, the "interruption" was actually not so bothersome for me, but I still shiver about it. How in the heck did I fall in love with a FICIONAL VIDEOGAME CHARACTER? But then again, Saura was always falling head over heels with book, videogame, tv show, etc. characters, so maybe it wasn't impossible.

But I still regretted it as she made a speech on it while we traveled down the Brightvale road to the swamps. "So you see Amy, love is a flexible emotion which causes strange feelings in even the most cold hearted person. It does not matter whether the subject of love be real or not, our minds just find themselves adoring anyone or anything that appeals to us in such a way that we cannot resist loving them. And-"

"Saura," I said. "Si?" she answered. "Enough, I know. I fell in love with a fictional character. But please…silence is golden." I told her. She merely looked at me as if I were the weird one, but didn't talk anymore though. We ran through the crossroads, not really wanting to deal with any minions, and Saura only just managed not to slam into one. Once we were safe near the plateaus, we stopped running, but kept up a quick pace. I held my wand out, just to be safe, and advised Saura to keep her sword and shield out as well.

"Hey, did I tell you?!" she asked, "I name my swords and shields!" she grinned at me insanely.

I gave her a dumbfounded look and she explained "You see, I name them on how the look or feel, so this Knight's Sword is Coolio, 'cause he looks cool, and this Iron Shield is Steelio, 'cause he's steely-ish."

"But he's and IRON shield, not steel." I pointed out and her face fell, then she glared at me.

"Whatever, Amy."

"I'm just sayin'. And how do you even know if they're guy or girl?"

"…"

"Saura?..."

"I dunno, stop asking me such hard questions!"

I didn't notice as it got darker around us as I retorted, "I'm not asking hard questions. YOU just don't know the answers to them." She scowled at me and she was going to say something back, when she suddenly fell. I gasped, and looked around, trying to see where she'd gone, then realized we were on the edge of Bogshot Swamps, at the ledges with the ladders that lead down into the swamps.

Saura's POV

-SQUELCH-

I landed in something muddy, but still managed one of those little tumble things, and was unhurt…but I sure smelled nasty. "Okay, not cool!" I squealed, wiping the mud off of me and out of my hair. Even if it was tied back with the rope, it had not escaped the mucky mess. Amy landed a few feet away from me on dry land, and I frowned at her. "You coulda warned me or something." I remarked bitterly.

"Yeah, but I didn't notice."

"Like you didn't notice that your wand is still made out of wood and you're gonna have a harder time defeating minions without the one in the chest in Roberta's room in the castle in Brightvale?" I took in a deep breath, and almost fell over.

"Did you get the golden rose for Prince Tourin?" asked Amy.

"Yeah…" I said, confused. What does that have to do with anything?

"Why didn't you give it to Princess Donna?"

"…"

"Saura?..."

"You know what? QUIT TALKIN' TO ME!" I snapped, and Amy rolled her eyes, muttering something that sounded along the lines of 'Typical'. I got off my knees and kept wiping away the gunk on my body as I stepped out of the pool of green water. "So…Bogshot." I said. "Looks like." Replied Amy.

When we arrived at the edge of the small village, I noticed the purple grarrl dragging his feet that always stood at the entrance in the game. Rushing over to him, I tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to me with a particularly frustrated look on his face and barked, "What do you want?"

I was about to say something, when I looked into his eyes and was quickly mesmerized by the waves of red swirling in them. After a few seconds had passed, the sickly grarrl lost his patience and growled, "What, girl, WHAT in Neopia do you WANT?!" I jumped, snapping out of the hypnotism, and asked, "How do you feel?" I supposed that this was the only time to find out what neopets felt like when sick, so I took advantage. "What sickness exactly do you have, sir?"

Normal POV

While Saura interrogated the unfortunate grarrl, Amy quietly slipped away to the apothecary as to not lose time in saving Bogshot. She entered the center of the village, and with a hint of disdain, took in the less-than-perfect sights. Who in the right minds would have built a village in a place like this?! Bugs everywhere, swamp water, tentacles and slorgs, swamp crokabeks, diseases! But then she remembered that this was supposed to be a videogame, and the Neopets Staff Team had created it, though she couldn't help but wonder if they ever thought of what made sense. Then again, it WAS a videogame, and videogame landscapes were made to entertain, not make sense.

Enough of that, it was time to get down to business. Amy viciously swatted a bug away, then marched into the apothecary, and was greeted by moans and groans, and the gross smell of who-knows-what, while a stressed-looking lupe busied himself to the extreme, taking care of the sick pets. The door made a creaking noise as Amy went in, and the lupe turned to the door, a look of panic on his face, and said, "Don't tell me, more sick pets?!" But when he saw Amy, healthy and on her feet, relief spread across his face, and he continued treating the sick.

Amy walked up to him, and asked, "Sir, need help? Perhaps you need a remedy, or maybe, perhaps, ingredients for a medicine of some sort?" The apothecary owner wheeled around so fast, the acara girl knew that it had to have made him dizzy.

"What do you know of it? How could you guess?!" He snarled, the stress apparently taking its toll on his manners. "Well, it's not too hard to see that you don't have the medicine to heal these pets, and if you had the ingredients, you'd be making it right now, am I right?" Amy remarked. The lupe sighed and rubbed his forehead in a sort of exasperated way. "Yes, miss, your right. We need a special kind of medicine, but have absolutely no ingredients!" Amy pretended to ponder this, then tilted her head slightly and asked, "Maybe me and my friend can go fetch said ingredients for you?" The lupe suddenly looked up, red, swirly eyes wide. "Oh, no, miss! The ingredients needed for the medicine are located deep in the Bogshot swamps, and those swamps are dangerous for pets who have not been born here! You cannot!" That's when Amy clarified how persistent she was, "Sir, I have recently escaped a maniacal faerie, fallen off a uni from a few miles in the sky, and have battled little demonic minions with my crazy friend. We can handle a swamp." The lupe was gazing at her as if she too needed to rest in the apothecary, but didn't seem to have the willpower to tell her no. Finally, he gave up, rubbing his forehead once more and saying, "Alright, miss, if you say so. But don't say I didn't warn you!"

Amy stepped out of the apothecary feeling quite proud of herself. She noticed Saura coming into the town soaking wet and spewing swamp water everywhere. Some flew into the bonfire, and it hissed on contact. The acara girl frowned slightly at Saura. "Er…" she more or less inquired. Saura blinked slowly and answered, "I think I shouldn't ask these people questions anymore. They don't take it very well." Amy gave her and amused smirk and announced, "I just talked to the lupe guy. Let's go find those berries." Saura gave her a mildly surprised look, but nodded and grinned, ready to start their adventure in the swamps.

So they crossed the bridge at the back of the village, and headed into the swamps, hearing all sorts of strange noises all around them. Several more bridges were crossed as the vast bog stretched out upon the girls' approach. Once back on a little terrace, Saura walked over to the rock wall of the swamp and slid a finger down it, then examined it. "These rocks are covered in slime! Ew!" she shrieked. Amy raised an eyebrow, and questioned, "Why did you even touch it at all?" Saura sheepishly explained, "Well, this probably may be the only time I get to touch anything in this world!"

Her acara friend sighed and asked, "You're always saying that! The only time you'll get to do this, the only time you'll get to do that…" she paused, then said, "You're right. Never mind then, carry on." Saura smiled triumphantly and followed Amy farther into the swamps.

Besides Saura being scared out of her wits by a tentacle randomly popping up out of shallow water on a terrace, the walk was uneventful until they reached the lily pads. "Saura, be ready for the minions." Amy warned her friend as the lupe girl leaped onto the first lily pad. "Oh, quit worrying, I know, and I wont be surprised!" she cried, jumping to the next lily pad and promptly falling off. But of course, knowing her luck, she'd gotten close enough to the temple like structure to set off the minions, and as she appeared back on dry land, the ugly, flying pigs-with-wings began to fly at them. Amy thought it was best to run and get to Kasstraliss faster, (for those of you who may not know, that's what the swamp snake is called. If you read the books in the game, you'll find him somewhere), so she went right on past the minions, crossing the lily pads and arriving at the temple structure.

Saura stayed back to fight to make sure Amy didn't have any distractions reaching the white bogberries, and screeched, "Begone evil thing! Or things!" while attacking the minions. She finished them off after a few attempts at jumping into the air, then slashing downwards and all that, and saw Amy come back at the temple structure.

Saura's POV

I saw Amy come back to the temple structure, and noticed the green minion archer close on her tail. I ran across the lilies as quickly as I could so I would be able to help her, but she'd already defeated it before I'd reached the structure. My friend gathered up the neopoints that fell to earth, and I thought as she did this. "Hey, Amy?" I said.

"Yeah, Saura?" she responded, still picking up the shiny coins.

"We should do that more often." I told her.

"Do what?"

"Split up and tag team it!"

"Hunh?"

I gave an exasperated sigh and explained, "While one of us does one thing, the other takes care of the other stuff!" Again, Amy calmly looked confused, so I defined what I'd meant. "Like just now, I beat the minions, and you went off and got the berries! While one does one thing, the other does the other! Except, lets think who's better equipped for each job, 'cause it's hard to get rid of those winged minions with a sword."

Finally, Amy's eyes widened and she gave me a quick smile. "Yeah, you're right. Good idea, Saura." Happy, we set off. Okay, we'd only gone a few steps past the temple structure when we heard a deep voice say, "You know…the thing about these sludgies is," and suddenly, the baggusses around us flashed orange, the voice finishing its sentence, "-they just can't get enough baggusses!"

Amy let out a sudden cry, and flew at the rock wall to where her beloved assassin was standing, but he vanished before she reached him. Now she was dazed, trying to steady herself, and to add to that, the once oblivious sludgies became aware of our presences. I grabbed Amy's arm, dragging her away as fast as our feet could carry us, which was pretty slow due to how dizzy she was. All of a sudden, Amy's arm was leaden and unmoving in my grip, and I looked back to see her all blue, a mist pouring out of nowhere around her body, and a sludgie about to strike her. I drew Coolio, ready to fight the mass of mud away, but then I too froze. I waited for the blow, but it never came.

I unfroze, and looked around to see Amy standing next to me, and next thing I know, she's heaving me through the mud. I realized she was trying to get me away from our foes, so I cleared my head, and got to my feet, and ran with her.

Apparently, when the sludgie had hit her, she was no longer dazed, and awake enough to save me from my sludgie. 'That had to be hard,' I thought, 'Her wand is still wooden, and probably not very strong.' "Thanks, buddy! Ya saved me!" I said gratefully, patting her on the back once we'd made it to the bridge that led towards the cave and huge broken pillars.

"Eh, no prob." She replied, and smirked, and said, "Come on, Saura, save me for once." I fumed at this, and indignantly told her, "Excuse me?! I saved your butt back there by dragging you away from those piles o' sludge!" She rolled her eyes.

"And dragged me towards another sludgie which froze me and harmed me. Oh yeah, thanks a whole bunch for…saving me."

I thought about this, then retorted, "Yeah, well, it woke you up, correct me if I'm wrong." Amy just shrugged and said, "Fine, you did do some good. But only a little."

We jumped onto the pillars and soon found ourselves at the area where the path split, the way to the left going to the red bogberries, the one going to the right heading to the black bogberries and Kasstraliss.

"Hey, Saura." Amy said.

"Eh?"

"How about we split up again? Since you're the one with the sword, you go on and take Kasstraliss, and grab the black bogberries, and I'll go get the red ones, then watch you battle the big snake."

I grinned, realizing how much of a great idea this was, and then gave Amy a thumbs up and racing down the path to the right while she ran down the one to the left. I came up to another temple structure, this one more intricate, and jumped across the wooden platforms and to the battle area.

I saw the telltale gleam of the black bogberries in the middle of the ring of stone and shallow water. On the last wooden platform, I applied a Sun mote to Coolio and a Shadow mote to Steelio and my armor. I leapt to the shallow water, and immediately after, Kasstraliss exploded out of the deeper water outside the ring. He went back under and I climbed onto one of those stone platforms in the ring of shallow water. Kasstraliss again came up, but I quickly jumped to the next block of stone, and avoided him.

This time, I waited, and he surfaced to my right. I turned and saw his green mouth open, and knew he was about to strike. I put up Steelio, and closed my eyes, waiting for impact. It came, and I put down Steelio to see Kasstraliss dazed and lying in the shallow water. I took advantage, raising Coolio and bringing it down onto the large snake's head. It instantly reeled back up, then sank under the deep water once more. This was going to take a little while.

Amy's POV

I had just grabbed the red bogberries when I heard a loud screech that almost sounded mechanical. 'That must be Kasstraliss smashing the stone things.' I thought, and wondered how Saura was doing. She had definitely hit him two times, thus the noise. I took my time making my way to the arena, knowing that Saura would have to repeat that wait-jump-hit technique a few more times. As I went on, I heard the mechanical screech again, and decided that Saura was doing just fine.

I arrived in the large temple structure to see Saura standing on a stone, waiting for Kasstraliss. I jumped to the last wooden platform to watch. The snake monster surfaced behind Saura, and before she turned around completely, blue circles came out of his eyes, and my friend was frozen. Kasstraliss reared back, and struck her, and I cried out, "No, you beast!" I then realized I had made a mistake in making any sound at all as he faced me. 'Oops…' I thought, and he sunk beneath the water.

I was about to jump back to the temple when the snake destroyed the next wooden platform by coming out of the water in front of me. I did the only thing that came to my mind, and put a light mote on my wand, then a dark mote on my force field-shield. Kasstraliss reared back, opening his mouth, and I held my wand in front of me, then he attempted to strike me, but hit my force field.

As soon as he began to sink down, I let out energy in my wand, and hit him with a blast of light powered magic.

Normal POV

"NO! Come back, you brute!" Saura cried out as Kasstraliss went after Amy, and watched as her friend put motes on her weapon, then proceeded to defeat him by hitting him with the last hit needed.

The boss raised its head like normal, but this time, coughing up green, poisonous mists and tossing his head around. He tried flapping his tiny wings, as if it would help, but eventually he gave up, and fell, the lower half of his body forming a sort of bridge between Amy's platform and the next undamaged one, his upper half forming a bridge where he'd obliterated the first one.

Saura jumped off the stone, and grabbed the black bogberries, and joined the acara as the sky began to clear. "Well, looks like we defeated the first dark boss." Announced the lupe girl proudly, and Amy couldn't help but agree.

The two made their way back to Bogshot Village, and headed into the apothecary, handing over the berries. The lupe owner was ecstatic, amazed that the girls had lived through the swamps, and then started to prepare the medicine. Outside, the two saw that the green aisha lady was already healthy once again, happily walking about.

Saura squeaked when she saw the grarrl from before approaching her, and Amy went into the Brendel and Sons building to confront Brendel about fixing the Brightvale bridge. She exited to hear the grarrl say, "And that's how it feels to be sick. I'm surprised you don't know, missy." Saura sheepishly grinned and shrugged, thanking him for telling her.

"So," said Amy, "Off to Meridell. Or should I say off to the Werelupe Woods, then Cogham, then Meri Acres Farm, then Market Town, THEN Meridell?"

Saura laughed and said, "Yeah, pretty much!" and the two friends left Bogshot.

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Me: Ah yes, another chapter! Bogshot!

Saura: Yup, we beat that silly snake! HA!

Amy: Go us.

Me: I apologize for the wait, and hope you all like this chapter. I remind you, reviewers, feel free to give any constructive criticism! Anonymous reviews definitely accepted.