Disclaimer: I don't own Neopets the darkest Faerie

Chapter 6:

His eyelids felt too heavy to open them, but Tor could hear somebody in the room with him, wherever they were. He could hear them shifting around, pacing, breathing. Nobody ever spoke though, and as far as Tor could tell, it was always the same person every time he managed to bring himself into consciousness, though it was never for very long. This time Tor forced his eyes to open, blinking against the light that attacked them ruthlessly. Tor tried to sit up and ignore the pain, but a hand on his chest forced him to lie down again.

"Don't move just yet."

"Roberta?" Tor asked, looking up at the blue acara. Yeah, that was Roberta. "Where am I?"

"Meridell castle. You've been out for three days now, Tor. You gave me quite the scare."

Memories of the battle came flooding back all at once. Seeing Lucy being carried away by werelupes, chasing after her, the sudden appearance of the dark murderer, and being stabbed. He closed his eyes. "Did you find her?"

"Tor… I'm so sorry. We couldn't get past the skull. You know it won't open for us and I tried to get Sophie to make us another necklace but she was acting strange and—"

Tor cut her off. "You're rambling, Roberta. All you needed to say was no." He sat up again and brushed Roberta's hand aside. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, wobbling a little and feeling lightheaded. Roberta stood too and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Tor, please. You haven't healed yet! Just lie down a while longer and another patrol will be sent out tomorrow and you can go then, but for now you need to rest!"

"My sister is being held prisoner right now, all alone and scared. You can't expect me to do nothing!" Tor snapped angrily. He walked out of the room to go back to the knights' quarters where he expected his armor to be. Roberta followed him.

"That's not what I expect you to do at all! You know that! But I would expect you to be smarter than this! You were stabbed three days ago and you haven't healed yet! You can't keep pushing yourself like this, or you'll get yourself killed!"

Their shouting match was beginning to attract attention. Doors began to crack open as Neopets began to poke their heads through and eavesdrop. Tor turned around and glared at Roberta. "You worry too much!"

Roberta put her hands on her hips. "You don't worry enough! What if the assassin is there? Do you really think that you could take him on in this state? You can barely walk, Tor!"

Tor shook his head, turned, and began to walk again. He passed Sir Rufus and stopped. "Rufus, tell Master Torak that I need a patrol ready to go to Werelupe Woods."

The green grarrl frowned. "The skull is impossible to get through though. And are you sure you should even be out of bed just yet?"

"No, he shouldn't," Roberta cut in. "But he insists that he gets hurt even more."

"I am fine!" Tor snapped at her. "I'm going to get my sister. Rufus, please tell Master Torak that I have a way to get by the skull."

Roberta followed Tor's fast pace until she bumped into a servant, sending her cleaning supplies ever. Her nature forced her to stop and help clean everything up, despite the protests that she was a guest in the castle, while Tor carried on. He went straight for the Knights' Quarters and put on his armor in record timing before Roberta could come and stop him which she was apparently so set out to do. Someone had cleaned his sword for him and had it resting on his bunk. Tor picked up the gift from King Altador and inspected it. Not a single dent. The most reliable sword he'd ever known. Tor sheathed his sword and opened his trunk.

Roberta then burst through the door and quickly strode over to Tor who tried his best to ignore her. She sat on the edge of his bed and sighed. "Tor, I get that you need to do this, I'm not going to try and stop you anymore. But please, talk to your parents before you leave."

Tor looked up. He hadn't even started going through the mess that was his trunk, choosing to wait for her to speak first. "They're here?"

"Yes. Get ready and then I'll take you to them. But Tor…"

"What's wrong?"

Roberta sighed again and put a hand on Tor's shoulder. "Your mother is very broken up about this whole thing. I've been to see them a few times a day. Your dad is trying to get her to eat, but she won't. I've been trying too. Seeing you up and ready might help her a bit."

Tor nodded. "I'll… I'll talk to them then." He moved around items in his trunk until he found a small wooden box that had somehow gotten wrapped up in an old ragged shirt. Tor opened it and took out the werelupe tooth necklace which was the key to getting by the skull. He draped it around his neck, closed his trunk and stood up. "I'm ready," he said, holding out a hand and helping Roberta up.

Roberta led Tor to the guest room where his parents would be. They were silent; Tor thinking very hard about what he might see when they got there. He was nervous to see how his mother was going to react, if she reacted at all. From what Roberta said, Tor wasn't sure that he would get as much as a greeting from her. Roberta stopped outside the door and Tor looked over his shoulder at her. He'd been expecting her to come in with him.

"This is a private moment for you and your family," Roberta explained immediately. "I'll go and see about that patrol."

"Alright," Tor agreed. Roberta left and Tor watched her walk down the hall a little way before easing open the door and sliding in. The room was dimly lit and the shades were pulled shut, but it was like every other room in the castle. Elegantly decorated with blue, red, and gold, and the most expensive furniture, it looked like a room for a noble family, not poor farmers. Hubert was sitting at a desk, writing down something on a piece of parchment. Probably designs for some new inventions. Tor guessed that his mother was in the bed which had curtains drawn shut.

"Hey dad," Tor whispered.

Hubert looked around at his son. "Tor!" He exclaimed, quickly standing and sweeping Tor into a large hug. "How do you feel?"

"I've been better. I'm going to get Lucy soon. There's a patrol getting ready now."

"I heard that they couldn't get in."

Tor lifted the werelupe tooth necklace. "Well I've got the key."

"You don't have to go Tor. You're still in pain."

Tor shook his head. "I have to do this. I failed once already. It's not going to happen again." Tor spoke with such conviction, it was hard to not believe that it was the truth. Tor glanced over to the bed. "How is mom?"

Hubert now shook his head slowly and sadly. He gestured for Tor to follow him and they went around to the other side of the bed. Hubert opened the drapes and gently shook his wife shoulder. She immediately opened her eyes and it hurt Tor to see the sadness and pain in her eyes. "Patricia, Tor is here."

Her eyes flickered over to Tor as he kneeled down next to the bed. "Hi mom. I can't stay long. Just wanted to come and tell you that I'm alright." Tor leaned forward a little and took her hand in his armored one. "I promise you, that I am going to find Lucy and bring her home. No werelupe and no assassin will stop me for a second time."

….

Tor glanced over at Roberta riding Solarin. Soon they would be entering werelupe woods. She, along with everyone else, looked very determined. Tor felt that same determination. He was going to save his sister, not just some neopet that he didn't know. He would die if he had to, just to save Lucy. He just hoped that it didn't need to come to that."

"Hey Tor," Grayson shouted over the sound of hoof beats. "What if the gray gelert guy is there? He's the leader, right?"

Tor had been thinking about that himself. "Yeah, he is. But when we go in there, we aren't storming the place. There are different levels and many different pathways. We'll sneak in, split up and pick off werelupes as we go. I know it's not the way were normally fight, but that's the way we do this."

"What… pick them off while they're sleeping?" Ignatius asked. "There's no honor in that!"

"Would you rather us be massacred when every werelupe in that place comes out to kill us?" Tor snapped. He looked at Master Torak who had named him the leader of this particular mission. "Sir, I have been through this before. You can't just go in there and give your battle cry. It won't work. The groups of werelupes that have been attacking, they are just a small fraction of what there really is. We would never win. We'd be dead before we got halfway through the first level."

"So what do you propose we do?" Torak asked.

"Like I said, we split up into two groups. One with me, the other with Roberta. She knows the way. There are a lot of different pathways that twist you around or just lead to dead ends, so you have to make sure that you stick with your group. The main passages are each marked with a skull, so if you do get lost, that's where you go. The main passages lead to lower levels. They keep prisoners at the bottom level. We just have to get there."

….

The group entered a large cavern, leaving the outside darkness and entering an even greater darkness. The unis began to get restless and Tor couldn't get his to move forward. He could just make out Roberta jump off her uni and draw her wand which cast a small amount of light around them and showed the cliffs that Tor knew were there. He climbed off of his uni which obviously was not about to move.

"This happened last time too," Roberta said to Tor. "We had to climb."

Tor looked up at the rocky cliffs, remembering the last time he'd had to climb up them. There had been ladders at that time, though Tor didn't see any now. He sighed. "Guess we'd better get started then." Tor ran at the first small ledge that was several feet over his head. He jumped as high as he could and planted his right foot on the stone. He used the momentum he gained to push himself higher and grabbed the ledge. Tor hauled his body over the edge with a grunt and stood up to wait for the others to climb. Months of doing that very same thing had made him and Roberta expert climbers, but it wasn't the same for the others. In Tor's opinion, it could have gone much smoother had it just been him and Roberta.

"Oh thank the lord!" Grayson exclaimed when all of the knights had gotten to the top of the cliffs. Tor shook his head and walked through the mouth of the cavern and into the swamp. It was dark, very little light coming from the shack on the hill that sat in the middle of the water. That was where Sophie resided. Tor didn't plan on stopping by for a visit. He turned in the direction where the werelupe caves would be and set off. He kept his eyes open for crokabeks, slorgs, or any other monster that might try and attack them. He expected to see a few werelupes roaming around, hunting or guarding the lair, but he saw nothing, not even outside the skull.

"Roberta, do you find it strange that we haven't seen a single werelupe?" he asked quietly, staring at the massive skull across the clearing.

Roberta nodded slowly. "I didn't see any last time either. I thought that maybe we'd caught them on a shift change or maybe there was some kind of meeting. But the chances of that happening twice, not very likely at all." She walked forward and stood in front of the skull. "What do you think?"

Tor glanced around at the knights waiting for him to make a decision. He grabbed the necklace of teeth around his neck and held it up to look at it. Things weren't looking good already. There were no werelupes in Werelupe Woods that he could see. There was no sound of howling or the sound of one making a kill. Nothing to show that they were there. "I say we go in there and look around. Stick with the original plan." There were sound of agreement and Tor walked forward. With each step the mouth began to open. Tor led the way into the lair and through the tunnel. He could hear the hissing of the spyders, angry at the trespassers but not daring to come out.

"Are those poisonous?" Lawrence asked warily. Tor looked up at the ceiling where spyders were crawling around, hissing. He could see the green markings on their backs that showed they were indeed poisonous.

"Just ignore them. I've got the antidote just in case, but don't do anything that will cause me to have to use it. It's expensive."

They came to where the tunnels split into two directions around a wide, empty cavern. Tor remembered seeing it filled with werelupes, but now he saw none. Just bones and stone. Tor's heart felt even heavier. He turned to the group and saw Roberta's understanding look. They weren't going to find Lucy. "Grayson, Aldwin and Ignatius, you three go with Roberta. Go right." He gestured to Ebard, Lawrence and Master Torak. "You three come with me."

"See you at the bottom," Roberta said. "Be careful."

"Yeah, I'm not the one who got caught in a trap!" Tor grinned at her. Roberta scowled at him and set off down the path with the three knights following her. Tor went down the other path and indicated for the others to follow him. Tor sheathed his sword, knowing that he wouldn't be using it at all. Tor turned through an opening with a skull hanging over it and it took the into another sort of room with three other tunnels. One was marked with a skull. "See, very straightforward."

"Where do the other tunnels lead?" Lawrence asked.

"Some take you around in a circle, some to other smaller dens. I've found treasure in some too," Tor explained as he walked. The ground began to slope gradually downward. After several twists and turns the knights stepped out onto a small ledge where the only thing separating them from the other side was a rickety rope bridge. Several of the planks were missing and others looked rotted. "Alright, one at a time. I'll go first." Tor stepped onto the bridge and the wood creaked. Rather than spend any more time than he needed to on that death trap, Tor walked across as quickly as he could. "Come on over!" he called from the other side.

Master Torak went next and after that Lawrence. Ebard looked like he would rather stay by himself on the other side, but he too began to cross, not about to be outdone by his comrades. "How does this thing even hold werelupes?" he called out as the bridge swayed beneath him. Tor gritted his teeth and willed the lupe to hurry up before the bridge broke. Suddenly the board that Ebard was stepping on snapped. Ebard yelped and jumped forward causing that board to break also. Torak shouted for the knight to keep going and Ebard panicked, running rather than walking. He stumbled as wood snapped beneath his pounding feet. Tor saw the rope straining and beginning to fray. He reached out past the beginning tear and gripped the rope.

"MOVE IT EBARD!" he shouted, pulling tight to keep it from ripping. The knights flew by him off the bridge just as the rope snapped. Tor let it go and watched the bridge twist awkwardly to one side. He looked at Ebard who stood bent over with his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. "You alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Never doing that again."

Tor nodded. "Looks like we'll be taking the other way back. Let's keep going."

…

They entered another large cave. Tor recognized it immediately, though he'd known what it was from the beginning. He'd defeated the werelupe king just feet from where he stood. Tor looked around at the cave. There were grooves in the rock that were made to be seats for when what Tor guessed were meetings were held. On one side there were cages similar to the one Roberta had been trapped in. They were attached to ropes that went up through holes in the ceiling that prisoners were lowered through.

"You know," Tor began as he walked toward the cages. "This place is so much creepier without the werelupes."

"I agree," said the voice of Roberta as she and the three others walked through the other entrance. She threw a hateful look at the cages. "I don't understand where hundreds of them could have gone without anyone noticing."

Tor shook his head. He didn't get it either. He gripped the bone bars of the nearest cage and looked inside. There was a little pink bow sitting at the bottom. That was Lucy's; Tor would have recognized it anywhere. He'd given it to her for crying out loud! Tor gripped his sword and angrily cracked it against the bones once, twice, and on the third they came apart.

"Tor!" Roberta gasped. "What are you doing?"

He bent down and picked up the bow. "Look at this! She was here!" He held up the pink ribbon and showed it to her. Roberta opened her mouth, but no words came out. Tor dropped the ribbon and stalked through the exit. "Let's go. We aren't going to find anything here, but maybe Sophie might know something."

"That crazy witch?" Grayson asked. "Last time she only laughed in our faces."

"It's worth a shot," Tor growled. "I'm going to find out where they went even if I have to cross the entire kingdom. Once I do, the Assassin won't get the best of me twice."

….

Tor knocked on the door of the shack before opening it and stepping inside. Sophie was stirring something in a large cauldron. The smell of rotted baggus and bulbar fruit assaulted Tor's nose and burned his eyes.

"Ahhh, familiar faces I see," Sophie murmured without even turning to look at the visitors.

"Sophie, I need to ask you a few questions about the werelupes," Tor said, watching Grayson poke at a smoke mote.

"Of course that's what you came for," Sophie mumbled. She squinted at Tor from under the brim of her hat. "Took someone dear to you, didn't they? A sister maybe?"

Tor nodded. "Yes, my sister Lucy. Do you know where they went?"

Sophie stroked her chin. "Hmmm. I may have some information. But you shall have to do something first. A payment perhaps."

"This is a waste of time, Tor," Ignatius muttered. "She doesn't know anything. Let's just go."

"How much do you want?" Tor asked, ignoring Ignatius. Sophie knew something, and now he needed to know. This was just how Sophie worked.

Sophie cackled. "It ain't how much, young lupe. I request just one small vial of the venom from one of them flower monsters of the Shadowglen."

"Like I said, Tor. Waste of time," Ignatius said loudly to Tor. "Look you crazy—"

Tor held up his hand to tell Ignatius to be quiet. Sophie glared at the scorchio, muttering curses under her breath. "Ignore him, Sophie. I'll pay your price."

"What? Come on Tor!" Grayson exclaimed. Tor sent him a quieting look as he took the bottomless bag from his back. He knelt down on the ground and searched through it for the vial he knew was in there. On their journey, he and Roberta had taken samples of poisons from many different creatures they'd encountered. Who knew what use could be made from them? It took a while, but Tor finally found it, along with several other things he hadn't seen in months. Tor handed the vial to Sophie who sniffed it to make sure it was real.

"Very well, knight. Four nights ago I watched from my window there as them werelupes ran from their lair. All of 'em. A dark figure was at the lead with a rapier at his side. Of course I recognized him for who he really was. Your sister, Lucy you call her, was with 'em. Chained up and alive."

So Lucy was alive. Tor breathed a sigh of relief. "Do you know where they went?"

"Nope. The Assassin did say somthin' bout going east."

"That's all?" Tor asked, his frustration evident. He shook his head and turned around. "Thanks anyway I guess. Let's go everyone."

They left, Tor feeling disheartened about the lack of information. Lucy was still alive, but she could be anywhere by now, and all Tor knew was that she'd gone east.