Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12 - Chapter 13
Chapter 14 - Chapter 15 - Chapter 16 - Chapter 17 - Chapter 18 - Chapter 19
Chapter 20 - Chapter 21
Chapter 14 - Chapter 15 - Chapter 16 - Chapter 17 - Chapter 18 - Chapter 19
Chapter 20 - Chapter 21
The Grundo dropped the Zafara and the two made a mad dash
back through the woods.
“Why did you leave her by herself?!” Hyren asked.
“Me?! You’re one to talk!” Blynn said as she raced beside
him on all fours. “I told you I’d be watching you!”
They found the camp in disarray, the fire smothered, and
Terra nowhere in sight. “No…” Blynn breathed, covering her mouth with her paw
like she was going to be ill. She trudged toward Terra’s disheveled pack and
bedroll, smoothing down the sleeping bag as though trying to find her owner in
it. “She—she’s gone…”
Hyren’s shoulders sagged. He had never meant for this to happen.
It was all his fault the girl and her Neopet were on this wild misadventure,
and now she could come to harm because of him. How could he have been so
stupid?
He began to inspect the campsite, watching his HUD’s
biosensor at the same time. He was going to take advantage of his tech for as
long as it stayed working. Small dots of life were scattered everywhere, bio-traces
of Petpets in the trees, but nothing large enough to be Terra, or whatever had
carried her off. “I’m not seeing any pertinent life forms on my scanner,” Hyren
said. “They must have moved fast. We’ll find her.”
“What do you mean, ‘we’?” Blynn asked as she grabbed the
lantern and marched over to the dying remnants of the fire. The mote was still
there, but rather than try to cajole the spooked fire sprite into the lantern,
Blynn just scooped it in and shut the window. “You go back to your precious Dr.
Sloth, Commander. I’m not letting you
near my owner again.”
Hyren scanned the leaf-covered ground and spotted Terra’s
glasses. They were miraculously undamaged, and Hyren picked them up and put
them in an empty compartment of his utility belt. “Blynn,” he said, turning to
the Zafara. “I’m not taking you two to Sloth. I promise.”
“But—you were talking to—“ Blynn sputtered.
“I never explicitly said I was bringing you two,” Hyren
said. “I let slip that I was travelling with you and I’m sorry—”
Blynn glared venom up at him and said, “’Sorry’ doesn’t mean
much. You really think I’m gonna trust you again? You’re clearly still working
for Sloth.”
“Look, every second we spend arguing is another second Terra’s
in danger!” Hyren said. “You don’t have to trust me, but just let me help you
get her back!” Depressions among dead leaves caught his eye. “Blynn, how good
are you with footprints?”
She stopped trying to find a way to carry Terra’s and her
own backpacks at the same time to say, “Not very. Why?”
“These definitely aren’t any of ours,” Hyren said. “They
look like they could belong to a Lupe, but… do Lupes get this big?”
“Werelupes do,” Blynn said.
“Were… Lupes?” Hyren asked.
She leaned over the tracks and said, “They’re like regular
Lupes, but… bigger and stronger. And wilder. They don’t have owners.”
“Then what would they want with an owner?” Hyren asked.
Blynn thought for a moment before shaking her head, her long
ears flopping from side to side as she clutched at her arms and said,
“Hopefully not dinner.”
“Come on,” Hyren said. He knelt down next to Terra’s pack
and lashed it to his cache of faerie weapons before hefting the entire bundle
back over his shoulder. He could easily handle even more weight than this, and
he didn’t want to leave anything of hers behind. “Let’s get moving, before it
starts raining and these tracks get erased.” He picked up the human’s sword and
strapped it to his waist opposite his own blade, the belt barely fitting his
girth.
“I told you, you’re not coming,” Blynn said. She gripped the
straps of her pack and began setting out in the direction the pawprints
pointed.
Hyren reached down and grabbed her bedroll to hold her back.
“I’m not letting you take on Werelupes alone,” he said.
“I’ve got a weapon!” she said, patting the slingshot at her
side.
“Blynn, do Werelupes live in packs?” Hyren asked.
She thought for a moment before sticking out her chin.
“Well, yeah, but… I’ll be fine!” she said. “Especially if the explosion thing
happens again!”
“You’re just one Neopet, and you have no idea how many
Werelupes could be at the end of this trail!” Hyren said.
“And you just want her back so you can bring her to Sloth!”
Blynn said.
Hyren crouched down so he was nearly eye level with her, and
stared closely at her, his hands on his knees. “Look,” he said. “I’ve done some
pretty idiotic things lately, but I care about Terra just as much as you do, in
spite of my best efforts to deny it. I have a job to do, and I owe my loyalty
to Sloth. But I promise I’ll keep the two of you safe.”
Narrowing her eyes, the Zafara scrutinised him for a moment,
and then turned and dropped to all fours. “Try to keep up,” she said. With
that, she dashed into the night.
“Pay attention to the trail!” Hyren called after her as he
drew his sword and broke into a jog. Although she was fast, the commander’s
long, loping strides allowed him to easily keep pace with her. He clutched the
rope around his shoulders, pulling his bundle of weapons close to his back so
outstretched branches wouldn’t pull it away. After all of the insanity he had
been through lately, he was looking forward to his rightful compensation. He just
had to make sure Terra was safe, first.
The two Neopets passed through paths in the dense
undergrowth that were just barely large enough for Hyren to fit through, and he
wondered what had made them. He felt like hitting himself for not spending more
time researching the Haunted Woods, but it had never figured largely into the
invasion plan. Aside from that, Virtupets agents simply hadn’t returned all
that much information on the mysterious and dangerous land. In fact, Hyren
wouldn’t have been surprised if some agents had never returned at all.
The Woods seemed to press in on them incessantly and the
pricking at the back of the commander’s neck was constant, just like the
sensation that something was following them, although every time he turned
around he saw nothing. Hyren could only hope the light from Blynn’s lantern would
keep danger at bay.
The Grundo stopped at a small clearing where the earth was
harder-packed than the soft soil they’d encountered so far. The tracks were now
much more difficult to pick out. They were hopelessly scattered and jumbled,
and with too many of them to have possibly belonged to just one Werelupe. “Oh.
Great,” he muttered. “Hold up!” he called to Blynn, who continued to sprint
pell-mell toward one of many openings in the trees.
She skidded to a stop and looked back at him. “C’mon, we
gotta keep going!” she panted.
“I lost the trail,” Hyren said, making his way around the
perimeter, trying to find a set of pawprints that broke away from the chaos.
Several led into the clearing, but he could see none leaving it.
“So?” Blynn said. “Hurry! This way!”
“You don’t know for sure it’s that way,” Hyren said. “It
could be any—“
“Yeah, I can smell ‘em this way,” Blynn said. “So there.”
“You can smell them?” Hyren asked. “Why didn’t you say so
before and save us the trouble of following footprints?!”
“I was never following footprints!” she said.
“Oh,” Hyren said. With a sigh, he stood up straight. He was
glad at least one of them had a good nose.
“Now c’mon! If it rains I’ll lose the scent!” Blynn said.
“Right,” Hyren said. “Lead
on, then.” The Grundo followed her deeper into the Woods. Please be okay, Terra, he thought. Blynn needs you. I… I need you.
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12 - Chapter 13
Chapter 14 - Chapter 15 - Chapter 16 - Chapter 17 - Chapter 18 - Chapter 19
Chapter 20 - Chapter 21
Chapter 14 - Chapter 15 - Chapter 16 - Chapter 17 - Chapter 18 - Chapter 19
Chapter 20 - Chapter 21
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