Once Special Egg by rtangel511115 | |
"Oh, Keri, I'm so excited!" exclaimed Reya, the gold Shoyru.
"I've always wanted a sibling, and we're going to get a Draik!"
"I know, Reya, I know," said her owner Keri,
who could hardly contain her own excitement. "I'm just happy we were finally
able to save up enough." Keri had wanted a Draik ever since they were announced
on the news page, she had fallen in love with the species at first glance. She
had been playing games for months to finally be able to afford the Draik egg
at the trading post.
The pair finally reached the Trading Post at
Mystery Island. Keri found the lot she wanted, and bid her Neopoints. "Well,
Reya, won't be long now!" The two waited patiently, and after about five minutes,
the trading Faerie told them that their trade had gone through. Sure enough,
when Reya and Keri looked at their items, there was a beautiful red Draik egg.
"Looks like all we have to do is wait for it
to hatch," Reya guessed. "Do you know how long its supposed to take?" she questioned.
"I know that we have to take her to the Draik
Nest, and that's in Meridell. Come on, we better hurry if we want to make it
before dark," Keri answered.
While trekking to Meridell, both were imagining
the new family member, and what she would be like.
"So what color will she be painted, Keri? We
can't just leave her red!"
"Hmm... well, I don't know, Reya. This egg has
taken up most of our savings... we don't have a whole lot left. I've always
liked the starry Draik, but we'll have to do some saving up first."
"Yeah..." Reya said thoughtfully. "Starry is
good."
Finally, the pair reached Meridell. They made
their way to the secret nest where Draiks were to be hatched. To Keri's surprise,
no other owners were there to hatch their eggs.
"So, I guess now we jut put her in that... nest,"
Keri guessed doubtfully, pointing at the weird-shaped bundle of plants, "and
she'll hatch by herself. The article in the times said it would take up to two
minutes." So Keri did, placing the egg carefully on the nest. Then, she stepped
back with Reya, and waited. And waited. And waited. Keri looked at her watch
after a while, and discovered that it had been twelve minutes. She heard a loud
cough from behind her, and turned around. There was an male owner, tapping his
foot impatiently, with a blue egg in his arms.
"Oh, um, you can go." Keri rushed. "Sorry."
She removed her egg, and let the boy go. As the article had said, the boy was
there only a minute and a half before leaving with a small blue Draik. "That's
odd," she though aloud.
"Keri! Why isn't it working? Where is our Draik?"
Reya whined.
"I don't know," Keri answered honestly. "But
Reya, it's getting dark. We have to head home now. We'll try again tomorrow,
and if it still doesn't work, we'll talk to the person who sold us it." But
Keri was not as sure as she sounded.
So, Keri and Reya headed back to their home
in the Lost Desert. Keri placed the egg right on the table, near her bed. Then,
she settled down to a deep sleep.
Keri awoke in the morning, and suddenly remembered
her problem from the night before. Annoyed that this had to happen to her, she
grumbled, stretched, and then practically rolled out of bed. Standing up straight,
her vision focused on the spot where she had left the egg. Her eyes widened,
and she rubbed them to see if she was seeing right. Yes, she was seeing correctly.
There, amongst the broken pieces of red shell sat a small scarlet... Pteri?
Yes, that was definitely a Pteri. But Keri didn't
order a Pteri egg! She was angry and puzzled at the same time; mad at the previous
owner of the egg but then puzzled because the label at the trading post had
clearly said, "Red Draik Egg". The little chick seemed to grin at the sight
of her new owner, and hopped around. She uttered a strange sound, "Chemeep!"
with delight.
"Oh no! Reya, can you come in here?!" she yelled.
Reya appeared in the doorway. She was obviously asleep when Keri had called
her.
"What is it, Keri? It's a Saturday!" Reya said
groggily.
"Look. Just look!" Keri exclaimed, pointing.
"It came from our Draik egg!"
Reya turned, and stepped back in shock when
she saw the Pteri chick. "That-" she began, "is NOT a Draik."
The Pteri, however, was oblivious to all of
this. She had begun to explore happily, pecking at the furniture and jumping
about.
Keri sighed. "Well, I'll go lookup the person
who sold this egg to us. Reya, look after, erm..." Keri paused, realizing the
Pteri was nameless. "Loixeau." Seeing Reya's strange looks, she explained. "It's
French, for 'the bird'." With that, Keri hurried out the door in search of her
that one owner.
"So uh... Loixeau. Or, Zoe, for short?" Reya
said to the Pteri, while picking up the pieces of egg. The Pteri, or Zoe, gave
an especially cheerful "Chemeep!", and Reya considered this approval. "What
were you doing in that egg anyway? You're not a Draik!"
Zoe looked up at Reya with big, dark eyes, tilted
her head, and said, "Doreep," softly. Reya shrugged, and continued with her
cleaning.
Soon, Keri arrived back at the house. She told
Reya miserably, "The owner is not there. The pets say she's gone for a long
time, maybe three weeks. I guess we just have to keep Loiseaux here until I
can talk with that owner."
"Well, I guess that's alright," Reya said. "Oh,
and by the way, call her Zoe.
Keri, Reya, and Zoe spent the next few weeks
happily together. Zoe was happy with her new owner and sister, and she had even
begun to pick up some English. It was understood that once the owner who had
sold them the egg returned, they would speak to them, and either get money from
them to transform Zoe into a Draik, or get a real egg from that user. Until
one day, the matter of Zoe's future was undecided. That day, Keri had just gone
to the bank to withdraw some Neopoints for a quest, and was appalled at what
she had seen.
"Reya," Keri called. "Come down here... we need
to talk."
"Okay, Keri," Reya yelled back down. She had
been playing with Zoe in her room. "Okay, Zoe, you just stay here while I talk
to Keri, alright?" She then skipped down the stairs cheerfully. Curious about
what was going on, Zoe flew down the stairs after Reya, unnoticed. She followed
until the living room entrance, where Keri and Reya were, and stopped to listen.
"Reya, I have some bad news." Keri stated sadly.
"We are, to put it bluntly... poor. I am totally out of Neopoints. If we want
that Draik, and we do want that Draik, correct?" Reya nodded. "Then, we have
to abandon Zoe. I'm sorry, I know you like her. I like her too. But the simple
truth is, I can no longer afford to take care of three pets. Now, that owner
returned today, and I plan to go over and speak with her. If she has a morphing
potion, great. If she doesn't, and she gives us another egg, than we have to
let Zoe go."
Reya looked down, trying to hide her unhappiness.
"Yeah, Keri, I understand. I mean, its just a little Pteri, right?" She headed
off to her room, slowly. Before she reached the stairs, she heard a soft little
crying sound. Looking down, she saw poor little Zoe, with tears streaming down
her cheeks. "Oh no, Zoe! You heard me - but I didn't mean it... no, wait!" Reya
called. Zoe gave her one last devastated look and flew off to hide in the closet.
That evening, Keri returned from her visit with
the owner.
"Keri, did she give you the potion?" Reya asked
hopefully.
Keri shook her head sadly. "No, Reya, she didn't.
I'm sorry. I have an egg."
"So... we're abandoning Zoe today?"
"Afraid so," Keri replied unhappily.
That afternoon, the group silently made their
way to the pound. Though Zoe did not know where she was going, she got the sick
feeling that it was not good at all. Keri quietly took Zoe up to Dr_Death, gave
her one last look of apology, and walked away. Zoe was put in a small cage,
while people walked by her without notice.
Then, around an hour after she had been dropped
off, a nice blue Uni appeared in front of her. "There's somebody here to see
you," she said happily. It was Keri.
"Hi, Zoe," Keri said, as she knelt by Zoe's
cage. "I know that you probably don't want to see me right now; I wouldn't blame
you. We were very wrong, wanting a Draik that we had never even met over you,
a wonderful Pteri who loved us when and did nothing wrong. Actually, I was wrong,
not we. Reya always loved you." From behind her, the golden Shoyru emerged,
smiling sheepishly and waving. "Anyway, if you can find it anywhere in you to
want to be apart of this family, then we would be thrilled and honored. I sold
the new egg, too, so maybe we can get you a paintbrush?" Zoe did not need to
be asked twice. She flew into Keri's arms, so glad that she finally had a family.
On the way home, Zoe was wondering why she had
actually come out of that Draik's egg, that day which seemed so long ago. Keri,
who seemed to e able to read her thoughts, smiled and remarked, "You know, we're
really lucky we got that particular egg, Reya. The best things come in the strangest
packages, sometimes."
The End
|