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I found Grundioy in the Faerieland Bookshop. Had she been
in there the entire time?
"Hi," I said, creeping up behind her and tapping
her with one stained black wing. She dropped her book in surprise, and Grimlaerian
pounced on it.
"Oh, hi Cettica. Hi ... Grim?" she looked at
me with an eyebrow raised, as if to ask me if I suddenly liked my brother. I
nodded happily and she smiled.
I looked around the library. It was extremely
quiet. A pretty librarian Faerie with purple glasses that matched her wings
was doing a crossword, but she was the only other person besides Grim, Grundioy
and I. I picked up a book of the shelf and flicked through it, then looked over
to where a ripping sound was coming from. Grim was ripping out the pages of
a book one by one, giggling. Absorbed in her own book, Grundioy hadn’t noticed.
"Grim!" I exclaimed. "Put that down!"
He obeyed me immediately and dropped the book.
He waddled over and grabbed at my beak. "Ittec."
"What was that?" Grundioy inquired, placing
her book beside her. I shuddered, noticing the spotted Aisha was reading a book
on Jhudora.
"Oh, he’s been saying that all day. I think
he really should learn to talk soon, I’m starting to get worried," I said to
her. I was genuinely worried that he hadn’t said anything besides ittec
all week.
"Ittec, ittec, ittec brrrrrrrrrp," he sung lying
down, his antennae against the bookshelf. I shook my head sadly.
"No, don’t you understand?" Grundioy spoke excitedly.
"In Grundo language he’s saying ‘Cetti’! You’re his first word!!!"
Something snapped in my brain, and I remembered
reading somewhere that the Grundos native language was just ours spoken backwards.
I smiled. "Grim, can you say ‘Cettica?’"
"Cettica," he gurgled.
Grundioy and I burst out laughing and I patted
him on the head. Having a brother wasn’t so bad after all.
"Oh, look at the time!" she said, glancing at
a Chet Flash clock that was embedded in the cloud wall of the library. "We have
to go back home now."
The librarian frowned because we were talking
so loudly, but didn’t say anything as we ran from the building hurriedly.
I would have to return to Joey’s house without
Jewel. I know I hadn’t had her for barely a week, but she had been a great petpet.
I remembered how her Wadjet snores sounded like soft hisses when she was sleeping
next to me. And how she would curl herself around my neck, and everybody would
remark, "What an unusual necklace!"
I looked at the brown Grundo, my brother, who
was chanting my name now that he had learnt it properly. I had to admit it,
I would have missed him more than I would miss Jewel.
Grundioy pointed out Rofal2000 and Annalisaca
on a distant cloud, "There they are!"
"Cettica, Cettica," Anna started loudly, matching
Grimlaerian’s song. My name was becoming a very popular word. "Cettica, do you
wanna see what I bought?!"
"Sure."
The baby Cybunny held up a piece of Faerie toast.
"I’m keeping it as a souvenir," she explained.
I shook my head in silent laughter. She certainly
was a strange little bunny.
"Do you want to see what I got?" the silver
Shoyru next to me chimed in.
I turned to Rofal, "What did you get?"
He pointed to his neck, "This Wadjet."
My heart skipped a beat. The Wadjet around his
neck looked EXACTLY like Jewel.
"I’m thinking of calling it Killer, and training
it to attack Flowal," he continued, oblivious to my reaction.
"W-where did you get that?" I stuttered finally.
Jewel was looking at me accusingly, like, How could you let this happen?
Take me home this instant!
"Oh, Jhudora gave it to me for doing a quest.
Strange reward huh? She must’a run outta poisonous lollipops."
Grundioy was looking at me strangely, while
Grim was playing tag with Anna, who was giggling loudly. I looked at the Halloween
Doglefox at Rofal’s feet, "You already have a petpet." I had to keep myself
back from reaching out and snatching away my Wadjet.
"Yeah, but a guy could always do with two, ya
know?" he caught my expression, "... you don’t want it, do you?"
"Oh, thank you Rofal," I said with tears shining
in my Lenny eyes. I took Jewel carefully, and she hissed happily, returning
to her place around my neck. I felt suddenly complete, like I had everything
I needed.
Joey200010, Heidi and Flowal2000 approached
us. Flowal, the skunk Usul, was just finishing a pancake, and Rabbit her Bearog
was licking the crumbs off the cloud beneath himself.
"Everybody ready to go?" Fishlette asked. She
had a glint in her eye that made me think she was hiding something, and I dreaded
to think what.
As soon as we got to Joey’s house, Heidi pulled
me into her guest room to make an announcement. "Cettica, we’re moving out."
"What? Why?" I asked. Not that I wasn’t happy,
I didn’t like taking advantage of Joey’s offer for us to stay with them, but
Fishlette had told me she didn’t have enough Neopoints for us to stay anywhere
else. Besides, I had such great friends here.
Her eyes were shining with happy tears, as she
fumbled around in her pockets for something. "I won at the Poogle races!!!"
she cried, pulling out a handful of coins.
I actually rose from the tiger couch I was sitting
in to stare at the Neopoints in her palm. Though they were small, they were
more precious than something 12 times their size.
"Heidi! We’re rich!" I laughed, something I
hadn’t done for a long time.
"Well, not really. We have enough to get our
own place, but it’s going to be small. I’m going to donate half of it to the
Money Tree."
How like Heidi. "But, why? We could use the
rest of the money," I said, imagining Neohome walls lined with bookshelves,
expensive books stacked carefully in them. Heidi, Grim and I making fish negg
salad in a large kitchen with a robo Quiggle whirring around.
Heidi looked sad all of a sudden. "Cettica,
do you remember that night before we adopted Grimlaerian? That night in the
Neolodge?"
How could I forget? It was one of the worst
and most humiliating nights of my life. A ghost had stolen Heidi’s last Neopoints,
and she came to our room with no food. We hadn’t eaten for a few days, and she
had just been going to buy something to eat. Not having any friends yet we had
never heard of the Soup Kitchen so we sat silently as the complaining of our
stomachs filled the Neolodge room. I was in so much physical pain from my hunger
that I couldn’t contain it anymore, and I went out on the street to beg for
food.
"I want to make sure that never happens to anybody
else," Heidi almost whispered.
I nodded, still thinking about that night and
how I had been taunted and teased by passing Neopets, until a kind Kiko tossed
me a half-eaten omelette. It was so embarrassing, sitting on the muddy sidewalk
as the rain soaked into my green feathers.
Heidi brightened, "I’m going to go and make
the announcement to everybody! Then, Joey’s taking me to buy our very first
Neohome!"
I nodded again, waiting for the whole news to
sink in. We’d stayed at Joey200010’s so long it felt like home. Jewel had never
even known another home, if you didn’t count Jhudora’s cloud.
"I’ll go and tell Grim," I said finally, flying
out the doorway.
"Grim? Grimlaerian?" I called. My Wadjet hissed,
as if assisting me. Finally Grim appeared with a silly grin on his brown Grundo
face.
"Grim, we’re moving to our own Neohome," I said
excitedly.
He stared at me blankly, and I started to wonder
if he understood me.
"Say bye-bye-Rofal," he said, waddling away.
I was ecstatic. That was almost a complete sentence!
"I have to say bye-bye-Flowal," I murmured,
going to Flowal2000’s room. She was brushing an ear in front of her mirror.
"Did you hear we’re buying our own Neohome?"
I asked.
She looked over to me, the excitement on her
face matching how I should have been feeling. "Yes!! Isn’t that great?!"
"Great ... oh," I said, looking at my feet.
I should have guessed she’d want me out of her room and out of her life.
"I mean, you’re moving only a few blocks away.
We can see each other all the time!" she gushed. I became happy again, as I
started to pack all my belongings into my bag for the second time in my life.
*****
The house was a lot smaller than I had expected it to be. The grass in the front
yard was bare - no singing flowers here. But the glint in Heidi’s eye was something
that Jhudora’s image could not match.
We swung the door open, and the smell of fresh
paint invaded my nose. I walked carefully on the brand new wooden floor and
sat on a cardboard box.
"Where’s my room?" I asked, looking around.
"You’re standing in it," she exclaimed, though
really I was sitting in it.
"Oh, cool! Where’s the kitchen?"
"Umm ... here," Heidi said, looking away. "We
haven’t finished construction yet."
"That’s great!" I burst out. Grimlaerian was
ripping open a box and tossing the contents around.
"Great? You actually want to share a room with
your brother and your mum?" she asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Yes," I said truthfully. Without warning, she
swept me up in a big hug, making Jewel hiss in surprise.
Grim crawled over and joined the hug. This,
I thought to myself, is a family.
THE END
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