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Annalisaca and Flueriel were getting worried. "Maybe we
should go look for him?" Flueriel suggested above the roar of the crowd, biting
her lip.
The two sisters were waiting patiently by the
Money Tree for their brother to return with food. Devil_the_Wolf_2 seemed to
have been gone for a long time.
"I'm scared," Anna whimpered, as a ghost loomed
up in front of them. The ghosts weren't as amusing as they first were, and the
whole adventure of being outside was too much for the little yellow Jubjub.
She was ready to go home.
The cheers and angry cries of the Money Tree
crowd were making Flueriel's sensitive ears hurt. "Devil told us to wait here,"
she whispered, inaudible above the noise. Flueriel had never been without her
brother, and she didn't know what to do. "He told us to wait here," she repeated
to herself, and the sisters waited loyally for him.
But time passed and the blue Lupe still did
not come. What delayed him? "Come on, let's go look for him. I'll carry you,"
Flueriel told Anna. Her sister didn't need to be told twice, she clambered onto
her blue back, grabbing her orange fuzzle and hugging it protectively.
The streets of Neopia Central were many and
confusing. Maybe Devil had gotten himself lost? They wandered around Neopia
Central for a while, searching for their brother. Flueriel started to get tired,
and her paws hurt, making her wince at each step, but she kept going. Devil
could be in trouble.
Finally, Flueriel couldn't go any further. She
collapsed outside the Magic Shop, and Anna ran inside and got the first people
she saw.
* * * * *
Flueriel's eyes fluttered open. She was on a hospital bed somewhere, dizzy and
confused. The whole room smelt like rubber gloves and disinfectant and she could
hear strange voices coming from behind a door next to her. At the bed next to
her, Annalisaca was sleeping, hugging her orange fuzzle tightly. How did they
get in the Neopian Hospital? The last thing that she could remember was looking
for Devil.
She listened to the voices, trying to figure
out what was going on. There seemed to be an argument taking place.
"... Don't understand. It's against regulations!"
said a Gelert's voice.
"But just look at the way those two pets have
been treated!" a male voice argued.
"It does seem they have been seriously neglected...
but until we finish their checkup--" the Gelert continued calmly.
"I don't care," a female voice interrupted,
"I'm going to do something about it."
"Maybe we should ask little Anna and Flueriel
what they think? Come on Jessica," the male voice suggested. Before the Gelert
doctor could answer, a young girl and boy had burst through the door into the
next room. They walked over to the patient's beds. Flueriel pretended to be
asleep.
Annalisaca woke up with a huge sneeze, followed
by several others in concession. The yellow JubJub's eyes were red and weepy,
and she clutched her orange fuzzle desperately as her sneezes echoed through
the room.
"Oh dear!" the Gelert doctor cried. "This is
a severe case of Fuzzitus!" An Elephante nurse, who had been quiet throughout
the whole ordeal gathered Anna's pillow and blankets and snatched away the fuzzle.
She locked them all in a metal cupboard and returned to her seat by Flueriel's
bed. Anna was too weak with sneezes to protest. The boy and girl searched through
the medicine cabinets for some fluff-be-gone.
"You can't say that these pet's have been taken
care of," the girl said in disgust. "What owner would let their pet's go without
food and let them collapse outside the Magic Shop?" She paused, one hand on
her hip, waiting for an answer. "A neglectful one!" she answered her own question.
"I have to agree with you there," the doctor
frowned, pushing his glasses up his snout with a green paw.
"I'm more concerned about that Gelert," the
boy said. "Look at her feet!"
Flueriel, still pretending to be asleep, opened
an eye carefully and looked down at her blue paws, which were sticking out of
the clingy hospital sheets. They were swelled and large.
"Oh my! She has Bloaty Feet!" the doctor exclaimed.
The girl and boy looked in the medicine cabinet,
searching for a pair of magic smelly socks (the cure to Bloaty Feet). They pulled
out two brightly coloured pairs, and set them on Flueriel's beside table, their
noses wrinkling at the smell.
"Their owner is long gone it seems. Hmmm," he
said thoughtfully. The girl, boy and Dr Gelert went into another room to talk,
while Flueriel carefully pulled the two pairs of socks onto her four paws.
Annalisaca had gone back to a shallow sleep,
and Flueriel was left with her own thoughts. She was thinking about the two
humans who had just been in the room. They were nice very nice for strangers,
caring about two abandoned pets that they didn't know. Just the sort of people
that she would want for her own owner. The blue Gelert struggled to remember
something about her actual owner... had she been nice? Would she have made sure
that her pets would never be separated from each other, and end up in the Neohospital?
Muffled talk of adoption papers came from under
the door, and she drifted off to sleep, happy in the comfort of a bed, even
one so uncomfortable as this.
* * * * *
Annalisaca sat in her hospital bed later, watching the girl from before smiling
sweetly at her. The yellow Jubjub noticed that she felt better, and her orange
fuzzle was back at her side. Actually, she was feeling a lot better,
better than she had ever felt in her life. She had been well fed and felt strong,
ready to take on whatever adventure waited for her outside the sterilized white
building with the red cross mounted above the door.
"Hello Sweetie, I'm Jessica," the girl said,
"and this is my brother, Scott."
The girl motioned to Scott and he smiled at
her, too. Anna could see the kindness in both of their eyes, something she had
only ever seen in her brother and sister. She remembered Flueriel telling her
that eyes could never lie.
"Hewwo. What happened?" she asked curiously.
She hadn't spoken to a human for a long time, or seen one this close to her.
The girl, Jessica, had short blonde hair, which
was tied up in a lot of little Unitails, and she was wearing a Kyrii tank top.
She had a lovely smile, and smelt like heart fruits.
Scott was wearing a cap backwards, and he was
a little taller than Jessica. His hands were shoved into the pockets of his
Blue Kacheek Group jacket, but not in an antisocial way. More to keep his hands
warm in the cold hospital room. There was something about the siblings that
made innocent Annalisaca want to trust them.
Jessica and Scott exchanged happy glances, "We've
adopted you and your sister."
"Only temporarily," Jessica interrupted hurriedly.
"Just to get you happy and healthy. You don't have to stay with us."
Annalisaca was very young, and saw no need to
hide her emotions. She grinned, thinking; real owners, a bed, food! She felt
like jumping up and hugging these two angels, but she just squeezed her orange
fuzzle in happiness.
"The nurse says you can stay here tonight. Or...
you can come home with us?" Scott suggested hopefully.
Flueriel was awake, looking at her feet. From
the conversation, she had gathered what had happened and was as thrilled as
Annalisaca. But the first thought on her mind was Devil_the_Wolf_2.
"But, we have a brother you see," she said softly,
"please, we have to find him." Somehow, the thought of spending a night without
her brother terrified her.
"Okay, we'll look for him."
* * * * *
Devil paced back and forth near the Money Tree. "This is where I left them!
We've searched the town twice, where did they go?" he asked himself. He was
trying not to panic, but he had never been without his sisters, ever.
"Arrr, I'm sure they be fine. They might be
stayin' at that thar Neolodge," born_again_pirate comforted, brushing back her
long blonde hair.
Devil drew in a sharp breath, trying to regain
his thoughts. "Oh, of course. Flueriel told me just before that she would like
to live there. How about we adopt them in the morning? It's getting dark and
I'm sure they'll be fine by themselves," Devil reassured himself happily, his
famous courage returning.
"Good idea," born_again_pirate said to her newly
adopted pet. The owner and Lupe walked away, the Lupe to his new home.
To be continued...
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