|
Never had anybody witnessed a day hotter than the 14th day
of the Hunting, Year 6. The sun glared down upon all lands of Neopia; even Terror
Mountain was warmer than usual.
And all of the residents at 124241 Harbour
Lane, Mystery Island, were, as many, not taking the immense amount of heat very
well.
“I’m burning,” Sareona, a purple Acara,
complained, resting her head wearily on the kitchen table.
“Me too,” her older brother, Marr, groaned.
“Aww, cheer up!” their owner, a young
girl named Chocolate, exclaimed from the other end of the kitchen. She plodded
clumsily over to them. “The Neopian Times said that the weather will go back
to normal by Wednesday!”
“Wednesday?” Sareona asked, jerking back
up. She let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s only Friday!”
“This isn’t fair,” Marr, her green Wocky
brother, proclaimed.
“Ditto,” the Acara said. “I wish that
there was some way to cool off.”
Chocolate grinned, wiping a strip of sweat
from her forehead. “I have an idea!” she announced.
“What?” Marr shot a skeptical glance toward
his owner. Normally her ideas were less-than-perfect.
She didn’t reply immediately, but simply
stared optimistically at her pets. “Swimming!” she finally cried out.
“Where?” Sareona instantly inquired.
“Well duh! We live on Mystery Island!
What surrounds an island?”
“Water,” Marr muttered.
“Yup!” she chimed. “So you and Sareona
can go swim in the ocean!”
Sareona tilted her head, thinking about
her owner’s suggestion. “I guess we can go… I mean, if Marr wants to,” she said.
The Acara didn’t sound very enthusiastic about it aloud, but in reality, she
wanted to go very much.
So she was happy when Marr agreed to go
swimming. “Let’s go get ready now, and then we’ll go,” he stated.
The Wocky then hopped to his feet and
scuttled off to his bedroom. Sareona followed suit.
Ten minutes later, with sandals slipped
on all paws, towels clutched tightly against their chests, and sunglasses on
their faces, the siblings ventured off toward the beach.
They walked on local streets for a little
while, but then reached the ‘public’ part of the island.
There was no lack of tourists, despite
the blistering heat. Owners and pets who resided elsewhere filled every street
and every corner, as well as every shop and stand. The beach was not any different.
Marr and Sareona managed to find an empty
area of sand, though, and after dropping all of the things that were unnecessary
for swimming (which was everything they had brought, quite frankly), the Wocky
and Acara ran through the mazes of beach blankets and umbrellas until they reached
the water.
The pair burst into it, immediately splashing
around in the cold, comforting water. But suddenly, Sareona stopped. She stood
there for a moment, but then realized that the water was terribly warm; not
at all cold.
She groaned, scooping a floating seashell
into her now-soaking wet paws. Nowhere, not even the ocean, could escape the
heat!
“Marr,” she said, stopping her still splashing
brother dead in his tracks, “this is so unfair.”
It was only then that the Wocky realized
the temperature of the water, and he heaved a sigh as he nodded dismally. “Where
else can we go?” he asked.
“I dunno,” Sareona replied, sighing as
well. “How about to the Tiki Tack?”
“Nah, that’s not gonna be any cooler.
The Rock Pool?”
“Do we really wanna look at Maraquan Refugee
Petpets?”
“The Tropical Food Shop?”
“No.” Sareona bit her lip, running out
of ideas. She slowly started drifting toward the shore, and Marr followed suit.
In the distance the two saw a 15-passanger-tour
cart roll by. Nothing out of the ordinary; tours ran frequently, and they were
used to them. But suddenly the tour seemed like it would be a superb idea when
Sareona saw tour-workers fanning all of guests with giant palm leaves.
“C’mon!” She cried, grabbing her brother’s
paw. She half ran, half swam the rest of the distance to shoreline, and then
burst full throttle toward the tour-station, where carts left every 15 minutes.
“Sareona, have you forgotten about our
belongings?” Marr asked, confused.
“We’ll come for them later!” the Acara
panted. She continued toward the station.
The line for the tour was very long, and
the two could instantaneously tell that they were two of few (if any other)
locals.
“This island is so hot,” a Christmas Lupe
in front of them grumbled to his owner.
“Yeah, it is,” the owner agreed. “I don’t
know why we even came here,” he added softly.
And then behind Sareona and Marr, a group
of Faerieland-dwellers chattered happily about how magnificent of a vacation
that they got to go on.
“I wonder where all of our neighbors and
such are,” Marr muttered, eyes surveying the area for any familiar faces.
“They’re probably in their houses eating
Ice Lollies drinking cans of ice-cold Neocola,” his sister stated. She yawned,
worn out by the sun, which was shining more intensely than ever.
Marr nodded.
“Next tour is now loading!” a voice yelled
from outside of a stationed cart. “5 per row! Please pay admission of 50 Neopoints
to me as you board!”
Sareona turned toward her brother, eyes
wide. “I forgot about admission! So much for this!” she scowled.
“Hold on, there, sis,” Marr replied, flashing
a wily grin. “You do recognize that voice now, don’t you?”
“N-no,” Sareona stammered.
“Well,” Marr began, “it just so happens
that I know the pet who works here sometimes. And that voice belongs to them.”
Sareona frowned. “Who is it?” she questioned.
“My old friend, Ryauni,” he declared.
“Her?” the Acara asked. “Doesn’t she live
across the street from us?”
He nodded. “I’m pretty sure that she’ll
slip us in, NP or not.”
“Can’t she get fired?”
“She can’t if nobody ever finds out.”
Even though Sareona felt uncomfortable
with her brother doing it, Marr cooked up a getting-on-for-free-plan. And it
worked.
The pair now sat sandwiched in-between
a few different pets; one, a pair of red Ixi, the other a lone spotted Kyrii.
The Ixi had two bag loads of souvenirs, and that immediately gave away their
state as tourists. The spotted Kyrii was from Neopia Central, a fact that was
revealed by the home-address tag pinned onto her backpack.
“Here are some lovely natives!” the Coconut
JubJub who was leading the tour exclaimed, gesturing toward a group of Mystery
Islanders, who were dancing in hula skirts to the left.
Sareona burst out laughing at that (despite
trying to hold herself back), because one of the dancers was the Aisha who sat
next to her in class. So this is the job that she brags about, The Acara thought.
“What are you laughing at?” the Kyrii
next to her asked. “Do you not appreciate the Mystery Island culture? Are you
one of those spoiled pets from an exquisite Faerieland home?”
“No, no,” Sareona responded, stopping
her laughing abruptly. “I’m actually from here… it’s just kinda a funny story
behind those er… dancers.”
“Oh, inform me,” the Kyrii stared expectantly
at Sareona.
“Well, um… sorry if this spoils it for
you, but those are actresses. The blue one’s in my class at school.”
The Kyrii rolled her eyes, obviously in
disbelief. “You really need to do a better job at lying if you do so in the
first place.” She turned away.
Sareona shrugged, and simply enjoyed the
coolness from the leaves that were being fanned upon her.
The tour soon ended, and the cart stationed.
Marr and Sareona hopped off of it, and then headed back toward the beach to
get their belongings.
After a few minutes of searching, the
pair found the sand covered items. They slipped their sandals on, slung the
towels around their shoulders and shoved the smudged sunglasses onto their faces.
They then slowly headed back to their
house.
The pair was immediately greeted by their
little sister, Carridell’s, frustrated yells. “I’m bored!” she exclaimed, pounding
her fists on the table. “And hot! The sun’s really bright today!”
“Carri, honey, please do not damage the
table. I know you’re bored, but this won’t help it.” Chocolate was visibly annoyed
by her youngest pets’ actions. “Here, why don’t you go swimming at the beach?
I’ll get Franklin to come with you. Okay? FRANKLIN, COME HERE!”
Sareona and Marr exchanged amused glances.
“I think we best leave this to them,”
Sareona whispered, sneaking off toward her bedroom.
“Agreed,” Marr did the same.
And on the way to his bedroom, Marr saw
his younger brother, Franklin, trudging toward the kitchen.
“Hey, Franklin,” he said, undertone.
“What?” the Aisha muttered.
“I’ll give you one word of advice: Don’t
go swimming.”
“Why?”
“The water’s warm.”
“Oh.”
“And it’s really, really hot outside.
But don’t worry; if you stall long enough, it’ll get cooler. It’s supposed to
do that by Wednesday.”
Franklin simply rolled his eyes and walked
away. Marr grinned.
The End
Author’s Note: Ryauni belongs to me on my other account, and Marr, Carridell,
Franklin and Sareona are on my main one. Neomail me if you have anything to
say about the story. Thanks.
| 
