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Morning had arrived. Elyon, a baby Cybunny, stirred,
then slowly opened her eyes. The room was dark and quiet. In fact, the entire
house was quiet. It looked like no one was awake yet.
The purple curtains drawn at the window are the
reason to why the room is so dark. Elyon reasoned, warm and cozy under the thick,
warm blankets of her bed. Swiftly, she hopped out bed, slipped her feet into
a pair of purple slippers with furry Cybunny heads at the top and shuffled toward
the window.
As she reached out a paw to draw the curtains,
Elyon hesitated. Since her owner had brought her to Happy Valley to stay at
her aunt Parry for the summer holidays, it hadn’t snowed once. Sure, the ground
was covered in snow and the air was cold and chilly and the shops were still
open, selling ice-cold slushies and warm cocoa but it hadn’t snowed. Not once.
Elyon longed for it to snow.
Will it snow today? Elyon thought. The
exciting thought gripped her. She clutched the side of the curtain anxiously,
awaiting the mystery that was about to be uncovered on the other side.
Finally, she couldn’t control herself
anymore and yanked open the curtains. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut when
a bright stream of light hit her squarely in the face. “Ow,” she muttered. When
she regained her composure, she peeked under one eye hopefully. Sadly, there
wasn’t any snow.
Disappointed, Elyon washed up, brushed
her teeth and changed from her purple Babaa printed pajamas to jeans and a toasty
warm sweater under a purple jacket. If you haven’t noticed, purple was her favorite
color.
Aunt Parry’s house was completely made
up of wood. She liked the antique and homely look so she had lots of wooden
furniture as well. Elyon, who had lived in Neopian Central in a brick Neohome
all her life was fascinated by her aunt’s home and loved it, vowing to live
in one exactly like it when she was older.
As Elyon approached the kitchen, the
smell of freshly cooked bacon and eggs greeted her, as well as buttered French
toast, her favorite. “Looks like someone is awake after all,” she said out loud
as she strode into the kitchen.
Humming an old blue Kacheek’s tune, and
trying to create the perfect sunny side up at the stove was aunt Parry’s only
pet, Angel, a blue Uni who was also Elyon’s only and favorite cousin. She looked
up and saw Elyon. “Oh, hi! Good morning,” she greeted cheerily. “Are you hungry?
I got up early to make breakfast,”
Elyon sat at the round, wooden kitchen
table and nodded. “Starved,” she declared.
“Great! Then you’ll eat lots today, I
got a little carried away and made too many hamburger patties,” Angel said,
grinning sheepishly. She placed a large china plate in front of Elyon filled
with bacon, eggs, toast and hamburger patties along with a glass of freshly
squeezed orange juice. “These ought to chase the chills away,” she said, peering
out of the small, kitchen window, shivering.
“It’s not that cold,” Elyon insisted.
“It’s not even snowing,” she said as she took a bite of toast.
Angel grinned. “That’s when you’re wrong.
The temperature down here is no less than 26 degrees Celsius.”
“I don’t feel cold,” Elyon shrugged.
Angel fixed herself a plate of food and sat down beside her.
“I guess it’s because our house is warm
and cozy,” Angel said. “Wait till we go skiing later! I know the best slopes!
We’ll have a blast!”
Elyon’s blue eyes shone. Skiing! She
had never done that before! “Can we go right after breakfast?” She pleaded.
“We’ll have to see what your mum says,”
Angel replied, sipping some juice. Right on cue, Lily, Elyon’s thirteen-year-old
owner stumbled sleepily into the kitchen, still in her pajamas and yawning.
She had long, straight jet-black hair and brown eyes.
“Morning,” she mumbled, pouring herself
a cup of coffee.
“Mum!” Elyon scrambled out of her chair
and raced to Lily’s side, tugging at her pajama sleeve anxiously. “Can I go
skiing with Angel later?” Lily gave her a weird look.
“Skiing?” she repeated, shaking her head
and looking rather amused. “Do you even know how to ice-skate, darling?” She
raised the steaming cup of hot coffee to her lips as a huge frown appeared on
Elyon’s face.
“Aw c’mon aunt Lily,” Angel said, grinning.
“I’ll take her to the beginner slopes, it’ll be so much fun! And you guys never
come down here often, and I rarely get company…”
“Oh, all right,” Lily finally consented.
Elyon squealed with delight and slapped her paw against Angel’s hoof to celebrate,
before settling down to gobble down the rest of her breakfast.
After breakfast, Angel and Elyon bid
goodbye to Lily, who was busily scarfing down breakfast. Bundled up in warm
jackets and jeans, the cousins raced to Terror Mountain through the long icy
tunnel that led the way there, giggling and pushing each other playfully as
they went along.
“Wow,” Elyon said in awe as they emerged
from the dark, cold tunnel. She immediately shivered. The temperature seemed
to have dropped. “It’s so beautiful…beautiful…he…here,” she chattered through
gritted teeth. Angel laughed, tossing her gorgeous snowy mane.
“Told you so,” she said, smiling. She
grabbed Elyon’s paw. “C’mon, I’ll give you a tour. I come up here all the time.”
“Great!” Elyon forgot how cold she was
and followed Angel toward a red and yellow striped shop with a roof completely
covered with snow and surrounded by a tall hedge. “Hey, did it snow here recently?”
she asked excitedly.
Angel shook her head. “Only does during
late December and November and early January. Or when it’s really, really cold.”
She saw Elyon staring at all the snow-covered rooftops and mountains and snow-covered
grounds and grinned. “It’s like this all year round.” She informed her cousin.
Then her face fell. “But it hasn’t snowed for ages, not even in January this
year, and last year’s December, it ended a few days before Christmas.”
“Oh,” Elyon said, disappointed. “I would
love to see snow.”
Angel grasped Elyon’s paw and squeezed
tightly. “Persuade aunt Lily to come down here during Christmastime this year,
I’m sure it’ll snow,” she said. “We’ll have so much fun! And we get free presents
from the Advent Calendar, too!”
“I’ll think about it,” Elyon agreed.
They neared the red and yellow striped shop and Elyon read a large wooden sign
beside it. “Snow Foods,” she read aloud. Then she looked puzzled. “But didn’t
we just ate breakfast?”
Angel shrugged and bounded up toward
the shop and pushed open the door. “Breakfast never stays with me, besides,
that was nearly half an hour ago!” Elyon giggled and followed her into the shop.
The moment Elyon stepped inside, she
felt a cold air blast on her face. “Yeesh!” she cried, wrapping her arms around
herself. “It’s even colder than outside!”
Angel ignored that comment and headed
straight for the counter. “Good morning, Mr. Benny,” she said to the yellow
Lenny behind the counter, who was wearing a funny hat and a scarf. “This is
my cousin and friend, Elyon.” She gestured to Elyon who was shivering violently.
Mr. Benny laughed and peered at Elyon.
“She doesn’t seem to like the cold,” he said grinning. He disappeared into a
back room and reappeared with two mugs. “Here, have a hot cup of chocolate.
It’s delicious! My own secret recipe, I make hot chocolate all the time for
tourists who have never been here before.” He pushed the warm mug into Elyon’s
paws. She smiled gratefully and took a sip, it warmed her up immediately.
“Thank you, it’s delicious,” Elyon replied
while Angel bought a snow Chia pop and starting nibbling on the yummy, icy treat.
“Thanks for your time, Mr. Benny!” Angel
called out as they left the shop.
“And the hot chocolate!” Elyon added,
smiling at Angel. “Can’t forget the hot chocolate. And by the way, when are
we hitting the slopes?”
“Right now,” Angel promised, slurping
up the rest of her treat. They rented skis at a small renting shack and started
for the mountains. Angel chose a pink ski with the words ‘Cool Angel’ printed
on it in sparkly blue glitter. “Like my name!” she had joked. Elyon chose a
simple, purple one with a splash of white glitter across the front.
“We’ll have to do beginner slopes,” Angel
told Elyon as they put on their skis. They were several other beginner skiers
on the beginner slopes. Most of them were pretty young and Elyon began to feel
a bit embarrassed to be seen with them.
“Can’t we try the intermediate slopes?”
she asked hopefully. Angel stared at her as though she was crazy.
“Are you kidding?” Angel shook her head.
“Take my advice, Elyon, you don’t want to end up with a broken arm or leg, do
you? Take it from me, the little ones aren’t so bad, c’mon girl!” She gave Elyon
an encouraging smile and skied off, halfway across the slopes, she turned around
and yelled, “c’mon! You can do this!”
Elyon nodded, took a deep breath and
zipped after Angel. As soon as she loosened up, she found herself grinning and
Angel and her skied at top speed down the gentle slopes. Soon, they were at
the foot of the slopes, laughing hard.
“That was awesome!” Elyon gasped, brushing
stray hair out of her eyes. “Let’s do it again!”
“Are you kidding?” Angel grinned back.
“Let’s go!” They turned to ski back up the slope.
***
After two hours of having fun out in the freezing air, both Elyon and
Angel were starving.
“Wow, skiing sure burns lots of calories,”
Elyon groaned with hunger as they packed up their ski equipment and headed back
to the ski renting shack to return them before heading back home. Casually,
Elyon looked up and saw that the sky was getting dark. She smiled wistfully
and then blinked. Was that a snowdrop? Nah, she was just imaging things.
She shivered, then hurried after Angel, who was way ahead.
“Mum? Aunt Lily?” Angel said, throwing
open the front door and stepping inside. Elyon hurried inside, she couldn’t
wait to get out of the cold.
“Mum?” Angel repeated, peeking into the
kitchen. Elyon flopped onto the living room’s sofa and pulled off her jacket,
staring curiously at Angel.
“Where are our owners, anyway?” Angel
sat down beside Elyon, thinking. She brightened. “Oh, maybe they went out to
buy lunch.”
“That must be it,” Elyon said distractedly
folding her jacket into a neat square. Angel shrugged off her jacket, without
bothering to fold it; she threw it aside.
“I’m going to go up to my room to take
a short nap,” Angel told the baby Cybunny. “You’ll be all right on keeping yourself
entertained right?” She pointed under the coffee table. “There’s all the latest
fashion, entertainment, sports magazines and Neopian Times there. If you want
to play with toys you can check out the toy cabinet in the guest room, I have
tons of plushies and Usukis.”
“Fine,” Elyon agreed. Angel stifled a
yawn, smiled then trotted upstairs while Elyon settled back on the sofa and
rummaged through the magazines and newspapers under the coffee table, looking
for the latest issue of the Neopian Times. She found every single issue available
since the very first one but no latest issue. She finally decided to read last
week’s one, since she hadn’t anyway.
Short stories, Elyon thought immediately,
flipping to her favorite section. She loved the stories Neopians wrote, especially
the ones done by regulars. They always knew how and what to write. Elyon’s dream
was to write a story and have it published someday.
Just as she was busily reading through
a story about a Lupe and his best friend, the front door rang. “Angel! Elyon!
You guys home?” Lily’s voice called.
“Coming!” Elyon put down the newspaper
and raced to the hallway to open the front door. Standing on the front steps
were aunt Parry and her owner, Lily.
“We bought dinner,” aunt Parry smiled
brightly at Elyon. She was a pretty, young girl at sixteen. But her hair was
blond instead of jet-black like Lily’s; she had the same blue eyes though.
“Angel guessed so,” Elyon said, opening
the door wider. “She’s napping, by the way.”
Aunt Parry sighed and shook her head
as Elyon followed them into the kitchen. “She’s so lazy,” she remarked, unpacking
the groceries. “Not like you,” she smiled warmly at Elyon. “The hyper Cybunny.”
Elyon grinned and helped to store some dry biscuits in the overhead sink cabinets.
After Angel had finally woken up, they
all sat down to eat. By then, it was already dark outside, and the streetlights
lit up the streets dimly. There wasn’t a single soul outside on the sidewalk
or road, but from every Neohome came out light.
“Here in Happy Valley, as soon as 7.00
p.m. rolls along, no one will be on the streets,” aunt Parry had explained.
“The shops are closed and everyone goes home to eat dinner with their family
every night. It’s practically a tradition.”
Elyon thought that was nice. In Neopian
Central, pets and owners couldn’t really be bothered if they were going to be
eating with their families or not. The shops and arcades were open twenty-four
seven, and everyone usually ate out.
Angel lifted her spoon and wrinkled her
nose. “Uggh,” she said in a disgusted voice. “What is this? Corned beef with
decayed mushrooms?”
Elyon giggled with Lily while aunt Parry
gave Angel a stern look. “It’s minced beef and steamed mushrooms,” she corrected
her. To prove her point, aunt Parry lifted a forkful of minced beef and steamed
mushrooms and chewed. Angel looked like she was going to be sick.
“Gag me,” she rolled her eyes, tossed
a mane and took a big bite, chewing and staring a glassy-eyed stare at her owner.
Elyon shook her head and smiled. It was
nice. These harmless, funny arguments. Lily and her never had them.
Just as Elyon was about to take a bite
of peas and mashed potatoes, she felt a tingling feeling run down her spine,
giving her a icy chill. She paused and put down her spoon. The others didn’t
seem to notice, they were too busy eating and chatting to bother.
It was a strange feeling. Elyon always
felt it whenever something exciting was about to happen. Could it be…?
Aunt Parry, Lily and Angel looked up,
startled as Elyon stood up hurriedly, shoving back her chair and bolted for
the front door. They jumped up and started after her.
“What’s wrong? Is she sick?”
“If she’s sick she’ll go to the toilet,
duh!”
“She’s heading outside!”
Shoving on their jackets, Aunt Parry,
Lily and Angel ran out of the front door onto the front steps one by one where
Elyon was standing at the gate, gazing dreamily up at the midnight-blue sky.
It was dark, with only the dim streetlamps letting out a light glow.
“Snow,” Elyon whispered. She wasn’t wearing
her jacket and yet the cold night air didn’t seem to bother her. Her big blue
eyes were shining brightly. Angel approached her cautiously and laid a hoof
on Elyon’s shoulder.
“Elyon,” Angel said, worried. “Are you
okay?”
Elyon laughed gently, her eyes never moving.
“Of course,”
“Then why are you - ” Aunt Parry and Lily
began.
“Ssh…” Elyon hushed them. “It’s coming.”
Aunt Parry, Lily and Angel exchanged
confused looks, but they kept quiet, staring from Elyon to the sky, from Elyon
to the sky…
“There it is! It’s here!” Elyon suddenly
came to life. She started to bounce up and down happily, her eyes sparkling,
absolutely sparkling. She pointed a paw up in the sky. “The very first snowflake!”
Aunt Parry, Lily and Angel followed her gaze and smiled in delight.
A tiny, delicate, pure white snowflake
was floating weightlessly from the midnight-blue picture. It came down slowly,
slowly, right in front of Elyon, who gently lifted her paw and the snowflake
came to rest on it. “My snowflake,” she whispered happily. “The first snowflake,
a lucky snowflake.”
Aunt Parry and Angel had seen snow all
the time, but somehow, they felt like they were seeing it for the very, first
time. “It’s beautiful, Elyon,” aunt Parry said, her eyes shimmering with touched
tears. Elyon looked angelic in the picture, a baby Cybunny, standing in front
of her very own home, with the very first snowflake she had been waiting for
in her paws. It was absolutely breathtaking.
A minute later, more snowflakes began
to appear, and more and more. Soon, it was snowing for the very first time in
many months; and it was not even November or December yet.
From inside the Neohomes across the road
and along aunt Parry’s street, the front doors opened and the entire family
inside spilled onto the front steps, staring in awe at the snow.
“Look, everyone’s coming out,” Angel
said softly, smiling.
“The snow looks especially beautiful tonight,”
Aunt Parry added, her eyes glued to the sky like Elyon had before. “I wonder
why…”
“I know why,” Angel announced. All eyes,
even Elyon’s, turned to her. Angel looked at Elyon. “It’s because Elyon’s here,
and she’s been waiting for this.”
It sounded like a silly answer, but everyone
agreed.
“You know what guys?” Elyon spoke up.
Everyone waited. “I think I’m going to write a short story and submit it to
the Neopian Times,”
“That’s great,” everyone nodded in approval.
Elyon gazed back at the sky, then at the
snow pelted ground and finally at the snowflake in her hand, it hadn’t even
melted or change a bit. “And I’m going to call it,” she sighed.
“Snow.”
The End
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