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The yellow Aisha had always cherished the humid fragrance
of the park, its aroma drifting sleepily atop the breeze after a full night of
profuse rain. It was especially enjoyable when it was followed by a vivacious
morning of the sun's ever giving warmth, the scent of dewdrops on grass blades
mingling with the wind's gentle heat that was blown through the parks many fields.
Oh, how she treasured
days such as these! The weather seemed to attract to her an emotion of utter
bliss, one that would settle in her chest and reside there, accompanying her
throughout the dragging daytime hours.
She, our main character,
found herself on a day exactly as the one she so loved, coiled beneath the protection
of an ancient star tree. Her back leaned lazily against its rough, splintering
trunk, and on her face was held a dreamy expression.
Her slim, graceful knees
were propped unceremoniously against her chest, one arm linking about them,
ensuring that they stayed folded in the said position. The other arm was balancing
a tiny white sketchbook atop their arcing, rounded joints, while a glinting-pointed
pencil was held at the ready in her hand.
The spindly, ferocious
branches of the star tree stretched out above her, offering her protection as
a mother Kougra would to her own beloved cubs. She tilted her gentle gaze upwards,
towards the serenity of the peaceful blue sky and gentle enrapture of the star
tree limbs, and gave them a kind smile to express her gratitude, the only way
she could think of to repay their loving embrace.
On a lovely day such
as the one our scene is set; it was rare to see the Neopian park as empty as
it currently was. It housed not a single being, save the Aisha, currently nameless
to the reader, her youthful little sister, and their owner, somewhere off dozing
at the other end of the park.
The tiny Acara, younger
sibling to our nameless main character, frolicked about in the tall, unkempt
grass with glee. Her bright blue satin dress was swishing in a series of graceful
loops around her little ankles as she thrust her tiny front legs up to the sun,
mouth emitting silvery veils of joyous laughter. The morning light toyed innocently
with the short ruffles of emerald fur that fell in to place around the perimeter
of her head, framing her sweet face most beautifully.
One of her little bare
paws connected with and unseen rock, and she tumbled, almost as one would in
a dance, paws flying over head. But this was no matter to her, in fact, she
giggled at this unexpected ride, and straightened herself once more, only to
return to her innocent frolicking.
From her place at the
base of the star tree, the Aisha cast her younger sibling a look with warm eyes,
showing her appreciation for having a being as lovable as this little Acara
in her life.
Her vision then danced back to the blank page
of the sketchbook that lay haphazardly upon her kneecaps, and having seen her
sister's joyous steps, felt a twinge of sudden inspiration. So she put pencil
to paper and began to draw.
Scrrrcht.
A long, powerful stroke of the lead tip. From
its point flowed a graceful arc, silvery and smooth.
Scriiitch. Chhhhtttt. Shhhrrrrtt.
More dazzling arrays of curves and arcs, flowing
together into one, becoming a whole being. The Aisha's intent eyes settle upon
it, a pleased, triumphant stare.
Shhhkkkkt.
She completed one last turn of the pencil tip,
wrist twisting flawlessly to complete the next line. She then gently moved the
tip about, lightly, then slowly growing harder and applying more pressure. These
masses of grey that she drew turned into near-perfect shading of the pet's body.
At first, the neopet on the notebook page appeared
to be of great power, with its hoofed legs and twisted horns. But as she added
more detail, its slim limbs and graceful body appeared too sleek to be a stocky
Kau, or even a galloping Uni.
Its short-furred legs flailed outwards from its
sleek frame, and its jaw was held slightly agape. Within minutes of silent sketching,
it was midway through a powerful bound, soaring over a Lost Desert plain, sun
shining bright above it. Its thin body structure was extended to the maximum.
The Aisha sat in silence, a slight breeze ruffling
her short blue fur that hung loose about her face. She stared down at the drawing,
proud of how lifelike the neopet had turned out.
Was it a Moehog? No, no. Not a Moehog. Most
definitely not. Something about it just did not seem to fit that category.
An Ixi, perhaps? Yes, that was it. An Ixi.
Once more, the Aisha stared at the drawing. She
was proud.
But within a minute, the Aisha grew sad. The
Ixi had a slightly depressed look on its pointed face. It wanted to be free,
she could tell. Not confined to the bars of an iron cage, nor held prisoner
to the canvas of a notebook page, one out of a hundred and fifty. It needed
freedom. It needed life.
And so she would give it life.
So absorbed in pity for this sketch, the Aisha
had not noticed her little sibling skipping merrily up behind her, ignorant
to her sister's sadness.
"What'cha drawin', sis?" the Acara chimed rhythmically,
reaching over the Aisha's shoulder and towards the sketchbook. "Oooh, an Ixi?
Lemme see!"
But then something odd happened. The Aisha decided
that the Ixi needed life. It could not wait. And so, she closed her eyes and
willed it to live.
In an instant, the magnificent Ixi was unbound
from the notebook page. It leapt with a rippling splash from its rough canvas,
and landed gracefully on the grass before the two Neopets. And to both pets,
this all seemed perfectly normal.
The young Acara gasped with pleasant surprise.
The Aisha just smiled.
It was alive.
They both clambered forward, on to the Ixi's
back. They gripped its neck and clung to its short fur. Then, with a powerful
lurch, it pushed off from the earth. It was airborne.
Up, over the treetops it rose. Up, above the
buildings. And finally, free, spinning through the wind, into the clouds. They
were flying, and it seemed as if the world were being viewed through a hazy
filter.
Houses towered up before them, giant stores,
too, but the higher they rose the more these structures shrank. Pets that skipped
about on the land below stared up at them with wondering eyes, playful minds
lightened by this joyous event.
Both pets embraced the moment of life, and closed
their eyes once more, soaring through the sky.
Then suddenly, the Aisha reopened her sad eyes,
awakening from this wonderful fantasy.
She was back under the star tree in the park,
knees up against her chest, sketchbook in her lap. On the paper was a sketch,
a bounding Ixi.
But in reality, it was only a few lines of lead
on a sheet of white. Nothing more. It had no life, except for it's confinement
within the bars of the sketchbook page. Merely a sketch, nothing more.
No life.
The End
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