One in a Million by ticketytock2kay |  |
"Gee whiz, Ken! I was made HERE?" FireBreathingKid, a Faerie Scorchio, asked,
hovering above his owner.
"Yes, Fire, could you stop flying above me? It makes me rather dizzy," Ken,
his owner, remarked, while thinking to himself a couple of reasons he shouldn't
have bought a Faerie Paint Brush for his pet.
"Sure," Fire landed and starting skipping beside Ken. "What are we getting?
Huh? A Kacheek? Or another Scorchio? Maybe a Kiko?"
"I haven't quite decided yet," his owner admitted. He pushed the revolving
door and they stepped into the building. "Why don't we have a look and see,"
he added, taking a large photo album off one of the shelves.
Flipping through the book, Fire looked at each picture carefully. "A - Acara,
Aisha, B - Bruce, Buzz…" As he reached the last page, there was a large glossy
photo of Red, Blue, Yellow and Green Zafaras.
Fire looked at the picture, stroking the picture of the red Zafara fondly.
His eyes lit up, and then Fire said excitedly. "I know what I want for my new
sister, Ken…"
"A Zafara! They're so cute, and they have spikes, and they're tails can be
used in the Battledome, and we can paint ours purple! She'll be a girl, and
she'll like Hunting for Treasure, like me!" Fire said all in one breath.
"Okay, then," Ken said, pleased. He had been thinking of getting a Lupe, but
since Fire had seemed so excited about getting a baby sister Zafara, he began
to see the beauty of the spiky-tailed pets.
He tugged the excited Scorchio to the reception desk, and got in line. There
were about twenty people in line already. "Did you know that every minute an
average of five pets are born?" he told Fire, who was pacing back and forth
in midair, thinking of his sister's name.
"Really?" Fire said, not really listening.
Soon, they reached the front of the line. "I would like to have a baby Zafara,
red, please," he said.
"Certainly, sir. Just as soon as you tell me your height, your weight, how
many pets you have, how long you've had them, how long you haven't had them,
their T-shirt size, shoe size, hat size, and whether or not they like eggs.
Fill up ten of these forms..." She handed him a few slips of paper. "And then
bring them back to me."
Fire's jaw dropped. "Why on earth would you want to know whether they… umm..."
He glanced at the form. "Chase Chias? Or why they hate Kau Kau milk? You don't
need all this information," he said, snorting rather rudely.
"Sir, if you ran the food shop, and you saw that ten hundred crates full of
Kau Kau milk had been stolen, and the suspect had "Does not like Kau Kau Milk"
on its birth certificate, then the suspect couldn't very well be the suspect,
could he?" the Lenny said, taking off her glasses, peering closely at Fire.
"I guess not," he agreed miserably, and he turned around to follow Ken to
the desk.
After five minutes, he became impatient. "Okay... do you want your sister to
enjoy fighting in the Battledome, or picking flowers?"
"Picking flowers, I guess," he said, shrugging.
"Do you want her to have a knack in smelling money, or making money?"
"Making money, definitely."
In about half an hour, Ken and Fire had finished all the forms. Fire flew
over to the front of the line and handed them to the Lenny. She took them and
placed them into a machine, and out came a purple egg with bright pink polka
dots. The egg was then placed into a wicker basket and covered with a handkerchief
and given to Ken.
"Hatching department is that-a-way," the Lenny pointed to the large neon sign.
HATCHING DEPARTMENT, ZAFARAS AND KIKOS the sign read. Ken accepted
the basket, and brought Fire into the Hatching Room. He placed the basket gently
into one of the cubicles, and hit the button "Zafara".
"Hatching in 5 minutes, 4 minutes and 59 seconds, 4 minutes and 58 seconds,"
the machine ticked, while warming up the egg.
Fire stood beside the cubicle, gazing in at the egg. He could hardly imagine
that once he had been in a cubicle, waiting to be hatched, as well! It was very
nerve-racking. When the machine was at "57 seconds", the egg began to rock back
and forth. Ken instructed him to take off the handkerchief, and he did, putting
it into his pocket. At "27 seconds", the top part of the egg began to crack
and a spike could be seen. At "3 seconds", the whole egg had cracked, and the
shell, from purple and pink, had become a sickly shade of green.
Then, "Look! There she is!" a little green Zafara had come out of the egg!
"Green? I thought I asked for red!" Ken said, taking the Zafara out of the cubicle.
He examined the green shell. "I guess something went wrong," he added, "but
she's just as good."
Fire watched him as he covered her with the handkerchief, while saying in a
voice that quite wasn't his, "Welcome to Neopia."
The End |
