A blue Shoyruess stood looking in the mirror at herself, frowning. Her pale
blue skin irritated her. Why wasn't she painted? She thought about how beautiful
she would look when she was painted striped, with stripes running down her back.
The young blue Shoyru walked down the stairs into the stone kitchen. Her feet
were cold. It was snowing outside, so school had been canceled, much to her
relief. She didn't really want to be seen until she was striped.
"Glad to see your up, Silvveress. I thought you were going to miss breakfast."
Her owner smiled, and handed her a box of wheat flakes and a can of prune juice.
Silvver wrinkled her nose. "Prune juice again? Yuck! Why can't we have orange
juice? And what about Coco NeoCrunch cereal? Why just wheat flakes? We don't
even have milk!"
Her owner glared at her. "You do want to be painted striped, right?" The Shoyruess
nodded. "Then we'll save what little we can!" Silvver was silent for the rest
of breakfast, and had just finished her wheat flakes when her older brother,
Lad, a red Shoyru, came down, wearing a leather jacket and a scarf.
"I'm going to the Tombola," he said. He grabbed a can of prune juice and left.
Silvver gulped down her prune juice and went upstairs. She took out her diary.
Dear Diary,
It's snowing outside. Very cold.
Silvver
She put down the blue pencil she had been writing with. She closed her diary
and put it away. She went downstairs... into the Gourmet Dining Room.
She looked at the room, empty of furniture and bare walls. Such a sacrifice.
The Entrance Area was empty too. She peeked into the kitchen. There was a small
stone table and a few hewn stone chairs. There was her owner, who didn't eat
breakfast, giving her adopted Quiggle brother, Gig, his prune juice. She saw
him wrinkle his nose. She sighed and went upstairs.
She went up through the hall. The looked in her owner's room. There was a
bed, a mirror, and a small stone side table with a table lamp on it. She then
looked into her brother Lad's room. There were M*YNCI and Chomby And The Fungus
Balls posters all over the walls, a small bed, a blue bean bag chair, and a
dresser.
Silvver then went into her brother Gig's room, and saw a straw bed, a stone
side table, a small table lamp, a blue bean bag chair, and a funky lime dresser.
Then she looked in her own room. There she saw her purple wardrobe, mirror,
small stone side table, small table lamp, blue bean bag chair, and her straw
bed.
That's funny, Silvver thought to herself, I could've sworn we had
more furniture than this... Silvver opened her purple wardrobe and took
out her leather jacket, gloves, and scarf. She then went downstairs and told
her owner she was going to shop, to see if they had sold anything.
So she flew over to the shop. She opened the door, and the gasped. There it
was. The furniture. There was the cream rug that had been in her owner's bedroom...
the pine finish table that had been in the dining hall... the tiger table that
had been out on the back porch... and several chairs. All for sale. There were
even a few of Lad's posters.
Silvver flew home. When she got home, it was lunch time. Both her brothers
and her owner were having some Carrot and Pea omelette.
"You guys, why is a lot of our furniture for sale?" She looked at them. All
three of them exchanged glances. "It's to raise money for your paint brush,
Silvver," her owner told her.
"Why are you making such sacrifices? Why don't you make me sell my furniture?"
"Because we want you to be happy," Lad said.
"Yeah." Gig grinned. Their owner smiled, and nodded.
"Wow, thanks so much you guys!" Silvver gave them each a hug.
Later that week, Silvver received a gift: a striped paint brush. She painted
herself and was very happy with her new look. Her brother Lad was painted disco,
but Gig decided he liked being yellow, and got a Wadjet instead.
Silvver tells all her friends that the "wheat flakes and prune juice really
paid off."
Silvver was very grateful that her owner and her brothers had made such sacrifices.
She never forgot how kind it was. Never.
The End | 
