"Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named KiwiBonk. She lived
in a golden palace with her best friend, Snuffs. One day there was a fire in
the kingdom where KiwiBonk and Snuffs lived, and the two friends were called
upon to help."
"KiwiBonk, that's not what the book says."
"Snuffs doesn't know the difference." The blue Aisha turned a page in her
book as her pet snowman looked intently on.
"Anyway, the fire was started by a group of wild Myncis who were nuts because
a dragon ate all their bananas. Hmm, Mynci, that reminds me; Momo invited me
over after lunch." Momo, short for Momopofogokozomo, was my little sister's
pet. He was a tough looking guy, and all he liked to do was climb trees and
bounce around. Every time he comes to our NeoHome, he breaks something.
"Alison, can we go to the Ice Caves and look at the goodies the Snowager has?"
KiwiBonk asked, closing her book.
"That place is always packed with people ogling at the Snowager, then he gets
fed up and makes a blizzard, and we all run away. It's the same everyday."
"But, he might be asleep," she objected.
"He's only asleep in the middle of the night."
"Let's go anyway. Besides, Momo told me to meet him at the Neggery. Did you
know that Martini's owner has 46 points there? We only have two. Martini is
so rich. Amanda's gonna buy her a Lost Desert paint brush."
"I stole a green paint brush from the Snowager," I said. "But, I don't think
you want to painted green."
"Yeah, sell it."
* * *
We went through the port hole in our NeoHome, and popped out on Krawk Island,
a island that is very filthy, and full of people that say, "Har, ye landlubbers"
and have parrots on their shoulders.
Snuffs pulled his scarf over his scarred face. Since a bunch of Dark Faeries
and a zombie attacked him, he was quite timid to show his face to anyone that
was not me, KiwiBonk, or Happy the Meekins.
Since this island was new and relatively empty, not many people were there
except for pirates and Blumaroos with wooden legs.
"These people are weird," KiwiBonk remarked.
"Heeeeeeeeee!!!!!" Snuffs screamed in agreement, his voice slightly muffled.
We boarded a ship bound for Terror Mountain, where we hopped on a ski lift
to the top of the mountain. Snuffs looked very content to be in his homeland,
and moaned at the passing lifts, carrying people on their way to the bottom.
"We are at the top," announced KiwiBonk. She led the way to the ice cave entrance,
where the temperature dropped at least 20 degrees. I took my coat out of my
bookbag, (Which I always carry with me while I'm in Neopia.), and Snuffs gave
his scarf to KiwiBonk.
To get to the Snowager's cavern, we had to traverse through the ice caves.
They were a series of tunnels criss-crossing through Terror Mountain. They spanned
for several miles in every direction. Some of it wasn't even mapped yet.
"Hey, Martini!" KiwiBonk called. An Aisha dressed like a devil waved, and
her owner, 13 year old Amanda, frowned at us as we approached.
"Hi, KiwiBonk!" said Martini. "Mommy bought me a Floud. They're like the best
pets ever. Her name is Pixie. Watch what she can do." Martini took a pink Negg
out of her pet-sized purse and threw it way up in the air. Pixie flew after
it and became a tiny pink speck in the sky.
"She'll come back in a few minutes," Martini said. "What can your pet do?"
"Well, he can... um... make Neopoints rain from the sky," KiwiBonk said doubtfully.
"Well then, show us," sneered Amanda.
Snuffs screeched and disappeared into the Neggery.
"Oh, I guess your little PetPet isn't trained well enough to do a decent trick,"
Amanda smirked. "Come on, Sweetums. I'm going to get you enrolled in the Swashbuckling
Academy."
Amanda flounced away, with Martini trailing behind.
"What a jerk," I grumbled.
"Amanda is, but Martini isn't. I wish Snuffs could do something interesting."
"He can make money fall from the sky," I reminded her.
"He only did that once, and he'll probably never do it again."
"Anyway, let's go see the Snowager."
The entrance to the Snowager's cavern is always packed. Nobody ever enters
his cavern unless he's asleep. The tunnel leading to his cavern makes a sharp
turn, and it's around this turn that everyone pokes their heads out, to check
if the dreaded monster is asleep. The monster lays on a pile of riches, including
Faeries, Codestones, paint brushes, Plushies, Neggs and Trading Cards.
When we arrived, Snuffs was waiting there. We were surprised to see that the
tunnel was empty.
"This must mean that he's awake," KiwiBonk whispered.
"What?" I said. "It's only 4:30."
We peeked around the corner, and sure enough, the massive ice worm was asleep,
and a few brave souls were tiptoeing up to steal one of his valuable items.
"Come on, let's take something. I see a blue PetPet brush in there! That'll
be wicked for Snuffs," KiwiBonk whispered. "The Snowager has so many things,
he won't miss one little brush."
"But there's about 30 people in there!"
"And there's gonna be more if we don't hurry up... all right, if you're gonna
be a wimp I'll go." She got down on her belly and slowly started to wiggle towards
the snoozing monster. As Snuffs and I watched fearfully, KiwiBonk got ever closer.
When she was about 10 feet away, the monster sneezed, and blew everyone to the
other side of the cavern, back by the entrance.
A Kiko sniffed disappointedly. "I really want an Ice Negg!" he whined to his
owner. The other pets started talking about the items they wanted.
"Outta my way," a voice called. Everyone said: "Shhhhhhhh!!!!!" The voice
belonged to Amanda. She pushed everyone aside, and carefully crept over to the
Snowager. Everyone held their breath because the monster was stirring in his
sleep, and might wake at any moment.
Amanda was nearly there when her pant leg caught on a sharp piece of ice.
She gasped in surprise. I thought for sure the Snowager was going to wake up,
but he just rolled over. It was so quiet in the cavern, you could have heard
a pin drop.
Finally, Amanda dragged herself the last few feet, and grasped her hand around
a.....
"HEY, THAT'S MY PetPet paint brush!!!!" KiwiBonk yelled. I tried to shush her,
but it was too late. The Snowager opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw
was Amanda with her hand around his paint brush. He roared furiously, and blew
a gust of wind and sharp ice crystals that sent us flying right out of the ice
caves. Somehow, Amanda managed to hold on to the paint brush.
Everyone dusted themselves off.
"Nice going," Amanda said. "If it wasn't for your stupid pet, everyone else
could have gotten something, too."
"You took my paint brush!" KiwiBonk wailed. "I was gonna take it for Snuffs!"
"Too bad," Amanda smirked. "It's mine now, and Pixie is gonna be the prettiest
pet in all of Neopia."
"Snuffs is way better than Pixie!"
"No way. Just look how ugly yours is, covered in scars like that."
"He fought Dark Faeries and a zombie for me. That's how he got those scars!
Your PetPet is a wimp!"
"She is not," Martini yelled, her eyes full of tears. "Pixie is a million
times better than your stupid pet."
"Well, if you think your PetPet is so much better than ours, how about we
have a little competition," Amanda said nastily.
"Bring it on," I declared.
"Whoever's PetPet can collect the most PetPet paint brushes will win this one,"
said Amanda.
"No way," said KiwiBonk. "Martini told me that you already have a green one,
a pink one, and a red one."
"Fine," she continued. "Whoever's pet can collect the most... uh... motes...
in 24 hours wins."
"Fine."
"Fine."
"Fine."
"Heeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Alison, Snuffs is still in there!" KiwiBonk exclaimed. As Amanda and Martini
left, she called over her shoulder: "Meet here at 4:45 tomorrow, if you can..."
KiwiBonk led the way to the cavern. There were monstrous moans coming from
within, and I didn't know if it was the Snowager or Snuffs making the noise.
KiwiBonk was about to ran past the turn, but I pulled her back as ice shards
streaked from the cavern. BANG!! The ground vibrated like an earthquake.
Icicles dropped from the ceiling like pointy daggers. Little puffs of snow were
falling everywhere. Suddenly, the noise and the trembling stopped. KiwiBonk
and I looked at each other, and stepped out from behind the bend.
Snuffs was nowhere in sight, but from what we could see, the Snowager was
unconscious. His tongue was hanging from his mouth, and his eyes were tiny red
slits.
"Come on, let's grab some motes from him!" KiwiBonk whispered.
"What is a mote, anyway?" I asked.
"A mote is a little thing to help you in the Battledome. There are Fire motes,
Ice motes, Mud motes, Lava motes, Snow Motes... one for every element. Martini
told me a few days ago that they had none, so it's a fair competition."
"We can't help Snuffs. This is contest for him and Pixie, remember?"
"Oh, do you think Amanda and Martini are following the rules?" KiwiBonk sighed.
"We can help him, too."
"Where is Snuffs? It looks like he beat up the Snowager pretty bad."
We searched around the cavern for the next hour. That place is huge! There
is all kinds of Snuffs sized nooks and crannies, but the Snowman was nowhere
to be found. As we were searching, many people came and went. It seems that
everyone has heard about the Snowager being unconscious, so there were more
people than usual hanging around.
One of the people was Gabrielle, my good friend. Qt_the_adorable was very
sad when she heard of Snuffs disappearance, but Happy, her pet Meekins, was
so sad she burst into tears. Happy was wailing and close to reviving the monster,
so Gab scammed several Neggs and a Faerie, and left.
My little sister Hannah showed up, and helped us search for a while. But then,
the Snowager woke up, and blew us out of the cavern.
"So much for that," KiwiBonk said, gloomily.
A nearby Peophin shook his mane angrily. "I desperately needed an Ice Mote,
but there wasn't a single one to be found!"
A rainbow coloured Quiggle agreed. "I know. There's no motes in there at all!
There was a few days ago, but somebody must have taken them all. What a rip-off."
KiwiBonk glanced at me gloomily. "I bet it was Amanda. She probably took them
when we weren't looking."
* * *
That night, as I was cutting off the top of a Chia Pop in our NeoHome, my
NeoLog gave off its little "Beep beep" that means I have mail.
The massage was from CuTiE_GuRL4001, and it read:
How's the scar-faced snowman doing? Find him yet? About our contest, how
bout the winner also wins the loser's PetPet? I'm sure Martini would love a
little snowman to melt in our oven.
Love,
Amanda
I felt like my blood was boiling. I wrote back:
I'm sure KiwiBonk would love a little fluff of useless cloud to stick in
the blender, and watch it go round and round.
See you tomorrow.
"Who was that from?" KiwiBonk asked.
"Let's just say there's more at stake than just a paint brush," was all I would
say.
* * *
The next morning, there was still no sign of Snuffs. I was starting to get
really worried. If he doesn't win this contest, KiwiBonk will hate me for ever.
I started looking around our NeoHome for anything that resembled a mote. KiwiBonk
was starting to feel a little depressed too.
"Snuffs would have been so handsome in blue. The paint would have covered
up all his scars."
"He will win this contest," I reassured her. "He always comes through."
* * *
But at 4:00, I was starting to believe that the Snowman would never show up.
At least he will be safe from the terrible fate of the oven. We were all bundled
up, so as not to get cold in the wailing wind coming from the summit of Terror
Mountain. Gab, Qt, and an unhappy Happy were there for what I was pretty sure
was Snuffs funeral ceremony.
"Happy cried all night," Gab said. "Not even the Abominable Snowman in my
inventory could cheer her up."
"Yeah, because she likes Snuffs, with all his scars and moans and screeches,
not any old boring pile of snow," Qt said.
"Yeah, he sure was special," sniffed KiwiBonk. I was starting to regret the
deal I had made.
We sat in silence outside the Snowager's cavern for the next half an hour.
Julie showed up,and offered her condolences.
"Amanda is a member of the Perfect Princess Guild, and my guild and her guild
are at war, for some reason," she explained. Quite a crowd had gathered. It
seemed that Amanda was really popular. Most of the crowd was rooting for Pixie.
At last it was 4:45, and Snuffs had still not come. Amanda arrived right on
time, with the Floud floating expressionless, and Martini pulling a sled with
all sorts of motes on it. The crowd, or at least 98% of it, cheered.
"Aha, I see your PetPet has not arrived," Amanda smirked. "Looks like he'll
be a pile of mush soon."
"No sooner than yours is a cloud Smoothie," I shot back.
"What are you two talking about?" KiwiBonk asked.
"You mean you haven't even told her what's at stake?" Martini said superiority
in his voice.
"Huh? Alison, is there something you're not telling me?"
"So... how many motes did your puny, measly, disgusting PetPet collect?" said
Amanda.
I had no time to answer, for Happy the Meekins started having a seizure or
something. She was yelling and howling and screaming, and her face was as red
as a red Chia who has been caught changing its underwear. She leapt onto Amanda,
and tore the front of her jacket to pieces. Amanda screamed, Martini screamed,
the crowd screamed, Qt screamed: "Happy, come here!", KiwiBonk screamed with
laughter, Pixie screamed because everyone else was, and a very familiar scream
came from within the Snowager's Cavern. "Heeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!"
Everyone stopped. There was a few moments of complete silence as the crowd
wondered what the noise was and Happy caught her breath. Then Pixie started
whispering: "What? What?" and KiwiBonk yelled: "SNUFFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The tiny snowman emerged from the cave, pulling what appeared to be a toboggan
covered in beads. There were a lot of beads, held together by a rope which looked
curiously like unraveled yarn. By closer inspection, I realised that the beads
on his sled were actually MOTES!!!!
"Snuffs! Motes!" KiwiBonk started laughing like a hyena. We didn't even have
to count the motes. Snuffs' pile was taller than me, and Pixie's pile wasn't
even up to my knee. Amanda pouted and accused us of cheating, but that started
off Happy again and she couldn't finish her sentence. Snuffs was grinning from
ear to ear, and all over the place people were patting me on the back. I kept
on saying: "It wasn't me, it was him!" but nobody would listen. Julie yelled
out: "Join the PointZero Guild!" Happy finally let Amanda go, and hugged Snuffs
tightly. That made Snuffs turn even redder than a red Chia who... well, you
know the rest.
When everyone had calmed down, I turned to Amanda, (who had a lot fewer friends),
and said: "Our payment, please."
She turned white. "What payment?"
"The prize? Snuffs obviously won the contest."
"We didn't agree on a prize," she said.
"Yeah, we did. Your PetPet and PetPet paint brush, please."
Martini started to howl. "Mommy, don't give her away." She hugged her blue
Floud... WAIT A SECOND, BLUE FLOUD!?
"You took the prize! You used the prize! What a cheat!"
"I was so sure I would win...."
KiwiBonk turned as red as a you-know-what. "That was our prize. We deserve
it! I can't believe you would sink so low as to claim the prize before the contest
is even over! Now what are we gonna do!?"
"Don't worry, KiwiBonk. Amanda and I made a little agreement that the winner
would get the other's PetPet. So, hand her over," I said.
"Don't worry, sweetums. Mommy will buy you another Floud."
"But I don't want another Floud, I want Pixie!"
The sight of that poor Aisha clinging to her Floud while her exasperated 'mother'
tried to wrench it away was the most pathetic thing I had ever seen, other than
the time Snuffs got stuck in the toilet, and I peed all over his face.
"Since you two are the most miserable excuses for living beings, I will be
merciful, and let you keep your Pixie." Amanda scowled as Martini grovelled
before my feet. "Now, let's go our different ways, and I hope I'll never see
you again."
"But we probably will, since our NeoHomes are on the same street," KiwiBonk
added. The crowd cheered again. What is up with those people? Gab hoisted Snuffs
on her shoulders, and he gave a speech that only Happy could understand, that
sounded like: "Heeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!"
"Hey, everybody! Since we won the contest, all you guys can keep a mote. Or
two. Or three. Or fifteen," KiwiBonk told the crowd. The crowd cheered. For
the last time. I grabbed Snuffs and KiwiBonk, and dashed away.
***
The next day, we went back to the Snowager's cavern. It was empty, probably
since it was still dark out. Nobody could sleep in our NeoHome last night because
Snuffs kept on moaning loudly for some reason.
For some time we sat outside the cavern on bench made of ice. But then our
butts got cold, so we got up and walked around.
"Alison, it's like, 4 in the morning. The Snowager is probably asleep. Let's
go steal something," KiwiBonk said.
On our way through the tunnel, I told my pet, "Didn't you wonder about where
Snuffs got those motes?"
"I don't know. He probably asked the Fire Faerie for them," she replied.
Sure enough, the great ice worm was napping. KiwiBonk spotted a bottled Light
Faerie, and began to creep towards it. She was almost there, when the monster
opened one eye, and looked straight at KiwiBonk. My heart skipped a beat. He
reared up to his full height, and didn't move for about fifteen seconds, but
it seemed much longer. Snuffs , who was on the other side of the cavern, shrieked
at him, and that distracted the monster.
KiwiBonk grabbed the Faerie and booted it out of there. Snuffs zoomed past.
But I stood still, frozen in place. The Snowager, the great ice worm, was he
smiling?
The End
Author's note: Sorry if your name is CuTiE_GuRL4001, I just made that character
up. Long live the Motes! | 
