One bright morning, Kallisari was humming happily to herself as she stood
over her favourite negg stash. She surveyed them critically, trying to decide
which were ripe enough to pick, and which would taste best if she did. Using
her broomstick, she carefully tapped a few to see how hard they were, and what
sort of thunk it made. She even knelt down to put her ear next to some, nearly
pushing her nice hat off her head.
At this point, some people might wonder what the big deal about a negg was.
But for Kallisari, the Halloween Peophin, this was one of the highlights of
her happily simple life. You could play in the river, and even have some fish
there. But nothing beat the good taste of a negg, which represented the best
dining that Kallisari had ever had. This was gourmet dining, not that she knew
what the word "gourmet" meant!
Kallisari sighed rather regretfully. There were some nice neggs here, but
none seemed quite to her taste this morning. Then she spotted another one laying
next to the vine. This one had obviously gotten ripe enough to fall off. Now
that was promising. Picking it up, she examined it carefully. Yes, this was
it! She took a big bite out of one end and spit the shell out before proceeding
to thoroughly gut the interior with her long agile tongue.
Kallisari hiccuped, and her eyes wobbled. That hadn't quite tasted the way
she expected it to. Something seemed a bit wrong. But before she could figure
out what it was, her limp hooves dropped the traitorous negg and she slumped
to the ground.
Kallisari woke up to a rhythmic bobbing situation. That didn't bother her,
she'd often fallen asleep on the waves. But the overall tight feeling of cords
did! She opened her eyes to find that she was inside some sort of string bag.
"Hey! Help! What's going on here!"
The head of hair in front of her looked over its shoulder and she stared at
the bearded human who glared back at her. "Shut yore yap," he growled. "I'm
taking you to the pound, where loose pets like you belong."
"Pound? What's that?"
A huge elbow jabbed her in the side and the human roared, "I said quiet!"
Kallisari shut up, her eyes going wide with dismay. This was not good at all!
By the time they reached the pound, Kallisari had figured out what must have
happened. That tempting negg had been a trap, and she'd fallen for it. Now all
she could do was wait to see what would happen next.
Kallisari yelped as the huge human dropped her, bag and all, onto the floor.
She rubbed her tail flukes while the human and an old yellow Techo with white
hair talked.
"Got one for ya, Doctor. This one should be worth a pretty penny to someone-
look at that paint job!"
"Maybe," the Techo grunted. Kallisari felt something hard touch the back of
her neck. "Hmmm... yeah, you got a finders' fee coming. Looks like this one
was abandoned after just a few hours. Probably just dumped in a river someplace."
"Abandoned? Me?" Kallisari tried to turn around.
Her only reward was a kick from the human's large boot. She fell over, and
as the human and Techo haggled, she managed to crawl out of the bag. Retrieving
her hat and broom, she stared up at the two. Although she would dearly have
loved to run, the memory of that foot loomed large in her mind. Besides, all
of the doors were shut, and she wasn't sure which way was out.
"Is that all I get?" the human grumbled as the Techo gave him a small bag.
"Tycho, you're lucky I'm not charging you two fifty like I do everyone
else. If you weren't good at finding abandoned pets, you'd be a menace to society.
Now scram!"
Tycho sneered. "Thank you for your gracious consideration, Doctor."
The Techo glared back, and Tycho looked away first. He reached down, grabbed
his bag, and left without even so much as glancing at the captive who had crawled
out of it. Kallisari looked at the closing door and blinked. Suddenly, a large
yellow hand grabbed her by the scruff of her cape and she was hauled into the
air. "Ack!" she commented. (No, it wasn't a very eloquent comment, but she had
her air partly cut off, and she wasn't all that eloquent even at the best of
times.)
Slinging his new possession under his arm, the Doctor opened another door
and carried Kallisari into a huge room filled with wire cages. "Another mouth
to feed," he grumbled. "Well at least Tycho should be right about getting rid
of you soon, what with that paint job." Without another word, he opened a cage
door and tossed Kallisari inside. She pulled herself upright as the door slammed
behind her.
"Hey," a red Lupe said gloomily. "Welcome, if you can call it that."
"I... thanks, I guess," she replied timidly. Looking around, she realised
the only other occupant of the cage was a green Kiko who was tucked into a tight
ball in the corner, apparently asleep. "What is this place, anyway?"
The Lupe raised his hairy eyebrows. "The pound. Don't tell me you never heard
of it. It's only the secret fear at the heart of every Neopet out there."
"No," Kallisari said sadly. "I ate a bad negg and got captured. I don't even
know why I'm here."
"Hmm, interesting. You never had an owner?"
"Owner? What's that?"
The Lupe sighed. "We've got to have a discussion about the basic facts of
life, .... eh, what's your name?"
"Kallisari."
"Nastrider," the Lupe replied, holding out a paw. When Kallisari stared at
it blankly, he realised he had even more to explain. "Oh well. We've got nothing
better to do in here anyway." With that, he inducted Kallisari into the "facts
of life" about what Neopets were and owners were.
Kallisari's eyes grew rounder and rounder, until it seemed they'd almost pop
out of her head. "That's awful! Why do you put up with it?"
"No, not awful. It just depends on your owner. You don't see what they give
as well. My last owner, for instance..." It took some time for him to mollify
Kallisari, but she finally got this strange idea of "owners" straight in her
mind.
"So we just sit here and wait until some owner picks us?"
"That's about the size of it."
"So how long does that take?"
"Depends. Most pets don't stay more than a couple of days. I've been here
about a week and a half, though."
"Wow! How many days is that?"
"Ten."
"Oh. Ummm... is that more than four?"
Nastrider groaned. "Yes. Don't you know any higher numbers than four?" Kallisari
shook her head.
"Stupid!" a shrill voice yelped from the corner. Kallisari turned around as
the Kiko yelled again. "Stupid little git! Coming in here, interrupting a body's
sleep, sticking your nose in where you're not wanted!"
Kallisari's seldom used temper began to flare. "It wasn't my idea," she said
hotly. "I never wanted to come here, I was kidnapped!"
"Stupid!" yelled the Kiko. "No one's kidnapped, we're abandoned! What kind
of freak are you anyway?" He bounced towards Kallisari, who backed away instinctively.
The next thing she knew, he had grabbed her broom! Yanking it away, he tried
to toss it behind him, but Kallisari lunged towards him.
"No! Give that back!"
"Nyahh, get away, stupid git!" hollered the Kiko.
"Give me my broom!" Kallisari wailed.
Nastrider didn't waste his time getting involved in the argument. He simply
leaned towards the door of the cage and his bass voice yelled, "Dr_Death! Get
in here, we've got trouble!"
Kallisari was too busy trying to manoeuvre closer to her broom while the Kiko
swung it out of her reach to notice the rumble of voices sounding behind her.
The stand-off ended when a large yellow hand reached through the bars of the
cage and slapped the Kiko into one place.
"Give it back," ordered the Techo As the Kiko started to protest, he leaned
closer and hissed, "or else you'll find out why they call me Dr_Death!"
Kallisari retrieved her broom from the suddenly limp hands of the Kiko. But
she hadn't had her say in this yet, either. "Bad Kiko!" she yelled as she whacked
him with the broom. "Bad, bad, bad!"
The Kiko bounced around the corner of the cage, waving its hands helplessly
and yelling for help. Dr_Death just stood back and laughed at him. It didn't
last long, though. Kallisari was satisfied that she'd gotten her point across
after just a few more whacks. She turned her back on the totally cowed Kiko
and stared at Nastrider, a frown on her face. "Where were we?" she asked.
"Trying to figure out what came after four, I think," Nastrider sighed.
"Oh! Yes, that's right."
The afternoon passed with Nastrider teaching Kallisari how to count to ten.
She managed to get it right, though she often had to use his front paws as counters.
He submitted with only a slightly grudging air.
The next day passed as he explained how you were supposed to look when potential
owners came in. "See, you look all happy and excited and cheerful when they
look at you, then you cry the second they look away. The idea is that you're
so happy to see them that you can't bear it when they even so much as think
about leaving you there."
That lesson totally failed with Kallisari. The most that she could manage
was her usual innocent stare, with some pleading thrown in for good measure.
However, she did find that the cage needed a good sweeping out. Nastrider was
kept busy moving out of her way while she swept and re-swept the floor until
it was sparkling clean, except for the corner where the Kiko huddled, staring
at her balefully.
It was the day after that when the owner came in and stopped by Kallisari's
cage. He looked thoughtfully at Nastrider, who did his usual happy doggy imitation.
He ignored the Kiko, but then he and Kallisari exchanged stares.
"Well now, " he said, as he knelt beside the cage. "This is a very clean cage,
isn't it?"
Kallisari nodded. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to say anything to owners
or not.
"What's your name?"
Oh. You were, then. "Kallisari."
"Kallisari. I like that. So, Kallisari, would you like to clean my house just
the way you've done this cage?"
"Well, I.... does that mean I'd come live with you?"
He grinned. "That's right."
"You'd be my owner?"
"Uh huh."
Kallisari almost said yes, even without the surreptitious nudge from Nastrider
urging her on. But one last question suddenly occurred to her. "You don't have
a Kiko there, do you?"
Her heart dropped as the owner hesitated a second, but then he replied, "no,
not at all. Why?"
"Oh, nothing but..." she glanced guiltily back over her shoulder. "I've had
bad luck with Kikos, that's all."
"I see. Well, no Kikos at my place, just lots of dust. I've got two pets,
but we're all bachelors, and frankly, none of us like keeping the place clean.
Blchocobo helps out with dishes and such or we'd be covered up in trash. So,
think you can handle the job?"
"Yes!" Kallisari said firmly.
"Good." He grinned again. "I was hoping I'd find a pet to put a female touch
in the house, but I never expected her to come with her own cleaning equipment,
too. Oh Rose!"
A pink Uni appeared at his call, and let Kallisari out of the cage. Nastrider
watched her go before shaking his head and muttering, "she's so naive it's irritating,
but you can't help and admire that sweet spirit."
"Sweet?" shrilled from the corner. "She's an arrogant bubblehead!"
Nastrider looked back and his voice dropped an octave. "You know," he growled,
"for someone as round as you, you're on thin ice talking about bubbleheads."
Kallisari missed that whole conversation, though. Not that she would have
cared. She was too busy wondering about all of these new things that had come
into her life so fast. She wasn't sure, but she thought she might like it. After
all, her new owner had complimented her on her broom-work!
To be continued... | 
