THE NEOPIAN BAZAAR - May_4545, my cloud Kau smiled and shoved the article in
my face "Look! Moon That makes three articles! The Slushie Shopkeeper, the
Tropical Fruit Shopkeeper and the Space Weapons Shopkeeper makes three!" I
beamed at my smiling Kau We were sitting on the lawn of our NeoHome reading
The Neopian Times (Something we enjoy doing) May and I have been traveling around
Neopia telling the true stories of forgotten shopkeepers.
***
"OK, May," I told my Kau the next morning at breakfast, "where to next?"
May looked down at her plantmelon and cocked her head to one side in thought.
"Um..." May wondered, "um... well, I don't really know..."
I stared at my food and swirled it around my plate quietly. "Somewhere close,"
I thought aloud.
"Right!" May chimed in, "Um, somewhere different."
"How about here, I mean Neopia Central?" I said, thinking of the many shops,
and shopkeepers.
"Well, we've been to most of the shops. Um, I guess," May answered reluctantly.
"Yea, I guess. Plus I'd like to pick up some books from the book shop."
"Okay, then it's settled," I told May. "After breakfast we'll go to Neopia
Central to try to see if we can find some sort of Forgotten Shopkeeper. May
nodded and filled her mouth with food.
***
May hooves made a clip clop noise as we walked the streets of Neopia
Central. Owners turned to look as May pushed her hooves harder, making the noise
grow louder. I looked down in embarrassment. "May!" I whispered, "Do you
have to do that?"
May smiled widely and shrugged. "Yep."
We continued down the streets of Neopia, stopping at the chocolate factory
to pick up some lemon sweeties, May's favourite. We stopped in front of the
smoothie shop, then shook are heads and continued walking. We did that so many
times, I was giving up. Yet my little Kau kept going.
"May," I told her sadly, "I think you were right, I mean we know all the shopkeepers
here..."
My voice trailed off, and I looked around for May. "May!" I called, a little
nervous. "Oh," I sighed. There she was, walking into the gift shop. I ran to
follow her, and pushed open the door to the little, barley noticeable shop.
May was already in there.
"Oh, Moon!" May smiled at me and pointed to a red Scorchio. "Here, Our next
forgotten Shopkeeper."
I had to admit, May was right. I wasn't sure who the Scorchio was. So I smiled
and nodded. "Take it away May; go ahead with the interview...."
May stood up very straight and said in her most official voice, "Who are you?
And what is your life like?
The Scorchio smiled slyly and said, "I am Verano," he started confidently,
"I sell gifts to all Neopia! It's my family business, it was my father's shop,
and then I took over the shop. I was raised here in Neopia Central in a small
house behind the shop, actually. I was an only child so I had to run the shop,
it's kind of boring; no one ever buys from here. I think I might just abandon
the shop, I mean I don't have any children to run it when I retire. What's the
use? The only reason I kept the business going was to make father happy, and
now he's retired and living on Mystery Island."
"I do have one friend," the Scorchio's mood changed completely, He gently
pulled out an Anubis. "This is Flet, my Anubis, isn't he cute?" he smiled then
turned to us. "He was my father's pet, now he is mine." He then glared at me
and May. "Okay, that's enough!" he told us, "Don't you have some story to write!"
May and quickly ran out the door. May glanced back, "Poor Verano, he has to
run the shop."
We continued to walk home slowly... | 
