Lucky the small green Lupe sniffed around the base of
a tree where he thought his prey had disappeared. The Chia he had been chasing
looked slow, but proved to be very fast, too fast for Lucky. But his father
had taught him the proper way to hunt Chias, and sometimes waiting for the Chia
to lose concentration was part of it.
Not many Lupes still hunted for Chias, and those
who did often let their prey go. It never used to be that way. When Lucky's
father was his age, Lupes all over Neopia were allowed to hunt whatever they
wanted, wherever they wanted. Not just Chias were hunted. Pteris, Unis and Blumaroos
were game to the Lupes as well.
It all changed a few years before Lucky was
born. A bunch of humans protested against pet hunting, and soon, Chias were
accepted into society and even adopted. It made Lucky grind his teeth whenever
he saw a delicious looking Chia walking down the road, perfectly safe and perfectly
happy, and he was not allowed to hunt it! It was crazy! What were Lupes going
to eat now!?
Lucky's mom had to buy their food from a store.
The meat tasted bland and artificial, and Lucky wouldn't even touch the bread
and vegetables. His father assured him meat tasted much better when you caught
it, fresh. So he decided he was going to catch one of those annoyingly happy
Chias and bring it home and eat it. "Won't Mom and Dad be proud?" he thought.
Lucky settled into the tall grass and waited.
After a couple minutes, (This Chia had things to do!), it started to climb down
from the tree. When it was on the lowest branch, it stopped and looked around,
suspiciously. Lucky licked his lips. He could almost taste the succulent Chia
meat.
At last the Chia alighted on the ground, then
gasped as a split-second later a mouth full of razor sharp teeth appeared an
inch from his face.....
***
"I don't believe this!" KiwiBonk the Aisha cried. Her little sister, MinxJade,
also an Aisha, opened the door to her bedroom and poked her head out. "You don't
believe what?"
"We have to do another Faerie quest!"
"So?"
"I just finished one yesterday!"
"KiwiBonk, that quest was for Illusen. You could
have said no. What do you have to get?"
"The History of Lupes, or something. For the
Water Faerie. Why does she like to read anyway? Is being a Faerie really that
boring?"
"You won't have far to look, KiwiBonk. Your
own dear brother probably has that book in his room."
KiwiBonk checked, and he did. But when she checked
for money to take the Neopian XPress to Faerieland, she found none.
"MJ, do you have, like, fifteen Neopoints?"
KiwiBonk asked, holding the book in one hand and her owner's empty wallet in
the other.
"I spent my last Neopoint on bubble gum,"
MJ said. "Now get out of my room." KiwiBonk checked her brother's piggy bank,
but all she found were two Neopoints and an empty bottle of Neocola. "Oh great.
I'm stuck at home," KiwiBonk told her pet Abominable Snowball.
"Heeeee!" Snuffs moaned.
"But I have to get this book back to the Water
Faerie. Well, no actually, I don't, but I have nothing else to do!" So KiwiBonk
decided to walk. Snuffs came along, because he had nothing better to do.
On her way, she noticed that Neopia Central was
a little busier than usual. She nearly got pushed to the ground on many occasions,
and once a very heavy Tonu stepped on her foot. In fact, right in front of the
Smoothie Shop, the place was packed, and not even a Spyder could have squeezed
though the crowd. So she decided to take a shortcut. Or what she hoped was a
shortcut.
Behind the shops was a dense forest. It was
quite dark and shadowy in there, but no biggie, because KiwiBonk could still
hear, with her superb Aisha ears, the sound of the nearby crowd.
Snuffs started screeching his head off at one
point.
"What's wrong with you?" KiwiBonk snapped, but
then saw what had made Snuffs so agitated.
A green Lupe was walking towards them, WITH A
DEAD CHIA HANGING FROM HIS MOUTH!!!!!
No. The Chia wasn't dead, but it was unconscious.
The little Lupe was smiling like he was proud of himself, but still, KiwiBonk
did not jump to conclusions. Instead she said, "Oh no. What happened? Is he
hurt?"
The Lupe stopped dead in his tracks. He looked
at KiwiBonk first with one eye, then the other. "Noooo...." he said slowly.
"I don't believe you," KiwiBonk said. The Chia
had several cuts and looked very beat up.
"Ahhh! Help! Police! Police!" she screamed.
"No!" the Lupe shouted, dropping the Chia on
the ground. He looked around worriedly, like he was expecting a police officer
to pop out and arrest him.
"HEEEEEE!!!!" Snuffs roared.
The Lupe dropped to the ground, trembling. "Don't
hurt me," he whimpered. "I didn't do anything, I swear. W-w-we were just
playing...."
"Oh, sure, and you mauled him," KiwiBonk said.
She was about to say something else, but a voice nearby interrupted her.
"OH NELLY, DEAR SWEET NELLY, HOW MY HEART ACHES
FOR THEE....." someone wailed. A huge shadowy thing appeared from behind a tree,
and screamed when it saw KiwiBonk.
"YYYYAAAARRRGGG!!!" screeched the thing.
"AHH!!" yelled KiwiBonk.
"WAAAAH!" howled the Lupe.
"Heeeeeee..." said Snuffs in a quiet, dangerous
voice.
"DON'T HURT ME!!!" shouted the thing. It started
to slowly back away.
"Uh... okay..." KiwiBonk said. "If you won't
hurt me."
"OH, IS THAT A LUPE?" asked the thing.
"Yes," replied KiwiBonk. "And what exactly are
you?"
"I'M FRED THE CHIA."
"You're a Chia?" KiwiBonk said in disbelief,
staring up at the twenty foot tall shadowy being with no visible face that towered
over her.
"Heee," Snuffs declared.
"YEP. DID YOU CATCH THAT LUPE YOURSELF?"
"Yes, I did. I caught him kidnapping this other
Chia."
Fred roared with laughter. "A LUPE... BAW HA
HA HA... KIDNAPPING A CHIA... HA HA HA HA HA.... THAT'S A GOOD ONE... HA HA
HA...."
"Do you have to talk so loud?"
"EH? SPEAK UP."
KiwiBonk's ears were beginning to hurt. During
all this, Lucky stared at Fred with a look of absolute horror on his face.
"It's not funny, you know. Lupes aren't allowed
to hunt Chias anymore."
Fred continued to laugh. "YOU GRUNDOS SURE ARE
FUNNY."
"Stop yelling! And I'm not a Grundo."
"WHAT...what are you then?"
"An Aisha."
"OH. Well, where's this so called Chia?"
"Right there."
Fred looked at the unconscious Chia, about the
size of his foot. "That's a CHIA? What's WRONG with it?"
"Nothing. Well, other than he's asleep and a
little beat up."
"What? Are ALL Chias that size or something?"
"Some are a little bigger, some are a little
smaller."
"You mean... they're not like... ME?" he sounded
horrified.
KiwiBonk shook her head.
If Fred had a face, it would have fallen. KiwiBonk
coaxed him into coming to Faerie Land with her, to see the Faerie Queen. "She'll
know what's going on," KiwiBonk told Fred. "And we'll bring this guy to see
the Water Faerie."
Fred put KiwiBonk, the Lupe, Snuffs, and the
Chia on his back and followed KiwiBonk's directions to Faerieland They got a
lot of stares walking though Faerie City, but Snuffs hissed at everyone and
they turned away.
"Hello, we'd like to see the Queen," KiwiBonk
told the guard at the gate, after she and everyone else has slid off Fred's
head, or in the Chia's case, fallen. The armoured Wocky looked up, waaay up
at Fred and gulped, but let them pass anyway. KiwiBonk told the Lupe to take
the Chia in, too. The receptionist at the front desk looked at the bunch like
they were insane, and told them the Queen was busy.
"We have to see her!" KiwiBonk shouted. "This
is an emergency! Well, no, not really, but we want some answers."
Fred, who was waiting outside, hollered so everyone
could hear, "DID YOU TALK TO HER YET??!"
The receptionist reached under her desk, to
press the 'security' button, no doubt, but before she could, Snuffs sprang into
action. He flew at the pink Uni, a whirling ball of snow shrieking like a banshee.
The Uni was pushed against the wall and was knocked out.
Next, Snuffs turned to the row of guards lined
up nearby. Twenty seconds later, not one of them stood.
"Yay!" KiwiBonk cheered. "Now let's find the
Queen!"
"What's going on?" a voice demanded. A bright
light filled the hall. "Uh oh," thought KiwiBonk.
Lucky sank to the ground. KiwiBonk did the same.
Fyora, the Queen of the Faeries, stood before
them, and she looked really REALLY mad.
"What is the meaning of this?"
"We... I did 'cause I found this Chia... or
he said he was a Chia anyway... and he was really big... and I didn't think
he was actually a Chia... and there was a Lupe with this Chia... and the Chia
was all....." KiwiBonk stammered.
"HEY!!! DID YOU FIND HER YET?" Fred thundered
from outside.
"What in blazes?" Fyora said. Part of Fred's
face appeared in a window. "Why, that's a-"
"SWAMP GHOUL!!!" the formerly unconscious Chia
yelled.
"AHHH!!" Lucky yelled, partly because of the
Swamp Ghoul, partly because his prey had awoken.
"HEEEE!!!" Snuffs hollered, and looked ready
to attack Fred, but KiwiBonk stopped him.
"What?" she said. "Fred's not a swamp ghoul!"
"This is... most unusual....." Fyora murmured,
rubbing her head. "You say he is a Chia?"
"He thinks he is," said KiwiBonk.
"His name is Fred?"
"Yeah."
"Oh dear. This is not good," Fyora said.
"WHAT?" yelled Fred.
"You see, Fred," Fyora explained. "You are not
a Chia, and your name is not Fred."
"I'M NOT? IT ISN'T?"
"No. You are a swamp ghoul, and you.....actually
don't really have a name..."
"What?" squawked KiwiBonk.
"You see, swamp ghouls live in Neopia Central,
and they like to steal things from people. A few months ago, you, when you knew
you were a swamp ghoul, stole something from a Light Faerie. Light Faeries absolutely
despise evil things, so she cast a spell on you that erased your memory. The
next thing you knew, there was a voice calling--"
"Fred the Chia," said Fred.
"Yes, that was because there was a Chia, named
Fred, who was missing, and his parents were looking for him. If they shouted
out just Fred, all the different Fred's in Neopia Central would have answered.
You heard their call, and thought you-"
"I thought I was a Chia."
"You lived for two months in the swamp near
Neopia Central, thinking-"
"That I was a Chia, and all Chias were like
me," Fred sounded sad and confused.
"The Light Faerie came and told me. But, I decided
not to do anything, because I thought Swamp Ghouls were evil, and you would
be better off thinking you were something else."
"So, I'm not a Chia? I'm a Swamp Ghoul? I don't
wanna be a swamp ghoul."
"Fred, you have shown me that you are not evil
and full of corruption like all the other Swamp Ghouls. If we Faeries can make
one of the vilest kind of beings in Neopia think he's a Chia, I'm sure we can
change the nicest Swamp Ghoul of them all into a Chia."
Fyora stepped outside, and touched Fred's bowed
head with her wand. Fred's huge, dark body shrunk and grew lighter until a plump
little Chia stood in his place.
"Yay! I'm a Chia for real!" Fred cheered.
"But, whatever happened to the real Fred the
Chia?" KiwiBonk asked.
"I'm right here!" a voice squeaked. It was the
little Chia that the Lupe had caught. "This Lupe saved me! I thought I was a
goner! Although I don't know why he knocked me out for."
"Oh," said KiwiBonk, feeling embarrassed for
thinking that Lucky was a Chia hunter.
"Thanks a lot, pal!" Fred told Lucky.
"Don't mention it," a very dazed Lucky replied.
***
That night, when KiwiBonk arrived, she told her everyone what happened. The
real Fred had had a happy reunion with his family, and the Lupe was thanked
again and again. The other Fred was adopted into a loving family just ten minutes
after Fyora brought him to the pound.
"But you forgot one thing, KiwiBonk!" MinxJade
laughed.
"What?"
"You didn't give the book to the Water Faerie!"
***
Lucky walked into his house and was surprised to see his parents waiting for
him.
"Guess what, son?!" his father said excitedly.
"What?"
"Your father caught a Chia today! We're going
to have it for supper!" His mother beamed at him.
"What?" Lucky said.
"You'll finally be able to taste fresh Chia
meat tonight!"
Lucky told his parents the story of what had
happened. His parents looked at each other, then his mother opened the oven
and let the Chia out. The three of them completely lost their appetites for
meat. And that is the story of the first vegetarian Lupes.
The End | 
