Read this story
from the beginning!
I quickly made my way to the Snow Faerie. Once I found her house and got in,
I saw a pale woman in a thick blue and white fur coat. "Are you the Snow Faerie?"
I asked shyly. She nodded with a shiver. "I need your help! I want to make a
huge vending machine where Neopians can exchange something to get money and
food, and it would all be random!"
"Fantastic!" the Snow Faerie cried. "You are the smartest Aisha I've ever met!"
She took a closer look. "But you're not a normal Aisha. Oh, well. Still I will
help you. It's a wonderful idea but you'll need my help. Maybe even the Faerie
Queen's help but we don't want to disturb her. She's very busy. You'll need
something to make it out of, and of course the things to get from the machine.
It will take a lot of money."
"Don't you have some money?" I cried desperately.
"Yes, I have some," she replied. "But not enough. This isn't going to be no
grocery store gumball machine, it's going to be the real deal. Big winnings
have to be involved. We'll have to take it to the Neopian government. In other
words, the Neopets Staff. I'm sure they'll be willing. But you must have something
to make the machine out of!"
"Well, I do have something..." I reached into my pocket and reluctantly made
Grastiw unfold into his big, beautiful golden self. I told the Snow Faerie,
"But if I use this, then I'll never get home!"
"Well, why don't you program it to still become a spaceship but it can also
be a vending machine?" the Snow Faerie asked sensibly. "I mean, if it can fold
up like that it must be able to do what I said."
"Of course," I said happily. "And I know the perfect place to put it! There's
an open lot between the toy shop and the health food shop. It would be a great
place for my machine!"
"What are we waiting for?" the Snow Faerie cried. "Let's go!"
We went to the government and tried to get the lot but they wouldn't let us.
"I'll buy it, then give it to Noluny!" the Snow Faerie announced. No matter
how much I insisted, she did it anyway. I was so happy. Then we got the Neopets
Staff to agree to give me (for the vending machine) 50,000 NP a day and every
multiple of three (every three days!) a bonus of 70,000 NP. The Snow Faerie
and I quickly did the math and figured out the vending machine would get about
1,650,000 NP a week. That meant the Neopians would get 1,650,000 NP a week,
or close to it.
"What about the food?" I asked.
"We're giving you enough," the staff said. "You'll have to get that yourself."
The Snow Faerie and I walked around town. "I have to have food in it too!"
I told my new friend sadly. "Where could we find someone who would donate some
stuff for us?"
"How about the Food Shopkeeper?" the Snow Faerie asked. We went to him and
the Chia agreed to give us 50 items a day and every multiple of three we'd get
70 items.
"It might not be enough," the Snow Faerie said. "But I have another idea!"
We then traveled to Maraqua and got the cranky chef to donate us 25 items a
day and a bonus of 45 every three days.
"That should be enough!" I said happily.
Then she and I set about to making Grastiw into my vending machine.
***
At last my golden Grastiw was a beautiful golden vending machine. He had six
little buttons, six levers, three big buttons, five little turning dials, a
nice big slot for prizes, and a blue sign on top that said Nosh-O-Matic. It
was the Snow Faerie's idea. She explained that she didn't know what it meant
either but it sounded nice and it was meant to mystify customers.
We fixed the inside with our beginning 70,000 NP (starting bonus) and our various
food items. Some of them were positively disgusting but we didn't complain,
it was still food.
"Now, Noluny, I have to get back to Terror Mountain," the Snow Faerie told
me. "I'm sorry I have to go so soon, but people are trying to get me spell ingredients,
and I need to make my spells. Well, not really, but those people want snowballs
and money and what not. I promise I will come back and visit you often, or you
could visit me."
"No, don't leave!" I pleaded. "Just wait for someone to come use it and then
you can go!"
"Okay," the Snow Faerie agreed reluctantly. "But what are they going to use
to get money and food?"
"Oh, no!" I cried. "We didn't make anything to use!"
"Make some sort of magical item and give it a funky name, then hand them out
randomly to people and it'll be good to go."
"Okay, okay. How about big golden stars? I'll name them Nerkmid, after my father.
There will be different kinds and the better the Nerkmid, the better the prize."
"Great!" the Snow Faerie said. "I'll use my magic to make them and for the
moment I'll randomly give them to 100 owners." She waved her hand and gold sparkles
flew everywhere.
She and I sat by the vending machine, and within minutes someone came up with
his green Chia. "I use this here, right?" he asked. I noticed the Chia looked
bony and undernourished.
"Yes," I replied. "Go ahead, put it in and press everything you want to."
The boy eagerly stuffed the Nerkmid in and went crazy pulling levers and punching
buttons. "Come on, GreenHotDog, help me out!" he cried happily. Both owner and
pet worked hard until finally the dials stopped whirling. A sack of NP plopped
out, along with a purple Negg. "Wow!" the boy cried. "A purple Negg! And..."
He pulled the bag open and peered in. "A whole lot of NP!"
I glanced at the machine. "17,386 NP, to be exact."
"We're rich!" the boy laughed happily. "You'll never have to eat yucky omelette
or soup again! For one thing, you could eat this Negg! Or we could sell it for
a lot of money!"
"Sell it!" GreenHotDog chirped. The boy giggled in ecstasy and swung his Chia
around.
"Don't spend it all in one place," I smiled. "Save some of it!"
"Oh, yeah, I will!" he assured me. They ran off happily.
"This is great," the Snow Faerie said. "Lucky, to watch these people all day.
I really do have to go now. Good bye!" She hugged me and disappeared.
"It's going to be out of money by the end of the day," I smiled to no one in
particular. "I'm so happy I could help the Neopians!"
Prologue
I sat, as normal, on my vending machine. I had been running the thing for two
weeks and hadn't tired of watching the happy people yet. Occasionally I went
out around town and gave people Nerkmids. Then one day Grastiw started beeping.
I opened the panel in back and pulled out a communicator.
"Noluny?" a faint voice cried. "Noluny, are you there? Can you hear me? Please,
say something!"
"Father?" I was shocked. "Is that you?"
"Noluny! You have been gone for so long and we couldn't reach you! Come home
now, please!"
"I can't come home, Father," I said calmly. "I'm helping the Neopians. I'm
doing what I set out to do."
"Well, I must be with my little girl, so your mother, sister, and I are coming
to you. We're tracking you as we speak so we should be there soon. I'll help
you! Everyone will!"
Within two days my family came. Since they wanted to help me so badly, I divided
my huge pile of Nerkmids among them (my dad was so pleased by the name) and
had them deliver the Nerkmids to people.
Then one day the Snow Faerie came to see me. "Hi, Noluny," she said. "How are
you doing?"
I introduced her to my family. "Oh, you're all just like Noluny: wonderful!"
she smiled.
Then when my family went back to Nerkmid-giving, the Snow Faerie sat down with
me. "Don't you have a name for your machine?" she asked.
"A name? No," I admitted.
"Well, you have to have one!" she mock-scolded. "Come on, think of one! Use
those Alien Aisha brains!"
"Alien Aisha Vending Machine!" I felt a light bulb go on in my head. "Alien
Vending Machine for short!"
...So that's how the Alien Vending Machine created. Even to this day, you will
occasionally see Alien Aishas roaming Neopia. Maybe you will get the next Nerkmid...
The End |