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Untitled Document
Snow drifted gently against the windows of a small cottage,
in the deepest, darkest corner of Neopia. Inside, as per usual, a fight had broken
out over breakfast.
Black_Waterlily was standing on her two back
feet, the other two firmly planted on the table, and the little Ixi was screaming
her head off at the Uni that stood opposite her. A Snowbunny huddled behind
one of Elenna_Lanta's back hooves as she snorted and stamped the ground to emphasise
her point.
"Darigan is in the right and YOU KNOW IT!"
"How can you? How can you support those nasty
Dariganians who want to steal His Majesty's Orb?"
"Because I'm not some stupid noble-Uni who only
supports him because he gave your family a load of gold! I think for myself!"
"Take that back!"
"Shan't, so don't bother asking! What about
the Serfs, eh?"
"What about them?"
"There you go again! Simple, one-track mindedness!
No wonder Merridell was in such a state before you STOLE Darigan's Orb!"
"The Orb never really belonged to Darigan, otherwise
we wouldn't have taken it! We'll all die if we can't keep it!"
"Do you two mind not being so patriotic so early
in the morning?"
I doodled absentmindedly on a napkin as the
two pets stopped yelling, still glaring at each other. Elenna_Lanta, or just
Elenna as we call her, is a blue Uni and of noble Merridell birth. I'm not saying
how she came to be living with us, but it was something about some stupid family
feud. Black_Waterlily, or just Waterlily, is also Merridell born and bred, but
her background is common. Not that anything like that matters in the slightest,
except to those two.
Waterlily was a true battler in the making.
She liked nothing better than beating up anyone who annoyed her, and when that
didn't work, she had a powerful cocktail of magical abilities to send any pet
into a Maths Nightmare. Currently, she had her long, wavy black hair tied up
in a rather messy bun and was wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed to the world
'Darigan RULES okay?', a long black skirt and stripy black and purple tights.
With holes for her hooves.
Elenna couldn't have been more different. For
one thing, she had never got the hang of walking on two legs, so always trotted
around on four. She was wearing a long silk blanket like a knights horse, emblazoned
with the Merridell colours and shields, with a long plume attached to her bridle
and ribbons plaited into her mane and tail. Her petpet, a Snowbunnie named Neca,
was wearing a collar with the Merridell shield attached.
And at the other end of the table from me sat
my third and final pet, an Aisha named Immacolata_Magdalene. Immacolata had
very short blue fur all over and didn't like wearing clothes, so only had her
laptop in a small bag over one shoulder, with a mobile tucked into a pocket
and a book ALWAYS tucked under one arm. Immacolata was smart and a true evil
mastermind in the making. I'm so proud of my pets!
And there was me, of course. My name is Chrissy.
I'm human, of course, but I don't particularly like being human. I'd rather
be a pet. I was wearing a blue sweater and blue jeans, I like to support my
pets, which are all blue - It wasn't actually intentional, it just happened.
The thing is, Waterlily and Elenna have been
at each other's throats for ages over this war. Eventually, I forbid them to
fight, but that didn't work. It's a good thing that my supplies have been running
low over Christmas, we'd been living off Omelette for weeks. As it was, there
was never really enough to go around.
"Cheer up, you two, it's Christmas Eve! The
day after Christmas it'll all be over, and you can have Christmas dinner tomorrow.
I've got tons of food all ready, remember?"
The two of them nodded, but were still glaring
at each other.
"We'll have turkey with cranberry sauce, Christmas
pudding with brandy butter…"
"I don't like Christmas pudding." Elenna stuck
her bottom lip out indignantly.
"I'll make trifle."
"Oooh, trifle!"
I smiled to myself. It was working.
"And then there's presents."
"Presents?" Waterlily perked up her ears.
"I promised you a NeoHome, didn't I? I'll put
a snowman in the garden, and we'll all sit round the tree in front of the fireplace
and open the presents…"
"You'll love what I got you, Waterlily." Immacolata
had joined in the conversation at last.
"Yeah, we both got you something."
"I got you both something too, you know."
"We know."
I smiled wider. "Come on, how about we go to
Happy Valley and get slushies?"
"We're not allowed to, because of us fighting."
"Which we wouldn't do if you would admit that
Darigan is in the wrong."
"Darigan is in the right, remember? If you weren't
so sure of your precious Merridell this wouldn't happen."
"If you two didn't have such big mouths then
I would be a lot happier."
Immacolata glared at them both, closed her laptop
and went to find somewhere more private to conquer the world. I sighed. Things
just never went right these days.
"Go outside, you two, and don't come in until
you're friends again."
"But CHRISSY!"
Well, at least they agree on something….
"NO BUTS."
"It's sneeting out there!"
"Sneeting?"
"Cross between sleeting and snowing. You can't
send us out in this weather!"
"I can and I am. So you better make friends,
shouldn't you?"
"Yes Chrissy."
Waterlily and Elenna started walking out into
the snow, their heads trailing miserably. I knew they were putting it on. After
a few furtive glances back at the house, Waterlily stuck her tongue out and
they both started bickering again. I went and tapped on the door to Immacolata's
room.
"Hey, Immacolata? Wanna come help with something
special?"
"Not really," she replied stiffly. I sighed.
"Just a few more days, Immacolata. Then it'll
all be over, remember?"
"I'm going to go find Waterlily and Elenna."
"To get them to make friends?"
"No, to knock their teeth down their throats."
"Atta girl."
I went back downstairs, put my coat on and headed
towards Neopia Central. On the way, I passed two snowdrifts that had somehow
sprouted two sets of hooves. I walked over to one pair, tapped them to get the
owner's attention, and shouted.
"No trifle!"
From the moaning sound as I left the clearing,
I decided that had worked.
To be continued...
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