Why They Call Them Strangers: Part One

by Rykani

Feeling that a nice break away from their home on Faerieland would be a good idea, Rykani and her four pets decide to take a vacation. Who needs to be cooped up in a castle day in and day out always? Since they own a cottage on Mystery Island that is normally reserved for tourists, Rykani makes sure to keep a few weeks free, for her and her pets. Rykani, or Ry for short, carries her two non-flying pets - FrozenFish, a silver Kougra, and Daimaou a strange but unique robot Wocky - in her arms, while her other two pets - Addey the Faerie Aisha, and LilDanish the purple Shoyru - fly alongside her. Oh yes, Ry can fly; she has angel wings she got by very odd means many years ago. She's not your average human, when she was born; she had the tail and ears of a strange creature from a planet far from Neopia, along with natural blue hair. She doesn't mind this specialness though, for along with having parts of an animal, she can understand what they say. Anyway, back to the story...

The five of them get to the cottage, and Ry unpacks all of their things out of a bag that is called a black hole bag, being called that because she can put anything she likes into it, and it never gets full. Daimaou and FrozenFish, the youngest of the four go off and choose which rooms they will be sleeping in, while the older two stay behind and help Ry unpack. During the unpacking, LilDanish spots a light out the window in a bush, and tears out after it. Ry laughs to herself, knowing LilDanish, aka Dani, loves to try and catch Faeries to make her stronger. Addey just shakes her head, and flaps off to check on her younger sisters, leaving Ry to do the remaining unpacking on her own.

Meanwhile, Dani is rooting through the bushes, looking for what she was sure was a Faerie! Instead, once she breaks through the bushes, she spots a red Kougra, bouncing a shiny yellowish gold ball. She growls slightly, and flaps up in the air over the Kougra, and demands, "Did you just see a Faerie pass through that bush?" She points at the bush she just went through, while staring at the Kougra

"No," the young Kougra says softly, shaking his head slowly, "Sorry."

"You're lying, you probably made it bless you or something." Dani fumes, narrowing her eyes. Living with Ry was bad enough, that freakish human never took anything seriously, and now she has to deal with a lying Kougra Ugh, just like that brat FrozenFish.

"You know just as well as I do, LilD, that you can't be blessed by a Faerie without an owner catching them in a bottle first." The Kougra tosses the ball up, bouncing it off of one of Dani's wings, then catching it when it comes back down.

Dani just stares at this Kougra, wondering how he knows what her old name was, before she got put into the pound, and picked up by Ry. "Are you stalking me? You freak!"

"I'm the freak? You're the one who was bawling her eyes out at the pound... did you forget me already?" The Kougra smirks, then gets up, putting his ball into a pouch slung around his neck.

"Fine, you know my name, tell me yours." Dani crosses her arms, and lands in front of the Kougra, before he can get away.

The Kougra just shrugs, and sits down, flicking his tail slowly, "Get me some food, and I'll answer your question. A favour for a favour."

"Whatever. Stay here!!!" Dani commands, flapping off to the cottage.

When Dani arrives at the cottage, she finds a note on the fridge saying that Ry and the other three pets had gone to the training centre to sign up for some courses, if she flew fast enough, she could meet them along the way. No way, this was one time she'd have to pass up on the training. She wants to find out who this crazy Kougra is, and what he wants from her. She digs some food out of the fridge, just tossing random Neggs, and apples and such into a basket, then flies out the door, as fast as she can.

Dani flies over the bush rather than through it this time, she didn't much care for getting twigs in her beautiful blue eyes, then looks around for the rotten Kougra, who is laying on his back, and staring up at nothing. Dani flaps over to him, and sets the basket beside him, "Here, now tell me your name."

"Dismiss," the Kougra says, sitting up and looking through the basket, purring with what he finds.

"Excuse me!?" Dani huffs, slapping the basket lid shut with a paw, staring at the Kougra How dare he tell her she's dismissed!

"You asked my name. I just told you it," Dismiss the Kougra says with a smirk, "Now would you take your paw off my lunch? I haven't eaten in a while."

Dani pulls her hand back, feeling a bit foolish, blushing a little, trying hard to not show it, she puffs out her chest a bit, and mutters, "You must have a rotten owner, like me."

"Lild, if he's keeping you, and you act this way, he must be insane," Dismiss laughs through a mouthful of Negg.

"Ry isn't a he, she's a she, but she is insane... I think she has ulterior motives for keeping me, like experiments at the Lab Ray," Dani says with a shudder, she'd seen what the ray had done to Daimaou, it turned her into a Robot Kacheek, and when Ry used a morphing potion on her, it only halfway made her into a Wocky, half remained robotic.

"At least she's keeping you," Dismiss says, shaking his head slowly. Dani blinks, and looks at Dismiss. She never really thought of that... maybe Ry isn't so horrid after all. "Yea, well, what's your story? You said we met in the pound, who'd you wind up with?"

"Two more questions, two more favours," Dismiss laughs, and smiles a smile that makes Dani's blood run cold.

"What kind of favours?" Dani asks, flapping up a bit, so Dismiss can't sense how she's feeling.

"Bring me some blankets, or something. It gets very cold here at night, and where I live seems to get even more cold," Dismiss says, shrugging, "I'll think of something better later."

"Fine, stay here again," Dani sighs, she's getting rather tired of these games. She flaps off to the cottage, glancing back to see the Kougra playing with that yellow ball again.

To be continued...