Why They Call Them Strangers: Part Two

by Rykani

When Dani returns to the cottage this time, Ry is there, tending to FrozenFish who is crying. Dani flaps right by her, not interested in what's wrong with the baby. She flies around some rooms, looking for some blankets, but none have been pulled from the linen closets yet. She growls to herself, and finds the linens, but is interrupted in her search by Daimaou and Addey who creep up on her, "BOO!" they scream together.

Dani mutters, and glares at the pair, "I've only been living with you guys for a couple weeks, and I already know you're psychotic. And you should know I don't fall for your dumb jokes." Addey and Daimaou laugh nonetheless, and Addey prods Dani with one of her antennae (ya know what look like a second pair of ears on Aishas? They're really antennae, they don't hear anything, but can pick up neat signals from space if the Aisha has fillings or braces or something. But shhh... it's a government conspiracy...) and whispers to her, "Try and get a sense of humour Dani, I don't think all the money in Neopia could buy you one though, so I guess getting Ry to help would be impossible."

Dani huffs, and pulls some blankets and a quilt down, and drags them off to her room, leaving Daimaou and Addey behind. They decide to not follow the grouch, and bound off to Ry, to see how FrozenFish is doing.

"Blimey twits... I wish I was at home, three levels, and one all to myself... stupid one level cottage... stupid Dismiss... stupid everything..." Dani mutters, as she hops out her window, and flies into a dusky sky, which is slowly turning into night.

She doesn't want to be out with the freaky Kougra too late, maybe he'd turn out to be some sort of werecat or something. This thought makes her laugh, she knows there's no such thing. As soon as she arrives at the spot where she had met the Kougra twice before, she sees that he's not there, but his ball is. She sighs heavily, and nearly flies back off with the blankets and such, but then sees a note under the ball. She lands by it, and picks up the ball and note, reading the note over.

LilD, I have no owner, the day you were let free with your new owner, I broke out. They failed to lock the cage right, and I left. Leave the blankets here. Take my ball with you please, I will tell you a great secret if you return it to me tomorrow. -Dismiss.

'Great,' she thinks to herself, 'Now I have to meet that thing again... just fabulous... oh well, I promised myself I'd never turn down a challenge, and learning things is a challenge...'

She looks over the ball, then flaps away with it, arriving back at the cottage just in time for Ry to be making supper. Dani hides the ball in her room, and sleeps uneasily that night, dreaming of a red Kougra who chases a big ball around, then runs her down with it...

"Breakfast! Wakey wakey gals!" Rykani's voice chirps through the sunny cottage the next morning.

Dani groans and rolls over, slapping a pillow over her head. She doesn't want it to be morning. Doesn't want to see Dismiss... though, that secret sounds like something important. And if he lives on the streets... maybe he had time to find a hidden grove of faeries? Yes yes! With all these thoughts rushing through her mind, she leaps out of bed, and flaps quickly to the kitchen, where Ry is already serving the other three some omelettes and pancakes.

"Hey lazy butt!" FrozenFish mews to Dani, who just glares. "Ouch..." FrozenFish whispers jokingly.

"Shut up, wouldja? I had a rough night," Dani mumbles, slipping into a chair at the table, laying her head down next to her plate.

"Miss your bed Dani? I remember how it was for you the first few days living with us at the castle..." Ry says as she places some pancakes onto Dani's plate.

"No, I'm fine. I'm not hungry, I'm going for a walk," Dani says, taking a pancake anyway, and eating it as she walks to her room.

"Any of you guys know what's going on with Dani? She was acting all nervous and strange last night..." Ry asks, shaking her head slowly.

"She can be normal??" Daimaou asks, laughing softly.

Ry smirks, and pokes Daimaou's nose softly, "Be nice you... ya know she could whip ya in a Battledome match. Even if you did make it to the knockout rounds."

Daimaou just sticks out her tongue, and stuffs a whole omelette into her mouth, making Addey and FrozenFish crack up. Ry just stares in disbelief, and shakes her head, maybe she was TOO much of an influence on her pets.

Dani is searching through her room while her sisters act like doofuses in the other room, she can't seem to find the yellow ball. Or her Magaral, for that matter. A soft beeping sound comes from her closet, and she flings it open, to see Dismiss sitting there with Royal the Magaral in his paws.

"Hey," Dismiss says softly, "Cool Pet you got here."

Dani stares, and swipes Royal away, petting down it's purple fur, "What are you doing here!?"

"I came here last night, I followed you." Dismiss smiles, and points at the blankets next to him, "Thanks, by the way."

Dani rolls her eyes, and stares, "I should tell Ry about you."

"Yea, but you won't."

Dismiss laughs, then hops out of the closet, then trots to the open window, looking out, "It's going to rain today, you know."

"Is THAT the big secret? Cuz if it is..." Dani tries to think of a threat, but comes up empty. She couldn't fight right now, all of her battle equipment is back home.

"It is. And you can't do anything to me." Dismiss shrugs, then sits and balances his ball on his nose. Dani glares, and swipes the ball away. She then bites down on it hard, trying to pop it, but to no avail, so she just tosses it back at Dismiss. He picks it up, and shakes his head, crawling out the window, "Coming?"

Dani looks out the door, and sees a shadow coming close, along with the faint sound of the others, so shoves Dismiss out the window, and follows close behind.

"Mean, and pushy too. How sweet."

Dismiss chuckles, and runs off with his ball, making Dani eat dust. Dani growls, and flies after him, nearly losing him a few times. Boy, for an ownerless pet, he sure didn't seem it. After a while, they stop at the training centre, and sit in some lush foliage, watching pets and owners come and go.

"Now what?" Dani asks.

"Huh? Oh... okay, you get a question now." Dismiss smiles.

"What's with your ball?" Dani points at the ball which Dismiss is tossing from paw to paw slowly.

"Watch..." Dismiss whispers as he pulls a key from the pouch around his neck, and pushes it into the ball, not through an opening in the ball, just right through it, like a pin.

He turns the key slowly, and it turns into a golden mirror, which shows faeries! Thousands, maybe millions of faeries! All bottled and ready to be released, and used for blessing. Dani's eyes grow huge slowly, just staring, and drooling a tad bit.

"Hehe... bet you'd like to have this little treasure, wouldn't you?" Dismiss asks, pulling the key away, and the mirror turns back into a ball.

Dani just nods fast, and tries to not scream, so the pets at the training centre don't run out and see what's going on, "Yes yes yes! How can I have it??"

"Tell ya what... go home, and take that little Kougra, and throw her off the roof. I just want to see if you have what it takes to possess the knowledge mirror," Dismiss says with that same cold smile as the day before, but this time it makes Dani smile back and nod.

"Yessir, I'll go and do it now," Dani gets up and quickly flaps back to the cottage, without even bothering to see if the Kougra is following after her, she's just too pumped up to care at the moment!

To be continued...