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Tales of a Petpet Campfire


by micrody

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"Password?" the bush said, rustling a bit.

     "Meep meep," the Faellie whispered back to the bush.

     The bush rustled again and a Symol walked out of it, carrying a stick with a pointed rock tied to the one end. "You may enter," it said, nodding.

     Quickly nodding in response, the timid little Faellie walked past the bush and through the darkened woods. After a moment of walking, he could see the light of a distant fire. A few moments more and he could hear distant voices. A few moments more and he walked out of the brush and into a clearing where a gathering of Petpets sat around a campfire.

     "Welcome," a bright yellow Petpet said as he noticed the Faellie. "I'm Flo the Flowper! Is this your first time coming to the Petpet Retreat?" He shook his head with a smile. "Of course it is! I've never seen your face before. Well, what's your name?"

     The small Faellie was shivering with nervousness, though he hesitantly replied nonetheless. "M-m-my n-name's Blurfle."

     "Blurfle?!" the Flowper roared with wide eyes and a giant grin. "Well, it doesn't matter your name -- welcome to the Petpet Retreat!"

     Blurfle just stood still and shook, his eyes wide with anticipation.

     "Don't be so nervous," a Feloreena said, patting an empty space beside her on the log she sat upon. "Please, come sit down and enjoy yourself. I'm Perdy."

     Blurfle smiled and slowly walked up to the log and sat down beside Perdy. "So..." he asked quietly, "what do we talk about here...?"

     "We talk about anything and everything!" Flo yelled while returning to his seat across the fire on another log.

     "What Flo is trying to say," Perdy said softly, "is that we talk about anything that we wish to talk about. These weekly Retreats are often everything for us Petpets, with our owners so often neglecting our needs. Have you ever even seen Petpet food for sale?"

     Perdy sighed. "Well, since you're new here, Blurfle, why don't we all introduce ourselves first?" Everybody nodded. "Well, I'll begin. I'm Perdy."

     To Perdy's left, sitting on another log, a Doglefox nodded and said, "Howdy, my owners call me Mutt, but I prefer to be called Fox, if you don't mind."

     To Fox's left was a Pile of Soot that responded with a "bleep blurp" but said nothing else.

     "Muhahahahahaha!" the next Petpet wailed, throwing his head back in sinister laughter.

     "Oh, stop that, Haunt," Perdy yelled and turned to face Blurfle. "That's Haunt, a Wain. You must excuse him, though; he doesn't have a very good vocabulary."

     Sitting beside Flo the Flowper on the fourth log was a grey-looking Petpet with big, dreary eyes and drooping ears. "Hi," he said quite sadly. "I'm Marvin, the Snoogy."

     "Now that we now each other," Flo cheered happily, "shall we get back to what we were discussing? What was it now? Oh, yes -- I recall it now -- we were talking about our owners and all the cruel things they do to us!"

     "I believe we were talking about the Petpet Lab Ray," Marvin droned. "You know," he whined, "I was once a Smiley... until the Petpet Lab ray. Now I can't even try to smile... "

     "Well look at him!" Fox yelled, pointing to the Pile of Soot beside him, "you know, he used to be a great Gallion -- that is, until the Petpet Lab Ray was used on 'im!"

     "Yeh yeh," the Pile of Soot said beside him, coughing out tiny clouds of smoke.

     "I know," Perdy said, shaking her head sadly. "It's such a shame... how many countless Petpets have I seen one day, to be told that they exploded the next? It's horrible, I tell you, just horrible. Why do our owners do these things to us?"

     "I know," Fox yelled. "I'd rather be a slave for Sloth than be hit by that thing!"

     "Muhahahahahahaha!" Haunt wailed.

     "Oh, stop it, you little pest," Perdy yelled. "That is the third time I've had to ask you not to do that, Haunt -- and I am getting tired of it!"

     "And let's not forget about Turmaculus," Marvin said. "I feel like I am going to have a heart attack every time my owner takes me there, always the fear of being eaten... "

     "I know," Perdy said, shaking her head. "Our owners can be so cruel! And what about the Symol Hole? Now, I know quite a few Symols and they are quite nice, but just who knows what IS down there? It could be a Grobrin down there for all that we know!"

     "W-what's a G-g-grobrin?" Blurfle asked.

     "It's a vicious Petpet that has been known to attack anything it sees!" Flo said with an air of enthusiasm. "It can be quite a dangerous fiend to encounter in a dark hole!"

     "Oh," Blurfle said with wide eyes, nervously glancing around them into the darkness.

     There was silence as they listened to the sound of approaching footsteps.

     "Who's there?" Blurfle screamed.

     "It is only I," the Symol with the spear said as he walked into the firelight. "There is an approaching group of Meepits. What is it that we shall do?"

     "We shall invite them to have tea!" Flo yelled excitedly.

     "Oh, those Meepits," Fox growled, clenching his paw into a fist.

     "We can't let them come here," Perdy said, shaking her head, no.

     "What's wrong with the Meepits?" Blurfle asked amid his nervous shaking.

     "Oh, nothing at all," Perdy said with a smile, "You see, because of the Meepits' naturally lazy eyes, our owners seem to think they're a bit... outlandish and are... conspiring against them. But they're the most harmless little things -- and they are so pink, too! And tell me, Blurfle, who doesn't love the color pink? I know I do!"

     "Then why is it a problem?" Blurfle asked quietly, not so afraid any longer.

     "You ARE a new Petpet, aren't you?" Fox growled with a hint of resent. "The Meepits attract crowds of Neopets who want to thwart their conspiracies, but the Meepits are just trying not to be stared at! Those staring Neopets... they drive the Meepits mad!"

     "Well," the Symol asked, "what shall we do now?"

     "If we can't get them to go away," Perdy said, sighing, "I guess we'll have to go away ourselves."

     "But everyone isn't here, yet," Flo said with too much excitement.

     "I'd rather it'd be Sloth than those Meepits," Fox growled.

     "Muhahahahahahaha!" Haunt wailed again.

     "That's it!" Blurfle yelled, jumping up in excitement. "We'll have Haunt scare them off!"

     "That'll never work," Marvin whined. "We're going to be caught and fed to Turmaculus, or worse, thrown down the Symol Hole, or even worse, hit by the Petpet Lab Ray... I knew I shouldn't have woken up today, I just knew it."

     "We'll try it anyway," Perdy said hopefully. "Now, let's figure some things out... "

     Five minutes later, the Meepit herd was still quickly approaching, the embers of their campfire still smoking. The pink cloud quickly swept through the bushes--

     "Muhahahahahahaha!" the Wain howled from a tree. "Muhahahahahahaha!"

     The pink creatures stopped running and huddled together beside the fire's embers.

     "Muhahahahahahaha!" Haunt wailed again and the Meepits spun around and began running back. After a moment, the sound of stampeding Petpets faded and it was safe and quiet once again.

     "We did it!" Flo yelled, running out of the bushes and hopping around wildly. "We did it, we did it!"

     "I can't believe we actually did it," Marvin said with depressed surprise.

     Perdy sighed. "I guess it doesn't matter, though; the sun's beginning to rise."

     "It is?" Blurfle yelled with eyes as wide as the full moon. "I have to be getting home before my owner wakes up and finds that I've been gone. Bye, guys; I'll be here again."

     "We'll be waiting," Perdy yelled after the Faellie as he ran off into the woods. She sighed again. "I guess we all need to be going then. Good bye, everyone; I shall see you all next week." They each exchanged their last goodbyes until, finally, they all began to leave.

The End

 
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