The Wish for Warmth

      "Allvon, why are you staring out the window?" asked my Bori brother Ralvon.

      "It's so cold outside," I said.

      "Well, you're a Kougra," he said. "You like warm weather. I'm a Bori. I like cold weather. My species is from here."

      Maybe I should explain who I am. I'm Allvon. I'm a red female Kougra who hates cold weather. My brother, Ralvon, is a blue Bori. I have another brother, Albervon; he's a Lupe and I have a sister Alivoner; she's a red Gelert (I don't know why Allison, our owner, gave us all similar names). I am the eldest pet. We used to live in Mystery Island, but we just moved to Terror Mountain. Let's go back to my conversation with Ralvon.

      "What do the others think about this?" I asked Ralvon.

      "They probably like it," he said.

      "Why?" I asked.

      "They have a lot of fur," he said. "I'm surprised you didn't mind how warm it was in Mystery Island."

      "I'm a Kougra. Kougras have adjusted to warm weather. Besides, don't you miss Mystery Island?"

      "Of course. I miss my home. I miss my Neofriends. But I like the weather much better here!"

      "Fine!"

      We angrily walked away from each other. I missed playing Gadsgadsgame, I missed The Island Mystic, I missed playing Tombola, but I missed the warm weather most of all.

      "I wish I was someplace warm," I said quietly to myself.

      Then, I saw a few words suddenly, appear above my head. Something has happened: A dark faerie just heard your wish.

      A faerie came up behind me and said, "Your wish is my command."

      A flash of light and I was suddenly somewhere else. I was surrounded by sand, but I couldn't see ocean. I looked all around me, but I saw nothing. Then, I heard a loud cackle. Uh-oh! It said she was a dark faerie! Why do random events have to happen at the wrong time. I guess that's how it is in Neopia. The problem was that I had specifically said I wanted to go to some place warm. I didn't say I wanted to go to Mystery Island! I looked around. I knew where I was. I was in the middle of the Lost Desert! I had heard of Qasala and Sakhmet, but neither were in sight.

      "Well, I better try to walk toward Sakhmet or Qasala," I thought to myself.

      I didn't have a compass or anything for that matter. The only thing that was here was me. I tried to smell for a town or a city, but I couldn't smell anything, except sand. The sun was blazing hot; after all it was the middle of the day.

      "Hey, the sun is always in the east, right?" I thought. "Or is it that it rises in the east? Well, I might as well go in the opposite direction to it. Sakhmet or Qasala would probably be in that direction."

      I headed in the direction opposite of the sun. I wondered how long I'd be walking. I wondered if I'd survive, but most of all I wondered what Allison, Ralvon, Albervon, and Alivoner were thinking. I didn't know if they were worried or scared. Allison and Albevon would probably be worried. Alivoner would probably hope she still had a sister and Ralvon would probably feel bad. Ralvon had a fight with me. I know he didn't even know if I was still alive. I regretted the fight. My only wish was that I'd be able to see my neofamily again.

      After walking for about an hour I decided to see if yelling for help would do any good.

      "Help!" I yelled. "Help me!"

      Nobody came. I decided to walk on.

      About 3 hours had passed since I called for help. My throat was so dry that I could barely talk. I was so hot that I couldn't tell the heat from fire. My vision was so blurred in the heat that I didn't know how close I was to Sakhmet or Qasala at all.

      "Help!" I croaked as loud as I could.

      Then, I fell to the ground. I couldn't move. I fell asleep.

      About an hour later, I awoke in a bed. The bed wasn't my bed. The room wasn't my room. I had never been there before in my life. My throat didn't feel sore. I didn't feel very warm.

      "Where am I?" I yelled.

      A tall girl came in with a desert Cybunny and a desert Scorchio.

      "You are in my Neohome," said the girl. "This is Freilla," she pointed to the Cybunny, "and this is Garran. My name is Kira. I live here in Sakhmet. We were outside the city for a minute and we saw you. You were lying on the ground and it looked like you needed water immediately. Where's your owner?"

      "She's in Terror Mountain," I said.

      "Terror Mountain?" Kira questioned. "How did you end up here?"

      I told Kira everything that had happened to me. She looked shocked. She didn't say anything, but I did.

      "Do you know what I've realized now?" I asked.

      "What?" asked Kira.

      "I've realized that it's not about the weather," I said. "It's about home."

      "So, do you want me to neomail Allison?"

      "Sure."

      5 minutes later Kira announced, "Your owner is thrilled to see that you're okay. She'll be arriving to take you home in about a week."

      During that week I spent a lot of time with Freilla. She told me a lot about the Lost Desert and she taught me how to play Geos. I had a lot of fun. I was happy to have a new Neofriend. I didn't know that the Lost Desert had so many stalls. We looked at the paintbrush stall and the food stall. I have one thing to say about Lost Desert food; it tastes terrible.

      When the week was over I was so excited to see my neofamily that I jumped all over the place until they arrived. I saw them and hugged them immediately.

      "I'm sorry," I said to Ralvon.

      "Me too," he said.

      "By the way, Allvon," said Allison.

      "What is it?" I asked.

      "We decided that, since you missed Mystery Island so much, we would keep the house in Mystery Island as a summer home," she said. "We haven't sold it. So, what do you say? That also means you won't get painted until after I paint the rest of the neofamily."

      "I say that's a great idea!" I said in excitement.

      We took our long journey home. It was fun. We got to spend a lot of time with each other the journey was still hard. It took us a whole day to get over Maraqua.

      In the end we were happy. We kept our house on Mystery Island as a summer home and we've been great ever since.

      P.S. I neomail Freilla every day.

The End

If you're reading this, then Yes! My first submission in the Neopian Times!