Caution: Quills may be sharp Circulation: 130,067,293 Issue: 259 | 29th day of Gathering, Y8
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A Puzzle Piece Palace


by dubline100

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This short story was made after I spent about three hours doing a great puzzle.

Moki leaned against the windowpane. Raindrops trailed down the foggy glass as the cold summer downpour beat a drum roll on the pane. Scratching her ear, Moki sighed and continued to be as lazy as an Aisha could get.

     Yvonne, her owner, walked in.

     "Moki the Green Aisha!" she said, her hands on her hips in a sort of motherly way. "You have been lazing around all day! Get something productive done."

     "But, Mom-!" whined Moki, but Yvonne would have none of it.

     "No buts!" Yvonne walked over to her and shut the blinds. "I don't want my Neopet to go and waste a perfectly fine day on nothing."

     "A 'perfectly fine day'?" repeated Moki incredulously. "You call this a 'perfectly fine day?" She gestured wildly at the muffled pounding on the now covered window.

     Yvonne said nothing for a moment, then said, "A day filled with rain doesn't have to be a horrible day. You can still do something with it. Go and play with your brother."

     Moki shook her head and walked over to the Zen Sofa, plopping down and hugging the white pillow protectively. "I don't want to play with Matt. He tries to bite me."

     Yvonne gave her a skeptical look. "Now, really, Moki, he's only 10 months old. And he's a teething Scorchio, don't blame him. Anyway, I'm going into the kitchen to make supper. What do you want to eat?"

     Moki shrugged.

     "How about pizza?"

     Again, no answer, just a half-hearted shrug.

     "I thought you loved pizza. Oh well, I guess Asparagus and Semolina Wheat will do," she said, and she went off to the kitchen before Moki could protest.

     Moki grumpily sat right back down on the sofa and stared into the fireplace. There was really nothing to do, and even Yvonne couldn't give her something interesting, no sir. Moki set her lip into a rather fat pout and sulked until the great grandfather clock stroke 5:00.

     Not really minding where she was going, Moki walked carelessly into the dining room. Her brother, Matt, was playing with a little Neopet's puzzle, giggling wildly.

     "Puzzle!" he yelled excitedly, jabbing a finger pointedly at the brightly colored picture. Moki rolled her eyes dramatically and flopped down on the chair opposite him. There were eight boxes of puzzles, each becoming progressively harder. Moki stared at her brother, who was starting to smoke.

     "Mom! Matt's flaming up!" she yelled, and Yvonne rushed it with a kitchen rag filled with ice. She promptly set it on top of his nose, and he cooled off.

     "Mommy..." he whined, rubbing his cold nose.

     "Sweetie, no burning the furniture, okay?" Yvonne walked back into the kitchen. Matt stuck out a forked tongue upon her exit and continued doing his puzzle with refreshed vigor.

     Moki grabbed a puzzle box and took off the lid. Inside were 100 pieces. She looked eagerly at them for a moment, then put the lid back on.

     "Just a stupid puzzle. Humph! I hate puzzles!" she grouched, folding her arms and turning away from the puzzle box.

     Now it was Matt's turn to roll his eyes. He dropped off of the chair and started to toddle towards the living room.

     "Me gonna go play with Fireball," he announced proudly, trying to say "Baby Fireball in a Box."

     "Whatever," Moki said, masking her excitement behind total boredom. As soon as the Scorchio left the room, Moki leapt for the puzzle box. She tore off the lid and dumped the pieces on the tablecloth. There they lay, helter-skelter on the table, and Moki grabbed the very first piece.

     "Okay, this goes here and that goes there and this goes here..." she muttered to herself, jabbing a few pieces together. "And this goes over here instead of here!" She reached over the steadily decreasing pile of pieces to grasp a handful. Sorting through carefully, she found the right piece and thrust it in the empty space.

     "Hmm..." She needed three pink pieces. She grabbed another fist full and poked through until she found the first one. She set it aside, then picked out a second and a third, which were conveniently already stuck together.

     This is more fun than I thought, Moki thought.

      * * *

     And an hour later, Yvonne walked in to tell Moki to wash up for dinner. Just as she was about to speak, her voice caught in her throat and she silenced herself as a very surprising sight greeted her eyes.

     There was Moki, sitting in the very center of a puzzle piece explosion. She was frantically putting pieces together, and two finished puzzles lay on either sides of her. The other colorful boxes of puzzles were stacked all around her. She didn't notice her owner come in the room: she merely grunted, "And this and this go here and there and here..." Not even Yvonne's waving hand could distract her from her work. Moki shifted her weight to a more comfortable position and snatched for one of the many clusters of pieces that littered her workspace. "And here's that blue sky piece!" She poked the cardboard piece carefully inside eight or so others. "I wonder if..." she murmured thoughtfully, prodding a few magenta squares around the table.

     Yvonne turned on her heel and walked right back into the kitchen. She took the Semolina Wheat off of the stove, tossed it around a bit in the frying pan, then let it sizzle as she threw off her apron and sidled into the living room. Matt was lying lazily on the Zen Sofa, playing with his Baby Fireball in a Box.

     "Hey Matt," Yvonne said, walking over and stroking the top of his head. "It worked."

     Matt put down his toy immediately and swung his short legs over the side of the sofa.

     "Really, Mommy?"

     "Yes. You really are the little genius, aren't you?" Yvonne picked him up under his wings and let him fly around her.

     "Yeah!" he said happily as he zoomed gloriously around her head. "Me am!"

     Yvonne smiled and retreated to the kitchen. She quickly turned off the stove, took the now fried Semolina Wheat off of the frying pan and deposited it onto three separate plates. The asparagus had finished cooking, and she scooped it out along with the Wheat.

     "Moki! Matt! Dinner!" she yelled, dropping the plates on the Wooden Table.

     Moki sped into the kitchen as fast as her legs could carry her. She flopped down on her chair and started snarfing down asparagus with amazing speed. Matt hovered into the kitchen and stared at his sister with shock.

     "Is she broken, Mommy?" he said with nervousness.

     "No, honey, she's just excited about continuing her puzzle." Yvonne looked at her Neopet with mixed confusion and hilarity. "You're going to choke if you eat that fast, you know," she said to Moki.

     Moki ate even faster.

     "Done." Moki dashed back into the dining room to her puzzle kingdom with as much speed as a Zafara on a good day.

     Yvonne stared after her Neopet with amazement.

     "What kind of Neopet did I raise?" she asked Matt with wonder.

     "Dunno."

     The sound of pieces sticking together was heard from the other room.

     And it was a good sound to hear.

The E...

     Oh wait a second...

The Puzzle

 
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