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Dorak, The Little Known Hero


by ice_dragons_jewel

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Neopia is a vast place. In it are heroes as well as villains—there are many, in fact. So of course, not every normal Neopian knows all the heroes and villains. If you were to ask a random person on the street, they would probably name Lord Sloth as the villain, and perhaps Jacques the Lupe as a hero.

     Well, this is a story about a lesser known ‘hero’ if you desire to call him so. This is a story about Dorak the Krawk.

     ---

     “Dorak!” came a mother’s call from the inside of a rather plain, small neohome. A female Krawk’s head then stuck out from an open window. She put her claw beside her mouth as to carry her grating voice further.

     “Doooorak!” she repeated. Several moments after her call, a small blue Krawk came bounding up to her.

      He was a rather funny looking boy. He was plain blue, but was adorned with a fake eye patch. On his head was a silly little pirate’s hat, and in his claws he gripped a small, gold-colored hook. He was even complete as a little play pirate with a small Pawkeet, resting on his shoulder. He looked up at his mother with a silly grin on his face.

     “Mama?” he asked, his head slightly tilting to the side as he spoke to her.

     “Your father and I have a surprise for you!” she said, smiling as she ducked out of the window and back into the house. Soon she appeared outside with a bit of sanding material in her hand. Odd—it wasn’t like his mother to just randomly sand something.

      He ran to her and gave her a hug. The Pawkeet on his shoulders squawked as it had trouble clinging on to the shoulder of his shirt in all the movement.

      The mother laughed as she returned her child’s hug. “You haven’t even seen it yet, Dorak!” she said. She then rested her hand on his free shoulder, and began to lead him around the house. “Your surprise is in the backyard,” she told him.

      Dorak’s backyard wasn’t much. It was a small patch of mucky grass, but it was mostly just sand, lining the green sea that surrounding his home that was Krawk Island.

      With wide eyes he took in what he saw. His father laughed as he saw the little boy's face, and climbed out of the little row boat. “Your mom and I have been working on this for a while,” he explained, “and I was just giving it some final touches,” he finished. He then was caught off guard by the running hug the excited Krawk gave him.

      He spun the child around once before setting his son down. Dorak was speechless as he looked on to his new present. It wasn’t much in all reality. But to a child with such a creative mind as Dorak, it was a heaven all in its own. It was a huge pirate ship! It was the Black Pawkeet itself! Not even Captain Scarblade himself could possibly handle a ship so large and powerful!

      He climbed into his new toy. It took him a few minutes to finally catch his fake hook around a oar, but he managed it. His goofy smile never left him as he then began to make jerky movements with the oar. Each oar moved separately, and they tumbled all over the sand, flinging the little brown bits everywhere—but he didn’t care! He was sailing through the seas! He was discovering new lands! Fighting great sea monsters! (The one he had in mind was that rather annoying sea snail that seemed to always be around whenever one wanted to visit Maraqua’s ruins.)

      Dorak was torn back into reality as he felt the jerk of the small boat being pushed into the water by his father. He looked at his dad and started to scream. “No! No! No no no no no no!!” he yelled hysterically, clinging to his bench seat in fear. Needless to say, the older male immediately stopped.

      “What’s wrong, son?!” Dorak’s father cried out, terribly shocked by his offspring’s behavior.

      The child didn’t seem to want to answer, though. He just remained teary-eyed and clinging to the bench seat in his fear. He was slowly shaking his head even as his mother slowly brought him into her arms. She locked eyes with her husband and gave him a worried look. His lips curled in a frown and his brows knit, telling her that he returned the feeling.

     ---

      Three weeks later, it seemed as though Dorak had no memory of the ‘trauma’ he had suffered earlier, for he was sitting in his boat with a huge grin on his face as he moved the oars—flinging sand everywhere still.

     His Pawkeet squawked and flapped its clipped wings as sand flew up and got it in the eye. As if on cue, a pack of kids made their way up to the happy Krawk.

      “Hey, Dorak,” a brown Moehog said. Though when he saw what his friend was doing, he had to suppress a laugh.

      “I’m not Dorak!” the blue Krawk responded as he remained oblivious to the suppressed giggles of his friend. “I’m Captain Lenny!” he announced happily. He then jerked a oar up high in the air, sending sand everywhere—mainly into the green Kyrii’s long mane.

      “My hair!” Sally cried out, as she then began to frantically brush all the grains of sand out of her well groomed hair. Once she was sure she was no longer covered in sand, she began to retie her pink bow that sat atop her head. She sent Dorak a glare as she did so. “More like Captain Dumb,” she mumbled. She was rather upset about sand getting in her hair. She was a Kyrii, after all.

      “Why isn’t your boat in the water?” A yellow JubJub then chimed in, his face skeptical as he looked to the silly Krawk, flinging sand everywhere.

      Dorak looked to his friends, and began slowing down his oar movements. “Aren’t you guys... happy for me...?” he asked, a hurt look written on his young face.

      “Pshh,” Joey, the brown Moehog, said. He rolled his eyes as he then continued, “Have you even named your boat yet?” Sarcasm was thick in his young voice.

      Before Dorak could respond, Bo, his little JubJub friend, chimed in the conversation once more. “Probably Slow Return, 'cause it sure it’s sure goin’ nowhere fast!” he said, his little child’s mind not making complete sense, but it sure caused an uproar of laughter among the trio.

      Dorak looked to his friends, a hurt, angered look on his face. “Bo—you’re just jealous because you don’t have arms,” he mumbled back, his face buried in his arms as he wiped away barely forming tears.

      When he looked up his friends were silent.

     “Whatever, Captain Lenny,” Sally responded, before tossing her hair and turning to walk away. “You’re weird.” Behind her followed the rest of the blue Krawk’s friends. There he sat, alone in the boat. He sniffled a little, before climbing out of his boat, and running to his mother with tears streaming down his face.

     ---

      “I’m worried, John,” the mother said. She looked to John, and reached out for his hand.

      “I am too, Dora,” he responded in his gruff voice. He looked to her, and clasped her hand. “Krawks are meant to be in water—we just are. I guess we always sort of took it for granted that he could swim, or at least would want to swim.”

      Dora looked up to the handsome green Krawk. “Please talk to him—” She was soon cut off by a hysterically crying child busting into the house. She kneeled down as if it were automatic, and opened her arms to embrace the sorrowful boy.

       “Oh sweetie!” she exclaimed in her raspy Krawk voice. “What happened?” she asked, continuing to hug him, and moving off his pirate hat to give him sweet, comforting kisses on his forehead. “Tell mama everything,” she said softly.

      Through mumbled words and hiccupping gasps, the story was explained. Her face remained concerned and worried all throughout his sobbing explanation. She let a few minutes of just pure hugging to pass before he got calm again, and began to talk. “Honey, your father and I need to talk to you...”

      John knelt down to his son's level. Dorak turned around to face him, and was greeted with his father’s claw resting gently on his shoulder. “Son... we’re worried about you...” he began. “You’re been sitting in that boat for three weeks now... don’t you think it’s time you actually put those oars in the water?” he asked. His eyes were locked with Dorak’s own, and both faces of the males were serious. One was stern, and the other was still slightly hurt. “...Your mother and I are quite worried that you might have a fear of water. That's not normal for a Krawk,” he said. He then heaved a sigh. “...Actually, it's quite embarrassing,” he finished. He watched as his son’s eyes then began to tear up again.

      The mother came in for the rescue. “Dorak,” she said in calming, cooing tones. “Don’t get upset—your father and I want to put you in... swimming lessons,” she said with a strained smile on her face.

      She then looked to her son. She didn’t exactly have all the dubloons she needed to give her child another bathing suit (he had grown out of the last one they had bought for him. It never even touched water) so she depended on him having saved his allowance of two dubloons a month.

     “Do you have any dubloons left, sweetie?” she then asked him, her face hopeful.

      She was then let down as he remained silent, and had a sheepish look on her face.

     Little known to her, dubloons to a four year old just meant good sand castle modelers—and good Frisbees!

      She sighed, and gave him a hug. The father joined, and together they made a happy, yet stressed family.

      The next day, Dorak was in his boat again. His eyes were looking far out into the sea. His eyes caught sight of a few ships. Their flags were black—this caused him some concern. How odd! Soon the sounds of cannons filled the air. Excited, the child stood up in the landed boat. These were pirate ships! REAL pirate ships! Before he could run inside and inform his parents, a smaller ship practically exploded!

      A cannon was shot into its very belly. Bits of wood and metal—shiny metal—flung out from the wound. The small ship went under fast, and the larger ship, the winner, quickly sailed away.

      Dorak’s jaw was to the floor. He had just witnessed an actual pirate fight!

      His eyes then caught sight of gleaming bits of metal in the water. Some were bronze, some silver, some even gold! It was... it was... a Dubloon Disaster! The little youth jumped out of his boat, and without a second thought he pushed the little rowboat into the sea. His fear of water didn’t even cross his little mind--only the thought of his parents needing dubloons for some swimming lessons. Well, he found them!

      He rowed out to the shining bits of metals expertly. It turned out that paddling through water was a whole lot easier than paddling through sand. And, well... the rest is history!

The End

* Conversation between Dorak and father and mother was actually borrowed from Neopedia.

 
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