The Super Deluxe Chokato and Strawberry Sundae

      It was an ordinary day in the life of Master Vex. He was concentrating on a nice game of Cellblock with a challenger who was taking a ridiculous amount of time with his move.

      “Sorry, sorry,” replied the Red Blumaroo. He placed his piece down.

      “Finally...” Master Vex grumbled as placed his piece, unknowing of the plan laid out against him.

      “Hehe. I won!” exclaimed the Blumaroo. He set down his piece and made four in a row, without any piece on either side; there was no way he could lose.

      Master Vex sighed. It was only the start of his day, and already there was a lousy, time-consuming challenger, and worse, the lousy time-consuming challenger had won. Being a good sport, Master Vex made a useless move, just so the game could be done with.

      The Blumaroo laughed. “Ha ha ha ha HA! I won, I won, I won!!!!!” He squealed as Master Vex sighed again. Why did he have to have terrible sportsmanship?

      “Aww, don’t feel bad,” said the Blumaroo, calming down. “I’ve gotten a lot of practice from my family. This is actually a traditional Shenkuu game, except, well, it has a different title back in Shenkuu.”

      Master Vex froze as he was starting to hand over the neopoints that the Blumaroo had won. “What did you say?”

      “Oh, I said that this Cellblock game is actually a traditional Shenkuu game, except with a different title...”

      “That’s quite impossible. I invented this game.”

      “Hmm, well, I wouldn’t be too sure about that!” The Blumaroo took his neopoints and he bounced out the room, making a large clamor as he laughed his crazy laugh.

      Master Vex was troubled. What if the Blumaroo was right? Then he wouldn’t have truly invented his one and only invention any more. Of course, the Blumaroo was lying, right? Master Vex was pretty sure that the Blumaroo was lying, but he had to make sure. He just had to.

      “Wait!” he screamed, but the Blumaroo was already long gone, probably leaving the Darigan Citadel by now. He quickly turned around. “Galgarrath?”

      “What?” replied a sound from the tunnel to the prisoner’s cells.

      “Tell Lord Darigan I’ll be gone today.”

      “For what?”

      “I have to... do something. I must leave now; good luck with Darigan.”

      Master Vex quickly ran out the way the Blumaroo left. He heard a faint “Wait!” back from the Cellblock room, but he had no time now – the Blumaroo could be far away from now. But the Blumaroo was just bouncing slowly, and his run was much faster – maybe, just maybe, he could catch up.

      And his hope came true. As he was nearing the exit of the Citadel, he saw the Blumaroo, still bouncing merrily. Unfortunately, he was almost at the exit. “Wait!” he called.

      The Blumaroo stopped and looked back, and freaked out. He didn’t see Master Vex; he saw a crazy Mynci running towards him with sweat dripping from his head and eyes that showed madness. The Blumaroo screamed, stopped bouncing, and ran out of the citadel, hoping to quickly escape the maniac that was chasing him.

      “No! Don’t leave! I have a question to ask you!” He ran out the door after the Blumaroo, only to bump into a group of three Neopets. They all dropped in a heap right outside the door.

      “How could you run into–” a red Uni, one of the Neopets, started, but noticing who had bumped into her, she shrieked. “Oh my dear goodness! Oh! Oh! Susan! Alice! Oh my! Master Vex just bumped into us!”

      “Oh my golly! Master Vex!” a brown Zafara shrieked as well, along with the final member of their group, a Pink Ixi. “I love how you helped save Meridell!”

      “And we’re here to interview you! I’m Alice!” said the Pink Ixi.

      “I’m Susan!” said the brown Zafara.

      “And I’m hungry!” the red Uni laughed at her own joke, even though no one else did. “Actually, I’m Penelope. So, our first question is, how–”

      “I’m sorry, ladies, but I have something to do right now...” said Master Vex, clearly out of breath. He looked around, but there was no Blumaroo in sight. He must’ve taken an Eyrie cab down to Meridell, and he could be anywhere by now.

      “Ooh, something to do!” squealed Penelope. “Write that down,” she whispered to Alice.

      “So, what type or errand are you running? Is it a secret message from Darigan to Skarl? Is something up with Lord Kass? Oh no, Meridell is going to be destroyed! Again?! Oh no!” Susan cried.

      “No, no, it’s nothing like that,” replied Master Vex. He sighed. There was no way he could catch the Blumaroo now. “Actually, I do have some time to do an interview now... but is this the right location?” he looked around at the gloomy landscape.

      “Oh, oh, I know!” exclaimed Alice. “We can go to my favorite ice cream shop back in Meridell! Is that okay with you, Master Vex?”

      “Ice cream?”

      All three of the girls gasped. “You don’t know what ice cream is?”

      Master Vex shook his head.

      The three girls squealed, and they pulled him to an Eyrie cab. “It’s delicious!” said Penelope as they boarded.

      “They make it out of Kau milk!” said Alice as they started to descended down to Meridell.

      “Kau milk? And it’s... delicious?” Mater Vex had plenty of doubts in his mind.

      “Yes!” they all said. “And they put a lot of different flavors into it too! There’s strawberry, and orange, and fishberry, and regular of course, and...”

      By the time the girls had finished listing all of the flavors, they were in Meridell.

      “And it actually tastes good? And all of those things are in Kau milk?” wondered Master Vex.

      “Not all of the flavors are in at the same time, silly! And well, it’s not liquidy like milk is; it’s like an extremely soft cake, except a lot better than cake,” answered Susan.

      “Ahh, well, I do enjoy cake.”

      They arrived at The Finest Ice Cream Shop, and Master Vex was ready to enjoy this new wondrous food, but he still couldn’t help but think about that Blumaroo and how Cellblock had already been invented. However, he didn’t let this stop him from having a good time at the ice cream shop. He ordered a Super Deluxe Chokato and Strawberry Sundae, after being convinced that this was the best item in the whole shop by the three girls.

      “So, let’s get started on the interview!” said Penelope after they had ordered. Alice got out her pen and notebook. “So, how is life at the Darigan Citadel?”

      “Well, actually, it’s really good right now. I have a fun time playing Cellblock with the visitors, and Lord Darigan is handling things perfectly,” said Master Vex. That was his rehearsed answer.

      “Ahh, that’s very interesting! Susan, next question?”

      “So, do you ever get angry at Lord Darigan?” asked Susan

      “No, or course not! He is a very go – oh look! Our ice cream has arrived!” he was starting another rehearsed answer, but he was interrupted by the arrival of the ice cream. “Wait a minute, why do you three only have cones, while I have this big bowl of the ice cream?”

      “Big” was an understatement. The Super Deluxe Chokato and Strawberry Sundae was much larger than the Mynci’s head. The bowl was dark brown, and it was expertly carved out of wood. There were images of Faeries, Neopets, and Petpets playing and having fun in the sunny meadow carved right onto the bowl.

      However, anyone looking at the sundae wouldn’t have noticed the bowl – the main attraction was the ice cream inside. There were deep blue scoops of ice cream among the light pink scoops, swirled in a delicious mix of luscious chokato and sweet strawberry. The mouth-watering combination was topped with an assortment of sliced nuts, soft brown caramel, and chocolaty hot fudge. On top of that, there was a mountain of whipped cream, and there was a single cherry to finish off the scrumptious treat.

      “Well, since you’ve never had ice cream before, we got you the best!” replied Alice.

      “And how will I ever finish this?”

      The three girls laughed. “Trust us, you will.”

      Sure enough, after the interview, Master Vex had finished the entire bowl of ice cream. But now that he had finished the sundae and the interview, he had one more piece of business to attend to.

      “Are any of you from Shenkuu?”

      The three girls paused. “Actually, I am,” said Susan.

      “Ah!” Master Vex smiled. Maybe she could prove if the Blumaroo’s statement was right or wrong. “You know how I was in a big hurry when I bumped into you three this morning?”

      “Yes?” replied Susan. Penelope was listening intently, and Alice had her notebook (which was quite full by now) out.

      “Well, I had a challenger early today, and he said that Cellblock is a traditional game in Shenkuu, except the Shenkuu version has a different name. Is this true?”

      Susan laughed. “Of course not! You invented Cellblock. I’ve never seen any game like it in Shenkuu, and I’ve lived there for quite some time.”

      “Oh! Well, that’s a relief. I was worried.” He smiled. “Well, it’s been a pleasure talking to you three! Take care!”

      “Thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us! Bye!” said the three Neopets in unison.

      When Master Vex had gone a safe distance away, the three girls looked at each other and cracked up.

      “That was so good, saying you were from Shenkuu!” exclaimed Alice.

      “Yeah! Well, truthfully, I feel a little bad lying to him, but well, at least we got him to talk. And I bet he likes me more now for telling him that!”

      The three girls laughed.

     * * *

      “So, you accomplished whatever you were setting out to do?” asked Galgarrath.

      “Actually, yes I have. From an unexpected place, but nevertheless, I have. By the way, have you ever had ice cream?” Master Vex had finally returned to the Darigan Citadel.

      “Ice cream?”

      “It’s made out of Kau milk. And they put flavors such as chokato, and strawberry, and–” He was stopped by a doubtful look from Galgarrath.

      “It’s very delicious, actually.”

The End