Chet Flash wuz here Circulation: 177,350,918 Issue: 426 | 15th day of Sleeping, Y12
Home | Archives Articles | Editorial | Short Stories | Comics | New Series | Continued Series
 

Hatred Because Of Love: Deyna's Story - Part One


by mikan_girl94

--------

Author’s note: This is my “other version” of my first story, “Hatred Because Of Love.” Not quite a sequel. I would suggest you read “Hatred Because Of Love” first to fully understand this story. Also, believe me, this’ll be more interesting if you read that one before this. Keep in mind that this version is more complicated a story, so it’s quite a bit longer than what it was from Xena’s point of view. Once you’ve read that other one, go on with reading Deyna’s side of the story...

[Prologue]

“Hey, can you get that smoothie I left in the fridge for me, please?” I said, sitting cross-legged on the living room floor, watching my little brother and sister playfully wrestling next to the sofa while my anubis sat on my lap contentedly.

     “Get it yourself, Deyna,” laughed the blue Xweetok sitting on the sofa. “The kitchen’s only two rooms away, you know. Besides,” she added, “I’m senior to you; it should be you getting me a smoothie.” My sister teasingly stuck her tongue out at me. “And how can you want to drink something icy and cold like that in January? It’s plain weird. Jabor! Come here,” she called to my petpet and sat her snow kookith on her right shoulder. Jabor crawled off of my lap and scampered over to my smiling sister, as she took him in her arms.

     I snorted. “You’re only senior to me by two months, mind you.”

     Short explanation by the way. Neopets that are created by human owners (rather than born to neopet parents) could enter the world at an age decided by the owner. I was seven when Brightmask (also known as “Mom”) created me, and Xena was created at the same age, except two months before I came along. Seamus_Jeranass was nine when he was created, and Xena and I were eleven at the time. Then a year later, we had a nine year-old Raventail_the_Swift join the family. Slightly confusing, but that’s the way things were.

      “And by the way,” I continued, “how come it seems like Jabor listens to you more than me? You already have Kaku, or whatever his name is.”

     “Probably ‘cause he can tell who’s the one with authority here.” She grinned.

     “Probably ‘cause he likes that lemon blossom scent you have,” I replied, even though I knew it seemed like a dumb idea.

     “Oh, and for your information, my kookith is named Kuka. ‘Koo-kuh,’ not ‘Kuh-koo.’ Honestly.” She rolled her eyes. “Seamus,” she gently scolded the blue Lupe who had a small Christmas Kougra sitting on his back as he lay on the floor, “please be careful with Raventail.”

     “Are you kidding me, Xena?” he said. “Raventail’s the one squashing me in case you didn’t notice.” Seamus rolled over, gently pushing off his little sister.

     “Xena!” called Brightmask from the entrance room of our neohome. Xena plopped Jabor onto the sofa and got up excitedly, Kuka balancing carefully on her shoulder. I smiled at her encouragingly. “Moment of truth, huh?” I got a playful push from my older sister and she turned and ran out of the living room to our owner. I got up and brushed my starry Xweetok fur off with my paws; I still wasn’t used to being that color since I was only just painted. Then I hurriedly dashed after Xena, leaving my younger siblings to their play-fight.

     “Guess what this is, Xena?” smiled the dark-haired girl standing at the doorway, and passed a letter to the blue Xweetok. My older sister passed her petpet to me and nervously took the white envelope that Brightmask passed to her and ripped it open with trembling paws. She slid a neatly folded paper out from the envelope and stared at it for a moment.

     “Well, go on, sis! It’s not going to open up itself, you know.” I blinked my bright blue eyes at her with a smile. Xena returned my smile and unfolded the sheet of paper. I handed Kuka over to Brightmask as she and I watched Xena scan the letter’s contents, her eyes darting from side to side as she read it. Before I knew it, she had thrown herself at me and hugged me tightly, “I DID IT! I got the scholarship for the trip to Mystery Island!”

     -----

     “Deyna!” shouted a voice from my bedroom door. I groaned and drowsily blinked my eyes open to see Raventail poking her head around my door.

     Raventail_the_Swift was my little sister. She was a Christmas Kougra who almost never wore her Christmas outfit. She always said, “What’s the point of wearing it if it’s not Christmas season?” So the only difference between her and a white Kougra would be that she had gray stripes and gray eyes rather than dark blue stripes and golden eyes. She was somewhat tomboyish, preferring hoodies and boots to dresses and high-heels. She also had an unusual hobby of making her own plushies.

     “What, Raven?” I lifted my head up heavily.

     “In case you forgot, it’s the last day of school: Friday. And it’s 7:00 AM.” The Christmas Kougra strode over to the window next to my bed and yanked the curtains open. I shut my eyes at the bright light and dropped my head back onto my pillow.

     “Now come on and get UP,” Raventail said, and yanked my blanket off of me.

     “Hey!” I protested. Raventail playfully flung it over my head and turned to walk out of the room. “Honestly, Raven,” I said as I pulled the blanket off and threw it onto my bed, “sometimes you act a lot like Xena.”

     “I know.” The twelve year-old Christmas Kougra smiled, and she closed the door behind her.

     I yawned tiredly and blinked my eyes blearily. I was about to slide out of bed when another head poked around my door.

     “You up, Deyna?” asked the blue Lupe.

     The thirteen and a half year-old Lupe, which in fact was my younger brother, was named Seamus. Seamus was a quiet neopet, who had a kind and gentle attitude towards most people. His appearance, though, didn’t quite match his personality. He was one of the taller teenage Lupes around, and was also more lean muscled and strongly built than most, the same as I was compared to most Xweetoks. Large body build was something that seemed to run through the males in my family.

     I swung my legs over the edge of my bed and replied to my brother, “Whether I was up or not, I am now.”

     “Okay, then. See you downstairs,” he said and started to close the door.

     “Hold on,” I said, and the Lupe peeked around the door again, “Why’s everybody checking that I’m awake?”

     “Oh, that.” Seamus grinned. “Mom said that I would have to check on you after Raventail did in case you just dozed back off.”

     “Pfft! She said that?”

     “Well, she wouldn’t have told us to if it hadn’t happened before.” Seamus laughed and glanced at the clock on my desk. “And you better hurry, it’s already 7:03.”

     “I can look at my own clock, thank you,” I replied dryly.

     “Well, see you at breakfast, if there’s any left by the time you get down there,” he teased, and closed the door as he left.

     It was a year and a half since I had last seen my older sister, Xena. I hadn’t heard from her since she left on the scholarship trip she had won. After she had disappeared. I was nearly fourteen then. Now, I was fifteen and a half, and was so tall enough my height went as high as my owner’s shoulder (whose height is five feet and two inches, mind you, so I’m pretty tall for a Xweetok).

     So you’re probably thinking of this question right now; what happened to Xena? I myself don’t really know what actually happened. All I can tell you is what I do know, and I obviously don’t know much.

     All I know is that one day, Xena came home talking about this scholarship trip she heard of. Neopets could sign up for it at school and take these exams that would be analyzed by some special organization. Only a few neopets were chosen from each school, and Xena was one of them.

     This trip was to go some wild part of Mystery Island. And the whole thing was supposed to take three months before the neopets would return home. Another thing was that there would be no contact between the neopets and their families at all. Xena knew that. We all did. Xena left home at the end of January. We waited three months and expected her to come home at the end of April or beginning of May. At first, we thought that maybe the trip back was just taking a while. But at the end of May, she still hadn’t come home. None of the other neopets had been known to return either. Brightmask was frantic and worried, Seamus and Raventail scared for their big sister, and I was filled with the fear of loss of one of my best friends.

     Brightmask sent out neomails like hordes of buzzers. She neomailed our school, other schools, and many different people to find out about the missing pets. We didn’t find out any more than we already knew. Nobody had heard from the neopets or the organization.

     I would stay awake all night thinking of possibilities why the neopets hadn’t returned. Did they all get hurt or lost in the jungle? Or worse yet, die? I couldn’t bear the thought of Xena dying, and then I thought of one other possible idea: kidnap. I’m not sure why, but a kidnapping seemed to make perfect sense to me. They could’ve been on a jungle expedition and all the neopets could’ve gotten kidnapped. The more I thought of this idea, the more I was convinced, and right now, it was what I believed happened on that trip.

     Of course, my whole family thought it was a crazy idea. My mom just said that my imagination was way too wild. Seamus and Raventail thought that my idea didn’t really make sense. Still, I was dead set on believing that Xena was kidnapped.

     Xena and I were better than best friends. Sure, I had a couple of besties outside the family who I totally loved, but Xena was the one who had known me my whole life, and who knew me better than anybody else. The two of us shared a bond that was much stronger than what most siblings had. Sure, I know there are tons of people who are best friends with their brothers and sisters, but how many actually have complete solid faith each other? The kind of faith, like, you would trust them with your life not because you were related by blood, but simply because you believed in them?

     I cast a glance at the sleeping anubis in the petpet bed at the foot of my bed, and hopped off. I walked over to my desk and pulled the top drawer out, as I’d done so often the past year and half. There were several stacks of photos in it, mostly of friends and relatives. A photo of Raventail examining her home-made cloud Xweetok plushie (probably to make sure it bore extremely close resemblance to its model) sat on top of one of the stacks. I lifted it up and took out another photo that I hid beneath it to keep it from prying eyes. I held up the old photo to the light streaming from my window and stared at it wistfully. In it were two seven year-old Xweetoks lying on soft green grass, laughing—though because it was just a still image, the laughter couldn’t be heard. The Xweetok girl was blue, and the boy was green. I was the green Xweetok, and you can guess who the blue one was.

     I shook my head and broke out of my reverie. I tossed the photo back into the drawer and slammed it shut, promptly waking up a disgruntled anubis. I had school to get to. Not to mention breakfast to eat.

     ***

     “You three got all your stuff?” asked Brightmask as she helped Raventail put her backpack on.

     “Yes, Mom,” Seamus replied.

     “All of you have got your cafeteria lunch cards, right?”

     “Yes, Mom,” sighed Raventail.

     “And do all of you—”

     “Mom,” I said exasperatedly, “we got everything we need for school. Can we go now?”

     “Yeah, sorry about that. Just want to be sure.” Brightmask smiled sheepishly. “Okay, off you guys go now.”

     Raventail pulled open the front door and set off across our yard to the sidewalk, and Seamus quickly followed after. I turned to leave in suit, but Brightmask gently took me and turned me to face her. “Deyna,” she started, “are you alright? I mean, you haven’t exactly been happy since... well, you know. Then again, the whole family hasn’t been altogether happy without her. But I’m worried about you.”

     I looked at my owner and saw the concern in her dark brown eyes and smiled. “I’m okay, Mom. Don’t worry about it.”

     Brightmask gave me a brief hug, and glanced at me. “Hmm... you know what? Maybe I should... but would that be a good idea?” Brightmask said to herself, and I looked at her confusedly. Sometimes, I just had no idea what was going through my mom’s head. Brightmask grinned and gently pushed me out the door. “Well... okay then, now go catch up with your brother and sister.”

     ***

     So far, the day had gone well enough. No summer homework this time, and I had a fair amount of As on my report card. I glanced up at the sun’s position in the sky. It was probably around 3:00 PM, the usual time we got home.

     “Hmm, I think I smell hot dogs.” Seamus sniffed the air hopefully as we reached the porch of our two-story neohome.

     “Ack! Math summer homework AGAIN,” complained Raventail with an annoyed expression.

     Seamus smiled and patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Raventail, I’ll help you with it later, okay?”

     “Besides,” started Seamus as Raventail unlocked the door and we padded inside the house, “I— ” Seamus stopped abruptly, standing next to Raventail, whose gray eyes were locked on a small figure next to our owner. I froze in place behind the two of them, and looked at the small neopet that Brightmask was holding comfortingly to her side. It was a blue Xweetok girl, slightly shorter than Raventail, and probably around ten years old. I felt a jolt of shock as realization hit me in the face. No... Brightmask couldn’t have done this...

     “Guys,” Brightmask’s voice broke through my mind, but I still didn’t drop my gaze from the face of the Xweetok girl, “this is your new little sister, Xena_Alinae.” New... sister... Xena... The words echoed through my brain like a curse, and I felt a violent fury begin to rise up inside me.

     “Hi!” the blue xweetok piped up cheerfully.

     “Hi,” said Raventail as she stared blankly at the new neopet.

     “Oh,” started Seamus with an odd, confused expression, “Um, hello. I’m Seamus.” I could tell from Raventail and Seamus’ voices that they were thinking the exact same thoughts I was. Except they didn’t seem to feel quite the same way I did about this new arrival.

     I shot a fierce, icy glare at the kid as she looked up curiously at me. As her deep blue eyes met my bright blue ones, she dropped her cheerful air and flinched back towards Brightmask, nervously taking my owner’s hand with her small paw. Good, the kid should know she’s not welcome here, I thought angrily. I furiously glanced at Brightmask, communicating the accusation I meant through my gaze: "How could you?"

To be continued...

 
Search the Neopian Times




Week 426 Related Links


Other Stories




Submit your stories, articles, and comics using the new submission form.