Kookie the Dancer

      He seldom left her side. Wherever she went he was sure to be right behind. Her siblings told her that he was dark blue with light blue lightning bolt stripes, whatever that meant. She liked the feel of his soft feathers and leathery legs.

      “Thank you, Avie,” She laughed as she put him down, and listened to him skitter around on the hardwood floor. She hoped he wasn’t scratching them, but there was no way for her to tell. Kookie had been born blind.

     --

      She had been born on Mystery Island, she thought. She remembered she’d had siblings, three or four. They’d all been moved to Neopia Central when they were old enough to be chosen by owners. Her light blue coat had gotten her picked quickly. They named her Kookie.

      Her new owner promised to train her and dress her and feed her all manner of delicious foods. She was living in bliss for the first few days, she was given good food and even blessed by wonderful smelling faeries, but when her owner took her to train everything changed. It was hard to follow the Techo Master’s instructions when she couldn’t see what he was telling her to do.

      Disappointed, her owner took her back to the adoption center, but she wasn’t put back with the other basic coloured Kougra’s waiting for owners to pick them and name them. She was brought to another door, where someone with a deep scratchy voice greeted them and brought her to a cold room where she was left alone.

      The pound was smelled strange and loud. The only nice thing about it was the uni, the others told her she was pink. Pink didn’t mean anything to her though, she’d never seen pink, but she imagined that pink was like the smell of omelettes that she’d always saved for her when Kookie was late to breakfast when she lost her way, again.

      It seemed that she would be in the pound for a long time. Many people came to look at her, but as soon as they found out she was blind no one seemed to want her anymore, well almost no one. Just when she had given up hope someone finally came who smelled even better than omelettes and jelly. She smelled like flowers and had a soft sweet voice, and she wanted Kookie to be her very first pet, even if she was blind.

      Her new owner kept all the promises her first owner didn’t. She gave her delicious food, comfortable clothes, and even built her a wonderful room to sleep in, though most nights she stayed in her mom’s room. The sounds of the island at night could sometimes be, unsettling when she was young.

      Over time, their family grew, her mom adopted others, some from the pound and others she’d found alone on their travels. She nurtured and cared for all of them as she had for Kookie and they were happy. Each of her siblings seemed to have different interests and all of them pursued their dreams. It seemed like each of them succeeded and became well known throughout Neopia, except for Kookie.

     --

      Kookie had pursued a few paths, but none of them seemed right. She had taught a great many how to fight and many more how to fly. Most Neopets did not have wings like kougras, but that didn’t mean all kougras didn’t.

      Her mom had let her pick a new colour one year when the Fountain Fairie had granted her permission to swim in the enchanted waters. She was thrilled and surprised since it didn’t matter to her what colour she was, as she couldn’t see it, she asked for wings, so she could fly.

     It took her some time to learn to fly, but once she got Aviator that all changed. Aviator was a gift, from her mother, so that she wouldn’t be alone when she flew. The little airax was her eyes, her mom joked. She loved flying more than almost anything until she discovered dancing.

     --

      Many of her younger siblings, she was the third oldest in her family or eight pets, had careers that took them all over the world. They all loved to travel and try new things, which of course they shared with Kookie and the rest of their family. Whenever one of them came home from their travels, even if they were only gone for a few days, their mom insisted on celebrating.

     --

      It was the day after her sister Scarlet returned from a trip to Faerieland that Kookie learned her love of dance. Scarlet had been to something called the Faerie Festival. She described it as a big party where the faeries invited others to their land to listen to music, played games and danced.

      Dancing, it had sounded magical to Kookie. Scarlet had tried to explain it to her. She said it was a way of moving your body to music, but it hadn’t quite done it justice. It was her brother Steel who had awoken her love of dancing.

      “Here, Kookie, give me your paw,” Steel had said. She reached out in front of her till she felt his strong paw holding hers. “You can’t learn about dancing by talking about it. You have to do it. Just follow my lead. I’ll show you how.” And he did.

      Jungle, their youngest sister played a lively tune on one of her inventions. She loved music as much as her older sister. Of course, Jungle with her large meerca ears was the only one who’s hearing was even close to hers.

      Steel pulled and guided Kookie around the room moving and pulling her in time to the music that filled the room. She could hear her siblings laughing and smell the flowers from her youngest brother’s garden as they moved around the room. It was magical and more exhilarating than flying, but all too soon it was over.

     ---

      Ever since then Kookie had thrown herself into learning dance. She’d kept it secret at first from everyone, especially her mom. It hadn’t been hard, even though she couldn’t see her family, she could always hear them and smell them whenever they were near. It wasn’t that they were particularly loud or smelly, but they each walked a certain way and had their own smell. Smells and sounds were how she navigated the house and the world.

      This method of listening and ‘smelling’ out her family before they could catch her dancing worked at first, but it wasn’t easy. She had to keep the music down and listen to it while trying to listen to the music which she was meant to be dancing too. There had been more than a few times where she’d almost be caught. Most times were because she’d been so lost in dance that she’d bumped into something or another.

      It was Steel though who got her to admit to what she was hiding from them. He was the most often home and inside of all their siblings. She’d been dancing in her studio where she used to teach when she’d tripped and fallen into one of the wall mirrors, and broken it. One of her paws had been badly cut.

     “What were you doing?” Steel had asked.

     “I-” Kookie sought for a lie but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Steel probably smelled the best of all her siblings. He was a chef so he always smelled of whatever he’d been cooking which was always something fabulous, but also could make him the hardest to place in a crowd but it was usually the faint smell of woodsmoke that came from his darigan coat that gave him away. “I was dancing. That’s why I haven’t had any clients recently. I didn’t want to tell you yet.”

     “Why not?” Steel asked as he poured something that stung painfully on her paw.

     “Because, I don’t, because, Steel it’s ridiculous,” Kookie sighed. “Dancing is, is about seeing! How can I become a great dancer if I can’t even see what I am doing?”

      “The same way you have been,” Steel laughed, as he began to wrap something around her paw.

      “But I haven’t been doing it very well,” She said, holding up her just bandaged paw. It stunk of antiseptic and new gauze.

      “Well, then, it is time to tell the others,” Steel answered slowly. “So we can take the mirrors out of your studio and put in better floors. Those are training mats, they are meant for hard landings and in dancing, at least the kinds I know of, you are meant to stay on your feet.”

      “Steel, they’ll-”

      “Laugh? Why would they, you’ve never laughed at any of their dreams,” Steel answered. “How many things has Tenz tried? And what about when Jungle announced at the dinner table her intentions to become a battledomer or when she likewise announced she was going to be an inventor? You didn’t laugh at them, and you didn’t let us laugh either. You’ve been with us every step of the way to achieving our dreams. You helped Scarlet pack her bags for her first trip, passed Jungle tools when she made her first invention.”

      “Which was a spectacular failure,” Kookie answered.

      “Which Jungle herself says she learned greatly from, and you were the first one Tenz showed his first sculpture to.”

      “He only showed me because I couldn’t see.”

      “But you could feel it.” Steel answered. “Tell Mom. We’re behind you one hundred percent.”

     ---

      Kookie listened to Aviator for a second longer before whistling for him to return to her. She smiled and his tapping feet came running back. Once he did she would tell him to restart the song. Jungle had made it special so that both Kookie and her airax could operate the music player. Her family believed in her, so she could too. If there were no blind dancers before her than she would be the first.

     The End.