Harmless Wishes: Part Six

      The four pets were, once again, having a council meeting in Yannagiba's room. They had not made any wishes for two days, mostly because they were afraid of it. But no one really wanted to admit they were just a bunch of "scaredy Kadoaties".

      "Well, didn't you enjoy your thirty minutes of beauty and popularity?" Yannagiba teased her.

      "It was a nightmare," the Aisha replied with a frown. "That wishdust is serious stuff. It turns our simple wishes into complicated ones."

      "I don't think so," Yuki said slowly. "It grants wishes, that's all."

      Chi looked at the bottle of wishdust sitting on Yannagiba's bed. For some unknown reason, the Chia felt a rush of fear. "There's something about the wishdust that frightens me. At first glance, it seems so harmless…"

      "Nonsense," Yannagiba said noisily. "Just like Yuki said, it just grants wishes. Besides, our lives have suddenly become exciting because of it."

      "Dangerous is a closer word," Nadashikoh argued.

      Everyone fell silent.

      "What do you guys think about wishing for a million Neopoints?" Yannagiba asked cautiously. He had been contemplating the idea for quite a while now and decided it was high time to mention it to his siblings.

      There was another round of silence as everyone mulled over the striped Gelert's suggestion. The wishdust was a confirmed menace, that much was evident, but they were talking about Neopoints now. And, that was something else all together. Very tempting.

      "Now, that is a great idea," Nadashikoh offered after a minute.

      "But, if we're wishing for money, why don't we wish for lots of it?" Chi suggested. "A million Neopoints is just a dip in the bucket these days."

      "Or," Yuki said excitedly, "why not wish to be the richest Neopians in Neopia? Then, we'll have everything in an instant! And, we won't have to worry about anything, at all."

      "That's not such a bad idea," Yannagiba said slowly. "In fact, I'm beginning to like it."

      Yuki smiled with pleasure. My brother likes my idea… He felt somebody's arm around him. It was Nadashikoh's.

      "You know, little bro, I'm starting to like the way you operate, too," Nadashikoh said happily.

      "So, it's all settled then," Yannagiba said. "We're going to wish to be the richest Neopians in Neopia."

      "Hey, wait!" Chi suddenly exclaimed.

      "What?" the three remaining pets asked.

      "Uh, not to put a damper over things but…I kind of have this nagging thought that I'd like to share with you?" the Chia said with a small smile.

      Nadashikoh raised her eyebrows. "Well?"

      "I just thought, what if we turn into other pets…or people even!" Chi yelled. "Look what happened to Nadashikoh. She turned into Queen Fyora, for goodness' sake. What if I turn into Adam and you guys turn into his Asparagus Chias? Not that one of you can't get turned into Adam. I was just…giving an example." He smiled weakly at them.

      "You have a point there," Yuki said shortly. "I never thought of that."

      "He has a point," Nadashikoh told Yannagiba.

      The Gelert scratched his head. "I guess we'll have to consider wishing for NPs, then. How many do you think we should ask for before we can be called extremely rich?"

      "Can't we just wish for everlasting Neopoints?" Nadashikoh suggested, tongue in cheek.

      There was silence for the third time that day.

      "You know, I think that just might work," Yannagiba said, squinting his eyes. "Let's do it!"

      Nadashikoh's proposal seemed to rock the others' boats. So, everyone gathered around the striped Gelert enthusiastically. They waited with suspended breath as Yannagiba took a pinch of the wishdust, placed it on his paw, and looked at it seriously.

      "Here goes," he said, taking a deep breath. "I wish…I wish we had everlasting Neopoints!" He blew the grains of wishdust away. They disappeared.

      The four Neopets looked around them.

      "Well?" Chi said.

      Yannagiba shrugged.

      POP!

     All of a sudden, a bag of Neopoints fell from nowhere and hit Yuki on the head. "Ouch!" he exclaimed with a rub of his head. "What was that?" He looked at the ceiling.

     "What in Neopia?" Yannagiba couldn't help saying as they watched bag after bag of Neopoints popped into existence and fell onto the floor.

     In a few minutes' time, the floor was overflowing with NPs and they kept on coming!

     "We're RICH! We're RICH!" Nadashikoh yelled blissfully. She picked up a small number of NP bags and threw them into the air. "We're REALLY RICH!"

     The rest of the gang joined in. Yannagiba swam in the NP hoard. Chi also threw NP bags in the air. Yuki started to count how many NPs they had.

     "Look!" Chi said. "I'm making a Neopoint angel!" He spread his paws and made flying movements with them.

     Nadashikoh giggled and made her own angel.

     After five minutes of fun and laughter, though, the Neopets began to notice that the room was already full of Neopoints. But the bags still kept on coming!

     Yannagiba said, "Hey, I think we've got enough NPs to last ten lifetimes!"

     "Yeah," Chi said with a panicky laugh. He looked at the ceiling. "Uh, you can stop now."

     "HELP!" Nadashikoh screamed. "I'm getting buried in NPs!" The NP bags were, indeed, smothering her as if they were quicksand.

     Yuki hurriedly tugged at her sister's paw. He fell backward. "Yannagiba, do something."

     "Okay," Yannagiba said swiftly. He looked around for the bottle of wishdust. "Uh oh."

     "Not again," Chi said with a sigh. "What is it?"

     "I can't seem to remember where I placed the bottle of wishdust," the striped Gelert said feebly.

     "YOU GUYS!" Nadashikoh hollered.

     "It must be buried around here somewhere," Yuki said. He began digging frantically with his paws.

     Yannagiba and Chi followed suit.

     "These NPs are starting to hurt me," Chi complained while burrowing.

     "Oh yeah?" Nadashikoh said, her voice sounding incredibly high-pitched. "Then, what do you think I'm feeling down here?" she snapped. "It's getting cold and dark. Hurry up, will you?"

     "Found it!" Yannagiba said, waving the bottle of wishdust in one paw.

     "Make a wish," Yuki said exhaustedly. He wiped his forehead with his paw.

     "Okay," the Gelert said and blinked. "Wait a sec, what am I supposed to wish for?"

     "Anything!" Chi said. "Make the NPs stop coming."

     "Uh, I wish we won't have everlasting Neopoints anymore!" Yannagiba blurted out. He blew.

     All the Neopoints in the room gathered into a hurricane that got bigger and bigger until in one swoop, it exploded into nothingness.

     Nadashikoh took several deep breaths. Then, she let out a loud, spluttering cough. "That…was…horrible…"

     "Oh, no," Yuki said with a groan. "Our Neopoints! They're all gone!"

     "B-but I only wished we won't have everlasting NPs anymore. I didn't wish for all our NPs to disappear," Yannagiba said, looking perplexed and more than a little irritated. He exhaled raggedly and tried to relax. He hung the bottle of wishdust around his neck.

     Another uncomfortable silence.

      "Do you think the wishdust runs out of power after a certain amount of wishes?" Chi asked curiously after a few minutes.

      "Nonsense," Yannagiba scoffed. His earlier disgust at the wishdust seemed to have inexplicably disappeared.

      "Did you ask the shopkeeper how long its power will last or if and how its power will vanish?" Yuki asked the Gelert.

      "Well, no," Yannagiba replied with a frown. "I didn't think it was important."

      "We should go and visit the shop where you got that stuff," Nadashikoh suggested.

      "Okay," Yannagiba said without hesitation. He reached for the bottle of wishdust. "I'll wish us there."

      "No, wait!" Chi contradicted. "Maybe, it would be better if we didn't make any more wishes just yet. Let's just go there by normal means."

      "Why?" Yannagiba asked quizzically.

      The others looked at each other and didn't even bother to answer him.

**********

      "Where's that shop you were talking about?" Nadashikoh asked as they gazed at the front doors of the toy shop.

      "I don't quite understand it," Yannagiba said scratching his forehead. "The last time I looked, the tent was right here." He pointed at the empty space beside the Toy Shop.

      As if by magic, the same tent made of different colored translucent material suddenly appeared at Yannagiba's words. All four pets' mouths dropped open in disbelief.

      "Whoa," Nadashikoh breathed. "Where did that come from?"

      "Well…" Chi commented.

      Yuki shifted his paws. "Come on, let's go in."

      "I don't think that's such a good idea," Chi said slowly.

      Nobody listened. The three other pets were already on their way into the tent. The Aubergine Chia waited in front of the tent flap hesitantly but after a few moments, he went in after his brothers and sister.

      "Hello?" Yannagiba asked cautiously as he gazed around the shop.

      "This place is wonderful," Nadashikoh said softly as she looked at row after row of bottles neatly arranged on wooden shelves.

      "Of course, it is," a familiar shaky old voice said.

      Startled, the four Neopets turned toward the direction of the voice. Who else could it be but the silver-haired Wocky?

      "I see you have returned," the Wocky said pointedly to Yannagiba with a rather mocking smile.

      "Uh, yes," Yannagiba began nervously. "I just wanted to ask you some questions about the wishdust."

      "I've been waiting for you to come back," the Wocky said mysteriously with a glint in her eye.

To be continued...