Lucky Kio!

It was a quiet day in the month of Running, Year 5. It was the 21st, to be exact.

The only storm was in my heart. I had been abandoned.

I'll skip the mushy details. You've probably heard them a million times before, right? To make a long story short, a teenage, blond girl came in looking. She walked up and down the aisle, straight past each poor pet waiting in their cage. I won't tell a lie - I thought she was ruthless. I hoped she wouldn't adopt me.

An attendant hurried over to her. "What are you looking for, ma'am?" he asked politely.

A Lupe," she answered, seeming to be talking to herself rather than to him. Phew, then I wouldn't be stuck with her! Who could possibly come for a Lupe and leave with a Shoyru like me?

Unfortunately, this girl could. And did. She managed to walk right in front of my cage, stopped, and looked back at me, her eyes narrowing. She took in my looks from top to bottom, searching my tail, legs, arms, wings, right up to my head, and then she stared into my eyes.

There was something there, in that gaze, that I couldn't deny. It was like... destiny. I know, I know, that sounds so cheesy, right? Well, it's true. I swear.

As if we both were hypnotized, the girl scanned her user card through the slot on my door and helped me step down to the aisle. I blinked to be out of the shadows of the back of my cage.

Nothing happened other than that we left to finalize my adoption.

A short journey later, after I mentioned something about being hungry, we had arrived at the Soup Kitchen. In the meanwhile, I had learned that although I was now the only pet of the household, my new owner Morgana was not a newbie. In fact, she had two other houses full of siblings for me. She said we'd be introduced later on.

At the Soup Kitchen, we waited in line behind some other pets and owners. They ran the gamut; most newbies, a few old hands with new accounts, like Morgana. She told me that most of her pets call her "Mom". I squirmed uncomfortably under her gaze and answered, "Maybe not now, Morgana." The strange thing was, she didn't seem hurt about it. A few seconds later, though, we made it to the front of the line.

And what would you like, young Shoyru?" the Soup Faerie asked.

For one, I was almost a year old. She shouldn't have called me "young". For another, I didn't like her tone. So, I muttered, "I'd like a little luck for once in my life."

The Soup Faerie smiled, seeming not to hear what I said. "Four bowls of soup for the extra-hungry young Shoyru," she sang out as she dished them up. "Here you go now." I took the soup from her hands, trying to ignore her disgustingly kind smile.

That didn't mean I didn't wolf down that soup, though... I was famished, after all. When I had spooned up the last morsel of the last bowl - Minestrone, I remember - I felt an odd taste in my mouth. Curiously, I rolled it about my mouth and discovered a small lump, which I pulled out.

I only got a glimpse of something bright green before the lumb disintegrated in my hand.

Oh great, was my first thought. The Soup Faerie's poisoned me for my smart-alec remark! Geez, Kio, you should know better than to insult a faerie!

Nothing immediately happened. I figured I might as well live out my last few hours in comfort, though. Morgana and I went home and I set up a bed on the site of our NeoHome, which was still being built. Convinced I wouldn't wake up, I tried to make peace with myself...

The sun rays touched my eyelids and I groaned and opened my eyes. So this is what it's like to be dead...

Wait a minute, I revised as my vision cleared, Morgana's dead too?!

I picked up my arms, legs, wings, making an inventory. Am I still supposed to have my body? I tried my tail... Hullo... what's this?

A small squashy sort of thing rested on the end of my tail. I bit it experimentally.

Yowwwch!

Morgana stirred and rolled over. A tense moment passed before she apparently went back to sleep.

I shook my tail with my paw in a fruitless attempt to make it hurt less. Apparently that squashy growth was part of me... I tried to focus on it again, and saw a four-leaf clover.

How...? I dragged myself up and across the yard to a small pond on the vacant lot next door. My reflection... a white stripe on my head, three white dots on my left hindquarter, and, sure enough, the odd growth on my tail bearing a striking resemblance to a four-leaf clover.

I looked back - it was still early in the morning, and Morgana still snoring - looked forward - Meridell not far from here - and decided.

My wings picked a breeze toward the Pick Your Own patch.

It just so happened that I remembered another pound pet talking about some limited edition items from St. Patrick's Day, a few days before. It was because of this that I sped to the Pick Your Own Gelert in search of answers.

Being a peasant, he, too, had been up with the dawn. Not many customers had arrived yet, so he consented to talk for a while.

Not too long ago, visitors found some strange things in your berry patch?"

Why, yes," he answered, scratching his chin. "It were tha day I re-opened after tha war, you sees, and alla sudden... these clover things was poppin' up all over tha place. Never seen anythin' like it."

Clover?" I asked eagerly.

Yep, they was clovers. Green plants, got little club-shape leafs, three or four or twelve of 'em. Tha three ones was common, 'o course, and everbody knows notin' special, but them four-leaf ones..."

Yes...?"

Them four-leaf ones went like lightning when tha customers could find 'em. They calls 'em lucky, ya sees. Somewheres they get that idea in they heads."

Lucky..." I mused to myself. Then, I cleared my throat. "How many of these went out? Are there any left?"

No, they was all gone by the end of Saint Patty's Day, never seen no more grow back."

Lucky and rare..."

Pardon, young boy?"

I gritted my teeth at being called 'young' again. "Nothing."

That same morning (although much later, after Morgana got up), we returned to the Soup Kitchen for breakfast. I kept my eyes down in front of the Soup Faerie, although that only made my white-striped head more obvious. Morgana hadn't made a big deal about it... most of her pets have distinctive markings, you see, it's like a disease that follows her around... but I knew the Soup Faerie had somehow done this. Why, I didn't know, but she had done it.

One bowl, please," I mumbled at the ground.

What?" the Soup Faerie asked, leaning much closer. Her breath came very warm on my face. She winked - a very small wink, that only I could see. "I never said soup is the only thing I give out," she whispered, and paused. "And you did ask to be lucky..." I was about to say something - anything - when she straightened up and said aloud, "One bowl for the Shoyru."

I walked home and found some Neopoints on the sidewalk. And I wondered if I really was lucky.

Then, I met my siblings and I knew... I am. I am the luckiest Shoyru alive.