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Editor's Note: You should consider reading some of the previous stories
about Krawker written by apparent in order to have a better understanding of
this story.
Krawker_oth the spotted Krawk was not happy with himself
in the least. For the past month or so he had become somewhat "connected" to
anything that had to do with Maraqua -- seaweed, Maraquan pets, water, so on
and so forth. However it wasn't normal for a Neopet to experience such life-like
dreams that often left remnants of what had happened behind, and due to that
thought, Krawker's owner had taken to the most expensive psychiatrist in Neopia.
Upon his arrival in the room where he would be
staying for the next hour, Krawker immediately felt dizzy just from looking
at all of the shelves of books and dusty, unattractive chairs sprawled all along
the room. A large red rug was set in the middle of the doctor's office, as well
as a piece of furniture that was rather long and appeared to be a cross between
a couch and a chair (Krawker couldn't tell the difference). A desk was placed
at the end of the room in front of a row of windows draped with blue curtains.
Behind the desk sat a red Ixi, her hooves laid neatly on the surface of the
desk, her wide brown eyes staring.
The Krawk took a hint and nervously sat down
on the chair-couch that sat on the middle of the rug. The leather material was
sticky and hot due to the fact that none of the large windows were open on that
humid summer day. He bit his bottom lip and stared at the doctor, who had been
holding an expression that seemed scarier than his previous dream itself. The
Ixi, after several minutes were wasted, finally shifted her weight and cleared
her throat, looking down at the clipboard on her desk.
"Ah! Well, hello there -- please excuse me if
I'm incorrect -- but my schedule says that you're Krawker_oth, correct?"
Krawker shuddered, hesitantly nodding his head.
He absolutely despised using his full name unless mandatory. The doctor offered
a smile and ground her teeth before responding, "You can call me Dr. Lily, if
you want. For the next 50 minutes I'll be here to help you with your... ahem...
problem."
The small Krawk rolled his eyes with annoyance,
wondering how Dr. Lily was treating people with problems when she gave her current
patient plenty of problems of his own. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead
as he watched the Ixi scribble notes on her clipboard.
"It seems you have -- please excuse me if I'm
incorrect -- a problem with strong hallucinations and dreams at home, correct?"
A long silence passed, as Krawker inhaled deeply,
counting underneath his breath 1... 2... 3... before offering a response,
in order to keep the anger welling up inside of him from becoming too high.
"Yes, I do."
"I see," she squeaked, and began scribbling
furiously on the surface of her clipboard again. Her eyebrows furrowed, as if
she were in deep thought, and then a few seconds later Dr. Lily offered her
frightening smile for reassurance. "Okay! Well, I'd like you to take a few deep
breaths. I'm going to ask you some questions and I want you to answer them as
best as you can."
Krawker gritted his teeth, now laying back on
the surface of the chair-couch. He didn't want to be here. He remembered how
that morning he had screamed and pleaded, begging his owner not to drag him
all the way to a private doctor in Mystery Island. Unfortunately, he wound up
here anyway, and things were worse then he expected. "What if I don't wanna
answer your dumb questions?"
Dr. Lily paused, scribbled down something, picked
up another piece of paper, and continued to scribble. Then, she quietly responded,
"Then we can sit here until you decide to talk. And once this hour is over you
can come back tomorrow. It's my... ahem... job to help Neopets like you,
Krawker."
"Fine," Krawker quickly responded. Sitting in
that office with Dr. Lily day in and day out would drive him crazier than he
already appeared to be.
Resting her hooves bottom down on the surface
of the desk again, the Ixi tilted her head and ran her tongue over her teeth.
"When did you first notice you had this problem?"
Krawker grunted, easily becoming offended and
agitated. He figured he should keep the answers short and simple in order to
conserve time. "I was taking a bath a few weeks ago and I had a dream."
"About?"
"Stuff."
"What kind of stuff, child?"
"I was swimming in a boat underwater and I saw
Maraqua, then I ran into a Jetsam and came back home."
Dr. Lily took out her pen and covered another
piece of white paper with notes. Krawker stared in amazement, wondering how
someone could make a novel out of a conversation that was hardly making any
effect. The Ixi released a sigh that sounded like a deflating balloon and then
continued. "How many of these experiences have you had?"
"Er -- four, if you don't count the one I had
last night."
Dr. Lily pulled another pen out of her drawer,
chewing the end of it before inscribing yet another page of notes. "Four...
hrm... interesting. May I recommend that you owner might want to take
you over to the Lost Desert, I hear they have a nice asylum over--"
"I'm NOT insane," Krawker growled. "You of all
Neopets should notice insane when you see it.."
The red Ixi stood up, offended and angered. "Oh,
really? So you have dreams that seem so real to you yet no one else has seen
them when they happen?"
"Well, yes, that's basically what dreams are."
Dr. Lily sat back down, the thoughts of her raise
racing through the back of her mind. She didn't want to risk losing her position.
Krawker smiled smugly and closed his eyes. Dr. Lily snorted. "So is it every
day that someone tries to kill you in your sleep? Or is this just a plea for
attention, Krawker? Does your owner neglect you?"
"No one tried to kill me in my sleep!"
"So tell me what happened then."
"I was sleeping in my bed." Krawker paused.
"I had a dream that I went into a pool with my brothers. We were playing volleyball
with a large beachball... one of those soft ones, you know. Then I caught the
ball. But something strange happened... the ball began to evolve into a pirate
Kiko. It withdrew a sword. I woke up and the sword was right next to my pillow,
and on the floor was a deflated balloon."
Dr. Lily had been scribbling the whole time.
The pen made the most annoying 'scratch, tap tap' noise when it was pressed
on the surface of the clipboard. She looked up, narrowing her eyes. "Is that
what... ahem... really happened?"
"Of course!" he snapped, now ready to break
out of the office. "My family is able to see the signs when the dream is over!
If I were to wake up drenched in water, they can see it! Explain that! I'm not
completely insane if they can see what's left behind, am I?"
The Ixi nervously trembled before she began to
take notes again. The round clock on the wall ticked at a volume that seemed
quite loud in comparison to the silence that fell over the room. Dr. Lily threw
her pen down for the last time, apparently finished. "Well... our hour is over
now. I'll be seeing you next week."
Krawker leapt from his position on the small
couch and left at once, his mind racing with thought as he ran outside into
the sunshine of Mystery Isle. He thought about what Dr. Lily had said before.
Maybe he was turning insane, and maybe an asylum would be the best for him.
Yet he came to wonder if everything that had happened was just a dream itself.
Nothing made sense. But did it matter?
Only time would tell.
The End
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