My name is Spike. I'm a red Koi. And I witnessed the destruction of Maraqua.
Me and my girl Rosie, and some of my buddies, Tetro, Timfett, Big Tang, and
jj (also Kois), were hanging out in Maraqua, behind the utility fish store.
We all lived in Neopia, but we were from Maraqua until our owners adopted us.
We went back and hung out all the time.
Anyway, we were behind the utility fish store, passing around a bag of fish
eggs and just talking and laughing, when the utility Koi comes out and says,
"Hey you crazy kids! Get outta here before I call the cops!" So we went out
to the main square.
We looked up and saw a little swirl coming from the surface, and didn't really
think much of it. But Rosie's all spiritual. She thinks she's psychic or something.
Well anyway, she took it more seriously then the rest of us.
"Guys, I don't feel so good about this..." she said.
"Get over it Rosie," says Tetro.
"C'mon guys, let's just swim over to Mystery Island and hang out there for
a while or something. I just got a bad feeling about this."
"You and your feelings," says Timfett.
So I says, "C'mon Rosie. Everything's gonna be OK."
Rosie just bit her lower lip.
So we went to the pet store. I got Rosie a Rosie (ha-ha). I already have a
Swirly named Tank. We were on our way out when all the sudden, it got darker.
Something was covering the sun.
Before I had a chance to look up, there was this big whirlpool sucking everything
into a hole. I looked around me, and my friends weren't standing by me anymore.
I felt myself being sucked toward the whirlpool and I couldn't pull away. I
started to swim up, looking around for my friends. I looked down and saw the
Utility Koi screaming as he fell deeper and deeper into the hole. When I turned
around, Rosie crashed into me.
"Spike!" she called
"Come on, let's get outta here!" I said, grabbing her fin swimming as far toward
the shore as I could.
The next thing I knew I was on the shore of Mystery Island, with Rosie next
to me. The first thing I saw was Big Tang (He's not hard to miss; he ain't called
Big Tang for nothin'. I crawled a little further and saw Timfett and Tetro.
"Where's jj?" I asked.
Tetro swallowed hard. "He was so small."
I looked puzzled.
"He didn't make it," said Timfett. "He got sucked in!"
I was in complete shock. He was just a little thing! Youngest of all of us,
and the only painted one too! He was Faerie, because his owner was rich as ever.
Rosie's red, so she probably shouldn't have been painted. I'm red too, Timfett's
blue and Tetro's green. Big Tang is yellow, and his owner could probably afford
to buy him a paintbrush if he wasn't always buying food. Anyway, I was very
shocked and confused.
We turned around and looked out at Maraqua, our birthplace, as the whirlpool
spun longer...
Now everything is different. Rosie's owner, Jenna, won't let her leave Neopia
without her. My owner, Camill, is getting lots of NP offers to buy me. He's
getting so annoyed with them he won't answer the phone until the person leaves
a message on his voicemail. Timfett's owner, Mark, is having the same problem.
Tetro's owner did sell him. Probably for the better. He was a creepy fellow,
who was about 50 years old and always had dirty clothes and an unclean shave.
Didn't take care of him anyway. The new owner seems nice enough; a nice preteen
girl with a Poogle and a Kacheek.
But probably the saddest of all is jj's owner, Aimee. She lies in bed all day,
sleeping or crying. She has a desert Aisha named Lisa. Lisa was very smart.
But now all she does is sit on the couch watching TV and taking care of the
baby Faerie Grundo, since Aimee won't get up and do it anymore. Her fire Shoyru,
Wilson, went completely nuts. He sits outside their house, barking like a Warf
at all passersby.
What will become of the Kois? Will the culture of Maraqua live in people's
hearts? Nobody knows... | 
