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“Watch out!” the baby Shoyru warned, his voice streaming
out of the translator.
Ajliso turned around, unaware at her sight. A
group of monsters were plummeting toward her, as the baby Shoyru and his pet
Doglefox clambered out of her arms, in time for her to reach for her asparagus
powered ray gun.
The shot hit them square, as they staggered back
in fright. Retreating, they were sucked into the ground, and disappeared for
good, or at least it was greatly hoped.
“See? It isn’t that bad when you can actually
talk,” said Ajliso amiably. “Now you don’t have to cry anymore to get attention.
I used to cry a lot – it made my throat sore, and my eyes got all puffy.”
The Shoyru nodded and asked, “What’s your name?
Where’s mommy?”
“You mother? I don’t know,” admitted Ajliso.
“And my name is Ajliso. I’m one of Neopia’s helpers, see? I came here to fight
off those monsters and protect Neopets like you.”
Clinging on to Ajliso and feeling safe, the Shoyru
said, “I am Eyelle, and my Doglefox is Rosch.”
“That’s a pretty name,” commented Ajliso. “Eyelle.
I like that. Rosch is such a fitting name, too. We can get to a safer area,
and then you can tell me everything that happened around here. Start from the
beginning!”
Ajliso picked up Eyelle gently, and Rosch walked
by her side. They hurried along until they reached a barren area. The village
they were inside of had almost been completely destroyed. Even before that,
the lands were mostly grey, brown, and black. Lush green hills could be spotted
in the distance, but they were small and distant. The sun hardly gleamed in
the sky, but it was light enough for many to do activities. The entire village
seemed to be in the shade, as Ajliso climbed through the piles of rubble carefully.
She looked around, trying to find if the fact
that her team had left her was merely a mistake. Perhaps a few stayed behind…
yet that was unlikely. They had just left her, and they probably wouldn’t have
noticed, she noted in her head. Sighing, Ajliso seated herself on a smooth stone,
and Rosch sat himself beside her.
“Alright, little guy. You can start now.”
“A few weeks before,” began the baby Shoyru
named Eyelle nervously, glancing at his PetPet. “It was much darker than usual.
That was a sign of a storm, and it occurred as guessed. The storm went on for
a very long time, and it lasted for many days. During those days, mommy and
daddy were frantic and running around like Petpets being chased by Balthazar.
“Rosch and I mostly stayed in the basement,
while daddy searched for food and mommy organized the house. It took days to
get everything we needed, and we knew this storm would be a big one. We braced
ourselves, afraid, but I felt safe being between mommy and daddy.
“Five days later, the storm got worse and worse.
Daddy went outside to fix the damages on the house. Mommy stayed with me and
tucked me in every night. She sung me songs and lullabies…
‘Unis (proud and pretty) in the meadow
Lupes (brave and strong) among the prairie
Kikos (agile and kind) in the lakes that flow,
All blessed by the Faerie (as you are too)…’
“On the fifth day, at midnight, after mommy
had tucked me in, she began to cry. Mommy had never cried before, but she had
comforted me whenever I was upset. I wanted to crawl out of bed and comfort
he,r too, so I got up and hugged her. She said daddy was not coming back.
“I don’t know what she means by it. But I stuck
to her and followed whatever she said. She told me, ‘You have to be the head
of the house now that your father is gone. You must be proud and brave.’ I tried
to be proud, and I tried to be brave, and I tried my hardest.
“When the seventh day arrived, a monster had
begun attacking, and a lot of strange looking Aishas like you came up and comforted
us. Mommy went out with one of them, and she hasn’t come back to pick me up.
Now nobody is here anymore.”
Ajliso looked at Eyelle. She wondered how a little
Shoyru that young could deal with all the sadness and work, while she enjoyed
her childhood and complained nearly every second. She sniffled and hugged Eyelle
tightly.
“We’ll find your mother,” she said confidently.
In reply, her Shoyru friend nodded intently.
They continued they journey, Rosch barking and
running round playfully, as Ajliso carried Eyelle through the village. He slept
in her arms, and she smiled warmly.
Ajliso could just remember by looking at the
little Shoyru of her own childhood. An Aisha was wheeling a stroller through
their world, Alien Aisha Land, as her twin sister complained, “My feet are hurting.
Why don’t I get to go in the stroller? I’m tired. I’m sick of walking.
I want to go home.”
The Aisha replied, “Now, now dear, you’re too
old for a stroller. All your friends will laugh at you if you get inside there.”
“I’m tired, too,” added the young Ajliso. “And
I want to go home.”
“That’s no way to talk to a princess,” he twin
shot back to the Aisha. “And oh lowly servant, nobody cares if you’re
tired or want to go home.”
Back then, the two argued constantly, one mocking
another. Even though they had fun quite a lot during their childhood, played,
were excused from work and never did anything hard, they never admitted it,
nor did they admit that they actually liked each other as sisters.
After Ajliso’s flashback, she snuggled Eyelle
closer. She knew how it was to not have parents around, and she and her twin
always wondered what happened to them.
“No, stupid, that’s impossible,” Ajliso remembered
herself saying after her twin suggested a presumption.
“It’s no more stupider than what you suggested,
idiot!” spat her twin.
Ajliso climbed a small hill of ruins, Rosch clambering
up after her. He barked two pleasant notes, before continuing on, trailing after
his new Aisha friend.
“This is fun,” the barks said, transmitted into
the translator. “I hope where we’re heading it’s fun too!”
Smiling to herself, Ajliso walked on. At last,
she saw it. She sighed a sigh of relief, before saying to herself and everyone
around her, “We’ve made it.” They had reached the outskirts of the village.
To be continued...
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