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Sari sat in a large armchair, curled round like a cat,
newspaper open on her lap. She had blonde hair, tinted pink, hung over her face
like a curtain, obscuring bright blue eyes and a wicked smile. Her four pets
were in the spacious living room with her. A fire Aisha and Faerie Gelert named
Laeyan and Jeronik were playing a video game that involved lots of flashing
lights, 'pows' and noises.
The other two pets were slightly different.
Zayei, a spotted Zafara, was reading purple power quietly, curled up in a similar
way to Sari. Drushii was playing Meerca chase on a hand held game station, her
Polarchuck asleep on her lap.
"That's weird," Sari said suddenly, breaking
the comfortable silence.
"What's weird?" Zayei asked.
"Boochi's been shooting more pets than usual
recently," Sari commented. "Listen - In the past month, almost five times the
average number of reports have filtered in from Boochi's 'baby gun'. Over 300
pets have reported being zapped by this pint size criminal and Chia Police are
starting to warn people to use extreme caution when approaching Boochi, he is
considered armed and potentially dangerous - sounds weird, hey?"
"If that pink penguin tried to zap me, I'd tie
that bow so tightly his head would turn blue!" Lae growled from the game before
her attention was fully snapped on the game as bright blue things with too many
legs came charging at her.
"Well, I'm glad we got that one in perspective,"
Drushii muttered cynically.
"Why Drushii," Sari smiled. "I'd almost say
you'd been hanging around me too long."
"Lucky you," Lae said, her eyes still glued
to the LCD screen. Grinning, Sari ripped the front page off her Newspaper, rolled
it up into a ball and lobbed it at Lae's head. Lae turned round to glare at
Sari, and in that second, Jero beat Lae, causing a large GAME OVER sign on her
half of the screen.
"Sari!" Lae wailed. Sari merely laughed and
continued reading. "You're like a two year old!" she continued. Famous last
words…
***
The next day, Sari announced they would be going out. Not far, she assured
them, just down to the shops to stock up on supplies they'd run out of. As it
was a nice evening, they decided to walk through the park. The park was pretty
nice; it was a warm summer's day and the sky was dark, stars flittering in the
inky black sky. It was then that the screams started. It was almost in slow
motion, one moment everything was calm, the next people were screaming and running
in the opposite direction.
"BOOCHI'S GONE CRAZY!" someone yelled, rushing
past the small group.
"What the…" Zayei muttered. Jero, in a fit of
masculinity, charged forward. Sari slapped her hand to her forehead, she knew
was Jero was doing -- Jero was showing off. She barely had a chance to mutter
'For cryin' out loud,' before charging off after Jero, along with Lae, Zayei
and Drushii.
A bit further up the path, they found Jero,
backed against a tree with Boochi moving slowly towards him, a manic glint in
his beady black eyes. Sari gave a cry of "Jero!" and rushed up the path to help
him. It was in that moment of complete lack of concentration that Boochi struck.
With a sense only madness induces, instead of zapping a pet, he zapped their
owner.
"Sari?" Jero yelled as Boochi ran off, cackling
madly. There was a smoky haze where their owner had once stood and as the four
pets approached it, it was obvious their owner was not about to pop out, laughing.
"Sari?" Jero repeated, this time hesitantly.
A high pitch wail filled their ears, the kind
only a little child gives when they're scared or confused. Lae's mouth fell
open at the site in front of them. Instead of a 15-year-old teenager, sat in
front of them was a little child, maybe 2 and a half at the eldest. The little
girl had long blonde hair, bright blue eyes and, at that point in time, was
crying. Loudly.
"Oh dear…" Drushii muttered. The girl stopped
crying at the site of Drushii, and her face split into a large smile, her cheeks
tear stained.
"Cat!" she cried ecstatically. "Kitty cat!"
She rushed forward, clothes almost falling off her small frame and launched
herself at Drushii, cuddling into her soft black fur. Drushii looked terrified
at the site of her once 15-year-old owner cuddling into her.
"Somebody… help… me…" Drushii murmured, her
eyes not leaving her owner.
"Sari?" Jero said, approaching the toddler.
She was wearing Sari's shirt, the hem running behind her, the sleeves dented
slightly where her tiny hands struggled to find daylight. Her trousers lay discarded,
having immediately fallen off Sari.
"Dog!" Sari cried and rushed over to Jero. Zayei
decided to take charge. He picked the toddler up, her small frame fitted into
his arms snugly and immediately the girl cuddled into him.
"We'll take her to Kauvara," Zayei said at last,
looking down at his owner. "I'm sure she'll help."
***
"CLOSED?" wailed Lae, looking at the sign. "OUR OWNER IS NOW A TWO-YEAR-OLD,
AND OUR ONLY HOPE IS CLOSED?"
"It's open tomorrow. It's her day off," Drushii
said calmly, reading the sign. Inside though, Drushii was terrified -- looking
after any toddler, let alone your owner terrified most Neopets, and Drushii
wasn't the exception. She hated little kids, they all wanted to poke and prod
her and it very quickly got very annoying. At least Sari hadn't made any further
comments about her; since the cry of 'Kitty Cat' Sari had not paid the slightest
bit of attention towards Drushii, and that's the way she liked it.
"Look," Jero said in an unnatural tone. Lae
looked at Jero; he looked pretty perplexed by the whole situation -- it wasn't
everyday your owner turned into a toddler, granted -- but his tone of voice
was more commanding, more -- Sari like. "It's simple. We go home and come back
tomorrow. We'll stop off at the food store and get some…" He winced, "baby food
or something."
"You mean," Lae said, looking down at her owner,
who was struggling in Zayei's arms, trying to get down, "We've got to look after
our owner for the night?"
"Yeah," Zayei said, putting Sari down. Immediately,
she charged off, causing Jero to leap after her. Grabbing her the back of the
shirt, Jero gave a look most reminiscent of Sari when Jero himself did something
stupid/annoying/both. "Fyora help us all…"
To be continued…
Authors note: Feedback will be loved and worshipped… Thank you!
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