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SMAP! SMAP! Shutters banged against the walls, and
there was a constant pounding… DUNK! DUNK! DUNK! as rain attacked the house.
"We're bored," Emelia whined. Emelia was Peachbud's
cousin, and frankly Peachbud was glad she didn't visit often. She was a little
Techo, and frankly, a whining frog isn't very cute. She wasn't even baby… and
she was green. "Tell us a story."
"A story?" Grandma Tonu thought, squinting her
eyes. "Well, I believe I might be able to recall one…"
"Make it about stars!" Emelia cried eagerly.
"Stars?" Peachbud, a Cybunny, interrupted with
a hiss. "Star stories are only good when you can see the constellations, dummy!"
"I want a star story!" Emelia whined back, and
started crying.
"Now, now, Peachbud, if Emelia wants a star
story I figure it's best she gets a star story," Grandma Tonu said simply. "And
I believe I have a good one."
Peachbud's groan went unnoticed as Grandma Tonu
said softly, "While wondering through Neopia, have you ever taken a moment to
gaze up at the stars? Well, ancient Neopians did, before Neopoints were invented.
Now most people stare down, greedily counting their coins or frantically searching
their purses, wondering where they dropped their cell phone."
"That's not fair, Grandma," Emelia snapped.
"I look at the stars."
"Don't interrupt!" Peachbud hissed, showing
her sharp teeth. Then she turned and smiled sweetly. "Go on, Grandma."
Grandma Tonu gave Peachbud a warning look before
sighing, closing her eyes, and continuing, "Back then, ancient Neopians had
many different beliefs of how those stars got to be up there. One was that the
sky was dark until the Sky Painter put stars up to tell stories, and that's
why they are all in constellations. And, of course, they had to tell stories
to go with them.
"Phew, the story part. I thought we would never-"
"Shush!"
"Cassie was a beautiful Neopet. Paintbrushes
were not commonly sold back then, only by the greatest wizards, and most pets
had never even heard of a paint brush! It was very rare for a pet to be painted,
because pretty much the only way for something like that to happen was for them
to be born that way. After all, it was only about once every thousand years
a pet got painted by the work of a wizard. It was incredibly expensive… an entire
kingdom it could cost! And it required so many ingredients, and so much magic
and hard work that it was rarely done."
"I wanna get painted," Emelia interrupted.
"Hush, Emelia!" Peachbud hissed again, but this
time she would not be hushed.
"I want to get painted!!!" she sobbed. "Nobody
thinks I'm pretty!" she started whining and sobbing horribly.
"Emelia, your Mommy hasn't been able to get
enough money for a good paint brush…" Grandma Tonu started.
"I WANT A PAINTBRUSH!!!" she screamed, falling
onto the floor and pounding it with her feet and fists.
"Emelia, if you don't shut your little twerp
of a mouth, you can just go to your room!" Peachbud snarled.
"You're not my Mommy, you can't make me," she
replied, sticking her tongue out.
"Your Mommy's so tired of you, she gave me permission
to teach you some manners," Peachbud replied, showing her shining claws and
teeth. "Be quiet or miss the story."
After a few moments of silence Grandma Tonu
gave Peachbud her 'that was really helpful but I can't say it aloud because
that's not nice to Emelia' she continued, "Cassie was not only painted Starry,
but she was also a Shoyru. Even then Shoyrus were rather popular, and that only
made Cassie more vain. She had long thick hair that seemed to never shed. She
was a queen, and all day long she would sit in her room gazing at her mirror,
brushing her beautiful fur, or adding a touch of makeup, or filing her long
nails, and as she brushed she would count the strokes. '101. 102. 103,' she
would say, before sighing, 'Oh, Cassie, you're so beautiful… 104.'"
Peachbud snorted.
"Of course, as you might imagine, beings such
as Sky Painter were watching…"
"Grandma, I'm scared!" Emelia screamed, covering
her face with a pillow. Sky Painters an evil DEMON, I just know it! AH! SKY
PAINTER'S GONNA GET ME!!!"
Grandma Tonu and Peachbud rolled their eyes.
"Don't worry, Emelia, this isn't a scary story…"
"Yes it is! Yes it is!" Emelia screamed.
"Now, now, why don't you and Peachbud both have
one of these yummy cookies?" Grandma Tonu cooed, holding them out. After they
had a few bites, Grandma Tonu gave a sigh, then said,
"But, as she was a wealthy enough queen and
her villagers were very respectful to Sky Painter and such, they left her alone.
(Cassie herself was too busy looking at her mirror.)"
Emelia sighed happily, though her sigh of relief
was cut off by the deep voice Grandma Tonu used when she said, "But one day…"
she said with a sigh. 'Oh, Cassie, you're so beautiful… why, you're more beautiful
then the Sea Dancers themselves!'
And, as one might imagine, a sea dancer heard.
Her long ears flicked up and she opened and closed her mouth in amazement. Then,
with a flip and a flop, she cracked her long tail and dove into the sea.
Soon enough the other Sea Dancers ran to tell
on the god of the Ocean. There were too many of them and they were really too
important for him to argue, and so he sent a giant monster (something between
a giant mutated Grundo and a Grarrl), which was going to destroy the town until
she sacrificed herself on the rocks!"
Emelia gave a gasp that Peachbud thought was
a little too enthusiastic, and Grandma Tonu said, in a suddenly haughty voice,
"And she said, 'I must save my town! I will do it.' But when she was preparing
to go to the rocks, she thought to herself, What am I kidding, I can't kill
myself! With a whole world of less-beautiful people, we really need to help
out beautiful people like me! Then she had nasty idea. She called her daughter's
name."
"This story's too long!" Emelia cut in.
"It would be a lot shorter," Peachbud told her
sweetly, "If you would quit interrupting.
Emelia sucked in her lips and looked up at Grandma
Tonu, who said, "And so Cassie called her daughter over. She called her name
in a shrill voice… her shout of P-"
"Emelia."
"What, Emelia dear?"
"The daughter's name is Emelia," Emelia told
her. "And Emelia was a beautiful green Techo, with brown hair. And it was tied
in pretty pigtails, like mine."
Just when Peachbud was about to announce that
if Emelia so badly wanted to be sacrificed, they could play a nice game of it
before continuing the story, Grandma Tonu cut in, "EMELIA!!! she shouted 'Emelia'.
But, Emelia, dear, don't you think that you should make her a Cybunny, just
to be fair?"
"No," she replied.
"Well, then we'll compromise. We'll make her
a-"
"NO COMPROMISES!!!" she screamed.
"Well, then we'll at least make her pink," Grandma
Tonu sighed.
"Pink?" Peachbud spat out disgustedly. "Are
there even pink Techos?"
"I'm not sure," Grandma Tonu admitted, "But
we can make one, just for the story, don't you think?"
"I thought you said it was very rare for a pet
to be painted back then," Peachbud said, eyeing her. She disliked the reminder
she was pink. "Two in a row? And something tells me Cassie would prefer not
to have competition then pay for her painting. And even if she was painted pink,
just to put part of me in her, I think skunk would be better. Or ghost, so long
as we're making up pet colors. Not pink. Pink is not me."
"Mutant would be better," Emelia muttered.
"You're right!" Peachbud said, in the same sweet
tone. "A mutant Techo named Emelia. I like, I like…"
Emelia covered her mouth, then said sadly, "I'm
sorry… Grandma Tonu, can we please go on with the story?"
Grandma Tonu decided quickly enough what Princess
Emelia would be painted. "And so Emelia came bounding up. She was a beautiful
Techo, and she was yellow, with matching blonde hair that surrounded her in
curls.
"'Yes, Mother?'" she asked.
"And Cassie told her the story with… a few changes.
"And Cassie, of course, allowed herself to be
chained to the rock-"
"Oh, man, the boring part!" Peachbud sighed,
whining for the first part in the story.
"What do you mean, the boring part?" Grandma
Tonu wondered.
"Oh, I know the usual. A prince comes and saves
her. There's a giant, L-O-N-G period of kicking and stabbing and ducking and
blocking, and in the end he gets the girl. It takes about three minutes to say
it, and it always happens the same way. And not to mention it gets a little
old to have the buff man rescue the beautiful princess. But, I suppose, a story's
not a story without some sickening portion of love," she replied bitterly.
"Alright, alright," Grandma Tonu sighed. Just
then, over the horizon, came a beautiful Cybunny in full armor. She was one
of the few pets painted. She was p- erm… skunk, and she fought off the horrible
sea monster that was going to eat her. We'll skip that part for Peachbud."
The End
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