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“No! Not the pound! Please, not the pound!” Iverson cried.
He felt himself falling. He opened his mouth to scream, but his throat felt
dry and no sound came. “Please…” he whispered. But he knew that it was too late.
The little Kyrii woke up soaked in sweat. He
panicked for a second, wondering where he was. Finally realizing that he was
in the Neopian Pound, he calmed down, but then remembered that horrible day
— just over a week ago — when his owner had decided that he was boring and had
disowned him. Iverson had begged, begged, begged until what little pride he
had was gone, but it had done nothing. Iverson was in the pound now, and could
do nothing but hope that some kind-hearted person would come along and rescue
him.
The days passed by slowly. Life at the pound
was extremely boring and the Neopets who worked there were only nice enough
to remember to feed the Neopets once a day. For the rest, nothing. Each Neopet
had a tiny cage out of which he or she wasn’t allowed to come. Iverson regularly
heard humans coming into the pound, but his cage was at the back of the building
and hardly anyone ventured that far. Occasionally Iverson heard moans or cries
coming from other cages, but he grew used to these as well as to the humans’
voices and stopped paying attention to them.
It was on a day much later that the Kyrii had
just been given his daily meal and was staring at it, trying to figure out what
in Neopia this soggy, dark thing could be, when he looked up out of his cage
and found himself face to face with a young girl.
From what Iverson could see of her, she was short,
with long hair draped over her shoulders. She had green, smiling eyes and the
small Neopet immediately felt that something good would come out of this unexpected
meeting.
“Hi there, little Kyrii,” the girl said softly.
“I’m Kit, what about you?”
“My-my name is Iverson,” he mumbled.
Kit grinned and stepped back, still observing
him, then turned towards the Uni who had led her around the pound.
“I want to adopt him,” she told her.
The Uni nodded. “85 Neopoints, please.”
Kit took some coins out of her pocket, gave them
to the Uni, and opened Iverson’s cage. Unable to walk after having been in a
cramped place for so long, the Kyrii stumbled and would have fallen, had his
new found owner not picked him up in her arms.
* * *
EleanorAnne ran into her sister’s room and tripped over a pile of books. Carefully
picking herself up, she asked,
“Ilsabel, where did Kit go?”
The Ixi looked up from the book she had been
reading. “What? Oh, uh, I don’t know. She said she was going on an errand or
something.”
“Aw, I wanted her to come with me to the toy
shop to buy a plushie. My friend just got a Halloween Kacheek plushie and she
says it’s a must.”
“That’s nice,” muttered Ilsabel who had gone
back to her reading.
At that moment the front door opened.
“That must be Kit, I’ll go see!” Eleanor cried
before running downstairs.
A minute later Ilsabel heard her sister yelling,
“Ilsabel, come! Kit says she has a surprise for us!”
***
“Iverson,” Kit told him, “these are my two other pets.” She smiled at him.
“That’s Ilsabel, she’s the oldest, and that’s EleanorAnne.” Iverson had been
staring at the ground but he looked up quickly and smiled a little.
Kit turned to her two older pets. “This is Iverson.
I adopted him, and I hope that you’ll help him get settled into our family.”
She paused for a second before continuing. “Alright, Iverson, I’m leaving you
all for a few minutes to go buy some food. I’ll be right back, okay?” With a
quick smile, the young girl turned around and started walking towards the market
place.
EleanorAnne was staring at the small Kyrii. “He
looks half haunted,” she commented. To her sister’s amazement, Ilsabel took
Iverson’s defence.
“El, that is just cruel. Iverson’s had a really
hard life at the pound and you try and make it worse by making rude comments!”
The Ixi turned towards Iverson, and smiled at him. She looked back at her sister.
“I think he looks nice. He’s just tired out.”
Eleanor shrugged and stomped off towards her
room. Ilsabel stared after her for a second, then shrugged as well and asked,
“Iverson, do you want to have a rest? You can
sleep in my bed if you want, I don’t mind.”
Unable to say anything, and completely bewildered
at the way these strangers were acting, he nodded, and Ilsabel led him to their
owner’s bedroom. The Kyrii lay down, and after a second was asleep. His new-found-sister
went out and closed the door carefully. Just before getting back to her book,
she thought,
“He looks shy, but I think he’ll be happy with
Kit… and us. I just hope that EleanorAnne will treat him nicely.”
* * *
A few hours later, Iverson was awoken by screams of laughter. After figuring
out where he was, he stood up and slowly went out of Kit’s room, going towards
the screams of laughter. He stepped inside the living room and stared around
in amazement.
There were at least a dozen Neopets in the room.
A couple of them were sitting down calmly, but most of them were bouncing around
the room, hanging upside-down, or trying to break something.
EleanorAnne, who was taking a big part in the
chaos, suddenly spotted her — whether she like it or not, Iverson was just that
— brother. She yelled at no one in particular,
“HEY, LOOK, THAT’S MY BROTHER!”
Everyone stopped what they had been doing and
turned to look at the green Kyrii, who was backing up against the wall, looking
scared to death.
“Doesn’t he look haunted??” snickered EleanorAnne.
A blue Poogle, still holding a piece of Rotten
Omelette which she had been using to hit a green Kiko, replied, “I don’t think
so,” and went back to hitting the Kiko.
After that a mix of shouts and cries went up
and all that Iverson was able to understand was a “yes!”, “no!”, “I think…”
here and there. Then Eleanor screamed,
“CHARGE!!!”
And that’s exactly what happened. A Chia, two
Unis, a Draik, a Wocky, three Acaras including EleanorAnne, two Myncis, and
a Lenny rushed towards Iverson. The only two who stayed behind were the Poogle
and the Kiko.
Iverson watched them running towards him, panicking.
Behind him was the wall so he wasn’t able to move and the Neopets enclosed him
in a messy half-circle.
* * *
Kit had gone back to the NeoHome, and, seeing that Iverson was quietly resting,
had left on a couple more errands. She bought a couple toys, some chocolate,
and a few more things, then decided that it was time to go back. She was greeted
by yells and screams. Stepping inside the living room, her mouth opened wide.
EleanorAnne and her friends were surrounding a Neopet — and that Neopet was
Iverson, Iverson, who was looking terrified.
“DON’T MOVE!” finally screamed Kit after having
opened and closed her mouth a number of times. At the sound of her voice, all
of the Neopets looked up and Iverson whimpered. His owner rushed towards him.
He wasn’t hurt but he looked badly shaken.
“What did I do to them?” asked the Kyrii in a
voice that was barely a whisper, falling onto Kit’s shoulder. The young girl
stood up and turned to EleanorAnne’s friends.
“Leave, all of you. I’ve really unhappy with
what you did — or were about to do — to Iverson.” Not needing to be told this,
they all scampered off outside, and Eleanor was left alone.
“Clean this mess and go up to your room. You
aren’t to go out of it for two days,” Kit told her. “I may be being mean but
you were much, much meaner to Iverson.”
* * *
After having soothed Iverson down a little bit and given him a book to read,
Kit went to see EleanorAnne in her room. Kit tried to talk to her, but the Acara
was like a brick, hearing the words but not listening to them. Sighing, Kit
left.
* * *
Things did not get any better for Iverson during the next few weeks. EleanorAnne’s
friends were forbidden to come back to the NeoHome, but there was still the
Acara… She never tried to hurt Iverson, but she insulted him, yelled at him,
and made fun of him. The only peaceful moments Iverson had were when EleanorAnne
was out, and there weren’t many. The Acara seemed to stay at the NeoHome on
purpose to bother Iverson.
The Kyrii never complained, but Ilsabel and her
owner knew he was unhappy. They both tried speaking to EleanorAnne, but soon
gave up on that and simply tried to make Iverson feel at home — which did not
succeed, as he was petrified of his youngest sister and she was always there
— or in his thoughts.
* * *
Kit watched as Iverson bit on a piece of Strawberry Jelly. His sisters had
already finished their meal, Ilsabel was in her room and Eleanor at a friends’
house.
“Do you want a piece?” Iverson asked shyly.
“No, thanks though. I’m full.” Yawning, Kit stood
up. “I’m going to have a nap now, and I think Ilsabel is going to as well, so
you can do whatever you want when you finish eating. I suggest you go out on
a walk… Here are 100 Neopoints, it’s not much, but if you find a little treat
you want, buy it. And if you don’t want to go on a walk, you don’t have to at
all.”
Iverson nodded as his owner left the room. Finishing
his food, the Kyrii went out of the house and looked around, not knowing where
to go. He headed towards the Marketplace, but at the last minute decided not
to go there and walked instead towards some NeoHomes, curious to see the different
shapes of the buildings.
Iverson reached a corner of the street, turned,
and found himself face to face with five of EleanorAnne’s friends — the Draik,
the Lenny, the two Unis, and a Mynci. Recognizing them immediately, Iverson
tried to turn around and run away, but was stopped by the Unis. Iverson heard
some muttering among the other Neopets, but wasn’t able to make out anything
and looked around desperately. Apart from them, the small road was deserted,
so no one would be there to come and help him.
“Charge!” screamed the Mynci, imitating EleanorAnne
that day some weeks before.
They hadn’t even budged an inch when another
voice was heard.
“DO NOT TOUCH HIM!”
Iverson stared at the striped Acara who had just
appeared. EleanorAnne?? EleanorAnne was there, protecting him, when all she
had done before consisted of being mean to him? Or was she going to beat him
up herself?
“THAT IS MY BROTHER, YOU AREN’T ALLOWED TO HURT
HIM, YOU CAN’T—”
Suddenly realizing what she was saying, Eleanor
stopped. For a few seconds there was silence, then the Acara turned towards
her brother. She took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry, Iverson,” she said simply. “For everything.
I hope you’ll forgive me.”
Iverson smiled, and, together, as true brothers
and sisters, the two of them walked away, back towards their home, leaving the
other Neopets staring after them, at a loss at what to think.
The End
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