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"Put your book down," Joey sang to Grundioy, "we’re cleaning!"
Grundioy the spotted Aisha looked up from the
book she was reading, titled ‘Social Skills’. She frowned slightly but said
nothing as she placed the book on the Kauvara table, using the Chia snow sculpture
as a makeshift bookmark.
"Anna! Rofal! Flowal!" called their owner, and
her three other pets hopped, flew and fell down the stairs. "We’re spring cleaning,"
their owner said brightly, with a huge grin. The pets were panicked at the find
of a Pteri feather duster and a Vacuumfish in her two hands.
"Shouldn’t we wait for spring?" Rofal2000 muttered.
He was a silver Shoyru, and an annoying one at that. The invisible Doglefox
by his side yapped in agreement.
Flowal2000 stood there, blinking. "What do you
expect me to clean exactly?"
"Your room for a start," Joey said, handing
her the Vacuumfish.
The skunk Usul stared at it in confusion, as
if she couldn’t comprehend what it was. Her Bearog, Rabbit, sniffed it curiously.
"I’m sweepy," Anna said, rubbing her baby Cybunny
eyes. She knew that Joey was always trying to get her to nap, and this might
be a way out.
"Nobody try to get out of this!" Joey uttered
in frustration. "Come on you guys, I’m trying to win Neohome Spotlight here!
After we win, we can hire a maid and you’ll never have to clean again."
Grundioy stood up, "I’ll help, what do you want
me to do?"
"Good!" Joey exclaimed, pushing back her short
black hair. "Umm... you can start by dusting your bookshelves, then the ones
in the library."
"I’ll supervise," Rofal said, following Grundioy
up the stairs.
"Me too," Flowal said, putting down the Vacuumfish
and following her brother.
They were both halfway up the stairs when --
"FLOWAL2000 AND ROFAL2000 YOU COME DOWN THIS INSTANT!"
Rofal and Flowal winced, knowing she only 2000ised
their names when she was really mad.
They came downstairs, and Rofal was given the
chore of weeding the garden while Flowal and Anna would clean their bathroom.
Joey started the Vacuumfish, humming to herself. A few minutes passed and it
was so loud she didn’t hear the doorbell ring.
"There must be some sort of child labor law
against this," Rofal complained to himself, as he pulled another tree weed from
the path to their home. The sun was shining brightly, hurting his eyes. His
bucket wasn’t even half full, and he needed a drink of water really bad. Joey
had locked the door and she didn’t hear him knocking over the sound of her humming.
A blue Lupe was walking down the street with
a Faerie Krawk, and they both stared at the silver Shoyru. "How embarrassing,"
he muttered to himself. "Where’d Rover go?" He looked around for his Doglefox.
The problem with invisible Doglefoxes was that most of the time, you didn’t
know where they were.
Rover barked a greeting, licking Rofal’s paw.
He wiped his brow, deciding to take a break. He sat on the potting bench in
the cool shade of the heart fruit tree.
The smell of earth was all around him, he could
hear leaves rustling in the wind. Rofal2000, was very much in tune with nature.
Still... that didn’t mean he loved pulling weeds in blaring sunlight on this
beautiful morning, when he could be negging houses with 6612 the Faerie Meerca.
At that very moment, 6612 jumped out from behind
a heart fruit tree. He was clutching a bottle of krawkade in his paw. "Hey dude!"
"Sooo... thirsty!" Rofal croaked, staring at
the drink. He could almost feel the cool refreshing liquid in his parched mouth.
"Oh, you want a drink?" 6612 said in mock surprise.
"Mmmm, this is a niiiiiice driiiiiink. So refreshing. So cold!" he took a long
sip, taunting his Shoyru friend.
Rofal2000 was hovering inches away from the
Meerca, his eyes on it. His friend continued to tease him.
"Look, Chet Flash!" Rofal screamed excitedly,
pointing behind 6612. He whirled around and Rofal grabbed the krawkade, drinking
it all in one swallow.
Meanwhile, inside Annalisaca and Flowal2000
were cleaning out their disco bath tub. Well, actually, Flowal was moving around
a soapy sponge shield half-heartedly, and Annalisaca was playing with her battle
duck in the sink.
Rabbit was at Flowal’s feet, as per usual. The
Bearog was licking the purple jelly walls tentatively, and he barked as a tidal-wave
of soapy water crashed over the side onto him.
"Anna," Flowal asked without warning, "can you
do me a favour? Just run over to the Grooming Parlour and get me some moisturising
cream please. This soap is drying out my paws!"
"Okies," Anna said simply, jumping out of the
sink and sloshing mud all over the ultranova rug. She took the door into Flowal’s
coconut smelling room, and took a few Neopoints expertly out of her Snorkle
bank, with the confidence of a Cybunny that had done this many times before.
She bounced out the front door, Joey not hearing
over the blend of the Vacuumfish and her own humming. She almost tripped over
the half filled bucket of weeds that Rofal had abandoned. Where did he go?
An hour later, she was making her way happily
back to Winding Wood Drive, carrying a purple plastic jar.
"What’s this?" the baby Cybunny said curiously,
spotting something beside the path. She picked it up, overjoyed. "My own petpet!"
And she raced all the way home, leaving the jar there.
"Look!!!" she shrieked, bursting through the
doors. She set down a rock on the Kauvara table.
Joey and Grundioy blinked. The spotted Aisha
set down the pet spotlight trophy that she had been fondly polishing and looked
at her little sister. "Umm, Anna, that’s a rock."
"I know! It’s my petpet!!!" she squealed, unable
to contain her excitement.
"No, it’s... just a rock."
Annalisaca scowled, ignoring them. "Come on
Rocky, let’s go upstairs."
* * * * *
"Goodnight Rocky," Anna giggled.
It did nothing. No surprises there.
It was a week after she had found her "petpet".
Her siblings and owner still insisted that he was not a real petpet, but they
humored her. Other residents of Neopia Central were not as nice though.
They laughed at the baby Cybunny talking to
a pebble on a piece of string (she drug him along by a piece of string when
they went for walks). Petpetpets would not attach themselves to him. The judges
at the petpet spotlight stared at her when she brought it in for an audition.
Rocky was Annalisaca’s new best friend. He never
said the wrong thing, or ate her cookies. He was a great paperweight, and could
sometimes pass for a codestone when she wanted free training. But most of all
he was her petpet and she loved him with all her heart.
People thought she was strange and she knew
it, but it didn’t bother her. What bothered her was that they just assumed that
Rocky was an ordinary rock, and therefor replaceable. When Rofal took him out
with him, there were an increasing number of broken windows in Winding Wood
Drive. Annalisaca’s big fear was that he would take him stone skimming one day.
But tomorrow was the big test. Tomorrow they
would be going to Meridell to visit the Turmaculus.
* * * * *
"This place smells," Annalisaca said, wrinkling her little pink nose. She
had Rocky clutched safely in one paw.
"You’re telling me," Flowal agreed, taking a
careful step over a pile of dung, and placing a foot into another one by accident.
If Grundioy had been there she would have told
them how Meridell was one of the greatest and most historic places in Neopia.
To look beyond the dung-lined streets and rotten turnips, to the home of Illusen
and the most heroic of pets.
But Grundioy wasn’t with them, so they complained.
"Rocky’s hungry," Anna whined, tugging on her
sister’s tail.
"There’s a shop over there, ‘Merifoods.’ There
must be something edible in this place!"
Annalisaca and the skunk Usul made their way
over to the dodgey looking shop. Rabbit sniffed at a raw potato that somebody
had dropped.
"What is the soup of the day?" Flowal asked
the Meerca, pleasantly.
"The stone soup is a low calorie alternative
to our other creamy soups," he began.
"Perfect." Anna decided that she wasn’t actually
all that hungry, but she ordered some yeasty bread for Rocky. They all sat down
at a dirty table.
"Wait, this soup is really made out of
stones!" Flowal said in a disappointed tone. She had expected that it was just
a joke name.
Annalisaca was staring at the chunky water filled
bowl. Those pet Rocks were drowning!
"Don’t eat it Flowal!!" she shrieked, knocking
the bowl over. The "soup" spilled onto the bare dirt floor.
"What’s wrong?" she asked gently, not the reaction
that you’d expect if you didn’t know her.
"Those pet Rocks! They put dem into FOOD!"
Flowal sighed and clutched her head. "Anna,"
she began, "those are not petpets. A rock is not alive. Rocky is not
alive."
Tears welled up behind Anna’s large eyes. "No!"
she cried, placing a paw over where she thought Rocky’s ears would be. "You’ve
hurt his feelings! Look, he’s wost his appetite." She gestured with her free
paw to the untouched loaf of bread.
"Let’s go," Flowal said, pulling her sister.
Rabbit stopped gnawing on a piece of stale bread and followed them. "Wait, we
might as well try the Turmaculus before we head home."
The baby Cybunny followed her big sister sullenly,
muttering to Rocky. He made no sign that he acknowledged her, but she knew that
her friend understood.
"There he is," Flowal whispered suddenly.
Annalisaca was in awe. The giant petpet was
sleeping in front of her, snoring loudly. Two yellowed tusks protruded from
his mouth, and his eyes were shut tightly in dream.
"Only a petpet can wake him up," she said, whispering
again despite what she had just said.
Rabbit walked carefully up to the Turmaculus
and head butted him. Nothing. Nearby, a green Lenny held out a sneezing Wadjet.
The huge petpet opened an eye and a book appeared
in the Lenny’s wing. The Turmaculus fell asleep again immediately.
"Go Rocky!" Anna cheered, dropping the rock
in front of him. It lay in the grass, doing nothing.
"Go on Rocky, pwease wake him up!" she pleaded
with her friend. Please, do it to show the people who can’t see. The
Turmaculus blinked and stood up. Ecstatic, Anna cheered and hugged Flowal.
With one slow deliberate step, the beast lurched
towards Rabbit. The ground shook as his heavy clawed foot set down. Flowal’s
eyes widened and she watched the surreal scene, fear printed all over her face.
It seemed to be happening in slow motion. The
Turmaculus bent his head down sleepily over the unsuspecting Bearog and opened
his large mouth to eat him ...
"No!" Flowal shrieked, finally coming to her
senses. She grabbed the first thing within her reach and hurled it at the giant
petpet.
Rocky soared through the air, spinning slightly.
The rock hit Turmaculus right on the back of the head with a crack and he dropped
like a stone (which is pretty ironic).
Alarmed, Flowal2000’s Bearog ran over to her
and leapt into her arms, unaware of how close he’d been to being the Turmaculus’s
lunch.
Annalisaca hopped over to where Rocky was lying
in the grass. She picked him up and hugged him tightly.
"Anna, your petpet saved the day!" Flowal exclaimed.
* * * * *
So they went home, and Anna told the triumphant story of how her Rock had battled
with the king of petpets and rescued six orphans from the Pound, before foiling
one of Dr. Sloth’s plans. She tended to exaggerate a little bit at times.
Rocky was a hero. And although he might only
have been an ordinary rock found on the side of the road, to Anna and her siblings,
he was finally family.
The End
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