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People had always called her weird. Sometimes people
were too scared to go near her, not because of her special ability, but more
the fact that they thought she was crazy, that she was making up her stories
just to get attention. More than anything though, she knew that people were
scared of her; you see, she could read people's minds.
Verity was a starry Lenny and had been born with
this strange and powerful ability. Sometimes it would just come on suddenly
without warning, plunging Verity into a fit of panic. Sometimes she saw terrible
things; thoughts of her so-called friends thinking up vicious ways to upset
her or a lonely Neopian's tragic life as they slowly crept along the streets
keeping their head down in sorrow, but she also saw good things. She saw little
children thinking about what ice-cream to buy, saw old Neopets carrying baskets
of food thinking about their loved ones; she loved that part, so much in fact
that she could feel a warm tingling sensation in her body every time she saw
a good thought.
Sometimes Verity wouldn't be able to read people's
minds. She didn't really know why, whether it was stress or tiredness, but it
did make her feel normal, like she was just an average Neopet with an average
life with nothing to worry about except friends and what book to read next;
except she wasn't. Whenever she felt herself drift off into normality a sudden
pang would jolt her back to reality, her reality being that she wasn't normal
in the slightest. A mind reader was very far from that.
Her ability to know what others were thinking
helped her. With it she could steer clear of the people whose thoughts were
filled with evil deeds, betrayal and closed-mindedness and mingle with the ones
who were friendly, who were trustworthy and whose thoughts were filled with
nothing but good times with friends, good words about others and happiness.
Verity could see the truth in people and that was definitely a good thing.
Verity used her ability to grow apart from her
so-called friends and had now made new ones, ones who appreciated her, and ones
who liked her the way she was even though she could delve into their innermost
secrets. Any secrets they did have however, they shared with Verity anyway.
They had formed a tight bond together and it was a friendship that Verity knew
would last.
It was a crisp March day when the four friends
decided to meet up for a stroll through the wooded area of their town. Tanya,
a Cloud Uni with a shimmering mane that stretched all the way to the ground,
rested her legs on a small embankment lining the forest path. She had brought
a small backpack with her and was thinking about what to eat.
"No, that could cause a stomach upset if you
eat one of those too early in the day," Verity said knowing that Tanya was thinking
about eating a Carnapepper. "Save it for a desert or something."
"You're so bossy, you know that?" said Tanya
laughing.
"Sure do!" replied Verity laughing with her friend.
Verity turned around and looked into the eyes
of her other friend Liza a blue Kyrii. The starry Lenny's heart lurched as she
delved into Liza's mind. The young Neopet seemed to be having trouble at home.
Liza was reciting the words of her mother over and over again in her head.
"I can't believe we've been burgled! How will
we be able to cope now?"
Tears started to well in her eyes before she
looked up at Verity, and now the tears started to roll down her cheeks.
"You already know don't you? About my family,"
she whispered just loud enough so that Verity could hear.
Verity walked over to her friend and sat down
beside her.
"You've been burgled, haven't you?"
"Y-Yes," she sobbed. "They took everything and
my Mom… she's so upset. I've never seen her so sad before. I just don't know
what to do. I wanted to stay at home with her but she said she'd be okay and
told me to enjoy myself with my friends. But how can I enjoy myself with what's
happened?"
Verity placed a comforting wing around Liza's
shoulders and said "It'll be alright. We'll make sure that you have a really
fun time. Won't we you two?" she shouted at Tanya and Dylan, a green Shoyru
who was sat next to the greedy Uni.
"Sure," replied Dylan. "What's she upset about?"
"Do you mind if I tell them?" Verity asked.
"No. They're my friends too."
And so Verity called them over and explained
what had happened to Liza and her family. Both Tanya and Dylan too, said the
same thing that Verity had said; that they'd all make Liza's day a fun one.
"Come on, then!" shouted Dylan, hopping up and
down. "Let's go and have a fun time! But first we'd better get outta this forest.
I mean, come on! What can you do in a forest that's fun? I know! We can
count trees! Yeah! Fun! Fuuuun!"
The three girls started to giggle and almost
immediately the look of upset and worry cleared from Liza's face; and her mind
too Verity saw. Dylan had a brilliant sense of humour and it was often his jokes
and comments that made each day they spent together that little bit better.
"We could always go to Neopia Central," suggested
Tanya as she swallowed a mouthful of food. "Loads of shops and cool things to
do there. Plus, we can buy chocolate! You know, that shop is my favourite."
Reaching Neopia Central at last, the four friends
were overwhelmed by how overcrowded the place was. Neopians bustled this way
and that way all eager to reach the shops in time to buy the new stock. To Liza,
Tanya and Dylan, the crowds didn't bother, but to Verity the hundreds of thoughts
swirling through her head were enough to make her pass out. She could hear words
that were drowned out by other words and sentences that mingled with others
so that all she could hear was a vast ocean of sound. Usually she could only
hear the thoughts of maybe ten people. It was the first time, right here in
Neopia Central that something like this had happened. Whether her abilities
were getting stronger she didn't know, but what she did know was that she wouldn't
be able to stand it for much longer.
Her friends were speaking to her but she couldn't
hear them. Their mouths were moving but no sound surfaced. Their words were
drowned out by thoughts and at that time she knew she was going to faint…but
she couldn't faint. She had to get through this. If she could just make it to
a shop then she'd be alright.
She looked around; her eyes were heavy and her
legs felt like jelly but she could see that the book shop was only twenty seconds
away. She walked to the shop, hands over her ears. She knew that it would make
no difference - the thoughts were in her head - but it acted as a small comfort
to her nonetheless. The shop seemed to take forever to reach; it was as if she
was in a vast ocean of thoughts and every big step that she made she was washed
back by the strong currents.
She reached the door and stepped inside. Immediately
the thousands of jumbled words and sentences vanished and she could now hear
her own heavy breathing. Liza, Tanya and Dylan followed her and closed the door
behind them.
"What's wrong with you?" asked an alarmed Tanya.
"Are you alright? You looked as though you were about to faint!"
"I-I'm fine now," Verity replied. She lowered
her voice. "It was my ability. I don't know what happened but I could suddenly
hear everyone's thoughts. There were at least a hundred people close by so you
can imagine why I had to come in here don't you? I just had to get away."
"We understand," replied Liza. "And you say nothing
had ever happened like that before?"
"Never. That was the first time."
Verity looked around. Books of all shapes and
sizes lined the many shelves of the book store. Some were thick with dust and
were obviously very old.
"Maybe I could find some information about my
ability in one of these books. I've got to try and find some information about
what just happened out there."
And so they searched. Before long Dylan had been
distracted by a large book full of comics and was sat at one of the desks laughing.
Tanya had given up too and had taken to eating the Carnapepper that had been
lying in her back pack.
"What's this?" asked Liza pulling a dusty red
book off the shelf. "It's called "Delving into the Mind of a Mind Reader."
They placed the large book onto a table and puffs
of dust swirled up into their nostrils and mouths making them cough. They scanned
through the pages until Liza noticed a small paragraph that described what Verity
had outside. It read:
To the mind reader this experience is very
rare but also very fortunate. It usually means that a thought of a person nearby
wants to remain hidden. These thoughts trigger this experience usually because
the thought is considered to be of evil or dangerous quality. No one really
knows how these thoughts trigger the experience however.
Verity and Liza looked at each other not quite
coming to terms with the words written on the paper. Liza read it again and
again and the words 'evil or dangerous quality' stuck out more than any other.
Then the word 'thief' came to mind. Her heart started to beat quickly and she
could feel jabs of pain in her chest.
"You think the thief is out there?" asked Verity.
"There's a chance that they are but…well, it could be anyone. It could be a
different thief. It could even be a Dark Faerie for all we know."
"I know that but if there's a chance it might
be the same thief that stole from my house…oh please just say you'll go back
out there and try and catch him!"
"I-I can't," stammered Verity.
"We'll all be around you to look after you, don't
worry. You've got to do this though. For me, for all of us! How would you feel
if another family gets burgled? Eh? And then another one and another?"
"Okay. I'll do it," she said feeling immediately
guilty.
"Thanks a lot! I knew you were brave! Remember,
we'll be here with you."
The four Neopets left the shop and Dylan was
still giggling at a comic that failed to leave his mind. It didn't amuse Verity
in the slightest but as long as Dylan found it funny that was all that mattered.
The voices came flooding back. The thief, if it was him, was still close by.
She could hear words again, solitary words jumbled together with other words
and sentences. Her head began to spin round and round. She looked straight into
Liza's eyes and soon found that the words eased. Now she could read the thoughts
of Liza without hearing any other words.
"You can do this Verity. Come on. You can do
it. Don't let us down."
She then stared into Dylan's eyes. He was still
thinking about the comic and was laughing harder than ever. She looked into
Tanya's eyes.
"I'm so hungry! I need food!" was what she was
saying in her mind.
That was the key; to look straight into people's
eyes. She could find this thief if she looked them straight in the eyes. She
saw a bunch of people in front of her and swerved past them. In front of her
were other Neopians. They were all going about their daily business without
a care in the world. The thief could be any one of them. Of all the hundreds
of Neopians in Neopia Central, just one of them was the person she was looking
for. It was almost impossible…almost.
Again, she swerved past them and looked around.
There in front of her was a purple Meerca. He was bouncing across the street
with a black bag slung across his shoulder. He didn't seem to care about anyone
as he pushed past them. He knocked a little Usul over and she began to cry.
The Meerca didn't stop to apologise. It was almost as if he was running away
from something, scared of being caught by someone. Verity followed.
"Stop!" she shouted although she could hardly
hear her own voice for the other voices were swirling around violently around
in her mind. He didn't stop. She shouted again. He wouldn't stop. "Thief!" she
yelled. At this word the Meerca bounded faster across the street. He was the
one alright.
She ran through the crowds and her legs seemed
to buckle beneath her. Lennies weren't used to running. She couldn't fly; her
wings felt like blocks of iron, too heavy to lift up. Who would have thought
reading many thoughts all at once would make somebody so tired?
"Stop!" she yelled again. Verity was aware that
she was getting slower and slower. She couldn't let him get away. Just as all
hope was lost, she saw Dylan zooming overhead. The Meerca didn't even look up.
Dylan was very stealthy, very fast and very strong. He descended over the Meerca
and grabbed his shirt with his clawed feet. He flew up in the air without a
struggle so that the Meerca's feet were dangling just centimetres above the
ground. He let out a silent yelp before Verity ran up to him. She peered into
his eyes.
"Stupid Shoyru! Get offa me! Get off!"
She peered deeper into those menacing eyes and
saw past thoughts. Thoughts of his triumph of being able to burgle the little
Kyrii's house, thoughts of escaping with the goods so that he could sell them
to make profit. And then she heard nothing. In fact she heard nothing but the
sounds of Dylan yelling "You'll pay for what you've done!" and her other friends
cheering. She also heard gasps of people watching Dylan flapping his mighty
wings to keep in the air and the thief hanging limply in the air, his tiny arms
flailing in all directions.
Verity was glad that she could hear no thoughts
at this moment. She had had enough of them and if she heard any more she thought
she might faint. She ran up to the Meerca and laughed at him.
"You really thought you'd get away with it, didn't
you?" she said. "Well let me tell you something. Do a bad thing, you get caught.
Be it hours, days, weeks even years, you'll get found out eventually. It looks
like your time has already arrived. Dylan, you stay here with this thief and
we'll go and inform Judge Hog."
And so Verity and her two friends quickly arrived
at the Headquarters. After only a minutes wait Judge Hog entered the foyer.
He grinned as he caught sight off the three girls.
"Hello there," he said in a heroic voice. "What
can I do for you pretty ladies?"
"There's a thief just outside," Verity blurted
out. "My friend, a green Shoyru has got him but I don't think he'll be able
to hold him much longer. He's a big fat Meerca."
Tanya laughed at this and Verity could see why.
She had worded it rather funny.
"Well I was just taking a nap you see and…"
Verity shot him a bitter glance.
"Okay, I'll do whatever you wish," he finished
sheepishly.
Verity leading the way, her friends alongside
her and Judge Hog behind, they quickly ran to where Dylan was struggling, his
wings beating fast as he continued to hold the pesky thief in the air.
"It's you!" Judge Hog yelled. "You've been causing
trouble for a long time Hextar but this time we've got you!" He turned to Verity,
Tanya and Liza. "This hooligan has been causing trouble ever since he was a
kid. It's about time he got his comeuppance."
With a swift movement of his right arm, he grabbed
Hextar's tail and yanked it downwards causing the Meerca to yelp in pain. He
fell to the floor and Judge Hog tied his paws tightly in rope before ordering
him to stand up. Dylan fell to the floor, his wings falling to the ground. He
didn't try to move them.
"Wow," he said gasping for breath. "Now that's…
what I call heavy!"
They made their way back to the Headquarters
a little while later. The receptionist was standing at the desk a huge black
bag by her side.
"I believe these are yours," she said. "Hextar
confessed to everything."
"Thanks!" cried Liza. "Thanks for everything
Verity! He would never have been caught if it wasn't for you!"
"Ahem!"
She turned around. "Oh, and you Dylan! Thanks!"
Taking the black bag from the receptionist she
and her friends went back to her house to tell her mom the great news. As they
all sat around the living room on nice plush chairs Verity spoke.
"I'm really glad that you all respect me for
who I am. No, I'm not normal but that doesn't matter does it? I am who I am
and I'm proud of that."
Her friends all turned to look at her and smiled.
They all knew how hard it had been for Verity knowing that she was different
to everyone else. But, in the end, she overcame that and was proud of herself,
not only because she was unique but also because she had just saved one of her
best friend's lives and that in itself was something to be proud of forever.
The End
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