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“Sir,” said the little yellow Cybunny, “Are you alright?”
“Wh-why, yes, thank you,” he replied.
“I’m fine.”
“Well, you don’t look all that fine,”
she replied. “You look as if you just fell from the sky.”
“Oh, really?” Bel replied with a smirk.
“Yes, really,” she replied. “You really
need to get cleaned up. My sister is making some soup inside. Why don’t you
come in?”
“Why, thank you!” he said. “I haven’t been
treated this nice for… well, I can’t remember how long!”
“I’m really only offering you soup, sir,”
she replied, “It’s not all that much, really. Where do you live, a dungeon?”
“Close enough, little one,” he said, smiling
at the humourous little girl. “Now, where would your NeoHome be, young one?”
“Just over here,” she said, with a perky
voice, “C’mon!”
As they walked into the house, her older
sister was washing dishes. She had a blue mane, and wore a brown, long, housedress.
She was very beautiful, even though her housedress did not match her description.
She did not take her eyes away from her work.
“I brought the Draik I saw outside in
for dinner, Stacy,” said the young Cybunny.
“Oh, Mya,” she said, “I hope you didn’t
cause the person any inconvenience…”
“Oh, I am glad she offered.” Stacy turned
her view to Bel. Her face went long.
“Um, will you excuse us for a moment?”
she said, with a worried look, grabbing her sister. She hid underneath the table
cloth. “MYA! Do you have any idea who that is?!?”
Ooh, is he someone famous?” she asked.
“Haha,” Stacy replied, “very funny. Don’t
you see? He’s Draconian!” Bel couldn’t hear them, but he obviously knew what
they were talking about.
“Drac-what-ian?” she said, puzzled.
“Mya, remember when I told you about the
great war?” said Stacy. “Between the Draconians? And us?”
“Ohhh…” said Mya, still not worried, “from
the Citadel? You said we made peace with them!
“All in papers!” she replied. “What ink
says on paper can’t possibly describe what’s still between us and them!”
“Well, my older sister,” said Mya, with
an angry look, “I am personally disappointed in you.” Stacy rolled her eyes.
“You always say never to judge people! For all you know, he could be a purple
Draik!”
“Mya, he’s wearing their symbol, he has
horns growing out of his—“
“STILL! Where one is from does not describe
how one acts. Ashamed, I am. A-SHAMED.” Stacy sighs at her little sister trying
to act mature.
“Fine. We’ll give him a chance. But only
because he seems like a nice Draik. But if ONE thing goes wrong, I am SO getting
help.” Stacy gets out from under the table, and smiles as if nothing happened.
“Excuse my sister,” said Mya, “she’s a
big rude bum.”
“Mya!” scolded Stacy.
“She’s very cute,” said Bel.
“Just wait tell you get to know her,”
replied Stacy, laughing, “more like evil.”
“Oh, I know evil,” said Bel. “She’s not
evil.” Mya hopped onto her small wooden chair and looked up at Bel.
“So, what’s your name?” asked Mya.
“Bel.”
“Bel?” she asked. “I like that name. My
names Mya. And my sisters name is Stupid.”
“MYA!”
“Okay, so it’s not stupid, but I like
to call her that anyway. She’s my only family. Hey, Stupid, when’s dinner ready?”
“Mya, don’t call me that,” she said, “At
least not in front of company. And in 1 minute. I’m just letting the stew cool
off.”
“Stew?” she replied, “Ew, I thought we
were having soup.”
“It’s practically the same thing,” replied
Stacy. Bel just giggled at the argument between the two. They were obvious sisters.
Bel was as excited as ever. He hadn’t
remembered the last time that he saw such joy, love in-between two people. Nor
had he had the reason to smile for ages. He could watch the two argue forever…
“Okay, dinner is ready.” Suddenly, Bel
was out of his little dream. He stared at the green liquid, and poked the chunks
of something with his fork.
“How is it?” asked Stacy. Mya leaned over
and whispered.
”Don’t worry, we can feed it to my
Doglefox, Ruff, later. Just pretend like you’re eating it.” He gave a laugh
at Mya’s humour. He then stuffed a chunk in his mouth.
“It’s excelle—“ Suddenly, his face turned
pale.
“I said PRETEND,” shouted Mya.
“Excuse meh,” Bel said, still with a full
mouth, “I.. Urm… Haf ta use da bathwoom.” He then ran off to the toilet.
“They never learn,” said Mya, as Stacy
looked in confusion.
~
Meanwhile, up at the Citadel…
“VEX!” shouted Kalam. “VEX! You are…”
“Yes, Cap’n…”
“Free to go.” Kalam unlocked his handcuffs,
and untied them. “Thank you for your assistance. You may go now.”
“My pay, sir?” Vex snickered.
“As you requested, your friend, Prisoner
04 has been let free. Now be gone, back to your duties, and let no one else
hear of this. Or you will be in REAL trouble.”
“Yes, Cap’n.” Just then, they hear footsteps
running out of the dungeon.
“GET THEM!”
~
”Stacy,” said Bel, “There’s a favor I’ve been meaning to ask you…” He walked
up to her by the clothing basket on the porch.
“Yes, what is it, Bel?” she asked, while
bringing in the laundry from the line.
“Well,” he said, struggling to bring the
topic, “I’m foreign to Meridell. And, well, I was looking for a place to stay…”
Stacy’s face turned pale. She blushed, and shook her head.
“W-W-We-Well, really, I’m not sure, Bel,”
she said, with a guilty look on her face, “Well, because… There’s a question
I’ve been meaning to ask you.” Bel looked disappointed at Stacy’s unsure train
of thought.
“Shoot,” he said, “I guess.”
“Are you, well…” She tried and tried,
but the word wouldn’t come out.
“Draconian?” he blurted out. “Why, yes,
yes I am.” Suddenly, Stacy’s eyes started a slight glare.
“Then what on Neopia are you doing down
here?” she said, angrily, “In Meridell, of ALL places? And what do you want
from me and Mya?”
“Calm down,” he said, sighing, looking
up at the stars, “I want nothing from you and your sister. And you think we
hate you from Meridell, because we choose? Being in Darigan is a curse, not
a choice. I was lucky enough to break away, at all times, when I was about to
be killed. And somehow, fate decided I should get a second chance, and I landed
safely in a little cushion of hay in your backyard.”
“Well, Bel,” she said, starting to let
up, “let me at least ask you this. Did you fight in the war? Were you part of
the force that destroyed Meridell?”
“Yes,” he said, “But once again, I had
no other choice, except for pain.” Stacy sighed.
“I’m sorry,” she said, passing him the
laundry basket to bring inside, “but you won’t be very welcome around here.
My home; yes. But everywhere else, there are few unknown welcome Draconians;
and few Draconians are known. So…”
“I can handle that,” he said, with a smile.
“Just call me a master of disguise.” That little crack made Stacy smile.
“Alright,” she said, giggling, “You can
stay. But under ONE condition—NO, wait, THREE conditions. One; you help out
around the house as MUCH as possible. Two; you find a good source of Neopoints
to support us; as you might see, we have a bit of a… Financial problem
here. And three; stay safe. There are a few Anti-Draconians around here, and
I want no danger brought to you or this family.”
“Thank you SO much!” he shouted.
This was it. Bel finally had started his
new life in Meridell, and was as excited as ever.
As Bel started walking into the house,
Mya popped out from behind the door.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have done that,” she
said, “Agreeing to help out with all the chores? Maybe I should start calling
YOU Stupid.”
“You really are evil,” he said, glaring
at Mya with a smirk, “aren’t you? Do you always spy on people like that?”
“Hey,” she said, “evil, and proud of it!”
Just then, Stacy walked in, without looking surprised at Mya.
“Mya, tell Bel where he’s sleeping.”
“What?!” he said, in shock. “You mean
you knew she was listening the whole time?”
“Hey,” she replied, “living in this house,
I’ve just grown to assume she’s everywhere.”
“Muahaha,” laughed Mya. “C’mon, I’ll show
you your room.”
~
”Captain, we caught him,” said one of the guards. They were dragging behind
them Haskol, who was foaming from the mouth.
“Ah, Haskol,” said Captain Kalam. “What
a pleasure it is to see you! Now… Will you tell us what you were doing here?”
“I WAS LOOKING FOR THE CUSTODIAN,” he
roared. “NOW LET ME GO!!!”
“But, Haskol,” he said, “would you happen
to, know anything?”
“NO!!!”
“Oh, but Haskol, my friend,” said Kalam,
“I think you do. Lock him in his own cage, Vex. To the dungeon with him.”
~
“So,” said Mya, “here’s your bed, sir.”
“You don’t need to call me sir, Mya…”
“I know I don’t,” she replied, “I just
wanted to see how it feels.” Bel rolled his eyes. Then, Mya started squinting
at his face.
“What is it, Mya?”
“Why do you have TAPE on your face?” she
asked, still squinting as if her looked like a hideous beast.
“Oh,” he said, “they’re just bandages
from a few nasty scrapes.”
“Oh,” she said, all a sudden amused, and
into the subject, “Cool! Are they bandages from WAR? With Meridell Knights?
Cool, cool, COOL! Tell me, tell me, PLEASE…”
“Alright,” he said, “Alright, just calm
down. Actually, it wasn’t from war. It’s from this evil, EVIL Krawk—oh, does
it feel good to be free to say that—Captain Kalam, I’d have to refer to him
as. But, let’s just call him Kalam.”
“Why not Stink-Head?”
“FINE, we’ll call him Stink-Head. Anyway,
back when I was a young Squire…”
“What’s a Squire?”
“It’s what you have to be before you are
a Knight. Anyway, me and my friends—“
“What were your friends like?”
“My, aren’t we the curious one?” he said.
“Can we at least leave questions tell the end, Mya? Anyway, when I was a young
Squire, me and my friends ALWAYS found a way to play a prank on him, the little
weasel, he was. I must admit, we were quite cruel to him, maybe it’s part of
the reason why he’s like what he is now. Anyway, he was a suck-up, too. So when
it came time for us to be promoted to Knights, HE was promoted to CAPTAIN of
the force. As in whatever he wanted us to do, we’d have to do it. So to pull
ONE last prank on him, me and my friends shaved his head in his sleep. Now,
a Krawk values his hair VERY much. Anyway, as always, he found out WE did it.
And we were in for it deep by the time the war came. My lucky friends; they
went missing.”
“How on earth is that possibly LUCKY?”
“Well, getting lost on war-land is MUCH
better then putting up with and angry Stink-Head. Let’s just say he had a big
change in size recently. Anyway, straight after the war, Stink-Head released
his Drackonacks on me. Huge, brutal, deformed things they were. The two beasts
both started sickening me like crazy, and chased me all around the Citadel.
Finally, on jumped on me, and went after the eyes. I jumped, but it still got
me below. For some reason, it’s caused me eyesight to be a little… Off. Which
doesn’t exactly make me a great Knight, when half the job is accuracy.”
“Wow…” she said in amazement, “you have
such a cool life. Living in Meridell is SO boring.”
“Oh, you should be happy with what you
have,” he said. “Trust me.”
Later on, while Stacy passed Mya’s room
on the way to the kitchen, she saw what seemed impossible; Mya, asleep, with
Ruff, on her actual bedtime.
“Wow…” she said. “What did you do?”
“I just told her a story,” he said.
“But none of my stories ever put her to
sleep,” replied Stacy.
“Well, I guess she just isn’t the Faerieland
and Unis sort of little Cybunny,” he said.
“You know,” said Stacy, “maybe there is
some good having you around. Mya really seems to like you.”
“Maybe.”
To be continued…
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