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"I'm tired, Mister… can we rest?" Kaylyn begged.
"Soon, Kaylyn, soon," I replied.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
I sighed, not sure what to say. The truth of
the matter was that I was trying to get somewhere that seemed safe to rest…
not safe for me, but safe for her.
A child was vulnerable, especially in the middle
of the night. They could be swiped away by some ruthless scheming villain, and
nobody would ever hear from them again.
"Where are we going?" the Acara repeated.
"Somewhere… okay?"
"How much longer will it take to get there?"
"I… I don't know," I sighed.
"Please can we just stop now, Mister? I'm seriously
gonna fall asleep walking if we don't." She yawned, as if trying to prove her
point.
"Okay, okay… follow me." I grabbed her paw and
led her off the dirt path we had been walking on for quite some time now. There
was a tree there, which had a humongous trunk. The two of us settled down behind
it.
"Is this where we're sleeping?" Kaylyn inquired.
I nodded slowly, and weakly smiled. "Yeah, go
to sleep."
"Okay…'night Mister!" She looked one last time
at me, but then slid to her stomach and closed her eyes.
I didn't do the same until I heard her soft
snore echo faintly throughout the night.
"G'night," I whispered once I did. I glanced
at her one last time, but then closed my eyes as well.
Soon I was astray in a world of slumber.
********************
"Wake up, Mister! Wake up! Wake up!"
Kaylyn awoke me.
I rubbed my closed eyes for a moment, but then
opened them and glanced at the hyper Acara, who was bouncing around on the dewy
grass.
"You're up!" she squealed, grinning. "I though
you were just gonna sleep and sleep and sleep some more!"
I forced a tired smile. "Nah, I don't require
that much sleep to function," I replied.
"Well I guess I require less than 'cause I've
been up for a loooooong time." She added more than enough force to the word
'long.'
"Well, I'm sure you have been." I chuckled under
my breath.
"Where are we going to today, Mister?" the Acara
asked, changing the subject completely.
"Where do you think we should?"
"To find you're name, silly! You told me that
yesterday!" She stuck her tongue out at me. Not with rude intentions, but instead
trying to be playful.
"No, I mean literally where. We could
go to Virtupets, or Mystery Island, or Terror Mountain or blimey… anywhere!"
"How do we afford this?"
"Ever heard of games?"
*********************
Three games of Meecra Chase, one game of Faerie Bubbles and two games of Usuki
Frenzy later, we had collected 1507 Neopoints. We headed over to the Market
Place to buy a Green Backpack (in which to store anything we may need to along
the way). We spent 800 NP on it, so were left with 707 Neopoints, and I was
confident it'd be enough to get us by… for a while at least. We then grabbed
a few food items from the money tree and ate them, but after that were on our
way.
"Soo, where do you wanna go, Kaylyn?" I asked.
She shrugged. "Anywhere, I guess."
"But if you had to pick one place, where
would it be?"
She cocked her head for a moment, but then exclaimed,
"Faerieland!"
I was silent for a moment… my mind flashing
back to my experience with Jhudora. I had achieved high score after high score
at her cloud, and learned to trust her with all of my heart. But then she betrayed
me…she was the reason I was living like this…
I shook the thought out of my mind, and then
stared at Kaylyn. "Anywhere but Faerieland," I whispered.
"Well, then, I guess umm… Meridell! We can meet
Illusen at her glade!"
"No, nothing to do with faeries at all, okay?"
"Alrightie then… how about… the Lost Desert!"
"Okay…"
********************
We arrived at the Lost Desert a little before dusk. Kaylyn was bursting with
pure excitement, as she chattered happily about the stories she had heard about
the land.
The Acara had to peek into every tent and gawk
at the items, as well as greet anybody and everybody who passed by. I could
tell she was fascinated by everything, but especially so by Coltzan's Shrine.
She begged and whined to 'try it out', but thankfully did listen when I told
her that she could not.
We continued walking for quite some time, when
suddenly Kaylyn stopped. Her eyes were fixed on something ahead, and I could
barely trace out the figure of a large Neopet.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Can we please go?" she whispered.
"Why, Kaylyn?"
"Just please, Mister…please."
"Tell me why first," I ordered.
"Mister… I'll tell you later… just we gotta
go now, or this whole journey is worthless."
"When you say 'go' what exactly do you mean?"
"Just… not in this area…"
Heaving a sigh, I grabbed the girl's paw and
tugged her about half a mile from the area we were currently in.
"Happy now, Kaylyn?" I inquired.
She nodded. "Yeah… thanks Mister."
"Alright… now tell me why we had to go away
from there. Something to do with that Neopet?"
"Well, you see um… that Neopet was my teacher
at school, and if she saw me this whole thing would go haywire 'cause she'd
be all suspicious of me being with some full-grown Kougra in the Lost Desert.
You see, she thinks I'm an only child and I live with my owner named Adadydooda
in Neopia Central."
"So out of every single Neopet in the world,
the one standing 10 feet from us was your teacher?" I shook my head in disbelief.
"Yeah, Mister… it was."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive… really, Mister. I'm not lying;
I promise."
"But in all honesty, Kaylyn, do you know how
many pets there are out there?"
She nodded slowly. "Yes, I do, Mister… b-but
I just know that was her."
"I don't mean to sound skeptical, but I highly
doubt that was your teacher."
Kaylyn frowned at me. "You think I'm lying!"
"No, no… I don't Kaylyn. I just sort of…" I
stopped in mid-sentence and sighed. This was going to be hard to explain, especially
because the little girl was convinced that the pet was her teacher.
"You just sort of what?" she asked.
"Okay, maybe that was your teacher, but if she
had seen you, she wouldn't recognize you." I changed my view on the matter.
"Yeah, Mister, she would… 'cause of this." Slowly,
Kaylyn brushed away the fur on her cheek; revealing a scar stretching about
3 inches across.
"Where'd you get that?" I questioned, running
my paw gently over it.
She shifted her glance to the sandy ground and
kept her lips shut.
"Where'd you get that?" I repeated.
Kaylyn looked back up at me and shook her head
slowly. "It's a secret, Mister," she said.
"I guarantee I won't ever tell anybody that
you told me," I responded.
"No… it's not like that. Ya know how there's
some secrets so big that," her voice grew quiet, "that your life depends on."
"Kids," I stated, "are not supposed to be have
a secret which can kill them."
"But I'm not a normal kid, Mister… I'm not."
"Everybody has their quirks, Kaylyn."
"No, Mister, no! You don't understand! I'm not
some normal, everyday Acara!" Her voice was harsh… almost violent in a way.
"Then what are you?"
A single tear rolled down her cheek, and she
snuffled. "I can't tell you that."
I clenched my fist, irritated. "Okay, Kaylyn,
then what can you tell me?"
She took a deep breath. "My name," she whispered,
"isn't really Kaylyn."
I stared at her, dumbfounded. My mind whirled
with confusion and my stomach started to tie itself into tight knots. "What'd
you mean?" I asked.
"Kaylyn… the name Kaylyn… it's fake."
"Fake? How is it fake?"
"It's not my name… my name isn't Kaylyn."
"Then what is it?"
"That, I cannot tell you. I want to, Mister…I'm
dying to, and my heart and soul want to, but I can't."
"You can do whatever you want Kaylyn! Nobody's
gonna stop you! Nobody will ever find out!" I threw my paws into the air, and
my eyes danced with annoyance.
Slowly, 'Kaylyn' turned her back on me and shuffled
away. Before I knew what to do, she was gone.
************************
A/N: Hey'lo! Thanks for reading Part Two of Identity! Also I shall thank
you for Neomailing me about Part One, and I hope I get as much feedback for
part two ^^
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