Life in the pound wasn’t so bad really. FirePaw made some wonderful, nice new
friends. Jelilah was a female red Acara that was FirePaw’s special friend that
he had discovered a protectiveness over her. There was also xxxAnGeLgIrLxxx,
a disco fever Acara that was whisked away a few days after FirePaw arrived.
There was also a blue Aisha, who’s name was LaGuardia in the cage below FirePaw
that he often talked to even though Jelilah and xxxAnGeLgIrLxxx wouldn’t say
a word to LaGuardia since he was a different species.
“FirePaw!” LaGuardia hissed. “Wake up! There’s an owner in here!”
FirePaw sat up abruptly. He looked as sweet as he possibly could. The owner
moved over to the section of the pound that had Acara’s and Aisha’s.
This owner was a pretty female owner who’s name (according to her name tag)
was AngelFire. She pointed at Jelilah but FirePaw moved protectively towards
Jelilah.
AngelFire smiled and laughed. FirePaw just stared at her mysteriously, wondering
why she was laughing.
“Oh all right, I’ll take both of them. Jelilah and FirePaw,” she said. She
smiled at both of them. The Uni opened up their cages and lifted a hoof to take
the 160 Neopoints AngelFire owed her for both of them.
AngelFire gave the Uni the Neopoints and lifted FirePaw and Jelilah out of
their cages. As they were leaving FirePaw waved good-bye to LaGuardia, knowing
that this was probably the last time he would see his good friend.
Out of the pound and on the fresh green grass at the park across the street,
AngelFire said to both of her new pets, “Well. I am AngelFire, your new owner.
I hope we have lots of fun together! Anyway, I have a house already built, it’s
made of white chocolate.”
“Yay!” said FirePaw and Jelilah. FirePaw smacked his lips, he could already
taste the chocolate.
“Great!” AngelFire said. Then her face went into an eerie sort of mood that
FirePaw definitely didn’t like.
“You two don’t mind that you wont be painted soon, right?” asked AngelFire
tentatively.
“No,” said Jelilah. But FirePaw wasn’t quite sure because he really REALLY
wanted to be painted fire.
“FirePaw?” asked AngelFire.
“No,” he said. “I guess.”
Jelilah looked at FirePaw questioningly. “FirePaw, do you really want to be
painted?” She blinked hard and waited for his reply.
“Yes,” he whispered, so AngelFire wouldn’t hear him. “I want to be painted
fire really badly.”
“That bad?”
“I’ve wanted to be a fire Acara for ages. My last owner almost painted me but
had to sell the paint brush since she was in debt since the stock market crashed.”
“FirePaw,” said AngelFire. “I have a fire paint brush in my safety deposit
box. I was planning to sell it, but do you want to go to the rainbow pool with
me and paint you fire?”
“Really?” asked FirePaw. “Thank you very, very, very much!”
“What about you Jelilah? Do you want to be painted? Checkered or fire or something?”
asked AngelFire.
“No thank you, I like my red coat,” Jelilah said with a smile. AngelFire breathed
a sigh of relief and said, “Okay.”
“Well let’s go!” said FirePaw brightly. He jumped up and trotted ahead, and
was about to walk out of the house when AngelFire called, “Wait FirePaw! I have
to get the paint brush from my safety deposit box!”
AngelFire ran ahead and went down the National Neopian to access her safety
deposit box. She opened it up to get the paint brush and screamed. A millisecond
later she fell to the floor.
“Jelilah! Run!” yelled FirePaw. He galloped down to the spot where AngelFire
fell, with Jelilah trailing close behind.
FirePaw halted to a stop when he got to AngelFire. She had woken up by the
time he got there.
“What happened?” asked FirePaw anxiously.
“T-the p-p-paint brush,” said AngelFire shakily. “I-I-I-it's gone!!! I don’t
know what happened to it! But it’s not in my safety deposit box!”
“What?” FirePaw gasped.
“It’s gone?” asked Jelilah. “But how, I think, I mean I thought that only you
can get into your safety deposit box!”
“Someone must have pretended to be me or something and opened it up and stolen
it!” said AngelFire with wide eyes.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said the green Skeith who just arrived on the scene. He
was the bank president. “Do you want to call the Chia Police?”
“Yes!” said FirePaw.
“No,” said AngelFire. “Thank you but that won’t be necessary.”
“What?” asked FirePaw and Jelilah simultaneously. “Why not?
“It won’t be necessary,” AngelFire repeated firmly. “FirePaw you’ll just have
to get painted some other time.” And with that she led FirePaw and Jelilah away.
“AngelFire!” exclaimed both FirePaw and Jelilah.
“Yes?” AngelFire, not smiling.
“Why not call the Chia Police?” asked Jelilah. She was the understanding one
of the two but was surprised to see that AngelFire wouldn’t investigate further.
“Because it’s pointless,” said AngelFire. “Someone has done this before and
I called the Chia Police for help, since I was heart broken. They never found
out who did it, and I never knew who stole my item.”
“Oh,” said Jelilah.
FirePaw said nothing. He was the one that was heart broken this time. It was
very disappointing that he wouldn’t be painted fire.
“Oh I know!” he brightened up. “The rainbow fountain!”
“It dried up, didn’t you know?” asked AngelFire. “Oh you must have been in
the pound still when it dried up. Well, you can’t use the fountain anymore since
it, well, dried up. Just another hole in the ground.”
“Oh.”
AngelFire retired to her room to get some rest and recover from what happened
before, leaving FirePaw and Jelilah alone in the kitchen.
“I guess you won’t be painted fire,” said Jelilah, “sorry.”
“Oh well,” said FirePaw.
“Man, those are the breaks,” said Jelilah, repeating the exact words PadFoot
had said earlier about Jem and the paint brush. Now it was Jelilah and the paint
brush.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “It does really stink.”
“Being adopted was great,” said Jelilah. “But I guess to you its not anymore
since you can’t be painted fire. That’s the bad part.”
“Say’s who?”
“Say’s who what?” asked Jelilah.
“I can get painted fire!” said FirePaw, coming up with a sudden idea. “I can
get my own paint brush!”
Jelilah looked at him doubtfully. “It costs a whole 65,000 Neopoints.”
“Okay. So? I’ll get it myself!” He straightened up and reached deep into his
fur and pulled out a trinket that PadFoot had given him at their last time together.
It was a lucky Cybunny Paw. “It’s a lucky Cybunny Paw that my friend PadFoot
gave to me before I was put in the pound.”
He started for the door on his quest to collect 65,000 Neopoints. “Be careful!”
called Jelilah. He went back into the house and grabbed Jelilah’s arm and dragged
her out the door with him.
“Oof!” she grunted. “What’s the big idea!” She glared at FirePaw, brushing
imaginary dust off her arm.
“Come with me!” said FirePaw. Jelilah reluctantly agreed, wanting to make sure
FirePaw didn’t get into any major trouble.
Suddenly the bushes rustled and a small Cybunny hopped out and gave FirePaw
an Easter Negg.
“Woo hoo!” shouted FirePaw. “A fruity Faerie Easter Negg!” He lifted it up
victoriously, as if the Negg were a trophy and he just won a contest.
Jelilah stared. “It’s just a coincidence, it’s not ‘cause of that stupid little
Cybunny paw.”
...Or was it?
To be continued... | 
