Prologue: Camping Under the Stars
I sighed and gazed up at the stars. We were in a small tent, outside in
our backyard. Jainny was a blue Usul, Santannaa was a Christmas Scorchio, DorthyAnne
was a silver Shoyru, and Mairey was a white Chia. We had all wanted to go camping
under the stars and this was perfect.
We fell asleep and it began to rain. I woke up as drops fell through our tent.
I opened the tent flap and peered out. It began to rain harder, and we were
forced to leave as the rain sent t tent flying in all directions.
I clutched at my damp sleeping bag, and shouted above the rain to my pets,
“Let’s get in!” They nodded and we moved over to the door. I turned the knob
and pulled. The door remained shut, and after a few more times, I gave up. “It’s
locked!”
DorthyAnne groaned and peered through the window. “Maybe we can open the window?”
She began to open it, but it was locked too.
Jainny screamed in fury and frustration. She stamped her foot on the ground,
and hurled her sleeping bag to the ground where it splashed in a puddle. She
gave a scream that started with a deep growl and ended with a high pitch. She
began to bang on the window. “Break it down!” she screeched.
I began to pound on the window, and then, I smashed it open. The glass shattered,
and suddenly I heard sirens. We whirled around and saw the Neopian Cops head
over to us. “What are you doing, trying to break into this NeoHome?”
I laughed. “Oh, thank you! No, it’s our home. We were camping outside when
it began to rain, and we had to go in, but I left my keys. So we were freezing,
and then I decided to just go through threw window. But since it was locked
I had to smash it.”
The cop nodded. “Yeah, and where is the tent?”
Mairey flushed. “Well, actually, it got blown away. And so did our sleeping
bags.”
“Yeah, sure.” For the next hour or so we spent trying to convince the cops
that it was our house. We were freezing and wanted to just get inside. Just
then, Jainny had an idea. “I know, why don’t we go in, and our PetPets will
tell you!”
The cop nodded. “All right, I guess.” He still seemed doubtful. He opened the
door and we stepped in. Mairey saw her PetPet, Crysania, curled up on the sofa.
“Hi Crysania, please tell these nice cops we live here?”
Crysania was silent. DorthyAnne shrugged and headed upstairs. She came back
down, carrying her Snorkle with her. Rosy twisted in her arms, and DorthyAnne
asked it the same question. Mairey was still begging Crysania, her Warf. The
PetPets remained silent. Santannaa brought her Mallard Noele into the confusion,
and then Nata, Jainny’s Angelpuss, joined in.
“All right that’s it,” the cop snapped. “You’re going to jail for a) breaking
in a house and b) lying.”
We protested the whole ride. The cops were getting annoyed and they shoved
us over to the House Records. The Blumaroo smiled at us. “Hello, what house
number do you want us to look up?” she asked sweetly, turning to her computer.
“2986 Faerie Lane, Faerieland,” Santannaa screamed hurriedly.
The young Blumaroo typed in something and pressed a button. She read it, and
then shook her head. “I’m sorry, nobody lives there.”
“But!” I cried, and could tell the cop was sneering at me. “All right, what
about 2985 Faerie Lane, Faerieland.” I watched as the Blumaroo looked it up,
and then nodded. She told us the Neopian who lived there, and I grinned. “Okay,
then let’s ask him!”
The cops, tired of this, trudged after us. They dropped us off at the NeoHome
and we knocked on the door. The user opened it, and I asked, “We live next door
right?”
“Nope.”
My jaw dropped. “Yes, we do!”
“Nope.”
I stared at him in shock and fury. “We always did! Stop lying!”
“Nope.”
I still stared at him. Why was I surprised? We never really did get along!
“Please! Just tell them or else we’ll have to go to jail!”
“I told you, no!”
The cop advanced on me. “Look here missy-” he began but was broken off as a
Meerca ran through the door. The young baby skidded to a halt and then headed
towards Mairey. “Can we play tag?” she asked joyfully.
Mairey beamed. “We live next door right?”
The Meerca stuck out her tongue and drew back. “Course.”
We turned triumphantly to the cop and he sighed. “All right, all right. I’ll
let you in.”
We were curled up in front of the fire. I sighed. Suddenly, my pets’ PetPets
hopped down the stairs and jumped into my pets’ laps. Nata smiled. “Hi Mairey,”
she said.
Mairey stared at Nata in disgust. “Oh sure. Now you talk!”
***
It was a few Neo-years since that night, and nothing was the same. Not since
I had my shop to look after, and was short on Neopoints. Ever since then, my
NeoPets had been getting lazy. They sat at the house, not moving an inch.
I sighed and walked in my NeoHome I knew what would happen. Mairey was screaming
with joy as she swung dangerously on the chandelier. DorthyAnne was playing
with darts. Santannaa was walking a tightrope my NeoPets had tied from the roof
of the house leading out the window to the branch of a tree. Jainny was on the
roof. I could see her because there was a huge whole in my ceiling to the roof.
Either she fell or she did it intentionally.
DorthyAnne tossed a dart on the light bulbs of the chandelier, and they exploded.
Mairey screamed and half fell, half leaped off the chandelier just as Santannaa
lunged at her.
I put my bags down and walked over to the room. I stared at it, and my eyes
scanned everything. Then, my pets saw me noting everything. They came to a screeching
halt, and my gaze flicked over to them momentarily. DorthyAnne was strangling
Mairey and the young Chia had her hands around DorthyAnne’s wrists, even as
she attempted to breathe she struggled to break DorthyAnne’s hold. Santannaa
was attacking Jainny on the roof. I could see bits and pieces of the roof fall
in the room.
There was a scream, and then Jainny fell threw the portion of the roof that
held the chandelier. The chandelier fell to the floor with a crash, on top of
DorthyAnne. Mairey had managed to dodge in the confusion. Santannaa fell over
Jainny, and they lay sprawled on the floor. It was only then that they noticed
me.
I loved them too much to yell. And besides, what was the use? This had been
going on for a long time. Mairey leaped to her defense. “Sa started it!” she
screamed. (Sa was Santannaa’s nickname.)
Santannaa glared at her sister, and fought her tooth and claw. “I did not you
brat!”
I plopped down on a chair. “Cut it out!” I screeched. “This has been going
on for a month, you guys. What is it? Tell me, so that I can fix it! Because
do you know how much it’ll cost to repay that chandelier? What about the ceiling?
I’m going to have to fix that, too. Then there’s all the furniture! I don’t
have that much!”
Jainny didn’t hesitate. “I want out!” She shook her head firmly at my protests.
“Now! I want peace and quiet!”
Santannaa nodded. “I want to be painted something else!”
Mairey agreed. “I want to go on adventures! Look at all the pets in the Neopian
Times! I want my story to be in there too! I want to be like them!”
DorthyAnne shrugged. “They’re right. I failed my tests on Neopia. I got 12%!”
I looked at them and hesitated. “Fine. I’ll close the shop. We’re going on
vacation.”
They all looked at me. “Where?”
“In every world. We’ll go from here to Haunted Woods. We’ll go out every time.
I’ll try and find a Lost Desert paintbrush. We can’t fight at all. And we’ll
go on an adventure!”
My pets cheered. “Yeah!” Jainny was silent. “So are we going on a tour bus?”
I snorted. “What’s the point in a tour bus? Jainny said she wanted peace and
quiet and we won’t get that with all these NeoPets squealing and gawking at
the worlds. We’re going there ourselves, and that’s that. Now, this is the order:
Neopia Central, and then to Haunted Woods. No problems? OK, good. Now what we
have to do is pack. We’re going to need all sorts of things. But only pack the
important stuff, OK? We want to travel light so we could bring back souvenirs.”
We all packed some food. Mairey had some problem with departing with her favorite
Usuki dolls, but eventually gave in. DorthyAnne brought anything she thought
she needed. When I asked her what she had, she said “Nothing”. I didn’t believe
her because she staggered with the weight.
They had all brought along their diaries with them. Mairey wrote down everything
she could so that she could enter her story in The Neopian Times. So far, they
controlled their arguments.
The next day, we left. But had we known what would happen, we never ever would
have gone on this adventure…
To be continued... | 
