"There it is!" Kesley tugged her owner's sleeve. She pointed. "Look, isn't
it absolutely fantastic?"
"Uh huh..." her owner gaped at it.
"Y-yes, it is," she said, finally finding her tongue.
"It is rather beautiful, isn't it?" she said, smiling down at her pet.
"Rather beautiful? How could you say that Mom... it's more than RATHER beautiful…
it's BEAUTIFUL! It's marvelous, fantastic, superb!" Kesley screamed enthusiastically.
Kesley was a Blue Kacheek, and rather attractive. She was a HUGE fan of the
Blue Kacheek Group, too.
Kesley ran up to the Rainbow Fountain (what else do you think they were gaping
at?) and put her paw in.
"Oooh, the water's warm..." she said.
"Now little Kacheek, you'll need some rainbow passes to use the fountain,"
the Earth Faerie said. "And get in line." The Earth Faerie pointed to the line,
and Kesley saw pet, after pet, after pet, after pet, after pet, after pet, after
pet, all holding colourful rainbow passes to use the fountain.
"Mom! Where are our Rainbow Passes? You did bring them, didn't you? I told
you I left them on the table this morning at breakfast. Please say you d…" Kesley
began, skipping over to her owner, leaving the Earth Faerie to attend to a little
red Scorchio.
"Of course I did, silly. Here you go. Do you remember what colour you want
to be?" Kesley's owner reached into her handbag and pulled out two rainbow passes
and gave them to Kesley. "Don't lose them," she added.
After placing the passes carefully into her bag, Kesley turned and nodded
to her owner. "Yes, of course. I wanna be a Skunk Kacheek."
"Bye, then, I'm off to bring your brother to the healing springs, he scraped
his knees in the Battledome today," her owner called. Kesley didn't even hear
her, she was already getting into the really-really-really-really-really long
line to use the Rainbow Fountain.
After one minute, she turned to look at the line in front of her. A small
line had already began to build up behind her, and she could hear a Meerca exclaiming
how happy he was to finally become a Faerie Meerca.
"One, two, three, four, five…" Kesley squinted her eyes, trying to count the
number of pets in front of her. "Seven. Seven pets won't take long," she told
herself encouragingly. Her feet were sore and her bag seemed much heavier than
usual.
Finally, she had reached the front of the line. "Hello honey, you again. May
I have your rainbow passes, please?" the Earth Faerie said. Kesley took off
her bag and oh-so-carefully took out the precious passes and gave them to the
Earth Faerie. "Now, what colour would you like to be, dear?"
Pictures of the Faerie Kacheek, Striped Kacheek, and Skunk Kacheek raced through
her mind. She had been thinking this over for a long time yesterday, but she
felt as if she couldn't make up her mind. "A Skunk, no... Striped, no... I mean
Skunk Kacheek please," she said in a shaky voice.
"Okay. There's no need to be afraid. Just dip yourself in the water for exactly
FIVE seconds and come out. If you stay in for any longer my spell won't work."
"Five seconds, okay, sure, no problem." Kesley said, but in her mind she was
thinking, "Easy for you to say..."
She placed her bag on the ground and climbed into the fountain and immersed
herself in the water. "One, two, three, four, five..." she counted slowly, looking
at her watch. Then she sprang out of the water, coughing and spluttering.
"Here you go, a complimentary Red Mirror," the Earth Faerie handed her a towel
and a mirror, and pointed to the dressing rooms. "You can dry off there."
Accepting the mirror, Kesley walked slowly to the dressing rooms and entered
her cubicle. Then, she raised the mirror, and looked at her face, and,
"OH MY GOSH!" she screamed. Then, remembering she was in a public place, she
quickly dried off with her towel, hung it on the rack and went off to the Healing
Springs to look for her owner.
"Mommy! Mommy! Look at me!" she cried.
"Huh? Who... ohh... oh my goodness..." her owner raised her hand to her mouth.
"Is that really you, Kesley?"
"Yes, mom, it's me," Kesley said, her face sparkling with happiness.
"You look... beautiful. Even more beautiful than the Rainbow Fountain." Her
owner said. "Come, join Hippity and me for a bath," her owner tossed a ten Neopoint
piece to the Water Faerie as payment.
Kesley climbed into the bath, next to HippityHoppityRoo, her brother, who
was a Faerie Blumaroo. He had become a Faerie the first time the Rainbow Fountain
had appeared in Neopia, when Kesley hadn't even been born yet.
"How did it go?" Hippity asked.
"It's still 5 seconds, right?" he joked.
"Yup. It took forever. There was this red Scorchio, he become a Fire Scorchio...
oh, and a Meerca, he became a Faerie. And another Kacheek, she changed her colour
to Striped... and of course me... I changed my colour to Skunk!"
The End | 
