The buzzer on Blackjack's alarm went off. The big skunk Eyrie got out of bed.
He yawned and reached down to pet my head. I purred and followed him out of
the room. This was the day that changed my life.
You must be wondering who I am! I'm a Khnum. My name is Nefertiti, and Blackjack
is my owner. We live in a house with three other pets and two other PetPets.
Arfarf21 is a tough red Usul. She has a Grackle trap named Beth. The two have
personalities that match. Jerad2001 is the 2nd youngest, and he's a blue Kacheek
who. He's hyperactive, but not in a bad way. He is just really hyper because
he's young (like his Hopso, Hoppy) but he is older than the baby of the family,
Blueberry_Evermore. She's an adorable toddler, a purple Grundo. Her PetPet is
Randall, a Tanizard. He looks a lot like his namesake and has a pretty nasty
temper, too. But he is my best friend out of all of the PetPets.
Before going downstairs, Blackjack (being the great owner he is) used a tiny
brush to comb my "beard" and apply my eye makeup. Then he put on my little white
headdress. When we got to the hallway, I recognized a sound. And I was right.
Hoppy and Jerad came THUNDERING out of their room and tore past into the kitchen.
In seconds, he was gone.
"Randall, come down. Pretty please?"
Bee (Blueberry_Evermore's nickname) came walking in. She was begging her pet
to come down off the light fixture on the ceiling. He finally came down. All
four of us went to the kitchen together.
Arfarf, Beth, Jerad, and Hoppy were already there. Wolves had was serving
pancakes, Danish bacon, and orange juice. And we all started eating. I ate my
PetPet food and my stomach did a flip as I watched Beth scarf a rasher of raw
Danish bacon and Randall unhinge his jaw to swallow chunks whole.
After we ate, Wolves went out to play games for money. We stayed home and
played with the PetPets. Around noon, a strange van pulled in. We were a little
concerned, but figured it was nothing. Then the door flung open and NeoPet pound
workers rushed in. The whole thing was a blur, really. But one grabbed Bee and
Jerad by the scruffs of their necks. Another slid a strong net onto Arfarf and
dragged her out, as she screamed and hissed like a mad dog and cat mix. And
a half dozen workers grabbed Blackjack, my owner, and hauled him out. I huddled
under the table with Randall and Hoppy. Beth still sat in her dirt pot on the
window, looking stunned. Hoppy screeched, confused, and Randall lunged for the
worker with Bee. I held his tail in my mouth, preventing him from rushing into
the stampede and getting stepped on like a twig. He put up quite a fight.
"Let me go, Nefertiti! Let me go! They won't take Bee!! Bee!!!!" He was hissing,
but PetPets speak their own language and I we could all understand him.
"Don't be stupid! You'll get taken away or snapped in half," I told him. Even
though I was fighting the urge to attack too.
When it was over, all of us sat in the room together. We had no idea why the
pound had taken our owners, but we all agreed on one thing. We needed them,
and we were going to try and save them. Better than being taken ourselves and
separated, or starving to death here.
That night, we left the house. One band of PetPets. Beth came too, since it
turned out she could walk around out of her pot of dirt. We really didn't talk
to each other, though. Even Hoppy was silent and still. We were thinking and
just wallowing in our thoughts and fears. Myself? I was thinking about what
would happen if we didn't save our owners. We'd go back to the shops. Peopatra
was nice, but I couldn't bare living in the desert PetPet stall again. Especially
without Blackjack. And I wondered if the other pets were thinking the same thing.
The whole trip was hard. We tried to trace the scent of the van. We followed
it for a day, before stopping to rest. None of us were tired, though. We were
still worried about our owners. So we just sat there, thinking. Suddenly, Beth
perked up.
"What's that? I hear something in the weeds. It sounds like--"
Then a giant green Wocky burst through the weeds. We screeched, and raced
for cover, glad to be faster than him. But the Wocky had others. Three fast
Gelerts. A net was flung over me and I was thrown into a truck, with the other
PetPets. We were screeching and hissing so much, we didn't notice we were all
there.
As much as we struggled, we were all taken to a grungy building. We were brought
into the back and I was tossed in a cage which was in a storage room. Then it
hit me. The other PetPets! Were where they? I looked into the next cage. Good,
there was Hoppy. He looked as relived to see me as I was to see him. I glanced
at the next cage. Randall was in it. He was look. I checked another cage. This
one Beth in it. She looked at us.
"Good. You're all here." She was looking at us, but it is hard to tell the
facial expressions of a plant.
"Wherearewe? What are we doin'? What? What? What?" Hoppy was hyper again,
but now he was scared-hyper.
"From what I saw, we're in a Neopian Shop. Apparently one that sells PetPets.
Each one of you has a price tag on your cages," Beth replied. Sure enough, there
were price tags.
At that moment, a shopkeeper came and put us all on display. I screeched at
him to let us out, but all he said was to stop meowing. He couldn't speak PetPet.
In about a half an hour, a girl and her pink Kacheek came in. From the look
on Hoppy's face, it was torture to see a Kacheek like Jerad. But then we all
noticed it. A PetPet was with her! A Meepit! He could help us!
"Hey! Can you help us outta here? We have owners and we're tryin' to get back
to 'em," Hoppy said swiftly.
The Meepit looked at us blankly. He cocked his head.
"Can...you...help us?" I said slowly.
"Meep," the Meepit chirped. Then he said agreed. But first, he just scratched
himself with his hind leg, washed his face with his little pink paws, and stared
for another minute.
"Oh for the love of Neopia! You can't help us! I doubt you can figure out
up from down," Randall hissed.
The Meepit hopped up and opened the cages. We were amazed at how easy he
made it look. We all jumped down.
"Well, I guess you can do ONE good thing," Randall hissed when we got outside.
I was surprised at his rudeness. I thought Tanizards were supposed to be friendly.
But the Meepit just stared at him. Man, those things have creepy stares. But
this time it was staring into his eyes, as though about to devour him and was
looking for the best way to start. To my surprise, he was staring back. The
two just stared. Hoppy, Beth, and me looked at each other questioningly.
"I can do a lot of good things. A lot of good things," the Meepit said. He
muttered something about a mouse and I became even more confused. Then Randall
slithered hungrily over to a large Skeith that was walking into the shop and
bit him right on the leg. The Skeith snarled, grasped Randall by the tail, threw
him into a trash can, and walked into the store. The Tanizard crawled out of
the can, shaking his head and looking confused as we all doubled over in laughter.
I tried to say something.
"I didn't know Meepits could-" but the Meepit and his owner were already
walking down the street. And that is what the four of us did, too.
After a few hours of traveling, we got to the pound. Four small PetPets can
easily find a window that leads into a large building, and that is what we did.
Inside, a Grarrl pointed us to the Eyrie section, the Usul section, the Grundo
section, and the Kacheek section. We all split up to find our owners.
"See you in a bit then," I said to the others. And I headed off to find Blackjack.
I found the place easily. There were dozens of Eyries inside. Each one had
chains tightly around it's legs and in many cases, around it's neck. I scanned
through the Eyries, not finding any skunk ones. Then I heard a voice.
"Nefertiti? Is that really you?!"
I looked and saw Blackjack, chained up. I rushed and flung myself into his
arms, purring. He hugged me.
"How did you find me, girl?" he said. I just meowed.
It's a good thing that I knew this moment would come when we left to free
our owners. I had brought a key in my headdress. Using it, I unlocked Blackjack's
chains and we headed into the main cage room. There we found all the others.
Blueberry_Evermore had Randall around her arm and was clearly overjoyed to see
him. Hoppy and Jerad were bouncing around, chattering. But where was Beth? In
a minute, we got our answer.
Over the cage tops, Arfarf came bouncing. She had Beth riding on her back.
A 15 year old, blonde pound worker was chasing them. The sharp hairs of an angry
Usul's tail stuck out of her shoulder. I won't say the bratty pound worker's
name, but we will call her Lee. Arfarf has met with her a few times. Arfarf
HATES Lee. Lee thinks she is "all that" just because she works at the pound.
And if there is one thing I hate, it is a powerplayer (or a traitor like pets
who help the pound workers keep pets in the cages).
Lee saw us and got that bratty look on her face. She was about to grab all
the police, when Wolves4ever came in. She had been worried about ALL of us when
she found the house empty.
"You. I thought I told you to stop sending pound workers to my house to take
away my pets!"
"Maybe if you were more responsible, I wouldn't have to," Lee scoffed.
Wolves looked like she was about to punch Lee, but she didn't.
"Come on guys, let's go home. Away from Bratty Mcgee here. Did we all agree
with that!"
The buzzer went off a few mornings later. Blackjack reached over and petted
me. I purred and followed him out of the room. Downstairs, Bee was coaxing Randall
off the light fixture. Things were back to normal in Wolves4ever's NeoHome.
At least for now.
The End | 
