The news was so unexpected. So... sudden. But when I heard the news, I thought
something else had happened. I don't know if I was thinking of something worse
or I was thinking of something better. Whatever I was thinking, at least something
good came out of what did happen.
When I heard Kastro_(Kas) had been in an accident, I panicked. If something
had happened to my mate, I don't know what I'd do.
"PO? Polayo?" asked Omni, my owner, worriedly, when I had just stood, staring,
after she had given me the news.
"I-I'm fine. Can you take me to the hospital?"
My mind was filled with horrible, foreboding thoughts. It was also teeming
with denies, small voices telling the rest of my brain and body that it would
be OK.
Omni couldn't stay, but she dropped me off at the hospital. I signed in at
the front desk shakily, feeling like I wanted to collapse and cry, but I knew
they wouldn't let me in if I did. And I also wanted to keep some pride.
"I would like to see Kastro_," I said, as confidently as I could.
"Sorry, hun, only family is allowed," replied the Pteri secretary.
"But I am family," I protested. "I'm his mate."
The Pteri glared at me, as if judging whether I was telling the truth or not.
Finally, it seemed, she decided.
"C'mon, Hun, he's right down the hall."
I sighed with relief. If she hadn't let me see Kas, she'd be sorry.
"So, what is his condition?" I asked, hoping for good news.
"No one knows, hun it's strange for a pet to get harmed other than in the Battledome,
so the doctors are having a hard time figuring out to treat him... or even figuring
out what's wrong. Sorry, Hun"
I felt my eyes gathering tears as if it were a sponge. They threatened to tumble
over and stream down my cheeks, streaking my blue fur, any minute.
The walls, strangely, were mirrors. I saw my faerie Aisha body reflected in
the mirrors, and I kept waiting for Kas to appear beside me. Every time I had
been to the hospital, Kas had been there with me. Whether I was there for friends
or for me, he had always been there.
A few moments later, I was in his room. I saw him asleep on the bed, and then
sat down in the chair in the corner. I watched him for a few minutes, laying
on the hospital bed. What was he dreaming about, if he was dreaming? His dark,
coal-black chest rose and fell, the orange and yellow flames that climbed up
his legs and his under-stomach were moving with every breath he took. I even
said his name once, in a feeble hope that he would answer me.
"Kas?" My small, worried voice echoed around the almost empty room.
Although the chair was uncomfortable, I was tired and knew I would be falling
asleep any second. Before I blacked out completely, I slipped off the chair
and kissed Kas once on the cheek, and whispered something in his ears. "It will
be okay, just like everything else we've been through."
I climbed back onto the chair, and remembered what time it was. Omni had woken
me, because I had been asleep. Asleep because it was 2 o'clock in the morning.
So I curled up on that hard, uncomfortable chair and closed my eyes. After moving
around for a few moments, I realised I wasn't going to get much more comfortable,
so I leaned back my head...
Suddenly, I was surrounded by hundreds of people, all chattering. I looked
down, and saw grass. But not only grass-I saw my pink paws on the grass! Pink?!
I hadn't been pink since November! All my fur, I realised was that same pink
that Neopets calls red. I reached my hands up frantically and patted my back,
and my wings were gone too. What was happening?
A familiar smell, a familiar presence, bumped into me and I whirled around
to see a yellow Lupe with a kind, happy expression on his face.
"I'm sorry!" the Lupe said, apologetically. "I really didn't mean to bump into
you! There are just so many people here!"
"It's-it's okay," I knew who this Lupe was: I just couldn't quite place him.
"I'm Kastro_, and I'm here to be fire. How about you?"
This was... Kas? And then, at that instant, I knew where I was. I was at the
Rainbow Fountain! In November! Waiting to be faerie! This was where Kas and
I had first met!
"I'm Polayo, and I think I'm here to be faerie," I replied, smiling...
I was in my room-my old room with barely any furniture-in my NeoHome. Something
told me it was the same day, probably the fact that my body was still getting
used to being faerie. Even though I had been faerie most of my life in my real
life-half, I hadn't been faerie for anytime before tonight in my November-half.
I dropped into a clouded dreamworld. What was happening? Why was it happening?
And then the loud, blaring ring of the telephone interrupted my puzzled thoughts.
On impulse, I snatched the phone up from the bedside table. "Polayo speaking.
Who is this?"
The excited voice of Kas came through from the other line. "This is Kastro_!
You said you wanted to talk again sometime!"
My November-self was filled with excitement, and my now-self was filled with
awe. How perfect things had worked out! If he hadn't called, my life would have
been completely different. Was it fate? Or was it just the way Kas and I had
made it out to be?
After a conversation, Kas said he had to go, and both halves of me-my now-half
and my November-half-were sad. But he ended the conversation on a delightful
note. "Say, Po... you wouldn't want to meet me at the Neolodge for dinner tomorrow
night, would you?"
It was the next night, and I was standing outside the Neolodge Kas, newly fire,
bounded around the corner. "PO!" he cried. "Fancy meeting you here!" He joked.
I smiled and laughed, and we started a conversation, then we walked into the
Neolodge A waitress met us at the door and lead us to a table. The food was
fabulous, and the conversation was even better. The sky darkened and soon we
were one of the few left. The waitress that had led us to our seats came to
our table.
"I'm sorry, but the hotel restaurant is closing now. Please come back again!"
Kas picked up the bill she had placed on the table. "It's on me, okay?"
I started to protest, but he quieted me. "It's all right! You can pay next
time, if you want. Because this is out first date... and it certainly won't
be our last."
"I had a great time tonight, Kas... and I don't want this to be our last, either."
I said, through happy smiles and a burning-red face...
The music was playing, and we were in the same place, only many people were
there, chatting and laughing. Kas and I were out on the dance floor-we were
the only ones, actually-and the music we were dancing to was happy and lively.
I was laughing and so was he.
When the music slowed, we sat down in our chair. He was still laughing and
I was smiling at him.
"You know, PO, I really like being with you. You just make me happy, even if
you hadn't said anything to me. Just being in the same room with you makes me
happy."
I smiled at him. "It's... it's the same with you, Kas."
"So I was thinking..." His hand went for his pocket, and he swallowed once.
When he showed his paw to me, I was so surprised I couldn't do anything, not
even gasp.
"PO, will you..." He opened the small velvet box held on his paw and a glistening,
silver ring with a crystal clear diamond twinkled in the light cast from the
over head chandelier.
"Yes... I will..." I managed to stutter out...
"AH!" I screamed as Kas stuffed some more cake into my mouth. I was laughing
hysterically. It was so nice. Today was... perfect. Everyone I cared about was
here-EverWild, ReginaKoneko, _Fayel_, Blizzmie, Minuel... everyone I cared about
was here, having almost as much fun as I was.
Kas took a napkin and wiped his face, and then handed another one to me; and
I did the same. We went out on the dance floor, him taking my paw and me following
after him.
"Everyone else has been waiting to dance, but we're supposed to have the first
dance. I guess we should do it now..."
The music was soft and slow, yet it made my blood start to pulse, my heart
get that same familiar beat whenever I danced with Kas.
After a wonderful day-the best one of my life-the sun slowly sank into the
blood-red sky.
"C'mon," Kas said to me. "The plane won't wait for us." He whipped out the
tickets he had bought for passage to the Lost Desert and I smiled.
"Yeah, let's get going!" I told each person goodbye and thank you for coming,
but it was really Kas that I wanted to thank...
Kas was by my side, and we were walking down the road. It was raining, but
he was holding an umbrella and we were underneath it.
"We haven't had one of these walks in ages..." I murmured.
"I know... it's nice to get out again, isn't it."
The soft, sad sound reached both our ears at the same time, and we both stopped
walking.
"Did you hear that?" I asked.
"Yeah...it sounded like someone crying..."
I heard it again.
"I think it is someone crying!" I dashed out into the rain in the direction
of the sound and found a small bundle of cloth thrown up against the hard, stone
wall of a building. The cries were coming from the bundle.
Kas, who was now behind me, rolled away some of the cloth gently and we found
a small, baby pink Aisha curled up inside. A little note was tucked into the
cloth.
Dear Reader,
This little Aisha's name is Shelmara. I created her just a few minutes ago
and quickly realised that I could not keep her. Whoever has found her, please
adopt her. You are very lucky to have found her first.
Thank you,
And then the signature was soaking wet and blotted out that we could not read
it.
I picked up the little bundle. "Shelmara," I whispered.
The little Aisha giggled and cooed.
Kas looked at me. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That we could adopt her as our... daughter?" We finished the last word together.
We smiled at each other.
"Welcome the family, Shel," I whispered...
"No, no, no!" I protested when I read the e-mail. It couldn't have happened.
It couldn't. It couldn't have! But obviously it had.
My daughter... in that freezing, ice-cold place Neopets calls Disabled, but
everyone else knows as Frozen. She was there, for no reason known to me. But
why?
After many days of sadness and "confusedness", we finally figured
out that someone had hacked into her account and scammed someone. Fortunately,
Omni is very, very smart and was able to find a way using IP addresses and was
able to prove that it was not us who was scamming, but someone else who had
hacked.
Shel, now a gold Aisha, ran toward us while brushing icicles off her arms.
She jumped into our arms laughing and saying she had almost given up hope, while
I was near tears along with Kas. I was so happy, I was crying. That had never
happened before...
A few weeks later-in the memory time, of course. In real time, it must have
been only a few minutes-I was playing with another two newborns, also both adopted.
They had been abandoned together, and I believed that we were destined to find
them. One was a red Lupe named Shadolayo, and the other was a green Aisha named
Pineappelle. They were adorable and sweet, and we figured they were twins.
"I hope nothing like what happened to Shel will happen to these two..." commented
Kas as he was playing with Shado and Apple one day. "I know, it would be heartbreaking.
Almost impossible to take, really..." I didn't want to go on. I wanted to freeze
this moment in time forever, because I knew what memory was coming next. And
I hated this memory with a passion.
I got up and went over to Kas, and gave him a long hug. "I love you," I whispered...
"Where is she?" I could see him from the top of my tower. I had a blanket wrapped
around my shoulders and was shivering constantly, but I watched Kas asking Omni
sadly. "Where?" He demanded.
"She was... she was frozen..." Omni answered through choking tears.
"What? What?! How could you let this happen?" This wasn't how Kas usually was,
accusing and irritable. But I understood why he was doing this. He had to blame
someone for the reason I was gone... frozen.
But if I knew Kas-and believe me, I did-I knew he wasn't going to just give
up just yet.
Ever day for hours on end, I would see him meeting with Omni. They were devising
a plan. A plan to get me back! I felt so loved...
I laughed for the first time in days when I saw Omni in the car with her mom.
Her mom had just told her wonderful, wonderful news. She herself had e-mailed
Jin, and had gotten an e-mail back saying that they had reactivated the account.
She was screaming! I would have been, too. It was amazing... some people underestimate
their parents, they always think they are just a nuisance. But Omni had proved
otherwise with her mom. I smiled, and laughed again. And when Omni finally got
home, she was with Kas. I ran toward them the same way Shel had, and they were
laughing and crying too.
It was one of the best days of my life...
I remember the way he said my name. It wasn't in any single one of the memories,
but every time he says my name it makes me feel calm. Safe. I always feel safe
and calm every time I walk into a room with him in it. It was nice to know there
was someone who you could think that about. I could hear him saying my name
now... the soft, kind voice...
"Polayo..."
"Polayo? Polayo? Polayo?" Someone was shaking me on the shoulders.
I looked up, startled. There I was, back in the hospital. I shook my head,
opened and closed my eyes, but I was still there. Someone had thrown a blanket
around me, and I looked around sleepily. Kas was on the bed, sitting up and
smiling at me.
"You're awake!" I shouted, and leapt out of the chair, shrugging the blanket
off of me.
The same Pteri put her wing out and blocked me from going any closer.
"Sorry, Hun, just wanted to let you know that you should be careful. One of
his paws is broken, but that's it. He's free to go at anytime. See you some
other time, but let's hope that it isn't here!" She winked at me, and walked
out of the room laughing at her own joke.
I continued to walk toward Kas. "I was so worried..." I murmured.
"The last thing I thought before I blacked out was that I hoped you wouldn't
be too worried."
I laughed and looked up at him. "Really?" But I knew he wasn't joking.
He was just that kind of guy.
The End
The manuscript enclosed is a record of the time my mate, Kastro_, was hurt.
For a strange reason-I have yet to figure out whether or not it was a dream, or
something sent to make me realise just how much I love him-a stream of memories
were fired at me while I slept. Why? How? And the more important question, who?
But whatever it was, I was glad they did. Who knows where we would be today if
they didn't?
I hope that I am not the only one who can read this story, because I would
like to share it with the general public. Hopefully now the world will realise
that neolove isn't puppy love. | 
