NeverForgetGriffiane was a proud purple Eyrie. Although, saying he was simply
'proud' is a large understatement. He was special and he knew it. His other
siblings had not been painted by a paintbrush like he had. MissingMoonstruk
and FlamingFireCannon had the help of the Rainbow Fountain, and LoveChargoun
had to swallow a disgusting potion. Of course, Griff hadn't always been
so vain and proud. He had once been a kind, helpful young Eyrie. Of course,
the Beauty Contest fixed that out of him.
On this particular day, he had woken up to a silent house (which is highly
unusual if you know GryphonSong's Neopets and their Petpets). He got out of
his Zen Bed and was about to order his inferior Airax, Atreyu, to make it when
he noticed that Atreyu was not on his usual perch on the Zen Curvy Drawer. He
scratched his head with a paw before walking across the hall to check on Moonstruk's
room, but she wasn't there, either.
Feeling a bit panicky, he bounded down to the Petpet room and threw open the
door to find that Triano, Cyrin and Bailey were not curled up on the Coconut
Bed. Griff began to sweat and so he climbed the stairs to GryphonSong's room
to find her bed covers in a jumble and clothes, books, model Unis, plushies
and various other items strewn across her room, bathroom and lounge. She, however,
was not present.
Griffiane bounded down the stairs, down the second floor hall and stumbled
down those stairs and into the foyer where he immediately ran to FireCannon's
room only to find that he, too, was not there, and neither was Chargoun. Griff
searched house and found no one until he came to the office where a note was
stamped onto the Wooden Desk.
Griffiane,
Hope you don't mind that we went on the daily rounds without
you, but we all got up early. There's some hotcakes and bread in the kitchen
if you need something to eat and some neocola and water there, too. Don't forget
that I want you to do the problems on page 58 of your Algebra book, there may
not be Neoschools yet, but I'm going to make sure you don't slack off too much.
And if you wouldn't mind doing so, please wash the dishes. After that, you can
make yourself glamorous and go strut around Neopia if you'd like.
-GryphonSong
Griffiane glowered at the note. Me doing dishes and
algebra problems? What is she, my mother? My teacher? What? He thought
angrily. With a huff, he went off to do his chores.
***
Griff had just finished brushing his thick, violet mane when he noticed the
clock. 7:45:27 PM it read. Where were they? It was almost 8 o'clock! GryphonSong
didn't leave and address, and Griff was beginning to get a bit worried. After
all, if GryphonSong was gone, who would draw him for the Beauty Contest and
buy him grooming products?
He quickly checked to make sure that his elegant purple wings were in perfect
order before launching off of the balcony. He hadn't flown in a while, and ended
up stuck in a tree. He squirmed and wriggled until the branches let go of him
and pouted when he saw the sad shape his fur and feathers were in. Always one
to be prepared, he reached into his thick mane and pulled out a comb which he
then brushed and groomed himself carefully before knocking on some unsuspecting
Usul's door at the base of the tree and leaving his giant comb (to a Usul it
would be, anyway) on its front doorstep.
Soon enough, Griffiane was flying again. A handsome purple Eyrie streaking
across the sky in a gallant attempt to find his owner. Well, maybe not so gallant
since he was only thinking of himself.
He knew for a fact that his owner and his siblings would be all right, they
always were. So he paid no attention whatsoever to where he was going as he
began to think about the wondrous new beauty products he would receive for being
such a good Eyrie. Then he heard some angry yelling from below and looked down
with disgust at a mere yellow Kacheek screaming at him, shaking his fist and
yelling back to other non-painted pets!
The Eyrie was appalled at these pathetic, cheap, and utterly ugly Neopets.
He landed on a fire escape not to far off on an old apartment building. "What
do you want?" he asked, trying to look and sound as superior as he knew
he was.
"You're painted you no-good feather-stuffed Eyrie!" The little Kacheek
shrieked. "Well, excuse me for being an all-superior being." Griffiane
growled, eyes aflame.
"All-superior being? You must be kidding me!" the Kacheek screamed.
"Well, it is the truth," Griffiane said smugly.
"Ha! I bet you can't even battle. Are you afraid you might break your perfect
purple nails?" The Kacheek said with a grin.
Griffiane's cheeks were burning hot as the crowd of unpainted pets boomed
with laughter. "I-I can fight you! You or-or anybody else, and I can win, too!"
Griffiane yelled and puffed out his chest. "I'd like to see you try to beat
me!"
The Kacheek smiled and his eyes darkened. "Anybody else, eh?"
Griffiane swallowed and nodded, gathering up all of his cracked dignity and
trying, still yet, to look and feel superior.
The crowd gasped and parted to make way for a small, tiny, crimson Zafara
no larger than past Griffiane's shin. He couldn't suppress his laughter at this
and burst out, bellowing with laughter, rolling on the fire escape landing before
noticing that it was not doing any justice to his perfect fur. He stood up and
dusted himself off and smoothed his fur and feathers. "You want me to fight
this?" he asked, grinning.
The Kacheek nodded solemnly. "You couldn't beat her if you tried you hardest,"
he said and grinned. He stepped aside and let the little Zafara have her space
and Griffiane swooped down and landed dramatically.
He got his beak so close to the Zafara's little snout that his beak was only
mere centimetres from touching her nose. With one quick movement, the Zafara
grabbed his beak and flipped him on his back by it. Griffiane squawked and looked
up at her in surprise. The Zafara winked and grinned, allowing Griff to stand
up again before tripping him and slamming her paw down on his back. Griff moaned
in agony before finally thinking of something to do as the crowd began to cheer.
She was about to strike again when Griffiane's folded wings unfurled themselves
faster than even he thought possible and knocked the little red Zafara on her
rear. He quickly got up and pinned her to the ground with his single paw and
was about to strike her when he felt a not-so-pleasant feeling on his tail.
He yelped and spun as he saw MissingMoonstruk clamping her teeth firmly on
his tail. "Moonstruk!" he screamed and the Uni threw her head and reared, her
loop earring on her right ear bobbed along with her, her two long Lenny feathers
on her tail flapped as she landed and her long forelock flopped over her eyes
as she hit the ground.
"What do you think you're doing? You deserved to learn a lesson," Moonstruk
said, glaring at him with fierce eyes.
Griffiane's beak dropped. "But-But... I never did anything wrong!"
"Oh, yes you did!" Atreyu the Airax squeaked as he landed on Moonstruk's withers,
shivering. "You tre-treat us all li-like we-we're your-your slaves a-and we've
all had enough! S-simply because you were p-p-painted with a p-p-paintbrush
instead of with the wa-waters of a fountain or-or a p-p-potion makes yo-you
think that you're s-so much better than the rest of us a-and we've h-had enough
of it." The Airax then tried to hide himself in Moonstruk's stubby mane.
Griff blinked several times, taking it all in. "But... Where is everyone?
Did you mean for this to happen? Why didn't you tell me before?"
"The paint brush is like a curse," FireCannon said, elbowing his way
through the crowd with Chargoun walking glumly after. "Just like what happened
to Myricabra and SabreXtravaganza, you think that you're hot stuff simply because
you look good because you had to pay for how you look. Chargoun, on the other
hand," he motioned to the mutant Lupe who was stretching bat-like crimson wings
to the sky and yawning. He opened his eyes in mid-yawn and slowly lowered his
head and wings and closed his mouth. "Does not feel that way since he had to
feel sick in the process of turning into who he is."
"As for GryphonSong and the Petpets, we did go on our morning rounds without
you and they went home. The rest of them don't know about this," Chargoun said,
scratching behind his right ear with his hind paw. "As for being here, we figured
you'd stumble on the meeting place of Unpainted Pets Anonymous. You do have
a tendency to forget where you're going. And we did tell you before but
you didn't listen."
Griffiane hung his head. "I don't mean to be like this, but it feels
so good to be special..." he murmured.
"Well, I think we're all special in some way," the red Zafara said, rubbing
her paw. "Moonstruk's not vain like Unis are supposedly supposed to be,
FireCannon is obsessed with books..."
"And throwing them!" Moonstruk quickly added, causing FireCannon to glare and
sniff.
"Right, and Chargoun has wings and doesn't hunt Chias, I'm freakishly strong,
and you, Griffiane, you used to have a kind heart until you let the Spyders
live there," the Zafara said, cocking her head to one side as she looked
at Griffiane.
"You know, unpainted pets can be just as good as you, if not better. Pets without
good stats or a fancy colour could have great personalities. All pets are equal
in something or other; you always have to think of that," the yellow Kacheek
said solemnly.
"...And if you don't mind..." the Zafara said softly. "Could you please get
out of our city?"
***
The next day, Griffiane tried to break his curse by being as kind and helpful
as he used to be. It didn't quite last because at dinner Triano, Moonstruk's
Pepito, dumped barbecue sauce down his back and made him go off in a rage before
going to take a shower. So maybe it takes longer to change than just one day,
maybe you never can. Hopefully, for this Eyrie, he can.
The End | 
