I watched the sunrise as Neopians hurried by, and I wondered,
as many Neopians watching passerbys do, what their hurry was. Pitiful creatures...always
had their minds on what was going to happen, instead of realising where they
were now. A beautiful sunrise, just going to waste, as they rushed by. Moments
like that can't be captured in a photograph and mean the same thing. But these
Neopians didn't understand. They wanted the news, their items, and to be done
with the day. And they always made such a racket.
BOING--BOING--SWISH!
I turned my head and all four of my eyes focused
on the struggling object. A mere insect in my web--he didn't stand a chance.
"Mr. Spyder! Please don't eat me, Mr. Spyder!"
cried the squirming Poppit.
I started spinning my silk out of instinct. "What?"
"You're a petpet like me!"
Oh yeah. I wasn't a cannibal.
"Please don't hurt me!" he cried again.
"I won't," I sighed. For months now I was just
lazily staying by my web on the door of the book store. Neopians, pets, and
petpets all crossed through...and finally someone who'd pay attention to me.
"What is your name?" I demanded.
"Bip sir, Bip the Poppit. Please don't hurt me!"
Reluctantly I broke the strands connecting him
to the web, and he dropped and bounced happily from the ground. I climbed farther
down the wall. "Why don't you leave?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Spyder sir, I just--I just don't
have anywhere to go."
"And?"
"And, I want to find an owner, sir, Mr. Spyder.
A Neopet!"
"They're not worth your time."
"How would you know, Mr. Spyder, unless you had
one as your owner?" he asked.
I didn't bother to respond. He wouldn't understand....
"Come on, sir! Mr. Spyder, we can both find owners!"
"You don't have to call me 'Mr. Spyder,' Bip.
I've got a name."
"Then what is it? Please tell me! I won't tell
anyone," he said, still bouncing.
"All right...it's Dylan," I muttered. "Where
do you come from?"
"Well, I was bought and sold for awhile, you
see, and was donated to the Money Tree, but I got lost along the way. So I was
bouncing along, and I managed to get stuck in your web."
"And what do you want me to do?"
"Well...I heard something about a Faerie Queen
who owns a Hidden Tower in some Faerie land and a lot of people come to see
her, and that she's really kind--maybe we can both find owners! Or maybe--"
"I have no need for an owner, Bip."
"Why not?" he asked eagerly, bouncing. "And where'd
you come from?"
"I was abandoned, all right? Now leave me alone!"
"Aw, c'mon, maybe we can get painted or something!"
"I said NO!" I turned around and went back to
re-spinning my web.
"I hear there's lots of food in the Faerie land,"
he teased.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm usually firm in
my decisions. But I hadn't eaten for days, and I wouldn't pass up a good opportunity
for food. "All right, all right, if I go with you, will you leave me alone?"
"Yep! C'mon, Dylan! That's a nice name, Dylan.
Who gave it to you?"
"My old owner," I said reluctantly, as I climbed
down the wall of the Book Store where I had nested for weeks. I didn't want
to find an owner, but hey, I hadn't talked to someone for awhile, and I was
lonely. Bip seemed cool--energetic, at least.
"Was your owner nice?" he asked, bouncing frantically.
"Yeah...I suppose, but he wanted me to merge
with a Poppit to become a Spoppy. I ran away," I admitted. "Since then I haven't
been fond of Poppits."
"Oh!" he muttered, somewhat offended. "Well,
I'm really friendly!"
"I noticed..."
"What?"
"Um, nothing. So you want to go to Faerieland?"
"You know where it is?" he asked, bouncing higher.
It was hard to keep up with him since he was bouncing around so much, and even
though I had eight legs, I was pretty slow compared to him.
"Yes, I do. I hear all sorts of things from the
top of the Book Shop. People discuss the worlds and new ways to get there. Maybe
we can stop by Meridell--I've been wanting to see what it looks like."
"See! I told you you'd wanna come with me!"
I thought for a minute. "I think the quickest
way to get to Faerieland is to fly straight up," I said, pointing a leg upwards.
"It's on the clouds above us."
"How do we get up there? I'm not one of them
flying petpets. But if I could bounce really really far--"
"I don't think you need to," I interjected quickly.
"There should be a couple of Shoyrus around the edge of Neopia Central that
we can sneak aboard on, ones that make Neopoints by bringing you up to Faerieland--they're
for Neopians without flying pets."
"Oh, OK. I hope there's some there."
Sure enough, there were. We climbed on the back
of a Shoyru, hiding between a Neopian and Neopet, and flew up. Bip kept up his
incessant talking--a better name for him would be Chatterbox--and I was worried
the whole time that we would be discovered. But even so, I had never gone on
an adventure, and it was much better than lazily waiting for Neoflies while
people streamed in and out of the Book shop.
When we finally got to Faerieland, we looked
around. The ground was soft to walk on, soft as clouds--which, of course, it
was.
We rummaged for awhile, looking for something
to eat. Being petpets, we had no Neopoints, so Bip searched through some trash
cans behind a store.
"I've got something!" he finally exclaimed. He
popped out of the trash can with some stale bread, dry carrots, crumbled brownies,
and half-eaten toast shaped like wings. I found a rock to sit down on so I could
concentrate all eight legs on eating, but as I sat down, the rock moved.
"Hey!" I heard someone--or something--shout.
"Who are you?" I asked it.
The thing shook itself off to reveal a petpet.
"I'm Phoenix! I'm a Floud. And I'm all alone." He looked upset. "Say, is that
food?"
"Yep," Bip said. "Take whatever you like."
Phoenix looked angry when he saw the carrots.
"Carrots--my one true enemy."
"Why don't you like carrots?" Bip asked naively.
Didn't he know the caution--Never feed a Floud
carrots? "Um, Bip, I really don't think--"
Phoenix sighed, took a deep breath, and bit into
a carrot. Instantly he turned orange, then a dark shade of red. He seemed to
breathe fire for a minute, and--
BOOM!
"Duck!" I exclaimed. Both Bip and I burrowed
into the clouds. About a minute later, when I was brave enough to emerge, I
saw bits of what looked like burned Floud particles everywhere.
I was pretty shocked, mind you, especially when
I heard Phoenix shout, "I'm okay!" There he was, pink and floudy, but a bit
smaller than he was before.
"That's why they call me Phoenix!" he giggled.
"Um...could you not do that again?" I roared.
"Sorry," Phoenix said, munching on some bread.
He seemed to go back to his normal size after a minute. "Well, what are your
names? You know mine."
"I'm Bip," Bip said, bouncing happily.
"I'm Dylan," I sighed.
"So, where are you headed?"
"The Hidden Tower," I explained. "We need to
find the Faerie Queen."
"To buy weapons?"
"No, for owners!" Bip exclaimed gleefully.
"Owners?" Phoenix asked. "Why didn't you just
go to the Faerieland Petpet Shop?"
"Why didn't you?" I demanded.
He started to look a darker shade of pink, like
he was blushing, but thankfully it wasn't because of a carrot this time. "I
just didn't want to show up and say, 'Yo, sell me.' My old owner abandoned me
the first time I exploded. Since then I was just wandering around, and after
a huge storm I got pulled up here. I've been looking for someone named Fyora
ever since I heard that she's the Faerie Queen--the same one you're looking
for. Maybe she can find me a home." He paused. "And I guess that's what you're
looking for, too, a home--right?"
"That's right," Bip said.
"Fyora lives here, but in a Hidden Tower," I
added. I thought some more. "I once heard that some talking tree in the Haunted
Woods knows everything. Maybe we could ask him where it is. It could be just
gibberish, though."
"It's worth a try, I suppose, since we'll never
find the Hidden Tower by ourselves--us being so small and it being so hidden,"
Phoenix replied. "And...can I go with you guys?"
"Sure!" Bip exclaimed, bouncing happily.
"It's about sunset now," I observed. "Why don't
we stay here, rest, and go tomorrow?"
"Good idea." Bip nodded in agreement, slowing
down in his jumps.
"We can't head out now?" Phoenix asked.
"No one's ever gone through the Haunted Woods
entirely at night. Get some sleep," I murmured.
"What are you, a Neopian encyclopaedia?"
"Yes, and when you read me I'll disappear. Go
to sleep."
So the three of us, three of the craziest petpets
in all of Neopia, slept there on the clouds all night long.
To be continued...
Author's Note: I know what you're thinking: "Petpets that were abandoned and
go on a quest for owners? For shame, leb388. It's already been done." But it's
a lot more than that--stick around and you'll see. | 
