It had always been the three of us. Always. Well, almost
always- but I for as long as I could remember it was Omni, Tikano, and I. And
it didn't feel like we were missing anyone.
But, to put it simply, we were.
When Tika flew frantically, squealing into my
room late Saturday morning, I thought nothing of it. She got scared easily,
and I paid the faerie Babaa no attention except for the occasional 'shh.' But
after nearly five minutes of her shrieking her head off, trying to get me to
follow her somewhere, I finally got up, a little aggravated, and followed her
as she dashed out the door.
Down the hall I ran after her, until she stopped
right in front of the library. There, she came to a dead stop. A moment or two
after she began whimpering slightly, she nudged me into the room with her nose.
Precariously, I stepped in.
For a moment, I could see nothing. And then,
out of nowhere, a grey furry thing leaped up on me and knocked me to the ground.
As soon as I was able to, I jumped up, saw no
sign of the creature, and dashed out of the room screaming. Together, scared
Tika and I ran down the hall to find Omni.
After I found her, I explained, breathing heavily,
what had just happened. After I'd finished, she let out a laugh.
"Don't worry, Po. I need to show you something."
While I was still looking at her suspiciously,
she stood up and walked slowly over to the door. "Shadow!" she called, her voice
ringing loud and clear around the house.
It was only a few seconds before--out of the
corner of my eye--I saw the grey thing barreling down the hallway again. "Omni,
it's coming!" I exclaimed, but watched in awe as it slowed to a stop and hopped
into Omni's arms.
"Po, this is a Meowclops named Shadow. He's
ours."
I glanced protectively at Tika. "I don't want
a new petpet!"
Again, she laughed. "Don't be silly--I wouldn't
make you give up Tika! No, Shadow will just stay with us. That way you can,
I guess, be the only pet with two petpets in Neopia!" She finished with a chuckle.
I thought for a moment. "But he tackled me!"
I said finally.
"You'll get used to him," she replied as she
placed him gently in my arms.
She walked slowly out of the room, leaving Tika,
Shadow and I alone. I slowly lowered the Meowclops to the ground. It purred
and rubbed itself against my legs, but Tika growled at it testily. Jerked out
of his peaceful mood, he hissed back angrily, and I knew that he was about to
pounce. Desperately, I called "OMNI!"
She rushed in, and immediately saw the situation.
She snatched up Shadow and I snatched up Tika. "That was close," I muttered,
and Omni nodded in agreement.
Sitting down, still holding our charges, we knew we had to figure out something.
"So what should we do?" I asked finally, after a bout of silence.
"I...I don't know. I really don't know," she
said with a sigh. She glanced down at Shadow, who lay rigidly in her lap. "But
I couldn't bare to give either one of them up!"
"Neither could I," I said, agreeing. "But they
need to learn to get along, or Shadow I goes."
"Yeah," replied Omni, gazing wistfully at Shadow.
"I hope they can get along."
"Let's sleep on it," I said, and carried Tika
off to my room for the rest of the day, and Omni did the same with Shadow. For
now, at least, they couldn't be near each other.
***
I spent the afternoon playing with Tika and thinking about how to have them
get along, and then slept restlessly with unsolved mysteries in my head. I had
taken an instant liking to Shadow, and desperately wanted both of them to get
along.
When I woke up the next morning, though, I immediately
knew what had to be done. I carried Tika, still sleeping, down the hallway and
hammering on Omni's door waking up the other two residers of our NeoHome. I
tossed Tika to Omni, told her to keep them separated, and ran off again, to
a few doors over. It was the room we barely ever used. We called it our den,
but we each had lounges so what was the use for it?
I lugged all the furniture out of it, and tossed
in a bunch of pillows and blankets. I could only imagine the horror Omni was
in right now, trying to calm the tempers between the two pets as I arranged
everything perfectly. Then, I ran beck to my room, grabbed Tika's petpet bed,
her bowl and her spare bowl, and a box of petpet food. They had to learn to
live together.
Less than an hour later, I glanced proudly at
my handiwork and walked slowly back to Omni's room, to retrieve Tika and have
her carry Shadow and set my plan into action. But I came to a dead stop in front
of her door, my eyes wide as I gazed at the spectacle in front of me.
Omni seemed surprised too as she sat in awe near
the wall and watched Shadow and Tika playing nicely together. Shadow
was playfully batting at Tika's fluff, and Tika was chattering in agreement.
With a long, contented purr, the two began to chase each other good-heartedly
round the room. After the shock had worn off, I walked tentatively over to Omni,
who put her arm around my shoulders.
"It all seems to always work out in the end
for us, doesn't it," she commented.
"Oh, Omni... when your life's a story, doesn't
it have to?"
Tika and Shadow do get along, and they now
share what used to be Omni's and mine's den--it is now their room. They've become
quite close, as if they've known each other they're whole lives. Tika is definitely
more communicative now, and I can't remember the last time Shadow tackled me.
Well, actually I can, but that's another matter all together.
It's weird having four of us around the house-
I often trip over Shadow, since I used to be the creature lowest to the floor
in the house. Omni would walk and Tika would fly, but now there is Shadow crawling
everywhere. And now, instead of calling us the 'Troublesome Three', we're now
the 'Fabulous Four'.
Hey, it's an improvement, right?
The End | 
