I forced myself to get up. I ran. I ran a lot. Around
a couple of blocks. And I came to the house. 69707 Market Street, Neopia Central.
That was the address of the house. That was the address I had remembered. And
thank Adam and Donna and Mr. Shankly I had remembered that address.
I ran to a nearby window of their house, and
peeked inside. I saw a yellow Gelert, a desert Chomby, and a blue Cybunny frolicking
around. I smiled. Just then, the yellow Gelert caught a glimpse of me looking
through the window. She froze, and ran towards the window, and opened it.
"W-Who, I mean wha-... how- T-T, I-I mean, huh?"
The yellow Gelert stared at me, speechless.
I knew this Gelert. She was no longer the small,
naive one I remembered. It had been a couple of months now. But I remembered
her. Miressi.
"T-Taitl-l?" Miressi managed to squeak out.
I grinned.
Miressi's other siblings gathered around her,
as she was poking her head out of the window.
"Miressi?" I asked, even though I already knew
it was her.
"How did you know I lived here? I mean, did
you just look in everybody in Neopia Central's windows, waiting to see me?"
"No, I remembered the note. You don't remember.
But I do."
"I see... I think... Huh?" Miressi started to
laugh, as she ran to the front of the house, opening the front door, and running
towards me. I hugged her.
"I came here to say sorry," I said, looking
down at the ground.
"Whatever for?"
"I was mad at you. I was MAD at you. But it
wasn't even you're fault. I was mad at you for being taken away by that awful
girl. I even remember her name, too. mulan_345."
"But she's SO nice! Life with an owner is great!
You gotta get an owner. You gotta." Miressi urged me.
"No. I feel sorry for you, because the next
thing you know, you're gonna be wound up in the pound, like we once were."
"NO! mulan DOESN'T disown pets. And she gets
on Neopets every day. She loves all of us, and will never disown us. You know,
there are some owners out there who care. Not ALL of them are snotty,
and disown pets. Not like you think." Miressi frowned, and ran around in circles,
then began to dig, frantically. Finally, she pulled something out of the ground,
and gave it to me. It was a oleaginous frying pan, but it looked pretty cool.
"Wow, thanks!" I said, giving the frying pan
a whack.
"No problem. I saved it for you. I knew you
would like it. It sounds like something you would like, after all." Miressi
smiled. "But, I think It's time for me to go... I hope I see you again, Taitl.
I really do." Miressi walked slowly into her house, giving the same look she
gave me the day she got taken away from the pound.
Maybe Miressi was right. Maybe there were
owners who didn't disown their pets, and always fed them, and took care of them
as often as possible. But I couldn't take a chance. I couldn't be so sure.
I took off, looking for some food, but I didn't
find anything, not even in garbage cans. I dug through everything possible,
but I could find nothing. Just gross bones. After hours, it seemed like, of
waiting, I looked up, and saw a big hamburger - shaped building. I gasped, seeing
hundreds of Neopians walking out of the hamburger with bags, and bags of food.
I galloped towards the building, and peeked inside. I didn't have any Neopoints,
so I would have to steal some food.
As soon as the streetlights came on, I dashed
towards the food shop from a nearby tree I was resting at. Now, it was the time.
"We'll be closing in five minutes," I heard
somebody say in the shop. That was all the time I needed. Five minutes. I walked
casually into the shop, and looked around some aisles. I wandered around some
more, the shop was huge. Finally, when I came to a room which had a big sign
on it that said 'Employees only', I looked around the shop for people wearing
the ridiculous uniforms all people that work in stores wear. At last, I found
one, wandering around the meat section, which was nearby the Employees only
room. I walked slowly over to him, and when nobody was looking around, I tackled
him, and ripped all of his working clothes off of him, including his nametag.
It appeared that his name was Bob. I put the clothes on, and bit him fiercely.
"That should knock you out for a few moments,"
I muttered to myself, as I ran back to the employees room, laughing hysterically.
I opened the door. There was nobody in sight, so I hid behind a nearby counter.
I stashed some boxes in front of me, so nobody would spot me if they came by
the counter. I waited for at least seven minutes, and somebody on the loudspeaker
started to talk.
"We're closing now. All customers please exit
the food shop immediately." I heard people running, and screaming outside of
the employees room, and when it was totally quiet, I decided to start investigating.
I jumped out from under the counter, and tore off my uniform. I looked around
the filthy room, and I saw a bottle of ketchup. I snickered, and squirted the
whole lot around the uniform.
I then walked outside of the employees room,
and ran to the fruit section. I had to get my skinny Ixi body jumped up. I was
so weak from not eating. I found some grapes, and started to stuff myself, but
unfortunately, the grapes got sickening after a while. So, I decided to go to
the drink section. I overloaded myself with Neocola, Achyfi, and Chocolate Milk.
I ate all kinds of other stuff, Nachos, Apples, Marshmallows, Oranges, Chicken,
Grakle Bugs, which I found out were very appetising, so I stashed a whole bunch
of them in my scruffy fur. I took a bite out of almost every item in the store.
But then I came to a piece of food surrounded by lasers, and in a glass case.
It looked so tender, oozy, meaty, a perfect goodness. I had to eat it. I just
had to. I jumped over all of the lasers, and peeked over the glass case which
was protecting the best looking chunk of food in all of Neopia - an Almost Gummy
Rat. I lifted up the glass case, and dug my face into the Almost Gummy Rat.
I sucked it in, and smiled. It was so good. It was the best thing I had ever
tasted. I gagged. I started to vomit. It was soooo disgusting! How could I be
so stupid to actually eat that? It looked so good! But It was gross. I started
to vomit, but I picked it up, and threw it into the fruit section.
I froze.
I heard sirens. Coming towards the food shop.
I had to get out.
"Hey!" I heard somebody yell by the entrance
of the food shop. "Is somebody in here? Anybody? Come out with four hands up!"
I saw a fat little Chia with a police uniform on. I jumped over the lasers,
and dashed towards the food section. I then laid next to the barf, and pretended
I had been knocked out. I heard the Chia approach me. He gasped.
"Albert forgot to scan the food shop for any
customers again," the Chia said to himself. He lifted me up, and ran over to
his police car. He threw me in, and started to drive off. I have no idea where
we were going, but I hoped it just wasn't the pound.
On the way to where ever we were going, I stuffed
a few delicious Grakle Bugs into my mouth, and took a quick nap. I awoke to
a bump, then a thump, and I saw the Chia police officer open the car door. He
pulled me out, with no care, and dragged me towards a dark building. I looked
up, and as clear enough as the big yellow letters were, we were at the pound.
I squirmed about, but the Chia held me back.
"Yer not goin' anywhere...." He kicked me forward,
and made me walk towards the pound.
I kicked the Chia, but he just flinched, and
dragged me towards the pound. I kicked the Chia again, but he did the same thing
as the first time. It was no good. I decided it was time to do the same thing
I had done with Rose with him. I grinned evilly, and bit the police officer
with all of y might. He yelped, and let go of me, and I ran a couple of feet
away from him. I walked a little slower towards me, laughing to himself.
"Say goodbye." The Chia ran towards me, but
I jumped incredibly high, and grabbed hold of a streetlight post, and hoisted
myself up. I balanced on the top of the pole, grinning at the Chia
"You're goin' down," I said, as I did a couple
of flips, holding on to the pole. I let go, and I was flying towards the Chia
I wound up my aim, and kicked him hard in the head while still in the air. He
fell down to the ground, fainted, and I bit him in the arm just to make sure
he was knocked out. I then began to skip merrily in the other direction of the
pound, but a net plopped over my body. I sighed, looking up at the cold yellow
Techo I had encountered with many times before. He shook his head in disgust.
"I knew I'd run into you someday." Dr_Death
walked into the pound, and threw me into a cage next to a red Zafara.
"Who're you?" The Zafara asked, scratching it's
head.
"None of you're beeswax. Why would you care,
anyway?" I folded my arms across my chest, sitting down in a corner of the cage.
"Hm...." The Zafara just looked at me.
"Listen," I started, standing up. "I have to
get a plan to get me out of here. Because some person's gonna come and adopt
me. And that's kind of bad. Actually, really bad. So, I need a plan.
Any suggestions?" I didn't know why I was talking to that stupid Zafara, I was
trying to talk to myself, but I must have just needed somebody other than myself
to talk to.
"I have a plan," the Zafara said, thoughtfully.
"WHAT?!" I asked the Zafara. "WHAT IS YOU'RE
PLAN? TELL ME! I MUST KNOW!" I started to jump up in the air, pulling my fur
out.
"HM, uh, never mind." The Zafara started to
laugh, hysterically.
"So, you think that's FUNNY?" I asked, throwing
my bowl of clumpy mush at it.
"Um, well, yeah, actually" The Zafara started
to roll on the ground, wiping tears off o f his face. I didn't get how he could
be laughing over something so stupid, and for that matter, cruel.
A few hours passed, and so many Neopets got
disowned in that period of time. I felt sorry for most of them, but it was their
fault they got disowned. They got adopted by a lousy owner, so it's their fault.
Then, a girl came in. She had red hair, and
brown eyes. She stopped at my cage, and I stuck my tongue out at her, and glared.
She acted like she was scared of something.
"What a wimp," I muttered. Luckily she didn't
hear me. She stared at the dumb red Zafara in the cage next to me. The Zafara
was trying to act cute, but it looked just plan stupid. I sighed. The
girl signaled for Rose to come towards her.
"I want this one," the girl said, pointing to
the pitiful red Zaffy.
"All right," Rose said, unlocking the Zafara's
cage. "Is this you're first Neopet?"
"No. I used to have two, but I disowned them.
I was getting tired of them." The girl picked up the Zafara, who was smiling.
What a weirdo.
"Now, that's SAD," I said aloud. "What kind
of creature are you, disowning two pets just because you were getting tired
of them? I think you should be BANNED from Neopets! You're a rotten, mean, cruel
thing to us Neopets!!!" I started to fury, and I tried to grab her through the
bars of my cage. She started to cry, but I didn't care. Humans probably don't
have feelings, anyway. And if they did, they probably didn't have very much.
"Taitl," Rose scolded. "You know better
then that!"
"I DON'T CARE!" I threw my new bowl of must
at the dreadful girl, and she started to sob, hugging her little Zafara. "YEAH,
THAT'S RIGHT, GIRL. CRY! CRY ALL YOU WANT! IT WON'T DO ANY GOOD!" I jumped up
into the air, and dug my face into the corner of the cage. I started to cry,
harder than the girl. I couldn't stop myself, my anger was mixing with my sorrow,
so close to the feeling I had when Miressi had just got taken away from me.
I cried so much, I cried myself to sleep.
The next morning, I woke to a bright sunshine.
I stood up, but I had sores, scratches, bruises, and giant cuts all over my
body. I wondered what had happened. Rose ran up to me, suddenly.
"Taitl! Are you all right?" Rose comforted me.
"Yeah, but... who did this?" I looked down at
myself. I was a mess. My blue fur had red stains all over it.
"It was the girl who took the red Zafara home.
She got so mad, she took the key away from me, unlocked you're cage, and did
that to you. But you were asleep, and you didn't wake up."
"NO!" I started to run around in circles, in
rage. "I COULD'VE BEATEN HER DOWN! I WISH I WAS AWAKE! I SHOULD HAVE BEEN AWAKE!
WHY WASN'T I?!"
"You were in a deep sleep, I guess. And- Oh,
my..." Rose froze, and pointed to my cheek.
"What? What is it?" I felt my cheek. Nothing
appeared to be wrong with it.
"You're mark on you're left cheek. It's turned
red. Whenever a special mark that a Neopet has turns red, it means they will
soon be too weak to do anything for a long while. They won't be able to walk,
talk, sleep, do anything. Except for breathe, of course. You'll be weak for
at least a day."
I started to panic. "Oh, no..." I said softly.
"Don't worry! I'll go call the Neopian hospital
RIGHT away. DON'T move, okay?" Rose rushed towards her office, and Dr_Death
came out, and patrolled the centre while Rose was dialing the number. I was
still strong enough to stand up, and walk around, but Rose said not to move.
Suddenly, a girl, and a baby Gelert walked through
the door. The Baby Gelert ran towards my cage.
"Wook, wook!" The naive little Gelert pointed
to me. I stuck my tongue out at her, and she stuck hers back at mine. "It is
a wred and bwoo Ixi! Wets get it! Pwease?"
"You know, it doesn't matter what colour it
is, or anything. Anyway, I'm not looking for a special coloured pet. I'm not
a stupid greedy person like that. C'mon, Waffle-Ducky." The brown haired girl
and the baby Gelert walked off towards some other cages. They were good browsers.
I waited and waited for Rose to come back. I
was afraid something had happened to her. I needed help. Fast.
Again, I saw the brown haired girl, and the
Gelert walk past my cage.
"Nwo, no! Dat Ixi's huwrt!" The baby Gelert
pointed to my cuts, and bruises, and started to cry. The girl gasped, looking
at me. I glared at her, telling her to back off.
"I won't hurt you." The girl looked at the nametag
hooked on my cage. "Taitl. I just wanna help. I won't adopt you if you don't
want me to. It just seems the people in the pound don't take care of you much.
Either that, or they just haven't noticed you." The girl disappeared, and came
back a few seconds later.
"Ish de Ixi all wight?" The baby Gelert asked.
"No, but she's going to be. Listen," the girl
said to me. "I have to get you out of here. I can't find Rose, or Dr_Death around
here anywhere. You gotta come with me. To my house. I'll just take you back
to the pound if you want. But trust me, I won't adopt you, unless you want me
to. Which you probably don't. But come with me anyway, okay?" The girl grabbed
a piece of metal, and whacked the bars of my cage apart, giving me enough room
so I could squeeze through, and escape.
"Okay," I said, weakly, slowly walking out of
my cage. The girl picked me up, and signaled for the baby Gelert to follow us.
She ran out of the pound, and looked around. I didn't know exactly what she
was looking for, but she waved to a Eyrie. The Eyrie flew over.
"Hey, we need a ride to the Healing Springs.
Can we get a ride? It's an emergency!" The girl hopped on to the Eyrie, and
hoisted the baby Gelert on, too. The Eyrie was off in a flash.
"Taitwl, wot ish wrong? I ish Waffle-Ducky.
Mwy name ish." The Gelert was really naive, and I would have answered her, but
I was too weak.
"By the way, Taitl," the girl started. "I'm
squieshie. We're almost there, so hold on tight."
A few minutes later, we had arrived in Faerieland, and were at the Healing
Springs. squieshie held me closer, and ran to the Water Faerie.
"Can you heal this Neopet?" squieshie asked.
"You're Neopet has gained all of it's hit points
back," the Water Faerie answered thoughtfully.
"Thank you, thank you!" squieshie said, running back to the Eyrie. We all
jumped on, and squieshie set me down. "How do you feel?" She asked.
"Good," I murmured. But this girl made me think.
She wasn't like that red haired girl, or any other Neopian that walked into
the pound, and tried to be the first one to adopt the starry Shoyru, or the
gold Aisha. This girl cared. squieshie cared. This was where I belonged. And
I knew it. I just didn't want to admit it.
"Well, I'll take you back to the pound, how
does that sound?" squieshie asked.
"I'm... I'm... s-staying with y-you..." I muttered.
That was almost the hardest thing I ever had to say.
"WHAT?" squieshie asked in disbelief. "I thought
you HATED owners."
"How did you know?" I asked her.
"I just... know."
"Well, it doesn't matter now. I'm staying with
you. For good. There's something different about you than all of the other owners.
I have this strange feeling with you. I'm not familiar with it, though. It's
a good feeling, too. I just can't exactly put it in words." I took a deep breath,
and looked at the baby Gelert Waffle-Ducky.
"Then we shall go back to the pound, and sign
an adoption form, then!" squieshie exclaimed. The Eyrie came to a stop, and
we hopped off, thanking him. squieshie ran into the pound, filled out a form,
and gave Rose the Neopoints she needed to pay.
"All set," she said, walking out of the pound.
"Come on. Lets go home. You'll love the guys."
When approached the house, I got really excited.
It was on Soup Alley, just a few houses down from the Soup kitchen. I ran up
to the big house, and waited for squieshie to come and open the shiny, wooden
door. She ran up, Wallfe-Ducky trotting close by her side. She opened the door,
slowly.
"Guys!" squieshie shouted upstairs. I heard
rustling, and voices.
"Oh, boy, it's our new sister!"
"It COULD be a brother, though."
"GROSS!!! Boys are ICKY! I hope it isn't!"
"Look... There she is!" I saw a tiny pink Kacheek
point to me.
"This is Taitl," squieshie said, softly.
"Oh... my... gosh..." I heard a red Shoyru say.
"What?" Asked the pink Kacheek. "Is there somethin'
wrong with her?"
"OH MY GOSH!!!" The red Shoyru flew towards
me. "TAITL! IT'S YOU!!! I THOUGHT I'D NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN!!!" the red Shoyru
hugged me tight.
Just then, I had recognised her. And her voice.
It was who I thought it was.
"Xraie?!" I asked, excitedly.
"Yup! It's me!" Xraie smiled, and flew up into
the air again.
"You two know each other?" squieshie asked impatiently.
"Yeah! We were in the pound together! In fact,
I was the one who named her!" Xraie exclaimed.
"Whoa. That's good news!" squieshie walked into
the kitchen, the rest of us following.
"I'm rayneboery," the pink Kacheek informed
me.
"rayneboery?" I asked.
I knew her, too. She was the pink Kacheek who
was at Mystery island. She only told me half of her name, but a whole bunch
of Neopets called her over. She must have not remembered me. But I thought it
couldn't have been hard to remember a Neopet with a raindrop on their left cheek.
Maybe rayneboery did remember me.
"Yeah. rayneboery. I like the Battledome. I
fight in it all the time!" the pink Kacheek bounced up and down cheerfully.
squieshie smiled. "Well, now we're all a family.
A happy family, too. And we will be forever."
The End
Epilogue
We've been a happy family ever since. I found out that squieshie is real close
friends with Miressi's owner, mulan. Now we play together nearly every day.
squieshie also knows Kaupeey's owner, too. Kaupeey and I recognised each other
right off the bat when we met again for the first time. Life is like a dream
that could have never came true without Xraie, Kaupeey, and squieshie. Life
is perfect with an owner. And I waited until the day squieshie adopted me to
experience it. I went to a small naive Ixi to a well-cared-for rain Ixi. Life
has changed. And I'm glad it has.
Feel free to Neomail
me with comments on my story. I will reply to every one of them, so don't be shy
=) I would be glad to hear what you think about my story. All characters besides
Taitl, Miressi, Kaupeey, Waffle-Ducky, Xraie, rayneboery, squieshie, mulan_345,
and shopowner85130 are made up, and they are not really the real Neopets/people
that I refer to in my story. o_O Thanks! | 
