How the Kougras Came to Neopia

by muas

The Kougras lived on the Mysterious Island far longer than anyone or anything else. They soon grew into a species that had a reputation on the Island for being fast, cunning, and sometimes very annoying.

Their only real enemies during that time were the Coconut People, who lived in tribes all around the Island. They regarded Kougras as being lucky, and so tried to attack the "tribes" (their name for packs) whenever they could. But even this wasn't much of a problem, because the Kougras soon figured out what ways the "Cocos" attacked and could avoid them.

The Kougras numbered about 2,000 on the island, and they varied greatly in color. The largest tribe at the time, with 200 members, was Rugido's tribe. He was a great leader and strategist, and was one of the reasons the Kougras managed to stay away from the Cocos.

Rugido had one son, named Klaue. Klaue showed signs of being intelligent, witty, and with the wry humor Kougras were famous for, early on. But as he grew up, he soon grew to be a rebellious teenager, challenging his father's old-fashioned ways and becoming convinced that he could rule the tribe better than Rugido could.

The rebellion didn't stop after Klaue matured, however. The resentment toward his father's ways festered into Klaue's "adulthood".

Finally, one day, Klaue led a group of members from his father's tribe to form his own. There were thirty Kougras who followed him that day.

At first, Klaue's tribe was a struggling one, but since most of them were adolescents or young adults, they were willing to try different, new, and risky tactics. By the end of two months, Klaue's tribe had 60 members and his father was coming to him for advice.

But one day, a scout came back to Klaue with news that he saw a strange thing on the horizon. It looked like the canoes the Cocos used to sail upon the water, but it was much larger, white, and had a piece of cloth waving from a pole on it.

Scouts watched the canoe-like thing for a few hours, until it docked on dry land. What happened next Klaue documented in his journal:

"We saw some strange beings disembark from the canoes - they were paler than the Coconut People, and wore much more clothes. I ordered my scouts to stay back, but watch them closely. I am wary of them."

Luckily, Klaue didn't have to be so wary; these were inhabitants of the main continent of Neopia, these people's names for the planet which everyone inhabited. They were very friendly, and were simply exploring.

Klaue established a friendship with them almost at once, and his tribe was soon trading quite happily with this group. However, every other tribe of Kougras were cold and unfriendly to the "invaders", as they called them.

Klaue knew something had to be done before the other tribes attacked the humans, so he gathered the leaders of each of the 100 tribes together and made what some consider to be the most famous speech in the history of the Island: the "Friendship is Valued" speech.

He spoke of how these people didn't want to invade, just learn; how they had many things that the Kougras could use; how nice and unlike the Coconut People they were. And then he introduced something new. The Kougras, if any of them wished, could move to the main continent and live there, as "pets" - "Actually, more like best friends," as Klaue said - of the humans. "It's not demeaning in any way," he insisted. "It's a friendship, not a master/slave condition. They'll depend on us as much, if not more, than we will on them."

He also touched on something the Kougras loved to do - explore. That point was the most influential part of the argument for most of the leaders who heard it.

After the speech, the leaders went home and spoke to their tribes. 50 of the tribes (counting Klaue's) then agreed to go to the main continent; more were soon to follow.

On the continent, they were greeted as the "coolest" or "neatest-looking" or even the "awesomest" pets yet. They were adopted or created fast, and soon every Kougra had an owner. They soon saw that Klaue had been right, and their life on Neopia was great.

Klaue himself was adopted by a girl named Muas, who loved an Earth animal, tigers. He has returned to the Mystery Island now that Neopians can own houses, and lives there lives with his little brother, a Meerca named Reizend, and some of his friends.