Keeping Your Friends: Part Two

by Eugenitor

I punched in the password and kicked open the door to my own NeoHome, Wise_Guy smiling widely before he realized how upset I was.

"Hey, what's wrong, you kicked butt up and down in there!"

"What did I say I was going to do this morning? How long did I say I was going to be gone?"

"You said hours, you were only gone for 45... oh. What happened? You were going to meet a friend of yours?"

"Yeah..."

"You got in a fight, he never showed up, what?" I shook my head and told him how Carnivore had been spirited away to his owner.

"Oh. Won't you see him again?" he asked, but there was some concern in his voice.

"Maybe, if he's not in the Pound by then, starved, or just locked in some cage somewhere." I punched the wall, the magical transparishield absorbing my potent blow.

"Now that is just..." What's making him upset? This is really my problem.

"Wise_Guy, is there something you're not telling me? Did this happen to you?"

"YEAH!" he screamed at me. "Yeah, it happened to me. And I wasn't in your position, I was in his!" He took a deep breath before continuing, and fought back some tears.

"But now, guess what, I come here to Neopia, I think this is an escape. And guess what, the same stuff happens here. Abandonment. We get owners tossing around their pets. You ever been to the owner chats? A scam every few minutes." I then mentioned what I had done with the blue Kacheek, and he laughed and congratulated me before continuing. "I suppose since this place is ultimately made by humans, it CAN'T provide an escape from them. Man this stinks. At least I still have you."

"You want me to turn bad into worse?"

"You want to turn BAD into WORSE?! Fine, go ahead."

I told him who he had gotten his 20 NP Codestones and 200 NP Rainbow Paintbrush from. He hung his head. "I couldn't have known," he said apologetically.

"I know. Forget about paying the guy back. He's too dolt. Just keep your money."

"Yeah, he'd waste it. Or worse, chuck your friend into the Pound with it."

"Actually..." I smiled, using my 200 Intelligence to think up an easy plan. "...that might not be too bad."

"Oh, you want me to adopt him? Sure, I guess I could do that. But I couldn't ask his owner, obnoxious idiots never do what they're asked.. I could bribe.. but if I gave the money first, he'd never put your friend into the pound, and he'd never abandon first because he'd think I'd never give the money. Half first, half later?"

"If you believe what Carnivorous_T_Rex tells me, too obnoxious for that too."

"All right," he thought for a bit before shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Horatio. There's nothing I can do."

"Forget I brought it up, then. You obviously have your own problems."

"Not here I don't. Heh. At least I'm not supposed to. Look, you wanna go sweep some more Neggs?"

"Yeah."

I only got singed a few times by dumb luck as we made a total of 10,000 NP sweeping the fields. We did other stuff together all day that day, and I slept comfortably that night.

But I didn't get much sleep.

To be continued...