Keeping Your Friends: Part Three

by Eugenitor

I was up early this morning, kicking off my covers. "Wise_Guy?" I asked, looking around. "Nope. He's out.... what time is it?" I checked the clock. 7:30. Shrugging, I hopped out of bed, put on my backpack and my wrist-comm, and zipped at 160 speed down to the Rainbow Pool where I hoped Carnivore was waiting. He wasn't, but I don't know where else.... I zipped down to the Battledome, looked around for a bit, and zipped back in frustration. It's all right, I told myself, this is way earlier than when we saw each other last.... but Carnivore was there at the Pool anyway at 8:00 NST.

"Cool, you're already here," he said. "Sorry about yesterday. Owner decided to bring me for a few games of Blackjack..." Unfortunately, the house rules for Blackjack require the pet to play the role of dealer, and the owner to be the player. Even more unfortunately, the dealer usually wins, resulting in a very mad owner and, occasionally, an abused pet.

"Ugh. How much did he lose?"

"2,000 NP. That was ALL his money. I didn't even get FED."

"No way! Look, if you're hungry."

"How much you got?"

I didn't replace my 'mad money' yesterday or this morning. "Only 19,880 NP."

"ONLY?"

"Sorry! Being a jerk, don't mind me. I really do have that. You want to go get some Omelette though?"

"Omelette? What's that?"

"You mean your owner never even... never mind. Follow me." We walked at his slow pace of 4 to the Tyrannian teleporter, and then to the Omelette at the Plateau, where we each took a large chunk.

"I'm satiated." he said, as he put the rest of his bitten omelette under his arm in lieu of a backpack, as we walked back to the teleporter to Neopia. "Gonna give this to my sister."

"You have a sister?!"

"Yeah... I never told you. Her name's Little_cheeky."

"Why's she never with you?"

"Look, let's talk about something else, all right?"

"No. I want to KNOW."

His voice lowered twenty decibels. "Look. Horatio. Even an owner like him is better than a frozen one. Even the Pound is better than that."

I nudged him to the side of the main path, where we wouldn't be overheard. "What is he doing?" I asked, very seriously.

"She's got an ankle chain two feet long attached to the wall. She's been like that ever since she was created two weeks ago. It's up to me to feed her."

"That's...."

"Now don't you get it? I didn't want you to know. He's more than just stupid, all right?"

"If it was possible for NeoPets to hurt humans I'd rip his head off his neck. He should just leave Neopia for good." I pity the humans. They have to deal with guys like that in their reality... but I suppose there's a solution to that problem there too.

"And what happens to us, the Pound? But I guess the Pound would be better for her.... but if some other owner, just as bad, comes along...."

"No. That won't happen."

"Why not? How can you be so sure?"

"Because I'll get Really_Wise_Guy to adopt you. And your sister."

"You're serious..."

"You'd make a great brother. If we fed you enough Sneggs, you could even keep up with me."

"Not even you can afford that many," he said, laughing. "Dude, that would be the best thing in the world."

"No problem. Just make sure you make sure my owner's on when he finally takes you to Dr_Death. Timing and all."

"Oh, like I can do THAT."

I shrugged. "Pets don't adopt pets in this Neopia, Carnivore. Relax, he's almost always on...."

"Yeah, so how do we pull that off? My owner's stubborn. I can't just go up to him and say 'Hi, Sumprely_Mispeled_Nayme, I'd like to be abandoned now.' He'd never do it."

I have 200 Intelligence. "Ever hear of Br'er Cybunny? Reverse psychology. 'Please don't throw me in the pound!'"

"You know, that's a really, really good idea.... but I don't think it'd work. Think I'd end up like my sister if I did that...."

"I don't have any other ideas. Maybe I should go ask my owner."

"All right. I should probably be getting back, too... if he sees me not around enough... he's been threatening to chain my ankle for actually a week now. I'll see you, Horatio." Hopefully.

We walked back through the teleporter and to the Rainbow Pool before I left him in a burst of speed, to go back home.... which was under construction, with Really_Wise_Guy watching the builders' first-floor (first above ground) work in approval. "You never said anything about building," I told him.

"I figured the place could use another room," he said. "Relax, your stuff's safe. So were you with Carnivore again?"

"Yeah." I'll spare my owner the details of our conversation. As I said before- he's got his own problems. "Hey, I was wondering. Is there any way to get a human to leave Neopia permanently?" He looked startled for a moment- I had completely surprised him with that question.

"Oh, plenty.... before you rule out the ways that are illegal on Earth and Neopia, that is. It's almost impossible. If we knew how, don't you think there'd be a lot less scammers around?"

"Good point." That was it, then. No one can help Carnivore, much as I hate to admit it. He's trapped with a really bad owner who doesn't give two flips for him and is ready to make him into a permanent household fixture. I doubt even the humans have problems like that very often.

Although Really_Wise_Guy and I had lots of fun that day, and he even carried me to my bed when we were done watching Space Lennys II, I cried before I went to sleep that night.

To be continued....