Adventures in Kiko Lake

      Delilah groaned, still under the covers of her bed. She and her roommate, Annie, always tried to be the first one to grab their favourite mug in the morning. It was a Kiko Lake-themed one that Delilah had won at Altador Cup, and by far the nicest object in their little house.

      Annie filled the mug with Delilah’s special Azzle Tea, flapping her wings and smiling from her win. Both of them had wings. Delilah was a Split Uni, and Annie was a Sketch Shoyru.

      “Good job,” Delilah said, pulling her raggedy Tyrannia blanket off and standing up. “Once again.”

      “Hey, you know what they say: the early Pteri gets the Wormoeba!”

      Delilah and Annie shared a laugh. In the cramped kitchen, Delilah opened the cabinet and searched for a mug of her own. “And the contestants are as follows,” she said in a fake dramatic voice. “Dipni Mug, Carved Tiki Mug, and, a special import all the way from ancient Altador, the Bouncy Blue Blumaroo Mug!”

      In reality, that last one wasn’t from Altador, but instead the Neopia Central Auction. It had only cost a hundred Neopoints. “It’s truly deluxe,” Annie joked.

      “Oh, then maybe you want it, and I can have yours?”

      “You’re hilarious.”

      Delilah took the Blumaroo Mug just to be funny. As she filled it up, Annie took a sip of Delilah’s Azzle Tea. “Your recipe is getting better,” she said thoughtfully.

      “So it doesn’t taste like a Moehog Mud Bomb anymore?”

      Annie giggled. “Oh, come on, I said that one time!” She paused to take another sip. “And no, it doesn’t.”

      Delilah and Annie lived in Kiko Lake, doing Petpet research for Brightvale University. Because there wasn’t much to eat around here except candy, candy, and more candy, they either bought stuff in bulk while travelling or made their own imitations at home. The project Delilah had been perfecting for months was her own version of the Coffee Cave’s Azzle Tea.

      “How can their tea be so different from mine, anyway?” she wondered aloud. “I mean, tea’s so basic! What?”

      “Well, they make it all colourful and swirly, and this just looks kinda brown.”

      Delilah raised her eyebrows. “I was being rhetorical.”

      “Oh shush,” said Annie, opening the cabinet right next to where they kept their mugs and dishes. “Now, let’s have some food.”

      While Delilah made it her project to cook things herself, Annie was more the type to buy and save. Her favourite Neopian store was the Crumpetmonger. She went there at least once a month, twice during the month of Giving. Delilah usually didn’t accompany Annie on her trips to Neovia. That place freaked her out. But she enjoyed eating the pastries her roommate brought back, at least before they went stale.

      “I’m guessing you want a Bearog Claw, same as always?” Annie asked.

      “You know me too well.” Delilah took the pastry with excitement. It was so flaky, not too sweet, not too burnt. “And I’m sure you’re having another breakfast paradox.”

      Sticking her tongue out, Annie said, “Cheese Scones are a perfectly normal breakfast choice, Delilah! This Zombie Elephante girl who lives in Neovia gets one every time I’m there. It’s a whole inside joke thing. And Matt over at Kiko Lake Carpentry has one for breakfast every day!”

      Delilah laughed. “Sorry, sorry, I get it. But, like, I dunno, cheese on a pastry just seems wrong.”

      Finishing her Bearog Claw, Delilah cleared the crumbs off her part of the table and went to go make her bed. From the kitchen, Annie joked, “Yeah, and dipping Fried Courgette into your Chokato Pudding seems even more wrong!”

      This time, both girls laughed a bunch. When Annie finished her tea and scone, she joined Delilah in the common area that meshed a bedroom and a living room.

      There was still a little while left until they needed to walk down to the lake for work. It wasn’t work, though, not really. Tagging along on glass bottom boat tours, wading through the shallows, and chilling on the boardwalk was always too fun for Delilah to think about how it was actually research.

      In fact, Delilah and Annie seemed to be in their own little secluded world, almost completely detached from the grades and goals back at Brightvale University. Kiko Lake, surrounded by dense forests on all sides and with only a handful of attractions, felt as distanced from the rest of Neopia as Kreludor was. Sometimes it was even eerier than Neovia.

      Of course, they weren’t slackers. Brightvale University checked in every semester. Delilah and Annie had some conventional assignments to do pretty often, which they sent to their teachers via Weewoo. But they still led a very different life than most students.

      Their Kiko Lake research had been part of a special BVU program sending various pairs of roommates across Neopia. For instance, other students were studying in Faerieland, Maraqua, the Lost Desert, and Moltara. The unluckiest two were just sent an hour away from campus, at stinky old Bogshot.

      Delilah felt that she and her best friend were at the best location. Sure, Kiko Lake wasn’t very exotic or exciting, but sometimes simple was better. And it was never the exact temperature or weather she liked best, but anything beats the Lost Desert in the month of Swimming.

      Because she liked Kiko Lake so much, Delilah was keeping a secret from Annie. It came from Brightvale University not too long ago, while Annie had been at Neovia scarfing down pastries.

      “Hey, Neopia to ditzy Unis!” Annie called, waving a Sketch wing in front of Delilah’s face. Delilah snapped out of her daze.

      “Is it time to go yet?” she asked worriedly.

      “No, you still have some time left.” Annie leaned over the couch arm and searched the bookcase for anything good. “The Secret of Treasure Island, Slorg Care, Pirate Small Talk, The Art of Apple Bobbing, Skeith Inspired Treasure Maps… ugh! I’ve read all of these already!”

      Delilah shifted in her seat to raise her eyebrows at Annie. “Why did you read The Art of Apple Bobbing? And why do we own it?”

      “I was really bored that day you went to go get me some congratulatory Chicken and Gammon from Meridell.”

      “Oh, now I get it. Even that book sounds more entertaining than rereading your notes on which colour coral Slorgs like to crawl on most.”

      Covering her mouth with a translucent hand, Annie tried not to laugh. “Yeah, BVU was impressed with all my research, but I was so bored collecting that data.”

      “You can only stare down into that water so long before you fall into it.”

      Annie shook her head. “Sometimes I really don’t get you.”

      “That makes two of us.”

      Eventually, Annie found a book she hadn’t read yet, and Delilah amused herself by searching for Neopoints between the couch cushions. She only found two before they had to get going. They left their cosy Neohome for the day, each armed with a notebook, a pen, and some snacks.

      The walk down to where the lake was shaded, but plenty of warmth still snuck through the trees. Delilah flapped her wings for some wind and looked at Annie, who didn’t seem affected.

      “What?” Annie asked.

      “Why aren’t you really warm right now?”

      She shrugged. “I think being Sketch has something to do with it. It’s like the opposite of how wearing dark clothes makes you warmer.”

      “So being Sketch makes you cool?”

      “My friends back in Neopia Central did always say I was the coolest, so yeah, guess I can’t really argue with that.”

      Laughing, Delilah playfully pushed Annie with one of her wings. “Trust me, you’re only cool in temperature.”

      “Oh shush.”

      They walked in comfortable silence for a while. Delilah scanned the forest around them, looking for any Petpets or Petpetpets that happened to be roaming around. She couldn’t see any.

      Annie sighed. “I wish we had a more interesting walk down to the lake. Or just some open space. I’ve seen enough trees for a lifetime!”

      “I like the trees,” Delilah said. “They make cool shadowy patterns on the ground.”

      “I heard from Whitney and Rose, the two Acaras who went to Bogshot, that they were transferred. They got to study in Altador instead,” Annie went on. “Wouldn’t it be awesome if we were transferred too?”

      Delilah stopped in her tracks. She couldn’t help it. She’d never been a good liar.

      “Hey, what’s wrong?”

      “I gotta tell you something.” Delilah sighed. “That last time you went to Neovia we had our check-in with BVU, remember?”

      “Yeah, you had to give them my research and tell them to correspond with me later via Weewoo. So what?”

      “They gave me an offer… to transfer us to Maraqua.”

      Annie’s shoulders tensed up. “And you didn’t tell me?”

      “I just like how things are.” Delilah’s wings flapped up and down slowly. “But I still didn’t have a right to keep that secret.”

      Neither said anything for a minute, while Delilah stared at the ground and Annie stared ahead. Finally, Annie said, “Why don’t you want to go to Maraqua?”

      Delilah shrugged. “It’s just so far from everywhere else. You’d hardly ever get to go to Neovia, and we’d be so far from the Shop Wizard in Neopia Central. I mean, where else is there to eat except Kelp?”

      “Okay, let me get this straight,” Annie said angrily. “Where we go for trips and what food we eat is more important than this awesome opportunity?”

      “You’re right,” Delilah admitted. “Everything was just changing so suddenly. And I love Kiko Lake.”

      “So do I, but we knew this wasn’t permanent.”

      “Yeah, I know.”

      Pieces of shimmering blue lake started to peek through the trees. Pebbles scattered the path, scuffing Delilah’s hooves. “And besides,” she said, jokingly, “I would hardly fit in with those super fancy Maraquan Unis. Do you see how chipped my hooves are?”

      Annie laughed. “I think we’d both stand out, Delilah.”

      “But yeah, think of all the Petpets everywhere.”

      “I’ll spend all my free time at Ye Olde Fishing Hole,” Annie said excitedly. “Our Neohome would have coral on the roof and the shiniest kelp you’ve ever seen in the lawn. It will be totally awesome.”

      Delilah smiled bittersweetly. “You’re right, it probably will be. I think I’m okay with us going, if the offer is still up.”

      “You don’t have to be so nostalgic about the whole thing.”

     They turned a corner and the lake came into clearer view, along with Kiko Lake's few shops.

      “Well, we’ve had a great time here! I love this place. Why shouldn’t I be nostalgic?”

      Annie shrugged and they carried on, this time in less comfortable silence. Delilah felt agitated. But seeing the lake made her forget about all that. She took a running start and flew all the way down.

      Feeling the wind everywhere was amazing! Just because she felt like it, Delilah made a lap all the way across Kiko Lake before going back down to where Annie had set up camp.

      She scanned the water: what kinds of Petpets were already up and swimming?

      Several Kelpflakes floated on the surface, soaking up the sun. Slorgs were all over the place. Delilah noticed that most of them were basking on top of the colour of coral Annie had predicted to be most popular among them. In the shallows she saw some Surzards, Lurmans, and Slugawoos. A Beekadoodle was chirping noisily on the shore.

      “What did you see?” Annie asked when Delilah finally flew back down.

      “A lot of stuff.” Delilah summarised everything while she wrote it all down in her notes. “The usual.”

      Annie nodded. “I’m gonna see if there’s some Ghotis under the boardwalk. Do you wanna come too?”

      “I’m good.”

      “You always want to look at the Ghotis, Delilah,” she protested. “Come on, are you actually mad at me? I’m the one who should be mad at you for keeping that secret!”

      Delilah rolled her eyes. “I know that. You totally have a right to be mad at me. But I’m allowed to miss Kiko Lake, you need to know that.”

      “I do know that! What makes you think I don’t?”

      “I don’t know,” Delilah said. “You just made it sound like that. It hurt my feelings a bit.”

      “It hurt my feelings that you didn’t tell me about the Maraqua thing.” Annie sighed, rummaging around in her supplies. “But we are taking that opportunity, right?”

      Delilah looked across the lake and all the trees, and her wings drooped. “Yes, we are.”

      “Good. Now let’s look for those Ghotis.”

      The grass was cool on her scuffed hooves. It was still super warm, though. Delilah wondered if Maraqua was less warm all the time since it was underwater. Hmm. Maybe that was one upside, besides the obvious perks.

      Shadows were cast by the boardwalk, making the water underneath a prime spot for Petpets. The Ghotis currently claimed it.

      Delilah and Annie started taking notes. “You’ll see,” Annie said, resting one of her wings on Delilah's shoulder. “Once we get to Maraqua, and there’s so much wildlife and scenery, you’ll forget about being sad. You’ll be okay.”

      “Yeah, I get it.” As Delilah brushed a hoof through the water, a Ghoti passed right by. Awesome! “Thank you.”

      “And maybe while we’re still here, you can try to just enjoy it. You’ll make more memories that way. And how different can it even be? It’s still part of Neopia.”

      Nodding, Delilah laughed. “Good advice. Wow, maybe you should be a therapist instead of a scientist, Annie.”

      “I think I have a gift,” Annie joked. They both laughed.

      Yeah, Delilah would miss Kiko Lake a lot, but she was beginning to look forward to Maraqua. And she was with her best friend either way. Things were going to be okay.