A Good Day

The fifteenth day of Eating, year eleven. Fang was sitting on the couch in the living room, bored. Rosie, his owner, and Seth, his brother had both gone out to the Healing Springs after Seth's fight in the Battledome. Yeah, he'd won, but the opponent had been weak in Fang's mind. Now, he was home alone with his sister Aelouro.

     Outside, the weather was cold and rainy. If it had been a warmer and sunnier day, then Fang would have been outside playing. But no... there had to be rain. The clouds were grey, covering up the sun and making it mostly dark outside.

     Elou was in her room. Fang knew that ever since she had joined the family, she had been mostly quiet and spent time alone with her Floud, Angel. She wasn't very sociable but she was still a good family member and had moments of friendly happiness.

     Suddenly there was a knock on the door that almost made Fang jump out of his fur. He had been used to the silence; after recovering from his brief moment of surprise the tiny Gelert heaved himself to his paws and walked to the front door.

     Upon opening it, he was met with a pink Gelert about the same height as him. "Hi, Fang!" she squeaked excitedly.

     He recognized her at once.

     "Hey, Sierra!" It was mostly surprise that filled the Gelert. This was a friend that he had not seen for a long time. "It's been a while."

     "Can I come in?"

     "Uh, sure, I guess."

     She stepped inside and Fang closed the door gently behind her. Her fur was soaked with rain which she shook off as soon as she was inside; Fang cringed as the rain touched his own red fur.

     Sierra's blue eyes were huge. "I just thought I'd come round and tell you my news," she said to Fang, twitching the tip of her tail.

     Fang blinked. "News?"

     "Yeah. My owner - well, my old one - abandoned me like I thought he would."

     For a moment Fang was speechless. He didn't know what to say; he remembered the day after he met Sierra, about three months ago, when she told him that she thought her owner was going to abandon her. And now... he had?

     But the pink Gelert just started laughing. "No, don't look at me like that. I got a new owner straight away!" She gave a little bounce of delight. "She's wonderful. Loves me like I'm the best thing in the world. Says I'm her first and only pet and she'll keep me for life."

     "That's good to hear," Fang breathed, happy for her. Then a thought occurred to him. "What about Kealog? Don't you miss him?" He remembered the yellow Kacheek that had once been Sierra's older brother.

     A brief sadness flickered through Sierra's eyes. "Well, yes," she admitted slowly. "He was a good brother. But I do still see him, sometimes, out in Neopia Central. We don't live far away from him so it's not that bad." A grin was plastered on her face.

     Fang laughed. "Well, at least you're in a good home now, right?"

     "You bet! Jasmine is awesome! Want to come and meet her?"

     He hesitated, not sure if Rosie would let him go out when she didn't know where he was. Then an idea popped into his mind.

     "Wait here, I'll be right back," he told Sierra; then he turned and ran quickly upstairs.

     There were five bedrooms up here. One was his room; one was Seth's; one was Elou's; one was Rosie's; and the other was the bathroom. Fang knocked on Elou's door which was a light pink colour.

     His blue eyes stared blankly at the door. "Elou? It's Fang."

     The door opened. His sister stood there, looking curious. "Fang? You never come to my room - is something wrong?" Her big emerald green eyes were slightly anxious.

     Fang shook his head and laughed. "No, nothing's wrong. But I just came to ask if you could do a favour for me. Can you tell Rosie that I'm at Sierra's house when she gets back?"

     "Okay." The green Xweetok gave a little nod and smiled. "But who's Sierra?"

     "My friend. I haven't seen her for a while."

     Another nod and then Elou turned around. "See you later, then," she called over her shoulder before shutting the door behind her.

     Fang raced back down the stairs to see Sierra sitting on the couch, looking around the room with interest in her eyes. "Let's go, then," he called to her, a grin on his face also.

     * * *

     "Mum! I brought a visitor - is that okay?"

     Sierra's voice rang through the house as she and Fang stood at the door. Fang could see inside; it was a large house with light coloured carpets and white walls. Lights were all around. Through an open door to the left must be the kitchen because inside the floor was checkered and the walls were baby blue - there was a fridge, some food, a Light Faerie Oven, a Jhudora Cooker... everything imaginable for a kitchen. He couldn't see anything else, but Fang imagined that it had several more rooms with basically everything.

     "Sure, it's alright," called back a voice that reminded Fang a little of Rosie.

     The pink Gelert beside him smiled and jumped inside. "Come in!" she called to Fang before skipping down the hall.

     Fang followed her in and closed the door behind him. Now that he was inside he could see more; just down the hall there was a staircase and there was a door on the right next to it. Opposite the kitchen was an open door leading to a room with two couches and Neovision, with paintings up on the walls and a Weewoo Clock, a Red Brick Fireplace and a few bean bags. He guessed that was the living room.

     "Do you want to see my room?" Sierra's voice broke into his thoughts.

     He caught up to her; she was standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Okay."

     She led him up the staircase. Upstairs, it was a smaller hall than the one downstairs; there were three rooms. Sierra opened the door to the far left one and bounced inside.

     It was a large room with pink walls and a pink floor. There was a large bed in the corner. On the left wall there was a window with a light pink cushion in front of it. Nearby was a large pile of all kinds of toys and plushies. Above them was a Red Apple Clock. Opposite the plushies was an Ultranova Wardrobe, obviously containing many clothes. And finally, just next to the wardrobe were some shelves full of books.

     "Welcome to my room," Sierra said, beaming.

     "It's very pink," Fang commented, frowning. He didn't exactly like pink but he decided not to mention that.

     Sierra just giggled. She walked over to the window and sat down on the cushion, gesturing with her tail for Fang to follow. "This is my favourite spot in the whole house," she told him. "Outside this window you can see the whole of Neopia Central. The shops, the Bazaar, the Plaza and the Marketplace, all of it!"

     She was right. Looking out the window, Fang could see everything; he felt so high up. Outside his own window he could see Neopia Central, but only a bit of it. His eyes came upon the Pound and he shivered, forcing himself to look away.

     "What's wrong?" Sierra asked, obviously noticing his shiver.

     He decided to tell her about his past. Everything. So Fang launched straight into his story, of how he had first had an owner that kept him locked in his room all week until she got the Techo from the Pound to come and take him away. He never got to meet that family properly. Then he was taken to the Pound but he managed to escape just before he was put into one of the cages, tearing past Dr Death and straight into Neopia Central without looking back. From there he found his way to Rosie's house, when she only had Seth, and the rest was history.

     Sierra listened intently, her blue eyes huge. "Wow," she breathed. "I'm sorry. I didn't know..."

     "It's okay," Fang assured her, smiling. "That's over now."

     They sat together staring out into the shops for a while in silence.

     Then Sierra stretched, twitching her ears. "I guess you should be home now," she said, stifling a yawn. "Rosie might be home already."

     "You're right," Fang agreed. He stood up and followed Sierra as she led him out the room, down the stairs and back into the hall. Fang could hear Jasmine moving around the kitchen as he heard the clash of pots and pans.

     In no time at all they were standing on the doorstep again.

     "Bye, Fang," Sierra said. "Want to meet tomorrow outside the food shop? At... well, at lunch time?" She laughed.

     And Fang nodded, smiling. "Of course. Bye, Sierra."

     He walked away as she closed the door, feeling suddenly much better. The grey skies above him faded away and then the sun was glimmering down on him, as if the weather also agreed that today had been a good day.

The End