The Peculiar Incident that is Goldie the Snowbunny: Part Two

--2:00 A.M. Saphie’s Room--

Saphire125 was awakened by a soft scratching sound by her bedside. She struggled to see through her sleep filled eyes and the pitch of night. Goldie, her recently-turned gold Snowbunny, radiated quite brightly in the dark, and Saphie could spot him pacing his Petpet bed.

      “Go to sleep, Goldie!” she groaned before turning in bed.

      The Snowbunny looked up at her with his twitching nose. He scratched at her blankets, but she was already asleep. He pawed at her blankets until morning, when Saphie woke up with the sun.

      “Good morning, Goldie.” The Acara rubbed her eyes. The morning greeted her with sunshine and peacefulness, at least until she noticed that her rainbow fuzzy blanket was half off of the mattress. She looked inquisitively at her Petpet.

      "Wait... were you playing with my blanket?” Goldie looked up with his big blank eyes, and Saphie almost felt guilty for questioning him. She stood up and stretched.

      “Come on, Goldie, let’s get breakfast.”

      Coanneranne and Jane were eating omelettes at the table.

      “Mornin’, Saphie! Did you sleep good?” Jane rose to make another omelette.

      “Sleep well,” Coanneranne quietly corrected her.

      “Yeah, it was good, but Goldie was pulling my covers off. It was kinda weird.”

      “Maybe he’s lonely down there.” Jane giggled.

      Coanneranne picked up an issue of the Neopian Times; immediately the front page grabbed her attention.

      “Hey, look!” she gasped. “A bunch of Meepits escaped from a store in Neopia Central!”

      The girls crowded to see the article. “Ooh, I’m glad we don’t live there! Those things are creepy!” Jane shuddered.

      Suddenly Goldie began to struggle and squirm in Saphie’s arms. He wrestled free and bounded for the front door. He furiously clawed at it, making little scratching sounds.

      “What’s with Goldie?” asked Coanneranne as she set the Times down.

      “Saphie, did he always do that?” Jane asked. “I don’t remember him grabbing things like that before.”

      Saphie shrugged. “No, maybe the ray makes Petpets do that.”

      “Powder doesn’t do that,” Coanneranne remarked about her Baby Fireball.

      Goldie continued to scratch at the door, but when it became apparent that no one would let him out, he retreated upstairs. Saphie assumed he’d just go to her room, so she continued to eat her omelette while Coanneranne and Jane discussed the escaped Meepits. After breakfast (Amrakarii ate an hour later), Jane left to visit her friends, which left the three sisters alone. Coanneranne retreated upstairs to play her violin, while Saphie stewed on the couch with Amrakarii.

      “She listens to those friends of hers too much!” Saphie declared crossly.

      “She’ll stop eventually... I hope.” Amrakarii tried to comfort her sister. “I mean, how much influence can a few people have on her?”

      Neither of the girls answered, so Amrakarii gratefully changed the subject. “I hope she comes home soon, I’m in the mood for ice cream, and I’m looking forward to getting zapped too, since nothing happened yesterday.” She still wasn’t sure if Saphie and Coanneranne were very comfortable discussing their owner’s business with her. After all, she wasn’t really a member of the family...

      Coanneranne was playing her violin upstairs, the muffled melody filled the silent air in the living room. Combined with the warm house, it was beginning to make the sisters feel sleepy. Amrakarii looked over at Saphie, who was already gone in dreamland. The Korbat’s eyelids began to feel heavy; everything was feeling heavy...

      “AAAHHHH!!” a piercing shriek shocked her instantly awake.

      “Coanneranne!” Saphie was already halfway up the stairs. She flung her door open.

      “What is it? What happened?!” they both demanded.

      “Saphie! Your Petpet... Goldie... he was here! He forced the door open and lunged at me!” Coanneranne’s violin sat on the floor. She was shaking from head to hoof, and her eyes were huge with terror.

      Saphie looked baffled, and a little amused. “Sister, Goldie ain’t here.”

      Coanneranne didn’t even correct her grammar mistake, which meant that she was honestly terrified. “He lunged with all his teeth out and he went under my bed!!” She pointed, but it looked completely undisturbed.

      Now everyone looked reluctantly at her regal oakwood bed. Saphie begged Amrakarii with her eyes to check under the bed. She knew she had to be strong for her younger foster sister, so Amrakarii cautiously approached it; he still had to be under there. She slowly crouched on the floor and lifted the covers, waiting for something to emerge. The bedroom was silent with terror. After peering into the inky darkness, she realized it was completely vacant.

      “Coanneranne, nothing’s there.”

      Saphie frowned. “I knew it! Goldie wouldn’t do anything like that! Never!”

      Coanneranne lost her usual cool composure. “But- I saw him!! I think I’d see something trying to jump at me!” she cried.

      Amrakarii glanced around the room; everything looked normal and quiet, but she believed Coanneranne had seen something. Nobody could fake the scream she had made.

      “Maybe the sun shone in your eyes?” the Korbat calmly suggested, but Coanneranne shook her head.

      “I know what I saw; it was Goldie.”

      Saphie shook her head. “It must have been a different Snowbunny!”

      “Saphie! You probably own the only gold Snowbunny in all of Neopia!” Coanneranne responded vehemently.

      “You’re crazy!”

      “You’re in denial!”

      “What does that mean?!”

      "Guys?” Jane’s voice below stopped the spat. “I’m home; anyone wanna go shopping... where are you?”

      The three dashed down the stairs and bombarded their owner with their argument.

      “Mom! I saw Goldie attack me!” Coanneranne said loudly.

      “It wasn’t Goldie!” Saphie yelled.

      “The point is that she saw something! And where is Goldie anyway!?” Amrakarii tried to speak over the others.

      Jane nearly fell backwards. “What happened?!” she gasped.

      Coanneranne stopped and took a second to observe her owner. Her brown eyes were blank with exhaustion. Obviously her friends had given her a hard time again. Neither Coanneranne nor any of her sisters approved of Jane’s friends. In the beginning, they all went over to play with their pets, but they were stuck up and mean spirited. Once a blue Cybunny named Carla had made Saphie cry. The play dates quickly stopped, though Jane still visited them. Their owners had too much influence over Jane, and it made the faerie Ixi furious.

      “Goldie attacked you, Coanneranne?!” Jane’s mouth hung open.

      “Yes! I was playing my violin, and then Goldie opened my door and lunged at me! I dodged him, but he crawled under my bed and disappeared!”

      “Where’s Goldie now?” she asked.

      Everyone ran upstairs to find the Snowbunny. Saphie swung her bedroom door open, and there he sat, in his Petpet bed, fast asleep.

      “He looks like he hasn’t moved in a while,” Amrakarii remarked.

      “I swear I saw him! Why won’t anyone believe me?” Coanneranne’s eyes glistened with tears.

      “It must have been the sun in your eyes, Coanneranne,” Jane said soothingly, “but you’re alright, so let’s not worry about it anymore.”

      She had heard enough. Coanneranne flew into her room and slammed the door.

      “Coanneranne! Sweetie! I-” But Jane didn’t bother, it was a waste of effort to console a Neopet as dramatic as Coanneranne was.

      “Ahh,” she sighed, “let’s just get the zapping done.”

      “I’m not zapping Goldie again!” Saphie exclaimed.

      “Maybe we could just skip it and go straight to the Lab Ray?” Amrakarii suggested calmly.

      “Yeah... skip it... so tired...”

      --Coanneranne’s Room--

      Coanneranne lay on her bed sobbing into her pillow, “This isn’t fair! I know he was there!” She suddenly shot up in bed. “Saphie didn’t take him out with her, did she?” The faerie Ixi looked in the corner; her abandoned Petpet bed signaled that Powder was somewhere else in the house. Her heart began to beat harder. What if Goldie came in again? Especially since she was alone in the house, he might have his chance to do... whatever he was planning to do.

      “Relax, Coanneranne, he won’t do it again...” But her attempt to calm herself down was useless. Her heart continued to speed up. She had to leave the house, get away for a while....

      “That’s what I’ll do.” She grabbed a few neopoints and headed out the door.

      Roo Island was a popular vacation spot, one couldn’t tire easily of the small island, so it wasn’t hard for Coanneranne to release the day’s stress. She started by buying some cotton candy and taking a ride on the Merry-Go-Round. Everyone was smiling and laughing, and soon Coanneranne found herself doing the same.

      “That was fun!” She laughed to herself. “I wonder if Mom and the others are home yet?”

      The sun was beginning to fall below the horizon, making the water look orange and red. She truly loved living on Roo Island, even if a good portion of the population were a bunch of silly Blumaroos who never stopped playing around. The merriment and beauty never failed to impress her.

      Suddenly Coanneranne spotted a blue blob out of the corner of her eye. She broke out of her romantic daze to look around. The trees swayed silently in the wind, and nothing made a sound besides the distant waves.

      “I must have seen something...” She turned back to finish her cotton candy, when abruptly it appeared again.

      “What in the-”

      Then she saw it. A blue Meepit dashed out from behind a tree, and he knew she had found him. The blue patch of fur made a lunge for a hole in the ground, but Coanneranne was too quick and she snatched him in her hooves.

      “Gotcha!” She elevated him in front of her face; she had a good grip to prevent him from scratching her eyes out. “I bet you’re one of those escaped Meepits from the newspaper, huh?” She proudly dangled him in front of her face.

      A rather evil glow lit up his eyes.

      “Why, do you wanna know?”

      Coanneranne yelped in surprise. In her shock she dropped the Meepit and he scurried off.

      “Oh my gosh... it-it TALKED!!!” Her head spun with astonishment. That was it; she really was daffy. First a Petpet attacked her, and then one talked to her. No one, not even her gullible owner, would believe her now. She had lost track of time in her panic, and the sun had completely given way to night. She needed to get home. At least Goldie didn’t speak, and who knew what he would say if he could...

To be continued...