Can You Remember?: Part One

      Stomping her hoofs as loudly as possible, Saeleah turned and ascended the stairs to her bedroom. Her owner, Janelle, shook her head angrily at the Uni and turned and walked in the other direction.

      As Saeleah entered her room, she slammed the door behind her as hard as she could. Slamming things and making noise helped her anger, so she continued to clatter things and cause as much racket as possible until her brother Corrain entered her room.

      "Seriously, Saeleah, will you stop making so much noise? I'm trying to do homework," The Gnorbu complained.

      Saeleah ignored her brother's complaints and began to rant.

      "Honestly, Corrain, Janelle is so ridiculous and unfair! For the past three months I've been BEGGING her to paint me water, and she ALWAYS says she can't afford the paint brush. But you know what she did today? She went and bought a royal paint brush for that stupid new sister she got us last month! That little Acara doesn't deserve to be painted before me; I've lived here WAY longer than she has!" Saeleah ranted angrily.

      Corrain rolled his eyes.

      "Saeleah, you're the one being unreasonable. You're already painted, and Kalira and I are too. Esianah wasn't painted, so isn't it only fair that she gets painted before you?" Corrain reasoned.

      Saeleah scoffed.

      "I'm only painted striped! It's, like, one of the cheapest colors out there and it's so boring! Esianah's a little kid! She doesn't care if she's green!" Saeleah replied.

      Corrain just shook his head.

      "You're being selfish. You can wait a few more months to be painted water. That paint brush is still new and extremely expensive, you know," he said.

      Saeleah rolled her eyes dramatically. "Well, obviously. That's one of the reasons I want it!"

      Corrain sighed.

      "Well you're either going to have to wait for Janelle to save up, or save up yourself, then," Corrain remarked as he turned to exit the room.

      "Ugh, no way that's going to happen! Both of those options will take forever!" Saeleah shouted at her brother's retreating back.

      When Corrain didn't respond, Saeleah groaned and threw herself onto her bed. Maybe the Water Paint Brush was a little expensive and difficult to get, but Janelle should've saved the neopoints she'd spent on Esianah for Saeleah first! Esianah had only been living with them for about a month, and already Janelle had bought her a paint brush. Saeleah hadn't been painted until a year after Janelle created her, she remembered. She'd been an ugly shade of red back then.

      "That little Acara's probably going to grow up to be a self-absorbed, stuck-up little brat and Janelle will end up not even wanting her anymore, and will bring her to the pound and her paint brush will have been a waste!" Saeleah reasoned to herself.

      "I wish I were an only pet again. If I had Janelle all to myself, then I would be pampered the way I deserve to be! Janelle never has enough neopoints for me because she's always spending them on clothes and other useless things for Kalira, Corrain, and now Esianah. I could be getting all the clothes, makeup, and paint brushes I want if Janelle wasn't spending so much on those three. Sometimes I wish I could have a new owner, one who would only spend neopoints on me," Saeleah grumbled to herself.

      Suddenly she paused as an idea struck her. She could run away! If she ran away, she could look for a new, better owner in the rich neighborhoods of other lands and get everything she wanted!

      At first, Saeleah wasn't sure if she wanted to leave Janelle, though. Even though she couldn't afford to spoil Saeleah as much as she used to, that didn't mean Janelle didn't love her, right?

      Saeleah shook the though from her head. Sure, Janelle loved her, but clearly not enough to treat her the way she deserved to be. Besides, Saeleah would look for a rich owner nearby, and surely she would still be able to write her to her old family, right?

      A smile formed on Saeleah's face as she considered this plan. It would be perfect, no doubt. Maybe she could even live in Faerieland! It wasn't too far from Neopia Central, and it was her favorite land!

      "That's perfect! I'll run away to Faerieland, and I'll search for a rich owner looking to adopt a Neopet, and my life will be absolutely perfect!" Saeleah whispered to herself.

      Quickly glancing outside to make sure nobody was around; Saeleah quietly closed the door all the way and pulled a duffel bag out of her closet. Before she could begin packing, however, she heard Janelle's voice calling Saeleah and her siblings down for dinner.

      "Great. If I leave now, they'll notice and come after me before I have time to get away!" she muttered to herself.

      As Saeleah made her way downstairs for dinner, she thought over her escape plan in her head. She hadn't planned it out very well, she realized as she approached the dining room, and started to develop a new plan.

      Everyone at the table knew Saeleah and Janelle were still angry with each other, so nobody questioned Saeleah as to why she wasn't talking much while they ate. She drowned out all conversation around her as she came up with a perfect idea in her mind.

      She would wait until everyone went to bed. When she was sure everybody was asleep, Saeleah would sneak downstairs and snatch some food and water to bring with her- just in case it took a few days to find a decent new owner- and she would fly to Faerieland. She knew it would take several hours to reach Faerieland, so she would have to hire and Eyrie to fly her there so she could sleep on the way. After all, she wouldn't want to look tired if she wanted to make a good impression on her future owner.

      When Saeleah arrived to Faerieland, she planned to spend the night in the Neolodge and in the morning, she would go to Faerie City and search for a new owner.

      After dinner Saeleah immediately rushed to her room to pack. She only took her most important possessions, as all of her clothes, makeup and jewelry would be too much to carry. Saeleah packed three pairs of clothes, some mascara, eye shadow and lipstick, her favorite brush, one small wallet-sized picture of her family, and 10,000 neopoints.

      That night, a half-hour after everyone had gone to bed, Saeleah snuck downstairs to the kitchen to pack some food for her journey. Saeleah grabbed three bottles of water, two bags of cookies, several apples, a few slices of pizza, and a bag of Neocrackers. She shoved the food into her bag, and then silently made her way back upstairs. She quickly scribbled a note to Janelle that explained why she was running away. She told Janelle her not to search for her, even though she knew she was going to, and she promised to write once she found a home.

      Leaving the note on the dresser, the Uni silently slipped out her window and soared to Neopia Central to find an Eyrie cab. She searched around the main shops, and when she didn't come across one, Saeleah, annoyed, ended up having to fly to the Eyrie Cab Center.

      When she arrived to the building, Saeleah was shocked to see it dark and empty. She walked up the front doors and tried to enter, but the door was locked. To her dismay, she saw that the Center had closed over an hour ago.

      "Of course, they close at 9:00 pm on weekends," she muttered in irritation.

      Saeleah closed her eyes and sighed, trying to decide what to do instead.

      "I can't fly by myself, I'll get too tired!" she groaned as she walked away from the building. "But if I stay here until morning, Janelle might come looking for me before the building opens."

      Eventually deciding she had no other choice Saeleah pulled her duffel bag off of her back and hung it from her forearm as she spread her wings to take off. She would have to fly to Faerieland on her own. She knew it wasn't a smart idea, but if she stayed in the Neolodge in Neopia Central Janelle might find her.

      Saeleah flew for over two hours. She'd started off her flight going as fast as she possibly could, hoping to arrive in Faerieland sooner, however this only caused her to become fatigued more quickly and after nearly two and a half hours of flying nonstop, Saeleah couldn't carry on much further.

      She tried to slowly lower herself to the ground, but her eyes kept fluttering shut. Saeleah started falling rather than gliding, and every time she attempted to gain control of her wings, her aching muscles gave out on her and she continued to plummet towards the mass of trees beneath her. As the forest got closer, Saeleah gave up, hoping the trees would break her fall. She felt herself crash into a cluster of branches and leaves. She tumbled through the trees, and the shock woke her up slightly until her head hit something hard, and everything went black.

To be continued...