Behind the Scenes: The Igloo Garage Sale

     What do you mean, you don't believe me?! I'm offended. Buddy, you shouldn't be judging me based off these small wings I have. You have no idea how hard I work with these little things. I could probably beat you in a battledome match no problem. Oh, ha ha! Veryyy funny. Making jokes belittling the petpet battle arena. You know what, don't hate. I could take you down.

     Okay, okay, maybe we didn't get off on the right foot. What's your name? Okay, nice to meet you too. Like I said, I'm Teek, and I work here at the Igloo Garage Sale. You've never seen me around here before, hey? Well, I'm not really surprised. Look closely though next time you come here... DURING THE DAY, MAYBE? Anyhow, if you look carefully, you can always see me. I'm usually napping in a corner during the day, though. If you look for a little ball of purple and blue? Keep an eye out for it... that's me! Sometimes you can even see my orange feet peeking out.

     Why are you here right now, though, anyways? It's night time! Shouldn't you be out visiting Count Von Roo right now, if anything? Why're you in our igloo? Oh, you work the night shift, hey? Down in Happy Valley? Well, okay. If you say so. Still, you should know that we aren't open all night. What do you take us for? We're a small business buddy, if that! Have you ever noticed the emphasis on the "garage sale" bit? What kind of a garage sale is open twenty-four hours a day? What kind of a garage sale is open for years at a time? Erm... anyhow.

     What do I do around here, you ask? I organize all the merchandise. You would never believe how much junk Mika and Carassa have lying around up there! I swear, the attic is never ending. Mika fetches the items and brings them down for sale during the day while I'm usually taking a break or napping... but at night is when I come alive. I clean up all the things, dust them off, price them, arrange them, decide what stock we want to place out for the day... there's quite a process to it. I also carefully watch the Neopian stock market to see what kind of items we should be putting out for sale on certain days. More thought goes into it than you might think!

     I've been working for Mika and Carassa for yearsss now. Oh, how did I get to Terror Mountain in the first place? Well, you see, I was originally born on Krawk Island. I miss it there from time to time: playing on the beach with my brothers and sisters, tinkering with the Dubloon-O-Matic, and flying over to the island north-west of the mainland when we felt brave. I loved flying over there... you know, to where it says Keep Out? I still wonder what's over there. I should visit Krawk Island soon, I haven't been home in quite a while. Now that you asked, you're right, I do miss my family quite a bit, thanks.

     Anyhow, so years ago, on my birthday, I decided to join a group of smugglers on one of their voyages. There were planning to sail to Meridell to snatch up some Draik eggs at the food shop. However... I didn't pick the best group of smugglers to go with: it was their first long distance voyage. Most newbies just sail to Mystery Island for their first trip to sea, but nope, not these guys. "Go big or go home," I remember one of them saying. Pretty sure his home is now at the bottom of the sea, but that's besides the point.

     So, there we were sailing along, headed for Meridell. Like I said, this crew wasn't very experienced though, and what help could I be? No one would take me seriously, anyways. All those Krawks... so bossy! Sorry, that's a generalization. I really shouldn't be saying stuff like that. I mean, they're like family to me, they just get on my nerves a tad, you know? But they just saw me as a petpet on that ship, if I tried to help get us to Meridell, I'm sure they would have all laughed at me.

     A couple days into the trip, we ran out of food. It was terrible. A couple of the sailors had these packs of powdered vitamins, though, the flavoured ones you put in water? They were pretty gross, but we didn't have much of a choice. We mixed them with a bit of water to make a paste, and threw in whatever food scraps we had leftover: oysters, clams, shrimp. It was actually disgusting. Warm seafood that had been sitting on deck for hours? Ugh, it was gross. Actually, without a doubt, that was the worst week of my life. The "food" was awful, and everyone was really cranky. I'm sure you can guess by now, we never ended up getting to Meridell, either. After a couple weeks, we reached Terror Mountain. What a surprise that was. You can imagine how mad everyone was. I was scared actually, all those furious Krawks on one ship, and then little me there in the midst of it? Eep! Anyhow, everyone got off for a bit at the shore, which wasn't really much of a shore, with all that snow, but that was when I made a life-changing decision. I decided I was going to stay on Terror Mountain. From just that half an hour spent in Happy Valley, listening to all the cheerful music, watching everyone skate on the rink, and seeing that Neopets ate ice cream even when it was cold outside?! I knew right then that I wanted to stay on Terror Mountain. It might not be the warmest land in all of Neopia, but it's my home now.

     So, that's how I go here, all the way from Krawk Island. I found work through Mika and Carassa not very long after I arrived on the mountain. They were really helpful, and I'm very grateful for what they've done for me. I mean, they feed me, and they let me sleep here! They're great, they really are. Managing the igloo's hard work, especially for a petpet, but it's worth it. There's a lot of neat little things up in the attic I get to keep sometimes, too. No, no, you can't see any. Sorry. Don't take it personally.

     Anyhow, I still don't really understand why you're here so late. Like I said, maybe you should go see Count Von Roo before he goes back to sleep or something? Or get some rest yourself? The night shift's not for everyone, you know.

     If you come back in the morning though, I'd be happy to set you up with some deals. But for now, shoo! It was nice talking. If you don't see me up and about in the morning, like I said, just look around for that little ball of purple and blue... I'm always around. For now though, good night. And if there's nothing exciting that we have in stock for you here at the Igloo Garage Sale, just remember: we restock roughly eight times an hour, so keep checking back! ;)

The End