Karamita and the Lab Jazz: Part Three

      Karamita tugged at the hem of her coat. It was somewhat foreign for her to wear a coat as the weather in Neopia Central was rarely extremely cold. She was a bit confused as to why Sue was dressed in her normal apparel of just a wig and an overcoat, but didn’t bother to ask why.

      Sue led her into a building with no obvious signage. Of course Karamita had seen it plenty of times in her travels around Neopia Central, but she never truly wondered what was inside.

      “Faye!” Sue called out, “You there?”

      An air faerie popped up from behind a large desk. “Suki-Suki-Sue! It’s been too long!”

      Sue smiled brightly as she bounded towards the desk and leapt onto it. The faerie pulled off Sue’s wig and petted her on the head. Sue let out a soft purr as Faye began speaking, “Your shoyru sister dropped off a letter saying you needed passage to Tyrannia. We arranged you to fly with your good friend Samuel.”

      “Sammy!” Sue chirped, “He’s still flying?”

      “Yes, it’s been years and years and he’s still flying! He’s one of the best we’ve got,” Faye ruffled Sue’s hair one last time before carefully placing her wig back on and adjusting it, “We save him for the big trips so he doesn’t get too worn out, though.”

      “Big . . . trip?” Karamita’s eyes were wide as she slowly made her way towards her sister.

      “Non-stop!” Faye laughed, “She said your youngest girl would be tagging along, so I figured it would make it easier for everyone if she didn’t have a chance to jump off on Mystery Island and refuse to get back on!”

      “Faye, you are the best!” Sue hopped down off of the counter and gestured with her head towards an exit next to the counter, “Out that way?”

      The faerie nodded as Sue bounded towards the door. As soon as she made it to the door, she realized Karamita wasn’t following. Sue sighed and slowly made her way to Karamita. “Karm, don’t worry. I’ve made trips with Sammy hundreds of times. It’s safe and fun. Just don’t look down.”

      Karamita slowly made her way to the door, her heart beating so deeply that she could feel each pulse in her legs. Sue opened the door for her and smiled. “I know it’s your first time flying, but after this it won’t be your last!”

      As soon as Karamita made her way through the door, her heart stopped. Standing in front of her was a Darigan eyrie. However, Sue ran at top speed to the menacing beast and threw her front legs around his neck.

      “Sammy!” She squeaked as she buried her face into his ruff, “I missed you!”

      “I know, Sue, I missed you too.” His voice boomed as Karamita began to shake.

      “Oh, your little sister?” Samuel looked over at Karamita. He let out a loud chuckle, “Maybe you should have gotten a baby eyrie to fly her!”

      “Oh, don’t be silly, Sammy!” Sue giggled as she pulled her face out of his ruff, “You’re the sweetest and kindest Neopian in the world! It’ll teach her that color is only skin deep!”

      “Ah, yes,” Samuel nodded, “My color is more off-putting than my size, isn’t it?”

      “I think I’ve gained some weight, Sammy,” Sue giggled, “Can I still use your fur to climb on instead of the dumb boarding platform?”

      “You’re just a tiny, tiny xweetok, Sue!” Samuel laughed, “No matter how fat you get, you’ll always be welcome to climb on up!”

      Sue took that as her cue to scurry up to Samuel’s back. She waved for Karamita to follow her. Samuel made his way to a platform with steps spaced so closely together that even the smallest of Neopians could scale them with no problem. He knelt down so that his back was even with the top of the platform. Karamita nervously made her way up to the platform before cautiously stepping onto Samuel’s back. As soon as she was on it, she instantly grabbed as much fur as possible to anchor herself down.

      “You two secure?” Samuel glanced back at his passengers. Sue threw herself into the eyrie’s ruff before chirping a quick affirmation.

      Karamita let out a nervous “yes”.

      As soon as Samuel heard their responses, he began to run down the runway before spreading his wings and launching into the sky.

      If it weren’t for Karamita’s green fur, she would have been completely white. She couldn’t process the jovial conversation her sister and the eyrie were having. All she could understand where the shrill giggles and booming chuckles coming from the Neopians in front of her. Time passed quickly as Samuel was shortly landing on a strip of land right outside of Tyrannia.

      Sue hopped onto Samuel’s head and gave him one final hug before doing a flip and landing firmly with all four paws on the ground.

      “Oh, Sue, you know you’re too adorable,” Samuel laughed, “The letter said you wouldn’t need passage for another week?”

      Sue nodded, “Yes, I’m leaving her here while I use ships to travel from here to the islands.”

      “Here?!” Karamita squeaked, still on Samuel’s back. Samuel kneeled down so that Karamita could easily roll off of his back. She clumsily fell off before standing on her hind legs and using her front paws to brush the fine sand off of her fur.

      “Don’t worry, don’t worry!” Sue made her way to Karamita, “You can leave whenever you want!”

      “But!” Karamita began to protest.

      “Shh, shh, Don’t worry!” Sue hugged her sister, “There’s a branch of the Neolodge here. I wouldn’t let you sleep on the side of the road!”

      “Oh . . . okay. . .” Karamita took a deep breath, “I think I can handle that.”

      Sue smiled brightly, “Good! Now let’s go see the Jazz Rats!”

      Karamita looked up at Samuel and fell onto her bottom. Her eyes were wide with terror as she realized she had left her violin at home.

      “Oh! I wouldn’t let you forget!” Sue laughed as she pulled Karamita’s violin case out of her bag. She handed it to Karamita and waved at Samuel. “Happy trails, Sammy! Buy yourself a good meal and put it on my tab!”

      Samuel laughed his booming laugh, “Oh, Sue, you know I will!”

      With that, the eyrie took to the skies.

      Karamita stood on all four paws and looked over at Sue. Her legs were shaking and her heart was still pounding.

      “Let’s go!” Sue gave a quick hop and began their journey to the heart of Tyrannia.

      With each step closer to the civilization that was Tyrannia, Karamita began to shake more. It was a strange, alien world. There were loud “uggas” and “uggs” reverberating throughout the mountains that only became louder as they were closer to the city.

      “If someone starts coming up to you and ‘ugging’ just tell them ‘No, I speak Fyora’s Neopian dialect and I will not try to learn your language!” Sue laughed, “Or just say ‘please speak my language if you can.’ They’re not too unkind here. They’ll either switch or leave. Not like those Neopians in the Lost Desert. There’s a reason I avoid that place!”

      Karamita continued to shake until they were at the door of the address on the flyer. It was strangely out of place in Tyrannia. The building had decidedly modern features like a smooth wooden door. Sue threw open the door and called out, “New lab rat coming through!”

      Karamita stood on her hind legs and pulled her violin case off of her shoulder so she could hug it close to her.

      “New lab rat?!” A woodland skeith popped out of a door at the end of the main entrance.

      Karamita began to shake again at the sight of the skeith.

      “Sorry, she’s not used to species that aren’t common in Neopia Central!” Sue laughed, “She’s a sheltered little baby.”

      “Well, you’d have me fooled!” The skeith laughed, “She looks green to me!”

      Sue and the skeith shared a hearty laugh. Karamita simply stared at the skeith, not understanding how Sue could so easily start a lighthearted conversation with such an imposing monster.

      Karamita wanted to run, but the skeith held out a hand for her to shake, “They call me Bloomer.”

      Karamita involuntarily let out a shriek when she saw the skeith’s hand. The leaves were pruned away leaving nothing but bone line twigs.

      Bloomer pulled his hand away and laughed, “Aw, don’t feel bad little acara. No one can handle my hands at first!”

      Sue put her paw on Karamita’s shoulder. “Sorry Mr. Bloomer.”

      “You’re not scared? Or are you just blind?” Bloomer laughed, “Because most people don’t take too lightly to seeing a skeleton hand!”

      “I’m a pirate!” Sue playfully rolled her eyes, “You can’t be a pirate and not get used to some exposed bone!”

      Bloomer smirked, “Well, I wish all Neopians were like you.”

      “Introduce yourself, Karm!” Sue lovingly patted Karamita on the back, “You don’t have to touch the scary hand.”

      Karamita nodded and whispered, “I’m Karamita and I played violin.”

      “Ah, Karamita!” Bloomer laughed, “What a wonderful, normal name! You’ll probably end up being Carry to all of us.”

      “You’ll take good care of my little sister?” Sue made eye contact with Bloomer. As fun loving and flippant Sue was, the fire in her eyes betrayed how protective she was of her family.

      “We will do our best to make her feel at home . . .” Bloomer nodded as he trailed off. Karamita’s heart stopped when she realized what he was going to say, “But she may get a heart attack from seeing all of us misfits!”

      Sue nodded before ruffling the fur on Karamita’s head, “You be accepting and tolerant, Karm.”

      Karamita gave one shallow, unsure nod as Bloomer led her to the band’s practice room.

      To be continued…