Oh, Happy Day!

      "Thornilia, are you ready to go yet?" I yelled up at her, peering through the doorway. Where was that silly little pet? She never had a knack for being on time.

      "Yep! I'm putting my shoes on now! I will be down in a few minutes!" she called back excitedly.

      “You’d better hurry or we are going to be late! We don’t want all of the good items to be taken by the time we get there,” I reminded her with a slight roll of my eyes. We really needed to practice the whole being on time thing. Minutes later I heard her clambering down the stairs.

      We'd been planning this trip to the Trading Post for almost two weeks now. Thornilia even had it marked in her calendar. Each day, she would come up to me to remind me how many days we were away. The excitement was contagious and each day, I looked forward to her daily reminder. Today was finally the day we’d both been looking forward to for so long.

      It was still early morning when we arrived at the Trading Post. Thankfully, we’d arrived before most of the crowd and it gave us the opportunity to check out all of the items for sale without the hassle of running into all the other Neopians. We spent hours just strolling down the aisles, trying to see what each seller had to offer.

      We knew there had to be something perfect for each of us and of course, we had to bring something back for Thornilia’s siblings as well. Slowly, we began to check each name off the list.

      For Gentle, we’d managed to get a number of books off the list she’d given us just yesterday. Citrie was just complaining last week about not having nearly as many clothes as all of her friends so we picked her out a dress we both loved. Nova was a snob about shoes, always claiming she didn’t have nearly enough pairs, so we picked out another pair to add to her collection.

      I walked up to one table with interest. Inside a show case were a number of stamps I’d been dying to get my hands on. It took a lot of the neopoints we had but I managed to purchase three of them off of the seller. “What a snag!” I exclaimed, dropping them into the cart.

      As our cart began filling up, it appeared that Thornilia’s earlier excitement was quickly fading away. I assumed, like me, she was just getting tired. We’d been walking for hours without much of a break.

      Sitting down on a bench, I let out a large groan, “Wow, my feet are killing me!” I looked over at Thornilia who looked just as tired as I was. “That sure was a lot of walking. I guess we ought to head home now before it gets too late. Right, Thorni?” I asked, leaning back against the bench as I stretched my legs out.

      Her face dropped even more, “Oh yeah. I suppose you are right, Ezzy.” Her voice was filled with disappoint as she looked down at her feet that were scuffing in the dirt.

      I looked over at her, trying to figure out why she could be so upset. She’d been so excited leading up to the day and to look at each of the sellers lots at the beginning. The lightbulb flickered in my mind. We had managed to get a great gift for everyone else in the family, everyone except poor Thornilia. My heart was breaking for her but it seemed like we’d visited all of the sellers that were out today and there was nothing she really wanted.

      We began heading to the exit when something on the booth to the left caught my eye. ‘No way that’s what I think it is,’ I thought to myself. But taking a second look confirmed it.

      I turned to Thornilia with a knowing grin on my face. “Thorni, I’m not sure we checked that table over there. Do you think we should go look before we head home for the day?” I pointed it out to her with a small wave. I figured this would be exactly what she needed to turn around her day.

      She shrugged at that, still looking down at her feet as she walked. She was snappy when she spoke, "I guess so. Honestly, I'd really rather we just go home now.”

      “Aww, come on Thorni. We are already here, we might as well go look,” I insisted, grabbing her arm to pull her to the table with me. She was being stubborn because she was upset but when she saw what I did, my happy Thornilia would be back.

      Once we were standing in front of the table, her curiosity got the better of her and she lifted her eyes to take in the items. I was watching her and the moment she realized what sat in front of her, her entire face instantly lit up and the glum look from earlier was nowhere to be found.

      "I can't believe they have a Woodland Uni Morphing Potion here!" she shrieked, looking over at me with a huge smile on her face.

      We both looked at each other in disbelief. Thornilia and I had been searching high and low for a Woodland Uni Morphing Potion. Each day, we would spend hours on end at the Magic Shop in the hopes one would restock. There had been a time or two when we saw one pop up but sadly each time, we were too slow to snag it for ourselves. It had been months since we'd seen any at the Trading Post. We had almost given up the hope of ever being able to become her dream pet. Since birth, she'd been unhappy as a green Aisha. For months we zapped her with the lab ray and had only been given stat changes. Ever since she was born, Thornilia felt her name would be better suited for a Woodland Uni. Just when we thought it would never be possible, we could make her dream a reality!

      The initial shock wore off quickly and I looked over at Thornilia. Leaning down, I whispered to her, “What do you think we should do Thorni?” She looked up at me before quickly looking back at the price tag on the potion. “I know it is already overpriced, but I think we should get it. Who knows when we will ever find one again?” Her eyes were pleading with me.

      I knew she was right and quickly turned to the owner of the potion. There was a crowd around his table and I didn’t want someone to take it while we were debating. I over-offered and smiled when he accepted.

      Thorni took the potion from my hand, holding it to her chest. “I am ready to go home now! I can’t wait to morph and finally get to be a Woodland Uni!” She smiled proudly. “This is the best day of my life! I can’t believe this finally happened!”

      We hurried home now, both of us excited to watch her transformation be complete after all these months of dreaming.

      The End.