Goo's Story- A tale of one Bori's way home

     "Pppssssst, Ash, are you asleep yet?” Ash rolled over hoping the chocolate bori would take the xweetok’s silence to mean that he was in fact asleep. “Ash, Ash, I can’t sleep.”

      “If you don’t sleep your fur will turn gray,” Ash growled back.

      “That’s not true,” Goo answered, kicking his blanket in the air with his legs, as he tried to find a comfortable position.

      “Is to, that’s what happened to Grym,” Ash replied.

      “Grym’s not grey, he’s a mummy, like Nighsteed,” Goo argued. “Ash, I cannnnn’t sleep!”

     Why don’t you try closing your eyes,” The older boy snapped pulling his red bandana up over his ears. Then sighed and pulled it back down again. He knew that Goo wouldn’t go to sleep till Ash answered whatever question had popped into his head. “What do you need Goo?”

      “Will you tell me my story?” Goo answered. “I promised to go to sleep if you tell it to me.” The pirate xweetok sighed again.

      “Why can’t you tell it to yourself?” Ash replied in a softer tone. “I’ve only told it to you a million times. Besides its your story, why don’t you tell it to me.”

      “But you tell it better!” Goo whined.

      “Alright I’ll tell it to you,” Ash sat up on his cot. While he was used to the noise of the other gypsies in camp, or the sound of the rides in the deserted carnival, he would never get to sleep unless Goo did first. “You were born on Terror Mountain…”

     ---

      Geoffrey VonBarret was the second son of Elouise and Fredrick VonBarret. Fredrick was a doctor and Elousie stayed home to take care of the children Braedon and Geoffrey. Unfortunately for the family, both children were not like the other boris in their village, and much more mischievous and adventurous. Far more unfortunate than their trouble making children Mr. VonBarret was known for usual medical practices.

      In short, the family did not fit in on the mountain and were asked to leave. However, Braedon was separated from his family during a storm and was lost. Fear not though, Bandy as he was later called was found by another a wonder family who took him in, but that is another story. Eventually the family settled down in the far away land of the Haunted Woods.

      Mr. VonBarrets questionable cures were much more accepted here by the residents of the woods. Geoffrey’s antics were much less tolerated, at least by his family. True to unborish nature, he found trouble every where he looked and there was much more to find here. Finally, the VonBarrets had had enough. So they took their son into the woods and left him as close to the border of woods and the beautiful Neopia Central as possible. They hoped that a kind Neopian would find him and bring him to the Neopian Pound and then perhaps he too would find a new home, as they believed Braedon to have.

      To the surprise of the VonBarrets when they opened their cottage door, asleep on the doorstep was a familiar brown bori. Hoping their son may have learned something from his night in the woods alone, and perhaps he was a bit more resourceful and smarter than they had thought, they kept him for a few more days. This proved to be disastrous.

      Into the woods they went again, this time they brought the little bori to the boarder of the forest and faerie land. The kind hearted faeries were sure to take pity on him and find him a new home. Then they would finally be free of their burden once and for all. This time, it took two nights for the young bori to find his way home. They found him asleep in his mother’s vegetable garden.

      Geoffrey made it through one night in his own bed before his tire parents decided to try another boarder in the hopes someone might take him in and relieve them of their burden, but each time he came back. Each time he came back he became unhappier and unhappier as did his parents.

      What Geoffrey didn’t tell them was that he hadn’t been finding his way home on his own. He wasn’t sure how to tell them. The first time he had come home, his parents had been so proud of him for finding his way home. His mother had made him all his favorite food and his father had showered him in praise. His father had never praised him like that before. Braedon had always gotten all his father’s attention, unless their father had a new technique he wanted to try out.

      He had tried to better, he really had. It was just that there were some many cool things to see in the woods, so more than on the mountain and the mountain had the Snowager! Here there were robots with pies, and zombies, and gypsies who told scary stories and so many more wonderful things. Geoffrey loved them all, he just couldn’t help himself.

      Even if he resisted his urges and tried to stay away from them, they always seemed to find him in the end. He simply couldn’t stay out of trouble and it often cost his family many neopoints. While his family was far better off here in the woods where the patients actually came back for his father’s cures, his father still didn’t want to spend all his hard earned money on fixing or replacing or simply paying off his son’s debts to The Crumpetmonger (who admittedly had a soft spot for the young thief). Besides his ill-behaved son was liable to ruin his reputation and by default ruin his practice as well.

      So every time his family sent him into the woods, he was determined to tell the mysterious uni that always seemed to find him not to bring him back. And yet, every time he came across the great uni with the serious face, but strangely kind eyes, he became to afraid to ask the uni for anything more than what he offered.

      Grym, he knew, was a protector, and guardian of the forest and its in habitants. He did not know how the old the uni was, just that he was much older than himself and had given his life to the service of the forest and its inhabitants, but most of all to its lost.

      Grym was not blind however to the fact that the bori had more he wished to say than he did. They did not often speak aloud, as Grym was a quiet and private creature, but he had learned a lot from the boys body language. He could tell each time that the boy was found on one of the boarder that the bori was unhappier than the last time he had been lost. Finally the uni thought to ask.

      “Geoffrey,” The uni said softly, as they settled in for the night under the canopy of the dark trees. “why is that I have found you on every boarder of our woods?”

      “I-my-well,” He thought about his answer, not something he did often. “Well you see, I am a burden on my family. I don’t mean to be, to be sure. Truly I try to be good but I just, well, I suppose I can’t help myself. I do try, but the woods are so beautiful and filled with so many interesting things and pets and, and, and-“

      “And why do you believe you are a burden to your family?” the uni interrupted fearing the bori would continue without pause if he didn’t.

      “Well, because they tell me so of course, I am liable to ruin my father’s reputation and my mother’s garden should I return again, and to eat them out of house and home,” He said this with a smile on his face, but a sad look in his eyes. Grym could tell these were not the bori’s own words but something he had been told instead.

      “Well, I don’t find you to be a burden at all,” Grym replied.

      “Well, that’s cause you don’t live with me, I am a nuisance,” Geoffrey replied.

      “Are you truly, a nuisance?” Grym asked as a thought struck him. It was a crazy idea, but it could work. Of course, it could fail quite miserably, especially since he couldn’t ask the others involved before going through with it, but it also could be perfect. “I think I know someone who may very well need a nuisance. Need one very badly in fact.”

      ---

     “And that is when Grym bought you to live with me and Stubs. Stubs decided you looked more like a Goo than a Geoffrey” Ash finished, he heard a soft snore coming from the other side of the caravan. “And I am so glad you did.”

     The End.