Two of a Kind

      Lonalee looked over her shoulder to see a big Grarrl coming her way, a Christmas Niptor keeping pace beside him. Grarrls weren’t common on Mystery Island either as natives or tourists, but Lonalee wasn’t intimidated by his big size or bigger teeth.

      The Grarrl and Niptor stopped short as they saw her. “Oh, we weren’t expecting anyone else out here. Is it okay if we join you? This is me and Parker’s first time on Mystery Island and I wanted to get a good view of the place before exploring some more.” He spoke Common with only the hint of an accent Lonalee couldn’t quite place.

      “Sure! It’s not like the view belongs to me and there’s plenty of room. My name’s Lonalee by the way and this is-” the young Island Kougra broke off her introduction as she realized that her Petpet had disappeared. She gave the Grarrl a sheepish look. “Just a sec!”

      She headed for the nearest undergrowth. The Grarrl and his Petpet had taken them by surprise. Her Babith had taken great strides in overcoming his species’ natural timidity but seeing two big, intimidating strangers come upon them without warning had been too much for him to handle. Thankfully, he never ran far, and it didn’t take long for her to find him.

      “Hey, everything’s gonna be alright. They wanna be our friends!’ Lonalee reassured her quaking mess of a Babith. “Friends are fun, right?”

      Her Babith heaved a sigh and nodded.

      “Come on out so I can introduce you!” Lonalee grabbed her Babith’s paw, and he allowed her to lead him back to where the Grarrl and Niptor were waiting.

      The Grarrl waved in a friendly way and his Niptor gaped his jaws wide in a toothy grin.

      A shudder of horror rippled through her Babith, and he made as if to turn around but her paw on his stopped him in his tracks.

      “No, come on, please try, for me?” Lonalee begged, giving him her best Angelpuss look. Her Babith sighed in resignation and Lonalee grinned. “Yes, thank you!” She hurried over to meet their new companions. “Sorry about that. He’s really shy but he’s willing to give this ‘making friends’ thing a shot,” Lonalee explained to the Grarrl. “Anyway, this is Braveheart.”

      “My name’s Jurasyc but everybody just calls me Jura, and this is Parker,” the Grarrl introduced himself and his Petpet.

      “Oh, nicknames are fun! Sometimes I’m called Lona or Nalee or Lee or Lee Lee but most just use my full name,” Lonalee explained. She grinned up at her new friend. “So, you’re here on vacation, right?”

      “Well, yes and no. My sister is a volcanologist and is part of a field study here for the summer. Since she’s working and there’s no school that means Parker and I are basically on our own, but I’m used to it.”

      Lonalee nodded, at once sympathizing. “I know what you mean. I’m the only kid in my family and while my Makua are great, it’s not the same as having other kids to play with, ya know?”

      “You have to make up your own fun, right?”

      “Right!”

      “So, what do you do for fun around here?”

      “Lots of things! Like, I really like hiking. This trail leads to the summit of Techo Mountain. You wanna come with me?”

      “Sure!”

      The young Kougra and Grarrl continued along the trail as they carried on their conversation.

      “So, where are you from, Jura? I can usually place tourist accents but yours isn’t so obvious.” Lonalee gave her new friend a curious look.

      “Well, that may be because while I was born in Tyrannia, I’ve lived in a few different places,” Jura explained.

      “So, you just travel a lot with your sister, or do you guys actually have a home?”

      “Both. We actually moved back to Tyrannia about a year and a half ago but my sister travels for her job. Since it's just the two of us,” here an indignant squeak came from Parker,”Sorry, three of us, if my sister goes, we go.”

      “Just the two of you? You guys don’t have parents?”

      Jura grimaced. “Our dad died when I was little, and Mom passed a few years ago.”

      “Oh, that’s awful!” Lonalee reached out a hand to grab Jura’s and gave it a squeeze. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been.”

      Jura managed a weak smile. “I didn’t really know my dad, I was too young but losing Mom was tough. I still miss her, but I can talk about her without crying now and I’m glad that I have so many great memories of her.”

      Their conversation came to a brief pause, Lonalee uncertain how to steer the conversation to easier topics.

      Thankfully, Jura picked up a new thread for their conversation. “So, have you lived on Mystery Island your entire life?”

      Lonalee nodded. “I’ve never left the island.”

      “Do you want to?”

      Lonalee frowned, considering. “Nobody’s ever asked me that before. Right now, I don’t think so. I know it’s an island, but every day is different. My family and my friends are here. I have no reason to leave. After all, Mystery Island is one of the top vacation spots in Neopia. Who would want to?”

      Jura smiled. “I get it. I’d probably feel the same way if I had lived just one place my entire life but that’s just not how it happened for me.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “Well, I already mentioned I was born in Tyrannia but after Dad died, Mom decided to move us to Terror Mountain. Staying in Tyrannia just made her too sad, ya know? So, I lived there for seven years until Mom passed. Then, I had to move to Moltara with Chili while she finished her doctorate. We were only there for a year before we moved back to Tyrannia.”

      Lonalee listened in awed silence. “Wow! You really did move a lot. Was it hard for you to adjust? I mean, each of those places is as different from each other as you can get!”

      Jura shrugged. “Yeah, it was hard, but you get used to it after a while. I learned to go with the flow and making friends is easy once you figure out how.”

      Lonalee nodded. “I know what you mean. Just find something in common and go from there.”

      “Exactly!” The young Grarrl looked ahead. “So, how long is this trail?”

      “The whole thing usually takes about three hours.”

      “Not bad.”

      They continued their trek and since they had met about halfway up-it wasn’t too much longer before they reached the top. It was there that they discovered someone had beaten them there. It appeared to be a research team of some sort.

      One of them, a camouflage Grarrl, smiled at their approach. “Back so soon?”

      “I found a friend on the trail. This is Lonalee, and her Babith, Braveheart. Lonalee, this is my sister, Chili.” Jura made the introduction.

      “I’m not surprised. It’s very nice to meet you, Lonalee,” Chili said with a smile. “What are you two up to?”

      Jura gave Lonalee an uncertain look. “Not sure yet.”

      “Well, I was gonna finish this hike and then show your brother around the island a bit, if that’s okay?” Lonalee checked.

      “Of course, it is. Jura, you know the bungalow address, right?”

      “Yup!” Jura confirmed.

      “Then, I’ll see you later. Not sure how long we’ll be today but I hope to meet you back in time for dinner, alright?”

      “Sounds good, Chili. See you later.”

      The siblings hugged in Grarrl fashion, Chili using her large head to pull Jura close for a moment. “Have fun with your little friend, Jura.”

      “I will!”

      “It was nice meeting you, Chili!” Lonalee waved as they left. Once they were out of sight, Lonalee gave Jura an accusatory look. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d already been to the top?”

      “I didn’t want to ruin your hike and I didn’t mind repeating the route. If I wanted to hang out with you then Chili needed to meet you anyway. Doing stuff is a lot better when you have a friend.”

      The two young ‘pets finished their hike to the bottom of Techo Mountain.

      “I don’t know about you but that made me hungry. I know a good place for a bite to eat,” Lonalee said.

      Jura nodded enthusiastically. “Let’s go!”

      It wasn’t a long walk where they got two plate lunches. They finished their meal quickly before heading to the beach. They joined a game of volleyball where Parker got in trouble for accidentally popping the ball.

      “Never mind. Let’s go swimming instead,” Lonalee suggested.

      “I don’t know how to swim,” Jura said.

      “You don’t know how to swim?!”

      “It’s not really something you need to learn in the places I’ve lived,” Jura pointed out. “I’m not sure Grarrls can even swim.”

      “Grarrls can swim just fine and not just Maraquan ones either.”

      “Rhae!” Lonalee tackled the coconut Jubjub that had spoken. She sent both of them tumbling and the Jubjub righted himself with a flat look, clearly fed up with the young Kougra’s antics. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here!”

      “I work here,” Rhae, the Jubjub, reminded her.

      “I made a new friend today. His name is Jura and, guess what, he’s gonna be here all summer. Isn’t that great?”

      “Great,” Rhae responded flatly. He turned his gaze to Jura. “If you’ve got the coin, I can teach you how to swim. If you’re gonna be hanging out with her all summer, you’re gonna wanna learn.”

      “I, sure, I’d like that,” Jura responded, a little taken aback by the offer. “Might as well, right? Since I’m here all summer.”

      “Good. I’ll talk price with your parents, figure out a schedule and get started after that.”

      Lonalee hissed in a breath, casting Jura an anxious look.

      “I’m here with my sister while she works on a field project. She’s available in the evenings and I’ll bring it up with her,” Jura responded smoothly.

      “I’ve got clients to see but Lona knows where to find me,” Rhae explained before taking his leave.

      “Since you can’t swim yet let’s take a bike ride so I can show you around a bit more,” Lonalee suggested.

      “Actually, I can’t ride a bike, either,” Jura admitted, looking almost sheepish.

      “You can’t ride a bike?!” Lonalee sighed. “At least I can teach you that, but we don’t have time to start today.” The young Kougra frowned. “I’m honestly not sure what else we can do with the time that we do have.”

      “Well, when I don’t have anything to do back home, I play pretend.”

      “Sure!”

      Jura grinned. “I’ve never had anyone other than Parker to play pretend with before!”

      “What do you like to pretend to be?”

      “Superheroes, mostly,” Jura said. “Since there are four of us, we could each be a member of Galactic Grarrls.”

      Lonalee frowned. “But I don’t want to be a Grarrl! I wanna be a Kougra.”

      It was Jura’s turn to frown. “But the only Kougra is the Masked Intruder and he’s not really a hero.”

      “Why? Because he was a thief at one time?”

      “Well, yeah.”

      “If Judge Hog can forgive him and work with him as a Defender of Neopia, then that’s good enough for me.”

      The two young friends stared at one another for a long moment.

      Then, Jura sighed. “Okay.”

      Once they’d come to an agreement, they all too quickly lost track of time. It wasn’t until Braveheart gave an indignant mewl that they realized how late it was.

      “Oh, I gotta meet with my sister!” Jura exclaimed. “I don’t want her to worry and think I need a babysitter.”

      Lonalee made a face. “That would be awful! I just got my parents to agree that I don’t need one. I would hate to lose that privilege.”

      “Then, I need to get to the bungalow like, now!”

      “You know how to get there?”

      “I think so.”

      “Hey, I have an idea! Why don’t we all meet for dinner at Poppi’s Grill? It’s a super popular place to eat and it’ll give our par-” Lonalee quickly caught herself, “our families the chance to meet.”

      “Oh, that’s a good idea!”

      “I’ll see you in a bit!”

      They quickly parted ways. Lonalee told her parents about her day and the plan she had come up with for dinner that night. Thankfully, they didn’t object, and it wasn’t long before they found themselves inside the beachfront restaurant. Chili and Jura were already there, and the group settled at an available table.

      Thankfully, the adults hit it off. Conversation flowed easily as they got to know each other.

      “My brother tells me he needs to learn how to swim,” Chili said.

      “That is a useful skill to have on an island,” Lonalee’s dad said.

      “Especially since there are so many activities in and around the water,” her mom added.

      “Do you recommend any teachers?” Chili asked.

      “We taught Lee ourselves but there are plenty of instructors and schools out there to choose from,” her dad said.

      “Jura mentioned he and Lona met a coconut Jubjub named Rhae. He offered to teach Jura how to swim. What do you know about him?”

      “Oh, Rhae! He’s a great teacher. He’s always been so good with Lonalee.”

      “So, patient and kind,” her mom added.

      “Yeah?” Chili looked over at Jura. “Looks like I’ll have to have a chat with him then, if this is really what you wanna do?”

      “Yes!” Jura nodded, eyes bright with excitement.

      “Once you learn how to swim, we’ll be able to go surfing and paddleboarding and canoeing! And once I teach you how to ride a bike, there are so many great trails we can explore together!” Lonalee gushed, eyes as bright as her new friend’s.

      Chili gave Lonalee’s parents an amused look. “Is she always this full of plans?”

      “Yes, she is,” her dad said with a nod. “Never a dull moment with our girl.”

      “She and Jura seem like two of a kind. I’m glad they’ve found one another.”

      “All we ask is that you keep us informed of whatever plans you may come up with and you can do as you please,” Lonalee’s mom said.

      Lonalee turned to Jura. “This is gonna be a great summer!”

     The End.