The Meridell Brothers

     “Hey, what’s this thingy?” inquired a young, Blue Turtum.

      “Wha’ do ya mean, ‘thingy’?” replied the Whinny to his friend as he wandered over to where the young Petpet stood.

     “It’s a thingy, Winnie,” said the Blue Turtum who felt certain it was a ‘thingy’ as he nodded his head downwards to the ground. “Look at the thingy.”

     Together they peered down into what looked like a normal hole left behind by a careless groundskeeper. As they looked, a sudden brush of wind blew over the backs of their necks.

     “Ahh!” they cried together.

     A childish laugh sounded behind them.

     “Did I scare ya? Don’t tell me ya scaredy-dy of a lil windy-dy!” guffawed their other best friend as the two turned around in a rush.

     Winnie stomped his hoofs in a fit of excitement. Scaredy-dy already forgotten. “Come look at this thingy, Merry! It’s really somethin’!”

      The Red Turtum slid over for a closer look so he could see what was so interesting to his friends. “Hey, what’s this thingy?”

     “That’s what I said!” said Sky, the Blue Turtum. “I said, ‘Hey, what’s this thingy?’”

     Merry slid closer to the hole in the ground. It was dark inside and looked like an endless pit if one of them were to fall down, but what if .. No, they couldn’t. They wouldn’t. They shouldn’t…

     … but “wouldn’t,” “couldn’t,” and “shouldn’t” were not in their vocabularies.

     “Hey, you guys, let’s go down there, what if there’s, like, like, like some treasure down there or somethin’?” Merry nodded his head enthusiastically.

     “Yeah! Let’s do it!” jumped Winnie around them with exuberance. Beside him agreed Sky with his eager head nods.

     Merry could tell by their reactions that they had already thought of this; all they had really needed then was his approval. And they had his approval. Every time, all the time. Seven days a week. Three-hundred sixty-five days a year. Because together they were…

     “The Meridell Brothers!” they shouted as, one by one, The Meridell Brothers leapt fearlessly into the mysterious thingy.

     ~ ~ ~ * * * ~ ~ ~

     Down… down… down the hole The Meridell Brothers went. They slipped, they slid and they screamed with joy. But where are they going? This was a question none of them could answer. None of them knew. Not even curious Winnie — who was always peeking into places he didn’t quite belong. All that seemed to matter in this particular moment for the three brothers was the simple concept of adventuring — together — as the best of friends. As family. And as family does, they stuck by each other’s sides like a clingy Kadoatie to its owner.

     “Wow, it sure is dark in here,” commented Merry, who was thinking twice now about jumping into random pits in the ground.

     “Yeah!” shouted Winnie from somewhere above. “It’s great, isn’t it?“

     “Not really…” grumbled Sky from somewhere below — or was he beside Merry? “I wanna go home.”

     Winnie felt around in the dark until he felt something hard. Sky’s shell, he thought. “C’mon, Skyyyy, don’t tell me yer afraidy-dy of a little dark? “ He patted what he hoped was Sky’s shell to offer his friend some comfort.

     “Something is touching my shell!” cried Merry.

     Oops. “Sorry, Merry, I thought you were Sk—"

     Winnie was interrupted when he landed on something. “Oof!”

     “Get offa me!” Merry cried.

     “Sorry, Merry,” said Winnie again as he quickly stumbled to his legs in the dark. “Where are we now?”

     Sky sighed somewhere from nearby, accompanied by a series of grumbles about still wanting to go home.

     “Symol! Symol!”

     “Who said that? Winnie?” Merry asked the darkness.

     Scuffle sounds suddenly sounded all around them before lights from torches hung along the walls lit up in quick recession until the brothers could see where they were.

     “What is happening?” inquired Sky, who peeked around Merry and Winnie as they helped him straighten his shell upright. “Where are we?”

     The three brothers finally looked up.

     And gasped.

     ~ ~ ~ * * * ~ ~ ~

     Standing in brown-furred groups around the brothers with twitching noses and round eyes wide with wonder, twittering and chattering away in their own Petpet way, were Symols. It seemed to the trio that these little guys were just as startled to see them as they were to be there.

     “Symol!” they said together.

     “So that’s what this thingy is...?” wondered Sky.

     Winnie pranced in place excitedly. “A Symol home!”

     “They’re so…” Merry began.

     “Cute and fluffy!” finished Winnie.

     “I was-a gonna say they was-a small.” Merry laughed merrily at his friend’s happiness.

     One of the Symol moved to the front of the group and nodded. It stood on small back legs and, with a twitch of long whiskers, turned quickly and ran off down the tunnel without looking back.

     “Where is he a goin’?” inquired the trotting Winnie.

     “I think he wants us to follow him,” said Sky.

     The excited brothers quickly agreed that this was the case. “Perhaps it was the little petpet’s way of telling the brothers to make themselves at home,” they concluded after a brief group meeting.

     They also took the Symol’s running away as a sign to follow the runaway Symol.

     Because chasing each other, after all, was their way of feeling right at home — by playing Follow the Leader.

     But Sky and Merry were slower than their friend Winnie, which caused them to lag behind as they chased after him with their large shells versus his four legs. Every few feet Winnie would stop and wait for his friends to catch up before running on after the Symol who kept ahead of them on the path.

     “Come on! What are you waiting for?” the Whinny would ask them; and to which every time the two Turtum would reply, “A ride!”

      ~ ~ ~ * * * ~ ~ ~

     “Are we there yet?” Sky repeatedly asked every few steps.

      Sky cried “Oof!” as he bumped into Merry so suddenly that if the others hadn’t said the same then it would have been worrisome in the dark tunnel — even with the torches lighting their way.

     “I think we’re there,” the Blue Turtum answered himself.

     Winnie pranced in circles around them as the Symol proudly showed them a wooden door. The two Turtums looked at each other. “What is it?” they asked the little Petpet.

     “Aw, come-a on, guys, maybe it’s their Super Secret Superhero hideout!” Winnie announced.

     “Underground?” Merry nodded as he started to dance around at the thought of something so awesome. “Just like those superhero Moehog comics!”

     Sky’s own curiosity rose at that. “Yeah!”

     “Only one way to find out!” Winnie cried as the Symol threw open the door.

     Again the brothers gasped.

     “It’s…” Sky started to say.

     “A…” continued Merry.

     “Water park!” finished Winnie who bounded ahead of them and around the underground pool where a group of the little Brown Petpets were racing each other. He hurried towards the biggest slide. “Last one down is a rotten negg!”

     “Mmm — scrambled neggs and faerie toast!" Merry cried.

     “Yum!” echoed Sky and Winnie.

     The three best friends laughed together as they splashed the rest of the morning away in what was their first underground adventure — and hoped that the next one would be just as Super Secret Superhero hideout awesome.

     The End.