The Great Dung Fest

"Let's get out of here!"

     "Yeah! C'mon Fantasia! You're taking forever!"

     Fantasia frowned at Flowrey and Luna, and sighed. "You two are so impatient," she commented, at the same time rolling her hazel eyes.

     Luna gasped in a somewhat sarcastic tone and exclaimed, "What about Dane! He's ALWAYS impatient!"

     "I meant now," their owner added.

     "Oh," Luna said. "Anyways, can we please hurry up? I want to get to the Great Dung Fest as quickly as possible! There are other people coming, you know?"

     Fantasia sighed once again and hastily snatched her wallet from the front entrance stand.

     "Fine, let's get out of here," she said, her hands gripping tightly on the brand new wallet.

     Flowrey and Luna both beamed and shuffled out of the house, each one exclaiming remarks of how magnificent this day was going to be.

     Today was the 17th annual Great Dung Fest, a festivity where everyone could hang out, play games, test out new foods, and honour the one and only item…DUNG! The area where the festivity was held always resembled as if it had been literally smashed in a bowl of the squishy substance. There were dung balloons, dung snacks, dung petpets, and even dung flowers! Luna could definitely name this festival as her favourite one of all time, simply because she adored the object and couldn't possibly live without it.

     Dane was already stationed at the end of the driveway when Flowrey, Luna, and Fantasia all stepped out of the house. He had a wide grin plastered onto his face and his ears seemed to be twitching animatedly.

     "Finally! You three are all prepared!" he remarked with an exasperated tone.

     "Don't blame us," Flowrey mumbled. "Blame Fantasia."

     Fantasia rolled her eyes like she did every single minute, and continued pacing down the concrete sidewalk.

     "You three should be grateful that you get to go this year," Fantasia proclaimed. "I had to cancel my appointment with one of the Plushie Tycoon executives so that I could bring you to this stupid event."

     "Don't call it stupid! It is so awesome!" Luna whined.

     "It is so. I don't even know why I bother bringing you three each year. It's so boring."

     "You do it because you love us!" Luna exclaimed, flinging out of her arms in the breezy air.

     Fantasia let out a small smile, and murmured, "Oh yeah."

**************

"AT LAST! WE'RE FINALLY HERE!" Dane shouted, his eyes widening at the wonderful sight that his eyes presently laid on.

     The whole family was standing at the entrance of the festival, excitement swiftly flooding through their stomachs, except for Fantasia that is. Luna and Flowrey were both panting excitedly while Dane was hopping all over the place, his tongue hanging languidly outside of his mouth.

     "Stop acting like an idiot, Dane," Flowrey briskly snapped as her eyes continued gazing at the festival.

     Luna exhaled sharply and strode into the entrance. "Come on Flowrey," she began, "let's go check out the games."

     Dane halted to a stop and exclaimed, "I'm gonna' go check out the FOODS!!"

     He ran off with Luna and Flowrey, leaving Fantasia all by herself at the entrance.

     The young adolescent heaved a sigh. "Guess that leaves me to check out the dung…furniture." Fantasia made a coarse grimace and slowly dragged her feet inside.

**************

Dane's four paws pounded on the lush grass, his heart hammering wildly, and his breath shortening with every step. He had never felt so thrilled in his life. This was truly an event to remember and he wanted to make sure that he experienced every single moment of it. The Lupe swiftly dodged the crowds of owners and pets and finally arrived at the entry of "Dung-A-Testers".

     There was a massive table already set up in the middle of the area. It was, of course, made out of fresh dung, and hoards of pets were neatly aligned all around it.

     Awesome! Dane said to himself. They've already begun!

     He quickly rushed to the table and pushed his way through a Baby Meerca and a Green Pteri. His hazel eyes peered at the front of the table where an incredibly plump Chia was presenting a new dung delicacy.

     "It's incredible!" the Chia exclaimed dramatically. "The factories have already created thousands of these and are prepared to ship them off to every store there is in Neopia! These magnificent Dung Lollipops will award the factories with masses of profits!"

     "Uh, excuse me?" a scrawny-looking Blumaroo suddenly proclaimed from the back end of the table. "What exactly are these Dung Lollipops?"

     The massive Chia beamed and exclaimed vigorously, "These wonderful lollipops contain a superb dung juice in them! They'll keep you bloated for days and you won't have to worry about purchasing foods for a quite some time!

     The entire crowd gasped in awe and exchanged glances of amazement. Dane was especially excited for he could just imagine the look on his owner's face when he told her that he wouldn't be needing his usual six snacks a day from now on. Suddenly, a brilliant idea clicked in Dane's mind.

     "CAN I TEST THE LOLLIPOP?" he shouted with his paws cupped around his maw.

     The Chia looked a bit startled by the abrupt question but quickly regained his focus. "Uh, I'm not too sure if it's prepared for testing," he slowly began saying.

     Dane could tell where this was leading and he knew he had to find a solution quickly.

     "Don't worry!" he yelled. "If anything happens to me, I'll take all the blame!"

     A smile suddenly spread across the Chia's features, and he slyly said, "Well in that case, go right ahead."

     Dane beamed blissfully and raced towards the Chia. The stout creature carefully picked up a small moulding-looking lollipop from a woollen cloth, and placed it gently in Dane's paw.

     "Good luck," he whispered in Dane's ear.

     Dane quickly snatched the lollipop, not caring what was inside, and hastily popped it into his mouth. A strange tasting liquid immediately began oozing through Dane's tongue and a tingly feeling instantly shot up the Lupe's spine. The liquid tasted sweet, yet somewhat…muddy.

     As the liquid began absorbing itself on Dane's tongue, the Lupe yelled out, "This lollipop is so awesome!"

     Everyone's eyes were on the Lupe and everyone seemed eager and curious to find out what was going to happen next. Unfortunately, what happened next was not what Dane expected.

     A minute bump began forming on Dane's brow. At first, it was so miniscule that no one caught sight of it. But seconds passed and the bump swiftly began growing.

     "Oh my gosh! Look what's happening!" the Blumaroo at the end of the table yelled, thrusting his finger towards Dane's face.

     Crowds gasped in alarm as their eyes lay on Dane's transforming features. The Lupe didn't realize that this was all happening till the bump grew so large, it resembled as a fresh and succulent pimple.

     "What's going on?" Dane abruptly cried, tears beginning to hastily well up in his eyes.

     "I told you!" the Chia exclaimed. "The lollipop isn't ready for testing! Now you're growing pimples that have mouldy dung juice in them!"

     "EWWWWW!" pets and owners yelled in unison. They were all incredibly disgusted by the horrifying sight.

     Confusion and embarrassment swiftly began flooding Daine's mind. He felt woozy and sick at the same time, and desperately wanted to head back to the secure area of his home. Not having any idea on what to do, the Gelert leaped away from the masses of passer-bys, his eyes blurred with large, salt-ridden tears.

**************

"Let's go play that game!"

     "Nah. Looks to geeky."

     "What about that one?"

     "Hmmm, alright."

     Flowrey and Luna hastily shuffled towards the "Pop-A-Dunga-Balloona" booth. They were both filled with energy and excitement, and were prepared to play as many games as they possibly could.

     Luna was the one who stepped up to the elderly Kau, and politely asked, "May we please have a round of darts?"

     The overseer smiled and hoarsely replied, "Of course. That'll be 50 NP."

     Luna let out an innocent grin and stuck her paw in her miniature purse. It came out with a bundle of golden-tinted coins. She dropped them in the Kau's paw. The Kau dropped a collection of coins out of his own little packet. These were for the game.

     When all the coins had been exchanged, Luna exclaimed, "Thank you!"

     Luna and Flowrey rushed away from the booth and swiftly raced to their right side. They came to a halt when they were standing at the front of a small counter. Behind it was a wooden wall that carried dozens of dung-filled Dung Balloons. Luna swiftly stuck her coins in a coin slot and placed one of the tiny darts in her paw that has slid out of the side of the counter.

     "You ready?" Flowrey asked, a bit of nervousness racing through her stomach.

     Luna grinned, and calmly said, "Oh yeah."

     With all her might, Luna threw the dart at the centre of the wall, instantly exploding the largest Dung Ballon that the wall was currently carrying. Dung flew all over the place, smashing itself on the counter, the grass, the flowers, and the remaining area of the barrage. Luna and Flowrey exchanged glances and abruptly burst into mighty laughter.

     "That was so awesome!" Flowrey exclaimed, her eyes widened at the peculiar sight.

     "I know!" Luna yelled back. "I'm trying that again."

     And so, Luna continued on, throwing her remaining darts into the air and making them smash perfectly into the balloons. Each pop grew louder as each dart was thrown harder. In a matter of minutes, Luna had used up all her darts.

     She collected them from behind the wall and quickly rushed to the booth, where she kindly gave back the darts to the aged Kau. He thanked her, and then said, "Which prize would you like to have?"

     Luna was surprised by the sudden comment. "What do you mean prize?" she inquired.

     "Well, you get a prize for popping all those balloons."

     "Oh, well…do you have any dung plushies?"

     "Of course we do!" the Kau exclaimed. He slid off his chair and paced to the back of the room. Luna could perceive a box being opened and an object being pulled out. The Kau soon came back with an adorable Dung Plushie in his paws. It seemed as if the plushie was made in the form of…an Ixi!

     "Oh my gosh!" Luna exclaimed. "It looks like exactly like me!"

     "Except you're uglier," Flowrey suddenly commented. Luna shot her a dark glare and then slowly returned her attention to the plushie.

     The old Kau inside the booth beamed, and whispered, "I hope you like it."

     Luna tilted her head towards him and nodded blissfully. She draped her arms around the plushie and gave it a long and tight cuddle.

     "I think I'll call you…Starra," she whispered, a warm smile glued onto her features.

     However, before Luna could say anything else, a grand pile of dung instantly shot itself out of the plushie's maw. Luna immediately cried in horror, letting the plushie slip from her paws and fall to the ground. The first shot had been so startling; she didn't even realize that more of it was whacking her till Flowrey rushed up to her, covered in the gooey substance herself.

     "What's happening?!" Flowrey cried, an enormous pile of dung making its way down her forehead.

     Luna panted heavily, and yelled, "I don't know!"

     Suddenly, the kind old Kau appeared and rushed to the two girls. "HAHA! I can't believe you two fell for my new invention 'Dung-Shooters'!" he exclaimed, strident laughter escaping from his wide smile.

     Luna's mouth fell in astonishment as her eyes gazed at the Kau who was racing away. She and Flowrey had been duped.

     "Make it stop!" Flowrey continued to yell, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

     "FLOWREY!! LUNA!!" a voice unexpectedly cried from behind the pair. The voice sounded hysterical and frightened, as if it were going through agonizing torment. Luna swivelled around and found Dane lying on the grass, fat tears sliding down his pimpled cheeks.

     Luna gasped at full volume and cried, "What happened Dane?!" The enormous piles of dung continued slamming themselves against her back.

     Dane wailed and stammered "I-I a-a-ate s-something…a-and…"

     Luna and Flowrey exchanged alarmed glances. Flowrey swiftly advanced towards Dane and stuck out her mucky paw. Dane gripped onto it and was pulled up by his sister.

     "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!"

     Flowrey, Luna, and Dane immediately knew whom the voice belonged too. Luna hastily shot her head to her backside and caught side of Fantasia, who looked incredibly worried.

     The adolescent swiftly darted towards her three pets, strands of long blonde hair flying across her eyes. She screeched to a halt when her eyes laid on the sight of her Christmas Lupe.

     "Oh baby! What happened?" she cried, draping her long arms around Dane.

     Dane whimpered and cuddled himself against Fantasia. "T-take m-m-me h-home," he stammered uncontrollably.

     Fantasia nodded, and whispered, "Don't worry. I'm taking you to the Healing Springs immediately."

     The girl then turned her attention to Luna and Flowrey. "What happened to you two?" she inquired worriedly.

     Flowrey thrust out her dung-covered finger toward the plushie and simply said, "That toy."

     Fantasia sighed and seized her two pets' arms. "I'll give you two a good bath when you get home," she proclaimed, her eyes glinting with the tiniest hint of amusement.

     So at last, the four all stood up from the grass, the three pets feeling incredibly sick and worried to the pit of their stomachs. Dane's head was throbbing painfully, several of the pimples beginning to pop and releasing a repulsive substance of slimy dung. And for Flowrey and Luna, every inch of their body was covered in the thick and slippery substance.

     "I swear, I'm never going back to this dump again," Flowrey grumbled, her hands struggling to wipe the dung that was blocking her eyesight.

     Dane nodded in agreement and then gulped glaringly as another one of the pimples burst open.

     Fantasia let a half-smile form on her lips. "I hope you three learned an important lesson today," she said. "You three should sometimes listen to your owner."

     Luna nodded and mumbled, "We're sorry Fantasia. We promise that we'll listen to everything you say from now on."

     Fantasia beamed. "Well in that case," she began, "after we're done with bringing Dane to the Healing Springs and giving you two a bath, why not go do a bit of shopping at the Health Shop?"

     Luna managed to create a uncouth grimace underneath all the layers of dung, and then exclaimed, "Are you kidding me?! Let's go to the Pizzaroo!"

     Fantasia casually rolled her eyes and grasped tightly on all of her pets' paws, briskly leaving the Great Dung Fest with a grand and somewhat hilarious memory that she would never ever forget.

The End

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed reading Flowrey's family's second adventure! If you have any comments, be sure to send them to me by Neomail. Until next time!