Story
Chapter 12: Down Memory Lane
All that evening and all of the next day, Ozzy feels like he’s floating on air—like the watercolour clouds he had painted in that picture of Faerieland are real, and he’s walking on them now. He can’t remember the last time anyone had told him they liked his paintings, and especially not one he’d been proud of.
He wishes he had asked for the girl’s name, but, as he sits over his morning bowl of Islandberry Crunch cereal and Styx watches him with a tilted head, he resigns himself to never knowing it. After all, she’d gotten what she’d come for, so why would she come back? There was no good reason for her to.
But to his surprise, when he sets out for the day, Styx trotting happily at his side (he’s got three sticks today), the Acara is already there waiting for him.
“There you are, Painter!” she says, her sharp-fanged smile bright like the sun cutting through the clouds overhead. Without even realising it, Ozzy starts smiling too.
“You’re back…!”
“Yeah, I am,” the Acara says, hands on her hips. “And you’re late. I was almost convinced you weren’t gonna show today.”
“I show up every day, even if I don’t want to,” Ozzy says, but he doesn’t really know why, so he claps his hand over his mouth. “Er, I mean…”
“Whatever,” the girl says, waving a hand dismissively, and even though it should feel like she’s being rude, Ozzy is actually grateful that she’d shut him up before he said something really embarrassing. “You’re here now, just like I hoped. I wanted to see if you had any more…”
He doesn’t hear the rest of what she says, though, because his brain catches on one specific word, and everything else melts away as it echoes in his mind.
‘Hoped.’
She had hoped to see him?
“Uh, hello? Neopia to Painter,” the girl snaps, waving her hand in front of Ozzy’s face. Ozzy startles, and below him, Styx growls.
“Grrr…. grrr!”
“Shh, quiet, Styx!” he says hastily, then looks back up to his… customer? “S-sorry about that. Um, what did you say you wanted?”
“Another painting,” the girl says. “I liked the one I bought yesterday soooo much, I thought I’d come get another. So, what’ve you got for me today, Painter?”
“Before I knew it, I’d made another friend.”
The girl introduces herself to him as Vira. Ozzy likes the way it sounds—like a painting, but with sound. She tells him that he has a funny name (“Oizys? Who on Neopia could have come up with a name like that?”), but she also tells him that she likes ‘Ozzy’ much better, which is a relief, because that’s the name he prefers too. It’s what his sister—
No. He’s not thinking about that.
He and Vira become fast friends. She’s a little mean, but not in the same way the Chomby and Quiggle bullies were. She’s mean in a way that’s sharp and confident, and doesn’t make Ozzy feel stupid or like he’s sucking all the colour out of the world. A part of Ozzy wishes he could be as carefree and unabashed as Vira is, but just knowing he has her attention is enough to make him feel a little bigger, a little brighter. She likes his art, likes to talk to him, and likes to spend time with him.
Styx, though… Styx doesn’t seem to like her. He growls sometimes when she says one of her mean jokes, but Ozzy chalks it up to the one time she accidentally stepped on one of his sticks and broke it. He’d apologised on her behalf, but from the way Styx kept growling at her even after that, and how he had kept growling at the bullies even after he’d scared them off, he doesn’t seem to be the most forgiving Doglefox.
It’s probably a good thing the bullies never came back.
Styx does tolerate Vira when she’s around, though. When they’re at the plaza, he maintains his distance, gnawing huffily on a variety of sticks and twigs and branches, keeping to himself except when someone miraculously comes to inspect Ozzy’s paintings but then walks away without buying anything.
“It’s okay, Painter,” Vira tells him every time it happens, “they don’t have taste like I do. You couldn’t pay them to appreciate art.”
Styx doesn’t seem to like it when she says stuff like that either, but Ozzy doesn’t really know why, nor does he know what to do. What the little Doglefox likes least of all, however, is when Vira comes over for tea (a special floral tea that she’d bought and taught him how to brew), and when Ozzy takes her into his makeshift art studio to show her his latest projects.
“You’ve gotten good at this,” Vira says about the tea Ozzy has brewed on one such day. “Could have used a little more time to steep, but you’ve got the sugar right, finally.”
“I just didn’t want to keep you waiting,” Ozzy says, sipping his own tea carefully. It’s still too hot, but he’s gotten used to the flavour now.
“No, you wanted to act quick and get it to me while that Doglefox wasn’t in the kitchen nipping at your heels.”
Ozzy frowns. Styx is in the kitchen now, curled up by the refrigerator, and he bares his teeth at Vira. “Grrrrrrr!”
Vira laughs and sticks out her tongue. Ozzy looks away, uncomfortable. “He doesn’t nip at my heels…”
“No? Well, he sure nips at mine,” Vira responds with a shrug and a sip of her tea.
“Rrr-rawrf!” A sound somewhere between a bark and a whine, and Ozzy’s frown deepens.
“That’s not nice,” he tells his little friend, because he doesn’t want Vira to get upset. After a few weeks of spending time with her, Ozzy has started to worry that she might be lonely, too, even if he knows she’d never admit it.
Styx’s ears fall back, flattening against his head.
“Rrrow…”
“Whatever,” Vira says. Just then, something catches her attention, and she stands up to move closer to the fridge. Styx yelps and gets up, scurrying away with his tail between his legs. Ozzy watches him go, feeling guilty, but he doesn’t follow. He trails after Vira instead.
“Who’s that?” Vira asks, pointing at the photo on the fridge of Ozzy and Nyx with their hot dogs, and then a once-special drawing that Ozzy had gifted to his sister years ago—one of him and Nyx, standing side-by-side.
Ozzy flushes. “That’s, um…”
He can’t say it.
Vira looks at him with one brow raised, either unimpressed or expectant. Sometimes it’s hard to tell with her.
“...Nobody,” he finishes. “Come on, let’s go upstairs.”
What’s going on, Luxinia?
Ozzy’s first customer returns and introduces herself as Vira. The two of them strike up an odd friendship, but as they begin to grow closer, Styx grows more distant. He doesn’t seem to like Vira very much, especially when she comes over to their house. I don’t blame him! She isn’t very nice to him.