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Nate drifted to the bottom of the seafloor. He was cold
and hungry, but lonelier than ever. He almost wished that Annah and Kylie would
return, but they probably weren't coming back. His stomach rumbled and he decided
to search for something to eat.
Swimming closer to the surface, Nate scanned
the area for food. What did Maraquan Neopets eat? He pulled off a piece of seaweed
from a large rock and hesitantly put it into his mouth. Making a sour face,
he spit it out. It had no flavor. So he continued on his search for food… and
a friend. The water no longer felt warm and friendly, but cold and rough on
his new smooth skin.
Suddenly, Nate heard voices… laughing and giggling
voices. Intrigued, he swam to the surface to investigate. A Kyrii and a Blumaroo
were playing by the water's edge, splashing each other and having fun. Nate
popped his head to the surface to let them know that he was there. The Blumaroo
gasped and the Kyrii laughed.
"Hi," said the Kyrii, into the water. "What
kind of Neopet are you?"
"A Kougra," said Nate. The Blumaroo cocked her
head to the side and the Kyrii giggled.
"You don't look like a Kougra," said the Kyrii
with another giggle.
Younger Neopets… Nate thought.
"So, are you from here?" Nate asked.
"Yep," said the Kyrii, she pointed down the
road.
"Where am I?" Nate asked. "Mystery Island?"
The Kyrii cast him a strange look.
"Nope," she said, "Neopia Central."
Wow, I'm so close to my own house, Nate
thought. "Have you seen the brick house on the corner?"
The Kyrii looked at the Blumaroo, "Yeah we've
seen it. A girl lives there. But she hasn't come out of the house for a couple
of days. I think she's lonely."
Nate felt a pang of guilt. He opened his mouth
to tell the Neopets about Melody, but…
"What do you eat?" The Kyrii's questions were
endless.
Nate wanted to say, "That's what I'd like to
figure out…" but his stomach rumbled, he was so hungry that he felt sick.
"Wouldn't it be cool to swim in the seas like
him?" the Blumaroo said dreamily to her friend. Nate's mind raced with thoughts.
He cleared them and said,
"Well, I think there is a way… a very special
way." No, no stop! Don't get them into your mess, said a voice inside
his head, Just go before they ask anything else! The Kyrii and Blumaroo
came closer to him and leered their faces into the water.
"So? Is there a way?" The Kyrii asked.
"No, no," Nate stammered, "You must have heard
me wrong! There's no way to become Maraquan, of course not!" And with a flick
of his fin, he disappeared deeper into the sea.
***
Hours passed and Nate was beginning to wish for a Strawberry Kougra cookie.
Melody always bought those, for they were Nate's favorites. He spent a sleepless
night tossing and turning on the sea floor, unable to get comfortable or feel
secure. Morning came and Nate rose from the floor, brushing bits of stray seaweed
from his paws. He saw a white creature swim by and called out,
"Annah?" A smaller blue figure raced by her,
"Kylie?"
Now he was beginning to hallucinate. Nate was
so desperate to find someone that just thinking about Annah and Kylie made his
stomach ache. Traveling at a slow pace, Nate inched forward. If he didn't swim
he wouldn't find anybody and if he didn't find anybody he would remain alone.
He scanned the water around him, seeing a small blue object sitting just under
a mile away from him.
"Kylie!" Nate called, "Hey, Kylie!" He swam
toward her, happiness boiling inside of him. He put on a burst of speed and
zoomed through the cool water. The closer he got, the more he could see her
beautiful smile. When Nate was only a few yards away he stretched out his arms
and… WHAM! He smacked into something… something hard as a rock. White dots popped
in front of him and he slipped into unconsciousness…
***
He awoke feeling disorientated. He groped around until his eyesight returned
to normal. The object that he thought was Kylie turned out to be a sizeable
gray…rock. Nate yelled out in frustration and balled his paws into fists. He
had certainly seen enough rocks down here… he decided to rest, so he lay down
with his back to the seafloor, the seaweed gently tickling him. It took him
a while to notice that the seaweed was crawling with…
"AAAAAAAIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!" Nate screamed as a
sharp pain flickered though his tail fin. A Maraquan Buzz had pinched him…very
hard. His tail hurt when he moved it. Nate tried to ignore the stabbing pains.
"Get away, you stupid creature!" Nate yelled
and smacked the Buzz with his paw. It went whizzing away into the water and
disappeared. "I hate you!" I hate everything down here… he thought miserably.
He pouted and turned away from the Buzz's direction.
Then something caught his eye. The water moved ever so slightly. Ripples were
moving across the surface. He felt that someone was calling to him. He swam
to the spot where the ripples commenced. Sitting on a large gray stone was a
pretty girl with wavy brown hair. Could it be?
"Melody!" Nate shouted. He reached his paws out
of the water and looked at his owner with sadness. She was crying, tears flowed
down her face and dripped into the water. She looked down at him and he put
his paws on the rocks to cover her icy hands. "Oh, Melody, it's so good to see
you! I want to go home!"
Melody did not smile. Her lips quivered for a
moment and then she said, "I'm sorry Nate."
"Sorry?" Nate echoed, "It's me that should be
sorry…"
"…You can't come home with me," her voice was
barely above a whisper, but somehow Nate managed ho hear every word. "You can't
leave the sea."
"But, couldn't you buy me a cheap paintbrush
and I could go back to being a regular Kougra?"
"Nate, there's no way to get you to the Rainbow
Pool. You'll die without the water, now. You've changed so." Her tears stopped
and she put her hands on top of his paws and said gently, "you are a Maraquan
Kougra."
"But, it…it wasn't my fault, really, Melody!
I'm sorry, I really am!" Nate apologized over and over, but she shook her head.
"I warned you, Nate," Melody said, pushing back
a lock of her hair, "I told you that there are many strange things in the world.
I even said I trusted you. But you didn't listen." Nate's face fell. He thought
if he ever saw Melody again, she'd smile and laugh and cuddle him in her arms
like she used to. But now she seemed lifeless and so small.
"Melody, I'm sorry, I know I should have listened
to you…"
"Your apologies cannot fix what you have done."
Nate stared into her once-friendly eyes. The
resembled black voids, like he was staring into a whirlpool of grief. He tried
to apologize again, but Melody cut him off, "You will forever be a Maraquan
Kougra." She removed her hands from his paws and stood up to leave.
"Melody, please come back!" Nate's voice cracked.
Then he felt a tug at his body, like a current passing through. His paws were
starting to slip from the rock as the current got stronger. It was sucking him
in like a Vacumatic 9000. "Melody!"
To Nate's surprise, Melody returned. "Help, I'm
being sucked in! Some kind of current…" Nate tried to explain what was happening
in one breath. His claws couldn't grasp the rock any longer… Melody kneeled
down and grabbed his paws just as they slid off the rock. Nate wanted to cry
out for joy, but the current was not gone yet. Holding Nate's entire weight,
Melody showed no signs of struggling. Another tear slid down her cheek and dropped
into the water.
"A current is pulling us apart," Melody told
him. "A bad storm is coming. Be brave Nate, for I will no longer be here when
you need me."
The current pulled Nate even harder and he tried
to propel himself towards his owner but it was no use. Melody was the only one
that could pull him closer. But she was slowly letting him get farther and farther
away, until her arms were fully extended.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, "but this was what
you chose."
"Noooooooo!" Nate cried as she released his paws
and the current pulled him away. He was sucked underwater and pulled away so
far that all he could see was a blur of the girl who once loved him.
Now he was alone again, and missing everyone.
He cried and cried and wanted to be back in his cozy Neohome again. But there
was no chance. There was no hope for the poor Maraquan Kougra. This is what
it truly felt like to be a Maraquan Neopet.
The End
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