Family Portrait

     "Mother? What is a family?" I asked my mother. She looked away from the piles of paperwork on her desk with quill at paw and towards me. Her big brown eyes looked tired with a hint of concern. But as she smiled, all those emotion just disappeared and was filled with love instead. "Well, what you, me, and your sisters are. We are a family."

     I shook my head slightly and said, "I know that, Mother. But what does family mean?"

      "Oh," she said. "Well, darling, a family is a group of people who love and care about each other. Always remember that, dear." She placed a kiss upon one of my long, curly ears and went back to the piles of paperwork.

     The head of our household is my eccentric loving mother. My mother is a beautiful orange Gelert with a big heart and a busy schedule. She won't tell me or my sisters what she does for a living. All she told us is that her job deals with education like most of the jobs in Brightvale. Despite the fact she is always busy, my mother would always try to find the time to spend with her family no matter what. She always wants us to remember that my sisters and I will always be in her heart. That's why I kind of look up to her sometimes but don't tell her I said that or she'll get all mushy on me.

     I looked around the fields of courgettes, trying to spot some yellow feathers. "Where could she be?" I said to myself.

     "What are you doing here, Onyca?" A voice behind me spoke as a small shadow was cast over me. I looked up to see Lendralla towering over me as usual with an orange umbrella in her hand. I asked the same question, "Lendralla? What is a family?"

     She gave me a puzzled look. "A family? Uh... how can I put it?" She scratched her feathers a bit before she said in a poetic manner, "A family is like the sun and you are a flower. You need a family to survive." She placed a feathered hand on my head and smiled. "Now go back home, it's dangerous for you to be out here." I simply sighed, rolled my eyes, and did what I was told to do.

     The cheerful one in our family is none other than my (adopted) older sister, Lendralla. She is a happy-go-lucky yellow Lenny. Lendralla has a talent for cooking and dreams of becoming a great chef. She likes to hang out in the courgette fields with her hardheaded Scarabug. Lendralla always treats me like a baby just because she's older and tends to freak out over the littlest of things. She doesn't like to talk about the family she had before. But I still remember the first day I meet her; she was so happy to be with us. Overall, even though she is the oldest, she can sometimes be a bit naïve and overbearing. But nevertheless, she is an extremely determined and generous sister.

     I knocked on the door and waited for a crash noise behind the door.

     "Ahhh!" CRASH! There it was.

     The door swung opened and revealed Chihuma wrapped up in a purple blanket. "WHO DARES INTERRUPT MY SUMMONING?" she shouted out as if she was an annoyed ghost from behind her pink-and-blue mask. I ignored her question, trying to hold back my laughter. That's Chihuma for you.

     "I have a question, Chihuma."

     "WHAT IS IT, YOU BOTHERSOME GELERT?"

      "What's a family, Chihuma?"

      Chihuma waved her paws around as if there were a swarm of Buzzers around her. "What's a family? Why do you want to know? And by the way, that's a stupid question to be asking. Aren't you supposed to be the smart one in the family? You should know already," she said quickly before shutting the door in my face before I could say anything.

     Then there's my oddball of a little sister, Chihuma. Chihuma is an unusual, bad-tempered blue Xweetok who hides her face behind a lively mask. She and her devious Miamouse had stolen that mask from my room one day and refuses to give it back to me. Up to this day, she still won't give it back to me. Chihuma hides away in her room most of the time, playing with her odd-looking cards and summoning ghosts. She told me the cards were Tarot cards as in the ones Gypsies use. I think she has a hard time making friends at school because of her current interest in Gypsies. I think that's why she has been avoiding school so much. But behind the mask and temper, Chihuma is a high-spirited neopet with a unique imagination.

     "What is a family?" I asked myself, walking back to my room. As I entered my room, Aino, my Quetzal quickly slithered towards my paws and cooed. I smiled at her and petted her head of feathers. "I missed you too, Aino." She cooed again. I sat on my bed and keep thinking about that question and my family's responses over and over in my mind. I looked over at my desk and saw the portrait of my family on it. I picked it up as a wide smile spread across my face.

     My family lives within the heart of Brightvale. Brightvale is the home of intelligent, honorable, and graceful scholars. The kingdom is ruled by the wise King Hagan, who is brother to Meridell's inelegant King Skarl. I have lived in Brightvale for almost all my life and I can't wait to leave it. My name is Onyca. I am a typical yellow Gelert and the middle child in my family. Like Chihuma had said, I am known to be the smart one in my family. Also, I am a dreamer. I dreamed of grand adventures, hunting for treasure, and seeing the rest of Neopia. But instead, I can only read them in books. My friends call me a bookworm because of this. But every book I read, the more I want to go out on my own adventure.

     My family is made up of different species, colors, and personalities along with chaos. A busy yet kind mother with a big heart. A silly older sister whose cares a bit too much. A weird, energetic little sister with an even weirder obsession. We all have unique traits, passions, and goals as individuals. But together, we can love, care, and hope as one despite our differences.

     "A family is..."

     "...group of people who love and care about each other..."

     "...to survive..."

     "...stupid..."

     And I wouldn't trade them for all the great and marvelous adventures in all of Neopia.

The End