|
Stonekrawk3x had a strange look on his face as we made our
way out of the Games Pavilion. The giant complex covered so many acres that it
was actually on the edge of town rather than in it. The Poogle Solitaire grid
was in a field next to it and clearly visible. But Stonewolf3x kept walking briskly
towards the main section of town, his eyes focused grimly on the road ahead. Krawk,
on the other hand, seemed to be twitching nervously. His eyes darted back and
forth between the Poogle Solitaire field and the fire Lupe ahead of him so much
he looked like he was watching an invisible Korbat's Lab match. Finally, he broke
the tense silence.
"Arrr, Cap'n," he drawled, "the Poogles be back
now."
Wolf didn't respond. But I knew he had heard
him because his ears flattened even farther down his head. This was not a good
sign. This was Lupe attack mode. But Krawk gamely tried again.
"Arrr, Cap'n," he said a little more loudly
and with a voice-clearing cough, "do ye want to play Poogle Solitaire now?"
The fur on my Lupe's neck bristled like a Splyke
that had just been run through a dryer. But he still didn't answer. Krawk shot
me an accusing look. I figured it fell to me to somehow lighten Wolf's not-exactly-pleased
mood.
"What do you say we all stop for some dinner
at Pizzaroo?" I said in the most sickeningly cheerful voice I could muster.
I was pretty sure Wolf was going to torture
me by not accepting my cheesy peace offering. But his Tyrannian Doglefox seemed
to be more forgiving because his fluffy little tail thumped loudly in approval.
Wolf shot him a sideways glance, which caused the fluffy little Tyrannian tail
to freeze in mid-wag. It looked like it was suspended by the pause button on
a TV remote control unit.
After a moment Stonewolf3x snarled, "Whatever."
The fluffy little Tyrannian tail was clicked
out of pause and began to happily wag again. I had been pardoned by hunger pangs.
As we turned onto Main Street and approached the main marketplace, a heady aroma
of french fries and cheeseburgers filled the air. It was coming from the Burger
Bar in the Neolodge.
"Would you rather have burgers than pizza?"
I asked as I sucked the smell of deep frying potatoes into my nostrils.
"No, I wouldn't." Wolf replied flatly. I should
have known he wouldn't agree to eat anything I obviously had a taste for.
We walked across the square to Market Street
and entered the Bazaar district where most of the food shops were located. The
eager anticipation of the rare event of me actually spending more than five
Neopoints on a meal seemed to spread through our group like wildfire.
"Arrr, but I think I'll be having me a clam
and meatball pizza," Krawk announced, smacking his lips for emphasis.
"Ergy pizza! Ergy pizza!" the Crokabek on his
shoulder squawked.
"I think I'll have a chocolate chip pizza,"
an unfamiliar voice behind me chirped cheerfully.
Two pets, two petpets and one human rotated
180 degrees simultaneously. Five dumbfounded faces looked at the grinning yellow
Meerca at the end of the line. He smiled back at our collective mass of dropped
jaws. When we continued to stare for several moments, the Meerca got a puzzled
look on his face. He turned around to see what was behind him that we all found
so fascinating. The instant his back turned, Stonewolf3x hissed accusingly in
my direction.
"What in blazing baby fireballs is HE doing
here?"
"Gee, Wolf, I don't know. Maybe I should ask
him," I replied with a tinge of sarcasm that somehow just slipped out as a defense
mechanism.
The Meerca turned back to look at us again.
He obviously had not found anything of interest behind himself and still had
a bewildered expression. I stepped closer to the ball of fuzz bobbing on his
reverse S-shaped tail.
"Ummm..." I said haltingly, "what are you doing
here?"
The Meerca's forehead crinkled into deep ruts
as he pondered what he must have thought was some sort of trick question. After
a moment he seemed to come up with an answer because he beamed brightly.
"We're going for pizza... right?"
I turned and said to my Lupe, "We're going for
pizza, Wolf."
"Very funny," he snarled. "What is HE doing
here?"
"I haven't a clue Wolf. Maybe you should try
asking him yourself," I replied with a shrug.
Part of me knew my Lupe was about to get really
steamed up and blame me for this new development, but another part of me couldn't
help but think this was weirdly amusing. Wolf leveled a steely glare at the
Meerca.
"We are going for pizza. What are you
doing?"
The Meerca scooped up the tip of his arched
tail and began twisting it nervously in his paws. The poor little guy actually
looked like he was trying to figure out a Lenny Conundrum. After a long pause,
my Lupe felt the need to press a little.
"Well?" Wolf barked.
The Meerca was startled out of his deep concentration
and sprang about three feet backwards on his coiled tail.
"I-I-I'm going for p-p-pizza?" he stammered.
Wolf rolled his eyes and tossed up his paws
in an "I give up" gesture.
"Arrr, Cap'n, let me give 'im a crack," Krawk
said, cutting in. He approached the Meerca and said calmly, "Arrr, but I think
what we want to know, fuzzy-headed one, is why are ye following us?"
The Meerca shook his head emphatically. "But
I'm not following you," he replied.
"You just happen to be going in the same direction
as us at the same time, right?" Wolf scoffed with a disgusted snort.
"No..." the Meerca replied with wide-eyed innocence.
"I'm with HIM." A short, stubby yellow paw pointed in my direction.
I could feel my eyebrows shoot so far up my
skull that my hairline must have slipped to the back of my neck. I didn't have
to see the smoldering hot glares coming from my Lupe and his pack to know they
were there. I focused on the Meerca instead.
"You're with me?" I echoed.
The Meerca grinned and nodded energetically.
I tossed a helpless look at the others, but I wasn't exactly receiving sympathetic
looks back. It was obvious that I had gone from wading knee-deep in doo-doo
to wading neck-deep in doo-doo.
"Okaaaaaay..." I said slowly, "why don't we
all go to Pizzaroo as planned? Then we can all sit down and sort this thing
out."
Wolf growled under his breath, but he turned
and lead the way towards Pizzaroo. When we got there it was impossibly crowded.
I had forgotten what a Neopetting zoo the place was during the dinner hour.
I was sure that we wouldn't be able to find a table for all of us, but luckily
for us Wolf found one right away. Of course, it wasn't very lucky for the five
Cybunnies sitting there enjoying a carrot and cabbage pizza. They hit the floor
and scattered like a dropped bag of peas the instant the massive Lupe walked
in and headed straight for them.
I suddenly got very nervous about the idea of
leaving Stonewolf3x and a little Meerca alone together at a table while I went
to order the pizza. I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket and shoved it in
Stonekrawk3x's direction.
"Here," I whispered, "take this and order the
pizzas for us, okay?"
"Arr, but ye be trusting a pirate with yer Neopoints?"
Krawk replied, taking the wallet with his taloned claw.
"Why not?" I shrugged. "If my Lupe can trust
you with his life, I figure I can trust you with a couple of thousand Neopoints."
"Then ye not be the sharpest crayon in the box,
eh?" he said with a chuckle and a wink.
As usual I didn't know whether I should laugh
or suddenly be very afraid. So I smile-winced and headed for the table. I noticed
that Wolf and Stonefox had taken the bench seat in the booth opposite from the
Meerca. It was pretty obvious that they were saving a spot on their side for
Krawk and Stonecrow by the gap they had left towards the window. The Meerca
was alone on the other side but he was pretty much using the entire bench. He
had discovered its trampoline-like qualities and was springing back and forth
and up and down at the same time. He had the sugar dispenser in his paw and
every downward thump sent a spray of white grains into the air.
"Wheeee! It's snowing!" he squealed with glee.
Super hemlock darts shot out of Wolf's eyes
at me. Even after I slid in next to the Meerca, he continued to bounce energetically,
showering me with a frosty granules. I finally grabbed him in mid-air and held
him firmly down on the seat.
"Ummm... let's not do that..." I said as gently
as I could and pulled the almost empty sugar dispenser from his paw.
He smiled at me with that cute, adorable infectious
grin of his. Then he shook himself. Sugar sprayed off of his fur in all directions.
I could now feel an entire roomful of super hemlock darts being launched at
me. I was relieved to see Krawk approaching with a pizza box. Startled, but
relieved. I was amazed by how quickly he had managed it, but I also could see
that the carton was balanced on the flat edge of his jagged Krawk blade. Wolf
and Stonefox shuffled across the bench to make room for him.
Krawk flipped open the lid of the pizza box
with his hook and declared, "Dig in, mateys! They be hot 'n fresh out 'o the
oven!"
I looked in the box. There were five slices
of completely different kinds of pizza in it. The Meerca clapped his paws together
excitedly and leapt into my lap. He looped his tail underneath himself like
a cushion and wiggled his bottom into a comfortable postion. I was too stunned
to do anything but sit there with a ball of yellow fuzz under my chin. Four
slices quickly disappeared out of the box and into the paws and beak of two
pets and their petpets. The last slice left was a chip butty pizza slice. It
was a tomato and cheese pizza with french fries stuck in it. My favorite.
"No chocolate chip pizza?" the Meerca said with
disappointment.
I lowered a disapproving gaze at the pirate
Krawk across from me.
"Arr, but I be a creature of habit, ye know,"
he said with a shrug.
"It looks like Krawk confused a chip butty pizza
with a chocolate chip pizza," I said, my eyes still fixed on Krawk. "But I think
you'll like it. Why don't you try it and see?"
I reached around the fluffy body on my lap and
pulled the last slice out of the box and set it in front of the Meerca. I kept
my eyes locked on Stonekrawk3x though. Within seconds he looked away from me.
It was the first time I had ever stared him down.
"Aren't you having any?" the Meerca asked, hesitating.
"Nah. I don't really like pizza much," I lied.
The Meerca plucked a fry off of the top of the
slice. Clutching it between his two chubby paws, he began to nibble on it with
gusto. After a full minute of making lip-smacking and munching noises mixed
with "ummmm-yums" of pleasure, the Meerca had whittled it down about halfway.
I had never seen anyone eat anything with so much energy and still take forever
to get through it. I figured now would be a good time to try to talk to the
little guy. So I decided to take the tactful, friendly approach and start with
something easy, like asking him his name. It wasn't as easy as I thought it
was going to be.
"So, what's your name?" I asked casually.
"Name?" the Meerca answered with a puzzled look.
"What do they call you?"
He got that Lenny Conundrum expression on his
face again.
"Meerca," he replied, as if the answer should
have been obvious.
"Well, that's what you are, but you must
have a real name."
"Name?" he echoed again.
"Well, what did your parents call you?"
"Parents?"
"You know, the Mommy-type Meerca and the Daddy-type
Meerca that you lived with before you got a job at the Meerca Chase arena. Parents."
"Parents?"
I was beginning to feel like a top-- spinning
in circles but not exactly going anywhere.
"Have you always been called just Meerca? Don't
you have a real name? I can't just go around calling by your species name. That's
not cool."
The Meerca pondered this for a moment, sucking
on his French fry deep in thought. Or at least as deep in thought as he was
capable of.
Finally he pointed at my fire Lupe and asked,
"Does HE have a real name?"
"Yes, of course," I replied.
"What's his name?"
"Wolf." I replied.
The Meerca looked puzzled for a moment and then
motioned towards the Tyrannian Doglefox sitting next to Wolf.
"What's his name?"
"That's Fox," I replied.
The Meerca wagged a chunky finger at the Krawk
opposite us. "And him?" he asked, a squeak of utter bewilderment rising in his
voice.
"Uh... Krawk..." I replied, suddenly realizing
where the Meerca was going with this line of questioning.
"Arr, and he be Man!" Krawk piped up, swinging
his shimmering golden hook in my direction.
"I'm really confused..." the Meerca said, his
forehead crinkling like a folded fan.
"The name suits you," Wolf snickered, winking
at Krawk.
Krawk chuckled and grinned back at him.
"I'm really confused?" the Meerca asked earnestly.
"Obviously," Wolf replied with a smirk that
drew an even louder chuckle from Krawk.
"Wheee!" the Meerca shouted happily and rocketed
out of my lap and three feet into the air. He began to bounce wildly on the
bench seat again like a springy toy gone haywire. "I have a name! I'm Reallyconfused!
I'm Reallyconfused!" he screeched with alarming, but charming, delight.
I glared at Wolf and Krawk who were doubled
up with laughter and slapping each on the back with conspiratorial victory.
I wanted desperately to tell the poor thing that they were making fun of him.
That he apparently didn't have a real name. But he was so happy about it, I
couldn't bring myself to tell him. Even so, Wolf and Krawk had no idea that
their little joke was going to backfire on them, and sooner than anyone could
have expected.
To be continued...
| 
