|
TERROR MOUNTAIN - It was cold, freezing and I honestly thought my nose would
have frost bite-something quite unbecoming in a Cybunny. Still, I had volunteered
to help Deke take notes for her interview with the Igloo Chias. I have never
met a Chia in my life, after all, aren’t they supposed to be legends? Anyway,
I thought that Deke was going to take me shopping for new greens so I volunteered
to help her with this trip.
Sigh. I wonder sometimes at my own intelligence. After all, Deke DID say that
she was going to Terror Mountain. Here I was thinking that she was going shopping…geez.
Anyway, my momma, Deke is a budding journalist. She hopes to one day be a real
journalist- those who do articles on the Darigan war... etc. *shudder* I don’t
think I’ll do very well in war zones, my brother Ongty always said I tripped
over my own feet. Oops, back to the story, Deke is now having a temporary internship
at the Neopian times so she gets to do those minor articles…etc. Anyway, her
latest assignment was to write an article on the Igloo Chias. So here I am.
Let me tell you one thing, climbing up that path is NOT easy, particularly
with my soft bunny feet. Brrrr……I can see why they want to move. The local are
extremely friendly though. Once, when I fell down, a Blumaroo helped me up and
even gave me a slushie. Along the way, almost everyone we passed waved and greeted
us and each other. It seems that everyone knew everyone else here. Perhaps that’s
why we immediately seemed like foreigners.
I think it took us nearly half an hour to climb the outer path up to the top.
We could have taken the faster way through the ice caves but I am terrified
of the legendary Snowager so Deke kindly agreed to take us up the longer, safer
path.
Once we reached the top, the first thing we saw was a pair of legs covered
with a white fur coat. Looking up, an angry Faerie (“Taelia”, whispered Deke)
had her arms on her hips. She glared angrily at us and tapped her booted (with
stylish snow shoes) foot.
“Where. Are. My. INGREDIENTS?!?!?” she bellowed.
Now let me tell you something, an angry Faerie is one thing. An angry, impatient,
cold and unreasonable Faerie is another thing altogether. Luckily for us, Deke
had a pass-thing which she flashed to the furious lady.
“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid you are mistaken. I’m Deke and this is Tigerlily.
We are here to interview the Igloo Chias.” Deke didn’t seem scared at all. That’s
my mommy! Me? I was hiding behind Deke. Hehe…*sheepish*
Taelia peered down at us -- Gosh she is TALL, "Oh, well… I thought I saw
a blue Eyrie. Oh bish, I have to get my contacts changed again. My apologies.
I am waiting for an idiot who was supposed to be here ages ago. I don’t suppose
you saw him? He said his name is Divineaurora and his pet is called FendaratheCrafty.”
Divineaurora? I thought really hard… I know that name somewhere… Oh! It’s my
uncle Paddy. Haha... no wonder the Faerie is mad. Uncle Paddy often gets distracted
in the Trading Post. But if Deke wasn’t going to tell her that, I sure wouldn’t.
Deke said something to Taelia and we were plodding down the snow path towards
the igloo. As we entered the igloo, the first thing that caught my attention
was the wonderful, delicious aroma of hot chocolate… yum! The igloo seemed much
bigger from the inside. It was like a circular room, with a counter separating
half the room. Behind the counter were lots of shelves of stuff and a door that
evidently led downstairs. A ladder leaning on the wall likewise led to an opening
on the ceiling -- presumably the attic.
Mika and Carassa were at one corner of the igloo sorting out stuff into boxes.
As we entered (we were the only ones around as the restock time hadn’t come
yet.), they came over and greeted us. Hearing that we wanted to do an interview
with them, they led us through the door behind the counter and down into their
main living room. There we sat with hot chocolate in our numb hands as Deke
talked to them about the usual stuff like the weather.
A light elbow in my dewlap made me pay attention to the conversation as Deke
motioned at me to take notes. I fumbled around my backpack for my stationary.
How am I going to become her regular assistant if I keep getting distracted!
Deke also had a fuzzy pen and her notebook- she always writes all her questions
down in it and writes down the Chias answers too. I basically was there just
to practice and to help Deke in case she misses out anything.
"-- but you’ve been saying you want to, quote, “move somewhere with a
more tropical climate” for ages now. So when are you actually moving? Any plans
to open a garage sale there, too? I suppose the housewarming party will be HUGE
what with your popularity and all.”
Mika nodded emphatically, “Oh yes, we do still intend to move. But as you can
see, our garage sale is a huge success and we haven’t sold all our stuff yet.
Furthermore, we get a lot of fan mail and items directed here. All those official
papers and stuff haven’t even been done yet. It would be quite a while before
we do move.”
“Yes, we do not want to disappoint our fans plus we have wonderful neighbours
here,” Carassa chimed in.
“Neighbours?” Oops, me and my big mouth! Deke’s supposed to do the talking.
Sigh, at least she isn’t angry at me.
“Oh yes, the nice Lenny in the ‘Happy Icy Fun Snow Shop’ often shares some
of his new stock with us. The Tuskaninny at Cliffhanger is a regular customer,
too,” Carassa replied as she refilled our hot chocolate… yum!
Deke smiled at my content expression and turned back to the Chias, “So is Taelia
the Snow Faerie a good neighbour, too?”
Mika responded enthusiastically, “She’s a good lass, kind of temperamental
at times but living in these conditions I can empathize with her. We go over
for dinner sometimes. She can be really sweet once you get to know her.” After
my encounter with that Faerie I’m not sure I agree with him, but I didn’t want
to make Deke angry by interrupting again.
Deke tapped her pen against her notebook, she always does that, “Where do you
get all your stock from? Some of them are really exotic not to mention recent
and brand new.”
Carassa answered, “Most of our stocks are our own items collected from all
over Neopia or in some cases, given by fans. We also get some stock from the
Neopian shops as they want us to advertise new items… etc. But the bulk of it
is from our own attic.”
I quickly scribbled down her answer as Deke moved on to the next question,
“So generally what time do you restock?”
Mika saw me struggling to write and said really slowly --what a nice lady--,
“We restock about five minutes after the end of the Neopian shop restocks. This
way, customers can conveniently come over to shop.”
“Any particular favourite item?” Deke caught on to my distress and too was
talking slowly. It was like a funny old comedy except not so funny since my
paw was beginning to hurt.
“I would say books are my favorite as we get samples of them. Who knows we
might even consider writing a book,” Carassa replied as she stood up and went
to attend to an early customer.
Mika smiled sheepishly and rose as well, “We’ll be right back -- it’s one of
our regulars. Feel free to help yourself to the chocolate.” He left through
the door and we could hear friendly laughter emerging from the shop. They are
really friendly it’s no wonder their garage sale is so popular.
Deke turned to me, “Bun (her private nickname for me) do you want to ask them
some questions?”
I was so shocked. Me? Ask questions? Like a real journalist! I nodded numbly
and started thinking of questions to ask them. Meanwhile, Mika and Carassa had
returned and resumed their interview with Deke. As I was busy thinking of questions,
I didn’t take any notes but this is the transcript from Deke’s notebook:
Deke: “You have your own game! What do you think of it?”
Mika:”We think it’s great. I’m really glad that the Neopets Team decided to
make a game about us. Personally, I’m not that good at the game but I hear that
Snowflake is an ace at it. Once, El Picklesaur came barging into the igloo muttering
about the game. I assumed he didn’t do very well. Poor guy.”
Deke: “Do you guys plan to battle? The Arena of Ice is just below your floor.”
Mika: "I don’t think so. We are naught but humble Chias… hehe… Nah. We
are too busy here.”
Deke: “Is it true the Terror Mountain Ski Lodge is haunted?
Carassa grinned. Beside her, Mika was laughing, “Nope. Only by the Neopets
team. Some say it is the Neopets HQ in Neopia. But I wouldn’t know. “
*winks*
Deke had finished her questions; I knew that because I helped her prepare them,
too. Nervously, I held up my rainbow notebook and read aloud, hoping that my
blush wouldn’t be too obvious, “Have you guys ever been to Mystery Island? It
is just the tropical place you are looking for… I mean, Deke took us on a holiday
there last year…”
A hand petted my forehead and I looked up to see Deke smiling encouragingly
at me as Carassa answered solemnly, “Errr… well. We read The Neopian Times,
there seemed to be a problem there recently. We would love to live there, however,
last we checked, there isn’t any available land for us there.”
Deke took down their answers so I was free to continue on,"You
live above the Snowager. I don’t suppose your stock might have something to
do with him.”
Everyone burst out laughing, making me even more embarrassed.
“Oh no, not at all. We’re all good neighbours, we would never steal from him
if that’s what you’re asking. It’s not the Chia way,” Mika responded in an easygoing
manner.
My final question, this one really made me nervous to ask,”Just to clarify
things, how are you two related?”
Everyone laughed again. Honestly, I don’t understand what’s so wrong about
questions like that. But I suppose that most people ask just about work stuff
so I guess I’m different. After all, I’m not an adult yet… thank goodness!
Carassa stopped laughing first and answered, "We are cousins… I know most
people mistake us for a couple but Mika is like a brother to me."
With that, we bade farewell as the restock crowd started to stream in. As we
climbed up the stairs to the shop, Carassa put her hand on my shoulder as Mika
handed me a box.
“Don’t open it until you get home,” Mika said with a wink. I tried to nod
solemnly but the box was too heavy.
As we jostled through the eager crowd, Deke saw a couple of friends and stopped
to greet them before we finally reach the igloo’s circular entrance. Going out,
we were blasted by the immense cold as we trudged back down the now easier route.
Suddenly, a tall man raced past us and bumped into me. He dropped the half
a dozen items in his arms and released some pretty florid language. My box tumbled
out of my paws and rolled on the snow, emitting squeaks as it rolled. I hurried
after my precious cargo and heard Deke using her vexed tone, "Paddy! Can’t
you be more careful?"
She continued to scold my uncle Paddy as my box finally came to a stop and
a fluffed out, poofy, annoyed, grumpy Snowbunny hopped out to glare at me. Awww,
what a cute gift! The Igloo Chias were so nice to give me a petpet. I always
wanted one but Deke said I wasn’t old enough to know how to care for one. As
the Snowbunny and I got acquainted, Deke joined me as uncle Paddy now got reprimanded
by Taelia for being late. We tromped down the snow-covered path towards home,
the Snowbunny giving me trouble all the way, evidently not forgiving me for
dropping her.
As we reached our front gate, I decided to call the errant, grumpy bunny “Mika”.
The End
P.S.: Thanks to paddy, aka divineaurora, for letting me abuse his chivalrous
name. Hehe.
| 
