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Snarling, white fangs bared, the yellow Zafara narrowed
his large blue eyes into tiny slits as he leapt into the air above the shadowy
Lupe before him. As his lithe but tattered body hovered in the air, the Lupe snarled
in return, showing bloodstained teeth that would strike fear into the heart of
even the most seasoned warrior.
The Zafara moved quickly and rationally under
the pressure, drawing an object from a small satchel he wore over his hip. Before
he landed in the jaws of his fierce opponent, he swung the item underneath himself,
lodging it in the Lupe's mouth. The Zafara then used the object, which upon
closer inspection turned out to be a tin of olives, as a diving board. He gracefully
bounced off the lid of the tin, performed a well-executed flip in midair, and
then landed on the ground, hands on hips.
"There now! How'd you like that one, Oxxy?"
the Zafara exclaimed, laughing boastfully.
The Lupe sighed through the tin exasperatedly,
then took great pains to crush the full tin in his jaws, munching the tender
black fruits as they popped out of the metal into his mouth. He spit out the
remains of the tin and shook his head.
"I'm not doing this with you anymore," the Lupe
moaned, scratching his muzzle with one paw. "I bit my tongue just now, Zikkios.
That's just not cool."
The Zafara, Zikkios, grinned coyly and scratched
his black-spotted ear before letting it pop into its' usual alert position.
There was a visible tear in the skin next to the spots, and his fur was rumpled
and stained to a nearly brown color. Still, he looked happy and was clearly
in excellent physical condition.
The Lupe was whining pitifully, curling up into
a ball facing away from Zikkios. He was painted Ghost, and with his dark red
eyes and ethereal grey fur, Oxxygyn's personality was a strange match for his
appearance. He was quite a talented fighter, but completely unable to take failure
under any circumstances.
As Oxxy silently buried his nose in his sparse
tail fur, mourning his loss, he did have to secretly admit that his pal had
really become one heck of a fighter in the month since they'd met on the Neopian
streets. Quite a change from the timid, frightened little waif Oxxy had found
crying in the rain while looking for food.
Of course, Oxxy'd changed just a little bit
as well...
***
For as long as Oxxy could recall, he'd been on his own, a scavenger, one of
the pets left in the Neopian Pound the day they were born, and then ejected
from even the Pound for lack of interest from potential adopters. Eventually,
the Pound had to make room for new pets.
Oxxy recalled the cries of his fellow pets as
the Techo, Dr. Death, opened the back door leading into a harsh woods, and told
him and the others to get lost, scram. Not even a friendly pat or a goodbye
or a good luck, just a swift kick to the hind parts and the knowledge that to
the Neopian government and society, Oxxygyn the Lupe no longer existed.
Wandering the streets of Neopia without an owner
was a miserable enough business in and of itself, but Oxxy soon discovered the
meaning of real hunger. His matted blue coat that barely kept the wind off him
at night was a small inconvenience compared to the dire straits of hunger. He
went for days with only the occasional rotten Lost Desert fruit left by some
careless Neopian who could afford to let things go, and of course since he had
no owner, he was shunned by even the Money Tree and the Soup Faerie, who sighed
sadly and said without an owner... that's the way things go, buddy.
It was no surprise that before long he turned
to a life of crime, of moral bankruptcy. Other homeless "pets", he noticed,
seemed to have more than he had. Shiny, though matted coats, a plump belly,
far fewer worries. After a few weeks he began to follow around a shady sort
of character, a female Techo whose scales were so coated with soot and dirt
that she could have originally been ANY color. She was almost always laughing
about something, a laugh that showed that she'd lost all cares, that showed
that she had it all figured out.
"I got it all figured out," she'd say, chuckling
quietly. "You tryin' to tell me you need some PERSON to lead you around on a
nice little leash, feed you out of a nice little dish? No sir, not for me. I
got it all figured out, see."
At first, Oxxy thought her out of her mind.
She was one of the oldest pets around, not just on the streets, but in Neopia,
period. She'd been homeless since before homes existed, and although she wasn't
much for cleanliness, she did eat 3 solid meals every day, and every once in
awhile, she could even be convinced to share her "wealth" among newcomers, such
as Oxxy. But despite all that, he didn't much trust her for quite awhile, he
just followed her around because where she was, so too was food... usually.
"So why you always followin' me around?" she
asked Oxxy one day as they crossed a bridge into the same woods behind the pound.
"I'm not followin' you." Oxxy shrugged. "Just
got nowhere else to go."
"Whatcha talkin' about? You ain't got no home,
no person! You can go anyplace you wanna go, do anything you wanna do."
"I don't wanna do nothin'."
"Anythin', you fool. Not 'nothin'," she corrected.
Oxxy didn't answer, just stopped walking, cocking
his head to one side. He noticed that the Techo stopped walking, too, and was
looking at the ground in front of her. A moment later, she turned around and
seemed to see Oxxy with new eyes, eyes that shone and held something that almost
seemed like respect for her fellow creature.
"Y'know, kid... I've been at this for a long
time... years, in fact. I hope you, in all your youthful naiveté, didn't
think I got this way by livin' life the honorable way," she said soberly.
Oxxy frowned. What does "naiveté" mean?
"I told you, kid, I got it all figured out,
and I found out that people are dumb, mindless, soft little creatures who can
be fooled into doing almost anything as long as it's stupid enough. You get
what I'm sayin', kid?"
"Uh... everything except the 'naiveté'
part..."
"Yeah, well, don't worry about that one, kid.
As long as them Neoschools are in limbo, 90% of the population shares your ignorance.
Come over here a second, I wanna show you somethin'."
Oxxy got up warily and ambled over to where
the Techo stood. He looked at her quizzically, and she pointed to the ground
at her feet. There, as plain as day and easy for anyone to see, sat a Ghost
Paint Brush.
"What's that?" Oxxy asked, bending down to sniff
it. The Techo swatted at him, snarling.
"Don't get too close, you fool! If you touch
the bristles, you'll turn into a ghost too."
"Really?!" Oxxy exclaimed, eyes wide.
"No, I was just kidding. You have to take it
to the Rainbow Pool in Neopia Central. Boy, don't you know anything? Do you
even know what a ghost is?"
"Of course I know what it is. It means you're
dead," Oxxy said proudly.
The Techo sighed, shaking her head.
"Kid... you don't know it yet, but you're already
dead. I've been dead for five years now... and I'm getting awfully sick of it.
I've stolen and scammed more people than I can name... and all because one person
hurt me by stickin' me in the Pound five years ago," she explained mournfully.
Oxxy frowned.
"But... you've got a great life... I thought
you had it all figured out," he whispered.
She laughed a humorless little laugh and sat
down on the ground, keeping her hand on the handle of the paint brush.
"I do have it all figured out. It's easy as
pie, you know. Take stuff from people who earned it to eat and teach others
to do the same thing. Eat to live, steal to eat. Over and over again. Boy, have
I ever.... just had it, kid. I'm so tired, kid... I'm so tired. Tired of running,
tired of eating, tired of stealing. I think I'm even tired of living."
Oxxy didn't understand what she meant, and they
sat silent for what seemed like eternity. When Oxxy finally looked up, he noticed
that there were long, thin streaks of purple and orange suddenly running down
the Techo's cheeks and onto her hands. She had been crying for the first time
in years, and the tears washed away the soot in every place they touched.
"Hey... hey! You... you're painted!" Oxxy exclaimed,
getting a good look at the evidence of a split paint job. Oxxy had seen one
or two painted pets during his time at the pound, and they had been snatched
up within seconds of their arrival. It didn't make sense... how had this Techo
been painted and yet never adopted?
To be continued...
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