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"Reiji, wait for meeee!" a young, skunk Kougra called out
to her year older brother.
"Wait for your little sister, Reiji," a mother
scolded her four-year-old son.
"Aw, Minjyu, you're just slow," the young shadow
Kougra teased at his little sister, sticking his tongue out at her.
Minjyu's eyes narrowed down to slits and she
leapt at her brother, knocking him to the ground. "I am not slow."
Knocking the little fluff ball off of his back
Reiji ran ahead on the old path leading to their small home. "Can't catch me
little sister!"
Minjyu sped after her brother, determined to
catch him. After all, her pride was at stake. Their mother watched her young
cubs dart off down the path and smiled, ah the energy of youth. She headed on
after her cubs and saw when her daughter tripped and fell flat onto her face
and began to cry.
The mother sprinted to her child and cradled
her in her arms, "Hush now, you'll be fine," she purred while wiping the tears
away from her child's face.
Sniffling, Minjyu crawled out of her mother's
arms, "I'm okay, mama," the Kougra then started after her brother with her mother
close behind.
Minjyu walked into her family's house, a small
bamboo-walled structure with a thatched roof of palm tree fronds and a bamboo
floor; the typical Mystery Island home. A dried out bamboo bed sat in the corner
along with a small pile of various assorted plushies belonging to Minjyu; and
hiding amongst those plushies was Reiji.
"Gyaaa!" Reiji sprang out of his hiding place,
plushies raining down, and pounced on Minjyu. "I got you back, sis!"
"Reiji, get offa me!" Minjyu whined loudly.
"Ma, make him stop!"
"Reiji, if you don't stop you won't be allowed
to go to the Gadgadsbogen festival tonight."
Reluctantly, the young Kougra stepped off of
his sister and walked to the corner to pout; parents were never any fun. A few
hours later their mother gave each of her cubs a small bag of Neopoints each
and bid them farewell as she watched them bounce down the path, towards the
main center of the village.
"I'm going to get so much fruit that I'll burst!"
Reiji bragged.
"I'm just gonna get myself one of those plushies
that they sell in the market," Minjyu said, her eyes sparkling.
Reiji stuck out his tongue in disgust, "Not
another one of your stupid plushies, it's like an obsession with you! What is
it about them that you like so much?"
Minjyu was too young to know that she was being
made fun of, much less what 'obsession' meant; so she replied, "I like them
because they are soft and have pretty colors!"
Sisters, what a pain, Reiji thought.
He would just be glad to get to that festival and it's delicious fruit. The
pair arrived at the festival; nothing was different than the last year but it
still amazed them no matter how many times they saw it. There were strange flowers
strung up in a line that glowed and gave off light, cheerful drumbeats were
heard all over, and everyone was milling about chatting or just having a good
time.
The two young Kougras stood transfixed, staring
at the strange, glowing lights, mouths agape when they heard a voice behind
them. "Welcome to my Tombola! Great prizes to be won, just put your hand (or
paw) in, pick up a Tombola ticket, and see what prize you win. Anything ending
with a zero, two, or five is a winner!" the Tombola man called out.
"I'm going to go play Tombola, Reiji," Minjyu
announced to her older brother, running up to the stand and shoving her paw
into the box.
She moved her paw around inside of the box and
pulled out a ticket ending with a zero.
"Congratulations! You've won one hundred Neopoints
and a chocolate coated fish pop!" the Tombola man exclaimed.
"Yippee!" Minjyu dropped her newly won Neopoints
into her bag and ran up to her brother and showed off the fish pop to him. "Look
what I won, Reiji! I love fish, and chocolate. This is like a dream come true!"
And in saying this, she stuffed the pop into her mouth and began to suck on
it.
A passing Acara looked over at the two cubs
and noticed when Minjyu pulled the pop from her mouth and bite off a big chunk,
smacking her lips loudly, and promptly ran off, now with it's fur a greenish
tint and a paw slapped tightly across it's mouth. How could any living thing
possibly stomach that vile food? None but a young Kougra it seemed.
"Eeew, Minjyu, that's just gross," Reiji said,
trying not to look. She finished her snack and threw away the stick and looked
up at her brother, "What was grossing, Reiji?"
"Never mind, let's just go get some berries
and play games."
The two siblings ran over to the berry store
where Reiji bought a pouch of berries, and then to the plushie vendor and Minjyu
purchased a yellow Lenny plushie. They played a few games, such as bone toss,
rotten berry splat, and hide and go seek. After the two had had enough of games,
Minjyu spoke out.
"Reiji, I wanna go see the Island Mystic."
The young shadow Kougra almost fell over from
surprise, "Minjyu don't you remember what happened the last time you tried to
see the Island mystic? You took one look at that Kyrii and ran from his hut
screaming at the top of your lungs."
"I'm not gonna do that again, Reiji! It was
that bone in his nose that scared me. Honest, I won't do it again, so can we
please go?" Minjyu whined.
Reiji had no choice but to acquiesce, it had
been funny the first time she had seen the mystic, no doubt it would be even
funnier the second time. The mystic's hut was old, creaky, and dark, a rather
frightening combination to those unaccustomed to such things. Reiji pulled in
his little sister's paw and led her up the steps into the hut; the inside was
worse than the outside. Old and dried plants, flowers, and herbs lined the walls
along with on old skull from some unfortunate creature, a black iron cauldron
sat in the middle of the room with a fire underneath, bubbling slightly but
emitting no smoke from the flames. In one of the corners sat the mystic, asleep.
"Mr. Shaman sir, are you busy?" Reiji asked
timidly, clasping his sister's paw to comfort both her and him.
The Kyrii jolted awake and blinked at the two
Kougras and smiled. Minjyu took one look at him and prepared to run screaming
until her brother stomped on her tail.
"You want me to tell you your fortune, yes?"
the Kyrii asked, rubbing the bone in his nose.
"Y-yes, if it wouldn't be to much to ask," Reiji
stammered.
"Well then, why didn't you say so at first?
Let's get started then shall we?" the Mystic exclaimed.
The strange Kyrii then began to toddle about
his hut, gathering a few dried plants, and what looked like small, withered
lizards. He began to drop them into his cauldron, stirred them up, and chanted
a strange incantation as strangely colored smoke began to drift from the concoction.
He stopped and looked up Reiji.
"Beware the ocean, it isn't always a friend."
Reiji wondered what the mystic had meant as
he and his sister left the Hut. "I still say we shouldn't have gone, Minjyu."
A few miles offshore drifted a large wooden
ship, sporting a black flag with skull and crossbones upon it. A pirate Kougra
stood on the bow of the ship, gazing up at the black storm clouds billowing
overhead.
"Set sail for the island cove, we'll weather
the storm out there," the Kougra called out to his crew.
-The End-
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