Lost and Found: Part One by the_wanderer128 |  |
When a Neopet is no longer wanted, it is usually sent
to the pound, where it will likely be adopted by another owner. Sometimes however,
an unwanted Neopet is not fortunate enough to make it to the pound, if one dared
to say being committed to the pound is fortunate to begin with. This story follows
the bittersweet life of one such Neopet. Born neither in the wild nor had he
been born domesticated, he fell into the lowest link of the social caste of
Neopia.
A young blue Lupe, of unknown age, trudged down
the dark network of alleyways that created a dizzying web between the backs
of buildings forming the town of Neopia Central. His soft pads scratched against
the cool wet concrete as he walked the beaten pathways. His stomach growled
in hunger, a song that this Lupe knew all too well. So, he routinely began his
scavenging rounds to bring an end to his stomach’s restless state. Dusk was
fast approaching, and the all encompassing darkness would make it difficult
to navigate the alleys that amplified the darkness into a never-ending void
of absolute nothingness.
This was his home; the only home he’d ever known,
and he was very familiar with the gloomy and decrepit surroundings. He had been
born upon the back end of society. He never had a family, or any true friends
to speak of. If he ever was concerned of trying to find companionship, he would
have. He could not remember why he was there, or how he got there, he only knew
what he needed to know in order to survive this cruel lifestyle. As strange
as it sounds, this little Lupe rarely saw any other living things. He constantly
shielded himself in the shadows of the surrounding buildings, never once basking
in the natural light that all the land had been blessed with. This ignorance
of all other life that was always close by, yet unseen by his own eyes, led
to his own assumption that he was the only one that lived there, within the
alleys of Neopia Central. Everything about his earlier life was so obscure,
that he did not even know of his own age. Despite all the things that had left
him blind to what he could have been experiencing, he accepted the life that
had been chosen for him by fate. So, as he helped himself to the usual dinner
of rotting food that lay in the piles of refuse left behind by those who need
not concern themselves with the difficulties he casually faced, he heard footsteps
unlike anything he had ever heard before, beginning to draw close.
He turned around and spotted Him. The Lupe jumped
down from the trash pile and clumsily staggered backwards away from the figure
that began to approach him. He had never seen a human before, and this strange
two-legged creature was approaching him without haste.
The Lupe immediately began to emit a low growl,
which surprised even him, for he had never found any reason to growl before.
Despite the intimidating display he put on, the human appeared unafraid, and
continued to close the gap that stood between him and the Lupe. The poor Lupe,
not knowing any means to protect himself, scanned the surroundings for a means,
any means, to escape. But the only escape was directly past the human, and the
Lupe prepared to do just that. Before he could line up his escape route, the
human knelt down in front of him, and extended his hand in a gesture that would
be known to any of us as means of friendship. The Lupe, however, saw this as
an imminent strike, and crouched down with his front paws over his head to protect
himself. As he cringed and waited, and waited for what seemed like eternity,
he felt the hand gently stroke through the fur on his back. Slowly, he uncased
his head from his paws and looked up at the human. The human continued to rub
him, his fingertips gently massaging through the grizzled, unwashed fur, and
smiled at him.
The Lupe was stunned. Never before, had anyone
else touched him, making this a surreal moment for him. So, he felt the muscles
in his body begin to relax, and no longer perceive the human as a threat. For
the first time in their encounter, the human began to speak to him. “What is
your name?” he asked, while continuing to stroke the increasingly curious Lupe.
Therein lay a problem, however, for this Lupe had never spoken before, ever.
The human waited patiently for a response, and then asked, “Can you talk?” The
Lupe amazingly understood what the human was asking of him, and began to instinctively
shake his head left and right. “So you can’t talk then, you poor boy.” The human
reached around the Lupe’s waist, to which he responded with furious yelping
and thrashing. “Calm down, boy. I’m only trying to help you,” the human said
in a low whisper. His gentle, soothing tone seemed to ease the surprise the
Lupe felt with this human trying to handle him since, like many things about
this meeting, were entirely new to him. Knowing that he had little choice, he
decided to trust him. So he closed his eyes, and submitted himself to the human,
not knowing what would happen next.
Before he knew it, he was in a warm, inviting
Neohome, that belonged to this human. Everything appeared new, clean and never
used. This human appeared to have just moved in here, and it looked as though
the young, stray Lupe was his first and only pet he ever had. The human wasted
no time in cleaning him up, either. He quickly drew some hot water into the
bathtub, of his one and only bathroom, and placed soap tablets in the water.
When the water was perfectly tepid, he snatched the Lupe off his feet once more,
and plunged him into the water. The human had braced his right foot against
the wall opposite of the tub, in apparent anticipation of a wild struggle, but
to his relief, the Lupe never made a sound. With that, the human began to wash
the dirt, and grease that clung to his fur, and rinsed it away with more water.
The Lupe felt so relaxed at this moment. For the first time ever in memory,
he felt the wonders of being clean, and free of the familiar debris that was
always present for as long as he could remember. After he was done, the human
took him out of the tub and placed him on the ground to dry him off. As he scrubbed
the water out of the Lupe’s fur with brisk back and forth movements, the human
said, “There! Bet that feels better.”
As the human turned his back on him to grab a
brush, he heard, “Yes… I…feel…bet-ter.”
The human turned around almost with alarm, and
quickly realized that it was this little Lupe that had said this. “See? Looks
like you are learning to speak already.” The human grinned, with immeasurable
contentment, seeing that his little foundling was quickly learning the ways
of higher intelligence. After he was dried off, the now clean Lupe followed
the human to the kitchen, and stood back out of his way as he grabbed various
instruments and bowls out of the cabinets, and cupboards. The human worked briskly
and efficiently, until after a few minutes, a delicious looking dinner had been
neatly placed upon the table in the center of the kitchen. The human pulled
out a chair on one end of the table, and motioned to the Lupe to come forward
and join him. He needed not tell him twice either! Before he made any connection,
the Lupe was already at the table hungrily waiting for his first helping! “Ah,
no surprise. I bet you didn’t find much to eat back where I found you,” the
human said, casually sitting at the other end, to grab something before the
starving Lupe ate it all. The Lupe paid no attention to this as he quickly swallowed
up everything that was on his plate. As the meal carried on, the human stood
up quickly and began to walk away from the table. “Oh! I forgot about that!”
he muttered, as he ran into the next room. When he re-emerged, the Lupe quickly
noticed he was holding a book in his hand.
The human placed the book in front of him, and
crouched down next to him.
“Can you read the words on this book?”
The Lupe studied the words for a moment, his
brain making connections to the best of its ability, until he finally could
understand them. “Gui-de… tooo… Loo-pess.”
The human smiled and said, “Close enough. See
the picture? That’s you—a Lupe. This will tell you everything you need to know
about your kind. It will also be a good way to show you how to read.”
The Lupe was satisfied with this prospect. He
wanted to learn to read, since after all, this human took him off the streets
on his own accord. He would gladly bow to the human’s wishes knowing this. As
the human put away the dishes, he asked him what his name should be. The Lupe
thought of this for a moment, and decided on one. “Loo-po.”
“You want to be called Lupo?” the human asked.
Lupo nodded his head assertively. The human seemed rather amused of his decision,
but never showed it. “Very well, then. I’ll call you Lupo from now on. Go get
some sleep. Your lessons begin tomorrow.”
To be continued…
Though it may seem as if an unfortunate soul is now on the opposite end
of the spectrum of rich and poor, his story is far from finished…
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