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Carri sat on her Regal Oak Wood Bed, sulking. How unfair
this was! I shouldn’t have mentioned it, she thought. But it was now,
of course, too late, as she had already mentioned it (and had been punished).
Tossing all of her pillows off to the side,
Carri buried her face into her mattress and started crying silently. She knew
relatively well that she was overreacting, but Chocolate had done so too, so
why couldn’t she?
“You’ll see, Choc,” Carri murmured, “when we
get the 3 million Neopoints, and when I won’t split them with you.”
Nodding in approval at her scheme, the Tonu
squeezed her eyes shut. Although she had not originally been intending to do
so, she then drifted into a fitful slumber.
~~~~
Anna awoke to the sound of wild Horus’ chirping overhead. She groaned, slowly
opening her eyes. It took the Acara a few seconds to realize where she was,
but once she remembered, she grinned.
After slowly rising to her paws, Anna dusted
off her fur, yawned, and then shot a glance at where Jessa had been sleeping.
Her heart seemed to stop in mid-beat when she discovered the toddler utterly
gone!
Anna twirled around, her eyes frantically searching
for her younger sister. When she was not found, Anna let out a long, panicked
moan and slid dolefully back to the grass.
Horrid thoughts of what might’ve happened to
Jessa raced around Anna’s mind at such a rapid pace that she soon grew dizzy.
Taking in a short, ragged breath, the Acara squeezed her eyes shut. That was
the last thing she remembered before waking up again many hours later.
~~~~
Jessa sat at the edge of the ferry, gazing down blankly at the water below.
She had not a clue why she had left Anna’s side; perhaps out of ennui, although
it might’ve been because the grass was itchy. All the Aisha knew now, though,
was that she was on a large ferry that was bound toward Mystery Island Harbour.
Turning away from the ocean below, Jessa sunk
deeper into her plastic-coated seat. She sat doing nothing for approximately
3 minutes, but at that point she became bored.
Whipping her head to the other side of the ferryboat,
the tot started surveying her surroundings.
Occupying the rest of the row that she was in
was a red Cybunny, a silver Kougra, a spotted Skeith and a pirate Lupe. They
were all keeping pretty much to themselves; the first two listed were reading,
and the last two were tapping their paws on the slippery ground impatiently.
After giving each of them a long stare, Jessa
turned toward the part of the ship in front of her. There were thirteen rows
ahead of the Aisha; all except for three were completely occupied. Way to the
left side was a small food-shop, which sold snacks to eat aboard the ferry.
There was also a set of stairs that led up to where the captain was.
Jessa shrugged, uninterested. She then looked
toward the part of the boat behind her.
There were only 9 rows of seating; 4 were completely
empty, the other 5 were semi-full. Nothing else was back there.
Heaving a sigh, Jessa looked back out toward
the ocean. She stayed there like that ‘till she reached Mystery Island.
~~~~
May landed gently on the huge front porch of Caitlyn’s home. After inhaling
deeply, she lifted her paw and knocked on the giant wooden door.
It soon creaked open, and standing on a dark
red doormat was a yellow Kacheek dressed in a long navy blue apron.
“I think I might have Anna and Jessa,” she proclaimed,
gesturing toward the Acara and Aisha sitting on her back.
“I’ll go get Miss Caitlyn to see if they are
in fact hers,” the Kacheek replied in a dull voice.
She mechanically turned around and shuffled
off to retrieve Caitlyn. May bit her lip nervously ‘till the blonde-haired teen
appeared at the doorway.
“Do you have the right ones?” she snarled, scrunching
up her face skeptically.
“I don’t know, but I might.”
“Get them off your back and show them to me.”
Cowering, the Acara and Aisha stepped off of
May’s back. Immediately following, a grin broke out across Caitlyn’s face.
“Those are mine!” she exclaimed, clapping.
The Acara and Aisha exchanged frightened glances,
for of course they were not actually Caitlyn’s.
“So, do I get the reward?” May asked eagerly.
Caitlyn nodded. “Of course! I’ll go get it!
Right now, though, you must stay with Anna and Jessa in case they try to run
away while I’m collecting your reward.”
May nodded happily, and Caitlyn rushed off to
get the Neopoints. Four minutes later, she returned with sixty 100,000 Neopoint
bills in tow. After handing the currency to May, the teenager dismissed her.
May placed the bills into her leather satchel,
shot a last glance at who she assumed to be Jessa and Anna, then fluttered away
back to Mystery Island, where both she and Carri resided.
~~~~
Sareona was awakened to the sound of frantic pounding on the front door. Groaning,
she opened her eyes and then hopped to her paws to answer it.
Once she pulled the door open, she discovered
a rather excited looking May standing there.
“Oh Sareona, can you get Carri for me!?” She
asked.
“She’s grounded or something,” Sareona grumbled
in reply.
“Why?” May inquired.
“I dunno… I think because of some kind of kidnapping
that happened with you.” Sareona yawned.
May frowned. “Well, then, can I speak to Chocolate
to sort this out?”
“Yeah, sure… CHOCOLATE, MAY’S HERE AND SHE WANTS
TO TALK TO YOU!”
A rather irritated looking Chocolate soon arrived
at the door, and Sareona scuttled off.
“What is it, May?” Chocolate asked, brushing
a strand of hair out of her face.
“Well, the pets that you got mad at Carri and
I for taking… well, they really were Anna and Jessa! I got the Neopoints to
prove it! I just came by to tell Carri and drop off her share of three million.”
Chocolate gasped, her eyes as round and big
as whole dinner plates. “Th-th-three million?” She inquired weakly.
May nodded keenly. “Yup! Well, then, I guess
I’ll give it all to you since Carri’s grounded and –”
“No, she’s not anymore. CARRI GET YOURSELF OUT
OF YOUR ROOM RIGHT NOW AND COME HERE!” Chocolate yelled.
Carri, excited to be let free, burst out of
her room and to Chocolate’s voice immediately. “What is it?” She did not notice
the fact that May was standing outside.
“Those pets really were Anna and Jessa! We got
three million, Carri!”
Carri grinned, letting out a long, happy whistle.
She then realized that May was there, and the two exchanged high-fives.
“Can I see my share?” Carri questioned.
May nodded, undoing the satchel and fishing
out 30 crisp bills. She gently set them into Carri’s paws.
“I ought to be going now… Mom’s going to get
mad at me for bein’ out so long. Anyway, I bet she wants to hear about our new
fortune.”
May and Carri waved at each other, but then
Chocolate closed the front door. The two didn’t even hear the crash that soon
occurred outside.
~~~~
Jessa hopped off the ramp leading down from the ferry and onto the sandy wooden
dock. She wanted to simply stand there and gawk at her surroundings for a while,
but the bustle of pets behind her prevented the Aisha from doing so.
So she walked in the middle of the crowd, and
despite the occasional shove or elbow-jab, she was fine.
Soon, though, Jessa reached a calmer area. She
stood motionless for a few minutes, looking around. After these few minutes,
the Aisha proceeded toward the homes of Mystery Island dwellers.
It was not long before she crashed into a red
Eyrie who right then and there happened to be taking off for flight.
~~~~
May went tumbling to the ground. She sat there, bewildered, for a few moments
before she heard the pitiful whimpering of some sort from below her wing, which
now ached greatly.
Moving it, despite the pain, she discovered
a baby Aisha, curled up in a fetal position. May gasped; she had crashed into
a toddler!
“Are you okay?” she whispered, biting her lip.
“No,” a small voice replied.
May cringed; not only had she plowed into this
innocent child, but she had injured it as well!
“I’m so sorry,” May said, stroking the Aisha’s
back with an uninjured paw. Then, trying to change the conversation from this
one (which was making her uncomfortable), she asked, “What’s your name?”
“Je-” The Aisha paused in mid-sentence for a
reason May did not know. “Jenna.”
May smiled. “I’m Mayaunni, although I’m usually
known as simply May.”
‘Jenna’ (who, although May did not know it,
was actually Jessa) nodded slowly. “I see,” she murmured. She then glanced toward
her left front paw, which hurt tremendously.
May slowly staggered to her paws, gritting her
teeth every inch. How sore she felt! But she would not let it show. Not in front
of Jenna. “Where do you hurt?” she simply asked.
Jenna pointed her chin toward the same paw.
“There,” she stated.
May bobbed her head up and down. “Here, why
don’t I get you help? My friend Carri lives right in this house.”
Although Anna had warned Jenna about not going
into strangers’ houses, the Aisha was in too much pain to care about that. “Okay,”
she merely whispered.
Mayaunni smiled feebly, and then limped back
up to Carri’s door.
She rapped on it lightly twice, and soon it
swung open. Chocolate was standing on the dirt-smeared doormat, and she had
the same look on her face that she had earlier.
“What is it, May?” She inquired.
“I-I crashed into a baby Aisha, a-and she needs
help.” May moved to the side, revealing Jenna/Jessa to Chocolate.
The girl gasped, rushing out to the Aisha’s
side.
Chocolate gently scooped Jessa into her arms,
and she stroked her cheek tenderly. “It’ll be okay,” she whispered, “I promise.”
Jessa nodded imperceptibly. Chocolate quick-walked
back inside the house.
To be continued...
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