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Okay, it sounded like a pretty good deal: a skillful
detective/fighter Wocky for a sis, and an eccentric do-gooder for an owner.
I've been through worse ideas, so I went cheerfully along with this one.
I followed the Uber Fire Faerie over to her lead
cloud racer and hopped on behind her. Thankfully, this appaloosa500 (man, is
it just me or does that sound like a race?) didn't live too far from that warehouse/Buzz
headquarters, so I didn't have to suffer on that awkward thing very long. Cloud
racers practically make me wish for a nice, smooth, nuclear-powered spaceship.
She lives in Neopia Central, a little ways into
a rather sparse-looking forest with a lot of turns and forks. It was an average-looking
Neohome at first glance, then I noticed the circular landing field that seemed
to glow blue as we approached and a small wooden sign directing clients for
the Wocky Detective to the side door.
We went to the front door and knocked. It was
almost immediately answered by a calm, mature-looking teenage girl with a messy
ponytail of medium-brown hair that reached almost to her waist. Oddly, she was
dressed a lot like me, in an old stained T-shirt and loose blue jeans.
Her brown eyes smiled first, closely followed
by the rest of her face, as soon as she saw the faerie. She gave the small,
appropriate bow and greeted the Uber Fire Faerie by name. Not fair, she never
told me her name was Hidden Flame, I thought. I admit I was more than a
little nervous and annoyed that things had moved so fast.
Then the girl seemed to notice my staring, and
looked down quite a ways to me. (What's really not fair is, for a human, she's
not even remotely tall.) "Oh, it was today?" she commented, smiling at me, in
a thankfully low, calm voice. (Thank you faeries! I hate high, squeaky voices!)
"If you'd told me, Hidden Flame, I would've cleaned up the house a bit." Forgetting,
of course, that she herself could use a bit of 'cleaning up'.
She gestured and we followed her in. Strangely
enough, she didn't lead us to the rather sloppy living room, but instead, the
kitchen. Noticing the confusion on my face, she chuckled. "I supposed if we're
going to be family we should go straight to the most calm, organized place in
the house. I'm gonna have some milk and cookies, either of you want any?"
Hidden Flame sighed and shook her head. "I'd
like to stay, but I really have a lot to do. The Ubers are due to meet with
Fyora in exactly one minute, and I'd like to be early." She vanished away with
a slight 'poof' of incoming air and Kay laughed.
"Don't you just love it when they do that? Anyway,
I'm Kay, as I'm sure that crazy ol' faerie friend of mine told you. That Hidden
Flame, never finishing explanations but letting people guess. Anyway, I know
your name is DeSoni and you're really an extremely talented Alien Aisha, but
not much else." She took out a plastic jug of milk, a plate of warm cookies,
and three plastic cups. "I'll get Khargana in here and we'll talk. I'm not sure
how she'll feel about having a brother, but I'm sure she'll get over it. Eventually,
anyway."
She pointed at a wooden stool, where I sat, and
surprisingly didn't leave the room to get Khargana, who must be the Wocky Detective
Hidden Flame spoke of. Instead of standing up and going to get her Neopet, she
just shouted, in an incredibly loud and controlled voice, "KHAR-GAN-A! GET IN
HERE NOW!"
There was a loud crash, as if someone had dropped
a glass vase or something, and the door simply marked office, which I could
barely see from my chair, slammed open.
A green Wocky ran into the kitchen, small glass
splinters sticking in her long, thick fur. She skidded to a stop a millisecond
before crashing into my chair and, without looking at me, began ranting off
in such a manner that I began to doubt she was an advanced student at the training
school which was known for 'control of self'.
"Yah, Kay? Did a Dark Faerie break into the house
and literally turn things upside down? Was Raxey locked out of his office? Have
aliens finally invaded like I've been telling them to get it over with? Is B.J.
having trouble with troublemakers? Is it Professor Chani and Spy coming for
a visit? Do Lani and the girls wanna go to the movies or something?"
I blinked, not really understanding a word, and
listened to Kay's satisfied chuckle. The Wocky was wearing a long, pocketed
suede vest which she began dusting off. Then, as she began picking long glass
splinters out of her thick fur, she noticed me and narrowed her very direct
brown eyes as she gave me the usual typical once over.
"Who are you and what are you doing here? Speak
lively, I've got stuff to do," she positively commanded me.
Hue-man. For a girl this Wocky, Khargana, sure
packed a pretty alarming first impression. I shrunk a little into my chair.
Kay sighed at her Neopet and answered for me.
"This is DeSoni, Khargana. He's in the Faerie Protection Program, and I've accepted
the responsibility of adopting him."
One of the detective's straight black eyebrows
lifted. "Hmm, the FPP. You're an Alien Aisha, aren't ya?" The way she said it,
it wasn't a question.
Okay, that was really scary. Is in the slightest
way possible that this Wocky could read minds or something?
She must have seen the confusion in my eyes,
because she smiled very slightly and explained to me. "You're too short. Your
yellow is a little off, and you're not wearing an "A" necklace. You're wearing
stained clothing, which speaks of working with mechanical items, and the FPP
is only for people with important information having to with politics, economy,
weaponry, technology, science, etc. or whose very existence or position places
them in danger."
My mouth dropped open and Khargana smirked. One
word: wow. It would take some getting used to, living with an investigator whose
job it is to observe and take especial note of things.
"P.S," added the Wocky, "Kay especially has always
been fascinated by Alien technology, and whether you notice it or not-" She
pointed a paw at me and said in a loud voice, "Spark." Of course, that begin
a faerie-blessed ability, it had no effect on me. Several blue flecks of light
collected themselves at the point of her paw and launched themselves at me.
They dissolved before even touching my fur.
I glanced down and noticed my fur was glowing
again. Aw, NeoFlakes. Then it faded to normal again. Or at least normal to my
eyes, Khargana's peepers must have noticed something normal 'pets and people
don't.
"Invincibility paint," stated the Wocky cheerfully.
"That's Alien Aisha technology, my friend. And my sources are confidential so
don't even ask. Sorry 'bout your ears by the way."
I stared. How could she possibly know about the
ear bruising? It was gone, and there wasn't any scarring.
Her clever eyes met mine. "I don't know what
you're so confused about. I just meant the fact that you were only born with
four ears, instead of the usual six."
Whoo, I had been beginning to think the Wocky
did read minds. This at least proved she wasn't perfect. Having this gal as
a buddy o' mine could come in handy. I don't know if I could think of her as
a sis, but as a friend she'd be pretty cool!
Then I noticed Kay had her hands over her mouth
and she was shaking a bit from suppressed laughter. As soon as she noticed I
was looking at her she let her hands fall and burst out laughing.
"Oh!" she gasped between fits of laughter. "That
was fantastic, Khar! And--" with another burst of laughter, "DeSoni, I didn't
know Aisha eyes could go wide, let alone that big!"
I looked over at Khargana and noticed the cool
detective was laughing to. "I tend to make a memorable first-impression on people,
and I'm rather proud of that reputation. Put 'er there, DeSoni." She extended
a paw for a high-five. I slapped my open paw on it. Kay smiled and I laughed
finally.
From here on out it was going to be a pretty
good life. Maybe not calm or at all organized, but definitely fun and exciting.
Maybe I won't be absolutely happy with my new family, but I had a super-feeling
that I could go through anything right then.
Then Khargana's Petpet Airax dive-bombed me and
I had to duck under the table until Khar introduced us. Oh well. From here on
out, things were sure going to be different.
The End - I mean it this time!
Thanks for reading all of this, and I really hope you enjoyed it! Neomail
me if you loved it, Neomail me if you hated it, Neomail me for fun! Just please
tell me what you thought!
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