Topie and Gabby laughed together as they walked into the Snow Food shop, the
bell on the door tinkling. Sunshine, their adopted daughter, bounced behind
them. They sat down and started to eat rainbow snow puffs.
"Mama Gabby, I wanna go outside in the snooooooooow and build a Snowchia!"
Gabby's lavender body tensed and she shot a look to Topie. His teal-blue head
slightly nodded and he smiled. Gabby smiled at Sunshine. "Finish your lunch
first."
The young, sunny-coloured chick scarfed it down and the three Eyries walked
outside. Sunshine happily played for a long while, until an old, electric-blue
Eyrie hobbled out of the shop, looked around and cursed under her breath. "Storm's
coming up. I can feel it... it'll be a bad one at that." She hobbled to a small,
yet very warm-looking house and locked the door.
Gabby saw the urgency to leave but didn't want to frighten young Sunshine.
"Sunshine, let's go visit Mystery Island. I'll let you build a sandcastle!"
Sunshine followed her through the thick snow that was falling quickly. They
were only a few hundred yards from the ferries when Sunshine suddenly saw something
out of the corner of her eye. She wandered away from her parents. A few moments
later, Gabby turned around. "Sunshine?"
She suddenly realised her daughter was gone. "SUNSHINE!" she called, with
Topie's help. It was no use, the wind blew their voices away. Sunshine would
have to survive the day and night... alone.
Sunshine went up the mountain. When she reached the other side, she was amazed.
The wind was not blowing on that side and the snow fell lightly. She giggled
and played in the snow. She looked up and saw a Usul in the trees. She chirped
at it. "Hello."
"Youngin', what are you doing out here? It's cold!" the white Usul chattered
at her.
"Playing in the snow, silly."
"Where are your parents? You are too young to be out by yourself."
Sunshine looked around. Every tree looked the same. "um... that way..." she
pointed, in a random direction.
"Well, then! You had better hurry! The storm will soon be here, and it's going
to be a doozy! Anyone with a brain could tell you that!"
Sunshine was an obedient little girl so she went in the direction she had
pointed to find Mama Gabby and Topie.
Hours later she was afraid. She couldn't see anything but snow and trees and...
what was that up ahead? She walked. It was a large stone in the shape of a Peophin...
in the middle of the mountains? She got to the other side of it, where the wind
was not as bad. Her paws were numb, her wings biting cold, and her tail frozen,
as far as she was concerned. And...*yawn*... she felt a little sleepy. She fell
down in a solid nap.
When she woke, she felt strangely warm. It was dark, but as soon as her eyes
adjusted, she saw a very large Eyrie curled around her, about twice the size
of mama Gabby. "T-t-t-topie?" she shivered.
The Eyrie said nothing, and Sunshine could tell it was a large, female Eyrie
with white feathers, tipped with blue. Her eyes looked as if they were pearls...
and her beak looked as if it were made of glass. A deep, echoing voice, seemingly
coming from the wind and the trees, whispered,
"You have wandered far, Young Sunshine."
Sunshine shivered. Anyone was a comfort now. "I'm sorry, I..." she sniffled.
"I miss Mama Gabby... and Topie..."
"Hush child. Go to sleep." Sunshine obediently laid her head down and silently
sobbed herself into a dreamless sleep.
Gabby was sobbing. She was inside the igloo of Mika the Chia. Topie was pacing
back and forth. They heard a noise outside the igloo and ran to investigate.
"Sunshine!" they cried. Mika ran out also.
"Thank Neopia," whispered Gabby. She hugged the groggy Eyrie.
"Honey where were you? You've been gone for ten hours!"
"I'm sorry Momma... I wandered off... and I fell asleep at the foot of a big
Peophin statue, and a big Eyrie took care of me."
Mika gasped and pulled Gabby aside. "The Peophin statue she speaks of... it
is impossible for her to have been there. It takes seven hours to get there,
more to get back. It would've taken her over fourteen hours to get to and from
that statue... and that only at a dead run."
Suddenly, a loud shriek rang through the mountains, much like that of a giant
Eyrie. Sunshine jumped out of Topie's arms. "Thank you!" she cried.
"Thank you!"
The End | 
