The loud monotonous ring was the first thing I heard as I slowly returned
to reality. My thoughts were muddled with early morning fog.
"Wha...? What's that sound?" I mumbled sleepily to myself.
It took me awhile to summon up the strength to look at my alarm clock. "5:30???"
I cried weakly, unable to comprehend why I was awake this early.
Then it dawned on me.
"Oh right... now I remember," I said, jumping out of bed with renewed strength.
I spread out my wings, and the dazzling fire patterns that ran across them
seemed to glimmer in the light shining through the window. I rushed downstairs
as soon as possible, and rushed to meet my owner, cjackson151.
"Hey, Mum!" I said, excitedly.
She smiled. I was the only one out of our family who called her Mum. Nickey151,
or Nickey for short, who was now sitting comfortably at the table eating a chocolate
faerie cake for breakfast, called her Christine. The other two members of our
Neo-family, Stelth_Bomber and squirely123, just called her CJ.
I plopped down at the table next to Nickey.
"Nice breakfast, Nickey," I said, laughing.
Nickey was always up this early. She had to if she wanted to catch her early
morning training on Mystery island in time. Stelth_Bomber and Squirely123 wouldn't
be up for another hour or so.
Mum gave Nickey an amused look.
"Thanks a lot Night_Shadow_Stalker! I was hoping she wouldn't notice. You're
the most annoying Korbat ever," she said, using my full name to tease.
No one ever called me Night_Shadow_Stalker. That name was much too long. I
had many nicknames, nighty, shadow stalker, shadow, night... and the list goes
on. Most of the time, I was just called Shadow.
"I noticed," Mum said. "I just didn't care. If you want to eat unhealthy
right before you go and train, be my guest. But in my opinion, that may not
be the best way to get strong," she said, smugly.
Nickey shrugged it off. "Meh, it won't make that much of a difference if I
have a little treat now and then."
I laughed. This was the sort of argument that Mum and Nickey had all the time.
To me, my owner was more like a Mum. To Nickey, she was more like her best friend.
"Well Shadow, what are you going to have for breakfast on your big day?" Mum
asked.
Nickey snickered for some reason that I didn't understand. I eyed Nickey's
cake greedily, half tempted to have a slice myself.
"Ummmmmm, how about..." I said indecisively as I looked around the room at
all the food. "I'll have the fruit loops," I said, spying the box on the
shelf, that Toucan Sam himself had given us days ago.
Nickey laughed hysterically. "You might as well just eat some cake, there's
probably just as much sugar!"
"Well at I'm eating breakfast food," I protested.
"Yah Nickey, if you don't watch it, you'll get really fat. Then the only things
your opponents will fear is getting crushed by your massive," Mum teased, in
a way only her and Nickey did.
Nickey just laughed it off. She's not easily insulted. "If that happens, then
you'll be the first to get squished."
"Not if you can't catch me," Mum said, playfully.
"What's all this racket about?" Stelth_Bomber asked groggily, apparently awoken
by Mum and Nickey's pretend bickering.
"Well, it's about time you got up! I thought you'd sleep in all day!" Nickey
said, ignoring the fact that not all NeoPets get up at the crack of dawn like
her.
"I'm not a morning person," Stelth_Bomber protested.
"You're not a person at all!" I chimed.
"It's a figure of speech. Oh hey Shadow, you're not usually up this early.
All ready for your big day?" Stelth_Bomber said, nudging me.
I nodded, pointing to the bag of brand new supplies.
"I would go with you myself, but I'm already too busy as it is, what with
writing and all." Stelth_Bomber, motioning to the trophy case with several Neopian
Times Trophies.
I admired Stelth_Bomber. Not only was he a good writer, he was also an accomplished
low-level Battledome fighter, who had beautiful faerie wings that throw his
opponents off guard. Hence the name Stelth_Bomber.
"Hey Stelth_Bomber, is squirely123 still asleep?" Mum asked.
Stelth_Bomber shook his head. "The squirrel is still upset over the lab turning
him into a she. 'He' is really really bothered by it," Stelth_Bomber said, trying
desperately not to laugh.
"Don't laugh Stelthy, you'd be upset too you know," I said, defending poor
squirely123.
"No, I wouldn't be dumb enough to use the Lab Ray in the first place," Stelth_Bomber
said, still snickering.
Mum frowned at Stelth_Bomber. "The only reason he uses the Lab Ray it because
we don't have enough money to train you, Nickey and him. So he went out on his
own to get the Lab Ray, despite the consequences he knew would come from it.
You may be an accomplished low-level fighter, but he's got guts."
"You mean she," Stelth_Bomber said, with a huge grin that seemed incapable
of leaving his face.
Nickey151 turned to face Stelth_Bomber. "Do you have a problem with female
fighters?" she said, coldly.
Stelth_Bomber turned a pale colour. "No, I just find it funny that squirely123
got turned into one..." he said, backing off.
"Well I don't see anything wrong with that. It's merely a side affect of the
ray, nothing to be ashamed of, don't you agree?" she said.
"Well, now that you put it that way, I guess it couldn't be avoided," Stelth_Bomber
said, outwardly ashamed of himself, but more than likely just trying to avoid
getting beat up.
I laughed at how easily Nickey changed his mind. "I think he should have to
apologise!" I said, enthusiastically.
"There's no reason for that. Squirely123 wasn't around to hear it," Nickey
said.
"To hear what?" a pink Poogle said, stepping inside the door.
"Squirely, is that you?" Mum asked, very surprised.
Squirely's ears dropped down. "Unfortunately."
"Wow, squirely! You look great," I encouraged.
Nickey caught on to my ploy. "Yah squirely, I haven't seen you look this good
in ages!"
"Can it, I know you're trying to make me feel good about it, but it won't
work," Squirely123 said, stepping into the kitchen.
"We'll buy a magical Meerca plushie if we have a chance, okay?" Mum said,
comforting 'him'.
Squirely123 ignored our comments and walked slowly upstairs. Stelth_Bomber,
having been holding in a laugh for that long, burst out laughing. Nickey151
smacked him, which resulted in him smashing into a cupboard, and getting the
wind knocked out of him. I laughed.
"Shadow, I think you should start heading out, you don't want to be late for
your first day," Mum said.
"Oh yeah! I almost forgot!" I said, rushing to grab my bag and the rest of
my stuff. "Did any of you change your minds about coming with me?"
"Nope, I have enough to do with my mystery island training everyday," Nickey
replied.
"I don't have any time, I'm writing another continued series for the Neopian
Times with CJ," Stelth_Bomber said, still wincing in pain from his collision
with the cupboard.
"Oh, okay," I said, now holding all my stuff. "Well good bye then, see you
later."
"Bye Shadow, have a nice day," Mum said.
"I will!" I said, stepping out the door. Before I closed it, I heard the end
of their conversation.
"You really need to stop babying her," Stelth_Bomber said. "I mean she calls
you Mum!"
"I think it's cute. She'll stop after a while," Mum said.
"Well, there's no doubt in my mind that she'll stop. But the kids are going
to tease her for it. A lot of them are battle warriors, who are more close to
their weapons than their owners," Nickey151 said.
I closed the door with a click behind me. I was puzzled at what they were
talking about. What did Nickey mean by the kids would tease me? Why would they
even care? I looked out at the beautiful pink sunrise, and the clear fresh air
hit my lungs, I instantly forgot all about it. I focused only on where I was
going. I spread my fiery wings out.
"I can't believe it," I said, unable to contain my excitement any further.
"It's my first day of Neoschool!"
With that, I took flight into the air, unaware that my life would never be
the same after the end of the day.
To be continued... | 
