Once upon a time, a young boy named Hector had a best
friend named Timi. Timi was no ordinary best friend--he had long gray ears,
and a big furry muzzle, and liked to say "Hee-Hawww!" a lot to express what
he was thinking. Yes, as you may have guessed, Hector's best friend was a donkey!
Hector rode on Timi's back all around their village, and they raced the other
boys and their donkeys... and always won. Timi was the best donkey in the world,
according to Hector. He always took good care of him, brushing his fur, making
pictures of Timi on the family's computer and hanging them on the walls of his
room… he even got to eat some of Mama's fantastic burritos. It was a good life
for a donkey, and Timi was very happy... until that fateful day.
For Hector's birthday, his parents gave him
a very dangerous and frightening thing called 'Internet access'. Timi wasn't
quite sure what that was, but it meant that Hector spent a lot more time at
the computer, and a lot less time brushing him, feeding him, and taking him
for rides around the village. When Hector did find time to play with Timi, he
was full of talk of his 'other pets.' Computer pets, in the land of Neopia,
in fact. Timi was very cranky, and jealous of these virtual pets. He wanted
to be Hector's only pet, and decided that he would put an end to this virtual
competition the best way he could think of. Now, though this is unknown to most
people, donkeys are actually very good planners. Timi came up with the perfect
scheme. He waited until night-time, when all the family was asleep except Hector
(who was, of course, playing with his virtual pets.)
Timi carefully nosed the latch to his stable
door open and trotted quickly towards the house. He slipped over to Hector's
window, which was open because of the summer heat. He could see Hector inside,
his face illuminated by the glow of the computer screen, as he grumbled about
something called 'the Faerie Queen.' "Aye, caramba!" Hector grumbled. "Another
quest? What does she want this time? A medieval Petpet?" Timi stuck his head
in through the window, and eyed the cord that connected the computer to the
wall. If he chewed through that cord, it would be bye-bye computer, and bye-bye
virtual pets. He almost reconsidered for a moment, because Hector looked so
happy. Then he noticed that all the pictures on Hector's bedroom wall had changed.
No more were they of Timi the donkey--instead, Aishas and Unis and Kougras decorated
the place. That was the straw that broke the burro's back.
"Heeee-hawww!" cried Timi angrily, and leaned
down to bite into the cord with a massive chomp.
"Timi, no!" cried Hector, and tried to push
the donkey's head away. But it was too late!
Timi felt a moment of satisfaction when the
computer screen went blank, but it was quickly followed by a strong zap! Donkeys
were good planners, certainly, but they didn't know much about electricity.
Timi felt himself thudding heavily to the grass outside the window, and he closed
his eyes in pain…
"… Little Whinny… little Whinny, wake up…" a
voice was saying, somewhere outside the fog that pervaded Timi's fried brain.
Timi slowly opened his eyes, and was shocked
to find that the grass underneath him wasn't grass at all. He was on a soft
fluffy cloud, and two women with wings and strangely coloured hair were staring
down at him. Timi had heard Hector talk about these creatures before faeries!
They were always giving out quests and sometimes got stuck in bottles and blessed
pets. Timi didn't have a bottle, but he sure could use a blessing or two, so
he struggled to his feet.
"Whinnnnyyyy…. Where am I?" Timi said. Funny,
his bray sounded an awful lot like a whinny here. And, even stranger, he could
talk!
"You're in Faerieland, of course!" said the
taller of the two faeries, who had purple hair and a flowing dress. "I'm the
Faerie Queen! It's odd to see a Whinny up here."
"I'm not a Whinny!" said Timi. "I'm a donkey!"
"A donkey?" the other faerie, who was dressed
all in green, asked.
"Yep! That's me!" said Timi, who was feeling
a bit better now.
"Never heard of one of those," said the Faerie
Queen, shaking her head. "You look like a Whinny to me. Gray with big ears,
a pink snout, and a rather snazzy genuine Meridell tunic and helm."
"...wha…what?" Timi gasped, and looked down.
He was indeed wearing some sort of strange tunic and his head felt heavy… must
be from the helm. "Whoa…"
"I'm sure though that you'd get along fine with
the Unis. They just love most Petpets, after all. Just follow that path up ahead,
and you'll find a group of them that love to frolic and fly up here in the clouds."
"U-up here?" Timi gasped, and looked down over
the edge of the cloud. It was a long, long way down! He was very scared suddenly,
and whinnied in fright.
"Can't you fly?" asked the Earth Faerie.
"No! Donkeys definitely don't fly!" Timi said,
shaking and moving away from the edge of the cloud.
"Well, you're a Whinny, not a donkey... but
I can fix that no flying thing!" said the Faerie Queen, and waved her magic
wand to bless him. Timi's hooves shone like gold in the sunlight. "I grant you,
Timi the Whinny-Donkey, the ability to fly!"
"Whinnnnnnny!" shouted Timi in joy, and leapt
up into the air. He was magically suspended there, as if he had wings. Timi
found that by moving his legs in the air like he was running on the ground,
he could achieve the rudiments of flight. Excited by his new gift, he galloped,
no, flew down the path towards the group of Unis that were grazing on a patch
of furrns. They all looked up at the loud noise overhead, and were quite shocked
to see an unfamiliar type of Petpet flying towards them. Unwinged Petpets from
other worlds certainly didn't fly!
"It's the end of the world!" cried a golden
Uni, covering her face with her wings.
"Hola!" shouted Timi, as he landed on his golden
hooves in the middle of the furrn patch. "I'm Timi the donke-er, Whinny! Who're
you all?"
"Whinny? Ugh! Is that what they call foreign,
wingless Petpets like you? Go away! Only real Faerie Petpets are allowed here!"
sniffed a faerie Uni, eyeing Timi with blatant disgust.
Timi felt sad. He wished he could be back home
with Hector. Everyone loved him there, even if he did have to share his boy
with the pets that lived in the computer. "I don't want to be a Whinny! I'm
really a donkey!" Timi sadly started to trudge away from the group of Unis,
whinnying despondently.
"Wait up!" called a little blue Uni with a pink
bow in her mane. "What's a donkey? Where did you come from?"
The others just went about their grazing, so
Timi looked up at the Uni who was actually speaking nicely to him. "I'm a donkey…
well, back home. We're about as big as Unis, gray, fuzzy, and long eared. We
like carrots and scritches. I came from… well… a place that isn't here, the
place where my boy, Hector, lives. Hector takes care of me, and loves me. I
was so stupid to want to come here."
"What a funny coincidence! My owner's name is
Hector, too," she said, with a small giggle and a flutter of her wings. Timi
thought she looked very pretty doing that.
"Um, wow. Small world... could it be…" he wondered
if this Uni was one of the pets that lived in Hector's computer. "Have you seen
Hector today?"
"Well… we did, for a while. It was the strangest
thing, though. There was a loud zap sound, and then when we looked around, we
couldn't see Hector anymore!"
"Uh-oh…" said Timi, feeling a bit guilty, "I've
just got to get back home!"
"We could ask the faeries for help!" the little
blue Uni said, taking to the air. "Come on, Timi! Let's go see the Faerie Queen."
"Good idea!" said Timi, leaping into the air.
She had, after all, helped him to fly. They returned to the place where Timi
had first seen the Faerie Queen, and fortunately, she was still there, tending
to the wing of an injured Pteri. Timi and the blue Uni landed nearby and politely
waited for her to finish before asking.
"Excuse me, miss Faerie Queen…" Timi said, as
politely as he could, "Can you please grant me one more blessing?"
"First you must bring me back a Red Chia Plushie,"
the Faerie Queen said absently.
"Nooo… he doesn't want a quest," the blue Uni
explained, "He just wants to go back home. He doesn't live here, and he wants
to go back to his boy."
"I see…" said the Faerie Queen, and looked deep
in thought for a moment. "Oh, my. You're here by mistake, I see. Chewing on
strange things is never a good idea, young Timi."
"I'm sorry… I was just jealous… of Hector's
new pets…"
"Look into my magic wand…" The Faerie Queen
held up the sparkly end of her wand, which seemed to swirl, and show a very
sad Hector leaning over a slightly charred, still donkey.
"That's Hector!" gasped the blue Uni. "He's
crying!"
"He's sad because you won't wake up, Timi. You
have to go back home and wake up now…"
Timi felt dizzy all of a sudden… his hooves
would no longer support him, and he fell down to the cloudy ground with a thud.
"…Wake up now…" Hector was crying. "Please Timi,
wake up…"
Timi opened his eyes, and brayed groggily. "Eeee-awww?"
He was braying! He looked down dizzily--no tunic, and plenty of gray fur. He
was a donkey again!
"Timi! You're all right!" Hector hugged him
close. "Papa's going to be so mad about the computer, but I'm just glad you're
all right. What made you do it?"
"Eeeee-Awwww!" said Timi, looking sad.
"You're right… I should spend more time with
you. From now on, I'll be sure to spend time with you and my virtual pets both!"
Hector scratched Timi behind the ears.
"Eeee-awww!" Timi shouted, braying with happiness.
He was happy to share Hector with the virtual pets now, especially since he
knew that one was so nice… or had it been only a dream?
"Hey, Timi... your hooves! They look so shiny
now!" Hector exclaimed.
Timi looked down at his hooves, which gleamed
like gold in the moonlight, and knew.
The End
Author's Note: This story was written for my amigo, L.P.D, whom I hope
returns to Neopian life sometime soon! But who knows, maybe somewhere out there,
donkeys can fly! | 
