A Time for Change by dragonshark173 |  |
Griffin the male fire Lupe was sitting in his library, his
reading glasses upon his nose. He sat on the pine finish table with a few books
in hand, doing some research. Griffin had a mission in life: To make everybody
stop eating Chias!
But why wasn't our hero out in the forests patrolling the area
for Chia-eaters?
Griffin was doing some research on fighting beliefs with words.
Of course, if he was about to be eaten alive and was surrounded by several Chia-eating
Kougras, it would be near impossible to talk them out of it. But in the streets
of Neopia Central he could protest against those large Chia meat factories.
At least, that's what Mudammi Goohli the Mynci did when they made Myncis work
long hours with little or no pay picking bananas all day long in the hot sun.
Looking at another book, he saw Smartain Luther Chia Junior.
In his time, pets that were born blue had to ride to the back of the bus, they
couldn't go in certain stores, libraries, even schools! They weren't even permitted
to buy a paint brush and make them not blue. Smartain, the blue Gelert, stood
up for what his rights and gathered many, many blue pets who also believed the
same thing and protested in front of city hall. They were attacked by Attack
Lupes, sprayed with powerful blasts of water from the battledome department,
and were arrested by Chia policemen, but Smartain's faith shone through. He
ignored the physical abuse, and kept on marching. Later on, Smartain gave out
his 'I have a Vision' speech that changed the way many people thought, and the
golden Shoyru in charge of it all changed all the shops and schools and libraries
so that everybody was permitted, let blue pets be painted, and were treated
like any other Neopian regardless of their fur or scale colour.
"Wow..." Griffin said, closing the book. "That's amazing. I
wish I could be just like Smartain..." He looked out the window. It was nearly
completely black outside with rain pelting down, and gusts of wind bursting.
It was late out, about nine o' clock Neopian Standard Time, and he was glad
to be inside with the Neo-heating system on high. The library room in his NeoHome
was rather big, with tall, rickety wooden shelves surrounding the room so barely
any wall showed, packed full of books, old and new.
"But imagine..." Griffin said, gazing out the window while
taking off his reading glasses, "a world where Lupes and Chias could get along
for a change. Just imagine that..." Then, an idea struck Griffin like a blow
in the face. His eyes widened. "Maybe I can get a group of pets that feel the
same way and we can march at the Chia Meat Factory until they close the place
down!!"
***
Griffin woke up the next morning with high hopes. He sat on
his fungusball bed, smiling happily and humming the Neopian national anthem
while putting on his rain boots on his back legs. Surpento Fuerte, the Cobrall,
swerved around Griffin delightedly, his tongue hanging out. Griffin patted his
head and threw the tennis ball for him so he could play with it while he was
gone.
As he hobbled down the carpeted steps he tripped over his brother's
Greeble and fell down the steps, landing in a heap. Valerie, his owner, rushed
over to Griffin.
"Griffin, are you all right?" she said. Valerie wasn't all
that worried, knowing Griffin had pretty good defense.
Griffin got up on all fours and brushed himself off, and double
checked his black raincoat was not ripped or torn. "Yeah, I'm okay," he
said, and raced to the door, banged it with his head to open it, and rushed
out, his tongue flopping out while saying, "Bye Val, be back soon!"
Again, it was raining today like it was the other day, and
grey clouds loomed over the town. Rain pelted against Griffin's back while he
ran, with one thing in his mind: The protest.
Valerie stood in the frame of the door and watched Griffin
run as fast as he could to some place or another. She shook her head and walked
back inside to watch some television with her other pets.
Running at top speed, Griffin finally got to Al's house a
few miles away. He stomped up the stairs, panting, puffing, and knocked on the
door. As usual, Al the blue Chia, was standing there at the door, his owlish
glasses on and his white lab coat on.
"Griffin..." Al said, smiling. "I was in the middle of a scientific
breakthrough! But come on in." Of course, Al was always in the middle of a scientific
breakthrough.
Griffin nodded a hello. "Al, that's great to hear! But I have
a great idea to outlaw Chia meat in Neopia central," he said while taking
off his raincoat and hanging it up and slipping off his boots.
"Okay, let's hear it!" Al said excitedly after shutting and
locking the door. (Al had to lock it. Being a Chia, several of the neighbourhood
Lupes liked to torment him just for the fun or tormenting a Chia.)
The two walked over to the living room and sat themselves down.
"It's perfect. See, if Smartain Luther Ching Junior. made blue pets have equal
rights, then I can make Chias have equal rights! But not just me. I need pets
like you like believe Chias and Lupes should just get along."
"And..." Al said.
"And we'll march in front of that huge Chia meat factory, yelling,
shouting, blocking the entrance and making a wall of NeoPets when a truck comes
in to try and pick up the meat. I'm sick of it, Al, seeing my brother and friends
trying to live in peace when all these Chia-devouring pets torment them in every
possible way. Yesterday, my brother, Frightful (he's a purple Chia), was going
to the training school and in his locker was a ripped red Chia plushie hanging
on a rope. He looked behind him and saw several Lupes sniggering at Frightful
and pointing. It's got to stop. I can't let them do that."
Al recoiled a little. "That's...well, perfect, Griffin. Well,
the fact that we should fight with words, not the part about your poor brother.
And...and I'm sick of having to lock my door every single day to keep myself
safe. I'm sick of it!!"
"Then the protest will begin tomorrow. Bring your good walking
shoes, Al, it's gonna be a loooooong day!"
***
Griffin woke up the next morning with high hopes. After all
the raining, the grass was much greener and the clouds were all rained-out.
I guess you wouldn't say it was sunny, it was sort of grayish except in the
corner over there where the round orange sun was rising above the pine trees.
His face was stern. He shouldn't have to protest to get this meat factory gone
for good. That place should've never been built in the first place. Griffin
got downstairs in enough time to grab a piece of toast to eat on the way to
the evil Chia meat factory. He munched on the toast all the way to the Garage
where he got on his candy-apple red bicycle, on his way to the factory.
He could almost picture the smiling faces of the Chias being
let lose out of that slaughterhouse of a building, screaming, trying to get
away from that place as fast as possible, but happy all the same, glad to be
out. Chias hardly had the right to roam in the wide open fields or prance in
the forests a vast, as everywhere they'd turn, there'd be bloodthirsty Lupes,
everywhere, and he couldn't stand it.
Before he knew it, Griffin was at the murky Chia-meat factory,
where an enormous group of tame Lupes, Chias, and all other pets that cared
were there, their paws and hands and fins and claws raised in the air with signs
that said things such as, 'Angels of the Fields must be free!' with a picture
of an angel Chia on it, or ones that said, Chias are pets too!'. Griffin smiled.
One factory shutdown can make a world of difference, especially for those poor
Chias
Griffin met up with Al and smiled. "Al, this is perfect. Those
Chias will be freed in no time."
"That pesky red Lupe, the manager, is unforgiving and conceited.
I don't think it'll be easy at all, but I know we can do it, no matter the effort,"
Al said. Griffin nodded and pat his back. Al looked at his watch, surprised.
"Oh, dear! I have to go pick up Teckomer, my brother, from the training school!!
I'm sorry, Griffin! But I'll be here soon, promise."
Griffin nodded and smiled. "It's okay, Al."
Griffin joined in the crowd and started shouting and rioting
with the other pets. He was on a mission. A mission that could change many lives.
After about two hours of chanting, the manager of the Chia
Meat Factory, a fat, red Lupe, sat in a tall leather chair and looked down from
a window at the crowd. From behind, since the chair was so tall, all you could
see was his paws resting on the armrest. A beautiful white Lupess padded into
the room with a tray in her mouth. The silver tray had a single cup on it and
a tall green bottle.
"Your root beer, sir," she said, setting the tray down
delicately on the ground and pouring the root beer in the cup and handing it
to the manager. "I doubt they're going to give up. They have quite a spirit."
"Oh, they'll give up," The manager said in a raspy voice, "Send
in the dogs."
"Yes, sir," she said and picked up the tray and silently
padded out of the room.
***
Three hours since Al had left, Griffin was getting a little
worried. He's probably just stuck in traffic, Griffin thought. Yeah, that was
it. Right? It was the 'probably' part that made him feel uncomfortable, though.
He had a strange feeling inside that made him think that Al was NOT okay. He'd
better check it out.
After making his way through the crowd, Griffin got to his
bike and pedaled around to the back of the building, to see if maybe Al was
there. He saw, right there, another, a little smaller group of Neopians blocking
the driveway for a truck to get into the factory to pick up the meat. The yellow
truck honked by the grundgy-looking white Wocky behind the wheel. "Whaddis dis,
a prootest er sumthing?" the driver said. The pets growled and shouted at the
driver.
Walking past them, he shouted with a fist in the air, "Give
Chias a chance!" and smirked a little and continued to walk by the crowd. Then
he saw a little blue Chia that seemed somewhat out of place there, but still
joining in and shouting, yet he had owlish round glasses on...Al, of COURSE!!
"Al!" Griffin shouted, running over to him. He was about halfway
there when security Lupes dressed up in dark-blue uniforms marched in through
the main gate, running, with mean looking attack Lupes foaming at the mouth
and barking and growling at the group. The guards let the Lupes of the leash
and they started biting and growling at the crowd, sending pets scattering everywhere.
Even the driver in the truck jumped out and ran as fast as his chubby legs could
carry him. Griffin tried to get those Lupes out of there, by barking and growling
himself, and yelling at the Lupes.
After the chase was over, the tired dogs and the guards returned
inside. Griffin looked at the place where all the pets were before the chase.
He sniffed the air and sensed something...something horrible. Griffin walked
a little faster, and there it was. Saddened by the horrible sight, a tear rolled
down his cheek. He looked down to see a blue body with broken glasses. He bent
down and looked at Al.
"How can they do this..." Griffin said, looking down at Al
with concern. "How could they do such cruelty? Words will defeat those clubs,
and teeth, and evil...they will, Al! They will!" Griffin knew Al was unconscious,
but he still talked to him. "We'll get you to the hospital."
As the ambulance drove Al and many other injured pets away
to the hospital by the caring Gelert doctor, Griffin turned around to look at
all the downed NeoPets Their heads were bowed, they acted like they just failed
something that should never be failed. But in a sense, they didn't fail.
"Friends," Griffin said, getting up on a bench that was on
the side of the sidewalk. "We have come a long way. We have chanted, we have
shouted, we have tried to get the message to that dumb Lupe's brain, but something
is stuck up there! Are we really going to let a few injured companions stop
us from saving thousands of Chias? As much as we stick to fighting with words,
are we going to let those dumbstruck Chia-eaters take over all of a sudden?
Are we?" A prompt, "NO!!!" sounded out from the crowd. "Are we going to let
him do this to us? Let us fail?" Griffin said. "NO!!" They replied once again.
"So my question to you, are we going to get through this thing?" The crowd erupted
with 'YEAH!!'s and whistles and hats flying. Griffin smiled. He could make a
difference.
Hours after protesting all day long, the manager, again in
the chair in the room, peered down at the protesting pets. All you could see
was his clenched, shaking paws. From behind, a blue Lupe came into the room,
holding his hat nervously in his paws. "Sir, they're not giving up, sir!" he
said, shakily, nervously, scarily.
"I KNOW THAT ALREADY!" the manager shouted in rage.
"What are we going to do, sir?" the blue Lupe asked.
"We? WE are going to do nothing. I am going to go out there
and warn them that if they don't leave I'll send them a Frost Cannon of a surprise!"
***
Standing up on stage, the manager flung his arms out. The entire
crowd booed and hissed at him. "NeoPets, NeoPets! Aren't we acting uncivilised?
Nomads and cavemen from Tyrannia act like this!"
"Then is it that civil to resort to cannibalism?" a green Moehog
shouted.
The manager narrowed his eyes. "FINE! If you don't get your
hairy hides out of here I will send the whole lot of you flying all the way
to the hospital with my troop of black frost cannons!!"
Griffin jumped up with a paw in the air. "Heck, no! We won't
go!" He shouted. The others joined in by chanting the same thing. "Heck, no!
We won't go!" Rung through the city in a hundred thousand voices, but only one
pet heard it through his heart.
The manager was struck by their confidence. No, they weren't
giving up, were they. He turned around to his factory. The crowd continued shouting,
until a few moments after the manager retreated, hundreds of thousands of Chias
ran across the area, their little hands in the air, running away from the horrible
factory, and the chanting turned into shouts of glee. Griffin's smile was immense.
"WE DID IT!!" he shouted, hugging Al whom later arrived with his glasses taped
together and a sling and crutches on him. "AL, EVERYBODY DID IT!! WE WON THE
BATTLE!!"
And so, our troop really DID do it, they saved so many Chias
from the horrible place. Only days after the release, the factory was shut down
for good and was destroyed. As for the manager, he decided to live a more peaceful
life in a lazy farm town. As for Griffin, well, after he got back from the protest,
he was already packing for his next trip to the next forest to defend.
The End |
