We didn't even have dinner; we just packed some stuff
and took a boat to Terror Mountain right away.
"Wow, it's really chilly here!" Eclipse said
when we got out of the boat, "Where's that long coat I brought?"
"In your suitcase, Eclipse," I was freezing,
too so I opened our suitcases and took both coats out. Even though I'm painted
Fire, my flames don't really burn, they're more like holograms, so I'm still
as susceptible to the cold as other pets. It's a bit silly, but what can I do?
It actually makes sense, if our flames were really flames we wouldn't even be
able to sleep in a bed because it would always be on fire.
The others weren't there, yet, they would only
arrive the next morning, and it was already too late to search for a house to
rent, so we went to Licoperdon's house. It was a regular NeoHome, located in
a busy lane. Usually, only pets with owners live in those main lanes, but we
didn't pay much attention to that. Eclipse rang the bell and we waited.
"Hey, who do you think you are, ringing on peoples'
bells this late--" Licoperdon said when he opened the door, still sleepy, wearing
baby blue pyjamas, "Oh, it's you," He blushed when he realised his mistake and
told us to go in.
And what a beautiful NeoHome he had: Osiris
Pottery all over, lots of good furniture, different themes combined, nothing
was missing and nothing was in excess, offering great comfort. He led us to
the living room, and there we sat on an expensive couch. Licoperdon offered
coffee and left the room to get it.
"Look at this place, Prince Charming!" Eclipse
whispered, not quite believing the luxury of Licoperdon's home.
"Yup, it's pretty all right."
"Doesn't this place look 'human' to you?" It
sounded like a weird question, but it wasn't. In fact, the decoration followed
a pattern, the kind of pattern humans liked to use in their homes.
"Now that you mention it..."
"Okay, here's our coffee," The yellow Lenny
said, as he entered the room with three cups of coffee.
"Thanks, Lic," Eclipse took two of the cups
and handed one to me.
Licoperdon sat on a chair in front of us, on
the other side of the glass coffee table and asked, "Now you tell me: Why did
you decide to come tonight? No one else is coming now; besides, I don't even
have rooms for all of you, why did you even come to my place? This wasn't settled."
"We know, but don't you think it will be a lot
easier if we are already here tomorrow to start the job?" I answered, gazing
at the Lenny, "We have no time to lose, Licoperdon."
"Well, you're right, I suppose..." Licoperdon
resigned, "Come, I'll show you your bedrooms."
The bedrooms were very well decorated, and the
comfort was visible. I looked at the tiger bed I was about to lay on, and I
could almost fall asleep comforted, just with the thought. But, of course, Eclipse
was curious, and would not rest until she knew exactly why Licoperdon had such
a 'human' place. The question was shot after he showed us the room where she
would stay.
"What a beautiful place you have, Licoperdon,"
She complimented before questioning, "I just wonder why you picked the 'human'
style..."
One look at Licoperdon's face was all it took
me to know for sure she should have kept quiet. His otherwise contented face
became sad, and he sat on the rainbow bean bag chair near the wall, looking
down to the floor.
"Uh, Lic? What's wrong?" Eclipse asked sympathetically.
"Oh, nothing..."
"Licoperdon, you can tell us," I said, sitting
on the floor near the sad Lenny, "You know, besides being your work partners,
I'd like us to be friends. And you can trust friends."
"Yes, Lic, tell us what happened," Eclipse sat
on the floor, too, and petted the Lenny's wing in a tender way.
"Aw, guys, do you really mean it?" Licoperdon
looked at us smiling and we nodded, "This house was decorated entirely by my
owner. It was all he left me before leaving... he spent all the money, sold
everything and played games 24/7, but managed to complete and furnish this home.
And then, when it was finally complete and he had the perfect NeoHome that he
had always dreamt about, he left."
"What do you mean 'he left', he just left Neopia?
Didn't leave you in the pound?" I asked perplexed.
"Nope. He just logged out and never returned
again," The Lenny paused for a moment and then said, "I know he loved me. He
said so more than once. And he treated me so well, but he was so obsessed with
the NeoHome And when he finally achieved his goal, he got bored. And left..."
A tear rolled down Licoperdon's face. Remembering owners that left you is quite
painful. Eclipse and I were silent for a minute, until Eclipse decided to speak.
"Come on, Lic, don't be like that. He doesn't
deserve your tears. Besides, what do we need owners for? Don't we have free
will? We can survive perfectly on our own! Owners are useless!"
"Yeah, humans suck," I added.
Licoperdon was feeling better already. He hugged
us and thanked us for being his friends.
That night, when I finally got to sleep in that
fluffy-like-clouds bed, I dreamt about the girl who created me. In the dream,
I was the one who created her and then, when she was introduced to me, I would
say, looking at her pitifully, 'Oh no, I don't want this one, it's ugly...'
And then I would just leave her in the pound with Dr_Death who was laughing
evilly. The next morning I was woken up by the sound of dishes breaking.
"What happened here?" I asked when I walked
in the kitchen, where Eclipse was cleaning the bits of dishes on the floor.
In the sink and on the counter there was every single pot and plate in the house,
either dirty or holding some food. On the kitchen's table, there were fried
eggs and bacon, chocolate cookies covered with sugar and some burnt toasts.
It smelled a bit weird, too.
"Oh, I'm glad you woke up, Prince Charming!
I'm making breakfast as a surprise for Licoperdon, can you help me?" Her eyes
were begging, and who could resist that sweet smile? A few minutes later I was
making orange juice and coffee.
"What's this smell? It's like burnt lettuce
and... borovan?" I asked while I was pouring the sweet juice into glasses.
"It's the cake I'm baking. It's a special recipe
that I just made up, with cabbage, ptolymelon and white chocolate. Oh, and prune
juice too!"
I tried not to puke; instead I made an attempt
to smile and said, "Sounds lovely."
When we were finished with the breakfast and
the table was set, Licoperdon showed up in the dining room.
"Wow, you made breakfast!" He said surprised,
sitting with us.
It was a very nice breakfast, if we ignored
the burnt toasts, eggs and bacon, the cookies that had salt covering instead
of sugar and the unbearable cake. Other than that, it was delicious. After breakfast,
we went to meet the others.
We met in a coffee-house and decided we would
only work in the Happy Valley the first couple of days, and then move to the
Ice Caves and Terror Mountain. Each of us got an area we should work on; I got
the Snowy Outfits neighbourhood.
"170,000 NP today... That will need some planning..."
I thought while walking to my area, "Let's see, besides the ordinary 'dark alley'
strategy and the 'attack in the crowd' move, I could try something different.
Maybe fake items? Oh, that would be cool!" I arrived at Snowy Outfits and became
aware of how much the place looked like a desert. Christmas Paint Brushes aren't
that popular anymore. But maybe Snow Paint Brushes would be... I grabbed some
snow and started to mould it with my hands to get a paint brush. It didn't look
very stable, but it was supposed be a snow paint brush, so, who would notice?
I made nine more fake paint brushes and went to the neighbourhood itself. There
were lots of people on the streets looking busy with their shops and homes.
I set the fake paint brushes on the floor and then began to shout, 'Snow Paint
Brushes! Unreleased paint brushes, there will be only twenty in the whole Neopia!
Get yours here!'
It got people's attention and after I used some
of my charm and persuasion power, there were tons of people wanting to buy my
fake paint brushes. I had to auction all ten. I earned 500,000 NP average for
each, which summed 5,000,000 NP in total. I knew humans were dumb, but not this
dumb. Happy with my strategy, I ran out of the place as fast as my legs allowed
me. I had almost as much money as what the whole group was supposed to have
by the end of the week, I was feeling so proud of myself, I went to the Slushie
Shop to bloat my stomach with expensive Slushies.
"Good morning," The shopkeeper greeted me, "What
would you like?"
"Humm... Give me your top ten expensive slushies."
I handed the money to the surprised shopkeeper
and took my ten mega slushies to a table, where I started to stuff myself with
the delicious sweet slushies. I was already bloated while having my ninth slushie,
when Aqua came in. She didn't see me and asked the shopkeeper for a mega slushie
too.
"Hey, Aqua!" I called to the blue Shoyru, "Come
sit with me!"
"What are you doing here, Dalí? A lunch
break, too?" She sat with me and showed me her mega slushie that would be her
lunch.
"Not really. I already have all the NP, I'm
celebrating I got them so fast!"
"What? You got 170,000 NP in one morning??"
"Yup," I finished my last slushie and threw
the empty package to the bin near the table, "But I got to go now, I still have
stuff to do," I smiled at the confused Shoyru and left the shop.
I had chosen not to tell the guys I already
had that much money; they could get jealous. My decision was to try and steal
the amount I was supposed to everyday and if by chance I had more, I'd just
keep it. I walked through the Happy Valley for a while and then went to spend
the rest of the day playing Snow Wars.
We worked in pairs the next day and as a group
the third day and concluded we worked much better on our own and were much quicker
that way. I used the fake items strategy a couple more times and stole from
the Snowager when we moved to the Ice Caves. By the end of the week we had the
seven million necessary and I had the huge extra of eight million.
There was going to be a reunion the next week
where each group was to deliver the 14,000,000 NP stolen in the course of the
two weeks. I decided to give the entire extra I got to Sloth then. I was looking
forward to the huge reward he would give me, and I kept it a secret from everyone,
even Eclipse. I don't know what exactly motivated that decision, but I had a
feeling...
The second week of work passed by smoothly and
I worked hard. In the end, I had the high amount of 20,000,000 NP extra to give
Sloth.
To be continued...
Author's Note: What are your comments on this part? Are you enjoying the series
so far? Any advice on what I could have done to make it better, any feedback or
comment, Neomail
me! Everything is greatly appreciated! | 
