The Immortal Toast: Part One

      Others like me, however, would see a storm like this as a perfect opportunity for something much, much more diabolical.

      Electricity crackled outside the shed. I only needed one thunderbolt. Just one thunderbolt striking the makeshift lightning rod and my plan will be complete.

      I gazed outside waiting for that fateful moment. Any second now, I thought. The lightning drew ever closer to the rod. I stood there watching and waiting patiently, until...

      BZZZAP!!!

      Electricity ran down the rod, through the wires and then into my beloved work. A blast of energy burst out of it, illuminating the entire room.

      "Bwahaha! It is finally finished!" I laughed manically as lightning crashed behind me.

      I strode over to my creation, and held it in my hands with a face full of delight. All would be known the next day...

      Early the next morning, I tiptoed silently downstairs with my hand behind my back. When I arrived in the living room, I found three of my pets fast asleep on the sofa. After pulling out a whistle from my pocket, I put it in my mouth and blew as hard as I could.

      My pets immediately jumped up at the sound. I thought by the looks of it, my fire Krawk was going to hit his head on the ceiling after jumping up so high. My starry Shoyru was trying to catch his breath, and my baby Bori's eyes were about as wide as saucers.

      "Bluey! What gives?" Marik, my Krawk, groaned.

      "Sorry," I replied. I admit, it was sort of a mean thing to do. "I just wanted to show you something I've been working on."

      I looked around the room, knowing that something was missing. "Where's Sunlight, by the way?"

      "He must've gone back upstairs," my Bori Moonlight, replied.

      "Oh, well. I'll show him later. But believe me! This will be the most amazing thing you've ever seen!" I exclaimed.

      "Well, then what is it?" Moonlight asked, sitting up straight.

      "Ta-da!" I shouted pulling my creation from behind my back. "Isn't it awesome?"

      My pets just stared at me for a few seconds. Their jaws hung open and their eyebrows were raised. I think they were quite amazed.

      After a few moments of awed silence, my Shoyru, named Starlight, finally spoke up, "It's... a piece of.... toast."

      "Not just any toast!" I said, waving my finger. "This is the Immortal Toast!"

      "The... Immortal Toast?" Moonlight asked me with a cocked eyebrow.

      I nodded my head excitedly when I heard Marik whisper, "Yep. You're insane."

      "I've been working on the final touches on this all night! You see, I had an idea a couple of days ago when I wanted a sandwich and found the bread to be all moldy. Then at that moment I thought, 'Why don't I create a piece of bread that never molds or goes bad?' So I began to create the piece of toast that would revolutionize the way pets and owners would look at bread! And it's finally done!" I explained.

      My pets continued to stare at me in silence. Then they turned their attention to the Immortal Toast, which I held proudly in my hands.

      I'm not lying when I say that the Immortal Toast is a fine piece of work. It was shaped like an everyday piece of bread. But that's where the normality ends. It was covered in a shiny gold color that glowed when the sun hit it just right.

      "Now I don't want anyone stealing this, so I'll be sure to keep this behind a nice glass box," I said, rubbing my hand on my creation.

      I placed the Immortal Toast on a warm red cushion inside an expensive glass box. I then strode over to the coat hanger and put on my favorite blue coat that I wore almost all the time.

      "Where are you going?" Starlight asked, still having a face full of amazement.

      "Creating the perfect piece of toast certainly works up an appetite. I'm going out to the Food Shop to get a few snacks. Could you guys stay down here and keep an eye on the Immortal Toast for me?" I trusted them with a great responsibility. (Hey, something like the Immortal Toast must be kept safe, right?)

      "Uh, yeah. We'll be sure to guard your precious bread," Marik seemed to promise with a smart tone.

      "I knew I could count on you guys! I also have a few other errands I need to do. So I'll see you guys in about an hour!" I told them as I began to walk out the door.

      As I was leaving, I caught a glimpse of my pets waving goodbye to me with rather weird and suspicious smiles.

      Meh. I guess it was nothing.

      * * *

      Starlight, Marik and Moonlight continued waving to Bluey with fake smiles until she closed the door. After Bluey was out of sight, Marik rolled his eyes and moaned, "Well, I'm going back to bed!"

      "Me too." Starlight sighed.

      "I third that idea," yawned Moonlight as he and his brothers started to head upstairs.

      * * *

      "Yes, yes. I know. Of course I'm the most handsome Krawk ever. Oh? A gold Beauty Contest trophy? Aw, you shouldn't have," Marik muttered in his sleep.

      Marik laughed and bragged about himself while holding his fire patterned pillow close to his head. But he was suddenly jolted into reality when he was slammed on his back hard.

      His eyes wearily opened while looking up at the ceiling above him. He closed his eyes again and took a deep, heavy breath.

      "Of course it was a dream. Bluey would never let me take part in the Beauty Contest," Marik groaned, lifting himself up.

      Marik couldn't begin to count how many times he had asked Bluey to enter him in the Beauty Contest. He had always told her that he would win, since he was better looking than anyone else in Neopia. Marik just could not understand why Bluey always said no.

      After putting on his favorite red t-shirt and shorts, Marik left his room and started to head downstairs. He glanced over to the other rooms beside his. The two doors next to him were still closed, while the one the farthest from his room was open.

      "Sunlight must've woken up," he whispered to himself, knowing Starlight and Moonlight were probably still asleep.

      Marik slowly walked down the stairs and saw Sunlight, a green Chomby, sitting on the blackberry patterned sofa reading the newest issue of the Neopian Times.

      Sunlight turned his head to his Krawk brother and asked him, "Have you seen Bluey? I woke up earlier and she wasn't here!"

      Marik looked at the clock next to him, which read 8:10 AM.

      It's only been ten minutes?! Strange. It seemed a lot longer than that, Marik thought to himself.

      "Bluey went out to do some errands. She'll be back in about an hour," Marik answered, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "I'm going to get some breakfast. Hopefully there's something left to eat in the kitchen." Marik yawned.

      "Oh, uh... Well I hope you don't plan on having toast. I sort of ate the last one." Sunlight nervously laughed, knowing Marik liked to have toast early in the morning.

      Marik stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes widened as he turned his head to Sunlight. "Sunlight. Where exactly did you get this piece of toast?"

      "Well there wasn't anymore bread in the kitchen. So I ate the piece that was behind this glass case," Sunlight explained.

      "YOU DID WHAT?!" Marik exploded.

      He rushed over to the glass case that Bluey put the Immortal Toast in. To Mariks' horror, it was gone!

      Marik's face then was full of rage as he looked back at Sunlight. Sunlight screamed and dashed off towards the front door. Marik growled and chased after him with a burning fire in his eyes. He jumped on top of the Chomby and pinned him down to the ground.

      "COUGH IT UP, YOU LITTLE GLUTTON! COUGH IT UP!!!" Marik shouted at the top of his lungs.

      Starlight and Moonlight ran down the stairs as soon as they heard the screaming below them. They went into the living room only to find Marik on top of Sunlight, while he was desperately trying to escape. Starlight and Moonlight dashed over to Marik and threw him off the Chomby's back. Moonlight helped Sunlight back up, while Starlight kept Marik from attacking him again.

      "What on Neopia is going on here?!" Starlight demanded to know.

      "THAT LITTLE TRASH DISPOSAL JUST ATE THAT STUPID PIECE OF TOAST THAT BLUEY'S OBSSESSED WITH!!!" Marik yelled loud enough to wake the dead from the other side of Neopia.

      "Whoa, whoa. Slow down! Sunlight did what?" Starlight asked, waving his hands.

      "He ate the piece of toast that Bluey worships!" Marik explained, finally calming down.

      "Bluey's obsessed with a piece of toast?" Sunlight asked skeptically.

      "Yes. She calls it the 'Immortal Toast.'" Moonlight sighed.

      "The Immortal Toast, huh? So, does that mean because I ate it, I will become immortal?" Sunlight wondered, looking at his stomach.

      "I wouldn't try to find out," answered Starlight with his hands on his hips.

      "The 'Immortal Toast' was never immortal to begin with! It's just some part of Bluey's sick and twisted fantasies!" Marik spat.

      "Well, because we didn't keep an eye out for that 'twisted fantasy', we're going to be in a lot of trouble when Bluey comes home!" Moonlight told everyone.

      The other three pets had to admit that Moonlight was right. Even though Bluey was usually cheerful to the point where she's insane, her temper could get ferocious. Angering Bluey to that extent was about as rare as Jhudora and Illusen having a tea party, but no one wanted to risk it.

      "So what do we do? If we don't come up with something, we'll be grounded until we graduate from Neoschool!" Starlight moaned, tossing himself on the sofa.

      "Aw, come on! It can't be too hard to make another Immortal Toast. If not, a replica of it. All we need to do is paint a piece of bread with gold paint!" Sunlight came up with an idea.

      "You know, that might actually work!" Moonlight perked his head up.

      "Yeah, just one problem. We don't have anymore bread left!" Marik crossed his arms.

      "So? We could just go to the store and get some!" Starlight said, sitting up.

      "Have you forgotten that Bluey went to the store!? We'd stick out like a sore claw out there! Bluey's sure to notice us!" Marik shouted.

      "Well..." Sunlight rubbed his chin, trying to think up a new plan.

      * * *

      A weird thing happened while I was out shopping that day. As I was browsing the various plushies in the Toy Shop, I had this sudden feeling that something was horribly wrong. Like my Immortal Toast got eaten, or something.

      "Nah." I chuckled, knowing that my pets were watching it back at home. After all, nothing bad could happen when the Immortal Toast is being guarded, right?

      After shaking that weird feeling off, my attention quickly turned to this cute little Meepit plushie sitting on the shelf next to me.

To be continued...