"Nonexistent" Nova

      Timothy felt sad at the sight. Pets here were so poor that they had to eat what was rotten? But there was hardly anything Timothy could do himself. After all, he was the one working at the Rubbish Dump.

      Timothy scooped up another pile of dirt. Little petpets scurried around with their owners. Timothy plugged his nose at the smell of rotten bananas and moldy bread. The smell was overwhelming. He hated working at this dump. Why couldn't someone else do this job? He was the only Kacheek he knew that had to dig in garbage as a job.

      Once again, another shovelful hit the ground. Food spilled everywhere. Sighing, Timothy remembered that he had a few more terrible hours in this icky place. The starving pets appreciated the work. But Timothy didn't want to be shoveling dirt and muck for much longer.

      Timothy scooped up another pile. Right before he plopped it onto the floor, he noticed a glitter of light. With a smile, he reached his paw towards the glitter of light. He scooped up the bright beam in his hand. The creature trembled.

      It was a Nova. Still smiling, Timothy did something the Nova never would have expected. He set it free. The Nova turned back towards the blue Kacheek. Timothy still smiled. Nobody nearby noticed the Nova. Only Timothy saw it.

     "I bet you are wondering why I set you free."

     The Nova fluttered up and down as if nodding.

     "Well, it would be a shame to just... throw away such a beautiful creature! Most people don't see the beauty of a Nova; they just see it as a Battledome weapon. But Novas are much more then that. You are a creature."

     The Nova shone brighter.

      "You are free. Go... go flutter around bringing happiness to everyone." Timothy paused. "But to warn you... you are not supposed to exist anymore. I was supposed to get rid of you. You are no longer allowed in Neopia." Timothy pointed in the sky. "There is a planet. It is called Earth. That is where the Neopians come from. Including the owner I used to have. Go there. There are hundreds of Novas there who almost met a fate like yours."

     The Nova nodded. With a blinding light, it disappeared.

      Before anyone noticed Timothy not working, he quickly plopped the pile onto the ground.

     ___________________________

      Ty sat at his desk. He stared at the Kadoatery. Yawning, he wondered why they had to break on a Friday. That usually meant they wouldn't work until the following Monday. They still hadn't been fixed. It was Monday night.

      He wandered around the site, attempting to restock items from the main shops. It had been a good restock. He had made quite a profit. But Ty still wanted to feed a kad.

      He turned off the desk light. There were not going to be any fixed kads that night. He doubted anyone would fed another UB. "UB" meant unbuyable, and unbuyable meant worth more than 100,000 Neopoints. If someone did not feed an unbuyable, there wouldn't be any working kads. And all of the items they were asking for were worth over 700,000 Neopoints.

      He said goodnight to his kad feeding friends. He prepared to leave Neopia for the night. He did his forgotten dailies. He priced the items in his shop. He gave his pets food, took them to the healing springs, and then locked the door to his Neohome. Then he quietly left Neopia. He had gotten out of Neopia when he saw something.

      It was a sparkle of light. But it was bright compared to the dark sky through his window of his house. Ty opened the window, just a bit. The screen let in a slight breeze. It wasn't a cold breeze. Summer was starting to approach.

      It was a Nova. Why wasn't it in Neopia? The Nova didn't do anything. It just twinkled. It shone brighter and brighter. It seemed like it wasn't really real. It looked like it belonged in Neopia, where everything looks fine pixeled. Without warning, it stopped twinkling. Then it fluttered away.

      Giving the kads one last chance, Ty quickly went back to the Kadoatery. When he got there, he realized they had just been fixed. He ran over to the nearest one. They were available to feed. Quickly realizing that a kad was asking for an item he had, he fed it to the kad.

     ___________________________

      Alex stared at her notebook. She wondered what she could write a story about. She had never really tried to write a story for the Neopian Times. But for some reason she wanted to try now. It seemed as if everything in Neopia was already in the Neopian Times. What else could she write about?

      She started to write a story about about a Meepit. She ended up throwing away the paper. It wasn't an exciting story. And plenty of people had written about Meepits. Anyway, she wasn't the biggest Meepit fan in the world. She couldn't think of any taking-over-the-world story that hadn't already been used in the past.

      She thought about writing an article about Kad Feeding. But then she remembered that there were already quite a few articles about how to feed a kad. There were comics about kads. There were even stories with kads! Not to mention the bijillion guides out there. No, Neopia didn't need another Kad Feeding article.

      She had an idea for a comic. As soon as she tried to draw it, she realized that a similar comic had been drawn by one of her friends. She sighed and threw that piece of paper away too. What idea hadn't been taken yet? Which idea could she use?

      Alex was about to give up for the night. Maybe she could feed a kad before she had to go to bed. She couldn't think of anything to write. Maybe feeding a kad would help. Suddenly something caught her eye. She opened her window's curtain slightly to see what the beam of light had been.

      Confused, she realized it was a Nova. What was a Nova doing outside of Neopia? The Nova just twinkled in a friendly way. Almost as if smiling at her. And it looked beautiful against the dark background of the sky. It looked like a pixelized star... a star that didn't quite fit. But it was still beautiful.

      She quickly grabbed a pencil. She started to write. She had an idea. The first part of the story could feature a Nova. The more she wrote, the better ideas she had for her story. Maybe the Neopian could be aided by the Nova. No, she didn't like that idea. She scribbled it out. Then she looked up. Her random visitor - the bright little Nova - had somehow disappeared before you could say "GLF!"

     ___________________________

      Emily was trying to add things to her gallery. Searching around Neopia, she couldn't find anything else her gallery needed. She had found everything that went with her theme.

      She had an idea. Maybe she could start a new category in her gallery. The idea of bright yellow (and magical) objects came to her head. She didn't quite know why. Maybe the highlighter on her desk had given the idea to her.

      She bought all of the items she could find that were yellow and sparkly. After an hour or two of buying and searching, her gallery section was almost complete. She stood back and admired her work. It looked wonderful. It was complete.

      But she knew her gallery was missing something.

      She looked through each shiny yellow object she had ever heard of. But she saw nothing that seemed to fit. Nothing she didn't already own.

      She invited a few friends over to her gallery. A few came. When she told them her gallery's theme, they suggested quite a few things. But Emily had each item. She had already bought those. She already had the Yellow Negg. She already had the Grand Lightning Beam and Light Faerie Snowglobe.

      Her friends, who couldn't think of anything, had to leave.

      Emily had left Neopia. She had declared her gallery complete. Now it was time for her to go to bed. She yawned. Suddenly she noticed something near her shelf. It twinkled brightly and was a yellow, hovering, magical star of Neopia.

      It was a Nova.

      That was what she was missing! Quickly zooming back into Neopia, she bought a Nova from a user's shop. She put it into her gallery. She stood back and smiled at her complete gallery.

      When she got back to her home, the Nova had already left.

     ___________________________

      Anthony covered his eyes. Counting, he reluctantly waited until his brother had hidden. When he reached twenty, he took off running through the house.

      It was not that he wanted to play Hide and Seek with Rudy. No, he didn't really want to. His brother was bored. Anthony was supposed to be watching Rudy for a few minutes while their mom was at the store. He couldn't go outside; it was raining. What else was there to do? It was either play Hide and Seek with his brother or watch the rain fall.

      Anthony, who was running quickly in a slightly-smaller-than-his-neighbor's house, forgot about the mass numbers of toys all over the place. He tripped over one of them. He slipped and fell.

      After a few seconds, his foot hardly hurt. The toy was sitting innocently on the floor. Anthony made a mental note to throw that out the window the next chance he got. After all, what would they use a pointy dinosaur for? Maybe a made-up world. But as Anthony got older, he disliked that game more and more. Deciding that he had to find his brother, he got back up and continued the search.

      Anthony searched the entire house. His brother was not there. Worried because he was supposed to be watching his brother, Anthony thought about calling out his brother's name. But he knew he wouldn't listen. He would just think it was a joke. A trick to get him to reveal his hiding spot. But what if Rudy had hidden outside?

      Then he saw something. It was a small creature. A small creature from... was it that site that someone he knew played on? Yes, it looked like it was from that Neopets place. It was fluttering near a pile of blankets. Anthony realized he hadn't checked there yet. The one place in the house that he had forgotten about. He slowly crept up to the pile. The floor didn't made noises here. He could act stealthy.

      Pulling the blankets off of the ground, he saw his brother's face. Rudy frowned. Apparently he didn't think he would be found there. And he almost hadn't been seen. Anthony randomly pointed at the fluttering creature. His brother might know what it was. After all, he had an account for almost 2 years. He rarely went on though.

     With a smile, the boy told his brother what it was. "It's a Nova."

     ___________________________

      Zeek was lost. He had never been lost before. He had always been able to find his way home. But this time he went too far away.

      Being a very tiny dog, Zeek was frightened when he remembered Foster's warnings. There were coyotes wandering around in this neighborhood. Few cats survived for more than 2 years, and Zeek was only slightly larger then the average cat. The toughest cat in the neighborhood, Star, could easily attack Zeek if he wanted to.

      Freaked out now, Zeek took off running. After ten minutes, he realized he was still lost. He knew he was close, but for some reason his nose wasn't working properly. He should probably see a vet soon. That is, if he got home safely.

      He was lost a block away from his home. He did not know this of course. He had never been on this side of the neighborhood. Zeek whimpered. He was scared. He didn't know what to do. And unlike some of the times he had escaped before, Foster wasn't here to show him the way home. The neighborhood was dark.

      He should have listened to Foster when Foster had warned him. At the time, Zeek hadn't cared. How could he get hurt and lost if he knew the neighborhood well? Apparently he didn't know the neighborhood as well as he had thought. Foster, the big dog, was jealous of the little dog because he was the right size to escape?

      Zeek now knew it wasn't jealousy at all. Foster had really been trying to protect him. Zeek felt bad for teasing him. Foster was really just trying to help.

      Just then a bit of light sparkled near Zeek. Not knowing what it was, he followed it. It looked light a flashlight. It looked like something familiar. As he squinted, he realized it was NOT a flashlight. It was something prettier... something sparkling... something bright and blinking. It looked magical.

      When it led him right in front of his home, he realized what it was. It was a real version of a toy that his family had brought home. It had smelled like a hamburger, so he assumed that it had been in one of those meals. He had ripped the toy up. He turned back to where the creature had been. It was gone.

      Without another sound, Zeek quietly snuck back through a hole near the gate.

     ___________________________

      A girl, who went by the nickname of Sugar, glared at the Shop Wizard's prices. Those were all too expensive! Sugar sighed. Why did she have to waste NP? She bought everything from Kad Food to Nerkmids. And for no logical reason. Sugar wasn't exactly the richest Neopian due to her constant spending.

      Sugar tired searching for something else. More prices came up. But they were still too expensive. They weren't supposed to be worth THAT much. The Shop Wizard needed to show her something worth something.

      Sugar wished she could find something. This was getting boring. (Sugar has a very short attention span if what she is doing doesn't involve editorials.) She searched again.

      Sugar, who has temper issues, banged her foot against her desk. Realizing that hurt, she groaned. Why wasn't this working? Everyone who had "Wizard Sniped" made it seem like it was easy to get great deals. Well, she had been trying for some time, and it wasn't working! And to make matters worse, her foot hurt. That was stupid.

      Sugar knew that wiz sniping "being easy" wasn't 100% true.

      She was about to quit her attempts when she saw a flicker of light wander into her room. Her cat was following it with wide eyes. She meowed and jumped up to capture the glittering creature. Apparently she thought it was similar to her "light therapy" game. Sugar and her mom took a watch and made the reflection zoom around the room in an attempt to entertain the cat.

      It was a Nova.

      What in Neopia?

      That was confusing. It wasn't in Neopia. But that was something Sugar said often, so it came out of her mouth before she could realize that it didn't make sense. She was going to walk over to her frantic cat and the sparkly visitor, but she suddenly had an idea.

      With her imitation of the "o_O" face, she tried one last search. She tried to find a Nova. To her surprise, something came up. It was... a Wand of Ultranova for 2 NP?!?! Gasping, she ran into the shop. It was a good deal for someone with her amount of Neopoints.

      Faster than you could say, "that nova is shiny o.O" Sugar had bought it. When she turned back to where the Nova had been, it had disappeared. Sugar was confused, but her cat was more confused. Sugar laughed as her cat meowed with very startled look on her face.

     ___________________________

      Emilee walked outside. Her dad was walking around the front yard.

     "Daddy... what are you doing?"

     "The sprinklers were set for 11 AM tomorrow morning. If they go off at that time... let's just say the gardeners won't be pleased."

     Emilee smiled, picturing the gardeners dripping wet. "That wouldn't be good. It may be close to summer, but I doubt they want to get the lawnmowers wet."

     "Where is your sister?"

     "Sugar is too busy running around in Neopia feeding kads and otherwise acting insane. Too busy to talk to her family, I guess. At least I am the good daughter." Emilee gave her dad the let's-go-buy-the-whole-store look.

     "I see." Emilee's dad started walking back to the house, not looking happy.

      Suddenly a whole mess of light erupted in the dark sky. Looking up, Emilee noticed hundreds of tiny dots of light. They grew closer and closer each second. Emilee realized what they were.

     "DADDY!!! There are Novas in the sky! From Neopia!"

     Her dad smiled. "They are just stars." He didn't even bother looking at the sky. "I thought your sister was the Neoaddict. Remember that time she thought her wasabi resembled a slorg? Let's go inside."

      It was too dark for Emilee to see very well. She had just come out of a bright house, and now the front yard looked darker than usual. And Emilee was afraid of the dark. She looked around.

      Emilee looked back at the sky. A tiny Nova fluttered down out of the sky, and then towards the door. Emilee quietly followed it. Emilee walked back to the house without another word.

     "What was that?"

     Emilee just shook her head and smiled. "Just a star, Daddy."

The End