Growing Insanity

     "Why do we have to wear these stupid clothes, Kendall? Black doesn't match my fur," one of the figures commented.

     She dropped her hood and it became apparent that the figure was a small blue Kau. She had obviously underestimated the strength of the wind and as soon as she straightened up, she was toppled off her feet by a strong gale. She slammed into the snow so hard that it winded her. The two other figures, one smaller than the other, stopped beside her.

     "Black stores heat. It'll keep you warmer. But it's rather pointless if you're lying in snow," a male voice came from the taller of the standing Neopets. The smaller blanket-covered Neopet giggled.

     "Shut it, Kendall, and you, Keriani." The blue Kau tried to steady herself to her feet.

     Kendall also removed his hood. He was a yellow Kau, taller than both his siblings. The smallest Kau was Keriani, and she sucked on a dummy under her cloak. The now snow-covered Kau was May, and she glared at her brother and sister.

     "Why do we have to trudge up here anyway?" she asked.

     "Because you agreed to do Taelia's Quest and then you realised you were too cheap for the items so YOU have to tell her that you're going to fail it.. AGAIN," Keriani replied.

     "Shut up, you baby," May snapped.

     "I'M NOT A BABY!" Keriani wailed, "JUST BECAUSE MUM PAINTED ME BABY DOESN'T MEAN THAT I AM ONE!"

     "So what's that thing you have in your mouth?" May asked.

     "...a dummy." Keriani dipped her head in shame.

     Kendall ignored this fight between his sisters and continued to walk up the mountain. Keriani shortly followed. May scraped some of the snow from her clothes and huddled herself in the warmth.

     May blew into her hooves to warm them up. She hated her brother. Always acting so superior when she made a mistake. And now he was forcing her to own up for the first time. Why couldn't she just do the decent thing and hide until Taelia forgot? But no, that wasn't good enough for Kendall. Nothing was good enough for Kendall. When Mum went to do her dailies he was always in charge. Entirely unfair. Just because the last time she was in charge it was the day that their Neohome just HAPPENED to get set on fire. It was never proved that she caused it.

     May realised that Kendall and Keriani were a long way in front of her, so she reluctantly followed on. She walked for a good twenty minutes before she met up with her siblings, who waited for her outside the cabin.

     "Took your time," Kendall remarked. May hit out with a hoof and smacked him on the shoulder. "Okay, OW! No need for violence!"

     "Tell that to the Snowager," May added. She stood in front of the door. Kendall rubbed his shoulder.

     "So? Are you going in or not?" he asked. May's teeth chattered.

     "Do I have a choice?"

     "No."

     "What if I don't go along with it?" May asked.

     "Then you'll be going with Mum EVERY TIME she plays the lever of doom for that wretched avatar," Keriani told her, smugly. "Mummy said."

     May scowled. Taelia, or rapid pinching and poking? Life wasn't fair, she decided. She reluctantly opened the door and stepped into the cabin.

     Taelia looked worn out. She was obviously rushed off her feet making all these potions and spells. She gleefully looked at May as she approached.

     "You, Neopet, I need your help to complete a spell I'm working on. It's FREEZING outside!" she commented, pulling her blue coat around herself.

     "That doesn't mean you should force me to go outside instead now, does it?" May complained.

     Taelia shot her an angry look. "What?"

     "I'm just saying, maybe the fresh air will do you good. It's very antisocial being stuck in the house all day, and I'm sure it's not good for your health." May noticed that as she was talking, Taelia had straightened up to her full height. She didn't know Faeries were that tall! She gulped as sparks started to shoot from Taelia's manicured fingertips.

     "How DARE you insult me in my own home! If you're not going to do a quest then get out!" she ordered.

     May gulped. "Um... you see, the funny thing is, I'm on a quest for you. Just the items are so expen..."

     She was cut off by Taelia's sighing. "Oh, it's you. May, right? The one that never completes my quests?"

     May nodded. "Yep that's me. So if you could just let me off the hook for this one..."

     "No! I am sick and tired of you! You never return anything that I ask you for, and you never even have the decency to tell me that you're not going to bother!"

     "Well, I'm having the decency now! And everyone knows that you just eat all the food that we go out and get for you, so I don't know why you're complaining. I'm probably saving you from gaining a few pounds!" May shouted.

     The Snow Faerie fumed.

     Outside, Kendall was reading a book. It was a good book, but he couldn't get too attached to it. After all, it would disappear into a puff of smoke when he was finished with it. He was reading it to ignore the sweetly singing voice of his baby sister. Well, he assumed it should have sounded sweet, but it sounded like someone was squeezing an Angelpuss.

     "WHEN ALL THE CUTIE ICKLE PETS GATHER ROUND FOR TEA, I'M SURE THAT THEY'LL BE REAL NICE AND BE SAVING SOME FOR ME," Keriani sang.

     Obliviously she had forgotten some of the words, but she covered that by humming the last few bars. Keriani was thoroughly enjoying herself; however, Kendall was beginning to feel very sick.

     "Can you shut up, Keriani," he asked.

     "No. I'm not hurting anyone."

     "You're damaging my ear drums!"

     "Like I care about that."

     "Seriously shut it or I'll..." Kendall was cut off from his threat by green and white sparks emitting from the cabin's windows. May ran out and slammed the door behind her.

     "GO! NOW!" May shouted.

     "Why?" Keriani asked, but May was already halfway down the hill. Kendall and Keriani followed quickly.

     They didn't stop running until they arrived at their Neohome. They collapsed in a pile from exhaustion in the middle of the carpet.

     "I... hate... you... May," Kendall spluttered.

     "The... feeling's... mutual," May added.

     When they caught their breath back, May started to look panicky.

     "What happened?" Keriani asked.

     "She flipped out and said she was going to do nasty things to me if I don't complete her quest! What am I going to do?!? I can't get all this stuff for her! We're too poor! Well, we're not too poor; it's just Mum wastes all her money on that LEVER!"

     "May! Look, shut up," Kendall ordered.

     "What are we going to do?" May asked, desperately.

     "I don't care, just shut up." Kendall sat on the sofa and continued reading his book.

     "AHHHH!!!!" May shouted. "I'm going insane with fear!"

     "Look, just STAY SANE," Keriani ordered.

     "Sane? SANE?!? How am I supposed to be sane when we all run around doing quests from faeries being led by a guy who's permanently in his pyjamas with a strange addiction to asparagus?!?!" May shouted into Keriani's ear.

     May took several deep breaths before Keriani dared to speak.

     "Finished?" she inquired.

     "Yep, I think so," May confirmed.

     "Good. Now, let's get down the business at hand." Keriani started to stroll up and down the lounge as if she was Dr. Sloth himself. This strange sight was accentuated by the fact that she was STILL carrying around her Cool Purple Teddy Bear, which she had nicknamed 'Wuzzums'. Kendall raised an eyebrow at her.

     "What makes you think that you can order us around. You're just a little baby." Kendall laughed.

     Keriani growled and threw something. Wuzzums hit Kendall sharply in the eye. His eye started to water, but he refrained from crying.

     "It looks like Wuzzums agrees that I'm the best Neopet here for the job. Now, what is the situation?" Keriani asked her brother.

     Kendall rubbed his eye with his left hoof.

     "We're stuck at home, and Mum's gone to lab ray Raekial, and if we don't get this stupid Snow Brucicle for Taelia, she'll kill May," Kendall snickered.

     May looked horrified. She jumped behind their Kauvara Sofa and hid there.

     "I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!! THE BRAIN TREE WILL DISCOVER ALL MY SECRETS!!!" May shouted hysterically.

     "Calm down May!" Keriani yelled, bringing sense to the stupidity of the situation. "Neopets CAN'T die! Remember?"

     "Shh!" Kendall whispered to Keriani. "You'll ruin the suspense."

     "Oh! The suspense! Got it," Keriani clicked her hooves together - which was astounding considering that she had to jump at least twice her height to do so.

     May slowly emerged from behind the blue sofa and sat, her teeth chattering from fear, next to Kendall. Kendall picked up a copy of 'The Neopian Times' that was stuffed down one side of the couch and began to scan the articles. Keriani had picked up her crayons and started to draw on a scrap of paper on the floor. May looked from her brother, then to her sister. Her legs now shaking with suspense.

     "IS NO ONE GOING TO DO ANYTHING?" she shouted.

     Kendall didn't look up from the article he was reading.

     "I would, but the thing is... well... I don't actually care," Kendall replied.

     Anger struck May and she ripped the paper from Kendall's hooves. Kendall grabbed for it, but May held it out from his reach and stuck out her tongue. Kendall kicked out at her and they started a full on fight.

     "Stop it! STOP IT!" Keriani shouted over the blur of yellow and blue.

     They ignored her and continued to fight. Keriani looked around desperately for something to stop the fighting and eventually set her eyes on a trophy that Mum had displayed on the mantel. She picked it up, and found it was rather heavy. She assumed that it would be light, it being the statue of a giant feather, but nevertheless, she stood in front of the wrestling pair. Keriani held it high above her head and dropped into the fight.

     There was a large clang, and May and Kendall stopped fighting. They lay on the floor, May rubbing her foot and Kendall rubbing his tail. They both looked evilly at each other, and then confused at Keriani.

     "What was that for?" Kendall asked.

     "I need to show you my plan," Keriani explained.

     She held up her drawing. Both Kendall and May turned their heads on their sides. The drawing was a crayon smudge that looked somewhere between a squashed orange and a sugar-crazed JubJub.

     "Your plan is..." Kendall tailed off, confused at what he was supposed to be seeing.

     Keriani looked puzzled at her sibling's reactions.

     "Well? Isn't it obvious?" she asked. May and Kendall looked at each other in desperation.

     "We... eat each other's hair?" May suggested. Keriani looked at the drawing, and then back at her sister.

     "NO, YOU N00B! We go to Terror Mountain, and restock at the Super Happy Icy Fun Snow Shop until we get one for a fraction of the price! It can't be that hard; remember when Mum restocked?" Keriani prompted.

     May furrowed her brow trying to remember.

     "Wasn't that the week where she came home crying every night?" May remembered correctly.

     Keriani sighed. This was HER operation, and all her siblings were trying to do was to mess it all up again! On the one day when Raekial wasn't here to control the family, they were going to mess it up. She could control these Kaus... right?

     Keriani's thoughts were interrupted by a loud smash. Her eyes shot to her brother and sister, who were now entangled in another brawl.

     "STOP IT NOW!!!" she shouted, and threw some of the shards of gold trophy from the floor at her siblings.

     They stopped fighting, although Kendall seemed to have chipped a horn, and May had what looked like the beginnings of a black eye. Kendall stared at the chips of what used to be a trophy on the floor.

     "Keriani... PLEASE tell me that wasn't one of Mum's trophies..."

     Keriani looked from Kendall's worried stares, to May covering her face. "It... might have been... why?" Keriani asked in honest confusion.

     Kendall started to sweat, and May started hyperventilating.

     "Oh no, OH FYORA! We're ruined! She's going to kill us! Quickly, we have to..." Before May could finish her sentence, the door slowly opened.

     A pink Lupe bounded in.

     "Hey guys! Look! I turned pink!" the newly arrived visitor shouted to his siblings, "Mum's real happy because now I've got her an ava-" the Lupe, now recognised by the trio as the newly pinkified Raekial, stopped in his tracks when he heard shouting from the door.

     "KERIANI... KENDALL... MAY!!! WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY TROPHY???"

     "Well, things can't get any worse," May stated.

     As soon as those words had passed her lips, a blue thunderbolt crashed through the ceiling and struck her. A few icy cold words arrived from nowhere.

     "You have failed to complete the Taelia's Quest... if you return she will *NEVER* give you another chance!"

The End

Author's Note: First time story writing in the NT. ^^ Hope you liked it, and if you didn't you just wasted some time you'll NEVER get back. TNT and the ACK rules.