Smell the Scents: Part One

     “Oh, buck up, Timmy. Why do you always have to take so long?”

     The spotted Gelert looked up from the exciting smelling rock to see that his brother had stopped walking and was looking at him angrily.

     “What’s the rush, Max? Mum said we don’t have to hurry. And it’s such a wonderful day for a walk.”

     The checkered Gelert, Max, glared at his brother.

     “Yes, a wonderful day for a walk. So stop sniffing things and get walking!”

     “But what’s the point of a walk if you don’t stop and smell things? Honestly, you make everything so boring, Max.”

     “Because sniffing a rock is totally not boring,” said Max sarcastically, starting off again in the direction of Neopia Central.

     Timmy took one last sniff at the rock and carried on, only to stop again a few steps later to sniff the corner of someone’s gate. The scent coming from it was something different from anything he had ever smelled. It had a mixture of smells, ‘almost as if it has its own story to tell,’ he thought. He could smell the scent of some weeds that must have been pulled up recently. He could also smell the scent of whoever had pulled them up. It was very exciting.

     “TIMMY!”

     Timmy jumped as Max’s voice sounded right next to him. Ah, he could smell Max too. It was one of the few scents he got sick of.

     “Sorry, Max. This gate smelled so exciting. I have never smelled anything quite like it before so I had to stop for a minute.”

     “But you have smelled almost every other gate that we have passed today. Honestly, Timmy, have you got no memory?”

     “I have a perfect memory, thank you very much. But every scent is unique; that’s what makes them so exciting.”

     “I suppose that’s why you sniff every pile of dung that you come across, then?”

     “I don’t smell every pile of dung. I mean, there are so many more exciting things to smell. Have you ever smelled a flower, Max? No, I thought not. You should try it sometime. Or if you don’t want to smell a flower, smell something else. Not only are scents exciting to smell, but they sometimes come in useful. They could warn you that danger is around the corner, or they could tell you what your food is made of and they can tell you who is at the door without opening it!”

     Max stopped pretending to snore and opened his eyes.

     “Have you finished speaking now? Honestly, I have never heard such boring stuff. The guy who owns the Neopian bank is more interesting to talk to and all he does is spout off numbers. Now come on, we really need to get to the market place before they run out of everything.”

     Max stormed off again, walking faster this time. Timmy hurried to catch him up, thinking all the time what kinds of amazing and exciting smells would be there. There would be all sorts of foods to start with. Food always smelled good to Timmy. And there would be heaps of neopets. And there were always petpets he had never seen before. And of course it would be great fun to check out all the other new toys and furniture, to sniff around them and find out what they were made of and where they came from.

     Thinking of all this, Timmy became incredibly excited and started to run ahead of Max to get there sooner. He stopped suddenly, however, when he saw a very funny looking rock covered in moss. He took a good look at it and then started to sniff all over it. It wasn’t an overly exciting smell, but because Timmy believed that every scent was different, he became very interested in it. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Max came up behind him and shouted at him.

     “TIMMY! If I have to tell you to hurry up ONE MORE TIME today I will leave you at home tomorrow!”

     “Oh good. You do that. Then I can go for a walk somewhere else by myself and not have to put up with you grumbling all the time.”

     “Great. Then I can get the shopping done before Christmas.”

     “Hey Max, why don’t we start this arrangement today?” asked Timmy, loving the idea of going for a walk by himself.

     “No, we can start it tomorrow.”

     “But why?” asked Timmy, confused.

     “Because we have a longer list than normal and I can’t carry all the stuff by myself. So hurry up!”

     Timmy sighed and followed Max down the path in the direction of the market place. He cast one last look at the mossy rock. It looked so lovely, and smelled so interesting. Timmy made up his mind to go find it tomorrow.

     Soon the sounds and scents of Neopia Central reached the ears and noses of both Gelerts. Timmy nearly went mad with excitement. He went there almost every day, but it still held something new and exciting every time.

     They walked past the money tree and Timmy was very tempted to stop and take a good look at a bottle of sand that was there, but someone had already taken it. Also, seeing the look in Max’s eye, Timmy decided stopping now would not be a good idea.

     ‘Oh well,’ he thought. ‘I will have all the time in the world tomorrow.’

     ---

     “You guys took a while. Did you get everything?” asked a medium height girl with brown hair.

     “Yes, Mum, we managed to get everything. Actually, we got the last tomatoes in the shop. We nearly missed them too. If Timmy hadn’t stopped to sniff everything, we could have been a lot faster.”

     “Well, you got it done at last, so no harm done. Now, what do you guys want for lunch?”

     “I think I would like...” began Max, but Timmy cut him off.

     “Those tomatoes smell really good. Can you make me some tomato soup, Mum? Please? Thanks!”

     “Now, don’t thank me until I have given you an answer. Yes, I can make some tomato soup. What would you like, Max?”

     “Well, I might as well have tomato soup too, so it saves you cooking an extra meal. Can we have some bread with it please?” asked Max politely.

     “Yeah, sure. And thanks, Max.”

     ---

     “Timmy, your soup will go cold soon. Are you actually going to eat it?” demanded Max, who was tempted to eat it himself.

     “Yes, I am about to. It just smells so great!” said Timmy, taking another sniff of his soup before starting to eat it with some bread. “Mmmm, the bread smells good too.”

     Max glared at him and then took his plate to the sink to be washed up, calling out to Timmy over his shoulder. “Honestly, you are more immature than Bella!”

     At that moment Bella wandered into the room. She was a very small baby Gelert, and she was very immature. She was also stubborn, and would cry if she didn’t get her own way.

     “Timmy, will you play with my usuki dolls with me?” she asked.

     Timmy sighed. She was always asking that.

     “Not right now, I am finishing my lunch.”

     “Well, can you play after your lunch then? Look, you have nearly finished it. One more big mouthful, Timmy. Hurry up. I want to play usukis!”

     While she was saying this, Bella attempted to put her paws on her hips. Unfortunately for her she was too small and clumsy, and not really the right body shape either. She fell over almost right away and glared at Timmy when he laughed.

     “Don’t laugh. IT WASN’T FUNNY!”

     “Yes, it was. And go ask Max to play usukis with you. I don’t want to.”

     “But I played with Max this morning. It’s your turn now,” she said in a very sulky voice.

     “Well, I don’t want to. Go play by yourself,” snapped Timmy, starting to get impatient.

     Bella started to cry, and ran out of the room wailing as loudly as possible. At that moment Max came back in and was only slightly surprised at the sounds of Bella howling in her bedroom.

     “What have you done to upset her now?” he demanded. “She’s going to be in a bad mood all day now and I was hoping to have a nice, quiet read.”

     “I didn’t do anything,” said Timmy, half sulkily. He hated it when Max accused him of upsetting Bella.

     “Right, so she was crying for no reason then?”

     “Nothing new.”

     “Timmy, you really should try to be nice to your sister occasionally. I suppose she wanted to play usukis again?”

     “Yes. And I didn’t want to. I wish Mum would paint her another colour. It might stop her being quite so immature.”

     Max rolled his eyes.

     “You have argued that out with Mum before. It wont get you anywhere. Now go and tell Bella that you are sorry.”

     Timmy jumped to his feet and grabbed his empty bowl.

     “No, I won't. I am doing the dishes.”

     “Too late, I just did them. Your bowl is the only thing that needs cleaning now.”

     “Well, I am cleaning that then. I have no intention of apologising to Bella when I did nothing wrong,” snapped Timmy, storming out of the room and into the kitchen where he proceeded to take a very long time cleaning his bowl.

     ---Later that day---

     “Bella, it's your bath time. Hurry up! you have to go to bed soon. BELLA! COME HERE AT ONCE!”

     Max and Timmy looked up from their card game to see their mum standing outside with her hands on her hips. She could pull this trick off a lot more successfully than Bella, and she almost looked angry doing it. If it hadn’t been for the fact that she still had mud on her clothes from tripping over earlier, Max and Timmy might have been slightly scared.

     “Bella, if you don’t come right this instance, I won't read you a bedtime story tonight!” yelled their mum.

     Still no Bella came, and their mum started to get worried. She came inside to where Timmy and Max were sitting.

     “Have either of your two seen Bella around? I cant find her.”

     “Last time I saw her was when I was outside un-burying an old bone. She had some of her usukis with her and she was heading down the path. I didn’t take much notice, though, because I could smell the bone and it smelled so great...” Timmy trailed off as his mum glared at him.

     “She’s probably lost in the woods now! Well, you and Max had better go and find her then,” said their mum, sounding very worried.

     Max and Timmy headed off towards the woods. They didn’t notice the dark clouds in the sky and the both jumped incredibly high when the first bit of thunder sounded. They both tried to ignore it, but when they got to the edge of the woods, it started to rain very heavily. They could hear their mum shouting for them to come back.

     “No point in you getting lost in the storm too. If it clears up soon, you can go and search again tonight, but otherwise you can wait until morning. I am worried about Bella, but I couldn’t bear to have you lost as well. She will just have to cope the best she can.”

     Max and Timmy looked at each other when their mum had left the room. There were dark clouds as far as could be seen. It didn’t look like the storm would clear up any time soon.

To be continued...