Sapphire's Stories: Present Peril

      P.S. I will be switching views with my sister, Star, so, please be sure to mind the borders for they will be the ones to signal when the switch has taken place.

     *-*-*-*

      “Happy birthday, Kate!” I heard Star yell as she flew down the stairs with a small present in her hand. She ran over to my owner and hugged her.

      “Thanks, Star,” Kate replied, hugging Star back.

      I quickly closed the book I was reading and looked at the calendar. It was the seventeenth day of Awakening. Kate’s birthday!! I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have ANY present for her at all!

      “I got you something!” Star exclaimed, handing Kate a present. I watched as Kate ripped through the rapping paper and opened the box. Inside lay a beautiful Blue Daisy Brush.

      “Thanks, Star. It’s beautiful,” Kate said, once again hugging my Christmas Zafara sister.

      “It was no prob, Kate. I knew you’d love it,” Star replied, smiling.

      By this time, I was in a panic. “What am I gonna do?” I thought to myself. “If I tell Kate that I forgot her birthday, then I will probably be scolded or something!” I thought hard and fast. Finally, an idea hit me. I ran up the stairs, and into my room. I grabbed my dubloon bank, and ran back down the stairs and raced for the door.

      “Fire, where’re you going?” Kate asked just as I was about to leave.

      “I, um, need to get something at the marketplace,” I replied, hoping that that would be the last of her questions.

      “Alright, just be back by lunch, ok?” Kate said after looking at the clock. It was 11:30 NST.

      “But lunch is only thirty minutes away!” I complained.

      “Well, I’m sorry, Fire, but there’s nothing I can do,” Kate replied. “Maybe you should go after lunch.”

      “No, never mind. Lunch would be a great time to come back,” I hastily replied.

      “Well, alright,” Kate said after a short pause. “Take care.”

      I quickly ran out the door before she could change her mind. After walking around for a bit, I found a bench. There, I opened my dubloon bank. I gasped at the sight. I only had twenty neopoints! “Where did all my savings go?” I wondered out loud. Then, I remembered buying a blue glittery brush for myself the week before.

      I felt so frustrated that I almost screamed, but I knew that I had to stay focused. “What could I buy for twenty neopoints?” I asked myself. I thought, and thought, and thought. That was when I remembered seeing a relatively cheap plushie in one of the user shops.

      “It’s the best I’ve got,” I said to myself as I walked toward the Faerie bus stop. “The first thing I have to do is to go to the shop wizard.”

     *-*-*-*

      “Star, could you come down for a while?” I heard my owner yell from down the stairs.

      “Ok, coming,” I replied, putting down my book and flying down the stairs. “Whaddya need?”

      “You wanna help me bake a cake?” Kate asked.

      “I’d love to!!” I said, smiling. “So, um, how do you bake a cake?”

      “We’ll do it after lunch when Fire’s home, but, first, you’ll need to get me the ingredients from the market while I get the pots and pans ready, ok?” Kate said, wrapping an apron around herself and handing me a list.

      “Alright,” I replied, taking the list and walking out the door. I walked over to the edge of Faerieland and started flying. “This is the good thing about having wings...” I thought to myself as I saw the Faerie bus, “no charge transportation.”

     *-*-*-*

      I entered the large, hat-like building. After entering, I saw a huge hole filled with some sort of pink liquid. It was quite strange, really. “Can I help you, child?” the shop wizard said as he emerged from one of the darker corners of the building.

      “I would like to find a Blue Kacheek Plushie, please,” I said, timidly.

      “I see,” he replied as he turned to the hole. “Find Blue Kacheek Plushie.”

      Almost immediately, the liquid in the hole seemed to clear to reveal a Blue Kacheek Plushie with the price of ten neopoints under it. “Throw in the suitable amount of neopoints and the plushie shall be yours,” the shop wizard said.

      I quickly took out my remaining ten neopoints. (You didn’t think that that Faerie bus trip was free, did you?) I threw them into the hole. The liquid seemed to swallow up the neopoints. A few seconds later, a Blue Kacheek Plushie appeared in my hand. Pleased at my purchase, I walked toward the door.

      “Thank you,” I said to the shop wizard before I left.

      “You are most welcome,” he replied, waving his um... hand.

     *-*-*-*

      “Ok, I have the flour, the sugar, the eggs, the icing, and the chocolate,” I said, checking each one off the list. “I’m done.”

      I had just finished when I heard a familiar voice yell, “Hey! Give that back!!” I instantly recognized it as Fire’s and in a second, was flying toward it, grocery bags and all. I reached the spot a minute later to find Fire sitting on a stub, crying her eyes out on a large piece of cotton with some blue fabric wrapped around it.

      “Fire, are you alright?!” I said, dropping the grocery bags and running toward her.

      “It’s ruined,” Fire said with a sob.

      “Common, let’s get you home,” I told her as I handed her my paw. Fire stopped crying, but she refused to talk. Since I was worried about leaving her, I went with her on the bus. The trip back seemed to take hours. When we got home, Kate had all the pots and pans out and was there to greet us. Now, Fire’s eyes were red from crying, and let’s just say Kate got over-worried.

     *-*-*-*

      “Fire, what happened?!” Kate said, kneeling beside me.

      “I got you a present for your birthday, and now it’s ruined!!” I sobbed, hugging Kate.

      “What happened, Fire?” Kate said calmly.

      “Well, I sorta, kinda, forgot that it was your birthday today, so, I went to find you a present,” I exclaimed, sobbing even more. “Then when I finally got you one, this Skeith came up and grabbed it. I tried to get it back, but when I pulled at it, it ripped open!!” My story continued (a more detailed one this time) along with my sobbing until I couldn’t shed even one more tear.

      “Fire, it’s alright. I understand,” Kate said, hugging me tighter.

      “You mean, you don’t mind me forgetting your birthday?” I asked, confused.

      “Of course I don’t!” Kate replied, looking at me straight in the eye. “In fact, I’ll tell you a little secret...”

      I looked at her.

      “I sometimes forget birthdays as well.”

      “You do?!” I exclaimed.

      Kate smiled, looked at me, and said, “Of course, I do!”

      “I’m sorry that I had to get you such a cheap gift...” I said, bringing out the ripped, blue Kacheek plushie, “and one that’s ruined too.”

      “The price doesn’t matter...” Kate said, picking the broken plushie up from my paw and hugging it, “it’s the thought that counts.”

      “Group hug!!” Star exclaimed, hugging me and Kate until we couldn’t breath.

      “Ok, now who wants to bake a cake after lunch?!” Kate said, smiling ear to ear.

      “ME!!!!!!!” Star and I yelled at the top of our lungs.

The End