Enough Adventure for One Day: Part One

     I jumped up from my desk in a panic, nearly knocking over my blue chair. I sprinted out of my room and ran face-first into my little sister, Jalexis. Her frilly pink skirt was flying and her Air Faerie necklace bounced against her soft fur as she skipped happily out of her bedroom. I saw a set of Usuki dolls abandoned on her rainbow bed right before she smashed into me.

     “Sorry, Colfer!” the yellow Acara giggled as we raced down the hall toward our screaming owner and mischievous petpets.

     I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Colfer, and I’m a red Gelert. My sister Jalexis (we call her Lex), my owner Shannon, and I are new to Neopia; we just moved in to this little house in Neopia Central last week. So far, we get along really well. Shannon is relatively sane... of course, unless the Petpets are after her. We’re all still getting acquainted, though, and between Lex and me learning about Neopia so we can start into Neoschool this fall, and Shannon trying to raise some Neopoints for paintbrushes (I’d love to be painted Skunk and Jalexis is holding out for Faerie), we just haven’t spent that much time together yet. Little did we know, we were about to do some serious bonding. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

     Lex and I rounded the corner into the front hall of our little house and had to stifle our giggles. There was our owner, a tall teenage girl with long, bouncy, brown curls spilling over her shoulders. She was wearing a pink tank top and grey shorts, her arms full of grocery bags. A Spardel was hanging off one of her arms and a Snicklebeast was climbing one of her legs. She blew her bangs out of her eyes and glared at us with the ferocity of a recently awoken Snowager.

     “You couldn’t have picked normal Petpets, could you?” she asked, obviously frustrated.

     I padded over and pulled my Spardel off of her arm. “Blaine, you can stop attacking her. She lives here too,” I said with a laugh, stroking his soft fur. Blaine gave a little yelp and licked my paw.

     Lex, however, was laughing hysterically as she chased her Snicklebeast around and around Shan’s legs. “Oh Maaaason!” she sang, giggling cheekily. She ran laps around our owner, who struggled to carry the three heaping bags. I hurried over and grabbed one from her.

     “Thanks, Colfer,” Shan said with a smile. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

     Suddenly, Lex tripped over Mason, sending the Acara, the Snicklebeast, Shannon, and the groceries tumbling to the ground, bags spilling delicious Neopian delicacies all over the brand-new Neohome floor. I looked at Blaine and we both dove onto the pile to join our little family. Yep, that’s about as normal as life gets around the house. A small family, we don’t have much, but we really like each other.

     * * *

     “There,” I said, placing the last slice of green pepper omelette in the refrigerator, between a carton of Kau Kau Farm Milk and a slice of strawberry jelly. ‘Where in Neopia did she find that?’ I wondered, but decided not to look into the excitement that was my owner’s errands.

     “Thanks, guys,” Shannon said, picking up Jalexis for a hug and reaching out to ruffle my fur. “I actually wanted to talk to you two.”

     We all walked over to the soft blue couch in one corner of the room. Although we’d only been living there a short time, the three of us had been scouring the Marketplace for furniture deals and everything was beginning to look amazing. We settled down on the squeaky couch, Shannon in the middle, Lex curled up on her right and I settled in on her left. My sister and I looked up at our owner, waiting for her big announcement.

     “Well, I was thinking that we hadn’t really spent too much time together yet. I’ve been really busy with all of my work, starting a life in Neopia is really overwhelming! I guess I’m not used to making time for you two just yet,” she admitted.

     “Don’t worry,” I said with a smile.

     “We totally understand!” Lex added.

     “Anyways, today while I was shopping, I thought about taking a little trip together. I thought we could go to the Space Station together this afternoon, buy some out-of-this-world food, look at the petpets and just explore together,” she finished.

     “I’ve always wanted to go to space!” exclaimed Lex, her eyes dancing and her ears quivering with excitement like a flower in the fields of Brightvale.

     “I’m in too!” I added. “It’ll be great to learn about the history for starting Neoschool this fall. A space station like that has got to have a great story.”

     “NERD!” coughed the yellow Acara, catching my eye and winking.

     “Great!” Shannon enthused. “There’s a rocket up to the space station really soon. We’d better get going if we want to make it.” She grabbed her purple jacket from next to the door, Lex and I left out some food for the Petpets (they were smart enough to break into the cupboards if we didn’t leave them anything) and we headed out to catch a rocket.

     * * *

     “THIS PLACE IS SO COOL!” exclaimed Lex as we entered Virtupets Space Station. My eyes grew wide as I took in the Grundos in many different colours scurrying around with robotic petpets and food I’d never seen before. The metallic silvers and bright reds gave the station a hectic and chaotic feeling. My tummy did a weird flip-flop, but I passed the feeling off as excitement as a white Grundo approached Dance and shook her hand.

     “Welcome to Virtupets Space Station!” he exclaimed. “Did you know our station was started by the evil Dr. Sloth in Y2? He tried to make every Neopet in all of Neopia into a creepy mutated form of its original species.”

     “Mutant?” I said shakily as Lex cried, “Evil Dr. Sloth?”

     “Don’t worry.” The Grundo chuckled. “Good prevailed over evil and now nobody knows what happened to Sloth. Obviously none of you were changed into mutated pets and we all are currently living pleasantly. If Sloth is cooking up any ideas, we don’t know about them, so it’s perfectly safe.”

     “That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Jalexis said stubbornly.

     “Isn’t she adorable?” laughed the Grundo, pinching Lex’s cheek. She jumped away like he was covered in millions of Mootixes. “What an imagination.”

     Shannon eyed the Grundo suspiciously as he left. “He’s sketchy. Sorry, Lex, Dr. Sloth isn’t going to get you while I’m around.” She smiled, took Lex’s paw and laid a hand on my shoulder.

     It’s so cool that she can tell that I’m scared, too. She’s a great owner, protecting Lex and me like this, I thought, as we wandered down some rickety aluminum stairs, curious as to what we would see there.

     * * *

     “Whoa,” whispered Shannon as we descended into the Hangar. “Now this is sketchy.”

     Lex grabbed onto my paw as we looked around at the rocket ships and game booths scattered around the dingy, abandoned basement. A couple of openings revealed the endless stars and dark purple atmosphere outside and a few Grundos took inventory here and there. “I don’t think we’re supposed to be down here,” the timid yellow Acara whispered.

     I squeezed her pink paw. “Everything’s going to be okay,” I cooed, leading her over to where the rocket ship was. “Isn’t it cool?” I asked her, but only received a nod in return.

     Suddenly, a shriek and series of thumps penetrated the overwhelming silence of the hangar. Jalexis jumped and screamed a little bit and I scanned the room, but nobody was in sight... not even Shannon.

     “Where’s Shannon?” Lex cried, almost like she could read my mind. I took her paw again and led her past what looked suspiciously like a hidden door, my eyes darting back and forth across the technology-filled space, looking for Shannon and hoping she was okay. My mind raced and so did my heart as we both called our owner’s name multiple times, Lex’s yellow and pink paw squeezing my red one tighter and tighter with each sound of the teenager’s name.

     All of a sudden, I felt a hand grasp the fur on my neck. Jalexis screamed as we were snapped around the corner and into a rusty tin box.

     “Don’t be frightened,” we heard an all-too familiar voice sneer. Lex grabbed my paw and squeezed. Shannon wasn’t here to protect us, and throughout my entire week of life in Neopia, I had never been this afraid as I held my sister tight and wondered what would happen next. The box was thrown into a tunnel and the lights went out.

To be continued...