The White Meowclops: Part Five

Rubio and Franz were tried and convicted of 48 counts of theft as well as voluntary association with Dr. Frank Sloth. They were sentenced to seven years in prison and another two doing community service, and Auryn had not seen them after the case. Many times he had been tempted to visit them in prison, but every time he left to do this he decided against it at the last minute and turned back.

     Auryn had not returned to his house. There were too many things that reminded him of his family, and plus it would be lonely with just him there. Patches, or rather Orlando, had offered him a job at the station and a place in his family, but Auryn had declined for various reasons. Nevertheless, Orlando and Auryn still remained close friends and frequently ate donuts together at the catacombs before work.

     The white Meowclops had been returned to its owner, a rich Faerie Kougra who already had gotten another petpet, by Auryn personally. When Auryn had told her the story of how it was stolen, the owner felt so bad for him that she had let Auryn keep the Meowclops, whom the owner said was female, for free. This was fine with the Meowclops anyway, since she had taken a liking to the Royalboy Zafara ever since he rescued her from Rubio and Franz.

     For awhile Auryn had remained homeless. It wasn't that nobody had wanted to adopt him; in fact, most of the people who passed by the Royalboy Zafara on the street had offered him a home, but Auryn just wanted to be alone for awhile. He didn't want another superficial Neopoint-obsessed owner taking him in just to show off their wealth.

      One day Auryn had met a person working in the catacombs as an artist who he had chatted with and found he enjoyed her company. He found himself going there just to see her, and eventually Auryn gave in and allowed himself to be adopted by her. She already had three other pets: a faerie Ixi, a Halloween Moehog, and a (male) Usuki Usul, and Auryn found that he really enjoyed talking and laughing with them. Though he still missed Rubio and Franz from time to time, he found his new family much more tight-knit and friendly. Well, maybe not the Moehog, but that was another story entirely.

     *****

      "So whatever happened to that part you auditioned for?"

      It was a few months later, and Auryn was enjoying yet another lunch break with Imp, who decided to continue eating with him despite the fact that her other friend had long since returned from her business trip.

      "Well, I got the part, but I turned it down. Acting just isn't my cup of tea."

      Auryn nodded and swallowed a bite of his sandwich. "You should try out for the beauty contest. You looked great with all that makeup on."

      "Oh, you mean I don't normally look great?" Imp joked with a wink.

      "That's not what I meant."

      "Oh it wasn't?" Imp smiled impishly. Auryn laughed and said, "Hey, its not my fault you can't take a compliment!"

      Auryn and Imp continued to joke around like this for awhile until Auryn asked seriously, "Hey, there's something that's been bugging me for the longest time. Why did your owner paint your sister and not you?"

      Imp looked confused for a moment. "Oh that. What, you thought my owner was playing favorites?"

      Auryn shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't know what to think, but yeah, I pretty much assumed something of the sort, even though it didn't seem like something you'd put up with."

      Imp smiled and laughed. "Yeah, I wouldn't. We got a faerie paint brush as a gift from someone named Jacko. My owner offered to paint me with it since I was first in line, but I knew how much my sister wanted to be faerie so I let her get painted first."

      "Oh, that makes sense. You said you wanted to be Halloween, didn't you?" Imp nodded and Auryn reached in his side-pack and pulled something out. "Here, I wanted you to have this since you've been such a great friend for me."

      Imp gasped and for a moment just stared down at the Halloween paint brush Auryn had handed her. "I… I don't know what to say!" Imp gave Auryn a big hug, immensely happy. "I can't believe you would do this for me."

      Auryn smiled. "It's the least I could do - you're the best friend I've ever had. So do you think you'll use it?" Auryn asked, referring to the brush.

      "Heck yes! Hey, let's ditch work and go to the rainbow pool right now!"

      And so Auryn and Imp, feeling like a couple of rebellious high school students ran off to the rainbow pool, where Imp enjoyed her last moments as a green Shoyru.

      You should have seen the look on her owner's face when she returned home.

     *****

      "…And in other news, everyone's favorite witch of the Haunted Woods had an emergency visit to the hospital last night after nearly choking on a gummy rat tail. Doctors say that she is recovering well, and she claims she will be back 'demanding items from random Neopians' by tomorrow at the latest."

      "And now to our top story. Neopian Central's police department recently apprehended another suspect seemingly involved with Dr. Sloth himself. When asked, one officer states that this has only been possible thanks to the recent Neopoint donations the department has received, allowing them to expand their Sloth resistance program. If you are interested in donating, please contact -"

      "Auryn, will you put down that newspaper for a second? Your Meowclops is on top of the dresser again!"

      Auryn reluctantly folded up the latest issue of the Neopian Times and smiled, a glint present in his eye. "I'll be right there!"

     …And so the story of Auryn_2000 concludes here. Years later, after Rubio and Franz got out of jail, they moved to Mystery Island and worked as assistants for the Rock Pool petpet shop. To this day, no petpet has ever been reported stolen there.

     Imp took Auryn's advice and tried out for the beauty contest, and did so well that it became her favorite hobby, aside from having brunch with a certain Royalboy Zafara in the Deep Catacombs.

     The Neopian Diplomatic Agency eventually had to lay off workers, and Auryn and Imp voluntarily left and became criminal investigators alongside Orlando. Orlando, for those who are curious, did not change his color of paint. Technically he was still pirate, but wore business suits and police uniforms rather than eye patches and striped shirts, making him seem like an ordinary Scorchio (albeit a teal-gray one).

     The white Meowclops was named "Princess" by one of Auryn's brothers after using his bed as a scratching post. He claimed the Meowclops was a royal pain, and thus thought "Princess" was a fitting name to give her. Needless to say, she had no objections to it.

     Auryn's new owner had found her calling as a writer for the Neopian Times, and would often lock herself up in her room for hours on end writing silly and ridiculous tales to amuse readers, even and especially when she had large projects for school due the next day. Auryn, still quite the workaholic, disapproved of this immensely, but enjoyed reading her stories in the Neopian Times anyway, however farfetched they may have been.

     Where she came up with such imaginative tales, Auryn could never have said.

End

Author's note: I hope you all liked my first story ever… no, really, my first story I ever completed. Kind of sad, huh? Yeah, so I don't normally finish what I start, but this was too good of an idea to pass up, and plus it was immensely fun to write. I would love to hear your opinion on it even if you didn't enjoy reading it, so drop me a Neomail, even if it's just to let me know you read it. I don't bite, I promise ^^ Well, unless you ask me for Neopoints.

     All Neopet names save for "Auryn_2000" were made up and do not reflect the personalities of the pets who are registered under those names. Okay, honestly, the only reason you're even hearing from me is because the epilogue doesn't make the 1500 word minimum, even after I spent an hour cramming as much as possible in it. I don't really like these little afterwards, I think it takes away from the story, but I'm not making the epilogue a part of part IV so you'll just have to bear with it.

     So yeah, Snowflake, you can cut this entire italicized selection out if you don't mind the fact that the epilogue doesn't reach the 1500 word minimum (which I actually completely approve of because it got me to elaborate more on part I). But I understand that rules are rules, so… yeah, that's all I have to say.