Jhudora's Weakness: Part One

     "Mom!"

     My smart little rainbow Peophin, Peophininna (or Nina for short) sped into the kitchen as quickly as she could, where I was reading the Neopian Times and eating a sugar donut.

     "What's up, Nina?" I asked her curiously.

     She grinned at me, and drew a piece of paper she held in one of her hooves from behind her multi-coloured back.

     "I've decided to make a list of all the foods I don't like, so you won't feed them to me ever again," she stated proudly, with another smile.

     "But…" she deflated slightly, "the only thing I have on it is that pyramibread you tried to feed me this morning."

     I giggled.

     "Well, you'll just have to try a lot of new foods, won't you? And now at least you know you like those deli slice things I gave you."

     "Well, yeah," Nina perked up. But then she looked sad and forlorn again. "But, mom, I don't have a list for good stuff, just one for bad stuff, and not even bad stuff at that; bad food. Okay not bad food, but food that I don't like."

     "You know, that list idea is a really good idea," I pondered for a moment, before yelling to my other pets.

     "Kakabusa! Bluelightningblast! Rokooliotah!" I shouted, hurting my throat as I attempted to yell to my Neopets who were on floor three, the highest floor, when I was on the ground floor.

     Rokooliotah was the first one down the two flights of stairs. She stalked into the kitchen, and gave an angry glare in my direction.

     "Yo, mom!" she said, exasperated. "I was practising my Battledome tactics. I think I'm gonna beat the cave Chia this time."

     "That's nice, sweetie." I reached down to pat my starry-soon-to-be-shadow Gelert's head, but she pulled away. I pouted, hurt.

     Then came Kakabusa. She glided down the stairs like she owned the place.

     "Like, mom! I was totally, like, in the middle of painting my hooves! Oh, and Rita's coming over later. I totally have to, like, catch up on the gossip!"

     "Sorry, KK." I grimaced, "Does Rita have to come over?"

     Rita was a faerie Usul, very stuck up and condescending. Rita is like quadruple KKs.

     "Uh, like, yeah! Do you realize how much could have, like, happened while I was away? And we like, have to plan how to, like, get me that totally awesome Maraquan Paintbrush! Cloud is so not in right now."

     I rolled my eyes.

     Then my electric Kougra slid down the banister and fell into a crumpled heap at the bottom. She stood up quickly, and gave me a sheepish look.

     "Hey mom, did you get me my tyrannian paint brush yet? I need to blend in when I go exploring."

     "Mom, can I please, like, borrow a few thousand Neopoints for the, like, pb?"

     "Yo, I'm getting bored, and it's time for my workout!"

     "Eep." That was Nina. I had gotten her from the pound, and she still wasn't used to the noise level in our Neohome.

     "Quiet!" I shrieked.

     "The spotted paint brush can wait, I'm still building our Neohome and that is quite costly, 4000 Neopoints per room, after all they are made out of cloud. KK, I highly doubt that a paintbrush would only cost a couple thousand, especially a rare pb like the Maraquan one! I know for a fact that it would cost at least a couple million, and I don't even have 1 million yet. And Ro! Can't you spare a few minutes? Surely the Cave Chia has many other opponents to battle. Now, Nina has come up with a spectacular idea that you all will benefit from. First of all, I need you to make lists. A list is nothing complicated, just a simple piece of paper on which you write things down."

     I paused for breath.

     "Now, all you have to do is write down foods you don't like on them. Take Nina's, for example. She ate a pyramibread today that she didn't like. She wrote it down on her list. Now I won't ever give it to her again."

     They all gave me understanding looks before drifting off to their rooms, back to where they originally came from.

     After that, I wandered off to the bookstore to buy more books to read to my Neopets. It took me a while, because not only did I have to find new books to read to them, I had to find them before they were all sold out. And believe me, they sell out fast. By the time I got back, I had about four or five more books to read to them.

     I stuffed them on the already-crowded bookshelves, and settled into a blue velvet chair in front of the stone fireplace to have a quick nap after all that shopping.

     Towards the end of the day, I got the lists. KK's was written on pink scented stationary paper, with faint red hearts drawn around the edges. Inscribed at the top in cute purple writing were the words 'Icky Foods'.

     Ro's was black. Written with a silver pen in spiky lettering were the words "Foods I Wanna Smash'. That made me blink-I mean, why would my pet be so violent?

     Blue's was stationary too. A faint picture was on it, showing a lost city overgrown with vines, and temples. Pure crystal water was running through the center in a smooth stream. At the top it said 'Foods I Hate' in green pen.

     And Nina's, which I had gotten a while ago, was white with the words 'Foods I Despise, Loath, etc. ' written at the top in black pen, and slightly below it, it read '-Pyramibread'.

     I grinned happily, and taped them to our faerie fridge.

     "Now," I said to my Neopets, "It's time for a story."

     They all grinned happily at me and we moved over to the living room where we sat down on some luxurious furniture. I grabbed a book of a shelf, because I had finished the last one, turned to the first page and began to read.

     Well, I was about to. But first I noted that this was one of the new books I had just bought, and it was a strange one, too. It almost had an aura surrounding it…no, I shook my head, it must be my imagination.

     "It was a day like any other," I read, "well, at least the beginning was. Stacie and I were just playing imaginary games like usual, when it happened."

     I paused.

     "Like, what's wrong mom? You totally have to keep reading!" KK exclaimed. She really enjoyed our reading sessions each day.

     "Yeah! Come on, mom, this story sounds interesting!" Blue put in.

     "Sorry," I said absentmindedly, "it's just, for a moment there, I felt like there was an owner named Stacie beside me…"

     My Neopets all gave me an odd look, and I continued on with the story.

     "Stacie and I, Jen, a purple Draik, had been imagining that we were in a strange land, trying to defeat a dark faerie who went by the name of Jhudora. We were just in the middle of fighting off one of the monsters Jhudora had set on us. The monsters were enormous, with huge claws and teeth. It was a gruesome greenish-brownish colour. Behind the crowd of monsters was the portal we could use to get home. We just needed to get to it…unfortunately, I had the feeling that would take a lot longer than we thought."

     I peeked over the top of my book, and very faintly saw a portal of swirling purple, blue and pink mists. I gulped, and was about to place the book back on the shelf, when Blue nudged me and I knew I had to go on with the story.

     "How did I know that? Even though I was pretending, I must have been psychic. For suddenly, out of the blue, Jhudora's head popped out-in real life, I'm not pretending. She cackled at us, and we suddenly appeared in the land we were imagining about."

     I gulped. What with the strange things happening already, this latest development in the story could not possibly be anything good.

     With widened eyes I glanced around me apprehensively, waiting for something to happen.

     Suddenly, just as I had predicted, Jhudora's head popped out of nowhere. She looked at us, then cackled.

     "Ah, yes, you all will do quite perfectly!"

     She cackled again quite maliciously, then her head disappeared, there was a flash of purple light and my pets and I were all momentarily blinded.

     As soon as we were able to see, it was clear to us that we were no longer in Neopia Central.

To be continued…