The Surprising Sack

     "Slow down, honey. Now tell me that again while we wake up Kermit and Sunny," I said.

     But my green Nimmo, Kermit was already coming into the kitchen; probably looking for the breakfast I should have been making.

     "Mornin', Dionee, what's Daisy yammering on about this time. Or should I say where is she yammering about this time," Kermit said.

     "I was talking about Maraqua and the hidden treasure chest with a million Neopoints in it. Wouldn't it be so great if we found it? We could buy whatever we wanted, " Daisy said, "And I don't yammer."

     "Wow, sis, you know what I would buy?" Kermit teased.

     "What?" Daisy asked.

     "An invisible paintbrush to paint you with; then we wouldn't be able to see you!" he said, guffawing at his stupid joke.

     I was fixing my pets their breakfast while this went on and I tried to resolve it.

     "C'mon guys, stop arguing, Kermit, I've got your favourite, Sausage Omelette. And Daisy, I think we will go to Maraqua, I really do need a holiday," I said, and immediately both pets were ecstatic.

     Sunny came into the kitchen and ran towards me asking for a hug. As I cuddled her close, I told her about our upcoming holiday.

     "Wow, I've heard of M... how do you say it?" she said quietly.

     I laughed and carried her into the kitchen and announced that we had to pack as soon breakfast was done.

     "We have to catch the earliest Eyrie flight after all!" I said with a chuckle.

     ***

     We reached Maraqua about 3 hours later. Daisy was already tugging on the sleeve of my shirt, begging to start looking for the treasure chest.

     "Not yet, Daisy, we have to see some attractions first; we'll start looking after lunch, okay?" I promised. But there didn't seem to be any good attractions in New Maraqua. Disappointed, we trudged on to the Maraquan Ruins. After finding nothing there either, we headed back to New Maraqua, to find somewhere to eat lunch. But the only restaurant, a place called "Kelp", was fully booked. Kermit turned angrily to Daisy and said with a scowl on his face, "This is all your fault, all your exploring rubbish; this is so boring!!! You got us here, so you better find us something to eat or something to look at other than seaweed!!"

     "Don't yell at me like that!" Daisy started. Soon they were arguing loudly. I decided to stay out of it so as not to take sides. Sunny grabbed my hand with her paw and whispered softly to me, "I wish something special would happen."

     I kissed her on the head and replied, "I wish that too."

     Suddenly out of nowhere, a huge brown sack fell in front of my feet. It was extremely heavy when I tried to pick it up and it made a strange clinking noise as I set it down again. Kermit and Daisy soon forgot their fight. My three pets and I crowded around the mysterious sack, all wondering the same thing. What was inside? I decided to open it and we all gasped when hundreds of gold coins spilled out.

     ***

     We dragged the heavy sack carefully to the Water Faerie, who told us that they were magic coins, which could be traded in for Neopoints As she spoke, a couple of the coins disappeared without a trace. She gasped and exclaimed, "These are none other than the magic coins which the Dark Faerie placed an enchantment on. As legend goes, the finder does not have long to spend it as ten of the coins disappear every minute!"

     We were so excited about our riches, that I said a hurried goodbye to the Water Faerie and heaved the enormous sack towards a bored-looking Eyrie.

     "Please, take us to Neopia Central as quick as you can!" I panted. He obliged and we hopped onto his back. The journey took a long time because the sack was very heavy on the poor Eyrie's back. When we finally got back, we thanked the Eyrie and dragged the sack hurriedly to the Main Shops area. Sunny said she really wanted a Warf so we bought her one from the Petpet Shop. Unfortunately by this time, the money was slowly dwindling away. We went on to the Book Shop to buy a book for Kermit, called "The Mystery of The Kougra Paw". The coins kept on disappearing so we only just had time to buy Daisy a "Chomby and the Fungus Balls" T-shirt when there was only about one thousand coins left. We hurried off and I bought myself lots of beautiful plants to put in our Neohome. The sack was still quite full, but I was too tired to carry it another step. I collapsed next to the Money Tree, gasping for breath. I told Kermit to carry it, but then I had an idea. We donated the rest of the coins to the Money Tree, and walked slowly towards our home.

     ***

     The next morning my three pets and I sat in our garden, happily discussing the exciting events of yesterday.

     "See Dionee, I told you to take us to Maraqua!" said Daisy proudly, wearing her "Chomby and the Fungus Balls" T-shirt.

     "Yeah, you did." I said softly. I was still exhausted from yesterday and wanted to sleep more than anything else.

     "That was a really really nice thing to do, donating the coins to the Money Tree," said Sunny, grinning from ear to ear. I started to stroke Sunny's fur, "I think it was really your wish that something special would happen, that brought the sack to us," I whispered, so no one else could hear.

     "You think so, Dionee?" she asked, puzzled.

     "Yeah, the sack came straight after you said that," I said.

     We watched SunKissed, the playful Warf I had bought for Sunny, jump around on the grass, and then climb up the bridge. My garden had so many beautiful new plants and flowers, it really made the garden live up to its name, which was the Peace and Tranquillity Garden. All was quiet for a while. It seemed that all four of us were watching SunKissed play, though not really seeing him, lost in memories of our marvelous adventure. It really had been fun, I thought. We found a lot of enchanted gold coins and used them to buy lots of great items. The best part was giving the rest to the Money Tree. It's so great to know that a lot of poor Neopians are going to benefit from our adventure.

     "Just one thing, though," said Kermit, breaking the sleepy silence.

     "What?" I asked.

     "We never did find that treasure chest!" he said, grinning even more than Sunny was. There was a pause, and then we all started laughing and couldn't stop for quite some time.

The End