Absolute Reality: Part One

     Kali sighed again, staring into the ceiling. His room was not furnished sparingly or extravagantly, but just so. That included the white ceiling, which had a Jeran and Lisha Poster stuck on it. The Kougra wiped out the girl in his imagination, and fixed his eyes only upon the Lupe hero, wondering what adventures he had missed out on. Oh, how he would wish for something exciting! Something other than this boring room...

     Shaking his head once again, Kali got off his bed. He was beginning to repeat himself, and it wasn't exactly a pleasant task. Reality was so dull. The Kougra went downstairs to the kitchen and made himself the usual 2 PM snack of Green Apples and Cups of Water, something his sensible owner demanded that he had to eat in order to keep his sleek and furry body in shape.

     Liza was gone to restock, Kali noticed when he entered the hallway that connected the kitchen with the stair that went up to the bedrooms. Well, that was just to be expected. After all, every Neopian owner restocked when they had time, and so did his. How else were they supposed to earn a living? Most of his friends would be out now, maybe shopping for some new things...

     He was the only one stuck at home, their budget being rather strained. Anyway, Liza's Paint Brush collection was soon to be completed, and maybe then they'd have NP to spend. Kali wolfed down the Green Apples and sipped on the water. If only something would happen... All those stories he had read in the Neopian Times always included something happening. Maybe meeting a faerie, or falling into a trap, or trying to rescue somebody...

     The Kougra frowned as he walked into the living room and sat in front of Liza's typewriter. He was well aware of the fact that he was approaching personal property, but it didn't really matter. After all, when it was this boring, practically nothing mattered.

     At least his owner actually did things instead of sitting there and getting bored with nothing but the daily things to do. One of the things she did regularly was attempting to get into the Neopian Times, and so far she hadn't had any luck. Kali felt sorry for her, and picked up the sheet of paper that was lying in front of him, and started reading.

     The little pet frowned. "Reality is so boring," he complained. "Well, at least my reality... But this," he spread his arms around, "This is just cool!"

     "Reality is that, in which our imaginations build upon. Without reality, nothing would exist, and we would not be able to be here, experiencing things we would normally not do." The other pet smiled.

     The Kougra put the paper down. Even the stories Liza wrote were boring, all educational and stuff...

     A gust of wind suddenly entered the room, blasting the windows open and sending his owner's papers into the air. Kali got some exercise by jumping up and down and catching them all before he went over to close the window.

     "I even caught all of them," he told himself, reminding himself of the boring reality he had just faced. The gust had gotten him excited, but nothing followed that. If only that wind could've carried him up into the clouds, far far away...

     It was no use dreaming. His life was boring, and that was it. After getting lost five times in the bustling Neopia Central, Kali decided never to go out there again. He couldn't recall anything that hadn't been boring in the last month.

     Something glittered enticingly on the floor. Kali's eyes fluttered, and he found himself staring at a golden bracelet. There was a sharp, star-shaped insignia carved on the lovely item, and before he knew it, the Kougra had picked up the bracelet.

     With a smile on his face, Kali started toying around with the ring. The large grin on his face didn't compare to the small, bleak smile he often displayed from mild politeness. No, this was definitely something happening.

     Maybe his prayers had been answered? Probably by some kind faerie... Kali sent a silent thought of gratitude to faeries everywhere, before he started to examine the bracelet. It was whole, with no clumpy clasps or such, seemed to have been formed in one piece from a clump of pure gold. The bracelet was glowing warmly, glistening under the bleak, dull light from the lamp, and the nine-pointed star in the front was delicate, like a small flower unfolding itself, but it was complete.

     "Nine en o Thyr. Nine a Dest." Such was the inscription inside the bracelet. Kali was confounded. Who in the world spent their free time writing weird stuff that no one understood? And why did that person like the word 'nine' so much?

     Suddenly a thought hit the Kougra, and his eyes glowed from excitement. Maybe it was a secret language! Actually, it had to be one! Why else would there be an inscription in a weird bracelet with a nine-pointed star?

     Kali shook his head. But this time he wasn't bored, just confused. Also, he was filled with happiness of having something happen at last. The Kougra slipped on the bracelet, finding that it fit him perfectly.

     I wish I could go... get away from here! Get into an adventure or something! he thought, stretching his arms out to fill the empty space, feeling a bit lonely.

     Nothing happened. The Kougra growled and looked at his newfound treasure. It was supposed to work! Kali felt like taking the bracelet and throwing it on the ground, then stomp on it, but reason told him that he would probably hurt his paw on that stupid star if he did.

     Well, he'd just have to keep it. It occurred once to Kali that someone might miss this bracelet, but he decided to go by the old rhyme 'Finders keepers, losers weepers'. Kali tried to take the bracelet off, thinking that he'd put it in his Toy Corner for future reference, when he found that it simply wouldn't go off.

     The Kougra glared at the item angrily, trying to remember the last time something had been stuck on him. He found that he couldn't remember, and the life that had been spiced up by this appearance was rapidly turning boring again. It would just be an annoying keepsake to tease him of the adventures he hadn't experienced...

     The bracelet started to pulsate softly, vibrating on its own as he walked up the stairs to sit in his room and glumly stare into the ceiling. Kali looked at it, then ignored it but could not do the same with its existence. He wasn't about to pay attention to something that looked promising, but did absolutely nothing.

     With small, careful steps, the Kougra entered his room and plummeted down on his bed, his face forming a stubborn expression as he glared at the bracelet. As it started to glow, Kali once again attempted to pull it off. It stayed glued to his wrist, and he slammed it on one of the bedposts, only to hurt himself in the process.

     The glow mystified him, but Kali was more angry than curious. However, that soon changed when he decided that he couldn't do anything but to just look at it.

     It was beckoning him... asking him to do something... to say something...

     Kali rolled his eyes. "You're so boring," he told it, and watched the glow shrink as if the bracelet understood him with satisfaction. Only afterwards did the Kougra realize that he had spoken to an inanimate object as if it was a real pet. He was going insane!

     "You're driving me nuts," Kali said to the bracelet. "This is boring... Just take me away from this boring place!"

     The gust of wind that had brought the bracelet once again threw the windows open, and the Kougra found that his bracelet was glowing stronger and stronger.

     "Why did I do that?" he asked himself before he realized what was going on. He was going to get into an adventure! Finally! All that smashing and the annoyance... It had been worth it all!

     Kali grinned, as the wind blinded him and carried him to a faraway land (or so he hoped). "Come on," he prayed, "put me in an adventure... Not like that boring reality... into something exciting, a terrible, horrendous, grand quest!"

     With a loud plop, the Kougra landed on solid ground a few minutes later. He had expected the journey in the air to last longer, and sighed a regretful sigh when he was carelessly thrown on the ground. Well, it felt nice to stand on something that wasn't part of the neighborhood.

     Kali peeked around, having closed his eyes during the trip through the air. He tried not to think about the details surrounding the mysterious occurrence which had happened just minutes before, and decided to check out where he was.

     He was at the outskirts of a forest, the Kougra realized. The woods were thick, the trees thin and bare, with their spidery, long arms entangled with each other. They were in a murky color, the shade of the horrible Esophagor, only that they answered the call of the wind. Only small hollow openings let anyone into their thick home, and they were many!

     Curious, Kali walked forward to touch a tree. A powerful blast of wind made the branch beside him jump up and slap him, as if he had done something bad, as if it was reprimanding him.

     Trees can't do that, the Kougra told himself. The bark felt amazingly hard, as if it was made out of granite instead of wood. "Is this real?" he asked out loud, awed at the place that he had been taken to. The wind carried his echoes far away, and despite the fact that something wasn't happening yet, all this was tremendously exciting.

     "Yes, as real as it gets," someone behind him said.

To be continued...