Wadjet in a Tree Trunk

Peace was something that Phelebe had a difficult time finding. At home, with three rowdy siblings who all shared one room, she never had a second to herself, and school was no better; the other Neopets would never leave the girl alone. It wasn't that she was well liked, though. A better term might be 'well-disliked.'

     Writing was what she enjoyed doing, and what required the utmost silence. She thought she has finally found her place, alone and far from the world, slightly off the forest path yet not far from her own house. The large, comfortable looking tree was the kind of tree that practically draws young Neopets to itself, with low branches to sit on and cool, soft earth surrounding the trunk.

     She had nestled herself between two roots emerging from the ground, and then paused - just paused. She paused and listened to absolutely nothing. The entire forest was listening to her, barely rustling, as if the forest were a single entity who knew what would happen next.

     She had picked up her writing notebook, hesitating as her quill touched the paper, and started to write.

     The first word didn't even have a chance to dry. She heard a loud, low hiss, very close to her ear.

     Phelebe screamed all the way back to her house.

      ***

      "It was a Wadjet," her brother had determined.

     After receiving quite a shock, Phelebe had gone to him in tears. He had tried to comfort the shaken Usul, and he had even laughed a little once she explained what had upset her so badly. Phelebe knew her brother was very intelligent, and he could probably explain the phenomenon; they also got along very well as siblings.

     "It was a what?" she said, wiping the salty tears from her fur.

     "A Wadjet, a snakelike Petpet. Only this one must not have been anyone's pet, I suppose it was wild. Oh, don't worry," he said reassuringly, "they're quite harmless, unlike Cobralls."

     "And how do you know it wasn't a Cobrall?"

     "Because Cobralls don't crawl into tree trunks. They nest in piles of leaves, and hunt for smaller animals in the grass. Wadjets live in tree hollows where they can easily find shelter from birds, and they will eat small grubs living in old pieces of wood."

     As he spoke, he took a large, dusty volume from a shelf, and opened it to show his sister a picture of the creature that had startled her.

     "Will it stay there forever?" she asked.

     "No, it will move out in a couple of weeks. It won't stay there very long. But I'm telling you, there's nothing to be scared of anyway." He smiled kindly, though Phelebe did not appear convinced.

     "What were you doing out there, anyway?"

     "Nothing... nothing at all."

      ***

      Phelebe did not go back to the forest all week. She wanted to write very much, and she had wanted to finish her story, but her notebook had been left at the tree; she was too afraid to try and go get it.

      ***

      All day at school, she had heard thunder crackling in the distance. She thought that the storm might move past her town, but rather, the storm seemed to grow nearer and nearer with each passing hour.

     "Maybe it will still pass by," she said to herself.

      It was already sprinkling out when she made her way to the tree. She knew that the storm wouldn't pass now, and she couldn't allow her notebook and her story to be ruined by the rain.

     "I'll just grab it and run back quickly," she said. "It won't have time to bite me if I do that."

      The rain was coming down harder as she walked, but she knew she couldn't break into a run; if she did, she might be too tired to run from the tree, and the Wadjet might be able to chase her down. She compromised by beginning to jog, and reached the tree just as the rain began pouring down.

     Cold, wet, and shivering, she slipped the notebook under her jacket so it would not be ruined. Torrents of rain were pouring down, and she was stuck now; there was only shelter under the tree, and she had not brought an umbrella because she hadn't expected the rain to come so quickly. Luckily, there was no thunder to be heard.. her only bit of luck. She began to feel angry.

     "This is all your fault!" she yelled, quite forgetting her fear. "You, you just had to move into that tree! Why is everyone so mean to me?"

     And she kicked the tree.

     Startled, the Wadjet hissed and began slithering away, apparently to get away from the mad Usul who was trying to beat down his home. He made his way to the back of the tree, then curled up, waiting.

     "I'm sorry," Phelebe said, wanting to cry. "I shouldn't have done that. You didn't do anything to me."

     An even darker cloud had swept overhead, forcing the rain down harder and throwing the forest into almost complete darkness. She shivered, huddling close to the tree now and clutching her notebook tightly.

     "I'm being just like the Neopets at school now, picking on people for no good reason. You must be lonely; have you got any friends?"

     The Wadjet hissed softly.

     "I haven't, not any my age, at least. My Literature teacher is nice to me; she lets me stay in at recess sometimes to help her clean, and we talk about writing. She helps me with my stories. Do you want to hear?"

     There was no reply, but Phelebe opened her notebook anyway, hunching over it to protect the thin paper from rain. Squinting in the darkness, she began to read.

      '"Tisha!" the shadow Aisha called out. "Tisha, hurry up! We can't stay in one place too long!"

     "I'm coming, Mika," Tisha replied, running to her sister. "Just thought I heard something, that's all."

     "You're always hearing something!" Mika teased her. "I'm sure it was the infamous shadow Usul this time, right?"

     Tisha grinned, hugging her sister. "You're a pain, you know that, Mika?"

     The two began to walk down the main street of Neopia Central. It was midnight; yet, everything was oddly quiet, even for this time of night. Tisha and Mika took no notice of this; they had never been to Neopia Central before, and therefore assumed it was always this way.'

      "I've never read to anyone else before," she said, closing the notebook. "No one has read my stories ever, except my English teacher. She reads them from my notebook. What did you think?"

     From deep inside the tree trunk, the Wadjet hissed.

     "Does that mean yes? I don't know. I hope you liked my story. It's not finished, but I hope you liked it.. it must be awfully dull, sitting in a tree trunk all day.."

     The Wadjet stirred a bit, but said nothing.

     "I think the rain is almost gone.. I should go home. My brother will be worried." She stood up, then frowned, looking closely at the tree trunk. "I'll try and come back, is that okay? So you don't.. you don't get bored, or anything."

     The Wadjet hissed once.

      ***

      The sky was clear blue, cloudless, and beautiful; the only disturbance in the weather was a cold wind coming from the north, which rustled the trees and chilled Phelebe into zipping up her thin red jacket.

     "I tried to draw you today, but it was torn up," Phelebe said. "Nobody tore it up this time, though, at least, not on purpose. They tried to help me tape it up again, but I was embarrassed that they saw my drawing and I threw it away. It wasn't a very good drawing anyway. I've never seen a Wadjet, either. I don't even know what you look like."

     The Wadjet hissed.

     "I have seen a picture of one, though. Even if you're pink or blue or something, it doesn't matter, because I don't have any colour pencils or markers. I just want to have a picture on the first page in my notebook. I'll draw from my imagination. Is that okay?"

     The Wadjet hissed softly.

     "I wrote a bit more on my story during recess. Do you want to hear it?"

     The Wadjet hissed once, and thus Phelebe began to read:

     ' The two sisters had, in fact, been born on Krawk Island. Rumours that they were related to the Fontaine Sisters were quelled when the duo pointed out that there were no pink Aishas in their family. Tisha and Mika were, perhaps, the only two shadow coloured pirate Aishas in the whole of Neopia; strangely, this did not make them outcasts at all. Krawk Island was a land of outcasts; it had always been that way, ever since the island was first inhabited by the creatures it had earned its namesake from.

     "See, Mika, with no one around, we get an idea of what shops are here." Tisha said, stopping every now and then to look into a shop window. She turned her head and caught a glance of the toy shop window. "Mika - look!"

     Mika didn't need her sister to tell her to look at the toy shop's window. Her face was already glued to the glass, and stars were in her eyes as she looked at the assortment of toys on display. "Wow!"

     The shop's window was beautifully decorated. A sparkly blackberry ball rested against a Jack-in-the-box toy. Fluffy Draik and Lenny plushies stared up at them from the darkness; the dim starlight was barely reflected off their button eyes. But on center display... '

     "What did you think?" Phelebe asked. She heard some kind of rustling noise, and thought that the Wadjet had given a sort of reply.

     "I hope you liked it. My teacher says it's coming along well. Maybe I should even submit it to the Neopian Times; what do you think?"

     The Wadjet hissed twice, which Phelebe hoped meant "yes".

      ***

      The leaves has already begun to fall off the trees, and the entire forest was a mosaic of bright colours against the blue sky. Phelebe yet again made her way to the tall, sturdy tree, and sat down on the soft earth.

     "The forest is so bright!" she remarked. "It's like a different world now, don't you think so?"

     The Wadjet hissed softly.

     "Some other Neopets at school were playing in the leaf piles. They asked me to play with them too. We all got into an acorn fighter later, with the acorns that had fallen from some of the trees, and the teachers were upset. It was a lot of fun, though."

     She heard the Wadjet slithering around.

     "I thought about trying to draw a tree today and borrow markers from someone to colour it, but I'm not really an artist. I did show someone my picture of you today, though, and they thought it was good, but there's this other girl in class, and she's such a good artist! I guess I'm not bad, I wish I could show you my drawing."

     The Wadjet hissed.

     "I still like writing better. One boy saw my story today, and he didn't make fun of it or anything! Do you want to hear it? I haven't added a lot more, but I'm really happy with it anyway.

     The Wadjet hissed softly, and Phelebe started reading.

     ' "Those faerie dolls!" Mika squealed. Three faerie dolls held the spot of honour in the window: Air Faerie, Fire Faerie, and Tooth Faerie. There were no lights inside the shop; the dolls seemed to glow with a light all their own. "They're so beautiful."

     Tisha was enchanted by the little dolls, too. These had to be made of the finest materials; they were just toys, but it was as if they... '

     "That's all I have written," Phelebe said. "I want to write more, but I'll have to do it later. I'm going to try out for the school play tonight. Do you think it's a good idea?"

     There was no reply.

     "I had better go home now.. I will read you the rest of the story soon."

     The Wadjet hissed twice.

Hello, this is a short story I have written where the main character is an Usul. The story is about 2200 words, if you need to know. Thank you for reading this!

     Peace was something that Phelebe had a difficult time finding. At home, with three rowdy siblings who all shared one room, she never had a second to herself, and school was no better; the other Neopets would never leave the girl alone. It wasn't that she was well liked, though. A better term might be 'well-disliked.'

     Writing was what she enjoyed doing, and what required the utmost silence. She thought she has finally found her place, alone and far from the world, slightly off the forest path yet not far from her own house. The large, comfortable looking tree was the kind of tree that practically draws young Neopets to itself, with low branches to sit on and cool, soft earth surrounding the trunk.

     She had nestled herself between two roots emerging from the ground, and then paused - just paused. She paused and listened to absolutely nothing. The entire forest was listening to her, barely rustling, as if the forest were a single entity who knew what would happen next.

     She had picked up her writing notebook, hesitating as her quill touched the paper, and started to write.

     The first word didn't even have a chance to dry. She heard a loud, low hiss, very close to her ear.

     Phelebe screamed all the way back to her house.

      ***

      "It was a Wadjet," her brother had determined.

     After receiving quite a shock, Phelebe had gone to him in tears. He had tried to comfort the shaken Usul, and he had even laughed a little once she explained what had upset her so badly. Phelebe knew her brother was very intelligent, and he could probably explain the phenomenon; they also got along very well as siblings.

     "It was a what?" She said, wiping the salty tears from her fur.

     "A Wadjet, a snakelike Petpet. Only this one must not have been anyone's pet, I suppose it was wild. Oh, don't worry," he said reassuringly, "they're quite harmless, unlike Cobralls."

     "And how do you know it wasn't a Cobrall?"

     "Because Cobralls don't crawl into tree trunks. They nest in piles of leaves, and hunt for smaller animals in the grass. Wadjets live in tree hollows where they can easily find shelter from birds, and they will eat small grubs living in old pieces of wood."

     As he spoke, he took a large, dusty volume from a shelf, and opened it to show his sister a picture of the creature that had startled her.

     "Will it stay there forever?" she asked.

     "No, it will move out in a couple of weeks. It won't stay there very long. But I'm telling you, there's nothing to be scared of anyway." He smiled kindly, though Phelebe did not appear convinced.

     "What were you doing out there, anyway?"

     "Nothing.. nothing at all."

      ***

      Phelebe did not go back to the forest all week. She wanted to write very much, and she had wanted to finish her story, but her notebook had been left at the tree; she was too afraid to try and go get it.

      ***

      All day at school, she had heard thunder crackling in the distance. She thought that the storm might move past her town, but rather, the storm seemed to grow nearer and nearer with each passing hour.

     "Maybe it will still pass by," she said to herself.

      It was already sprinkling out when she made her way to the tree. She knew that the storm wouldn't pass now, and she couldn't allow her notebook and her story to be ruined by the rain.

     "I'll just grab it and run back quickly," she said. "It won't have time to bite me if I do that."

      The rain was coming down harder as she walked, but she knew she couldn't break into a run; if she did, she might be too tired to run from the tree, and the Wadjet might be able to chase her down. She compromised by beginning to jog, and reached the tree just as the rain began pouring down.

     Cold, wet, and shivering, she slipped the notebook under her jacket so it would not be ruined. Torrents of rain were pouring down, and she was stuck now; there was only shelter under the tree, and she had not brought an umbrella because she hadn't expected the rain to come so quickly. Luckily, there was no thunder to be heard.. Her only bit of luck. She began to feel angry.

     "This is all your fault!" She yelled, quite forgetting her fear. "You, you just had to move into that tree! Why is everyone so mean to me?"

     And she kicked the tree.

     Startled, the Wadjet hissed and began slithering away, apparently to get away from the mad Usul who was trying to beat down his home. He made his way to the back of the tree, then curled up, waiting.

     "I'm sorry," Phelebe said, wanting to cry. "I shouldn't have done that. You didn't do anything to me."

     An even darker cloud had swept overhead, forcing the rain down harder and throwing the forest into almost complete darkness. She shivered, huddling close to the tree now and clutching her notebook tightly.

     "I'm being just like the Neopets at school now, picking on people for no good reason. You must be lonely; have you got any friends?"

     The Wadjet hissed softly.

     "I haven't, not any my age, at least. My Literature teacher is nice to me; she lets me stay in at recess sometimes to help her clean, and we talk about writing. She helps me with my stories. Do you want to hear?"

     There was no reply, but Phelebe opened her notebook anyway, hunching over it to protect the thin paper from rain. Squinting in the darkness, she began to read.

      ' "Tisha!" The shadow Aisha called out. "Tisha, hurry up! We can't stay in one place too long!"

     "I'm coming, Mika." Tisha replied, running to her sister. Just thought I heard something, that's all."

     "You're always hearing something!" Mika teased her. "I'm sure it was the infamous shadow Usul this time, right?"

     Tisha grinned, hugging her sister. "You're a pain, you know that, Mika?"

     The two began to walk down the main street of Neopia Central. It was midnight; yet, everything was oddly quiet, even for this time of night. Tisha and Mika took no notice of this; they had never been to Neopia Central before, and therefore assumed it was always this way.'

      "I've never read to anyone else before," she said, closing the notebook. "No one has read my stories ever, except my English teacher. She reads them from my notebook. What did you think?"

     From deep inside the tree trunk, the Wadjet hissed.

     "Does that mean yes? I don't know. I hope you liked my story. It's not finished, but I hope you liked it.. it must be awfully dull, sitting in a tree trunk all day.."

     The Wadjet stirred a bit, but said nothing.

     "I think the rain is almost gone.. I should go home. My brother will be worried." She stood up, then frowned, looking closely at the tree trunk. "I'll try and come back, is that okay? So you don't.. You don't get bored, or anything."

     The Wadjet hissed once.

      ***

      The sky was clear blue, cloudless, and beautiful; the only disturbance in the weather was a cold wind coming from the north, which rustled the trees and chilled Phelebe into zipping up her thin red jacket.

     "I tried to draw you today, but it was torn up." Phelebe said. "Nobody tore it up this time, though, at least, not on purpose. They tried to help me tape it up again, but I was embarrassed that they saw my drawing and I threw it away. It wasn't a very good drawing anyway. I've never seen a Wadjet, either. I don't even know what you look like."

     The Wadjet hissed.

     "I have seen a picture of one, though. Even if you're pink or blue or something, it doesn't matter, because I don't have any colour pencils or markers. I just want to have a picture on the first page in my notebook. I'll draw from my imagination. Is that okay?"

     The Wadjet hissed softly.

     "I wrote a bit more on my story during recess. Do you want to hear it?"

     The Wadjet hissed once, and thus Phelebe began to read:

     ' The two sisters had, in fact, been born on Krawk Island. Rumours that they were related to the Fontaine Sisters were quelled when the duo pointed out that there were no pink Aishas in their family. Tisha and Mika were, perhaps, the only two shadow coloured pirate Aishas in the whole of Neopia; strangely, this did not make them outcasts at all. Krawk Island was a land of outcasts; it had always been that way, ever since the island was first inhabited by the creatures it had earned its namesake from.

     "See, Mika, with no one around, we get an idea of what shops are here." Tisha said, stopping every now and then to look into a shop window. She turned her head and caught a glance of the toy shop window. "Mika - look!"

     Mika didn't need her sister to tell her to look at the toy shop's window. Her face was already glued to the glass, and stars were in her eyes as she looked at the assortment of toys on display. "Wow!"

     The shop's window was beautifully decorated. A sparkly blackberry ball rested against a Jack-in-the-box toy. Fluffy Draik and Lenny plushies stared up at them from the darkness; the dim starlight was barely reflected off their button eyes. But on center display... '

     "What did you think?" Phelebe asked. She heard some kind of rustling noise, and thought that the Wadjet had given a sort of reply.

     "I hope you liked it. My teacher says it's coming along well. Maybe I should even submit it to the Neopian Times; what do you think?"

     The Wadjet hissed twice, which Phelebe hoped meant "yes".

      ***

      The leaves has already begun to fall off the trees, and the entire forest was a mosaic of bright colours against the blue sky. Phelebe yet again made her way to the tall, sturdy tree, and sat down on the soft earth.

     "The forest is so bright!" she remarked. "It's like a different world now, don't you think so?"

     The Wadjet hissed softly.

     "Some other Neopets at school were playing in the leaf piles. They asked me to play with them too. We all got into an acorn fighter later, with the acorns that had fallen from some of the trees, and the teachers were upset. It was a lot of fun, though."

     She heard the Wadjet slithering around.

     "I thought about trying to draw a tree today and borrow markers from someone to colour it, but I'm not really an artist. I did show someone my picture of you today, though, and they thought it was good, but there's this other girl in class, and she's such a good artist! I guess I'm not bad, I wish I could show you my drawing."

     The Wadjet hissed.

     "I still like writing better. One boy saw my story today, and he didn't make fun of it or anything! Do you want to hear it? I haven't added a lot more, but I'm really happy with it anyway.

     The Wadjet hissed softly, and Phelebe started reading.

     ' "Those faerie dolls!" Mika squealed. Three faerie dolls held the spot of honour in the window: Air Faerie, Fire Faerie, and Tooth Faerie. There were no lights inside the shop; the dolls seemed to glow with a light all their own. "They're so beautiful."

     Tisha was enchanted by the little dolls, too. These had to be made of the finest materials; they were just toys, but it was as if they... '

     "That's all I have written," Phelebe said. "I want to write more, but I'll have to do it later. I'm going to try out for the school play tonight. Do you think it's a good idea?"

     There was no reply.

     "I had better go home now... I will read you the rest of the story soon."

     The Wadjet hissed twice.

      ***

      It was several days before Phelebe returned to the tree, still reeling from excitement and happier than she could ever remember being.

     "I got the part in the play!" she said, facing the broad tree trunk but not sitting down. "I got the part I wanted."

     There was no reply.

     "It's not the main part," she continued. "My friend, the artist, she got that part. I didn't want the main part, but I got the part I wanted. The teacher said I really have talent. She said she never thought I would try out, because I am so shy in class."

     No reply.

     "I have to go to rehearsal every afternoon... I won't have a lot of time to write," she said. "I didn't finish my story... I'm sorry. I just wanted to tell you what happened."

     There was nothing but silence.

     "Maybe I will finish it one day. I still want to finish it, one day."

     Silence.

     "I guess I... I better go. Good-bye.."

     There was only silence, and Phelebe left.

The End