Neglect's Revenge: Part Two

      This proved to be inaccurate as Vendette ran far away. He didn't know or care where he was going, he just had to get away. To get away from the injustice and the neglect, to just get away. He found himself approaching the Haunted Woods. Perhaps he could find something useful to do there. He was looking around and spotted a tower that appeared to be abandoned. Perfect. He walked in and started deciding what he was going to do in his new home when a voice abruptly stopped him.

      "Lousy kids! I'm not giving out any quests right now. Come back later. On second thought, don't come back later, don't come back ever again!"

      Apparently whoever lived there was the cranky sort and not accustomed to someone walking into their home. Vendette decided to see if this creature would help him out.

      "My name is Vendette and I'm looking for work."

      The dark halls started to take on the shape of a green Zafara, still yelling, "Then look somewhere else. I don't do charity."

      "If you don't mind me asking, who are you?"

      The creature rolled its eyes, "First you bug me then you don't even know who I am? I'm Edna, and a not so pleasant welcome to my home, which you so rudely entered without even knocking, I might add."

      Vendette looked at Edna sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that. Anyway, I was wondering if maybe we could help each other."

      Edna eyed him warily. "What did you have in mind?"

      "Well, you give out quests, right? Wouldn't it be helpful if I could help you clean up messes and organize your things?"

      Edna murmured aloud, "Well, that would be a major help… But what's the catch?"

      Vendette replied, "Well, I do need food and a place to stay."

      This seemed to appeal to Edna, who already knew how to remedy herself of this bothersome pet. "Great. You'll be sleeping in the attic and you can have some of this food to your heart's content."

      Before Vendette's eyes were piles and piles of gross foods, with the occasional edible item stuffed between everything else. He gulped and nodded. Edna had some new help.

      His first day of working Vendette didn't know what to do. However, ideas soon presented themselves as Edna opened up for quests. It seemed she liked her house to be left alone so she did all of her quest work outside. That meant that Vendette had to constantly get prizes for her and bring the requested items back into her house, then he had to categorize it by so many things it made his head hurt just thinking about it. What was it, how old was it, what kind of whatever it was was it. Even thinking about just that last one made his head hurt.

      Edna looked at Vendette, surprised. "Well, you made it longer than I thought you would. Maybe you really can be useful and help me."

      Vendette was too tired to think about anything so he replied simply, "Sure, just remind me again, gepersnackers and neeshkas are food, right?"

      Edna just laughed at him and said, "Get used to it, because it's like this almost every day."

      Far away in Neopia, Vendette's old owner rushed around frantically, asked everybody she saw if they knew anything about a blue Kougra who had run off. Nobody had, so she started widening her search.

      Finally, after a few years, her search encompassed the Haunted Woods. There, she looked around and saw nothing. She almost left when she thought that she saw a hint of blue at Edna's house, and that was unusual.

      When she got there, she was shocked to see Vendette running around carrying gross foods, faerie foods, any many other foods she couldn't distinguish. Edna saw her and asked, "Are you ready for my quest?"

      She stuttered in response, "I'm, oh, sure, I mean… Is that you, Vendette?"

      Vendette hardly looked up from the spill that he was cleaning up. "Who wants to know?"

      "I do."

      The voice finally registered in Vendette's mind and he glared at his old owner. "May I help you?"

      "You can start by telling me what on Neopia you're doing here."

      Edna stepped in, annoyed that her help was being disrupted. "He's working for me and I do believe that I asked you if you were ready to do my quest."

      "But Vendette is my pet!"

      Edna chuckled. "Not anymore, apparently. Now, I'm sure you of all people know how strong he is, so I suggest that you either accept my quest or leave the premises."

      She just staggered away, her mind refusing to accept what was occurring. Vendette ran to the Haunted Woods and started helping Edna? That wasn't right. What was going on? He'd left for good, but why the Haunted Woods; there was nothing there for him, except for Edna, apparently.

      When she got home, Innocenza stopped her. "He left because of me, but you never told me. I was too young to understand what was going on. Why did you paint me instead of him? He deserved it. He may have been selfish, which I'll admit it wrong, but he wanted it more than anything. You should have sold the paint brush, or traded it."

      Being faced with defeat everywhere, their owner had no answer. She just ran upstairs and started crying.

      Downstairs, though not to her knowledge, Innocenza started looking through her owner's journals too see if there were any other secrets for her to uncover.

      Back in the Haunted Woods, Edna approached Vendette, "I've been doing some research. Did you know that your name means revenge?"

      Vendette seemed surprised, "Why, no, I didn't. I wonder why my name means revenge, though it feels so accurate now." Vendette started laughing.

      Edna pondered that, "Now, I'm not going to start turning into the island mystic or whatever, but what if it's your destiny? To take revenge."

      Vendette thought about that, "I suppose it could be. But I didn't want revenge, I just wanted to get away from the injustice."

      Edna shrugged, "Something to think about. Now get some rest, there's rumor of a special day for me or something so I want to be prepared for any rush tomorrow."

      Vendette also shrugged, "You got it, boss."

      Innocenza finally found what she was looking for.

      Dear Diary, today was full of wonderful and awful news. When Vendette found out that I had adopted a new pet, he flipped out. I thought he would be happy like I was, but I guess he cares too much about his Darigan paint brush. I regret to admit that he's right about the neopoints. Innocenza will cost more neopoints that she can help us make at first, but as she grows older I'm sure she'll help us. She's just a baby after all, what can go wrong?

     Further down Innocenza found another important entry.

      Dear Diary, I fear that I may have made an awful mistake today. I found a very rare royal paint brush for a cheap price and didn't even think about all of Vendette's hard work when I rushed to the bank to withdraw the neopoints. He never even entered my thoughts as I bought the paint brush then instructed Innocenza to enter the rainbow pool. She is so beautiful and happy, but I can't say that about Vendette.

     Even further down Innocenza found even more useful information.

      Dear Diary, Vendette ran away and he hasn't come back home. I thought he'd be back and he was just angry, but it's been a few hours since nightfall and he still hasn't returned. I'm worried. What if he never comes back? It'll be all my fault. Poor Innocenza must never know about Vendette. What if she thinks it's her fault and she decides to run away too? I can't bear to lose one of them, let alone both of them. I'll search for Vendette until I find him, and I don't know what I'll tell Innocenza, but I'll tell her something.

      Innocenza just stared at the floor, so it really was her fault. She decided to look for the entry from the day she had been told about Vendette's existence.

      Dear Diary, I finally had to tell Innocenza about Vendette. I didn't want to, but I had no choice. Innocenza insisted that she come with me today, but I couldn't let her come lest she find out about Vendette. Finally she said either she was coming with me or she would run away. I didn't believe her, but I hadn't believed Vendette either. I finally told her what happened, but I didn't tell her everything. I told her that he had been really upset about not being painted so he ran away. I can't bear to tell her everything, at least not yet. Maybe when she's older.

      Innocenza was right. She always had a feeling that it was her fault, and she knew that she had been painted before Vendette ran away. Her owner had let that piece of information slip one day, accidentally, of course. Innocenza sighed deeply and decided to take action. She would avenge her owner's unintentional neglect of Vendette, and she knew how she was going to do it, too.

To be continued...