Where We Belong

      She brushed her white mane from her face to get a better look at a group of Crabula. She poked in a twig. The nearest one turned a brighter shade of red and snapped it in two. Nat jumped back and giggled. She was glad she hadn't stuck her paw in.

      "Nat! Time to go!" called a voice. Duster, Nat's owner, was running down the white sand towards her. "And how many times have I told you not to play with the Petpets? You might hurt them!" Duster shook her head.

      "I will not!" Nat protested. "I'm really careful, I swear!" She stamped her foot and scowled. Nat knew she could get Duster to anything for her with enough attitude or misery.

      Duster sighed. "Alright, go take a look at one more tide pool. But then we have to go!" Duster turned around and made her way to the Tiki Tack Shop. Nat happily ran to the next tide pool, closer to the sea.

      She looked with disappointment into the empty pool. Nat was about to get up and walk to her family when she heard a peep come from the water.

      She turned her head to the sound, and she smiled. A little Peo was moving about in the salty water, and it was pushing at the sand around it. Nat stroked its slick black body.

      "You must have gotten stuck, didn't you?" said Nat happily. The Petpet seemed to like her. She wished that she could take it home, but Duster had warned her about the Petpets, and she had nothing to carry it home in anyway.

      She sighed, gave the Peo one last fond pat and got up. But a glimmer in the sand caught her eye. A huge smile broke out on Nat's face as she saw a small jar, lid and all! Thank you, littering person, she thought with joy as she picked up the dirty old jar.

      She wasted no time in filling up the glass jar with fresh ocean water, and then she hastened back to the pool. Nat pulled the Peo out the water and dropped it into the jar. Then she ran to her owner.

      "Honey, Petpets, especially wild ones, are tough to care for. A Petpet is a lot of work, and the Lost Desert isn't a good environment for a Petpet, unless it's an Anubis." Duster was peering at the Kyrii over the edge of her copy of NEOPETS: The Official Magazine. Nat just shook her head and clutched Shadow closer to her. She had managed to get past Duster's dismay when she had returned to the harbor with a Peo in a jar, but the Kyrii's owner still wasn't pleased.

      "Shadow likes me a lot," protested Nat. "She'll like it. Won't you, Shadow?" Shadow peeped in what Nat assumed was agreement. She smiled as she saw the flowing desert sands from the deck of the boat.

      "Welcome home," she whispered to Shadow, who peeped again, sounding nervous.

      Over the next few days Nat cared for her new pet. She put ice cubes into the jar to keep the water cool in the hot city of Sakhmet, and fed Shadow well. She sometimes took Shadow to see her friends, and they were all very interested in the Maraquan creature.

      "Careful," Nat told Jalina and Shawnie, her best friends. "She only seems to tolerate me touching her." Jalina was amazed at the water-dwelling Peo, as she had never been to Mystery Island. Shawnie was a bit interested as well, but she preferred the company of her Erisim instead. But the Kacheek twins were still amazed that Nat was allowed to own a Maraquan Petpet.

      However, one day Nat began noticing a change in the lively little Petpet. Shadow was not racing about the jar as she once did, but now only swam when she had to. Nat just told everyone that she was just a bit sluggish now and that she would perk up in a day or two. But in her heart Nat knew that Shadow getting sick. Very sick.

      Shadow acted like this for about a week, but then took a turn for the worse, much to Nat's dismay. Nobody in Sakhmet, she knew, had any idea how to care for a sick Peo. So she did her best to pretend nothing was wrong and that Shadow was fine.

      Nat sat on her mattress, fretting about her pet. Shadow would no longer even nibble at the bread crumbs and fish flakes that Nat fed her at mealtimes. She continued to worry and think about the terrible mess.

      Suddenly Nat heard a soft knock on the door. She got up and unlocked it, and her owner stepped in. Duster looked sadly at the Peo, now lying limply on the bottom of the jar. She patted the bed, just like she did when Nat or one of her brothers had a bad dream, and Nat sat down and laid her head on her owner's shoulder.

      "Shadow didn't get better yet," Nat told Duster miserably. "In fact, she's getting worse."

     Duster looked at her. She wasn't angry, but nor was she pleased with the white Kyrii.

      "Do you remember when I told you not to fool around with the Petpets?" she asked Nat quietly.

      "Yes," answered Nat, "But I thought meant that you didn't want me to get bitten or something. And when I got Shadow, you said it was a lot of work and Sakhmet was a bad environment. I thought you just said that to stop me from keeping Shadow."

      Duster smiled. "So that's how you think." She gave Nat a hug, and her eyes suddenly got serious. Nat was a bit nervous. Duster was hardly ever serious.

      "Let me put it this way. Imagine something ten times as big as you are picked you up and put you into a jar. Then it took you to a place twice as hot as your old home was. Would you be happy?"

      "No, of course not!" cried Nat. "Who would be?" She grimaced as she imagined being stuck in a jar, only allowed to move as far as the walls were.

      Duster smiled again. "Exactly. Do you think Shadow is happy?" She gestured to the Peo in the jar. "Look, I think that you're taking good care of your Peo. But let's face it, Nat, Shadow wasn't meant for the desert. She misses her big ocean home, where she can swim to her heart's content."

      Duster picked up Shadow's jar and handed it to Nat. "Maybe even a little Maraquan child is swimming near Mystery Island, trying to find her Peo." Nat knew there was a possibility of that, but she knew one thing for certain, and glumly realized what Duster was trying to tell her.

      "I know you'll do the right thing," she said, and gently closed the door.

      Nat looked down and whispered to her Petpet, "Duster's right, I will do the right thing."

      Nat, Duster and her two brothers stood on the beach, Duster with her hand on the white Kyrii's shoulder. Nat clutched Shadow's little jar in her paws. Shadow was no more lively than she had been in Sakhmet, floating limply in the water.

      Nat felt a bit of a push from Duster, and she walked towards the sparkling ocean. She removed the lid from the old jar. She sadly stroked the little Peo, but she knew what she had to do. She knelt in the sand and poured out the contents of the jar, sending it back to its home.

      Shadow hung silently for a moment. Am I too late? Nat thought immediately. But the Kyrii soon cast the thought away as Shadow suddenly gave a joyful peep and dashed about. She seemed to give one last fond look to Nat, who grinned and waved.

      Nat's eyes hung onto the Peo, and she continued to wave, until Shadow was no longer in sight, and swimming northward to New Maraqua.

      "Where she belongs," whispered Nat. "Where my Shadow belongs."

The End

Hi Neopia! I hope you enjoyed the story, there will be more on the way! Hopefully this is the debut of my fame!