The Immortal Toast: Part Two

      "Of course it will! Just you watch!"

      The doors to the Food Store opened and a wobbly figure mostly covered up by a mysterious-looking brown jacket stumbled in. Shoppers from every corner of the store turned their eyes to the odd figure. The figure moved in a dizzy manner across the aisles and to the bread section.

      "I've said so many times before, but now I can truly say that this is the stupidest idea you've ever come up with, Sunlight!" the figure yelled down its jacket.

      From the bottom of the shaky figure, Sunlight looked up and replied, "Aw come on, Marik! Trust me! This will work!"

      "I don't know, Sunlight. I have to agree with Marik on this one. Not only is this a dumb idea, it seems a little clichéd." Starlight, who was on top of Sunlight, spoke his mind.

      "Well, I did read about this idea in a story in the Neopian Times," Sunlight confessed.

      "It was a STORY! This is real life! I doubt this plan will ever work!" Marik hissed, keeping his voice down as he was getting stares by pets thinking he was talking to himself.

      "We'll never know unless we find out! What do we have to lose?" Sunlight questioned.

      "Our freedom..." Marik muttered.

      Starlight looked above him and said, "Hey Moonlight. You doing okay?"

      Moonlight, who was on top of Starlight, grunted and groaned as he struggled to keep Marik up on his shoulders. "Why couldn't I be the head?!"

      "Because if anyone's face is going to be shown, it's going to be mine!" Marik explained.

      "Your face is shadowed! No one's going to see it! Besides, we disguised ourselves to keep our identities hidden! If you showed your face, everyone would realize 'it's that egotistic Krawk that always brags about himself!'"

      "Is it my fault that I'm so amazingly handsome? I don't think so!" bragged Marik egotistically.

      The four brothers stumbled into the bread section and quickly grabbed the first bag of bread in sight. After nearly tripping some more, they began to leave the aisle with the bag in Marik's claws.

      "Finally! Now let's get out..." Marik began, but paused as he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the young girl in front of him.

      "What is it?" Moonlight wondered, still struggling to hold Marik up.

      "Bluey!" Marik whispered, "Now of all times!"

      Just as Marik and his brothers began to tiptoe away, Bluey turned around and looked straight at them. She raised an eyebrow, and stared at their odd disguise for a moment.

      "Uh... I don't believe I've seen you around town before. Are you new here?" Bluey asked, still staring at their disguise.

      "Um, yes. We...uh...I'm new to this town," Marik answered in a deep voice.

      Bluey looked down at Marik's claws and bent down for a closer look. She then lifted herself back up, and looked back at Marik and smiled.

      "You're a fire Krawk, aren't you?" Bluey guessed.

      "Y...yes," Marik stuttered back to her.

      "That's so cool! One of my pets is a fire Krawk!" Bluey exclaimed excitedly.

      "I'm sure he's really handsome as well." Marik once again bragged about himself. Starlight from below groaned and rolled his eyes.

      "Yeah. He always says that, but sometimes I think he's a little too full of himself," Bluey told him.

      She once more looked back at Marik's claws and spotted the item that he held. "Oh, you're buying bread? That reminds me of something that I thought of a couple of days ago. What if I made a kind of bread that never molds or spoils? So I..."

      "Uh, I must be going, ma'am!" Marik cut Bluey off and dashed to the shopkeeper, Neopoints in claws.

      Bluey stared in confusion as she watched the odd figure run off in a stumbling manner. "Umm. Okay. Bye then."

      * * *

      The four brothers rushed into the house finally with a bag of bread and got rid of the uncomfortable disguise. Sunlight ran up to his room and immediately came back down with sparkling gold paint. Marik and the others got a piece of bread out and set it on the kitchen table.

      "Hurry up, Sunlight! Bluey's going to be home any minute!" Moonlight warned, glancing towards the clock.

      "All right! I've got the paint! Now all we need to do is use it to color the bread!" Sunlight told them, trying to catch his breath.

      "But what are we going to do with the rest of the bread?" Moonlight wondered, looking at the open bag.

      "We can't just leave it here! There wasn't any bread here before Bluey left the house! If she found it here, she'd be awfully suspicious!" Starlight exclaimed.

      "Throw it away! There! Problem solved." suggested Marik.

      "Marik, there are thousands of pets starving out there! We can't just waste food like that!" Sunlight told him.

      Thinking quickly, Marik took the rest of the bread out of the bag and shoved it into Sunlight's mouth. "Quick! Dispose of the evidence!"

      Sunlight strained to be able to chew the huge amount of food, let alone swallow it. He didn't understand why Marik didn't try to stuff more than ten pieces of bread into his mouth at once, since Marik had a much bigger mouth than he does.

      The others took another quick glance at the clock. It wouldn't be much longer before Bluey arrived back home. Hastily, they poured the gold paint on the bread, not bothering to be extravagant with it. But, the brothers quickly noticed that there was still another problem.

      "Bluey will be sure to notice the wet paint on it! The cushion beneath it will get marked with it!" Moonlight noticed.

      "Great. Now what are we supposed to do?" Starlight questioned, slouching back in one of the chairs.

      "Geez. We're really toasted now. No pun intended." Marik groaned, sitting down in a chair while putting his claws on his head.

      "Toasted..." Starlight thought out loud.

      Starlight perked up quickly, took the painted bread, and rushed to the toaster. Moonlight and Marik ran over to him, while Sunlight was still struggling to eat the bread Marik shoved in his mouth.

      "Oh, I get it!" Moonlight realized Starlight's plan.

      After nervously putting the bread in the toaster, Starlight frantically turned it on. Now all he could was wait as the bread hopefully dried.

      "It better not burn," Marik warned.

      "Relax! It won't! I know it won't!" guaranteed Starlight.

      "For all of our sakes," Marik sighed, "you better hope so."

      Starlight, Marik and Moonlight waited anxiously for the bread to pop out. Sunlight finally gulped down the last of the bread, trying to catch his breath afterwards. He then strode over slowly to his older brothers and waited nervously with them. The timer slowly turned closer to the zero mark. Closer and closer... until...

      DING!!!

      The bread, now toast, popped out of the toaster and appeared in front of the four pets' eyes. Starlight took it out and examined it closely. No burns, the paint was dry and it hadn't been damaged.

      "Perfect!" Starlight yelled, holding the piece of toast in the air.

      But then all of a sudden, the doorknob at the front door began to turn. Starlight, Marik, Moonlight and Sunlight quickly knew that Bluey was at the front door!

      Frantically, Moonlight and Sunlight cleaned up the kitchen, getting rid of any mess caused by the paint. Starlight and Marik dashed over to the glass box where the Immortal Toast once was. After tripping several times, they approached the box. Starlight nervously attempted to open the door to the box.

      "Hurry up!" Marik shouted, continuously looking back at the front door.

      "I'm trying! The door won't open!" Starlight snapped at Marik.

      As Starlight still struggled with the door to the glass box, the door to the house opened...

      * * *

      I'll tell you what, that day had to be the oddest day I've had. First, I had this weird, bad premonition while I was shopping; I met this strange Krawk at the food store; and when I walked into the house, Sunlight and Moonlight rushed into the living room looking at me like I was the Pant Devil.

      "Uhh. Nice to see you too." I muttered, not exactly sure what to say.

      "Oh! Uh, Bluey! Home so soon?" Moonlight seemed to laugh nervously.

      "Well I said I'd be home in an hour, and it's been an hour," I replied, cocking my eyebrow.

      "Oh really? Time goes by so quickly!" Sunlight also chuckled with anxiety.

      "I guess," I said. "So where are Starlight and Marik?"

      "Oh, uh... well..." Sunlight stammered, even though I couldn't figure out why.

      But while Sunlight was trying to find words to finish his sentence, Starlight and Marik ran into the room and, like Moonlight and Sunlight, seemed to be surprised to see me.

      "Oh, hi Bluey! We made 100% sure that your Immortal Toast is safe and sound!" Starlight greeted me in a cheerful, yet somewhat weird, fashion.

      "Yep. It's right in the other room safely behind that glass box! So you're free to go stare and obsess over it!" Marik told me also in a happy manner, although I could sense a smart tone in his voice.

      "Um, yeah. About that. You see, I realized while shopping that maybe this 'Immortal Toast' thing was rather unhealthy. So I decided to pursue a new obsession!" I explained, and then pulled out my new fascination out of one of the grocery bags, "Ta-da! Behold! The Almighty Asparagus!"

      All four of my pets dropped their jaws and stared at me for a few moments. Starlight then spoke up and stammered, "The...Almighty...Asparagus?!"

      "Yup! While I walking down the street on the way home, I met this really nice guy that gave it to me. Aaron? Andy? Alex? I can't remember exactly. His name started with an 'A', though."

      "YOU MEAN WE WENT THROUGH ALL THIS TROUBLE FOR NOTHING?!" Marik exploded at me.

      The room grew silent as Marik's face grew red with rage. For what reason, I'm not really sure. Finally, he seemed to calm down and he gave a smile. A rather, creepy one to be exact.

      "I'm so stinkin' happy for you," Marik muttered before running up to his room.

      My other pets looked at each other with wide eyes. They began to head off in separate directions as well.

      "Uhh. I'm going to the Lab Ray, now," Sunlight told me, as he walked out the door.

      "You know, today seems like a nice day to read a book outside," Moonlight said, grabbing a book and heading out the back door.

      "Yeah. I'm gonna play my guitar upstairs. So you might want to wear earplugs," Starlight informed me, rushing to his room.

      Strange. It was like they wanted to get away from me, like they thought I was weird or something. Nah. That can't possibly be the reason.

      Either way, I still had the piece of asparagus that would change the way Neopia looks at asparagus for all eternity! Pets would forever look up to the Almighty Asparagus as their leader!

      No. That's just insane.

      But better yet, I could clone the asparagus and unleash an army of it upon Neopia! Now that's a good idea! I'm sure my pets will be proud of me.

The End

Author's Note: Please do not attempt to eat the Immortal Toast. Contrary to popular belief, it will not make you immortal. The Immortal Toast is far too pwnful to give its powers to anyone else.