Pages of a Lost Past: Part Six

Part six - History Lesson

I closed the little leather book and tucked it into my back pocket. I looked at Kachie and sighed. I had learned so much today. Kachie just tilted her head and squeaked at me.

     "Guess we better go join the others before they start to wonder where we are," I said to her before scooping her up off of the bed and heading to the kitchen. A puff of warm stuffy air hit me in the face when I entered the kitchen. It came from the many steaming pots sitting on the stove being attended to by the green Kacheek. The others had been set to work as well now that their wounds were mended. LuckDragon was attempting to slice some neggs... er, let's just say he was pretty unsuccessful at it. Laquilla tried to show him the correct way to do it, but was also trying hard to not get her fingers caught in LuckDragon's line of fire. TigerLily was over helping my mom attend to the many boiling pots. It was pretty amusing watching a Wocky take orders from a little Kacheek about which pots to stir for how long. Or maybe she just looked funny because she was wearing a bed sheet like a toga. Siber was busy mixing together some ingredients in a bowl while Kasey cracked eggs into the bowl with her free hand, her injured arm now wrapped up in a much nicer sling than the one Amaranthela and I made for her.

     Over on the other side of the kitchen Amaranthela and Safaraze were washing dishes in between bouts of water fights. Lastly was Mysticat who looked like a chemist as she carefully mixed various flavors of Achyfi into a large punch bowl with the aid of MysticAngle, her Robot Angelpuss. Leave it to Mysticat to make you a drink you'll never forget. Drinks are definitely her specialty. If you looked at any one thing going on in the kitchen it didn't look like much, but put it all together and it looked like a war zone.

     Five minutes later me and Kachie were setting the table. Presently Mysticat entered the dining room with a large pitcher, swirls of smoke escaping from the top. I eyed it curiously.

     "What is that?" I asked. Mysticat rubbed her paws together looking at the pitcher with a great pride.

     "Only the single greatest drink ever created," she replied and said no more. Instead she went back to the kitchen to grab some glasses. I shrugged, knowing whatever it was, it was bound to be good. I had just finished setting the table when the doorbell rang. I heard hurried footsteps, the creak of the door opening, and loud pleasantries being exchanged.

     Twelve minutes later, after once again being ambushed by the four Kacheeks I had met earlier in town, we were all getting situated around the dining room table. While the two humans were fine sitting in the Kacheek sized chairs, the large arm chair had to be moved over from the living room for TigerLily to use because the regular chairs were far too small for her. The four guest Kacheeks I found out were old childhood friends of mine. C.B., the spotted Kacheek was the oldest of the four. He had a mature nature about him. Next was Brai, a cloud Kacheek. He was adopted into the family. After him was Loff, a Lost Desert Kacheek. He's quick witted and a bit of a perfectionist. No wonder he's painted Desert. The youngest, and only girl of the four was Cheek, a starry Kacheek. She seemed to be up on all the gossip, but she was full of sweet innocence nonetheless. Their last name was Lalabok, and not only were they good friends of mine, but their parents were good friends of Laquilla's and mine as well.

     Mysticat went around the table, precious pitcher in hand, filling everyone's glasses with her inventive concoction as the rest of us eagerly awaited dinner. As if on cue the green Kacheek, followed closely by Amaranthela and Safaraze carried the dinner to the table. It was like no feast I had ever seen. The sight could have made the Esophagor cry. Several minutes later our plates were filled and everyone was stuffing their faces greedily. It occurred to me that now was probably the best time to ask any questions I still had.

     "Can... I ask you guys a question?" I asked tentatively. I scooped another heap of roasted negg and mashed potatoes into my mouth.

     "Certainly you can. What did you want to ask?" replied the green Kacheek. I shifted in my seat as I tugged the little leather journal from my back pocket. My eyes swept over Kachie for a moment. She was sitting next to my plate, her umbrella leaning open behind her, and she had a small pile of mashed potatoes in front of her which she was sculpting into something. I turned back to the green Kacheek.

     "Well... I... well, Kachie, actually... found this book under my bed. I think it may have been my journal. One of the entries talked about Laquilla getting cheek-napped... and mentioned something about... oh yeah, Cheeder. Who's Cheeder?"

     "He's the mayor," Cheek, the little starry Kacheek, spoke up. Her oldest brother nodded.

     "Yeah, that's right. Technically he used to be called Kacheader, as in Kacheek Leader... 'Kach' for Kacheek, 'eader' for leader... Kacheader. But everyone just says Cheeder now. It's easier to say, I suppose."

     "Ok." I nodded, absorbing that piece of information. "That makes sense... ok, but who cheek-napped Laquilla? And how was she found?"

     "That's where you come in, Ruffle," said Laquilla. "I was cheek-napped by Dr. Sloth; of course, no one knew who he was back then. You were the one who rescued me, and defeated Dr. Sloth, that's why you're a hero."

     "But how did Dr. Sloth get here?" my owner, Sibertiger9, inquired. Most of my family and friends were just listening intently to the conversation. C.B., The spotted Kacheek, answered Siber's question.

     "We think it had something to do with a meteor storm that happened about a month before Laquilla was cheek-napped. Isn't that right?" C.B. looked to the green Kacheek for confirmation. She nodded while swallowing a mouthful of food.

     "Yes, that's what the elders believe it was. Something about him creating the meteor storm as a distraction so he could fly his ship down without anyone noticing."

     At this point most of us paused to eat. Loff, the Lost Desert Kacheek, took the opportunity to put in his two np.

     "He probably chose our town because we're out in the middle of nowhere, so if anything happened to us the rest of Neopia wouldn't have a clue. He probably also thought that Kacheeks would be easiest to test things on since we're typically labeled as 'anti-confrontational'," Loff said bitterly.

     "But you showed him, right Ruffle?" the Starry Kacheek chirped.

     "Apparently... but I don't really remember what happened," I replied. LuckDragon who was sitting next to me was currently fidgeting with his skirt. Laquilla was sitting on the other side of him giggling. I couldn't help but laugh myself. LuckDragon just glared at me in response.

     I was about to speak again when I felt a tugging at my paw. I looked down to see Kachie taking turns tugging at me and pointing animatedly at my glass.

     "Oh, you want some of my drink, Kachie?"

     She chirruped then ran to her umbrella and flipped it upside down. I poured some of the drink from my glass into her umbrella. She chirruped happily.

     "So... I'm still a bit confused. Exactly how was Laquilla kidnapped? And how did I save her?"

     "BbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzttGgggrrrrrrNnYaaaahhhhhh!" We all jumped at the sudden outburst. I looked at where the noise came from... Kachie. The little Psimouse was getting up out of her mashed potato sculpture. Two of her three eyes were twitching uncontrollably, her third eye remained wide open. Her fur was frizzed and she was shaking. I instantly looked at Mysticat.

     "What did you put in that drink?!"

     The split Aisha laughed a bit then her ears drooped. "Oh... uh, I should've warned you not to give her any... there's some Faerieland stuff in the drink... doesn't mix well with petpets from the Haunted Woods. But don't worry, she'll be a fine in a couple hours."

     "Oh, so that's why I feel light-headed," Safaraze stated. We all laughed a bit as Kachie continued to twitch and make strange noises.

     "Okay," I began, "You guys answered some of my questions, but I still don't know the details. Like how exactly it all started. And if I used to live here, how did I end up with Sibertiger9 and the others and not remember anything of my life here?"

     My biological family thought for a minute on a good way to answer my question. However, Brai, the Cloud Kacheek, was the first to speak.

     "Well, how it started was when we were playing tag. Several years ago, a little after the meteor storm we were talking about earlier, you and your sister met us by the old well to play tag. You took your sister to the ice cream parlor so she could stay out of the way while you played with us."

     C.B., his oldest brother continued, "Since this town is so small and everybody knows everybody, it's not uncommon to leave small Kacheeks alone at one of the stores. Everybody here watches out for each other. Except in Laquilla's case that wasn't a good thing. Dr. Sloth took advantage of the fact that we aren't afraid to leave young Kacheeks alone and he cheek-napped her while we were playing tag and left a note in her place."

     "How he managed to get into town and get out without anyone noticing him is still beyond us," finished the Lost Desert Kacheek.

     "As for the details of how you rescued your sister," said the green Kacheek, "only you can answer that. I suggest reading more of your journal."

     And with that she stood up and collected her dishes. "If you don't mind, can all of you bring your dishes into the kitchen when you're done eating?" She smiled then headed into the kitchen. One by one people took their dishes to the kitchen and then went to the living room. While we waited for my mom and Laquilla to finish washing the dishes we chatted with the four guest Kacheeks who asked my non-Kacheek family lots of questions since they had never really seen other Neopets before. A lot of their questions were aimed at Sibertiger9 and Kasey being that they're human, and obviously humans weren't common in this part of Neopia.

     When my mom and Laquilla finally joined us we decided to play a game. Since Kasey had a sprained arm she called out the directions. I decided not to play so I sat on the couch next to TigerLily who was too big to play with a bunch of Kacheeks. My mom didn't play either, instead she sat on a chair near Kasey and talked with her in between directions. It was entertaining watching everyone try to keep their balance while trying to keep their hands and feet on variously colored Kacheek faces, especially when some of the directions forced most everyone to twist themselves into pretzel-like positions.

     "You know we have a game just like this on our world," Kasey was telling my mom.

     "Kasey! Would you spin already?!" shouted Sibertiger9 who was obviously in a predicament.

     "Oh, sorry," said Kasey, startled. She spun the little arrow on the board sitting in her lap. "Right paw... green Kacheek!"

     Cheers and sighs of relief were chorused by some of those playing the game. A few minutes later Cheek, the starry Kacheek waved her tail in front of her oldest brother's nose on purpose to make him sneeze and loose his balance. Unfortunately he fell into Laquilla which caused her to loose her balance instead and fall face first into the ground. She came over and joined me and TigerLily on the couch.

     "Whew, it's getting tough in there. I could have won if Cheek didn't make her brother sneeze."

     Cheek wasn't the only one who was 'cheating'. Safaraze and Amaranthela were at it too, playfully smacking each other in the face causing the other to nearly lose their balance. That's sisterly love for you...

     "Hey Laquilla, where did you say your... er... our... father was again?"

     "Oh, he's out on business. You see he's a trader, one of three traders for the town. The traders have to be the most important people in town because that's our only way of importing and exporting stuff. If we didn't have the traders we probably wouldn't have ice cream, or fabrics to make these clothes... or these nice houses. It's a difficult job because they have to travel so much, and they're usually gone for days at a time. Depending on business, they could be gone for a couple weeks. Anyway, dad left early this morning, several hours before you arrived. But he shouldn't be gone long."

     TigerLily interjected, "It sounds like you import most of your stuff, but what are your exports?"

     "Fish and... a rare moss that grows on top of the cliffs on the north side of town," replied Laquilla.

     "Fish?! Where do you get fish around here?"

     "Oh, well, you know the canyon that goes around the town?" she asked. Me and TigerLily nodded.

     "Well, at the very bottom is a river. But during rainy season, which is about from the Month of Awakening to the Month of Eating, it pours. It rains constantly without stop for the two or three months until the river is almost to the top of the canyon. Then we go fishing. We can go fishing other times too, we just have to climb down the cliff. But rainy season is when we get the most fish."

     I thought about that for a second as I continued watching the game.

     * * *

     A couple hours later we said goodbye to our guests and they headed home. My mom scurried around for blankets for my family to use as we got ready for bed. TigerLily decided to curl up in the living room since there was more room out there. Safaraze, Amaranthela, and Kasey roomed with Laquilla, while LuckDragon, Mysticat and Sibertiger9 roomed with me. Sibertiger9 stretched out on the floor immediately and Mysticat curled up on her stomach just like a... oh, what are those things Siber is always telling us about? A... cat? Yeah, that's it. While for everyone else this was a well deserved sleep after a long day, I on the other hand had a lot of reading ahead of me.

To be continued...

Questions? Comments? Feel free to neomail me. ~Sibertiger9