The Pink Grobrin Story

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I just love to tell this story.

      Really, I do.

      I call it the Pink Grobrin Story. It may be a little silly, but I think you'll like it.

      I sure do.

      It all starts when I, Maura the Island Kacheek, was walking home at 10:00 from a late Battledome fight. My friends Toby and Alexis (a blue Techo and a Christmas Kacheek) were with me. We happily carried a "Beating Punchbag Bob" trophy, which we had earned after many, many, MANY months of training.

      Anyway, as we turned onto Bracknell Road, Toby began waving the trophy around and dancing.

      "We did it, we did it, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah... We beat Punchbag Bob and we... uh, what rhymes with yeah? Oh, how about... Oh no!"

      Our flashlight suddenly became dimmer, and died. We were enveloped in darkness.

      "Now what?" Alexis whimpered.

      "Well, we can't very well make it back home without a light. We'll have to search for a place to stay the night." Hey, that rhymed.

      So we searched Bracknell Road for a place to stay. Most of the homes along this stretch of road had only one room, so we were surprised to find a huge 3-story home with gardens in front. The lights were on, and we decided that it would be a good place to stay.

      The door had a spooky doorknocker shaped like a Darigan Kougra. I only hoped that something less spooky lived in the house behind it. Alexis raised the knocker and let it fall again, and a 'boom' echoed through the house. We waited for a few minutes, and were about to give up when the door creaked open. A very old gray Kougra peered out at us, and I'm sure we were all thinking, "Man, she is old."

      "We need a place to stay the night," I explained.

      "Oh? Well, come in, my dearies," the Kougra said in the oldest voice you can imagine. "My name is Eleanor. You can stay as long as you like, but don't touch the pink Grobrin."

      "Um... okay..." Toby said. Eleanor ushered us in, and showed us each our rooms.

      Not only was Eleanor old, but she also had terrible color coordination. The door to my room was pink, and the walls looked like a lava lamp gone bad. My bedspread was cow-print (what's a cow?), and the closet door had little flowers on it, like the ones on a disco pet. I wanted to close my eyes as soon as possible.

      I was soon asleep and having dreams about a kumquat named Omar (don't ask). At around 1:00 there was a tap on my door.

      "Come in," I whispered sleepily. The door opened, and Toby and Alexis tiptoed in. The words that Toby spoke totally freaked me out.

      "Let's go find the pink Grobrin."

      I gasped. "What? Are you nuts? She said not to touch it!"

      "Maura, what harm can a little Petpet do? Come on!"

      After a little persuasion, I finally agreed to come with them.

      We tiptoed down the stairs and into the kitchen without being discovered. Our faces fell, however, when we found Eleanor sitting at the kitchen table.

      "What brings you here, my dearies?" she almost cackled.

      "We'd like to see the pink Grobrin," Alexis said matter-of-factly. I winced, hoping that Eleanor wouldn't be too mad.

      She wasn't. "Alright," she rasped. She led us to a large chest of drawers in the hallway, and pulled out a huge skeleton key (showing its location was a really dumb idea, as you'll soon find out). She then led us to an orange door, which she pushed open. We continued walking, through a pink door, a lime green door, a purple door, and a red door without Eleanor ever using the big key. Finally, we came to a black door, into which the skeleton key fit.

      Eleanor pushed open the door, and we entered a small, dark room. At one end was an absolutely HUGE safe. We gulped and stood back as the grey Kougra fiddled with the padlock.

      The safe door creaked open.

      "There it is!" whispered Toby. Indeed, there was something in the safe: a fuzzy pink lump. I couldn't tell if it really was a Grobrin; all I could tell was that it was sleeping (and snoring a bit). If it really was a Grobrin, it was a huge one. I could see why Eleanor kept it locked up.

      After a few moments, Eleanor closed the safe and led us back to our ugly rooms. I fell asleep once again, and continued my kumquat dreams. It was a very peaceful night until...

      Yup, you guessed it. At 3:00, my sleep was once again disturbed by a tapping on the door. I said, "Come in," and Toby and Alexis rushed to my bedside.

      "We're going to look at the Grobrin again," Alexis whispered.

      "Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no," I chastised. "We shouldn't be sneaking around somebody's house."

      In five minutes I was in the kitchen with my friends.

      We took the skeleton key from its drawer and went down the hallway. We opened the orange, pink, lime, purple, and red doors. When we got to the black door, Toby used the key. We were all set, except for one tiny detail.

      "What's the safe combination?"

      Surprisingly, Toby knew the answer. "It's 1-2-3-4."

      "You pay very good attention," I commented. I realized that when Eleanor took us down here, Toby had studied the safe, and I had worried about what was in the safe.

      Toby dialed 1-2-3-4 on the padlock, and lo and behold, it worked! The safe swung open.

      The first time we had come, the Grobrin had been in the far corner of the safe. Now it was in the near corner. I gulped for about the millionth time.

      "Touch it," Toby and Alexis whispered.

      "Uh-uh." I shook my head.

      "Come on, we'll touch it with you." I agreed to that, and we all stuck our paws out. At the same moment, Toby and Alexis' paws shot back, and I was the only one to touch the sleeping lump.

      "Hey!" I hissed. "That wasn't--" I was cut short as the pink Grobrin stood up and roared! It jumped out of the safe and began chasing us.

      We ran as fast as our legs could carry us. I could hear the Grobrin going through the doors that we had just come through ourselves. The Grobrin, however, wasn't going through the doors, it was going THROUGH the doors! Thunk, thunk, SMASH! Thunk, thunk, SMASH! We ran upstairs and into the bathroom. I pulled the shower curtain open, and we dived into the bathtub, awaiting our fate.

      We heard footsteps coming towards the bathroom door. "Please don't be Eleanor, please don't be Eleanor..." I thought, afraid what the Kougra would do to us if she found out about her Grobrin. Alexis just told me yesterday that she had been thinking: "Please be Eleanor, please be Eleanor..." The footsteps came closer and closer. We cowered smaller and smaller. The door creaked open, and whatever it was came towards our hiding spot.

      The shower curtain was pulled open, and we saw who the intruder was. It was the pink Grobrin! Slowly, the Grobrin reached out and touched my shoulder.

      "Tag! You're it!"

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     That's the end of my Pink Grobrin Story. The Grobrin just wanted to play after all. Eleanor did find out about our adventure, but instead of being mad, she was happy that her Grobrin had someone to play with. She gave the Petpet to us, and Toby called it Don'tTouch. After thanking Eleanor for the Petpet and the rooms, we left. Sometimes, when I'm out at 10:00, I can still hear a raspy old voice saying:

      "Don't touch the pink Grobrin!"

The End