A Tiki Tale: Color or Companion? - Part One

     "12:38!" she thought, alarmed. "How could I have slept so long?"

     She slowly crawled out of her large, comfortable bed, and took a long look around her.

     Her entire room had been refurnished in the past forty eight hours, the Dark Faerie Canopy bed she had just been sleeping on, the latest addition. Her new room was now completely furnished with faerie furniture. It looked gorgeous!

     Her eyes skimmed over the Dark Faerie dresser, Dark Faerie Wardrobe, and the Dark Faerie rug she was standing on.

     Sinking down on the Dark Faerie sofa, she considered the fact that she'd never seen so much purple and maroon in one room in all her life.

     It was a stunning combination for a room; she had to agree with her owner there.

     It simply wasn't satisfying, however, when it was merely a purchase made as an attempt to win her over and stop her persistent requests for the faerie item she really wanted - a faerie Kadoatie. For the past few months, since Tikhasis had found a new home with Kimmi, she'd been doted upon, her every wish answered - all but this one. And of course, this was the most important one! Well, at least - it was the most important one after getting wings for herself. Tikhasis already knew her owner planned on making her a faerie Draik, so there was no need to pester her about that, at least.

     "Such a fantastic petpet is almost a requirement for a pet such as a faerie Draik," she thought. “They are just simply adorable.”

     However, her constant pestering requests had gone unanswered, and this latest attempt to divert her attentions proved to only irritate her. Tikhasis was simply at her wits' end trying to decide what she could do to convince her owner of the importance of this one request. She had tried temper tantrums, crying, refusing to eat, and other generally naughty behavior in an attempt to worry her owner into fulfilling this request, with very little success.

     Yawning loudly, she made her way into the kitchen, where her owner sat reading quietly and drinking a cup of vanilla flavored tea.

     "Good morning, Tiki!" she said, lightly scratching behind Tikhasis's ears.

     Seeing her owner in a good mood, Tikhasis decided to try a slightly different tactic to the usual complaints.

     "Good morning," she said, pausing slightly before asking timidly, "Why won't you let me have a friend to play with, Mother?"

     Setting down her cup of tea, Kimmi smiled gently at Tikhasis.

     "You have your family to play with; and plenty of friends of your own species to play with too, Tiki."

     Tikhasis gulped, trying to hold her voice steady. As usual, she failed to keep her cool, and blurted the words out.

     "But I enjoy myself so much more down at the Kadoatery than I do playing with the other Draiks! I went down to the petpet store just the other day, and there was a Kadoatie there by the name of Squeekers. We played and chatted and had so much fun! I just know we'd get along fantastically all the time, if we could just buy her...”

     Cutting her off, her owner stated firmly, "Tiki, we've talked about this. It's not so much that I don't want to buy you a Kadoatie to befriend and play with, but every time I'm able to get to that darn petpet store, all of the Kadoaties have been purchased!"

     Tikhasis sighed unhappily.

     "Well," she began thoughtfully, "perhaps we could purchase one that has been put up for auction, or on the trading post?"

     "Tikhasis, listen to me..." Kimmi said, sighing.

     You could always tell that your owner's mood has changed for the worse when they started to talk to you using your full name.

     Bracing herself for what was about to be said, Tikhasis dutifully listened.

     "Have you seen the price of those Kadoaties on the trading post? I'll bet you haven't. They're far too expensive to afford! It's your wings, or a Kadoatie. That's the best I can offer you! Why on earth you would want to spend your time with something that mews incessantly is beyond me. Why, just the other day I was minding my own business reading a book and one of those awful creatures was sitting with a pet, carrying on. I was so irritated I actually paid that owner a 'standard fee' of 5000 Neopoints, just to take it away."

     Tikhasis grinned, imagining this scenario, wondering if her owner realized that the irritation caused by Kadoaties was something she thrived on.

     “How much fun it is to watch the response from other pet's owners when a Kadoatie starts to sing,” she thought.

     She could be so devious and get so much entertainment with a pet Kadoatie. She hid her smile, realizing that she couldn't exactly explain this reasoning to her owner! Tikhasis hoped that her owner would quickly forget her own ordeal and not consider this if she were to ever consider changing her mind about purchasing one.

     Suddenly, Tikhasis had a thought. All she really needed was exactly what her owner was offering! If her owner bought Tikhasis a Kadoatie of her own, she could then take it out with her about town. Surely then, if that Kadoatie annoyed enough people into paying up, surely it wouldn't take much time for her to make the amount required to purchase a paint brush so that she could have wings of her own! She could have her wings, and her Kadoatie! The plan was genius!

     "Mother," she began excitedly, “I've made up my mind. I'd rather have a Kadoatie than a faerie paint brush.”

     Surprised, Kimmi stopped reading her book.

     "You're sure?" she asked incredulously.

     "I'm sure," Tikhasis responded firmly.

     Nodding at Tikhasis, Kimmi grabbed her things.

     "Alright then, let's go to the National Neopian," Kimmi replied.

     Together, they made their way to the National Neopian Bank, Tikhasis following closely behind her owner.

     Tikhasis watched her owner chatting with the Skeith at the counter, withdrawing an extremely large sum of neopoints - it seemed to be close to four million neopoints!

     The expression on Tikhasis’s face fell. She was going to need to spend a lot of time about Neopia with her new friend to make back the amount she needed to get a faerie paint brush of her own.

     She started to feel a little nervous about her newly hatched plan.

     Tikhasis followed her owner towards the auction house, deep in thought. When they arrived at the auction house, the silence was broken.

     "Okay, Tiki. You wait out here until I get back. This might take a while, so get comfortable. Here's 500 Neopoints. If you get hungry, go grab yourself a bite to eat," Kimmi said, then turned and walked into the building.

     Tikhasis sat down on a nearby bench.

     A few minutes passed, and she started drawing pictures in the sand in front of her. The time was dragging quite slowly, and Tikhasis grew quite bored. Scribbling out the images she'd drawn and dusting off her paws, she wandered over to the building.

     She scrambled onto a bench close to the Auction House and peered inside one of the tiny windows, a curious expression on her face.

     What an intriguing place this was! Tikhasis wondered what exactly was going on inside. She could see several petpets standing on the stage at the front of the room, as well as a various assortment of items scattered about the place.

     One by one, each of the items was taken out to the front of the stage, and a whole lot of extremely fast talking took place. Tikhasis assumed that each item was being bid on. It was all happening so fast, she wondered how on earth anyone kept track of what was going on at all, let alone got to purchase the item they were actually wanting.

     Ah! Finally, a Kadoatie! Tikhasis watched as several numbers were raised, and then watched as someone other than her owner took hold of the Kadoatie, walking away to another section of the building.

     Disappointed, Tikhasis felt her ears fall slightly. She hoped her owner would find her a Kadoatie of her own soon.

     What seemed like hours later, another Kadoatie was put up on the stage, and once again, there was a flurry of hands as numbers were raised in the air.

     Tikhasis inhaled deeply, and as she noticed Kimmi begin walking to the front of the room, exhaled all of her saved breath at once.

     Rushing back to the space she was left at and throwing herself down, Tikhasis tried to appear as though she'd been there all along. Barely containing her excitement, she watched her owner walk out of the building, holding a Kadoatie out several inches away from her body, with a somewhat bemused expression on her face.

     "Tiki, dear, here's your new, um - friend," she said, handing her the cat-like creature. Tikhasis grinned, accepting the gift with a look of glee.

     "Thank you!" she said, genuinely pleased and excited at her new pet.

     "What's your name?" she questioned the Kadoatie, who peered over at her with an air of aloofness.

     "Aren't you supposed to name me?" drawled the Kadoatie, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

     "Well, I can if you want me to," Tikhasis said, pondering this for a moment and choosing to ignore the attitude. "Have you already been given a name? Maybe we can find one together that we both like?" she said, giving the petpet a questioning look.

     "My name is Siyana," the Kadoatie stated, her tone slightly less guarded.

     "Siyana is such an adorable name!" Tikhasis replied enthusiastically. "My name is Tikhasis, but everyone who knows me calls me Tiki. Kimmi takes care of me, and we live in Neopia Central." Seeing the Kadoatie's somewhat unenthusiastic expression, she continued on. "Don't worry, Siyana; we're going to have a lot of fun!" She then lowered her voice, so that Kimmi could not hear. Tikhasis whispered, "I've got big plans for us," and then grinned, winking at Siyana.

     In those few moments, the two bonded - and grinning back at her new owner, Siyana nodded in understanding that this was to be further discussed at a time when they could be away from Tikhasis's owner. Siyana, like all Kadoaties, thrived on mystery and promise of mischief.

     The three of them arrived back home shortly afterwards, and Tikhasis took Siyana's paw and led her to her bedroom.

     "Welcome to your new home, Siyana. This will be the room of mischief and fun!" she squeaked, running in and jumping on her faerie bed.

     Siyana paused by the door, extremely curious at her owner's new plans, but also breathless at how beautiful this room was.

     "Wow!" Siyana exclaimed. "I don't think I've ever seen so much dark faerie themed furniture in one room, before. You've sure been spoiled!"

     This gave Tikhasis the perfect opportunity to explain her devious plan.

     Tikhasis and Siyana talked for hours, first of Tikhasis's hope that she herself would become faerie, and then of how she'd also hoped for a faerie Kadoatie. She explained her struggle to get her owner to come to terms with the idea of her wanting a Kadoatie, and how her owner had tried to win her over and get her to change her mind with various gifts.

     Siyana agreed wholeheartedly that she was to be on her absolute best behavior around Tikhasis’s owner, as she was really starting to enjoy spending time with her newfound friend, Tikhasis.

     The discussion turned to Tikhasis’s seemingly flawless plan, and Siyana agreed to help with glee - they were going to have so much fun! They decided together that the plan would begin the next day, and after many hours of discussion, they grew tired, and settled into their own beds for a night of well earned rest before the first day of their big plan.

To be continued...