The Tyrannian Shopkeeper Switch

      The following week, as soon as they entered, both of them were shocked to see a Tyrannian Kacheek manning the store, although Verusha was more shocked than Yoris was. There had been no warning whatsoever about the change and it did not seem like the old shopkeeper was having any problems. Verusha turned her attention towards Yoris.

      “Something terrible must have happened to the regular shopkeeper, so it’s up to us to find the truth,” she cried out before dashing towards the new shopkeeper. Yoris groaned.

      “Oh no, not again. You always jump to conclusions without finding any credible proof or making a fool of yourself,” he cried out, but his words were lost in the dust.

      “WHERE IN NEOPIA IS THE REGULAR SHOPKEEPER?” Verusha shouted to the new shopkeeper in Tyrannia. He was confused, trying to tell her the situation, but he was constantly interrupted by her.

      As Verusha became more and more agitated with the shopkeeper’s response, she did the unthinkable and began throwing a hissy fit, crying that she wanted the old shopkeeper back. Yoris had to rush in and drag her away, quickly apologizing to the shopkeeper for the disruption and telling him that he’d be back later.

      As soon as they were far away from the shop and back at their Neohome in Terror Mountain, Yoris calmed Verusha down to the best of his ability. He was successful, although she was still crying a little. He took the opportunity to address her.

      “Verusha, you’ve got to understand that change is inevitable. Give it a rest already,” he told her, quickly regretting saying that to her. He knew that she knew, but wondered if she understood what had happened.

      “Yoris, I will not rest until I find the truth to this mystery. It is obvious that he had been kidnapped,” she snapped. He tried reasoning with her, giving her logical explanations for the disappearance of the old shopkeeper, to no avail. Then he saw the glint in her eyes. He knew he was defeated.

      “It looks like it’s time for Verusha, the Master Detective, to get to the bottom of this,” she said triumphantly as she grabbed her Orange Plaid Lenny Newsboy Hat and a magnifying glass. “Come on, let’s look for clues.”

      “Oh boy, here we go again,” Yoris muttered. “I always hate it when she goes into her ‘Master Detective’ mode.”

      Yoris shook his head in shame when he saw Verusha enter the Tyrannia Food Shop through one of the windows. He did not follow her, instead taking the front door. He did not like how this was going. After he entered, he was stunned when he saw her open the door to the storeroom.

      “Verusha, please, stop this madness. Do you want us to be kicked out from the store or possibly banned from it permanently?” he pleaded. “I really don’t like where this is going at all.”

      The Lenny silenced him with a menacing glare before continuing searching the storeroom. There was no way for Yoris to stop her from doing her ‘investigation’, so he sighed and went out, bumping into the new storekeeper on the way. The storekeeper was not happy.

      He tried to explain the situation in Tyrannian, but the storekeeper did not listen. Instead, Yoris found himself being picked up by the scruff of the neck before being tossed out of the store. He landed hard into the ground after flying for several metres. Before he could get and brush the dirt off, Verusha came flying out of the store and drove him deeper into the soil when she landed on him. After getting up, she pulled Yoris out. He spat the dirt out before giving his friend a dirty look.

      “Nice going there, ‘Master Detective’,” he mockingly said to her. “Now can you please stop this so that we can continue with our normal lives?”

      “No way, Yoris. It was obvious that when that shopkeeper threw us out, he was hiding something. I will not stop until this case is closed.”

      “It was your recklessness that got us into trouble, remember? Besides, you could have politely asked the shopkeeper himself instead of snooping around in his store, looking for clues that do not exist.”

      “He never said anything, no matter how many times I asked. Doesn’t that seem strange to you at all?”

      “Not unless you were constantly interrupting him with your yelling, so you never gave him a chance to explain the situation. Sometimes I wonder if your brain is full of dung when you dash into action without thinking about the consequences.”

      “Well, we must continue probing until we find the answer. Let’s go ask some other Neopians.”

      “I don’t think they will talk to us anymore because you scared them away.” He pointed out to the empty landscape. There were still a few Neopians floating around, but they quickly fled or hid themselves in the vegetation after Verusha spotted them. She responded that there were always the Tyrannian elders that they could talk to.

      He did not want to see his friend make a fool out of herself even more when she talked to the elders, so he picked up a nearby rock and bashed it into her head, knocking her out cold. As he picked up her unconscious body and took her home, he quickly apologized for his harsh action. As soon as she was placed in her bed, he left for the Tyrannian Town Hall.

      He waited several hours before he was allowed in. After Kyruggi the Tyrannian Kyrii elder granted him permission to speak, he asked the question about the Tyrannia Food Shopkeeper in Tyrannian. The elders whispered among themselves, surprised that such a question was asked. He nervously waited for several minutes before the elders came up with an answer.

      “Young one, let your friend know about this situation. The old shopkeeper deemed himself too old to continue to work, so he retired from his job a couple of days ago. We had to find his replacement as quickly as possible so that we would not be forced to shut down the shop and cause an uproar among our people. If the Tyrannia Food Shop were to be closed, there would have been a longer that usual lineup at the Giant Omelette and barely anyone understands our language, so they cannot venture out to the other locations in order to get food. Please understand the situation that we were in,” Kyruggi responded after the deliberations. Yoris nodded and apologized again for the mess that Verusta created.

      When he returned, he checked on his friend. She was just waking up.

      “Ugh, what happened?” she asked, clutching her head.

      “Well, you were running so fast that you completely missed the Town Hall and smashed yourself into the nearby cliffs. I suggest that you take it easy for now and get some rest so that you could recover from your nasty injuries that you sustained from that crash,” he lied.

      “But what about the Tyrannian elders?”

      “Don’t worry, I’ve already taken care of it. It was just the old shopkeeper retiring due to his age, so a replacement was hired. I’m sure you’ll get used to it, eventually.”

The End