Numbers

“I'm never getting out of here.”

      I sighed and looked at the wall where I had scratched a line with my claw everyday. I had been officially in the pound for one year. I sighed again.

      “Hey, Grarrl.”

      I looked up. No one called me by my real name; who wanted to remember a string of numbers, 6453211? The person who had called me was the Lupe who was in the cell next to me. He had been here for four months. He pushed a small, napkin-wrapped package towards my cage. “Happy Anniversary.”

      I picked up the package; it was a small chocolate cookie. “Thanks, Trag.” Trag was short for Tragolors_1230.

      He smiled and curled up in a ball to lie down.

      I munched the cookie silently so as not to attract attention and demands to share from the other pets. I was a typical poundee. A yellow Grarrl, low battle stats, no interesting name, and little chance of getting out. I licked the crumbs off of my claws. The pound wasn't bad all things considered. We were fed, dry, and with other pets. That was more than the pets on abandoned accounts got.

      I slumped down. But then again, it would be nice to be in a real home with a real owner.

***

      “Another pet?!” Dayna shook her head. “I have five already!”

      Ashalyia pulled a frown. “But I want another brother!”

      Dayna threw up her hands. “You have three brothers and only one sister; why another brother?”

      Ash smiled. “They're good protection.”

      Dayna shook her head again and continued to dry the dishes. “So practical, aren't you? No, Ash. I don't need another mouth to feed.”

      Ash sighed and slipped off the counter that she was sitting on. “Oookay.” She began to walk out of the kitchen then stopped at the door. “But you should think on it next time you go by the pound with all of the pictures of pets that need to be adopted. Their sad faces and hopeful eyes.....”

      “Ash!” Dayna threw a towel at her. “Stop that!”

      Ash gave a fanged smile and dashed out of the room.

      “I'm not even going to Neopia Central!” Dayna yelled after her.

      “Where are you going?” Her shadow Lupe, Kanuah, who had just come in the door, asked.

      “Faerieland. I have a faerie quest to complete so I can finally use the Shop Wizard again.”

      “While you're there, can you spin the Wheel of Excitement? Racon is working on our Avatar collection and that one's missing.”

      “Sure.” Dayna grabbed her backpack. “I'll be back about dinner time! Don't let Ash burn down the house.”

      Kanuah smiled. “Will do.”

***

      “Hey, Grarrl.”

      I looked up from the curvy line I had scratched into the floor of my cage. “Yes, Trag?”

      Trag rolled over onto his back. “If you could be any neopet, what would you be?”

      I stopped carving my design. “Any neopet?”

      “Yep!”

      “Hmmm.” I scratched my chin. “Something that could paint and draw, something artistic.”

      “So something with paws?”

      “Yeah.”

      “You should be a Lupe like me.” He smiled smugly.

      “Maybe. But maybe a cool color like Disco or something. Something artistic!”

      Trag laughed. “That would suit you.”

      I sighed and looked at my yellow claws. “Not in this form. There's nothing artistic about being big enough to knock a hole in wall.”

      “You may have a future in demolition, though.” Trag gave a toothy smile.

      “Thank, you're such a pal.”

***

      “Faerie quest, check. Food, check. Look for new tea, check. Poogle race avatar, check. Wheel of Excitement.” Dayna looked at the last item on her list. “No check.” She slung her pack onto her back. “Let's go win something.”

      The Wheel was only a short walk away and Dayna had always liked walking around Faerieland. Walking on clouds was almost as fun as walking on water, and more easily done.

      “Care to try your luck?” The Light Faerie that ran the Wheel winked at Dayna.

      Dayna dug out the price as she ran her eyes over the Wheel. “I like the new look.”

      The Faerie ran her hand over the side of it. “Yeah, the old one was starting to splinter so it needed a makeover.”

      Dayna handed over the shiny coins. “Let's see if it's any luckier.”

      She took hold of the Wheel, spun it, then stepped back. “Please, no question mark. I always seem to get that one.”

      The Wheel spun smoothly on its new center around and around, then stopped.

      The Light Faerie clapped her hands. “You won a potion!”

      “Great,” Dayna thought. “Some lame Battledome two iconer.”

      “Here you go! And have a nice stay!”

      Dayna's jaw dropped. In her hands was a rainbow Ogrin morphing potion! She immediately put it in the very bottom of her pack wrapped in a scarf and pulled out her pocket blaster. “That Pant Devil had another thing coming if he thinks he's going to get his hands on this!”

      She walked quickly back to her racer and was about to take off when she paused. A conversation from earlier floated to the front of her mind.

      “There's a lot of pets in the pound that never get the chance to to be painted anything interesting,” Ash said with a sad face.

      “No, Ash.” Dayna sighed.

      Dayna looked at the pack the held the morphing potion. “I can't believe I'm doing this.”

      She revved up the engine, and flew off to Neopia Central.

***

      “I'll be there in a second!” Rose called from the back of the Adoption room.

      Dayna closed the door behind her. “No worries.”

      Rose pranced up. “Dayna! How are you? Is that for me?”

      Dayna handed her a cup of mint tea from the Coffee Cave. “It is indeed. I already gave Death his favorite Dark Tea.”

      Rose smiled. “Come in, come in. Is Dayith doing well?”

      Dayith was Dayna's Lupe that she had adopted a month ago.

      “Oh, he's rough around the edges, but he's adapting slowly. It helps that two of my pets can outmuscle him when he gets a little wild.”

      Rose sighed. “Well, if any family can smooth out the edges, it's yours. But what brings you here today?”

      Dayna sat down across the counter. “I recently won a morphing potion from the Wheel of Excitement and Ash wants another brother.”

      Rose laughed. “That Aisha of yours could talk Sloth into wearing pink.”

      “Don't give her any ideas. Anyway, I'm here for another pet.”

      Rose beamed. “Music to my ears.”

      “I want to take a pet that no one wants, the type that no one picks because of the color or species. Maybe one that's been here a while.”

      Rose tapped her hoof as she thought. “You know, I think I know just the pet.”

***

      “He's down this hall.”

      I heard Rose open the door and talk softly to someone. There was the sound of four tapping hoofs and two feet. Someone was here to adopt a pet. I curled up in a tighter ball. No one here ever gave me a second look. Why hope now?

      The foot steps got closer and closer and stopped... right outside my cage.

      “Here he is,” Rose said.

      My heart stopped. Was she talking about me?

      Someone tapped on my cage. “Hey, Buddy.”

      I turned around to see who it was. It was a girl with long black hair and a nice smile. She was smiling at me. I gave a shaky grin back.

      She looked at my name plate. “That's quite the name you got there.”

      I bowed my head; no one liked my name.

      “The interesting thing is the first two numbers, see. I happen to have the same ones.”

      I lifted my head. She was holding out her identification card. It said, name: Dayna Solcana, username: Solcana64. 64 was the two first numbers of my name!

      She put away the card and smiled. “I also was wondering that if you got adopted, if you wouldn't mind being morphed.

      I was really interested now. “Into what?” I asked shyly.

      She pulled a bottle out of a backpack. “This.”

      I couldn't believe my eyes; it was a rainbow Ogrin potion!

      “Zoooo! That's just what you wanted!” Trag gasped from the next cage over.

      I gaped at the potion. It was too good to be true.

      “So how about it? Would you like to come home with me? I have five other pets so you would have to share a room, maybe....”

      “Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!” I nodded my scaly head so hard it hurt.

      She smiled. “Good, then let's get you out of here.”

***

      “Drink carefully.” Dayna, my new owner, handed me the potion.

      We were sitting outside the pound on the sidewalk. She had asked me if I wanted to be morphed now or later. Of course I said now.

      I uncorked the potion. It smelled tropical. I downed it. Suddenly my claws changed to paws, my tail grew shorter and softer and two antlers grew out of my head. My scales turned to fur and then, I was a rainbow Ogrin!

      “About your name.”

      I ran a paw over my new mane. “Yes?”

      “How do you feel about 'Numbers'?”

      “Numbers?” I looked up, then smiled. “I like it.”

      She stood up and slung her pack over her shoulder. “Ok, Numbers, let's go home.”

The End