Unpounded

     Well, I was. Until my current owner came along and saved me. I just wanted to tell you my story.

     It all started when my first owner got me. I don't even remember his name. At the time he got me, I was red. He loved me to death, at least that's what he said. We had constantly visited the pound, playing with the animals, trying to cheer them up. We did that every day, and then we went to the soup kitchen to end our day. Since he was new to Neopia, we didn't have much money. Yet, I had so much fun. That is, until he came along.

     It was our three month anniversary when he came. He is Boochi. Boochi the baby Bruce, that is. The legend our owners tell us about. Him, with his baby maker ray gun, or whatever it is. We had finished our daily round to the pound and were on our way to the soup kitchen. My previous owner had turned to admire a ghost paint brush. Ghost was his dream color for me. But onto what happened.

     While he was turned, Boochi shot at me... and he didn't miss. I was a baby. My owner hated babies. He turned to me. I screamed. "Veimey?" he asked. I nodded. "Oh... ok... let's go to the soup kitchen..." He sounded so disappointed in me. And I'm sure he was.

     The next day was bad. I could tell it when my owner said he needed to talk to Dr. Death. He sent me off to talk with my friends at the pound. First I went to my friend Annie. She was the Pink Uni's petpet. She loved fortune telling, so I had her tell my fortune every day. She didn't seem to recognize me though. I wailed and looked at her, hoping that she would realize it was me.

     "Veimey? You're a baby? Well, I can help you with your talking problem. All you have to do is read this." She gave me a copy of Fishing for Zafaras. I read it and suddenly I could talk. I guess all I needed was an intelligence boost.

     "What's my fortune?"

     "It looks grim. Please, do not trust the people."

     I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

     I went over to my friend in the pound. His name was Mellodon and he was an Aisha. A blue one, to be exact. As I was talking to him, someone grabbed me from behind and threw me in Mellodon's cage. I turned around, expecting to see a prankster, but instead I saw Dr. Death. WHAT? My owner couldn't have known about this. Or... could he?

     I had seen owners go and see Dr. Death with a Neopet and return without it. The word was in my head. Abandoned.

     I slept in the pound that night. The next morning, my owner entered. Hooray. What a miracle! I was saved!!!

     Never mind. My old owner walked right past me. He later came out with a Ghost Hissi. How dare him! Just leaves me at the pound for something else! Such a trader.

     But I knew that I wouldn't be in the pound very long because I was a special color. And I was right. Later that day, I was chosen by some eager Neopian. He seemed nice at the time. But he ended up neglecting me. He didn't mean to. It was just him.

     Anyways, right after he adopted me, he took me to the rainbow pool and painted me green. I wasn't a baby anymore! I was big again! I lived with this person for about a month. He always played games and didn't spend much time with me. Then one day, out of the blue, he abandoned me.

     Oh well, he ignored me anyways. Yet it was nice to have a home. I was thrown back in the cage with Mellodon. (Wasn't that luck!) He was even skinnier than before. "Hey, are you okay?" I questioned him.

     "I guess I'm not. You see, I've been acting out a bit here so Dr. Death has been taking my slop away."

     "Slop?" I asked.

     "Dinner. But when he takes away dinner, it doesn't make me hungry. I mean, it's not like we usually get fed dinner anyways," he explained.

     We were there for a while. I would say that we were there for about a month. Life in the pound wasn't enjoyable. We barely got fed enough to live. One day, a girl came in. She said she wanted to foster. The Pink Uni led her to our cage, and she adopted us right away.

     On the way home, this is what she said to us. "Now, I want you two to know that I'm only fostering you. Fostering means making you want able and that I'll only keep you for a little while. You see, all I have to do is give you strong stats and a pretty color, drop you off at the pound, and you'll be adopted faster than you can say Codestone! As in, someone will adopt you very, very quickly."

     I wasn't sure about this. I mean, I had been a magnificent color before. And the odds were never in my favor.

     "However," she went on, "I just maybe, just may keep one of you. Only one." Oh hip hip hooray. Either way, my best friend and I would be separated from one another. Seriously, if we were both painted we'd be picked up by (most likely) different owners. Well, either that or the lady would pick one of us and put the other to rot in the pound until adopted.

     She told me to stay in my new room while she took Mellodon away. When they returned a couple of hours later, Mellodon was an Electric colored Aisha!!! "What did she do to you? You're all, well... electric!!!"

     "I'm just really not sure about what she did to me. You see, she blind-folded me and went somewhere. She took the blindfold off and I was in a laboratory!!! She told me to sit down, I did. And then she zapped me with some giant ray! She blindfolded me and drove back home. And well, now I'm an Electric colored Aisha!"

     The very next day, the lady did the very same to me. Zapped me and instead of becoming a different color, I became stronger. "Wonderful!!! The lab ray made you stronger!" she exclaimed.

     It was like that for two months. We went to the lab ray everyday with the lady and her other pet, a Cloud Uni. One day Mellodon was zapped, and the other day I was zapped. There was everything happening to us, from changing to a totally different species to nothing happening at all. After two months I was a strong, defensive Christmas JubJub. Mellodon was a Pink Uni. "Don't you dare ever speak of this!" he said. Then he left for the zap of the lab ray. He came back an Island Aisha.

     The next day I went in and came out a Yellow Buzz. The day after that, the lady woke us early.

     "Okay, today's the day," she said, "I've picked one of you to stay with me and the other one shall go to the pound. Veimey, you have good stats, so you're likely to get adopted fast. Mellodon, you're a beautiful color, so someone will adopt you fast. So either one of you should get adopted quickly. You two, I've decided to keep...Mellodon."

     I gasped. I was really going to miss my best friend in the world. She took us to the pound where we said our tearful good-byes. "Just don't forgot me, my best friend," Mellodon said.

     "Ditto." I hugged Mellodon until Dr. Death dragged me to a cage. I haven't seen Mellodon since.

     I was back to the pound life. In fact, I was there for a while. It was my first birthday when a young girl came in. She had a Green JubJub with her. I overheard her say in a loud voice, "I'd like to adopt."

     "Just look around," the Pink Uni said in her fake cheery voice. The girl went from cage to cage, passed good colors and amazing stats. Great, I had good stats, so she'd probably go right past me. But she stopped at me cage and looked down at me.

     "Hi..." I said sheepishly.

     "Hey, Kojelica, come here." She waved the Green JubJub over. "What do you think of him?"

     "He seems good. He has a good name, good stats, and a regular color," the JubJub said.

     I blushed. "Thanks."

     "He seems very nice and has good manners!" the girl exclaimed. "Let's get him!" She pulled me out of my cage and brought me to the front desk. After about an hour of paper work, she took me and the JubJub to her home in Maraqua.

     "Welcome, Veimey," she said, "to your new home!" It wasn't very big, but it sure felt nice to be in a home again. "My name is ciahia and the JubJub is Kojelica. We're your new family!" She smiled. "I hope you like it here."

     And I do like it here. Ever since that day I've been living with ciahia and her family. We've done so many fun things. Kojelica was painted baby. Ciahia created a Koi. And overall, I'm in a wonderful life with a wonderful family. I'm unpounded.

The End