Gadsgadsbogen Mysteries

     Moonstripe groaned, throwing her pillow at the door, however not with enough energy even to reach it. "Please Zig, just five more minutes. I promise I'll be up, okay?"

     "Stripe, you never get up when you say you will. You're the laziest sister I've ever seen."

     The groggy baby Kougra groaned again, more indignantly this time. She listened for Zigrunzag's footsteps, and she was glad to not hear them. Good, she thought to herself. At least he's not gonna come in here and yank me out of bed. I'm not getting out until he makes me.

     Suddenly Moonstripe was lifted up; she opened her eyes suddenly to see that her brother was pulling her out of bed by her feet.

      "Leggo! I'll get out of bed, I will, I promise!" She grabbed at her pillow, which to her dismay was not a suitable anchor against the towering blue Lupe. Zigrunzag suddenly dropped her, and she fell upon the soft bedspread with a creaking of springs. "Hey!" she shouted. "Don't do that! You could've hurt me!"

     Her brother grinned. "Hurt you? Yeah, hurt you by dropping you one whole foot onto a dangerous blanket that might have broken your leg. Come on, we're going to be late if you don't hurry up and get ready for the festival."

     Moonstripe rubbed her eyes. Although she had the most evil brother in the world, Gadsgadsbogen was definitely the light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel being this morning and her brother being a steamroller inside the tunnel trying to run her over.

     Moonstripe felt her Angelpuss Melodi alight on her shoulder as she jumped out of bed. She stood on the ground for a few seconds, too tired to walk. Yawning, she squinted over at her digital clock on the bureau. "6:00?!" she said with indignation, her voice hoarse. "But I went to bed at 9:30! How come you're making me wake up so early?"

     "I wouldn't usually make you but Gadsgadsbogen gets incredibly crowded as the day goes on. As it is, by the time we get there half the berries will be gone.

     Moonstripe dragged herself out of the bedroom and into the hallway, where her sister Pufftzi was yanking on the closet door. "What's wrong?" Moonstripe asked.

     "It's this stupid door, always gets stuck. My Gadsgadsbogen hat is in there, the one from last year. They're limited edition, I've got to wear it to the festival." She yanked the doorknob one more time, and it fell off in her hand. Pufftzi rolled backwards and bumped her head on the other end of the hall. "Aurrghhh!" she shouted. Sometimes I just hate being a JubJub; at least you don't roll around all the time."

     Pufftzi looked at Moonstripe again. "Oh, heh, sorry! Good mornin' Stripe." She scratched Melodi under her chin and behind her ears. The plushie Angelpuss flew up to Pufftzi, purring. "Well, come on Stripe, we have to hurry or we'll get there late." The sisters ran downstairs, wolfed down a breakfast entirely consisting of fruit (a traditional way of celebrating Gadsgadsbogen morning), and ran out the door. Zig was already there.

     "Come on, we're going to be late if you don't hurry!" Zig shouted at his sisters as they walked outside. Pufftzi closed the door behind them. Stripe blinked her eyes in the bright morning light. "I don't see why we have to walk," she said. "Why can't we just take a cab or something?

     "Because the festival is only a few minutes walk from here," Zig replied. "You should be glad we don't live over on Terror Mountain, we'd have to take a plane to get here."

     Eventually they found themselves by a tall sign: GADSGADSBOGEN FESTIVAL TODAY! Everyone got out, and Zig handed the driver some Neopoints. "Wait," said Pufftzi, "You can't bring Melodi, she'll get lost." Moonstripe looked at her Angelpuss, who was perched on top of the sign, looking down at them.

     "Rats!" Moonstripe said. "I meant to leave her at home, but I was in such a hurry (her voice grew louder) because Zig was shouting at me so much." The blue Lupe looked over at her.

     "Hey! Well you were taking forever to wake up. Don't blame me. Come on, let's go get some fruit, just be sure not to lose Melodi, okay?" Moonstripe nodded, inside she was actually pleased for getting to bring her petpet along. Everyone set off in different directions, Moonstripe heading for the rows of interesting new fruits that had popped up overnight. She saw so many! There was one that looked robotic; it made a clicking noise every few seconds. Another one kept changing colour, and there was one that was floating, it was attached only by its stem. A few had broken loose already, Moonstripe pulled one off and set it free, watching it drift away. Wow, Moonstripe thought, there are so many cool fruits! I wonder what they taste like. She suddenly spotted a small group of berries that were the strangest of all. They looked like normal berries, they were all either red, blue, yellow, or green, but somehow the young Kougra couldn't take her eyes off them. She suddenly stuck her arm out and grabbed a red one. She stared at it, her eyes glowing. She impulsively took a bite, and soon she had eaten the whole thing.

     Moonstripe smiled contentedly, for it was the best tasting berry she had ever eaten! It was sweeter than the ripest chocato, and juicier than a juicy berry that was filled to the brim. It was delicious, and she closed her eyes to savour the taste. The young Kougra felt dizzy, so she sat down on the ground. She then felt like she was spinning around and around, and she got faster and faster and dizzier and dizzier until she felt like she was in a tornado whirling and turning and… she screamed, and opened her eyes to see she was lying on the ground. She stood up, and almost immediately fell back down, hitting her head on the ground. She pushed herself up slowly, and was amazed to she that she was taller than she had been before. She looked at herself and screamed again.

     Her body was no longer that of a baby Kougra, she was red and had a long tail. She had pointed ears and a ring of fur around her neck. She was a red Usul. She fainted.

     Moonstripe woke up and noticed Melodi was licking her. She stood up and balanced herself, trying to walk. Melodi followed close behind, and Moonstripe sat down on a bench with the word "Gadsgadsbogen!" written on it. "Oh no," she said. "How did I become an Usul? It's just… weird. A thought struck her. "Great! Now my siblings won't even recognize me. I'll just be stuck like this, and if I tell them who I am they probably won't believe me." Moonstripe sat there, thinking, while Melodi fell asleep. She looked up later to see that Zigrunzag was in a row of berries nearby her! A wave of relief came over her as she ran up to her brother (actually she crawled mostly, it was hard to run when she wasn't used to being tall). "Zig! Zig! Help! It's me, Moonstripe! Help me!"

      The Lupe looked over at her with an expression that clearly said, "Okay, whoever you are, you're scaring me. I'll just back away slowly," and he did. Moonstripe didn't bother following him. He would never believe her. No fruit had ever been grown before that changed you like this- a morphfruit. Melodi flew up to the confused Usul, and rubbed against her. Moonstripe smiled weakly, and a glint of determination appeared in her eye. "Well, maybe I can't convince him who I am. But I can find out how to change back to my normal self at least."

     Moonstripe carefully walked around the island, looking for a berry that might change her back. She tried almost everything she saw. Some berries tasted delicious, some disgusting, some tasted like nothing, some deflated when she bit into them, some seemed to move away from her mouth when she tried to eat them. But nothing worked. Nothing even changed her at all, besides the fact that after this excursion she felt a good deal fuller than before. She glanced around, and her eyes widened. Right nearby was the Island Mystic's Hut, with a sign at the front that said, "Free Fortunes On Gadsgadsbogen!"

     Moonstripe grinned at Melodi, who looked back at her with wide, staring eyes. The Usul with the heart of a Kougra dashed up to the door to see a long line. She sighed, this was important. She pushed through the crowd, and felt a hand on her shoulder. An old Mynci said, "You can't go cuttin th' line, we've all been waitin' fer a long time, and you just came 'ere. Wait'n line."

     Moonstripe gathered up her courage and said, "Sir, I really need to. I'm sorry if I'm taking up your time, but this is a life and death situation I have here." Okay, so maybe she was exaggerating just a little, but this was important.

     The Mynci frowned. "Okay, fine, I'll let ya off. But I'm telling ya, if ya go cuttin any other lines, you'll be facin' th' consequences."

     The Usul nodded nervously, and made her way to the Mystic. "You will be trodden on by a herd of stampeding Pterii," he told an orange Wocky. "But that doesn't make very much since," the Wocky said confusedly. "Next!" shouted the Mystic, ignoring him. Moonstripe ran up.

     "Uh, Mr. Mystic…person, I have a problem," she said. "See, I-"

     "You will slowly decide to stop wearing a hat," said the tired Kyrii. "Next!"

     "Sir, I know that you don't have very much time but I really need to ask you something. See, there was this berry, and-"

     The Island Mystic looked up at her with an exhausted expression on his face. "I'm sorry, but I have a really long line of people who want fortunes, if you haven't noticed. I'd like to help but I'm really short on time."

     "But it turned me into an Usul!" Moonstripe cried. "I used to be a baby Kougra, and now I'm an Usul!" The Mystic looked at her. "Listen, there is no such thing as a berry that does that. If there was I would have heard of it. Next!"

     Moonstripe angrily left the small hut, meeting her Angelpuss outside. "I can't believe he didn't help me!" she shouted. "All that for nothing!" She looked around and noticed the berry patch that had changed her into an Usul in the first place. The berries didn't have the same hypnotizing appearance as before. Moonstripe picked one off the vine, and looked at it. She noticed that it had a strange mark on it, kind of like the silhouette of an Usul. It looked just like the one she had eaten before, only blue. Suddenly a thought came to her: if she could find one that had the silhouette of a baby Kougra, maybe she could be changed back to normal! She searched and searched, but didn't find anything. There were some berries with Kougra silhouettes, but no baby Kougras. She sat down irritably, and threw a berry at the ground in frustration. The berry landed with a thump, and it wasn't a baby Kougra berry, unsurprisingly. But when she looked at is closely, it really didn't look like anything. She looked all over the berry, and there was no mark on it anywhere. Excitedly, Moonstripe looked over it one last time, and bit into it.

     Moonstripe felt dizzy. But this time she was prepared, so she closed her eyes and braced herself for the tornado that was coming. She swirled around, getting faster and faster until… well, she didn't know exactly how it ended, but she just found herself lying on the ground a few seconds later. Slowly she got up, and the first thing she noticed was that she could stand easily. She was only a few feet tall, and as she looked down, she saw the body of a baby Kougra herself. Stunned, a smile slowly broke across her face, and she ran around the whole berry patch whooping and hollering, and she managed to scare quite a few Neopets who wondered why this strange Kougra had suddenly gone insane. As she caught her breath, Moonstripe noticed a blue Lupe who was picking up one of the floating berries and examining it. "Zig!" Moonstripe shouted. "Hey Zig! I'm over here!"

     Her brother looked over at her. "Uh, okay, so you're over there, I can see you. Why are you shouting? Is something wrong?"

     "Aren't you glad to see me?" Moonstripe said.

     "What do you mean?" he replied. "Is something wrong?"

      "Oh, uh, never mind, nothing," Moonstripe replied. "I'm tired, can we go home soon?"

      Zigrunzag looked up. "Well, I guess it is getting dark, and there aren't very many berries left. Let's go find Pufftzi."

      Moonstripe sighed, and she picked up Melodi, who was munching a berry. She noticed a group of young Acaras walk into a berry patch. "Well, I guess it's time to go," she said smiling. "Come on Melodi." The two ran up to Zig.

     "Oh, there's Pufftzi," he said, looking at a souvenir stall nearby. "Hey Puff! Come here, we're leaving."

     Suddenly, there was a chorus of screams, and Moonstripe turned around to see a group of young Neopets run out of the berry patch, each with different species. None of them were Acaras. "Woah, what was that?" Zig said, surprised.

     "Oh, nothing, I bet," Moonstripe said, grinning at Melodi. "They must be crazy."

The End