Four And A Half Kougras: Sugar And Spice Is Not So Nice

     Grumbling like a Grarrl, she made her way downstairs. The truth of it was Tygura and the other two girls were a little spoiled because Flutes absolutely loved to cook. Morning, noon, and night, he was baking up something special for them, and he was quite good at it. Tygura flicked her tail in annoyance and opened the front door, letting out a yowl of surprise. The cause of the yowl looked up at her curiously, and squeaked in response. A very small chocolate Kougra was perched on their front doorstep, and, to Tygura's annoyance, was dripping chocolate syrup on the morning's neomail.

     "What exactly are you doing here?" Tygura asked, raising an eyebrow. It was not, after all, in her nature to be subtle.

     "I've come to live here! The nice pound Hissi gave me this card and said to come here to find my new home, and my name is Sugar and Cute and--" Tygura placed a paw over the cub's mouth and snatched the card from him while he continued to babble on beneath her paw.

     "Transfer at 11:24 am on the 12th day of the month of Relaxing, please welcome your new housemate...?" Tygura's eyebrow rose further. The month of Relaxing and they send a cub? That's ironic.

     "Look, kid," Tygura said, pushing him backwards off of their now dripping neomail. "There must be some mistake. There's already four neopets living here. You can't be transferred here," she stated with finality. The last thing their house needed was a bouncy cub that dripped chocolate. Though Min would undoubtedly adore the idea.

     "No, the Hissi was quite certain, he said to come to 599 Training School Road! So what is there to eat?" the small Kougra asked as he bounced into the living room. Tygura followed, bristling with irritation. "No, kid, you're confused."

     "Hey, what's this?"

     "Don't TOUCH that!"

     "This is really pretty."

     "Don't touch that either, or-" Tygura flinched as the trophy tumbled off the shelf and cracked down the middle. "You might break it. Great, now I gotta go to Terror Mountain today." She sighed.

     "Terror Mountain? Oh, I've always wanted to go there, can I come?"

     "NO!" Thoroughly exasperated now, Tygura carefully placed the cracked trophy back on the shelf. Flutes was going to be crushed. He'd worked very hard to help the faeries and earn his lovely trophy. Glancing around with horror, Tygura realized she'd lost sight of the cub.

     "Sugar? Darn it, where is Flutes when you need him?" Searching the eerily quiet house, she jumped visibly when she heard a crash from... "MY ROOM!!" Cantering like a Uni up the stairs, she skidded to a halt inside the doorway. The cub was carefully placing her cds back on the shelf, and leaving chocolate covered paw prints on each case in the process. "Stop that! Just stop. And listen to me for a second, kiddo." Taking a deep breath, Tygura struggled to put on a calm parent-like face. Sugar stopped in the process of placing the next cd in the wrong spot and looked at her curiously. "You've mixed it up; this isn't 599... It's 598. And there's probably someone waiting for you one house down, so you should really go see them. You don't belong here."

     Tears filled the small Kougra's eyes at these words and he sat, dripping great caramel tears on the floor. "I don't belong anywhere."

     Tygura sighed. Cubs were so dramatic. And where WAS Flutes when you needed him? He was so much better at this stuff. "Of course you do." She placed a gentle paw on his shoulder. "Look, I'll walk you to your new home, okay? Just quit crying."

     Sugar looked up at her tearfully. "Can't we eat first? I'm awfully hungry."

     "Uh. Yeah, see the thing is, though, kiddo. I don't cook."

     "Oh- I can cook! I love to cook!" The little guy's tail twitched excitedly, and he brightened considerably. Tygura grinned with amusement. Cubs could be so weird.

     "Well. Okay, I guess so. Let's go make some breakfast."

     Quick as a whip the little Kougra shot down the stairs and started digging out bowls and pots. Tygura didn't know how any of the others could possibly sleep through this racket. "What on earth are you making?" Sugar stopped in his digging for a moment and thought.

     "Um, eggs! And sausage, and asparagus!" Tygura wrinkled her nose; she couldn't stand asparagus. The only reason it was in the house was because Flutes liked to eat it; he claimed it was good for you. Ick.

     "Uh, sounds good." She watched as the small Kougra piled all of the now chocolaty cooking utensils on the counter, trying to figure out why he needed four pots and nine frying pans. "Do you want any help?" The little Kougra resolutely shook his head, and proceeded to drop three eggs on the floor.

     Tygura, deciding it would be better to clean up the mess the cub made later, went and retrieved their neomail. Wiping the chocolate off it, she started to go through it, grumbling about the five trade requests Min got. "Why is she so darn popular? She's a wimp." Dropping the requests outside the plushie Kougra's door, she proceeded to deliver everyone else their own mail. "A post card. That's all I get?!" Tygura often received postcards, but she received very little else in the way of neomail.

     Several minutes later a crash erupted from the kitchen and she once again bolted down the stairs to find the little chocolate demon with a pot on his head and eggs burning on the stove. "What did you DO?!"

     "I uh, thought I'd use some spices?"

     "Which spices?" Tygura could feel her face going red as the eggs started to smoke.

     "Um, basil, and cinnamon, and space."

     "Sorry, did you say space?"

     "Yeah!" The cub proudly held up a blue spice shaker. "It says space spice. I thought it looked tasty!" Tygura promptly fainted.

     Awakening several hours later, she found herself in the midst of what looked like a small hurricane. No less than seven eggs had been cracked open on the floor, there was a sausage on the ceiling fan, and somehow asparagus was stuck to the wall. Anything with gravity defying powers like that could not possibly be edible. But there was a plate of burnt sausages and eggs on the counter with a scribbled note beside them, "Thank you for letting me make breakfast here. I had lots of fun with you! I'm going home now." Tygura felt a clenching in her stomach that had nothing to do with the stench of burnt food.

     Gone? Of course he was gone, good riddance. Then why was she suddenly sorry? Tears filled her eyes and she grabbed the mop. She might as well start cleaning up. Exiting the kitchen, she spotted a small brown lump on the living room floor. A smile broke across her face. He must have been tired, to have fallen asleep on the floor on his way to the door. Dropping the mop, she crossed the room and picked him up by the scruff. Flutes's eyes went wide as he came down the stairs and saw the gigantic mess. "What happened here?" Tygura chuckled.

     "We have a new room mate. Have fun cleaning this up. I'm going to tuck him in."

     "But that can't be; we already have four.."

     "Yes, well. He belongs here." And with that Tygura carried the small Kougra to her room to make a bed for him.

The End