Danae's Regret

      Her smooth velvet dress rippled in the current of the wind as passers-by turned to stare at the beautiful Royal Aisha who was parading down the pathway. She turned her nose up at them and continued on her way back to her marble Neohome.

      Her owner, Caressa, had adopted her when she was but a pitiful Red Aisha living on the streets. She had raised her with a loving but firm hand, and had painted her the beautiful color of Royal when she had finally gotten enough Neopoints.

      Even though she herself had used to live on the streets, she did not care for the pets that did now. She had forgotten the urgency of her hunger, her poverty. That melancholy memory was swallowed by pride and a good life with Caressa.

      When Danae arrived at her 49-room Neohome, the teenage girl with brown hair and green eyes was sitting in a wooden rocking chair, sipping some hot chocolate with her nose buried in the Neopian Times.

      "Hi Caressa!" said Danae, before hurrying up to her room and taking off her pointed hat and laying it on her pink vanity desk. She lay down on her great, fluffy bed and was soon asleep.

      When she woke up, the sound of Caressa bustling around downstairs made her surprised that it hadn't woken her up sooner. She hurried down the large, twining staircase of their house and saw Caressa standing by the door, holding her purse.

      "Where are you going?" asked Danae suspiciously.

      "Why, I was just going to get another pet, of course!" said Caressa gleefully.

      "WHAT? Another pet?? I won't let you!" cried Danae, flinging herself in front of her owner, who was just about to go out of the mahogany door.

      "Come on, Danae!" said Caressa, sighing. "I spoil you way too much. I am going to get another pet and there's nothing you can do about it!" she pushed past Danae and out of the door.

      "I don't want another pet in the house! I-I'll run away!" Danae yelled at Caressa's retreating back. Her owner did not reply.

      Danae ran up the stairs and grabbed a beautiful pink velvet bag that Caressa had made for her and stuffed her blanket, her pillow, a container of blush, some lipstick, a bit of eyeliner, a brush, a pair of beige cotton pants and a baggy orange shirt of the same material that she used to wear when she was a Red Aisha, and a large pink handkerchief.

      Then she dashed downstairs and filled the bag the rest of the way with as many Neopoints as she could fit as well as some chocolate bars and veggies. Danae grabbed her luxurious purple cape from on a hook in the marble entryway and was just about to exit the house with her cape and the pink velvet bag when a shrill barking noise sounded.

      "Lanza!" Danae exclaimed and hurried back to her Pink Doglefox's Snowager bed. The Doglefox leaped onto her shoulder. He sat there and cocked his head at her. "Let's go. I'm leaving this place. Caressa says that she's going to get another pet. That means I have to deal with a rotten sibling! And that means you will have to deal with a rotten Petpet!"

      "Arf, arf!" agreed Lanza enthusiastically.

      Danae quickly squeezed the Snowager Petpet bed into her pink velvet bag and then donned her cape and slung the pink bag over the shoulder that didn't have the Doglefox on it. She then ran blindly out of the house and into an alleyway that was near to the food shop and she set up camp.

      She unfolded the blanket and placed the pillow on top of it and the Petpet bed beside the makeshift bed. Then she used an upturned garbage can as a table to put her food on. She quickly put the handkerchief underneath the metal can and then stored all of her food under there. Her clothing, cosmetics and Neopoints went into three separate cardboard boxes.

      Danae erected a crude shelter from the rain and snow out of cardboard boxes propped up on sticks. They shielded her whole campground from the sunlight, so she wouldn't be blinded from its blazing light.

      "Well, Lanza, at least now I won't have to deal with another dumb sibling!" remarked Danae happily, looking up at the cardboard boxes.

      "Arf, arf!"

     ~()~

      After a while, Danae was no longer able to buy food with the amount of Neopoints that she had collected from her house that day that she had left. She was getting scruffy and filthy, and was attracting more attention than she had when she was clean and healthy.

      She adamantly refused to visit the Soup Faerie, despite Lanza's nudging whenever the pair of them walked past the large building shaped like a black cauldron.

      Suddenly, a horrible idea popped into Danae's head. Why don't I rob people's houses so that I can get Neopoints? I could make a living that way.

      Why not? It would be easy, if she accidentally on purpose crashed into someone with a common paint brush like red, green, blue or yellow and then fall into the Rainbow Pool. She would certainly be less conspicuous than a Royal Aisha robbing houses. And she could do that often so that her color would always change and no one would know that it was the same Aisha who was robbing the houses, because each few times, her color would change!

      "Lanza, the next time you see me, I won't be a Royal Aisha, okay?" she whispered, bending down beside her Doglefox. Another idea rushed into her head. Why don't I get Lanza to do the same thing that I'm doing?

      "Lanza, you're coming to the Petpet Puddle with me, okay? You go and bump into someone with a common-colored Petpet paint brush and then fall into the Petpet Puddle. Got that?" she whispered quickly.

      "Arf, bow-wow, ruff!" said Lanza, nodding his not-for-long-anymore pink and white head.

      "Good. We'll split up, and I'll go my way, you go yours and meet me back here, okay?"

      "Ruff!" said Lanza.

      "Good luck!" said Danae quickly, before running in the direction of the Rainbow Pool, muttering "I sure hope that this is going to work."

      The Royal Aisha came up to the Rainbow Pool. Owners with their pets stood there, looking happily at the glittering, flowing water in the pool. A beautiful rainbow shot upward, out of the peaceful water and into the clear blue sky.

      Danae looked around for a good paint brush that she could accidentally on purpose run into. She spotted a young boy holding a yellow one in one hand, and his Lupe's collar in the other. That would be her target, she decided.

      Okay, I'm just going to swagger all over the place and bump into him and then trip and topple into the pool. Danae put one foot forward, and swung her arms which made her sway, and put her other foot forward. She was walking at crazy angles, but she was veering towards the boy. She finally hit him and some of the yellow paint was rubbed off onto her cheek. Danae swerved sharply and fell into the Pool. A heavenly feeling came over her as the waters of the Rainbow Pool worked their magic. She staggered out of the pool, her orange hair now gone.

      She came up to her area in the alleyway to find a Faerie Doglefox waiting for her. "Lanza!" she said, grinning.

      "Arf!" said Lanza.

      "Whatever. You're Faerie! I thought I said that you should choose a common color."

      Lanza's wing-tips drooped and he looked forlorn.

      "Forget it! You can fly, and that's good," laughed Danae. "Now, who should we rob first?"

      "Ruff! Grrr, ruff!" growled Lanza, and he jabbed a paw at the large marble mansion that Danae used to call home.

      "Great idea! I know that Caressa is always gone during the day, and she probably leaves that brat of hers in a daycare or something so it doesn't starve," figured Danae. "So that means the best time to break in would be…"

      "Ruff!" barked Lanza.

      "…Right now!" cried Danae, and she ran towards the manor, with Lanza right behind her.

      First, she got Lanza to fly up and look in all of the windows to see if the new pet was there. When the Faerie Doglefox finally landed, he nodded his head, saying that there were indeed people in there.

      "Good," said Danae gleefully. "I'm planning to be an Aisha-burglar, so I can get into her house and rob it without her knowing. Now, I know all of the ways Caressa tried to protect her house, and I've also figured out how to get in."

      "Grf?" asked Lanza.

      "Yes, really," Danae told her Doglefox. "What we have to do is…"

     ~()~

     When Danae had finished telling Lanza her plan, he nodded and scurried away, his petite paws slapping against the hard-packed soil of Caressa's garden.

      Danae slunk quickly to the back door and nosed it open like she used to always do. She was soon inside the house, and she looked around. Caressa had sure changed things since she had last been here. All of the pictures of the beautiful Royal Aisha that she had been before had been taken down and in their place pictures of an infuriatingly cute Plushie Aisha had been erected.

      Caressa had always liked Aishas. But how could she have gotten a Plushie one so quickly? Suddenly, it dawned on Danae. Caressa must have been hiding a Plushie Paint Brush or something like that in her Safety Deposit Box!

      She heard the sounds of metal clanking on china, so she quickly hid in the dusty, grimy store cupboard under the winding stairway.

      "That was a great meal, Caressa!" chirped a kind, shrill voice.

      "Thank you, Isaura," replied her former owner's voice. It seemed a little wearier, a deeper, throatier voice. Somehow, Danae thought it sounded sadder, more melancholy.

      "Now can you tell me more about that other pet that you had? You know, the Royal Aisha who ran away?" asked Isaura.

      "My guess is that you mean Danae?" asked Caressa.

      "The one and only!" piped Isaura.

      Danae felt rather stupid. She had run away for her own silly reasons. It was nothing more than another sibling! There was no need for her to go back out on the streets when she could live with Caressa and Isaura again!

     And Caressa apparently still loved her, for she started the story with "The day my dear Danae departed-"

     "Ooh, I love alliterations!" squealed Isaura gleefully.

     "As I said, when she left, it was because she didn't want to share the house with another Neopet. She was used to being the only pet and another pet in the house was just an abstract thought to her. So she did the only thing that she could: Run away.

     "I was very disappointed when I returned with you. Danae was not there. When I had left, she had been very angry with me and she threatened to run away. I did not think that she would really do it, though. But she did.

     "And she took all of her things with her. When I looked in her room - your room now - all of her personal things were taken away. Her Pink Doglefox, Lanza, had also disappeared, as well as Lanza's Petpet bed. Nothing of hers was left, except for her hat. But it suddenly disappeared quite recently. One day the glass cabinet was holding her leftover hat, and the next day, it was empty! I wonder if she sneaked in and stole it back from us."

     Caressa sighed, and Isaura sighed too. "I want to meet her. She sounds like she's nice," said the Plushie Aisha. "Maybe she'll come back."

     "I doubt it, dear," said Caressa very sadly. "I think that she'll never come back."

     "But if she does, will she have to have her room in some other room or will she have to share it with me?" questioned Isaura innocently.

     "She can definitely have her room in another part of the house, don't you worry, dear," cooed Caressa.

     This was all too much for Danae. She burst out of the cupboard and ran out of the house, sobbing. She ran all of the way to the Rainbow Pool where she and Lanza were supposed to meet. He was there, and he was holding Caressa's prized possession: a Battle Faerie amulet.

     "No, Lanza, give it back to her, give it back," sobbed Danae, collapsing onto the grass. Then she stood up and ran towards her hiding place. She quickly packed all of her things into two cardboard boxes and stood them at the end of the alleyway. When Lanza came scampering up, a bag in his jaws, Danae burst out into tears again.

     "I ran away and she still loved me," she cried. "Why did I run away? Why did I do that?"

     Lanza nudged her affectionately with his cold nose and dropped the bag onto the cold stone of the ground.

     "What's that?" asked Danae, eying the bag warily.

     "Grf, arf, ruff, ruff grf!" exclaimed Lanza and ripped the bag open. There, on the ground, was a beautiful red velvet cushion with a Royal Paint Brush on it!

     "Lanza, how did you get that?" asked Danae gleefully.

     "Ruff, gruff, arf!" barked Lanza.

     Danae's eyes widened. "From Caressa's Safety Deposit Box? Wow, I never knew that she had another one."

     Lanza hurried towards the Rainbow Pool. Danae followed, clutching the Royal Paint Brush. She swabbed herself with it before diving gracefully into the Rainbow Pool and emerging like a wraith, her velvet dress, conical hat and hair all slicked down. She shook herself and beads of magical water flew all over the place. Then she came up to the Petpet Puddle and quickly grabbed a Pink Petpet Paint Brush from the back pocket of some unwary owner.

     "Come on, Lanza!" called Danae. Lanza came running and he grabbed the Paint Brush in his mouth and dove into the Petpet Puddle. When he emerged, his wings were no longer there, and his fur was that familiar dazzling pink. "Go back and get the two cardboard boxes by the entry of the alleyway," commanded Danae.

     "Arf, arf!" said Lanza. He scooted away while Danae strode up to the marble manor that she used to call home.

     "Caressa!" she cried.

     Her owner's pale face appeared at the window beside the door. When she saw who it was, Danae was sure that her owner had screamed with pure delight. Isaura came skidding up to see what this was all about. When she saw the Royal Aisha on their doorstep, she cried "Caressa, is this really Danae?"

     Caressa flung open the door and Danae burst in, crying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she collapsed into a heap on the floor, still crying that one contraction and one word until it turned into an endless moan.

     "Danae! Is that really you?" asked Isaura excitedly.

     Danae looked up with red, swollen eyes and nodded.

     "Can we keep her?" asked Isaura, wide-eyed, to Caressa.

     "Of course we can, you silly plushie!" cried Caressa, pleasure and giddiness taking over.

     "Isaura is already sleeping in my room," mumbled Danae. "Can I choose where I sleep?"

     "Of course you can!" exclaimed Caressa.

     "Cool! Lanza's bringing my stuff, so he'll be a while."

     "Hey, Danae, can you tell me your story? Caressa could only tell me the part that she knew," queried Isaura eagerly.

     "Um…" said Danae.

     "Come on!" piped in Caressa. "I want to know, for one, how you knew that Isaura is having her room in your room."

     "Come on, I guess. I'll tell you everything."

The End