The Evil of Carassa

      The little baby Kougra went out of her way to annoy the mutant, who was much easier to get worked up than her other, much shyer brother. Her sister Faith was cool, and the baby looked up to her, and so of course she would not deign to get on the older sister's nerves.

      Today, however, she was much too tired. Bluestar the baby Kougra had been running around playing with her neighborhood friends all day, terrorizing the citizens of Meridell as the three of them ran rampant across the fields.

      Now, however, the young Neopet was lying down in her bed, her eyelids growing quite heavy as she pulled her blanket up under her neck.

      "I need a story! I want a story! You have to tell me a story!" she yelled loudly.

      A few moments elapsed and when nobody walked through her doorway with a storybook in hand she became even more angry. "REDTAIL! I NEED A STORY OR I WON'T STOP SCREAMING, NOT EVEN IF KING SKARL HIMSELF COMES KNOCKING!"

      Bluestar's anger disappeared as the mutant swept into her room, a scowl on his face, his Mutant Cape trailing behind him.

      "Alright, alright, I'll tell you a Fyora-forsaken story. Now shut your mouth," he growled lightly.

      Redtail's rainbow Hermiteese had entered the room behind him, and now tapped him thrice upon the back of his paw, glaring up at her Neopet with disapproving eyes.

      Her brother pulled a Purple Coral Bean Bag up beside the bed and sank into it, his Petpet curling up in his lap as he did so. Bluestar turned onto her side and looked down at Redtail, and she stuck her thumb in her mouth, a bad habit that she had.

      "Alright," Redtail said, smiling as he thought of a story that would frighten the young child. "Let me tell you the true nature of the Chia Carassa."

      Everyone knows the Chias Carassa and Mika, the kind Neopians who own the igloo up at the top of Terror Mountain, where they have a small little Garage Sale. If you've ever been up there yourself, you would know how kind and warm they both are.

      But nobody knows the true nature of the yellow Chia Carassa.

      On one such busy day, Mika sent Carassa up into the attic to get more supplies. The igloo was built in such a way that Carassa could throw items down to Mika instead of running up and down the stairs with armfuls of goods. As Carassa was rooting through the many boxes of items she caught sight of an odd looking thing; as she neared it, she found it was a large black bomb.

      With the ghost of a plan lighting up inside her head, she grabbed the bomb and lit the fuse. She called down to Mika and dropped the object to the bottom floor of the Igloo. Now, Mika barely ever missed an item when it was tossed down, always catching even the heaviest Battle Weapons. But this time Mika missed, and hurriedly slid across the icy floor of their igloo to the object. It exploded, causing minimal damage to their little house.

      "Woo, what was that?!" Mika exclaimed. "Seems like we have some faulty battle magic, huh, Carassa?!"

      Carassa became angry that her plan hadn't worked. And to think, she had been so close! With Mika gone she would run their Igloo Garage Sale, and reap all the benefits without having to split the profit between the two.

      So, Carassa began to get bolder, and she dragged a large piano to the hole in the top story of the igloo. With a grunt of exertion she pushed it over the edge, hoping beyond hope that Mika would be paying too little attention to notice the large falling instrument.

      Ah, but he did! Skidding out of control on the icy floor he windmilled his arms chaotically, knocking his body against the opposite side of their igloo.

      "Ouch!" Carassa heard the exclamation. "Oh, Carassa, you would never guess what I just did! And oh, what a mess we've made. It might be a little more than eight minutes for us to restock."

      Carassa couldn't believe the blue Chia's luck! How could he have avoided such a large piano dropping from the sky? It didn't make sense. Carassa was doing something wrong, or she would own the Garage Sale by now.

      Carassa has tried many times, throwing all manner of deadly items from the hole in the attic floor, yet somehow, someway, Mika always manages to avoid the dangers. Some believe he has faerie magic protecting him, others say he has a completed Lutari Talisman that he keeps with him at all times, and still others say it is simply because he is lucky or more intelligent than Carassa.

      And though Carassa hasn't done anything too extreme yet, there is no telling what she will do if she does. But Carassa is no fool, and knows that there is not much more she can do to get rid of Mika without attracting the attention of every other Neopian on the Mountain. It's only a matter of time.

      Redtail rose from the Bean Bag, scooping his dozing Hermiteese in his arms. Bluestar, however, was still awake. She stared up at her brother with wide eyes.

      "Is that true? Is Carassa really like that?" she asked fearfully.

      Redtail snorted, amused by the baby's foolishness. Was it true, she wondered. The mutant almost laughed aloud.

      "We will never know," he answered, struggling to keep the derision from his voice.

      With that he strode across the room, and standing in the doorway he flicked off the lights. "Now get to bed," he growled.

      Bluestar sat in the dark room, twisting and turning in bed. Finally, unable to shake away the thought of an evil yellow Chia dropping pianos on her head, she pulled herself out of bed. She nearly screamed in terror as she felt a weight fall upon her head. She realised, almost too late, that it was her own Petpet, the Halloween Huggy named Fang.

      "Oh, Fang, you crazy little thing. Are you trying to get yourself injured?!" she whispered to him, grabbing the Petpet and hugging him close. Fang yipped lightly, and Bluestar took it to be him telling her everything was alright.

      She smiled to herself and exited her bedroom, ever so slowly shutting the door behind her so it didn't make any noise. She glanced up the hall, then down the other way. The dark pervaded every little nook and cranny. She could only make out the dark shadows that fell across the walls. A painting here, a doorway there. Bluestar began to make her way left down the hall, creeping through the corridor on tip-paw.

      The kitchen, which was attached to the family room, was much, much brighter. The entire back wall was glass, and her irresponsible brother hadn't pulled the shades. Bright silver moonlight invaded the room, making Bluestar feel safe.

      She walked into the kitchen and set Fang down upon the counter. She scrabbled up beside him, struggling to pull her weight up with her skinny little arms. She stood on her hind legs, opening a cabinet that touched the ceiling. Inside she found cans of baby food, but she didn't want any of that now. Bluestar grunted in annoyance.

      The baby hopped down, making a small noise as her large paws hit the tiled linoleum floor. She walked to the refrigerator and tugged at the bottom door. She had to lean all her weight against it. It flew open and the baby slid back across the floor as the door swung open and bounced on it's hinges.

      Immediately she caught sight of what she was searching for— a large bowl of pudding. Before she could grab it an illuminated floating head appeared above the open refrigerator door.

      "BOO!"

      "AAHHG!" she screamed, falling backward upon her rump. She scrabbled away from the creature.

      Suddenly the lights turned on and Redtail strode out from behind the door, laughing raucously.

      "I got you good! That's what you get for being out of bed so late, after I so kindly read you a bedtime story."

      "Not fair, Redtail," Bluestar gasped, struggling to catch her breath after being so terrified. "You snuck up on me."

      "You should have been in bed!" he retorted.

      Bluestar let several moments pass by before rising to her paws and beginning to walk back to her room, Fang leaping upon her head. Turning back she asked fearfully, "Was that story true, Redtail?"

      Redtail rolled his eyes. "Of course not! It's just a stupid story for stupid children," he said, exasperated. "Now, go get to sleep and stop worrying about something so silly."

      "A'right, Redtail," Bluestar said, continuing her walk to her bedroom.

      As she snuggled down beneath the covers she thought about the story of Carassa and laughed at her own foolishness. She had seen the kind Chia before, and she should have known better. Both Carassa and Mika had been very kind. There was no way one could be plotting against the other.

      "Hahahehe, I'm so silly," she murmured to herself before drifting to sleep.

      But meanwhile, many, many miles away from the sunny fields of Meridell, there was a quaint little igloo nestled at the top of a Mountain. And inside were two Chias, one of whom was pushing a large piano up to the hole in the attic floor.

The End