First-Time Fisher

      Harpier sighed. Pacina didn't read a lot, and wasn't very interested in the geography of Neopia. "Look, Pacina, the fishing dock isn't underwater. We just need to go underwater to get there."

      Pacina breathed a sigh of relief. She popped her helmet on and smiled at Harpier.

      She looks cute in that helmet, Harpier thought. Kind of like an Alien Aisha without the third pair of ears.

      Harpier picked up her own helmet and stared at it. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she was kind of nervous about taking Pacina underwater.

      Images of Pacina's helmet falling off and her air tank breaking flashed through Harpier's brain. She tried to push those out of her mind.

      A soft sea breeze swept across the beach, rustling Harpier's shadow fur and blowing sand away. A paw poked her in the ribs, and Harpier looked over. Pacina was looking at her with an excited smile. "Harpier, can we go now?"

      Harpier smiled and popped her helmet on. She nodded at the water.

      Pacina's face lit up with joy, and she turned towards the ocean. With an almost soundless splash, they dove into the water.

      ***

      The ocean was busy with life. Koi darted back and forth, avoiding Harpier and her slow pace. Laidback Flotsam casually waved to Harpier, and she waved back. Harpier had seen many of them before when she came down here to go fishing.

      Harpier looked over at Pacina. Her mouth was agape with curiosity, excitement, and astonishment. Her head darted left and right trying to take in every underwater sight.

      Soft green seaweed that was the same color as Pacina's fur brushed against Harpier's shadowy paws. Bits of fluorescent orange and pink coral stuck out here and there among the seaweed. Schools of Blandfish darted here and there. They passed a coral reef that was busy with life. Mornings in the ocean seemed so busy.

      A large brownish-gray cave loomed in front of them, and Pacina sped up with eagerness.

      Harpier looked at Pacina and smiled. The little Green Aisha was practically jumping up and down now, if you could jump in the water. But Harpier couldn't blame her. She had been like that her first time down here, seeing all the underwater beauty.

      They swam into the large cave, expecting to pop out into a cavern of air. But as they kept swimming with no air in sight, Harpier started to get suspicious. Where are we? Harpier thought.

      Pacina stopped swimming beside her. The little Aisha's face was frozen, transfixed on a stalactite. Harpier looked from Pacina to the stalactite.

      Harpier gasped. The stalactite was absolutely beautiful, and was bejeweled with rubies and sapphires in a crisscrossing pattern. A beam of light shone down from a hole in the rock above. It bounced of the gems in the stalactite and made the room glitter red and blue.

      They both just floated there for a moment, staring in wonderment at the beautiful stalactite.

      Pacina's eyes darted to the left, and she made a little whimper noise. The little Aisha swam behind Harpier and peered out over one of her shadow wings. "H-Harpier?" she said, her voice trembling.

      Harpier shook her head and wings until she could look at something besides the beautiful stalactite. It left her sort of dazzled blind.

      When her eyes came into focus, her attention fell on a pinkish-red blob in the top left corner of the cave. The blob started to move, and Harpier realized the blob wasn't a blob at all. It was a large creature of some sort. It blinked its void-black eyes sleepily at the stalactite, as if to make sure it was still there. It yawned, showing off its glistening white teeth that ended in dagger-like points.

      Pacina edged a little closer behind Harpier, whimpering a little. The little Aisha's extra ears flopped over onto Harpier's shadowy back. Her lip was trembling, and she started to crouch down behind Harpier's large wings to hide herself.

      Again, Harpier couldn't blame her. The creature looked humongous, hideous, and strong. Pacina was a low level and couldn't protect herself well. She wasn't much of a fighter.

      The creature spotted them and started swimming over in a slow, menacing way. Its tentacles-

      Wait, Harpier thought. It has tentacles? What kind of creature is this?

      The monster came into full view, revealing the hideous thing it was. Harpier looked in fear at it. Rarely was she scared. "Pacina," she whispered. "Get ready to swim for your life."

      Behind her, Pacina nodded gently. Her sister backed away a little and turned, as ready as she could be.

      Harpier looked back at the monster. A Titanic Giant Squid, she thought. Never in her life had she seen one before. They have teeth, she thought. Who knew?

      The Titanic Giant Squid roared extremely loudly, and started swimming fast straight at them.

      "Pacina, Now!" Harpier called.

      The little Aisha started off, but wasn't a fast swimmer at all. Harpier turned and jolted forward in a stream of bubbles. She smashed into Pacina, who grabbed Harpier's fur, holding on for dear life.

      Harpier kept going. Nothing was going to stop her from getting out of this mess. She flew past the coral reef again, full of crabs scuttling around and Lesser Spotted Fish swimming around.

      Seaweed zipped painfully across her paws as she zoomed past as fast as her legs would carry her. The town emerged on the horizon as Harpier swam past schools of Blandfish.

      Beep beep. Harpier turned to look at Pacina, remembering to keep swimming. The little Aisha's face was puzzled.

      Harpier gulped as she realized what horrid thing was happening. One of their air tanks was about out of oxygen.

      If she could've smacked herself on the forehead at that moment, she would have. She forgot to fill her air tank with oxygen before she left the house, because she was so busy worrying that Pacina's tank had plenty of air for the trip.

      Harpier reached the town and sped past the confused Flotsam, her face puffed up like she was about to explode. She zoomed past the angry Koi, yelling at her for almost ramming into them.

      A light beam shone down from the sky, momentarily blinding Harpier. She angled upwards and beat her wings for more speed, growing ever closer to the light.

      ***

      Harpier burst out of the water with such force she almost toppled over. Her tank had run out of oxygen when she reached the underwater town. She yanked her helmet off and gulped the air around her with joy.

      Pacina let go of Harpier's fur and climbed off of her back. Pacina's warm smile she always wore was still plastered to her face.

      When Harpier could stop obsessing over the air around her, she looked apologetically at Pacina. All she could think about was how she managed to swim to the wrong cave. "Pacina, um, sorry we didn't get to go fishing. I know you really wanted to, um, go," Harpier mumbled.

      Pacina just kept smiling. "It's okay, I had fun anyways," Pacina said happily. "After all, we almost caught a Titanic Giant Squid!"

      Harpier smiled genuinely at her. How Pacina managed to see the best in every situation, Neopia would never know. "Well, since that didn't go as planned," Harpier said happily, "how about we go out for ice cream? My treat."

      Pacina's face lit up with excitement. She bounced up and down, up and down, scattering sand and shells everywhere.

      They both took all their gear off. Pacina climbed on Harpier's back, and she lifted up into the air towards Mystery Island. They needed to make a stop at home before going for ice cream.

      ***

      Their owner stood in the doorway. "So, did you two have fun fishing?" she said with a grin.

      Pacina was almost exploding with excitement. "Yeah, we had loads of fun!" she said, her extra ears flopping everywhere. "Harpier almost caught a Titanic Giant Squid!"

      An astonished expression flashed over their owner's face, but was almost immediately replaced by a look of wonderment.

      "So Mom," Harpier said as she placed her stuff in a corner of the room, "we were thinking about going out for ice cream. Do you want to come?"

      Their owner smiled. "I don't see why not, as long as we can go to Mr. Chipper's Ice Cream Cart in Happy Valley. I've got a few coupons."

      Pacina's face grew even brighter. She threw her stuff in a corner and bounced towards the door. "Come on, let's go!" she said, prancing around as if she were a Uni.

      We walked out into the fresh spring breeze, palm trees waving slightly, the door shut behind us.

      Another adventure was sealed away.

The End