The Oh Too Floppy Tongue

      "Hey Yas, bet you can't catch me," she jousted, knowing well that her nimble footed sister could easily catch her, smaller though she was. She galloped off towards a tree, her tail swishing behind her, and could hear the yellow Wocky running after her, fast approaching. Before she'd had time to run around the tree she felt the Wocky leap gracefully onto her back with a laugh.

      "Hehe, OK so you won that bet then, and now I'm out of breath, shows how unfit I am huh?" TiaMaria giggled.

      "I guess so, sis," she said, smiling. "But I could sure use a drink after that, my mouth's all dry now." YasmineTaylor jumped down and trotted over to the living room entrance and wandered into the kitchen. She reached out a paw and retrieved one chocolate and one strawberry milkshake from the refrigerator and placed them upon the countertop.

      "Is that strawberry one for me?" inquired TiaMaria as she entered the room.

      "Sure is. You want anything else while I'm in here?"

      "Nah, I'll have a look for something in the cupboards.. Actually you know what I'm really in the mood for?"

      "Nope, what?" asked the Wocky taking a sip of her milkshake.

      "A lolly!" squealed TiaMaria with obvious delight in her voice. She tore through the cupboards on her quest for a lolly, becoming increasingly discouraged as each one offered nothing to satisfy her appetite. Only when she came to the last option, a cupboard under the sink which was opened in total despair, did she at last come upon the sacred item: a lolly. She ripped off the wrapper and stuck the green lolly in her mouth, completely oblivious to the strange way it glowed.

      "It tastes a bit funny, Yas! It's green, so I suppose it must be apple, but it doesn't taste right."

      "Well at least you have your lolly now, right? What's the problem?"

      "Well, nothing I guess.." And the matter was settled and put to one side…

      That evening, a scream erupted from TiaMaria's room, shortly followed by the explosive burst of her door opening and her hooves crashing down the stairs, screeching to a halt in the kitchen where Yasmine and her owner were seated at the table.

      "Ner nugh agh oft!"

      "Excuse me?" asked Sophinee curiously.

      "Agh frun erol rya!" replied TiaMaria with large tears running down her sad face. Sophinee got up and put her hands on either side of her face and eased open her mouth, only to be faced with one very swollen pink tongue. She clucked before asking gently, "What have you done to yourself?"

      "Yers aft rinny ter.."

      Sophinee interrupted saying, "It was a rhetorical question sweetheart, I can't really understand you, funny thing that eh?" she said turning to smile at the Wocky who looked on in interest. "Looks like we'll be taking a trip to the hospital, Yasmine. Are you alright here, or do you want to tag along?"

      "As fun as that sounds, I think I'm gonna stick around here instead. You go take care of Tia and her.. erm tongue issue," she added not being able to resist a grin.

      This received a lot of angry words from the Uni, but as the Wocky could not understand one of them this went unnoticed.

      "Come on you, let's get you looked at," Sophinee said to TiaMaria.

      Ten minutes later the duo were seated at the hospital, waiting along with many other Neopets to be seen by the doctor. After a half hour wait, which was not long considering one very disturbed looking Shoyru kept trying to fly away only to be set back by windows, walls and ceilings, the pair sat in front of a stern looking doctor.

      "So what appears to be the problem here?" asked Doctor Terry, a blue Lupe.

      "Would you like to tell him Tia," Sophinee asked timidly.

      "Ner nugh agh oft!" she told the doctor, frantically waving her hooves.

      "Ah, I think I know what this is," the doctor murmured, turning to one of the drawers in his desk and retrieving a tongue depressor. "Open your mouth please," he said monotonously. As Tia opened her mouth a large glob of drool hit the page of his book in which he had been taking notes prior to their appointment. He stuck the tongue depressor in Tia's mouth (with great difficulty as it took up so much space) and glanced around with curiosity on his face. "Hmm..." he muttered, taking out the wooden stick and writing some notes on his now spoiled page. "A simple case of Floppy Tongue," he prescribed, throwing the stick into the metal bin beside his desk. "But I do have to ask, how exactly this happened?" he enquired, looking directly at Sophinee.

      "I have no idea!" she answered, suddenly feeling unexplainably guilty.

      "The only way this could have happened would be for her to eat something bad for her, so I must ask you about her diet?"

      "She hasn't eaten anything out of the ordinary that I know of, I don't know how to explain," she said meekly, looking at her feet. At this, the Uni suddenly leapt up from the edge of her seat and tore off a sheet of the doctor's notebook. "Tia, what are you doing? Honestly doctor, I don't know what's gotten into her.." she drifted off as she observed Tia writing something on the paper, then shoving it under her nose. It said one word: Lolly.

      Sophinee looked thoughtful for a moment before turning to look Tia in the eye and asking quietly, "Did you find a green lolly in the cupboard under the sink?" Tia nodded, her mane flying into her eyes. "Oh TiaMariaLucile, how could you be so careless? It was under the sink for goodness sake, of course it wasn't meant to be eaten or it would have been in the cupboards with the rest of the food! Doctor Terry I think I can explain this…" The doctor gestured for her to continue. "I left a Poisonous Lolly under the sink, I was going to take it to be auctioned this weekend, I didn't want to waste it, you see. Obviously Tia here found it and ate it, which would explain the Floppy Tongue fiasco we are now faced with."

      A smile flitted across the doctor's face. "Of course, well this sort of thing happens more than you'd expect, little ones finding something that was hidden for their own good. If you just fetch a Tongue Shrinker from the pharmacy, one injection should get her all fixed up." He wrote this up on a prescription slip and handed it over the desk before standing up and shaking Sophinee's hand and leading them out.

      "Well let's get you this medicine and head home, sound good to you?"

      Tia nodded happily.

      TiaMaria awoke the next morning and instantaneously clamped her hoof to her mouth to feel if the swelling had at last gone down. Relieved she leapt out of bed and ran downstairs to find her sister and owner in the kitchen once more.

      "It's back to normal" she sang with a smile spreading across her face.

      "That's good to hear," smiled Sophinee.

      "Is it really? I was getting used to how nice and peaceful it was around here," giggled YasmineTaylor.

      "Hey!"

      "I'm only joking, it's good to have you back to your normal self sis."

      "Remind me not to go eating things I find under the sink again.. Next time it might be something really bad."

      "Yeah, imagine finding vegetables under there! Yuck!!"

      All three burst into laughter, and the incident of the "oh too floppy tongue" was left to linger in the back of their minds.

The End