Harmless Wishes: Part Six by ladyariel32
--------
"So far, all the wishdust has brought us is endless trouble,"
Nadashikoh grumbled.
The four pets were, once again, having a council
meeting in Yannagiba's room. They had not made any wishes for two days, mostly
because they were afraid of it. But no one really wanted to admit they
were just a bunch of "scaredy Kadoaties".
"Well, didn't you enjoy your thirty minutes
of beauty and popularity?" Yannagiba teased her.
"It was a nightmare," the Aisha replied with
a frown. "That wishdust is serious stuff. It turns our simple wishes into complicated
ones."
"I don't think so," Yuki said slowly. "It grants
wishes, that's all."
Chi looked at the bottle of wishdust sitting
on Yannagiba's bed. For some unknown reason, the Chia felt a rush of fear. "There's
something about the wishdust that frightens me. At first glance, it seems so
harmless…"
"Nonsense," Yannagiba said noisily. "Just like
Yuki said, it just grants wishes. Besides, our lives have suddenly become exciting
because of it."
"Dangerous is a closer word," Nadashikoh argued.
Everyone fell silent.
"What do you guys think about wishing for a
million Neopoints?" Yannagiba asked cautiously. He had been contemplating the
idea for quite a while now and decided it was high time to mention it to his
siblings.
There was another round of silence as everyone
mulled over the striped Gelert's suggestion. The wishdust was a confirmed menace,
that much was evident, but they were talking about Neopoints now. And, that
was something else all together. Very tempting.
"Now, that is a great idea," Nadashikoh offered
after a minute.
"But, if we're wishing for money, why don't
we wish for lots of it?" Chi suggested. "A million Neopoints is just a dip in
the bucket these days."
"Or," Yuki said excitedly, "why not wish to
be the richest Neopians in Neopia? Then, we'll have everything in an instant!
And, we won't have to worry about anything, at all."
"That's not such a bad idea," Yannagiba said
slowly. "In fact, I'm beginning to like it."
Yuki smiled with pleasure. My brother likes
my idea… He felt somebody's arm around him. It was Nadashikoh's.
"You know, little bro, I'm starting to like
the way you operate, too," Nadashikoh said happily.
"So, it's all settled then," Yannagiba said.
"We're going to wish to be the richest Neopians in Neopia."
"Hey, wait!" Chi suddenly exclaimed.
"What?" the three remaining pets asked.
"Uh, not to put a damper over things but…I kind
of have this nagging thought that I'd like to share with you?" the Chia said
with a small smile.
Nadashikoh raised her eyebrows. "Well?"
"I just thought, what if we turn into other
pets…or people even!" Chi yelled. "Look what happened to Nadashikoh. She turned
into Queen Fyora, for goodness' sake. What if I turn into Adam and you guys
turn into his Asparagus Chias? Not that one of you can't get turned into Adam.
I was just…giving an example." He smiled weakly at them.
"You have a point there," Yuki said shortly.
"I never thought of that."
"He has a point," Nadashikoh told Yannagiba.
The Gelert scratched his head. "I guess we'll
have to consider wishing for NPs, then. How many do you think we should ask
for before we can be called extremely rich?"
"Can't we just wish for everlasting Neopoints?"
Nadashikoh suggested, tongue in cheek.
There was silence for the third time that day.
"You know, I think that just might work," Yannagiba
said, squinting his eyes. "Let's do it!"
Nadashikoh's proposal seemed to rock the others'
boats. So, everyone gathered around the striped Gelert enthusiastically. They
waited with suspended breath as Yannagiba took a pinch of the wishdust, placed
it on his paw, and looked at it seriously.
"Here goes," he said, taking a deep breath.
"I wish…I wish we had everlasting Neopoints!" He blew the grains of wishdust
away. They disappeared.
The four Neopets looked around them.
"Well?" Chi said.
Yannagiba shrugged.
POP!
All of a sudden, a bag of Neopoints fell from
nowhere and hit Yuki on the head. "Ouch!" he exclaimed with a rub of his head.
"What was that?" He looked at the ceiling.
"What in Neopia?" Yannagiba couldn't help saying
as they watched bag after bag of Neopoints popped into existence and fell onto
the floor.
In a few minutes' time, the floor was overflowing
with NPs and they kept on coming!
"We're RICH! We're RICH!" Nadashikoh yelled blissfully.
She picked up a small number of NP bags and threw them into the air. "We're
REALLY RICH!"
The rest of the gang joined in. Yannagiba swam
in the NP hoard. Chi also threw NP bags in the air. Yuki started to count how
many NPs they had.
"Look!" Chi said. "I'm making a Neopoint angel!"
He spread his paws and made flying movements with them.
Nadashikoh giggled and made her own angel.
After five minutes of fun and laughter, though,
the Neopets began to notice that the room was already full of Neopoints. But
the bags still kept on coming!
Yannagiba said, "Hey, I think we've got enough
NPs to last ten lifetimes!"
"Yeah," Chi said with a panicky laugh. He looked
at the ceiling. "Uh, you can stop now."
"HELP!" Nadashikoh screamed. "I'm getting buried
in NPs!" The NP bags were, indeed, smothering her as if they were quicksand.
Yuki hurriedly tugged at her sister's paw. He
fell backward. "Yannagiba, do something."
"Okay," Yannagiba said swiftly. He looked around
for the bottle of wishdust. "Uh oh."
"Not again," Chi said with a sigh. "What is it?"
"I can't seem to remember where I placed the
bottle of wishdust," the striped Gelert said feebly.
"YOU GUYS!" Nadashikoh hollered.
"It must be buried around here somewhere," Yuki
said. He began digging frantically with his paws.
Yannagiba and Chi followed suit.
"These NPs are starting to hurt me," Chi complained
while burrowing.
"Oh yeah?" Nadashikoh said, her voice sounding
incredibly high-pitched. "Then, what do you think I'm feeling down here?" she
snapped. "It's getting cold and dark. Hurry up, will you?"
"Found it!" Yannagiba said, waving the bottle
of wishdust in one paw.
"Make a wish," Yuki said exhaustedly. He wiped
his forehead with his paw.
"Okay," the Gelert said and blinked. "Wait a
sec, what am I supposed to wish for?"
"Anything!" Chi said. "Make the NPs stop coming."
"Uh, I wish we won't have everlasting Neopoints
anymore!" Yannagiba blurted out. He blew.
All the Neopoints in the room gathered into a
hurricane that got bigger and bigger until in one swoop, it exploded into nothingness.
Nadashikoh took several deep breaths. Then, she
let out a loud, spluttering cough. "That…was…horrible…"
"Oh, no," Yuki said with a groan. "Our Neopoints!
They're all gone!"
"B-but I only wished we won't have everlasting
NPs anymore. I didn't wish for all our NPs to disappear," Yannagiba said, looking
perplexed and more than a little irritated. He exhaled raggedly and tried to
relax. He hung the bottle of wishdust around his neck.
Another uncomfortable silence.
"Do you think the wishdust runs out of power
after a certain amount of wishes?" Chi asked curiously after a few minutes.
"Nonsense," Yannagiba scoffed. His earlier disgust
at the wishdust seemed to have inexplicably disappeared.
"Did you ask the shopkeeper how long its power
will last or if and how its power will vanish?" Yuki asked the Gelert.
"Well, no," Yannagiba replied with a frown.
"I didn't think it was important."
"We should go and visit the shop where you got
that stuff," Nadashikoh suggested.
"Okay," Yannagiba said without hesitation. He
reached for the bottle of wishdust. "I'll wish us there."
"No, wait!" Chi contradicted. "Maybe, it would
be better if we didn't make any more wishes just yet. Let's just go there by
normal means."
"Why?" Yannagiba asked quizzically.
The others looked at each other and didn't even
bother to answer him.
**********
"Where's that shop you were talking about?"
Nadashikoh asked as they gazed at the front doors of the toy shop.
"I don't quite understand it," Yannagiba said
scratching his forehead. "The last time I looked, the tent was right here."
He pointed at the empty space beside the Toy Shop.
As if by magic, the same tent made of different
colored translucent material suddenly appeared at Yannagiba's words. All four
pets' mouths dropped open in disbelief.
"Whoa," Nadashikoh breathed. "Where did that
come from?"
"Well…" Chi commented.
Yuki shifted his paws. "Come on, let's go in."
"I don't think that's such a good idea," Chi
said slowly.
Nobody listened. The three other pets were already
on their way into the tent. The Aubergine Chia waited in front of the tent flap
hesitantly but after a few moments, he went in after his brothers and sister.
"Hello?" Yannagiba asked cautiously as he gazed
around the shop.
"This place is wonderful," Nadashikoh said softly
as she looked at row after row of bottles neatly arranged on wooden shelves.
"Of course, it is," a familiar shaky old voice
said.
Startled, the four Neopets turned toward the
direction of the voice. Who else could it be but the silver-haired Wocky?
"I see you have returned," the Wocky said pointedly
to Yannagiba with a rather mocking smile.
"Uh, yes," Yannagiba began nervously. "I just
wanted to ask you some questions about the wishdust."
"I've been waiting for you to come back," the
Wocky said mysteriously with a glint in her eye.
To be continued...
|