Jeanie's Teeny Tikes

     “I wonder what that’s about,” she said, but a small voice startled her away from any further thoughts.

     “Hi!”

     Ailemea looked down at the enormous eyes of Iofae, the baby Vandagyre. The little neopet’s head quirked to the side curiously.

     “Friend?” she squeaked.

     “Excuse me?” Aile said. Her heart was starting to pound and sweat forming in her fur as the reality of her situation began to set in. She was alone with nine small neopets in her charge. She didn’t even like being in charge of herself! It was too much responsibility!

     “Friend?” Io repeated insistently. She batted her enormous eyes. Suons, the Grundo, approached from behind the Vandagyre and joined in the staredown, gazing up at Ailemea with a wide smile.

     “You all have really big eyes,” Ailemea noted absently, swallowing again. She was beginning to feel a bit faint.

     “Ok?” Io asked, quirking her head to the other side.

     Just then the Pteri clock on the wall started shrieking a horrible birdsong. Ailemea jumped. The babies across the room all paused, looked at the clock, then looked to Ailemea. In unison, they began to wail. Some even mustered krawk tears that trickled down their cheeks as they all converged on her. Her overwhelm increased as a crowd of paws and fins pulled at her fur. They whined pathetically.

     Only Io and Su were silent as they smiled at her. “Lunch,” Iofae chirped, gesturing a wing at the obnoxious device. “Babies hungry,” she explained, still smiling.

     “Lunch,” Aile repeated. Slowly, she nodded. “I can do lunch. I do lunch every day.” The babies were still mewling and dragging at her, but new purpose brought her new resolve. She took a breath and straightened her shoulders. “Alright. Enough. QUIET!” she said.

     The noise stopped abruptly.

     “Time for lunch,” Ailemea said. The babies cheered. As one they all turned and toddled towards the kitchenette as if they hadn’t all just been having a meltdown.

     Ailemea soon had each baby buckled in a high chair. She distributed spoons and baby food to each baby.

     “Bibs,” Io told her as she accepted her own Forest Fruit Baby Food.

     Ailemea sighed. “Can’t you just…eat neatly?”

     In answer, Rog immediately spilled his Strawberries and Cream Baby Food all down his front in his haste to shove it into his mouth. Io smiled at her. Ailemea hurried to get bibs on the rest of the babies before cleaning and bibbing Rog.

     Aile then served herself from the bags Jeanie had brought, noticing bites in various bits of the victuals. She was just glad there was anything left at all. As she sat to eat, she was suddenly grateful for the peace of such a normal activity. She was so glad for the calm of the moment that she even shared her lunch with the babies when they looked imploringly at her with those giant eyes.

     Lunch passed quickly enough as each baby finished and wiggled anxiously in their chairs for release. Rog was the last to finish having requested seconds, thirds, and fourths—this was where Ailemea drew the line, as she noticed his belly bulging. He looked a little green. She wiped the Avocado Baby Food from his maw, no more green, and sent him on his way.

     She turned to Iofae, who had stuck close to her side. “What now?” Ailemea asked.

     “Naptime!” Io said.

     “That sounds great,” Ailemea sighed in relief, but when she turned back to the room at large there wasn’t a baby in sight. She looked back to Iofae in alarm. The Vandagyre blinked pleasantly up at her.

     “Don’t like naptime,” she explained. Ailemea groaned.

     ***

     Lucky for Ailemea, babies are not very good at hide n’ seek. The water babies had all sought refuge under the table. Two red Scorchio paws poked out from under the curtains. Su had hidden behind a beanbag only for her fat bow to stick up over the top and broadcast her position like a beacon. Nexy and Kasi made a cursory effort to evade detection by stowing away in a closet, but they quickly grew bored. Bowhery covered himself in a blanket, seated in the middle of the room, and sat very still. Over the next fifteen minutes Ailemea collected each of the babies, carried them to the nap room, and stowed them securely in their cots.

          After tucking each baby, Aile drew the blackout curtains closed and cast the nap room into darkness. A Bumping Boombox played gentle lullabies. She flicked on a night light which shined stars on the ceiling. With a weary sigh, Ailemea wished the babies good nap and closed the door behind her.

     “That wasn’t so hard,” she noted, pleasantly surprised.

     A chorus of bawling broke out in the room behind her. She sighed, and hurried back in. Almost all of the babies—Nexy and Kasi were already asleep—were in various states of distress with tears, snot running, and mouths agape keening. Ailemea hurried around the room hushing and patting heads, trying to soothe them. They settled slightly, but they all sat up in their cots and stared at her as if they expected more.

     After a moment, she understood. “You’re going to make me sing, aren’t you?” she asked them.

     As one, they nodded.

     “I don’t really know any baby songs,” she tried to explain.

     They stared in silence.

     She sighed. “Well, you asked for it,” she said. Her repertoire of music was limited to a single scope of songs: Twisted Roses. She started to sing, toning down the rock ballad a bit as she sang softly.

     I don’t need a dozen roses,

     I don’t need a fancy house.

     I just need she who juxtaposes,

     my way of life to her espouse.

     She didn’t make it through the first chorus before every single baby had dropped like a rock into sleep. Smiling slightly, she crept out of the room.

     She sat down at the kitchenette table and yawned. Glancing around the empty, blissfully quiet nursery, she shrugged. “I do believe they recommend sleeping when baby sleeps,” she said to herself with a smug smile. She lay her head down on her forelegs and promptly fell fast asleep.

     ***

     Ailemea was woken by knocking on the center door. She lifted her head with a start, and was opening the door before her mind had entirely woken up. A messenger Korbat entered and faced her with professional poise. “Are you Ailemea?” he asked.

     Was she? She gave herself a shake to chase the sleepies from her mind. “Yes, that’s me,” she said, catching a yawn with the back of her paw. The Korbat looked her up and down, his eyes lingering briefly on her head, before meeting her eyes.

     “I have a message for you from your owner, Jeanie, and the Ogrin Flooken.”

     “Oh good, are they on their way back?” Ailemea said hopefully.

     “Ah no, they sent me to let you know that they’ll be longer than expected.”

     “Is Flook ok?” Aile said, concerned. The Korbat frowned a bit.

     “I can’t say,” he said. “They send that the Hospital is completely overrun by patients of the recent crisis, so they’ve been directed to visit the Healing Springs in Faerieland. They are trying to hurry, but they can’t be sure when they’ll get back. The Healing Faerie has her own timeline.”

     Ailemea sighed. “Great.”

     The Korbat gave her a curt nod and turned to go. He paused and looked back, again at her head. “You’ve, uh, got a thing on your head,” he informed her, and then slipped out the door. Ailemea locked the door before reaching up with curiosity.

     Her paws returned to eye level with a red bird Petpet. It blinked at her. Ailemea blinked back.

     “Jubjub!” a small voice cheered beside her. Ailemea turned and the little Iofae reached her wings up for the Petpet. Ailemea absently put the bird on Io’s head as she turned, still in a haze of sleepiness, to survey the nursery.

     The room was a flurry of activity as all of the babies were apparently awake with renewed energy. And there were more. It appeared that almost every single baby had a Petpet at their side. Ailemea blinked, alarm filling her as realization dawned that something was dreadfully wrong.

     “The Petpets,” she muttered, “how did the Petpets get out?!” She hurried across the room, dodging water as the babies in the wading pool splashed her. Her stomach sank as she saw the door to Lockup was ajar. She ran inside, all sleepies banished.

     The Petpet cages and aquariums were all empty, doors and lids hanging. Well, there was one exception. At the end of the row of cages, Suons stood on tiptoe on a high chair to reach into the last occupied cage. She pulled out Nexy’s Blue Drackonack.

     “No no no!” Ailemea said firmly, dashing forward to take the Petpet from Su’s hands. “That’s very naughty, Su! Naughty naughty!” Su simply looked up at her, smiled contentedly, and waddled out of Lockup as if she hadn’t just been caught red-handed. Helplessly, Ailemea followed with the Drackonack.

     She paused at the door to observe helplessly the chaos of babies and Petpets running amok. She saw Su had collected her own Petpet, a fluffy little thing, and was dragging it bodily along to meet Jubjub and Iofae.

     A pain split through her paw. “OW!” Ailemea shouted, dropping the Drackonack. It BIT her! The Petpet gave her a scathing look before running off to join Nexy in the reading corner. The Baby Yurble didn’t even look up from reading as he lifted his book to give space to the Petpet to curl up in his lap. He was reading aloud to a quiet Bowhery and his plushie Petpet.

     A sound from the kitchenette made her spin around. Two babies were hovering by the snack cupboard with their Petpets. Kasinnia was boosting Elaine, the wadjet, up on her head. Elaine had the end of her tail in the lock of the snack cupboard and appeared to be attempting to pick it. Rogeth and his Icklesaur watched attentively and babbled incoherent encouragement.

     “Kasinnia! Elaine! Stop that right now!” Ailemea called, scurrying over. Rog and Dodge quietly slipped away as she approached. Kasi gave her a grumpy look, but she lowered her head (and by extension Elaine) and followed Rog.

     Ailemea double checked the cupboard was secure, and then turned around nervously. What next?

     Suons had assembled a tower of Petpets on her shoulders and was chasing the other babies. She waved an Ancient Geraptiku Spear. The babies fled from her with shrieks of laughter. Ailemea wanted to cry a bit, but instead she put on her stern face and confiscated the weapon.

     “Where did you even get this?” she demanded. She turned away as Suons happily helped her Petpet passengers disembark.

     Then she realized three babies were missing. She groaned.

     “Where are the water babies?” she asked aloud. Giggles and splashes answered her from the bathroom. Shoulders sinking, Ailemea headed in that direction. She tossed the spear into Lockup as she passed, pulling the door closed tight. The key was in the lock, a lanyard hanging from it. She slipped that around her neck, wondering how Su had managed to get that away from Flooken.

     At the door to the bathroom, Ailemea looked in.

     It was flooded.

To be continued…