Yooyuball Shenanigans

     “Prytariel please! We need a break, we’ve been practicing for hours.” Minae grumbled as she pulled her hood back and began fanning her face. The rest of the Terror Mountain Yooyuball team mumbled their agreements and collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Prytariel looked around at her teammates in disappointment.

     “We only get one guaranteed rest day a week. We have to use this time to practice so we can come back stronger and better than ever!” Prytariel insisted. She threw her arms out in frustration as her teammates continued to sit around, panting and looking at each other in commiseration.

     “Okay, fine… five minutes! Then we’re back to business.”

     The rest of the Terror Mountain team cheered weakly as they slowly picked themselves up off of the ground and headed for the sidelines. Prytariel followed the others and began chugging her water greedily. She didn’t want to let it show, but she was just about ready for a break too.

     They were already two weeks into this year’s Altador Cup, and the Terror Mountain team was sitting comfortably in the middle of the standings. Prytariel was eager to see her team shine at the top, and she was willing to practice day and night to make it happen. She had announced before the Cup began that on Sundays their Yooyuball team would head back to Terror Mountain for intense practice sessions to keep them at the top of their game. She thought everyone would be excited at the concept of even more Yooyuball, so she was surprised when their reaction was less than enthusiastic.

     They weren’t even halfway through today’s practice session and already the team was fading fast. It was an especially chilly day at Terror Mountain, and today the team was practicing in the Ice Arena. Prytariel was grateful they were allowed to rent it out for today, but inside the arena was even colder than the rest of the Ice Caves. Every time she breathed a cloud formed in front of Prytariel’s face. She figured this would help make the team even tougher on the field, but now she wondered if she was just going to give everyone frostbite.

     “Prytariel, maybe we could call it quits early today? We’re all exhausted, and we don’t know who we’ll be facing tomorrow. Maybe we should rest…” Rinok asked nervously, looking to the others for support.

     Prytariel shook her head furiously.

     “Absolutely not! We haven’t even practiced with anything other than a normal Yooyu yet!” She yelled, wincing at everyone’s defeated expressions. She reached into the Yooyu bag underneath a bench on the sideline and pulled out a Darigan Yooyu.

     “Tell you what…” She said slowly, turning the Yooyu around in her hands as an idea popped into her head. “Give me one more match with a Darigan Yooyu, and we can take the rest of the afternoon off. But it has to be a good match! Three goals at the very least!”

     Her teammates sat up quickly in excitement.

     “We can do that, easy!” Osielle grinned.

     “Yeah, let’s hurry up and get this done.” Rinok jumped to his feet enthusiastically.

     “Alright, everyone back on the field. Let’s get ready to play some…” Prytariel began, as she tossed the Yooyu ball in the air nonchalantly, before realizing her grave mistake.

     “NO!” She yelled as the Darigan Yooyu, instead of rising a few feet into the air and then back down into her open palm, flew horizontally at lightning speed, right out the door of the Ice Arena.

     “Prytariel what did you do?” Minae yelled in horror, as the entire Terror Mountain team stared at their captain, waiting to be told what to do. Prytariel looked at each of them in embarrassment.

     “I… uh, I’ll go get it! How far could it have really gone?” She laughed nervously, trying to hide her quickly reddening cheeks as she ran towards the door.

     “But what about us?” Rinok yelled after her. She paused in contemplation.

     “I guess.. you get your day off. I’ll see you all tomorrow!” She called over her shoulder, ignoring the players’ cheers as she stepped out into the chilly open air of the Ice Caves.

     Prytariel took a quick look around the space, at the bright sparkling icicles hanging from the roof of the Caves and at the bundled-up Neopets walking merrily on their way to their destinations. Nothing seemed out of place, and Prytariel’s Yooyu was nowhere in sight.

     “Excuse me!” She called out to a nearby Poogle. He turned his head to look at her quizzically.

     “I’m sorry, have you seen a Darigan Yooyu coming through here at all? It would’ve been… pretty fast, to say the least.” Prytariel asked.

     The Poogle seemed to think about it then slowly shook his head.

     “I’m really sorry, but I don’t remember seeing anything like that!” He apologised, then quickly walked away.

     Prytariel racked her brain for a solution. She stared off into the distance, deep in thought, until she noticed something out of place. There were icicles hanging around the sign leading to Happy Valley that looked like they’d been broken off at the bottom. The jagged tips were laying on the ground leading to the Caves’ exit. Prytariel quickly followed the trail, thinking she’d found her Yooyu.

     Happy Valley was even more packed than she’d expected. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, still cold but with the sun shining down on the snow it seemed to glitter in the daylight. Prytariel was only able to admire it for a moment before resuming her mission to find the Yooyu.

     “Hello! Has anyone seen my Yooyu?” She called out to the crowd. She tapped several Neopets on the shoulder, asking over and over again if anyone had spotted the Darigan Yooyu at any point, but all she got was no after no. It must’ve been twenty minutes of her interrogating everyone she saw before finally deciding to give up. She couldn’t face going back to the Ice Arena just yet, so when Prytariel spotted the Slushie Shop, she decided a quick energizing snack was in order.

     “Hello! Welcome in!” The Eyrie Shopkeeper called out to Prytariel as she walked into the shop. “Why the long face?” He asked kindly, noticing Prytariel’s defeated expression. She attempted to smile back.

     “Just a hard day is all. What kind of slushies do you have right now? Anything to give me a boost of energy?”

     The Eyrie chuckled and began gathering display slushie cups from behind the counter.

     “I think this Electric Blue Slushie might be just what you’re looking for! We’ve also got a freshly squeezed Coffee Slushie, great for a caffeine boost. We’ve also got… huh? What’s this?”

     The Eyrie picked up the cup in front of him, examining it with an eyebrow raised.

     “Huh… I don’t remember making this purple flavour…” He said slowly.

     Prytariel’s eyes widened. “Did you say purple?”

     The Eyrie leaned the cup forward so Prytariel could see inside. She saw a round purple shape nestled at the bottom of the cup.

     “That’s not a slushie! That’s my Yooyu!” She squealed, reaching inside and pulling out the Petpet. Once in her hands, it immediately stretched out of its ball shape and smiled up at her mischievously.

     “Huh! How did that little guy get in there?” The Eyrie said, peering into the empty cup in confusion. Prytariel smiled and held the Yooyu close to her chest.

     “Guess we all needed a little break from the game today, huh?”

     The End

     The End.