Don't Worry, The Gravity Works Just Fine

     The Quiggle in charge of the wheel was sound asleep in a chair next to it, and my owner? Well, she was standing not two feet from me, also staring at the wheel, never blinking.

     'I wonder if she's hypnotized by it,' I thought to myself as I slowly inched away. For some reason, Pinata_Novia (Piñata for short), thought it would be a great idea to spin this wheel, in the middle of the day, on a plateau, in what had to be the hottest place in all the land.

     I was a green Kougra, not a Tyrannian Tonu. I wasn't supposed to stand around on a plateau that was hot enough to actually cook eggs. I knew it was capable of this. I could see an omelette cooking on the hot surface.

     I was now mentally kicking myself for asking to tag along today. Every day, Piñata would go out, and go through every free thing there was, along with spinning all but one wheel. I thank her for steering clear of that wheel. Nothing good ever came from the Wheel of Misfortune.

     Usually, I'd just stay at home, and play with my Fangy, Spike, until she got back. Then we'd go to Meridell, 'the land of the petpets' as Piñata liked to call it.

     In this 'land of petpets' there happens to be a hole. A very dark hole. Piñata was extremely excited when she saw it; it was just big enough for Spike to fit down.

     Spike cowered in fear as he slowly inched forward to peek down into the hole. For a second, it didn't look like he was going to go in, but then Piñata 'accidentally' bumped into him, and he went squealing down the hole.

     When confronted with why she'd pushed my petpet down into a hole, where he might never return from, the answer I got was: "Well... I needed to see if the gravity still worked... don't worry, it's working just fine."

     At that moment, Spike jumped out of the hole, chirping angrily at Piñata for her 'gravity check'.

     I have no idea why we came back every day after that just to visit the hole in the ground. Everyday, there was a 'gravity check', which always involved Spike somehow falling into the dark hole.

     There didn't appear to be anything dangerous down there, so I just spoiled him as much as I could after he was used to check on the gravity.

     I was just happy that Piñata never got the 'awesome idea' to check the gravity in Faerieland. It was a cloud. We were defying the laws of physics just by wandering around on it, 10,000 feet in the air. I was in no hurry for her to try and push my petpet off the cloud just to see what happened.

     Don't get me wrong now; she's not a cruel person, just... odd. She takes almost everything to be 'A Neopian Conspiracy!'. Normally this declaration followed her losing horribly at a game.

     The first thing I'd asked of Piñata was for her to paint me Halloween. That may be where the idea to constantly 'check the gravity' came from; you see, if I was painted Halloween, then I would have wings.

     Somehow I got the feeling I would be the one to test the gravity in Faerieland some day.

     I didn’t know very much about her plans after I was painted. I’d heard her talking to a random tree on the outskirts of Meridell about it.

     From what I could figure, the plan was to get me painted, then renovate the house, and buy new furniture. After she was satisfied with the house she’d mentioned painting Spike so he would match my new color.

     “- but a Fangy’s blue, and Novia is Green. Blue and green match, so that’s just fine. She doesn’t get weird looks when she takes him for a walk, but I get the feeling that if she were to try and walk him down the street while painted Halloween, that there would be some stares. I’ll just have to paint him too. Pets and petpets should match... Do you think I should build a room just for the petpets? They do need things too, just like pets and owners need things. I think I’ll build a room just for the petpets.

     “How long do you think it will take to save up for the Secret Lap Map? No, I don’t mean one piece, I mean the whole thing... that long, huh? Well, that’s not too bad, I guess. How do you think Novia will feel about-”

     That was all I got out of the one way conversation, for a Yellow Gelert came up beside me and stared at my babbling owner for a while, and then he spoke up just in time to cut off the part about me.

     “You’re owner’s really weird,” he commented, staring as she continued talking to the tree.

     “This is nothing. You should see the conversations she has with herself where she can’t get a word in edgewise.”

     That was enough to make the Gelert back away from me and my owner, his eyes widening with every word that was spoken. I got the feeling he thought insanity might be contagious or something.

     By then Piñata had said her goodbyes to the tree. I hadn’t heard anything else about the lab map after that. I just guessed it was one of her crazy plots just to occupy her mind for a while. It made no sense for her to paint me, then zap me. I didn’t dwell any more on that thought. It was a conversation with a tree; what could she possibly mean by it?

     I shook myself out of my thoughts, finding that I'd wandered down into the jungle. It was cooler down here, though I saw no water, and I had no points to buy any.

     The next hour was spent wandering the jungle, looking at the furniture, playing with the petpets, and getting 'Uggh!'ed out of both stores.

     Once there was nothing better to do, I climbed back up onto the plateau, where Piñata was still staring at the wheel. Even from my place across the plateau, I could see that it was slowing down. Knowing what awesome prizes there were on there, I was quick to place myself next to my owner..

     You could only imagine the joy I felt when the wheel slowed to the space marked with a rock on it. Piñata never bothered to read up on what the spaces meant, but I knew.

     "What's the rock for? ... Did I win a rock?" she asked, looking over at the slowly waking Quiggle.

     "Hello, what did I-" She was then cut off by one foot catching the other, and her falling forward, hitting her head, on a rock. The poor rock never stood a chance, but it was still priceless to watch her dive gracefully onto it.

     With a grin that stretched across my entire face, I approached Piñata, standing right by her head, where I could see little Pteris flittering about it.

     I crouched down next to her, and I could barely keep the glee from my voice as I told her: "Don't worry, the gravity works just fine."

The End