Why Do Meercas Like to Chase Neggs?

Well, we at the Neopian Neggery think that it goes back to ancient times when poor Neopians had to forage for food. One of the most common foods was actually neggs. They were more abundant back then until the Neopians discovered their worth and started picking them off the trees as fast as they could. But before I can get any more detailed, I think that a little history on what neggs are and what Meercas are like might be helpful.

Negg: (n) N-egg. It is a fruit that is about the size of a pear. Almost egg like in shape, most people think that’s where it got its name. It can come in a lot of different colours and flavours. But the most common one is brown.

Meerca: (n) meer-ka. Meercas are one of many different species that exist in Neopia. As a general rule Meercas are energetic, fun loving Neopets who love playing tricks on others.

Now, because the Meercas are so friendly with other species (except on April Fools Day), and they are so energetic, many of their friends asked them to get food and do errands for them when they were too lazy to do it themselves. The Meercas, who loved to make people happy, always did what they were asked. Eventually, the Meercas got tired of just running errands to get the stone furniture and so on and they stopped getting food for their friends.

This caused an uproar because many of the Neopians had relied on the Meercas for food and they didn’t know where to get it without getting carried off by a beast of some kind. And even if they could find food, much of it was either poisonous or tasted like it should have been.

After about a year, the population of the healthy Neopians decreased because so many had fallen ill from lack of good food. And at this time, the negg trees were overcrowding many other plants because at this time, they were thought to be poisonous. Only the Meercas knew otherwise.

Finally, Fyora came down from Faerieland and spoke to the Meercas. She called a great meeting and most Meercas came (among the few that didn’t were the ancestors of Heermeedjet and Merouladen and Chuffer Bob). She begged them to help with the catastrophe that was happening but none of the Meercas agreed. They said that they wanted to make it more exciting because just getting the food was pretty boring. Fyora then declared that if they would help the citizens of Neopia then in exchange she would help them dispel their boredom.

Now, even Fyora didn’t have a plan. She just thought that because all of the Neopians were getting sick, she would just make up something on the spot and figure they would forget. But they didn’t.

After days of getting food for the Neopians, the Meercas finally started to wonder about where their way of “dispeling their boredom” was. Fyora had to think of something quick before the Meercas realized that she had lied.

So she gathered all of the smartest Neopians to think of a solution. The Brain Tree, the Library Faerie, Coltzan (this was long before he died) and all the other Faeries were called to the meeting. It was the Brain Tree who thought that it should be a game and it was the Library Faerie who noticed all the extra neggs lying around and it was Coltzan who pieced it together.

“I’ve got it!” he exclaimed after a gruelling 5 hours of brainstorming. “We shall create a game where there are obstacles as well as neggs so that the Meercas will have a challenge getting them.”

“Brilliant!” the rest shouted.

Then they got the best in all of Neopia to build an obstacle course. It involved a large wooden frame that had lots of negg trees in it. And the obstacles were merely rocks that got dropped into the ring (by faeries floating about it) after the Meercas got one negg. After they had gotten all the neggs in the ring, they exited and gave the neggs to the Neopians that were waiting.

Of course there were rules, and they are similar to the ones we know today.

1. They couldn’t bump into any of the walls

2. They couldn’t bump into any of the rocks.

3. They had three “lives” and if they lost all of the “lives” then they would have to start over again.

The Meercas loved the game. It made it challenging to get food but also rewarding to be helping. There was only one problem and that was the rocks. The Meercas complained that they hurt too much if they bumped into them so they had to think of a new solution.

One day a little Meerca, whose name is not remembered, found an interesting bush with a strange-looking red plant on it. He thought it looked like a negg but there were no such things as red neggs! He was going to take it home it his mother but when he touched it, it exploded! He was thrown 15 feet into the air and landed with a thump on the ground. But the strangest thing was that it didn’t hurt! Of course his buttocks were a little sore from the fall but the explosion caused no reaction at all.

He hurried home and told his mother who told the mayor of the town where they lived (He was an Elephante). The next day, a mob of the townsfolk went to where the little boy found the bush and many of them where amazed by the new discovery. The Elephante decided to see if the other half of the story was true so he picked one from the bush but to the little boy's surprise, nothing happened.

“That it impossible!” cried the young lad. “Watch!” and so he picked up the fruit and BAM! It exploded again. The town gasped. Is that possible? They all wondered.

The truth was they had discovered a new fruit that we now call rutilus pomum or Red Fruit. It has a weird reaction to Meerca fur and explodes in their hands but causes no harm to the Meerca. Word got to Fyora of this exploding fruit and she decided that it would be the perfect thing to add to the game that they had now called “Meerca Chase”. They put it in right away and soon it caught on. The game was a very popular way to get food.

Now, over 300,000 Neopians play it worldwide, thanks to the success and laziness of our ancestors. But nowadays, because we have the food shop and we are civilized, they now give out neopoints instead of neggs.