Scaring Simohn

      Flicked on the bed side lamp. The flood of light illuminated the room, eliminating the shadows, quieting the wind, and slowly chasing away the cold. The Kyrii's eyes came to rest upon a very put-out looking Halloween Blumaroo, who now squinted in the sudden harsh light.

      "Go to bed, Naihii," the Kyrii said in a severe voice. Her arms were now crossed over her covers, and she scowled like the Snowager when woken.

      Naihii's head dropped in disappointment for the 17th night in a row, and he stared at the floor, his toes fiddling with the edge of the pink rug.

      "I can't sleep, Simohn," he said, now on the brink of tears. He could never sleep. And he could never scare Simohn! She never even played along…

      "Do I care, Naihii? Stop being ridiculous, I'm not a Baby that's going to wet the bed every time you start up your stupid special effects. And look at me! I haven't gotten a full night's sleep since Mum picked you up from that wretched pound. Frankly, I wish she'd never brought you home! I wish you weren't my brother!"

      Simohn finished with an exasperated sigh, glaring at her little brother. Naihii's tail twitched. He breathed in deeply, the air catching in his chest twice. Tears poured down his face, soaking into the rug. Simohn shook her head, and tossed herself onto her side, facing away from the heart broken Blumaroo. She left the light on.

      Naihii slowly turned, and dragged himself out of his sister's room, down the main steps, and into the kitchen. He looked around the warm room, but didn't really see anything but the look that had been on Simohn's face. His decision was final. He didn't belong here…

     -----

      It was raining, and the late moon was low and slight. Naihii shivered, and wrapped his winged arms around himself, head bowed against the onslaught of water. Through the remainder of the night he never stopped walking away and never looked up, his mind a painful blank.

      Hours later, as the first rays of light crept over the hills to his right, and the storm ceased at last, the sounds of morning surrounded him. Naihii blinked away the last of the rain drops from his eyes, and shook his wings dry. His bones ached with the cold they had endured.

      The Blumaroo finally took in his surroundings. Nothing looked familiar. Spinning around left, right, behind, and forward, he couldn't even remember which way he'd come from. He noticed a path branching off to the West. The trees were denser and a shadow seemed to loom over it. Hesitantly, he took a step towards it, then another.

      "Oh, Simohn," he said softly, almost too quietly for himself to hear. "Where am I going?"

      With that, he disappeared into the trees.

     -----

      Simohn sat up in bed with a gentle groan. She rubbed her throbbing head with her paws, mumbling about awful dreams and lack of sleep. Kicking off the covers, she stepped into her slippers and shuffled down to the kitchen, not bothering to brush her fur for the first time in years. She opened the fridge with a grunt, fetching the orange juice and 4 eggs, and began to prepare breakfast. She hated cooking, but with their mother away for the weekend, it was up to her to take care of herself and silly little Naihii. Always getting in the way, he was, she thought with annoyance. Still… he was her brother.

      "NAIHII!" she shouted. "Breakfast!" Her tired voice echoed through the neohome. She waited. No usual excited reply followed by the banging signature of the Blumaroo bouncing down the steps.

      "Naihii?" she said cautiously.

      She turned off the element on the stove, and went back up stairs, starting to worry. Naihii never hesitated in the morning; he was almost always up at the crack of dawn. She walked up to his bedroom door, painted black with little moons and stars. Despite herself, she smiled. He'd been so happy when she'd painted them for him. The door was open a crack. She gently pushed it open with a paw, and the door creaked open. She stepped into the dark room, and flicked on a light, ready to chastise him for not coming down.

      The room was empty. At first, Simohn was confused. She checked under his bed, his bathroom, his closet, but no Naihii to be found. She dashed into the hallway, checking every upstairs room, including her mom's 'off-limits' laboratory. She shouted his name again and again as she dashed through the entire house, her sense of dread growing with each call that went unheard. Finally she stopped, panting, and found herself back in the kitchen. She tore at her fur in anguish. Where could he have gone?

      Suddenly her own words from last night came flooding back to Simohn. She cringed unintentionally. Had she really said that to her little brother? Her fists clenched in anger at herself, and she rushed to the closet to get her cloak and boots, first pausing to grab a spare frying pan off the kitchen counter. She had to find him, and she had a vague idea where he might be headed…

     -----

      Naihii's eyes flashed back and forth, trying to home in on the snatches of movement that he swore flitted around on either side of his cramped path. Twigs snapped, and his breathing rate increased again as his heart pounded in his chest. Red glaring eyes blinked from behind the bushes and trees, everything was swathed in darkness. No sunlight escaped into the black forest that Naihii had willingly walked into.

      Howling echoed through the wood. Naihii could take it no longer. He broke into a run, crashing through branches and undergrowth that tore at his limbs in an attempt to waylay him. Blood pounded in his head as he ran and ran, away from the horrible slobbering sounds that soon came from not far behind him. At last he saw a patch of light just a few strides away. He wrapped his winged arms around his head and burst through the foliage and into the sunlight.

      Naihii finally stopped running and leaned over, closing his eyes and panting. He then turned back towards the wood and heard the sounds of his pursuers now casually approaching. He twisted back around to continue running, and very nearly crashed into the side of a great rock cliff.

      "HELP!" he cried as he backed up against the rocky surface. He pressed his back against the stone in an attempt to get as far away as possible from the wild Werelupes now emerging from the forest, slobber dripping from their lopsided grins.

     -----

      Simohn had run for at least an hour, and she felt like her lungs were going to burst. It didn't help that she had a heavy metal frying pan tied and slung across her back. She looked around, desperately worried about her brother. She'd reached a point in the road that led to both the Lost Desert and the Haunted Woods. It was a matter of left… or right. She looked down both. It didn't take a Chemist to figure out which way to go, as her mother would always say. She tore down the left path as fast as her tired legs could carry her, down the darkest path in Neopia.

      She hadn't been crashing through the branches of the Haunted Woods for more than three minutes, when a distant cry echoed through the dark forest. Simohn's heart raced. That had to be Naihii. She couldn't see anything through the darkness, but she sprinted after her brother's shout.

      Finally, when Simohn thought her body would either melt or explode, she heard amused snarling and the licking of lips just ahead of her, near a patch of light. Fear coursed through her, and she shook as she pushed apart the last of the branches. She leapt into a bright, rocky clearing, brandishing her frying pan like a deadly weapon.

      At first, the Werelupes were slightly taken aback by the sudden appearance of the very bedraggled and slightly insane looking Kyrii. Then the pack leader let out a throaty chuckle, and others mindlessly joined in.

      "Well, 'ello there. Another for lunch then?" he growled, thrilled with the fortunes of the morning. "And look! You even brought us the frying pan!"

      "Get. Away. From. My. Brother," Simohn said through clenched teeth. She had spotted poor little Naihii, cowering against the rock face, reduced to a trembling mass of orange and black fur.

      The Werelupe leader flashed a very sharp, toothy smile, and advanced on Simohn, while the others formed an even tighter circle around the pair. Simohn braced herself, angling her pan like a baseball bat. The Werelupe crouched, sprang, and -

      WHAM. The frying pan had caught the pack leader square on the side of the head, sending painful vibrations throughout the hapless Werelupe's entire body. He yowled in pain and hit the ground with a bone crunching thud. Eyes slightly crossed, he struggled to his feet, and ran as fast as he could away from the Kyrii and back into the woods, narrowly missing a tree in his befuddled state.

      The remaining Werelupe pack members' eyes widened, and then exchanged glances. Simohn shook her pan at them, and without another moments hesitation, they galloped back into the woods, tripping over each other in their haste to get away.

      Simohn flung down her pan and rushed over to Naihii, scooping the small Halloween Blumaroo up into her furry grey arms.

      "Simohn… You saved me!" Naihii said in a shaky voice. "I… I thought… you didn't like me…"

      "Of course I like you, you nut-case! You're my little brother!" she replied, tears streaming down her face. "I'm so, so sorry, Naihii. I didn't mean those things I said!" she added, ashamed.

      Naihii smiled, and hugged his sister. "It's okay, Simohn. After all… I finally scared you!"

      Simohn laughed. "Just promise you won't scare me so much next time."

The End