The End of the Rainbow: Part Three

     The Kougra stretched, hopped out of bed, and let his sense of smell lead him down the long hallway.

     On his way to the kitchen, Mossiku nearly forgot his troubles of the night before. His stomach called for food, and the mere smell of breakfast was not helping the insistent rumbling.

     “I had this dream--Mossiku!” Sissy apparently was as chatty in the morning as she was most of the day. “How did you sleep?”

     “Good.” He jumped up into the tall chair, groaning when he realized that he couldn’t see over the table. “Wonderful...” he mumbled discouragingly.

     “Here, let me help.” Joy got up from her spot at the table, went into the adjacent room, returning with a pillow from the sofa. She sat it on the chair, Mossiku hopping on top of it. “Is that any better?”

     “Yes. Thank you.” He sighed once more, being able to see over the table, and forced a smile. These two were just trying to help. He really should be cheerful, since he now had a home. “Did both of you get a good night’s rest?”

     “Mmhmm!” Sissy said through a mouthful of pancakes. She was already over halfway through her breakfast. With the bites of food she was taking, Mossiku assumed it wouldn’t be long until she was finished with the entire stack of pancakes.

     “Don’t talk with your mouthful,” Joy reminded the Acara, then turned to Mossiku. “She might be Royal, but her table manners still aren’t the sharpest.” Mossiku chuckled, as he would've sworn that Sissy would have stuck her tongue out at her owner had the subject not been table manners.

     “Anyway.” Sissy rolled her eyes. “Are we going to go shopping today? Maybe we can look at some new books, or we can look at colors to paint Mossiku’s room, or-”

     “We can try to get all of those things. How about we go by some local shops? I heard that there are some malls throwing sales on petpet supplies. Or we can do some jobs today to gain some extra Neopoints.” Joy set a plate in front of Mossiku, piled with pancakes with maple syrup oozing over the sides and a square of butter right on top.

     “You two do jobs as well?” Mossiku asked with interest as he took a bite of his pancakes. He got a hint of a taste of chocolate chip, and sighed contently. He loved chocolate chip pancakes. It was also his old owner's favorite food.

     “When restocking gets boring, that’s what we do.” Sissy shrugged, being more careful this time about talking with her mouth full of pancake. “Is that what you used to do with your owner?”

     “Yeah,” Mossiku nodded happily after he swallowed another pancake bite, being careful about his rusty table manners. It would be terribly embarrassing if he had been giggling at it earlier, yet didn’t have the manners like everyone else. “That’s how we saved up for my gray paint brush the first time.”

     “Really? How long did it take?” Sissy questioned, putting her plate in the sink. The plate made a small plop into the soapy water.

     “I can’t remember. But it did take a really long time,” Mossiku responded, finished with his delicious breakfast. Like Sissy had done, he jumped off of the chair and went toward the sink to put up his plate.

     Once again, he had forgotten his baby size, and realized he couldn’t reach the sink. He was only about half of the size of the counter that led up to the sink.

     “Here, let me-”

     “No,” Mossiku interrupted Sissy; his determination wouldn’t allow him to let anyone help. “I have to learn how to deal with this.” He looked around the room, seeing a stool perched in the corner.

     Forming an idea in his head, he put his plate on top of the stool, and pushed it over to the sink. He picked his plate back up, got on the stool, and placed the syrup-drenched plate into the sink.

     Mossiku felt a surge of pride for the accomplishment. See? he told himself. I can try and get around being this size. Adjusting to being this small shouldn't be that hard.

     “Nice!” Sissy commented with a giggle. “I take it you’re going to be smarter than the average baby pet?”

     “Well...” He thought. “I like to read. I don’t think most of them care to do that.” Mossiku shrugged. He was trying to be modest. In fact, he loved to read, and he knew for certain that he wouldn’t go around like a normal baby Neopet asking for bottles and napping every other hour. He was going to be his old self... Just smaller.

     Joy nodded in response with a smile, finishing washing the pancake dishes.. As she was about to say something, the two petpets came running in. Lucky was wagging her long Gruslen tail excitedly, and Tiny even seemed to be smiling, with his tail up and his ears up a small bit higher than usual.

     “Gee, Tiny, you used to be such a late sleeper. Why did you wake up this early?” Mossiku laughed. His petpet seemed to have adjusted to both Mossiku’s new babyish appearance and also the new home.

     “I think Lucky was the one that got him up. She probably wanted him to throw a ball for her to play fetch,” Sissy replied, pointing to the petpet ball bouncing around back and forth behind the petpets. Lucky’s Breebly sat comfortably on the Gruslen’s forehead.

     “Maybe,” Joy said, putting down two bowls of petpet food. “Or maybe they were just hungry.” The three onlookers laughed at the sight of the two petpets gobbling down the bowls of Faerie petpet food.

     “The Faerie kind is Lucky’s favorite,” Sissy explained.

     “It appears to be Tiny’s too.” Mossiku chuckled.

     “Are we ready to go? The petpets can stay here today,” Joy asked.

     “I think so,” the two pets chorused.

     Just an hour later, the threesome were walking around in the Mystery Island shopping district, going through various malls in search of petpet supplies and Kadoatie food.

     Amongst her still endless chatter, Mossiku had heard from Sissy that her owner fed Kadoaties and needed to stock up on that food every once in awhile. They also wanted to get a better petpet bed for Tiny, which Joy had already said that Mossiku himself would have to pick out.

     “Petpet supplies,” Sissy happily said, pointing to the store with that written above the door. She happily skipped in, Mossiku following behind. Thankfully, nobody had walked up to him to say how ‘cute’ the baby Kougra was, nor had they pinched his cheeks.

     After browsing a variety of petpet beds, all three agreed on one with blue crescent moons dotting the sides, and with a small moon figure hanging right over the entryway.

     The pets went to pay for the petpet bed, while their owner seemed to already be outside, talking to another Neopian. As the two approached, she had already finished talking.

     “Who was that?” Sissy asked.

     “Oh, a friend of mine. She had an extra petpetpet in her Safety Deposit Box, and she was wondering-”

     “If we could keep it?” Sissy exclaimed, interrupting once again. Joy nodded. “Really? What was it?” Her owner smirked and held out her hand. Inside was a small Blumbuz, its abdomen glowing a brilliant shade of blue.

     “I thought it would fit Tiny very well.” Joy handed the bug to Mossiku, where it jumped onto Mossiku's outstretched paw. The Kougra put his paw up to his forehead, and the bug hopped right onto his right ear.

     “Thanks! You really didn’t have to do that!” Mossiku’s smile was matching the brightness of the Blumbuz's blue-ish glow.

     Walking to their next stop, Mossiku’s thoughts drifted to just the two days before. He’d been looking for a home, some extra Neopoints, or just a friend. The light at the end of the rainbow had glittered as two friendly Neopians had offered him a home, but once again, it had faded as Boochi unexpectedly popped up.

     But, he had to admit, his petpet was very happy. Also, his new petpetpet Blumbuz just seemed to both the icing on the cake and the cherry on top of the sundae. This arrangement was going very well.

     Being a baby might not be his color of choice, but it had its advantages. Now Sissy could tell when he was really happy. He could fit into small spaces, which would be really handy while playing hide and seek. Although, he still wished he was gray. That was the only piece of this strange puzzle that just wasn’t fitting in correctly.

     Still, a little glimmer of rainbow was forming. Maybe the end with the pot of gold was closer than he thought...

To be continued...