Molly's Story: Part Three

     After staring at it for a few minutes, Molly realised that it was a boat, and the poles and flat thing sticking out of the water was a jetty. The other plank was to help people get on and off the boat. Deciding that this would be a good way to escape, Molly slowly crept up closer to the boat, hiding behind bushes and rocks. When nobody was around, she ran up the plank and dashed behind the first crate she saw. Peeping out from behind it, she could see more crates in a pile on the other side of the boat. Making sure nobody was looking, she dashed behind those and stayed there for the whole journey.

     ---

     Molly shivered in the cold. They appeared to have come to Terror Mountain. Neopets were dashing about everywhere, tying ropes, unloading crates and generally creating a place of confusion. Deciding the crates weren’t safe to hide behind now that they were being moved, Molly looked around for somewhere else to hide until it was safe to slip off the boat. There didn’t appear to be anywhere safe, though, so Molly decided she would jump off the side of the boat onto the land.

     Looking over the edge, Molly realised it was a few metre drop to the ground. ‘Not too bad,’ she thought.

     She leaped over the side and landed in the snow. ‘Funny,’ she thought. ‘Why isn’t it sandy? Oh, right Terror Mountain. Snow. Well, I should probably get out of here before someone sees me.’

     She tried to lift a paw and couldn’t. She tried another paw. That wouldn’t move either. She tried the last two paws. They were stuck too. She tried jumping. It didn’t work. She started to panic. Her paws had stuck in the snow when she landed because the snow was deep and she had jumped from a height. She let out a faint meow in fear and instantly regretted it.

     “Hey look, Jack! A meowclops!”

     “Where?” demanded an Acara who must be Jack.

     “There! Can’t you see? Next to the boat!” exclaimed another Acara.

     “Ohhh,” said Jack. “I see it. Should we keep it?”

     “Of course! We can get an avatar from it and then sell it for lots of neopoints! Quick, we need to get it before someone else does.”

     The two Acaras ran over to Molly, who tried to run away. It was no use, though, because her paws were still stuck in the snow. The two Acaras excitedly picked her up and ran over to a young girl who was watching the boat from nearby.

     “Hey look, Mum!”

     “Yeah! Look what we found!”

     “Oh, how nice. A meowclops,” said the girl, looking at Molly.

     “Yeah! Can we get the avatar from her?”

     “Pleeeaaassseee?”

     “Alright. Our boat back to Neopia Central leaves soon. Once we get there we can go to Quickref,” said the girl.

     “Great! Then can we sell her and be painted?”

     “Yeah. I want to be a pirate Acara!”

     “I want to be royal. Royal is so cool!”

     “Pirate is better!”

     “Is not!”

     “Is too!”

     The girl glared at them. “Stop arguing now or you won’t even get the avatar, let alone be painted.”

     “Sorry, Mum,” said both of the Acaras at the same time.

     They didn’t have a cage for Molly, so they held her instead. The Acaras took it in turns to hold her on the boat all they way back to Neopia Central, where they took her to Quickref.

     “I want to hold her when we get the avatar!”

     “No, I want to!”

     “I said it first!”

     “So!”

     “Fine, I’ll flip a neopoint. I think it will be heads.”

     “Tails never fails!”

     “Pfft, tails always fails.”

     One of the Acaras flipped the neopoint, and they both looked at it.

     “Heads! Told you tails always fails, Jack.”

     “Not fair. You cheated.” Jack grumbled and passed Molly over to the other Acara.

     ‘Something has happened!

     You are now eligible to use ‘Meowclops’ as an avatar on the neoboards!’

     Molly glared at the avatar message that had just appeared and then glared at the Acaras, who didn’t take any notice.

     “Yay! Now can we sell her, Mum?”

     “Yeah. And then we can be painted. I still think Royal would be cool.”

     “I still think Pirate would be better.”

     “Would not!”

     “Stop arguing or I will donate this meowclops to the Money Tree!” said their owner, glaring at them.

     The Acaras stopped arguing and they all headed over to the trading post.

     Molly sighed. ‘I hope someone decent buys me this time. I hope someone actually makes an offer actually. Anywhere has got to be better than these two,’ she thought.

     ---

     “Hmmm, which meowclops should I buy?”

     Molly looked up and saw two desert Aishas looking at all the meowclops trades.

     “I still don’t see why you needed me to come with you, Jane.”

     “Well, I wanted the opinion of a friend.”

     “I don’t see how that matters; they are only petpets. They aren’t really different or anything.”

     “True...” said the one called Jane.

     Jane looked thoughtfully at all the meowclops that were there. Molly tried to avoid her eyes, because she didn’t want to be chosen. It sounded like this Aisha wanted her for the avatar as well.

     “I think I will get this one. What do you think?”

     “I don’t think it really matters. I mean, you probably won’t keep her for very long.”

     “Good point. I’ll offer on this one,” said Jane, making an offer on Molly.

     An hour later the two Acaras came along to see if anyone had offered.

     “Hey look! We have an offer. Should we accept it?”

     “Duh! It’s not like we are going to get a higher one.”

     “Yay! We are going to be painted! I get to be Royal!”

     “I still think Pirate is better!”

     “It is not!”

     “It is so!”

     The two Acaras bickered all the way out of the trading post, having accepted Jane’s offer on Molly.

     ---

     Molly wandered what the other meowclops were doing now. The ones who had been in the box with her. ‘Probably having the time of their lives. Exploring the world, being pirates, being a famous defender of Neopia... something better than this,’ she thought as the boat they had taken was tied up to a Jetty. They had come to Quickref so that Jane could get the meowclops avatar. She picked up the cage Molly was in and carried her inside.

     ‘Something has happened!

     You are now eligible to use ‘Meowclops’ as an avatar on the neoboards!’

     Molly sighed as the message appeared yet again.

     ---

     “Right, meowclops. Welcome to your new home. I won’t bother naming you because you probably already have a name. You wont be staying long anyway. I plan to sell you as soon as I have lent you to some friends,” said Jane to Molly when they finally reached her home in the Lost Desert. “Now, you can sleep on the rug over there. Good night.”

     Molly began to lose hope of ever finding the home and owner of her dreams. A place where she was appreciated and not just used as an avatar petpet. She sighed and closed her eye, only to open it a few minutes later when she heard the sound of someone fiddling with the lock on the front door. She could also hear a faint cackling sound.

     ‘Oh great. Burglars or something. Well, I couldn’t care less. Let something from this horrible Aisha be stolen,’ thought Molly, closing her eye again.

     “Well, what can I take here? What is worth a lot? Maybe I could take that table. It looks valuable. Hang on. What’s this in the corner?”

     Molly opened her eye again and saw the burglar. It wasn’t anything she had ever seen before. It was dark blue and looked sort of like a ghost with arms. It had little red, glaring eyes. It was also cackling a lot while it looked around.

     “Ahh, a meowclops! They are worth a lot. Her owner will definitely miss her. Come on, little thing. Come with the Pant Devil. I won't hurt you.”

     Not liking the look or sound of this burglar, Molly decided to run. It was no good though. He grabbed her with his claw-like hands and started to fly away. He flew over heaps of snowy mountains. Molly had no idea where she was, but she was very scared. After a while, Molly could spy a city of sorts beneath her. She started to struggle violently and then burglar slowed down to try and get his grip on her. Even though it was a big drop, Molly managed to escape and landed on the roof of a shop which seemed to be made of fabric.

     ‘Well, at least that was there to break my fall,’ thought Molly, jumping down.

To be continued...