Diamigo's Noble Steed: Part Three

     Diamigo stopped hopping long enough to look down at me. "Sí?" Then he continued.

     "I'm going out for a little while," I said, turning toward the entrance. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. But I was so humiliated. I'd tried to be a hero and I'd failed. Miserably. And Diamigo was the real deal! He was a hero and everyone knew it. If I just left, I was sure no one would notice.

     I started to leave when I heard him jump off his rope to another one that was hanging down from the ceiling and slide down it. "Wait for me," he said, donning his mask to match the hat he was already wearing.

     I waited, partially because he would be suspicious if I just bolted anyway. And I kind of doubted he wouldn't be able to find me in any case. But I heard Faerieland was nice this time of year. And, well, Diamigo would never have to worry about me breaking his rule número uno. I wouldn't tell anyone about his lair, but he might not have known that for sure.

     He plodded past me out toward the canyon. "Aren't you coming?" he asked, not turning back.

     I trotted after him. "Where are you going?" I asked.

     "Out," Diamigo answered. "Isn't that where are you going?" When he said that, he locked me in the most evil-looking glare I'd ever seen from him. He was a nice Chia, but, believe me, he could be scary when he wanted to.

     "I don't know," I answered, with a shrug of my eyebrows. "I was just going out."

     "Then you can come with me," Diamigo offered, slipping my mask over my face.

     "Diamigo," I sighed.

     "Qué?"

     "I don't think I'm cut out for this hero-stuff," I said. "I think... I think I should go somewhere else." Diamigo was about to glare at me again, but I interrupted him. "I wouldn't tell anyone about your lair—I promise! I promised that and if there's one thing I can do right, it's keep a promise."

     "You are more a hero than keeping promises," Diamigo insisted.

     "I burnt down a barn!" I reminded, like I thought he forgot.

     Diamigo chuckled. "That's true. You did."

     How was that even funny? That farm-family was probably going to lose everything! Without a barn, they couldn't house petpets. Without a barn, they couldn't store food. Without a barn, they couldn't make any Neopoints and that was the only way they probably had to make any at all.

     "Diamigo..." I sighed.

     "Stop arguing," he snapped. "I am tired of you always telling me about what you can't do. If you were to tell the story, you couldn't do anything. Well, I am tired of lies."

     I stopped walking for a moment to let that sink in. "I don't lie," I insisted, resuming my steady walk beside him. We had gone up the switchbacks and were now up in the desert. I looked around for any identifying landmarks to tell me where we were going, but I couldn't see any.

     "You say you are useless," Diamigo pointed out. "That is the greatest lie there is."

     "But I am!" I said.

     Diamigo slapped me on the shoulder with his hand and went on, "You are useless at one thing. Uno. No one can expect to be good at everything. You already know what you are good at, so we should have been using the talent that you already had. And that was my failing, mi amigo," he added, patting me on the back.

     I sighed and set my jaw a minute. How could he possibly understand this? He was good at everything. He probably didn't even know it was possible to be good at nothing.

     "Me, for example," he offered. "I can't figure out puzzles for the life of me."

     I snorted in laughter. "Puzzles?" I repeated.

     "Puzzles. You know, treasure maps and things like that. I cannot figure them," he explained.

     "Alright, well, who needs that?" I wondered.

     "Treasure hunters," Diamigo answered simply.

     I frowned and said nothing else. When Diamigo got his mind on something, I knew by now that I couldn't change it. Probably all of Neopia telling him otherwise couldn't change it. "Well, I'm fine with puzzles, but how is that any help?"

     "You are also very fast," Diamigo said. "And that is the thing I know I can use. I always knew it, but I didn't know at the time that it was good enough."

     "What... do you mean?" I asked.

     "I thought you had to be like me. Like Pablo. Heroes don't always have to be brave, running into trouble every time they see it," Diamigo pointed out. "Sometimes they run from trouble, to tell someone about it. I don't get to hear about every bad thing that goes on around here. I'm only one Chia. But I don't have to be just one. You taught me that."

     I looked down at the ground, trying not to smile. How in the world could I have taught Diamigo something? I didn't say anything about it, though, since Diamigo seemed done with talking as he quickened his pace. I trotted after him.

     "Where are we going, anyway?" I asked.

     "To help build a barn," he answered.

     I halted. I wasn't sure I could face that family again. Not after destroying their barn. They were lucky they still had a house. Diamigo laughed at my reluctance to follow. "Come on, mi amigo!" he prodded.

     When we arrived, I saw the family standing in front of their house, looking on as strangers looked at their animals and offered them wood and shingles to build a new barn with. It didn't look like any building was going on to me. Diamigo exchanged a few words with them, and then the Kau nodded in the direction of his line of petpets. I wondered if they were selling them.

     I followed Diamigo to look at the petpets. He passed a Hoovle and a Nuk before stopping at the ugliest thing I had ever seen. It might have been a Bika, but it was missing all its hair and it had an evil look in its red eyes. Diamigo patted its head and it looked up at him before thumping its back-end on the ground, sitting defiantly.

     "He's perfect," Diamigo proclaimed.

     "Are you kidding?" I asked. "I don't think that thing would walk a few feet, much less run a few miles."

     Diamigo shook his head. "This is what he was meant for. I feel it."

     "Oh, you feel it," I muttered and watched as Diamigo offered the farm-family three bags filled with golden currency. I stared in disbelief. They could definitely build a new barn with that. They'd probably never seen so much money in their lives.

     Diamigo grabbed onto his new Bika's reigns and offered the little creature a block of sugar. He slurped it up greedily.

     "Hey," I wondered. "Why didn't I ever get any sugar?" Diamigo chuckled and walked back off toward home, the Bika hurrying after him, probably wondering if there was more sugar in the deal. I followed the Bika. "Alright, so you have a new... noble steed," I said. "I can go now, right?"

     I almost ran into Diamigo when he stopped. "You do not want to go so much, do you?" he asked, looking sad. I had to admit that I was kind of sad at the prospect, too. But what use was I around the secret lair? I mean, I was even less useful now than usual. "I think I will call him Alejandro," he said.

     "Nice," I agreed.

     "But you do not have to go, amigo."

     "Well, what am I going to do, then?" I sighed.

     "I do not need a noble steed," Diamigo pointed out, "but that doesn't mean I do not need a partner. You would be my eyes and ears. Crokabeks do not always do the job of delivering messages."

     "But, what... You mean, you want me to do for you what I used to do for the Defenders?" I asked with a smile. "You want me... to patrol?"

     Diamigo smiled and nodded. "Of course, there's a little more to it than that," he added. "You've still got to be a hero, but we can work on that."

     "What do you mean? I thought I was supposed to do what I was good at," I pointed out.

     "That doesn't mean you stay the way you are for the rest of your life," Diamigo said. "I will help you be a hero, you will help me with puzzles. This is the deal. We both improve at the things we cannot do as well."

     "But..."

     "Also, you would have to not be so obvious around town. You are a very loud Peophin."

     "Well, you try running as fast as I do for once," I muttered.

     "You will still live in my secret lair," Diamigo said.

     "You just want me to feed Alejandro."

     "You have to earn your keep some way," Diamigo laughed. He paused to give Alejandro more sugar and the Bika looked quite pleased at that. I had to admit I was pretty pleased, too. "So you can be a hero," Diamigo wondered as we walked off again toward the canyon. It was weird, but... the sun was setting right in front of us, almost blinding us. But I didn't care. I knew we must have looked really cool to the farm people watching us leave. "It just wasn't the way we thought."

     I bobbed my head once and turned my eyes down to the ground out of the sun. "Yep," I agreed. "I sure can."

     Diamigo turned his head down, too, but his face was nicely obscured from the sun by his wide-brimmed desperado hat. "Hey," I said. "I've got a mask like you. Can we get me a hat, too?"

     "What do you need a hat for?"

     "Come on! You've got a mask; I've got a mask. Don't you think we should both have hats, too?"

     "What are you going to want next? Boots?"

     "Maybe," I laughed. "Come on. Just a hat. We can negotiate the boots."

     "I just bought a Bika."

     "Can he shade my eyes from the sun?"

     "Perhaps I will trade you for the hat and then I won't have to worry about your griping. Heroes don't gripe."

     "But I'm good at it!"

     We walked toward the canyon, laughing and arguing about getting me a hat. I guess it didn't matter whether I got one or not. A hero is more than a hat and mask, after all.

The End