Don't Hug Me, I'm Magma!

      It all started with a horribly placed game of tag.

      “Hey, HEY!! I said quit running around here! Someone’s going to get hurt!” the magma Tonu yelled angrily, slamming his spear into the hard ground for emphasis. But it wasn’t clear if the spastic Neopets were ignoring him, or just plain couldn’t hear him over their laughing and screaming.

      “CAN’T CATCH ME!!” a red Xweetok said between laughs. However, looking back for his blue Hissi friend to judge how far away he was, he ran smack into a rock.

      With a sly, cocky grin, the Hissi poked the Xweetok on the back. “You’re it,” he declared triumphantly before speeding off himself.

      “THAT’S NOT FAIR, SCHYFF! You can’t kick a Neopet when they’re down!!” the Xweetok argued.

      “It wasn’t a kick, it was a poke!” Schyff replied with another laugh. But with that, the Xweetok got up and charged right towards him with a twisted look of rage and determination on his face. Schyff’s eyes widened and he took a run for it.

      “For the LAST TIME, stop running around or I’ll---!” the Tonu began, but suddenly fell asleep with a snore. Even still, the poor guy went unnoticed and unheard.

      “Yottir calm down! It wasn’t like I made you run into the rock!” Schyff yelled while running away from the angry Xweetok. He was always a sore loser.

      This only added to Yottir’s fire, however. You never tell an angry Xweetok to ‘calm down.’ “Oh so you’re SCARED now?” he yelled back, closing in on him. When he finally caught up to Schyff and without noting their surroundings, gave him a hard shove. Then he himself declared, “YOU’RE it.”

      As the Hissi was shoved he yelped, just before he fell into the Magma Pool without a trace.

      The anger in that split moment changed to fear as Yottir realized what he had done. “Oh no,” he murmured. “Schyff? SCHYFF?” he almost sounded desperate as he walked to the pool’s edge. All he heard for the next seconds were the bubbling taunts of the magma and the Tonu’s loud snoring echoing through the cavern.

      Suddenly, Schyff’s head burst through the surface, only he was no longer a blue hissi. He gasped for air as the thick magma ran from his head. He looked around, disoriented, before slowly trying to make his way back to the pool’s edge.

      “What have I done,” Yottir said quietly, shocked by what he was seeing. “Schyff I’m so sorry,” he continued, offering a hand to help the Hissi out.

      Schyff, not noticing the hand offered, heaved himself out with maximum effort and flopped onto the cold hard ground to catch his breath. Yottir, overjoyed that Schyff was still alive, dove in for a hug.

      “No, don’t hug me I’m—“ but then it was too late. Yottir hugged him, and as soon as he did he regretted it. “Magma,” Schyff finished with a sigh.

      “Y’OUCH!” Yottir shouted as he jumped away from the now Magma Hissi.

      “Dude I was just in boiling magma. Was that really a good idea?” Schyff asked, rolling his eyes.

      “I thought you’d be DEAD.” Yottir was flailing his hands around trying to cool them off.

      “Not dead. Just hotter than ever,” Schyff replied, trying to lighten up the situation with a cheesy grin. Yottir only frowned.

      “So, no one can ever hug you again?” he asked.

      “I’m not sure. At least, not for now,” he said before sitting up and looking over his arms. “So uhh, how do you think we’re going to explain this to mom? I mean this is something we kind of can’t… Well, keep from her. At least not for long.”

      Yottir hadn’t thought of this yet. “Oh my Gadgadsgame, I am going to be in so much trouble,” he said, gripping his head in this realization. “SCHYFF, I DON’T WANT TO GO TO THE POUND!”

      Finally, the Magma Tonu woke up with a snort. He took a moment to look around, and finally remembered the two Neopets. He glanced over Schyff with an irritated look in his eye. “Now you see what you fellas have done? If you would have just listened to me!” he yelled. “Get out of here! If I so much as SEE you around here this next week you’ll be sorry.”

      Schyff scrambled up and he and Yottir ran out of the cavern.

      “Okay, game plan?” Yottir said, frantically looking around.

      “I think she went to Tangor’s Workshop. You know she probably wouldn’t want to leave without me, right?”

      “Even if I told her that you went off to do some things?” Yottir suggested.

      With a sigh, Schyff responded with, “You really think she would? Or are you just being overly hopeful?”

      “…Yeah you’re probably right,” Yottir said. He was beginning to fidget with his paws, growing more and more nervous.

      “It’s not like she’s going to put you in the pound or something,” Schyff offered. What’s the worst that can happen?”

      “I know she wouldn’t. She adopted me from there. It’s not the pound I’m worried about,” he said, then took a nervous gulp. “I really don’t want her to take away my Usuki dolls,” Yottir confessed, looking away in humiliation.

      At first Schyff thought he was joking but upon seeing the expression on Yottir’s face, he had to strifle a laugh. “Your… Usuki collection? That’s what your worried about?”

      “Yes,” Yottir said in a small, embarrassed voice. Then he took a deep breath. “You have your favourite Uni plushie and I have my Usukis, alright?” he said, looking back at Schyff with a frown.

      For a long time, Schyff stared blankly at Yottir. “How… Did you know… About Fluffy?” Schyff finally asked. If it were even possible for it to visibly show, he would be blushing in his own embarrassment. Yottir just grinned in his own little victory.

      “You just wait until mom sees me!” Schyff said before darting off. Stunned, Yottir only looked on for a couple of seconds before taking action.

      “Hey, WAIT!” he yelled after him before taking off running himself in a scramble. “WAIT!!”

      “Mom! Mom!” the Magma Hissi said upon the site of his owner.

      “DON’T LISTEN TO HIM!” an out-of-breath Yottir shouted out. “I didn’t do NOTHIN’!”

      Nyx looked between the approaching Neopets in confusion. It wasn’t until they were right up close that she realized Yottir was in a panic and Schyff was now Magma. Soon enough, she facepalmed.

      “What happened this time?” she asked. “Schyff wasn’t Magma when I left you guys to do what you wanted,” she said with a sigh.

      “Huh, she’s taking this surprisingly well,” Schyff said quietly to Yottir. “I told you so.”

      Yottir grumbled in defeat. “I accidentally pushed him into the Magma Pool,” he confessed.

      “You WHAT? How do you accidentally—“

      “We were playing tag,” Schyff chimed in. “And I guess that Tonu guy was trying to warn us but… Well to put it bluntly we weren’t listening. But then he fell asleep and we didn’t pay attention to our surroundings enough,” he explained. “Oh, and Yottir has anger issues.” Yottir crossed his arms and grumbled again at Schyff’s last comment.

      Nyx frowned, looking between the two of them. “Well, I’m sure neither of you are exactly in the right, here. That settles it: no dessert tonight.”

      “WHAT?” they both protested in unison.

      “First I get pushed into a Magma Pool and now I don’t even get my Gooplecream?” Schyff huffed.

      “You being pushed into the Magma Pool is partially your fault and you know it,” Nyx said. “I could always take away Fluffy if—“

      “NO!! NOT FLUFFY!!” Schyff exclaimed. Yottir turned around to begin chuckling to himself. The few Neopets in the vicinity turned to look at Schyff in both amusement and confusion.

      “Then no complaining,” Nyx said with a grin. “Let’s go home, boys. I hope you learned a lesson today.”

      “A lesson? In what?” Yottir asked, raising an eyebrow.

      “No playing tag around pits of death,” she explained nonchalantly.

      The End.