Jungle the Inventor

      “Look at how little she is.”

      “What a sweet baby.”

      Jungle hated when people said that to her. She was the youngest in her family, but that didn’t mean she was too small, or young to do the things her siblings did. Well, most things, there were a lot of things she wasn’t allowed to do, but she was just as smart. Her mom just didn’t like her to use the stove, or anything sharp, or heavy, or a lot of things.

      Jungle often stood on the tip of her tail when out in public with her. She’d seen many Meercas use this tactic to look taller. They were often labelled cute, pudgy, small, sweet, silly, but she hated it. Meercas were tough, resilient, smart and strong. That's how she saw her species anyway, and she aimed to prove it.

      Jungle convinced her mom to let her train. She was the youngest, but begged and begged till her mom relented, taking her to Krawk Island with a handful of Dubloons. She completed her courses at Captain Threelegs Academy within a week. Surprised, but impressed, her mom started collecting codestones and brought her to the Training School on their home island. Before long, she was one of the youngest Battledome champions in the league.

      Still, Jungle didn’t feel fulfilled. Sure her opponents took her seriously, after their fight anyway, and her family always supported her, but something was still missing. That and all her training, she wasn’t really getting bigger. She was the smallest out of all her siblings, less if she stood on her tail. Best fighter in the family, but she was still liable to be bowled over in the rush for morning breakfast, particularly if Steel was cooking. She had to bounce on her tail to sit on her chair.

     ***

      “Can someone PLEASE pass the Tchea Fruit, please!” Jungle shouted over the excited dinner chatter of her family. Her stubby arms were too short for her to reach it herself. While her tail was like an extra hand, it was sore and tired from fighting and bouncing on it all day.

      “Sorry, Jungle,” Tenz, who sat across the table from her, picked up the bowl with one of his two mouths. The Mutant Hissi put it in front of her on the table. “Here you go.”

      “Thank you!” She answered with a sigh. She wasn’t the loudest of her eight siblings either. Usually, only Tenz and Kookie could hear her, they had the best ears in the family, well besides her. Her large ears were definitely a boon.

      When was she going to be big enough to have a strong voice and big enough to get in her chair without the use of her tail? She piled the Tchea Fruit onto her plate, she wasn’t going to get any bigger if she didn’t get enough to eat, and she didn’t know when she was gonna get more food with all the noise of her siblings at the table. It’d taken fifteen minutes to get the fruit from the pet across from her!

     ***

     “Hey Zap,” Jungle smiled as the Krawk waddled over to her. He was still a Petpet, and he wouldn’t grow because he was zapped by the lab ray. Something about the lab ray stopped the effects of the Fungus Cave on the Petpet. She wasn’t sure why it did but liked having the little Krawk.

      Originally, Jungle had a Kora. It was her first Petpet, so her mom had picked out something hardy and low maintenance. She’d taken great care of it, of course, and so her mom offered to let her pick out another Petpet. Her siblings all had different Petpets, that, funnily enough, seemed to match their interests or personality, like Steel’s Barlow or Tenz’s Tyrannian Ettaphant, who had two heads like he did.

      She had looked at all kinds of Petpets, they had quite a few in their safety deposit box that her mom took care of. Not surprisingly, she couldn’t resist the cute little animals. They had Petpets from every land of Neopia, but none of them seemed right. Her mom had given her a pamphlet from the Rainbow Pool to show her all the kinds of Petpets and colours to see if there were any she liked. There were a few, but she wasn’t sure she could handle the upkeep, so she lied and said she wanted to keep her Kora.

      Her lie didn’t fool her mom, though. Jungle should have known better, her mom always saw through their lies. Once she assured her mom she wasn’t sure what she really wanted, her mom offered to take her and her Kora to the Petpet Laboratory, that way she could try different Petpets out till she found one that suited her and keep her Petpet.

      The little fish Petpet went through many different colours, and species, even being a pile of soot for a scary couple of days. Then it turned into a Starry Krawk, it was pretty cute like that with its little knowing grin. She’d offered to let her mom take it to the Fungus Caves and then adopt it out, but her mom let her know about that. (Her mom often adopted pets from the pound and zapped or painted them until they were more desirable so they would get adopted.)

      So, for the time being, Zapip stayed a Krawk. He was a helpful, although mischievous little guy. She did wish, however, he was a little louder, and maybe taller, and stronger, and, well, the list went on and on. Finding a pet that fit all her specifications was going to be hard. Sometimes she wished she could just build a Petpet.

      “Build my own Petpet,” Jungle sighed, the idea plaguing her again, as she petted her Krawk. It could be done, she knew. She’d seen all kinds of Petpets and even been to the Virtupets Space Station and seen the Petpets they offered. It had even been named the Robo-Petpet Shop.Those pets had been the ones to tempt her the most, they didn’t make messes, but she wasn’t sure she could take care of their needs. If she built one herself, though, she’d, in theory, fix it herself.

     ***

      “I’m going to make the best Petpet ever,” Jungle announced at dinner the next night, standing on her tail on her chair to get the others' attention. Her tactic worked because everyone at the table fell silent. Steel even stopped serving.

      “What?” Scarlet finally said. She was the second youngest girl in the family, and should have had the fourth best hearing.

      “I’m going to invent the best Petpet,” Jungle replied. “I need someone to help me get in my chair, reach the food on the table and be heard.” Her brother Bandy almost started laughing but she saw her older sister Kookie hit him lightly with her paw and he stopped.

      “How?” Kookie asked.

      “What?” Jungle lowered herself a little, beginning to lose confidence as her siblings continued to stare at her. They’d done the same when she told them she was gonna fight in the Battledome, but she was sure she could do that if she trained enough.

      “Most Petpets aren't, exactly, built,” Kookie said, slowly picking her words. “So what kind of Petpet are you going to- invent?

      “A robot one,” Jungle replied, pulling herself up again on her sore tail. “I saw them at the Virtupets Space Station. They have robot pets, someone must build one, so I’m going to build one. There are a lot that could help me do those things but there isn’t one that can do all those things.” There was an awkward silence for a few moments.

      “That’s cool,” Scarlet broke the silence again. “Maybe you’ll have to make me one when you finish yours.” The Xweetok gave her a smile and went back to her dinner. Steel went back to serving and the matter seemed to be settled.

      Jungle lowered herself back into her chair. She had mixed feelings as the dinner chatter started again and Steel added more dishes to the table. Well they supported her, she thought, maybe they were just used to her grand dinner announcements, and they didn’t care or?

      She jumped when she felt a paw on her shoulder, it was Kookie. She hadn’t even seen the Kougra leave her seat, or heard her. Kookie was blind so she often bumped into things but she usually navigated the house pretty well.

      “After dinner, why don’t we go into mom’s safety deposit box and see if she has any Robot Petpets or any books about them,” Kookie said to her. Jungle smiled at her sister and nodded vigorously forgetting her sister couldn’t see her doing it, but judging by Kookie’s smile she knew her sister had “felt” her answer.

     ***

      “Careful,” Jungle cautioned again, forgetting how familiar her sister was with their safety deposit box. Another Neopian oddity, it had a normal sized door and looked like it was no bigger than a normal sized room, but it was full with hundreds upon hundreds of things. There was food from all over the world, Petpets, clothes, toys, books, furniture and so much more.

      “Thanks,” her sister replied kindly. “I think we are close to where mom likes to keep the Petpets, I smell- well I smell Petpets, let's make sure we clean before we leave, mom keeps cleaning supplies right next to them.” Jungle nodded, forgetting again Kookie had no idea what she was doing.

      “Yeah, sorry, forgot,” Jungle added when she saw her sister’s blank expression. She blushed, but was happy her sister couldn’t see her. Kookie took it in stride like she did with most things when it came to her blindness.

      “I could see that,” She joked, lightening the mood. “Come on, they should be just this way.” She reached for her younger sister’s paw as she led the way to the makeshift paddock their mother kept the Petpets in.

     ***

      Kookie held out the screwdriver to her younger sister, which Jungle ignored. Making the “best Petpet '' in the world was a great more difficult than becoming a Battledomer. She had failed, spectacularly, and now her first invention lay in pieces around her, some of them still smoking.

      “Jungle,” Kookie said. “Me and Gizmo aren’t going to give up on you now. Come on, up off the floor.” Gizmo is the name she’d given the Robocrush they’d found in the safety deposit box. It had been surprisingly helpful and very generous with its parts.

      “I am done, I am not an inventor,” Jungle replied, pulling her tail over her face. “I’ll just focus on training and fighting.”

      “After you fix Gizmo,” Kookie answered, picking up the Petpet and putting it down beside Jungle. “He needs his arm back if you aren’t using it. That’s essential for it to do its job.” Jungle peeked out beneath her tail at it. It didn’t really express emotion the way most did, but it seemed cheerful and didn’t seem to miss its arm at all.

      “Fine,” Jungle grumbled. She accepted the tool and swept over his “borrowed” parts and got to work.

      She looked at the arm joint. If she made some small changes, he’d be able to lift her up into her chair, and with his big arms, built for crushing, he certainly could make enough noise to get the other’s attention.

      “Kookie, could you grab me a hammer, please?” Jungle asked. Kookie smiled and passed the hammer to her sister. As the Meerca got to work, she felt sure this wouldn’t be the last thing she fixed, and broken parts on the floor were just the parts of her first invention. It may have blown up, but she was pretty sure the next one wouldn’t.