Submit your pet to the Pet Spotlight!

Pet Name: Khihiko
Owner: _zhephyr_
Breed: Acara

The audience sits in strained silence, occasionally stirring in the white plastic chairs in which they are seated. The elabourotely-varnished stage and the large, thick red velvet curtains with gold tassels show no sign of movement. A Gelert assistant comes round the aisles of lined-up seats offering cups of water to quench the thirst of the restless crowd. Suddenly, there is a dramatic rustle of the curtains. The audience's attention shifts from their beverages to the stage. The curtains began to draw back, about to reveal the next Neopet to audition for Pet Spotlight, the much sought-after title.

A tiny fire Acara sits on the polished pure oak panels of the stage. She dips her head slightly so that her shock of red and orange hair falls over her face, almost covering her gleaming amber eyes. "I don't even know why I'm here. I don't need to be." She murmurs, her eyes lowered to the shining wood. "I don't need some trophy to show anybody how special I am. I'm fine without the glitzy fame stuff." She realised that the high-tech, top-of-the-range microphone system had broadcast her little chat with herself, and her flame-decorated cheeks glowed redder than ever. But the crafty Acara knows how to take things in her stride. "Some certain others think that being special is all about winning first place and having a cabinet full of trophies. I don't. Being special is about being unique. I may have been forced here, but I'm not going to be bawling if I don't win and get my name all over the front page of the Neopian Times." She shrugs. Some of the audience seem to be seriously thinking about what the Acara has just said.

"Well, I'm here now. So, I may as well do my entry. The first thing is, I'm Khihiko, but that's Khi to you. I live on the tiny Island of Loihi off the North Shore of Mystery Island, but sometimes when the tide is low, I go over the sandbar. Once I got stuck on the mainland when there was an awful storm and the tide rose. But I wasn't worried. I lasted the night with nothing but myself to help me.

I also once made a bamboo canoe and tried to get across to a coral reef in it - bad idea. The stupid thing sunk and then my leg got caught in some hard coral. I broke my ankle and had to be rushed to hospital. I don't want to even think what would have happened if Dusty hadn't alerted someone as quick as she did...." She shivers, the very thought giving her trauma.

"By the way, Dusty is my Angelpuss. We have so much in common you wouldn't believe, including our love of Skateboarding." At that, many jaws of audience members gape open and someone coughs and splutters over a mouthful of water. "Dusty and I met years ago in that storm. I found her washed up, weak on the beach." She was going to launch into a full life story of her and her Angelpuss, when the buzzer went of, giving her the hint to finish up and fast. "Well, you can read all about 'lil Dusty at my Pet Page. It's actually under construction now, but there should be a few activities up soon to pacify your impatience." She turns and dissapears behind the curtains. As the next candidate struts centerstage, almost all the audience's minds go back to Khi, the fire Acara who taught them what being special was really about.

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