"Look! It's her again!"

"Who?"

"Her! The one with the strange pets."

"She always comes and looks at everyone in the pound."

"She never adopts anyone."

"She always looks at the pets and finds something wrong—"

"Sometimes it's their name—"

"Sometimes it's just their personality."

"Sometimes it's even their species!"

"Some people say she wants a new pet for her experiments."

"Experiments?"

"Sure, just look at her other pets!"

"I've heard she wants more vampire food!"

"Shh! She's coming!"

Enyashol Ayllinaos walked along side her owner, her temper mounting. It was like this every time they visited the pound—the rumors begin to spread through the cell bars, each wilder than the last, but all with one essential element: whatever Darkness wanted a new pet for, she was up to no good.

"Shoal, what about him?" Darkness gestured to a red uni whose nametag read, 'Halloween'. "His stats aren't too high, but that doesn't matter. And look, he likes hunting for treasure!"

Enyashol shook her head tiredly. "Darkness, he's a bully. He attacks any weaker pets." She looked over at the uni, who was watching closely, and added, "Of course, that wouldn't make a lot of difference at this point. We'd be hard pressed to find a weaker pet for him to attack."

The red uni bared his teeth at her. It would seem that the uni had not heard not to bare his teeth at a vampire, as that is one contest that vampires are sure to win. Enyashol smiled back sweetly, her sharp fangs evident. Halloween turned pale, then backed to the opposite wall of his cage, his eyes wide with fright. With a sigh, Enyashol turned back to her owner. It was the response she had expected, but that didn't make it feel any better.

"What about him? Unicarius? Interesting name." Darkness smiled at the green uni, who, predictably, smiled sweetly. "His stats are great, too."

Enyashol took one look at the friendly-looking uni and shook her head. "He's a level 18; he'll be adopted soon enough. We have enough happiness at home with just Silv and Nick, never mind another 'smile sweetly' pet."

Darkness sighed, smiled apologetically at the uni, and moved on. "What about him? Ka…what's his name?"

Enyashol rolled her eyes. "Kaicaraa. No way. Look, 'Run Awaaaay!'. He'd die of fright before we even got home." Indeed, the blue lupe was already pressed to the back of the cage, quivering.

"How about Naga?" A red shoyru. "Or Naokva?" A red lupe.

Enyashol shook her head. "Both bullies, Darkness."

"Or what about her, Glaze? She looks nice."

"Yes, Darkness. She acts very friendly."

"Oh. Point taken." Darkness frowned slightly. Though Enyashol had lived with her for almost six months, she remained firmly 'Darkness'. She had long told her new pet that she could call her 'mom', but it seemed the scar left from her old owner was too much to accept more than a new owner.

Enyashol looked at over at another pet. A Peophin named Water. She groaned inwardly. Why were they even here? She had thought that her two friends, Quicksylvver Stayr and her brother Eirnykk along with herself were enough for one owner. And yet, almost every week, Darkness left for the pound, Enyashol with her, to view countless pets, and to adopt no-one.

Darkness stopped. "Hm, Irsko. That's a funny name." She smiled at the red xweetok, who, as the nametag suggested, smiled sweetly.

Enyashol looked at the pet in some surprise. "I think it means something in one of the human languages." She smiled tentatively at the xweetok, who, to her immense surprise, smiled back, equally tentative. Enyashol's smile grew slightly wider, exposing her fangs. The xweetok looked nice, but she couldn't live with someone who avoided her at all costs. She needed to know how brave this city girl really was.

Irsko looked back at Enyashol, meeting her eyes. Then, slowly, her shy smile turned into a full out grin. "I'm Irsko," she said in a soft voice. "What's your name?"

"Enyashol Ayllinaos," Enyashol said, surprised at the civil tone in her own voice.

Irsko smiled again, half laughing. "Goodness, that's a mouthful."

Enyashol laughed for half a second before she stopped, shocked. She hadn't laughed with someone other than her adopted sister and brother for years. It felt good. "Yeah, I guess so. Everyone calls me Shoal—at least, if they bother to call me anything other than 'hey, you'."

Irsko grinned. "Shoal. I like that. Do you have any siblings?"

Without thinking, Enyashol began to tell her about Sylvver, her kleptomaniac sister, and then went on to tell about Sylv's brother Eirnykk, who took every opportunity to annoy both his true sister and his adopted one. Soon she found herself telling Irsko about the rest of her family, the other pets on Darkness' side accounts. When Irsko started laughed at her story of how Sylvver had stolen a loaf of bread out from under her elder brother Raevvyn's nose, Enyashol joined in. She couldn't remember laughing this much since she had been transformed. It felt great.

Darkness walked back over to the two xweetoks, trying to hide her shock. Enyashol was laughing, a grin spread over her face, not even trying to hide it. Irsko had nearly fallen over, she was laughing so hard. Darkness began to smile. "Enyashol?" she asked, one eyebrow raised. Her pet looked up at her, still smiling slightly.

"Can we adopt her? Please?"

"I don't see why not." Darkness looked around for the pink uni that ran the adoption. She disappeared through the door they had come in through. Enyashol and Irsko kept talking until the pink uni came back in and unlocked the cage.

"Please sign here, and here," she said, handing over a few forms. Enyashol looked up to thank Darkness.

Except that the owner holding the forms and signing them off was not Darkness.

Irsko looked at Enyashol sadly. Enyashol was stunned. It had never occurred to her that someone else would adopt Irsko. She had taken it for granted that Irsko would come to live with them. She hadn't realized that someone else might want the friendly xweetok.

"Excuse me." The voice was Irsko's. It took Enyashol a moment to realize that Irsko was talking to her new owner. "Can I talk to my friend for a moment?"

Her new owner looked at Enyashol and balked slightly, but nodded. Irsko walked over to her. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Enyashol whispered, not trusting herself to speak aloud. She looked back over at the owner. "You'll be well cared-for there—look at the painted pets."

"Yeah," Irsko said. "I guess so." To both of their surprise, she reached over and hugged Enyashol. "I'll be fine—I'll be happy in my new home. But I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too," Enyashol replied. It had felt so good to laugh again…but perhaps this was for the better. Darkness did have enough on her hands, taking care of three pets. And the home Irsko was going to was a good one. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye." Irsko smiled one last time, then turned and walked out with her new owner.

Darkness came back, shaking her head wordlessly, apology in her eyes. Enyashol managed a small smile, then made her way to the entrance. She paused as she left, then turned and faced Darkness. "Mom?" she said tentatively. "Thanks."

Darkness reached down and hugged her pet. They held each other for a long time.

"Welcome, Thy_Death! This will be your new home." Darkness smiled at the rather skittish-looking nimmo, who looked back at her nervously, far past the 'smile sweetly' stage. Enyashol shook her head.

She wasn't sure why she had chosen Death. He was obviously terrified of her, he was painted a bright red (a color she detested after all of her experiences with blood), and, of course, he was a nimmo—not one of her favorite neopets. Though according to Darkness, he might not be forever. "I don't know for sure yet," Darkness had told her the night before. "But I think I may be getting the lab map and making our new family member a 'lab rat'. If he consents, of course." But still…what was it about him that had made her tell Darkness to adopt him?

Perhaps, Enyashol thought, it was the way he looked to be scared of me. Almost as if…as if he was only scared because he didn't know what else to be. She could already tell that he had a great sense of humor—if she could just figure out how to get it out of him. A challenge.

But when it came down to it, that wasn't why she had asked Darkness to adopt him over the countless other pets. There was something in his eyes that suggested that there was more to him than the average neopet.

Of course, the true challenge, beyond getting him comfortable around her, would be to make him understand, and accept, that he was beyond ordinary. And that would be quite a challenge.

Enyashol thought once more of Irsko, somewhat sadly, then realized that her brief friend would always be happy where she was. And that mattered more than them being together. Maybe she would see Irsko again someday.

And in the meantime…Enyashol walked out of her room to greet her challenge, who squeaked and ran. Enyashol smiled…and ran after.

A/N: Yes, this was based on a true story. Someone else now owns Irsko, and I own Thy_Death. The other pets name are also real pets, all of whom were in the pound at the time I wrote this. Please, don't be offended if you own one of those pets and are reading this. I'm not trying to steal your pets. And…yeah. Neopets rejected this for the Times because it had a 'color not on Neopets'. Which I'm assuming meant that they don't like vampires. We'll ignore Count Von Roo for the moment…

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it! Please review, it will make my day. :)