Yearning For Happiness: The Story of the Pant Devil
Pant: Verb. To have a frantic desire or yearning for.
He heard the little bell above the Pound's door ring as yet more prospective owners came in, looking to adopt. He didn't so much as glance at any of them, his devilish face turned to the wall. Why bother? No one would want to adopt him anyway. No one ever did.
"What IS that thing?" he heard someone ask. He didn't have to turn around to know that they were talking about him. He had heard that question too many times for there to be any doubt.
"We're not quite sure. He was found all alone in an alleyway and brought here. You wouldn't happen to be interested in him, would you?" the Pink Uni whose name he could never remember asked hopefully, as she had many times before.
"Nah. I'm looking for something a bit … I don't know, cuter?"
"We have some adorable Ixis over here." the Uni said as she led the owner over to the Ixi section.
He sighed unhappily, having heard similar responses for as long as he could remember. They were always looking for something a bit cuter, or prettier, or 'less freakish' as one owner had tactfully put it.
He wondered what it would be like to have an owner. He didn't remember his previous owner, if he ever even had one to begin with. Someone who would play with him, feed him, and who would do their best to make him happy.
But he'd probably never know what having an owner felt like. He'd never get adopted, not with a face like his.
Besides, who would want an owner anyway. His previous owner, if he had one, had basically thrown him away. Why would he want to go through that again?
But still, it might be nice to be happy…
Time passed, and he had nearly resigned himself to the fact that he was going to be stuck in the pound forever, when one day, out of sheer boredom, he began fiddling with the lock on his cage. Suddenly, he heard a small 'click'… and his door swung open.
He stared at it for a few seconds, then cautiously stuck his hand through it and waved it around a bit, as the realization slowly sank in.
He was free. After all this time, he was finally free.
Quickly, he got out of his cage, and snuck past the adoption desk. That Yellow Techo, (What was his name again? Oh yeah, Doctor Death.) was sitting there, reading the latest issue of the Neopian Times. He made it all the way to the door, and after glancing at Doctor Death to make sure he hadn't been seen, turned the doorknob. But just as he had opened the door, he heard a familiar sound…
Ding-a-ling.
It was that little bell above the door. He heard Doctor Death yell "Stop!" before he ran outside, slamming the door behind him and racing as fast as his…err, appendages could carry him. After awhile he got tired, and after looking back to make sure he wasn't being pursued, he slowed down to a stop, panting for breath.
But what should he do now? He had nowhere to go and no one to be with. In fact, he had absolutely nothing at all.
Noticing a forest in the distance, he began moving in that direction. He continued walking through the forest all night, and discovered a clearing deep in the heart of the forest. Exhausted, he lay down and took a nap.
He soon came to live in that clearing, located deep in the forest near Neopia Central. But he occasionally ventured into town, and he saw many different things. He saw owners happily painting their pets, happily feeding them delicious foods, and happily playing with them. He saw Neopets happily battling, happily reading, happily playing with their petpets, and just in general being happy. Joy seemed to permeate the air, in fact.
And he decided then and there that he would very much like to be happy.
The problem was he didn't know how to go about it. How did one go about being happy? He certainly didn't know.
So he decided that he would observe and see how other Neopets went about being happy.
And as he watched them, he noticed something. When an owner gave their Neopet an item, be it something as cheap as a ball of yarn or as expensive as a Faerie Paintbrush, the Neopet involved expressed joy and happiness at receiving it. And he came to the conclusion that it was the items themselves that made them so happy.
He had never known what it was like to be loved, and to love in return, so it had never occurred to him that it might have been the love that the item expressed rather than the item itself that made them so happy. And even if it did, he was so desperate to be happy that he would have probably ignored it anyway.
But now he had another problem. He had no money, no way of earning it, and no owner to buy him an item of his very own.
So how was he going to get one?
After briefly watching a small red Shoyru happily play with a Jingly Bell, a thought occurred to him.
I wonder, since those items seem to bring them so much happiness, if I stole them, would that make me happy? But stealing is wrong, he thought.
But is it wrong to want to be happy? That thought stayed in his head for the next few weeks, repeating itself in his mind over and over. If he stole an item, he would be evil, but happy. And if he didn't steal an item, he would be good, but unhappy. He thought about it day and night, wondering what he should do. And finally, he came to a decision.
I just want to be happy.
So when he saw a little blue Acara happily riding her bike in the forest, and saw how much joy it brought her, he stole it, hoping that maybe it might bring him the same joy she had felt. And when he was first challenged to a battle, he accepted, because he saw how happy the pets who won such battles were afterwards. But the items he stole brought him no joy, and the battles he won brought him no happiness. So the Pant Devil, as he was now known, kept on stealing more and more items, and thought to himself with each passing item, Okay, this item didn't bring me any joy. But who knows? Maybe the next one well…and maybe then I'll finally be happy. Maybe…just maybe…
AN: Yay! My very first story! In the Neopian Times! And it's about the Pant Devil! But you probably already knew that! Why am I still talking with exclamation points?! (Calms down.) Anyway, I was inspired to write this when, out of curiosity, I looked up the word 'pant' in the dictionary, and found the definition above. It's been languishing on my hard drive for a couple of years now, so I finally decided to publish it. Oh, and I've always wanted to do this *ahem* MEEP!