Scrina, a simple orange kougra sat by the open window of her neohome on Mystery Island, wishing that her best friend, Nani the Xweetok was here. Nani had gone to Kreludor to visit her family for the summer. She had been trying to get her mind off Nani by counting her Neopets trading cards. She especially loved the petpet cards. In her collection, she had 5 SUPER-RARE petpet cards. There were all baby petpets, a Polarchuck, a Miamouse, a Warf, a Liobits and a Stego. Scrina thought that all of the petpets on the neopets trading cards were just SO cute. She loved baby fireballs. In fact, she had one! His name is Velnin and he has been in her life for as long as she can remember. So far, Sarah had counted 173. She loved to go down to the shops and look at all of the petpets up for adoption and feed the petpets. She had always wished that she could
Her house was right near the shops, so many people passed it. Sarah gazed at a faerie Jub-Jub. The pets are so lucky, they have lots of petpets. Scrina thought. Most all of the rich pets were walking all of their many pretty petpets and were walking so proudly, that all they could see was the tip of their nose. Well, the Tyrannian petpets were not so pretty, but the others are. I wish I had that many petpets, Sarah thought aloud.
As if he was reading her mind, Velnin, her baby fireball, said "What??? So suddenly I'M not good enough for you???"
Shocked, Scrina said "No! That is not what I meant!",
but Velnin ignored her and hopped through her open window and onto the roof. He slid down the gutter, and Scrina watched as he hopped along the road towards the marketplace. Scrina stared down at her dirty bare feet. She couldn't bear to watch him run away. She thought she heard something like a fight, but she couldn't distinguish the words except for 'Ow! It burnt me!' But she paid no attention.
*******************************************************************************************************************************
Scrina dragged her feet along as she walked through the market. Letting her feet guide her she sulked down the neohome rental isle. Making many confusing turns, she found herself in front of the petpet pound. As she shuffled in, a loud bell rang signaling that she had come in.
A red Ashia sat at a counter that was cluttered with papers, pencils and had an old rusty printer sitting in one corner. An old Desktop computer sat in front of her. She looked up from the counter and said "Hello, how may I help you?"
"I'd like to see all the petpets up for adoption to feed them." Scrina mumbled.
"Excuse me?" the Ashia said.
"I'd like to see all the petpets up for adoption to feed them." Scrina replied a little louder.
"Oh!" said the Ashia. "You must be Scrina."
"That's me." Scrina murmured.
"Well, if you don't mind my asking Scrina, what's got you down?"
"Oh. My petpet Velnin ran away."
"Oh I'm so sorry." The Ashia replied. A Scrina thought she saw a look of familiarity cross the red Ashia's face. Scrina quickly decided that she had been dreaming. The red Ashia quickly typed in something on the computer sitting in front of her. The computer said something in an animated voice. But Scrina was too distracted to hear what it said.
After a couple minutes, the red Ashia said, "Come this way."
Scrina shuffled along behind her. They stopped at the first box, but then Scrina noticed something, the first box was red, not blue! The blue box was beside it. The blue box belonged to a maraquan Jub-Jub named Uxlina had her name printed in big, red letters at the bottom of the box. Uxlina's box had shells and fish painted on it. In the first box, there was a new addition a baby fireball in a box with flames drawn all over it. A baby fireball!!!! Scrina's eyes widened. There were many tense moments that she stared, wide eyed, at the petpet in the box. Once the baby fireball noticed Scrina, its eyes widened also.
"Scrina?" He said, first in surprise, then in anger: "Scrina." Velnin said darkly.
"Velnin?" Scrina exclaimed, "They brought you here? I can't believe it! I was so heartbroken. I mean I didn't know where you had gone! You worried me so much!"
"Yeah. I left because you didn't care about me anymore." Velnin replied. "You said 'I wish I had that many petpets'."
"But Velnin, I didn't mean that as in, 'Velnin's not good enough! I want more petpets to impress other neopets.' That's not what I meant!" Scrina exclaimed.
"Then what did you mean?" Velnin asked curiously.
"I meant I'll bet all of those petpets at the petpet pound want a good home. I wish I could be the neopets to give that to them. Plus when I don't go to neoshcool, Velnin won't be so lonely. That is what I meant!"
"Really!" Velnin cried as tears welled up in his eyes. "All you wanted was to give abandoned petpets a good home?"
"Yes. That is all." Scrina replied. "But I don't have enough neopoints to adopt any."
"Um, I hope you don't mind if I butt in," the red Ashia said, "but we do have way too many petpets in the petpet pound. They don't have any visitors except for you, Scrina. And all of the petpets would love it if you took them out for a walk every day."
"Really?" Scrina cried in shock.
"Yes, I'm the owner by the way; my name is Meryll -Allison. And I'd be happy to give you a job here." "Really???" Scrina was in a total state of shock, "You would really give me a job, here, at the petepet pound!!!"
"Yes" Meryll-Allison said.
"I accept!" Scrina declared confidently.
" We have a huge backyard so I could also take the petpets out in my backyard and set up an obstacle course for them using lots of old junk from our garage. It's really cluttered."
"I'll bet if you asked some of your friends they would help you." Meryll-Allison said.
"That is a great idea!" Scrina exclaimed.
*******************************************************************************************************************************
All of the petpets were enjoying Scrina's obstacle course very much. She had designed a crawl through rainbow dung, a hole that you need to climb out of that has various items, such as rotten shoes, fish skeletons, broken fishing poles, broken tents and many other old, broken items. And many, many, many more exciting activities were included in the obstacle course. Every month Scrina would add obstacles, and take awes some, so the petpets never got bored. Sometimes, they got taken on fieldtrips to places like The Haunted Woods, or The Lost Desert.
Scrina had noticed that Velnin and Uxlina had become very close friends. They had conjured up the idea of a juice stand, made from juices form plants that were native to Mystery Island. They had gotten permission, first from Scrina and them from Meryll-Allison, to sell their juices to the local neopians. The neopoints they earned went to the petepet pound. Their most famous juice was Geopepper juice, for 303 neopoints. They sold juice ranging from water for 200 neopoints to fancy mixed drinks that were as expensive as 1000 neopoints. The other petpets from the petpet pound came and helped sometimes. They had loads of fun learning how to make the juices.
*******************************************************************************************************************************
One day, near the end of summer, business at the juice stand had been slow, and the petpets were asleep on various places on the obstacle course. Scrina was wandering down the beach. She thought that she heard a voice yelling "Scrina! Scrina! I'm back from Kreludor!"
Scrina turned around and saw Nani.
"Nani!" She cried.
Nani ran up to her and pored questions on her, "What have you done this summer? You look like you had been shipwrecked in an island! Are you exhausted? You look like it!"
Scrina looked down at her clothes. They were very ripped and torn. Not to mention dirty.
"Yes I am." Scrina replied sleepily.
"What did you do this summer?" Nani asked once again.
"Long story." Scrina replied.
"I have nothing but time." Nani answered.
Nani's eyes widened in anticipation as Scrina led her through the market and to her neohome and through her backyard, a shortcut she had learned that was a quicker way to get to theobstacle course in the petpet pound's backyard. Nani was speechless, and she had always liked a story, not to mention the ones Scrina told. But Scrina made her wait until they were to the obstacle course, and comfortably seated under a tree until she started to tell the tale.
When she was all done, Nani was speechless. Again.
"You asked." Scrina mused.