Part 4: The Master's Mansion

A tongue on my nose. Someone is licking my nose. No. That is theoretically impossible. Why would anyone be licking my nose?

What!? Greenox!?

No. Impossible. Absolutely impossible. I must be hallucinating.

Somewhere in my mind was some dim partially-formed idea that this must be the same compound I was in before, that Greenox was left behind here when I was taken away, that some pet who had a secret store of food must have nursed him back to health and cared for him. But that thought dissolved as fast as a grain of salt in a glass of water.

There was only one reason I wasn't dead yet: the fluids in those tubes and wires had given me some sustenance and nutrition. But since, thank heavens, I had not been connected to them long, the life support they had given me was quickly used up by my frantic body, and I figured: now. Now, for sure, I will die.

It was kind of nice that Greenox was there. Kind of nice not to die alone.

"Hmm. She isn't painted..."

Huh? Painted? All that my brain could come up with at hearing the word "painted" was a vague, distorted image of a Cloud Gelert.

"Jetzu?" I muttered incoherently.

"...but she does have a PetPet. And a painted PetPet, at that. Stats aren't bad, either. Incredibly ugly little creature, but of course, that's only because she's in the worst possible condition. I'd like to see how she would look all fixed up...may even be good for shows one day, and there are certainly NeoPoints involved in that field...I'll take her."

A good deal of time must have passed during which I was not conscious of anything happening around me. When my eyes did open for the first time and take in my surroundings, I gasped out loud.

I was no longer in the Pound. I was lying in an enormous, blissfully soft, absolutely heavenly feather bed. A huge, fluffy white quilt was wrapped around me, my head was propped up on a cloud of pillows, and the scents of perfume and aromatherapy candles wafted through the air. The floor was covered with an Oriental carpet, a golden fountain gurgled in one corner of the room, and a dozen candles sparkled in a crystal chandelier on the ceiling.

I'd been bathed and brushed till my coat shone, my numerous bruises and wounds had been cleaned, iced, annointed, and bandaged, and a beautiful crystal-blue pendant sparkled on a cord around my neck.

Greenox was nestled against my shoulder, and beside the bed knelt a tall, pale towheaded boy dressed in a formal silk-and-velvet suit, feeding me expensive foods, fancy cures for my countless diseases, and bite after bite of a gleaming Everlasting Apple.

"I've gone to Heaven," was my first thought. It seemed logical enough. When you're certain you're about to die, and then you black out and wake up in a place like that, Heaven seems the obvious conclusion.

I didn't realize I'd spoken aloud until my benefactor smiled.

"No, not quite Heaven," he corrected gently. "What is your name, young Gelert?"

"Galleymyst," I replied, amazed that I still remembered it. Miraculously, I also remembered my manners, and I patted my Doglefox and added, "And this is Greenox."

The boy smiled. "Well, Miss Galleymyst and Master Greenox," he said, "welcome to the Mansion."

My mouth dropped open. "Mansion?" I managed to repeat through a mouthful of NeoPox Pizza. "Do you own it?"

The boy laughed. "No, no! I'm just a servant. Forgive my manners. My name is Travis, and the Master turned you over to me after he adopted you from that horrid Pound."

"The Master?"

Travis offered me a Bottle of Water. I took it gratefully, and gulped down the entire thing in the blink of an eye. He handed me another, and nodded.

"He...doesn't give out his name very often," he explained. "Only to those he trusts most. But the Master is the richest person in all of Neopia."

I gasped, nearly choking on a huge bite of Everlasting Apple. I watched, fascinated, as the large dent I'd just made in the apple immediately vanished, and the apple became whole again.

"Indeed," laughed Travis, patting me on the back. "You are extraordinarily lucky to have been adopted by such a celebrity."

He gave me a long, inscrutable look. "You've had quite a rough time of life, my dear," he observed, "especially lately. Therefore, you may just want to rest for a while. I'd certainly understand if you did. However...do you, by any chance, feel up to meeting your new brother and sisters?"

Three Cans of Neocola and five omelettes later, I was ready. I was also dead nervous. As far as I knew, I'd be spending the rest of my life here at the Mansion with the Master and his servants and his other three pets, the pets I was about to meet. What if they didn't like me?

I shouldn't have bothered worrying. Soon enough, all my worries would

Travis escorted me into a huge white-tile room. A giant heated indoor swimming pool filled with glittering turquoise water took up most of the room. It had six mushroom-shaped fountains, six diving boards, and four giant twisty water slides.

Three NeoPets sat primly in single file by the side of the pool, soaking their feet. A PetPet was curled up on the floor beside each one. A dozen heavily-armed Shadow Skeiths, apparently bodyguards, stood nearby, blending in with the shadows. Travis quietly left the room, and I turned to the three NeoPets, ready for introductions.

"Um...hi," was my brilliant opening statement. "I'm Galleymyst...but...you can call me Myst. This is Greenox," I added, patting the Christmas Doglefox on my shoulder.

I waited. No response. The three pets kept their eyes fastened on the serene, gently lapping waters of the pool. I stood there staring at the silent NeoPets and shuffling my feet awkwardly for exactly eighty seconds; I have an acute sense of time, since my old owner was a sailor who couldn't afford a watch, and there are no clocks at sea.

Finally...very slowly...very deliberately...the first NeoPet raised her head.

She was a female Faerie Peophin, and just looking at that glittering creature, all violet and silver and wings, took my breath away. She was drenched in so much makeup and perfume and draped in so much jewelry that I didn't know how she could even sit up; the scent of her perfume and that of her sister threatened to drown out the scent of chlorine, and I dimly wondered if she was planning to go swimming in all those rubies and sapphires.

When she spoke, her voice was not the beautiful, musical sound I'd expected from such a magnificent creature. It sounded rather like a badly-tuned violin.

The first thing she did, by the way, before even saying a word, was to look me up and down very carefully, her gold-lined eyes squinting as she scrutinized every millimeter of me, and then Greenox. Her PetPet, a Flosset, peeked around her elbow and smiled maliciously. The Faerie Peophin stroked it absentmindedly. Finally, I discovered that she was not, in fact, mute.

"Who," she asked very slowly, the words rolling disdainfully off her tongue, "are...YOU?" And she regarded me as if I were a piece of dung crawling with maggots that had just been pulled from the bottom of a garbage heap.

And I thought, This is my sister!?

What I said, with just the barest hint of sarcasm, was "I just told you; I'm Galleymyst."

That was when the second NeoPet turned to me. Although, like her sister, she could barely be made out under all the powder and glitter and heaps of shimmering jewels, I managed to figure out that she was a Desert Wocky.

She delicately pinched her nose as though some odious stench was wafting from me; I thought it was a sensible thing to do, considering how she wreaked of "Twilight Primrose" and "Evening Spice." A Gathow purred in her lap. When this one spoke, it was like a bat, high and squeaky and nerve-grinding.

"You will address my sister as 'Your Highness,' as well as my brother and myself. What my sister wanted to know was what you are doing here. You're far too lowly even to be a servant. Why, you're not even painted!"

She glared suspiciously. "Did you sneak past the security guards?" She turned as if she was going to call one of the Shadow Skeith bodyguards to remove me from her sight, but now it was her brother's turn. The pungent odor of cologne preceded its owner...and he was a Gelert. A plump, starry-eyed, pearly-toothed Silver Gelert, with a Candychan on his shoulder. For just one brief instant, I actually fell in love.

Then he opened his mouth, the melody of a rusty saw cut the air, and my enchantment shattered.

"You can't be a servant. The Master doesn't allow the servants to keep PetPets. You don't mean to say that some revolting mistake has occurred and you have actually been brought here as one of us? You think yourself an ARISTOCRAT, just because that Travis, who acts far above his station, gave you a pretty little Necklace of the Water Faerie? And that Christmas Doglefox. Pitiful excuse for a painted PetPet. They're dirt cheap, you know. I don't know who you're trying to fool, Galleyfog or whatever your name is, but there is no way in the world that WE will stoop to associate with filth like YOU."

And he flicked my paw ever so delicately, as if he could flick me away like a speck of dust.

I pulled my paw away as if it had been burned, and looked at the three pets in utter disgust. I glanced at the paw which the Silver Gelert had flicked, figuring it was now somehow tainted after being touched by this nauseating snob.

"I think I'll take a swim," I announced with great dignity, and stepped around the three painted NeoPets and onto the first of the concrete steps that led down into the pool.

The Faerie Peophin rose to her feet and turned to face me, her eyes narrowing to slits. She flexed her limbs as though she thought there were muscles under there somewhere. When she spoke, it was in a "deadly whisper" that sounded like a whining baby Chia.

"You actually think we're going to allow you to pollute our pool?"

I stared at her. I could barely believe the situation. I know what I did was rather rude, but quite frankly, it was impossible not to do it. I burst out laughing.

I had sailed the wild seas of a hurricane, when the waves block out the sky. I had lived in the Pound with a Lupe who would tear my throat out if I looked at her, where you had to fight for every breath you took, every crumb you could find, every drop of water you swallowed. I had escaped the Laboratory of the Necromage...and now I was being challenged by a Faerie Peophin who had lived her life in the pages of a fashion catalouge? Who'd been raised in a house with a giant heated pool, and queen-sized feather beds, and was used to having her meals brought to her on a silver platter?

I could turn her into Koi bait.

However, I was not in the mood for fighting. I simply pushed past the ridiculous Peophin and dove into the pool. The Peophin merely stood there, gaping at me, obviously not at all used to not getting her way.

I bared my teeth. Slowly, she started backing out of the room, her siblings not far behind. I growled. The three of them turned tail and ran for their lives. The Shadow Skeith bodyguards only chuckled, and I joined them, my laughter echoing off the walls of the huge, empty room. I relaxed, floating on my back in the pool, quite satisfied.

My pleasure did not last long, however. What was luxury worth, after all, without anyone to share it with? What good were riches if they did not include the greatest treasures of all: friendship...and love?

And trust. I had trusted Marina completely, with all my heart, more than I had trusted any other creature in the world. When she had broken my trust and abandoned me, when she had chosen her career over her love for me, my heart had broken. From then on, I could never truly trust or open my heart to anyone...not even Travis, the servant, who was so kind to me.

It went on for days, for weeks...the cold, bare, meaningless luxury...being treated like a filthy piece of garbage by the Peophin, Wocky, and Silver Gelert.

Every day, my heart hardened a little bit more than the day before. And gradually, I began to become like those four cruel and snobby pets. I began to see things through their eyes, and though it didn't bring them any closer to accepting me, I adopted it anyway. It became my point of view on life: I am the ultimate pet in the world, no other pet or human, except of course the Master, is worthy of licking my paws, no one cares about me, I care about no one and nothing, and that's the way it should be.

This was worse even than my body being warped by a Mutilator. What ended up being warped was my heart.

Day after day I spent receiving and donning expensive garments and jewelry, relaxing in luxurious spas while being massaged with sweet-scented lotions by doting maids, drowning myself in fancy makeup, playing with every unbuyable toy you could dream of, swimming in the giant indoor pool.

Week after week I kept up the all-important image of one of the four richest, most pampered, most powerful, and happiest pets in all of Neopia.

Month after month, my heart shriveled away.

I was eaten up by the pain of my life; external pain, internal pain, starvation, rejection, anger, humiliation, helplessness, terror, grief. The pain was like a parasite, like a virus; it fed on me, it ate away at me like a disease, hollowing out my heart, making me more and more untrusting, selfish, greedy, and bitter.

I grew to look down on Travis and shrink away from every sign of affection he offered, until he finally gave up and treated me with the same simple servant-master deference with which he treated my three "siblings". And then there really was no one in that house who loved or cared for me, not the least bit.

I was surrounded by luxury, by three "siblings" and legion upon legion of bodyguards and servants, not to mention the mysterious, elusive "Master" of whom I saw only a few brief glimpses; the richest person in Neopia is very busy indeed. I was surrounded by all this wealth and all these NeoPets, and yet I was unbearably lonely. And the loneliness turned me into a self-centered, heartless monster.

Then came the day when my life changed utterly and completely...for the last time.