Slothy, the Student and the Faeries
Chapter 1
What a wonderful day. Not a cloud in the sky, a slight breeze in the air and busy neopets milling around the town square. Taren the red kyrii loved it here. She felt so much part of all the universal activity yet completely individual, cut-off, separate as well. "One of many, part of all," she whispered to herself – a quote from one of her favorite books, which described her emotions perfectly. Taren couldn't believe that she'd spent a whole term at neocollege already! She was lodging at the neohome of the infamous Dr Sloth, and at first, he had hated her. But after a damaged carpet, trampoline, vacuum cleaner, set of baseballs, and one permanently scarred reputation, they…well, they didn't exactly become friends…they just tolerated each other more easily. Anyway, Sloth was coming down to Neopia to spend the holiday with Taren in mediocre luxury in a three-star neolodge; Taren herself was shopping for some astrophysics handbooks, spectacle polish (and maybe some gel to tame her frizzled-looking hair? Nah…) and nothing could be more perfect.
Taren had just decided to stop for a triple cheese cheeseburger by the rainbow pool when she first heard it. "Junk food? A respectable young lady like yourself should not consume such trash!" Startled, Taren looked up and around. Nobody there. How strange – she was sure that that prim female voice was actually talking to her and was not just a snippet of conversation detected by her sensitive ears. She took off her glasses to clean them with her newly purchased spectacle polish. As she was rubbing them with a cloth, the voice spoke again, causing Taren to drop her glasses in panic. This disembodied voice was beginning to really freak her out. A crowd was gathering around the weird red kyrii who kept looking wildly over her shoulder and conversing with the air. All the commotion had attracted the attention of a tall masked figure wearing a curly, blonde wig and fluorescent yellow raincoat, who was now walking briskly towards the kyrii, shoving aside all the pets that got in his way.
"Taren!" She just continued staring around, muttering incoherently to herself. The person in the raincoat placed his arm around her and led her away. "Move aside," he ordered in a commanding voice. "Nothing to see here."
Back at the Neolodge, Dr Frank Sloth (for that was who was under the wig, mask and raincoat) sat Taren down in one of the wicker chairs in their room. With a worried glance at his student, Sloth picked up the receiver of the hotel telephone in their room and dialled in a number. He fiddled nervously with the phone cord while it bleeped repeatedly into his ear. Little as he wanted to admit it, even to himself, he was getting rather attached to the little kyrii. "Hello, Neomaniac Mental Hospital here, how may we help you?"
"Uh, yeah- I mean yes," Sloth quickly switched to a quavering falsetto. "My friend Taren is in dire need of professional medical aid! No, she doesn't have a history of mental illness. Mm-hm…mm-hm…Neolodge Hotel, room nine. Yes. Thank you, bye." The evil genius paced around the room for what seemed like millennia for the pets in white coats to arrive.
A blurry green gelert in a crisp white labcoat swam slowly into Taren's view. He was obviously trying not to make any sudden moves. "My…name…is…Dr…Lerti…What…is…the…matter?" The slightly dull-eyed doctor could not have differed more from the panicked kyrii with a wild, reckless spark in her eyes, like a frightened lupe in a trap. She had been conversing two hours straight with some invisible stranger, and it showed: her normally frizzy hair was standing on end even more than usual and her paws were trembling uncontrollably with fear.
"Th-th-the faeries!" Taren screamed, pointing over the fuzzy gelert's shoulder. Two out-of-focus, beautiful winged women, far too slender and graceful to be human, drifted almost lazily behind Dr Lerti. Without warning, one of them reached out to grab Taren's arm. The faerie's touch was light, cool, fresh, yet to the petrified kyrii, it felt like the caress of a slorg. Repulsed, Taren thrashed around, trying to throw off the faerie (who was twice as tall as herself).
As if from a great distance, the gelert doctor's voice reached her large ears. "Do…you…want…to…come…with…me?"
"Yes! Yes! Take me away from the faeries!" she wailed desperately. Dr Lerti took Taren's paw, leading her out of the room. The shimmering faeries dissipated as if made of smoke when he bravely (it seemed to Taren) strode through them.
To be continued…