All three pets scattered and headed to their respective rooms. One of the perks to having a practical owner was that each pet's bedroom had its own private bathroom attached. It made getting ready so much easier and there was much less shouting involved. Mom figured that out as soon as she adopted her second pet. After listening to Ashtah and Dral shout at each other to hurry up, Mom proceeded to head over to the Planning Commission and order new bathrooms for each bedroom in the house. Then she headed over to the pharmacy and stocked up on a decade’s worth of migraine pills.

Since Ashtah was relatively clean, all she had to do was shine her scales and she was ready to go. Trotting down the stairs to the master living room, she hopped up onto the nice cushy sofa by the front door. Mom had put the sofa there so she could see at a glance who was ready to go out…and who had to be prodded along or needed some more cleaning up before going out in public. Mom was low-key about appearances, but she was really picky about being clean before going to town. Now that Ginger was a grarrl, he always ended up having at least one last once over before being allowed outside. Ashtah smirked to herself. She was always ready first and almost NEVER needed a once over. That comes from being the oldest pet. She was really proud of that fact. Because she was so much older than the others, she was also so much faster, stronger and….Ashtah began to daydream…

She was in the middle of a really lovely daydream. She had Dr. Sloth cornered and was getting ready to throw him into the slammer. Pets and owners everywhere were cheering her along. She sighed to herself and snuggled further into the sofa’s cushions. Just as she had slammed the prison door closed and thrown away the key, she was oh-so-rudely startled back to reality by the soft bickering of Ginger and Dral as they entered the living room.

“Weenie” Ginger hissed at Dral.
“Reptile boy” Dral hissed right back.

Both plopped onto the sofa. The sofa made a sharp creak and splintered into a thousand pieces on the floor. All three pets now sat on the living room rug and blinked at each other. Ashtah bristled and considered throwing a fireball at the both of them. “Mom is gonna kill you both!!” She yelled “You are going be grounded until you-are-both-100!” She was hopping mad and smoke stated to billow around her.

“Chill Ashtah. You’re gonna give yourself a coronary.” Grarrl muttered. “Geeze, you would think I did that on purpose…” He lumbered to his feet and looked at the sad remains of the once proud Kauvara couch. Nudging a shredded pillow with one toe, he looked at Dral with some concern. “I hope she realizes it was an accident. I don’t always remember how big I am”.

Dral patted Ginger’s arm. “There there.” She said soothingly “Mom will know it wasn’t on purpose.” Ginger looked relieved. Ashtah looked stunned.

Ashtah smacked her head into her hand. It was conversations like this that made her raid Mom’s migraine pill drawer. There was no way to hide this from Mom. Getting that sinking feeling in one of her stomachs, she resigned herself to being just as grounded as her brother and sister were going to be. She just stood in the center of what was left of the sofa and steamed.

Ginger and Dral looked at each other and backed away from Ashtah. They both were in awe of their oldest sibling. Compared to her, they were both weaklings barely able to dress themselves let alone go one on one with her. She really took her older sister role seriously, protecting and guarding them without any thought of herself. No one messed with this family unless they wanted to meet Ashtah head on. They could both remember when the pant devil tried to steal some items from the both of them just last week. By the time Ashtah was done with the poor sucker, he had given back all the stuff he had stolen from pets that week and under her icy stare he wrote apologies to each pet who’s items he had stolen. NO ONE messed with Ashtah!

“Of course, she can be really bossy…” they both thought. Sometimes the responsibility really went to her head. They both wished she would relax and chill. Even though it was never shown, they both knew Mom had a soft spot for Ashtah. Yah, all the pets were treated with the same love and affection, but it was Ashtah who went with Mom most often on walks in the evening. And it was Ashtah that mostly went with Mom when Mom went off to help a new Neopian who was in trouble. “Well,” they scratched their heads in unison “That would be because we couldn’t do anything like our more experienced sister could…” Dral and Ginger looked at each other. It was amazing how much alike they thought…

Mom entered the room. She looked at the three of them and then at the mess on the floor. Without saying a word she made her way through the shattered couch and swooped upon her pets and gave each of them a big hug. “Ready?” she said. Beaming a smile at her shocked pets, she scooted all of them out the door. “Time to go shopping!” she sang. All three pets looked at each other helplessly. “Um…Mom?” Ashtah hedged “Do you feel okay?”

Mom just smiled and waved towards the couch. “It’s okay. I was thinking of redecorating anyway.” That said, and with the three stunned pets in tow, she headed out towards Neopia Central.

Back to My Short Stories
Back to Prologue
Go on to Chapter Two

Now for all the legal jargon. Neopets owns the rights to everything Neopet related: past, present and future. I am just a fan, and while I like to write stories, all the charactors, food items, etc. all come from Neopets!!