A young Lupe named Jake sat under the comfortable shade of the palm tree outside his house. The swift, salty air warmed him as he drew pictures in the light, airy sand. As he was drawing the last little fin of a Koi, he heard an excited Blurble of his Ghoti, Leopold. Jake was supposed to sell him, but no one wanted him, except Jake.
“What is it Leo? Huh? What is it?” spoke Jake nonchalantly. Just then, a strange sight appeared on the shore: an old Aisha. He was wrapped in palm fronds, and he plopped himself right down beside Jake in the sand. He was as strange as Sloth in Faerieland!
“I will buy that Ghoti of yours.” the odd Aisha said. “Alright, 20 neopoints!” said Jake, happy and sad at the same time. “Oh sir, I have no neopoints!” said the neopet, “But I have magic items to trade, hmm?” “Well, I don’t knowMother said only points! We need the money for food and-” Jake was interrupted by the Aisha, “Problem solved. I have here in my pocket some magic seeds. They grow a magic coconut tree. It replenishes coconuts whenever you take one! Drink the milk, eat it’s meat! Hey, you could even use the shell for a bowl! It’s a bargain.” said the now very animated “old” Aisha.
“Well, OK that sounds great!” exclaimed Jake, “deal!” Jake was as excited as a Neocola all shook up! He said a sad farewell to his good friend Leopold and picked him up out of the sea and sadly handed him to the old Aisha. He handed Jake 3 seeds. They were about as big as pumpkin seeds, onlySquare? And if it wasn’t odd enough, they had little purple spots on them! And they were green! Suddenly, Jake wondered, ‘Did I just make a BIG mistake?’
He rushed home to show his mother. Oh how happy she would be! Wouldn’t she be? “Mother! Look what I got for Leopold!” said Jake excitedly. Jumping up from her sewing, Jake’s mother said “Did you get the neopoints?” she asked greedily. “No, better! See, I got these seeds and–” “YOU WHAT?!” Jakes mother suddenly interrupted. “You traded our Ghoti for SEEDS? SEEDS don’t pay for food! SEEDS don’t support your old sick mother, you selfish boy!” his mother was fuming. She snatched up the peculiar seeds and heaved them out the window, where they landed in the rising tide.
“Mother! Aww How could you do that? They could have at least been food!” said Jake angrily. He stormed up to his room and slammed the door. He opened it again and switched the sign on his door around that said ‘come on in’ to the side that said ‘keep out!’ He slammed the door again.
He fell on his bed crying hot, anguished tears. He fell into a sad and twisted sleep, only to find himself up at 3:16 am looking out his window into the damp, quiet city; he did this for some time, just listening to the water lapping against the shore. Smelling the fresh, salty air. He opened his sleep laden eyes and– They bulged when right on the edge of the water line, a stupendous coconut tree with — Green and purple leavesHis mind reverted him to the image of the seeds; ‘Could they have made this tree already? How could they have done it at all?!’ Thought Jake.
Jake rushed out into the still night, his bare feet silently padding on the cool sand, over to the strange tree. He wanted to get a better look at it. His eyes could have been playing tricks on him! No, sure enough there was a green and purple tree. In his front yard. For some reason he was drawn to it. He felt like flying to the very top because it looked like it went up to the clouds! Jake began to climb gingerly up the strange tree. He stopped as he reached the top, resting in the big, soft fronds. Which, really looked huge. “Huh? The tree is growing? The leaves? OhOhhhh” Jake whispered in a rasp voice, suddenly not able to find it. He realized. It wasn’t the leaves, or the tree. He was shrinking!
The little purple spots that were once as big as the claw on his little finger, were now the size of his head! Which was pretty small now though..! As he was thinking, a gigantic (or at least Jake thought so) Cadro crawled out from one of the mountain-like leaves. Jake darted behind one, afraid. “Where is my singing ladybug?” bellowed the beast (or barely!). ‘Wow’ Jake thought. But the sleep was closing in. sometime in the past 7 seconds, Jake fell asleep.
Sometime around noon, Jake woke with a start. He immediately got up to look at his surroundings. He couldn’t see clearly in the dark.
It looked almost like a jungle, with a big hole in the middle where the leaves were connected to the wood. Something caught Jake’s eye, and his ear. He saw something shiny, like a golden sheen. He heard pretty, almost whimsical music, and a loud, sluggish snore.
It took a while to find the source, but Jake did it. He found the giant Cadro, laying on a leaf that looked oddly more comfortable than the rest. He couldn’t see it that well, but it looked like a weird key-like twig sat on his stomach. Also, there was a little Blurble in another spot to the left. He was laying gold nuggets though! Jake grabbed a few thinking ‘Hey, these should pay for a couple suppers.’ A Carmariller inside of a cage was looking at him sadly, and singing a beautiful sonata. She slowly trailed off and motioned him to come over. “Help me oh help me please!” she said pitifully. “Help me escape!”
“What? OK. You can come with me. Wait, how?” Jake asked. “See that key on the Cadro’s stomach? Use it to unlock my cage! Ok” Jake tried to be as gentle as he could, climbing up the beast. He got the key, though it was rather large. He would have made it too, had the Cadro not turned over. Jake fell to the floor, key and all, and the great noise woke the giant. He stirred, then he awoke. “Hey! What are you doing in my tree? Get back here with my music! Get back, you mootix!” the beast bellowed, and Jake ran.
He ran as fast as he could, ladybug on shoulder, gold in pocket. He plunged into the hole in the middle of the “jungle” and started flapping his wings furiously. He slowly floated to safety as Neopia’s smallest Shoyru.
Once Jake’s feet touched the ground, he reverted to regular size. The Cadro raged one last bellow of disgust (which now sounded like a tack landing on carpet!) , so Jake first gave a cry of happiness, then he flung the once-huge Cadro into the underbrush. “Thank you! Oh thank you master Jake, you saved me!” the Carmariller said with a truckload (if not a lake full) of gratitude.
CONCLUSION
Jake and his mother now never went hungry, and they sold tickets to Opera du’ Carma; the Carmariller sang every Tuesday night in their garden. She also had a lovely dressing room in the garden, just behind her stage. So
THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!