* * To Cathair Fionabhainn! * *
MoogerMint rolled over to her right side, tugging at her quilt to conceal herself in pure darkness. She attempted to go back to sleep, but after what seemed to be a half hour she realized that it was no use. As usual, she was up early, before anyone else except perhaps Captain Fhilsimian. She crept out of bed and headed for the courtyard in the center of the compound. She looked skyward, noticing the pinholes in the universe's cloak, and slipped onto her back. They were always out, but now was as good a time as any to stargaze.
She heard a door open from Fhil's side of the compound. Bare feet slapped the stony floor as he approached MoogerMint.
"What are you doing out so early?" he asked Moogz as he crouched down next to her.
"Oh, hello Fhil," she replied, "I couldn't go back to sleep again, so I decided to come out here and watch the stars and planets."
Fhilsimian raised his chin, looking skyward. After a moment's silence, Fhil asked Moogz, "Okay, so you just lay there and stare at the stars? Seems pretty boring, doesn't it?"
MoogerMint raised herself with her elbows, shifting her gaze from the vast sky to her guardian, Fhilsimian. "Not to me," she replied matter-of-factly. "I've always had an affinity for outer space and the night air. It's just so... enormous!"
"Well, yes, but it's not like they do anything. The same stars remain above our heads, day after day, night after night."
"I know, but I just like to, you know?"
And so started a long, engaging conversation...
* * *
There was a light knock on the door, ShanIon rolled over on her side facing the wall a pretending she didn't hear. But there was another, only harder this time. ShanIon shoved one of her three pillows on her head and moaned, "Go away! It's like two in the morning!"
"No, Shan, It's not. It's two in the afternoon! Check your AM/PM!"
A soft moan was heard from inside the room. ShanIon sat up and turned to her right to see the time. "....It's AM," she lied, and lay back down and pulled her covers over her head, slightly revealing her toes.
MelberLime barged in. "I'm going home for the day, so I wanted to know if you wanted me to pick up anything?"
Shan sat up suddenly and threw the pillow off her head and on the floor next to her. "Sure! More mangas!!"
"Oky doky." MelberLime walked over to Shan's bed with a smirk, picked up the pillow and threw it at ShanIon's face, then left to ask MintBall and Fhilschnoztastic if they wanted anything.
ShanIon got up from her bed, made it, and deciding to see if Fred needed a polish, walked out of the room.
* * *
"...and ever since, I've been scared to death even to come near a cat, let alone pet one," Fhilsimian concluded his hyperphobic story on how he had been traumatized by cats.
MoogerMint lolled her head to one side as she let out a sigh. Turning back to face Fhil, she explained, "Fhil, cats rub against people and things to leave their scent on them. It's like their saying 'This is mine,' or in your case, 'I like you.' They don't do it to spread disease!"
Fhil looked at her in disbelief. "You mean to say I've been running from those fuzzballs all this time for no reason!?"
Moogz nodded, "Pretty much, yeah."
"Well...," began Fhilsimian before he was cut short. A banana-cream pie collided with his face, seeming to come out of nowhere. Moogz rolled onto her back, letting loose with uncontrollable, impish laughter. He glared at her through thick, cold, pudding-like pie filling, once the pie pan slid off his face. Whipped cream dripped from his monstrous nose.
Suddenly hopping to her feet, Moogz pranced off, still giggling. Fhil muttered, "I should've known she'd do that..." But within the distance of three yards from him, MelberLime had stepped in front of MoogerMint, catching her by the waist before she had gotten away.
"Hey, I'm headed home, so I was wondering if you wanted me to bring anything back for you guys?" she asked as she released her hold on Moogz.
"Bananas!" MoogerMint and Fhilsimian said in unison and without hesitation.
MeLi whipped out a pencil to write 'bananas' on the list, "Okay, got it."
Once MeLi walked away, Moogz stayed rooted. She looked around, shifty-eyed, then turned to face Fhil. She flung a slight smirk his way, "...jinx..." She then whipped back around and sped off, giggling evily.
Fhil stood there in quiet shock. Who now can I get to say my name? Moogz jinxed me, MeLi's flying back down to the planet... the only one left is Shan, he thought in horror. Will I ever be able to get her to speak my name...?
* * *
Fhil found Shan's legs sticking out from beneath her ship, Fred. He suddenly stopped talking to Shan right in the middle of his sentence. "Fred? Fred! Yoohoo, Fred!" ShanIon got up from the ground and turned around. There she saw Fhil walking toward her. Shan let out a long, deep sigh. "What do you want?" Fhil didn't say anything, instead he pointed to himself. "What the heck are you trying to do?" Fhil continued to do this until he decided that this was getting nowhere, and that he would wait for MelberLime to get back, and say his name instead of ShanIon.
Fhil started to walk off and kicked a rock from in front of him. ShanIon watched as he did so, and suddenly got the idea. "You know, from you kicking that rock, it got me thinkin'. You're jinxed aren't you?"
Fhil turned around to look at her with an eyebrow raised. How did that make her realize I was jinxed? Fhil thought rubbing his chin.
"You want me to say your name, don't you?" Fhil nodded frantically, but ShanIon just looked at him with a devilish smirk. Fhil stopped nodding and looked at ShanIon with a horrified expression. ShanIon tilted her head back and started laughing. Fhil just stood there wishing she would just say his name. Then ShanIon stopped laughing and put her head down and looked at Fhil. "I waz jus' jokin' Fhil."
Fhil forced a smile. "Thanks."
"Now go so I can work, and talk to Fred," Shan said imperiously. She turned toward Fred and waved goodbye, without a glance back.
* * *
The Arck Nemesis cut through the planet's atmosphere, leaving multiple hues of yellowish and reddish clouds, like fox tails, swirling in its wake. In the distance, huge rose-colored thunderheads loomed above the capital, a large city dominated by crystalline skyscrapers, jutting up into the sky like so many fingers. The small craft entered the city's airspace, announcing to air traffic control, its presence with an automated signal that gave it's name, identification number, licence of the ship and its "pilot," and other imperative information.
MelberLime docked at the spaceport, locking up and setting the alarm with a keychain. The ship made an affirmative bleep! meeper! as she left. Tossing the keys up in the air, she caught them and dropped them in a shorts pocket.
She took the shuttle, a mode of transportation to and from the city that was safe for civilians, consisting of a car within a vacuum-tube. It was a short enough trip to the suburbs, long enough to think about her family and to enjoy the scenery without her thoughts wandering away with Boredom.
The family estate was spacious and beautiful, the end result of years of hard work ... and an unforseen inheritence.
The main house was made of adobe and red brick underneath a red tiled roof with a veranda supported by sculpted columns. It sat in the center of several acres worth of lawns, trees, gardens, and a putting green. Out front, the delicately-shaded, tree-lined driveway formed a loop around the putting green, the apex of the loop landing at the front stair. The entire rest of the front was a well-watered lawn.
Out back were more terraced lawns enclosing a central courtyard of stone and comfortable chairs, a buffet table and large canvas umbrellas, all perfect for the occasional family reunion, or for erecting a net and hosting a friendly local tournament. At the very end of the property lay a grove of evergreens, fir and cedar, large ferns and huckleberry, in the center of which was a small garden comprised of a red maple and several maple bushes of both red and green. Within this garden was a pond, a fountain at one end, stepping stones and an observation bench at the other, looking over the glassy surface beneath which swam a small school of calico fish. The view from this seat was spectacular and peaceful all at once, looking back at the property and its softly rolling acres.
Surrounded by its lush greenery, the Dopp Estate was a jewel among lackluster stones. Like other homes, towns, and cities, the estate lay suspended in the atmosphere like a moss-covered chunk of rock thrown into the air. Each establishment was held up by a variety of forces, from the wind and atmosphere, to suspensors and other gravity-altering devices manufactured by the inhabitants. Because of the turbulent atmosphere however, while the air might be rather humid, and though rain did indeed fall, air was almost always warm enough for precipitation to evaporate before or soon after landfall. Needless to say, few plants could survive in the parched, rocky soil (many citizens had taken a liking to rock and cactus gardens for this reason), not to mention the electrical storms which made plantlife so very dangerous to the inhabitants and their homes ...
Many citizens love green however, be it grass, trees, or even a sad clump of drying moss. It is a comfort in a way, giving one a false sense of permanence and stability in a world full of turmoil. Therefore, many parks, isolated but readily accessable by shuttle, have been made available through public funds. The owners of large estates including the Dopp Estate, because of their large water intake despite technological efficiency, are required to leave their gardens open to the public part-time, free of charge. Some prefer to keep part of their property open to the public at all hours, every day!
In this way, MelberLime was not surprised to see her home crawling with complete strangers. She groaned. This is one of the reasons why she loved her asteroid so very much! She preferred the company of just a few friends and family, or simply animals. She shuddered and muttered, "I hate crowds..."
* * *
JenniKat eyed the box sourly as it shimmied across the floor. "I didn't know what to do with it, and I knew you'd never forgive me if I just left it by the side of the road, so I brought it here."
"What is it?" MelberLime asked, green eyes shimmering as she stared at the the box.
"A foozet."
The box suddenly jumped, metal sides screeching against the floor. Its inhabitant screamed in fury; how dare that creature capture it and then leave it in this box! "Let me out of here," it seemed to say, "and I'll put you in the box!"
MeLi frowned. "Well either it wasn't hurt badly--"
"Oh believe me, it was bleeding all over the place."
"Yeah, I couldn't tell by looking at your clothes." MelberLime smirked. "Okay, so it's hurt pretty bad, but it's bouncing around so much it's just going to make things worse."
Kat nodded.
"You don't have to stay here. I can handle it."
JenniKat threw her a look. "Oh come on. I'm not going to just drop it in your lap. Let's do it."
"All right," MeLi said with a grateful smile.
* * *
As it turned out, the foozet was more bark than vicious bite, despite its needle-sharp teeth. As MeLi had suspected, it merely wanted free of confinement. As Kat had explained, it was docile and cooperative until she had closed the carrier door.
Normally the size of a chihuahua or medium-sized rabbit, foozets normally run in packs of between five and twenty. It puzzled MelberLime that the others had left this one for dead, unless they had been persued, in that case no doubt by a bunch of kids. She rubbed its grey, furry cheek as she cleaned its wounds, the foozet's beady eyes clamping shut with the pain as antiseptic dribbled from its oozing wound. "Well, the wound is clotting," she remarked, glancing up at JenniKat, who was cleaning her carrier (where had she gotten that MeLi wondered) across the room.
When it's -- his -- wounds had been wrapped and treated, the foozet clung to MelberLime's arm rather than be wrapped in a blanket. His prehensile tail and opposeable thumbs and opossum-like fingers aided its shaky climb up her arm.
"Brought home another stray?"
MelberLime and JenniKat followed the voice and beheld Easter, MeLi's mother. "Guess 'e likes me," MeLi grinned. "Can I keep him?"
Easter rolled her eyes and smiled; she knew there was nothing to be done, it wasn't as if she went looking for these things, they always just came to her! "Just keep it out of the house." She winked and greeted JenniKat before leaving the room.
* * *
MeLi returned to Dopp-Rock with two bunches of bananas, a short stack of graphic novels, and a foozet who seemed to confuse himself with a fur collar. As she happened by Fhil, she deposited one bunch in his arms before heading off to MoogerMint's wing.
Moogz was in her mini-kitchen, which consisted of a refrigerator half the size of an average one, a stand-up ice box, and a small oven. She was frantically attempting to make her banana-cream pies without the banana filling, stuffing a crust for a pie into her fridge to make room for the next. MoogerMint's specialty is banana-cream pies, though she can cook other cream pies. She cannot cook anything else.
As MintyBall was placing another banana-cream pie crust into the fridge, she heard the sound of a pounding on her door. She called out, "I heard a rap-tap-tapping at my chamber door," as she closed the fridge and walked toward the door.
"Nevermore!!" MeLi belted out in response.
"Where have you been?" Moogz exclaimed as she flung the door open and moved out of her sister's way. "I'm out of bananas!"
MelberLime traveled the distance to the kitchen and deposited a bunch of bananas onto the counter. "Well, I hope this is enough," she said with an equal amount of melodrama, "there's only about twenty or so bananas here. Oh my, I may just have to return home a week from now. I'm not sure I can handle the strain." She sniffled and turned around to face her sister.
"Thank you very much," MoogerMint said as she moved to the counter and began peeling the skin away from a banana.
MeLi watched her sister's frantic pie preparation while scratching the chin of her new fuzzy friend. "Hmm, you know I was thinking. We haven't been out much lately. You know how Mom complains about that.
"Uh huh," Moogz said absently, not really paying attention.
"Well I thought maybe we could ask Fhil if he'd let us go catch a random wormhole or something." She eyed her sister carefully, waiting for the words to register.
She didn't have to wait long, however. MoogerMint dropped the banana she was peeling almost instantly. She spun on her heel to face MelberLime, agreeing vigorously, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!"
MeLi stepped aside as Moogz ran past her. The foozet on her shoulder squeaked in shock as MoogerMint grabbed her arm and yanked them along with her. MelberLime was lucky enough to grab the door knob before she was out of reach, and as it was, the force of her sister's enthusiasm resulted in a loud slam, and a partially-dislocated shoulder.
"Wheeee!"
* * *
"Is that better Fred?"
"Yes."
"Good." ShanIon wiped the sweat from her forehead and sat down next to him. "Isn't it kind of boring, Fred? I mean, you know, you just sit there, doing nothing all day." ShanIon waited for a few seconds for him to answer, but he didn't. "Huh? Fred why'd you stop talking?" ShanIon looked around then her eyes fell on Moogz and MeLi, walking toward her. She glared at them. "Oh, it's them. Waddaya want?"
Moogz stepped forward. "Wanna go wormhole hopping, Shanny?"
ShanIon's face lit up with excitement. "Would I?! 'Course I would. Plus, I think Fred needs it. He's been sittin' there for so long." Moogz and MeLi both rolled their eyes.
MelberLime said, "Oh, I almost forgot," and handed her the graphic novels, all manga, that she had picked up from home.
"Good! Now alright lets go!" ShanIon jumped up and down.