A Cooty's Fang

     She blinked.

     “Fang...”

     She blinked again.

     “Fang, come on!”

     With a rush of energy, the four-legged creature burst to life from the soft greenly padded ground and ran happily. Ran, unknowingly, right in to a large stone step, landing her perfectly back on her bottom with a tiny thud. The winced expression upon her large, strangely proportion-eyed face unknotted as the little blue spotted Fangy- so cleverly named Fang- stood back up.

     “Into our new home!” shrilled the overjoyed yellow-haired Xweetok, which Fang only knew as Sheerie, as she over-dramatically swung open the gigantic (at least to Fang) brown door. For a moment, entering seemed as nothing but oblivion. In the heat of all the exciting intensifying screeching and emotional racing, Fang mindlessly ran about in several circles gleefully, nearly wetting herself in the process before Sheerie prodded the petpet gently with her foot. “In you go,” she urged cheerfully.

     Jumping almost too quickly in to the doorway and collapsing once again, this time onto her front legs, the little Fangy jousted in her spot jubilantly. All around objects of large capacity lay about, each giving its own jolt of excitement to the gifted creature. Through the west windows shone a deep light from the setting sun that made the ordeal much more appealing.

     Sheerie moved on through several rooms, happily observing each carefully, while a step behind her Fang followed, occasionally taking more steps in her spot than were required. In the first room there was a monstrous green sofa waiting to be lounged on, and hopefully in some time, torn apart. In the second, a large rainbow rug was spread, and it too was waiting, at least this time, for someone, who Fang knew to be herself, to soil. After the first few rooms, however, Fang became absentminded and clumsily tangled herself in Sheerie’s feet nearly three times.

     They stopped in front of a large twisting staircase, which Fang half staggered into. Blinking several times, the little petpet drooped and before long turned right over and lay on its back, legs pointed straight in the air. Sheerie was unaffected by this disturbing act by her pet. It seemed almost natural to her. Before long, Fang suddenly gave a twitch and opened her eyes but did not move.

     “Tired, are we?” the large Xweetok asked with a wide smile as she bent low, revealing a large purple bow sitting atop her head, and reached for Fang, who, attempting to still pretend to be asleep, immediately shut her eyes tight. “Off to bed then,” she heard Sherrie announce while being swung up and carried up the stairs.

     Curiosity relieved a part of the drowsiness that had fallen upon Fang as they reached the top of the stairs. She opened her eyes slightly to watch the blue pattern of the wallpaper fly by in a blur until they halted at another massively huge doorway.

     She was plopped down on the fluffy white carpeted floor gently while Sheerie went off to appraise her new room excessively. Overwhelmed, the little Fangy staggered around until she found a lovely little pink bed, made in just her size, which was the perfect place for her to lay herself.

     Her head fell forcefully on the cushioned bed.

     There was still much to see and much to do. Sheerie bounced on to her own bed and muttered something aloud, but Fang did not care.

     She slowly closed her eyes.

     “I can’t wait to see the rest, Fang! We’ll have such a great time...”

     There was no more sound...

     A prick on her nose.

     Bolting up in near struggle to lift herself up, Fang blinked endlessly in to the darkness. There was nothing to see, and nothing that she could think of to draw any more attention to the sensation, so she decided immediately to get back to a well deserved rest. She did just that, snuggling down in to the cushions with her head and front legs, leaving her bottom raised in the air, tail waggling about slightly.

     A tickle at her tail.

     Wrenching her eyes apart instantly, she turned around to try and rid the annoying feelings that kept her from her sleep.

     A poke at her nose.

     She wiggled it intensely.

     A poke at her nose.

     Still half trying to catch her rest, Fang slowly opened her eyes and though she saw nothing, she heard what sounded like a tiny near inaudible giggle. Creeping out from her bed, the yellow-horned petpet stood, tail swaying back and forth, with her large eyes darting around the room.

     The blazing moonlight illuminated parts of the room graciously as Fang glanced about. Stupidly staring around at the same several spots, she could see nothing that didn’t draw her attention. After a long while, long after most little petpets would have given up, she turned around to dive back in to her dreams. In doing so, she caught sight of a small shadow bouncing away hastily across the floor and out the doorway. Only moments later did she think of chasing after it, but by then it was already too late.

     Drat, she thought.

     The next day came swiftly with a new bright sun and soft pleasant wind. Sheerie spent most of the day exploring and gawking at every bit of their new home, which was built, as Fang understood, in a magnificent playground. There were large trees almost everywhere outside, especially in their back yard. So far, the most appealing place Fang had come to adore was her very own play room, which most of the time she sat absentmindedly staring at the moving toys and getting overly excited at the things she could chew or push about.

     In the excitement of the day, they had finally come down to their very last exploration, the outside garage. At first, Fang had been quite excited to hear of the new treasure. However, most news her beloved owner would squeal about made her quake and bounce in joy. By the time they had drawn themselves outside and in to the warm sunlight, Fang had gotten well distracted by falling leaves and swaying grass.

     Trotting happily between a couple little shrubs as Sheerie disappeared to her destination, Fang decided to do her own exploring. She became fixated on a falling leaf once again. She moved closer as it hovered slowly towards the ground like a zombie until it landed softly between her eyes. In surprise she jerked her head back and forth to get it off, then rolled over twice in the grass. Meanwhile it had flown away swiftly with the wind.

     After a long few moments, with the sun hid behind a little cloud, Fang darted upright and shook herself free of loose grass and dirt before sitting on her knees. Immediately the sun burst out from between the clouds passing by once again and shone though the leaves on the overjoyed pet. Her large amber eyes caught sight of grass moving around at her side, and with what seemed to be the only clever thought she ever had, Fang realised there had been no wind to make such movement.

     Keeping her eyes fixed on the tiny patch of grass as it twitched, she dared not to move. Every movement the blades of green made, her ears followed to do so as well. Eventually she stood up on her little feet. As she did so, the movement stopped. Revealed on top of the grass were two tiny thin antenna sticking out. Instinctively she crept closer until she towered over what had frozen and saw a little Cooty staring back. Its ears perched back, the big (at least for its size) yellow eyes gazed up, and its tail drew close.

     It dashed away.

     Fang, amused by its too little wings, gave the tiny creature a large handicap towards a tree. Eventually, she darted after it, but was unable to catch it. Fairly disappointed, but still much more intrigued, she sniffed the base of the tree carefully and slowly moved around it twice. After a final sniff she sat back, highly stumped, and stared.

     From her left she heard a distinct miniscule giggle that she had heard once before. Gazing her large eyes to the side of the tree, she spotted the little blue Cooty and jumped forward.

     She missed it.

     Disappointed once more, she sat back again. Instantaneously, from the left side this time, the creature popped out and gave another sound. Fang instinctively went after it, this time running full circle around the tree.

     Before long, as though in a stroke of sheer brilliance (or pure luck), Fang caught on to the little trick and attempted to swing around to the other direction, but instead hit full-force with her front horns in to the tree. With a shake of her head, she saw the Cooty from her side watching and giggling with a hand over its lower face. In one swift motion, Fang lunged forward and shoved it in her mouth.

     It wiggled around inside as Fang looked from side to side as though she was going to be seen before trotting away quickly between two new bushes near the house. Eventually, she spat it out.

     There it sat, covered in a thick layer of drool and trying to move its way around after being nearly eaten. It made no progress. Fang, on the other hand, simply licked the Cooty of the pasty dribble until it was good as new, then sat back on her behind, tongue still sticking out.

     They stared.

     Instead of fleeing, the little bug-like creature seemed to sit down as well, and from what it looked like, gave a curled smile.

     For the rest of the day Sheerie had not noticed Fang’s new little friend. Her petpet had always been quite distracted, and at most often times by several things at once; that was nothing new or unordinary. To Fang’s delight, the Cooty seemed pleasantly happy, and even more so to perform the same tricks or games on her many times over (as Fang never stopped being amused) that there was no sign that it would ever want to leave.

     By evening, things became slow. Fang ate her feeding bowl dry and the little Cooty slept soundly on the back of her fur.

     “Hewwow, my littol pet, how are yew toodaaaaa- EEEE!”

     Sheerie shrieked unpleasantly. The sight of the Cooty made her nearly faint in her spot. The noise too had made it sit upright, staring up at her dazed on Fang’s back. To no surprise Fang merely blinked.

     “That thing!” she shrieked again while Fang smacked her lips together.

     She grabbed the little thing by its tail with her thumb and forefinger, holding it far away from her as it struggled. In doing so, Fang jolted up and ran after her, bewildered, finally realising what was going on as they moved to the bathroom.

     She moved so fast with her feet that she nearly slipped many times and blew hard through her nose. It’s mine, she thought.

     Sheerie held out the creature over the toilet. The big round bowl stood defiantly over Fang. Quivering, Fang stared up.

     It’s mine.

     “Ugh.”

     It’s mine.

     ”What an unpleasant thing.”

     It’s mine!

     The Cooty swayed, trying to get free.

     It’s mine! It’s mine! It’s mine! “Greeap.”

     Fang had shivered and became watery-eyed so bad that she made a forceful sound in protest that sounded half like a parrot and a large spit at the same time. Sheerie looked down at her precious Fangy with sad eyes. Looking back at the Cooty, she sighed. “You want this, don’t you?” she asked, while Fang swayed her tail back and forth fast.

     Instead of flushing the poor Cooty down the toilet, Sheerie clenched the little creature in her hands lightly and knelt down. Fang waddled forward and stepped on to her owner looking apprehensive. “Here you go,” she said as she held out her hand and opened it.

     Fang’s little friend leapt up instantly and hopped on to her back, digging slightly under the fur to hide, and, feeling the need to wet herself, she ran in a circle, hopping happily.

     It’s mine, thought the Cooty.

The End