My name's Sharalik. My owner and siblings call me Shari, most of the time.
And this morning I got a very sudden awakening. Namely my Acara brother bouncing on the end of my bed, blowing a party streamer in my face. Typical Nelly. Normally I'm up well before him to get my school uniform on, but today's a Saturday. So I sat up and asked him what was going on.
"Shari, don't you know?" He seemed genuinely surprised. "Happy birthday! You've been in Neopia four years today!"
"Four years..." I paused in disbelief. "Has it really been that long?"
"Yep. And that means Dream's been here for that long, too. Don't you want to get up and talk about it?"
I did. Pulling my weekend sleepsuit over my legs, I flapped my way down the stairs with Nelly chasing me. Silver and Lila were on the landing, obviously waiting for me. "Happy birthday, Shari," they chorused, Silver looking slightly awkward about it.
"I can't believe how long Dream's been here," Silver mused.
"How much things have changed?" Lila guessed.
"And how much they haven't."
I shot a mischievous look at Nelly. "I was meant to be an only pet back then, you know," I reminded him. "I could have been a Faerie Shoyru with a Book Award and all my stats through the roof by now."
"No, you wouldn't." Nelly grinned. "It was only six months after you were born that Dream heard of fostering. Don't try to tell me she wouldn't have got involved in that."
"She thought the Neopian Times was written by the staff," Silver reflected. "Now she has to tell everyone what her White Weewoo avatar is for."
We paused at the foot of the stairs. "So," Nelly asked innocently, "do you think we count as veterans now?"
"Semiveterans," Lila answered. "That's your owner's word, isn't it?"
The three of us batted paws at Lila simultaneously. "Our owner, you doofus. But yes. Semiveteran..."
"I don't know." Silver looked thoughtful, as he tends to. "When we were born, there were no Xweetoks, and the Kadoatery was still being built."
"Everyone thought Maraqua was still in ruins," I added. "Can you believe it took them so long to find the new city?"
"We thought Sloth was gone for good," Lila put in. "The Neopets Team had told us he wasn't coming back."
"Before Gnorbus--"
"Safe transfers--"
"Donny's repair shop--"
"Code filters--"
"Underwater fishing!" Nelly exclaimed, with a glance at Silver, our house's fishtank attendant.
"Yeah." Lila smiled. "I'm a little bit younger than you, but I think you guys are all official semiveterans now."
"Let's tell Dream," I grinned, and we pushed open the door. Our owner was sitting at the kitchen table, poring over the Faerie Crossword with a pencil stuck behind her ear.
"Hey, Dream!" Nelly yelled, bouncing through the door. "We just proved that you're really old!"
The look on our owner's face will not be forgotten for a very long time.
