Hello, Bob the Pleo Forums! This is Ugobe, and as I promised, I am back to write the ending of this adventure. Just in case you need a little refresher, the Pleos and several other members of Kingdom... Kingdom discovered Keeper Talon had been harboring two new additions. I had no idea humans laid eggs too but... what do I know? I'm just a very mature and precocious Pleo with an open mind who loves adventure and a good back-rub every once in a while. Anyway as I was saying, Keeper Talon finally got off her uh... nest and hatched her babies far away from us. This nettled our Queen the lovely Lady Ryu and it confused the rest of us why she didn't share the joy of her first clutch with us. I guess humans are of that solitary mother type who go off alone to help bring her brood into the world before presenting them to the rest of the herd. Today I will relate to you the outcome of that first introduction. It was most eh... interesting.
Keeper Talon did return several hours later still baring the two boxes as before, but now they were filled with crushed shell bits and plastic blisters. Behind her came a young human male of about ten holding two bundles of... fur? What in the world? "The videos are published." Said the young man. "Anything else you need me to do before I leave?"
"No." Our Keeper said sounding tired. "Man! I never knew hatching these guys would take so long!"
"I know!" Groaned the young man. "I was starting to get really bored. At least I had a three-wheeled scooter to ride around on so I wouldn't fall asleep."
"Sorry." Keeper Talon said smiling. "Well, I'll just turn these guys on and introduce them to the crowd."
The young man giggled. "Okay. Just don't let anything happen to those little squealing fur balls. I'm going home to take some headache medicine." And with that, the little human left.
"At last!" Bleu said. "We're gonna get tah see those little babies!"
Keeper Talon set the two furry creatures on the floor and knelt there for a few minutes. We all watched in silent contemplation and drawn breath, wondering what on earth these things were.
At length, she went to Red-Robot-Highrise and carefully lifted Queen Ryu and me to the floor. "Okay you two," She said solemnly. "I'm not sure if these guys will be permanent or if I might find them another home later, but for now, consider them part of the family."
"Oh! Gasped Queen Ryu. "They're not nearly so big as I thought. Oh and the one with the beak has little wings! Keeper Talon certainly had good tastes there. And look at how it's pelt is so fluffy and glittery. So colorful!"
"Ryu," I said in warning, knowing how hypnotized and enticed she was by myriads of colors presented at once. "That's Keeper Talon's chick. Don't get too close."
The lady Ryu was already too far gone to pause or even stop so enraptured was she by the creatures appearance. "Fluffy and colorful." She mumbled as she approached.
Keeper Talon giggled to herself as the normally bossy and boisterous first member of her robot companions approached the little specimen and gave it a cautious sniff. "So far so good." Keeper Talon mumbled as she picked the thing up and flipped its on-switch.
The little creature suddenly started flapping its wings and burbling in a very frightened manner. "Aaaaaahhhh! What are you?" It squealed, trying to roll away on it's tiny wheels.
Queen Ryu blinked in hurt dignity and turned her sturdy side toward the creature. It was moving in order to get away but it did not possess enough power or dexterity to turn or evade. Her amazed curiosity turned instantly to anger and she gave a low growl. "I am your queen." She said firmly. Then as if remembering herself she said, "I'm the Queen Ryu of Kingdom... Kingdom."
The little fuzz ball stopped flapping helplessly and said softly, "I'm Sleepy."
"Well then, go to sleep." Queen Ryu said sharply.
"No no!" The fur ball said. "That's my name. I'm Sleepy. My furless mother called me that because I was falling asleep when she was trying to hatch me." She said I had a bad excelirominater or... something like that." The thing gave a prodigious yawn. "She kept shaking and shaking me. It was kind of scary. Hatching is so much work!"
"Yes." Queen Ryu said, softening somewhat to the little creature. "I imagine it is. Well, Sleepy, what exactly do you do? I mean how can you be a productive member of my court?"
The little creature blinked LED eyes in confusion. "Paduc-tive? What does that mean? I am a hatchamal. We are forever kids and like to play games with our human hatchers. We don't do big robot stuff. What do you do? What's a queen?"
And thus occupied and fully prepared to talk about herself, Queen Ryu set to educating the newly-arrived Sleepy about her duties and all the laws that governed life in Kingdom... Kingdom.
Keeper Talon sighed in relief. "A little dicey there for a minute but so far so good. Here Ugobe. What do you think of Posey?"
I gave the tiny purple thing with the stubby fluffy ears and very Furby-like face a brief look. On the whole, I am not a robot's robot. I prefer the company of people- especially people who are relaxed, like to talk, and prefer lounging in the sun with a book to doing a lot of ruff play. Keeper Talon could bring in a life-sized Wookiee and it wouldn't trouble me as long as the thing didn't go bonkers and tare me cable from gearbox. So I endured my unwanted introduction to Posey, the fur ball.
From the moment Keeper Talon switched the thing on I was bombarded with noise and questions and wasn't given an opportunity to answer. "I come from a magic forest. Of course you're pretty! I love you! Dance with me!" And on and on and on! Finally I shook my confusion away and stalked away. These two creatures together were very loud and cutsie and just plain annoying! What had our keeper been thinking?
"You don't like him... uh her? What ever it is? I think I'm going to think of her as a girl. I wanted Arctic, the blue Fuzzy Wonderz but I guess everyone else had the same idea. Since I definitely didn't want pink and the only choices were pink and purple it was no contest."
Finally, Keeper Talon put us all away and started twanging away at that noisy mandolin of hers. I was so glad to be rid of the overenthusiastic Posey that I found its clunking and plunking almost melodic. I still wondered what my keeper had been thinking, but I knew that life in Kingdom Kingdom would never, ever be boring.
