I stood there

I'm Pumpkin.

From the adventure Return of the Phantoms.

A bunny, greeting all the jammers who had to do my task.

Nobody likes me. They don't want to stare at me, and I can't do anything.

Only one jammer liked me...

Spirit Coolruler.

## Spirit

Spirit was a kind arctic wolf who wore a necklace. He never liked going out to Jamaa, he thought he wouldn’t get accepted.

So he did adventures by himself.

Once or twice a week, he would visit the adventure Return of the Phantoms, where he could see me.

I smiled as the cork was taken and Spirit would talk about his life.

“I’m too afraid to go into Jamaa,” he said as she grabbed the cork. “People might judge me, call me unrare, and reject me.”

I didn’t understand why people would reject him. “Why?” I always asked. “You’re a wonderful person, and everyone would love if you could show that.”

Spirit looked at me, and sadly shook his head. “All I am wearing is a necklace. It’s so sad how, people judge you because of your preferences. I prefer to wear a necklace.”

I sighed. “Agreed. People just can’t see behind the clothing that people wear.”

He put the cork in the Phantom Pipe and took off.

## Shortly after...

After he completed the adventure again, I didn’t really see him too often. Maybe once a month, sometimes twice, but not much more than that.

Once, I asked him what he was doing, and he replied with this:

“I’m not finding too much interest in Animal Jam anymore, and I’m very sorry.” He still had his necklace.

Spirit stopped, and dropped the cork, laid down on the grass, and said, “Take my necklace as a way of knowing me forever, even after I quit.”

I took the necklace.

**Never forget.**

He went up, picked up the cork, and closed the Phantom Pipe.

This was going to be the last time I saw him for a long time.

## never forget

I sat down, guiding everyone with how to plug in the phantom pipes. I didn't see Spirit Coolruler for a long time, until a few months later.

”Spirit,” I said, astonished, “you’re back!”

Spirit smiled back. “Yeah, I am. I have some new friends, but you’d never be replaced by them. Would you like to meet them?”

Just then, Mighty Templerock, that was their tag, came and scoffed st Spirit. “Spirit, why are you talking to NPCs? They can’t even talk unless they have speech generated by AJ.”

Spirit sighed. He took the cork and plugged the phantom pipe.

I almost cried. I wanted Spirit to come back, but he was instead hanging out with his friends. Hopefully, he can still visit from time to time.

## necklace

Sprit actually appeared again about a day later, which was weird because I thought it would be somewhat a month after.

He had on a spike this time, instead of wearing nothing on his neck. I took his necklace, remember?

I didn’t really understand much about spikes. They must be very popular, though, because I see jammers with them all the time.

“Hello, Pumpkin,” said Spirit, almost in a whisper, “today I earned my first spike.”

I smiled. “Great!” I said, pumping with joy. Spirit seemed a lot happier as well.

He gave a hug before he plugged the phantom pipe and left.

## spike

I felt happy for Spirit. He felt so happy and I felt so happy too. It’s like happiness spreads around. Hopefully, it does. Spirit is a very kind soul who deserves to be happy, at least from my experiences.

I heard the footsteps of another jammer a couple hours later. They were wearing full black, and they had the shape of a wolf. The shape was wearing one of those spike things.

My heart was unusually thumping, but I didn’t understand the feeling I had. Usually, I don’t feel anything like this.

As the wolf shape got closer and closer, my heart thumped faster and faster.