Traded- Zip2008

Pine grinned. Life was good. He loved to be with his sibling, Ridge. Ridge and Pine liked to play around in their owner, Azippy0's den. Pine was a small lizard with green and teal. He knew he gnarly wasn't as “wanted” of colors as Ridge, but he was fine with that. Pine and Ridge each had a small part of the den to themselves. Ridge lets Pine have most of the space in the area, so that part is covered mostly in small ponds and trees. Ridge takes the smaller area, even though he is bigger than pine. Pine usually makes it up to Ridge by letting him go out in Jamma with their owner most of the time.

Pine is kind of scared of going out of the den, where Ridge loves too. But sometimes Pine will come out, and today he is coming to the sapphire shop with Azippy. Pine is a bit nervous, but he sees Ridge grinning at him “Have fun at the sapphire shop!” he said to Pine happily. “I will!” Pine answers back, feeling more sure of himself.

Pine tensed up in anticipation as he and his owner teleported to a blue shop. He looked around in awe. There were so many different Jammers and pets! He took a few steps backwards, he was a bit overwhelmed. His owner gave him an affectionate nudge forward, and Pine started to explore. There were a few pets around in a corner of the shop, next to the models of the dens. Taking a deep breath, he walked towards them. “H-hi” he said nervously. “Hello!” most of the pets echoed back.

Pine gasped in admiration as he saw an amazingly colored pastel colored lizard sitting with them. He was pastel blue and cream, and he was obviously the lizard that was worth the most in the sapphires shop. But it seemed like the lizard knew it too. “Oh look, a swap lizard” the pastel lizard jeered.

Pine looked down “I'm not a swamp lizard” he said. The blue lizard looked back at him

“Well, you're not as good of a lizard as me,” the pastel lizard said smugly. Pine, a bit confused, answered “Oh-” before Azippy gestured to him to come. “I have to go” Pine told them as he walked away.

“Bye, Swamp Lizard” the blue lizard scoffed.

Pine came over to his owner. “Can we go back to the den?” Pine asked softly. He widened his eyes in shock as he saw his owner with the blue lizard. “Is he coming with us?”

  Azippy nodded slightly. Pine sighed sadly. He was going to have to *live* with the lizard that called him names. “Oh.” Pine answered again, disappointed. “What did you trade for him?”Azippy shifted her paws uncomfortably. “What?” Pine asked nervously. Pine gasped in fear as an angry looking arctic wolf picked him up, and threw him on the wolf's back. Pine shouted “Let me down! You don’t own me!”  He looked at Azippy with panic in his eyes. “Tell this wolf to put me down! You're my owner!” Azippy looked down “Pine, this wolf is your owner now.” Pine's eyes felt wet with tears. “Bu-but what about Ridge? I tho-thought I was not for trade!” Then, to Pine's relief, Azippy looked back at the wolf. “Could I trade back? I am kind of attached to my lizard on the second thought, and I think that yours is worth more.” The wolf smiled back, and Pine gave a sigh or relief. Pine was just about to run to Azippy when the arctic wolf logged off.

Pine yelped as he was unwillingly tellaported to the wolf-his new owner's- den. He started to shake in fear "Help!" he shouted, but no one heard him. He looked around, hoping that Azippy had came into the den with him. But, no, the wolf was Pine's new owner, not Azippy. Whoever was at this den, if anything, was Pine's new "sibling", not Ridge. *But nothing would replace Ridge,* Pine thought to himself.

It was a big den, it was shaped like a castle with only a small section for him, and any other pets. *Are there any other pets?* Pine looked around. It seemed like he was the only one in the den. Pine shivered. He didn't like to be alone. He felt a chill go down his back, and he saw that the sun was going down. "where do I sleep?" Pine whispered to himself, afraid of the unfamiliar place. He longed to be at his old den, he longed to be home, where he had a fleece bed, and could sleep next to Ridge whenever he got scared. But, now Ridge wasn't here with him. Azippy wasn't here with him. No one was here with him.

Pine started to cry. He wasn't going to be able to play with Ridge again. Pine missed being at his old den. But now he was in this unfamiliar house, with no one to comfort him. He sniffled as Pine made himself a small nest out of dry grass. It was uncomfortable, Pine was used to sleeping on warm fabric, this grass felt hard and scratchy. Pine sadly curled up in it nothingness. He didn't really care that much. He missed his former owner, Azippy, even though he had only been away for a few hours. He missed his comfortable swamp, and feeling at home. But most of all, he really missed Ridge. He didn't think he would ever *see* Ridge again, much less go home. That was Pine's last thought before he fell to an uneasy sleep.

Pine woke up to a bright light flashing in his eye, and being tossed out of his small nest. It was the Arctic Wolf. "Come on!" the wolf demanded "Its time to go!" Pine lifted his head up sleepily "Go? Where?" hope surged through Pine "Am I going to go home? To Azippy's den?" he asked, getting excited. "Wha-No, strange lizard! We're going to the Fox Lair, to try and trade your pathetic self for a pair of Forest Gauntlets!" Pine felt disappointment, then followed by fear. "N-no! Can we not go to the fox lair? A lizard like me has no place there, only the rarest of the rare trade there!" The wolf laughed "Well, that may be true, but *someone* must like your color scheme" *Azippy and Ridge did*, Pine thought sadly to himself.

Pine tried to stay in the den, because as unfamiliar the den was, the fox lair was so much worse. But, no, it didn't work, and Pine was forcibly teleported to the fox lair. It wasn't at all like Pine imagined. It was worse. There were so many lizards, all worth more than him. There were pastel lizards, white lizards, solid lizards, Pine even thought he saw a solid black lizard! It was so overwhelming. Pine tried to back out of the fox lair, but his new "owner" -now a fennec fox- had grabbed him by the tail, and threw him back. Pine softly whimpered, and rubbed his tail. Then he got back up, and tried to socialize with the other lizards. But they were worse then the pastel lizard in the sapphire shop, they didn't even acknowledge him, they just ignored him. It was probably because of his unwanted color combo, but it didn't help that the fennec that owned him was screaming "Bad colored lizard on trade! Looking to trade him down for forest!" Pine guessed that most of these lizards have never even been called decent colored, much less bad colored.

Pine looked around nervously. He *really* didn't like to be in the fox lair. *But, I guess I have to stay while my new owner tries to get rid of me for some boots,* Pine thought to himself kind of sarcastically. Pine stood up, then walked to the corner of the fox lair, hoping to get some peace before he gets traded, or has to go back to the unwelcoming castle. Pine hadn't even fallen asleep, before he was lifted up by the fennec fox. Pine drew his eyes to the fennecs green boots. "I guess I'm traded again" Pine muttered to himself. He looked around, and saw a gray arctic fox lifted him up. *He seems nicer than the fennec fox, but he's still not Azippy and Ridge*.

The gray fox took Pine into his den. It was a lighthouse den. Pine gulped. He was afraid of heights. "C-can I sleep on the bottom?" Pine asked nervously. "Sorry, the bottom is for tabby cats only." Pine looked around. Yes, the gray fox seemed to like tabby cats, there were a whole lot of them. Pine sighed nervously. He was going to have to sleep on the top.

Pine looked at the stairs, and took a deep breath. "Its okay, you wont fall.. its okay its okay" he muttered to himself as he took one step after the other. He gave a gasp of relief as he finally reached the top, but that relief was short lived as he looked down from the top. Pine began to feel a bit queasy. The ground *was so far from here!* Pine said, panicking. He tried to calm down, and took a few deep breaths. Pine walked towards the middle of the lighthouse, and squeezed his eyes shut. Pine twitched his nose, and drifted to sleep.

Pine gave a sigh of boredom. He had been in the lighthouse for many days now. It was a bit better than the old castle with the wolf, but the lighthouse had its pros and cons. The good parts about it is he didn't have to go to the fox lair, and his new "owner" wasn't rude to him. The bad parts were the lighthouse-of course-, and he was ignored most of the time. Pine thought it wouldn't be long before he was traded-most likely for more cats.

So Pine wasn't that surprised when the gray fox teleported him to a small hut known as the Pillow Room. Pine himself had never been to the Pillow Room, but he had heard stories about it from Ridge. The Pillow Room was said to be a small place, were low leveled animals usually wearing a blue beaded necklace try to trade bad items for unsuspecting lizards. Pine had even heard horror stories of a method known as "scamming" in which a vile animal known as The Scammer basically steals rare items, and pets. Pine shivered. He forgot about that part. He hoped that he would not get Scammed by The Scammer while he was in the Pillow Room.

Pine noticed that in the pillow room there weren't as many good colored lizards as there were in the Fox Lair. To be honest, there wasn't that many lizards at all. All that there was was a small blue and yellow lizard with x's for eyes. *This doesn't seem like as good as a place for trading as the Fox Lair*, he thought to himself. But, at least there was no one judging him. He yawned tiredly. Pine hadn't gotten that much sleep lately, sleeping on the top of the high, high lighthouse. He fell asleep in the edge of the Pillow Room. Pine slept peacefully for the first time in weeks.

Pine sleepily stretched, and then groggily started to open his eyes. He looked around for the gray fox, then found the fox sitting next to a small purple lizard. *Wait, purple lizard?!* Pine looked towards the lizard again, daring to be hopeful. *Could it really be?* Pine gasped "RIDGE?!" Pine ran towards his old friend. Ridge looked up "Pine! Is it really you?!"

Pine nodded eagerly "Yes! Ive missed you so much! Why are you here?"

Ridge looked at Pine "I've been looking for you! I was so sad when you were gone, and I've persuaded my owner to take me to popular places, in hopes that I would find you there! And I did!" Ridge ended happily.

Pine grinned "Well, Im glad you found me! Can we go back to Azippy's den now?" he asked excitedly.

Ridge half nodded, then looked down, as if he realized something "Oh, Pine, you-your still owned by someone else"

Pines heart sank. In his excitement about seeing Ridge, he had forgotten about The Rule. The Rule was that a lizard *must* be traded to go to another animals den without the lizards current owner. Pine's tail twitched as he tried to find a loophole, but he couldn't find a way. "There doesn't seem to be a way to come unless I was owned by Azippy again" he said sadly to Ridge

Ridge's head shot up "Unless you were owned by Azippy! She is looking for you! Ill get her to try and trade for you!" he said excitedly.

Pine nodded eagerly as Ridge ran towards his owner. He saw Azippy go towards the gray fox. Pine closed his eyes hopefully. *Please say I can go back with Ridge!* he prayed. Pine must have sat there with his eyes closed for what felt like hours, until he felt Ridge next to him. "W-well?" Pine asked, daring himself to be hopeful again.

Ridge gave pine the biggest grin "They traded! You can come back to the swamp with me!" he said excitedly.

Pines tail shot up "I-I can?!" he said, jumping up and down as Ridge nodded again "I can!" Pine ran over to his new owner. "Lets go back to then den!" Azippy nodded, and Pine closed his eyes, felling happier than ever as he felt the tingling sensation, then teleported. Teleported back to his swamp, with Ridge. Telleported *home.*

Pine took a deep breath, and opened his eyes. *There it was!* His swamp! He ran towards it, the area where he and Ridge shared. But, to his surprise, there was another lizard in it too. It was a happy eyed one with two shades of blue. *She must have been swapped for the pastel lizard.* "Hi, my names-" He said to the new blue lizard, trying to be polite.

The blue lizard looked up at him "Oh, hello! My name is Ocean. You must be Pine, Ridge has told be about you, I'm glad you back!"

Pine grinned "I'm glad to be back! Whats been happening?"

"We've been looking for *you* for a while. Well, I only started a about a week ago, but I only came here about a week ago..." Oceans voice trailed off "I've been traded alot"

"Well, your not for trade now!" Ridge joined in. "None of us are" Pine smiled as ridge continued "And we never will be. We will be here, together, forever."

Pine grinned. He looked around at Ridge's and Ocean's smiling faces. He looked at the swamp, and Ridge's small mountain. Pine gave a sigh of relief and happiness. *I am home.*