Name:Makaio
(Means "Form of Matthew," and is Polynesian/Hawaiian in origin.
Matthew means "Gift of God," and is English in origin.)
Pet Name/Nickname:Myesha
(Means "My Life," and is American in origin.)
Personality:Makaio is a caring and sweet Kokoro. She cares deeply about her mistress, who saved her from dire circumstances. This little Kokoro is very loving, and when she finds anything she likes, she'll often cling to it with all four paws, refusing to let go. She is very protective of those she loves, and while she's very small, she doesn't let her lack of height discourage her. She keeps her spirit up, and doesn't feel downtrodden very often. Makaio is a trickster, but that's not the main part of her that she chooses to dwell upon. Sure, she loves to play pranks and laugh at others when they fall for them, but Makaio is truly a very affectionate little Kokoro at heart. She hates seeing people feel down in the dumps, so she tries to cheer them up as much as she can. She's very passionate about helping others, and enjoys hanging out with her mistress's friends, especially if they're having bad days, because she is very attentive and generous towards those people.
Quirks:Makaio knows more Japanese than English, which is odd, considering her mistress doesn't speak a lick of Japanese. She can often be found waddling about her mistress's house singing,
笑顔の歌 (The Smile Song),
カップケーキを焼く (Baking Cupcakes), and
歌う電報 (Singing Telegram). Her female mistress often smiles and laughs at Makaio's beautiful, high voice, which reminds her of birdsong. Even if she can't say all the words in the song, she can usually learn the tune of the song after listening to it twice. She'll often sit atop her mistress's lap, staring up at her, and request a song be played by saying, "Sun! Sun!" Her mistress will then turn on the radio or plug in her iPod so that the Kokoro's favorite song be played.
Makaio is an enigma, of sorts. While she can be very quiet and calm, sleeping her time away by curling into a fuzzy ball of fluff, she can be as rambunctious as a baby goat, leaping and bounding through her mistress's house. Makaio loves to snuggle, and will often comfort her mistress when she's feeling down. At other times, Makaio will swing from chandeliers or climb atop the television, sometimes even scampering across the curtain rods in her mistress's house. While energetic, she's very good about being neat and tidy, so she rarely makes a mess.
Brief History:Makaio wandered the streets of Japan, lost and alone. Just a baby, she had to skirt the stepping feet of the people around her, darting out of the way of heavy footfalls. She had to cross busy streets with monsters on wheels (cars, bikes, etc.), scrounging around for food. She'd find bits of food littering the ground, and gulp the bits down, constantly hungry as she looked around for another source of nourishment. Sometimes, a gracious child would give Makaio a lollipop or piece of fried squid, and she'd gulp it down gratefully.
One day, Makaio wandered down to a the coast, finding a ship filled with fish docked there. She loved fish, so she climbed aboard, eating to her heart's content. When the stowaway finished stuffing her face, she rolled to her feet, leaping over the mounds of fish on the lower deck. She made her way up the creaky stairs to the top deck of the ship, which was exposed to the harsh elements of wind and rain. It was quite windy when she made her way to the top. She leapt upon the railing, looking down, expecting to see the wooden dock before her. All that met her eyes was ocean-water. The boat had taken off with her aboard!
Upon reaching the destination, Makaio scampered off the ship, finding herself in a place with high buildings and busy streets - though not so busy as Japan. She heard a different language being spoken there, and soon figured out it was English, a language she'd sort of heard in Japan, though not frequently. Here, it was the opposite. English was the main language, with Spanish being a secondary. Japan was fairly low on the list of languages frequently spoken, and Makaio got lost easily, seeing as the street signs were posted in a different language than she was used to.
After a couple years roaming the streets and learning the main language spoken, she found herself in an airport. She was just trotting about, looking for her new favorite food: pretzels. The airport was STOCKED FULL of them, and sometimes children would break off pieces of their soft pretzels and feed them to Makaio. Makaio was looking for more of these delectable treats - especially the kind with butter and cinnamon! - when suddenly, she was scooped up into the hands of an airport employee. The employee mistook her for a dog, and threw her in a
pet carrier, which then made its way through the luggage system and into the compartment under the plane. Makaio didn't like flying, and had a horrible stomach ache the entire way to the new destination. She heard people talking with a different accent when they pulled her out, one of them exclaiming in surprise, "My! These pets have come all the way from New York?! Dude! These are some fancy pets right here!"
"Yeah, man" responded another voice. "They be rich. Treat 'em wit' care."
Makaio was very nicely unloaded and shipped off to a noisy place, filled with other creatures. Eventually, the place got quieter and quieter, and finally, it was silent, except for one dog and Makaio. All the other pets had been picked up. Finally, the door creaked open a final time, and both the dog and Makaio were picked up and transported out of the room by hand.
After a scary two weeks being processed through different people and finally being moved to the pound, Makaio was quite shaken up. She would often cry herself to sleep, wailing for someone to save her. One day, someone did. Her mistress walked through the door to the pound, taking off her clip-on sunglasses and revealing a heart-shaped face with kind brown eyes. Her glasses glinted in the harsh lighting, and her jeans were almost as dark as dress pants. Her shirt was
Doctor Who-themed, with a blue box and two screwdrivers adorning the front of it, and some wording Makaio couldn't read. Her earrings matched her shirt, and swung by hooks from her small ears. She was smiling, her teeth slightly yellowed from years of being an asthmatic, and her eyes sparkled when she set her eyes on the Kokoro in front of her. "This one," she said, pointing to Makaio. "What's her name?" she asked, picking up the clipboard tied to the cage.
Makaio was gently taken out of the cage and place in a cardboard box, which she rapidly tried to escape by jumping, but she was far too weak to leap such great heights as she once was accustomed to doing.
The owner of the pound answered her clearly. "We don't name the pets which don't come in with names. You'll have to name her yourself, if you adopt her."
The woman handed the clipboard back to the owner and looked into the box.
Makaio looked up, her eyes glistening with tears.
Person. Person hurt me? Person not hurt me? Which one?The woman sighed, a look of pity and sorrow in her eyes. "May I pick her up?"
"Sure, but be careful. She has a habit of trying to escape."
The woman first stuck her hand in front of Makaio's face.
Makaio sniffed it.
Smell good.The woman placed her hand gently on Makaio's head.
She feel good."There, there, baby," she whispered. "I'm not going to hurt you."
Yup. She good. She no hurt me. Makaio smiled, rubbing her head against the woman's hand.
The woman smiled back, picking Makaio up gently, and holding her close to her chest. "How much for her?"
"Thirty dollars."
"What all does she come with?"
"Immunizations and a care packet, which consists of two bowls, one for food and one for water; a leash; a collar, which does come with the option for engraving, but we don't do that here; and, because she's a girl, she comes with a box of miscellaneous girly accessories, like bows and skirts."
"Fine. What paperwork needs to be done?"
"If you'll just drop her back in the box, you may follow me - "
"I'm not letting go of her. I can write perfectly well with just one hand," she said, shifting Makaio to her left arm.
Flabbergasted, the pound owner took a moment to compose himself. "Well, then...I suppose you'll have to follow me to the back room. I'll get your paperwork in a moment, miss."
At home, the woman set Makaio down on the couch. "So," she said, looking into her swirling, blue and pink eyes, "what's you're name?"
"M-M-M-Makaio!" she said, giving a little jump.
"Makaio," the woman said, smiling. "That's your name, then."
She laughed. "Doki, Doki, Doki!"
The woman frowned. "Now, what does that mean?"
After doing some research, the woman figured out that Makaio was a Kokoro Dragon, and briefly wondered how she'd gotten herself stuck in a pound. After doing that research, she fed Makaio some
Werther's Original Caramel-Filled Candies. She then ate a soft pretzel, and found Makaio liked them, too.
The longer that the woman owned Makaio, the more she learned about the amazing creature she was. Makaio could be rowdy and energetic, but could also be loving and generous. The woman truly fell in love with Makaio, and decided to write to the owner of the species, whom she'd found out was a person called
Bottle. One night, after Makaio was safely asleep in her fluffy, cotton bed, glasses on the side table, the woman wrote a letter.
Dear Mr./Mrs. Bottle,
I would like to thank you for all the hard work you did in creating such a lovely species as the Kokoro Dragons. I adopted one of yours in a pound in New Mexico, and brought her to my house in an adjoining state. Makaio is such a joy to have, and I love her dearly - even when she IS playing pranks on me. April Fool's Day is her favorite holiday, I swear!
Anyways, I just wanted to thank you for creating this species, because if you hadn't...I'd still be all alone, with no friends or family who live near me. You indirectly blest me by giving me a companion. I promise that I'll take good care of her, as she is truly the most amazing thing to happen to my life.
Thanks again,
~bookie Art:WIP
The feminine form of "master" is "mistress," so that's why the word shows up frequently in this form.
