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Neopia's Fill in the Blank News Source | 29th day of Running, Yr 26
The Neopian Times Week 148 > Continuing Series > Close Enough: Part Three

Close Enough: Part Three

by potatorewkiki

"BLUE, WILL YOU GET UP ALREADY?!" screeched Kottske, pushing me over. I jumped up, alert yet so very tired, as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

     "Wha--?" I murmured, adjusting my poor eyes to the sunlight. The faces of a cross brown Uni and a worried cloud Usul stared down at me.

     "London's gone!" Ellia spat out, infuriated. "That tedious little twosome, Corvus Coraxia and Tauntum, must have taken him during the night! He's GONE!" She had her fists clenched and narrowed eyes, looking more furious than I had ever imagined a happy little Usul like her would ever get.

     "Well, what do you suppose we should do about it?" Kottske asked us, impatiently tapping his feet. I gave him my precious little 'DUH' look on my face and gave my idea for a resolution.

     "I suggest that we find him! Is it not muddy outside? There must be footprints of the person who took him! We can go from there," I explained, determined to save London from being sold off to some greedy person who only would want him for show.

     "Okay… You look for footprints, Miss Detective!" Ellia ordered. "Kottske, you and I should just tag along with her." We hopped outside, into the warm fresh spring air. A sweet aroma of flowers and other fragrant plants filled the air due to Potato Rewkiki's next door neighbor's flower garden. I kneeled down onto the ground, searching for any sign of footprints, when I noticed a small message, probably engraved by the thin claws of a Pteri:

     'Nice seeing you, Blue.'

     I widened my eyes, a bit befuddled. I didn't know any Pteri… well, any other than the Black Pteri…

     "THAT'S IT!" I exclaimed. "I only know one Pteri - the Black Pteri! That must be Corvus Coraxia! If so, then I know where he stashed away London and Clapera!" Amazed that I had just figured that out, I sat down onto the wet ground, not really caring how muddy the bottom part of my shorts were getting.

     "And you're going to show us where this is how if you're just sitting on the ground?" Kottske asked, with two raised eyebrows.

     "Geez," I muttered, standing up and motioning for them to follow me, "I guess we better head off now. His hideout is only about a block from our school." Tagging along behind me were the Uni and the Usul, desperate enough to actually follow me. We walked the long way to avoid Miss Metula's house again, not one of us uttering a single word until we were right in front of our school building.

     "Blue," Ellia spoke up softly, "will we ever see him again?" I stopped abruptly, the thought of losing such a newly gained friend so suddenly soaking into mind. My lips were pursed, and my face was left emotionless. That suspicion was so traumatic, so hard to think about… I stared down at the ground, trying my best not to look at anyone so I could process a fresh new pleasing topic in my brain without disruption. How could she say that? How could she? I mean, that's her best friend she's talking about! I don't know if I would even dare to ask something like that to HER if Kottske and I were in this sort of situation.

     "Um, Ell'," Kottske indicated, solemnly, "bad question." The normally jovial, upbeat cloud Usul nodded in agreement, and neither of them spoke until we reached a small office building with peeling, dark, sky blue paint.

     It was only one floor in height, with no basement from what I could see from the outside, and two old, dusty windows in the front accompanied by tilted black shudders. Its yard was just mud and weeds, and there wasn't another building that was within a four minute walk from there. The roof seemed unstable and sort of dipped in, and the door seemed to be a navy blue, and it wasn't closed all the way, enlightening me, for I then didn't have to worry about the it being locked. I grinned at the sight of it, knowing that London just HAD to be in there.

     "Haha, he owns this dump?" the brown Uni cackled. Ellia, for the first time today, put on a smile and laughed along with my best friend. It was nice to see us out of our worries, depression, and seriousness… if that is even a word.

     "Yup," I responded, eagerly, as I leaped to the doormat and inched open the door. It was dark and creepy in there, just like it felt to be in Potato's cold, spooky basement the day before. A large, halfway in-ground tank was stationed in the corner, taking up half of the floor space of the structure. It had high metal bars attached to its edges that reached to the top of the building. Something was causing the water to splash in there, I just knew it.

     "Back already, aren't you? I'm disappointed, you gave up THAT quickly?" an aggravated voice of a girl called to them.

     "Huh?" Kottske yelled, a bit confused. The creature swam up to the edge of the tank, wrapping her flippers around the two closest bars and hoisting herself up so that she could take a look at who had come in.

     "Oh dear," she muttered. "Um, do you have any idea what you're doing?" By the time she shouted that to us, we could see the pet. She was a Faerie Flotsam, quite a pretty one at that, and the minute I saw her and her woeful expression I realized almost instantly who she was.

     "You're Clapera, right?" I questioned, hopefully. The Flotsam narrowed her eyes, inquisitively, seemingly trying to think of who we were.

     "Um, we're friends of your friend… London," Ellia cried. At the sound of that, Clapera dove back into the water, flipping in the air and landing back in with thrill.

     "Oh yes! My wonderful friend, London! Do come, closer, would you?" she asked, grinning at us. I sighed gleefully, knowing that after the acquaintance with Clapera we were so close to finding our friend and rescuing both of them for a further time in misery. Kottske proudly led us to her.

     "We're sorry, Clapera, but we thought that we could find him here," the Uni regretted. Clapera shrugged.

      "Naw, no need to apologize for such a little mistake," she said.

     "Why aren't Corvus Cora-whatever and that Tauntum guy here?" Ellia chimed in, curiously. Her large eyes weren't that teary anymore, which certainly was a good sign.

     "Actually, if you don't mind me stating the truth, Tauntum is, in fact, a female Tyrannian Kougra, not a male. I am suspecting that that troublesome red Jetsam told you our full story. Corvus Coraxia and Tauntum are searching for London so that they can sell us off to a greedy old fan of our canceled water show for millions of Neopoints, and all that person will do with us is show us off. I know, it is just terrible. Now, time for me to ask you three a couple of questions. How did you know that someone would be here?" the Faerie Flotsam explained, as a matter-of-factly.

     "Blue's met the Black Pteri before. When we walked outside this morning, a note written surely by a Pteri, noted by its obviously thin claws, read 'Hello, Blue.' or something like that in the backyard where we slept. Blue only knew one Pteri - the Black Pteri - and figured that since London went missing last night, Corvus Coraxia the shadow Pteri must be the Black Pteri himself. Then, she just led us to his closest residence that she knew of, and voila, we bump into you," Kottske elucidated.

     "Oh, yes. Fine work you did there, Blue. So, London went missing last night?" she inquired.

     "Yes," Ellia said, "I was the last one to sleep and the last one to wake up, and he was there when I dozed off, but not when I woke up, so between 10:15 PM and 7:30 AM he was taken." Clapera nodded, clearly grateful that we were there to help.

     "Okay. Well, Corvus Coraxia took off at about six o'-clock, and it's nearly 8:45 right now. They should be back any minute now with poor London. Blue, you always know what to do, do you have a plan?" the Flotsam asked, confidently.

     "Um, no…" I admitted, beginning to try and come up with one before it was too late.

     "Ugh, that's not good. You just--" Clapera began, but was interrupted by the screeching noise of an opening door. Into the room stepped London, followed by the Black Pteri and a vicious Tyrannian Kougra. I gasped in horror, knowing that I was already out of time.

     "BLUE, KOTTSKE, ELLIA?! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? WHY ARE YOU--" London screamed before being cut off by Tauntum.

     "Hello, there. Why, which one is Blue, Corvus?" she called to her friend. He snickered, glancing at me as I fearfully bit my lip.

     "The Gelert there of my color. The brown Uni is Kottske, and the cloud Usul is Ellia," he reported. Tauntum shot a nasty look at him, not caring about the extra information.

     "Ah yes, the nosy little Gelert. Would you get out so that we can finish our business, kids?" the Kougra sneered. Now, let me tell you a little something. I couldn't be afraid of London because he seemed to have a bit of good in him, but these two pets terrified me oh so very much that I just could not stand up to them. I grabbed Ellia and Kottske and pulled them out of the door, which was shut and locked by Corvus.

     "Oh, great, so NOW what are we supposed to do?" Ellia grumbled. She leaned against the side of the structure and slouched down.

     "I have a plan!" I announced. "We watch through this window and wait until they put London with Clapera in the pool, then we'll have Kottske jump up on the division of the roof towering over the water! Since the roof is so unstable, it'll break through and then you can get those two on your back and fly out!"

     "OOH!" Ellia said. "That's a fantastic plan! Kottske?"

     "All right with me!" he responded, peeking through the window. "He's in the tank. Let's go!" He walked over to the sidewalk, turned toward the house, ran halfway to it and then jumped into the air and let his wings take him off onto the roof.

     "Um, it's not collapsing yet," Kottske complained. I moaned, thinking that my plan wasn't gonna work.

     "Jump on it!" the cloud Usul beside me barked at him. The Uni nodded, and hopped a few times on it, then came pounding down, crashing through the roof into the tank. I heard some commotion - splashing water, the cries of Clapera and Tauntum, and Kottske's whimpering as he tried to get out of the water with London and Clapera on his back. I stared at the opening in the roof with fear, wishing that soon enough the brown Uni would soar out of there to safety.

     "Do you think they'll make it through?" asked Ellia, who was shivering with worry.

     "Do I think? I'm SURE," I assured her, and what do you know, Kottske finally burst into the air, carrying London and Clapera, who were clinging onto each other for their lives.

      "NOOOO!" exclaimed Tauntum from inside the house.

     "HAHA! Go, Kottske! You know where!" I shouted to him, jumping up and down with glee. We had did it, and I couldn't feel more proud of myself, and my friends.

~~~~~~

When Kottske, London and Clapera had landed in London's backyard, London and Clapera were reunited. I swear, I have never seen something so happy. I was crying. Clapera just slowly advanced to London's side, staring into his teary eyes, and engaged him in a big friendly hug. And she just stood there, her flippers wrapped around him so tightly, knowing that London Dusk was, and forever more would be, close enough to her.

The End

Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading my little series here, and I hope that you've enjoyed it! I can't tell you how much I'd appreciate you Neomailing me about this - whether you liked it, fell asleep after the first paragraph, or want a bag of tomatoes. ;)

Previous Episodes

Close Enough: Part One

Close Enough: Part Two

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