Life seems to enjoy playing tricks on our plans. To be quite honest, I'm
a spiteful and hateful little pet. So when something I plan to be evil and cruel
winds up being a great good to society, I get upset.
I must confess that it was I who had the brilliant idea.
We were sitting around the table one night, eating what MiracleStar called her
psuedo-Chinese food. I was having difficulties eating, as Taffin kept making
faces from across the table. Finally I managed to calm down and spring the big
question.
"MiracleStar…. You know that house, well, mansion,
a couple blocks over?"
"Yes?"
"Can we break in?"
There was a long silence.
"Well, don't see why not."
"No, not all of us. Just us four pets. To see
if we can, ya know."
MiracleStar put down her spoon and looked at
us.
"So basically you want to know if you can try
for one by yourselves."
"Exactly."
We stared at her, doing our best to look responsible.
Finally she sighed.
"Very well. Just be careful, and plan every
detail. Got it Nianso, plan for everything. That's rule number one of being
a thief."
We did plan for everything, at least, I thought
we did. Skyil did her traditional scouting, looking around the outside of the
house, then when the owner got within range, picking her mind over for details
about the security and such. The owner's name was irish_lady_2009, and she was
filthy rich. Not to mention stuck-up, arrogant, and everything else that went
with the title of rich. Her pet was a silver Peophin named Lady_Ireland, who
was as bad as her owner. Together, the two had a fantastic reputation of snootiness.
Skyil reported all the security system features. On the night of the burglary,
we snuck up to the house dressed in our black cloaks. The owner and pet were
home, so we'd have to be extra careful. Taffin went first, easily bypassing
the security codes, as Skyil had told them to him ahead of time. From there
he pried open a window and we followed him inside. Everything was going according
to plan. Taffin and I took the upstairs, moving from room to room, careful to
avoid the Irish_lady_2009 and Lady_Ireland's room. I peeked inside though, and
saw a young girl, about 15, sound asleep. I took a deep breath and slipped inside.
Irish_lady_2009 was sound asleep, she wouldn't notice. I took everything from
her jewelry box and slipped back out the door.
And promptly ran into Taffin. He hissed in surprise,
and the next thing I knew it, I had a dagger at my throat.
"Whoa, it's me," I whispered.
"Nianso. I thought you were Irish_lady_2009."
"No, now put that up."
He shrugged and sheathed his dagger again. I
was about to head back downstairs when I heard someone stirring in the room
I'd just vacated.
"Ngh… Lady_Ireland? Are you up or something?"
the girl inquired sleepily from the room.
I nodded towards the stairs to Taffin, and he
nodded also, teleporting downstairs. Too bad he forgot about the customary 'pop'
that accompanies every teleportation…
"What was that?" Irish_lady_2009 said.
I could hear her get up and start padding out
into the hallway. I hurried down the stairs as the upstairs lights came on.
I found Taffin and Jaix in the dining room, eyes wide. Skyil came running, her
long golden ears flat against her head.
"Let's go," she whispered.
"Is someone there?"
I glanced nervously at the upstairs and over
at my siblings. Without a word we started towards the window we'd opened earlier.
I managed to step on Taffin's toes though, and the Kyrii hissed and jumped away
from me, directly into a lamp. Crash!! It fell to the floor and shattered. We
all froze, then started a mad dash for the door. I ran smack into Jaix, who
stumbled and once again Taffin got stepped on.
"Kiko snot!" he snarled, staggering and falling
over.
And as he fell, he managed to hit the light switch
the lamp was connected to. There was a flurry of sparks as the busted lamp finally
burnt out. I didn't really notice, I was running for the door, when I heard
Taffin shout something behind me.
"Oh my…" I muttered, seeing the small fire arising.
"RUN!" Taffin shrieked, and I could see the
shadow of someone coming downstairs.
Skyil took off for the nearest window, leaping
for it, intending to break through the glass. Didn't work. She hit headfirst
and merely bounced. I rushed past her, the fire spreading rapidly on my heels.
"Like this!" I snarled, and leaped.
The window shattered around me, and I landed
hard, rolling and laying there, dazed and cut from the glass.
"Let's GO Nianso," Jaix said, pulling on my
arm.
I staggered to my feet and ran after him into
the night.
MiracleStar didn't say a word when we came home.
Just let us in and watched the glow of the fire from the window. We heard sirens
all night as the fire-fighters battled the flames. In the news the next morning,
we discovered that the fire had not affected any other houses, but the mansion
had been burned to the ground. Irish_lady_2009 had lost everything in the blaze.
The investigators blamed arsonists, but couldn't find any evidence to go on.
"Thank goodness," MiracleStar muttered over
breakfast.
"So we had a couple difficulties," I admitted.
"A couple!" she snorted.
"All right. We blew it. But we did get some
stuff," Jaix added, dumping our loot on the table.
"Very well. But you guys started this mission,
you finish it. Meaning, you get this stuff sold, quietly! Don't get caught."
It didn't come to as much as we'd hoped. But
Irish_lady_2009 was totally broke, and we weren't, so I guess we came off the
better. To make a long story short, the money was used to furnish our house
a bit better, and pay off some bills. Irish_lady_2009 got extremely luck and
managed to make an incredible comeback on the stock market, soon back to being
as rich as she was before. And it was then that I saw the headlines on the local
newspaper.
"Improvised Millionaire Makes Comeback" I shuddered
and read the rest of the article. And with a growl, started shredding it in
disgust.
"What's wrong?" Skyil asked, coming downstairs.
"It's that Irish_lady_2009. Apparently she's
turned all nice and generous."
"What?!"
"Yeah. Here, her pet's quoted here, 'I used
to be so stuck-up, if I didn't get my way, my day was ruined. Money was all
I cared about, and I used to make fun of other, unpainted, pets. But then we
were as poor as could be, and I realised just how well-off I was. And I realised
that I could put my wealth to better uses.'"
I paused and eyed Skyil, letting that sink in.
"Here's some more. 'I think this thief did a
great thing for us, their actions caused us to learn generosity. It's a shame
he had to resort to such things, but hopefully our actions will help others
to stay off the path of thievery."
I sighed and finished mutilating the paper.
"So now she and her owner are donating huge
amounts to the poor on Neopia, and getting all these programs in place and all.
Disgusting, isn't it. And she couldn't even get it right about the thieves.
Not singular, but plural. Moron."
Skyil shrugged.
"Well, I think it's ironic, if nothing else."
"Yeah, whatever. I'm going to go steal some
candy from a baby to feel better now, thankyouverymuch."
I stalked upstairs to my room, leaving the confetti
I'd made of the paper behind on the table.
The End
Note: Thank you, Irish_lady_2009, for allowing me to use you and your pet,
Lady_Ireland, in this story. | 
