Silviana leaned over Feruli's shoulder, while Feruli
in turn leaned over the edge of the fence, looking down into the neighbouring
backyard where a slender cloud Gelert sat looking up at the pair. Once she'd
recognised her new neighbours as Dantam's friends, Tessa had been happy to have
someone familiar to talk to, and thus this meeting had become almost a nightly
ritual. Of course, she'd also carried a small hope that this meant she'd get
to see Dantam at least every once in awhile.
"You still haven't seen him?" she asked, looking
up pleadingly. Feruli shook his great head. Tessa sighed, "It's been weeks."
"I don't know what could be wrong," Silviana
said. "He used to visit us at least once a week."
"It's me," Tessa stated dejectedly. "I don't
know what I did, but it's like he doesn't want anything to do with me any more.
That's why he was so insistent about me leaving."
Feruli and Silviana exchanged worried glances,
knowing this wasn't the case but wondering just how much of their friend's confidence
they could betray. Silviana finally spoke. "Now Tessa, that's not true. Dantam
just wanted you to be happy. You are happy, aren't you?"
Tessa hesitated, looking back at the nice house
behind her. A few pale yellow lights glowed in the windows, but for the most
part it was dark. "I guess I am," she sighed, sounding anything but certain
of her statement. "It's just that I hardly even see Tom. It seems as if he's
always away--on business, he says. But he really does seem to love me... I just
wish that I could remember loving him back." She looked down at her paws, and
the Eyrie and Zafara exchanged another look but neither knew what to say.
They were interrupted as a pair of headlights
showed suddenly through the cracks of the front fence and they heard a van pulling
into Tom's driveway and then shutting off. "Tessa!" a voice called out as they
heard the van door swing open and closed.
"Oh, that's Tom," Tessa said, trying her best
to sound excited that her human was home. "I'd better go now," she said with
an apologetic smile and headed off into her NeoHome.
Feruli removed his front paws from the top of
the fence and landed back on all fours with a thud. The Eyrie and Zafara headed
quietly into their own NeoHome, needing no words to understand each others'
thoughts.
Tessa trotted up to the front door just as Tom
was coming through it, holding his hands behind his back. He beamed when he
saw her. "Hello there, darling. I'm sorry I've been gone all day, but I brought
you a present."
Tessa smiled up at him and even wagged her tail
a bit. He really was trying to repair whatever relationship they'd had before,
despite the frustration of dealing with her lost memory, she thought. And he
did seem to care for her so. She decided that she just had to give it time and
do her best and soon enough she'd remember.
"Come on," Tom called quietly, gesturing for
her to come closer with one hand as he continued to hold the other behind his
back. "Come here so that I can give you your surprise." Tessa walked up to his
gently coaxing voice, wondering what he could have brought her as she tried
to angle her head around to catch a glimpse of it. Perhaps it was something
from their old life together--something that would help jar her memory.
She looked up expectantly into Tom's blue eyes
and saw them flash coldly just a moment before his outstretched hand shot out
and grabbed her roughly by the scruff of her neck. Tessa yelped in surprise,
but her cry was cut off as Tom pulled a muzzle from where he'd been hiding it
behind his back and shoved it quickly onto her face. She looked up at him in
fright to see all of the kindness dissolved from his features.
"Ha, you're almost as gullible as that shadow-coloured
friend of yours."
***
Ready to go to sleep after a long day, Feruli and Silviana were heading down
the hallway of their NeoHome when suddenly they both froze, their ears standing
at attention. "Feruli," Silviana whispered, "did you hear that?"
The Eyrie nodded and both listened silently for
a few moments more, but they heard no echo of the sound: a Gelert's yelp. "That
was Tessa," Feruli stated, his hackles rising slightly. The cry could have meant
nothing, but his senses told him that this wasn't the case. And the silence
that followed it felt somehow foreboding.
"Let's check it out," Silviana said quietly
but resolutely, and with a nod of his head, Feruli spun on his heel and took
them both back down the hallway and toward the front door. All remained quiet
as the pair walked slowly outside, looking cautiously at the neighbouring house.
They ducked down instinctively when they heard Tom's front door swing open,
hiding behind the line of bushes that separated the two front yards. Through
the gaps in the shrubbery, they made out Tom emerging from the house, carrying
Tessa in his arms. Both pets stifled a gasp when they noticed the muzzle wrapped
around Tessa's mouth.
"You are a pretty one, aren't you?" they heard
Tom ask as he set Tessa in the back of the van and placed a hand under her muzzled
jaw. "You'll fetch me a pretty penny too," he said with a grin, and the two
pets' eyes widened. "It's really too bad I couldn't convince that friend of
yours to come along and be my 'pet' too; I offered, you know. A pair of painted
Gelerts would have gotten me a nice little bundle of money. But he said he had
'responsibilities.' Ha! Said he had Neopets that needed him.... Well, maybe
I can get him to send a few more of those needy pets my way instead, eh?" He
slammed the back door of the van shut, trapping Tessa inside, and then climbed
into the driver's seat, starting the vehicle.
Feruli and Silviana looked at each other as the
van began to pull away. "Let's go!" Silviana exclaimed, jumping up onto her
regular perch on Feruli's neck, but this time taking a firm hold of his fur
expectantly. Without another word, Feruli stood up from his crouch and took
off down the street after the van.
As the Eyrie's claws pounded across the pavement,
the two pets drew close enough to the van that Silviana could just make out
Tessa, looking desperately back at them through the tiny window in the back
doors of the vehicle. Upon seeing the Gelert's distress, Silviana leaned forward,
urging Feruli on. But as Feruli pushed himself forward, struggling to gain momentum,
the van had a sudden burst of speed. "I think he's spotted us!" Silviana shouted
over the roar of the engine. Feruli growled and gritted his beak, straining
determinedly to keep up with the quickening van.
But, no matter how hard the Eyrie tried, the
van continued to inch away from him, and he recognised that he was very quickly
losing energy as he struggled for each new breath while continuing to pump his
legs mercilessly. He began to admit grudgingly to himself that there was no
way that he was going to catch the van. He might keep up with it for a little
while longer, but that would do him no good in the long run. And if he could
even manage to get close enough to make a leap onto the van's roof, by the time
he'd gone into a crouch in order to make the jump, he knew the van would be
long gone again. Panting, he called up, "Silviana... I... can't... keep up...
can't... catch it... either...."
Silviana patted his shoulder, still leaning forward
in determination. "That's okay, Feruli. Can you get just a little closer?"
Feruli nodded. He didn't know just what his friend
had planned, but he was ready to trust her, whatever it was. Drawing in a deep
rasping breath, he put on one final burst of speed, getting them to within a
few yards of the back of the van. As he did so, he felt Silviana's back legs
tense against his neck. "I'm going with Tessa; you find Dantam!" the Zafara
said quickly. Before Feruli even had time to realise what this meant, let alone
object, he felt Silviana leap from his neck and saw her land deftly on the bumper
of the van.
In surprise, Feruli kept running behind the van
and after his friend for a few moments before his exhaustion caught up with
him and he began to slow. Silviana gave him a quick salute and a wink as she
and the van sped on and out of sight. The Eyrie stood panting in the middle
of the now empty and quiet street, feeling suddenly very alone without the presence
of his almost constant companion. For a few moments, he stared worriedly in
the direction that the van had gone before finally convincing himself to turn
away and head back the way he'd come.
To be continued... | 
