Why They Call Them Strangers: Part Four

by Rykani

Dani flies around all night, not sure what she's looking for. She still has the scissors on her, and gets a plan. Maybe if she got some other tails, Dismiss wouldn't know the difference, and she could get the key anyway!

She automatically flies to the Soup Kitchen at Neopia Central, where the poor pets come, day or night, no matter what. Maybe she could find some owner who would let her take their pets' tails for a price. She always carries NP in a small pouch, a few thousand at all times. Ry gave this to all her pets, just in case they came across a good deal when shopping without her.

Scanning the Soup Kitchen for especially poor looking pets, and spots the perfect group. A young boy with a blue Aisha, silver Kougra, blue Kougra, and fire Wocky. Even though two of the pets are painted, they don't look like they could care less. The boy looks ragged and depressed, his hair a mess, and his clothes mismatched and faded, even torn in a few places. He obviously has been poor for a long time. All five of them are soaked from head to toe, though Dani's just as wet... Dani quickly steps up to the boy, and very clearly states, "I am LilDanish, and I'm part of a new concept. We pay for your pets' tails. We pay 1000 NP per tail. If that seems too low, I'd be willing to negotiate..."

"We'll do it!" the fire Wocky says softly, his purple eyes sparkling a bit.

"Falconi! Sit down and eat your broth with your brothers and sister," the boy snaps at the Wocky. The fire Wocky grumbles, and sits at a cramped table with his siblings, watching the weird Shoyru with the huge scissors.

"Never mind him. Why do you need tails?" the boy asks, crossing his arms.

"New way of making furs, without destroying the animal. We just use the tails, and then heal the pets. They have to live without a tail, but I'm sure the money is more than enough to cover it..." Dani says, watching the pets all around her. She is so happy she never had to come here, nor shall she ever. The boy looks over at his pets, all of them a scrawny wreck. He didn't even have enough NP to send them to the pound, and what money he did have, he needed to use to take care of his Aisha who was constantly sick, or else all the pets would get sick, and that would mean even more bills, ones which he just couldn't afford...

"Fine, but make it 5000 each..." Dani roots through her pouch, and doles out 20,000 NP, holding it in her free paw. "First the tails, then the NP."

"Deal." The boy shrugs, then calls his pets over, "Guys and girl, if you give this Shoyru your tail, she'll give us 20,000 NP! We can pay the rent for a hotel room again, and have a small home made for us while we're there. How's it sound?"

"Fine!" the four pets shout together.

Dani quickly takes all of their tails, casting heal on each of them, so they don't bleed to the end, then hands the money over to the boy. Even though sickly, she can see that the pets would probably take her down if she lied about the money. She quickly flaps off to where she had last seen Dismiss. Behind her the boy is taking his pets for a "visit" to the pound. He didn't want tailess pets that are supposed to have tails, but maybe someone else would want them.

Dani looks at the blue Kougra tail, hoping Dismiss doesn't notice that it's the wrong shade of blue, and has stripes... and is way too short... no no, he wouldn't notice, no way. She spots Dismiss a bit away, and quickly flaps to him, holding out the tails.

"Those aren't them," Dismiss mutters.

"Yes they are!" Dani screams, pushing them into his paws.

"I just SAW your family LilD, they're looking for you. And they all still have their tails." Dismiss lays down, and crosses his paws. "No key. Now go away, I'm tired of seeing your face."

"But..." Dani whines slightly, throwing the tails to the ground, and flapping sadly back to the cottage. She doesn't even bother to think of Ry's threat, it couldn't be true anyway

"RY! She's BACK!!" FrozenFish screams from the front yard.

Dani looks up and her eyes go wide. Out from the cottage comes Ry, Daimaou and Addey. Addey quickly flaps to Dani, and slams into her, sending her to the ground in a heap. Before Dani can even realize what's happening, Addey has her pinned to the ground. Ry races up to the two of them, and grabs onto Dani's wings, pressing down on special pressure points which render her wings useless for a while, or until the points are pressed again. She never had to rely on her legs for speed, if she needed to get somewhere fast, she'd fly, so now she has no way of getting away. She just starts to sob wildly, it wouldn't be bad if she had the mirror, but now she has NOTHING! "I warned you... now stop crying..." Ry whispers, in an eerily calm voice.

Dani blinks, and Addey gets off her, with Ry shaking her head, and picking Dani up. "You three, inside. Go to bed, right now. I'll be back shortly..." Ry says to her other pets, watching them go without a word. Holding Dani in one arm, she flips open her cell phone, and dials a number quickly, talking fast, "Yes... I'm sorry... I know... right now... okay... 20?... all right... see ya." she hangs up, and puts the phone into her skirt pocket, looking at Dani. "I wish I knew why you did it... maybe you'll tell my friend..."

Dani tries to get away from Ry, but it's pointless. Ry was one of the best fighters on her planet, and on this one, any NeoPet with any stats was no match against Rykani Tamashii. They walk in silence under a full moon, and even though it's stopped raining, the air is cold and wet anyway Dani repeatedly makes pleas to Ry to change her mind, but is met only by more silence. No one else is out at this hour, except for the rare homeless owner, or partiers who go from NeoHome to NeoHome. They reach the docks, and board a speedboat, heading for Neopia Central.

A short ride later, they're walking through the warmer night air of Neopia Central, apparently they hadn't gotten any rain like the Island, and once they reach the pound, Rykani finally speaks, "I hope you're happy..."

Dani starts crying all over again, as they step through the doors. Some assistants of Dr. Death's are there... he can't possibly be there all the time, so right now a Bruce and large Lupe are in control of things. They look over at Rykani, and stare in disbelief. She's so well known for saving animals from the pound, or helping them find homes. Why is she bringing a pet IN?

"Hey guys... I'm handing this one off to someone..." Rykani says to the assistants, who nod slowly. They'd heard about this before. For whatever reason, people liked to trade pets from one person to another. Rykani pays the fee for Dani to be put away, and just then a lone dark figure walks in through the doors, tossing some NPs on the desk and stating, "Give me 'er..."

"Hey Kick..." Rykani whispers to the girl hidden by a cloak. She passes a small wad of large NP bills over to the girl, who takes it, and puts it into a pocket of her cloak.

"Hey Ry... I'll take care of her..." the girl known simply as Kick says, as she drags a sobbing Dani off by one wing. Rykani sighs deeply, and walks out after Dani and Kick, to get back to her other three pets.

Dani and Kick go a different direction of Rykani, down a long road, which never seems to end. They eventually stop at a small shack of a house, not rundown, but also not the best place you'd want to call home. "I don't live here. This is the conditioning house. You'll be fed. And played with. But this isn't a vacation." Kick says, as she drags Dani inside, and slaps a metal collar around her throat, which leads to a leash that Kick takes into her hand. Kick pulls Dani to a small room with a bed, and ties the leash to a hook in the wall, then pushes on the hook, and it goes all the way into the wall, so Dani can't slip the leash off the hook. The leash is long enough so she can get around the room, and what a wonderful room it is... with a small bed, and a desk with papers and some broken crayons scattered around. Kick shakes her head, and walks out of the room, closing the door behind her. Dani curls up on the bed, and cries softly. This is worse than the pound! At least there, she had a chance of being taken away, this place, she was owned already... A rustling at the barred up window makes her hop up, and looks outside, and sitting there is a red Kougra Dismiss! Dani starts to say something, but then Dismiss throws the key through the window. She dives at it, and picks it up, and by the time she goes back to the window, Dismiss is gone. Dani at first is happy that she got the key, at long last after everything, then remembers... the ball is in her room... and starts sobbing wildly again.

The End

Author's Note: I NEVER would do anything like that to my pets, no matter what they do... this is just a story, okay people? Made up, not real. Fake. Ya know? Hope you enjoyed my story!! Send any comments you like. ^.^