"Get back here, you little thief!" the Elephante guards roared, as Keena dashed along the street, grasping the stolen tchea fruit firmly to her chest. She darted into an abandoned building, up the stairs, and to a window on the second floor. Panting, the Kyrii looked down to the street below, where more guards were patrolling. A crash alerted her that the guards had entered the building, and were quickly making their way up the stairs.

Across the way from the window was an awning underneath a window. If I can just jump to that awning... she thought. The door to the room exploded as the guards charged in. Without the time to judge the jump, Keena had to rely on luck. She scampered onto the window ledge and made a tremendous leap...

The awning was farther than she had thought. Flailing her arms, Keena managed to grab the edge with one paw. He feet were dangling only inches over a guard's head! If he even glanced up... Keena gulped. Across the way, the guards in the building were now notching their arrows. Desperately, she tried to swing her other arm up to grip the awning. A ripping noise came from the corner of the fabric. She froze. Any more movement, and it would surely rip and deposit her on the head of the guard below. She heard the guards in the window straining their bows for a shot. Panicked, the Kyrii racked her brains for a means of escape, when suddenly...

A furry paw grabbed her wrist and pulled her in through the window above the awning. She only caught a glimpse of the other Kyrii, before he knocked her to the floor. Arrows zipped over their heads, and she heard them clank against the stone walls.

"Come on, this way," he told her. She followed the mysterious Kyrii through a trap door on the lower floor. It led into the sewers. "It may not smell that great, but it can lead us to safety. My name's Stan by the way, what's yours?"

"Oh, my name's Keena. Thanks for saving me back there."

"No problem! Us thieves need to stick together! I haven't seen you around here before; you must be new."

"Yes, I just arrived last week," explained Keena.

"Stick with me for awhile, and I'll show you the ropes of this town," said Stan.

"Really? Thanks! Hey, um, where are we going now?"

"To my hideout... here we are," Stan said, helping her up a small ladder that lead out of the sewers and into his hideout.

It looked like an abandoned building on the outskirts of town, but s eemed comfortable. A fine rug decorated the floor. "You must be doing pretty well for yourself, Stan," said Keena, turning towards him.

"Well," said Stan, blushing. "I...

"I understand. It was sort of that way with me in my hometown," Keena said, reassuring him as she sat down on a comfortable looking chair. "That's why I moved over here. I thought I was ready to head out on my own." Keena shook her head, thinking back to her recent predicament. "Guess I proved myself wrong."

"It wasn't your fault." Stan said. "You don't really know this town, so you weren't sure where to run and hide." Keena smiled at him.

"Stan!" A voice called from outside. The door burst open with a loud bang, and in sauntered a really dirty Lupe. "I got it!" he shouted, reaching into a pouch on his side. He pulled out the most elaborately decorated key that Keena had ever seen. "Isn't it lovely?" he said, rubbing the key between his grimy paws and kissing it with a loud smack.

"What is it?" Keena asked as she moved from her seat toward the curious spectacle. The Lupe's eyes widened as he finally noticed her.

"What do we have here?" he asked, turning towards Stan.

"Klept, this is my new friend Keena," he said, motioning to her. "Keena, Klept."

"Nice to meet you, Klept," she said, extending her paw.

"Likewise," he said distractedly. "Stan, why'd you have to bring over friends on a night as important as this one? I could have sworn I specifically told you no friends." He waved the key in Stan's face, as if he were a teacher threatening his student with a ruler.

"She's new in town, and was about to get into some major trouble... what else was I supposed to do?"

"Fine, fine, your friend can stay... but she has to come with us."

"Um..." Keena said, breaking in before Stan could reply. "Where exactly are you two going?"

"Why, to perform the biggest heist of the century. We're going to steal from...

...the Royal Family of Sakhmet. Those royals will never know what hit them. At their palace, they have gold and treasures all over the place; I heard that Princess Vyssa has everything in gold." Klept used his paws as he began to name off items. "Solid gold mirror, brush, bed, rug, knife, and paintbrush. I am sure there are a million more, but that's just one of the princesses that lives in Sakhmet Palace. We have Princess Sankara, with her exotic treasurers from Khamtef; not to mention the vault of Neopoints and other little treasures hidden underground. We'll make millions of Neopoints... no, billions of Neopoints, and we'll be famous. We'll be known as the ones who pulled off a heist on the all-powerful Royal Family." Klep continued rambling on; his eyes were gleaming with greed.

"I don't know about the city, but a palace is always heavily guarded. How do you plan to get past the guards? Let alone break into a vault?" Keena asked.

"You think I didn't know that? I planned this down to the last detail... nothing will go wrong!" Klept snapped. "Being new in town, you've probably never heard of King Coltzan III, have you?" Keena shook her head no. "His shrine is on the other side of river. It's the anniversary of his death, and there is big festival that is going to be held in his honor. Every member of the Royal Family will be there, not to mention the whole Royal Court. Ever since the murder of Coltzan, every member of the Royal Family must be accompanied by guards wherever they go. The staff of guards will be less than normal."

"There are still going to be guards," Keena pointed out. "How do you plan to get past them and break into the vault?"

"This key is the key to the vault," Stan said. "We don't have to break in; we just turn the key and take what we want."

"How are you planning for us to get inside?" Keena asked.

"With the help of a new Kyrii thief we just met." Klept replied.

"What do I have to do?" Keena asked.

"Don't make her do anything dangerous, Klept. She's still a rookie." Stan advised.

"Oh shut up, Stan. Don't give me advice on my own plan," Klept snapped, before turning to Keena and beginning to whisper her instructions. "Keena, this is what you have to do..."

"Good!" Klept bellowed out, not giving Keena time to rethink her part in his plan. "We should get going right away, before it's too dark to navigate the sewers. Stan," the Lupe suddenly rounded on his little brother. "If you mess this up like the last time, you know what's gonna have to happen, right?"

Stan, hearing his brother say this, instantly broke out in a cold sweat. "I remember, Klept." he muttered, shuffling his feet on the dirty floor. Without giving Keena time to question what had just passed between the two brothers, Stan hurried after Klept, who was already a fair ways ahead of them on his way to the sewers.

Keena shivered as the cold night air rapped its fingers around her small frame. She looked to the moon--her only source of light. It had moved considerably during the time she had been standing outside the palace in the shadows of the night. Still, she dared not make a move until given the signal by Klept. The Kyrii looked across the river, where she could see the festival lights as she slowly followed in step to the upbeat music that was drifting over. "For once," Keena thought aloud, "I wonder what it would be like not to be a thief."

"That's crazy talk." The sudden voice made Keena jump. She looked up to where the familiar voice had come from, and into the grinning face of Stan. He was hanging over one of the parapets of the castle, using his belt as an anchoring rope and cutting quite a comical scene in the night. "Klept says it's time that you do your part." His tone instantly grew serious and icy, as he remembered what might happen to him if this plan fell through.

"Um... okay," she said, readying herself. "Tell Klept he can count on me." However, Stan was already gone, having returned to his lookout spot. "Okay Keena, if there was ever a time to prove yourself as a thief, this is it," she reassured herself. "All you have to do is allow yourself to be brought inside, then make an excuse for all the guards to enter the one room..." she said, her voice trailing off as she neared the castle gates.

The two Elephante guards stood stock-still as they watched for signs of movement in the darkness. "Lancer," one of them spoke up, "what are we kidding ourselves for? We know that everyone in the entire desert is at the Shrine tonight, so why do we bother--" he was cut off by a loud wailing sound that filled the night air.

"What in Coltzan's name was that?" Lancer asked, bewildered. The wailing continued as a dark shape could be seen pulling itself along on its stomach, up to the guards. It was Keena.

"Miss? Miss! Are you all right?" The other guard called out as he ran up to her. "What has happened to you?"

"Ohhh..." the Kyrii continued to wail. "It's too horrible to talk about. The festivities were going so well, and then..." she stopped talking and pretended to faint.

"QUICK!" Lancer yelled. "Get her inside the palace, she seems to know something!" The two guards hurriedly picked her up, failing to notice the large Lupe that stepped out from the shadows to follow the trio through the now-unguarded, unlocked gates.

Keena had been seated on a large couch, in an even larger room. Around her stood 20 guards, all waiting for their questions to be answered. She had stalled as long as she could about coming around from her "faint", but now it was time to face her worried audience. "Oh! It was so awful!" she began, picking up from where she had left off.

"Please, you must continue!" a voice called out from the crowd around her.

"The Princess herself told me not to say anything unless all the faithful guards of her palace were present." She cringed at how fake her words sounded, but the guards were either too worried or too proud at being complimented by their princess to notice.

"We're all here!" a guard announced. "This is all that was left on the night of the festival!"

Keena suppressed a smile. This was going to be easier than they had thought. She got up and paced the room in mock worry, making sure that as she positioned herself in front of the door, the guards followed her circle and shuffled opposite of her. Everything was going perfectly.

Keena made eye contact with one of the guards as he met her gaze and stared back. Slowly his face grew into a twisted smile, and Keena grew cold as she realized why he was looking at her. This was one of the guards that had chased her earlier! Knowing her game was up, she thought fast, and wasted no time in ducking out through the door. She shoved a spear inside the handles, making it impossible to leave the room for the moment.

She had meant to trick the guards into thinking there was trouble at the Shrine, so they would go over there and leave the palace empty. But now that the guards knew there were thieves in the palace, they were sure to pool all their strength and come after Keena.

The Kyrii cursed silently for letting herself be recognized. However, there was no time for that; she had to warn Stan and Klept...

...however, Keena realized she had no idea where she was going.

Keena looked up and down the dim, empty hallway and felt a sinking feeling. Of course, she hadn't been told how to get to the vault; that hadn't been her part of the plan.

She started heading back towards the way she'd been carried in, her feet padding softly on the stone floor as she ran. Keena's heart was thudding so hard, she was sure it had to be making enough noise for them to hear her all the way back at the Shrine.

She found herself in a large hall, with a high vaulted ceiling that was lost in shadows. Yes, I go left here, she thought, and turned... only to be faced with three exits. Which one had they brought her through?

She looked around the hall, as pangs of despair began uncurling in the pit of her stomach. There were so many exits...

"I have to find and warn them," she murmured, reminding herself of the task at hand. She picked an exit on the other side of the hall and marched resolutely up to it, a look of grim determination on her Kyrii face.

"We're gonna be rich!" Klept exclaimed, almost singing the words. He was squirming with pleasure as he looked at the enormous vault door. It was solid and impenetrable... unless you had the key.

Stan looked around uneasily. Something seemed wrong here. This was all just... just...

"This is too easy," Klept said gleefully, giving voice to Stan's thoughts, as he put the key into the ornate lock and turned it.

"Yeah, too easy," Stan agreed. "And I don't like it one bit."

"Oh don't be such a wet blanket!" Klept snapped. "Now, give me a hand with this!"

Together they pushed the heavy door open. Stan felt a little disappointed as he looked inside, for he had expected to see piles of great riches, but the only thing to be seen was darkness.

Stan took a torch from the hallway behind them and together they entered, peering into the shadows for a glimpse of the treasure. Stan's feeling of unease only grew as they stepped further and further into the darkness.

Klept suddenly let out a whoop that echoed eerily all around. At the edge of the pool of light cast by the torch was a glimmer of gold. The Lupe leapt the remaining distance, falling to his knees by the treasure. He began kissing and pulling it towards him with his greedy grabbing paws.

Stan, however, had stayed back. He was overwhelmed by the sudden feeling that they were not alone. Then, as he stood there, he heard a scraping sound from the shadows as something moved closer. Two large, orb-like eyes (they must have each been at least as large as Stan's head) appeared in the black, glowing with the reflected light of the torch...

"What is it?" Klept said, shaking Stan's paw off his shoulder and sounding annoyed, as if Stan were interrupting this special moment between him and his riches to tell him something unimportant.

"I think we should leave," Stan whispered. He was now staring at complete darkness; the eyes were gone as quickly as they had appeared.

"Leave?!? We just got here!" Klept laughed, "Aww, is littow Stanley afwaid of the dark?"

Ignoring Klept, Stan held his torch far out in front of him, but the eyes did not appear again. Maybe he had imagined them. Yes... he'd been expecting this to be more difficult, that's all

No. That wasn't all. He had seen something; he didn't know what it was, but it was definitely there. No matter how much he tried to convince himself, the uneasy feeling remained, eyes or no eyes.

"Something's wrong." Stan murmured, quickly scanning over the room again.

"Honestly Stan, you're just like that Keena. Stop worrying! Can't you just trust me?"

"I swear I saw something." Stan took another step into the darkness, holding out the torch yet again and looking around him, but there wasn't anything there. He turned back to his brother, expecting to hear the usual scold or taunt.

Klept was gone, though.

"HOW DID I GET HERE???" Keena shouted to no one in particular. Angry and frustrated, she turned away from the doors of the same room she had started out in, the spear still keeping those guards locked inside.

Rubbing her eyes, she tried to think. If I were a vault, where would I be? That was of no help, though. She still didn't know where to go. Soon enough, she found herself wandering aimlessly down the hallway.

It could be worse, she told herself. At least the guards were still trapped, it would certainly be more difficult if she had to maneuver her way to the vault while they were searching for her. Keena sighed heavily as she came to the end of the hallway. Go right this time, she thought

Shrugging, Keena took the right exit, hoping she would have better luck. She'd barely entered the room when she heard a disturbing sound. It was like someone calling for help...

"Help, somebody!" the voice called out. "Can anybody hear me? HELP!"

This time Keena was sure. "Stan, where are you?" she asked, but that was obviously no good. Even if Stan DID tell her where he was, Keena wouldn't be able to find him. "Stan, keep yelling... I'll follow your voice!"

With that, Keena took off in the general direction of Stan's voice, down through the room and out a hallway on the other side.

"Keena?" the voice asked, with more than a measure of desperation. "Help! Hurry, before it's too late!"

"I'm coming, Stan!" Keena yelled, nearly out of breath from running.

"Keena, I--" Stan's voice cut off sharply, replaced by a terrified scream.

Just then, Keena found herself in front of a tall, wooden door. She heard muted screams coming from behind it. Groping in the semi-darkness for a handle, Keena felt the door swing open and she tumbled into the room.

The room was as black as pitch, except for two glowing orb-like eyes that stared out at Keena from the darkness. A soft voice came from the mouth that must have belonged to the eyes.

"Ah, so you must be Keena... the one that your friends have been so eagerly telling me about. Now, I don't have many visitors, but young Klept and Stan just barged into my little home without so much as an invitation. That was quite rude of them, don't you think?"

All this time, Keena had been attempting to avoid the near-hypnotic, unblinking stare of the two eyes. She decided to stare at the floor, even though she couldn't see it in the icy darkness. "I-I'm sure that Klept and Stan meant you no harm, but... well, I would like to know where they are."

"Yes? Well, I would like to tell you," said the voice.

With that, Keena was nearly blinded by a bright light that suddenly lit up the room. As soon as her eyes adjusted, however, she saw that Stan and Klept were chained to the wall opposite her.

"Stan! Klept!" she cried, rushing over to their writhing figures.

"No... not yet, young one," cooed the soft voice as its body reached out a restraining arm. "They cannot see you, hear you, or speak to you."

Upon closer inspection, Keena saw that her friends had been gagged, blindfolded, and had cotton stuffed in their ears.

"If this were not so utterly serious, I would think your methods of restraining them were pretty comical," retorted Keena.

"Perhaps, but it gets the job done," replied the voice. "Now, did you not think that my methods for bringing you here were quite ingenious?"

"I came here because Stan was crying for help," yelled Keena, still not looking at the strange eyes or the body that belonged to them.

The voice laughed, then replied, "Help! Help! Keena, save me!" in a perfect imitation of Stan's voice.

"You rat!" shouted Keena, who turned towards the voice and eyes, desperately trying to beat against the body.

"Now, now, dear," purred the voice. "Look at me, NOW!"

Somehow, Keena knew that she had no choice. Slowly, reluctantly, she turned and looked up at the strange eyes.

"NO!" cried Keena. "Not you!" Memories of her terrible past flooded back, dashing away all hope...

Whenever they would go out on a job, ready to steal anyplace, anytime, anywhere, Kalanna would turn to Keena with her terrible eyes and say,"You'd better not mess this up. Or else. And remember... I know everything you're doing. I can see everything."

Keena knew what would happen if she didn't do well; Kalanna had many methods for punishing her. She would take Keena's food away for a week, maybe more... or she would give Keena such a terrible thrashing that she would hardly be able to lie down the following night.

"YES!" boomed Kalanna. "It's me!"

"How did you find me? You... you disappeared years ago," whispered Keena.

"Yes, well... I also could not resist the lure of Sahkmet Palace's treasures, but the beast that used to guard this place was ancient and feeble. When I entered this room, it... passed its curse onto me. Now I can never leave this room of worthless treasure. It has also given me its handsome looks, wouldn't you say so sister?"

The Draik beast spread its wings. Putrid black oil oozed from every pore. "Most of the time it's quite boring here, but I sensed you coming, and was quite relieved to have some... company." Her wicked eyes gleamed. "You can never escape me! Remember, Keena..." Kalanna said evilly. "I know what you're doing... I can see everything!"

"NO!" Keena cried again. She crumpled to the floor, and Kalanna heard the sobbing sounds that came from her. The Draik grinned, raising a hand to strike her, when Keena jumped up and knocked Kalanna into the wall.

"You didn't think I came all this way without learning a couple tricks, did you?" she cried...

"You've made me suffer all my life, Kalanna!!" Keena yelled, "Do you really think I'm going to let you get away with it any more?"

Stunned for a moment, the horribly disfigured Kalanna stared blankly at Keena, as if she couldn't quite comprehend what was being said to her. "Now really, Weaky Kiki," oozed Kalanna in a trickly-sweet voice, recalling the nickname she'd used to belittle her sister when she was mad, "I wouldn't want for you to embarrass yourself in front of your friends... oh, right! They can't see us." She smiled wickedly, "Well, let's just make this a little more interesting."

With one swooping motion, Kalanna glided towards the bound and gagged brothers, and removed their blindfolds whilst smearing black gunk all over their faces.

Stan's eyes, upon seeing Keena, widened as he struggled harder and harder. He shouted out something, but it was completely muffled.

Klept, on the other hand, strained his leg muscles to try and kick Kalanna, but it was to no avail.

"That's much better, isn't it Weaky Kiki? Now these boys can see what an idiot they have for a friend." Kalanna began to approach Keena slowly, the slime leaving a trail behind her.

"Kalanna, evil like you doesn't deserve to live." Keena spat out, rrealizing that she was stalling for time until she'd figured out what to do.

Kalanna cackled loudly and said, "Don't think I don't know what you're doing, Kiki! Come on and show me some of those so-called moves you were so proud of earlier."

With that, Kalanna swooped towards Keena like a vulture and...

With a flash of inspiration, Keena suddenly remembered... the ummagine!!! Kalanna was allergic to ummagines, and the fumes would sting anyone's eyes. Keena smirked. The key to destroying this monster was held only in the memory of her sister.

As swift as a thief, Keena grabbed the ummagine from her back pocket, crushing it slightly so that some of the flesh came out, then shoved a piece of it at Kalanna's eyes...

"Y-You idiot!" Kalanna cried, revealing her eye. It was no longer large and pale, but tiny and shriveled. Keena stared in triumph at her wounded sister. She approached cautiously, then shoved the rest of the ummagine in Kalanna's mouth.

"Hmph, it serves you right," Keena muttered, as her sister fell unconcious to the ground. Keena turned towards Stan and Klept, who were staring back incredulously. She smiled brightly, then began to untie their bounds.

"Thanks alot Keena," mouthed Stan, removing the black gunk that covered his face. "That was some idea you had there earlier."

"Yeah, yeah, enough with the reunions," Klept yelled. "Let's go grab us some treasure!" The two Kyriis nodded, then began stuffing their backpacks full of all the gold they could carry. They'd only cleared about a third of the treasure, but were satisfied nonetheless. Keena took one last look at her mutated sister before leaving the vault.

"Goodbye, Kalanna," whispered Keena. She ran out of the vault to catch up with Stan and Klept. They quietly manoeuvred through the hallways, trying to find the exit. It was about half an hour before Keena came across a familiar sight.

"Hey, that's the room I locked the guards in," she said, pointing to the spear.

"So, should we release them?" Klept asked. The three of them contemplated this idea for a moment.

"Nah, the Royal Family will do that once they come back," replied Stan. Klept and Keena agreed, and they hopped happily to the exit.

"I'll get you this time, thief!" roared the Elephante guard, chasing after Keena. It had been a week since Keena, Klept, and Stan robbed the Royal Family of Sakhmet. She'd decided to go out on her own now, and things had been going smoothly... until today.

"Ha, this'll be the last of your robbing days," laughed the guard as he cornered Keena. Suddenly, a puntec fruit was dropped from above, slamming directly onto the guard's head. The green, sticky goo stopped him right in his tracks. Keena looked up to see that the person who'd dropped it was already gone. Keena already knew who it had been, though, and she mentally thanked Stan while strolling away.

The End