"Welcome! Welcome everyone, to this year's Gadgadsbogen festival!" Rufus shouted over the excited chattering of the crowd. "Now that the limbo competition is over, it's time to reveal this year's new fruits!" the Kougra said, gesturing to a table shrouded by a lumpy, white cloth. "Now, it is with great pleasure and pride that I present you with this year's harvest!" Rufus shouted, adding a little extra emphasis as he yanked the cloth from the new fruit, smiling grandly before the festivalgoers.

The guests gasped in surprise. Some even fainted.

"Yes, yes, I know... it's all very exciting. Nothing is quite so grand as the Gadgadsbogen festival. But please, people, let's try to remain calm."

"The fruit!" yelled one Aisha from the audience. "It's... it's GONE!"

"What?!" Rufus said, turning around. It was true. The fruit was missing, the only thing sitting on the table was old Tombola junk...

"How can this be true?!?" Rufus yelled in disbelief. The Kougra slowly crawled around the white table, squinting as though the fruit was perhaps just too small to be seen, or maybe the same color as the table. But it wasn't. "This can't be happening!" he yelled again. Panic ensued all around the raised platform where Rufus stood, and where the fruit has formerly been. "Who could have committed such a horrendous crime?" he said, worriedly.

Bumbling around anxiously, the Kougra accidentally bumped into the table. It teetered on its three legs, then tipped over onto the wooden floor; the sound of wood cracking hardly helped calm the audience down. However, there was also a shattering sound, as the two bottles of sand crumbled into shards of glass. Red and blue sand poured out onto the deck, mingling together. The sail boat was crushed as it hit the ground, its tender balsam wood splintering.

"Look!" a Pteri shouted suddenly. All heads turned towards the pile of sand and crushed sail boat. Sticking out of the red and blue sand was a white triangle. The Pteri, whose name was Gerry, flew towards the triangle and pulled at it. The Pteri's pulls revealed that the white triangle was actually the corner of a piece of paper.

As Gerry completely unearthed the paper from under the sand, the crowd grew silent. There was distinct green ink on the paper. Gerry read it once, his eyes going left to right as he did so. The Pteri read the paper a second time... then a third time. By the third read, his eyes were as big as a ten dubloon coin.

"What does it say?!" a Meerca yelled.

Rufus pushed Gerry towards a podium. Gerry gulped, then began to read. "It says...

There was a long silence as Gerry finished the riddle. "Well?" Rufus snapped. "What does all that mean?"

"It's what the poem said: a riddle," Gerry answered. "Whoever took the fruits wants to have these riddles solved before he-or she-gives them back."

"But we're in the middle of Gadgadsbogen!" Rufus cried. "We don't have time for riddles!"

Gerry's eyes brightened upon hearing this. He always dreamt of being a detective, and was very good at riddles.

"I'll find them!" he said, puffing out his chest. Gerry then turned to the crowd. "Don't worry, everyone! I'll find the fruit before Gadgadsbogen is over!"

There was a weak, yet appreciative, applause that could be heard coming from the crowd. Rufus patted Gerry on the back. "Thank you, my boy! You go off and try to find the fruits. Meanwhile, I'll stay here and keep the visitors happy."

As Rufus turned his attention back to the crowd, Gerry read the poem once more. "Hmm... 'Look to where, when it is night the time of day is not quite right.' What does the time of day have to do with night?"

Just then, the Pteri remembered what he had learned in history class about ancient Neopia. Before clocks and watches were invented, Neopets told the time using a device called a sundial. Naturally, during the night, a sundial is perfectly useless.

"A sundial!" Gerry said happily. "But... where can we find a sundial on Mystery Island?"

"Maybe I can help?" a voice stated.

Gerry jumped at the sound of the additional voice. He turned to see...

Gerry responded, "You do? Where?"

"At the Training School, of course. You know how the Techo Master's all about the wisdom and the ancient ways of training... it just so happens that he also doesn't like technology. So, he keeps a sundial by the pond in his training yard."

Yes! A lead! Gerry thought. "Can you take me there?" he asked.

"Sure, no problem." the Blumaroo said. "By the way, my name's Dee-dee. I'll be glad to help you solve this in any way that I can. Nice to meet you."

Gerry nodded with a smile. The two slipped away from the thick crowd of festivalgoers, who were now happily watching Rufus play, or attempt to play, a ukulele.

"When it is night, the time of day is not quite right..." Gerry mumbled. He looked up at the sky. The afternoon sun still shone brightly. There was maybe an hour left before night settled in. The next piece of clue or riddle would mostly likely occur during the sunset, when the sun barely casts enough light to mark the hour.

The pair searched high and low in the Techo Master's training yard. His students gave the visitors strange looks as they practiced stick-fighting and high kicks.

"We're definitely in the right place, and it's almost time for sunset," Dee-dee said. "Exactly how are we supposed to get the next clue?"

The sun emitted a red and orange hue. It was time. Gerry looked at the crystal-clear water of the pond, then said, "LOOK!"...

...Dee-dee looked closer, realising that there were twelve tiny rocks in the pond. They were noticeable, but did not break the pond's mirror-like surface. The sinking sun cast shadows across the blue water.

"Just like a sundial!" Gerry exhaled. The round pond, the position of the stones... the exact way the sun shone down was symmetrical and somehow magical. A single long, pointed black shadow crept from behind one rock, pointing southwest.

"It's seven o'clock, then." Gerry said. "Now what? That didn't help us much!" His voice had taken on a sarcastic tone. "Yeah, to find the fruit, tell what time it is with a shadowy second hand!"

"Is it part of a clock?" Dee-dee asked, her small face twisted in thought. "Or is it... an arrow?"

Dee-dee and Gerry looked southwest, in the direction the arrow was pointing. They saw a huge tree, with a word carved upon it. When they got closer, they saw that it was the word "where".

"Look to where, when it is night." Gerry quoted excitedly. "Dee-dee, this is it! We found 'where'! The riddle not only meant that we had to get to the sundial before nightfall, but that we had to look to where when it was dark."

No sooner had the words left his mouth, then the sun sank below the horizon, and Mystery Island succumbed to darkness. The two pets then saw shadows in the tree's craggy bark, which were darker than the rest. The shadows seemed to have taken on the appearance of words, causing Gerry to strain as he tried to read them...

"Rocky ground, splashes sound," Gerry said, voicing his thoughts out loud. "What does that remind you of?" he asked. Dee-dee thought for a moment, before clapping her hands and bouncing high up on her tail.

"The Rock Pool!!" she shouted. "Rocky ground, and splashes... water!" Dee-dee let out a light giggle. This was far more exciting than anything she'd done before, but her glee didn't last for long. "Gerry, the Rock Pool's in a dangerous area. How will we ever get there?"

"Leave that to me," the Pteri said as he stretched out his wings, took flight and hovered slightly above Dee-dee. "Grab on," he commanded.

Before you could say Gadgadsbogen, they had arrived at the Rock Pool.

The sound of the water lapping against the rocks, combined with the eerie glow that the moon cast upon the pool's surface, made the rock pool a scary place to be at night.

"Oh, I don't know about this," Dee-dee said, shivering as she moved in behind Gerry slightly, trying to stay as far from the edge as possible.

"It's alright... come on, Mystery Island's depending on us!" As he spoke, the water that rippled below them began to bubble furiously. Dee-dee backed even further away, with Gerry copying her every movement. That's when, from the depths of the pool, emerged...

...a beautiful, enchanted Bluna, who stared at the duo while blinking her large blue eyes. "Hello, are you lost?" the Bluna asked.

"No, we're looking for something, or someone, or... I'm not really really sure." Dee-Dee said, seemingly paying more attention to the rocks below than to the question she'd been asked.

"We're trying to solve a mystery, but we don't know what to do next." Gerry said.

"Maybe I can help. I know a safer spot where we can talk... follow me." With that, the Bluna dove under the water.

"Do you think we should follow her?" Dee-Dee asked.

"What other leads do we have?" replied Gerry. With hardly any other options, the pair dove under the water.

Upon surfacing, the pair looked around. They had come to a calm inlet, which was surrounded by the most gorgeous beach. Gerry and Dee-Dee crawled out of the water, then laid down upon the warm sand. The Bluna surfaced behind them.

"Where are we?" Dee-Dee asked.

"This is what the island people call The Beach. It's safe from anyone hearing us, because almost everyone is at the celebration. By the way, my name is Coral," the Bluna said, blinking those big eyes again.

"Hi, my name is Gerry... and this is Dee-Dee. We're trying to solve the mystery of the missing Gadgadsbogen fruit. Do you know something that might help us?" Gerry asked.

"I might; just this morning I swam over here to the Beach, where I was sunning myself. That's when I heard two voices. I couldn't see them, because they were standing in the shadows, but I noticed they were whispering about something. I was kinda curious, so I eavesdropped on them," the Coral said, blushing slightly.

"Well, what did they say?" Gerry asked excitedly.

"They were talking about...

"Of course! Gadgadsbogen is the most important festival on the island!" Dee-dee positively squealed. "Coral, did they say who it was?"

Coral scrunched up her eyes, trying to remember. "No," she finally confessed. "I just remember one voice was rough, like a Lupe's, and the other was female. I think I saw an Aisha tail, though."

Dee-dee was overjoyed with this information, but Gerry was less than pleased. "We need more clues," he muttered to himself, out of their earshot. Wandering up the beach while the Bluna and the Blumaroo talked, Gerry sat on a pile of rocks. They were slightly out of place on the endless sand, with these strange boulders piled on top of each other. However, this wasn't what Gerry really needed to think about.

"Come ON," he murmured desperately, gazing around the beach. "What do we do now?"

Dee-dee came running up. Gerry, let's--" she began, but suddenly tripped on a protruding rock and slammed into the pile of boulders. As one became dislodged, Gerry was forced to hurry off, both to avoid falling and to help his friend. She was already standing.

"Are you all right?" he asked, but she was looking at something behind him. Gerry whipped around.

The boulders had all rolled off one another, revealing a hole in the ground. Some had fallen in, creating loud, splashing sounds below. Dee-dee started down into the hole. "Ya know, that looks like a perfect hiding spot for thieves." she said, winking.

Gerry grinned. "I think this time we're one step ahead of them," he announced. With that, he jumped...

...The resounding splash was deafening as it echoed down the long, stone passage. An eerie blue light glowed off some sort of fungi on the walls. Gerry shivered, though from the low temperature or anxiety he couldn't be sure.

"There," Dee-dee pointed. Far down the lit passage, there was an opening to the right.

"Shh," Gerry urged as he sloshed through hip-deep water (although it was barely ankle-deep for his Blumaroo friend, he thought ruefully). "Hopefully, we can catch them by surprise."

As they neared, the Pteri thought he heard quiet voices. Gerry suddenly leapt through the doorway. "Aha!" he shouted. "Gotcha, thieves!"

Before them, a blue Lupe froze in the act of nibbling away at a Tigersquash, and a red Aisha's eyes widened. The room was lit only by a single candle. Both parties stared, neither moving, for several minutes, until Gerry's echo died away (THIEVES, thieves, eves) down the blue stone hall.

The blue Lupe then grinned. "I see you finally solved the last clue," he said.

"Took you long enough..." the Aisha said, giggling wickedly.

Dee-dee chattered noisily next to him and whimpered in fear. "Now, stop that," Gerry said tiredly. He then turned to the thieves, and declared, "I've chased your riddles this far, and I've no time for more. I've missed a lot of good partying during Gadgadsbogen thanks to you, and I believe I deserve to know why."

Dee-dee looked at him nervously and whispered, "Are you trying to get us seriously hurt? These two are vicious crooks... who knows what they're capable of?!?"

Gerry gulped nervously, hoping that she hadn't heard him.

"Well," the Aisha said, "if the Tiki Tack man weren't so stingy with his prizes, Jasper and I might have actually had a year worth celebrating."

"Huh?" Gerry wondered aloud. "Why would you attack Gadgadsbogen for that?"

"It's really quite simple," Jasper said. "Lonnie and I have been playing Tombola for the entire year, and haven't even won ONCE. If you'd like, I can show you the collection of junk that I have to prove it." He absently waved a paw at a heap of keyrings and sand bottles.

"And," Lonnie added, "we had it figured that, if you were to ruin the biggest tourist attraction of the year, you would ruin Tiki Tack guy. Revenge is sweet," she said, hacking her teeth into the largest Purple Juppie he had ever seen. Sadly, Gerry knew the winner of the Juppie-sack race would have gotten to eat it instead.

Gerry had to think fast, and intelligently, about how to stop them from eating the fruit and returning it to the celebration. Then, in a surprising twist of character, Dee-dee answered his prayers.

"Well, if you want Tiki Tack prizes, wouldn't it make more sense to help Gadgadsbogen, not ruin it?" Lonnie stopped eating. Dee-dee rushed on, confident now. "If the Tiki Tack man had a more successful business, he could buy more Tombola prizes, and you would be more likely to win... although, I am sorry you didn't win this year. You can have one of my prizes," she said, holding out a shaking Tai-Kai Codestone.

Jasper, at least, was touched by this selfless act. "You do make ends meet, little girl. You'd make a great detective with your friend here. All right, we will return the fruit. I've eaten enough anyway. It'll be a regular "How the Thieves Stole Gadgadsbogen!"

They all laughed at that, and once the fruits were returned to the party, Rufus laughed and awarded Gerry a Tigersquash medal... "for your integrity," he said. It was a shame that his Doglefox ate it.

It would have looked very nice next to the photo finish of the Juppie-sack race...

...with Gerry in the lead.

The End