"This is stupid! We've been out here for days now! I'm starving! And it's the hottest day ever!"

"Quit your whining, Nitsuj," said the Gnorbu as he squinted through a telescope. "I can't concentrate with your constant wailing."

The Ogrin moaned as he flopped about melodramatically at the bottom of the boat. "There's nothing to concentrate on! Just give it up, Nivek! We're going to melt away out here in the middle of the ocean, lost and alone!"

"Don't be silly," Nivek snapped, putting down the telescope. "Why don't you try to be useful for once?"

"They'll never find us! The great wide ocean will have swallowed us in its depths, and not even the water faeries will ever know our names!" the Ogrin continued theatrically, as if he had not heard a word the Gnorbu had said.

"Hush!" Nivek picked up a parchment from the ground and unfolded it. "I'm trying to read the map."

Nitsuj peered over his friend's shoulder. "You're reading it upside down."

The Gnorbu flushed as he flipped the map around. "I told you to stop bothering me!"

"It doesn't matter anyway," the Ogrin complained gloomily, slumping back down. "Maps are no use when you don't even know where you are! We've been floating out here in this leaky boat for days, and there is still no land in sight! We're done for. It's over."

Nivek rounded on him in annoyance. "Will you PLEASE stop that?!? This is your fault anyway! If you hadn't..."

Nitsuj sat up, flustered, then shot the Gnorbu a wrathful look, though it was obvious that he was embarrassed. "Wh-what are you talking about?! YOU were supposed to be manning the Crokabek’s nest, it isn’t my fault you didn’t spot the reef!"

"You called me down to the deck to read the map for you, genius!" Nivek snapped, turning briskly around once more and lifting the telescope up to his eye. "Now please keep your mouth shut!”

With mingled annoyance and guilt, Nitsuj scooted to the opposite end of the lifeboat and folded his paws over his chest, heaving a sigh of discontent. Why was he always to blame? Couldn’t something be Nivek’s fault, for once? Honestly! The Ogrin was about to say something to this effect, in a vain attempt to recapture his lost dignity, when he noticed that their surroundings -- that is, the surface of the water -- had suddenly become quite a bit... darker. Puzzled, he tipped his head back to look at the spot where the sun should have been, but all he saw were clouds: dark grey, swiftly rolling storm clouds that seemed to have covered the sky within seconds.

Before he could say anything, Nivek, who had also noticed the odd behaviour of the skies, cried "Hit the deck!"

Nitsuj hit the deck for all he was worth, and within seconds he found that a fierce wind was trying to tear him off of it. Before he could make sense of what was happening, the sound of thunder filled his ears, and a streak of lightning split the sky. The sudden noise and violence of the storm that was raging around them was enough to knock the wind from his lungs; he couldn’t even scream as wave after wave smashed into the boat, nearly capsizing it. Even more disturbing, however, was the shrieking din that filled the air with every peal of lightning, as though the very clouds themselves were groaning and creaking under some impossibly heavy and terrible load. It was all the Ogrin could do to cling to the sides of the tiny craft for dear life, and although his paws quickly began to ache, he somehow managed not to let go; if he did, he knew that he would be immediately swallowed by the roiling sea. He simply squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the end...

Which, after what seemed like an eternity but was actually no more than a few minutes, came with surprising speed. As quickly as the clouds had blanketed the sky, they were drawn away, as if by some invisible hand; the waves subsided until they lapped benignly at the sides of the boat once more, and the sun had already begun to dry the pets’ fur. It was as though none of it had ever happened.

"...Uh," Nitsuj began, glancing to his friend, who looked just as stunned as he felt. "That was... er..."

There was a long pause before Nivek, as though in a trance, blinked and said, slowly, "Well... the map’s gone."

The Ogrin was about to make an equally pointless statement of the obvious before something caught his attention on the horizon. Immediately, his eyes widened, and he sucked in his breath. "I think that the map is the least of our problems right now..."

"We're on a lifeboat," Nitsuj said uncertainly. "We've obviously got nothing of value. Maybe they'll just... leave us alone."

Nivek tore his eyes away from the foreboding flag to stare at his friend in disbelief. "You can't be serious," He said, his voice sounding slightly hoarse. "They're heading straight for us. Against the wind, too. You know as well as I do that we're their target."

The Ogrin nodded, feeling strangely numb. The ship was coming for them, and there was nothing they could do about it. He had never before realized how terrible it was to feel so helpless. "What do we do?"

"What do we do?!" Nivek shouted, stomping his foot on the floor of the lifeboat. "We sit here and wait! We just wait for them to come get us, because YOU forgot to put the oars to the lifeboat on board before we set sail!"

"That was NOT my fault!" Nitsuj screamed. "Oars weren't on the stupid check-off list you gave me! You forgot to write it on there!"

"Well, you should have realized we needed them! Everything bad that's happened since we left has been because of you!"

Nitsuj opened his mouth to argue, but stopped when he saw the Gnorbu's face. He was quite obviously terrified. Although he was so angry he would have liked to hit Nivek, he decided that now wasn't the time to be fighting. After all, since they had started their shouting match, the ship had gotten much closer...

"How should I know?" retorted Nivek, "It's not like I regularly strand myself out at sea and wait for pirate ships full of bloodthirtsy pirates to come and slit me from ear to ear."

In spite of himself he regretted his words as soon as they left his mouth. Nitsuj looked even more pathetic and vunerable than normal. And it was probably his fault for saying he could come along on a shipping expedition. He opened his mouth to mutter an apology of sorts, that it wasn't all the Ogrin's fault and that it was the fault of -- (Himself? No.) -- the fault of one of the cabin boys. The words never left.

A rope coiled neatly about the figurehead on the lifeboat. "Stupid figurehead," thought Nivek numbly. "Never understood why you needed a figurehead on a lifeboat".

"Ahoy there! Get to the starboard side hull of the ship me hearties! Splice the line! Furl the sails!"

A fearsome looking pirate face appeared over the side of the pirate ship's deck.

"Aha ye be scurvy scallawags, slippery eels I grant ye, but not e'en an eel o' the slipperiest sort can escape when they're spitted 'n roasted!"

Nitsuj hadn't said a word for an unnatural amount of time; he had barely moved. Now though, he burst into sudden action. In one swift motion he leapt off the lifeboat and began swimming frantically round and round in ever decreasing, ever descending circles.

"Why, the scurvy scallawag's drownin'" exclaimed the pirate captain in amazement. "Save the poor seadog!"

With that, four Jetsams dived over the side of the ship and ringed Nitsuj. It was Nivek's turn to fade silently into the background. The four Jetsam sailors lifted Nitsuj, now unconcious, out of the water and began tying his paws together with the rope round the figurehead. Job done, they began to hoist Nitsuj into the air and onto the enemy ship's deck.

"No!" howled Nivek and he lunged for the rope. Or he would have. Whilst he had stood, dumfounded, a small, pirate Symol had been chasing round and round three of his four paws, therefore disabling him. In a panic, Nivek began to struggle. To no avail however, as he found himself hoisted to the pirate ship along with his friend.

Once on board they found themselves staring up into the face of a grizzled looking Uni. "Y-Y-Your not going t-to k-k-k-kill m-me, are you?" stuttered Nivek as he tried to hide beneath the unconscious Nitsuj.

The pirate Uni looked ever so politely bemused. "Why, my good sir, who do you think we are, bloodthirsty, cut-throat pirates or something? Oh, oh! I've got a good one coming boyo's, hows about, 'Yo-ho-ho 'n a bottle o' piratey fruit juice (given out in the Advent Calendar)'?"

A strong looking pirate Lupe strode forward, "Not got quite the same ring to it as, 'Aha! Two flea ridden landlubbers, we shall be well-fed tonight!'" he cackled as he untied Nivek.

"So, if you're not gonna eat me, and you're apparently not pirates, who are you and what are you gonna do with me?" Nivek demanded, thoroughly outraged that he had heroically tried to save his friend from pirates who were now not pirates. All his honour and glory had been stripped away.

The pirate Uni stood all four feet square to attention, cleared his throat, straightened his jacket, and began. "We are humble sailors. Fate has bound us to this stormy course and thus we must ride it out. We are pirate hunters. We scour the high seas looking for pirate scum. When we find it we overpower the ship and maroon all life forms, except prisoners of course, and rare Petpets. As for you, I've never seen such a sorry state of affairs, you just needed rescuing. Come on me buckoe, there's no need to be afeared of us. If you want some dry clothes, we have some more stolen piratey garb in the locker below. Be careful with it, the Uni from Faboo-Clothing Industries is very keen on buying it..."

"P-please don't eat m-m-me!" Nitsuj blubbered. "If you h-have to eat someone, t-t-take my friend. He's f-f-fatter than me a-anyway!"

"Hey! I'm right here!" Nivek shouted, glaring at his cowardly companion.

Nitsuj raised his head slowly, peeking at Nivek with one eye. "Oh."

The pirate Uni, standing beside them the entire time with a poorly concealed smile on his face, motioned to one of the other pets, a pirate Eyrie, to escort them to the locker. Nivek helped Nitsuj to his feet as the Eyrie started to lead them below.

"B-but, the pirates..." Nitsuj stammered, confused. Nivek broke him off with a shake of his head.

"I'll explain while we change."

"Change? How-"

"Later, Nitsuj."

The Eyrie led the brothers down into the dim belly of the ship, which was lit only by lanterns on the walls and smelled vaguely of old socks. They went through several corridors before arriving in a room that had a single wall lined with plain gray lockers. A single long rack of stylish, expensive-looking clothing lined another wall.

"That's it?" Nivek asked the Eyrie, surprised. The Eyrie lifted his eyepatch and looked back at the Gnorbu with two good eyes.

"Well, what did you expect, lad? A runway? This IS a pirate-hunting ship, you know. We 'ave to travel light. Personally, I don't think we need these fancy-schmancy clothes at all. It's not like we ever wear 'em. But the cap'n insists, so that's what we do."

"Okay, okay, no need to be rude about it," Nivek muttered. The Eyrie rolled his eyes and started back, his wooden leg thumping on the floorboards.

"Wait!" Nitsuj called. The Eyrie paused compliantly with a sigh of annoyance.

"What do ye need now?"

"What if we need you again?" Nitsuj inquired.

"Then just ask for, ahem..." The Eyrie looked embarrassed.

"Ask for..." Nivek prodded impatiently. He wanted to change out of his worn, smelly clothes.

"If ye need me services, then ask for Lord Kass." A heavy, uncomfortable silence set in...

"Did you hear?" whispered Nivek urgently. "Did you hear what he..."

"Does this fit?" his brother asked him. Nitsuj had on an oversized dark maroon coat complete with a frilly undershirt, black breeches that might have been handsome if they hadn't been much too long, and a stylish purple hat tipped at a jaunty angle.

The unpleasant sight snapped Nivek's train of thought for an instant, but he soon regained it with a shake of his head. "No. It doesn't. But nevermind your silly clothes, didn't you hear who that Eyrie said he was?"

"No." His brother looked down at his sleeves. "But this is such a nice coat. Maybe if I roll it up at the ends..."

"It was Lord Kass!" cried Nivek impatiently, then lowered his voice, realizing how loudly he'd spoken. "What is the lord of Darigan doing on a pirate raiding ship in the middle of the ocean?"

Nitsuj finally seemed to have forgotten about his attire. "Are you sure it was him?" he asked. "Pirates like that are big storytellers, you know. I think they might exaggerate any chance they get."

"I don't know," replied the Gnorbu thoughtfully. "It could very well be. And they're pirate hunters, not pirates, according to them. Anyway, get yourself some clothes that fit you half-decently. We've got a lot of investigating to--"

"Shh!" his brother interrupted him. The frightened look he'd worn earlier returned abruptly to his face, and the Ogrin's shoulders cringed to a slump beneath the rich red velvet of his coat. "I think I heard something."

Nivek rolled his eyes, but listened anyway. At first he heard only the rolling of the waves as they thumped against the deck, but then, very softly, he picked up another noise. It was high and soft, lilting almost sadly. "I hear it too."

The Gnorbu stepped toward the sound, but Nitsuj grabbed him by the arm. "No! What if it's dangerous?"

"Stop being such a craven," hissed Nivek, pushing his brother away. "We won't know till we find out, will we?"

He stepped softly toward the notes as they drifted faintly through the air. Whimpering in fright, his brother followed at his heels. The creak of the wood was louder here below the deck, but the sound grew louder, too. Soon the voice was no longer muffled, but the notes pierced clearly and sweetly though the damp air in a tune that wrenched at the Gnorbu's very soul.

"It's around here," he whispered. Sure enough, the sound was clear here, and he thought he heard the music of falling water as well.

Something crashed behind him. He turned around quickly, his heart leaping up in his throat, but it was only Nitsuj. His brother had tripped over his dragging breeches.

For once, the scolding he might have given died on Nivek's lips. The Ogrin peered past the doorway, and his eyes widened in amazement. There she sat, in the middle of a rainbow pool of waters, singing her sad song as she brushed her hair with a comb of shells.

"Nitsuj," whispered Nivek, breathless, "it's her. It's the Fountain Faerie..."

The mental picture of Nitsuj with red-and-purple flowers in his mane nearly made Nivek forget his bewilderment and laugh: a notion that was quickly banished by the sounds of a desperate commotion that suddenly exploded behind him. Whipping around so fast that he nearly gave himself whiplash, the Gnorbu found himself staring in open-mouthed astonishment at a snarling, hissing blur of grey-and-brown fury that was locked in wild combat with another blur, this one pale purple. It took him a moment to realize what he was seeing; and when understanding dawned, it took another moment for Nivek to get his mouth to work.

"Nitsuj," he managed in a strangled squeak, "look!"

The Ogrin hesitated in the middle of mobbing the Fountain Faerie and turned around. His eyes widened and he spluttered, "Is that Lord Darigan?!"

It was indeed -- and standing nearby was Sally, gawking at the battle.

Nivek and Nitsuj backed away, fearful of getting caught in the mortal fray. Suddenly Nitsuj stumbled, landing on his rear. There was a startled "Squeak!" and the Ogrin launched himself into the air with a howl before scrambling desperately to put some distance between himself and the seething Fire Yooyu he had sat on.

Nivek looked around wildly. All around him crowds had materialized out of nowhere, and were screaming the praise of their favorite teams, who were standing on either side of him staring in shock at the two strange Neopets who had so rudely interrupted their game.

"Nivek," Nitsuj wailed, "what's going on?"

"I don't know," the Gnorbu said, "but let's get out of here!" With that he grabbed his brother by the hoof and dragged him back the way they had come.

Almost instantly they found themselves back inside the ship, which was suddenly bare of Faeries, Korbats and soldiers. "What happened?" Nitsuj asked, but Nivek didn't answer. He was staring fixedly at something at the other end of the corridor. "Nivek, what happened?" Nitsuj tried again, and still the Gnorbu did not reply.

Leaping into the air and landing on Nivek's back like Jazan springing onto the Nightsteed, Nitsuj howled, "NIVEK, ANSWER ME!"

Nivek shook him off, and only when he failed to berate Nitsuj for his shockingly rude behavior did the Ogrin realize just how horrified his companion was. "Nivek? What's wrong?" he asked, his voice quivering a little.

Nivek finally found his voice, or a faint echo of it. "I don't know what's happening... but I think we're about to find out." With that, he raised a trembling hoof and pointed toward...

Nivek shivered. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Nitsuj rubbed his chin and nodded, putting on his most intelligent face. "I have no idea what is going on."

Nivek rolled his eyes and moved forward to examine the glass closer up. "What's this engraved around the bottom?" he whispered to himself. "It looks like a spell, or a poem, or something..."

Nivek waited for the impressed "Ooooh" that was supposed to come from Nitsuj's corner, but it didn't come. Nivek turned around in irritation and stared at his brother. "What are you doing?!"

The Ogrin jumped in surprise. He had changed clothing, his one track mind apparently shifting past the sudden appearance of bizarre Neopians. "Huh? Well, I thought blue was more my color, so..." he wilted under Nivek's glare. "You were saying something?"

Nivek sniffed. "Well yes. You want to know what I think?"

Nitsuj grumbled something under his breath. Nivek glared at him. "What did you say?"

"Nothing. Please continue."

Nivek turned back to look at the hour glass. "Those people who appeared: what did they all have in common?"

The Gnorbu turned to stare at Nitsuj. The Ogrin was biting one lip and squinting, as if he were really trying to think up an answer. "Blue?"

Nivek rolled his eyes. "No! They were all famous Neopians from famous events in Time. Don't you get it? This hourglass just repeated all the most impressively famous events that happened in Neopia, the most recent." Nivek glanced over his shoulder, making sure they were alone in the room. "This thing could be worth millions!"

Nitsuj gasped dramatically. "You mean you want to...

Nivek stared at him. "Nitsuj, your head is so empty, even Spyder webs won't stick."

"I don't need any Spyders in my head, thank you," his brother replied absent-mindedly. Nivek sighed. He must have inherited all the intelligence of his entire gene pool, whereas Nitsuj... well, he'd gotten stuck in the muck.

Nivek turned away from his brother, who now wore a frilly orange dress shirt beneath a purple cardigan and lime green bathing shorts. He looked like a carnival with legs. Nivek looked over the hourglass. The sun part was now shining in the light of the porthole, and along the base of the hourglass -- where the crescent moon was hidden -- it was unnaturally dark. Nivek was reminded of the sudden storm they had faced earlier. Had this had anything to do with...?

Then he noticed something else. The sand.

It was falling, as sand often does in an hourglass... but it was running awfully low. There were only a few grains left in the top half, and they were falling out rhythmically, in time, one single grain every passing minute... it was as if the hourglass were counting down to something...

Nivek shrunk back. It can't be! he thought. It just can't BE!

The hourglass, if he was right, portrayed Time itself. And if the sand was running out... if TIME was running out...

In one swift movement Nivek scooped up both the hourglass and the Ogrin and hurried out the door in his new, unnecessarily fancy clothing. Nitsuj had luckily doffed the purple cardigan, but he was still wearing that horrid orange shirt, billowing along behind his brother with an absent look of confusion on his face.

Nivek swung open a door, ran down the stairs, while Nitsuj shut it behind them. They were in the hold. The sun on top of the hourglass lit the entire place, shining bright as day. Nivek found a hidden niche in the wall and slid inside.

"Wha?" Nitsuj said loudly.

Nivek covered his mouth and whispered, "Can it, Nit-wit. We have to figure this out before the sand runs out."

"Why couldn't we just ask Lord Kass?"

Nivek spared his brother. "Cuz they know how much it's worth. They'll take it away and we'll never be able to get to it."

"Maybe they will understand," Nitsuj whimpered, the darkness closing in while Nivek covered the hourglass' light. "I think you're nutso, Nivek."

Nivek could barely argue with that. The hourglass did seem to put him into a sort of crazed state, but if he was right, if Time was ending, then by Fyora he'd take precautions.

"We have to figure out what this says..." he said. "Or tip it back up." Nivek tried, but the hourglass would not budge from a sitting position.

"It ent about ter work that way," said a voice, cold, dark and dank like the hold itself. Chains chinked together as it continued, chuckling lightly. "Aye... you'd be better off ter toss it inter the sea..."

"We... we were just looking at it, it's very... er, pretty..." Nivek stammered. He nudged Nitsuj in the side with his arm to make him confirm the story.

Nitsuj nodded. "Yeah, we were looking at it. Nivek says he bets that it's worth millions, but he keeps freaking out that the sand will run out or something." Nivek nudged his brother in the side again, but this time much harder, to indicate that he had already said far too much.

The Uni kept coming towards them. "Well, I'd really appreciate it if yeh left it alone." He growled.

Suddenly, the Uni lunged forward, knocking both Nivek and Nitsuj to the ground. He wrapped the chains around each of them, and then around a support beam running from the floor the ceiling. All of this was done so quickly that the brothers barely had time to even consider struggling. Obviously, the captain had done this before, many times.

"Well," the captain said, "That settles that. I'll be seein' yeh in the morning, when we land on Mystery Island. After that, yeh both best forget everything you saw on this ship. Understand?"

The Uni began walking back to the upper deck. Without knowing what else to do, Nivek decided that he would have to trust that the Uni would help them. "The sand's running out!" He shouted.

The Uni glanced back over his shoulder. "Is it, now?" he asked, but he didn't sound very interested. "Well, that happens with hourglasses, son. Yeh best get used to the way the world works." With that, he left the room.

Nitsuj shook his head. "I hate to agree with the Neopet who just tied us up, but he has a point. What's so important about stopping the sand from running out?"

Nivek didn't reply, because he didn't know the answer. All he knew was that he had a very bad feeling that when the sand ran out, something would happen. It was obviously a magical object, and from what Nivek had heard, magical objects were very frequently dangerous.

The Gnorbu began struggling against the chains, trying to loosen them and get out. "Ouch! Nivek, stop! That hurts!" Nitsuj shouted.

"Help me!" Nivek whispered. For once, his brother didn't ask questions, and also began struggling.

With both of them working together, they managed to free themselves. However, it had taken them nearly thirty minutes. When Nivek hurried over to the magical hourglass, there were only five grains of sand left. "Hurry!" he shouted, "We haven't got much time!"

"What are we supposed to be doing, again?" Nitsuj asked, perplexed.

"Figure out what it says around the bottom!" Nivek shouted. He knelt on the ground, and dusted off the letters. It took him only a few seconds to make out what was written on the hourglass. "It reads, 'When something in time has gone askew, this hourglass will make things new.'"

"Well, it’s a lovely rhyme, but what does that mean?" Nitsuj asked.

"I don't know, Nitsuj!" Nivek shouted. "But I've got a feeling that we've got to turn this thing over before it runs out... help me, will you? I couldn't do it alone, but perhaps together..."

Nitsuj nodded. He leaned down and grabbed one side of the hourglass, and Nivek grabbed the other. "On the count of three." Nitsuj whispered. "One... two... THREE."

"Hey, Nivek! Come down here!" Nitsuj shouted up to his brother. "This map is really weird. I don't understand it at all."

From up in the Crokabek's nest, Nivek sighed. "I'm being the lookout right now, it's an important job. You'll have to figure it out by yourself."

"I can't."

Nivek sighed again, and turned to head back down the ladder, but before he did, something in the water caught his eye. The Gnorbu glanced over, and to his horror, realized they were heading right for a reef. "Nitsuj! Turn the boat, hurry! We're about to hit somthing!"

Nitsuj didn't need to be told twice. He sprinted to the front of the boat to grab the wheel while Nivek managed the sails. Working together, they managed to move away from the reef just in time.

Nitsuj looked up at his brother and laughed. "That was close."

The End