That was the reason why so many Neopets were traveling to the Lost Desert. Many wished to get away from the cold of their homeland for a little bit. This caused the streets of both Qasala and Sahkmet to fill with tourists and residents alike.

With all of the Neopets in the desert, there were more opportunities for thieves to strike.

"Stop them! Thieves! Thieves!"

The red Lupe running the Desert Arms shop ran outside in pursuit of Iris and Theo, but the pair was too fast for him. He of course was busy with a few customers when they struck. The Lupe scolded himself as he watched the thieves get away, then went back to his store.

Iris and Theo continued to run through the streets of Qasala, however, in a manner that would make others think they were late. The two went into an alley where they were sure they wouldn't be seen. The very moment they knew they were safe, Iris examined the contents of the items they took.

"Hmm, nice dagger. I can use this," Iris mused as she looked at a dagger. "I'm keeping this one."

"You sure you don't want to sell it?" Theo asked the orange Wocky. "It looks like it's worth a lot."

"All the more reason to keep it, my friend." Iris grabbed the dagger and swung it in the air. "Pick out what you'd like, Theo. We never know when we're getting new weapons.

Iris had a point - Theo knew it. The desert Usul went through the the haul they had collected, but nothing interested him. He'd rather stay with the mace he currently had.

"Try not to be so slow next time," Iris commented.

Theo looked up at her and said, "Sorry, Iris, but you know you're faster. Try to stay with me."

"I will when you learn to be faster." Iris would have gone on about how Theo could never keep up with her when a chill wind picked up, causing her to stop and shiver.

Thel noticed her shiver. "Iris, are you alright."

"Did you not feel that wind?"

"I felt it. I just didn't react the same as you." As Theo finished that sentence, another chill wind picked up - this one stronger and colder. Even the Usul shivered. "Since when is the Lost Desert cold?"

"I don't know, but I don't like it." Iris pouted. "You know I hate the cold and..." She stopped as a white flake fell right before her eyes and landed on her nose. "Huh? What of Neopia...?"

She and Theo looked up at the sky. It was gray with clouds, unlike the bright blue sky from earlier. The two thieves grew concerned as it began to snow...

"Slow down, Iris!" Theo complained. "You're tearing my sleeve!"

But Iris wouldn't let go of him until they were under the portico, where the exotic white flakes of snow couldn't reach them. "Shh, Theo! Listen!" she said, cupping a hand to her ear. As they stood in eerie silence among all the other puzzled Neopians down below, they could hear a distant roll of thunder like a Skeith's growl.

"Wh-what was that?" sputtered Theo. "I've never heard thunder in the Lost Desert before... how could this happen?"

"I don't know, Theo, but as I said, I don't like it."

"Nor should you," came a voice from behind them that made both Iris and Theo nearly jump out of their skins. Inside the archives, with his head poked through the door, stood the yellow Nimmo that ran the shop. He looked awfully daunted by the wintry scene before him.

"Who are you?" asked Iris. They've heard of the curious Nimmo that kept to himself all day and studied his ancient scrolls, but they never met him before today. Now they wished they hadn't.

"Who I am doesn't matter," the Nimmo replied. "It's that you should be concerned about." He pointed to the snow.

"And why's that?" the Wocky boldly insisted as she stepped closer to the Nimmo to hear him over the wind and thunder.

"Because," he began fearfully, "this storm, the first of its kind to have ever struck the Lost Desert, was predicted by scholars thousands of years ago." He stuck a hand through the door and shook a scroll in his fist.

"And?"

"...And, it's supposed to freeze over the entire desert for a hundred years."

“Forget everyone else,” snapped Iris. “We’ll starve, Theo. We rely on those tourists. Now they’ll leave, and the shops we usually hit are going to close.”

“So you’re bandits,” the shopkeeper folded his arms, staring down at the pair darkly.

“We are,” Iris was scrappy for a Wocky, but made up for it in her big personality. “Don’t have a Kau. We’re not here to steal your stuff, guy.”

“I would have guessed as much. It seems you’ve already made your profits today.” The yellow Nimmo gestured to the jingling sack that Iris had slung around her back.

Theo gulped at the growing tension, sensing a powerful energy from the Nimmo. He stepped in front of his friend. “Wh-what she means to say is that we didn’t come to make trouble. We’re afraid of the snow. Do you know why this is all happening?”

“There has been a disturbance among the ancient ruins. An artifact of the pyramids has spent too much time out of its rightful place, and the consequences are beginning to take effect.” The shopkeeper said solemnly, reopening the scroll in his hands to show them.

Theo and Iris squinted at the cryptic scroll. He gasped when he finally made out the drawing in the center. “Hey, Iris…”

“Mm?”

“That thing…it kinda looks like…” Theo reached behind his friend and pulled out the dagger Iris had nabbed from the store earlier. He waved it around without thinking.

“Theo!” Iris hissed, then looked up fearfully to the shopkeeper in anticipation of punishment. “Hey, look, we didn’t…Theo, we have to get out of here!”

Iris tugged on his arm, ready to take off with her partner in crime, but Theo planted his feet firmly on the ground. “Iris, no!”

The Nimmo’s brow furrowed. “Please, young ones, don’t fret! From the looks of you, you haven’t even lived long enough to have been the one responsible for the original displacement of this artifact.”

The shopkeeper gently took the dagger from Theo’s hands. When held closely to the scroll, the dagger began to rumble and gently hum. “See. It belonged to one of Coltzan’s mages. It has a legacy of being turned over between bandits over time. By returning this dagger to its rightful home, balance will be restored in Lost Desert.”

“And where exactly is this rightful place?” Theo inquired honestly.

Iris smacked the Usul’s arm. “Don’t ask that, it doesn’t matter for us. It’s not like we really did this, the dagger came from some old guy at the shop. Let’s just leave this with the shopkeeper and we’ll—“

She found herself silenced by a long sigh from the yellow Nimmo, a feeling of dread creeping up her spine. He finally spoke. “Young ones, if you can return this to the pyramids, it will restore balance. We’ll have our warm Lost Desert back, and life will flow back into this world more than ever. Besides, since you are the last to have stolen it, you are the only ones that can fix this.”

The Wocky's look finally faded and looked at the Yellow Nimmo "Excuse us for a moment.."

Iris turned and talked privately to the Wocky in horror and disgust.

"What do you think you're doing?! THINK Theo, think! We can rule the world together!"

Theo started to feel a bit flustered.. "Iris, you said earlier that you never LIKED the cold!"

"Forget what I said," said Iris. Theo considered, and went back to the Nimmo "Listen, we'll help... But we are pretty poor, and after i help you.. You help us!"

The Nimmo considered and said, "What price shall it be?" Even though the Nimmo was getting concerned....

"We need some.. Neopoints..?" Stuttered the Usul, for he was terrible at bribing and always let her partner in crime do the work for him.

"Alright, I'll give as many neopoints as I can afford to you, now young ones, get the dagger back as quickly as possible!" The Nimmo showed them out the door, with great hope.

As the two Thieves walked slowly out the door, the door shut slowly.. They were out in the cold and freezing to death... Or that's what Iris was thinking.

"Come on slowpoke!" Said Theo already ahead of her, laughing at the irony between them both.

"HAHA, VERY FUNNY, THEO!!" Shouted the Wocky from behind and went incredibly faster than Theo.

Theo looked at Iris ad said "Iris we don't have much time, come on!!" So the Wocky grumbled and went with her partner in crime to take the dagger back to the pyramids...

Snow.

Snow was starting to gently fall from the sky as the air was growing colder and colder. Even as it dropped onto the desert sands, it was starting to stick and collect, showing that the curse on the dagger was still going on, and it was getting colder.

"We need to hurry up!" Theo said, picking up his pace as they rushed through the desert. It took about thirty minutes for them to reach the first cluster of pyramids within the desert. Thirty long, cold minutes as the white flurries collected on them, chilling them to the bone.

"Brrrrrr....." Iris shuddered, bundling up more in her warm clothes, "This is just so wrong, being frozen inside a desert."

"All the more reason to finish this job," Theo replied, before they arrived at the first pyramid in the desert. The stone door to the tomb was pushed out of the way, giving both of them access to the inside.

Inside the pyramid, it was just as cold, the sand and stones doing nothing to insulate them from the freezing temperatures outside.

"So where exactly do we need to take this?" The Wocky asked.

Before he could reply, a loud, booming, and haunting voice echoed from deep within the pyramid.

"Be gone...thieves..."

"We are here to return the dagger." Theo shivered as he spoke.

"I am the guardian of this tomb. Be gone thieves," the mummy bellowed. "Wait... Is that? Yes, it is the artifact. Follow me, hurry! We don't have much time."

The mummy walked as quickly as he could with Iris and Theo following swiftly behind. All of a sudden the ground started to shake and snow came in the pyramid.

"What's happening?" Iris shuddered.

"Hurry, we must put the artifact back where it belongs before the pyramid collapses!" The mummy shouted.

They ran as quickly as they could into a room with hieroglyphs on the floor.

"Follow my steps on the same tile or you will set off a trap."

The mummy quickly jumped...

"Careful! You must slow down, or you'll set off the trap!" the mummy called after Iris as the Wocky pulled ahead and daringly began taking tiles two at a time. But she took his warning with a grain of salt and bounded gracefully to the pedestal at the chamber's core, on which sat a vibrant jeweled scabbard fitted for the dagger that Iris possessed.

The pyramid's violent trembles persisted, and the foreboding weather grew only more inclement. Theo paused and shivered as he noticed Iris reach the pedestal. The mummy also stopped and waited expectantly for Iris to complete the task and restore the desert to its sweltering climates- and reverse the storm itself.

But something strange and unpredictable happened, even by the Usul's judgments. His Wocky companion turned around from the pedestal with the dagger clutched to her chest and a wild look of determination in her eyes. Theo had never seen her look so desirous before!

Iris boldly held a foot out over a tile that would surely set off the trap and bring the pyramid tumbling down on top of them. "Let us leave with the dagger!" She bellowed. "Or I'll personally set off the trap and entomb us all down here!"

The mummy didn't look fazed by her threats, but his eyes wavered anxiously on the dagger, the very artifact that sustained his life. If any harm came to it...

The mummy nodded in compliance, but Theo wouldn't give in so easily. "Stop, Iris!" he cried, "this isn't you! Just put the dagger down!"

"Think for a minute, Theo!" the Wocky countered. "Think of the praises and riches we would receive after everyone in the Lost Desert knows that we, Iris and Theo of Qasala, were the wielders of one of the most ancient and potent weapons in history! Not even that Desert Arms Lupe knew what he had!"

"There won't *be* a Lost Desert if you don't return the dagger to the pyramid, Iris!" Theo moaned. "We don't need some powerful dagger to be known. We're already some of the most notorious thieves in the desert! Please, Iris, can't we go home?"

Iris considered. Then, quick as the Wocky she was, she set the dagger in its scabbard and stepped back. The hieroglyphs on the floor were at once washed in a crimson glow, then everything got quiet. The glow died down, the quakes ceased, and the snow stopped filtering in through the cracks in the ceiling. Instead, shafts of light poured into the chamber and began to warm all their trembling bodies.

When Iris rejoined Theo at the entrance to the chamber, and the mummy escorted them out of the pyramid, the two thieves exchanged sad smiles.

"I'm sorry you lost your biggest find yet," said Theo as they neared the exit, where the sands outside already shimmered with heat.

"It's fine, I guess," Iris sighed. "It was the right thing to do, anyway. Thanks for reminding me."

"It's a shame we ended up empty-handed after all this excitement."

"Actually..." Iris grinned, and withdrew a scroll from under her shirt. "That's not completely true."

"That belonged to the Nimmo!" the Usul gaped. "But how?"

"I swiped it when he wasn't looking!" Iris beamed.

"Well, I guess we did okay after all!" laughed Theo. "See? We don't need some fancy dagger to earn our fame. We've already proven ourselves to be the greatest thieves in Neopian history!"

Together, the duo drifted home to Qasala, whispering as they went, like sands in a hot desert breeze.