My poor office door was thrown open by a very distraught Krawk. I sat up, my plans of taking an afternoon nap dashed to pieces. My tail had already been arranged neatly behind me to make a cushion - truly, one of the perks of being an Usul - when he barged into my office.

"Calm down, boy," I said, "and don't slam the door behind you." Right as I added that, the Krawk indeed slammed the door behind him and crossed the room before proceeding to likewise slam his hands down onto my desk.

"You have to help us!"

"Yes, I imagine that's why you came to me," I answered in a very matter-of-fact tone. "What's your name?"

"I'm Klein," the Krawk replied, finally bringing his claws away from my desk. Instead, he wrung them in front of him. "This is terrible! Something happened with the Festival of Neggs this year! And you're the only one who can get to the bottom of this!"

I wouldn't say I was the only one, but Klein sounded so desperate that I had to do something. Anything, so he wouldn't be so disrespectful of my office door or table again.

"What happened?"

"The Neggs...no one has been able to find any Neggs today..."

I sit back down onto my tail. This Krawk's trivial incompetence is of no consequence to me -- As one of the most famous investigators in Neopia, I cannot be sullying my name with such foolishness as a negg hunt.

"You don't understand, Ordinwell", Klein pleaded, "It isn't the neggs for the hunt. Every negg. In all of Neopia. Is missing"

Now this has my attention. A great negg caper? Who could be responsible for such a swindling? Dr. Sloth has been inactive for years, the Snowager does not have the means, and I doubt Kitchen Quests got popular enough to scoop up all the neggs all at once. This was truly a mystery.

"Alright, Klein, I'll go with you to Terror Mountain for a preliminary investigation, but no promises how long I'll stay on. Do you have any leads yet?"

"Well... Funny you should ask. A mysterious purple fog is slowly sweeping over the mountains in Shenkuu, and there have been reports of an uptick in activity near a certain cave in the region..."

But now, only an eerie silence and a mildly pungent odour filled the air. A light purple fog also obscured our vision. It's as if the forest suddenly stood still and stopped breathing.

"Please, Detective." A panting Klein pleaded, "Can I please have a water break?"

He was no less than ten steps behind me. Was he the boy that just loitered in my office a few hours ago?

"You poor boy. At that age, I hardly ever paused in a hike!" I laughed. But I do feel for Klein and felt the strong need to sit by a nearby tree, too.

The rough environment is starting to seep into my energy. And maybe, just maybe, it's acceptable to have a nap.

A nap is too hard to resist... Now, let me just close my eyes for a few seconds...

"AAAAHHH!!"

The air got pierced by a shriek so shrill that I was jolted from my sleep. What was that? My eyes shot open to scan the surroundings. My bags are with me. But it felt like I've been asleep for ages. And now, the boy is out of my sight...

"Klein?" I called out. There was no response.

I tried to trace my steps back, but now I can hardly see anything with the purple fog, which now seemed darker than before...

I stopped and tried to put together any clues that could help me. "Come on, what did we know about this Klein fellow? He must have given me at least a business card or something..."

I inspected through my bags, no card whatsoever. However, one thing caught my attention: the water canteen I had brought to the hike was empty.

"Eureka!" I yelled. "Am I not a formidable detective? Of course, Klein was thirsty before we stopped to rest. He must have gone after some water and was not able to find his way back with all the fog"

"Now, I just have to follow the path with the most abundant flora, and I'll find the river that must have attracted Klein in no time." Indeed, using all my detective skills, I concentrated on my hearing and could perceive a distant sound of a stream.

"Off I go. That was easy enough", I thought

As I walked towards the sound, it got louder and louder. My deductions seemed to confirm my train of thought, as they usually did: I gradually got deeper into the woods, where the purple fog was even denser. However, the sound I heard was also getting stranger and stranger, it still could be confused with the noise of rushing water, but there was definitely something rather metallic to it.

After two more minutes of walking, I finally discovered the origin of the sound I had been pursuing. What a surprise! It was no stream course, but a weird-looking fog machine!

A technological apparat of extraterrestrial appearance was standing before me, obviously foreign to the ancient mountains of Shenkuu. It buzzed no-stop, making the sound I had so naively taken for a stream, while expelling a trace of dense purple fog behind it.

"What the..." I muttered. "And worse, still no sign of Klein". I approached the machine, but I just couldn't make any sense of its many buttons and levers.

"Well", I thought, "as I good detective, I should just trust my guts, at least it isn't costing me a Nerkmid to use it...".

I'd barely pulled the biggest lever I could find, and the machine seemed to turn off instantly. No more fog coming out of it, no more buzzing noises.

"Ha!" I said triumphantly. "Not so technological after all, even I can understand a power switch".

"Let's see if I can turn it back on for closer inspection..." I was reaching again for the lever I had pulled before when something hit me right in the head.

I looked to the ground where the object landed. It was a little damaged, but I was definitely a negg.

A negg that fell from the sky.

How will this story end?

Oh dear. I raised my arms over my head, quickly running for cover in a nearby cave. Perhaps activating mysterious machines wasn’t what a good detective did after all?

“That doesn’t look good,” a small voice whispered from behind me. I turned around to see Klein, also cowering in the cave.

“What are you doing in here?” I hissed. “I’ve been trying to find you!”

“When we both fell asleep before, I got hit by a negg and thought I should run for cover…”

“Well thanks for telling me! Never mind if I get hit by a negg!”

“I panicked! There weren’t that many neggs falling before though…”

We both stared solemnly at the negg storm outside.

“Mystery solved at least,” I muttered.

At that moment, a triumphant voice rang out from the clearing,

“Ah ha! It worked! The Festival of Neggs is mine!”

I peered out of the cave, to see a dark faerie hovering in the clearing with a pleased look on her face as she observed the neggs raining down around her.

The culprit? Carefully, I poked my head out of the cave to address the villain.

“You are responsible for this?” I accused.

The faerie turned, surprised, before grinning. She looked very young for a faerie.

“Yes! Isn’t it wonderful! Kari refused to share running the Negg Festival! ‘Dark faeries can’t be trusted, Veia.’ ‘This is very important, I can’t have you ruining it Veia’. ‘You don’t have enough experience, Veia. Well it shows her. She should learn to share,” she replied, sounding resentful.

I couldn’t help but think that Kari might have had a point, looking at the destruction in the forest.

“Anyway, now people can come and collect these neggs! Is that what you two are here for? Won’t it be fun?” Veia continued, smiling and patting her machine fondly.

Just as I was about to launch into a barrage of criticism at the young faerie’s irresponsibility, Klein piped up,

“Um. Excuse me, miss. People think the neggs are gone altogether. They’re panicking as they can’t find any. I don’t think they know you’re trying to take over..I mean, run the Festival this year.”

Veia turned to him, horrified.

“What? Oh no, I didn’t think about that! I suppose Kari does spend a fortune on marketing for the festival…” she exclaimed, before finally hitting the lever on the machine. It stuttered to a stop, and with it, the neggs stopped falling.

“Oh no, oh no,” she continued. “Everyone is going to be so mad! What am I going to do? Kari definitely won’t let me help next year now! It’ll just be that irritating Cybunny again.”

To my surprise, she looked genuinely upset at the prospect. She took in the negg carnage around her, hiding her face in her hands, “This is a disaster.”

“Well, I’m not sure how you got the neggs here, but perhaps you can return them to Kari?” I suggested, trying to keep my voice soothing. “That might help things a little.”

“How am I supposed to do that?” she exclaimed, her wings fluttering more and more as she became more frantic. “It was a nightmare rigging up this machine in the first place! I’m not that powerful a faerie! I spend half my time trapped in bottles because I can’t even avoid a huge, lumbering Lupe!”

“Oh Veia.” The three of us jumped, turning to face the newcomer. Kari was there, carefully working her way through the neggs on the ground.

“I wasn’t trying to be cruel. I just know you can be...impulsive. Perhaps I should have just let you help,” Kari continued, looking around sadly at the masses of ruined neggs.

“Kari! I’m so sorry!” Veia cried, tears running down her face. “I thought it would be fun!”

“Yes, I know you have good intentions...Like I said, we just need people with a bit more experience for these big events.” Kari reached down to pick up a negg that looked fairly intact and examined it thoughtfully. She then waved her hand, and a whirl of dazzling green magic flooded the forest. I watched in amazement as it seeped into the neggs, quickly repairing the damage.

“You’ll never let me help again!”

“Well, this isn’t ideal obviously. But I can see you have initiative, and that’s definitely something we want on the team. That machine is an impressive work of magic. I’ll see about involving you next year.”

She paused, before continuing, “Klein, Detective Odinwell - I am incredibly grateful for your help finding the neggs. If I could just ask one more favour of the three of you? Please try and hide these neggs around the forest - in the meantime, I’ll head back to Neopia Central and let people know to come here for the Negg hunt.”

Urgh. Hiding neggs seemed like an incredibly childish activity for a renowned detective, but before I could object, Klein and Veia both nodded enthusiastically, the latter thanking Kari profusely. The two gathered up armfuls of neggs and disappeared into the woods around us. Well, I guess that left me little choice. Sighing, I joined them.

“Thank you Detective,” Kari said, looking apologetic.

All in all, the Festival of Neggs did turn out a little differently that year, but it was still a huge success. As for me? I was simply pleased to have solved another mystery - it made the nap I had afterwards even better.

The End,