The first signs of light appeared over the horizon, and Sunray yawned and
rose, walking out from the small cove. He looked across the lake at where Drake
and Draco were.
"Huh? They must be up already," he murmured as he walked towards the other
side. Standing before the place he had seen them only last night he paused for
a moment. There were footprints. "Oh...no..." Dashing after the trail of footprints,
thoughts of what could have happened raced through his mind. They could have
been stolen, or sold, or things much worse. Stopping at the tire tracks for
only a moment, hesitating if he really wanted to follow this. He couldn't concern
that thought! It was selfish! Sunray quickly ran down the trail of tire tracks,
overhead the dark clouds predicted rain; the occasional rumble of thunder was
heard. Stopping suddenly, Sunray stared at what was before him. The truck was
parked at the backside of the pound. Sunray tried to gain confidence. He walked
towards the front door, attempting to walk on hind legs like any normal Zafara
would. It was hard and he wondered why they even bothered. Opening the door,
he walked slowly toward the front counter, where Dr_Death was chewing on a toothpick
and reading the Times.
"Could tell me if certain two pet come in today?" Sunray asked, mustering as
much Neopian language
as he could from memory. Dr_Death looked up at him strangely and murmured. "Learn
some grammar, boy. What do you mean? The only that have come in two is late
last night about two. Two weird ones."
Sunray stood for a moment, not quite sure what he meant by 'about two', but
he supposed it was some code or something, and was angered by his brothers being
called 'strange'.
"Yes, think so. They still here?"
"No, course not. With those stats, they were taken within a matter of one minute,
not to mention the thing about being painted."
What were stats, and this painted thing?
"Where did they go? Who has them?" Dr_Death mumbled and pulled out a folder,
fiddling through it until he found the right papers. "Uhm... YoungDraco was
taken by shadn54, and YoungDrake is owned by redden62..."
"Thank you!"
Sunray said hastily before rushing out the door and nearly collapsing on the
ground out of view. He was tired from standing so long since he had nearly never
done it before. He murmured what he had heard. "Shadn and Redden..."
About two hours later, Sunray was wandering down the streets of neighborhood,
very cautious and uneasy about this whole thing. He had gotten instructions
from a young flotsam that this is where he lived. He walked unsteadily up to
the door, and yelled, "Hello?"
The boy came and opened the door, smiling. "Can I help you?"
"I'm looking for my brother."
The boy looked at him in a confused manner. "Well he won't be here." Sunray
sighed and nodded. Just as he was closing the door, Sunray caught a glance of
a familiar face watching from behind a table, then it was gone. Sunray slowly
turned away and walked down the street in search of the other house. He head
down the street, feeling weak from walking that way, but had to do it or it
would raise strange looks and suspicion.
He walked up to the house and just as he was about to yell to open the door,
it swung open and Anthony stood, staring at him. "You want something?"
"I'm looking for my brother."
"I don't have any brother of yours, go away before I make you leave," Anthony
snapped, half growling.
Sunray walked back to the street as it began to pour heavily. He walked on
all fours again the whole way back to the forest. He knew they had them, the
boy just didn't know, and the Lupe knew, but was refusing. The rain poured as
Sunray walked through the forest, silent in sorrow.
Not a one of them slept. Early in the morning Drake snuck into a room where
he found many boxes on the walls with doors on them and inside were cans and
more boxes. Upon opening a large white box, light suddenly filled the room and
cold spilled out. He ran out, the wind slapping the heavy door shut. But he
had seen food in there. He tried again, but once more the light came and frightened
him away. Whatever it was it knew he was there.
Finally after five tries he gave up, running out once more, but this time not
shutting the door. About five hours later, Drake heard a small spark sound and
stared into the room. The light was gone but the door was open. He ran in, grabbing
a pear and running back into the corner of the large room with the couch and
fireplace. He ate hastily, and then hid again before morning came. Draco also
found a room like that. Leaping up onto the counter, he looked around until
he saw something on top of the large white box. Leaping up over to it, he found
bags. Inside the bags were strange, and to him, very gross kinds of food. Suddenly
a light flicked on, and the boy, Redden, was standing there staring at him.
"What do you think you're doing eating the chips?" Draco leapt down and ran
off, hiding in an open closet behind the clothes. He could hear what Redden
was saying as he cleaned up the chips that had been scattered across the floor
when Draco scattered.
"He just doesn't know any better ill bet... his last owner must have just let
him alone the whole time or something... " Draco murmured quietly to himself.
"Wasn't even real food... "
Sunray stood at the edge of a huge field with flowers covering the sight of
the grass, which after several miles changed into grasslands for a long time,
then finally the ocean. He stood where the field started at the edge of the
forest, far far on the other side, across from Neopian Central. The winds seemed
to make the ground sway. He stared across the land, though as far as he could
see was still the field. He thought at why this had happened. Was he selfish
of what he had and had deserved this? Or was it just the way the world was.
He thought over his life, and to himself, believed he had made no mistakes other
than helping the young Eyrie he had found lost in the woods. Then if he hadn't,
perhaps they wouldn't have gotten evolved in this, and no one would have seen
them. But that had been done already. He couldn't change anything. So he was
stuck. He would have to live his life alone, despite what had changed. And so
he decided.
To be continued...
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