I was so exhausted, I could barely stand on my paws,
but I couldn't stop. The sun was rising already and I had only 15,000 NP. I
kept on dragging myself through the marketplace, until I tripped on something
and fell face down in a huge puddle of mud.
"Oh great..." I thought, while standing up with
the help of my front paws. But then I felt something in the mud. I grabbed it
and shook it to get the mud off, and then realised it was actually lucky to
fall on this particular puddle of mud. It was a bag with 1,000 NP!! To celebrate
my luck, I decided to go in the first shop I found, sit down for a while and
eat and drink to regain strength.
So I entered a big fast food restaurant and
sat near the counters. I avidly began to chew my burger, when three of the waiters
gathered behind the counter right behind me and started an interesting conversation
I couldn't help but overhear. I couldn't see who was talking, but I could hear
their voices very clearly.
"Wow, the boss is really happy today, isn't
he?"
"No wonder, did you know how high our profit
was yesterday?"
"It was over 40,000 NP! I'd be happy if I got
that much money in one day..."
"40,000 NP! That's a lot!"
"I heard he's going to empty the till tonight
and buy gifts for all of us, his good employees!"
I couldn't believe my luck! Over 40,000 NP were
sitting in that till waiting for me! Now the only thing I needed was a plan
to get them. I continued my meal thinking about how to steal those Neopoints,
and by the time I was finished, I had a plan in mind.
A very young Skeith was outside the restaurant,
gazing at the ice creams - he would be perfect for a distraction.
"Hey kiddo!" I called
"Huh? What do you want?" the red Skeith asked
not even bothering to look at me.
"Would you like some ice cream?" The Skeith
looked at me overjoyed, "I thought so. The only thing you need to do is go in
there and make a mess. Get all four waiters and the boss near you, okay? Distract
them for 10 minutes or so, and I'll give you enough money to twenty ice cream
cones!"
"Consider it done!" The Skeith entered the restaurant
and sat on a table. Of course that got one waiter's attention, but after that,
the kid was brilliant, ordering impossible meals, dancing like a demon had just
possessed him, and literally making a mess. I took the opportunity and went
to the till, opened it and took all the NP - there were lots more than 40,000,
possibly even 80,000. On my way out, I threw a bag with 5,000 NP to the kid
- he surely deserved them - and ran away from the restaurant as fast as I could.
Having accomplished my task, I went home to
get some sleep; I was so tired I couldn't even walk straight. When I arrived
home, I dropped the huge bag of NP on the hall and jumped to the couch. I laid
there for a second, and fell asleep quickly.
I woke up to the sound of the front door slamming.
It was Eclipse. She had an enormous bag with her and looked really tired. I
looked at the clock, it was nine PM. Poor Eclipse, she had been the whole day
stealing motes, probably not stopping to eat or rest.
"Hey, Eclipse, how's it going? Did you get them
all?"
"I sure did, Prince Charming. And I'm so tired
now... and hungry. I could eat the Monocerous alive!"
I told her to rest on the couch while I got
us something to eat, and went to the kitchen. I returned to the living room
with two wonderful Faerie Dreamwiches and a Jelly Slushie for each of us and
Eclipse was awakened by the smell of delicious food.
"Ooh, expensive food! I love it! Thank you,
Dalí!"
"Was it too hard for you to get all those motes?"
I asked with my mouth full.
"Yes, I had to go to at least forty different
shops! Don't even remind me..." Eclipse said, pushing half of her Dreamwich
into her mouth.
I told her how I got my NP and she was amazed
with my luck. After dinner, we watched TV and counted the NP I got - they summed
100,000. By midnight, we both put the motes and NP in bags and headed to the
beach to deliver them. We got there quite early, and once again sat by the ocean
waiting for the Dark faerie to show up.
The night was very warm, the sky was starry
and free of clouds, and the ocean was a wonderful dark blue colour. It would
be a perfect painting if we removed the thieves that kept on arriving. There
were already lots of thieves carrying huge bags of NP and items, but compared
to the first meeting the day before, there weren't many Neopets on the beach.
Purrow and the rest of the Aisha Thieves were there, The Meerca Brothers and
the Bug Brothers too. And I swear I saw the Shadow Usul.
We waited for about half an hour until the Dark
Faerie finally showed up. Again, like in the first meeting, she waved her hands
to get rid of the thieves that weren't there to deliver all the items asked,
and they were gone in a cloud of black smoke.
"Very well, I see we have some decent thieves
in Neopia, after all..." She waved her hands again and all the Neopoints and
items were gone from the thieves' hands. This was quite a relief to me because
the bag was really heavy, "You will receive your rewards shortly; first I'd
like to introduce you to a new task. But, come, you will meet someone who will
explain it better."
The Dark Faerie led the thieves swarm to a hidden
building near the beach. With a spell, she made a secret door appear on the
wall of the building, and we all entered. After walking a lot and climbing many
stairs up and down, we got to a big meeting room. There was a round table and
lots of chairs. Two of the chairs were more like thrones. The Dark Faerie sat
on one of the thrones and the rest of us sat on the chairs. Eclipse sat by my
side and whispered in my ear, "Ooh, this is exciting! Who do you think we will
meet?"
"I have no idea," I whispered back.
After we were all well sat and comfortable,
a door was opened and someone came in. I couldn't believe who it was. Well,
it was already quite predictable, but still, it was a surprise to me, and the
rest of the thieves. Dr Sloth walked to the free throne and sat down, staring
at each of us. He stared for a minute or two and then spoke.
"Thieves of Neopia, welcome to this reunion!
I'll explain shortly why you are here, but first I'd like to inform you that
this is absolutely top secret, and if any of you talks about what is about to
be said here, then you can consider yourself eliminated from the face of Neopia,"
Sloth looked deeply into every thief's eyes, and then proceeded, "With that
clear, I'd like to congratulate you all. By accomplishing the task that was
given to you, you have proven your worth and stealing skills, and therefore
deserve to be here tonight."
The Dark Faerie cackled, interrupting Sloth's
speech. Sloth turned to her and gave her a fulminating look. She apologised
and looked down embarrassed.
"Ahem. Now, if I may continue, I'll proceed
to explain your presence here," Sloth stood up and put his hands on the table,
leaning slightly to the front, facing the thieves, "I am planning something.
Something very big. But to reach success, I need money, and lots of it. 'Now,
how can I get all the Neopoints I need?' I asked myself. And I remembered you,
thieves of Neopia! Feel proud that I remembered you," Sloth straightened his
back and stared at the thieves once more - his constant staring was starting
to make some Neopets uncomfortable. He looked at me right in the eyes - it was
the most awful feeling ever. Yes, Sloth is a little pathetic, but when he stared
at me, it was like he was reading my mind, learning my whole life. Spooky, really.
"I need you," Sloth continued, sitting down
again, "to steal the NP for me. I want you to rob every shop, every Neopian,
every bank account. I already have a deal with the Pant Devil, now I want to
know if I have a deal with you," Sloth paused, and then added with deep emphasis,
"You will all be rewarded in the end. Greatly rewarded."
No one spoke for a moment. All the thieves were
thinking about the offer, and I'm sure most of them were considering the same
pros and cons I was.
"I wonder what rewards he can give us... could
be really good ones. But he's Dr. Sloth, the most pitiful villain in Neopia,
so his plan is likely to fail, and that would mean no rewards... but it's a
job, and I'm in need of a job right now. And the bigger the challenge, the best,"
I thought.
I looked at Eclipse and recognised the thoughtful
expression. She must have been thinking the exact same thing I was. I had made
up my mind: I was gonna take it. I looked around a saw a decisive and positive
look on every thief's face, so I concluded there were going to accept, too.
My thoughts and conclusions were interrupted by an Eyrie's piercing voice.
"No way, Sloth," he said, standing up.
"Uh?" The others looked at him, semi-puzzled.
Sloth and the Dark Faerie didn't look that effusive either, but said nothing.
"I'm not stealing for you, you free criminal
sample. If I am to take a big risk stealing that much, I will keep it, not give
to such an incompetent like you," With that stated, the Eyrie prepared to leave
the room. Zaaap. In a split second, the chair where he had been sitting was
turned into a pile of sludge.
"Hold it right there, you puny Neopet..." Sloth
was gazing angrily at the imprudent Eyrie, his arm still pointing towards the
sludge, where the chair had been, "No one insults Sloth and gets away with it."
Sloth looked at the Dark Faerie, giving her
a command with one look and she nodded. She waved her hands and whispered some
magic words, and immediately the insolent Neopet was surrounded in a greenish
smoke cloud. A 'puff' was heard, and the Dark Faerie grinned. As the smoke disappeared,
I was able to see what went on: the Eyrie was now a purple Grundo! Sloth laughed
evilly at the Grundo's useless attempts to speak, and the Dark Faerie kicked
him out of the room, where two strong Grarrls picked him. The last thing we
heard from that poor Neopet were screams. The Dark Faerie sat down again and
Sloth did the same. After a small pause, where Sloth saw fear in many Neopets
faces, he asked softly, "So, who's with me?"
Everyone was, of course, and the rest of the
reunion went smoothly. Some more details were discussed (as in, Sloth decided),
and we were split into groups, each group getting one world to work in. In my
group there was Eclipse, the Meerca Brothers, and two other wild Neopets - a
male yellow Lenny named Licoperdon, and a female blue Scorchio, whose name was
Aqua. We got Terror Mountain.
After the reunion was over, the Dark Faerie
teleported us back to the beach, and there, our group quickly settled some more
details about out mission. We were supposed to have seven million by the end
of the week, which was about 170,000 Neopoints each day for each of us. It was
a tough job, so we decided we should work separately the first day, in pairs
the second day and as a group the third day and then decide which method worked
best and do that the rest of the week. Only Licoperdon lived in Terror Mountain,
so the rest of us would have to move there the next day in the morning and start
working immediately. Finding a place to stay was a secondary worry - nobody
thought about it.
A few minutes later, I was home with Eclipse.
"Dalí?" She called, "Are you as excited
with this thing as I am?" Eclipse smiled at me cheerfully. I hadn't seen her
happy like that since Ceres and us stole a whole box of Faerie Paint Brushes
and stuffed ourselves silly with ice cream bought with the money they sold for.
"Yes. It's gonna be great," I smiled back and
began packing my things.
To be continued...
Author's Note: What are your comments on this part? Are you enjoying the series
so far? Any advice on what I could have done to make it better, any feedback or
comment, Neomail
me! Everything is greatly appreciated! |