The Thing That Makes Us Brave

     “You know, you really should be getting a trophy or a medal of your own, too,” Alex said. “You helped me do the thing.”

     “No way, dude,” Jonah said. “This trophy’s all yours. After all, I’m your best friend. Helping each other out is what we’re supposed to do.”

     Alex laughed. “What would I do without you, brother?” he said. “Seriously, though. Thank you for the help. And if you ever need anything as big as this one, just call out my name. You know I’d do anything for you.”

     Jonah smiled. “You know I’d do anything for you, too.”

     ******

     Jonah’s heart was beating so loudly, he could barely hear his own footsteps. Climbing up a long spiral set of stairs, he thought to himself that he never would have guessed that the Pant Devil would live at the top of a narrow tower in the middle of Neopian nowhere — but then again, he never would have guessed he’d ever try to steal something back from the Pant Devil himself, either.

     Every step up felt like an adrenaline spike. As his heartbeat got faster and faster, probably the fastest it had ever been, Jonah was insanely close to turning around and running away.

     No.

     He needed to do this.

     For his best friend.

     Jonah swung his arms around as his foot slipped after it tried to land on a stair. He looked down and saw that he nearly fell down on a cracked stair tip. His heart skipped a beat, but he took a deep breath and just kept continuing up. He was almost near the top, anyway, as he could see the light from the entrance shining through just a dozen or so stairs away from him. Just a few more steps…

     He walked through the entrance.

     There were items everywhere.

     Jonah’s jaw dropped as he took in everything he was seeing. Piles upon piles of the most random items, like neggs and plushies and paintbrushes and stamps. It was as if Jonah had walked into the safety deposit box of the world’s richest Neopian, but even they would have better organisation skills than the mess he saw in front of him.

     No sign of the Pant Devil, though. The Brain Tree had assured him the Devil would be out and about around this time, and it looked like he was right. That was a good thing for Jonah, even if it probably meant the Devil was out stealing from another unsuspecting Neopian.

     He scanned the room as he slowly stepped in. ‘Oh, hey, look,’ he thought. ‘A Web Gun replica from the video game Web Shooter.’ That was a rare item, one Jonah and Alex desperately wanted as kids but was near impossible to save up enough Neopoints for as youngsters, and whoever the Pant Devil had stolen it from must’ve been devastated to lose it.

     ‘But also, it probably wouldn’t hurt to try it once…’

     No, gotta focus. He was here for a reason. Jonah flapped his wings and looked around as he flew in mid-air, trying to find Alex’s gift. The problem was that the Pant Devil might’ve already opened it, and it wasn’t like he knew what had been inside. But as long as he could find the envelope with the letter…

     Jonah whipped his head around once he realised what he just looked past. There it was — his gift, unopened and still with the envelope, sitting on top of a pile of Pant Devil Attractors! Jonah flew to the gift and grabbed it, relieved to see it had been mostly left untouched. Why the Pant Devil even stole it if he wasn’t going to open it, Jonah didn’t know, but at the moment, he also didn’t care. He held the present against his chest and hugged it tightly.

     The gift was okay. Alex’s gift was okay.

     Once he was done, he started walking away, but stepped on top of a Pant Devil Attractor and nearly slipped, fighting the urge to shout as he wobbled and tried to keep himself from falling. As he steadied himself, he eyed the pile beside him. These were a lot. The Pant Devil sure had a serious addiction.

     ‘Well, duh,’ the voice inside his head replied. ‘He is a kleptomaniac, after all.’

     Kleptomaniac. K-l-e-p-t…

     Jonah chuckled at the memory.

     “Alright, time to go,” Jonah whispered. He knelt down a little, with Alex’s gift still wrapped tight in his arms against his chest, and prepared to take off and fly.

     Before he could, though, he heard a sound echoing from the stairways.

     It was humming.

     And footsteps.

     Someone was walking up the stairs.

     It was the Pant Devil!

     ‘But the Pant Devil floats,’ Jonah thought. ‘How can he have footsteps?’ There was no time to think about that. Jonah searched his surroundings as fast as he could and immediately hid behind the nearest pile he could find that was big enough to cover him. As he poked his head out from the side, he watched the Pant Devil come into the room.

     The Pant Devil floated into the entrance, continuing his humming and floating to a pile of mostly toys on the opposite side of the room. Jonah could see that he had a Ruki plushie in his grasp, and he watched as the Devil placed it on top of the pile. As he did so, another toy caught the Devil’s eye. He grabbed a jack-in-a-box from the pile and began turning its handle, laughing like crazy when the music stopped, and the jack popped out of the box.

     He was distracted. This was the Shoyru’s chance.

     As slowly and quietly as he could, Jonah began tiptoeing to the exit of the room, careful not to let the gift out of his grasp. With every step, he looked back at the Pant Devil to make sure he wasn’t at risk of being caught, but it seemed like the jack-in-a-box had fully grasped the Pant Devil’s attention. As the Devil turned the toy’s handle and listened to the music play again, Jonah headed towards the exit…

     CRASH!

     Jonah groaned as he pushed himself off the floor. He had slipped on a toy ball and crashed into a pile of… what were these, blue hairbrushes? What did the Pant Devil need with an entire pile of these? He positioned himself back up and quickly looked the Devil’s way, and to his dismay, the Devil was staring right at him with a raised eyebrow and a sly smile.

     “What do we have here?” the Pant Devil said. “A Shoyru in my secret hideout?” Then, he flopped and groaned. “Let me guess, the Brain Tree gave you directions?” he said with a roll of the eyes. “That tree just cannot let a game of Cheat go. He’s such a sore loser.”

     Jonah didn’t bother with a reply. He grabbed the gift from the floor and flapped his wings, and sprang towards the exit. From behind him, he heard the voice of the Pant Devil.

     “Come back here!”

     The Pant Devil flew towards him and tried to catch him, but Jonah was quick to swerve away from the Devil’s attack. He lost control of his flight, though, and flew and crashed into another pile of items instead. Ow. As the Shoyru got himself up and looked around, he saw that he was now even further away from the exit, and the gift had been out of his grasp. Where was it? He scanned the room and saw it on the ground, along with something else.

     The Web Gun!

     He ran and grabbed the gun, and as he did so, he heard the Pant Devil go, “You won’t escape me, trespasser!” Jonah looked up and saw the Pant Devil flying towards him, so he pointed the gun at the Devil and pressed the trigger.

     Not yet. Not until the right time.

     Immediately, a spider’s web flung out of the barrel and headed towards the Pant Devil, which then wrapped around him and made him fall to the ground. “Curses!” the Pant Devil said as he rocked back and forth, struggling to free himself from the web. “Why did I even steal such a stupid item?”

     Jonah dropped the gun, grabbed the gift, and ran for his life toward the exit. As he did so, he heard the Pant Devil go, “Stop! Thief!”

     “Takes one to know one!” Jonah shouted back. He sprinted out of the exit and started running down the stairs, one by one by one as fast as he could…

     There was that crack in the step again!

     Jonah tumbled down the stairs, the gift flying out of his hands. He felt hit after hit as he rolled all the way down to the bottom of the stairs, but never once did he free his wrap over the gift. When he got back up and looked back, he saw the Pant Devil wrapped in web, one arm free and fighting to climb down the stairs.

     “Give me back my gift!”

     “It was my gift first, you robber!”

     Jonah opened the door and ran out faster than he ever had before. He slammed the door behind him and began flapping his wings, flapping, until he was up in the air and flying straight ahead, careful never to look back.

     Jonah held the gift tightly against his chest.

     He didn’t know where he was flying toward. But he had to make it to any safe place before the Pant Devil found a way out.

     And any place was safer than this one.

To be continued…