Birthday Banditry: Part One

      Now, Slyndar being bored could be a good thing. It might keep him out of trouble, and you couldn't really pretend that he never got in trouble. Just last Christmas, he tried to kidnap the cookies that Floof had baked for Santa Kaus, but failed and received a huge lump of coal instead of the burglar kit he was hoping for.

      But being bored could be bad too.

      Slyndar was lying on the orange jelly rug in his room, staring up at the ceiling, making pictures out of the specks.

      Well, "lying" wouldn't be the correct word. "Eating" would be much more accurate.

      He chewed the rug nonchalantly. Orange jelly tasted good. He took another bite. Who knew furniture could make such great afternoon snack? The Shoyru ate another bite and was about to polish the rest off, had not his keen hearing sensed something. Muffled footsteps seemed to be approaching his way.

      In a flash, the shadow Shoyru scaled the wall and was resting on the light, which hung from the ceiling of his room. With one hand, the shadow pet continued to casually eat his orange jelly rug as if nothing happened.

      Elayth, his teenage owner, strolled into his room. She glanced around, apparently searching for the Shoyru.

      "Sly?" she called. "Where are you, Sly?"

      Slyndar frowned from above. "Sly" was a cool nickname, but he disliked it nevertheless.

      "He has got to be somewhere around here," the teenager muttered, as she checked under his bed.

      The Shoyru hid a grin. Nobody could find him when he didn't want to be found. Especially when they didn't know where to look. Under the bed? Anyone could hide under a bed. No, what it takes is originality, and Slyndar had plenty of that.

      Suddenly, a pink piece of paper fell from her pant pocket while she was searching his wardrobe. It landed on the ground where his orange jelly rug was. (Before he ate it, that is.)

      The pet's curiosity tried to compel him to investigate the paper closely, but Elayth was still in the room. He hoped that his owner didn't pick it back up.

      The shadow Shoyru's owner conducted a quick search of the room again and, satisfied that Slyndar wasn't there (even though he was), she left the room.

      Slyndar crept down, but not before smirking. Elayth. He was above her the whole time, but she never looked up. The Shoyru used that as an advantage. He approached the dropped object and examined it carefully. It was a card and a frilly one at that. He circled it cautiously, occasionally poking it with a clothes hanger. Satisfied that it wasn't one of those annoying singing cards, he commanded his robo Chia to pick it up just in case. Maybe this behavior was considered paranoid or ridiculous, but the pet knew that one could never be too careful.

      The robo Chia did as it was commanded, and some shiny red glitter lazily drifted to floor. Panicked, Slyndar swept the stuff up and made a quick trip to the restroom. Flush. There. Glittery evidence destroyed. The shadow pet always believed in getting rid of the evidence so that his actions would be difficult to trace. He didn't think he was supposed to view the card considering the image of the baby Gelert holding up some flowers on the pink cover. He shrugged and opened the card. The Shoyru read the lines of curly script.

You're Invited! Come to Foozy's Birthday Party!

When: Relaxing 10

Time: 2:00-5:00 NST PM

Where: Neopia Central 133759 Crunch Ave.

     Please come! There will games, tons of treats, refreshments, and more! Please bring some snacks so there will be a variety of drinks, candy, and cookies! Also hosted by the Baby Pet Luvers' Guild.

      Slyndar stared at the large text and pondered for a while. Foozy? That could only be one of his sister's friends, which probably meant that he wasn't invited. To his own disbelief, he felt like he really wanted to come. Not that he really cared much for their Usuki fashion shows, but it was the cookies he was more concerned with. Ever since Elayth had stopped visiting the bakery, his cookie supply was diminishing. Oh sure, he could nick a few sweets from the Money Tree every once in a while, but that wasn't sufficient for a guy like him. Besides, hundreds of Neopians flocked to the Money Tree every single minute. The best thing one could possibly receive was a Tombola prize, if you were lucky. He could steal from the cookie jar, but Elayth and Slyndar's sister Floof were extra protective of the container because of Slyndar's alarming tendency to steal from it. The only time he could even attempt a heist was when he had a planned some sort of scheme. Schemes were usually complicated. Schemes were also hard to plan. He needed to stock up on those cookies, and this seemed like an ideal opportunity.

      After staring at the card for a few moments, the shadow Shoyru knew what he was going to have to do: break in and enter to snatch those cookies. Okay, fine, he could deal with that. But a thought entered his mind. What if this was a setup? A trap? He pondered notion for a moment when he heard Floof talking to their owner in the room next door. He took out his special eavesdropping instrument out and put it to work. The sound waves were soon amplified. (Do not despair, Editor, I can assure you that no technology was used.)

      "Elayth?" squeaked his little sister. "Can you take me to the party?"

     Will you, thought Slyndar, It's will you. Of course she can physically take you to the party, but it's a question of will she.

      "Sure, Floofy!" replied her teenage owner. "Fine by me. So Foozy's birthday party is at two in the afternoon, right? The day after tomorrow?"

      "Yuppy!" whinnied Floof happily. "Oh, tank you, tank you!"

      Slyndar could imagine Elayth smiling at her baby pet, and Floof skipping back and forth the room happily.

      "It's thank you," corrected the owner.

      Floof ignored the grammatical error she had made.

     "But what about the pwesent?"

      "Oh, don't worry about that, Floofy. I made a trip to the toy store and Usuki store yesterday. I bought Foozy some plushies and an Usuki."

      "Ooh! Ooh! Which Usuki? Which one? Which one?" squealed the baby Uni as she jumped up and down excitedly.

      "Uh, I'm not sure," answered the owner uncertainly as she paused to think.

      Floof pouted, "But what if she already has that one?"

      "Then she can sell it and buy something else," consoled Elayth.

      "Oh," said Floof. "Okay."

     Okay, thought Slyndar as he put away his eavesdropping instrument, that possibility is out the window. There was no way no how that Floof could set up a trap. She was too innocent and a baby Uni, after all. Well, he thought, maybe this was a trap set up by another pet, and Floof unwittingly became a part of. This conversation might have been staged on purpose to lure him into it. After a while, he shook the thought.

      Slyndar hadn't been outsmarted yet when it came to robberies. Mistaken? Yes. Miscalculated? Yeah. Unlucky? Uh huh, but outsmarted? No, and it would stay that way. Besides, he would be careful. What could go wrong? Slyndar stopped himself. That's what he thought last time, and his last robbery turned out to be a disaster. He'd better play it safe and plan it out more.

      The Shoyru sat down at his desk and scribbled into his purple notebook. To the untrained eye, his scribbles appeared to resemble childish writing, but were really a part of a complex code he had invented to prevent his plans from reaching the public. He muttered and calculated, jotting down all his thoughts, when he realized that he was missing something of vital importance- the blueprints to Foozy's house.

      Blueprints, to a burglar, served as a map. Basically, they were drawn diagrams of a building or structure. (I could have just called them "maps," but "blueprints" sounded more professional.) With them, he could map out his route, entrance, and exit. This way he would be more prepared, and preparation was a burglar's best friend. (Unless it was used against him of course.) The way he saw it, he would have to obtain a copy or sketch his own, and he couldn't just stop at a Blueprints -R- Us to get the job done. Slyndar laughed at the thought.

      Blueprints -R- Us. That's a good one.

      The cookie burglar decided to sketch his own. How much time did he have to do this? He checked his calendar. Gulp. Only 2 days to prepare the blueprints, conduct a plan, gather his burglar kit…

      Slyndar groaned and flopped on his bed. He was going to have to work quickly.

To be continued...

Author's note: All names, characters, flavors of cheeses, places, and incidents are all by-products of the author's weird imagination. Any uncanny resemblances or namesakes are purely coincidental. That means I made up all the names myself. Feel free to drop me a Neomail about how what you thought of this part. I don't bite. Well, I don't anymore…