The Great Kau Caper

      "You had to go for the stupid gold Uni figure, didn't you?" puffed Connie, a starry Kau and middle sibling of the trio. "We already had enough to pay off the debt, but nooo! You had to go for that good, old-fashioned burglary charm!"

      "Will you be quiet and keep running?" snapped Sly, a red Kau who was the oldest and self-proclaimed leader. "It's not my fault Nelson stepped on the alarm!"

      Nelson was the youngest Kau sibling. Being the youngest, he was very timid and got scared the easiest. "I didn't-MOO-mean to!" Nelson whimpered. A common trait of Nelson's was that he would "moo" whenever he talked and, more so, when he was nervous.

      That moment was no exception. The three Kaus continued to run along the bank of Kiko Lake, heading straight for the paddleboats. Tossing their sacks of loot into the boat, the Kaus leapt aboard. Connie and Nelson took their places at the paddles as Sly went to the front. "Quick! Paddle to the other side!" Sly commanded. "Faster! Faster, come on! They see us!"

      "We're trying!" cried Connie as her hoofs frantically worked the paddles. "We've got too much baggage."

      "We need to loose some-moo-weight!" Nelson added.

      Sly nodded. "You're right. Okay, who wants to jump?"

      "It's gonna be YOU if you don't get rid of those bags now!" snapped Connie.

      "But we need those! If the Kaufather finds out, he's going to…"

      "The Chia and Lenny Defender just hopped-moo-into a boat!" cried Nelson. "They're catching up!"

      Sly looked up to see that his brother was right. The two Defenders had boarded a paddleboat and were approaching them at top speed. Biting his lip, Sly gazed down the bags of precious valuables. They didn't have any choice. Picking up all the bags at once, he tossed them overboard, allowing their paddleboat an extra burst of speed as they headed straight for the shore.

      Once they docked, the three Kau siblings leapt off the boat and continued to run through the woods as fast as their hoofs could carry them. For what seemed like hours, they finally stopped and rested to catch their breath.

      "Did we…loose 'em?" asked Sly as he leaned against a tree for support.

      "Yeah, I think so," muttered Connie as she rubbed her sore hoofs. "I told you we should've tried the Lost Desert."

      "What're we going to-moo-tell the Kaufather, Sly?" Nelson asked nervously.

      "That's what we wanna know, too."

      Sly felt his blood run cold as he turned to look at the two burly Kaus standing over him. Beef and Meathook: two of Kaufather's henchmen. Sly smiled nervously and waved his hoof. "Hey guys! Going out for a stroll?"

* * *

The three Kau siblings shivered as they stood in the office of the Kaufather. Being one of Neopia's most feared gangsters, he was not one to be taken lightly, as Sly soon discovered. Although aged and overweight, he still struck fear into the hearts of Neopians.

      "So," Kaufather said quietly as he stroked his pet Gruslen, Fang. "You failed once again, little Kaus. I give you a second chance to raise the Neopoints for me and you fail."

      "We really tried hard this time, Kaufather!" said Sly. "I mean, we had all these fancy figurines and gold and silver stuff…"

      Kaufather closed his eyes and rubbed his temple. "Sly, Sly. I did not ask for petty items. I wanted points. Points! Is that clear?"

      "Crystal, sir," replied Sly. "But, you see, these things we got. Well, they would have made millions at the Marketplace! I mean, these were top-quality rare items we're talking about here! And you would've had your points plus a little extra for your troubles and…"

      The Kaufather rose up his hoof, immediately putting an end to Sly's rambling. "But according to my two associates here," he said, pointing to Beef and Meathook as they stood behind the Kau Siblings. "These precious little items are now sitting at the bottom of a very large lake."

      Sly laughed nervously again. "Well, yeah, that was sort of a flash in the pan. I mean, paddleboats can only carry so much and…"

      "This does not please me, Little Kau," replied the Kaufather. "Normally, I am very patient, like I was when you and I had that poker tournament. If my memory is correct, you still owe me one million Neopoints. I was patient when you first tried to pay me back and I was patient when you tried to pay me back tonight. But now, I feel slightly…impatient. And if I become impatient, then I get angry. And if I get angry, Beef and Meathook get upset. And if Beef and Meathook get upset…"

      As if on cue, Beef and Meathook started pounding their hoofs together menacingly. The clacking sound sent chills up the Kaus' spines. "So, just to show you I'm not completely heartless," the Kaufather continued. "I will give you little Kaus one more chance. Either have the points by midnight tomorrow or you three will be Beef and Meathook's new punching bags."

      "Midnight tomorrow?" Sly cried. "B-but Kaufather…"

      The Kaufather leaned over slightly on his desk, eyeing the red Kau menacingly. "Do I detect a hint of disagreement in your voice, Little Kau?"

      Sly gulped. "Oh, n-no sir! Midnight tomorrow is fine." Connie and Nelson exchanged worried glances. This did not look good for their brother or themselves.

* * *

"Midnight tonight!" Connie cried as she paced back and forth in their Neohome. Ever since the uncomfortable meeting with the Kaufather, the three siblings have been trying desperately to think of ways to make a million Neopoints as soon as possible. Auctions, trading posts, the slot machines; all ended up unsuccessful.

      "This has got to be the most insane thing you've ever done, Sly!" Connie cried as Sly frantically flipped through the Neopian Times for ideas. "I mean, you've done a bunch of crazy stuff over the years that I can forgive you for. Rigging the Turdle races, fine. Trying to fool Jhudora, okay. But challenging Neopia's best poker player-not to mention the most notorious gangster in all existence-to a poker match?"

      "Hey, don't pin this all on me, all right?" Sly yelled as he tossed the Times to the floor. "This is nothing compared to that time you wasted five thousand Neopoints all on Scorchy Slots!"

      "I won three light faeries and a whole map that sold for triple that amount," Connie retorted. "You were the one wasted it all on that stupid 'Double or Nothing' match!"

      While the Kaus continued their argument, poor Nelson was sitting on his beanbag chair, cuddling his Poogle toy. He hated it when his brother and sister fought like this. He wished they would stop bickering and try to figure out how to get out of the mess they were in. He decided to pick up the Neopian Times that Sly had thrown down and see what he could find that might be of some help.

      "Face it, Sly," said Connie sternly. "We are in deep dung right now! Well, technically, you're in deep dung. You just decided to drag us along with you!"

      "We can't give up hope," said Sly. "There's got to be some way to get a million Neopoints by tonight…"

      "Too bad we're not Fannie Foo," said Nelson quietly.

      Connie and Sly glanced over at their younger brother quizzically. "Who?"

      Nelson showed the article he was currently reading. "Fannie Foo. One of the richest Bruces in all Neopia. She lives in the real fancy section of Neopia Central."

      Sly snatched the paper away from his brother and looked at the article. It showed a picture of a glamorous Bruce, completely decked out in gems and silks. She was smiling brightly, holding a small Babaa in her flippers. The article intrigued Sly greatly:

      Foo Shows Money Can Buy Love

      Fannie Foo, one of Neopia's richest citizens, has been recently selected as the newest member of the PPL (Petpet Protection League). Her timeless efforts to aide and help petpets everywhere has been recognized for a long time. Just recently, she rescued and adopted a Babaa from Neopia Central's Petpet shop. "I just couldn't resist this darling little baby," she was quoted saying. A possible reason why Foo purchased the Babaa would be for the fact that it was the only petpet with a birthmark shaped like a Nerkmid. Foo clearly shows affection for the small Babaa. "I'd do anything for my little Woolikins."

      The gears inside Sly's mind began to turn as he read the article. A sly smile crept over his face. "So…Fannie would do anything for her little 'Woolikins,' huh?"

      Connie knew this look and didn't like it the least bit. "Sly," she asked uneasily. "What are the voices inside your head telling you to do?"

      "Suit up, my loving siblings," said Sly as he tossed away the paper. "We're going to pay Foo a little visit."

* * *

The Kau Siblings crept as quietly as possible over the plush grounds of Foo's estate. Dressing in black to help them blend into the night, they snuck slowly under the window where they had seen Foo put Woolikins to bed.

      Sly sat with his back against the mansion wall, listening for any signs of movement from inside. "Okay, Connie. You got the crowbar?" Connie pulled a large metal crowbar from the laden sack she had been carrying and handed it to her brother. Sly then looked to Nelson. "How about the ransom note?"

      With a shaky hoof, Nelson pulled his ransom note out of his pocket and read it softly for Sly. "I-If you ever want to-moo-see your Babaa again-moo-come to the Art Center at 11:00 with one million-moo-Neopoints."

      "You did remember to leave out the 'moos,' right?" asked Sly. To his relief, Nelson nodded. "Okay, then we have everything?"

      "Everything except your sanity!" muttered Connie. "Oh wait, you never had that…"

      "You'll be eating those words once we collect the ransom and clear the debt," said Sly as he started working the window with the crowbar.

      "The only thing we'll be eating is gruel and stale bread when we're rotting away in prison!"

      Sly ignored his sister's snide remarks as he tried to break the hatch of the window. After much strain, he finally forced the window open. Checking to make sure no one heard the noise, they each crept into the room. Luckily for them, Foo always made sure Woolikins slept with a nightlight, so finding the petpet wasn't as tricky as they thought. Lying snug on a frilly pillow was the Woolikins, baaing softly in his sleep.

      "Aww," said Nelson. "He's so cute!"

      "He'll be a lot cuter once we trade him in for our points!" said Sly as he bent over and took the edges of Woolikins' pillow. He gently lifted up the pillow and Woolikins and placed them both in the sack.

      "Okay, I got him!" whispered Sly excitedly. "Now we just sneak out the…"

      Sly's plans were quickly destroyed as he stepped on one of Woolikins' squeaky toys, sending him crashing to the ground. When Nelson ran to help his brother, he tripped over another toy and was sent hurtling into the nightlight, causing complete darkness.

      "OOF! Nelson, get off me!"

      "GAH! Somebody grabbed my tail!"

      "Where's the window?"

      Miraculously, the Kau siblings managed to escape the dark facility of Woolikins' room. Running with all their might, they scurried up the stone wall surrounding the Foo estate and hurried into the dark alley nearby.

      Sly clutched the bag, giggling insanely. "We did it! We actually did it!"

      "Quite noisily, I might add," said Connie, brushing herself off.

      "Who cares? That just attracted Foo's attention! Now when she walks in and finds the ransom note, she'll just come to the art center, give us the money, and we're home free!" As he was enjoying this moment of victory, he noticed something that quickly destroyed this feeling. "Nelson…what is that you're holding?"

      Nelson had been wiping his sweaty brow with a crumpled piece of paper he mistook for a handkerchief. Unfolding it, he realized it was the ransom note. "Oops…," whimpered Nelson as he showed the note to his siblings.

      Sly froze as his eyes glared at the paper. "Oops," he said softly, trying very heard to hold in his anger. "You forget to take the stupid note out of your pocket and all you can say is 'Oops?'" In an act of fury, Sly dropped the sack and lunged at his brother, gripping his sweater collar tightly in his hoofs. "I give you the simplest job in the world! All you had to do was leave the stupid note back in the room and we'd be a million Neopoints richer!"

      "Y-Yeah, but-Moo-when you tripped and the lights went out, I…" Nelson could hardly finish his sentence while his brother continued to shake him.

      "A Pet Rock could've done this job better than you!" Sly shouted. "Do you realize what you've done???"

      "And do you realize what you've done?" shouted Connie, separating her brothers.

      Before Sly could ask what she meant, she pointed a hoof at the large hole in the sack where Woolikins was. Sly picked up the sack and saw that the Babaa was no longer inside. "Wha? Where'd he go?"

      A distant "Baa" was heard on the other side of the alley. The three Kaus looked up to find Woolikins standing in the street, finishing off the last bit of sack cloth he had been chewing on to help him escape. Swallowing the last mouthful, Woolikins trotted off into the darkness.

      "GET HIM!" shouted Sly and they all bounded after the Babaa. But once they had gotten into the street, they realized that Woolikins was nowhere to be seen. "Which way did he go?"

      "Maybe he headed back to Foo's place," Connie suggested.

      "Okay, let's not panic. Connie, you check down that street; Nelson, you look over there; I'll keep searching around here."

      Once the orders were issued, the Kaus went in their separate places. Sly looked high and low for the Babaa. Behind bushes, under mailboxes, but he was nowhere to be seen. Just then, he heard a lovely sound: baaing. He looked up to see the tail of a Babaa disappear around a corner. Sly followed and found a Babaa chewing on some grass on the other side of a wooden fence. Unable to hold in his excitement, he leapt over the fence and grabbed the Babaa.

      "Gotcha!" he told the petpet. "Connie! Nelson! I…"

      "I found Woolikins!" Sly looked up to see his sister running up to him, holding a Babaa in her hoofs.

      "Sly! Sly!" Nelson shouted, running up to join them. "I found Woolikins! And look, he's got a twin!"

      Sly nearly fell over from shock when he saw his younger brother come up with two Babaas in his grasp. When all three Kaus realized what had happened, they noticed that they were standing in a pen filled with Babaas. Some were sleeping, others were gnawing on grass. It was clear where they were: the petpet shop!

      "The Island Mystic was right," Connie said to Sly. "You are a glutton for punishment."

      "We gotta find him!" proclaimed Sly, dropping the Babaa.

      "But-Moo-how?" cried Nelson. "They all look alike!"

      "Wait a minute! Didn't that article say that Woolikins had a birthmark in the shape of a Nerkmid?"

      Connie looked into her Babaa's wool to examine the skin. "Yeah, but where IS the birthmark? It's hard to see anything under all this wool."

      Sly felt his brow perspire as he began to panic. They had less than an hour left and they had to find Woolkins and receive the ransom. Just then, he looked over to the corner of the fence and saw a battery-powered razor sitting on a wooden crate.

     Obviously, it was meant to sheer the Babaas when their wool got too thick. A sly smile crept over his face as he picked up the razor and turned it on.

      "Nelson, hand me a Babaa. We're gonna play barber!"

* * *

And so, forty-five minutes later, the Kau siblings were sitting befuddled in the pen with a large pile of wool on their right and fifty naked, irritated Babaas on their left. Not one showed the birthmark of Woolikins.

      "Don't worry, Sly," said Connie as she picked wool out of her sweater. "I'm sure Beef and Meathook won't pulverize us too much. Who knows? Maybe they'll let us keep some of our limbs."

      Sly sighed heavily. "You know, if I hadn't promised Mom that I'd never hurt you, you'd be so dead right now."

      Nelson sniffed as tears formed in his eyes. "Poor little Wooly," he moaned. "A little guy like him-Moo-all alone out there in the cold, dark world. We should never have-Moo-taken him from Fannie."

      "Oh yeah! How could we forget about poor Wooly?" Sly cried sarcastically. "We're five minutes away from being related to Punching Bag Bob and we haven't thought about poor, stupid Wooly! I swear, if you weren't my brother, I'd-MMF!"

      Sly was confused as to why his sister had cupped her hoof over his mouth, but he found the answer when she turned his head to the street. Gnawing on a small patch of dandelions was a small Babaa, looking quite content. Slowing creeping over the fence, the three Kaus silently advanced towards their prize, being ever so careful not to make one sound that would scare the petpet away. When he was finally in reach, Sly snatched up the petpet. He quickly pushed back a small patch of his wool to find a small, Nerkmid-shaped spot on the back of his neck. It was Woolikins!

      "WE GOT HIM!!!" he cried loud enough for all of Fairyland to hear. "WE GOT WOOLIKINS!"

      His facial expression of victory quickly changed to shock when he and his siblings were engulfed in a large spotlight. Connie squinted as she could make out numerous Defenders, all staring at them.

      "It's the authorities!" she whispered to Sly who was still holding Woolikins above his head.

      "Really?" he muttered. "For a minute, I thought it was my life flashing before my eyes."

      "WOOLIKINS!"

      The Kau siblings looked to see a large Bruce waddling towards them, dressed in a bathrobe with curlers in her hair. She took Woolikins from the frozen Sly and hugged him lovingly. "Oh, there you are, my little baby! Mommy was so worried about you, yes she was! I had to have the entire Defenders force come out and look for you, you naughty little sweetie." She then turned to the three Kaus with a large smile planted on her face. "Oh, thank you so much! I don't know what got into my little Woolikins that made him run away like this. He's such a little mischief maker."

      "We were happy to help, Miss Foo," said Connie as she shook her flipper. "It was a good thing my brothers and I were coming by this way on our midnight stroll. We found him here, all lost and alone. We were about to take him in for the night and contact you the next morning."

      "Well, aren't you a thoughtful bunch of Neopets!" said Fannie admiringly. "There must be someway to pay you three back." Just then, she took out a small checkbook and pen from her robe pocket. "How about some points for your trouble? Will fifty-thousand be all right?"

      Sly's jaw dropped. "F-fifty-th-thou…" he stuttered.

      "Not enough? How about eighty?"

      Sly was finding it very hard to breathe as he considered this amount. Foo, however, still believed he was negotiating. "Oh, very well! You twisted my arm. Here, a check for one-million Neopoints. And I won't hear one word about you paying me back! This is like milk money to me. Well, we best be going. Thanks again so much for your help, Darlings! Come along, Woolikins. Let's get you some nice warm cocoa then it's straight to bed."

      Woolikins baaed happily as his master carried him away. The Defenders shrugged and disassembled their equipment. After they left, Sly glanced down at the check in his hands. Overcome with shock, he fainted right there on the spot. Connie caught the check as it floated in the air. She chuckled. "And who says crime doesn't pay?"

* * *

And so, after the debt was repaid and the Kaus lives' were spared, the Kau siblings decided to treat themselves to a morning smoothie in Neopia Central.

      "Boy, am I glad that's-moo-over with," said Nelson as he sipped his chocolate chip smoothie.

      "Well, Sly, what have we learned?" Connie asked her older brother.

      "I know, I know," he said rolling his eyes. "From now on I won't do any more gambling or bets with notorious villains. I'll only earn Neopoints from working hard and playing games like all other Neopets." He then stopped and turned to his younger siblings. "Look, I'm really sorry I got you all into this. I just want to say thanks for sticking by me and helping me out of that mess."

      "Of course we did, Sly," said Nelson. "You're our-moo-brother."

      "Yeah," Connie agreed. "Whether we like it or not, we're family."

      Sly chuckled. "And don't worry. If you guys ever fall into any kind of trouble, you can count on me to stick by you through thick and thin."

      Just then, the Usul who ran the petpet shop came running up the street with two Defenders behind her. "There they are, Gentlemen!" she shouted, pointing a finger at the trio. "There are the Kaus from the security cameras who sheered all my Babaas!"

      "See ya in ten years!" Sly shouted, already running away at top speed.

      "SLY!" screeched Connie as she, too, took off. "Come back here, you traitor!"

      "Wait for-MOO-me!" Nelson cried as he desperately tried to catch up.

      And so, as the Kaus ran farther into the distance with the Defenders hot on their trail, the three siblings learned two very important things that day: to never give up hope in even the darkest of times and that Babaas bring of bad luck.

The End