"Fish pops? Baked Scorchio wings? Roasted Pteri beaks? Is that ALL you have
around here?" Yimishii the Skunk Usul asked, while scrutinizing the items on
the shelves in the shop.
"They seem to have an endless supply of Baked Beans, too," her owner, Gladys,
whispered.
The shopkeeper, who was a Blue Scorchio, frowned at Yimishii, but she didn't
notice. Yimi (which is short for Yimishii) was too busy examining a Genuine
Lupe Fur Coat.
"This coat can't be made out of Lupe fur," she said, feeling it with her paws.
"Lupe fur doesn't feel like.. this."
Snatching it out of her paws, the shopkeeper turned around and spat, "Young
Usul, you have many things to learn about Neopia. In Neopia, there are shops.
In shops, there are many different items. I specialise in rare and antique items.
If you're not interested, I suggest you get…"
Before the shopkeeper could finish his sentence, Yimi laughed out loud. "Rare
items? Baked beans? That's gotta be a joke!" Yimi tumbled over, rocking with
silent laughter. It's kind of when you laugh so hard your laugh won't come out,
and you have to hold your tummy to steady yourself, cause you're laughing so
hard.
"That's it! Get out of my shop!" the angry Scorchio rose up to full height,
and pointed to the door with his paw. Gladys pulled Yimi out of the shop, with
a slighty embarrassed look on her face. "NEVER COME BACK!" the Scorchio breathed
heavily, slamming the door behind them, narrowly escaping slicing off a bit
of Yimi's tail. Yimi was still chuckling, even though Gladys tried to hint to
her to stop. She saw him wheeling around, with a nasty look on his face, nearly
toppling over a tray of Pickled Moehog Tails.
"Do you know what this means?" Gladys said slowly to her, taking Yimi by the
paw as they walked down to Pizzaroo.
"What does what mean?" Yimi asked, looking up at her owner.
Gladys had a weird expression on her face, as if she was brainstorming a great
idea and thinking out a plan all at the same time.
"Illegal pet parts... didn't you see? He had Chia Chunks, Pickled Moehog Tails,
and I saw him trying to hide Roasted Kiko with Mongmong wings..." Gladys said
quietly, so no one would hear.
"Mongmong
wings? Eeek! You'd better not tell Mongee!" Yimi almost screamed, but her owner
quickly cupped her mouth.
Mongee, as you can surely guess, was Yimi's pet, a beautiful blue Mongmong.
Yimi had won Mongee from the Beauty
Contest.
"Anyway," Gladys continued, "I read an article in The Neopian Times today.
Shops selling illegal pet parts which are reported and inspected, and found
to be selling these items without suitable permission from the Ministry of NeoPet
Protection, or the MNP, are shut down. The items are then sent to a laboratory
to be analysed."
Yimi stopped in her tracks. "Hey, mum..."
"Yes dear?"
"Supposing there was a reward, you know, for reporting this kind of shop..."
Yimi began slowly, but Gladys quickly interuptted, "There is! I was just getting
to that part! Once the shop's items have been analysed and found to be truly
illegal pet parts, the informant--"
"Informant?"
"Reporter, then."
"Oh okay."
"The reporter gets half of the amount of money the illegal pet parts are worth.
For example, the Lupe fur coat is worth around twenty thousand Neopoints, so
we would get ten thousand."
"My plan is," Gladys said, getting very excited now, "is to find all the shops
that sell an illegal item. We can do this easily if we have many NeoPet helpers
to search Neopia and report the shops back to us. The shops will be reported,
and once we get our share of the money, we can pay our workers. If we report
around 20 shops a day, we can make up to a HUNDRED THOUSAND Neopoints in just
a week!"
Yimi gazed up at her owner in awe. "We'll be rich!"
"Dirty rich!" Gladys said, nodding her head, her face flushed with excitement.
"I can't wait till we start!" now Yimi was jumping up and down. "I'll be able
to get a Geisha Girl Usuki, and a Beauty Bed, oh and a ticket to see Yes Boy-ice
cream.."
"We'll have a marvelous time. You just wait," Gladys said, reaching into her
handbag to get out a few Neopoints to pay for their pizza.
"The usual, please," Yimi said to the Flotsam who was waitering their table.
"When shall we start, Mum?"
"Just as soon as we finish our Parts on a Pizza."
The End | 
