How I Helped Destroy Neopia: Part One by hippiesoul |  |
I still remember that day, as clearly as if it had been
yesterday. I was at the 'All Ya Can Drink' tavern, famous for its customers--thieves
and bad guys--and the excellent drinks and jobs one could get there. It was
already past midnight, and the place was crowded. About half the tables were
occupied by thieves or pirates arranging their next attack, planning the next
robbery or hiring helpers, and the other half of the seats was either taken
by bad guys drinking cocktails and doing arm-wrestling/poker tournaments, or
by loners caring only about drinking, or watching the other thieves.
I was one of the loners. Sitting by the corner,
there I was, emptying drink bottles, watching the other guys. Pete "Black Eye",
the tavern owner and my friend, walked by my table and took the bottle I had
just emptied.
"Another one?" he asked, in his rude and thick
voice.
"Yup, bring me more," I answered, not even looking
up at him.
"You already had two of those, don't you want
anything different?"
I turned my head to face the blue Jetsam with
the black spot around the left eye, and noticed for the first time since entering
the bar that night, that he was wearing a yellow shirt with a big Fun in the
Sun Usuki doll printed on the front, above the slogan 'Usuki Mania!'. I couldn't
help but laugh out loud at the absurdity of the scene. Pete, the tough guy from
the tavern, the one who claims to have beaten Balthazar and the Snowager in
one hit in the Battledome, wearing an Usuki shirt? It was hilarious.
"What's that??" I asked, still chuckling.
"Stop laughing, it was for free." To Pete, anything
free was good and acceptable, even an Usuki shirt. "So, you want another of
those or can I bring you something different?"
"Get me an Ummagine Cocktail, then--" I hadn't
even finished the sentence, and Black Eye was already gone to get the drink.
And I couldn't help but mock him more, so I shouted to him, "And don't forget,
I want it in that Usuki glass you own!"
Black Eye turned around and waved his fist against
me, in a half playful half menacing way.
"You are so dead, Dalí!" he shouted at
me before disappearing in the crowd to get my cocktail.
Dalí... even though it doesn't bring
me happy memories, I like my name. I remember my owner telling me I was named
after a great painter from Earth--she even showed me some of his paintings.
They were good. But that was before she left me in the pound, not even caring
to look back, or giving me any explanation for such act. Ah, but I wasn't to
stay there, no way. I ran away the day after I was disowned, only to become
a homeless pet, and a thief. Well, at least I was good at it--I even had a reputation--and
the only thing that kept me from joining the Aisha Thieves gang was being a
Kyrii. And not to brag, but what a good-looking Kyrii I was, painted Fire. I
stole the paintbrush myself, after a few weeks on the job, and I still remember
the looks people gave me when they saw me, with no owner, painting myself Fire
at the Rainbow Pool... but I don't care anymore, I'm a grown up Neopet now,
and I can do well without an owner. Moreover, if I were to have an owner like
my first one, it would be way better not to have any.
Life isn't all that miserable when you don't
have an owner, you know? In fact, I even think it's easier. After running away
from the pound, I lived a tough life for a week or so. But that was before becoming
a thief. I started to steal my food and everything I needed to survive. Then
I made friends and improved my stealing skills, even managing to steal a paintbrush
and enough Neopoints to build a NeoHome. I doubt I would have had all this in
such little time if I was with a human.
There I was, thinking about my life, when Pete
returned with my drink.
"There you go," He said, whilst setting it in
front of me.
"Thanks Black Eye. Hey, where's that Usuki glass
I asked for?" I laughed, and my friend did, too. The Jetsam sat down in front
of me, and sipped some of my drink.
"So, Dalí, you heard what they're saying?" He
asked.
"What do you mean?" I hadn't heard anything;
I was too focused on my drink to listen to the thieves talk.
"They say it's a big job. Someone's hiring thieves
and promising big rewards," Pete made a move to take my drink again, but I stopped
him and swallowed down what was left of it, "Today, when I arrived here, there
was this note on the door, asking all 'decent' thieves and robbers to be at
the beach tomorrow, at midnight. It said 'good reward guaranteed', too."
The reward part got my attention. I was always
in if there was a good reward involved.
"Are you going, Pete?"
"I don't think so. I've got work here, you know,"
Pete stood up, getting ready to pick more drinks, but before going, he whispered
to me, "You should go, Dalí. The Aisha Thieves gang will be there..."
I smiled at the Jetsam. He knew about the negative
answer I got from the Aisha Thieves, and also knew I wanted to show them the
big mistake they made, and make them regret having turned me down.
"I'll go, Pete. Those bratty Aishas will see
just what they lost..." Black Eye smiled back and in a second was off to take
an impatient client's order.
I stayed where I was and my mind wandered again,
but this time not about my life but about the hiring that was going on. Why
would someone need so many thieves? Usually if one needed help, they would just
come to 'All Ya Can Drink' and ask someone, not leave a note calling all thieves.
All that seemed odd to me, but there was a reward promised, and at the time,
it was all that mattered.
"I hope it's a Neopoints reward," I thought,
"I could use some more furniture, and that's somewhat hard to steal because
they're so big and heavy... In this case, I think it would be okay to buy it."
Just as I was wondering what kind of couch I
wanted, someone took the seat in front of me. Before I even had the time to
see who it was, a sweet 'Hey' was heard, and I realised immediately who the
pet in front of me was.
"Hey, Eclipse!" It was Eclipse, a friend from
the times back when I was still living in the streets. I met this Shadow Aisha
when I was celebrating a successful theft with my old buddy Ceres. After we
met, we became an unstoppable trio of thieves. Eclipse was really notable in
the art of stealing, it was with her that I learned the best moves, and we had
a solid friendship. I hadn't seen her since I left to come to Krawk Island,
so I was incredibly thrilled to meet her again.
"It's been a long time, eh, Prince Charming?"
Eclipse winked at me and smiled beautifully. Prince Charming was the nickname
she gave me when we met because of my extreme good manners. Of course I lost
half of those good manners through my thief life, but the nickname kind of got
stuck, and she would always call me that.
"Indeed, Eclipse. What are you doing in Krawk
Island?"
"I came to visit you, my buddy Dalí! I missed
you a lot, you know?" Eclipse stood up and swiftly walked to the bar, returning
shortly after with two bottles of the tavern's special drink, that she dropped
on the table. She pushed a bottle in my direction and drank some from her own.
"Thanks. And where's Ceres? Did he come, too?"
I asked while opening my bottle.
"Oh, no, he has an owner, now."
"What?" I couldn't believe it. Ceres with an
owner? He hated humans ever since he got abandoned! How could this be?
"Oh yeah, he found a red Draik Morphing Potion
and morphed himself. Then he just thought he was too pretty to walk around with
no owner, so he found a really rich one and left the streets," I could feel
disappointment in her voice. I was a little disappointed too, "But that's the
way life goes. Sure he is rich now, but I doubt he has as much fun as we do!"
Eclipse raised her bottle and said, 'To freedom and fun'. Then she swallowed
down the rest of her drink.
"But, there's also another reason I came," She
continued, "I heard there was this huge hiring going on, here. With great rewards
and all."
"Yeah, I heard about that, too. Black Eye told
me," I said, gesturing in the bar's owner's direction.
"So you're going."
"Yup." I finished my drink and set the empty
bottle aside. "You wanna go with me?"
"I was afraid you wouldn't ask, Prince Charming!"
Eclipse giggled and took my paw, "Let's get outta here, this place is dull.
I heard you have this really pretty home, show it to me!"
Eclipse threw a bag of Neopoints to Pete to
pay for the drinks and pulled me out of the tavern. I took her to my NeoHome
and told her she could stay there for as long as she wished. We had lots of
fun remembering the good ol' times, and I was glad my good friend was back.
The next night, we walked to the beach to attend
the hiring meeting, arriving ten minutes before midnight. There was a crowd
already--lots of Neopets dressed in black with dishonest and mean looks on
their faces. Eclipse and I joined the crowd and sat on the cold sand, near the
ocean, waiting for something to happen. In the crowd I spotted Purrow, one of
the Aisha Thieves, and the Meerca Brothers, among other famous thieves.
"Dalí, look at those guys," my shadow
friend said, pointing to a group of faerie pets, "Do they look like thieves
to you?" She raised her eyebrow and gave them a disapproving look.
"Not at all... I wonder what they're doing here."
"Maybe the--" A flash of purple light above
the ocean interrupted Eclipse's hypothesis. Everyone turned to look at it. The
light got even more intense, and then I realised who it was: the Dark Faerie!
She floated above the water, and slowly flew to the beach, while examining all
the Neopets that were present.
"Humpf," the Dark Faerie said when she landed
on the sand, right next to the faerie pets, "I see there are some souls here
that aren't taking this seriously... You should know better than this," And
with no more words, she waved her hands making about one third of the crowd
disappear in a puff of smoke.
"Now that we got rid of the intruders, we can
start our business," The faerie of darkness looked at all the thieves and paused,
"Each of you will get a different paper telling you a store or house to steal
from. You must bring all the items or Neopoints specified in the paper to this
exact place tomorrow by one in the morning. Succeed and you shall be rewarded.
Fail and, for your own good, you should never return..." She waved her hands
again and a piece of paper appeared in the hands of every thief, "Those papers
will self destruct in 30 seconds. You must not tell anyone about this, or else...
And do not try to cheat--remember, I know it all..." With that said, the Dark
Faerie flew above the ocean again and disappeared in the distance.
I looked at my paper and read '50,000 NP'. It
was a ridiculously high amount of NP to steal in just 24 hours; the max I had
even gotten in one day was 10,000 NP... but then I heard Eclipse sighing and
muttering, "50 Salt Motes and 20 Lava Motes? This Faerie is insane...."
Eclipse and I parted to get our assignments
done. She went to the market and I went straight to the residential area, hiding
in the first dark alley I found. I leaned against the wall and paid all the
attention I could to the noises outside. I heard steps and they sounded like
human steps! I waited until the person got close enough and then jumped out
of the alley, grabbing the bag of Neopoints the passing girl was holding. I
ran as fast as I could, ignoring her screams and entered the next alley to repeat
the move.
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! |
