Dantam turned at that to see that the barge was drifting
steadily away from the dock--and there on the back end of it was Tessa! Dantam
leapt off of Tom and toward the fleeing boat, but he paused and turned back
for a moment. "Watch him!"
"Gladly," Feruli said, laying one massive paw
heavily across the man's chest as the Gelert went charging on toward the dock.
Dantam's feet pounded desperately on the boards
of the dock as he sped toward the end of it, his eyes fixed on the steadily
departing barge. When he reached the end of the dock, he planted his front paws
without hesitation and allowed his hind legs to tense and launch him into the
air. Even as he was flying toward it, the barge continued to move away from
him. Dantam strained his front paws forward as he came down, managing to just
barely catch hold of the back end of the barge as the rest of his body plunged
into the frigid water.
Dantam felt his tenuous hold slipping as the
strength of waters swirling from a combination of the tide and the propeller
of the boat whipped his body about for a few moments. But he dug his claws in
and clung on, taking a few moments to catch his breath and recover from the
shock of the water. Finally, with all of his might, he managed to drag himself
up, panting and dripping, onto the barge.
"Dantam!"
Dantam looked up and gave a lopsided smile. "Tessa."
He pulled himself up off of the deck of the barge and approached the forbidding-looking
cage, tongue still lolling. "Don't worry. I'm going to get you out of here,"
he assured her, even as he wondered just how he was going to do that. He put
his front paws up on the bars of the cage in order to inspect the heavy padlock
that held it firmly shut.
"Hey, what's all this noise back here?" a surly
voice called out. Dantam fell back down onto all fours and looked around frantically
for somewhere to hide, but it was too late. Before he even had a chance to take
another step, a man appeared from behind one of the other cages and spotted
him.
"What's this? Oh, a stow-away, is it?" the man
chuckled roughly. "Well, we'll take care of you." He bent down, picking up a
stray wooden board that lay on the deck and wielding it like a bat. Dantam tensed.
With a malicious grin, the man swung the board at him, but the Gelert ducked
out of the way just in time.
Thrown off balance by his missed swing, the man
toppled to his right, falling hard against Tessa's cage. Dantam watched in horror
as the cage slowly swayed over the edge of the deck and then plunged into the
water below, carrying Tessa, still trapped inside, with it. "Tessa!" Dantam
shouted, going to dive in after her as he watched her disappear beneath the
water, carried swiftly down by the weight of the cage.
But just as he went to jump, something grabbed
a hold of his leg. He turned back with a growl to see the man, still lying on
the deck where Tessa's cage had once sat, holding firmly onto him. "Where do
you think you're going? If I can't have one Gelert, I'll take anoth--" Dantam
spun suddenly and sank his teeth into the man's arm, causing the hand to reflexively
release him. As the man yelped and clutched his arm, Dantam stole his chance
to dive over the edge of the barge, feeling the man's hands making one last
unsuccessful grab for his hind feet as he hit the water.
For a few moments, Dantam was conscious only
of the swirling darkness and the feeling of the icy water pricking at him beneath
his thin coat of fur. He paddled blindly downward though, striving to keep his
objective in mind--Tessa. And gradually, his sight began to adjust to the water
and the darkness and he made out the steel cage just as it hit a large rock
on the sea floor. The lock splintered and the cage fell open. But although she
was free now, Dantam noted with distress that instead of paddling up to meet
him, Tessa only floated listlessly out of the cage--she'd run out of air already
and was too weak to make it to the surface.
Feeling his heart pound, Dantam put on an extra
burst of speed, propelling himself down to the bottom. His brow creased in concern
as he reached Tessa, but he realised that he was running out of air himself;
he didn't have time for anything but to get them both to the surface. Grabbing
her collar in his teeth, he pushed off from the ocean floor with his hind legs
and pulled them both up through the rushing currents.
Dantam's chest burned and his muscles ached as
he paddled desperately toward the surface with Tessa in tow. The sight of the
night sky above, distorted by the watery depths, seemed like an eternity away,
but the weight of Tessa hanging from Dantam's jaws acted as a constant reminder
to keep him moving upward even as he felt as if he could go no further. Finally,
his paws and then his head finally burst through the surface, hauling Tessa
up with him. A tremendous sense of relief flooded over Dantam as the waves lapped
lightly at him, and he greedily gulped in air through his clenched teeth.
After a few moments, he heard Tessa cough and
his relief sprang up anew. With the assurance of her steady, sputtering breaths
accompanying him, Dantam steeled himself and began paddling wearily back toward
the dock. By the time he neared the dock where Feruli and Silviana waited anxiously,
he could make out other forms behind them--flashing lights and figures in uniforms.
Through his steadily drooping eyes, Dantam saw a speedboat full of police Chias
leave the dock and go whizzing by.
The dock was only a few feet away now, but suddenly
he felt Tessa's collar snap in his jaws and Tessa, still too weak, began to
slide down into the shallow water. Dantam felt a moment of dull shock, but then
a familiar beak reached down and plucked the cloud Gelert easily up out of the
water before she could sink. Dantam hadn't even had time to react. Instead,
he looked up gratefully at his friends, and while Feruli carried Tessa gently
up onto the shore, Dantam pulled himself tiredly up out of the water, the broken
collar still hanging from his mouth as police Chias swirled around them with
questions.
***
Dantam and Tessa walked through the gate of the junkyard with a bag of Neopoints
and a few extra Neopets. As Dantam and Tessa had huddled shivering together
under a flannel blanket in the police station, they had been informed that there
was a reward out for the smugglers who'd just been caught, and all had agreed
that Dantam should take the money back to the junkyard. Most of the petnapped
Neopets who'd been found on the smugglers' boat and brought back to the station
had homes to go back to, but there were a few who had come from the streets
or the Pound or had been sold to the smugglers by their owners. They had happily
taken Dantam up on his offer to join him at the junkyard.
"Right through there," Dantam said, dropping
the Neopoints so that he could speak and nodding toward the path that wove through
the stacks of junk. "Everyone should be waking up soon, and I'm sure they'll
show you the ropes. They'll be so excited; we've never had so many painted pets
around here before," he chuckled. The new pets smiled shyly, nodding their heads
and walking off in the direction that Dantam had pointed.
Once they were out of sight, Dantam turned to
Tessa. He opened his mouth, but no words came forth. Finally, ducking his head,
he stuck his nose into the bag of Neopoints and shuffled around in it, saying
in a muffled voice, "I, uh, have something for you in here, Tessa."
After a moment, he pulled his head up out of
the bag, and Tessa saw that hanging from his mouth was her collar-torn but not
ruined. "I made sure to save it for you," Dantam explained, holding it out to
her.
Tessa hesitated, then spoke quietly. "Thank you,
Dantam." She reached over and took the collar in her own mouth. And then she
whipped her head quickly up and to the side, releasing the collar so that it
flew through the air and landed atop one of the tall piles of garbage that littered
the junkyard.
Dantam gasped, "Tessa! What are you doing? That
was your collar!" Tessa just smiled and nodded. "But, but-that was the only
thing you had left of your old life!"
"Exactly," Tessa stated, but Dantam only looked
more confused.
"Tessa, I'm sorry about Tom-so sorry. I don't
know if I'll ever be able to find your real owner, and I'm sorry for that too.
But whatever I do, I'll find you a home, I promise, and it'll be just like your
old one."
"Dantam, you're not listening." Tessa was beginning
to sound exasperated. "I have a home-it's here."
"Tessa, you don't mean that. Don't you want
an owner?"
"Dantam, maybe my owner was someone like Maddy
who loved me and who I loved back. I know I'd like to believe with all my heart
that he was. But he could have been someone like Tom too." Dantam opened his
mouth to object, but Tessa held up a paw. "But it doesn't matter either way,
because that was my old life, just like you said. My life now is here,
and I don't want to go back. This is where I belong now Dantam-in the junkyard,
with you."
Dantam's jaw fell open and he simply sputtered
for a few moments. Then, as her words continued to wash over him, an uncontrollable
grin spread across his muzzle. "Y-you mean...you want to stay here? Forever?"
"Nobody's supposed to stay here forever, Dantam."
Dantam's face fell before Tessa's broke into a radiant smile and she nuzzled
his cheek playfully. "I guess that makes us a pair of nobodies." Dantam's smile
quickly returned, and he found himself laughing as he nuzzled her back, feeling
happier than he had in a very long time.
***
The junkyard pets emerged from their boxes, barrels, tents and other shelters
as the first fingers of sunlight reached out over the Eastern horizon. Yawning
and stretching, they walked together down the path that led out of the junkyard,
pausing suddenly as they reached the gate and spotted their leader sitting atop
the tiny hill outside the junkyard, watching the sunrise-with Tessa leaning
lovingly against his shoulder. With secret smiles and whispers, the Neopets
made their way quietly past the two Gelerts and out into the streets of Neopia
Central, knowing that things around the junkyard would never quite be the same
again. The leader they all depended on had finally found someone who he needed
just as much.
The End | 
