Molly - Back to the Box: Part One

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Late one night, an orange Grundo could be observed through the window of a small shop. His light orange eyes had dark rings around them, making them stand out from a distance, giving him a mistakenly evil look. He was wearing ruffled clothes that appeared to be orange and in his hands he held a small, dusty broom. The Grundo looked about him in silence, taking in the newly swept, vaguely clean floors and the rows of shelves half-filled with oddly shaped books.

     Outside the shop, a small crowd had started to gather, pushing against each other to be at the front of the line. A few of the crowd began to peer in at the windows, trying to decide what book to buy before the shop had even opened for another restock. The orange Grundo set down his broom and walked towards the entrance. Everyone started pushing and shoving even more, trying to be the first through the door they assumed he was about to open.

     To the customers' dismay he walked up to the window instead, pulling the curtain shut. He did this with the other windows too and a few of the smart customers withdrew from the crowd outside and went home, knowing the shop was about to close. The customers who stayed pushed forward, filling in the spaces left by those who had just departed. A moment later the door opened and the orange Grundo appeared, carrying a small bag on his back. He stepped through the door quickly and slammed it shut behind him.

     “Sorry, guys,” he said to the crowd, who were letting out cries of disappointment. “You will have to come back in the morning. I need my sleep, you know.”

     The customers started to protest, begging for one more restock. The orange Grundo refused, pointing out that the last five restocks had all meant to be the last one. He locked the door and walked through the crowd, who parted slightly to let him through. Behind him the Grundo heard the crowd start to slowly head home.

     ---

     Most of the orange lights of Kreludor had gone out by now, but thankfully the orange Grundo knew the way home. He had lived on Kreludor all his life, so it wasn't exactly challenging for him to make it home in one piece. He heaved a sigh of relief as he walked up the front path, taking in the familiar (although hard to see in the dark) sight of home. On the front doorstep was a pile of neomails with a note pinned to the top. As he unlocked the door, he read the note;

     Dear Bernard,

     Please get a neomail box; it would make everything so much easier!

     -The Kreludan Postman

     Bernard scrunched up the note as he walked through the door. Taking careful aim, he threw it into the small bin in the corner of the room. 'How many notes is that now?' he asked himself as he headed towards the kitchen. 'I suppose I better get a mail box just to shut him up...'

     Entering the kitchen, Bernard grabbed himself a quick snack and glanced at a small bowl on the floor in the corner of the room. It was a purple bowl with the name 'Molly' inscribed in gold letters. Sitting next to it was an identical bowl, and they both sat on a small purple mat. One bowl was half filled with water, but the other was empty. He filled it up with some left over food and placed it back down.

     Bernard headed sleepily upstairs to his bedroom, stopping on the way to peer through the door of a small room. Asleep in a basket in the corner was a faerie meowclops. She was curled up in a tight ball, one of her front paws sitting lightly on her nose. Her wings were flopped on her sides, shivering a little as she breathed. Bernard smiled, and headed off to bed.

     ---

     Molly the faerie meowclops was awoken in the middle of the night by a faint scuffling sound downstairs. She opened her eye sleepily and blinked a couple of times, adjusting to the dark. The scuffling sound came again, followed by a strange, faint laugh.

     'Odd,' thought Molly. 'Bernard generally doesn't laugh like that. What's he doing up in the middle of the night anyway?'

     She decided to get up and investigate, jumping off her pile of fluffy cushions and landing silently on the floor. A faint snore came from the next room, a snore which Molly recognised to be Bernard.

     'If he is sleeping in his bed, how can he be scuffling downstairs?' she wondered, taking slow, careful steps towards her bedroom door. She crept to the top of the stairs and peered down, her large eye now fully adjusted to the dark and taking in everything. She could just see the kitchen door from where she was. It was mostly closed, but through the thin crack left open she could see a flickering light. As she started to move slowly down the stairs, the laughter came again.

     'It's more like a cackle!' Molly thought to herself. She reached the bottom of the stairs and padded softly to the kitchen door. 'It could be a burglar... what do I do?' She took a deep, silent breath and was about to stick her head through the crack in the door when it opened. A strangely shaped blue thing floated out, holding a small sack. Molly stared in surprise and the thing stared back.

     “Didn't I steal that meowclops before?” he asked himself quietly, hovering in front of her. “Can't have, I don't remember stealing a faerie meowclops like her...”

     Molly remembered that he had stolen her once, before she had been painted faerie and before she had found the perfect owner of Bernard. She wanted to run, but her legs had frozen with fear. Her eye widened as the cackling thing emptied the few random things in his sack, pouring them onto the floor.

     “Well, it doesn't really matter,” he said gleefully. “Because it will be a nice shock for her owner to find his precious little meowclops gone. A good night's work for the Pant Devil!” He swooped down on Molly, who was frantically trying to make her legs or wings work. It was too late and by the time one of her legs finally moved, the Pant Devil had swooped down on top of her. He picked her up with a claw like hand and shoved her in his empty sack. Molly yowled as loudly as possible, remembering her voice and hoping Bernard would hear.

     “Oh shut up,” said the Pant Devil, tying up the sack and managing to muffle the sound of Molly's yowling. She kept yowling anyway, but Bernard was fast asleep and the sack muffled her voice so much it barely made it half way up the stairs.

     'What do I do?' Molly asked herself frantically, feeling the sack (and herself) being carried outside into the cool night air. 'If he takes me away from this place I might not get back!' She remembered last time the Pant Devil had stolen her. Last time he had carried her in his bare hands and Molly had managed to struggle her way out of his arms. He had dropped her from a height and not been able to catch her again. 'I suppose I could try that again...' she thought to herself.

     The Pant Devil felt Molly's struggles and he too remembered the incident of a meowclops escaping him. “Well,” he said to himself, “I won’t be letting that happen again!” He gripped the sack tighter, holding it firmly with both arms. He flew away from Kreludor surprisingly quickly, and Molly could soon feel the fresher air of Neopia through the sack. She started to panic, knowing that she was not even on Kreludor anymore.

     The Pant Devil apparently had a plan, which was not obvious to Molly who could not see through the sack. He flew above Neopia Central, trying to stay in the clouds so that nobody could see him. He skirted far around any passing flyers and headed directly to the Haunted Woods, passing Kiko Lake on the way. He soon started to go lower, dropping at an alarming speed so that nobody would see him. He landed near the Deserted Fair Grounds, where the usual sounds of people trying and failing to have a good time could be heard.

     “Right, better put this sneaky little thing somewhere where she won’t escape. I can come back for her later... stick her on the trading post or something!”

     Molly sighed, listening to this crazy creature talking to himself. She was too tired to struggle anymore and so for now she was trying to relax and regain some energy. The Pant Devil carried her to the base of a tree, far away from any of the commonly used tracks. He slipped through a small gap in the large roots of the tree, dragging the sack containing Molly in behind him. She wriggled a little in protest and to her surprise the sack came open. Leaping out of the sack, Molly tried to make a dash for it. Unfortunately, the Pant Devil had put her in a cupboard and he slammed the door shut in her face, cackling as she yowled to be let out.

To be continued...