The Petpet Detectives: Case of the Runaway Raindorf - Part Five

      Before we left, the four of us paid a visit to Sabra. The striped Cybunny was worried. Comet had been on his own for four days now.

      "Oh, I hope he's all right…" Sabra moaned; her eyes filled with concern. Her sister appeared in the doorway as well.

      "Please find him soon," Kara called, waving a yellow paw and the Wocky added, "and be careful."

      Luna and Damien waved as they climbed onto my back. With a few steps to gain speed, we flew into the sky and above all of the little houses on Blizzard Lane. I headed north: straight for Terror Mountain and the wave of pine trees that covered it. I had a feeling that Comet was smart enough to take shelter in the mountain from the blizzard two nights ago.

      We soared over the tops of tall, dark green pine trees before landing on a small hill to check the brochure. It had a map of Terror Mountain, all labeled and what not. Just as my paws hit the snow, Luna slid off and unfolded the brochure from her Faerie Back Pack.

      "Oh, good. There's a clearing here that the wild Raindorf must like to play in."

      "How far is it?" Damien asked, zipping up his green jacket a little further.

      "Close," Luna replied, following the path to it with her shadow-colored paw. "Just up this hill, we should be able to see it."

      "Great!" I remarked, "let's go."

      Luna was right. At the top of the small hill was a long flat clearing, covered with snow. There were no trees at all and everything was still. The Raindorf, standing in a cluster, were sniffing at the snow and digging with their front paws. Clumps of snow were flying into the air as other Raindorf scampered about, trying to avoid being hit or chased.

      "Shh," said Luna, "don't frighten them."

      We inched closer, but they were too involved in their jovial game to notice us. Four pairs of eyes skimmed over each one of them, but there was no trace of a Raindorf wearing a blue collar.

      "Let's keep searching," suggested Damien and he and Luna hoisted themselves onto my back again.

      It seemed as though we spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon doing this. Find a few Raindorf, land to get a better look, then fly off again. My wings and legs were getting tired, and numb from the cold.

     Terror Mountain perked me up a bit. It was a very cool thing to see-and for once in my life, it made me feel tiny standing next to it. Getting to the mountain only led to searching up and down it, but that wasn't so bad. It was a steely gray color, with snow and ice at the edges and on the peak.

      We ended up resting on a cliff after searching half of its twisty paths.

      Luna nudged me, (what seemed like only ten minutes later) and said, "Come on, let's keep searching."

      "Right," I mumbled, forcing myself to get up. As much as I wanted to stay there and take a nap, I knew we had to find Comet: and before nightfall would be good. Damien stood up and brushed the flakes of snow off his coat. Charlie curled up in the collar of Damien's jacket and stayed there all the way down the mountain.

      Just a little ways from the base of Terror Mountain was a very long and flat clearing that stretched for what seemed like a mile. It was all around us too, so there was no way we could walk around.

      "Wow, check this out," I said as Luna, Damien and Charlie caught up, "it's a long patch of ice."

      "I'll race you across," Damien said to Luna, and she grinned.

      "Sure! Let's go!"

      The two of them began sprinting down the ice, slipping and sliding all over the place. Both ended up laughing and I couldn't help but smile. It was nice to see them having fun, since we had been serious all day. They were acting like a couple of kids, throwing snowballs and sliding all over the place. It was easier to fly now too, since I had no one to carry.

      Luna took a running start and rocketed across the ice on her stomach. She slid several more yards and laughed. Damien's boots kept him on his feet pretty well, so he was able to run faster.

      "Damien, wait up!" Luna called and the royal Aisha turned back and said,

      "Come on, you're slower than a Slorg!"

      "All right, enough fun for the day," I called, from high above Luna and Damien. "Let's go."

      "We're coming, we're coming." Luna stood up and took a few steps, but found herself looking down on the ground. She was staring at a shadow Yurble-her reflection. "Hey!" she exclaimed, bending over to wipe the fresh snow off the ice, "look, we're standing on a lake."

      "I didn't know Terror Mountain had a lake," Damien remarked, peering through the hazy ice. "This must have been frozen over for some time. I don't think it ever defrosted…"

      "Probably not," said Charlie, climbing down from Damien's collar and pressed his face up against the ice, "Even in the summer Terror Mountain doesn't get warm enough for the ice to thaw."

      "I guess not. I just can't see how Neopets would want to live in a world that's cold all of the time."

      "Me either," I said, soaring in circles above them. "Come on, it's freezing and we still need to find Comet. I see some Raindorf up ahead."

      Damien took Charlie and he and Luna crossed the lake.

      ***

      Back at the Snowy Inn, a green Kacheek wandered in, clutching a small, crumpled piece of paper in his hand. His eyes nervously scanned the area, looking for the two Neopets who visited him two days ago. A red Lupe was sitting at the front desk.

      The Kacheek cleared his throat and started over towards the desk. He had to stand on his tiptoes to just barely see over the top. He cleared his throat again, hoping that the Lupe would hear. Unfortunately, the red Lupe didn't look up.

      "Uhh," Teagen began. "Excuse me?"

      The Lupe, Terrak, looked down, fixing his eyes on the Kacheek. "Can I help you?"

      He said slowly, "My name's Teagen. I need to speak with M-Marlo or Luna."

      Terrak's eyebrows knitted together in confusion, "and how am I supposed to know who they are?"

      "Well, uhh, they're detectives. I have something for them… something they'd like to see."

      "The ones searching for the Raindorf?" Teagen's head moved up and down slowly, "I believe they left a little over an hour ago," Terrak informed him. He leaned a little closer to the Kacheek and asked, "Would you like me to see that it gets to them?"

      Teagen stood, transfixed by that mean-looking smile. "No, th-thank you. I'll just make sure it gets to them later."

      Taking the paper with him, and trembling from head to toe, Teagen exited the Snowy Inn.

      ***

      The four of us stood absolutely still, watching a group of Raindorf in a nearby clearing. It must have been the eighth group of Raindorf we had spotted. Again, we were hidden behind a small hill, four pairs of eyes searching for a blue collar.

      The Raindorf were completely oblivious to the fact that we were hiding just a few yards away. They pranced around, kicking up snow with their hooves and sniffing the air. These petpets were very playful and loved to move together. My eyes were pretty good, but with more than fifty Raindorf, one in particular was hard to spot. But, then:

      "Look!" Charlie whispered, "in the center!"

      Sure enough, in the center of the circle, licking his back leg was: Comet! Around his neck was a slightly frayed blue collar, and the gold tag glimmered under the sun.

      "Let's get him," I said. "Spread out."

      Damien and Charlie went to the left and Luna to the right. On three, we were to spring forward and race towards the center of the Raindorf.

      Comet's docile… I thought to myself, He should come running right up to us. Luna held up three fingers. When the last one was down she pointed at the group and we charged through the Raindorf, sending them skittering this way and that. Comet yelped and ran with the others, but Damien and I herded him to the right. He took off at a grueling pace, dashing across the snow and almost out of sight.

      "There he goes!" I pointed with a white paw, "come on!"

      Luna, Damien and Charlie climbed onto my back and I soared low to the ground so we could find Comet. He was seen trotting alongside a cluster of pine trees and then all of a sudden he disappeared.

      "Where'd he go?" I asked loud, to be heard over the wind.

      "In that cave!" Damien pointed to my right. I swooped downwards in front of a wide entrance and the three on my back jumped off.

      "Comet's trying to hide," said Charlie. "Let's follow him."

      I removed the pea Chia from atop my head and asked, "Excuse me?"

      "But we don't know where it leads," protested Luna, ignoring my unwillingness. "It could be dangerous!"

      "Well, we're about to find out," Damien said, beckoning us forward. Without turning back the four of us started into the cave, wondering where on Neopia it could lead…

To be continued...