Innocent or Guilty?

      It all started this morning, when Mom told me to go get an avatar from Edna. I wasn't afraid of Edna, since Mom's been sending me there a lot lately. I was in the middle of the Haunted Woods, almost at Edna's place, when I heard someone, or something, running. I turned around when I felt something run past me from behind. When I turned back around, I saw lots of Elephante charging at me. I began to run, too, but I tripped and the Elephantes caught me. They surrounded me in a circle so tight the only way of escape was if I could fly. They began asking me strange questions.

     "Where'd you put the loot?"

     "Where's your little friend?"

     "You're criminal days are over, kid!"

     "What are you talking about?" I had asked them. "Who are you? What do you want? I'm no criminal!"

     "Keep quiet!" One of the Elephantes came up to me and kicked me. I fell on my stomach, and their voices were drowned out as I drifted into darkness...

     The Elephantes ended up being the Neopian guards, and they took me to this underground cell after the one Elephante kicked me unconscious because they thought me and a Silver Shoyru robbed the Petpet store. Yeah, right. I would never rob the Petpet store. I love all the Petpets there, especially the Warfs. In fact, Mom told me she'd buy me a Warf if I came back with her avatar. I sighed. I guess I won't be getting my Warf.

      * * * * *

     It's been three days since I've been captured. I lied down on my cell bed, and stared at the ceiling as I waited for dinner to come. I wondered what it would be tonight. Probably gruel, like it has been the past few nights.

     I was right about dinner. The Elephante guard opened my cell and placed the gruel on the table in the far corner. I got up as soon as he left and went over to eat. I didn't complain - Mom used to make me eat tons of gross foods. Some other Neopets did complain, however. They wanted food that seemed more edible. I ate my food silently and crawled back into bed.

     I don't know how long I slept, but I was awoken by a bright stream of moonlight coming from my cell window and shining in my eyes. I rolled over and looked up. The window was a short, skinny one coming from the ceiling and down about half a foot. It was two feet wide, with iron bars in between each half of the two feet, which let in quite a bit of light. I jumped off my bed and walked over to the pool of moonlight on the floor. I stood in the middle of it, looking out through my cell bars and into the cells of all the snoring Neopets. My eyes traveled around until they began to fill heavy. I tried to walk back to my bed, but I was too tired. I fell on the ground, asleep, just as a dark cloud drifted over the moon, making the jail cells completely dark.

     I had a dream that I was walking out of the cell, taking a few turns and climbing up a ladder. Then I snuck past some Elephante guards and climbed a few more ladders until I came to a brick wall. I pushed on a brick, and the wall opened. I walked through, and as the wall shut behind me, I climbed another ladder. I snuck past more Elephante guards and climbed a ladder and pushed open a trapdoor. I climbed up, quietly put the trapdoor down, and found myself on the roof of the jail. I slid down a gutter pipe and hit a balcony. I went through the door in the balcony, went through another door and found myself in a dark room. I opened up a little slot in the wall and I saw the room, where they were discussing my case. And in the stands were two Elephante guards holding by each arm a squirming Silver Shoyru.

     I woke up abruptly after seeing the face on that Shoyru. I found myself on the ground, and it was broad daylight. A cold plate of scrambled eggs was on my table. I got up and ate them. I was so hungry that I didn't care that they were cold and rubbery and tasted like glue. At least they tasted better than gruel.

     After I ate my breakfast I felt sick in the stomach, like I was going to throw up. All of a sudden, my mind flashed a quick playback of last night's dream, and I noticed the dates on a peice of paper on the judge's stand. I was captured on October 19, and my trial was on October 24. That means, since I've been here four days now, today was October 23, so my trial would be tomorrow. Of course, it was just a dream, but it seemed so real. I crawled back in bed and fell asleep.

     When I woke up, my throat was burning. I looked at the table and my dinner was there. I had found a pocket dictionary hidden in my cell, blocked by a loose stone, and I found out that I hadn't been eating gruel, because gruel was cereal-like food, and I've been getting extremely bad tasting noodles. I guess the rumors my schoolmates said about gruel were wrong. I got up and walked to the table and sat. I looked at my noodles and played with them with my fork, and after dinner, I walked back to my bed and fell asleep.

     The next morning, I got up a bit earlier than the breakfast Elephante. I sat on the floor and looked around, when I noticed something odd under my bed out of the corner of my eye. I bent down and crawled under my bed, finding a few loose stones. I pulled them, revealing a small tunnel just my size. I crawled in, and took a few turns, until I reached an opening. I suddenly remembered everything from my dream two nights ago, so I followed the exact same turns and came to the ladder, which took me to a hallway, where I snuck past Elephante guards perfectly, just like in my dream, and climbed three more sets of ladders. I found a brick wall when I climbed up the last ladder, and smiled. I pushed the correct brick and the wall opened. I found another ladder, and the wall shut as I climbed it. I snuck past even more Elephante guards until I found a ladder, which I climbed and opened the trapdoor quietly. I was on the roof, so I slid down a gutter pipe and went through the balcony door. I went through one more door, opened the little slot from my dream, looked through, and sure enough, there was a room, with two guards holding a squirming Silver Shoyru.

     I expected to wake up from this dream, so I pinched myself. I kept myself from yelling and I realized I wasn't asleep. I listened in.

     "So this Shoyru here stole Petpets and all the items...along with a yellow and blue spotted Blumaroo?" the judge asked.

     "Yellow and black, your honor," said an Elephante. "And yes, they did."

     "Where is this Blumaroo, might I ask?" the judge asked.

     "Uh, well, your honor, the guard we sent to get him hasn't come back yet, so..."

     Just then, an Elephante burst through the door, yelling, "HE'S ESCAPED! THAT MAD BLUMAROO HAS ESCAPED!"

     "What is this?" asked the judge.

     The Elephante came forth. "Your honor, the Blumaroo theif had escaped through a narrow passageway under his cot, and none of us fit through it."

     I ran out of the room and through some extra doors, not knowing where I was going, until I reached the room where the Shoyru was. I entered the room, and a few seconds after, a green Kougra entered. "He's innocent!" the Kougra cried. I recognized him as my brother Jarred. He said he had followed me, on Mom's orders, to make sure I didn't get lost or sidetracked. Mom came in, saw me, and hugged me.

     "What's with all this?" an Elephante yelled. He was about to say more when another guard came in, with a Blumaroo exactly like me, only with a bag of Petpet items only found at the store tied to his waist.

     "It took a while to find him," the guard said, "but we've now got the real deal!"

     "Be quiet! Like I'd ever tell YOU that it was my idea to steal from the Petpet store, and that Shoyru had nothing to do with it, I just made him!" said the Blumaroo. Then he stopped. "Oops," he said.

     "Take them both away! We'll deal with them later," the judge commanded. He looked at me. "Sorry for the confusion. You're free to go now."

     I jumped up in joy and Mom and Jarred did the same all the way home. When we got home, Mom said, "I wondered where you were until Jarred came back and told me, so I was thinking what we were going to do with this." Mom opened the door, and there sat an adorable little Warf!

     "I got it for you after they robbed the store of their items, so the owner let me buy him half price! His name is Willie," Mom said. I picked up the Warf and hugged him.

     "Hi, Willie," I said. I was so happy to be out, and best of all, I DID get that Warf I wanted! How lucky I was to have that dream, which I later found out was given to me by a passing faerie of an unknown type.

The End