Darkness Gathering: Part Three

     When the table was set, Shine sat down slowly, watching Harmony. Normally, you could tell by the expression on her face if she thought Shine was up to something. However, she addressed him normally when she said, "So, did you clean your room?"

     "Umm…yes," Shine lied.

     "Good, less work for me. I have so much weeding to do. You have no idea. I've had the strangest day today. You'd think things would stop getting worse at some point, but as far as I can tell, they don't."

     Shine wasn't sure what to say to that, so he ate his dinner in silence, still thinking about the day's events. He agreed wholeheartedly with Harmony that things don't stop getting worse or, in his case, confusing.

     "So how was your day?" Harmony asked, apparently trying to make small talk.

     "Er…Confusing," Shine replied, speaking with complete honesty.

     "Interesting," said Harmony, not sounding very interested at all. "Where's Supernova?" she added. "Didn't she come in for dinner?"

     Shine suddenly remembered putting his protesting Petpet into the bag. His yellow Bluna would, of course, be expected at dinner. He gulped. Why hadn't he thought of that?

     "I'll go and get her," he said, springing up.

     He ran from the dining room, through the kitchen and into the hall, turned right and hurtled toward his room. He wrenched open the door and saw that he bag he had hung over his bed was wriggling slightly.

     "Hang on," said Shine, "I'll get you out!"

     Supernova the yellow Bluna came whizzing out into the room, yelling angrily at Shine. "Look, if you would have kept me in that bag another minute I swear I would have frozen the backs of your ears!"

     "How?" Shine laughed, "You would still be in that bag. You wouldn't be able to freeze anything!"

     Supernova, though very bright, seemed to be stumped at the question. It was rather obvious that she hadn't thought of that. But she didn't stay angry at Shine. No one ever did. He had a knack for making people happy, even if he was sad. "Why did you lock me in that stupid sack anyway?"

     "I didn't think," Shine said, "I just pushed in everything I needed."

     "Needed for what?"

     "Shine!" Harmony called from in the dining area, "Is Supernova in there?"

     "Tell you later," Shine whispered as they hurried into dinner.

     Shine and Supernova returned to the dining room for dinner. They sat beside each other at the table. Dinner after that was a very quiet affair. Harmony tried once or twice to engage Shine and Supernova in very forced conversation, and, although both answered normally, the conversations were very brief. Harmony gave up on speech very quickly and resigned to eating her meal in silence.

     After dinner, Harmony began to clean up as Shine and Supernova raced into Shine's room. The first thing that happened was that Shine tripped over the same baseball bat as before and landed flat on his face.

     Supernova sniggered. Shine was very unabashed. There were more important things to discuss than the cleanliness of his room, or how klutzy he was.

     "Supernova," Shine began, "We have to leave."

     "Now? Why?"

     "I have to find my brother."

     "Oh…" Supernova appeared to not know what to say. "Shine, I'm sure your brother has a good home somewhere. Why can't we just drop it?"

     Shine tried to pretend that Supernova did not just tell him to drop his brother, but it was no good. He had to say something. "He's my brother, and my past. I can't just forget about him. Don't you understand?"

     Supernova looked horror-struck and apologetic. "Yes, I do. I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry."

     "Its fine," Shine replied. You just couldn't stay angry at a face like Nova's "I'm already packed. All we have to do is leave."

     "Now?"

     "Yes, now. We can't delay. It has been months since I last saw Blase. Who knows where he could be. It might take ages to find him!"

     "OK, I understand."

     "Let's go." Without further delay, Shine opened his window and set out into the night. Supernova followed closely. In her mind, if she stayed close to Shine, nothing bad could possibly happen to her.

     The night air was chilly and a cool breeze ruffled Shine's fur. The shadows were elongated by numerous street lamps. Shine looked around his neighborhood tensely.

     "Well. We should start in the pound. That's the place I last saw Blase and I don't know where else to go." Supernova agreed silently with a nod of her head.

     Two streets down and four streets over was where the pound was. Right in the middle of Neopia central, next to the food shop and the toy store. They made there way silently and without fuss, except when a car door slammed two streets over. Then they both jumped and stared about, nervously.

     They arrived at the pound and pushed to door open. Though it was night, the pound was as busy as it was during the day. Open twenty-four hours a day, the pound was quite possibly the most crowded building in the world at all times. Pets were coming in and pets were coming out. And the variety in their breeds couldn't have been more different.

     Shine sniffed, and smelled the now-familiar scents of iron and glass. His heart began to race. He was back.

     He walked with shaky knees up to the counter and rung the bell. A Uni came up to the desk, pink in color and kind in nature.

     "Hello there, little one," She said in a kind, high-pitched voice.

     "Hello," said Shine, "I need to see the records of a red Gelert. First name 'Blase'. Or at least, I think I do. I'm a bit confused."

     The Uni blinked. "There are two problems with that. I would need to know the numbers after his name."

     "Couldn't you just look for a red Gelert, with 'Blase' as his first name?" Supernova cut in.

     "I suppose I could," said the Uni, "But our records our private, except to family."

     "Oh," said Shine in relief, "I'm his brother. I can see them, can't I?"

     "Yes," said the Uni, "if you can prove it."

     Shine blinked. Was there any way he could prove his relation to Blase? He could describe Blase, but the Uni didn't have a description to check it against. Then, an idea came to him. He reached for his collar and took it off. There, stapled on the inside was the paper tag Blase had ripped off and gave to Shine the day he was adopted. This paper tag was pound authorized, if Shine had this he could prove anything to the Uni.

     He tore through the staples with his teeth and showed the tag to the Uni. She smiled. "Wait just a moment" and she left to go check their records.

     Shine waited tensely. Supernova was sitting precariously on his head. She was cold, but to Shine, that didn't matter now. All that meant anything was the Uni finding Blase's file. There must be millions of shelves in there. What if she couldn't find it? What if all their waiting was for nothing?

     Then the Uni returned, with a portfolio in her hooves. She walked up to the counter and handed it to Shine. It had the word 'Blase' written on the label, but it had been half torn off, the numbers removed completely.

     "Here," said the Uni, "Take as much time as you wish." And then she moved away to help the next customer.

     Shine opened the file with shaking paws, Supernova leaning intently over his shoulder.

     There was a picture of Blase, a red Gelert with scraggly fur. A scar over his right eye and two long scratches on his left ear were his distinguishing features. Though, he had looked not a day older than two weeks old when this had been taken.

     His name, date of birth, and other information were listed under the photo. A slip of paper with the new owner's info had been added to the file on the day of adoption.

     Shine read quickly. He wondered if he was allowed to take anything out of the file. He doubted it, but what choice did he have? He ripped out the address of the new owner and gave it to Supernova, who put it in their pack.

     Shine slowly walked up to the counter and slipped the file onto it. He didn't want to be around when the Uni noticed that he had removed the address. Then he turned and walked casually out of the door.

     ********

     "Shine!"

     Harmony was calling from the living room. She was watching one of her favorite movies for about the hundredth time. "Shine, I want some more popcorn!"

     No response. She called again. Nothing.

     She paused the movie and got up. She began to walk slowly to Shine's room. While she walked, she muttered, "If that Gelert ignores me one more time…"

     She opened the door and began to yell, "Shine!" but her angry yell became a scream as she noticed quickly the messy room, then the lack of certain objects, like collars and food, then the open window, and, finally, the absence of Shine and Supernova.

     She was in shock. How could she have let this happen? They had run away and Harmony had no clue as to where they had gone.

     Well, she thought she had no clue, until she saw the letter on Shine's dresser. The letter that had a small message on it, then an address. The address of a home of a faerie-in-training. This letter was her only hope. She picked it up and hurried out the door.

To be continued...