The Petpet Detectives: Case of the Kidnapped Kadoatie - Part One

The Kadoatie, who was painted white and wearing a blue-jeweled collar, was called Jasmine. She was sitting in the lap of her owner, her head resting on her delicate paws. Every now and then her ears would twitch or her claws would appear, as if she were chasing a Miamouse in her sleep.

Despite the fact that it was well after midnight, Lance continued on his article. He was a writer-a very skilled one for that matter, who wrote weekly for the Neopian Times. After scribbling down a few more lines, the blue Draik picked up the paper and softly blew on it to dry the ink. Lance put the cork back on the near-empty inkbottle and picked up Jasmine.

She stirred and yawned, a little cranky from being woken. Lance carried her out of the study, along with his finished article. He blew out the candle and started to walk out of the room-but stopped.

He felt as if someone were… watching him. Lance glanced over at the window. It was slightly open, to let the cool month of Hiding air flow through. The silk curtains swayed in the breeze.

An uneasy feeling swept over him. He was sure he heard a noise-the pitter-patter of footsteps or a breath being drawn.

"Is someone there?" he called timidly. Lance squinted through his silver spectacles, hoping to see a shadow. He straightened his back, making himself look just over three feet tall before calling again, a little braver.

But there was no one around.

"I must be more tired than I thought…" Lance mumbled, more to himself than to Jasmine. Shaking the paranoid feelings away, they climbed the spiral staircase and soon were fast asleep.

***

At the end of Bracknell Road, in Neopia Central, stood a two story Neohome. It was old and crooked with its wooden planks sticking out from all angles and its windows cracked and dirty. The stained curtains were always drawn and there was no sign of anyone living there. Vernaxes gnawed at the rotting wood and Spyders crept up the walls. It had only one door that swung and creaked when opened, and a dim yellow light could be seen emitting from the second floor at night.

The houses that surrounded it were made of brick or marble, with their elegant windows, trimmed lawns and cutesy appearances. The Neohome made from rotting wood and filthy windows stood out like a Chia at a Lupe convention.

This old house on Bracknell Road would be the last place you would look if you were searching for a team of detectives. Yes, this house was the home of a group known as "The Petpet Detectives". Solving mysteries was what they did best. No sir, they didn't solve just any old case that came their way, mysteries involving petpets were what they specialized in.

***

It was the 5th day in the month of Hiding, and a very lazy day indeed. Normally I spent slow days browsing around Neopia, window shopping, or stretching my wings in the Neopian sky.

But today I just didn't feel like it.

Perhaps it was the rain that came down in a soft drizzle or the thick clouds above. A weight of dreariness was in the air and I felt that nothing could perk me up. I rolled my massive shoulders back, sinking even further onto the Green Sofa.

Being an Eyrie, a very large white Eyrie for that matter, my back legs and tail hung over the arm rest. I reached for another Blueberry Beetle Cracker on the coffee table and popped it into my mouth, spitting the beetle's shell on the floor.

"Marlo!"

I looked up to see an angry shadow Yurble, Luna, frowning at me from across the room, "That has to be the fortieth time you've done that today. Would you please pick those up now?" I lowered my head to the floor to see an impressive pile of beetle shells.

"Get your behind off the couch and pick those up, I'm trying to clean up around here," Luna said, her voice sounding angrier.

I rolled off the couch, falling on the beetle shells, causing them to crunch into tiny pieces. Using the broom and dustpan Luna had thrown; I swept up the shells and tossed them in the trash can.

Luna proceeded to dust the windows and old furniture, humming to herself. It's not like our home needed cleaning anyway. There hadn't been any reports of a runaway Warf or a stolen Snowbunny in months. And most of the time, our home was cleaner when we had mysteries to solve.

In case you haven't guessed yet, my siblings and I solve mysteries: petpet mysteries. So far we cracked a dozen cases all involving petpets and I decided we're finally good enough to be called "detectives".

This run-down place on Bracknell Road was supposedly our home and office. But what's an office without work to do? I don't mean the kind of cleaning work that Luna was doing. I meant detective work. Private Investigating.

Our owner used to be a private investigator, or a detective, whichever you want to call it. She was the one who got us into this type of business. But she left Neopia years ago. We didn't talk about her anymore. Luna and the two other members of our group were my siblings, but we didn't look at each other that way. We were comrades, friends-partners.

I sluggishly made my way upstairs to see if there was any more Blueberry Beetle Crackers that I had left. The second floor was one huge room that was our Evidence Room, as we liked to call it. It consisted of all sorts of clues, like a Slorg slime sample, an Airax feather and items that were clues in previous mysteries.

Two large desks were in one corner, and above those, several bulletin boards. A couple of squashy beanbag chairs were lying around and a Jazzmosis Poster hung from the wall. Loose papers were scattered everywhere and clippings from the Neopian Times were tacked to the bulletin boards. Articles like, "Petpet Thief Strikes Again" or "Team of Local Detectives Solve Mystery" or "Another Case Cracked By The Petpet Detectives"… we weren't too famous but here if anybody needed us.

Sensing that there was no more Blueberry Beetle Crackers, I sighed and went back downstairs.

"Three and a half weeks and not one case!" I yelled, after flopping back down on the Green Sofa. Luna looked down at me blankly. "What's wrong with these Neopians?" I asked, to no one in particular, "why won't someone just lose their petpet?"

"Marlo, please," Luna said, "nobody's going to purposefully lose their petpet."

"At least we'd have something to do."

"Why don't you go to the bazaar and see what the world is up to?" The Yurble asked. "I thought you liked doing that."

"Maybe," I muttered, rolling over on the sofa.

"And if you're going, pick up some more of those Cheese and Onion Crisps."

"I can't, Luna." Through clenched teeth I replied, "We don't have enough Neopoints to spend on snacks. We only make Neopoints for solving mysteries. And I don't see a mystery lying around here, do you?"

Luna sighed and abandoned her broom. She opened her mouth to say something when the door opened and two more Neopets came in.

It was Damien and Charlie, the last two members of The Petpet Detectives. Damien was a very handsome royal Aisha. He wiped his boots before coming in and gave Luna and I his friendly smile.

"Hey guys," said Luna cheerfully. "How was the 'Catacombs?"

"Fine," said Damien, setting down his copy of the Neopian Times.

"Where's Charlie?" I asked.

"Sleeping," said Damien, removing the pea Chia from the top of his hat, "When is he ever awake?"

Charlie was curled up in a ball and fast asleep. He was such a tiny Neopet. Despite his size, he was also very fast, and useful for slipping into small spaces. Charlie rolled over in Damien's paw and started to come around. "What'd I miss?" he asked.

"I brought the mail," Damien said, ignoring Charley's dumb question. There were three envelopes in his paw and he sank into the red chair and slit open the first one.

He scanned through it and turned to the others, "It's a thank you letter from Macy and Helen." Macy was the little Ona that we recovered a month ago.

"About time, it took us two weeks to find her," I muttered.

"Yeah, but she was such a cute little thing…" Luna said in her aw-what-a-cute-little-thing voice.

"Okay, she was cute, but annoying as heck," I replied dryly.

Damien raised his eyebrows and slit open the second envelop, "An invitation to the Usukicon."

"Wasn't that months ago?" Luna inquired.

"We missed the Usukicon?" I roared. All eyes were on me. I could feel my face heating up like a Baby Fireball, "Not that I wanted to go or anything… I need to have a talk with that mail-Ixi."

Rolling his eyes, Damien opened the third one and scanned through it. A look of excitement washed over his features and he stood abruptly, knocking the other envelopes onto the floor. "I think we may have another case!"

My ears perked up, Luna gasped and Charlie said, "Read it aloud!"

Damien did,

"Dear Petpet Detectives,

I am so glad that I discovered you. I am in need of your assistance. My precious Kadoatie was stolen from my Neohome and I have no clue how to find her. I will pay anything to get her back. Please say you'll help, you're the only petpet detectives I know.

Sincerely,

Lance

PS: Come quick!"

Under that was an address. Damien looked up at the others and passed the letter to me. I reread it to myself. "Well?" I asked, "Up for another case?"

"Wow, a missing Kadoatie," piped up Luna, her eyes bright, "that's a pretty rare petpet!"

"Let's go!"

"Now?" Damien asked, looking at me as if I was insane.

"Of course now, we have a Kadoatie to recover!" My heart was pumping. Finally! After our record-breaking month with nothing to do but look at each other, we were finally getting another assignment! I started outside, where lucky for us, the raindrops ceased. Bending my knees, Damien, carrying Charlie, came rushing out of the house, Luna not far behind.

"Where to?" I asked as the trio scrambled onto my back.

"Umm…" Damien consulted the letter, "Winding Wood Drive."

With a burst of adrenaline (and a couple powerful flaps of my white wings), we soared into the sky.

To be continued…