Birthday Banditry: Part Four

Slyndar woke the next day to find his window wide open and sunlight streaming in. He scowled with disgust. Didn't everyone know that he preferred the dark? This was the doings of one his most feared enemies (he doesn't get out much)-his owner's optimism. The Shoyru slammed the window with disgust and snuck into the kitchen for breakfast. He grabbed the plate that his owner had laid out for him and scampered back up the stairs. He gobbled down the omelette and glass of orange juice and set his plate and glass beside the lamp.

      The shadow pet was always in a hurry when he was planning a scheme, except when actually planning the scheme, of course. He was liable to have a thought and drop everything to go jot it down. Naturally, there was a lot of broken glassware and pottery at his house. He sat down his chair and thought. He studied the blueprint carefully, regretting that he didn't take the time to do a sweep of the upper floors so his sketches were incomplete. He sighed, oh well, too late now. He couldn't sneak out because Elayth and Floof were home. Best not to worry about it, he thought to himself.

      Slyndar focused his attention back to the papers and carefully noted the main entrance located in the front of the building. He also memorized the coordinates of the Neogarden emergency escape route.

      The living room, dining room, and the kitchen were all located on ground level so that was the floor Slyndar intended to rob. He doubted that the cookies would be found upstairs, the unknown territory.

      The cookie robber committed to memory the position of the windows and the angle of the doorways. Not that all the information was helpful, it might turn out to be, but it was just fun to know. Nothing like some complicated statistics to boost one's intelligence quotient.

      The Shoyru muttered and calculated, marking possible routes, depending on where the party was going to be held. He circled possible exits, but had difficulty locating entrances.

      That could be a problem.

      If he took the front door, it would be obvious, and he believed the windows were too risky. He had to come up with something else.

      Suddenly, an epiphany hit him. He almost laughed out loud. Why hadn't he realized this before? The outside rooms were conveniently made out of edible material, right? A humorless smile crept on Slyndar's face. All he had to do was eat his way in. Well, not necessarily "eat." Too much chocolate made him feel sick, but he could cope with jelly though. He thought about it, but stumbled upon another hurdle. Who could miss a gaping whole in the exterior wall in broad daylight? He had to patch it somehow. Oh, he'll worry about that later.

      Okay, so that was temporarily out of the way. A bigger problem- where would he enter? He didn't wish to pop into a busy place, then even he couldn't think up a good enough excuse for his sudden appearance. What to do, what to do. The shadow pet paced on his jelly-rug-less floor. There weren't any safe entry locations on the ground level, he concluded, so the safe bet was the second floor.

      I'm sure you don't want to read about the whole planning process and his thinking strategies. What a coincidence, I don't want to type it all up, but both the writer and the reader is saved the trouble for Slyndar concluded that the majority of the plan he was going to have to improvise at Foozy's house. His reasons were simple: he was dealing with only half the blueprints here. Imagine going on a treasure hunt with only half the map. Can't get really far, can you? Same concept here. The best thing he could do is to plot the exits on the ground floor and pack basic essential burglar tools like a smoke mote (for cover-up), rope, grappling hooks, the usual.

     He sighed and leaned back in his chair, satisfied at his limited progress when a small figure appeared in his doorway.

     "Sly?" the voice asked.

     When the Shoyru heard the speaker, he immediately knew whose voice it belonged to. He hastily stuffed his papers into his desk and sat there humming, not-so-innocently.

     "Sly?" the cute, squeaky voice asked again.

     "Whaddya want?" The shadow pet grumbled irritably. He wasn't in the best of moods.

      His sister Floof cocked her head cutely and glanced at him, eyes wide with innocence.

      "Lunchy time."

      "What did you say?" Slyndar asked with a look of disbelief. "Crunchy time?"

      "No, lunchy time!" exclaimed Floof. She would have rolled her eyes if only she knew how.

      "Oh."

      The Shoyru hopped off his swivel chair reluctantly.

      "I should come, I suppose?" he added, airily.

      The baby Uni nodded uncertainly and skipped out his room. The shadow pet followed, wishing that he didn't give in to his sister's and owner's demands so easily.

      . . .

      Elayth laid out the lunch, and she watched her two pets approach the table with contrasting attitudes.

      Floof skipped and whinnied cutely like Unis sometimes do as she sat herself down at the table.

      Slyndar, on the other hand… paw…hoof…whatever, slumped into his chair. He merely glanced at his food glumly and rested his head on the tabletop.

      Elayth disapproved of this behavior, but kept silent about it. She was tired of all the comebacks and smart comments coming from the Shoyru's end so she just smiled at her baby pet who was happily munching. The Uni ate silently, but suddenly broke into babble.

      "Mommy! Tomorrow's the party!"

      "Yes it is, Floofy," cooed Elayth.

      Slyndar thought he could die of shame. He quickly glanced at the windows to make sure no pet was peeking in and listening to his family's baby talk. I don't know them, he thought. They just happen to share a house and dining table. Then he thought back to what his sister (though he wouldn't want to admit it)said. He lifted his head slightly. If one looked closely, one could discern the worry on his face. The party. It was tomorrow.

      "When are you going to bake the brownies?" asked the baby Uni eagerly.

      The teenager cried, (Well, not really. It's just a descriptive verb.) "Oh, no! I almost forgot! Oh, we still have time. We'll check to see if we've got all the ingredients."

      "Okie dokie. After lunch can I wrap the prezzie?" Floof squealed.

      "Sure, Floofy! I also bought some pink ribbon for you to use."

     Slyndar was panicking now, but he didn't show it. He raised his head slowly with casual elegance and put on his best bored and haughty look. Despite his appearance, he was nervous about the party he was going to rob. It was to be held at 2:00 NST, and he didn't feel if his plan was perfected yet, but then again, with robberies, you never knew until you've carried it out.

      "May I be excused?" inquired the Shoyru suddenly, but casually.

      "I, well, I guess so," replied his owner, "but you haven't touched your food."

      With that, Slyndar crammed his lunch into his mouth and started to head back to his room when he was called back.

      "Don't you want a chocolate Acara?" his owner asked with a faint smile.

      The shadow pet turned quickly and swiped one from the tray as a reply. He stuffed it in his pocket.

     Slyndar wasn't hungry anymore, but he still took it so he could sell it or auction it. The shadow pet built quite a bank account by doing this. He then ran upstairs and paced while he reviewed his plans.

      . . .

It was the day before the big robbery. Every member of the Confection Culprits was busying themselves with a task to help last minute preparations for Rainbowflash and her Jetsam bodyguard. Hypoteny went over the plan with the Kacheek and the fire pet while Socratis scanned their drawn out route, searching for unnoticed flaws. Coookie was packing the bandit's and fighter's backpacks. He selected one of his Neoquest plushies and gingerly placed it in the bandit's bag for good luck.

      Ever since the baby Acara joined the group, he was always assigned to pack things simply because he hadn't completed his training yet and couldn't do anything else. So he packed the supplies and always put one of his plushies in because he claimed that they brought good luck. This theory is not yet proven to be correct, but that didn't stop the trainee.

      On the other side of the room the leader was reviewing the escape routes.

      "Understand?" questioned the Blumaroo.

      Rainbowflash and Smirktooth nodded. Jaws set with determination, they headed back to the desk where their backpacks were laid. Coookie was standing nearby cuddling his Neoquest plushies.

      "Did you get everything we requested?" Smirktooth shot the question to the baby pet.

      Coookie nodded, still clutching his plushies.

      "Yuppers! Even the weapons you speci- …speci-… wanted."

      The fire pet rolled his eyes.

      "It's spe-ci-fied. Got it? Good. Did you pack the two exchange items?"

      The baby Acara nodded, but not before asking, "What are you going to do with them?"

      The two pets smiled evilly in unison.

      "You'll find out," said the bodyguard.

      The novice knew better than to argue with a fighter when he didn't have any Dewberry Revivers handy. He pouted for a while, but stopped when his superiors pulled out his Neoquest lucky charm.

      "Hey!" shouted Coookie. "Leave him in there! Growler didn't do anything to you!"

      Smirktooth held the plushie up quizzically.

      "Growler? You named it?"

      The baby Acara nodded.

      "Growler the Plains Lupe. I've gotta buncha others, but this one's the luckiest."

      Rainbowflash sighed and stuffed Growler back in her bag to please Coookie. A Plains Lupe plushie named Growler used as a lucky charm?

      Where did this pet come from?

To be continued...

Author's note: All names, characters, flavors of cheeses, places, and incidents are all by-products of the author's weird imagination. Any uncanny resemblance or namesakes are purely coincidental. That means I made up all the names myself. Feel free to drop me a Neomail about how what you thought of this part.