Watching Zodiac

     Soon after that, though, the shrieks of a random pet would pick up. Today, MC, the split Aisha, was chasing after Goddess, the skunk buzz.

     "Goddess! Give me back my Halloween Aisha plushie!" MC roared.

     "Never in a million years, you insignificant Aisha!" Goddess called back, grinning evilly.

     Chasing Goddess around the house, first thing in the morning, was never a good thing to do. Goddess could fly, whereas MC couldn't. Not only that, but they were barging into every room and waking the occupants up early.

     The first room the entered was Demon's room. Demon was their owner, and liked to sleep as late as she could. Today, that wasn't possible. Goddess flew over the starry beanbag Demon was sleeping on. MC, eyes on her prey, didn't stop to look if anybody was there. She leaped up into the beanbag, landing on Demon's stomach, who twisted and writhed under the Aisha's claws and tried to regain her breath as quickly as possible.

     "MC!" she spluttered.

     "Sorry!" the Aisha yelled back, hopping off and continuing her chase after the buzz.

     The room after that belonged to Seiyre, the faerie Kougra. He was asleep on his bamboo bed, gently purring along with his dreams. Leading MC onto the table beside his bed was an easy task. The only way to wake Seiyre up in the morning was to break his things. MC had perfected that yesterday morning, when the buzz had stolen her desert Aisha plushie.

     "MC!" Seiyre growled, as he heard his coconut lamp break into pieces.

     "She did it again!" MC screeched, following Goddess into the next room.

     The room where Goddess had planned to end the torture was in her own. It was made of stone, as was much of her furniture, so MC would easily end up with a few, big knots on her head.

     "Give him to me!" the Aisha shrieked, leaping at Goddess. The ashen gray buzz only flitted to the side as MC slammed, head first, into the cold rock wall on the far side of Goddess' room. "How do you know it's a 'he?'" Goddess taunted. MC hissed as she sat up, glared at Goddess and rubbed her head.

     That's when the voices from the other rooms started filtering through the doors. The other three occupants of the house were all calling to MC, which worked to Goddess' plan perfectly. They were all going to go after the Aisha, instead of the buzz that started it all.

     Demon charged into the room, she didn't look happy at all. Neither did Seiyre, who had followed her in. Seto, the white Lupe, was the last to enter. He had used the door from the courtyard. "Why?" he asked innocently. "Why are you making noise this early in the morning?" He yawned, revealing his sharp, puppy teeth.

     Seiyre calmly walked over to the Aisha, and grabbing her tail in his jaws, padded silently out of the room and back into his own, where he released and glared at her. "Aww, come on! It's not my fault she picks on me," MC whined. The faerie Kougra quirked his eyebrow, "Well, if you didn't let it bother you, she would stop." MC gasped, thinking of the horrible things Goddess could do to her precious plushies.

     "But... But... If I don't let it bother me... Think of all the horrible things she could do!" MC stuttered. The winged Kougra looked at her, sympathetically.

     After the course of the next hour, the four pets and their owner had eaten breakfast. Goddess had eaten raw meat, from some unknown source. She's offered some to Seiyre, who refused it politely but with a look of disgust on his face. Seiyre, the only vegetarian in the house, had eaten tigersquash. MC ate three chocolate sprinkle donuts and tried to con a fourth off of Seto, who ate a donut and cold cereal. Demon hadn't eaten anything by the time her Neopets were ready to leave. She planned to pick up a bagel on her way to the furniture store in Neopia Central.

     The pets lined up by the door. MC had clawed her way to Goddess' back and Seto was sitting on top of Seiyre.

     "Where do you four think you're going?" Demon asked, a quizzical look on her face.

     "Aren't we going with you?" MC asked.

     "No, you're not. Do you remember what happened the last time you came shopping?" Demon shuddered, thinking about the rampaging Lupe pup and buzz that had cost her over 50,000 NP in damage repair costs. "No," she said finally. "You three are watching Seto, today."

     Goddess was the first to groan, followed quickly by Seiyre and MC. MC didn't like to be around the manacle buzz when Demon wasn't home. Seiyre hated having to keep the other three pets in line and Goddess couldn't stand being cooped up in the house for so long. Seto rather liked staying home while Demon was gone. This provided him ample time to play and sometimes he even talked Seiyre into taking him to the beach to make sandcastles.

     Seto waved goodbye out the window as he watched Demon take the shortest route to the 10:00 ferry to Neopia Central and disappeared out of sight. The Lupe turned around and looked into the faces of his siblings, eyes shining bright.

     "Where are we going first?" he asked, tail wagging a mile a minute.

     "Where are we going?!" MC cried. "We're not going anywhere. We're staying home and watching you."

     "Why can't we go to the beach?"

     "Well... I guess it won't hurt to go to the beach," Seiyre mumbled.

     Seiyre had barely finished his sentence before Seto ran out the door, towards the beach, at top speed. The three other pets gaped out the door and the patch of white quickly disappeared. All three of them were completely stunned that he'd leave so fast.

     "Uhh... Guys? Shouldn't we go after him? He might get stolen?" MC asked.

     "He has his tags," Goddess retorted.

     "No, he doesn't," Seiyre muttered.

     "He doesn't? And you let him run off like that?!"

     Goddess wasn't the only pet that was scared of Demon's wrath. It could be quite a scary thing. She wasn't nearly as tough as she wanted to be, but that didn't matter. She was tough enough, for now.

     Seiyre was the first one to bound out the door in search of Seto. After a mighty leap, the Kougra was airborne and flying fast to the beach of Mystery Island. MC had hopped back onto Goddess' back. The buzz only had to take a few strides of her long legs to be half way across the yard and after that point, she too, was flying; wings beating as fast as they could.

     It only took Goddess a matter of seconds to catch up to Seiyre. When they were in range, MC hopped into the buzz's arms, who happily threw the Aisha onto the Kougra's back. It was only then that Goddess heard her name being called.

     "No," she begged. "Not him. Not now."

     She hung in midair for a moment, before turning around to look for the voice's owner. It was who she thought it was. Raniozin.

     Goddess stared at him for a minute as her right eye began to twitch.

     "I knew you heard me," he said as he zoomed at her and tackled her down into the sand. "I haven't seen you in such a long time! Where have you been?" he asked, hugging her.

     "I've been avoiding you," she said, fiercely.

     "So spunky," he murmured. "So, what you been up to?"

     "Rani, this is not a good time to talk. We have to get Seto and..." she said, pulling away from him, her stinger at the ready.

     "Seiyre and MC can get Seto. He's not that hard to catch."

     "Yes. Yes, he is."

     "Oh, no."

     "What?" Seiyre asked the Aisha

     "Rani."

     Seiyre looked back at the beach and saw Goddess running away from the blue buzz with. He sighed, knowing she wouldn't be able to get away from him.

     "But you have to admit that they're kinda cute together," MC said, turning her attention back to the sea, which Seto had set off into.

     He seemed to be heading toward the mainland, although he didn't know where the mainland was. Seto may have been a puppy, but he was a really fast swimmer. Seiyre decided to let him swim until he got tired, then swoop down and let MC pluck him out of the water, like a Korbat catching a Koi.

     An hour passed by and Seto still wasn't tired. Seiyre estimated another ten minutes before he gave out, but noticed that they'd land in the Lost Desert before those ten minutes were over.

     "How in the name of Fyora did he swim all the way to the Lost Desert?" MC asked.

     "No idea," Seiyre answered. "At least we'll be able to bring him back home."

     "Not even a jetsam could swim that far that fast! What's he on?"

     "The sugar from the donut and cereal he ate for breakfast."

     "I mean other than that," the Aisha said.

     Once Seto walked onto the beach of the Lost Desert, he immediately took off to the north. Both MC and Seiyre were wondering how he was still going. By this time, Seiyre was lagging behind.

     "MC, trail him. I need to rest," the large Kougra said as he made a sloppy landing on the edge of the bazaar.

     "You can count on me!" MC piped, saluting him. She quickly bounded off after Seto, who was now just a spec on the horizon. "Seto Zodiac!" she called after him. "Get your fuzzy rump back here!"

     After about a mile or so of trailing him, MC was weak and stumbling around. "This kid... Really needs to... Eat more vegetables..." she panted.

     "Hey! MC! Where're you headed?"

     The spit Aisha turned to look at Hai-Kuu, the red Korbat.

     "I'm trying to catch Seto. He literally ran off this morning and swam here and now he's running towards the Haunted Woods."

     "You're joking?" the Korbat asked.

     "Nope."

     "Why don't I fly after him? I'll send a message to Seiyre after I hog-tie him and wait until you two come to get him," he suggested.

     "You'd do that?" MC squealed, here eyes full of stars.

     "I know what a handful he can be. Don't worry, I'll take care of it," he said as his wings lifted him into the air.

     "Thank you so much!" MC crooned as the Korbat flew off after Seto. Now she had time to find a food shop.

     Even as fast as Hai-Kuu could fly, he couldn't keep up with Seto. Although the Lupe was in sight, the Korbat knew there was no way to catch up. Using his advanced sound manipulation, Hai-Kuu sent back a message to Seiyre that said, "Seto's in the Haunted Woods. He seems to be slowing down and he's heading towards the village. Do you know anyone that lives there that he'd know?"

     At long last, Hai-Kuu's wings gave out beneath him and he plummeted down into the trees of the Haunted Woods. His back claws managed to dig into a plump branch and he hung upside down, hoping that Seto Zodiac wasn't planning to leave the Woods.

     By the time Seiyre had received Hai-Kuu's message, he had already picked up MC and they were at the edge of the Woods.

     "Do we know anyone that lives here?" MC asked Seiyre for the hundredth time.

     "I don't recall knowing anyone here..." he answered again.

     "You sure?"

     "Where's Hai-Kuu?" the tiger asked.

     "I haven't seen him anywhere," MC said, her hopes of finding her little brother fell dramatically.

     Once Seiyre reached the town, he circled it a couple times, hoping to see the Lupe.

     "Hey, Seiyre!" a familiar voice called.

     Both the Aisha and Kougra looked down to see their friend, Gareth. Gareth was a Halloween Kougra. He smiled up at them as Seiyre fluttered down to land.

     "Is this your Lupe?" he asked, pushing Seto in front of the faerie Kougra and split Aisha.

     "That would be him, officer," MC said glaring at the Lupe.

     "You found him!" Seiyre gasped.

     "He said he wanted to come visit," the black and winged Kougra said.

     "You could've told me that!" Seiyre yelled at the pup, who giggled.

     "Why don't you three come in and rest? You've had a long day."

     Gareth had an unusual home. Most of it was dark, just like the Woods, but there were pillows everywhere. MC hopped onto the nearest one to rest her sore paws as Seiyre told Gareth about the day's events. Gareth went to send a message to Demon and hoped she received it before she went home.

     By the time Gareth came back into the room with the three other pets, Seto and MC had fallen asleep and Seiyre was almost asleep. The black Kougra padded over to the lilac one and sat next to him.

     "I've sent a message. Demon should be here shortly with the Eyrie Taxi Service."

     "Thank you," Seiyre whispered before he fell asleep and collapsed onto a very shocked Gareth.

The End

Demon's Note: Thank you so much for reading! Ya know, this is my first Neopet story I've ever written. I hope you liked it. And I'd like to give a big thanks to my friends Kitara (kitarakata), Cyrin (black_duelist), and Dar (darkangel825) for letting me put their pets, O_Gareth_O, Hai_Kuu, and Raniozin in here, even if they only had short cameos. Thanks, guys! I hope you won't be too mad at me if they're a bit out of character. And, everybody else feel free to Neomail me with any questions or anything at all. :)