The Food Thief

     Well, it wasn't really a very exciting job, but it was what Pergus knew how to do. He'd always worked there, after all, it wasn't like there were many job options in Kreludor. He either worked at the Mine, or the Cafe, or the Booktastic Bookstore. Other than that, he could serve in Dr. Sloth's army, but it was nowhere near what he wanted to do. His profession ran in the family, before him his father worked in the mine, and before him, his father did too. There had been generations and generations of Grundos in Pergus' family who had worked at the Kreludan Mining Corporation. It was a good job, even if it was a bit monotonous.

     It was just another ordinary working day at the mine and Pergus had stopped for his lunch break. He was a purple Grund, with orange eyes and a few orange spots on his body, not unlike other Grundos who also worked in the mine, but with different colouring or details.

     As they all worked inside the underground mine, it was not feasible to go back up to the surface just for lunch, so they used to take their lunch boxes with them inside the mine and store them on a designated shelf until break time.

     Pergus took his lunch box and sat down on a large rock in the corner of the mine, but before he could open it, Lomar, a Yellow Grundo approached and asked: "So what did you bring today?"

     "Moon Sandwich!" Pergus replied happily. "And you?"

     "Ah, I brought a generous slice of Metal Pizza!" Smiled the Yellow Grundo.

     Pergus was about to comment when his attention was entirely taken by Kika, a White Grundo who, shouting, interrupted everyone's lunch: "Lomar!!!" She yelled. "Lomar, did you eat my lunch again?"

     "What? No, I didn’t!" he answered. "You must have eaten and forgotten." Laughed the Yellow Grundo making other Grundos laugh too. Pergus just raised his eyebrows.

     "Grrr! You're kidding me, Lomar?! Where's my lunch?" She beat her feet furiously to the ground, it even seemed to make the walls of the mine shake. Everyone stared in astonishment at her. Kika was not the kind of Grundo you would want to get into trouble with. She was known for her rather tempestuous temper.

     "Calm down, Kika!" Lomar said with defensive hands. "I didn't take your lunch, I swear!"

     "If you want to, I can share my sandwich with you..." Pergus offered, but Kika refused.

     "You don't have to, Pergus, it's that scoundrel Lomar who has to give me his lunch!"

     "But I didn't do anything!" Lomar raised his hands up high. "I only took your food once and it was a joke, I gave it back!"

     "I don't believe you!" She grumbled and then turned around, stomping her feet towards the mine exit.

     "Hey, where are you going?" Lomar asked and Kika just replied: "Where do you think?! I'm going to buy something at the Neocola Machine, because I'm out of food right now!"

     "Okay, let me at least pay for you then..." Lomar muttered as he walked behind Kika.

     Pergus could still hear them complaining from afar as they walked away, Kika still accusing him of stealing her food and he still denying it. Pergus just laughed and shook his head, but as his stomach rumbled with hunger, he remembered his own lunch.

     Ah, what a treat to be able to enjoy a delicious Moon Sandwich along with a Strawberry Milk Packet and finish with a Roast Gargapple for dessert. His lunch was simple, but it was enough for him.

     When Pergus opened his lunch box, however, he noticed that his food was messy, as if someone had tampered with his lunch box. His sandwich was out of place and the Strawberry Milk Packet was turned the other way while the apple was on top of the sandwich. That was strange, but apart from the fact that the food was messy, there was nothing unusual. Maybe it was just his head after witnessing all the fuss over Kika's lunch. Or he hadn't closed the lunchbox very well and it had wobbled too much on the way to the mine, causing the food to come out of place. In any case, Pergus just shrugged and decided to eat his lunch.

     ***

     A few days passed and Pergus continued his normal work routine in Kreludor's underground mine. The day was reasonably warm and Pergus was sweating when the bell rang, announcing break time.

     "Whew!" He sighed as he took off his helmet and wiped his forehead of sweat. "About time!"

     "Tell me about it!" Lomar agreed, leaning on the pickaxe he used to work. "I'm starving!"

     "What did you bring today?" Pergus asked.

     "Space Quesadilla" Lomar smiled." And you?"

     "Moon Sandwich!"

     "Again?" Lomar frowned. "Don't you ever get tired of eating that sandwich?"

     Pergus shrugged and replied, "I like it!"

     "If you say so... But then you don't come wanting to ask for a little piece of my Quesadilla... There's just enough for me!" Joked Lomar and they both laughed.

     So the Grundos took their lunchboxes and settled down on the rocky ground of the underground mine so they could feed themselves. When Pergus picked up his lunchbox, he noticed that there was something strange about it, as it was considerably lighter than when he had arrived in the morning. He then sat down next to Lomar and opened the lunchbox. His eyes widened in an instant.

     "Oh nooo!!!"

     His lunchbox was completely empty – except for the crumbs that remained from what had once been his sandwich.

     Lomar, who had a mouth full of Quesadilla mumbled something unintelligible, but which Pergus seemed to have understood, for he replied: "My food... gone!"

     "What do you mean, gone?" Lomar asked spitting food out of his mouth.

     "It's gone! It's not here anymore! Someone must have eaten it!" Pergus showed the empty lunchbox to his colleague.

     "Hey!" Lomar held up his hands defensively. "I didn't eat anyone's food! I'll tell you right now!"

     "Hello! What’s up, guys!?" Kika approached.

     "Someone stole my food!" Pergus replied sadly as he pointed to his empty lunchbox with saddened eyes.

     "Ha, I bet it was you!" Kika scoffed pointing at Lomar. "Give Pergus his lunch back, come on!"

     "Hey!!!" Lomar huffed. "I didn't steal anyone's food! I'm very happy with my Quesadillas, okay?!"

     Kika shrugged and squinted her big eyes, then said in a whisper, "Is there a thief among us..."

     Then they all looked around suspiciously at the other mine workers who were eating their lunches nonchalantly. Then Pergus' stomach rumbled.

     "Ah, I guess I'll have to go to the Neocola machine..."

     "No need, Pergus, we can share our lunch with you. Right, Lomar?" She then stared at Lomar with her big, red, incisive eyes. Lomar was about to put a Quesadilla in his mouth and freeze in his spot. She hissed: "Right, Lomar?"

     The Yellow Grundo snorted. "Fine! You can have some of my Quesadillas today, Pergus."

     "Thanks, guys, but I think I'll buy my own lunch anyway."

     So Pergus left to go to the mine’s surface. On the way, all he could think about was how can someone untrustworthy could be in that place – and how hungry he was. But what Kika had said was also on his mind.

     There was, in fact, a thief among them. Someone who was stealing lunch from the rest of his colleagues. But who could it be?

     Lomar was his friend, he wouldn't do that. They had worked together for so many years and he had never done anything that could cause Pergus to be suspicious. Kika was an angry and bossy Grundo, but she was the kind of pet that followed the rules, besides, she herself had been a victim of the Food Thief a few weeks ago, so it couldn't be her. There were still other teammates, but most were pets with whom he had always worked confined in that underground mine for seven hours a day, from Monday to Friday. It was weird that after so long someone would just start stealing other people's lunch.

     He then kicked a small pebble in his path as his stomach grumbled with hunger. It was when it bounced off the rocky wall of the mine that he noticed something moving into a hole formed in the rock due to the fragmentation.

     Pergus shook his head. There were no living creatures in the mine - except the workers – then something couldn't be moving inside the walls. He was probably seeing things from being too hungry, so he shrugged and made his way to the Neocola machine.

     ***

     The following week the routine in the underground mine remained the same. Pergus had already forgotten about the problem with the disappearance of his snack last week, as had the others who did not even touch the subject.

     However, at lunchtime, a scream echoed through the corridors of the mine: "MY FOOD!"

     They all looked in astonishment in the direction of a Split Grund who stared at his empty lunchbox in amazement. "MY FOOD IS GONE!"

     "Hey, my food is gone too!" Complained another Blue Grundo.

     "And someone ate half of mine!" Said another Sponge Grundo.

     Everyone looked at each other in fright and Pergus, as well as the others, all ran to their lunch boxes to check what had happened.

     "Whew!" Sighed Lomar, "My Photon Burger is intact!"

     "My Scrambled Aubergine too..." Murmured Kika. "What about you, Pergus?"

     He then turned to them and pointed to his also empty lunchbox. "They took my Moon Sandwich again..."

     "I can't believe it!" Lomar exclaimed.

     "Okay, this is absurd!" Kika grumbled. Kika grumbled. "Who's stealing our food, huh?"

     All the Grundos looked at her, some were sulking, some were shocked, and some were simply eating their own lunches.

     "Yeah, I wanted to know too!" Grumbled the Split Grundo.

     And while the Grundos got into an endless argument about who took and who didn't take the other's food, Pergus noticed a trail of bran on the mine’s floor. He watched with his big orange eyes the crumbs’ trail and noticed that it started at the shelves where they kept their lunches. Immediately he thought that trail would lead him to the food thief, after all, if the thief had left a trail then it would be possible to find them.

     But following the trail through the rocky corridors of the underground mine, Pergus ended up at a dead end. There was nothing, no food, no bran, let alone a thief. It was as if the thief had come all this way and then suddenly disappeared.

     Frustrated, he then turned around and decided to go to the Neocola machine again.

     ***

     If Pergus thought working in an underground mine was dull, he certainly didn't work in that Kreludor mine during times of crisis.

     After the lunches of several Grundos started disappearing, the atmosphere in the place became very tense. It wasn't enough that they worked in a confined, hot, and dimly lit space, now no one trusted anyone anymore. Grundos started carrying padlocks on their lunchboxes, locks with passwords, and even lunchboxes that could only be opened with a retinal scan of their owner's eyes.

     But even in the face of all this, the robberies continued. Every day some Grundo was left without their lunch.

     Pergus, however, began to notice that there was a pattern. On Mondays, it was worse, at least three to four Grundos ended up without lunch. The latches on the lunchboxes would be broken or a hole would be drilled in the material and in this way, the food would be stolen. And the food thief seemed to have a preference, some foods were totally ignored, while others were constantly looted.

     His Moon Sandwich seemed to be a middle ground, but any food that had meat and wasn't too spicy, was usually the focus of the food thief, but also bread and cheese seemed to please the thief's palate. Sweet and heavily industrialized foods were usually ignored, but when that was all the Grundos carried, it seemed the thief had no choice but to steal that very thing.

     Kika began to complain to her superiors demanding that they install security cameras so that they could catch the thief but was just ignored. Lomar, on the other hand, did not have his lunch stolen for a single day and was accused a few times of being the thief, which led to several arguments and almost fights. However, he had his lunch box broken more than once, signalling that the thief at least checked its contents.

     Some Grundos even gave up bringing their snacks and settled for climbing up to the Neocola Machine for lunch. However, Pergus was puzzled. To him, none of the Grundos was the thief. It was someone from the outside. Someone who entered the mine every day to steal their lunches without being seen or noticed. How this pet could pass through the S750 Kreludan Defender Robot was a mystery to him. No one ever could pass through the robot without the passcode.

     So he started to leave earlier for lunch in hopes of catching the thief. He started leaving fifteen minutes earlier, then thirty, then forty-five, and finally an hour earlier. The other Grundos complained about this, some also accused him of being the thief, but when he explained his plan, his coworkers eventually understood and agreed with his strategy.

     It was essential to find the criminal.

     In one of his attempts, Pergus almost caught the thief, because, just as he reached the shelf with the lunch boxes, he heard a noise indicating that he was not alone. However, he clearly was. There was no one else in the room with him. His conclusion was that the thief heard him coming and ran.

     That was a close one.

     Then he decided that next Monday that thief would be caught once and for all.

     It was the day the thief usually stole the most food, so the thief would have to loot more lunchboxes, and if the thief wanted to take enough food, the thief might have to make more than one trip. Or even taking more food with them could slow them down enough that there was time for Pergus to catch them.

     He devised a plan with his coworkers and instructed everyone to bring snacks with meat and no pepper. This would serve as a trap for the thief, who, with so many options, would possibly be tempted to take more and even confused about what or how much to take.

     That day Pergus decided that he would stay hidden until the thief arrived, and his coworkers would cover his shift since he wouldn't have many Kreludites to present to his supervisor at the end of the day and that could negatively affect him. But catching the food thief was everyone's priority now.

     And so, he did.

     Pergus stayed hidden in a corner, behind a large rock just waiting for the right moment to appear and catch the food thief. He would need to remain silent and stop for some time, perhaps hours, as any sign of noise could scare the thief away.

     The minutes passed and passed, and passed until finally, Pergus heard a noise. It was the thief approaching.

     He peered over the side of the rock that hid him and could see nothing, he could only hear the noise. Where was that thief? Then he stretched his neck a little further, he still couldn't see anything, but the thief was there, he was sure of it. The noise was real, but his eyes could not see the thief. Were they invisible?

     With great caution, Pergus decided to get out of the rock and, sneaking, approach the shelves, but by carelessness, he ended up stepping on a stone that broke making a 'crec' sound that echoed through the mine’s rocky walls.

     And then he saw it. Finally, he saw the food thief.

     The blue, frightened eyes stared at him suddenly, and with an impulse, the thief ran.

     Pergus was still a bit stunned as he came face to face with the thief. Was that really... a... Nedler? A Petpet?

     "Hey, get back here you little thief!" Pergus shouted and ran after Nedler who took off running through the mine corridors. "You won't escape me today!"

     The Nedler ran fast and was very agile, but Pergus knew that underground mine like the back of his hand, so he was able to follow him and keep him within sight.

     "There is!" Pergus exclaimed when he saw Nedler running towards the dead end. "Now you have nowhere else to r..." He gulped down the words as he saw the little Petpet scale the rocky wall and wedge himself into one of the wall's openings.

     Pergus huffed angrily. That wasn't going to stop him from capturing the food thief.

     He quickly returned to the supply area and grabbed a pickaxe. He would make just a small hole, enough to make room to grab the Petpet. It was clear that this was his den, the place where he stayed and where he probably took his food. It was unusual for a Nedler to live in an underground mine, but this one had apparently settled there some time ago.

     "Your days of stealing food are done, Nedler!" Pergus said, before hitting the pickaxe for the first time into the opening of the rock. It chipped a chunk out of the stone.

     Then he hit the spot a few more times, until a hole opened up, allowing him to look clearly at the opening in the rock.

     As soon as Pergus got a good look inside the hole, he found the Nedler's frightened eyes staring at him, but when he threatened to reach inside and grab the Petpet, the Nedler positioned itself defensively, digging its tiny claws into the rocky ground and moving its tentacles menacingly towards the Grundo's hand.

     "Gotcha!" He said victoriously as he grabbed the little Petpet that was trying, by all means, to scratch, bite and attack him with its tentacles, emitting a menacing roaring sound. Pergus laughed and said as he lifted him up: "You won't be able to hurt me, you little thief!"

     That's when Pergus noticed that right behind the Nedler was a kind of nest, with several other little Petpets cowering in fear.

     "Oh, no!" Pergus' orange eyes softened in the same instant. "Those are your babies... You're protecting your little ones!"

     Pergus looked around in the wall cavity and noticed the scattered food crumbs.

     "You were feeding your little babies..."

     Pergus' heart softened like melted butter. That poor Petpet had been stealing food all this time to feed his little ones. He had probably gotten lost deep in the underground mine, where there was nowhere else to get food from except the workers' lunch.

     Pergus then placed the Nedler back on the ground inside the cavity and the Petpet immediately ran to his little ones, still holding himself in an attack position, in case Pergus wanted to grab one of the little babies.

     But Pergus smiled and said, "No need to worry, little buddy, I won't do any harm to you or your little ones."

     To prove his point, Pergus ran over to the food shelves and grabbed his own lunch box. He had proudly prepared as a trap, a delicious Sloth Wrap which he delivered without a second thought to the family of Petpets.

     The Nedler eyed him suspiciously before accepting the food, but when the Nedler noticed there was no danger, it grabbed the Sloth Wrap with his tentacles and brought it close to the babies who devoured the food in a few minutes.

     Pergus just stood there, watching them, and wondering what he was going to do in that situation. They couldn't stay there anymore and calling the Petpet Protection League to pick them up would be a problem. No one was allowed to enter the Kreludan Mining Corporation if they weren't a worker, authorization for the PPL could take days, months, or even never happen.

     Pergus then made the only decision that was appropriate for that situation. Then he smiled and said: "Well, litle buddy... seems like you just found a new roommate!"

     ***

     A few days passed and peace reigned again in the underground mine of Kreludor.

     The theft of food was completely over. No more Grundo in the underground mine had their lunch looted again. Intact lunchboxes and whole foods were found by all workers during their lunch breaks and trust between them was restored.

     Pergus ran a hand over his sweaty head as he put his pickaxe down just as the whistle blew. His stomach was already rumbling.

     "Time for lunch! Finally!" Lomar exclaimed.

     "Awesome, I'm starving!" Pergus agreed.

     "How nice to be able to pick up my lunchbox and find my food intact!" Said Kika who joined them on the way to the break area. "Not that you have to worry, right, Lomar?! After all, you never had your lunch stolen. I guess it was because no one wanted to steal the gross food you eat!"

     "Hey! My food is good, okay?!" Lomar huffed, but Kika just shrugged.

     "By the way, Pergus, you never said what happened that day. Whether you caught the thief or not... All I know is that we never had our food stolen again."

     "It really is... What happened that day, Pergus?" Lomar asked.

     Pergus hadn't told anyone about the Nedler and the babies he had found, he thought some Grundos might want to capture the Petpet, after all, they were pretty mad about the food theft. So, he decided to just keep it a secret.

     He shrugged and said, "Nah, I ended up sleeping... I didn't see anything..."

     Kika and Lomar laughed at the situation and then the White Grundo changed the subject: "By the way, today's Friday, the guys are arranging a happy hour at Cafe Kreludor after work, it's Bez's birthday apparently. So, are you guys going?"

     "I'm in!" Lomar nodded.

     Pergus pondered for a moment, thinking of the family of Nedlers he had to feed at home, who were growing and eating more and more. Perhaps it was not a good idea to leave them alone and especially without food.

     "Oh, unfortunately, I won't be able to..." He replied at last and smiled. He was happy with the new company, very happy.

     "Okay..." Said Kika.

     Then they lunched together, deep in that underground mine, where things no longer seemed the same as they had always been.

     The End.