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Pet Name: Aephid
Owner: aquarium
Breed: Ruki

He leaps from his hiding spot, four feet landing without a sound in the middle of the alleyway. He listens for the aisha's footsteps. They're still audible. Wait. They're gone. He grins in satisfaction, his white teeth, a contrast to his jet black body, beaming the light from the moon towards the empty pottery shop. Quickly, he gallops towards it.

Yes, the locks are pickable, he discovers as he uses the sharp tips of his fingers to manipulate the keyholes. In no time, the door swings open and reveals a wonderous bounty of gold, silver, stone, and clay pots, vases, and statues, each adorned with wonderous and beautiful designs. But he's not interested in that. With a squint he scans the area for what he came for, hoping that the aisha did not take it home with her.

Aha! Beneath the front counter! A small lockbox lies securely on a shelf. In no time, he rushes towards it, picks the lock, and empties its contents into a small, brown bag. When the lockbox is emptied, the bag is filled to capacity with neopoints. Thirty-thousand, he assumes. Not a bad haul.

Suddenly a noise is heard outside. His antennae perk up. The night watchmen were late, but they've definately arrived. Hurriedly, he returns the lockbox and slinks out of the shop, letting his dark camouflage do the rest. When the watchmen investigate the shop the next morning with a horrorstruck desert aisha, they find only a small slip of paper left inside the lockbox. It reads:

Foiled again. ;)
Better luck next time.
- The Desert Bandit

Thus is the life of Aephid the Ruki, better known as The Desert Bandit, a nightly terror of the Desert. He's a well-known thief, and his are posters up in almost every shop. There are no stores he hasn't robbed, ransacked, or otherwise stolen from in the whole of the Lost Desert, and the residents know this. Rumors fly that he was once affiliated with Dr. Sloth, and is just a leftover reject minion of his who still enjoys the ways of evil. Others think he's tight on neopoints and needs to feed his family in the only way he knows how. Still others believe he is just a normal citizen who lost his way. Whatever the belief, all agree that he's a menace, and not a desert door has been left unlocked at night since he first appeared.

Only Aephid alone knows the truth, but he'll tell no one. For now, he lives alone, desperately searching for the one thing that will bring hope back to him. Until that day, he'll continue his life of crime and thievary, of disguises and lies, waiting for the fateful day when his world can return to the happiness of his past.

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