Thanks for reading and please R&R! (Published in issue 77 of the Neopian Times.)
The Little Thief
by Tashni
Jamie and Tink hadn't had the courage to make eye contact with Zan all morning.The friends were sitting at a table in a coffee shop. The Juppie Tea she was drinking wasn't as delightfully tangy as usual.
"So, Zan," Jamie warily started, "Do you want to go to the Create-A-Pet Center today?"
"No" Zan whispered staring into her teacup.
'Well then, what about the pound?" she continued, forcing a perk in her voice.
"No" she said.
"What do you mean, 'no'!" Tink said. "No pound, no Create-A-Pet Center, how else are you supposed to get a new Neopet!" Jamie glared at her friend and then looked back to Zan.
Zan looked to the side, remembering. Emmie, Shoonie, Guyggle, Aki…and the hacker who brought her world tumbling down. "I'm not getting a new Neopet." Both of her friends' eyes grew big.
"You're not getting a new Neopet?" Jamie said with astonishment.
Tink said, "Zan! You can't just give up because of a hacker! Hundreds of Neopians have recovered from hackers! They've managed to start over and have happy lives with their new Neopets!"
"I don't care." Zan continued, "I don't see any reason to stay in Neopia without my pets. I'll still come and see you and the guild, but no more pets, no more galleries, no more trips to Tyrannia. There's no point."
Tink sighed and looked down to the table.
Jamie put her hand on Zan's. "Look, I can only imagine what you're going through. I'll accept that you're not going to want a Neopet right now. But maybe someday things will change."
Zan looked up, shaking her head, "I don't think so, Jamie."
Suddenly, something blue flung across their table, spilling all their drinks. A squad of NeoPolice came charging through the café, running towards the blue streak. The blue thing smashed into a table, and it turned out to be a Draik.Several pastries flew in all directions during the crash. It held in its arms several pastries, obviously stolen. The Draik dizzily tried to get up, it saw the squad and jumped up and ran for the exit. It bumped into seemingly everything on its way. The Police quickly ran after it and soon disappeared from sight. Everyone in the café continued to stare with startled expressions for several minutes after they had left.
Jamie said, "Well, that was weird!"
Tink said, "Maybe we should go down to the NeoPolice HQ and find out what that was all about. Besides, it's not like we have anything else better to do."
"Not me, guys," Zan said as she got up from the table. "I'm going home. See you later."
It was drizzling that morning. Zan folded her arms and hunched over to stay warm as she walked from the café to her house. A few cars drove past her on the street. Most of the shops were closed. She'd almost passed a small alley when she heard a noise emanating from a small cardboard box. She stopped and turned around to see what was making the noise. Inside, the Draik thief from the café was surrounded by wrappers and a few remaining pastries. He was hungrily chomping at a small cupcake with white frosting and a red berry on top. It was only a moment until she noticed that he was awfully skinny, and he was shivering with the cold. The Draik heard her and looked up with fear in his eyes, the fear of humans, and of hunger. But Zan only smiled at the cake thief, and she walked away. The Draik seemed surprised by this action as he cocked his head for a moment and then continued his meal. Zan smiled for a brief moment as she arrived at her street. The first real smile she'd had since the loss of her pets…
Later that day as Zan was fixing lunch for herself, she couldn't get the Draik out of her mind. She kept seeing his skinny little body and hungry eyes. So she made up her mind. She brought out a basket and started filling it with food.
About twenty minutes later, she arrived at the alley the Draik had been in before. Thought the raining had stopped, the cardboard box he had been on was sopping wet. At first Zan feared he was no longer there, but then she saw a little blue tail sticking out into the cold. As she walked closer, she saw that the Draik was huddled up in a corner, sound asleep. Zan smiled and laid some food inside the box and put a blanket on him.
As she walked away, the sound of her footsteps woke the Draik. He slowly opened his tired eyes and saw what the human stranger had done for him. He looked out to the street she has walked down for several minutes after she disappeared from sight. Then he went back to sleep, comforted by the warmth of the blanket and the heart that put it there.
The next morning, Zan was still in her robe with coffee in hand when Jamie and Tink came knocking on the door.
"Hi guys," she yawned. "What's up?"
"Well," Tink said, "We went to go see what was happening with that Draik yesterday."
"Yeah." Jamie seemed sleepy. Zan guessed that Tink had dragged her out of bed this morning. "His name is Tattsu and apparently he was abandoned. His owner didn't even bother to take him to the pound. Tattsu's been stealing stuff all over Neopia."
"You can't really blame him," Zan said, "He's hungry and no one's feeding him!"
"That's true," Tink continued, " And the NeoPolice agree with you. But they can't just let him go unpunished for stealing. He could have gone to the pound, but he didn't. So you can see that their hands are tied."
Zan looked down to the coffee cup in her hands. 'Poor Tattsu', she thought. 'I can understand why you didn't want to go to the pound, but now you're in real trouble. I only wish there was something I could do to help.'
A few days later, Zan was walking down the street to the Guild HQ when she turned a corner and saw three police cars on the other side of the street. The ruckus had drawn quite a crowd, and Zan joined them. There in the middle of five NeoCops, Tattsu was struggling to get free of his captors. The sight stabbed at Zan's heart. The little thing was weak from hunger and soon grew too tired to cause the authorities any trouble. They put him in the back of one of their cars, and Tattsu saw Zan in the crowd. He made a silent plea for help, and the car drove away. Zan was too distraught to follow. She didn't know what to do.
She quickly walked back to her house and sat on the sofa, wringing her hands. She turned on the TV to try to take her mind of Tattsu. 'Besides,' she thought, 'there's nothing I can do anyway.' She kept flipping through the channels, not seeing a thing on the screen before her. Then, without thinking or knowing why, she brought out photo albums of her and her old Neopets. She saw them all together, playing in rain or shine. She had pictures of the days she brought every one of them home. There were pictures of their first toys, Emmie's first battledome match, their trips to Tyrannia and Faerieland. She even had pictures of when they finally got their own Neohome in Neopia Central. Then, all of the sudden, there were no more pictures. Only blank pages. And she cried.
The next morning, Zan felt better. Better than she had in a long time. She had made up her mind that she would go to the NeoPolice HQ and demand that they put Tattsu up for adoption, and she wouldn't stand for it if they put him in jail. She was in the middle of breakfast when there was a knock on the door. It had the perk that Tink usually gave in her knocks, and Zan yelled for her to let herself in. Tink leapt into the house followed by a happy, if not sleepy, Jamie.
"Hey Zan!" Tink chirped.
"Hi guys," Zan said, trying to swallow a mouthful of eggs.
"Zan, they caught that Draik who had been stealing yesterday. You remember Tattsu, right?"
"I remember," she replied.
"Anyway," Tink said, "the chief of police decided that Tattsu couldn't be totally blamed for not going to the pound. So he's letting Tattsu go up for adoption."
"Really?" Zan perked up.
"Yeah, but he'll have to do some community service," Jamie said.
"I've got an idea," Tink said, "Why don't you come with us tomorrow to see who adopts him, Zan?"
"That'd be fun!" Zan's happy attitude startled her friends. 'Looks like you didn't need my help after all, Tattsu,' Zan thought.
The next morning, Zan and her friends walked to the pound, where Tattsu and his police escort would be to find Tattsu a home.
"Oh, look! There he is!" Tink pointed to the little blue figure in the middle of a row of about fifty pets. He had a Kryrii Guard behind him. Tattsu looked awfully scared, but Zan knew that soon he'd have a new home and a new owner who would take care of him. Just then, the Neopians looking to adopt came in…
Three hours later, however, dozens of pets had come and gone, but no one had given Tattsu a second look. The reason made Zan furious. Nobody wanted a Neopet accompanied by the NeoPolice and a police record. Just because Tattsu had gotten into a little trouble after being abandoned, he wasn't wanted or trusted by anyone. It was only then that Tattsu saw Zan in the sidelines. His eyes were once again dashed of all hope of ever having a life. Zan saw in those eyes what she had been hiding from herself.
With determination Zan boldly stepped forward, surprising not only her friends but Tattsu as well. She kneeled down in front of him so they could see eye to eye.
"You just need a second chance, don't you?" she said, understanding his sadness.
Tattsu nodded.
"So do I," She whispered. And so they started a new life. Together.