A lone girl sat underneath the Money Tree as she watched the Rainbow Pool's surface twinkle under the full moon's brightness. The shops were closed up, the trees slightly swayed in the light breeze, and neopets were fast asleep. She did this almost every night that the moon was out. She let the moon sweep up her troubles, so she felt at peace with herself. Yet, she knew this feeling would end when the sun comes out and neopia is bustling with neopets and their owners again.

She in fact, used to be an owner. She used to be Dragonwings2270 with three unpainted, but happy, pets. She was only a newbie when she fell for a scam. She used to be Dragonwings2271 with four painted happy pets. There was a big conflict, and she forgot her password, Neopets wouldn't send it to her no matter how many times she pressed that button, and she didn't start another account for a full month.

Now she was Dragonwings2272. She has no pets, no money, and no hope. She felt that if she was successful again, it would be taken away from her once more.

Dragon fell asleep under the Money Tree, the memories floating around in her head.

I woke with a start. Dawn was on the verge of breaking and light started to fill Neopia Central. But that's not why I woke up. I heard something behind me and I shot around to find a cloaked character towering over me (I was sill laying down).

"I want to help you." It was a man's voice. I stood up and tried to get a better view of his face, but his hood was too low.

"I know far too well what it is like to have no hope for the future, to give up on life here." It seems that he broke into a smile.

"Here," he handed me a heavy sack. "just repay me in full one year from now, same time, same place." I noticed now, with the coming of the sun, that his skin was slightly green. I just passed it off as my eyes playing tricks on me.

I glanced down at the sack now in my hands. What could it be? Ithought.

"Who-" I started, but when I glanced up, I saw no one. So I opened the sack and gasped.

"Can I help you Miss?" The Bank Skeith said politely.

"Yes, I would like to start a bank account." I sounded as sweet as possible.

"Alright, just fill out these forms and we'll get you started." He handed me a sheet of paper, a clip board, and a pen. I filled out the sheets then gave them back.

"How many neopoints would you like to start your account with?"

"50,000" I answered sounding as casual as possible. I handed him the sack of neopoints.

"That's a mighty fine amount miss. I'll put it in and you can be on your way now.

I got up then left the bank.

Eleven1/2 months later...

Life was good. I adopted a red Ixi named IxiSlayer, I had 90k in the bank, and I would be able to pay the man in the cloak and get Slayer the petpet of his dreams. It was that one fateful day that everything went wrong. I typed in my password as I always do and appeared in front of my neohome. I opened the door and walked in.

"Dragon? What are you doing here? You just left a moment ago." The red Ixi said worryingly.

"No... I just came here right now...." I had no more time to talk.

I ran out the door as fast as I could go to the bank. The bank Skeith stares as I slam open my money vault.

"Um Mam?" he starts.

"No! Gone it's all gone!" I sank down unto the cold tile floor.

"How will I tell IxiSlayer?" I slowly got to my feet and walked slowly back to my neohome. Slayer is still standing in the open doorway trying his best to understand what exactly just happened when my solemn self enters and slowly shuts the door.

Two weeks later...

Our wonderful 4 room neohome was reduced to a 1 room shack. The bamboo walls had few decorations and only a couch, two chairs, and a table to decorate the wood floor. A straw rug lay in the middle of the room where it led to a very small secret passage way where we kept our items. IxiSlayer only had three toys to keep him company. We sold most of our stuff, along with Slayer's art supplies he was going to use for neoschool.

"It'll be ok," I told Slayer one night. "I already have 10k in the bank." I don't even think that I believed myself having lost two previous accounts and seven pets that are still waiting for their loving owner to come home. I thought that If I change my password every week instead of a month, I'd be safe. I became soo obsessed with money, and the repaying of the hooded stranger that, I paid less and less attention to IxiSlayer. After about a week, Slayer decided to act.

"If Dragon wants to forget all about me, then so be it. I won't put up with being ignored, even if I love Mom to bits." It was a fairly warm summer night the day Slayer left. All he packed was a toy, some homemade sandwiches, one of the many pictures of me and him, and carefully took 1000np from my purse.

Right before he left the long cherished neohome, he took a pen and wrote on a paper:

I'm very sorry that I had to do this Dragon. If

you only care about making money, then so be

it! I only wanted an owner to love and care for

me and when you adopted me, I thought that I

had finally found the perfect owner. I love you

so very much, and I know your intensions are

good, but I need to get away.

I'll always be in your heart,

IxiSlayer

Slayer put his note in the envelope and on it was written Dragonwings. He then opened a window and set his knapsack on the ground. He soon followed afterward carefully closing the window after him.

He inhaled the warm air. He looked up and saw millions-maybe billions of stars twinkling brightly in the sky. He looked back down and all the houses were cast in darkness. There were only a few streetlamps to light the road, and IxiSlayer looked back to this one room shack he lived in. He remembered when Dragonwings first brought him here. She had told him that this is where he would live from now on and that she would love him until the end of neopia.

Slayer looked away, tears coming to his eyes. He softly reminded himself that he was 2 years old and shouldn't be crying. He threw the knapsack across his back and walked. Where, he did not know. His only thoughts were focused on if he should ever come back.

Later that night...

I sat under the enormous Money Tree. Scared mostly, because I did not know what the stranger would do when he found out that I only had 10k to give to him. Any moment now... I thought. A light breeze came through and the Money Tree's leaves clamed me a little.

"So we meet again Dragon." I turned around and faced none other than the hooded stranger again. My stomach did flips as he walked up toward me, my head was sweaty and my hands were shaking.

"I believe we had a deal." He held out his hands, which were gloved. I handed a small sack to him.

"This is not enough. Where is the rest?"

"I... was scammed just a few weeks ago. I tried my best to make up the money-I really did." My voice was shaky and he could tell that I was afraid of him.

"Well apparently you just didn't try hard enough." He snapped his fingers and suddenly, about a dozen or so users came out. Their faces were all zombie-like and without a personality to show. Their eyes were empty and without compassion.

"Humans make the best slaves-even if they have no souls." I was beyond fear-horrified maybe, and I knew what was coming.

I cried out, "No. Have mercy." But it was barely above a whisper. The stranger opened a very old looking box, whispered something into it, and a bright red light illuminated the night.

It felt like a vacuum was pulling my body in all different directions, the pain was close to unbearable, and the light blinded me. I was paralyzed like this, in pain, being stretched beyond imagination, and then... nothing. I was without pain, without emotion, without a will, I could not control my own body, I was an empty shell.

"Join the others, he told me. You'll be a nice addition to my servants. He removed his hood from his head. It was Sloth.

In the darkness, someone watched.

Please review! This is my first story and I worked really hard on it! Please also tell if I should make a sequel to this. I do have an account on neopets and IxSlayer is actually my neopet!