A fierce storm raged on the other side of the windows that belonged to the dark jeweler shop. If you were to brave the fierce blizzard and peek in through the windows that were captioned with 'Ice Cave's Finest Pearls', you would see an almost completely-square building made out of hard concrete with gigantic icicles sticking out through the walls. Some of the top halves of the icicles were chopped off so that they looked like rows and rows of shelves. Various sized glass cubes contained extremely enchanting pieces of jewelry that glimmered on the shelves, many of them glittering like the snow outside the windows. Things like Steel Earrings were on sale for about 5,000 NP, but some other things such as golden necklaces studded with a diamond-plated sapphire were on sale for over 25,000 NP.

In the very heart of the store was a gigantic pyramid icicle, with some parts hollowed out from the inside so that anyone could see what was inside. It was evident why these items seemed to be on special display. There were some very eerie objects inside, including a ring topped with a gigantic amethyst which glowed a phosphorescent green and a levitating bracelet with pearls of every colour and were swirling on the inside.

However, these items wouldn't even catch anyone's interests compared to what was on sale in the top-most cabinet of the center icicle. Inside, connected to a small metal pole and chained down with various locks with thrown away keys, was a Thyora's Tear of gigantic proportions. Sometimes, it began to glow, rise into the air as if it was trying to escape, but because of the chains attached to the pole, it fell back reluctantly.

This Thyora's Tear was no ordinary weapon; the jeweler, a rather pompous Kacheek who lived an extremely wealthy life, had found it on the sands of the Mystery Island beach during his vacation there. He was sure that nobody had simply lost it, as anyone who had such a rare item would keep it locked away in their Safety Deposit Box instead of carrying it around to go swimming. After double-checking the price with Jhudiah the Island Faerie and her Trading Post, he was sure that this Thyora Tear was worth millions compared to the other Tears; perhaps even more than 10,000,000 NP!

With the thought of ten million neopoints worth of apple pies, he went back to his jewelry shop in the Ice Caves and placed the Tear carefully into its proper display case. Many hagglers had come, but he rejected them all, as his asking price was clear and not one single person had enough to buy the Tear. One extremely mysterious figure dressed all in purple with what looked like wings under her cloak had visited the shop, but he was forced to turn her down also as she was missing about two million neopoints.

Now, about two months later, he had gone to visit a relative in Tyrannia and left the highest security measures around his shop, not wanting to risk his special Thyora's Tear. Obviously, there had to be a band of thieves who were just itching to steal away the Tear: the honour they could bring for themselves was nothing compared to the blizzard.

During the storm, they stealthily opened an air vent on the roof, and being as careful and quiet as possible, they made sure that none of the frigid air snuck into the building by setting up large shields from their walls around the opening.

One by one, they snuck down; about 5 or 6 total. These thieves were not like the blundering ones of the Lost Desert, because they excelled in speed and could steal half your asparagus from your hand in the blink of an eye, with you never being able to see where it went. All of them were dressed completely in navy blue silk that covered their entire bodies and wore nothing else but a large, thick cloak regardless of the cold.

Slowly, they lowered themselves into a designated landing area of the shop which wouldn't set off one of the two alarms which the jeweler had planted around the air vent. When all of them were in the shop, they quietly snuck to the cabinet in the middle, and one of them took out a small Cobrall Dagger with a key at the tip and tapped it against the glass. It shrank away almost immediately, as if some kind of a lock had been unlocked.

'Quickly, now,' said what appeared to be the leader. She had long, silk-like hair that fell down to her waist and twinkling, topaz-gold eyes. The Starry Ixi tried to not look at the last thief, who was rather clumsy in the silent and stealth department compared to the other thieves. He was a Purple Bruce named Pompey, and in a fatal mission he had, in order for them to escape, consumed about 50 Neggs and had only just made it out alive himself.

'Madam Cora!' hissed on of the thieves: Theia the Fire Aisha with her sparkling red eyes glowing like rubies in the dark. 'We've de-activated the locks!'

'Excellent,' said the Ixi, snapping back into her senses. 'Quickly, Theia, grab the Tear and let's bolt!'

'Ma'am,' said Eni the Electric Mynci from the other side of the cabinet. 'There appears to be something beyond the back door... it sounds almost like a pair of guard Gelerts!'

Cora sighed to herself as she watched her thieves work. Guard Gelerts were easy to fool, but had an excellent sense of smell. They could outrun everyone on her team put together, and there's always a thief that goes awry once they had to deal with Guard Gelerts.

'Head Cora!' An Orange Jubjub named Ourila called from the top of the cabinet, inspecting their escape route. 'The air vent is about to close from the wind! Hurry!'

'Oh, can't you just grab it?' snapped Cora, now growing rather aggravated.

'We can't!' The Striped Lupe named Cain snapped back, trying to yank the Tear off its pole by the thread. 'I don't think it wants to come with us! It can feel that we're trying to steal it!'

'Oh, let ME try!' called a slow, blundering voice: Pompey the Bruce had waddled up to the Tear and put a large fin on the precious gemstone.

'Pompey, ino/i!' Cora, Cain, and Theia all yelled at the same time, but it was too late. A large tycoon of snow had drifted in from the air vent and surrounded the center cabinet; the rest of the thieves, Ourila having gotten out of the way, could only watch as all seventeen alarms were set off at the same time, including the Guard Gelert ring.

'Um, Cora? ' said Eni the security thief rather reluctantly. 'We've got a problem...'

The team didn't even have to look around at the back door to know where the growling sounds came from. As the twister of snow disappeared back up the air vent with both the Thyora's Tear and Pompey gone, Cora quickly ordered her group, 'Fly! Eni, Cain, Theia, Ourila, quickly! Don't try to see if Pompey is still here!'

They didn't need telling twice; Ourila used her large feet to climb up the air vent and put up more shields around the opening on the roof. The entire group, in twos, then followed her, with Cora going last with Eni just as the Guard Gelerts had leapt up to pounce on the Ixi.

'But we have to find Pompey! We just have to!'

They were back in the Thieves of Terror Headquarters, hidden within the icy depths of the Ice Caves. The five remaining members of the thieving Team Alpha were huddled on the hearth rug around the fireplace of their meeting room, the large stone table left abandoned. Ourila the escape artist leaned against the icy wall, fixing one of the ropes that had been snapped on their quick getaway. She was setting beside Eni, the former security guard of the headquarters and most recent addition to the team, who was trying to make security alarms using cans and strings for his security class with Team Lambda later. Cora was watching the fire impassively with her paws behind her back, listening to the repetitive complaints of Pompey's two closest friends Theia and Cain.

'There isn't anything we can do,' Cora said, shaking her head sadly. 'We're miles away from the Island, and you heard what that Island Aisha told us: the Mountain is off the coast of Krawk Island, and there are no other teams to replace us during this busy season; the Month of Giving is drawing closer by the minute and there are many preparations that must be followed first before we can leave Terror Mountain. Even Team Delta, Team Iota, and Team Mu had to be called back; all hands must be on deck this year!'

'Oh, fine then,' said Theia, crossing her arms and allowing tears to slowly fall from her face. Cain picked up a broken lock from the ground and gave it to her, which she picked instantly, throwing it into a large pile with other locks that she had broken that same day. 'If you're not going to let us go on a search mission, can you give Cain and I both something to do, like a solo mission?'

Cain buried his face in his paws; Cora never took requests for missions; she igave/i them whether or not you were one second away from fainting or one second away from winning your Kacheekers match. Her face would twist into the resentful look which she always wore when dealing with missions, and she would leer so startlingly that the thief HAD to be obey her.

To the contrary, she gained a rare thoughtful look on her face, and she turned around to face the Striped Lupe and the Fire Aisha. 'Actually, there is a mission that you could do...' - Cain and Theia adopted hungry looks on their faces as they eagerly observed their leader - '...there has been a rumor going around that a large shipment of Fire and Ice Slushies have accidentally landed near the Ice Rink at the foot of the passage to the top of the mountain; I would like you two to slide down to the outskirts of Happy Valley on a sled and see if you can collect any before they are brought to the Slushie shop.'

'Consider it done!' said the two thieves eagerly, and hurriedly, they put a layer of red silk robes around their outfits so that they fit in with the citizens of Happy Valley much more than they would've in navy blue, grabbed their thick black cloaks, and rushed off to Team Tau for a sled for their transportation.

'Do you think they'll make it?' asked Ourila from the corner, the rope finally mended.

'No,' said Cora, smiling slightly. 'But I'm sure this will give them some time to cool off after Pompey's disappearance. I'm sure that they're not going to find anything on this Mountain!

'Theia, I'm bfreezing/b!'

'Oh, stop your whining Cain, this is fun!'

They were sliding down Terror Mountain on a gigantic toboggan, their accessories threatening to fall off as they steadily gained speed, their cloaks whipping behind them like a banner. The materials packed in the under-curve of the sled were in danger of coming loose at any moment, which meant they would go hungry as they ascended the mountain, even if they did find the slushies.

'Maybe for you; you're a Fire Aisha!' said Cain, grabbing the hems of his cloak and wrapping it around himself so that it looked like he was inside a rather strange cocoon.

'Oh, lighten up,' said Theia, starting to laugh a little. 'I'm going to grab a snack; guide the sled, would you?'

As she bent down to get some Chia Pops from their food supply, Cain let go of his cloak and placed his hands on the front of the sled, narrowly swerving around a tree. Sled-guiding was not one of his strong points compared to breaking and entering.

'Oh Selkets; my cloak!' He exclaimed as the string-attachment threatened to become undone. Forgetting about what he was doing, he tied it back, fumbling in the cold, which meant that nobody was holding on to the sled. Almost immediately, the Aisha and the Lupe fell over, in danger of sliding off the sled itself.

'CAIN! YOU STUPID LUPE! LOOK WHAT YOU DID!'

'Well Theia, YOU'RE the one that wanted the stupid Chia Pop in the first place!'

'Well, if you had grabbed another padding of silk like I told you to do, you wouldn't have to pull up your cloak all the time, but ino/i, you just wanted your stripes to be just a little more visible!'

'Well, at least -'

And so, their argument continued, each pet not paying attention to where the sled was going. It was only when they crashed into a tree and ended up sliding down the Mountain spinning in perfect circles when Cain noticed that something was offbeat.

'Theia - THEIA! LOOK!'

He raised a slow paw in the direction that they were going, where there was an extremely large ledge that there was no escape from; to the left and the right there were sharp rocks and icicles. They couldn't even jump off, because they would just roll down over the edge again anyways.

'Oh, Cain, quit your dumb whining! The jump is probably only 16 feet any-'

The Fire Aisha stopped in mid-sentence as their sled went straight over the ledge. Looking down, they discovered that Theia was as right as she was wrong: the crevasse was not 16 feet, but more like 16 kilometers.

'Chia pop?' she asked rather meekly, holding out a Lime one. Cain didn't have any time to respond, however, as they fell into the darkness of the chasm, with Cain yelling, 'bTHEIA/b'...

Amidst many mosaics of rock on the walls, the two thieves began to stir after a couple of hours of lying on the cold, stone cave floor.

'Ugh... where are we?' Theia asked Cain, who was also beginning to stir.

'Me no know...' Cain said, looking rather disorientated. Swaying slightly, he stood up, leaning against the walls.

'I think we fell in through the snow... there must be an opening around here!'

The Fire Aisha squinted towards the ceiling; there was a dim light shining down from where they were lying. Sure enough, they had definitely fallen through the snow, and their sled seemed to have ripped open an opening in the rock before blocking it completely. Even if they did have Ourila and her magic rope which she 'borrowed' from Hannah, they wouldn't be able to get out. Luckily, all of their most important supplies had fallen into the cave with them, so they still had her Cobrall Dagger amongst other belongings, though no food had survived the fall.

'Your Staff of Nova!' Theia exclaimed, picking it up and giving it back to Cain. He nodded rather sheepishly, and wouldn't do anything until the Aisha bonked him in the head with it, which seemed to make him snap back to his senses.

They carefully observed their other belongings. Theia managed to uncover her Circlet of the Air Faerie, which would bring them a supply of fresh air and a source of light, while Cain uncovered a Striped Evil Fuzzle. Everything else, including food and other necessitates, lay smashed on the ground.

'Well, we might as well go,' suggested Cain, lighting his Wand of Nova. They could now see what was on the walls: mysterious mosaics made out of multi-coloured gemstones.

'Cain, wait!' Theia said, rushing up the mosaics on the walls and inspecting them. She loved artwork and always hoped to have her work displayed in the Art Gallery one day once her thieving days were over. She looked at them for a split second before gasping, running into Cain.

'What is it?' Cain rushed over to his partner's side.

The Aisha could only point towards the mosaic and say, in a watery voice, 'That - that Miyoka girl, that Acara, she was telling the truth about the Tear...'

'What - OH!' Cain remembered how they had found an Acara at their doorstep many weeks ago, who was now in Training Group Nu, telling them about a mysterious dream she had where a Thyora's Tear had captured her friend and an entire island around the general vicinity of Krawk Island, and how she had freed everything by throwing the gem out on to the sea, back on to Mystery Island. She then saw the same gem in the Jewelry Shop when looking for medicine for her ill friend Liyon. Her back ached extremely because of the cold, so she had to remain hunched over in her purple robe as she carefully inspected the cabinet, rather in horror than in enchantment. The jeweler than came over to her and she haggled with him, trying to save the Tear, but she was rejected and thrown out. This information was what led the thieves to try and poach the Thyora's Tear in the first place, even with all of Miyoka's warnings.

And now, in a strange cavern deep within Terror Mountain, there were mosaics on the walls that proved that the story was true. Theia and Cain moved down the hallway with the Circlet and the Staff, inspecting each piece of artwork like a storybook. They was even saw one with a carved stone Maraquan Aisha, with a replica of the jewel around her neck.

'If - if the story is true...' Cain began slowly. 'Then... then...'

'...then the same must apply for Pompey!' Theia shouted, excited. 'Come on, Cain, what are we waiting for?'

She grabbed her partner by the paw and started dragging him down the cave, which were lined with more mosaics of how an Acara traveled into a shallow pool and into a strange mountain. Finally, at the end of the hallway, the mosaics strangely ended with two Acaras on Mystery Island, one playing the flute, and the other singing.

There, in the very heart of the room at the end of the hall, they could see the statue of a chubby Bruce, its arms flailing above it as if it were about to fly. Around it there were little pieces of snow, twinkling like pearls and diamonds. Around its neck was a stone that was surely -

'Theia - no!' Cain warned, grabbing his partner and pulling her back, for she had showed every sign of wanting to touch the Thyora's Tear. 'Remember what happened in the mosaics?'

The Aisha snapped back to her senses, looking at the little flecks of snow on the ground. 'Yeah, I suppose that whatever touches it will free the last person who touched it, but the thing will disappear... poor -'

But Cain quickly interrupted her. 'Repeat that again, Theia!'

'Whatever it touches will disappear?' Theia said, confused. 'Cain, I don't see where you're going with -'

'Exactly!' said Cain, scooping up some of the snow. 'What touches it will disappear!'

And with that, he threw the pieces of snow on to the tear, and quickly jumped back.

'Cain! What did you -'

However, Theia was interrupted once again as a violent snow-storm, originating from the flecks of snow on the ground, swept away everything that was touching the Tear. There was a violent flash of light, and then everything was calm again in the cavern.

Where the statue of the Bruce was, there was now Pompey, holding the precious gem in his hand and looking rather confused. The wall behind him had completely crumbled into dust, and a gigantic chasm was revealed with no other side.

'POMPEY!' Theia said, and quickly ran over and hugged him tightly.

'Th - Theia!' Pompey said, disdainful. 'What - what happened? Where's the team? Did we get the T-?'

He looked down at his fin, and a mixture of astonishment and understanding dawned on his face. He rubbed his fin along the shiny surface of the gem in amazement, and a strange light came over his eyes. However, nobody noticed as Cain gave a sudden shout, and Theia screamed

The gems on the mosaics had suddenly jumped out from their frames and each kind of colour grouped together, so they were now facing ruby, emerald, sapphire, topaz, opal, and diamond skeletal figures, all of them whispering, 'Give us the gem...'

'You know, this brings a whole new meaning to the term 'Gem Thieves', ' joked Cain, as the monsters grouped them in a tight circle near the edge of the chasm.

'Quick, do what the story says!' said Theia, who had gone hysterical with fright despite being a thief. 'Throw the gem over the cliff, Pompey! Destroy it!'

'No.'

'What?'

'I said no!' Pompey held the gemstone close to him, a fierce green fire dancing in his eyes. 'It's mine!

'P - Pompey...' said Cain, now on the very edge of the cliff. 'You know we're about to - about to be - be -'

'Yes, I very well do know!' said the Bruce, kicking away one of the monsters due to his commitment of keeping the Tear. 'And I don't care!'

'Pompey - give that stone to me!' Cain demanded.

'No!'

'Don't be silly - give it to me!'

'Yes, give it to him!' Theia said, joining Cain's campaign. The monsters were nearly upon them.

'No - NO!' Pompey kicked away three other monsters with surprising agility. 'It's mine - mine! And I'm not going to destroy it just for -'

'- Your bLIFE/b?' Cain demanded, but before he could say anything else, one of the monsters tripped Pompey. He fell over the edge face-first, letting go of the Tear. Immediately, the green flames in his eyes burned out as the Tear fell into the depths of the chasm, but the Purple Bruce only fell on to an extremely soft camper's bed in the Thieves of Terror Headquarters, the Ice Caves.

'Pompey!' Theia yelled in alarm. They were in Team Alpha's sleeping quarters, and his two friends Theia and Cain were looking at him with fright. 'You were twisting all over in your sleep, and then you turned completely still like a rock, and then you fell off the top bunk on to Eni's bunk!'

'Wh – what?' inquired Pompey, stretching luxuriously and yawning. 'I had the most str- strangest dream…'

'Was I in it?' Cain grinned, laughing.

However, Pompey screwed up his face in concentration. 'Actually… yes!'

'Oh, you silly Bruce,' said the Lupe, now standing up and fastening his cloak on. 'I was just joking around with you! Come on, we have a mission in half an hour, and you know how Cora gets when we're late…'

'That's it; a good, hard theft is the thing to wake me up… where are we going?'

'Oh, to some jewelry shop,' Theia said, fastening the Circlet of the Air Faerie into her long, shaggy red hair, which she quickly brushed.

Pompey suddenly stopped putting on his second layer of navy silk, looking up at Theia in horror. Slowly, as Cain left the room, he asked, 'What are we stealing?'

'A Thyora's Tear' said Theia, and not noticing the look of extreme fright that had grown on her Bruce friend's face, she left the room.

Pompey, however, dived back on to his bed on hid his face under the covers, not responding to the people calling his name from the meeting room.