It was just another rainy Saturday and Sarah was stuck inside. Sarah was a young Cybunny and had just started school...and she loved it. Today, however, was just going to be boring. Staring through the rain at the miserable grey skies was about all there was to do... until she noticed that there was a light shining from the window upstairs. Remembering that her owner had left for a week she became very intrested in what was there. Slowly and carefully hopping up the stairs, she soon reached the door which the light was coming out from. Sarah reached for the handle, and slowly opened the door. It creaked softly, and opened to a bright room. Still a bit scared she took a step inside. Then she heard a laugh, not the beautiful laugh of her owner's, but a cruel, cold, blank laugh. Suddenly the light flashed and she wasn't in the room anymore, but in a strange and different world which she knew nothing about. She looked around wildly trying to keep calm while hundreds of questions raced through her mind. Where was she? Was this place dangerous? How did she get here? After a couple of minutes, Sarah got a hold of her thoughts and began to think more calmly. She assessed the situation and decided that because she did not know how she got there, the only way to go was forward. She began to walk and to discover where she was. She was in a deep, dark, musty forest. She looked up but she couldn't see the sky through the thick branches of the tree. She guessed it was night though from the eerie darkness that surrounded her. She heard strange sounds all around her, things hiding in the depths of the forest. She had this odd feeling that someone was following her, watching her. The air began get thick and musty when from behind her her a shrill scream. She turned around so quick that she stumbled and fell. She looked up saw feet in front of her. She slowly looked up and saw something that terrified her a big Skeith was right in front of her. She cried, "Don't hurt me!" "Why would I hurt you?" the Skeith asked. Sarah answered, "Because your a big mean Skeith!" "I know I'm big, but I'm not mean. My name is Joshua. Sarah felt calm now. "Hello my name is Sarah," she responded. "Your new here, huh?" Sarah nodded. "Why don't I show you around," Josh said with a sly grin.Over the next few hours, Josh took Sarah to what seemed like hundreds of places, all different in little ways. But as he took her around, Sarah couldn't help noticing Joshua's sly grin, and for every place they went to, it seemed to get much slyer. Finally, Josh stopped in front of a gate. Sarah looked through the gate and saw a beautiful house. She desperately wanted to get to it, but something was telling her that this house was more than the eye could see. Josh opened the gate, with his sly grin from ear to ear. Sarah took one step forward and heard a strange swishing sound. She was caught in a net and everything went black. Sarah awoke in a dark and damp cell. The last thing she could remember was Joshua's evil smirk as she was swooped up in a net. "Where am I?" she asked to no one in particular. A voice spoke to her from the other side of the bars. "You're in Dr. Frankenpet's dungeon." Sarah reconized that voice. It was Joshua! "Why am I here?" asked Sarah, afraid of what the answer might be. "Dr. Frankenpet has special plans for you." Then, she heard that evil laugh again. Sarah grew frantic knowing that she would probably not be able to escape Joshua or Dr. Frankenpet! The cell was small and musty. Her small hind legs were trembling just thinking of what might happen to her. "What am I going to do?" she pondered quietly to herself. Then the she heard a large door open across the hall. She also heard a loud, rusty voice that was like nails running down a chalkboard. The voice seemed like it was getting closer and closer by the second. She soon realized that it was a Korbat walking down a hallway, which was also lined with cells. Sarah thought it odd that a Korbat was walking and not flying, but she pushed this out of her mind. "Don't worry," he said, "I'm going to get you out of here." He pulled out a ring of keys and unlocked her cell. "Who are you?" Sarah asked. "I'm Steven. I was captured, too. Luckily, the guard near me fell asleep and I stole his keys and escaped." As they were making their way out, Sarah heard something. It was Joshua's voice echoing down the stairs! "Quick, hide!" Sarah said quietly. They both hid underneath a nearby desk before Joshua could see them. "Hey!" he yelled. "Where is she?" He quickly ran back up the stairs. "Phew. That was close," Steven said. "Yeah," Sarah agreed. "Now, let's get out of here." They both got out from under the desk and there was a red Lupe looking at her through a hole in the ventalation shaft. He whispered to her, "Here, grab my paw." Sarah thought and thought. Both Steven and Sarah looked at each other. They heard a voice coming closer to them. Sarah tried to jump as high as she could and the red lupe caught her hand. He did the same for Steven. He said, "My name is Zeus and this is my friend Veemon." Sarah looked around the shaft and saw Veemon the blue Kacheek. Zeus said, "I know the way out of here." He started to crawl down the shaft. "I didn't catch your name," said Zeus. She said, "My name is Sarah and this is my new friend Steven." After what seemed like an hour of crawling, they came to a big hole and they all jumped out into the dark woods landing in a big pile of twigs. As they all got up and shook off the little twig pieces, Zeus asked, "Are you okay?" Both Sarah and Steven nodded. "I've been better though," Sarah added. But then they all froze as they heard a noise coming from behind them. "Oh no," Veemon whispered, "it's the guards! They heard us!" The pets looked back and saw two Grrarls running toward them, so they took off as fast as they could."What a relief!" Sarah breathed. Although the woods were definitely freaky, it was nothing compared to Dr. Frankenpet's dungeon. "Well, I suppose we should keep moving. Who knows what'll happen if we should get captured again," Zeus suggested. They all nodded in agreement. Steven, being the oldest, took the lead and they started into the dark forest. After walking a great distance they found a hollowed out tree. "Here's a good place to stay for the night," Steven said as he went in first to make sure things were all right. They were and so they all went into the tree. "We'll have to take turns keeping watch. I'll take the first watch," Zeus said, setting up near the opening. The rest of the group went to sleep gratefully. The next day Sarah woke up and saw her snoring group of new friends huddled around her. She smiled but quickly remembered where she was, and she became very depressed. Once they all woke, she asked if anything had happened during the night. All shook their heads no, so she jumped up and said, "Let's find our way home!" Zeus cautiously went to the entrance and poked his head out, turning it right, then left. "All clear," he whispered and they all piled out of the tree. Things seemed different during the day in the forest, all seemed very dull, not scary like the night before. Sarah looked up to see a gray sky and wished there was a shining sun instead, but she kept her head high as they moved through the forest. They reached a road that had four directions. Why was there a road in the middle of this forest? And which way were they gonna go? They stood for a second when they heard Veemon scream "What is it Veemon????" Sarah asked, her voice quivering. " A...a....a...sp...spi...spider!" "A spider is nothing to be afraid o...o...o...OF!" Sarah froze. Right before her eyes hung a giant spider!!! "Soooo....what do we have here??? the spider questioned, "I didn't know Dr. Frankenpet was sending me lunch today...how nice of him...I am starving...but you look like a nice group of pets, so I shall give you a way out." Sarah breathed a sigh of reflief, but quickly caught it before the spider could hear. "If you can guess my age," the spider continued," I shall let you go, however, if you guess wrong, well...I shall not go hungry for long." Sarah had no idea of the spider's age. It could be anything!!! She looked at her group of friends. They all shrugged, not knowing the answer either. "But since I am a pretty nice spider, I shall give you a hint...a small hint." That did not do much for Sarah and her friends. "What...what is the hint???" Sarah asked the spider, trying to sound valiant. "Well," the spider said, "a man can't compare to my age and neither can his elder, but a cat is close. But a dog, well forget that!!!" the spider paused, giving Sarah time to think. "A cat has nine lives and the average man lives to 85..." the spider interrupted her thoughts..."Oh yeah, your answer must rhyme, too. Sarah was shaking in her shoes as she did a little mental math. However, when it all came down to it, Sarah hadn't ever been too good at that. She looked again to her friends. "Veemon, what's it all mean? Come here!" Veemon shyly walked up and said, "I know the answer." Sarah nudged the frightened animal up to the spider and whispered to him, "Good luck." The spider was quizzically filing his nails, if you could call them that. "Well?" it said, glancing down at Veemon. "I--I--I have the answer..." Veemon said. The spider said, "Better hurry up... I--I--I am hungry!" Veemon began: "Y-you've got eight legs, and I-I've got t-two, but both of us know your age, it's tr-true. A man can live to 85 not 82. The cat's in the bag, he's got nine lives. Times them together and what do you get? A seven, a six, and one more number, too! As all good things will come to end, this spider's meal isn't one of them! I won't delay, I'll tell you now...it all occurs with the cat's ME-OW! This spider has been quite alive up to the year of 765!" As the trembling Veemon finished, the spider smiled "You're a little off there...I'm 784..." The pets were looking around at each other with frightened faces, and when they were about to run, the spider said, "HOWEVER...since you made me feel younger, I'll let you go...everyone always guesses I'm 900 or something...must be all this ear hair." "Thank you so much!" chimmed the pets. "You know," continued the spider, "Dr. Frankenpet never feeds me anyway...so, do you mind if I...if...I can go with you guys? I'd really like to get a hotdog and Neocola." "Of course!" Sarah said happily. Veemon gave Zeus a nervous look and whispered, "I don't have a good feeling about this." The spider began to gather her things while Sarah and her buddies waited outside nervously. Sarah didn't like the way this spider suddenly decided not to eat them. Veemon was shifting his feet, Zeus looked stupefied, and Steven was glancing around anxiously. The feeling of gratefulness that Sarah had for the spider a minute ago was gone, and was abruptly replaced by bad feelings. Out came the spider, and everyone tried not to show their feelings, lest they should upset the spider into eating them. After walking a ways, there was a thicket of thorny bushes (of course they had to go through them) and beyond that, the Neopian High Street. How funny, that it was so close, when Sarah thought it so far away. But Sarah was pondering how this came to be, and where her friends would go once she got back to her dear owner. How she missed her owner! She wanted to rush back to her right away, but she didn't want to abandon her friends to the spider's care, or anyone else's. "Uh, so, spider, the, um, food store is, er, down this side street there." Sarah pointed. The spider grinned, showing all of its teeth, and trotted, sort of, down the road. It said, "Be lucky, friendssss, I am hungry still. Remember." Odd parting, but the point was, the spider left then and there. Veemon relaxed his shoulders, Steven and Zeus sighed in relief. "Where do we go?" Veemon asked Sarah with a naive tone. Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "My only idea is talking to my owner. She's very nice, and, let's see, there are three of you, and I'm her only pet, so, she could adopt you!" Everyone lit up. Sarah shouted for everyone to follow her, and she knowingly skipped down the path home. Her owner greeted everyone by saying, "Oh, Sarah, I've missed you! You've been gone for days!" Then she noticed Sarah's company. She looked at Veemon, Zeus, and Steven thoughtfully, and then without uttering a word about where they were going, she loaded the four pets into her car and drove down to the Neopian adoption center. She struggled to get the animals to come out of the car because they thought that she was just going to drop them off at the pound. Eventually, Veemon, Steven, and Zeus stepped right into the gaze of Ms. Worely. She disliked pets, you could tell. After five tense minutes of waiting for Sarah's owner to finish up with Ms. Worely and the friendly Blumaroo, who was working to help pets find homes, the three new pets were dragged off, kicking and screaming. Sarah, who was crying, sat in the corner of the waiting room. How could her kind owner do this to her and her new friends? Just then the Blumaroo bounced over to talk to Sarah. He showed Sarah his clipboard. When she saw it, Sarah jumped for joy. Her owner had put the three pets into the adoption center only to get them back out again. "That's the only way it can be done, Sarah," the Blumaroo explained kindly. A few seconds later, Steven, Veemon, and Zeus came running to meet Sarah with a big bear hug. Sarah's owner joined them and they walked to the car holding hands. "I'm so happy that you adopted them!" Sarah exclaimed on the way home. "Me, too!!" everyone else blurted in unison. And they all jumped back into the car. Sarah looked excitedly out of her window. She was finally going home! And with all of her new friends!!! Soon enough her owner had stopped the car. Veemon lead the way up to the large house, Steven, Zeus and Sarah followed. As their owner opened the door, the four pets jumped in. Sarah hopped into the living room and stared out of the window, the same window she sat in front before she began this bizarre journey. Her adventure was finally over. But what was her adventure in this world? As she looked out, millions of pets walked by. Each one had his or her own story to tell. And as she looked up into the stars, she realized there were millions of planets and stars and millions of pets that live on each planet. "Sarah?" Steven said as he walked up to her side. "It's all finally over," said Veemon, standing by the door. "Yeah," said Zeus, looking slightly depressed. The four pets sat in the room in silence for a while. "No! It's just beginning..." said Sarah giggling slightly, "It's all behind us now! Let's look to the future...by the way, my owner keeps some great chocolate in the fridge!" The other 3 smiled, the first true smiles she had ever seen on their faces.

THE END