<Slowly, Bob the white Blumaroo crawled out his window, down a rope made of sheets and blankets. He brought all the essential items he would need with him in his backpack: food, a compass, NP, mittens, flashlight, his lucky scarf, Edmund (his pet Fungree), and a handful of stone snowballs he found under his bed. Bob was trying to be as quiet as can be as he slid down... Author : Neopets Staff
Date : 27th Nov
...He landed on the soft snow and looked around. The coast was clear. Edmund handed him his walkie talkie. "This is agent 102, do you read me agent 504? Over," Bob said as he crouched behind a bush. "Um, I'm right here. Over." He quickly turned around and saw his friend Philip the Blue Lupe hiding behind the same bush. "Are you ready to go?" Phillip asked. "Yep." Their original plan was to head out to the Happy Valley, but they were hired to investigate the newly discovered Ice Caves for an illegal stash of yellow snowballs. It would be a cold journey but they had their jackets on and they were both well armed and trained. "Compass," Bob said. Edmund handed Bob the compass and... Author : pallas45
Date : 27th Nov
...it told them to head north, all the way to the North Pole! With the extremely cold weather in their minds, they put on an extra layer of clothing. As they traveled further north, the snow storm was nothing like they expected. Edmund was now trying to stay warm in Bob's pocket, and Phillip was staying close. They could barely see anything through the vast, thick downpour of snow. Then suddenly, they heard a sound coming towards them. "What was that?" asked Phillip. Bob gestured to Edmund, "Quick, give me some stone snowballs, I think that sound might be..." Author : bayleef117
Date : 27th Nov
...the abdominal snowman!" "The abdominal snowman?" whispered Phillip. "Rookie," Bob said under his breath. Bob had been with the NeoInvestigators for years, but this was Phillip's first mission. "The abdominal snowman is one of the monsters that's rumored to live up here...this area is not very explored, so nobody knows for sure, but there are tales of this huge snowman with an enormous belly...here, take a snowball." A shadow suddenly loomed before them in the storm. It looked like a big snowman. "RHAAAUUUGGGHHH!" A big, BIG snowman. "Um, Bob?" whispered Phillip. "Yeah?" "If he's a snowman, why are we throwing snowballs at him? Won't they make him...well...bigger?" Phillip asked. Bob's eyes widened in horror. "Oh my gosh, you're right..." Author : nerdymel
Date : 28th Nov
..."We'll need something else." The blistering cold wind was slapping Bob and Phillip right in the face. Edmund was shivering inside Bob's pocket. "What should we do?" Phillip asked and continued, "We have no weapons. All we have is a smoothie and a grilled cheese sandwich...I could of sworn I brought a tomato, too." Bob yelled, "That's not the point, Phillip! We're going to be crushed by this snowman's belly and all that you can think of is a TOMATO?!" Bob shouted. Edmund popped his head out and gave Phillip a mean look. "Well, I thought he might be hungry," Phillip said. Suddenly, the fat snowman crumbled into small snowballs. "What the? How did that happen?" Phillip asked, holding up a tomato. They heard a female voice from over the hill. "Are you guys okay? It sounded like a little girl was screaming," she shouted as she ran over the hill. It was a blue Aisha named Sheridan. "Yeah, we're okay. The screaming you heard was my good friend here, Phillip," Bob exclaimed sarcastically. They both looked over at Sheridan. She suddenly had a scared look on her face and she was pointing behind Bob and Phillip... Author : chaddums
Date : 28th Nov
..."Is it...is it...another...ab-ab-dominable s-s-snowman?" Philip asked, stuttering from fear. "No...that fire behind you just reminded me that I didn't leave wood for the stove in my cottage. My poor grandmother..." she sobbed. "Well, phew. If you want to call her, I may be able to contact her on my telepathic telephone. Does she have a private number?" Bob asked. "No, we couldn't afford the psionic blocks after we lost our jobs...oh poor woman!! She's going to freeze and it's all my fault!!" Bob walked over to Sheridan and put his arm around her. "It will be okay, it's not your fault, don't worry about it. Thank you so much for saving us." Philip, who was standing uncomfortably off to the left due to the public display of affection, spoke next. "Guys, guys, guys...did you ever think that campfires do not occur naturally? Someone, or something, built it. And we know it couldn't have been the snowman. Which means...we're not alone..." Author : happyjedicat
Date : 29th Nov
..."Should we check it out?" asked Bob. "I don't know...it could be d-d-d-dangerous..." answered Phillip. "Big baby," Edmund said with his little voice. Bob pulled Edmund out of his pocket and set him in the snow. "I say we go." "Whatever it is, it has a fire and that means it may have some food," Phillip said, licking his chops. "What if it tries to eat you, Phillip?" Edmund asked. "W-w-w-h-h-a-a-t-t-t?" "I know almost everyone around this area, and most of them are very nice. So I'm sure it's a friendly...uh...thing, if there is one," Sheridan reassured Phillip. They went over to the fire to see if anything important was there. It had stopped snowing by the time they reached the fire. Edmund found some sticks and fed a few to the fire, and a few to rewarm some of the veggie sausages Bob brought. As the other two searched around, Phillip called them over. "Doesn't this tree look funny?" Bob answered, "Yeah...it almost looks like the Neopian Money Tree...except smaller." "That's what I thought, but what would a tree be doing all the way out here, near the Ice Caves?" Phillip said. Sheridan walked up to the tree and knocked. She started laughing and said, "It's hollow. Wait a second...IT'S PLASTIC!!" Bob hit the fake tree with his fist and it fell over and Phillip jumped back like a scaredy-cat. Underneath the tree there was... Author : black_castle
Date : 29th Nov
...a gigantic hole that seemed to be endless. "I don't like the looks of this," Sheridan said. "I mean, I know this area pretty well and I've never seen anything like that." "Well," Bob began, "we have some, erm, important exploring to do, and this looks like as good of a place as any to start." Edmund nodded. "Exploring?" Sheridan asked timidly, "well, I'm not much of an explorer, but I know everything there is to know about the creatures of this land. If you need information I might be of some help." Bob, Edmund, and Phillip all looked at each other. "Okay," Phillip quickly said. Bob took a long coil of rope out of his backpack and tied one end to a tree root. "I'll climb down first with Edmund in my pocket, and then you guys follow." Bob scooped up Edmund, put him in his pocket and began climbing down. The walls were icy and slippery, and Bob's hand were getting numb. He finally landed on a floor of solid ice. He looked all around him...everywhere was the sparkle of icicles and ice-stalagmites and stalactites. When Phillip and Sheridan finally made it down with him, Bob said, "You know, I THINK we found the Ice Caves!!" "All right!!!" Phillip said, "What we need to do is find the, um, well Sheridan, we're looking for illegal snowballs. We are special agents." Sheridan nodded. "There's a fork in the entrance there," Phillip pointed, "we have to split up. Me and Sheridan will go left...Bob, you and Edmund go to the right." Bob stopped for a second and gave Phillip a confused look. "Wait a second, mister scaredy-cat...what's going on here. A second ago you were afraid to even come down here...what gives?" "You just go to the right with Edmund and WE will go to the left." Bob glanced over to Sheridan, who was shivering slightly, and said, "Okay, Casanova." So they went into their separate tunnels. Bob and Edmund had only gone about twenty feet or so when Edmund said out of the blue, "Ice is pretty cold, now that I think of it." Bob rolled his eyes, "Ya think so? 'Cause I haven't really noticed,"he said sarcastically. They walked on and Edmund began to whistle. After he paused, they heard somebody or something whistle back. "Okay, now, I know that wasn't you or me and it wasn't Phil or Sheridan, so who or what the heck was that?" Bob asked suspiciously. "Dunno," Edmund answered. Just then, a large black and white snowball flew through the air right at their heads. "Ahhh!!!" Bob screamed as he ducked. The snowball landing against the icy wall. It jumped up and walked over to them. "Hey, it's not a snowball! It's Bruce, one of the Secret Agents!" Bob yelled. Bruce walked over and said, "Sup, guys what brings you to 'da ice caves?" the penguin said while flipping his red baseball cap backwards. "Searching for illegal snowballs," Edmund whispered. "Oooh, that's bad business, man. Might wunna go see 'Sleet.' He could help ya out where those snowballs are hidin'...ya dig?" "Who's this Sleet?" Bob asked suspiciously. "Oh, Sleet's the Gelert of 'da North, long white fur and ice blue eyes. He protects everybody who lives here." "Thanks for the tip. See ya around." Bob and Bruce gave each other the secret golden handshake of the Secret Agents and the little rad penguin waddled off, singing a song by the Killer Kougras. "Weird dude, man," Edmund said after Bruce left. "So what???? We've got a lead n-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ow!!!!" He screamed as they fell through some thin ice and landed on the floor of a large cavern. They gaped wide-eyed at a huge frozen Ice Faerie! Then the ice surrounding the two began to shake! Pieces of ice started to fall, a few just missing Bob's head. The ice below Bob and Edmund started to crack exposing yet another cave...a cave fill of stalagmites just waiting to claim their next victim. Leery to move and worried they might fall through the floor Bob stood perfectly still until the cave quake was over. Edmund jumped in Bob's pocket. There were cracks everywhere in the ice, above Bob's head and under his feet. Moving in any direction could result in a deadly ending. "Hey Bob, I don't have a good feeling about this. Maybe we should just stand right here till Philip and Sheridan come to look for us." Edmund suggested. "Edmund my friend, I think you are right." The pair stood there for about ten minutes when the cold began to get the best of them and they began to shiver, causing the cracks in the ice below them start to widen. "Okay Edmund, we are now going to ditch your idea, and try to climb back out." Bob tried to grab hold of a few cracks in the wallk they began to shake again. "Just keep trying Bob, don't look back!" Edmund exclaimed. "Philip! Sheridan! We need help!" Bob cried out. Just then Bob tripped over a break in the ice. Worried he was about to plunge through another ice cave, he reached out to grab on to anything he find. "Grab hold!!!!" Bob looked up to see Philip standing overhead holding on to the end of a rope. Sheridan was there standing with him. "You will have to climb up, we can't pull, the ice is too thin!" hollered Philip. With a bit of a struggle Bob made it back up into the original cave and the group now headed out to discuss the new developments of their journey. "What happened in there Bob?" Philip questioned. "There was some sort of quake, didn't you feel it in your cave? Answered Bob. "No, nothing happened to us, the cave turned out to be a dead end so we headed back out. That's when we heard you cry for help." "I don't understand," Bob began, "we were just walking along when the shaking began, so violently, I thought I had played my last game of Schorchio Slots for sure. How could you have not felt it?" Phillip shrugged. "Oh, but we did have a bit of luck, we ran into Bruce who told us about a Gelert named Sleet, then there was something we saw just before the fall, something frozen in the ice, I think it might be a clue, too. Hey Edmund, where did Bruce say we could find this Sleet guy...Edmund?" Bob searched his pocket but there was no sign of Edmund! "Philip, we have to go back"
"Come on!" yelled Bob, sobbing because he lost his best friend. "No, it's too risky. We can't go back down to that cave!" Philip said. Sheridan looked sadly at Bob. "Hey!" she yelled, "What's that?" Sheridan pointed down through the hole that had the frozen faerie in it. A little Fungree was climbing up the ice. "Edmund!" Bob ran and grabbed Edmund out of the hole. "Oh, thank God you're okay." The whole group cheered and then just remembered what their quest was--to find Sleet the Gelert. Bob took out his compass and found north. "Let's head up there!" Sheridan pointed. The whole group raced up to the north. All of a sudden Philip stopped dead in his tracks. "Yo, wassup?" Bob asked Philip. "Anything wrong?" Philip replied with great fear, "L-loo-look there!" He pointed up to a sign on the side of the road. It read, "ALL WHO PASSES SHALL NEVER RETURN!" Under it, it had, "THE ROAD TO SLEET, THE GREAT GELERT (this way--->)". Sheridan looked horrified. "Outta all the times I've been in this cave, I have never seen this sign before. But we Aisha's know how to sense bad things that are coming," Sheridan said. "So what d'you sense?" Philip and Bob asked at the same time. "This ain't the real Sleet! I bet the robber who put the illegal stash of snowballs just wrote that under the real message. See?" Sheridan walked over and rubbed her hand on the bottom of the sign. The message that read, "THE ROAD TO SLEET, THE GREAT GELERT" vanished. Sheridan tried to rub off the top of the sign, but nothing happened. "I say we go," Bob said triumphantly as a cold wind blew through his furry body. "Hey look over there!" Philip pointed passed the sign and there was Sleet the Gelert. Standing in all his Glory, he started to take off in the other direction. Bob screamed in anger as he took off after him. Phillp was hot on his heels, but he raced ahead suddenly and tackled Sleet. The white Gelert growled in pure protest, but his growls were silenced by the cold stare of Phillp. Sheridan pushed Phillp off of Sleet, and said, "I'm so sorry about what we had to do. We need your help finding the illegal yellow snowballs." Sleet stood up, and brushed himself off, growling, "And you need it why?" Bob frowned as he said gritting his teeth, "Because I said so, stupid. And the robber stashed them somewhere, now tell us where they are!" Sleet was taken back by the tone Bob was using with him, he growled, "You want it so bad? Then find it yourself!" Phillp stammered quickly, "No no we tried that. Now please mister sheet metal tell us where the yellow snowballs are!" Sleet smirked, "Sleet, it's sleet, not sheet. And they are over there," he said waving his paws towards the frozen lake. "I saw some animal over there earlier hiding them over there. Have fun," he said walking off. Edmund jumped out of Bob's pocket and started to run to the lake, jumping up and down shouting, "Come quick! I found them!" Bob, Phillip, and Sheridan all started to run over there.
When they got there the illegal snowballs had disappeared. "Where did the illegal snowballs go?" asked Bob. "I don't know, but something funny is going on," replied Phillip. Edmund said, "Over there. I see robbers running with them." Bob, Phillip, and Sheridan all started running after the robbers. They zigzagged through tunnels and snow paths as they followed the robbers. Sheridan and Bob caught up to the two robbers and jumped on them. Your under arrest for making illegal snowballs," said Phillip, who had caught up to Sheridan and Bob. Edmund came panting behind and said "Yahoo. We've caught them." Bob, Pillip, Sheridan, and Edmund dragged the robbers to Sleet. "Can you deal with them?" asked Bob. "We need to get back to bed." "Sure," replied Sleet. They started walking back to Sheridan's house, collecting firewood on their way. When they got to Sheridan's house her grandma was lying in bed sleeping. Sheridan started a fire and the cottage began to warm up. "We better get going. Our parents will get mad if they find us out of bed," said Bob. "Okay, bye," said Sheridan. Bob, Pillip, and Edmund left and hurried home. It had been another great adventure.

THE END

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