Author's Note: I would like to thank eevee_girl133 and aera_eaglewings for giving me part of the inspiration for this story through their own stories, as well as Billy Joel for writing the song (and Westlife for redoing it) that inspired me to write the prequel.

"Get the Frisbee, Asco!"

"Hang on, sis, help me get him away from it!"

Two Gelert pups, one red and the other blue, streaked across a grassy field in the evening glow, then fell, play-growling, upon a yellow pup, who had been busy chasing a blue Frisbee.

"Owwww, stoppit, get off!"

A tiny green pup, small for her age, rushed in to join the fray, barking merrily.

Without warning, an electric-blue, feline form streaked through the melee, tumbling the pups left and right like bowling pins as it went. It was an Aisha. The pups, given this new opponent to chase, picked themselves up and dashed after him in a pack.

"Yaaay, get Uncle Hyper!"

"Got the four-ears now!"

The Aisha purposely stopped short and let them leap all over him and gnaw on his four ears, now and then giving them a gentle cuff each.

A sleek, yellow Gelert female appeared in the doorway of a nearby small wooden house. Seeing the writhing group of coloured bodies on the grass, she shook her head, pretending to be bothered.

"Honestly, Hyper, you're worse than the pups."

The Aisha pushed his head out from underneath the mass of growling pups and grinned at her.

"Just giving them something to burn up their energy by, Kal, all harmless fun really. It's something you and that father of theirs never seem to do anyway."

Kalaia, the yellow Gelert, smiled at her friend as her mate, the gentle, quiet green Gelert called Jazz walked up beside her and nuzzled her shoulder.

"Hype's playing with the pups again, I see," said Jazz softly, but there was amusement in his voice. "He's Hyper by name and hyper by nature."

Kalaia touched her nose to the base of his ear. "Well, it's good for the pups, at any rate. Gives them something to work against as a team instead of beating up on each other all the time."

Jazz grinned. "As long as it doesn't teach them to beat up on Aishas."

They both laughed. Kalaia leaned her head against her mate's neck, feeling happier than she had in a long time. Her previous owner had abandoned her in the pound half a year ago, but she had escaped and come here, to Jazz, and Hyper, and---

"Guys! Dinner!"

Tara, their owner, was calling them in from where she was dishing out their dinner, soup brought home from the soup kitchen. Jazz smiled at Kalaia.

"You go help Tara while I get the pups and the big kitten into the house."

Kalaia chuckled to herself as she trotted in. Yes, she was perfectly happy here. She had a loving owner, a wonderful mate, a lovable sibling and beautiful pups of her very own...No pet could ask for more than that.

Tara, a young girl in her mid-teens, was in the lone room of the house, ladling soup from a large bowl into several smaller ones. The house was a modest little place, only one room with no furniture except for a few hammocks hung up in several corners. An extra one had been added since Kalaia's arrival where the pups slept too. Tara had no money apart from that which she had got creating Jazz, which was stored away in case they should need it; she had built the house herself and though she had NeoFriends and kept in touch with her family, she lived alone except for her pets. Food they got from the soup kitchen and water from the nearby river. It was certainly a far cry from Kalaia's old owner's enormous mansion but the Gelert didn't mind at all. Tara looked up from her task and smiled at her.

"It's asparagus and chutney today, I'm afraid. Where's the rest?" Kalaia was about to reply when Hyper came in followed by Jazz and three of the pups. Asco, the eldest pup, a blue male, was leading, followed closely by gentle red Shirra, the older female. Last was Frolic, an energetic yellow male, who was grasping the Frisbee in his jaws. Jazz was carrying little green Mint, youngest of all, by the scruff of her neck. She was play-growling and trying to fight him but his hold was firm. He deposited her on the floor with the rest of the pups. She rolled on her side, giggling helplessly.

"Come on you lot, enough playing." Tara had set out the bowls on the sandy floor and was sitting cross-legged with her own bowl and a spoon. "Enjoy."

"Yuck." Frolic eyed the thick, olive-green liquid with its floating vegetable bits in his bowl with distaste. "I hate asparagus and chutney."

"Don't complain, Frol," his mother warned. "We had your favourite yesterday."

Frolic grumbled, but he started to lap at the bowl anyway. The sun was setting, a golden-red orb in the western sky, leaving a trail of blazing sky and rose-coloured clouds in its wake. The girl and her pets ate their dinner quietly. Everything was peaceful.

Suddenly, there came a knock at the door.

"That's strange," said Tara. "I'm not expecting anyone- did you guys invite anyone over?"

The Gelerts and the Aisha all shook their heads. Tara crossed the little room and opened the door. A man stood there in the doorway.

"Ah, yes, just as I thought," he said, eyes fixed on the pups as he spoke.

"May I help you, sir?" Tara began to get worried. There was something in his voice she did not like. "Is something wrong with my house, my pets...?"

The man turned to face her. "Yes, it's those pups." He pointed to Asco, Shirra, Frolic and Mint. "Those Gelert pups, they'd be the offspring of those two adults?" He waved at Jazz and Kalaia.

"Yes?"

"Do you know that you are supposed to bring any baby pets that have been home-bred to the Create-A-Pet center to be given away to other owners?"

His tone was gentle, but Tara felt like he'd shouted at her. "No, I didn't know." She sounded calmer than she felt. Jazz and Kalaia began to growl and Hyper hissed.

"I know this might be hard for you to take," said the man kindly, "but really, did you expect to keep those pups? You aren't allowed to keep more than four pets at a time. These four are a bit older than the ones we usually take away, which are newborns, but they'll do."

"Mama," whispered Shirra, frightened by the conversation taking place above her head, "what's gonna happen to us?"

Asco leapt up. "Leave Daddy and Mama and Uncle Hyper and Tara?" he cried, horrified. "Why?"

"No!" Mint began to cry, and she clung to her mother. "No, Mama, no, no, NO!"

"Minty, baby," Kalaia whispered gently. She looked, stricken, at Jazz.

Jazz was beside himself with rage.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO US! YOU CAN'T TAKE MY PUPS AWAY! I WON'T LET YOU!" he barked, furiously.

Tara had never seen her Gelert so angry before, a shadow of his usual quiet self. Hyper joined him, spitting and hissing. Asco and Frolic also began to give tongue, while Kalaia sat on the floor, trying vainly to comfort her daughters, who were both wailing brokenheartedly, faces buried in her sandy fur.

The man, however, strode firmly into the center of the room, snatched Mint and Shirra away from Kalaia, who instantly burst into tears, and picked up Asco and Frolic, managing miraculously to avoid being bitten. Jazz, his teeth bared and barking madly, flung himself at the man, Hyper beside him.

But the man was quicker, and he dashed to the door before the Gelert and the Aisha could reach him. Evidently, he had been through this before.

Only when the man was out of the door did Tara find her tongue.

"Wait!" she called. "What if I find owners for them?" Surely some of her NeoFriends would have room for a Gelert pup...

She found herself speaking to a closing door. The man had gone. Furiously, Tara dashed outside, but all she saw was a van roaring off into the night. Tara stood dumbly, watching helplessly as its headlights dimmed to pinpoints in the distance, unaware that Jazz had joined her outside, that Hyper was standing, shocked, in the doorway, and of Kalaia's brokenhearted sobs carrying from the house.

To be continued...