Thena was going to kill them, all of them but especially Kingo. If they were honest she had to have seen it coming, at what point did she think it would be a good idea to leave them all alone in her house, of course the answer was simple. Makkari and Druig had a school "project", which Thena was sure they wouldn't do if the bags of gummies and chocolates that Makkari had shown up with were any indication of how the afternoon would go for those two. Sersi had logically gone to see Ikaris for no reason other than to watch movies and hang out together and Kingo...Kingo was only there because he didn't want to be alone, he was probably there to annoy the others or play with Sprite but whatever the reason she and Gil had to go because they had arranged to meet some friends to catch up. So yes, she had to have seen it coming and now they were in that situation because of her.
"Tell me again, why did you think it would be a good idea to do that?" asked Druig irritably, hugging Sprite tighter against his chest.
"I already said I'm sorry!" Kingo shouted in exasperation, he had lost count of how many times he had already apologized.
"Your apology doesn't capture the iguana, keep looking" Ikaris said in a firm voice.
They had been trying to find Olympia for about half an hour, Kingo had had the bright idea to open the tank to try to pet her and in his very bad attempt to do so the iguana had been faster than him and had managed to escape. Druig and Makkari were in the dining room when the iguana walked past them, both were slow to react but by the time Druig had shouted for help the animal had disappeared.
They were now in the kitchen, Sprite swore she had seen it come in so it had to be somewhere in there, the problem was when Kingo screamed alerting the others, Druig immediately taking Sprite in his arms and climbing on the countertop to put as much distance as possible between his little sister, and him, and the iguana, Sersi had not hesitated to copy his actions so it was Ikaris, Kingo and Makkari the only ones who were really looking for the animal.
"I found it!" Ikaris said victoriously, catching the attention of the others.
"How are we supposed to get her out of there?" Kingo asked, looking at Ikaris waiting for a solution.
Olympia was behind the refrigerator and now the problem was that somehow they had to get her out of there and preferably fast as she could easily end up in one of the other corners of the house before any of them could catch her.
Makkari had the idea of using the broom to force her to move and since Kingo had been the one to blame for letting her loose it would be up to him to catch her before she ran away again. Clearly that was much easier said than done.
Chaos broke out as quickly as could have been expected, Olympia was clearly faster than they were and thanks to that the screaming and running back and forth trying to avoid a bite or a swipe of her tail was not long in coming.
By the time everyone had calmed down Olympia had managed to hide again, Druig and Sersi were hiding in the bathroom, Sprite was still on the counter and the other three were standing on various surfaces trying to keep calm.
Finally Sprite had burst out laughing, somehow she had been left behind by the other two, surely she had refused to come down from where she was since she had a front row seat to watch everything happen.
"Siri, how do you catch an iguana?" Sprite finally stopped laughing to ask her question looking directly at the small speaker that was just inches away from her.
"Sprite!" Ikaris scolded her as she rolled her eyes, she had discovered Siri not too long ago thanks to Gil and Kingo and now wasted no opportunity to ask the device anything.
Surprisingly Siri did have an answer to Sprite's question and although the answer from "iguanacontrol.com" was not what they needed, Kingo soon let out a huge laugh when he heard it.
In spite of everything Ikaris began to search the internet for ways to catch the iguana, Sprite had not been too wrong to ask for Siri's help, apparently they were not the only ones with that kind of problem so faster than he thought he finally had an answer on what to do.
Makkari climbed up on the counter next to Sprite while the other two would be in charge of catching Olympia when she finally decided to come out with the bait they had set for her. Druig and Sersi were still locked in the bathroom, neither of them very adept at being bitten by an iguana thank you very much.
"Remind me again, why do you have a pet iguana? Dogs are better and easier to find" Kingo complained as he readied his makeshift net, ready to catch Olympia the moment she appeared.
"Because my sister makes senseless decisions when she's drunk, now quietly she and Gil shouldn't be long in coming and if they find us like this we're all in trouble" Ikaris likewise was ready to jump in at any moment to catch the iguana, they had little time left before Gil and Thena arrived.
"At least she could have bought a small iguana, not a giant one like Olympia."
"Can you two stop complaining and hurry up?" Druig yelled from inside the bathroom "Sersi and I are dying of heat".
"You two should have thought of that before you locked yourselves in the bathroom, you could have just gone upstairs."
"We didn't have time to think about that, now hurry up!"
Ikaris rolled his eyes and decided better not to answer, they couldn't rush the process, they just had to wait for the iguana to come out of hiding and approach the bait.
It was probably fifteen minutes before Olympia finally made her appearance, the two waited patiently until she had come all the way over and was distracted by eating before making the first move. Kingo had passed the net to Ikaris because from where he was he had a better angle to try to catch her, the problem was that Olympia was not willing to cooperate with them so easily. She again ran at the sight of the improvised net, Kingo in a desperate attempt to catch her and end this adventure tried to approach and grab her from the opposite side to Ikaris but the iguana turned quickly and almost bit one of his hands. Kingo screamed, really screamed and started to run in the direction of the stairs being momentarily chased by the animal.
Sprite and Makkari couldn't contain their laughter, even Ikaris was having a hard time trying not to laugh at his brother, who was now on the second floor feeling his heart almost bursting out of his chest.
"What's going on here?"
Thanks to the laughter neither noticed when Gil and Thena walked through the front door, both with rather confused expressions as they saw Ikaris holding the net, Olympia walking calmly across the floor and Makkari and Sprite sitting on the counter.
"Why is Olympia out of her cage?
Sprite opened her mouth to speak but Makkari quickly put a hand on her preventing her from speaking, she slowly shook her head indicating for her not to say anything.
Thena looked at the three of them with narrowed eyes as she walked over to her pet to pick it up and take it in her arms.
"I'm waiting" she said, passing her gaze from one to the other waiting for an answer, Gil stood behind her trying not to laugh as he imagined what had happened.
"We had a little accident and Olympia got out of her cage, we were just trying to catch her" Ikaris explained, looking sideways at Sprite hoping she wasn't going to reveal that it had all been Kingo's fault.
"And why are you two up there? Where are the others?"
"Did you get her? We want to get out of here" Druig's voice startled Thena and Gil, the latter approaching the door so he could open it and meet the two teenagers "Have you got her? I'm not coming out if she's still loose."
Gil pointed at Thena, getting them both to turn to look at her and they both breathed a sigh of relief that they could finally come out of hiding.
"Where's Kingo?"
"Probably crying upstairs" Sprite replied with a playful grin on her lips "Olympia almost bit him"
"Ok let me get this straight, Olympia came out of her cage, you tried to catch her, you two" he pointed to Druig and Sersi" you hid in the bathroom" he turned to where Sprite and Makkari were "you decided to stay there and Kingo and Ikaris tried to catch her and Kingo almost lost a hand?"
"Basically" replied Ikaris with a shrug as he finally approached Sprite so he could help her down "we're sorry, we really tried to catch her"
"She's really fast" Makkari added with a smile "she was smarter than all of us"
Thena and Gil looked at each other again, they really didn't know what to say, what do you say when two of your siblings try to catch your pet on the loose, two are on the counter looking at everything and two are locked in a bathroom for fear of this one.
"Sorry Thena, we really tried" Kingo finally appeared coming down the stairs slowly capturing everyone's attention, he was completely pale, disheveled and had an expression of pure terror on his face.
That was enough, finally Thena and Gil burst out laughing, it really was a completely ridiculous situation, but seeing Kingo like that was just too much.
The five of them looked at the couple as if they had grown another head, they had expected a completely different reaction from them, after all Thena had reminded them a thousand times before leaving not to open Olympia's cage and they had clearly disobeyed her.
After finally putting Olympia back in her cage, they all gathered in the kitchen, Gil had called Ajak to join them, they could enjoy a small snack while they listened to the full story of how they had ended up chasing the iguana around the house.
Surprisingly Thena was quite giggly as she listened to the whole story and when Kingo finally asked her if she wasn't upset about everything that had happened she replied that all they had to do and the scare he must have had when Olympia almost bit his hand was punishment enough.