NOTE: Well, here is the second chapter. Sorry it took me so long, I got wrapped up in playing Dragon Quest IX.

Sunil's golden eyes snapped open and he found himself chained to a device of some sort. He slowly looked up to see a blade positioned above his neck. His eyes darted to the left and he saw the headless bodies of Vinnie, Minka, Pepper and Zoe all in similar contraptions. Sunil whimpered as tears began to stream down his face. An intimidating old woman then stood in front of him with a smirk on his face, "Any last words before you die?"

Sunil sobbed quietly, "I...I'm so sorry for...r-r-ruining the b-b-book..."

The old librarian smirked at the traumatized mongoose, "Sorry doesn't cut it."

And with that, the blade fell, decapitating Sunil cleanly. The mongoose's head stared up at his body, eyes focusing on his own bloody neck stump which used to hold his head. Sunil used his one ounce of life left to let a single tear roll down his furry blue cheek.

Suddenly, Sunil's eyes snapped open and he saw Russell in front of him, "Sunil...are you okay? You fainted."

Sunil rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times, "Russell...am I headless?"

Russell crossed his arms, "Nope, your head is still attached to your body."

Sunil whimpered, "So...the librarian won't have my head?"

Russell shook his head, "Sunil, what on Earth are you talking about? The worst a librarian can do to you is suspend your library membership. Librarians don't have the authority to carry out capital punishment, especially beheadings." Sunil let out a sigh of relief as Russell continued, "Everyone else told me what happened. They feel pretty guilty about it but the book is beyond repair. In the condition its in, most likely it would have to be paid for out of Blythe's own pocket."

Sunil whimpered softly to himself, "But then...Blythe will hate me forever!"

Russell shook his head as he placed his paw on the tearful mongoose's shoulder, "Of course not. Blythe could never hate any of us. Penny Ling will be arriving soon, by the way. Her owners got the worst of the traffic."

Sunil sighed, "At least the book is ruined just enough so she won't find out how truly sad it is."

Suddenly, Russell's yellow-green eyes lit up, "I think I have an idea. Sunil, why don't you use your magic to fix the book?"

Sunil slowly shook his head, "Russell, you know how rusty my magic has been for the last couple of weeks. There have been more explosions than usual and most likely, the book will turn to ash if I try to fix it. And besides, even if my magic fixes it, Penny will still arrive and flood it with her tears upon reading it."

Russell sighed, "All right, so you've hit a bad streak recently with your magic. I think I know how to fix that, follow me."

And so, the mongooose followed the hedgehog to a toy box and Russell started digging through it and pulled out what appeared to be a silver coin, "This coin has given me good luck ever since Blythe gave it to me. Maybe if you hold it in your paw, you'll have better luck with your magic."

Sunil sighed, "You really think so, Russell?"

Russell nodded, "I know so, Sunil. Now grab your cape, hat and wand because we've got a book to fix!"

Sunil nodded as he pulled his equiptment from the chest. He wrapped his cape around his neck, put his top hat on and readied his wand, "I sure hope you're right, Russell."

Taking a deep breath, Sunil walked back to the main area and turned to face the pets. Pepper blinked at him, "Please don't tell me you're gonna try and fix the book with magic."

Zoe nodded, "You've been on a losing streak, hon. Maybe you should just hang up the cape and try something else."

Sunil looked hurt by Zoe's words. Give up being a magician? There's no way he could do that! If he did that, he'd start losing parts of himself, especially what little self-esteem he had. The blue mongoose let out a deep sigh, "Look, maybe I was just having a bad week. Maybe this time, my magic will work."

Zoe shrugged, "Whatever. It'll probably be reduced to ash the second you wave your wand at it." Vinnie punched Zoe in the arm, "OW! What was that for, Vinnie?!"

Vinnie crossed him arms, "Hey, Sunil tries really hard at his magic! How would you feel if someone insulted your singing, Zoe?"

Zoe hung her head, "Bad..."

"So give the poor guy a break and give him a chance! What if he really CAN fix the book?" Vinnie replied as he glared at the purple spaniel.

Zoe sighed, "I guess you're right, Vinnie. All right, we can give Sunil a chance."

Pepper nodded, "Maybe his luck will turn around this time! You never know..."

Minka grinned, "That's the spirit, Pepper! Sunil can fix the book!"

Sunil let out a deep sigh, his little heart racing inside his chest, "All right, I'll try to fix it. Here goes nothing..."

Sunil closed his eyes, grabbed the book and gently ran his wand along the cover of the book. Suddenly, the tip of his wand sparkled and his eyes glowed bright yellow as he tapped the book three times, mumbling magical incantations in his native Hindi language. The pets watched in awe as Sunil cast his spell upon the book.

When he was done, the book was perfectly fixed and all the pages were mended together. Sunil breathed a sigh of relief as he smiled victoriously to himself when suddenly, all the books pages suddenly burst into flames. Sunil's jaw dropped and he stared on in complete horror as Russell grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher, aimed it at the flaming book and sprayed.

Taking his hat off, Sunil glared at the good luck coin Russell had given to him, "You lied to me..."

Angrily, the blue mongoose threw the coin to the ground and marched over towards the pet slide. Vinnie, Minka, Pepper, Zoe and Russell all watched, feeling sick with guilt.

Vinnie and Pepper moved forward but Russell blocked them, "He needs some time alone."

Pepper shook her head, "Maybe...I can tell him a joke to make him laugh."

Vinnie nodded in agreement, "It's our fault he's this upset. We should go in and talk to him."

Russell sighed, "Sunil needs some time alone. The last thing we want to do is upset him even more. I should know because when I get upset like that, I like my alone time."

Minka crossed her arms, "But you aren't Sunil, so how do YOU know how he feels and what he wants?"

Russell shot a glare at Minka, "It's just a guess, okay? Sunil needs to be by himself until he calms down. He's just that type of guy."

Pepper nodded, "Now that I think about it, Russell does have a point. I prefer to be alone when I get upset."

Suddenly, Penny Ling burst through the pet shop at top speed and turned her attention to a pile of ashes that was once a book and noticed all the pets except for Sunil gathered around the bottom of the slide, talking. The panda approached them and turned to Russell, "Did I...miss something?"

"Sunil's feeling pretty upset." Russell replied.

Penny tilted her head, "Why?"

Pepper took a deep breath, "Well, it's a long story. We kinda ruined a book he was guarding."

Zoe rolled her eyes, "Actually, we didn't ruin it, darling. We completely destroyed it."

Penny turned to Russell, "I'll go talk with him."

Russell shook his head, "But what if he wants to be left alone? I mean, surely he has to blow off some steam-"

Suddenly, Penny shoved past Russell and glared at him, "If none of you are going to hug him, than I guess I'll be the one."

"But Penny-" Russell began, "Wouldn't it be best to leave Sunil alone till this all blows over?"

Penny crossed her arms, "ALONE? Right now, Sunil is depressed so he needs a HUG more than anything. I can't believe how selfish you all are, not helping him when he needs comfort the most. Shame on ALL OF YOU!"

And with that, Penny marched up the slide and entered it. She noticed Sunil weeping softly in the corner, tears running slowly down his face as he hugged his magician cape like a security blanket tightly to his chest. The mongoose didn't even noticed to panda's presence but that soon changed when he felt warm arms wrap around him and pull him into a hug. He wasn't sure exactly who was hugging him but he just nuzzled into Penny's chest and cried. After a few minutes, Sunil pulled away. He could feel a paw gently wiping the teardrops from his soft blue face and he opened his eyes, blinking the tears to clear his vision, "Penny...Ling?"

Penny smiled sadly at Sunil with tears forming in her own eyes, "Tell me everything that happened."

Sunil took a deep breath and shivered, "Well, it all started when Blythe told me to guard a book she was going to read to sick children at the hospital. I read it myself and the story was so sad I shed a tear on it. I got a little panicked over that and Vinnie was the next to arrive. He offered to fix the book with whiteout which was actually glue. The pages stuck together and then Minka came along and tore it out. They replaced the torn out pages with flypaper and paint but that made the book an even bigger mess. Pepper came along and criticised the book for being too sad so she drew funny faces on the characters. Then Zoe came and she cut out pictures from a fashion magazine and pasted them in the book. Finally, Russell came and suggested I use my magic to fix the book. It backfired so badly that the book caught on fire and now its ruined. Oh, Penny, it's all my fault. If only I hadn't been so curious and read that stupid book, none of this would have happened!"

Penny placed a paw on Sunil's shoulder, "Gee, I'm sorry about what happened. What was the book anyway?"

"The Generous Tree." Sunil replied, sniffling softly as he used his magician cape to dab a few tears from his eyes.

Penny sighed, "I've read that book, too. I probably cried harder than you did over it."

Sunil took a deep breath, "So, now what do we do? Russell told me that librarians don't behead people so I guess Blythe could be banned from the library forever."

Penny sighed and placed a paw on the blue mongoose's shoulder, "You said that you and Pepper know the story, right?"

Sunil nodded sadly, "Yeah..."

A big smile grew on Penny's face, "So why don't the three of us work on a remake?"

Sunil blinked his golden eyes a few times in confusion, "Ummm...Penny Ling? No offense but I don't think the librarian would fall for that old trick."

Penny sighed, "You're right, Sunil. It would be a waste of time and paper."

The panda looked out of the slide and saw Blythe talking to the other pets, "Blythe's here."

Sunil's eyes widened to the size of saucers, "Blythe's here? RIGHT NOW?! But...oh no, I guess I'll have to tell her."

Fighting back a lump in his throat and whimpering, Sunil walked sadly down the slide and up to Blythe, gazing at her with big, watery, gold eyes.