I wake up early on Saturday to search for my scavenger hunt item. Classwork has gotten tougher, assignments have gotten more abundant, and my grades have gotten a little slippery. Extra credit certainly wouldn’t hurt. All I have to do is find a silver chibbit statue with a hat.
Normally, I’d be hopeless trying to find… well, anything, but now I have Antonio’s trusty maps on my side. I decide to check the food hall first, since that's where real chibbits gather. It makes sense why, due to the delicious smell that always wafts around. Then again, can chibbits even smell with their beaks? I've never really thought about it. I'll check in the library later.
I pull the maps out of my desk drawer and arrange them on my desk. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to go to sector two, but it might be further down, and a quick check couldn't hurt. I scan over the maps, and... ah. Whoops. I really hope the contents of these maps will stick with me, because I’ve been in this area my entire life and I only just learned that the food hallway has been too.
After a breakfast of canned fruit and biscuits, I shove the maps in my pocket and start my search. I take a right and walk until I get to the elevator that leads to the mall, then turn and keep walking forward. After some time, I end up in the main hallway, where there’s a vertical fork in the path: one way stays on the level I’m already on, while a staircase leads down. Oddly enough, it’s not marked on the map, and on it, the next two hallways instead branch off with no indication of which path leads where. I listen to my gut, which tells me to go down. Then I walk past the staircase. A little down the hallway, I see the elevator to the food hallway, among a bunch of other things. Bingo!
After a short ride down, the doors hiss open, and I continue on my journey. I climb up a staircase and turn left, walking forward until I come across a sign with an arrow pointing the way I’m going that’s labeled ‘bunks’. That’s odd. I’m following the map, how did I get back to where I started? ? Suddenly, I feel something soft brush my leg. I jolt my head down, and see nothing but a simple chibbit walking past me. Its long ears are floppy, unlike most others I've seen of its kind. It chirps and flaps its wings, then trots off. I must be walking in the right direction.
Sure enough, the hallway splits off. One sign points to a hallway full of bunks, and the other points to the food hallway. I take a right and make my way down, looking out for anything chibbit looking. Suddenly, my eyes catch a glint of silver. There! …Wait, no, it’s just some broken down contraption. There’s something written in chalk on the wall beside it, but most of it is smudged, and the rest barely resembles letters. Oh well. I wonder what it could have been for?
Along the long hallway, I spy the Lawrence Ward, a room dedicated to the collection of animal products like chibbit eggs and cow milk. I recall that it gets its namesake from the original two caretaker captains, Poppy and Carson Lawrence. When the Warren was first founded, the siblings worked together and finished the hallway in two weeks. Even though it didn’t have as many rooms as it does today, it was still pretty impressive. The first thing they made was that room, which used to be called the animal product room. It wasn’t the best name, so after they passed away, the admins dedicated it to them. It’s not the only thing named after the original captains; for example, there’s the Whitteny Library, named after Tactician Captain Reese Whitteny. It is the biggest, though.
We learned all of that in history class. There was an entire unit, specifically on the Lawrence twins. I can see why, since the only other time in history there were two captains for one knight division was thirty years ago, when there were two spy captains. Although, right now, there are two soldier deputies- Typhoon Moss and Evne The Dragon. It’s been a while, and the captaincy process has changed a little, so people have wondered what will happen when Captain Xiong retires, but he’s only been captain for a few years, so we won’t have to worry about that for a while.
I see someone wearing the Lawrence Ward uniform, and wave over to them. “Hello! Excuse me, but could I peek in there for a second? It’s for the spy student’s scavenger hunt.”
They shrug. “Sure, why not. Just don’t break anything.” Well, I’ve seen in there before on a field trip, and there really isn’t anything for me to break (except for eggs, maybe), so I guess I’m good to go, then.
“Thanks!” The worker scans their badge, and the door clicks open. There’s a room in between the door and the main area, supposedly to keep the chibbits in. I’m not really sure why, since there are plenty in here and too many out and about that anything can be done about it. If you live in the first three sectors, sometimes even deeper, you’ve just gotten used to them. In the main area of the room, the area is nice and fresh. There’s two fenced off sections, one for chibbits and one for wooly cows. The chibbit section has a few hutches with nests inside, a big feeder, and a ditch with water in it bubbling up through a spout. The wooly cow area is bigger, with more greenery and artificial sunlight. The wooly cows have mostly adapted to living underground, but they still do better when the room looks as close to the surface as possible. That’s also why the deepest place with animals is in sector three: the pressure is too much any lower.
I unlatch the gate and step into the chibbit section to poke around. I look around for a silver chibbit, but all I see are about twelve real ones. I peek by the hutches, inside the hutches, behind the hutches, around the little pond, by the feeder. When I get close to the feeder, I hear a muffled squawk from by the entrance. When I look over, my eyes are met by the same floppy-eared chibbit I encountered before, stuck in the space between the door and the room. I guess it does keep the chibbits in order. I smile. “Hey there!” It pecks at the glass wall in my general direction. Or rather, the feeder.
“Are you hungry?” I briefly press the switch that releases the grain, and floppy-ears excitedly chirps in a frenzy of feathers and fur. That seems to get the attention of all the other chibbits, who flock toward me when they realize there’s food. I quickly scoop some up and drop it in my pocket before the others take it all and get out of the pen, careful not to step on any paws.
By the time I can get to the door, floppy-ears is pecking so hard I'm worried it might break the glass. I open the door and drop some of the grain on the ground for it to eat while I check around the cow’s domain. There’s a lot less places to check in there, since they mostly just eat the greens growing around their main area. Their water is in a big, metal trough, and it’s pretty clear, so I can easily tell that there’s no chibbit in there. There’s a door on the back wall, and it swings open when I press it lightly. Inside is nice and cozy, with dimmer lighting and hay covering the ground. It isn’t very warm, but since the cows have such thick coats, I can understand why. Another reason for the animals to not go any deeper: it’s just too hot. The cooling system does its best, but it’s still hotter than most areas. Except for the dump apparently, which is freezing cold. Nobody’s allowed down there anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.
I finish searching the Lawrence Ward and end up leaving empty handed. Oh well. There’s still the rest of the food hallway.
My next stop is the cafeteria, which is just a little down the hall. It’s mostly empty since it’s not even nine yet, and most people eat breakfast at home. The few people who do eat out this early are probably at the café in the mall or the newer, bigger cafeteria somewhere else. I still like the older one more, since it just feels a lot more cozy. I do a quick scan of all of the tops of the tables, sure to check if any salt shakers or napkin holders look a little too chibbit shaped. Once that proves to be fruitless, I make sure nobody is watching and crouch under the table to look. It only takes a second to realize that there’s nothing but fruit peels and popcorn on the floor. I pop back up and find myself face to face with Antonio. He looks older than when I last saw him, and his hair is a lot longer. Also, when did he grow a beard?
“Celestine? Is that you?” That’s when I realize it’s not Antonio, but his dad.
“Hi, Sir Garcia. Yes, that would be me!” I smile.
“You can just call me Sev, you know,” he says in thickly accented common. Antonio has a bit of an accent as well, but it’s much more noticeable with his dad. “What were you doing underneath the table?”
“Oh, uhh… I was looking for my spy scavenger hunt item. It’s a silver chibbit.”
“Ah, I see.” He then looks at me with a curious expression. “Well, if you find it… could you tell me… do silver chibbits lay silver eggs?” He seems completely serious. I only realize it’s a joke when he bursts out laughing a second later. I can’t help but laugh along, too. It’s pretty clear where Antonio gets his infectious laugh from.
“Good luck finding your chibbit. I’ll see you around,” he says, as I walk over to the serving area to ask the workers if they’ve seen anything.
“Bye! Say hi to Antonio for me!” He nods and smiles.
“Hey, have any of you by chance seen a silver statuette of a chibbit with a top hat behind the counter?” When I ask the staff, they look at me like I’ve grown three other heads. “It’s for the spy scavenger hunt,” I add.
“Ah, that explains it. I can check, but the captain already came in here with something else, so I doubt this is the place. Sorry.”
“It’s fine. Thanks anyway.” Well, that’s that.
There isn’t much else in the food hallway, but I’m determined to turn the place upside-down before I look somewhere else. Besides, Lava found her gold-plated dumbbell in the gym, and Z found their porcelain cactus in the desert section of the zoo, so clearly what the item is has something to do with the location. Unfortunately, the only other location left is the main kitchen, which I am definitely not allowed in. Then again, I am a spy, so sneaking into places is a big part of what I do, so…
The entrance is just a half door, so I wave to get the attention of someone. I catch the eye of Deputy Bago, a petite girl with a bob of brown hair. “Can I use the bathroom?”
She seems a little suspicious of me, but opens the door anyway. “Just don’t take too long, ok?” I smile and nod. She leads me to the bathroom, and I assess my surroundings. I look around at the shelves and see something silver and chibbit shaped tucked behind a potted plant on a shelf. That’s it! Unfortunately, working in front of it is none other than Captain Frost. They already look so threatening, when I suddenly remember something Fran was telling me about a kid who snuck into the kitchen before. According to her, their voice was calm, but the look they gave him was enough to send shivers down her spine. And almost nothing gets to her that deeply, let alone a glare given to someone else. I can’t think of a single thing I want less than to be at the receiving end of one of those
When I get inside the bathroom, I wait a minute, flush the toilet, and run the sink, thinking of what to do. Just then, I feel something familiar and soft brush my leg. It’s the chibbit from before! It jumps up and chatters at me. Or rather, my pocket. Wait a minute. Do I still have some grain left over from before? Suddenly, I get an idea…
I crack the door so I can look around a little before executing my plan. There’s a kitchen island in front of the bathroom. On one side is the shelf where I saw the statue and on the other is the exit. If I toss the grain on the side of the exit, then the chibbit will get everyone’s attention, and I can run around to grab the statue and get out the other way. I take the rest of the grain out of my pocket and hold it in my hand, waiting for the perfect moment, and…
“NOW!”
I toss the grain, and in an instant, the chibbit squawks and flaps towards it in a storm of feathers. A lot of people rush over and everyone looks startled, but nobody more so than, to my surprise, Captain Frost. I only look for a split second before bolting the other way, jumping up and snatching the statue from behind the plant. The pot nearly falls off the shelf, but I catch it in my free hand before any more than a little dirt can hit the floor. I shove it back on and whip around to the direction of the exit so I can make my grand escape. Unfortunately, something blocks my vision. Or rather, someone. I point my head up, and find myself face-to-face with the captain himself. And they’re definitely mad.
“What on earth are you doing here?”
Uh-oh.
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