Hi!
Happy Easter! If you celebrate it, have an amazing day! And, if you don't, still have an amazing day!
I hope you enjoy!
"Fontaine! Come on, just tell me where it is, I know that you know! You helped mum to hide the eggs!" Ant whined at his sister.
He was referring to the special, silver egg that was hidden (amongst other, regular, chocolate eggs) on board the Aronnax every year for the annual Easter egg hunt. The egg wasn't edible like the others but it was hollow, made of metal and contained a ticket for a special prize for whoever found it, which was usually one of four prizes that Professor Fiction had made for each of them individually.
The previous year Ant had found it, causing Jeffrey to end up with a new robotic fish friend in his tanks. The year before that, Will had found it, and he ended up with a large magnifying glass with a reading light which made it much easier for him to observe his maps and (to Kaiko's slight annoyance) spend much more time hidden away in the study.
In truth, Fontaine had absolutely no idea where the silver egg was. She had helped her mother to hide some of the eggs, and so had her father (the only reason Ant had been excluded was because the previous year, he had taken note of where each of the eggs were and then had used pingers to map out the Arronax and calculate the location of every egg, resulting in Fontaine and her parents ending up with very few eggs in the end) but she hadn't seen the location of the egg (which Kaiko always hid, but had the sense and courtesy to not take advantage of her role). However, while she might have been clueless to the location of the egg, she found it hilarious to annoy her brother and so she didn't try or want to tell him.
"No way! You just have to look for it," Fontaine shrugged, "and no cheating like last year!" She added quickly at the end.
" Hey! I'd say that last year was very much a success which only led to more trust in the new pingers, " Ant shot back, which was in truth something along the lines of what Will had said when they found out about Ant's strategy.
It wasn't exactly the same, since he hadn't mentioned anything about it being 'very much a success ' but Will had said something about how it was useful to know just how much the pingers could be trusted for intricate mapping.
"Yeah, and led to us knowing not to trust you with a load of chocolate eggs," Fontaine muttered back before quickly swiping a pale-blue wrapped egg which was balanced on a pipe just slightly too high for Ant: while it wasn't exactly the silver egg she was searching for, she wasn't going to turn down a perfectly edible and delicious chocolate egg.
"Hey!" Ant protested upon seeing her snatch the egg, then he paused and seemed to have a new idea, " wait, is it chocolate eggs you want? Because I have a whole basket of them which could all become yours in exchange for one tiny piece of information, " he offered, holding out the basket and giving his sister his best I'm-definitely-perfectly-innocent smile that he could muster.
"Nice try, Ant," Fontaine replied, with a slight roll of her eye before disappearing down one of the Aronnax's numerous corridors.
Kaiko and Will were just as active and competing members of the Aronnax Easter egg hunt as their children.
Will was currently stalking towards a golden, foil-wrapped egg which was hidden directly in the centre of a corridor.
The was the joy of the egg hunt: some eggs were devilishly tricky to find, nearly impossible if you weren't the one who had placed it there in the first place, while others were so hidden in plain sight they were practically on display.
Abruptly, just as he was about to grab it, the egg was snatched out of his reach by a very triumphant looking Kaiko.
"Oh, come on, that was mine!" Will protested while Kaiko laughed.
" Really? Because it didn't seem like it! In fact, it seemed like it was available to anyone, that anyone just so happening to be me, " Kaiko continued her laughing, joined this time by Will. Suddenly, the pair turned a corner, close to the door to the bridge when they saw the gleam of the silver egg, glistening in Jeffrey's largest tank which was on the bridge.
Kaiko had already known it was there but when she saw Will beginning to run towards the egg, she just shrugged and joined him, catching up in mere moments and matching his speed as they ran towards the prize egg.
Apparently, Fontaine and Ant had seen the egg too since they began running towards the egg also and just as the four Nektons were about to enter the bridge they all got stuck in the door way.
"Wait, what if dad-" Fontaine began.
"Kaiko, if you could just," Will also began .
"Ant, will you-" Kaiko started.
" Fontaine! You're abnormally large head is in the way again! " Ant yelled as his whole family struggled to get through the door.
When they finally got their way through the doorway, they were all on the floor laughing for several moments before they eventually got up and rushed towards Jeffrey's tank when Will suddenly exclaimed:
"Wait! How do we get it out?"
" Um... It's a big tank, I think I could probably fit, " Fontaine offered.
"No way! That egg is mine!" Ant replied.
Suddenly there was a long silence when Ant finally said, " Actually, Fontaine, neither of us get it, "
"What?" His sister asked in confusion .
" Well, the rules say the first person to touch the egg after the hunt has started gets the prize, right? " Ant told his family.
"Yeah, and?" Fontaine asked.
"Someone else has already touched the egg, look," Ant pointed out.
Puzzled, Fontaine stepped closer to look but when she saw what Ant was talking about she rested her head in her palm and simply sighed, "Oh, brother,"
Sure enough, someone had touched the egg. Within the tank, Jeffrey was swimming proudly beside the large egg which had intruded his home, a single finn reaching out and just touching the side of the egg.
Will laughed while Kaiko said, "Well, you can't deny that, now, I wonder what Jeffrey's prize will be, I don't think Fiction prepared a prize for him,"
" Hmmmm, it will have to be something exciting, and big, and magnificent, you know? To represent the wisdom in his eyes, I wonder how many other fish have won a Nekton annual Easter egg hunt? "
"I'm not sure, Ant," Will chuckled, "maybe we should ask Jeffrey what he wants,"
He had only meant it as a joke but he wasn't exactly surprised when his son put his face closer to the glass and said:
"Good idea! What do you want, Jeffrey?"
Jeffrey seemed really, perfectly happy swimming around his metal egg.
"I'm going to be honest, Ant, he seems more happy with the metal egg, you know, because he's a fish and doesn't understand," Fontaine replied.
"Of course! Fontaine, you're absolutely right! The egg can be Jeffrey's prize, look how happy he is!"
Fontaine just stared at the fish for a moment before rolling her eyes and replying with a severely sceptical "Sure,"
" Well, I wonder what Fiction will say when he finds out who won his prize, " Kaiko muttered to Will.
"Yeah, he might be a little surprised," Will chuckled.
Again, happy Easter! Have a great day, regardless of whether you celebrate it or not!
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!
Please review, I'd love to know what you think!
Thank you!
Kiwi :)