At 2,218 words this chapter is one of the longest this story will probably see. And it's all about a turtle. Go figure.
Consider it a premonition of what's to come in chapter 70. Without the turtle, of course.
Thank you for reading!
Ava had forgotten to put Shelby in his cage before she left her office today. To her defense, she did look like she had to go somewhere in a hurry. She was lucky that the turtle had been placed on the floor before she left- but then again, Shelby would not have formulated a plan to go elsewhere if she had left him at her writing place.
You see, as much as Shelby enjoyed Ava's big cage-tank, it wasn't that big. Shelby knew every corner of this cage-tank by now- even more so than his much smaller one. He needed something new to see. He had already decided to saunter on out Ava's cage-tank, but he didn't quite know what to do when he did leave. Maybe he'd go find that girl with the tasty-looking hair. She always made silly jumping movements when he pretended to snap at her. She could even have a treat for him too!
Yes, Shelby decided with a nod of his head, he'd search out this tasty-looking haired girl. Now, how was he going to get there? Did he even know where the tasty-looking haired girl lived? Ah well, he'll figure it out as he went. How hard could it be?
Shelby kept himself at a light pace as he worked his way down the long walkway. At this time of day, the lights from the small glass walls shown more light than the lights on the top lid. Up ahead, there were two kids, a boy and a girl, coming out of a cage-tank. They both had black hair, but the girl's went down to her back, and the boy's was covered with a funny looking head covering. Shelby watched them closely, hoping that they were heading to the same place he wanted to go. Maybe they knew were the girl with tasty-looking hair lived?
"I can see where Ephemer's coming from, honestly." the girl said to the boy. "But he could make it a tad less obvious that he's sneaking into her dorm."
The boy gave a snort. "And you said he was coming off that honeymoon high."
"He was." came the short reply. The two approached an odd looking side lid before the girl pressed something near it. The boy let out another bemused smirk as the side lid started to open. Realizing that this was what he needed to get out of this place, Shelby started to walk a bit faster.
As the boy and girl started to enter whatever passage the side lid revealed, the boy happened to notice Shelby coming their way.
"Hold up." the boy told the girl. "Isn't that Headmaster Ava's pet?"
"Which one?" the girl snorted before her attention fell on to Shelby. Her face fell a bit before noting, "Oh. That one."
"I think he wants to get on the elevator."
For a moment, the girl just looked at the boy. "So?" she questioned with a less than bemused raise of her eyebrow. "You're seriously not going to hold the door for a turtle, are you?"
The boy gave a careless shrug as he did, in fact, hold the door for Shelby.
Shelby quickly hustled into the new passage (which, to his disappointment, was just another cage-tank). The boy and girl followed him soon after. The boy pushed something on a glowing rectangle as the side lid started to close. Not long after that, the floor shifted a little before Shelby felt like he was falling. From there a small silence fell on them.
"Miss Ava is going to be upset that he's out." the girl finally said, casting the boy a skeptic raise of her eyebrow.
"Not my problem." the boy snorted. "Besides, look how happy he is."
Oh, this boy was smart. Shelby was happy. He was one step closer to finding that tasty-looking haired girl and maybe getting a snack. All this walking was already making him hungry.
After leaving that peculiar cage-tank, Shelby made his way toward the glass side lid that led to the outside world. He still didn't quite know where he was going. That is, until he saw her. And Ephemer. The two were hand in hand (or, rather, Ephemer had her by the hand and was teasing her about something) as Shelby's tall brother led her toward a certain direction. The girl with tasty-looking hair looked flustered, but Shelby was too far to learn of what. But that didn't matter now anyway; he had his target and he was going to follow her.
Ephemer and the girl with tasty-looking hair used the paved path to go where ever they were going. Shelby could not do the same- the paved path was too hot for his padded feet. Instead, the small turtle walked in the grass. If anyone noticed him, they surely didn't say anything about it. Instead the turtle made neat time in keeping his own pace; by the time he reached a very large cage-tank that seemed to be the right destination, a large shadow from the cage-tank fell over him. It only made it even harder to see him in the grass. But, thankfully, it had also cooled off the paved path.
Shelby got as close as he could to the cage-tank, but had to stop when he noticed the stairs. Stairs were not his friends. As the small turtle contemplated what he was going to do, Ephemer started to come around the corner. Shelby was quick to notice his tall brother and quickly started to make very loud clicking sounds to get his attention. It took a moment, but Ephemer heard him.
A wide grin stretched on Ephemer's face as he walked on over to Shelby.
"Hey there, buddy." Shelby's tall brother asked in a delighted voice, getting down to Shelby's height. "What'cha doing all the way out here?"
Shelby, to the best of his ability, gestured and chirped to Ephemer his plans. The turtle knew that the human wouldn't really know what he was saying- but he seemed to get the gist.
"Are you going to visit a certain strawberry-pink haired girl?" Ephemer mused as he gave the turtle a little tap on the head. Shelby happily nodded his head at his tall brother. Ephemer let out a small chuckle. "Wish you had told me earlier, buddy. I just came back from seeing her. But you know what?"
Shelby let out a happy chirp as Ephemer picked up his small brother and set him down at the top of the steps. Giving a little snort of amusement, Ephemer even opened the side lid to the large cage-tank.
"This is as far as I can take you, buddy." Ephemer smiled. "Give Anora an extra kiss just for me- alright?"
Shelby gave him an affirmative nod before he started his way inside. Once the turtle made it on the other side of the side lid, Ephemer let go of it and gave a small chuckle to himself; if he hadn't been so high on love, he probably would have taken Shelby back to his proper cage-tank. For once, Shelby was grateful for it, but if it persisted at dinner time then there would be trouble. Love-sick Ephemer did not share people food as often as normal Ephemer.
The turtle now made his way inside this new cage-tank. He was quick to spot that odd looking side lid from before, and knew what he had to do. It wasn't a long wait before someone opened the odd side lid for him. The ride up was an odd one, as he didn't know which one would lead him to the tasty-looking haired girl. When he happened to see her when the side lid opened, Shelby quickly made his way out of the peculiar cage-tank. He almost didn't react fast enough- the side lid closing when he was only halfway out. Someone must have noticed and opened them back up for a moment.
Shelby then made off in the direction he had seen the tasty-looking haired girl go. To his luck, he saw her enter a side lid; one that she did not close completely. He made his way in and entered the tasty-looking haired girl's cage-tank without her so much noticing. In fact, she was sitting on her resting place. Her back turned away from the door and an uncovered foot hanging off. She was humming something- but Shelby didn't have time to figure out what. Instead, he sneaked his way over to her and -without any warning- nibbled at her toes.
The girl with the tasty-looking hair let out a very high pitched shriek before jumping off of her bed. She wildly looked around before her eyes trailed down to notice him. She let out a surprised, "Shelby!" before bending down to the turtle's eye range. "What are you…?"
Shelby looked back up at her with a happy wag of his tail. She looked like she was about to say something before a noise came from her side lid.
"Anora, are you alright?" a voice from the other side of the side lid worryingly questioned. The girl blinked before focusing her attention to the side lid. She looked at Shelby one more time in conflict. Regardless of whatever she was thinking, the girl with the tasty-looking hair got up and made her way over to it.
Shelby snapped his beak at her. How dare she walk away when he worked so hard to get here!
The girl with tasty-looking hair opened her side lid to reveal another girl. This new girl was a bit taller than the one Shelby wanted; her hair was an orange and divided into two sections. She seemed to be nervous as she twisted her fingers in themselves.
"Are you alright?" the tall girl asked. "I was just passing by and..."
The girl with the tasty-looking hair nodded her head. She then gestured to Shelby, who was still by her resting place.
"Is… is that Headmaster Ava's pet?" the tall girl asked as the two of them went back over to Shelby. They both sat down on the ground close to Shelby before just staring at him for a moment.
"How did he get here?" the tall girl finally asked. "Walking from here to the main building for us is a three minute walk. But for him? It must have taken all afternoon."
The only answer the girl with the tasty-looking hair could offer was a small half shrug. The tall girl's guess was as good as her own. The two continued to look at Shelby; his answer was in the form of a very bright turtle smile. If he could talk like people, then he'd be able to tell them all about how a boy let him on to the elevator, or how Ephemer helped him up the steps. He's probably leave out the part where he almost go caught by the elevator on his journey upwards- but they wouldn't really need to know that bit.
"Poor thing must be so hungry." the tall girl then went on to sigh. "We don't have anything to feed him, do we?"
The girl with the tasty-looking hair carefully tilted her head in thought. Shelby mirrored her out of amusement. Yeah, tasty-looking haired girl, do you have any food for him? It's not like he made the trip over here because he liked you or anything.
Eventually, she made a little noise to indicate she had an idea. She went to a four-legged stand beside her resting place, and opened a really small side lid. Shelby couldn't see what she was getting, but he could hear the sound of a very noisy bag as she pulled it out of the side lid container. The tall girl realized what it was before he could.
"Pretzels?" she wondered. "Can turtles even eat those?"
The girl with the tasty-looking hair considered it for all of a moment before giving a small shrug. Out of the noisy bag she pulled out something that resembled the tasty sticks Ava gave Shelby when he had been a very good turtle. These sticks looked a bit different, though; they were brown with little pieces of something white sticking out here and there. Shelby had never seen such a snack before, so he eagerly snapped his beak in hopes the tasty-looking haired girl would give it to him.
As always, she flinched each time his beak clicked, but she did give the new treat to him. Shelby didn't think twice as he started to munch away at this new snack. He barely even noticed when one of the girls wrapped him in a very soft covering and gingerly picked him up.
"Are you going to take him back to Headmaster Ava?" the tall girl asked. There was a little sound to indicate that the girl with tasty-looking hair had nodded. Shelby couldn't check, since she was the one holding him.
"Do you need help?"
There was another sound indicating a shake of the girl's head before she started to head on out. As the girl with tasty-looking hair started to make her way back to Ava's big cage-tank, Shelby tucked himself inside his shell and started to drift into sleep. Today had been a very good, very adventurous one indeed.