Ice Ice Penguin {Luci}

[Era Kastrati]

The advertisement read, "£200 REWARD FOR INFORMATION ON MISSING PENGUIN." Era and her friend Luci had seen it, and it hadn't taken them long at all to conclude that neither of them could afford to pass up such a terrific opportunity. University living was expensive, after all—one would need the usual run of things such as food, clothing and rent, plus books and tuition on top of that—and a spare £200 could make all kinds of difference to their budgets. So, therefore, it was obvious that they needed to pay a visit to the zoo, in order to figure out what they could determine about it. That was how she had ended up here, with arrangements to meet up with Luci and find out what they could.

Era loved zoos—loved animals in general, for that matter—but she couldn't take the time to really enjoy herself now. Now, she was investigating the penguin's disappearance. Next time she came here (for, she promised herself, she would return just for fun sometime), she could stop and watch the giraffes or the lemurs or the tigers. Next time, she could read all the information about the tortoises and the otters and the butterflies. This time, she was here for the missing penguin, and she kept herself going at a fast pace in the direction of the penguin exhibit accordingly.

As she drew close to the penguins' habitat, she looked around for her friend. Luci was short enough that it would be a bit of a trick to pick her out in a crowd, but Era had figured out the trick by now. The crowds weren't that bad; it would be fairly easy to spy her friend in between people.

In addition to keeping an eye out for Luci, Era also kept her eyes and ears open for any clues regarding the penguin. She didn't expect it to just fall out of the sky into her lap or anything, but it wouldn't do to miss a clue out of sheer obliviousness either...

((334 words for Lucille Nibourette))

[Lucille Nibourette]

Lucille Nibourette was running late again, which wasn't unusual. What was different than usual was that she had quite a good reason for it (though admittedly she could have scheduled their meeting sooner so that she could get to Era on time). Either way, her goal had been accomplished, and she was victoriously clutching a manila envelope to her chest as she zig-zagged between the zoo visitors of a lovely Saturday afternoon. She had to periodically remind herself not to get distracted by the animals that abounded–walk resolutely past the bird cages, pause for but do not approach the bear pen. It was just so hard to be here on business. It wasn't every day that she was given the opportunity to visit the zoo, although if she and Era accomplished their goal, she was certain that management would be so grateful they wouldn't be able to avoid giving them an infinite-use pass for the establishment. Then she could visit the zoo as often as she wanted.

She kept an eye out for her friend as she approached the penguin building, searching for Era's short brown hair and whatever fashionable accessories she'd selected for that day. It didn't take long before Lucille caught sight of her near the door; she dodged the last person in her way, and waved to Era as she approached. "Era! Era!" she called out, taking a few leaps into the air to make sure she couldn't be missed, then finally skidded to a halt next to her. She flashed a bright smile, proudly thrusting the envelope forward. "Ta-da~" she sang in presenting it. "Guess what's in here?" Without waiting for an answer, she tore open the flap and launched into an explanation. "So, after we decided to take on the case for the penguin, I thought about how would be the best way to do this? Well, I looked around, and voila, one of my fans totally works at the zoo and in exchange for a backstage pass, she let us borrow an access card for the day!"

Her grin not diminishing one bit, Lucille pulled out the card, white with a black strip across one of its longer edges, worn from use and obviously having seen better days. "Also, she gave us a couple of ID cards in case we got into a sticky situation," she continued, dropping the access key into Era's hand as she dug around for the IDs. "The pictures aren't ours, but as long as have something to flash, hopefully no one will look too closely." Coming up with two cards attached to a pair of lanyards, she slung one over Era's neck before her own, then stood back and puffed out her chest victoriously. "Well? What d'ya think? Pretty good, riiiight?"

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Era Kastrati