Singing Groundhog Roundup

Umi was feeling rather content. Her money bag was nice and heavy compared to before she left her home, she had a companion she adored in Amor. Life was sweet. Who would have thought that so shortly into her journey she would have done so much? She met up with a zookeeper on her walk with Amor, stretching a bit. She looked down and smiled at him, while he returned wearily ”Man I hate scurrying all over the city looking for animals as people report them, only to get there and fine it left an hour ago or it was just a bit of hose they thought was some exotic snake. People were stupid about animals that scared them. Just 20 minutes ago I came across an odd shadow that looked just like a komodo rhino. I can’t blame them for thinking one was roaming around, it was uncanny.” He paused to sigh, the spoke again. ”Thanks for your help with that rhino by the way, if you don’t mind, could you check something out for me? I have been getting reports of singing groundhogs in the mountain, and these seem to be credible reports. Would you mind taking this cage and trying to capture them? They roam together in a group of 5” Umi patted Amor and nodded. The zookeeper handed her the cage, and she went off. ”If you caatch any bring them to me at the zoo!”

Next she headed to the outskirts of town. She had gotten a cage from the zookeeper, a thick, clear, hard plastic cage. She was going to head to where the groundhogs were rumored to have made their burrow. She had a plan. As she created the outskirts of the city, in the mountains, she saw the telltale holes in the ground that told of her prey. Her water-skin nicely full, she dropped down from Amor. Umi pulled some water from the moist ground of the area around it, that they had excavated to make their burrow. Umi used it to create a basketball sized ball of ice, which she set aside for now. She put the cage by one the farthest away hole, and opened it. She used the ice ball she had created to scoop up some dirt. She turned the ice into water and further began pulling up as much dirt as she could, polluting the water untill it was entirely brown. She then molded it a path to the cage, then created an icey roof with it. It nearly completely blended into the natural earth. Hopefully it would help them think they were still in their burrow until they got into the cage and got stuck. Umi opened her water-skin and began to plug every hole but two with ice. The one that led to the cage, and a single other. During this time she had heard all kinds of underground scurrying. They were hiding deep in their burrows. Umi slowly began to bender her water into the hole in front of her, pushing all the water of her water-skin into the hole, then, she started bending more erratically.

After a minute she heard sounds coming from her makeshift tunnel, then a series of squeeks from the cage. Before they could try to run back out into their burrow, she collapsed her tunnel roof, trapping them. Umi walked over, and pulled out her cage, barely getting the lid shut in time. After trying to count 4 times and failing due to their movements, she finally counted all 5. All her water was now murky and wet, so she abandoned it, she would refill later. Amor laid down helpfully, and she jumped, grabbed the saddle and slowly climbed on, dragging the cage by the candle. Amor them stood, and they were off, walking back down the mountain to the zoo. After about 10 minutes of riding, she made it, and, with a glace at the filled cage, the zookeeper ran towards her. ”Here, there are 5 in there.” He made a count, and nodded. He pressed a bundle of coins into one hand as he took the cage from the other. ”I need to get these back in their exhibit.” With a smile, Umi and Amor left.

Word Count: 705

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