Scavenger Hunt with Acacia
“No. No way. There is no way in Hell that I am working with the vegetable.” I cursed as I stared at disbelief in the straw in my hand.
“Do you think I am happy about this? Oiseau stupide.” Acacia huffed, annoyed at the fact that I was still calling her a vegetable.
Akira, Sebastian, and Karin had been planning this mandatory team scavenger hunt all week. They kept talking about how it would be “a great bonding experience” for the club. We were each given a list of things to find in the forest around Akira’s mansion, and the team that found the most items within an hour won.
Of course, we didn’t get to pick our own teams. That would be too simple. Instead, we had to use the dreadful tactic of drawing straws. And now, I was stuck with Veggie Girl as my partner since both of us had pulled the matching set of short straws.
“Can’t I switch with someone?” I demanded angrily. I looked around at the other members. Somehow, it seemed that everyone else had been paired with someone that at least slightly enjoyed the other’s company. Hell, Rano and Toño were even together, holding hands as usual.
Sebastian laughed. “No way. Think of this as a time to make some new friends.”
I held the green-eyed vampire’s gaze for a moment, glaring unyieldingly. He merely raised his eyebrows at me, unamused. Turning away, I sighed, defeated. Guess I was stuck.
Akira looked at her watch. “Okay, it’s 10:59. Be back here by noon so we can figure out the winners. Remember that you don‘t have to find everything on the list, but it surely will increase your chances of winning the prize.”
The other teams took ready stances, facing the forest. The werewolf looked intently at her watch as the seconds grew higher. “Ready?” she called. “Go!”
Dozens of mythological creatures suddenly sprang out in every direction. Some took to the skies, while others sprinted off on foot. A few of the more enthusiastic ones let out battle cries as they rushed into the forest. Acacia grabbed me roughly by the wrist and dragged me along into the crowded expanse of trees. Because there was no clear-cut path, tree branches snapped off as we ran, and I had to be careful to make sure that I didn’t get any bramble caught on my partially unfurled wings.
Eventually, Acacia slowed once we reached a small clearing. She released my wrist and I rubbed the flesh to try to get the circulation flowing again. Talk about an iron grip.
The mandrake’s heterochromatic glower burned into my back as I pulled the crumpled item list from my pocket.
I sighed and turned to face the white-haired young woman. “Look. You don’t like me, and I don’t like you. Let’s just get this over with, and then never speak to each other again.” I gestured towards the white piece of paper in my right hand.
Acacia snorted. “As you wish, pigeon brain.”
Not wanting to start a conflict so early on during the scavenger hunt, I paid no attention to my new nickname. Instead, I turned to investigate the area we were currently in. It looked like pretty much every other d*mn place in this forest. Could we find something here that was on the list? I scanned over the paper to see what it contained.
“Alright,” I called. “The first thing on the list is a bird feather. Do you see any ne-” My question was cut off by my averted attention to a sudden, sharp pain in my left wing. “Ouch!” I whirled around to face the female mandrake. “What the hell was that?”
Veggie Girl twirled a long, dark gray plume between her green fingers. “No one will ever know the difference,” she declared nonchalantly. I felt my mouth fall agape. She had plucked one of my feathers! Acacia studied my expression for a moment, a glint of satisfaction shining in her eyes. “Is something wrong?”
Although I was simmering on the inside, I put on my best fake smile as I answered her. “No, not at all. That’s one item down. Good job, Veg.” I spoke through my teeth.
“The next item is a piece of granite rock, right?”
I nodded. “I know where we can find some, but it’s pretty far away.” There was indeed a section of granite by the mountain where my special place was, but it was going to take longer than an hour to get there on foot. We would have to fly. We could save that for last, and just head straight back to Akira’s afterwards. “Let’s see what we can get pretty easily, first.” I checked the list. Bird feather, granite, limestone, a robin’s egg, snakeskin… What kind of nature freak list was this?
Acacia walked over and picked a rock from the ground. “Limestone?” She questioned, holding it up so that I could inspect it. The small stone was dark gray in color, with a whitish streak meandering throughout. Limestone was extremely abundant in this area. Did Akira just put this one on the list as a freebie so that the losing team would at least have one item, worse came to worst? The mandrake pushed the rock into her pocket upon my approval. “Now what, birdie?” she asked, playing with my feather once again.
If it weren’t for there being a mystery prize at the end of this, I’m pretty sure I would have just abandoned the girl right there. Unfortunately, the stupid vegetable knew a lot about nature and I was pretty sure I needed her expertise. Ugh.
I resentfully read her the list, and we began our search.
--
“Je n'en reviens pas! We are lost, aren’t we?” Acacia cried after about a half an hour of wandering aimlessly.
“No, we’re not.” I replied sourly. I knew exactly where we were, just… not… exactly where. Usually, I was very good at finding my way around, but for some reason, under this canopy of trees, I couldn’t make heads or tails of how to get back to the mansion. But I was not about to admit that to the plant-girl.
As if reading my mind, Acacia grumbled. “Just admit it. You have no clue where we are.” She halted, and placed her hand on a large tree trunk. “We’ve already passed this tree twice.” she sighed.
In our wandering, we had managed to find almost everything on the list. When it came time to find the St. Peter’s Wort, however, the mandrake had violently slapped my hand away as I tried to pull the yellow flowers from the earth. “Que pensez-vous que vous faites?” she had demanded gruffly. “Those are very rare flowers!” She proceeded to pull a digital camera from her pocket and snapped a photo. Akira had given each pair of members a camera before beginning the scavenger hunt for the special photographic items on the list, such as rock formations that looked like Sebastian’s head. At one of these rock formations, I found a few pieces of granite. Guess I wouldn’t have to fly to cliff after all. Acacia had seemed relieved by this, for some odd reason.
“Well, look at it this way,” I suggested, crossing my arms. “If we’ve already passed it before, then we can’t be completely lost.”
Acacia looked at me like I was stupid.
I pushed a few strands of hair away from my face and exhaled. “Okay. If we can get out of these trees, I’ll be able search for the mansion from above and we’ll be back in no time.”
At this suggestion, the young woman’s green skin paled. “Can’t you just fly up there yourself and figure out which way to go?” she snapped.
What was with the sudden mood swing? “Well, I could. But there’s no way we would make it back by noon.” I defended sharply.
And then it hit me.
“You’re afraid of heights, aren’t you?”
The mandrake was indignant. “So what if I am?” She placed her hands on her hips.
“Aww.. Da wittle vegetable doesn’t want to plummet to the ground and get stuck like a wittle carrot?” I taunted. This caused her to growl furiously at me.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Come on. It’s not like I’m going to drop you. Your boyfriend wouldn’t be too happy with me. Trust me.” I held out a hand. So she had a little bit of a fear of heights. Usually that was cured once people actually got up in the air. No big deal.
Acacia shied away. “Why on earth would I trust you?”
“Because…” I realized I had no good reasons. Well, shoot.
“Exactement.”
“At least tell me why you’re afraid of them.”
“It does not concern you, you indiscrets oiseau.” She responded angrily. I looked into her eyes. On the surface, they looked as if they were burning with rage, but I could see uncontrollable fear beneath.
I sighed as I rubbed my temples. There was no way I was going to win this. If I made her fly up with me, she would probably either thrash around so much that I would drop her, or she would just hate me forever. And I really didn’t want an actual enemy in this club. I mean, I didn’t really want friends either, but enemies would be worse.
“Okay.” I finally said. “I’ll go up by myself. Just wait here, okay?”
Veggie Girl nodded, and I flew up into the sky. I soon found the mansion and returned to the spot where Acacia stood. “Alright, this way, vegetable.” I began walking in the direction that I had seen the house, and the young woman followed behind me.
Eventually, the two of us found our way back to Akira’s lawn. We learned that we actually weren’t too late returning, and a few other teams were still trickling in as well. Acacia and I emptied our pockets onto a small table, and Akira came over to inspect our loot.
“See. That wasn’t so bad, now was it?” Sebastian called from behind the werewolf as he looked at the two of us. It truly had gone smoother than I was expecting. Only a few spats here and there. I looked at Acacia out of the corner of my eye, and our eyes met. I wondered what she was thinking. Perhaps it had gone okay for her, too..? I quickly averted my gaze back to the male vampire.
“Eh.” I shrugged. “Just don’t ever make us do that again.”
“Agreed.” Acacia approved.
The green-eyed boy flashed a fanged smile. “That’s not up to me.” he joked and followed Akira as she moved on to the next group.
Once all of the teams had returned and Akira had checked each of their lists, it was time to announce the winners.
“Okay,” the werewolf announced. “In first place, we have… Travis and Ash!”
Of course the lucky leprechaun had won. Some of the other creatures sighed in disappointment. Akira went on to explain that the mysterious prize was for the top three teams, and I could feel a feeling of hopefulness rise in my stomach.
“And in second place…” she continued, “Aaralyn and Dante!”
Our chances were looking pretty grim.
“And finally, in third place… Ela and Acacia!”
The mandrake and I stared at each other in disbelief. Then, Acacia’s face broke into a grin and we simultaneously screamed “YES!” and gave each other a high-five. Upon realizing what we had just done, however, we quickly glared at each other, crossed our arms, and turned away. A few members snickered quietly.
Sebastian lightly pushed Akira out of the way and began to speak. “And I’m sure that all of you are wondering what the prize is, right?” he grinned mischievously. “All of you are in charge of cleaning duties this week!” he announced cheerfully.
The six of us groaned in disappointment. Seriously? That was the prize? Leave it to those three… Shouldn’t it have been the opposite? The losers would have to clean up for us?
The vampire continued. “And your first matter of business is to clean all of this crap up. Good luck!” He shooed the other members back towards the mansion, leaving us standing in the dirt, dumfounded.
I frowned. Well, this sucked. I walked over to one of the tables and began chucking rocks back into the forest. “Well, are you guys going to help or not?” I asked the others as I tapped my foot impatiently. Acacia joined me at the table and carefully gathered up the feathers and other objects, laying them near a patch of trees.
As we worked in silence, I began to realize that I was unsure of my true feelings towards the mandrake.
Stupid vegetable.
