The Twenty Five Percent Rayanna

The Truth about Kat

             I stop and watch a moment as she walks off, trying to figure out where she's headed. Deciding to follow her, I sling the backpack over one shoulder. I'm a few feet behind her as I follow her in the direction we originally came from. Back through the remaining pairs still struggling to figure out their first clue. She walks straight to our apartment building; slings open the doors and disappears inside. I speed up to a jog and follow her inside. As soon as I step inside, I see Kat leaning over the fountain. "What are you doing?" I ask walking over to her.

                "Getting. A..." she grunts and reaches into the fountain. "A. Rock. Yes! Got one!" She stands to her feet, her small prize in her fist.

              "Why a rock?" I ask, confused.

               "Because, underwater, the rocks are wet, see here." She says holding out the rock for me to inspect. "We are dry because we aren't in the water. But I reached into the water and got not only my hand but my sleeves wet as well. And this particular kind of rock dries really fast." She brings the rock to her mouth and lightly blows on it. "Now, check this out." She says throwing the rock to me.

                 I catch it and turn it over in my hands. It's dry as can be, no way to tell it was ever in the fountain, seconds beforehand. "Wow, I've never seen anything like that before."

                 "Now check out my sleeve. It's wet and the rock is dry."

                "How did you know the rock would do that?"

                "Remember me telling you I served my General for several years?"

               "Yes."

               "There was this one planet, second from its sun, it had fifteen moons. I was stationed temporarily on moon number eight. There was a lake, there, that made a specific gurgling noise, never heard it anywhere else in all my travels. Something to do with the composition of the rocks and the water moving across them. I don't know, science really isn't my thing. But the point is, if you be quiet for a moment, you'll hear that noise coming from the fountain." She explains.

                  We both stand there a moment, in silence, and sure enough, a strange gurgling sound can be heard. "Okay. So that's item number one on our list. What do we do with it? Just dump it in the bag?" I ask, pulling the pack off my shoulder and setting it on the floor beside me.

              "Look in the bag, first, see if there's some sort of smaller bag. A small game bag, maybe?"

                I bend over and rummage through the backpack, pushing aside various tools, and eventually pulling out a bag that isn't much bigger than my fist. It's blue in color and has drawstrings to keep it closed. "I guess that's what this is for." I quickly drop the rock into the bag, pull the drawstring closed, and carefully set the small bag back inside of the backpack.

               Kat reaches into her pocket and pulls the list out again, reading it out loud. "Number one: I'm wet, your dry, but when you get me, you'll be wet, and I'll be dry. Just don't forget to gurgle. We got the rock so that one is complete. Number two: I'm high in the sky but I don't fly. I'm really rare, just call me royal. Drop me and I'll break. Sounds like whatever this one is, it's really fragile."

                "And it says it's up high. It doesn't fly. Just a rhyme, or a hint? What's up high, but doesn't fly? A bat? A bird? Something that climbs trees?" Trees. Something about that triggers a memory for me. "It's an egg!" I shout, excitedly.

                  "An egg? Okay. But what kind of egg? It says, call me royal. What does that mean?" she asks.

                 "Last night, after dinner, Altair and I went for a walk. There was this beautiful purple bird flying around. He pointed it out to me and said it was called a Royal something or another. I don't remember the exact name, but that has to be it! He said it's the only bird to lay an egg the same color as its feathers. He said it was really rare."