Freda Newman's Story

A slightly battered car parked into an empty slot in front of the zoo. Freda went out of it, humming a rather cheerful song. She took her handbag, closed the door and pushed her car key's button. She raised her brow, as no sound could be heard and pushed the button several more times.

"Huh. Battery problems. Oh, well!" she spoke to herself, continued humming and locked her car manually.

The big zoo stood with its powerful presence in front of Freda, who was in awe.

"This is it," she whispered to herself. "Monster Zoo. My future workplace. As much as I know, it's not like the normal zoo parks. Which means... higher pay!"

Freda entered the zoo and in a blink of an eye her smile wiped off her face. Her eyes widened in shock and her voice exploded in a shriek, as a unicorn was running in her direction. Freda bolted to her left.

Very soon her legs were hurting and slowing down, as she was gasping for air. Apparently running after a six-year-old child and lifting heavy bags of groceries wasn't enough to keep one in shape. She jerked in a side direction several more times, as her speed had no chance in front of a whole horse power. Finally she fell down on the ground.

“You!” the repairman yelled, pointing an ominous finger at Scarlett as she barged out of the fence, declaring something about dragons. He wasn’t really listening, because he was too busy running after her, waving his hammer angrily in the air.

Well, it was more like hobbling. There was clearly no way he’d catch up to her. “Come Back here ya little-” he managed, just in time to trip over the remains of his own fence. His face hit the ground painfully, a muffled grumble escaping. A short moment later, the indignant half-dwarf had pushed himself up, face red with both rage and bruises. He shook his fist in the air and sprung to his feet.

“I’LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS, YA-” the rest of his sentence was a little too unsavoury for me to write, so I’ll leave it up to your imagination. He struck the ground again, sending a line of the same energy as before across the ground toward Scarlett. If it were to actually hit its target, a pillar would shoot out of the ground beneath her feet, launching her into the air and toward some nearby trees.

Meanwhile, Lestelle would receive a call. “Hello?” buzzed the radio, “Calling any members of staff, there is an emergency, several unicorns have escaped, and are rampaging near the entrance!” It was at this exact moment that the net of the enclosure chose to finally give way, three or four Pegasus soaring out of the display and swooping over the crowds below, making a cacophony of whinnying and snorting.

---

The unicorn that had charged toward Freda kept going, until with a thud it buried its horn in a tree. There was a lot of snorting as it attempted to free itself. “No, you will not!” Came a very imperious voice, along with the sound of footsteps. A woman in work attire, but wearing a traditional Nordic helmet of all things, caught up to the creature, grasped it by both the head and the horn, and gently but firmly freed the unicorn. She then gave a maybe slightly unnecessary shove, and the creature whimpered before fleeing back to its own enclosure. She looked very pleased with herself.

“Now then, is everyone here OK?” she asked. The helmet she was wearing looked quite old but well maintained, and while it was decorated with some knotwork patterns, there were no horns or wings on the sides to speak of. There was a rather large axe strapped to her back as well, which a few people had now noticed.

Speechless, Freda was still on the ground, breathing heavily, trying to process what just happened.

"Y-yes!" she finally spoke before getting up. "Thank you. Thank you very much!" she smiled and firmly shook the woman's hand. "I'd like to apply for a position as a keeper. Can you show me the way for that?"

Freda couldn't imagine her son's face when he would hear stories about a unicorn chasing her. Who knows what else would happen.

"Nice axe by the way."

“You have got to be Kidding me!” yelled the repairman, eventually giving up on chasing the intruder, as he remembered the tear in the enclosure.

“I s’pose I should get to work on this, since they’ve already broken out.” He grumbled, shuffling toward the cage. He began hammering at the base, sending pulses of magic energy up the side which, slowly, began to repair itself.

Lestelle would hear a leafy crash and snorting. A slightly smaller than average Pegasus with a light brown coat had somehow got itself caught in a tree, and was thrashing around wildly. It seemed younger than the others, and the poor creature was clearly still spooked by the voices from earlier.

Meanwhile, Scarlett might notice several Pegasus following the one she was riding, almost like geese flying in a ‘V’. That, and the rather uncanny colouration of this one meant that everyone in the zoo could notice her very easily from the ground.

---

The helmet clad woman’s face split into a beaming grin as Freda introduced herself. She shook her hand back enthusiastically.

“Perfect.” She said, “We’re currently on the hunt for potential keepers. The name’s Hilda by the way.”

It was painfully clear that more keepers were needed. One thing the staff here had not expected, was how much the zoo had exploded over the first week. They had soon found themselves under siege by more visitors than their workforce could handle, leaving them understaffed and with more spendable profit than they’d expected (i.e any at all).

“Why, thank you!” she replied, replying to the compliment, “I’m afraid you might have to wait a couple minutes, we just have a minor issue that needs to be sorted out,” (it was hardly a minor issue) “I’ll call the manager to come here and see you!” and with that, she whistled harshly, calling down a proud looking Pegasus with a pale golden coat, jumping on its back, and gliding off.

A few minutes later, A very tried looking Connor, wearing slippers and pyjama trousers with his office shirt and tie, came running.

“Uh, is there someone here to apply to be a keeper?” he asked.