Identify

"Ready, Slushatel?”
"Quack!”

Chihiro parked her bicycle under a light pole, took the second to last rolled newspaper from the backpack and slowly walked into the narrow space in between houses.

"See him yet?” she whispered.

Slushatel led the way, acting as her walking torch in the dark dawn. He peeked left and right, then shook his head.

"Quack!”

They moved forward carefully and finally reached the subscriber’s house.

"Heh!”

She smirked and placed the newspaper at the front door. Slushatel trembled as he stepped backward beside her.

"He’s behind me?”
"Quack!”

She sprinted back to her bicycle and cycled away as a long, swan-like neck with brown feather goose chased after her.

"QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!”
"HONK! HONK! HONK!”
"WHAT YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT?!”

Slushatel flapped his wings like there was no tomorrow, leaving Chihiro behind.

"SLUSHATELLL!!!”
"HONK! HONK!”

Slushatel sat triumphantly in the basket while Chihiro gasped for air in between the Pakzi and Caca Cold vending machine.

"Quack!”
"What you mean you won again?!”

She took out her bottle of drinking water, poured some into the cap for Slushatel and drank the rest herself.

"Ahh! Only one left! Sunrise in an hour, let’s finish this, Slushatel!”
"Quack!”

She continued cycling, passing a ‘War on Drugs’ poster.

"This is it, Slushatel! Mr. Reganam house then we can eii-”

Out of nowhere, the newspaper yeeted into the house’s window by itself with a broken glass sounds. The window was hidden behind an outdoor curtain.

"EHHHHHH?!”
"QUACKKK?!”

She returned to the company office and reported everything to the manager.

"THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED! IM NOT LYING! YOU CAN ASK SLUSHATEL!!!”

She shoved her duck right in front of him.

"Quack! Quack! Quack!”
"No need to yell, Miss Chihiro, Im right here! Secondly, get your pet out of here!”

She carefully placed Slushatel down.

"Friend, not a pet! Anyway, you have to believe me!”

The manager ignored her and wrote apologize letter on a piece of paper.

"I’ll let it slide this time but make sure it doesn’t happen again! Also, lower your voice please, we received noise complaint too! You dismissed!”
"IM GONNA DISMISS YOUR AS- Thank you Mr. Manager!”

She turned around but Slushatel get in the way.

"Quack!”
"Hm? Ohh! Mr. Manager… do you… Know anything about Amarok?”
"Am a rock?”

She sat on the bench beside Slushatel, reading the newspaper under the bus sign.

"Hmm, no new insight… Still many unknowns…”
"Quack!”

She placed the paper aside, leaned back with her arm over her head and stared at the fresh golden light of the rising sun in the cool breeze.

"People here barely know Amarok…”
"Quac-… QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!”

The wind picked up, brushing her hair and the newspaper pages fluttered away.

"NOOHOO! SLUSHATEL HELP!”
"Quack!”

From the distance, the manager watched silently, smirking.

"A desperate, foolish loner huh? Lucky me!”

Under the bright afternoon sunlight, Chihiro carried Slushatel in both arms and stood in front of a large, formidable brick building with arched windows.

"Ahh, nothing beats the library when it comes to information gathering!"
"Quack!”

As she approached the glass door, a librarian knocked on it and pointed at the ‘No Pets Allowed!’ sign.

"He’s my friend!”
"Quack!”

The librarian crossed their arms while shook their head, eyes narrowing into slits.

"I cant leave him behind! Please!”
"Quack!”

Eventually, she entered the library with a backpack but all her belongings in hand. The librarian gazed at her suspiciously.

"I’ll pretend I didn’t see that…” the librarian whispered.

Chihiro spent hours reading inuit mythology and other related books, writing down key points, unbothered by the constant chatter around her, until she fell asleep.

"Why cant you be like other kids?! Look at your cousin! Our neighbour!”
"It’s a family gathering! Why you bringing up your embarrassing chick study!”
"You got suspended from school for a week for swearing and brawling?!”

The voices echoed in her head, waking her up.

"Mom… Dad…”

She went to the restroom and stared blankly at the swirling water in the sink.

"Wanna go CC? My boyfriend said there’s a new game out!”
"Sure! My daddy gave me extra cash this week!”

Two teenage girls chatted as they walked past her. Chihiro washed her face, stepped outside and saw no one but books scattered across the tables.

"Heh…”

She smirked, collected the books and placed them back into their proper categories on the shelves. The librarian walked upstairs, only to see Chihiro sweeping the floor.

"Eh? Why she-…”

Touched by her action, the librarian later treated Chihiro and Slushatel to dinner.

"Slushatel? That’s a cool name! Why a duck?”
"Cause I cant find a dic-”

The next day, she went to work as usual but this time, she was more cautious, both of the goose and the unexplained flying newspaper.

"Slushatel?”
"Quack!”

They walked slowly and silently through the narrow path. The goose suddenly appeared as it dramatically walking to them.

"Hohoo, you approaching us?”
"Honk! Honk!”
"Quack! Quack!”

Slushatel flapped his wings while Chihiro slowly reached into her bag. The goose extended its neck forward and Chihiro threw a flat bread to the other side.

"Honk! Honk! Honk!”
"Let’s go! Slushatel!”

The goose went after the bread and they quickly delivered the newspaper and fled.

"Ayyy!”
"Quack!"

But here came the next challenge, the ‘breaking news’ house.

"Hold it, Slushatel! Hold it!”
"Quack! Quackkk!”

They gripped the newspaper tightly. Slushatel flapping his wings and leg-locked it but the force is not with them and its yeeted into the window again.

"Im not saying its ghosts or spiritual doing, Mr. Manager! There’s a Newton’s Second Law being pulled here! It might be some kind of strong magnetic field energ-”

He slammed the desk and yelled at her.

"...I give you one more chance or I fire you, Hirano Chihiro! Is that clear?!”
"ITS SO CLEAR THAT I CAN SEE YOUR BULLSHEET FROM ACROSS THE STRE- Yes sir…”

She left the building, eyes glued to the ground.

"Quack!”

Slushatel, who had been waiting outside, rubbed his body against her leg, putting a smile on her face.

"Excuse me, you working here?”

A delivery guy from Amazing stood in front of her, holding a small package.

"Hm? Ah yeah, looking for someone?”
"Yeah, can you pass this to Reganam?”

She raised an eyebrow, glanced at Slushatel then looked back at him.

"The ‘breaking news’ subscriber? Reganam? I-… Im pretty sure no one with that name works here but… He is one of the customers I delivered to…”

"Oh? Guess he got the address mixed up! Its happened all the time, haha!”

She offered to show him the way but due to company policy, he explained that he had to return it back to the office.

"Hmm, I can deliver it for you, save you the trouble! Two ducks one stone!”
"Quack?!”
"Wha-… Aa-… Umm…”

He glanced at Slushatel, glued to her feet.

"Quack!”
"I will trust you then! Thank you so much!”

He handed the package to her. At the split second, she flinched as she noticed the name.

"Huh?"
"Quack?”
"Aaa, miss?”

She shook her head and took the package.

"So- sorry! Its heavier than I thought, haha!”
"Ahh, gotcha! Cute duck anyway! Aight, la tur!”

He walked away and she stared at the name printed on it.

"ɯɐuɐɓǝꓤ?”
"Quack?”

End of Chapter 2…

Extra Dva:
Chihiro filled her backpack with clothes and held several books along with her research papers in hand.

"HIRO! Where you going?! Your Final High School Exam is tomorrow!”

Her mother rushed out as Chihiro leaving the house, ignoring her mother.

"Dear! Your daughter!”

Her mother called for her father as Chihiro placed her papers and books into the front basket.

"Oh good! Go! Go! Good luck surviving! No education! No certificate! No license!”
"Dear! Stop her! HIRO!”

Her mother grabbed his arm but he shook his head.

"She’ll be back when she’s hungry! Not like she has a friend or money anyway!”
"What if she didn’t?!”

As they argued, Chihiro lowered her head and pushed her bicycle forward.

"Mom and dad gonna kick me anyway… I just sped up the process…”

She cycling away as fast as she could. Not long after, a blackout occurred.

"Aaa, I forgot the flashligh-…”

A faint light flickered in the darkness. She went to it and found a weak duck with sunken eyes lying near the river.

"Dehydration?!”

She picked up the duck and quickly jumped into the river but it suddenly turned into a giant black hole. She jolted awake from her sleep, immediately sat up.

"Huh?"

She clutched her chest, breathing heavily while brushing her hair aside. She gazed down and see Slushatel slept peacefully beside her.