The Lost and Found Crew – Early Retirement
Rambleforth limps the empty cart back to the portal room. He is extra sore today. Yesterday’s, adventure, was still fresh on his mind. And his back side!
He enters the portal room and narrowly avoids a collision. Another young portal bandit with a full cart, is leaving the room . He admonishes the young bandit for being so careless, and sends him on his way.
That was the third time today! What was going on with this new batch of trainees?
Rambleforth sets up his area and pulls out his new fancy pipe. At least some things were reliable, he thinks, as he loads the elaborate pipe. Furthermore, those same things were predictable! Not like tigers!
In the history of finding lost things and keeping them, not one bandit ever brought back a full grown tiger.
The portal buzzes loudly, and two of the youngest bandits jump in and vanish with a pop. It would be Rambleforth’s turn next. He taps out his pipe and pockets it. It would be needed when he arrived in the lost item zone.
lost and found snag
Once the previous two bandits return, Rambleforth grabs his pack and steps to the edge of the portal area.
There is a loud buzz and he steps forward into the portal.
One flash of light later and he is standing in the middle of a street, in the middle of a storm. There would be no pipe time here. He opens his pack and begins searching for the missing item. Within seconds he finds a set of car keys!
Finally! It had been a while since he had found a set of keys. It looked like he was fast resuming his role as the top finder keeper. He turns to go back to the portal location and is hit by a fast moving diesel truck.
The impact sends him flying into the woods on the side of the highway, and he lands with a thump, in a briar patch.
The truck never slows.
He sits up quite annoyed with himself. Forgetting to watch for traffic was a rookie mistake! He can scarcely believe his own foolishness. He carefully works his way free from the briars and limps back to the portal location. Then disappears with a pop.
The portal room is empty when Rambleforth returns. At least it was dry here, and a good smoke would certainly help ease the nerves. He reaches for his elaborate pipe and finds the pocket empty. He checks all of his pockets, to no avail. The pipe is gone.
Early retirement
This was a disappointment, but not a deterrent. He would find another in the repository when he took the keys to Stuffinbob. He wanted to be sure that the record of the keys was properly amended. Stuffinbob was often forgetful, for one so astute.
Rambleforth knocks loudly on the repository door when he arrives. Stuffinbob answers a few moments later. He is complaining loudly as he answers the door, but stops abruptly when he sees Rambleforth.
“Oh. It’s you.”, he says. Then Stuffinbob does the most unusual thing. He steps outside the repository door and closes it behind him. Rambleforth takes a small step back and blinks in surprise as Stuffinbob hands him a sealed envelope.
“Bandit resources got wind of your little adventure with the truck! You’re lucky they didn’t cancel your portal card then and there! The envelope has your letter of reprimand, you must turn over your portal card, Rambleforth. You’ve been placed into early retirement!”
Having finished, Stuffinbob reenters the repository door and closes it firmly, leaving Rambleforth in the hall with his reprimand letter. Rambleforth pulls another thorn from his nose, he had been sacked. He blinks again, and muses, that there must be an easier way to get a new pipe.