“Well, Gromit, that seemed to have gone better than we expected, eh?” Wallace grinned.
Gromit was nursing his head with an ice pack after crash landing from his fall from the balloon into the popcorn cart. On the plus side, he got a bucket of freshly-popped popcorn free of charge on account of the stand lying in rubble.
Right now, the duo were making their way over to the Animal Shelter to deliver the shabby wooden box full of their hard earned donations. They didn’t notice that a certain beady-eyed penguin had just exited the Shelter through the front doors, when he suddenly froze at the sight of them.
He ducked behind a bush in view of the Shelter’s main entrance, taking note of the “Help Wanted” sign plastered on the front doors.
Wallace dusted down his vest while Gromit hid away the ice pack into a nearby bush, missing the sound of a painful grunt, right as Fluttershy came to answer their knocking.
“O-oh, hi, Wallace, Gromit,” she greeted.
“Hallo, Fluttershy,” Wallace replied. “Many a pleasant afternoon as well. Gromit and I have just stopped by to drop off our donation box.”
He handed her the box of donations.
“All for a good cause, m’dear,” he beamed.
Fluttershy was close to shaking. “I-I don’t know what to say. How much is in here?”
“Close to about one-hundred and seventy-nine dollars and fifty-six cents. That should be more than enough to afford hiring more employees, and possibly a few pounds of treats for the animals.”
Gromit virtually tuned out the conversation between the two humans, instead focusing on his tub of popcorn. Suddenly, a quiet rustling from the bushes caught his attention. Nothing moved, not even a leaf. He looked away for a moment, when he heard the rustling again, and this time he noticed the “Help Wanted” sign had been torn from where it was stuck.
He furrowed his brow in suspicion.
“Oh, I do believe now would be the perfect time to pick up Shaun,” Wallace said.
“I’ll get him. Just wait a minute,” Fluttershy replied. She went away to set down the box on a nearby desk, before turning to the card table. “C’mon, Shaun, it’s time to go home.”
Shaun dropped his cards before hopping off his seat and walking to the front door, baaing farewell to his card-playing buddies. “You too, Spike. Twilight’s expecting you home anytime soon.”
“Aw rats, already?” Spike grumbled, relenting. “Alright, see ya tomorrow, Angel. Gotta dash.” He hurried out of the building, but not before yelling back from the abyss. “And I definitely won that round!”
Angel Bunny rolled his eyes in irritation, grinning in satisfaction. Between a sheep that loved eating everything, and a dog that wouldn’t shut his yap, he felt confident in his tactics at playing poker.
“Right then. We’ll be on our way then. It’s nearly teatime. Ta-ta!”
“Oh, i-if you don’t mind, I’d be glad to host tea for you,” Fluttershy offered.
“No thank you, we’ll be quite alright,” Wallace politely declined. “The Shelter’s not going to run itself, luv. Have a good one!”
“Goodbye, Wallace! Goodbye, Gromit! Goodbye, Shaun!” Fluttershy waved, closing the doors.
Shaun baaed again, following right behind Wallace. Gromit started walking, then hesitated when he heard another set of rustling from behind the bush. This time, he decided not to shrug it off due to such things as a squirrel or rabbit. He crept forward, careful not to disturb whatever was lurking from behind the twigs and leaves making sure that his popcorn was a distance away from disaster should it strike. He reached out a cautious hand, inches turned into centimeters from the first leaf…
…when a stray chipmunk jumped out from the brambles, startling Gromit enough to lose a few stray kernels. The chipmunk nabbed the kernels and took off in a flash, leaving behind a bemused canine with a popcorn bucket.
“Come on, Gromit! It’s your turn to choose the flavor of cheese!”
The call of his master snapped him from his daze. He stole one last glance at the bush, then took off down the sidewalk on all fours with the handle in his mouth.
The penguin glanced out from his hiding place, wiping a flipper over his forehead. Many times that dog had given him more trouble than he was worth; he had to be extra careful not to arouse his suspicions this early again.
Holding the sign in his flipper he knocked on the front doors. He was lucky to have found a place that was in financial jeopardy, otherwise he would have to have risked lodging.
The diamond-eyed girl opened the door, looked around in confusion, then looked down on the penguin. “Oh, you poor poor thing! You shouldn’t be out here in the heat, especially if you’re a penguin!”
He allowed her to scoop him up like a common housecat, before entering the breeziness of the cool inside of the air conditioned Shelter. Not much was different, other than all of the whining and complaining of the other scruffy animals. Luckily she placed him in an enclosure that was more isolated from the other, in terms of community and temperature; being a small kiddie pool surrounded by electric fans and an exposed A/C vent.
“I’m sorry if your accommodations aren’t exactly…a-accomodating enough,” she apologized. Her eyes were looking very apologetic, making the diamond-esque sparkle even more apparent and longing. “I-I’m sure there is some food I can find for you. Uh,” she fiddled with a strand of her hair, “d-do you have any preferences to fish?”
He cocked his head, then shook it. He could’ve sworn she tried to hide her relief.
“O-okay then, I’ll go find some fish for you. I’m sure there are some left, but please don’t eat the live fish in the tanks, okay?”
She left back into the kitchen area, leaving the penguin with his thoughts. He pondered on how much more of a good look he was given of the girl, and his conclusions were that not a single piece of her body outshined those wonderful diamond eyes. But he remembered that she was only the first bird of two to kill with a single stone; there were still plenty of loose ends to cover up before the big play.
He hopped out of the pool, wiping his feathers dry, then made his way across the area where the other caged animals were whining for their food like beggars until he reached his destination. He used the desk drawer handles as ladder rungs to climb up to the top, before taking out the rolled up “Help Wanted” sign, then dropped it into the shredder.
As he did so, he noticed a white rabbit, smaller than him, was about to peer into a room across the hallway. Yet another nosy little mangy mongrel.
Angel had his suspicions about the penguin when he first glanced at him, and most were confirmed when he picked up an unrecognized but vaguely familiar feeling with the door that was marked “Employees Only”. Usually he recognized it as being exclusive to the boss, until he remembered that the boss had his own shift during the school days instead of weekends. It was opened by a crack when it was normally fully closed.
He was about to enter when he was lifted up by the grips of his long ears and carried along over the ground, until he was hurled into the air only to smack face-first onto the billboard that held the calendar and a couple of achievements dedicated to the employees. Angel plopped onto the hard surface of the front desk, rubbing his forehead in pain, then looked up to see the expressionless face of the dreaded penguin. All the penguin was doing to intimidate him was simply staring and blinking, without making the slightest nudge of his body, and it was kind of working on him.
Everything about the penguin was giving off horrible suspense-filled precursors, all of them seeming to focus on his shy but kind owner. Angel stood his ground, pointing a scowling arm at the technical intruder in a warning to leave Fluttershy alone if he knew what was good for him.
The penguin didn’t respond immediately, or at all that was readable about his character, and instead rushed forward and grabbed Angel by the ears again, this time hurling him across the building into a head-on collision with the food dispenser. The crash was instantaneous, smashing the device without effort and scattering the animal food all over the floor, creating a makeshift minefield of hazardous materials.
The penguin quickly hopped off the desk, rushed right past the dazed Angel Bunny, before hopping back into his designated pool right as Fluttershy came out of the kitchen area.
She gasped at the mess. “Angel!”
He looked up at her with dazed confusion.
The next thing he knew she had hustled him out the back door of the land and into the designated exercising and outdoor play area for the mammal quadruped animals, and whenever Angel had misbehaved.
“I never thought you would stoop so low, mister. I am very disappointed in you,” Fluttershy scorned.
Angel flapped his arms with a pleading look.
“I don’t want any excuses from you. You are going to stay out here and are no longer allowed inside until you feel sorry for yourself for ruining the only food source some of the other animals have.”
Angel shamefully walked out of the backdoor, barring his eyes away from the disappointed stare his owner was giving him. He rubbed his arm in shame as his ears flopped down, sagging against the ground, not caring if they became mucky from the grime. He kicked a pebble down the flattened grass, ignoring the painful cries of an earthworm. He never liked it when his owner scowled at him, even if he felt he deserved it; it was worse when it wasn’t justified.
After taking a good number of paces out into the vastness of the back area, the backdoor closed behind him. Angel looked back, watching his owner sag her head in misery, turning away and disappearing into the rest of the building.
Behind her, the penguin stood, also watching Fluttershy walk away in the building. Angel instinctively leaped out of sight, feeling scared for his life about that emotionless bird. His concerns turned to suspicion, creeping across the lawn to the bushes underneath a windowsill. He lifted himself up, taking care to avoid colliding with a potted plant.
Getting an idea, he plucked out the plant and buried himself in it to get a better view. He saw the penguin typing on the desktop keyboard that belonged to the Shelter, having placed it on top of the donations box. From his perspective, Angel couldn’t see what the penguin was looking up, but he paused for a couple of moments to take a few notes in his notebook. He then moved the mouse up the mousepad before clicking on something; from the gaze in his eyes, Angel figured it greatly pleased the penguin.
Just then, the penguin peered over in Angel’s direction, just in time for Angel to duck and cover enough to shift the pot off the edge of the sill and crash down into the rose bushes.
“Alright, everyone,” Fluttershy’s angelic voice spoke. “I’m heading out now, but I’ll be back soon. Now you all behave yourselves, okay?”
The penguin sat on the spacebar of the keyboard, holding his fins together and nodding with a faux halo over his head. Fluttershy smiled again, this time waving with her fingers before departing the building. The penguin then hopped off the keyboard, removing the donation box from underneath the keyboard in time for a knock on the front doors.
“Here’s your order,” the delivery man said. “Just need you to sign here to verify your purchase.”
The man looked down to see the penguin open the box, showing off all of the shining and enticing bills and coins.
“Very generous, sir.” He took the box and quickly drove off in his van.
The penguin cupped his flippers together in victory. Finally, he was given a long needed break in his planning. He carried the box inside the shelter, then noticed all of the animals longing at all of the still spilt food. Getting an idea, he dropped off the box in his private room, before carefully sweeping up all of the food, filling up every single tray.
Before handing them off to the animals, he added a little dose of a formula he had prepared for a moment such as this. He took care to only add a single drop per food bowl, then carefully handed off the bowls and food sources, dreading the possibility of a potential liability.
A great dane ate from his bowl, then a tabby brown cat, then some fish, another dog, a set of weasel siblings, until one by one every single animal in the entire stinking Shelter had fallen asleep.
He checked the time on the wall. There wasn’t much time left, it had to all be ready by tonight.
He hopped back onto the desk, seeing that the girl had foolishly left her phone behind in a charging port. It didn’t even have a lock-screen keycode, despite it being customary for most every modern device. He stifled a laugh, then remembered that everyone else was asleep, and then he laughed. Clutching it in his left flipper, he exited through the backdoor and around the building onto the sidewalk.
Angel Bunny had noticed that he was carrying Fluttershy’s phone in his mits, and that he had left the door closed, and locked. Angel had a key, having hid it within the bush he was lurking out of, only there was a slight hitch.
He couldn’t reach the handle at his highest bounce. He thumped his foot in annoyance, understanding what his situation required; as much as he hated to admit it.
He needed help big time.
Gromit sat in his armchair in the front room, not really paying attention to the program he had turned on to distract himself. He was sitting in concentration with the poster leaflet in his hand. A memento he’d forgotten to throw out some time ago.
Wallace then entered the front door, tired and sighing. “I feel knackered, Gromit. That job on the road five blocks down took more effort than I thought, so I left the machine down there on standby so that I would be ready to go in the morning tomorrow.”
In truth, Wallace wasn’t able to even get started on the job, on account of the painting arms horribly malfunctioning,
"Come, on, stupid...!"
taking up all his time that the work timer on the machine had run out, leaving it stuck there until the next day.
Back at their home, Wallace chose to forget about his reminiscing in a nice little cuisine he prepared for himself, sitting down in the other armchair with a teatray consisting of a plate of fresh Stilton and crackers with a nice cup of tea. Presently, he noticed Gromit’s concentrated muzzle.
“What are you looking at there, lad?” he asked.
Gromit looked up, presenting a wanted poster of an orange-beaked, black and white-bellied, and beady-eyed bird. It looked like a penguin, it could’ve been one if it weren’t for the red-glove on the head making it look like a strange-looking chicken. At the top were the words “Have You Seen This Chicken?” and at the bottom read “£1000 Reward”.
Wallace recognized it immediately, almost scowling. “Is that the poster for that diamond burglar Feathers McGraw?”
Gromit nodded.
“And you still have it? Whatever for?”
Gromit hesitated, then shrugged his shoulders, still unsure himself.
“Well, I don’t see why you have to worry yourself about that pilfering bird. He’s safely locked up where he should be, tucked away from eyeing up any sort of diamond. And, if he did somehow end up in Canterlot, he would be thoroughly disappointed about the lack of any diamonds to filch.”
Gromit pondered at his master’s words, letting the poster fall from his hand and onto the floor. It was true that the last he heard of the dreaded penguin he had been locked behind metal bars and hard stone bricks.
Yet considering all that, he still couldn’t help but feel a pit in his stomach. That same feeling of dread when he spied on Feathers measuring up the side window of the Wallaby Street Museum.
Behind all of the shine and glamor of Canterlot City, something felt wrong.