Treasure Hunt (Pabu Days)
Notes: No warnings, just fluff. Omega and the other kids of Pabu engage in a treasure hunt! Written for the Pabu Days Zine @pabudayszine
Read on Ao3
"Guys, I found it!"
"Is it the treasure?" Deke shoved past his brothers, skidding to a stop at Omega's side. The tail of his bandana fell in front of her face, and Omega batted it to the side.
"It's another clue!" she said. Omega gingerly pried the bottle out from between the rocks, holding it up for the others to see. It was pink, with a tiny handle at the neck, frosted by the sand and sea. Omega was surprised by the sheer amount of variety in all the bottles that they could find washed up on the beach of their island.
She took out the cork easily enough, but she couldn't quite reach the piece of flimsi rolled up inside. It didn’t respond to gravity, either, so she handed it over to Mox, who, as they had discovered completely by accident, had the longest fingers of their group. It took a few tries, and some impatient suggestions to smash the bottle against the nearest rock to Lyana's protests, but they eventually worked the scrap of crumpled flimsi out of the bottle so that they could read it.
It was Eva’s turn to read the clue. It took her a few tries, punctuated by Stak tapping his foot. Handwritten penmanship was different from rigid computer font.
“In a garden’s embrace, I quietly sit,
Colors I wear, where sunbeams flit.
Not a painter, yet my art never fades,
What am I, with these vibrant shades?”
Omega gasped. The answer came to her instantly, but then she caught Mox’s eye. He jerked his head to say “no”. Omega folded her arms in protest. Yeah, she’d come up with the answer to the last five clues, but did it matter if they all won anyway? Everyone wanted to find the treasure.
“What things can we find in a garden?” Jax asked the group.
“My dad has a watering can and some sheers, but they’re not very colorful,” Lyana said.
“I don’t know what goes in a garden. Plants, I guess?” Deke shrugged.
“My mom had a garden back home,” Sami said quietly, “Her favorite part was the flowers.”
“The flowers!” Eva exclaimed. “Flowers aren’t painters, but they’re so pretty and colorful!”
“There’s a lot of flowers on the island, does that mean we have to check all of them?” Stak whined.
“Not all of them,” Lyana said, “just the ones in the Archium. Come on!” She took Sami’s hand and started leading her back up the stone path to the top of the island.
“But why the Archium?” Jax asked.
Omega couldn’t help herself anymore, “Because that’s where the sun hits all the time! It has to mean the weeping maya flowers!”
She started up the hill after the others, but Mox grabbed her arm and held her back. He waited for everyone else to get out of earshot; their race for the treasure could wait for a moment.
“You’ve gotta let them have some fun too,” he hissed.
“I am!” Omega insisted. She tried to pull away, annoyed with Mox trying to parent her, but Mox wouldn’t let go.
“You’re not the youngest one here. Sometimes you gotta let them figure it out for themselves instead of giving them all the answers.”
Omega rolled her eyes. “But they’re taking so long.”
Mox smiled wryly. Omega had been the equivalent of an only child for most of her life, and once she’d found her own squad, she was by far the youngest. She was the inexperienced one, the one who needed to be protected. She wanted to take care of the other kids the same way her brothers had helped her. Could she really help her friends by staying quiet?
Finally, Mox released Omega, who was now sulking. She followed him up towards the Archium with the others. There, Sami was perched on Jax’s shoulders, plucking a blue bottle from the branches of pink blossoms. Echo was seated nearby, relaxing in the sun with a fresh glass of meiloorun juice. The sunglasses he wore kept anyone but Omega from noticing that he watched to make sure Sami returned safely to the ground.
“You heard me before, yet you hear me again. Then I die till you call me again. What am I?”
“An alarm clock?” Stax suggested. None of them agreed. All the answers had been from nature so far, an alarm clock would be stupid now. Of course, Omega would never say it aloud.
Eva looked at her hands like she was trying to do math, cupping one hand over her mouth and then doing the same with the other, like she was trying to toss her words back and forth. Then she looked up at Echo lying in his chair, and her eyes lit up with realization.
“An echo!”
“Yes?”
“Not you!” the kids shouted in unison.
Echo grinned and went back to his juice.
“The only place on the island that echoes is the sea caves,” Lyana looked up at the sun, “And the tide should be low enough now!”
“The caves?” Jax asked.
“But we were just down there!” Deke groaned.
Echo hummed from his chair, “I guess you kids don’t want the treasure then.” He set aside his empty glass, stood up, and stretched out his arms.
“I guess I’ll just have to go get the treasure mysel-”
“NO!” all the kids sprinted past, heading back for the beach as fast as their little legs could carry them.
Echo chuckled and sat back in his chair.
“Why'd you do that?” Omega stood in front of him, blocking the sun with her hands on her hips.
“I have no idea what you mean,” Echo flicked her bangs in front of her eyes, and Omega huffed impudently.
“Why’d you act like you were going to take the treasure from us?” She demanded.
Echo shrugged, “You kids need a bit of a challenge every now and then.”
“I wasn’t gonna take it, promise,” He drew an ‘X’ over his heart, “But if I’ve learned anything from you, kid, I know you like to do things on your own, and you’ll do anything to prove yourself.”
Omega almost squirmed, as if the sun was a spotlight bearing down on her center stage. It was true, but it felt weird to hear her brother say it out loud.
“How do you know that?” She mumbled and stared at the cobblestones, folding her arms tighter as if it were a shield to defend her.
“Hey, we’re clones. Same heart, same blood,” Echo grinned at her.
“Omega, come on!” Lyana was waiting impatiently at the edge of the Archium.
Omega looked at Echo one more time, and he held out his scomp arm in Lyana’s direction, “Go get that treasure, kid.”
Never one to miss an opportunity for a hug, Omega threw her arms around Echo with a very rewarding “Oof!”
“See you Echo!” She shouted, sprinting across the square.
Echo chuckled, and a few moments later, he could hear the shouts of delight ringing out from Pabu’s hidden caves as buried treasure came to light.