'The Heart Key'
Her back was sore once again as it is every time she woke up from her sleep period. Nezume sat up from her cot and groaned as she rubbed her natural red eyes of the the sleep there. Her ears twitched when she heard footstepts nearing the door to her room, and she sighed when the footsteps passed by.
"Well, that means that I didn't sleep in." Nezume said to herself and stood from the cot to prepare herself for the work period that was schedualed yet again for her. She dressed herself in her uniform of yellows, oranges, and reds, the colors of her worker rank. With her safetly eyewear that tinted everything orange, then utility belt on, she grabbed her hat and placed it upon her head. Nezume glanced into the mirror and smirked lightly at the little golden heart pin that she had accessorized on her hat. It was against regulations to change the uniform, but because the pin was small, it was wasn't noticed so far.
Ready for work, Nezume went over to the medium sized butterfly habitat that her four coworkers lived in. "Time for work everyone." Nezume said to the quadruplets as they flitted out of the habitat when she lifted the top off for them. The four yellow butterflies fluttered about her head and one settled right on the heart pin. Nezume was grateful to that particular butterfly because she had helped hide the pin.
With her coworkers awake and ready, Nezume left her room with the butterflies close around her. Nezume needed to report to the front desk to get the keys and clock in in order to do her job. The walk wasn't very long.
"Right on time, Nezume. As always. The key ring is set there on that envelope that had today's schedual. The same drill as always." The forest green uniformed man attending the front desk said with a wave of his hand without so much as a glance in her direction. Nezume didn't reply, she only picked up the large key ring that already held four different colored keys. The blond haired worker picked up the envelope as well and left the front desk to do her job.
As Nezume walked, she slipped the key ring into one of pockets of the utility belt and opened the manila envelope to take her schedual out. It was hardly any different from what the previous scheduals she had to follow. However she noticed that there were five destinations and not just the usual four, there were only four keys too.
"Go back to the front desk and ask about the missing key." Nezume said to one of her coworkers that flitted around her head once and then flew off behind her back to the desk.
