The sun was shining brightly one morning, and the campus was still quiet. I decided to take a walk before the campus got busy. As I was walking, I came across a building that had the door propped open. After realizing that no one was paying attention to me, I hopped up and entered. The hallway was dark, so I looked around and tried to figure out where I was. Something loud was nearby, and I decided to investigate. I found the room and wandered inside. There was something shaking next to me. Confused, I approached it.
What is this thing? I wondered.
It was a large cube. It had a door with a window that opened when I touched it. The inside was even more bizarre, so I decided to hop in and investigate what it did. As soon as I entered it, the momentum made it spin once. I went with it and landed on my back. Before it could spin again, I hopped out.
“That is definitely not a toy,” I said aloud. “That is a mean torture thing.”
I shook out my feathers and continued exploring. As I headed down the hall, I saw an open door. I didn’t hear anyone, so I decided to enter and investigate. Luckily, the room was empty. The first thing that caught my eye was myself. I headed to the thing that looked like me. As I was approaching it, I hit a wall. I pecked at it, and it copied me.
It looks like me and acts like me, but it isn’t real, I thought. What is it?
I heard footsteps and quickly hid by jumping into a pile of clothes. Someone entered the room, grabbed something, and left. The door was still open and I quickly left before I could be locked in.
Next I encountered something that looked like a mountain. I looked up; it appeared to be never ending.
I wonder what’s up there? I thought.
I decided that flying would be easier, but I couldn’t fly for long distances. The first and second mountains were easy. I was too tired to go higher, so I started walking around the area I made it to. It was starting to get busy. People were walking around. I heard snippets of conversation erupting from the rooms.
“Where are my shoes?”
“O-M-G, can you believe I got yelled at last night?”
“When is your class?”
“Want to go get breakfast?”
A girl walked past me with her hair dripping. The water droplets fell on me and I jumped. She had something wrapped around her that looked soft. I wanted to get a closer look at the towel, but I realized that was all she was wearing, so I quickly looked away and moved on.
Wow, this place got busy quick, I thought. I kept walking and came across an open space. I walked up to something that looked squishy. I jumped up and it sank under my weight. I pecked at it and realized it wasn’t edible. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise that sounded like a dog. I quickly turned around and nearly was knocked over.
The squishy furniture has just become my safe place, I thought as I dove under it.
The dog was quickly pulled away and I decided I’d had enough. It was time to leave. I headed back to where I came in but realized that the door was now shut. I didn’t hear anybody coming, so I pondered what to do. As I thought, footsteps sounded on the stairs. I quickly headed up to where I thought they would leave and waited. When they left, I followed them out. As I was leaving, I overheard a group talking about the building.
“This building is Krueger,” the girl said. “It’s an all girls dorm and has four floors.”
No wonder that room smelled like flowers, I thought.
“Does it have a laundry facility?” the other girl asked.
“Yes, it’s in the basement.”
That’s what I found, I thought. But that doesn’t explain why it spun me.
The group walked on without acknowledging me.
“Whatever that place was, I don’t want to go back,” I said to myself.
I headed home, content to spend the day watching students walking around. That was enough adventure for one day.