The Symol Investigators

Fill in this form, please:

Name:__________________________________

Species:_________________________________

Petpet’s name:_______________________________

Petpet’s species:_______________________________

Interests:_________________________________________________________

Why would you like to be on the SIT? ______________________________________________________

     Thank you. Yes, I know, it’s a short form, but most petpets and their owners get in regardless what they put on this form. Don’t ask me why you have to fill it out then because I don’t know. I just do what they tell me to do.

     Well, follow me; I’ll get you your gear. What gear, you ask? Well, you’ll need a helmet for safety, a flashlight because it’s dark down in the Symol Hole, a pager in case you get in trouble or get lost, and a shovel in case you find something you need to dig out. Here you go, don’t break any of them. You break it, you buy it.

     Now let’s go out to the Hole. It’s right next to that tree over there. Near Turmaculus. So, what exactly does the SIT do? Every day we send twenty to thirty petpets from the team down the Hole to see what they can find. We’ve got a pretty good hunch that there’s hundreds of symols down there doing who-knows-what. We’re trying to find out what the who-knows-what is.

     Oh, you’re wondering if it’s dangerous. No petpet’s been severely injured down there. Some come back with a few scrapes, but it’s no big deal. Some go in a little hungry and come out full. But we’ve figured out that that’s because the symols drop scraps of food while they’re in there. Some find neopoints or an item, but again, the symols drop stuff. The true SIT members leave the items with us so we can try to piece together what those symols are doing down there. We won’t force you to hand them over, though. After all, finders keepers.

     So, are you ready? Put on your safety helmet. Make sure your flashlight works. Good? All right. Since it’s your first time going down there on a mission, I’ll go down with you. I’ll show you all the places that the Team has found. When you go down there by yourself later, I suggest you only go to the places I show you. We let the experts, like myself, discover the new places.

     I’ll go first. You follow me. Go down slowly. All right, here I go.

     Ah. You okay? Your eyes will adjust to the darkness soon. Don’t turn your flashlight on just yet. It’s still bright in this section of the hole. Can you see yet? Okay, great.

     Where we are right now is the main tunnel. Yes, I know, it’s cramped down here, but that’s why only we petpets can come. The main tunnel goes straight for a while and then you come to a two-way split. So follow me. We have to go single file because it’s not wide enough to walk side-by-side.

     If you see any items, pick them up. I’ve brought a bag to put stuff in. Also, check the walls of the tunnel. The symols have been known to write messages on them. I’ve got paper to copy down any drawings or messages you find. Yes, you’ll have to bring your own bags and your own paper when you come by yourself.

     We’ve come to the split. Here’s where you should turn your flashlight on. Down the right tunnel, you’ll come to a room. Yes, there is actually a room down here. Oh, you’d like to see it? Well, then let’s go. Turn your flashlight on.

     We call this room the Famoley Room. It’s very big. It probably fit about forty to fifty symols at most. As you can see, they had a nice recreational room down here. There are two beat up sofas, a coffee table, a bookshelf, and a desk, all made of clay. Clay, if you didn’t know, is made from the ground. So the symols made things by hand. We’re a very intriguing species, which is probably why the SIT exists. We just want to know what goes on in the symol world.

     Obviously the Famoley Room has been abandoned. They probably abandoned it after they found out that the neopets and petpets above ground were coming down here to investigate. We guessed that they left here in a hurry because the first petpets to come in here found food left on the coffee table and the whole bookshelf was full. We collected all the books. You can find them back at the SIT headquarters. I’ll show them to you when we get back.

     Where did the symols go, you’re wondering? Well, we’re not sure. No petpet has ever actually seen a symol—a symol that’s not part of the SIT, that is—down here in the Symol Hole. That leads us to conclude that the Hole is actually far bigger and far more in depth than we imagined.

     Let’s go down the left tunnel now. Keep your flashlight on. It’s still dark down this other tunnel.

     The left tunnel leads us to a bigger part of the Hole. There are more turnoffs and forks in the pathway. Lots of it is still yet to be discovered. I’ll take you to the first part. I suggest next time you come down here you start your investigation in this part.

     School. Yes. We believe the symols had school in this room. See? Come back here to this back wall. They used this wall as the chalkboard. Look at all these drawings and writings. We’ve had some of our best members sit here and try to figure out what they mean, what they were trying to teach the student symols, but even they can’t figure it out. We’ve got many hunches, but nothing for sure.

     Now follow me over to this bookshelf. We found a class set of textbooks here. Yes! Can you believe it?! They had textbooks! We keep two copies of the textbook down here, as you can see. The rest are back up at the headquarters. Why don’t you take a look at one? Yes, go ahead, take one off the shelf. It’s okay.

     Why are you laughing? Oh, you’re looking at the name of the author. Molinski Mollusis. Well, stop laughing. Just because symols have different names from most petpets...

     What’s in the textbook is very interesting. See the index page. Oh yes, I know, they write in a different language. And, although it is embarrassing that, being a symol myself, I can’t read it, I’ve been slowly decoding it. Chapter Four is called The Secret of Symols. Interesting, right? I’ve recently been studying Chapter Four. I don’t fully understand it because it’s written in their language, but I believe it’s about how they’ve been keeping their activities such a secret.

     Oh, you’re wondering why we can’t figure out what goes down in this Hole by reading the textbook? Well, like I said before, it’s in a different, very complex language. Also, the textbook is very thin. I doubt this is all there is to know about the symol world.

     Well, I think it’s time to go back to the headquarters. Come on, let’s go. Follow me.

     ****

     Molinski Mollusis closed the lights of the headquarters. No one was there. It was the dead of night. He closed the door of the headquarters behind him and locked it. He looked around apprehensively, just as he did every night. It was so quiet all you could hear was the grass of Meridell rustling in the breeze.

     Molinski silently made his way to the Symol Hole. He lowered himself in. His eyes quickly adjusted to the pitch blackness. He walked down the main tunnel. When he came to the two-way split, he turned right.

     Inside the Famoley Room, he crawled under the coffee table on his back and looked up at the bottom of the table. In the dead center, there was a tiny button that you could not see unless you were a symol or you knew it was there. Molinski pushed the button.

     A panel opened up. Molinski pressed his paw on the screen that had showed up when he pushed the button. There was a small beep and the bookshelf against the wall slid over to reveal a secret passage.

     Molinski came out from underneath the table and went through the passage. He pressed a button and the bookshelf slid back in place. After going through a few tunnels and other secret passages and stopping at some of his friends’ houses to say hi, he wound up back at home.

     “Hey Molinski,” his wife Molly said. “How was work today?”

     “Good,” Molinski answered. “They don’t suspect a thing.”

     Molly smiled. “How are the decoy rooms holding up?”

     “Oh, they’re great. The symols who built them did a great job.”

     She laughed. “And the ‘textbooks’ you wrote?”

     “Still holding up well,” Molinski said. “They still got everyone at the SIT hooked.”

     Molly gave her husband a cup of coffee. “You know, I have to admit, when you and your friends first mentioned the idea of a group to mislead neopets’ idea about symols, I didn’t think it would work. But you’ve been holding up for years and they don’t even think anything of it.”

     Molinski shrugged modestly. “It’s just a bit of psychology at work.”

     Molly laughed and said good night and went to bed.

     Molinski sat in his favorite chair and took a sip of his coffee. He thought about the SIT. It was the greatest plan ever. Then he laughed at his fake name.

     Koni Mils.

     That was a good one.

The End