I opened my wallet this afternoon and a moth flew out of it. It was time to get in touch with Miss Niki about an assignment, if I was going to keep living in the manner to which I’ve become accustomed: in a tiny shack with my bottle collection.
Go talk to some people doing the egg hunt, she told me. Egg hunt, I said. Don’t eggs pretty much just sit still? How hard can they be to shoot? Miss Niki threw a shoe at me as I headed out the door. (She has a desk drawer filled with shoes for exactly this purpose.)
New Toulouse posters from the eggs hidden at James Ads & Signs
As I wandered around, hunting for hunters, I saw a sign that explained, “Eggs with gifts inside are hidden all around New Toulouse!” It offered a list of known egg locations.
(View the list on page 7—Ed.)
By this point I figured Miss Niki had left the office, so I headed back there for some pre-interview fortification. And then my famous luck came into play: an egg hunter was at the Tattler office, and she sent for her friend, and we had a nice little chat.
Miss Kandinsky Beaumont did not hesitate to sit on the ghastly yet comfortable Tattler sofa
It was Miss Kandinsky Beaumont’s first visit to New Toulouse. She’d had trouble finding a ghost egg, but she was enjoying exploring the town. Miss Thirza Ember, an old friend of our Capt. Pestana (“He took me for a carriage ride the other day. He was one of the horses. You can’t get more chivalrous than that.”), was a little nervous about Tunnel Man. Asked about the egg gifts, Miss Ember said the sofa from La Petite Mort was particularly nice.
Miss Thirza Ember almost certainly did not partake of the questionable beverage on the filing cabinet
Then events took a strange turn, and somehow I ended up admitting to actions I’m not proud of. These women had cast some kind of spell on me! I had to get out of there—and fast—before saying anything else.
On Shotgun Row I ran into Miss Liza and her friend Miss Reana, but evidently the magic spell was still in effect, because by the time Miss Reana left to attend a concert somewhere, I had developed the impression that goats lay eggs and that there are rhinos in the bayou. Also I’d developed a wicked thirst, so when Miss Liza suggested we go to her nearby apartment to see some of her egg gifts, I readily agreed.
Miss Liza Veliz relaxes on the sofa gift from La Petite Mort
Miss Liza Veliz is an egg huntress extraordinaire. It is believed that she has found every egg so far. She pulled out treasure after treasure, and boy was I relieved when one of them turned out to be a bottle of “Miss Niki’s spring tonic,” which was definitely alcoholic but which I suspect Miss Niki concocted as a sneaky way to get me to drink my vegetables.
Miss Niki’s Spring Tonic does not come with an ingredients list
In addition to hunting, Miss Liza has hidden eggs containing rare books in multiple locations in the city and bayou. At her French Market reading cafe, there are also two eggs containing New Toulouse art by Jon Chen.
A depiction of New Toulouse Bayou by artist Jon Chen
Many of the bunnies at the hunt locations provide excellent clues to finding eggs. What’s the strangest egg gift so far? “At the mayor’s,” explained Miss Liza, “I got a lecture.”
Jack’s notes are blurry here, but we think this bunny art came from the Haunted Jellyfish and La Petite Mort
Before I left, another egg hunter poked her head in the door. “I think you have a dead rabbit out here,” she said. “It’s upsetting Baby Jesus!”
Jack Mondieu, Ace Reporter, is beginning to think he’s a figment of his own imagination.