Jane, a rookie zookeeper.

The morning sun gently illuminated the fake savannas, jungles, and forests that comprised the enclosures of the local zoo, the various birds contained therein filled the air with a cacophony of cries and songs as they started a new day. Inside the many pathways and habitats that the installation had to offer, the zookeepers were busy tending to the final preparations before opening to the public.

On the lush trees of the monkey habitat, a lone zookeeper was climbing the vegetation with a bag of food and a determined look on her face. Nimble and athletic, the task posed no problem for the black haired girl as she reached the top branches, there she hid a handful of fruit and took a moment to appreciate the view of the enclosure before descending again.

Her boots safely touched down on the ground. She inspected herself to see if everything was still in place and sure enough, the beige pants and shirt that comprised her uniform were still clean and in perfect condition (thought she suspected that with time they would acquire the ragged look that her coworkers clothes have), her cap still rested firmly atop her medium length straight hair, her nametag was still hanging on her chest with the name Jane displayed proudly and her keys were still secured inside her pocket. She examined her bag of food, it was almost empty. She had almost finished hiding its contents in places that would the monkeys to move around and forage like they did in the wild.

She searched for one final hiding spot and found the perfect place under a root next to the enclosure’s pond. But, just as she was about to place the food, the troop of recently awakened monkeys descended upon her and took it, or rather, one of them took her bag while the others remained hungry.

The troop then turned their attention to Jane and searched her body and belongings for more food. Since they were harmless and she was out anyway, she played along with the monkeys, teasingly opening her pockets, showing them their non-edible content and petting the curious little guy that hopped on her head. The realization that she wasn’t carrying anything else soon dawned on the primates. The troop dispersed and she once again checked that everything’s was in place.

Her cap was still on her head, her nametag was still hanging from her chest and her keys were … not in her back pocket, or front pocket, or any of her pockets, they were gone, along with all the other contents of said pockets. It seemed like the monkeys had pickpocketed everything like expert little thieves. She cursed herself for being so careless, this was the third time this happened. She really needed to learn to not let their cute little appearance make her drop her guard, they were still wild animals after all.

Without her keys, Jane was trapped inside the enclosure, so she had but to find the little thief or wait for one of her coworkers to notice she is missing and come rescue her… again. Not wanting to go through that embarrassment once more, she climbed the nearest tree to get a better look of the place and try to find the pickpocket. She managed to spot the monkey that had her keys hanging from one of the branches, curiously examining them. The monkey realized she was looking directly at him and scrambled before she could do anything else, dropping the keyring in the water.

The water in the pond was uncharacteristically high for monkey standards, reaching up to her thighs. She really wanted the keys, but didn’t want to spend the rest of her day with wet socks and pants ...Jane regretted not wearing her shorts today. Now she had but to wait, there was no way she could strip down and flash her panties to everyone on the job. Or was there?