"Do you smell that?" I asked, trying to come to a stop. That was a mistake since I was swinging on a vine at the time. As I tried to stop, there was a 'twang' sound and I looked up to see the vine separate from itself. I saw Red laughing as I plummeted towards the forest floor. The landing wasn't too bad, even though there weren't any branches to break my fall. I didn't even manage to knock the wind out of myself and decided that maybe I should be looking for small bushes to land on when I feel from great heights. I sat up, slowly shaking my head and trying to get my eyes to focus again.
"That was pretty good, Furball. It doesn't even look like you put another hole in your pelt." I ignored him for a moment, busy sniffing the air. "What are you sniffing at?"
"Don't you smell it?" Red exaggeratedly took several deep breaths and then shook his head. "I don't smell anything except the fact that you're probably due for a bath again."
"You should talk. Besides, it hasn't been that long since I took one."
"It was almost four full moons ago."
"Why are you keeping track of when I took a bath last?" I asked, sidetracked for a moment.
"It's my turn this time."
"Huh?" Red started to open his mouth to explain, but I cut him off. "Never mind that now, this is more important." I hauled myself to my feet and brushed the twigs off my pelt before lifting my nose in the air and inhaling. "Cool, I can still smell it. C'mon, it's this way." I took off at a gallop towards the source of the odor.
"There aren't any blueberries in this direction, you know," Red said, easily keeping up with me, disgustingly easy in fact.
"It's not blueberries," I managed to gasp out between pants, "it's chocolate chip cookies. Brand new ones."
"Brand new?"
"I mean fresh baked ones. Can't you smell them? It's driving me crazy."
Red looked thoughtful for a moment, something that should be impossible while running. "Yeah," he finally said, "it'd probably be driving me crazy too if I could smell it. Are you sure it's chocolate chip cookies you're smelling?" I stared at him. "Never mind, dumb question."
Silence reigned for a bit since I was too busy trying to breathe and Red was busy trying to smell whatever it was I had scented. The forest we'd been traveling through became more and more stunted and the ground below my paws became spongier. Red finally grabbed the back of my pelt and pulled me to a stop, although it took awhile. "Wait a second, Furball. Do you still smell cookies?"
I scented the air and nodded. "It's stronger than ever."
"Yeah, I can tell. You're drooling."
"Am not," I said, wiping my mouth to check.
"You would be if you hadn't been running like a rabid bear."
"How do you know rabid bears run?" I asked as I surveyed the land in front of us. We'd reached the edge of the swamp so it was probably a good thing Red had managed to stop me since quicksand, and other less fun stuff, riddled the area around the swamp.
"I dunno, if I were a rabid bear I'd sure be running. Where's that scent coming from?"
"Can't you tell? It's almost overpowering."
Red did the sniffing act again and shrugged his shoulders. "I think I can, but it's like it's out of focus or something. It doesn't smell right."
"Are you crazy? It smells perfect." I might have actually been drooling by this time, but Red was nice enough not to mention it if I had been. "See that tree?" I pointed to a dead tree located just beyond the border of the swamp. If a tree could be said to be in pain, this one looked just like that. The bark was peeling from it and the tree was more grey than brown. There was a large hollow in it that looked big enough for me to wiggle through if I felt the need. "That's where the cookies are, in that tree."
"Aw, c'mon, you're not starting that hollow tree and elves thing again are you? I thought you gave up on that a long time ago."
"I did until I smelled the cookies coming out of that tree." I stared at the tree wondering what was going on inside of it. Even I knew cookies didn't grow on trees, but there was something compelling about this whole thing, I hadn't had a chocolate chip cookie since I'd arrived on the Island. Not that chocolate chip cookies were that vital a part of my life. At least I was pretty sure they weren't. I did know the smell was messing with my mind. "I'm going in," I said starting towards the tree. Red tried to grab me, but I was too fast for him and he fell, landing in the mud with a splat.
"What if it's a trick?" he said to my back.
"What if it isn't a trick?" I retorted. I carefully weaved through the obstacles I could see on the way to the hollow tree. The smell of the cookies got stronger the closer I got to the tree. I reached it and stuck my head in. I couldn't see anything since my head was blocking the light. I stretched my hands as far down as I could in that position, but didn't feel anything although the smell of warm chocolate chips wafted from below. I scrabbled up the side of the trunk with my paws and managed to get half my body through the hollow. Inevitably I got stuck and couldn't move in either direction. There was no way I was going to yell for Red's help since I knew I'd never live this one down. I was hoping he'd eventually notice that I was half in and half out of the tree and would come and investigate. I'd let him help me out and think up some sort of excuse. It didn't happen that way.
Without warning, both my legs were grabbed and I was shoved headfirst the rest of the way into the tree trunk and landed on my face at the bottom of the tree. There were no cookies. For a moment the inside of the tree became brightly lit, than someone put some sort of cover over the hollow plunging the interior in darkness again. Before I knew what was happening, the tree was on its side. I started hollering, but whoever was on the outside didn't appear impressed by it. Instead, they began rolling the tree. Whoever it was chose what had to be the bumpiest path possible. The chocolate chip cookie smell was still there, along with a bunch of flying ants or something similar had made the tree their home as well because they were now swarming all over the interior. They didn't bite or sting but they flew in my mouth, nose, eyes and ears and had managed to get inside my pelt causing itching and tickling all at once. I tried to explain that it wasn't my fault, but I'm not sure they understood or even cared. There was also something else in the trunk that was hard and kept flying around and clunking against the sides.
Eventually the tree came to a jarring halt and I lay there trying not to throw up from being so dizzy. I felt like I had bruises all over my body and the flying ants were still making their presence known. From outside I heard a bunch of voices talking but too muffled to make out what they were saying or even to make out the individual voices. The talk ended abruptly followed by a bunch of laughter. I was pretty sure that didn't mean anything good and was trying to get at the hollow to see if I could remove whatever was blocking it when the tree started rolling again. There was a moment of weightlessness and then a tremendous crash that sounded as though the trunk had landed on something. It rolled what felt like a few more feet and then came to a stop.
In a few more minutes, the voices returned and someone began rhythmically beating on the tree trunk. There was a sound of scraping as the cover lifted from the hole in the trunk. I squinted in the sudden light trying to see whose prisoner I was. "You find any elves in there, Furball?" a familiar voice asked. "How about cookies?"
"That's not funny," I told Tigger a little heatedly.
"Not if you're on the inside," he agreed, "but it's hilarious if you're on the outside. Anyway, it was all Roo's idea. He wanted to know how you were doing on your quest for wolfdom." Roo felt that I was a little bit too round and said that I should be trying to lose weight in order to fit into a wolf pelt. I wasn't convinced.
"That's not fair. Chocolate chip cookies don't even exist on the Island… Right?"
Tigger let out a long sigh. "Naw, not that I know of. I'd give my tiger tail for a few chocolate chips, cookies or not."
"So if there aren't any on the Island how can that be any sort of fair test. He should have used blueberries or stew or something like that. Where'd that smell come from, anyway?"
"You'll find out," Leo said. "We should probably get you out of there."
"I'm not sure I want to get out," I said with a faux-pout. I didn't know how true the story about Roo being behind this was, but I did know this was something I wasn't going to live down for a very long time either. Suddenly the idea of eternity in a tree trunk wasn't looking so bad.
It only took a couple of minutes for the flying ants to persuade me it was time to leave. Then, of course, I got stuck trying to come out of the tree. Either I'd grown or the hole had shrunk, neither one of which made any sense. I finally got out when Surefoot took an axe to the tree. It only cost me a huge bump on my arm, but Surefoot said I was lucky he only hit me with the flat of the axe instead of the blade. I guess. While I was sitting against the trunk of Hangman's Tree nursing both wounds and pride, Tig tossed me a small canister that had a bunch of holes in one end. From the holes issues the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I'm sure the runes on the side of the can probably said something along the lines of 'Choc Chip Cookie Odor'. I wondered if the fact that elves had a spell for such a thing meant there might be a possibility that they had a spell for the real thing as well. I decided not to find out. I was pretty sure it would be a lot more trouble than it was worth.