Windfall
Three missing pieces of kryptonut starts an adventure that affects virtually everyone in Happy Tree Town. Starring Shifty, Lifty, Petunia, Giggles, Flaky, and Lumpy.
Windfall
Starring
Shifty, Lifty, Petunia, Giggles, Flaky, and Lumpy.
Featuring
Pop, Cuddles, Flippy, Splendid, Russell, Mime, Sniffles, Nutty, Toothy, Handy
Appearing
Cub, Disco Bear, The Mole
Chapter I
The Hideout
It was a nice summer day. Giggles, Petunia, and Flaky were out camping in the forest. Although there were many dangers that could (and did) kill them, they still looked forward to the fun that they were going to have. Flaky, as usual, was too scared to have much fun. Petunia and Giggles planned this afternoon to be a girls' day out, and had to plead, cajole, and literally drag the porcupine out of her home. After all, it would not be much of an outing if there were only two girls involved.
"Are you sure you know where we're going?" asked Flaky. "I don't think I've been in this part of the forest before."
"Giggles has a secret spot. She discovered it in one of her nature walks," Petunia answered.
"Yes," Giggles explained. "It's so deep that I don't think anyone had ever been there before. All perfect for a view of nature undisturbed by man. It would be fun, wouldn't you think?"
After an exhaustive hike of an hour, they were no nearer towards their destination. "We're in the middle of nowhere," Petunia complained, "yet you say we've still got a good hour to hike before we reach the place! My feet hurts! Can we rest? Even for a few minutes?"
Flaky agreed. She was tired, and full of sweat. "Yes. I'm tired," she said. "Please. I need to sit down and relax."
Giggles was tired too. She had underestimated the time of the hike. "Well, I guess we could rest here for a while," she agreed.
They rested on a rock besides a dirt path. The path was covered either with dust, or some grass, and it was located on the base of a tall hill. Shrubs and foliage covered the cliff, making it seem as if they were looking at a wall of plants.
Their rest was interrupted when they heard a noise.
"Giggles, Flaky, did you hear that?" Petunia remarked.
"Sounds like a van," Giggles replied.
Flaky quickly ducked behind some bushes beside the path. "I think we better hide. I know you think I'm paranoid, but it's better to be safe than sorry."
Giggles thought for a second before joining Flaky, followed quickly by Petunia.
They watched, hidden behind the bushes, as a van emerged from a curve in the road. They would wait until it had passed by before making any move.
Shifty and Lifty were grinning. The night before, they had successfully robbed a jewelry store and a bank. They stole millions of dollars in bills and in coins. But that was not the main reason why they were happy.
"Those rocks cost us a fortune!" Lifty grumbled. "Four million dollars for three glowing rocks? That's about nine bank robberies!"
"Yes, but now, Splendid won't bother us! Those three kryptonut gems that we bought would take care of that so-called superhero!" Shifty, who was driving, remarked. "Imagine, no more theft in the dark! We could rob at will, in broad daylight, and there's nothing that flying squirrel could do about it!"
The van stopped besides the base of a hill covered with plants. Lifty would emerge on top of the vehicle after about a minute. Looking around him, the raccoon snickered, before reaching on a branch just above his head. He pulled it down once, and sideways to the right twice. Immediately, a section of the wall of rock and plants opened up to reveal an entrance the size of a door.
Shifty turned the engine of the vehicle off as soon as he saw the entrance open up. With his brother, he transferred the contents of their van to the cave.
The cave was about twelve feet tall from the floor to the roof. Its area is about as large as a dining room of an ordinary house. There is a fluorescent lamp on the ceiling, a large table in the center, two chairs on either side of the table and a two bunk bed in its edge. On its right side edge, there is a refrigerator, a kitchen sink, and a cooking stove. However, it was not primarily a place to live, but a storage area. In the center were piles of gold, silver, diamonds, cash, and other valuable items. There were other types of treasure scattered as well. It was essentially a miniaturized version of Aladdin's cave of wonders, minus the traps and genie lamp. You can open and close the cave from the inside using a lever protruding from the wall near the entrance.
Lifty and Shifty put their newly stolen loot on the edge of the pile, but placed a jewel encrusted chest on their table. Shifty opened it and the racoon brothers gazed upon its contents. There were three large nut shaped jewels that emitted a green glow.
"Kryptonut! Three large nut-shaped kryptonuts!" Lifty said in awe. "Splendid, here we come!"
"Yes, yes," Shifty agreed. "All the money in the world is worth these three glowing rocks. Even our lives are less valuable than these! With it, we can rob virtually anything! The town will be our playground!"
They closed the chest after gazing at the kryptonuts for a few minutes. They took a bag of cash, went out of the cave, closed the entrance, and left. This was a place to store their stolen items—a perfect location to hide it from the police, but it was not an ideal place to live. They have a house at the edge of town where they live, plus a dozen hideouts scattered throughout the town itself.
The entire operation took only about fifteen minutes. The three girls, from their hiding place, witnessed the entire thing. When they were sure that the racoons were truly gone, they began to confer among themselves.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Petunia asked with curiosity in her eyes.
"Unfortunately, I am," Giggles replied. "I think we're crazy, but why not?"
"You're not going to break in?" Flaky asked. "That's bad."
"They're thieves," Petunia justified. "I might want to see if some of my stuff that they've stolen is in that cave."
"Besides," Giggles added, "there's nothing wrong in trying to have a look."
Despite her hesitations, Flaky followed Petunia and Giggles. Giggles climbed the wall using the plants as ladders, and, by remembering how the racoons operated the hanging branch, opened the cave.
They were astounded by the treasure that they found inside the hideout. "I never knew they robbed so much that they'd have this much loot," Giggles remarked.
"Yes. Rubies, diamonds, sapphires, gold, silver, giant pearls, and more!" Petunia said in awe as she tried on some of the jewelry she found among the pile of treasure. "Think of how many soap, shampoos, and detergents we can buy with this!"
Flaky was nervous, thinking this was a bad idea. Nevertheless, she let her curiosity get the better of her. She went to the table on the edge of cave and saw a beautiful jewel encrusted chest. Opening, she gazed at the beauty of the three green glowing nut shaped gems. "Wow! That's beautiful!"
"Yes," Giggles added. "Beautiful and dangerous. That's kryptonut."
"Krypto— what?" Flaky asked.
"Kryptonut," Petunia answered, joining them, with her fingers studded with diamond rings from the pile, her wrists with bracelets, and her ears with beautiful pearl earrings. "Splendid's only weakness."
"Splendid has a weakness?" Flaky asked.
"Yes. About a month ago, Shifty and Lifty took over our lemonade stand. They tied us up and took our money," Giggles explained. "Splendid tried to rescue us, but he was stopped by this stone."
"Later, Splendid killed Shifty and Lifty by long distance laser. He crushed the kryptonut into powder. Unfortunately, he accidentally inhaled the kryptonut dust and started vomiting uncontrollably. We were killed by his vomit. Later, when we were revived, we learned that he died," Petunia explained.
"Oh. I think we better take the kryptonut," Flaky said. "I don't want Splendid to get hurt."
"Yes, and let's take the rest of the treasure too!" Petunia added with glee.
"What? That's stealing!" Flaky protested.
"We shouldn't stoop to their level!" Giggles added. "We're not criminals!"
"But some of the things here are mine! There are jewelry in that pile that belongs to me! And I saw some of yours there too!" Petunia argued. "These things are not theirs. They stole it from others. And they're not giving it back! We can't let them enjoy the fruits of their crimes!"
"Then we should call the police!" Giggles insisted.
"You and I know that Lumpy is the police in this town!" Petunia answered. "Lumpy's a fine fellow, but do you really want him to get his hands of this treasure? We found it! It should be ours!"
"Petunia, we shouldn't—"
"Look. If we went treasure hunting, and found in an island, or under the sea, a chest full of gold, and we took it, is it stealing?" Petunia asked. "If it is, then Russell and Lumpy are thieves! And both of you, along with Sniffles, took the cursed idol from that ancient pyramid! Do you consider yourselves thieves because of that?"
"If you put it that way, then taking these would not be theft," Giggles replied.
"It's really the same thing," Petunia argued. "We found buried treasure found by pirates, or in this case, thieves, and it's ours! Finders keepers! No question about it!"
That convinced Giggles. "Okay. You're right. We found it! We should take it. Flaky?"
"Are you sure it's not stealing? And nothing bad will happen?" asked the timid porcupine.
"No it's not," Petunia reassured. "Shifty and Lifty have no more right to it than we have."
"Well, okay, if you say so, then count me in," Flaky replied.
"But two things must be clear," Giggles said. "If we should take this treasure, then we must split it three ways—equally. More importantly, we must keep silent about it. We can't go around the town bragging about it. Shifty and Lifty will come after us if they found out it was us."
"Then we should promise each other not to tell anybody, and when I mean anybody, I mean everyone—not even Cuddles," Petunia said looking at Giggles, then she looked at Flaky, "or Flippy. I want us to promise that we will never reveal this, or what we did here today, to anyone without the expressed consent of the other two. In other words, we must all agree in order for us to tell others. Giggles, Flaky, I'm willing to make this promise. Are you?"
The three girls then made a solemn promise that they won't tell anybody about the treasure and kryptonut, not even their closest friends and relatives, unless the three unanimously agreed to.