Chapter Seventeen

Getting into Thorn Valley is no easy matter even when you're absolutely supposed to be there. Gadget and Devin felt like the first wave of Allied troops hitting the beaches at Normandy. Under that, the primary ingredient in their mixed emotions was a hefty scoop of guilt. They had every right to be there, and had gone all the way to the top for permission--yet now that they'd arrived, they wished they weren't bringing trouble.

The older members of this little expedition were lost in their thoughts, but Runner brought them back to the here and now with a youthful dose of the obvious: "Dis plaze smells."

He was right. It smelled like a fish market had collided with an apple orchard, next door to a stable. "I didn't expect it to be so--" fumbled Gadget, breathing it all in.

"--organic?" Devin chuckled. "It knocked me for a loop the first time I was here, too. It's not like the big city--you catch or grow your own food out here."

At the side of the flashing lake that drained off into rivers--one nearby and another across the waters--the pier was covered in the same camouflage netting that had baffled their vision from the air as the albatross brought them in. Teams of rats hauled huge empty nets onto wide-bottomed boats, while others unloaded their slippery, silvery cargo. Worksongs and shouts of welcome bounced around between the working teams. All about the newcomers, rats pushed wheelbarrows of grain sacks and pulled wagons laden with everything from melons to maize. What caught Runner's eye, though, were the tall spindly watchtowers dotting the lakeside, rats perched in their heights, scanning the skies. Devin saw Runner's thoughtful look and bent to whisper to him. "Eagles."

Runner was now officially confused. "Wha do a buncha old guys wih gwitars hafta do with Torn Vabby?"

"No, no. I'm not talking Hotel California, I mean real eagles. Big darned birds. They don't bother the rats any more, but they've learned they can get a free meal when they bring in the catch of the day. The guys stuck up in the towers can see 'em coming a mile off."

Gadget stepped out of the way of a messenger-rat with a large pouch slung over one shoulder. "I guess they're watching for other unwelcome visitors, too. Falling down on the job, though--they let us slip through," she grumbled.

"Who's unwelcome?" boomed a voice through the tumult. Tina had a habit of speaking loudly in busy places, just in case.

"Teeny?" Devin's head jerked around. He broke into a huge smile, grabbed Gadget's paw, and dragged her across the thoroughfare, nearly bowling over a cart-full of apples in his rush.

Timothy looked up at Tina from his wheelchair. "Looks like he remembers you," he started suspiciously, adding a little innuendo with his sign language.

"Oh, hush. We were just friends--Devin! Hey, compadre!" Tina rocked back on her feet as Devin bent to hug her.

Gadget raised an eyebrow. "Well, you're on friendly terms, at least."

"Teeny! Wow--you've really been working on your voice control. You never used to belt it out like that." Devin marveled at the changes he saw--and heard--in Tina. Two years had given her a new confidence and smoothed over some of the fears from her past. "I haven't seen you since med school!"

Gadget growled and gritted her teeth. "Is everyone here a doctor except for me?

"It feels that way sometimes, with everybody putting DVM and Ph. D. after their names. Don't worry, I'm not a doctor either," Tina reassured her.

"Tina wasn't a student--she was a research subject. Helped us out on a hearing loss study, for starters."

"Bet I've studied her more than you have, Doc. And I see you brought your own lady with you," Timothy said, looking thoughtfully from Devin to Gadget.

She and Devin regarded him blankly. Finally she spoke up. "Oh, no, we're not--involved, exactly." Wouldn't be a bad idea, she admitted to herself. "Not at the moment."

Well, she left the door open, Devin smiled silently.

"I'm Gadget Hackwrench. Thanks for letting us stay with you guys." "No problem," shrugged Timothy. "Least we could do for a Rescue Ranger."

Nobody said anything for a while.

"Jeez. Please forgive me. I wasn't thinking." Timothy pounded his forehead with one paw until Tina stopped him.

Gadget sighed. "No, please, don't feel bad. I still think of myself as a Ranger. I'm just going to have to learn more about myself. Hopefully, this is the place to do it."

"One ting for shure," Runner broke in, "iz not tha blace for clybing."

"Clyb--" Timothy frowned. Does this kid have a really bad cold or something? He's gonna make sure the whole Valley gets a dose of it.

"Iz all flat," the young squirrel grumbled, gesturing around with his crutch. "No drees."

Timothy mouthed the words but they still didn't come together right. Devin coughed politely. "Runner has a little trouble making himself understood. Maybe a speech therapist can help him here."

"Yeah, mebbe sungbudy can straden oud my tung twubble."

Tina laughed and shook her head. "I have no idea what you're all talking about. I can understand him just fine. You're right, Runner, it is a little flat up here on the Plateau. If it's trees you want, we got 'em."

Got to get rid of this crutch first, Runner thought, but it came out badly. "Gorra rib gid of ris kutch furg," he blurted. Tina goggled at him, fighting an involuntary urge to laugh out loud. This was not entirely successful. The others had the same trouble. Gadget patted him apologetically on one shoulder, unable to speak without her breath catching. Devin wrung his tail in his paws. Timothy wiped at his eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Runner," Devin finally managed. "We don't mean to laugh at you, you just surprised us. Tina especially, I think."

"I'll say! I've never seen a pair of lips make shapes like that."

Runner scowled at his amused but sympathetic elders. "If I could talk straight for five seconds I'd chew you all out good," he rattled off, clear as day. His eyes went wide--so did everyone's--and he hurriedly choked out a few frantic tries at the next word. "Wha--glurg--lammit--"

"Come on, Runner, you can do it!" Gadget urged him on, praying this was it--that he could sort it all out right here and now.

Runner pursed his lips and shook his head. "Nod dis time. Nod dis time. Id comes and id goads." Gadget snapped her fingers wistfully, and there was a general clicking of tongues at the close call.

Devin beamed nonetheless. "You just watch. That's going to happen more and more often, I think, and eventually you'll work it out."

"And when you do, it'll be a Kodak moment. Right now, speaking of coming and going, it's time we checked out the ol' homestead." Timothy turned his wheelchair on a dime and started down a path lined with scrub brush and scraggly weeds.

"You'll have to forgive Timmy," Tina apologized. "He's really glad you're here, but he can be a little abrupt."

"Give him a few years and you'll be calling him crotchety," Devin said doubtfully.

Tina laughed him off. "No, no. Now, Dr. Ages--he's crotchety. Come on down, or Timothy will eat half the food we cooked for you."

Gadget frowned. Today was a day for lots of confused frowns. Come to think of it, the whole week had been like that. "Down where? I thought we were already in Thorn Valley. I'll admit it's not so much like a valley--more like a mesa or a--"

"--Plateau," Devin nodded knowingly. "As close to Thorn Valley as you can get without actually being in it. Do you want to show them, Tina, or should I?"

Tina 'hmm'ed thoughtfully. "I'd almost forgot. You brought two first-timers with you. You do the honors."

Devin beamed and drew himself up straight, the long hours of travel (and some of the worry of what might be waiting for them) melting off of him. He cracked his knuckles and bowed with a little flourish, like a magician opening his act. "Ladies," nodding to Tina and Gadget, "and pint-sized pipsqueaks," he went on--

"--Hey, dob caw me a pibskeet--" Runner grumbled.

"--I'm proud to present to you that lovely little spot we've all come so far to see--except for Tina, of course, who lives here. That mysterious, luscious green, seldom-seen but often-talked-about hideaway, rat-kind's own answer to the French Riviera--" and here his tone grew much more reverent as he turned away and took a few quick steps to the overhanging lookout point that hid all beyond from view unless you were standing on it. "--Thorn Valley," he said. "Oh, my God, I'd forgotten how beautiful and strange."

Gadget, Runner, and Tina joined him on the promontory. His fellow travelers also joined him in his drop-jawed, wondering stare. It was the sort of view that the phrase 'special effects' only makes a glancing blow at.

Tucked away against the base of the towering cliffs, nestled like a jewel in its setting, a mystery wrapped in mist and shadows, was the Valley. It was a welcome sight to the weary visitors, but it did strange things to the vision. Gadget turned her head from side to side, trying to get a better look at it as she cautiously skirted the edge of the lookout point. "What the--I can hardly see where it starts and stops! Do you guys see what I mean?"

Runner nodded and whistled. "Thad's weerd."

"I told you it was a seldom-seen hideout," Devin chuckled. "From the air, or even from up this high, no one would give it a second look unless they already knew it was there."

Gadget started to sort out the crisscross of shadows below. "It's the way the place is shaded. Some of it, I mean. It's like a giant version of the camouflage netting on your docks over there."

"The mist from the waterfalls is another natural camouflage," Tina added. "And compasses don't work here. Magnetized iron deposits in the cliffs. It's as though this place were built stone by stone to keep it hidden."

"Aw dis id really neet," Runner broke in, "bud sumbutty said somting abow food?"

Button images by Keith Elder