Luz walked all over the town in an attempt to distract herself, but she couldn't; no matter how hard she tried to focus on anything else, in her mind she kept counting the seconds one by one. She was eager to return to the Field of Miracles and see what had happened.
"What if instead of two thousand gold coins, I found five thousand? Or ten thousand? Or maybe a hundred thousand? Oh, in that case, I would become very rich!" she said to herself. "I would buy myself a big house, or rather, an entire building with an immense courtyard! And I will have a room, or rather, an entire floor of that building full only of games! And another floor will instead be full of sweets and delicious foods: cakes, almonds, cream, candied fruit, panettone and who knows how many others! Mh... and then I will also have a bedroom built for mother, with a bed made of gold and with mattresses and blankets made of wool and the most precious fabric in the world And I'll also buy a plant, no, a whole tree that I'll put in a pot of gold, and there I'll hang two little houses also of gold so that Willow and Gus can live in luxury as much as I do! And maybe near the roof I'll also put up a nest for Eda; even though she's a fairy, her behavior seems to all intents and purposes to be that of an owl, so I really don't think she'll mind! And I'll also have to think of something for Hooty..."
So she kept saying, and finally time passed and when the time came she ran back to the Field of Miracles, almost flying from how long her steps were. But when she got there she didn't find what she was hoping for at all: she couldn't see any money trees as she got close to the camp, nor when she entered it, nor even when she got directly next to the spot where she had buried the coins. She was scratching the back of her neck in rather confusion, when suddenly she heard a voice: "What are you up to, little wooden girl?"
Luz looked up and saw that perched on top of a large pine tree nearby there was a bat, but it wasn't just any bat: it was enormous, almost half the size of the tree it was resting on, and if it had been on the ground Luz was sure that it would be taller than her. It had a very large, stern face and long black hair adorning its head. It was undoubtedly female and she was not alone: around her there were many other small animals, some very common such as chameleons or sparrows, others decidedly more exotic similar to excessively large bees or crabs. "Um... excuse me, are you the owner of this camp?"
"No, I just arrived. My house is not far from here, in the woods. I was just resting with my friends. You can call me Bat Queen, by the way" the bat replied.
"Luz Noceda" the puppet introduced herself.
"Mph. Nice to meet you. And now, could you please tell me what you're up to? You're making an annoying noise" the Bat Queen grumbled.
"An annoying noise? So far I've only been walking and scratching my head! When would I ever make an annoying noise?" Luz protested.
"I am a bat, wooden girl. My hearing is the most powerful there is. And your rubbing your wooden fingers on your wooden hair creates a horrible sound for me. For comparison, it's like if you went to a sawmill and put your ears next to a circular saw" the Bat Queen replied acidly. "Not everyone has the same characteristics as you, wooden girl. Have some consideration for other living beings!"
"Mph! I would have a name, you know?" Luz snapped irritably. "Anyway, I was just coming to see if my coins had sprouted"
The Bat Queen was silent for a second. "What?"
"This is the Field of Miracles, if I sow a coin here a money tree grows. And I sowed five gold coins there" Luz explained.
The Bat Queen looked even more confused. "Who told you these things?"
"My two friends, Terra and Adrian, and... oops!" Luz put her hands over her mouth, suddenly remembering the warnings they had given her: the inhabitants of that place didn't like people talking about their secret. And if the Bat Queen lived in the vicinity of the town, then she too could consider herself an inhabitant, and therefore now she was probably trying to find out who were those who had revealed the secret to a stranger.
And indeed the Bat Queen's gaze became very suspicious, and to Luz it almost seemed as if she was peering into her soul. "Tell me, are these Terra and Adrian by any chance a girl with a flower on her head and a guy with a fake tail?"
"Um… yeah" Luz admitted; she didn't want to get her friends in trouble, but now she knew very well the consequences of lying and she didn't want to see her nose grow again. "You saw them...?"
The Bat Queen looked even deeper at her with her crystal-like eyes, and for a moment Luz feared that she would pounce on her and then go after Terra and Adrian to punish them, but in the end the bat shrugged and said: " Maybe yes, maybe not... whatever the case may be, I don't care. Do what you want, but try not to make any noise"
Luz breathed a sigh of relief. Evidently the Bat Queen was one of the few inhabitants who didn't care that everyone knew about the Field of Miracles, or perhaps she simply didn't consider it important since it would be leveled within a few hours. "Thank you. Um... just a question: do you by any chance know if the water from that spring over there is contaminated?" she asked her, pointing to the spring from which she had collected the water with which she had watered the coins.
The Bat Queen seemed to think about it, then she nodded. "Yes, in fact that's the case. A few days ago a group of frogs went up that spring and slipped in there, and contaminated it with their excrement"
"Oh, it's all clear now!" Luz exclaimed. He had thought well: the coins had not grown because the water he had watered them with was not good! "Do you perhaps know where I can find clean water?"
"Of course. There is a stream right there. The water is so clear that you can reflect in it" the Bat Queen replied, pointing with her wing to a point in the fields not far away.
"Thank you! You were very helpful!" Luz told her, and then she quickly headed towards the stream. But he hadn't even taken three steps before she heard laughter behind her; she turned and saw that the Bat Queen was laughing her head off, even though she had tried to stop as soon as she noticed it. "Why are you laughing?"
"Oh, sorry, don't pay attention to me" the Bat Queen, and then she pointed to the animals surrounding her: "It's the fault of these rascals; as soon as I get distracted for a moment, they take the opportunity to tickle me under the wings"
Luz quirked an eyebrow, feeling like the Bat Queen wasn't telling her the truth; and fearing that she was playing a trick on her, when she reached the stream she drank the water to check that it was really good. Fortunately this was the case: the water was fresh and free of impurities, suitable for crops. So she collected some and went to pour it over the hole where she had sown the coins. But as she did so she heard the Bat Queen laughing again. "Enough! May I know why you're laughing, you overgrown bat?"
The Bat Queen looked annoyed at the insult, but didn't stop giggling. "I told you, you don't have to pay attention to me. I'm just laughing at certain naive people who believe nonsense instead of letting their brains work, and so they get fooled by those who are smarter than them"
Luz didn't understand, but she was pretty sure that even if she asked for explanations, the Bat Queen would speak in riddles again and continue to make fun of her. She wanted to force her to tell her the truth, so she thought of a way. A smirk formed on her face. "What if I started screaming?"
The Bat Queen's smile faded. For a bat, whose mere hearing of a person scratching her head was a source of annoyance, hearing a person scream was like having a gong directly next to her ear. "You can't do that forever. Sooner or later you'll get tired"
"Maybe, but I'll last a long time. If there's one thing I've had a lot of practice doing recently, it's screaming and despairing" Luz replied without losing her mocking smile. "Do we want to see who can last the longest?"
The Bat Queen was not willing to give up. "In that case, I'll just fly away with my friends"
"And I'll throw a rock at your wings. I doubt you'll be able to fly when they'll be full of holes!" Luz replied again.
The Bat Queen's gaze turned furious. "Are you threatening me? If you try to do something like that, I will jump on you and crush you!"
"Good luck, I'm very fast. Can you say the same about yourself, with that big fat body you have? Without your wings, how far can you go?" Luz said as her mocking smile widened even more.
The Bat Queen seemed to consider jumping on her right away, but then she decided it wasn't worth it. "You're such a bad girl, you know that?" she grumbled. "Okay, if you really want to know, I'm laughing at you, my dear little Luz, for being so naive as to think that money can be sown like beans, instead of earned honestly through hard work and one's own skills, and so you get fooled like the least of the fools"
Luz swallowed. A bad doubt began to form in her mind, but she tried with all her might not to believe it. "Can... Can you explain yourself further?"
"Better than that? Alright, here you go: about twenty minutes ago, while I was here minding my own business, two guys who perfectly fit the description you gave me of your so-called 'friends' Adrian and Terra came here and they dug up all your coins, and then they ran away like the wind. And now I want to find the person capable of reaching them!" was the Bat Queen's answer.
Luz felt as if she had just been hit with a bucket of freezing water; she remained still for almost a minute, so much so that the Bat Queen began to worry that she hadn't had a stroke, then something inside her moved and she began to dig the soil she had watered with her hands and nails. She dug a hole so deep that she could eventually get into it, but no matter how hard she dug, she couldn't find the coins. They were gone.
In the end she had to surrender to the evidence. When she did, it felt like her heart had been stabbed and her eyes filled with tears. "Luz, you fool!" she screamed. "No, no, no, this can't be happening! Damn Earth! Damn Adrian! I trusted them! They seemed like such good people...!"
"Welcome to the real world, wooden girl" the Bat Queen, who had been watching the whole scene, told her. She felt a little sad for the poor puppet, even if only a little since she hadn't forgotten how she had treated her earlier. "Cheaters always seem like good people. I too, a long time ago, trusted someone who seemed like a good person, and just like you, I regretted it. And anyway, it's too late now"
Luz's eyes watered even more. It was the first time in her life that she truly felt betrayed by someone. When Adeghast had tried to make her look bad to Bump she had felt angry, but nothing more, because she barely knew the puppeteer. But this time... this time it wasn't anger what she was feeling. She had met Adrian and Terra, she had trusted them, she had confided in them, and they had always seemed so loving and kind, and seemed to genuinely care about her. And now, those people had betrayed her, openly demonstrating that everything they had said and done with her was a farce, a deception aimed only at getting her money. Luz was familiar with the saying 'broken heart', but she had always imagined it as an ailment of the mind, not an actual physical symptom; but now it really felt like something inside her had just broken, and her chest hurt very, very much. "No... I won't let them get away with it!" she growled, her voice trembling, but containing a fury she didn't think she could possess. "I'll go and report them to the authorities! I'll have them put in prison! I'll go back to the town and look for a judge..."
"I wouldn't do that if I were you" the Bat Queen warned her. "I have never been to that town, because the sound of so many people is painful to me, but I have known that for some time the authorities of that place are not very favorable to helping innocent victims"
But Luz didn't listen to her. "I don't care! I can't let Terra and Adrian run off and enjoy my money however they want! If the authorities won't help me, then I will persist until they do! Even if my tongue goes dry!" and having said this she jumped out of the hole and ran towards the town.
The Bat Queen looked down. "She may be a bad girl, but I feel sorry for her. Nobody deserves to be scammed like that and... uh? What's up?". One of the pets with her, a red cardinal blind in one eye, was becoming agitated. "Do you have a feeling and want to follow her? Okay, whatever you want. I'll wait for you at home"
The red cardinal gave a happy trill, and then it took off, heading towards the town following the puppet.
In the original book Pinocchio discovers the deception thanks to a plucked parrot who mocks him and reveals that the Cat and the Fox have stolen his money. Here this parrot is replaced by the Bat Queen. Furthermore, the scene is deliberately more intense: while in Collodi's book Pinocchio was only furious at having lost his money, here Luz is truly hurt by Adrian and Terra's betrayal, given that she almost considered them friends.