Chapter 3
Unbelievable but true!...
... "Okay, we're there." - Tess exhaled when she and her harvesting partner came to a small lake near a local brewery.
"Are you EXACTLY sure that Kira, Cur, or other kits will not accidentally find this bag if they hang around this lake?" - Milo asked the badger-bear with obvious doubt.
"Don't worry, they won't find it. I know what I'm doing.
Give me the bag." - Tess answered confidently.
The bird-horse carefully removed the potentially deadly load from itself and handed it over to the badger-bear.
"Now you can relax and watch the show. You won't see anything like this at your academy, hehe." - With these words, Tess first took off the stranger's weapons and her raincoat from herself, and after took off her orange work apron dress. Then, with the bag in her paws, she confidently headed to the water's edge.
Milo stood stunned and watched Tess's actions. However, it wasn't so much her muscular body covered in dark gray fur with white stripes that stunned him, which he saw for the first time without clothes...
"Tess, what are you doing?! The water is too cold; do you seriously want to DIVE into the lake?! TESS!..." - the doctoral student mumbled in panic, for whom even the thought of swimming in cold water was akin to death.
The badger-bear, with an independent look, ignored her harvesting partner's panic and began to quickly run towards the lake. The next moment there was a powerful splash and Tess with the stranger's bag completely disappeared under the surface of the lake.
...A whole minute passed, but the badger-bear still didn't appear on the surface of the lake, and the doctoral student, shaking from the horror of what had happened, was about to run and call people for help, when the calmed surface of the lake began to sway again and Tess effectively swam to the surface without the bag, and then quickly swam to the shore.
Coming ashore and not paying attention to the near collapse of her partner, the badger-bear got dressed.
"Hey, are you OK? Otherwise, let me take you to the hospital. I can even ask Nora to put you in the same ward with the new "object for research." Tess giggled to the bird-horse doctoral student frozen in a daze.
"Oh, Tess, stop joking! I don't see anything funny here! I already thought that you had drowned and I was going to call people for help...!" - Milo snapped back irritably, and then breathed a sigh of relief.
"Relax, Milo! I have badger and bear blood in my veins, so cold water is no problem for me. And don't you want to take a refreshing swim? You're a little dirty." - the badger-bear sneered, hanging the stranger's weapon on herself.
"Tess, let's just go home, I'm REALLY tired today and all I want to do is fall into bed and sleep." - Milo replied weakly in response.
"Okay, okay, I was kidding! Let me walk you to the Oakewood Library, give Claude these "boomsticks", and then I'll go home." - Tess replied, after which they both headed towards the Library, which was a couple of kilometers west of the lake.
Late twilight had already arrived when the bird-horse and the badger-bear came to a wide, huge old oak tree, inside of which the local library was located.
Milo eagerly opened the door and they both went inside a spacious round reading room, for which the walls and shelves for books were both an oak tree trunk.
"Claude, I'm back! Come out, we've had such adventures here!" - the bird-horse shouted joyfully, quickly taking off his leaky and wet raincoat, and then lounged on the nearest chair for readers. Tess simply remained at the Library's exit.
From above came the soft sound of a door closing, followed by the sound of slow, measured steps mixed with the tapping of a cane and the creaking of wooden floorboards. Soon, from the tunnel-staircase that was in the middle of the reading room, a short old beige-white coyote in strict gray old pants with suspenders and a white shirt decorated with a gray "bow tie" who was the local librarian came out to the "gatherers of forest gifts".
"Oh, welcome back, Tess and Milo! I was starting to worry about you staying in the woods for so long. I wanted to disturb Henry and the others to look for you." - the coyote said sternly and warmly at the same time, looking curiously into the half-empty baskets with the collected mushrooms and berries.
"Why so little?" - Claude was surprised.
"Well, we had an unexpected situation here. Take a closer look at me, is there anything hanging on me that bothers you?" - the badger-bear answered melancholically, coming closer to the coyote and turning her back to him.
"Well, yes, there is something interesting hanging on the back... something interesting..." - Claude noted boredly.
However, after a moment, the coyote's muzzle stretched to its limit, and his chewed ears pressed against his head.
"Tess, what is THIS? Where did you find THESE THINGS?" - the coyote croaked in shock, abruptly moving away from the badger-bear.
"Oh, I just picked them off a pine tree, thinking maybe the mutated cones would be useful for research." - Tess giggled. Milo just watched what was happening, drying off from the rain and sitting relaxed on the chair.
"Tess, I don't see anything funny here! And I know for sure that SUCH weapons are not used in Silver Sage! Can you properly explain what's going on?" - there was a dissatisfied grumbling of the coyote.
"Okay, okay, Claude, I see you're not in a good mood today. Then take a chair and sit down. The explanation will be long..." - with these words the badger-bear also took a chair, and then took off all the stranger's weapons from herself and put them on the floor. Coyote and the bird-horse also took a chair each and all three sat in a circle around the weapons.
Tess began to tell the story of what had happened to them in the Pinedown Woods and up until their arrival at the Library, calmly and measuredly, occasionally interrupted by Milo's emotional comments...
"...And I hid the bag with explosives in a hole in the bottom of the lake, which is next to the brewery. Even if it detonates, it won't hurt anyone, unless someone gets scared. You should have seen Milo's muzzle when I came out onto the shore, it was better than any comedy shows in our tavern!... Well, and then we headed to you." - with these words Tess finished her almost hour-long "report" and stretched in her chair.
Milo was already half asleep. Today's events were too abrupt for the doctoral student, accustomed to the calm "swamp" of routine consisting of constant reading of books interspersed with his studies and the study of the kit of an unknown species.
"...I must see this "bandit" right NOW! He's in the hospital, you say?!" - the old coyote-librarian croaked excitedly, once again picking up his lower jaw from the floor, which had fallen from the badger-bear's story.
"Claude, look out the window. It's almost night, the hospital has long been closed for visiting patients. Tomorrow morning you can go and see him, if only he doesn't die overnight. And anyway, I should have been home long ago, my family is probably very worried about my long absence." - Tess said with a yawn. After that, the badger-bear quickly got up from the chair, put on the raincoat, grabbed the baskets with forest gifts, and said goodbye to the bird-horse and the coyote, and quickly went to her house.
"Well, let's take a closer look at what it is... Milo, are you asleep?" - Claude said, getting ready to take a closer look at the stranger's unknown weapons and glanced at the bird-horse. He no longer answered, but snored peacefully, sprawled on the chair and drooling on his beige hoodie.
"Aaah, well, everything is clear with him!... So, it looks like a rifle?" - with such thoughts, the coyote took into his paws the scoped Mosin-Nagant rifle that had been in many battles and therefore was outwardly shabby.
"Wow, what's that on top of it?" - the coyote exclaimed in surprise, seeing a short optical sight covered on both sides by leather caps.
Having taken them off and with difficulty pressing the rifle, which was too heavy and cumbersome for him, to his shoulder with its butt, Claude began to look through the optical sight at the wall-shelves with books.
"Oh, it's some kind of mini-spotting scope. Interesting... And I can also see three thin black lines along the bottom of the field of view. I suppose that they need to aim at them, although the iron sight is also in his place. There are also some incomprehensible inscriptions and numbers on the body of the rifle and on the mini-spotting scope..." - after thinking for a bit, the coyote did not risk doing anything else with the rifle and put it on the floor, taking instead the battle-shabby Shpagin submachine gun with the round black "drum" attached to it.
"Damn, this incomprehensible thing is even heavier than the rifle! And it also has some kind of inscriptions..." - the coyote gasped, also somehow putting the PPSh's butt to his shoulder and looking through the open flip-up metal sight that was more familiar to him. After that, also without doing anything else with the PPSh, the coyote put it next to the Mosin-Nagant rifle and took the holster with the TT pistol.
Taking the pistol out of its holster, the coyote noted with satisfaction that it held well in his paws and was even smaller in size than the single-shot pistols he had used during his wild youth. But the operating principle of the stranger's pistol was as unknown to him as the inscriptions and marks on the pistol.
"Okay, we just find out from this stranger how it all shoots, and in general, who he is, where he's from, and for what purpose he showed up in our province with the whole arsenal of weapons and explosives. Tomorrow early in the morning, we will have to visit Walter, Henry, Timmothy, and after all of us together will visit the stranger. I hope he survives, and maybe even wakes up..." - thought the coyote and took all the stranger's weapons to his room on the second "floor" of the Library. After that, he woke up the sleeping Milo, explained to him the plan of action for the next day, and they went to their rooms to have dinner and sleep...
...The figure in the orange raincoat and carrying baskets in her paws almost ran through the rain-drenched evening streets on the western side of Treehollow. After passing by a local blacksmith and a glassworks, the badger-bear finally reached her home, which also was the local bakery.
"Walter, Briar, Belfry! I'm here, everything's fine! Please take the baskets and take them to the kitchen!" - Tess shouted loudly, putting the baskets with the forest harvest on the floor in the hallway and taking off her raincoat.
Soon all the inhabitants of the bakery house came to the hallway to meet the forest harvester: Walter - the old but sinewy white-tailed deer of white-pale-gray color, who is a co-owner of the bakery and the husband of the badger-bear; Briar - the young badger-deer of pale-light brown color, who is their biological daughter and assistant in the bakery; Belfry - the same-young bat-squirrel of pink and cream color, who also helped with the housework, but is the adopted daughter of the owners of the bakery house; and the youngest inhabitant of the bakery house, and part-time the main mystery of Treehollow - Tamberlane, a small dark-skinned girl of five years old of a species unknown to the inhabitants of the town, who was found in the Rattleglen Forest two years ago, and for whom Belfry in turn has now become an adoptive mother.
"Honey, is everything all right? Why are you all wet, your raincoat is new!" - Walter asked solicitously, taking two baskets. Belfry and Briar also approached the "keeper of the hearth" and took the remaining two baskets, but remained standing in place, expectantly awaiting her answer. Tamberlane simply ran up to Tess with a joyful cry - "Nana is back!..."
"Yes, my dears, I'm back! Today Milo and I got into such a story that you won't believe! But first, let me take a hot bath. I'm wet and a little cold. And while I'm warming up, take care of the mushrooms and berries I collected." - said the badger-bear, first squatting down and gently hugging Tamberlane, and then greeting the rest of the family.
"Sure, Mom, we'll get to it now." - Belfry and Briar answered and without further ado they went into the kitchen.
"Tam, let's go to the kitchen too and let's help your mom and aunt with the cooking, okay? And Grandma Tess will take a hot bath so she doesn't catch a cold." - said Walter, carefully taking his "granddaughter" by the hand.
"Yeah, Grandpa, we'll help!" - Tamberlane answered and went with "grandpa" to the kitchen.
Exhausted by the events of the day and soaking wet, the badger-bear eagerly went into the bathroom, where her household members had prudently prepared a bath with hot water before her arrival, and happily climbed into it.
After basking for an hour and almost falling asleep right in the bath, Tess gathered her will into a fist and climbed out of the bath. Afterwards, having dried herself with a towel and put on a dry blue with flower ornament house dress, the badger-bear went to the kitchen to help the household members with preserving mushrooms and berries...
..."Mom, so what happened to you and Milo in the Pinedown Woods?" - Belfry asked curiously, putting a tray of sorted berries into the oven.
Walter, Tamberlane and Briar were finishing sorting through the remains of uncooked berries and mushrooms, while Tess was busy preserving the mushrooms. Hearing her "daughter's" question, the badger-bear looked thoughtfully for a moment at her "granddaughter", who was enthusiastically picking through the remaining small pile of unsorted mushrooms. Then, after thinking for a bit, she nevertheless began a measured story about the events of the day, interrupted from time to time by emotional exclamations from the household, while not forgetting about cooking...
..."Oh, Mom, you're so rock!" - Briar and Belfry exclaimed in admiration when Tess finished her story.
"Yeah, the days of pit fightings are long gone, and you are still in excellent physical shape!" - Walter said respectfully.
Tamberlane merely twirled her black hair thoughtfully. The mention of the creature similar to herself that had suddenly appeared in Treehollow made her want to see the stranger.
"Mom, can we visit the stranger?" - She asked Belfry with the naivety typical of children.
Tess, who had already taken a small sip from her cup of herbal tea, choked in surprise and almost sprayed the contents of her mouth onto Belfry, who was taking the already dried berries out of the oven, but she still managed to refrain from doing so.
The bat-squirrel, in turn, almost dropped the hot tray right on her own feet, and only the quick reaction of the "sister", who after the long-ago case of finding the "ghost" in the Rattleglen Forest could hardly be surprised by anything, saved her from a possible unplanned visit to the hospital.
Walter just chuckled in surprise.
"What? Visit the stranger?! But why? He's a complete stranger to us, and besides, he almost killed your friend Milo!" - Belfry clasped her paws.
"Besides, he's in too bad of a condition right now. I don't think it's a good idea to disturb him anytime soon. But maybe you'll get a chance to see him later... I guess." - Tess added softly, wondering at the same time how good the chances were of the stranger at least surviving the night.
"Okay, Mom and Nana, I understand. I want to sleep..." - the "granddaughter" answered with a sad sigh and went to her room.
"We probably shouldn't have talked about the stranger in her presence, especially one who resembled her in many ways. I hope she doesn't walk to the hospital on the sly..." - Briar said melancholically.
"Well, she would have found out about him anyway, even if we had kept silent. Unnecessary questions would have started, maybe even resentment towards us... So it's good that she found out about him from us, and not from inventors like Piper, Cur or Kira... And I don't think she'll stick her nose into the hospital without asking, and the hospital workers won't let her in, even if she tried. You can't fool around with Nora and Terra." - Tess answered relaxedly, finishing rolling up the last jar of mushrooms.
Having finished with this, the badger-bear turned to her husband - "Listen, dear! Tomorrow early in the morning Claude and Milo will visit us. They are really itching, especially the first one, to visit the representative of an unknown species, and only the three of us out of all the inhabitants of our town know the language that the stranger speaks and can translate his answers to the others, if he wakes up, of course. Won't you join them? Briar needs to go to school, and I want to sleep longer."
"Of course, my darling! I'm interested in seeing him myself, and maybe even talking. I suppose we should also take Record-Keeper Timmothy and Sheriff Henry along with us?" - Walter answered solicitously and gently hugged his wife's shoulders.
"Yeah, these two should definitely see the stranger too. Although Henry probably already knows about him from Nora. So the main thing is to wake up sleepy Timmothy." - the badger-bear answered, also hugging her husband.
"...So, Mom, Dad, we're done!" - Briar and Belfry said contentedly, having finished cooking the forest harvest.
"Thanks, sweeties! Oh, it's already late at night outside!..." - Tess gasped, looking out the window and seeing only obvious darkness, weakly dispersed by the gas lamps...
Having quickly put the kitchen in order together after the big cooking, the whole friendly animal family quickly had dinner, and then went to bed and quickly fell into a deep sleep to the accompaniment of an autumn rain on the tiled roof of their bakery house...
To be continued...