Big Blue Feud Adventure

Roxin flies back to the group and reports what he heard coming from inside the tent.

The group gathers around Roxin as he recounts what he heard at the tent. Someone is evidently crying because all their stuff was taken. The tent is off the road a little ways, near some trees. On the other side of the road is a broken wagon. The road through this stand of trees is thick with mud. The sun will be setting in the Left soon.

The group gathers around as the magical stone rearranges itself into a large question mark.

Roxin lifts off and out of sight. Emma, Luna, and Violet* march up the hill towards the tent, and acted as if they were just noticing the camp and the disabled wagon.

The sobbing inside the tent stops abruptly. There is the quick sound of rustling from within the tent, followed by a brief silence and then a deep breath. "Who's there? Why don't you leave me alone? I don't have anything left to steal!"

The group of heroes stands backs, looking at each other, wondering what to do next. Suddenly, the tent flap is brushed aside and out steps an angry looking Squirrel wearing a brown hooded cloak. The young squirrel, wiping a runny nose with a forearm, is clearly confused. She can't decide if the group is friendly or hostile. Nervously, she keeps a paw on a toy wooden sword pushed in to her belt.

In a much quieter voice she says, ''I don't have anything left to steal."

She is a very young squirrel and should probably not be out on the road, alone.

The little squirrel girl twists the corners of her cloak with her hands as she stares at the ground. "Me and my brother were taking a load of goods to sell to Mr. Gnomsky. We camped here last night. This morning when we woke up, everything from our cart was gone, including one of the wheels. Who would take a wheel!?!?" Her cheeks reddened slightly for a moment as her angry little face lifted up from the ground.

Now, looking everyone in the eye (except for Roxin who is invisible), she says, "My brother and I were trying to figure out what happened, because we didn't really hear anything the night before, when this old lady came crawling down the road. She was sniffing the ground and mumbling Curious. Very peculiar. Can't make heads nor tails of it. When she noticed us, she stood up and patted off her hands and knees."

"Oh, hello there little darlings she said to us. Why the sad faces? Someone steal your breakfast!? Neither my brother nor I thought it very funny so she stopped herself from laughing too loudly. Oh... so someone DID steal your breakfast. Then she got a suspicious look on her face and she said, Say, you kids wouldn't be walking around on your hands would you? Playing tricks on poor Miss Jenkins now, would ya? She leaned forward to see if our hands were dirty. But they weren't." She raises her hands up as proof that she is telling the truth.

"We told Miss Jenkins what had happened and she showed us the funny tracks in the road. Told us that whomever had been walking around on their hands was probably the same hands that had stolen our wheel. Then, my brother told me to stay here with Miss Jenkins and he ran back up the road towards the old castle. That's where Miss Jenkins said she first saw the hand prints in the mud."

The little squirrel looked past the group as if she was looking for someone else. "As you can see, Miss Jenkins didn't stay with me. She saw a flock of Beetle Birds and started trying to sing them a song. She wandered off..." The little squirrel looked back at the ground. "My name is Taffy. My brother's name is Tuft. Can you help us? if we don't bring back the stuff that Boss Tat wants, we'll be in big trouble. He said he'd put us in a cage and leave us where Boss Hat could find us..." She pauses for a moment, remembering her brother, and looks back down at the ground. "But, mostly I'm worried that Tuft is lost..."

Taffy grows quiet thinking about what could be worse than being lost, and the tears start to well back up in her eyes. But, she puts on a brave face and looks hopefully at the group.

Taffy looks at the group and hope starts to creep across her face. Then she furrows her little eyebrows, thinking.
"You know, now that you mention it... I did think I heard something last night. But, I thought maybe it was a dream that woke me up. But, I do remember hearing some sort of laughing sounds...?" She looks back at Luna with a shrug of her shoulders.

Then she remembers Tuft. "He went up the road, following the tracks. Here, let me show you." Taffy runs back over to the road and starts scanning the ground for some sign she can show the group.

After a few moments looking, "HERE! I found it! Here they are. Don't they look like hand prints?" Her bushy little tail twitches with excitement as she points the group to some strange prints tracked in to the muddy road. "They went that way!" and she points her little arm towards the north.