Chapter 168 - Contents Of The Lake

"Hey, where are you going? We're going to be late!" Venedette shouted after noticing four presences moving away from her discreetly.

"Oh no," Gem whispered and then peeked at Venedette behind them, but before she could even see Venedette, Fily immediately held her head and turned it forward while pushing her slowly away.

"I'll deal with this," Von said and maneuvered his flight for a U-turn while still munching on his snack.

"Okay, eyes forward Gem. Let's go," Fily whispered to Gem before increasing their walking speed towards the lake.

Since the sun was already up, the glow of the lake was nowhere to be seen anymore. But instead of the glow, the children were able to see the floor of the lake clearly instead. There were still flowers and remains of the house that the first Edelweissians made, probably why the locals here believe in them so much.

"How far are we going to go?" Gem asked while keeping herself from freezing over the intensely cold ice floor beneath them.

Even the innovative cold counter that Mr. Gemini made for her couldn't withstand the cold from standing on the frozen lake two meters away from land, what more if they were to stand in the middle of the freezing lake and do their experiment there?

"Just a little bit more," Fily said and took off her scarf to wrap it around Gem's shivering body.

"What are you doing?" Venedette asked Von who seemed to come back only to throw the stick that was used in his corn dog to the proper trash can.

"Oh, they wanted to see the contents of the frozen lake during the daytime," Von said, lying flawlessly to her mother who, in contrast to his belief, could definitely see through his confident lie.

"I don't buy that. Tell them to come back this instant," Venedette said while looking so anxious about something.

Von saw her looking around the cabins multiple times during their conversation, and if he didn't know any better, he would think that she was looking out for predators that might attack them all of a sudden.

But he knew very well that it's not the case and she was just probably looking out for the same old people that told them stories yesterday.

"Well, at least I get to talk to them about more stories while I buy time for Gem and Fily to do their thing over there," Von thought to himself while looking blankly at Venedette as if contemplating whether to do the thing she said or just ignore it completely.

"Oh, they're here!" Von said and pointed at the entrance arc of the cabins where he saw the old men walking properly in two lines.

Venedette immediately flew to welcome them, and when she saw Von following after her, she looked back at him with a serious face and told him, "What are you doing? Didn't I tell you to call them back here? Hurry up now."

"B-But I…" Von said in distress after deciding to defy Venedette's order.

"Von."

"But I want to hear more of their stories!" Von complained with a loud voice, totally intending for it to reach the old men who became flustered by his sudden interest in their stories.

"Did I hear that right, young man?" one of the old men who were on the front said and looked at him as if he was a rare being that must be protected.

"Yup, I want to hear more of your stories, please. Do you know that I couldn't sleep a wink last night while anticipating more of your stories? Why did you have to leave early anyway? I was prepared to listen to your stories the whole night last night instead of sleeping! And I can't wait anymore. Do you have any other stories to tell me?"

"Of course we have," an old man on the second line said and bowed a little bit to Von while the others only looked at him.

"Where are your friends, by the way?" the one at the front said while wandering his eyes around the cabin.

"Oh, they became so curious about the contents of the frozen lake that they couldn't stop themselves but check it out immediately," Venedette reasoned while giving Von a look that said, aren't you going to go there right now?!

"How about you, young man? Aren't you curious about the contents of the lake as well?" 

"Not more than your stories," Von said with a smile that made the majority of the old men adore him.

"Then we shall tell you a story about the lake-" the old man on the right said but was quickly blocked by the one on the left.

"Pardon my interruption, young master. But that is the main purpose of this tour, so we can show you the proofs of our stories while we share them with you in real-time."

"I will call for the rest of them this instant," Venedette said and bowed before preparing to launch herself to the air but the old man on the right stopped her.

"Let them be, we still have enough time in our hands to let them wander about the contents of the lake, although we will also get there soon enough, let us not distract their immersion," he said with smiling eyes, very fitting for the kind of old man that he was.

"As you wish, Elder song," Venedette said and retreated back to the land in front of the old men.

"Why don't you sit down inside the house first, elders?" Venedette offered with a smile to them which the elders courteously agreed with.

"We shall do that and tell this young man some secret about the tour later," Edler Song said and even patted Von's head which made him jump in happiness the moment they were all gone from his vision.

"Yes!" He rejoiced in success. 

Not only did he manage to buy time for Gem and Fily's experiment but he was even promised a secret story by the elders about the tour later, what could be better than this?

"We're going to talk later," Venedette said as a threat for disregarding her order before going inside the house with that staged smile of hers once again.

***

"Good morning," Hodgewart's fox kids greeted Petunia while cuddling with her on the cotton bed that they shared last night due to the lack of rooms for newcomers like her.

"Huh? Morning…" Petunia said absentmindedly while trying to sleep again.

But instead of being able to use the foxes as her blanket once again, Hodgewart was quick to pull the two baby foxes away from her and bite her nape to carry her outside.

"It's time," he only said, which confused Petunia.

"Time for what?" she asked while wiping her eyes.

And when she finally saw what was in front of her, she suddenly screamed as if she just saw a ghost.

"W-Why? What's wrong?" Hodgewart said in panic while looking at himself to see if there was something in him that made Petunia scream so loud so early in the morning.

Petunia's scream caught the entire animal village's attention including Miss Nabi who was busy dealing with her own tasks inside her office.

Miss Nabi immediately flew over to Petunia and checked to see what was happening.

But instead of a monster or anything else wrong that she was expecting, Petunia was just curled up in a corner while hiding her face from everybody.

Or more like she was covering her eyes from seeing everyone else.

"What's happening? Where am I? Why can I hear your voice? I must be dreaming…" she muttered in a very low volume that Hodgewart and the others could barely hear.

But because Miss Nabi was sitting directly in Petunia's nose, she was able to hear what Petunia was saying and came up with a conclusion on what was happening.

"Her memories just got worse," she said to Hodgewart who only looked at Petunia with pity this time.

"Can we bring her to Heize in this condition?" Hodgewart asked in human language to not make the other animals panic from the mention of Heize's name.

"Quite unlikely. We should look for her companions as soon as possible, if only we had more information about who these companions are and where they are," Miss Nabi said with worry etched on her butterfly face.

"We should ask humans then, they have probably heard of her as the talking cat," Hodgewart suggested, which Miss Nabi didn't agree with immediately.

"Since talking animals were considered special and expensive in the human world, talking to the humans could only put Hodgewart's life in danger," she said, "What about your children? I can't let you be in danger and abandon them."

"I understand, Miss Nabi," Hodgewart said in regret for suddenly forgetting about his kids in the spur of his emotions.

"We must find another way to help her," Miss Nabi said before ordering for her people to take care of Petunia gently so she wouldn't be in shock again.