Светлана Коломникова
Lucien the hedgehog in the town of strange people

Chapter 1. The betrayal

On a Friday morning in May, there was the usual bustle in the schoolyard in the small town called Simfulensk. Third graders fought with bags of generic shoes. Older boys teased some girls by playfully stepping on their feet. Other schoolchildren competed in climbing up trees and harassed each other by sticking out their tongues. Some impudent kids, there is no other word for them, threw pieces of plaster and lumps of dirt at first graders while portable speakers were blaring, causing the children's white trousers and shirts to turn grey. Fifth-grader Artem Babakin did not participate in this fooling around. He stood behind the rusty school gates and looked hopefully into the distance.

There was very little time left before the start of classes, and it became clear to Artem that his classmate and best friend Dmitry wouldn’t be coming to school today because he was never so late. Artem was discouraged by the fact that his friend had not come. Of course, Dmitry could just be spending time with his father, who often went out to catch fireflies and other insects. But he always warned Artem when he would miss classes. And now he doesn't even pick up his phone! Artem decided to go to his house after school and find out what was going on.

The school bell rang. Schoolchildren rushed through the doors of the small, dilapidated building, almost knocking each other down. The portable speakers fell silent one after another. Artem immersed himself in his thoughts, not noticing the bustle ahead. He ascended the crumbling threshold, along the edges of which there were heaps of last year’s leaves, emitting an unforgettable aroma of either rot or excrement. The school janitor was fired a couple of months ago, and responsibility for cleaning the school grounds fell on teachers. They did not like it. As a result, schoolchildren were forced to rake the leaves, and they did not find a better place for the piles. In addition, the school principal had a fight with the owner of the city's only waste collection company, and now there was no one to pick up the garbage. So, piles of leaves remained at the threshold and increased every day due to other waste.

Artem entered the small, semi-dark lobby. On the left, the teacher's office and the principal's office were next to the restrooms; on the right, there were several empty rooms for rent that no one had leased. Two underground floors were reserved for classrooms. Artem descended the scratched stairs into the narrow corridor on the first basement floor, stretching in both directions. The smell of mold, as usual, climbed into the boy's nose. Dim lamps hummed from the ceiling, and condensation trickled down the walls. The noise of schoolchildren was now and then drowned out by the imperious orders of teachers and the creaks of closing doors.

The first lesson was history; the classroom for it was at the very back of the corridor. Artem walked past two boys his own age, but in different classes, who were as if they were not going to lessons. One of them, who had recently dyed his hair blond, suggested to the other:

"Dye your hair too, girls will start to notice you."

At the same moment, a pretty girl who rushed past on the run gave him an unimpressed slap in the face. The newly blonde winked at his friend:

“Did you see that? She definitely adores me.”

Then Artem walked past the wall poster. On it, in bouncing letters, was written:

"A nickname lowers the barrier between students and teachers. Make a teacher your friend!"

The classroom was brighter than the corridor because it had more ceiling lights. The skinny guard, as always, napped against the gray concrete wall. Artem went to the empty desk in the middle row, sat down on the chair, and put his head on the desk so as not to look at the empty chair next to him. Someone coughed behind him. Two girls, constantly receiving unsatisfactory grades, talked loudly at the second to last desk:

"It exists!"

"Nah!"

"I tell you, it exists!"

"Prove it!"

"All right. I know one spell. It’s the ritual of Submission and Oblivion."

"What do we do?"

"Well, you want to? You want to be my slave?"

"What do I do next?"

"Put your thumb to your nose."

"What's next?" Seems she did what her deskmate said.

"No, you did something wrong. Try again, again!" her classmate said after a short pause.

There was a slow, heavy shuffling from the corridor, as if someone was dragging something very heavy.

"I ain't gonna! You fool; witchcraft doesn't exist!" the first girl condescendingly exclaimed in response. The second girl began to argue, and the first did not keep quiet either. Eventually, the classmates silenced them, shushing at them from all sides.

At this point Ira Stanislavna, who was the history teacher and their class teacher, dragged a large black plastic bag into the classroom, pulled it through the whole class, then leaned it against the wall under the chalkboard. After that, she straightened up and tucked her hair behind her ears. The students stared in complete shock when they saw the teacher's face: it was much darker than the skin on the rest of her body. One of two things: either the teacher smeared herself with a foundation the color of boiled condensed milk, or she shaded brown eyeshadow all over her face.

Unlike the schoolchildren, the class teacher did not find anything unusual in her own appearance.

"History is the scariest science in the school curriculum, as you know," she said, sitting down at the shaky table with a couple of old books. "Why? Who will answer?"

The straight-A student from the last desk jumped up from the spot and blurted out:

"Because it tells us about dead people!"

"OK, sit down. So…" The teacher preferred not to say "Good" or "Correct" to those who answered because, for any praise, she believed, students become lazy and stubborn. She flipped through the pages of the shabby textbook. "The topic of today's lesson… Vestment of plague doctors. What they looked like in general." She looked around the class. "Kapushina, answer."

Overweight Vera Kapushina stood up from the last desk in the outer row and with the grace of a bear walked to the board and stood next to the bag.

"The doctor's costume consisted of a hat indicating the doctor's status, a special mask with a beak, an ankle-length cloak, tight pants, gloves, and boots. Every plague doctor always carried a long cane." Ira Stanislavna read and looked up at Kapushina: "Everything is clear with the costume. Tell me, what was the purpose of the cane?"

Vera lowered her head and looked at the floor.

The classmates chuckled quietly:

"Oink, Oink! Vera! Fat pig!"

The teacher ignored these whispers. She never interfered with relations with schoolchildren, and even at school meetings she reminded their parents that her job was to teach children, not to raise them.

"Who will answer?" she turned to her pupils.

The flow of jokes immediately dried up. There were no takers. Ira Stanislavna rose sharply, slammed the book, threw it on her table, causing the table to shake.

"It's a shame not to know in fifth grade! First, with the help of a cane, the doctors checked whether patients had a pulse when they did not move. Secondly, they examined the damage on the skin. And what was the third? What, Vera?"

"They beat their patients with it!" shouted Yaroslav Boltukhin, who suddenly appeared on the doorstep of the classroom. He was often late, and each time he found an allegedly good reason for his tardiness.

Chuckles swept through the classroom.

"You're late," Ira Stanislavna delivered coldly, turning her head on him.

Yaroslav put his hand on the chest as if he saw a ghost, but a funny one.

"Yes… I know…" he agreed, holding back from laughing.

"The reason?" The teacher's voice turned icy.

"I buried a dog."

The class exploded with laughter.

"That's true! Someone poisoned my aunt's dog, and I had to help bury it!" Yaroslav exclaimed, holding on to his stomach. His words drowned in general laughter.

"Sit down!" the teacher ordered him and shouted menacingly at the others: "Silence!"

Yaroslav sat down at Artem's desk. Artem's head was still on the desk, and he, like Vera and the teacher, was not affected by the outbreak of fun.

"Wrong. They did not beat their patients. With a cane, they fought off other people who ran up to them and begged to be cured," Stanislavna explained, looking into the book when the students calmed down. After that she pointed her finger at the plastic bag and said to Kapushina: "Take one out and put it on."

Vera pulled out a mask with several ties on the back, which made it very difficult for the schoolgirl to put it on. The teacher was waiting, drilling Vera with dissatisfied eyes. Yaroslav, not being callous like Stanislavna, decided to help his classmate, in his own way, of course. He threw his eraser into the beak of the mask, which caused a new explosion of laughter.

Only on the third attempt did Vera eventually manage to tie the strings on the back of her head. The class teacher, holding her pointer stick in her hand, continued to read:

"Let's study the mask. At that time, the plague was thought to be transmitted through odors. To stave off the infection, the doctors chewed garlic, and the beak was filled with odorous herbs. And so that doctors did not get headaches from the fragrances, there were two small holes in the beak for ventilation in the form of nostrils. Their eyes were protected by inserts made of red glass." Without taking her eyes off the book, Stanislavna suddenly poked the pointer stick at one of the mask's glasses. Kapushina shuddered. The class burst into laughter, interspersed with snide jokes.

Vera, unable to endure the humiliation, rushed out of class, trying to pull off the mask on the run. The teacher silently looked after her.

"In this lesson you all will put on these masks," Stanislavna said, turning to the children. After a bit of silence, she added, "So, resting? It means that all of you have already written down everything important in your notebooks." She started walking around the classroom and looking into student notebooks.

The schoolchildren began to scratch with pens on paper at incredible speed. Artem slipped his copybook under his head because it didn't even contain today's date. He suddenly heard the whisper of his seatmate at his desk.

"Babakin, where is Kobylin?"

The question alerted Artem. Why would Boltuhin be interested in that? He is not a friend of Dmitry.

"It doesn't concern you," Artem grumbled.

"Well, you do not have to say anything. I know where he is."

Raising his head, Babakin stared at Yaroslav.

"Where?" he asked.

The teacher at that time stopped near the desk in front of Artem. She hung over the schoolboy, who was diligently drawing something on the peeling lid of his desk. That fifth grader, focused on his artwork, did not notice her.

Crimson spots of anger appeared on her brown face.

"This is the property of the school! Clean it off, or you will buy a new desk!" the teacher yelled with a wild look, knocking her pointer on the table. Taken by surprise, the schoolboy fell off to one side of the chair with fright. All the students, except Artem, with curiosity stretched out their heads, trying to see the doodle that infuriated the teacher.

"A unicorn mermaid!" Yaroslav plopped down in his chair and cheerfully whispered to Artem. But he wasn't interested in drawings on desks. He looked at Boltukhin, waiting for an answer. Yaroslav understood this, and something mocking flashed in his gaze. Bringing his mouth close to Artem's ear, he quietly said:

"Dmitry skips school cause he doesn't want to see you."

Artem turned away without making a sound, lowering his head onto his folded hands. Of course, he did not believe it. Who should he believe, Yaroslav? This windbag? But doubt arose in his soul, and Dmitry appeared before his mind's eye, looking with a caustic smile at his phone screen with a message about missed calls from him, Artem.

It took Babakin only a couple of minutes to convince himself of Dmitry's betrayal. It wasn't hard to believe that his classmates knew everything. How unhappy Artem felt! He had never felt so miserable, even when six months ago he tore his school trousers on the butt. He jumped off a windowsill in the lobby during recess and then hobbled the whole way home, covering his butt with his hands, while passersby grinning and pointing their fingers at him.

Now Artem had no point in even thinking about going to Dmitry. He doesn't have the guts to do it anyway. It was one thing to learn unpleasant news from someone, but it's quite another thing to verify this on your own.

Artem couldn't stay until the end of classes. He asked to go home, citing a headache. Ira Stanislavna dismissed him with a nod, without raising her head. She was looking through the messages on her phone, while a crammer was reading a paragraph near the board. Avoiding eye contact with his classmates, lest he run into a sidelong glance or a malicious grin, Artem stuffed his notebook and textbook into his backpack and headed for the exit. Yaroslav waved goodbye melodramatically. A couple of girls giggled.

Artem walked around the crying Vera, who was perched on the steps, and went up the stairs. He came out of the threshold. His eyes narrowed after he stepped outside of the dimly lit room. The first lesson had not yet ended, and it was already mercilessly hot outside. Artem went out through the gates and trudged along the pothole-riddled street. Some girl of about seven was playing hopscotch, jumping over conveniently placed holes.

Passing by the grocery store "ANCIENT GREEK SALAD", Artem glanced at the banner hanging on its facade. It depicted a broken piggy bank with small change spilling out, crossed out with a red sweeping cross. The inscription underneath warned: "WE DO NOT ACCEPT COINS!" Just below the banner was a noticeboard, which could easily have been renamed the "missing person's board" or "looking for you". The entire part of the wall it occupied was covered with sheets of paper with photos and descriptions of missing people. Artem had seen one of the wanted people at school before; it was the girl with thin red hair. She was three years older than him and was always fighting during breaks. She disappeared a week ago, went somewhere in the middle of the night, and didn't come back.

Artem was overcome by a feeling of some kind of pattern from the photographs of wanted people and thoughts about Dmitry, but the opening door of the store tore him from his thoughts. The store cleaner kicked out some old man, beating him on the back with her broom. She pushed the old man off the threshold, then gave Artem a contemptuous look and returned to the store.

Artem froze, trying to bring back the feeling that the cleaning woman had distracted him. He was thinking too deeply that he did not even notice how he ended up in the path of two shepherd dogs running away from a cat. He barely had time to jump back and smooth his hair automatically with his hand. It probably looked funny, since around the corner of the store he immediately heard the laughter of several voices. Artem took a step to the right and saw a bunch of vagabonds about his age. One teenager stood out from his buddies because his face was dotted with boils. Artem walked on, pretending not to notice their ridicule.

About five minutes later, Artem was called out by his younger sister Dasha, a fourth grader. The boy stopped, although he had no desire: the white school uniform did not save much from the heat. Dasha was in no hurry, looking around, combing her hair with her fingers. Her brother, dissatisfied with her sluggishness, was already determined to give up waiting, but a good idea that came into his head kept him in place.

His sister has a friend, Nastya. Her mother Tatyana Yulievna is a big gossip. She leaves no one and nothing without attention. She knows everything about everyone in Simfulensk: where they live, what they do, where they go and why, how many hours they sleep, and even what socks they wear. Artem did not like Tatyana Yulievna and her swaggering daughter Nastya, but now they could be useful. What if they knew something about Dmitry and told Dasha? And for the sake of questioning, he can wait. But when the sister finally approached Artem, his desire to find out was crushed by his indecision.

It would be better that way, Artem thought. Dasha was not distinguished by secrecy. If she knew anything, maybe she had told him already. And what if she starts making fun of him? He doesn't need that at all.

"Why are you out so early?" he grumbled.

"My teacher Nadya Petrovna had to leave early, and we all went home too," his sister answered.

Artem didn't say anything in response. So, they walked without a single word. Soon, Dasha was tired of being silent. She looked at her brother with an irritated glance.

"Why are you so grouchy? Did you break up with your friend, or what?"

"Be quiet!" he retorted.

Muttering this, Artem pretended to be intrigued by the roadside fences, and thought:

Ah, it's good that I did not ask about Dmitry. Then I'd feel like a loser.

Dasha snorted and turned away.

From a thick lilac behind the nearest turn came the sounds of shots from toy rifles voiced by boyish voices and shouts: "Stand! Ratatatata! Bang! Bang! Blam! Ah-ah! Bang! Bang!"

Apparently, the war was in full swing. After detonating a bomb ("BOOM!"), boys in dusty school uniforms shouted and jumped right out onto the road, beating each other with fists and plastic guns.

"There's some crazy violence going on here! Let's take another street," suggested an alarmed Dasha to her brother.

Artem agreed. They turned onto Cudgel Street. On one side stood the dilapidated buildings of the former factory to produce things and clothes made of broadcloth, which was once considered the largest factory in the entire region. They said that there were at least five underground floors in these buildings, and in each there were several workshops. There was a billboard sticking out of the side of these ruins. It had written on it in red on black:

Certain skills are needed to knock out the lock.

Not everyone possesses them. Do not risk your health,

contact qualified professionals for assistance.

Call us, we will be happy to help. Tel: 85677

Leaving behind the ruins, Artem and Dasha walked along the high blank fence, rounded the corner and froze in place like pillars of salt in fear – a line of armed men in camouflage uniforms, helmets and glasses moved vigorously towards them.

"But there is no violence here," Artem muttered.

The terrified children backed down, stumbling on potholes at every turn. The soldiers were approaching, moving much faster.

"Run!" shouted Artem to his sister, then turned around and rushed away. She ran after him. The soldiers did not shoot nor rush in pursuit to the surprise of seeing two children running from them. They laughed out loud, and this made the children even more scared.

Artem and Dasha hid behind a tree at the beginning of Cudgel Street. The cries of the truant boys who were fighting behind the turn did not fade. The laughter of the military and approaching steps were not heard, even though there is no other street here. Where did the soldiers go? The Babakins looked out fearfully and saw how they had entered the territory of the factory. The brother and sister became curious about why the soldiers went where there were nothing but ruins. But when the dispersed infantrymen began to shoot at each other, and the people who were shot did not fall, Artem and Dasha realized that this was not in fact the military and left their hiding place. They passed by the ruins wordlessly, looking at the players scurrying there. They walked along the fence and turned the corner. A few minutes later they got to Surprise Street, on which they lived.

As they approached the house, they stepped over a group of tree frogs and saw the neighbor named Aglaya, who lives on the right side of their house. This dirty old woman rarely leaves her house, and when she does, she wanders in circles around her yard, sometimes stopping in place and uttering non-existent words, making ridiculous movements with her hands. She dresses in old lace dresses, battered and darkened from time to time, and her head is always crowned with a ridiculously felt hat with a hole in the back side.

And now, this old woman in her usual outfit was standing near her courtyard gate with a ferocious grimace and was saying indistinct nonsense. It was not clear whether she was talking to her brother and sister, or to someone imaginary, but her tone was becoming more aggressive. The children rushed into their yard, away from the eerie spectacle. They took out the keys from a hiding place under the canopy over the entrance and quickly opened the front door.

"Again?!?" Dasha exhaled noisily, seeing a strip of wet cat food stretching from the kitchen to an empty bowl near the hallway mirror.

Next to the cat's bowl, lying belly up, was the culprit – Fox, a mouse-colored cat with a white stripe on his belly. Fox loves to eat in front of his own reflection, so he persists several times a day, pushing his bowl to the floor mirror in the hallway, of course, while none of his owners see. Although half the food is lost along the way from his pushing, the gray cat never gets upset: a good appetite is very important. And what amazing taste preferences the cat has! Putting a piece of meat in front of him, some vegetables, and bread – you never know what exactly he will rush to eat.

Fox's tabby brother Matvey looked out of the kitchen. He was chewing his food, apparently the arrival of the younger owners distracted him from eating.

Well, at least Matvey eats where he is supposed to, Dasha thought. She wiped the food from the floor, took Fox's bowl to the corner of the kitchen, in its place.

The children shared the last piece of sausage and made two sandwiches. Then they went up to the second floor and went to their rooms.

Artem threw his backpack against the wall and turned on the TV because he didn't want to be in silence. He wanted to surf the internet, but his parents refused to buy him a computer, always remembering the tablet they gave him for his birthday, which he broke that same evening. "You are too small for this. You don't know how to handle things carefully. Your TV is good, stuck on the wall. And if we put it somewhere else, you would have smashed it long ago," his mother said whenever Artem talked about his wishes. He didn't like using the internet through his phone. The phone's screen is small, his hands get tired if he holds it for a long time, and when he watches something on it while lying down because sitting is uncomfortable, he almost immediately starts to feel sleepy.

There was a Simfulensk meteorologist on TV, red-faced Ocean Jago de la Feikel, who had three chins lying one on top of the other like rings on a children's pyramid and bleached curls. He predicted rain for the evening.

"Bravo! Big surprise." Artem sarcastically announced while eating his sandwich. He moaned and lay down on the bed. "It rains here every night."

Artem was right. After each, without exception, pre-sunset twilight, precipitation falls.

Then the forecaster predicted the heat for tomorrow afternoon.

"Really? Surprised again."

After Jago de la Feikel began to praise wet weather, cloudbursts, and darkness. He also did this every day.

"Precipitation is the gift of nature. Rainwater restores health and rejuvenates, invigorates… Snow helps temper the body. It is worthless to refuse such gifts, to hide under hoods and umbrellas. The sun is our enemy. It leads to sunstroke and ages the skin. The fact that we should be awake during the day is a colossal misconception. We should have a nocturnal lifestyle like badgers and hermit crayfish. Night is the most beautiful time of the day. Wakefulness during the daytime is opposed to physiology."

After the weather forecast, there was a news broadcast. The television newscaster reported that the regional branch of government will close exits from Simfulensk next month due to the danger to the rest of the citizens of the country.

If Artem's already bad mood had been a stone, it would have punched a hole in the floor because it fell so fast. Now you can only leave Simfulensk to visit some regional institution or with permission, which must wait three weeks. And if they close the exits out of the city, what then? In their small, dreary city, there is nowhere to go for fun. Then Artem won't have the opportunity to ride the Ferris Wheel or take a trip on a subway.

"It can be assumed that the prerequisite to this decision was the escapade of one city dweller. This person, instead of visiting a TV station, indicated as the reason for leaving the city in his permit, went to a psychiatric hospital and helped most of the patients get out of there." The newscaster fell silent for a few seconds. Then he coughed in his palm and continued: "A short historical excursion. The first incident that angered the public occurred fifty years ago. Then the citizens of Simfulensk staged a mass brawl at the resort because of silt mud. After that, according to the government, violations by departing citizens of the city began to be committed in such large numbers that it could be compared with sowing grain on arable land. Thirty years ago, checkpoints were established at the exits from the city. As a result of these events, for half a century, citizens of our country treated Simfulensk reprehensible, punishing everyone for the sins of the minority." The newscaster sighed and announced a commercial pause.

Artem watched without interruption the liberated dancing fox wearing a wig with limes instead of glasses, who with cheerful recitative extolling nectar from the aforementioned fruit and lemon, but none of what was in the advertisement got into the boy's mind. His mind was clouded with thoughts of his friend's vile betrayal. He needed to find something to do to distract himself. Ride a skateboard? He remembered how he did it with Dmitry, and the desire disappeared. The friend liked Artem's skateboard, especially the drawing on this: a palm, and in the center of it a mouth with bloody fangs.

AWhat else can he do besides that? The boy looked indifferently at the table cluttered with textbooks, copybooks, toy robots and plasticine figures. He loved to sculpt from plasticine and draw, but now he wanted to do something active. Go for a swim? This seems like a good idea. But his imagination is at once painted before the mental gaze, as he wanders to a reservoir alone, mired in his misfortune. Such a walk would not help him to unwind but would make him feel even more despondent. He needs to bring Dasha with him. There was nothing more to do. But there is a problem: if the sister agrees, the shortest path to the Lake passes along Humpback Street, and Dmitry lives on it. On reflection, Artem decided to go the other way. No big deal if they walk a little longer. The difference is small: it would have taken ten minutes, but now it will probably take fifteen.

Artem turned off the TV at the beginning of the speech by the candidate of medical sciences Nadezhda Rudimentova with the theme "A doctor does not know what is wrong with you? It means you are fine." Then he changed into a T-shirt with shorts, pulled his favorite socks with triceratops muzzles on his feet. The school shirt with trousers was thrown into his closet. Going out into the hallway, he silently walked to his sister's room and poked his head at the door.

The exemplary order seen finally convinced the boy that the sister was an incorrigible purge. The wallpapers with African Savannah, zebras and giraffes reminded him only of the heat outside the window. Dasha, sitting in front of her textbook, turned around and stared at her brother in surprise. Why did he come? If they had not lived in the same house, he would not have known where my room was.

"I just… Do you want to go to the Lake?" hesitantly suggested Artem.

"With you?" The sister's face became suspicious.

"Well, with whom? Do you see anyone else?"

"Go with Dmitry," Dasha replied and lowered her eyes to the textbook.

Artem, however, was not going to leave. He came in, closed the door behind him.

"He's… he's not at home."

"Where is he?" the sister asked without looking up from her textbook.

"Well, with his father…"

Dasha turned to her brother after a short thought.

"Okay, I agree."

Fox and Matvey slept near the wardrobe in the hallway, curled up in one circle. Dasha locked the front door, put the keys in the cache. It was calm on the street, as if the siesta had begun. Aglaya was no longer drilling into the street and people with her devil's eyes. She probably went back to her house.

Past Surprise Street, the children turned into Cheesebutter Street. A little before reaching the house of the lanky old woman named Sveta, they crossed to the other side of the street. This ninety-year-old woman, "Everything is mine," as the locals call her, thinks she owns not only a plot of ground with her house, but also part of the street behind her gate. She is rather agile for her age, alert all the time. And when she finally gets tired, she sits down on the birch stump near her rotten fence that has fallen over on its side and continues to carry out her mission while sitting.

One day the mother of Artem and Dasha was in a hurry to work. She went straight, there was no time to bypass countless road pits. But Sveta saw her, jumped up from the stump, and, waving her cane, yelled in a disgusted tone: "Where are you going? Don't go there with your hooves! You'll make even more pits!" Also, one day last year three of Dasha's classmates were unlucky. After classes they wanted to walk to the city park to ride on a swing. They decided to take a shortcut down Cheesebutter Street. The students heard about this old woman but did not take her seriously. The result was that Sveta jumped out of the dense shrubs of thorns, like from an ambush, and attacked them. She hit one of them on his forehead with her cane, and another on his back. The third managed to escape without being beaten. These schoolchildren did not appear near her house anymore.

That is why Artem and Dasha always rush past the old woman's house on the other side of the street. But they didn't have to run this time because she was not on her "post."

In addition to guarding the street, she took on the guarding of garbage containers. She forbade people to throw garbage in them and regularly patrolled the site for garbage containers. Some of the locals purposely throw garbage at night, only anyway often see her there. But her activities were not limited to this either. She also fights with neighbors on both sides almost every day. The fences put up by them have long been decayed, it is her turn to put up her fences. But Sveta did not think so. She demanded that the neighbors do this again and called all their arguments lies and nonsense. She begged for money for fences not only from the owners of the neighboring plots, but also from their children and all those who came to visit, for which the people living nearby called her a disgraced beggar.

When they moved away from Everything is mine's house, Artem with an important appearance said that they would go to Lake in another way, which is shorter. If he had told the truth, his sister would not have agreed.

"The short way" began with dense and prickly thickets of thorn. Then the children turned onto a path slippery of mud under two old spreading poplars, where they had to run away from the toad with bottomless eyes. And it ended with a row of high earthen embankments. They resembled a miniature mountain system, and the last hill was lower than the rest and had a flat stone layer at the top, like a gray pancake.

The children arrived at the destination in thirty minutes.

Chapter 2. The talking hedgehog

The children stopped in front of the small clay quarry filled with muddy water, known here as "Lake." This one reservoir in the whole area got that name because nobody wanted to "swim in a swamp" or "dive in some pond". It is shallow; the water in the deepest place reaches only to shoulders, and near the coast it barely covers feet. It is surrounded by thickets of cattails and reeds on all sides, except for entering the water.

Dasha, unlike her brother, had not yet had time to swim this year. She scratched her head with wonder because she'd never seen the Lake so deserted before. Usually in such warm weather, there were so many people in this water that it was hard to turn around. Never-ending screams, fun, splashes… Dasha touched with her foot the green young growth that had sprouted on the bank, which had been trampled by hundreds of feet in the past.

"I thought there'd be a bunch of people here…" she said thoughtfully.

"No, now almost no one comes here," Artem replied, looking around the quarry like a landowner on his property.

"Why?"

Artem took off his T-shirt and threw it behind him. He was clearly pleased: finally, there was something that he knew and that his sister does not know!

"They found a dead man here last month! Over there," he showed with his hand on the reeds on the opposite side. "A man… Well, you saw him. Platonych. He used to be a janitor at the school. Remember, he was thrown with apples by seventh graders? Then, when he was fired, he guarded trampolines at night. And who found him dead here, do you know?"

Dasha got embarrassed. Since when did he tell her news, and not vice versa?

"Who?"

Artem's black shorts flew after his T-shirt like a bird. "The mom of that girl, I forgot her name… Nastya, your classmate! Probably she got tired of walking around other people's yards and sniffing everything out and she found a new place." Dasha felt fooled. She couldn't imagine that her best friend would keep such important things from her. She likes to tell her gossip about locals and ask about Dasha's parents. And when her mother finds a dead person, it turns out to be a secret!

"For some reason, our mom didn't tell me anything about it," she said with doubt.

"Well, she may not know," Artem answered quickly.

"Why do you think so?"

"Well, so, mayor, he was here too, he forbade talking about it. But everyone is talking about it secretly, I'm sure. In short, when Nastya's mother found Platonych, she almost started howling in terror because he had no eyes at all. But that's not what killed him," Artem looked at Dasha mysteriously.

"What killed him?"

"He had no brain. Inside his head was empty; there it was even possible to see the skull from the inside through the holes of the eyes."

"How do you know all this?"

"Er… I saw."

Dasha looked at her brother in disbelief. He shrugged his shoulders with contentment in his eyes, as if saying, "By chance, of course!"

"It's nonsense. No brain. Not eyes. It's all a lie," she said after thinking for a while.

"If you don't want to believe, don't believe…" Artem answered indifferently, put his socks in his cap and threw it up. "Look!"

The cap spinning in the air flew over Dasha and fell behind her. However, none of the socks were destined to last until landing because they left their vehicle at a first turn. They slowly descended like tiny parachutes and landed a few steps from the children. Artem turned and headed for the water, leaving his clothes lying around anywhere.

Dasha only now noticed that her brother was already in swimming trunks, and she did not even take off her sandals. However, she no longer had a desire to swim. Dasha sat on the grass.

"Hey, come here!" Artem called out to her, standing knee-deep in the water.

"I don't want to! I'll wait for you here!"

"Did you change your mind because of the janitor? Yes? I told you, they found him in those bushes over there, not in the water! Come here, I'm bored alone!" the brother tried to persuade her.

"And why then does no one else swims here?"

Artem had nothing to answer; he did not know why.

"They're afraid, that's all. I don't care. It's better for me. Nobody pushes, doesn't yell… Well, if Dasha doesn't want to swim either, let her do what she wants."

Artem entered the water up to his waist and swam, squeezing his lips tightly so that the muddy water did not get into his mouth. Having reached the middle of the quarry, he turned over on his back and closed his eyes against the blinding sun. And he felt great.

"If Dmitry doesn't want to be friends with me, I don't care. He's not the only person on the planet."

Dasha was lying on her side. The news about Platonich that stunned her did not leave her head. What really happened to the janitor? Who did this to him? If they forbade mentioning his strange death and now no one comes here to swim, it means that many people know about it, as her brother said. But why didn't Nastya tell her anything? A real friend wouldn't do that! Dasha took her phone out of the pocket of her breeches, deciding to surf the internet while she waited for her brother. Covering the screen with her palm from the sun, she tried to make out at least something in it, but to no avail. She put the phone away and looked at the desolate mansion in the distance; it was something like an unofficial forbidden zone. There were often warning videos about the danger of walking near it on the local TV channel. In them, it was reported that the owner of the mansion before his death stuffed his land with mines. But people also had another reason to be wary of approaching the mansion: legends about a ghost of the former owner living in it were made around the city, and some people swore that they saw a lit light in the windows of the mansion and heard some unintelligible noises and voices.

After a couple of minutes, her phone rang for a second and went silent. Dasha took it out and saw a missed call from Nastya. "The friend" probably wants Dasha to call her back. She always says that she can't make a phone call because she doesn't have the money for it, but that doesn't stop her from calling other people. For example, calling her mother to tell new interesting gossip, or Tanya from another class to ask about her new computer, or making a date with a seventh grader… And for the best friend, a dropped call is enough. It seems Nastya is already used to the fact that Dasha always calls back and can lie to her that she just wants to make fun of the boy and, of course, will not go on any date with him.

No matter what Nastya asks, I will not say anything else! Dasha decided, put the phone in her pocket, and mentally switched to her favorite topic: sloppiness and disorganization of her brother. How insufferable he is; even here he scattered his clothes. No one will immediately find where it lies. Is it nice for him to look for his clothes and things everywhere? Dasha looked around, looking for his clothes with her eyes. His T-shirt and shorts were lying in the grass in front of her, his cap lay behind her, and his socks… Where are they?

From which of their relatives did Artem inherit this demeanor? The sister began to remember all their relatives and compare their habits with her brother's manners. Having reached the custom of the second cousin's grandmother to sweep the freshly washed floor with a broom, Dasha noticed some movement on the left out of the corner of her eye. Slowly, slowly, she turned her head to Artem's shorts and T-shirt. There was a complete order with them.

Probably, a beetle crawled next to them; that's why it seemed… Dasha calmed down and yawed.

The shorts jerked.

Dasha's look, becoming tense, rested on his brother's clothes. One bee flew near her face, and she even did not notice it.

The brother walloped the water with her hands in the middle of the Lake, making thousands of splashes.

A minute of staring passed. Artem was still splashing in the middle of the Lake. His shorts didn't move anymore. Dasha almost convinced herself that she was imagining things because she was overheating in the sun.

AND… the shorts slowly but surely started to crawl away and even pulled the T-shirt behind it.

The shock shackled the girl for a second. Then she stood up abruptly and started jumping and running along the shore, desperately calling on her brother:

"Artem! Come here! Hurry up! Here! Artem! Come!"

The boy turned around; his sister's jumps seemed funny to him.

"You like a horse! Neigh! Neigh! Okay, stop messing around, go swim!"

"Here, look!" Stopping, Dasha pointed to his clothes.

But the shorts froze, as if it understood human speech. When Artem looked at it, he did not see anything unusual. However, the boy headed for the shore, making waves with his hands.

"Well, what?" he asked his sister when he came out of the water.

"See for yourself!"

The boy turned around and almost jumped on the spot; his clothes were moving in small jerks and had already crawled sixteen feet away. Having come to his senses, Artem realized: under the shorts a lizard, or a toad. And without Dasha's participation this would not have happened. She put an amphibian under his things. This guess made his mood bad. It's no fun when girls make fun of older brothers.

"Did you set this up?" he growled at his sister.

"Me?" the undeserved accusation disheartened Dasha.

"Bring my things quickly!"

"Why me? Do it yourself!" the sister sat down on the coastal clay with her back to her brother with a resentful look.

"It's not funny!" shouted Artem, nervously rubbing his fingers on his hand.

Dasha froze and put her arms around her knees.

"Who did you put under my shorts? A lizard? Or a frog? I thought you were afraid of them!"

"I didn't do anything… Next time, I won't say anything to you at all. You'll go home in your underwear."

Artem rubbed his chin.

"Okay. I'll tell our mom what happened here with the janitor and that you were here today! She'll be surprised when she finds out you're not as good as she thought!"

"But you… This was your idea!" Dasha stood up quickly and turned to face her brother. "And I'll tell her all about you!"

The brother, who did not expect such a reaction, crossed his arms on his chest.

"As you wish, but what? You have nothing to say."

"I know a lot about you! And mom will know everything too!" Dasha said angrily, turned her back to her brother, took a few steps, and sat down on the shore.

The shorts and a T-shirt had already crawled away by thirty feet. They began to move faster. Apparently, they no longer doubted that they would be able to hide. From this distance, jerks when moving did not seem sharp.

"You can't scare me with that! You can say whatever you want! After Mom finds out you are here, she'll stop believing you! After Lake, no one will believe you!" Artem tried not to give in so that the sister did not prevail. The boy no longer believed that his sister had set it up; she denied it too convincingly. But he was afraid to go alone to get his things. He trampled on the spot, approached Dasha and timidly suggested, "Let's go together."

The sister turned around and stared at him. Did she really hear that? Seeing that yes, she agreed. Walking as quietly as possible, the children went in search of escaped clothes. They found the boy's things hidden behind daisies. It's a good thing Artem wore a red T-shirt and black shorts today. It would be more difficult to find beige or green things. The brother and sister squatted in front of things, which were covered with leaves and grass stems.

"I'll grab the shorts; you'll grab the T-shirt," Artem said, looking up at his sister.

Taking up the edges of the clothes, the children heard a sound like exhalation from under it. They sharply pulled things at the same time, and untold relief appeared on their faces: in front of them on the tummy lay a small hedgehog with milk-colored needles.

It obviously got there from somewhere far away because in their area there are only hedgehogs with dark needles. The wool on the paws and muzzle is beige; the tip of the spout, ears and sharp claws are brownish. The pure-white long antennae twitch with breath-exhalation, and the hind paws are stretched above the ground and tremble with tension. And its eyes are covered with front paws, so humanly…

This pose of the hedgehog seemed very funny to the brother and sister.

"Hha-ha!" Artem chuckled. "Look at its paws! Like those goats! Do you remember those goats? We watched a video about them… Well, those whose legs were petrified from fear, what caused them to fall."

"Yeah, I remember. How interesting it is! I've never seen such before," the sister replied.

"Me too."

Dasha wanted to touch the hedgehog. She brought her hand to it, but got her hand, and didn’t dare touch it. The hind paws of the animal dropped. Artem leaned towards the animal and moved its paw from its eye.

"Hey, stop hiding…" he said.

The animal's eye was closed.

The hedgehog didn’t like this contact, and it started breathing quickly and noisily. Artem stopped holding its paw with his hand, and it sprang back to its original place, and covered its eye again. The hedgehog began to breathe even harder.

A scheming glint appeared in Artem's eyes.

"Let's make the hedgehog swim in the Lake! This will teach him not to steal!" he offered his sister.

"Do hedgehogs know how to swim?" Dasha asked.

"Now we'll see!" Artem took the animal and rushed to the Lake, holding it in outstretched hands as if afraid to burn. "Grab my clothes!"

Dasha took his things, brushed them off a bit.

Finding himself in the hands of the boy, the animal seemed to be furious, starting to wriggle and jerk his paws.

"Wow, you got scared! And stealing other people's things was not scary?" Artem smirked but accelerated because the hedgehog was twitching more and more harder. The Lake was very close, but the boy realized that he was unlikely to be able to take it there because the animal was about to fall out of his hands and he called his sister: "Dasha, come to me faster!"

She immediately ran up.

"Take…" Artem stuck the animal in the girl's hands.

Dasha with a deft movement wrapped the hedgehog in her brother's T-shirt and held it close, trying not to pay attention to the twitching of the paws and the prickly needles passing through the thin fabric. She did not notice that two longitudinal scratches appeared on her hand just above her wrist.

"Oh…" Artem said unhappily.

"What?" the sister did not understand.

"He scratched you, that's what!"

The hedgehog instantly calmed down. He leaned out of the T-shirt, looked at the scratches, then looked up his regrettable gaze at the girl's chin.

"It's OK." Dasha said as she looked at the scratches.

"How is that? What if you get some kind of rash? Or worms?"

The hedgehog looked at the boy with eyes full of silent reproach.

"Oh, come on!" The sister did not understand why Artem had suddenly become so caring, but she was pleased. "Hedgehogs don't have worms!"

"Everyone can have them!"

"But you cannot get worms through scratch!" The corners of the girl's mouth rose. "You're just like Mom!"

"I don't know what makes you think that. Mom, Mom… If you get infected with something, then you can infect me too!"

The sister's face instantly became serious. Artem took her hand and swiped his finger over the skin near the scratches.

"We need to put some ointment on it. The hedgehog is not from here; how do we know what it might be sick with? Now it doubly deserves to swim!"

Artem took the hedgehog from his sister and ran into the water waist deep. Cloudy water touched the paws of the animal. The hedgehog's body went limp; it seemed that it had come to terms with it and couldn't pretend anymore.

"Please let me go," it asked plaintively.

A wave of coarse shivers ran through Artem's body. Having dropped the hedgehog, he rushed out of the reservoir and stopped beside his sister, who looked stunned and stared at the floundering animal in the water.

"HELP!" The hedgehog disappeared into the muddy water. After a couple of seconds, he emerged with scraps of seaweed on his face. "AAH! I CAN'T SWIM!" the animal screamed, floundering and weeping away. "HELP! AAH!"

Artem hesitated. It seemed like he should help, but how scary it was! However, he forced himself to return to the water. He caught the hedgehog with his trembling hands, carried it ashore and handed it to his sister. Dasha, having got over the shock, sat down on the grass and held the animal close. The hedgehog coughed.

"Almost died, almost died…"

"Please, forgive us, forgive us…" Dasha said, rocking the animal in her arms, like a baby. The hedgehog calmed down; it felt comfortable.

"And you both forgive me, please… My fault, I shouldn't have taken your fabrics… But when they fell on me, it was a short fright, I did not think to throw them off," the hedgehog answered quietly. "Put me to the ground."

Dasha put the animal down on the grass next to her.

The hedgehog lay on its back, clamping its eyes.

"How nice," it said.

"What is… your name?" said Artem sheepishly, sitting down.

The animal yawned sweetly.

"Lucien is my name. Yours?"

"I am Dasha. Nice to meet you."

"Ahh…" Artem muttered and extended his hand to the hedgehog to shake. But the boy noticed the reproach in his sister's gaze and realized that he had done something stupid and pulled his hand back. The hedgehog had paws, and small ones; he couldn’t shake his hand.

"No, no, don't take your hand away. I will gladly shake your hand," Lucien smiled and held out his upper paw to the boy. Artem, embarrassed, squeezed the paw with his hand.

"So… Who are you? Oh, I'm sorry, it's so embarrassing… I just haven't seen hedgehogs talk yet," Dasha said tentatively.

"Don't worry, sweet girl!" Lucien supported her. "I'm not from here, in truth."

"Well, we have already understood this," said Artem.

"Where are you from?" asked Dasha.

"I can tell you if you're interested," the animal smiled mysteriously.

"Of course, it's interesting!" Artem exclaimed and faced his sister's judgmental stare again.

"I want to tell, but I'm so tired and hungry right now," the animal said, and from his tummy there was a confirmatory rumbling. "It will not be easy to focus and not forget anything…"

"Let's go to our house!" Dasha offered. "We have a lot of food."

"Yes! Candy, marshmallows," Artem said.

"Apples, nuts," his sister continued.

"If so, I agree," said the hedgehog, yawning. "Take me there, please."

The children smiled brightly. Artem wanted to take Lucien, but his sister beat him to it. She wrapped the hedgehog in the nearly dried-up T-shirt and held him close to her.

"This is so that no one can see you," she told the animal.

"All right…" was heard from the T-shirt.

Artem, confused, began to look around the grass.

"Where are my socks?"

He found the cap, put it on his head, found one sock and pulled it over his foot. It remains to find the second sock, but it was nowhere to be seen. Artem checked each bush and blade of grass near the coast but never found it.

"Where's the sock gone? I can't go in one sock!" The boy was saddened and started looking again.

His sister was waiting for him with indignation on his face. The talking hedgehog wanted to visit us, and he decided to delay time! No one forced him to throw his things around; why should we wait?

Another couple of minutes of unsuccessful searching passed.

"How long do we have to wait?" Dasha with difficulty restrained irritation.

"Just a little…" Artem muttered, looking at the surrounding grass. The unfortunate sock as if it had become invisible. But it was his favorite pair of socks, with triceratops faces!

"When you're done, catch up with us!" Dasha said to her brother, turned around and went towards the city.

Artem took a quick look at his sister and then looked at his feet.

"I don't need one sock!" the boy exclaimed, tore the found sock off his foot, throwing it into the grass, and rushed behind Dasha.

Although Artem did not want to go along Humpback Street, he had no choice. The sister flatly refused to make her way through the thorn again. And she didn't dream of meeting the mad toad again, either. But the boy did not insist, because they were not going empty-handed. They had to carry the precious cargo faster and more carefully. And if Dmitry really comes across, Artem will pass by him and will not even look. Не will pretend not to know him. Maybe he will be lucky, and Dmitry will do the same. But if he doesn't get lucky? What a loser and coward he will then look like in the eyes of his sister and the unusual animal! And as soon as the children set foot on Humpback Street, which was riddled with potholes like after a meteor shower, Artem began to whisper to himself:

"I wish I hadn't met him; I wish I hadn't met him…"

Dasha grinned, looking at her brother. He was engrossed in whispering and didn't notice it.

They passed by the building under construction from broken brick. On the side of the street in front of it, leaning on a bicycle, stood one teenager with shoulder-length hair, drinking green tea from a bottle. Some dirty man paused near him and began to mutter to him:

"Shaggy, why don't you cut your hair? You drink slop. Dressed like a girl, your clothes are not from our market…"

After that, the children passed the building of an abandoned hostel, on the facade of which there was another bulletin board. It was plastered with photos of the missing people, like the board on ANCIENT GREEK SALAD. Dasha saw several familiar faces there: the man who traded seedlings on the market and three girls who were city champions in throwing teddy bears. They recently disappeared from a hospital, where they ended up after an unsuccessful night attempt to steal a city bus. Their loss was discovered by a nurse. In the morning, she went to their hospital ward and saw that a window's open, and they were gone.

Artem stopped whispering only when they came out with Humpback Street. They did not meet Dmitry. His house seemed so lonely, as if no one lived there.

At the turn of the street, the brother and sister walked past two women who were thick like barrels. The one who was younger, complained squeakily to the eldest:

"Yesterday, my blood sugar jumped; I felt so bad, even though I only ate one chocolate bar."

The second answered her with an important voice, as if she were waved away:

"It's not scary at all; you are fine! Do this: take three peas, three only, no more. Grind and mix with a glass of honey. And eat a tablespoon before eating…"

Brother and sister walked through the "property" of Everything is Mine. The old woman never appeared in her "post".

Lucien's voice was heard only a couple of times all the way and only asked, "When will we come?"

As soon as they reached the house, they saw the neighbor across the street, Natalya Fedorovna, wearing a dress that tightly hugged her plump body and was three sizes too small. She jumped out to meet, as if only waiting for them (for sure she was):

"Stop!"

The children were taken aback: this nasty woman kept many people from living peacefully with her strange, made-up claims. And they got the worst of it as the closest neighbors.

"He did it, I know!"

"Who?" Dasha asked in confusion.

"Your father! He climbed onto my roof at night! Your father swine, perpetrator!"

Proving anything to her was useless. Artem and Dasha retreated almost on a run.

Chapter 3. The North Pole and predators

As soon as the front door of the house closed and Artem locked it, Lucien stuck his nose out of the bundle and asked:

"Did we arrive?"

The kids took their shoes off and went into the kitchen.

"Yes," Dasha replied to the animal, placing the bundle on the table and unfurling the T-shirt.

The hedgehog stood on his hind paws, lifted his front paws up, and stretched. He looked cheerful and full of strength.

"Well, now it's time to eat. What an unusual smell you have here," he said, sniffing.

"Yeah, probably from that bowl smells," Artem pointed to Matvey's half-empty bowl and took the apples out of the refrigerator.

Dasha took from the cupboard the plate of candies and marshmallows and put it in front of the guest; then began to put nuts and dried fruits from the package onto that plate. Suddenly her phone squeaked. The girl pulled it out. Seeing another drop call from Nastya, she put her phone in her pocket with a dissatisfied face.

But when all the promised sweets appeared before the little animal, it turned out that Lucien was no longer interested in them.

"Why didn't you say you had the North Pole mini version?" He asked the children.

"What? What are you talking about?" Asked Artem.

"We have no poles, especially the north one…" Dasha said.

"What is it, then?" Lucien rose, pointing his paw at the refrigerator. "You got the apples out of it!" He turned to Artem.

A surprised smile appeared on the girl's lips. Artem broke into a smile and opened the refrigerator door.

"Oh, it's just f-ri-d-ge! It cools the food! And here," Artem opened the bottom door of the refrigerator, "the freezer, it freezes our food! And it works on electricity… Almost all our devices from it work: the TVs, the vacuum cleaner…" He liked to explain.

But the hedgehog did not listen, immersed in his own thoughts.

"Put me there!" Suddenly, he exclaimed excitedly. Jumped off the table and started jumping vigorously around Artem. "I want to go there! There! Northern! Pole! I want!"

Looking at Lucien, Dasha took out the plastic bag of colorful marmalade from the kitchen cabinet and poured it into the plate of sweets.

"But you can freeze!" said Artem to Lucien in confusion.

"Nope, I lived at the North Pole!"

"At the North Pole? Tell us, it's so interesting!" asked Dasha.

"Now! I want to! Put me there!" The hedgehog did not stop; he clearly had no time for stories.

"Well, if so…" Artem lifted Lucien and brought him to the middle shelf of the refrigerator. "Well, look, there is the light bulb…" Artem didn't have time to finish because the animal deftly pushed away from his palms and jumped on the shelf.

Lucien stood in the center of the shelf, lifted his face, which immediately became peaceful, stretched out his upper paws to the sides, and froze. He seemed about to reach enlightenment. After lowering the head after about half a minute, the hedgehog started walking in circles around the pot of porridge.

"Woo-woo! I've missed it so much! I've missed it so much!"

Artem was standing close to the fridge and did not take his eyes off the animal. He was ready to catch it if Lucien stumbled.

Dasha was tired of looking at her brother's back. It obscured all the interesting things.

"I want to see him too!" she said, stepping toward Artem.

"There is nothing interesting here…" He looked at her over his shoulder. Does she not see that he is standing for a reason? But he did move back a bit.

Both were now staring into the refrigerator without taking their eyes off, while at the same time talking to someone who was there.

"Why are you so surprised by the cold?" Dasha asked Lucien. "Winter happens every year."

"Winter? What winter? I haven't seen winter in a long time." He replied, continuing to walk.

"You've probably just flown…" Artem began and faltered, thinking that he'd said something stupid again. It was true. The hedgehog flew. As if he arrived by plane! "Ahh… I guess you just arrived?"

The little animal with needles stopped.

"Put me there," he asked Artem to put him on the table, suddenly becoming sad.

Artem fulfilled the request. Lucien started eating the sweets. Most of all, he liked sweets filled with milk fudge. The children sat silently on the chairs, not taking their eyes off the guest.

"So, you just arrived?" Artem asked curiously.

"Here, in this city, yes. But I have been living on Earth for a long time," the hedgehog answered with cookies in his mouth.

"And before you came here, where did you live?" asked Dasha.

"I don't remember the name of that town, but it's not so far from here."

"I guess winter happens there," Dasha said with a thoughtful face.

"But I didn't see this… And I don't understand why…" said the hedgehog, chewing another candy, and suddenly his face became pleasantly surprised: "What a tasty thing! No worse than in Grifost!"

"Well, after summer, autumn goes, right?" Dasha asserted rather than asking the animal.

"Yes, I remember autumn…,” said the hedgehog.

"And after that comes winter! Snow falls and then comes a new year!" Dasha completed her logic chain.

"How? Why, why don't I remember it?" Lucien was saddened.

Silence hung in the air. Children wracked their brains, trying to figure out this difficult task. Suddenly it hit Artem. He knocked his palms on the table, rejoicing at the answer he had found.

"I realized why you don't remember!"

Dasha cast a skeptical eye on her brother and crumpled a piece of paper from a candy. Lucien swallowed a piece of marshmallow and stopped the questioning gaze on Artem.

"Hedgehogs hibernate in winter!" the boy exclaimed.

The sister immediately agreed with him:

"Exactly!"

"Ah, ah, ah! You're a very wise boy! I remember how cold it was, how it rained, the falling leaves… And on this everything breaks off, then new leaves start to grow on the trees, the sun shines, very bright… I was asleep! I slept through everything…" The hedgehog almost cried. "In the North, I didn't sleep much because it's constantly cold; I can't be asleep all the time."

Artem looked sympathetically at Lucien but felt great at heart because he rarely gets praise. Also, the sister looked at him so enviously… She doesn't have to consider herself the smartest all the time. Now it's my turn, the boy thought and showed Dasha his tongue. She made a face in response.

"Once I was a strong wizard, I could not sleep at all… And now I'm not like that anymore…" the hedgehog lamented.

"Are you a wizard?" Artem was surprised.

"A wizard?" Dasha's eyebrows raised.

"Yes, I am a wizard," the hedgehog confirmed.

"So, you can conjure…" Artem said. "Could you conjure something for us?"

"What?"

"Well, for example, I need a computer…"

Dasha shot her brother with an unkind look.

"I don't know what it is. I need to visualize what I'm conjuring," Lucien told the boy in response.

"Well, it's such a thing… This gives us access to the Internet. It consists of a monitor that looks like this," Artem pointed to the wall-mounted TV. "And another box, in which all sorts of chips, wires, a motherboard."

"A complicated invention of people?" Lucien asked.

"Yeah… and also a computer mouse, a keyboard…"

"I can't conjure such a thing," said the hedgehog and added, noticing the sadness that appeared on Artem's face: "I'm sorry."

"How long have you been here?" asked Dasha.

"I've been on Earth for a long time… One hundred years in human time."

"Are you a hundred years old?" Artem's eyes rounded.

"No, I got here a hundred years ago. I'm much older."

"How old are you then? Two hundred?" suggested Artem.

"Almost five hundred."

"Five hundred?" Dasha marveled.

"Are you five hundred years old?" Artem grabbed the first apple he came across and took a big bite out of it, not noticing that it was beginning to deteriorate.

"Soon I will turn four hundred and eighty-nine." The hedgehog put the bitten sour apple aside and looked closely at the food. He did not want to eat anything from what was left on the plate.

"Ah-ah," Dasha broke the silence, got up, set foot to the refrigerator, and looked into it. "Do you want to eat regular food, not sweets? We still have millet porridge. Or maybe you want some tea?"

"Millet porridge – my favorite! I'll have this with gusto!"

Dasha was glad to hear that. She took out the pan, put a couple of spoons of porridge on a plate. Warm it up in the microwave and put it in front of the hedgehog.

Lucien was touched by the amazing smell of the plate.

"Please give me a spoon." He asked Dasha.

"Oh! Yes, one second. I'm sorry, I forgot." Dasha put a spoon on his plate.

Lucien examined this steel thing intensely. It was too big for him, about like a shovel for an adult person. The hedgehog tried to use it, but it turns out he needed both paws to just take it.

"This is the smallest spoon in our house," Dasha muttered.

"I'm going to the barn to look for something suitable…" Artem scratched the top of his head and headed for the front door.

"Go, go, hurry up…" his sister urged him, as if she wanted to get him out as soon as possible.

The hedgehog thought for a moment, then called out to Artem:

"Wait! I remembered, I have a spoon!"

The boy returned to the kitchen.

The hedgehog got his paw behind his back, then pulled it out in front of him.

"Here it is!"

The children approached the table. A small object glistened in the paw of the hedgehog. It was copper, like a repeatedly reduced children's scoop of sand with a carved handle. The brother and sister began vying to ask the hedgehog to let them look at it.

"Sure, but can I eat before that?" Lucien said.

"Yes, yes!"

"We'll wait!"

Both moved closer to the animal and started watching him eat. Lucien was not embarrassed by this. He ate with great pleasure.

Imperceptibly for everyone, Fox entered the kitchen with a lazy gait. Matvey followed him. Of course, there was nothing inconspicuous about the two adult cats. They could not move silently. But the children were so fascinated by the hedgehog and his spoon and Lucien and his porridge that they did not pay attention to the pets.

Fox was taken aback that their younger owners didn't even turn to face them. This, he believed, could happen for two reasons: either he and his brother turned invisible, or died and became ghosts. Looking at Matvey in confusion, the gray cat realized that the first option was not suitable, because his tabby brother was not invisible. But die…

When? How? No, it can't be! Reasoned Fox, gripped by anxiety. In the wool-covered head came another reason, and it seemed worse than death: the owners no longer loved them. From now on, they do not need cats, and they will throw the brothers out into the street. Or they will stop feeding and will wait until they run away. Or until they starve to death if they stay.

The furry brothers sat down next to the sink. And then the gray cat noticed that besides them and the younger owners in the room, there was someone else. Small, with spines… This is a hedgehog! It was sitting right on the table. On the table they're not allowed to climb on! And this is even though they are the main guards of the house against mice, rats, cockroaches, spiders and flies! And this unexpected guest ate, moreover, from a human dish!

The cat drooped sadly because he thought that the third option was correct. He turned his face to Matvey, wanting to find out what he thinks about such an important matter. But his tabby brother had no idea of his mental anguish. Matvey just continuously considered the fly hanging on the ceiling. Looking at his pacified brother, Fox calmed down. He became indifferent to the appearance of the prickly guest in the house; it is only important that the owners do not kick them out and stop feeding them. He hoped that things wouldn't get any worse and stared at the fly, too.

Lucien was done with the porridge, and with a deadpan expression on his face, pulled out one needle from his left side and started picking at it in his mouth like a toothpick.

"I didn't think that the porridge was getting stuck in the teeth." Artem smiled and took a quick look at his sister because he thought that she would again reproach him with his eyes. However, she smiled sweetly.

"No, it's not porridge. A piece of apple," the hedgehog replied. He was full and looked pleased. But after a moment, a good mood came off his face. The serious-looking hedgehog sniffed.

"What's wrong?" Dasha asked with concern.

"This smell has become stronger," the animal said, without stopping to move its antennae.

"What smell?"

The hedgehog did not answer. He realized now that the smell comes from an animal. But he couldn't remember which animal exactly this smell came from, and he turned to the source of the odor. Lucien's eyes immediately got big; he jumped up. His carved spoon flew under the table, accidentally hitting and overturning the plate of nuts. It took the hedgehog only one second to end up in the refrigerator.

The children quickly got out of their chairs, not having time to understand anything. Dasha's chair even fell over.

"What are you doing?" said Artem.

"Take them away! They want to kill me!" Lucien's voice from the top kitchen lockers nervously demanded.

"Who, who wants to kill?" excitedly asked Dasha. After picking up her chair she began to put the dried fruits and nuts scattered on the table back onto the plate.

"These predators! Killers! They didn't just sneak in here! How they looked at me! If I hadn't noticed them… I'd be dead already! I would be, I tell you!" After shouting this, Lucien showed up. He stretched out his paw and pointed at the cats. "Here they are! Here are these tigers! Do you not see them?"

The brother and sister turned to the furry pets. Matvey yawned sweetly because he wanted to sleep from watching the immovable fly. Fox wearily considered his gray paws, bending his face.

"Yeah." That's all Dasha could say.

The hedgehog went back and forth through the kitchen cupboards. He did not calm down and actively gestured with his paws. You would think that his paws had stopped obeying him and moved as they wanted.

"Get them out of here! They came for me! Beasts!"

"These cats, I'm telling you… They are kind," Artem told him.

Lucien resentfully waved his paw at Artem and disappeared from sight. Pulling her chair closer, Dasha climbed up to the lower kitchen cabinets. Holding onto the top of the upper kitchen cabinet door, she stood on tiptoe. Artem climbed next.

The hedgehog sat and sniffed. He looked pitiful and scared.

"Lucien, Fox and Matvey will never offend anyone," Dasha assured Lucien. "You just look at them!"

He approached the edge of the cabinet and looked at the furry brothers. The cats looked at him too, but not as prey but as a troublemaker.

"Well, you see! Let me help you down!" Dasha stretched out her arms to him.

Artem wanted to tell his sister that if Lucien jumped onto the cabinets so quickly and deftly, he could go down without help, but the boy changed his mind in time, imagining what kind of face Dasha would have after these words. Moreover, the hedgehog did not jump into the fridge on his own; he asked to be put there. Apparently, he likes to be taken care of.

The animal recoiled from Dasha and asked her a question:

"Are you… are you sure they're good? Such… harmless?"

"Sure," Dasha affectionately confirmed. "They have been living with us for a long time. They are good, even very good. They even sleep at home at night while other cats hang around everywhere. Do you want me to hold you in my arms?"

"Uh… I think it's time for me. Take me outside… A lot of things await me."

"What do you mean? Where are you going to go?" Dasha inquired with anxiety in her voice.

"How, why?" Artem worried. "But you promised to talk about yourself! And let us see your spoon!"

"You are right… Forgive me."

"The cats are really harmless; you just need to make friends with them." Dasha made another attempt to convince the guest.

Lucien disagreed:

"I don't think it's possible. They are not from Grifost."

"What is it, Grifost?" Artem asked.

"That's the name of my world. All its inhabitants are very decent," explained the hedgehog and he cast an unkind look at the cats. "But there are a lot of predators here."

"They are good; they never hurt anyone," Dasha continued to persuade the hedgehog. "Even mice. And once there was such a funny story…"

"When a mouse ran into our house, right?" Artem interjected with a question quickly.

"Yeah. A little mouse popped into the kitchen. And you know what?"

"What?" Lucien looked interested.

"They were so scared! Both even jumped on this table!"

"Is that really how it happened?" smiled the hedgehog.

"Yes, yes!" the children assured him.

"You will get acquainted with them; now we will arrange everything." Artem confidently took the hedgehog who had become pliable, got off the kitchen cabinet, and put Lucien on the floor. "Just do not run away, okay?"

Lucien stood on his hind paws, gained a full chest of air, closed his eyes and raised his front paws up. Artem slightly pushed the almost sleeping cats towards the hedgehog. The brothers frowned at the younger owner and curled up with their backs to Lucien.

"Hey, what are you both doing?" Artem was outraged. He turned the cats with his faces to the guest and pushed them towards the hedgehog again.

It seems, in front of the unwanted guest again, the cats understood what the owner wanted from them. Matvey was the first to rise as more malleable. The tabby went around the hedgehog, carefully looking at him, thereafter sat down and began twitching his face, sniffing his spines. Lucien lowered his paws and opened his eyes. He looked like he had been given to be eaten and had accepted it. Looking at his brother, Fox also wanted to sniff the intruder too. The cat neared his face to him, but he did it too fast and a couple of the needles got in his nose. Fox backed up, sneezing and winding his head. Matvey finished sniffing, sat down and looked intently into Lucien's eyes. Then he raised his paw and held it up to Lucien's face.

"Don't touch me with your paws." Lucien moved the cat's paw away from him, not allowing it to touch him.

The tabby cat lowered his paw and snorted. He turned his back on the hedgehog, showing neglect.

"Stop showing off!" demanded Dasha.

The cats did not like the appeal of the younger owner. They proudly lifted their muzzles and walked away from the kitchen.

"Two baboons!" Artem said after them.

"Everything is as I thought. They have a terrible temper. Outrageous!" Lucien seems to have already forgotten that he was afraid of the cats just a few minutes ago. He sniffed himself and didn't like the result very much. "Ack!" He started to shake himself off, waving his paws vigorously.

Dasha turned to the table. There are some sweets left on it, a couple of apples and dried fruits.

"Are you still hungry?" she asked Lucien.

"Oh, no. If I eat something else, I will definitely burst," the hedgehog answered and yawned. "I need to lie down; rest a little."

Dasha began to put the food back.

"Let me take you to my room. On a bed," Artem offered the hedgehog.

Lucien went out into the hallway.

"What is the bed?" he asked.

"Well… We sleep on this," explained the boy, approaching the animal. "Such a box is large, with a mattress. And with pillows for heads. And a blanket."

The hedgehog answered nothing, stroking the wall with his paw. Artem realized that the hedgehog was not listening to him.

Dasha wiped the table with a napkin. She retreated back, put her hands on her sides in a businesslike way and looked around the kitchen in search of disorder. The girl's gaze came across two ugly circumstances: a piece of paper on the floor that immediately went straight into the trash can, and a pack of cocoa on the shelf, turned by the name against the wall. Dasha unfurled the cocoa, as expected, and conducted a check inspection of the room with her eyes. Satisfied, she went to her brother and the hedgehog.

After finishing groping at the hallway wall, Lucien passed into the living room.

"What a big seat!" he admired, looking at the sofa. "I've seen similar ones, but not so big ones."

"Yeah, well, it's just a corner sofa, and you've probably seen ordinary ones," Artem said.

"Would you like to rest here?" suggested Dasha.

Lucien remained silent as he looked around.

Artem climbed onto the sofa with his legs and called the hedgehog, tapping his palm on the sofa.

"Jump here! Now you will rest and then you will tell us about your past adventures."

"This seat is big, but it doesn't look right for me. But this is the very thing…" the hedgehog answered thoughtfully and headed against the wall, which had two cat beds: gray for Fox and brown for Matvey. Artem and Dasha's mother bought them last month. She was tired of the cats constantly lying around, anywhere. The brothers like to lie on the floor at home in any place they want, and people often trip over them.

"That's the one I like!" Lucien lounged in the cat bed belonging to Fox. "Just wonderful! Can I sleep here?"

"Well…" the hesitant Dasha replied with a smile.

"Good idea!" Artem cheerfully supported Lucien. "It'll wean them from being arrogant."

"Who are you talking about?"

"Well, who… The cats, of course. These are their beds…"

Artem did not have time to finish how Lucien jumped out of the cat bed.

"Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me?" The indignant hedgehog was dusting himself off with great effort.

"I thought you noticed…" Artem said despondently.

Dasha sat down on the floor in front of the animal.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I wanna help you!" She reached out to him to pull out a small ball of cat wool stuck in his needles.

"No, I can do it on my own," Lucien said, removing her palm. "How could I have noticed? Your house smells like cats everywhere!"

Artem was embarrassed that he did not warn. But ask for forgiveness? It was even unbearable to imagine such a thing. However, he understood that he needed to say something to the animal – sympathize, for example. And he said:

"Don't be mad…"

Dasha looked sternly at Artem. He was frightened that Lucien would be offended and immediately got up from the sofa, approached Lucien and affectionately offered:

"Let me take you to my room. It's really nice to sleep on a bed. It is so soft." Seeing that Lucien hesitated, he added, "You will like it."

"Okay."

Chapter 4. The unexpected guest

Taking Lucien in his arms, Artem went upstairs. The sister followed him, although she was not eager to sneeze constantly from dust in a room with hanging webs. She thought so, because she had only been to her brother's room a few times. The last was before Christmas, when the mom asked her for help with cleaning, and that ended up lasting for a few hours.

"And I've seen these things many times. Only big ones," said the hedgehog, glossing over a car on the wallpaper on the wall.

Dasha stayed at the foot of the bed. Oddly enough, her brother's room was not as dirty as she had imagined. There are no spiders in sight, and there is only one web in the corner behind the door. On the table there is a pile of books, notebooks and plasticine lumps; dust on the chest of drawers; and an inverted backpack lying against the wall. And that's it!

Artem put the hedgehog next to his sister and went to the table. He was embarrassed that Lucien saw his school supplies that were out of place.

It'll be a good lesson for him. Maybe now he will stop throwing things around. Dasha smiled crookedly, noticing her brother's confusion.

"Of course, you saw; many people have them. Our parents have it too. We drive these things. They’re called "cars", Artem explained to the hedgehog, choosing textbooks from the pile. Somehow, he stuffed them into his desk drawer.

"Why do people drive them?"

"Well, on them faster than on foot," replied Artem, pushing the plasticine figures off the table onto the retractable keyboard shelf. When the parents bought this table for a new school year, he immediately adapted this shelf for plasticine. And now there were so many figurines on the shelf that it was difficult to fit new ones.

"Oh!" the hedgehog suddenly shuddered and felt himself from top to bottom, as if checking invisible pockets. "I've lost! Lost my spoon! What will I do without it?"

"We left it in the kitchen! I will bring it now," Dasha said and came out.

Artem carried the hedgehog onto the table and stood nearby.

"You probably know a lot of spells…" he said quietly.

"No, not much. Before, yes, now I have forgotten a lot of things," Lucien answered with sadness in his voice.

There were loud exclamations outside the window, sounds of fuss. The hedgehog turned and looked down at the hot afternoon street. Two women were fighting with their bags in the middle of the street. Natalia Fedorovna sat on the threshold of her house and took turns encouraging one or the other.

"What are they doing?" The hedgehog was surprised.

"Well, they're struggling."

"Why?"

"They probably had a falling out."

"It's abnormal."

"It's normal…"

Dasha returned, twirling the small, shiny thing in her fingers.

"That's what I found!"

Lucien shone.

Dasha handed the hedgehog his valuable item.

"It's good that you remembered about it right away. Fox already wanted to drag it away. I had to take it from him."

"Thank you! Fox, who is it?"

"The cat that's grey. Matvey, tabby, slept, but Fox was walking around it."

"It's hard to expect decency from a predator." The hedgehog looked closely at his thing and rubbed it on his fair tummy.

"You promised to let us see it," Artem reminded him.

"There is something on it – some multicolored spots, but such small ones, you can't see what it is," said Dasha to her brother.

"Right, you need a magnifying glass for it. There are a lot of interesting things on my spoon…" The hedgehog smiled mysteriously.

"A magnifier, right? I have it! Now I will find…" Artem began to take out all the contents from the drawers of the table and throw them on the floor.

The sister looked at the growing pile with displeasure. It seemed like there was everything you could imagine, and even more. Textbooks with notebooks, only removed in the drawer. Colorful erasers in the form of dinosaurs and animals that Artem valued like jewels. Scribbled notebooks for all his school years, starting with the first grade. Lots of broken toys. A heap of rumpled sheets with drawings of robots and alien creatures. Throwing them, Artem almost hit his sister.

"What are you doing?" Dasha waved the papers away.

"What, what… I can't find it!" Artem replied irritably.

"Help you?" Lucien asked the boy calmly.

"No, I'll do it."

Finally, Artem reached the lower drawer. The magnifying glass was securely hidden under Christmas decorations.

"This is it," Artem put it on the table in front of the hedgehog.

Lucien looked at the magnifying glass with such an important and serious expression on his face, as if he were a tenth-generation glass master.

"Yes, it will do," he finally said and stepped back.

Dasha took the magnifying glass by the handle and brought it close to the spoon. Then she lifted it a little higher.

"Whoa…"

"Let me see too!" Artem impatiently demanded.

"One second… Here, take it."

Artem hurriedly sat down in his computer chair, bent over the magnifying glass. There was something to be surprised at: on the handle of the copper object there were many relief images of different animals and birds: a lion, a whale, an eagle, a hare, a tortoise, an antelope and others. Everyone was smaller than a bead and had color, coinciding with the color of the real animal: the lion was sandy beige, the elephant was gray, and the monkey and bear were brown.

"Wow…" the boy said, stunned.

"Why are animals here? Why these animals?" Dasha asked Lucien and returned to bed.

"All of them… I wouldn't call them just "animals." That doesn't sound very respectful." The hedgehog replied.

"Oh, sorry."

"They are the progenitors of all magicians. Fine leaders. They are immortalized on every Grifost's cutlery. It is thanks to them that wizards came to the Earth."

"Grifost is on Earth, right? Where did you come from then? I don't understand…" Artem looked up from the magnifying glass and raised his eyes to the hedgehog.

"It's on Earth, but people can't see it," Lucien replied and took the spoon. He took his paw behind his back and hid his valuable object in his needles. In some unfathomable way, the bronze thing was fixed at the roots of his needles, becoming almost invisible. "I'll tell you from the beginning. For a very long time, all the wizards lived on one of Saturn's moons. At the biggest. You call it "Titan." People call it like that," the hedgehog corrected himself, guessing from the faces of the children that they were hearing about Titan for the first time.

"Wait. Does Saturn have moons? Only a big ring, that's it," Artem doubted.

"Saturn has several dozen moons and many rings. The rings are located close to each other, so it seems like this is only one." Lucien sat on the table's edge and hung down his lower paws.

"Just a minute!" asked Artem, taking out the phone from his pocket. "I'll check it on the Internet!"

"All right," the hedgehog agreed. The word "Internet" was unfamiliar to him, but he did not question the boy. He wanted to share his thoughts and knowledge. For a long time, he had not spoken to anyone. He has already forgotten how pleasant it is. Moreover, he felt that the children would not tell anyone what he would tell them. And how long before there's someone else, can he share his secrets with?

Dasha was not going to wait for her brother.

"He doesn't want to listen!" she said. "Tell me!"

Lucien was surprised by her impatience.

"We're not in a hurry, are we?"

In a hurry, poking his fingers across the screen, Artem typed "Sturn" instead of "Saturn." But a browser anyway found the necessary; Lucien's words were confirmed.

"Yes, that's true," the boy uttered indistinctly, putting his phone in his pocket.

"Can I keep going?" the hedgehog asked.

"Sure…" Artem answered, looking wary of his sister.

"So, it was incredibly hard to live there. Imagine: there is almost no atmosphere, dust stands like fog, visibility is very low, very intensely cold and millions of meteors are flying here and there. The magicians defended themselves from them almost all the time, changed their trajectory, destroyed them and used other methods."

"Why did the wizards settle there? Or were they there from the very beginning?" Dasha asked.

"I don't know that. All history books in Grifost from that time begin. Maybe the wizards were born there. Maybe they flew from there. I didn't find anything about it anywhere. But I tried, yes," the hedgehog sadly explained.

"Books, textbooks?" asked Artem with distrust.

"Yes?"

"You can read?!"

It seems the hedgehog almost lost his speech, so surprised he was.

"Unlike you!" Dasha snorted at her brother.

"I just asked…"

Regaining his composure, Lucien calmly declared:

"I can assure you that I can do more than just read. I know all human languages, even the most ancient ones, which people no longer use. Human languages were not part of my training program; I taught them on my own. As it turned out, it was not in vain. Thanks to this, I can understand you. Should I continue telling?"

"Yes, please," Dasha said, while her brother was focused on his toenails.

"Once the rulers, the ones on the spoon, decided to find a new place to live. They could not decide where to go for a long time. Kerb, who is the lion, suggested one planet. Rinal, the hare, another. Juf, the whale, is the third. Everyone had a celestial body in mind. That prompted a vote. That's how we ended up here."

"That's all?" Artem asked with some frustration.

"What do you mean?"

"I thought you would tell how they got here, how they flew in space; it's such a long distance… Well, between Earth and Saturn."

"Why are you so stupid?" Dasha hissed to her brother. "How can you not understand this?"

"We can move any distance. Magicians, I mean. And the progenitors were extremely strong wizards. A good spell, amplified by every person in attendance, and here we are."

"Ah, now I see… I also wanted to ask…" Artem began carefully and intensely, pretending that he had not heard her sister and didn't notice her at all.

"Of course, what do you want to know?"

"Where exactly is Grifost? You never said."

"It's here on Earth, but you can't get into it without a kebo. It's a magical object, like a badge of honor. They gave it to the most diligent and capable disciples in Grifost. And now, probably, they also give it. A very powerful thing. I also had a kebo." Lucien said sadly. "For me, it was a wig."

"I can't believe!" Artem exclaimed.

"A wig?" Dasha's face lit up with an astonished smile.

"Yes, a wig…" Lucien was confused, not realizing why the children were so amused. "Not a usual one that people wear to hide the absence of hair but made from a substance brought from Saturn. Leonard kept it for many centuries."

"Leonard?"

"Ruler of Grifost. He often said that I have a special ability for magic and a desire for study, which not every wizard has. That's why he gave me kebo." After a little silence, Lucien perked up: "I remembered! I have something else interesting! Show you?"

"Yes!"

"Sure!"

The hedgehog pulled an oval-shaped, dark-blue object resembling a river pebble from his needles and placed it on the table. Artem turned, not getting up from the chair; Dasha came up; both looked at the thing.

"Looks like a stone…" Artem looked inquisitively at the hedgehog. He expected to see something more interesting than a blue piece of rock.

"What is it?" Dasha asked Lucien.

"It's burron. It sings".

"Like a player or a phone? Does it have songs in it?" Dasha clarified.

"No, no. It has no songs. It's alive. Feels the mood of its owner and begins to play something suitable… You just need to push on it. It is so fun! Listen," the hedgehog touched the corner of the little thing with his claw. The object glowed with a cold white light and began to make sounds like hissing and cackling.

The brother and sister looked at each other in confusion.

"I'm sorry. I will now change this language into yours," Lucien said, noticing the bewilderment of the children, and hit the pebble with his finger. A rhythmic melody replaced the strange sounds; almost immediately, the words were heard:

It's time to sing with pleasure,

And enjoy dancing!

Forget about shyness

And overcome everything!

"It's amazing…" Dasha whispered, stunned.

"Well, do you see? It realized that today I'm set for any activity… Wonderful thing," the hedgehog smiled at the children.

The music went quiet.

"Will it sing anything to me? If I want to?" asked Artem.

"No, it only sings to its owner. It can sing to others only, if necessary," Lucien replied, hiding the burron in his needles.

"Did Leonard give it to you too?" Sat down in the chair, Artem looked at the hedgehog.

Dasha sat on the floor with her back against the bed and waved in the face of her palm: "Too hot here."

"No, I found it. There is one special lake in Grifost. The water there is so affectionate and caring; it supports bathers on the surface; you can relax and not think about anything… Lightly rinses with its waves. Melodically seething, motion sickness that you do not notice how you fall asleep… And near it, on the shore, there are so many burrons! And they also glow in the dark."

The hedgehog became so sad, and the children no longer wanted to disturb him with questions.

"Okay," Artem said, and he got out of his chair. "It's time for you to sleep."

"Yes, now I'm lulling you!" The girl picked up.

The boy carried the hedgehog to the bed.

"Lu-lli-ng?" Lucien asked Dasha and looked at the ceiling with tension.

The girl covered him with a blanket.

"You're tired; have a rest…" the girl said affectionately, stroking his needles with her finger.

"Don't be afraid," Artem encouraged the hedgehog, and turned to the pile of things he had thrown out of the drawers of his table. Standing a little with a dejected look, he began to put the things back, not worrying about neatness. Only drawings of monsters remained on the floor. Then the boy started opening and closing the desk drawers, checking to see if anything was sticking out.

"Hey!" Dasha was indignant. "Stop, it's very loud!"

"Okay, okay…"

Artem retreated from the table and began picking up sheets with his

drawings. And suddenly, half straightened, he froze with a concentrated face.

"Did you hear?" he whispered to his sister.

"Heard what?"

"There is someone there!" the brother quickly said and ran out of the room, dropping his drawings.

Lucien frowned and crawled across the bed closer to the wall.

Artem's voice was heard outside the door. A girly voice answered him, which seemed familiar to Dasha.

"I'll go see," she whispered warily, rose, pushed aside the drawings that were getting in the way, and walked out.

Artem was standing one step away from the door of the room, facing the stairs.

"She's not home," he told someone.

Dasha stepped aside and saw on the upper step Nastya who was wearing a short skirt and high-soled sandals. The classmate was leaning her shoulder against the wall.

"Hi!" Nastya waved her friend's hand and, with contempt, glanced at Artem: "She's not home, right?"

"She stood here near the door and eavesdropped," Artem told his sister, turning around.

"Hi, I didn't expect you now…" Dasha muttered, not taking her eyes off her classmate.

Artem looked at his sister with undisguised disapproval. We have a magic hedgehog. Why doesn't she kick this grandstander out of our house?

Nastya went to great lengths to stand out, even trying to make her voice higher and ringing, like the female character of old cartoons. Obviously, she couldn't raise her voice to that pitch. Because of this, the students had to endlessly enjoy her squeaky falsetto during recess. Artem was lucky that he hardly hears or sees Nastya because lessons in her class are held on the second floor underground. But not everyone was so lucky. There were a lot of people at school who detested her, but they didn't show it because they didn't want to attract Tatiana Yulievna's attention. Some schoolchildren fawned over Nastya because of her mother, but Nastya believed that this was only her merit, and she became increasingly inflated with her own importance. Also, teachers avoid asking Nastya in class – half of a lesson will pass while she answers, emphasizing stresses and deliberately stretching words.

"I noticed. You promised to come. I've been waiting for you for half a day. I called a million times. Have you lost your phone?" Nastya said to Dasha, making pronounced spaces between words. Of the three, only she was in a good mood, as if eavesdropping under the door was a common thing for her.

"Uh-uh… no. I didn't have time."

"What do you do? Something important?" Nastya approached Dasha. At every step, her high sandals tried to lay to one side or the other. It was like the first time she wore shoes like this, although in fact she had been wearing high heels for several months.

"Nothing, go home," Artem said, looking at the floor. Why, why doesn't his sister kick her out?

Nastya casually dismissed Artem as something insignificant and almost lost her balance again.

"I know you have someone here," she said to Dasha. "Who are you hiding?"

"We do not hide anyone…" Dasha started to answer, but Artem didn't let her finish. He interrupted his sister and rudely shouted to the impudent girl:

"Get out!"

Nastya gave him a dismissive look and turned her head to Dasha.

"I see it's pointless to speak to you," she delivered, singing "pointless". "Then I'll check it myself." She went to the door to Artem's room with a shaky gait.

Angry, Artem blocked her path.

"Where are you going? To MY room?"

"Get out of my way!" commanded Nastya, as if she did not want to get into someone else's room but into her own.

Artem did not move. Then Nastya sneaked between him and the wall and almost reached the door handle. But Artem pushed her and pressed his back against the door. Nastya began to rest on his side with her hands, trying to push him away.

"Scram, you, stupid!" she jangled in an ordinary, nonmusical voice.

Artem stood firmly, not giving the guest any opportunity to get into the coveted room, beat her on her hands, and threatened, "I'll throw you down the stairs!"

Dasha looked at the struggle with a dejected expression; her fingers were crossed, and her hands were hanging down. She did not like the manner of her classmate, but it was scary to object she did not want to be the next Maria Bratishko or Arina Lokhanskaya. Nastya used to be friends with them, but now she tells nasty things about them and their families everywhere. Also, she got her mother to gossip about them.

"Freak! Get out of here!" Nastya yelled, pushing Artem.

"Crazy chicken, come on, come on, stick your hand here; I'll pinch it now with the door…" Artem was sentencing, pulling Nastya's hand to the gap between the door and the door opening, while the nasty girl tried to grab the door handle. In addition, now and then, the boy glanced at his sister with a call to action.

And Dasha made up her mind.

"Nastya! We don't have anyone! Go home!" she exclaimed and held her mouth in her palm, frightened by her voice, which seemed too loud. She took a step back.

The fight stopped immediately. Nastya pulled her palm out of Artem's grip and slowly turned her head on her friend. Her mouth was open. Obviously, she was going to tell Artem some other nasty thing, but Dasha distracted her.

Artem snorted and laughed:

"Close your verbally-diarrhea plant!"

This time Nastya obeyed because her mouth immediately closed.

So, she's not totally deaf, Artem thought.

Nastya's eyes were full of rage.

"I didn't think that you would both say the same thing!" she spoke despitefully. Turned around, went to the stairs, and hobbled down. "You will hear a lot of new and interesting things about yourself!" she shouted and slammed the front door with all her might.

"Ah… I'll close the door." Artem, who was looking calm, walked down the steps.

Dasha silently followed her brother. She was anxious; even her hands were shaking.

"By the way," Artem asked when he came to the door, "How did she come in? I thought we closed the door when we came back."

"She knows where the spare key is."

Artem nodded and opened the door. He poked his head outside and winced at the smell of burnt rubber.

"Neighbors a few houses burning garbage again," he muttered.

The key was inserted into the lock. The key fobs with plastic felt boots and a Turkish eye, hanging from it, still danced in the air. Artem pulled out the key, locked the door, put the bunch on the shelf of the hallway, and turned to his sister.

"Okay, let's see what Lucien is doing."

Chapter 5. The note

Back in the room, the children saw that the hedgehog with a lost look was sitting on the floor.

"We can't leave it like this. We must do something," he told them and lowered his face.

The phrase sounded finished and well-crafted, as if all the time that brother and sister spent with the hasty girl, the hedgehog diligently thought over and memorized every word. Artem even came to mind that this phrase is like an advertising slogan.

The brother and sister sat down on the floor in front of the hedgehog.

"But what can we do?" Dasha said quietly. Besides that, she was worried about Monday; that day she would have to see at school Nastya, who never left her threats unfulfilled.

But for Artem, this vague call to action was not enough.

"What are you talking about?" he asked the hedgehog.

Dasha bit her lip and looked at her brother.

"About this girl, of course!" Lucien clearly did not expect this question.

The hedgehog's answer also did not clarify anything for Artem. Feeling nervous, the boy turned around, looking for something to fix his gaze on. I can't understand these aphorisms. Not all people are very shrewd! If I had listened to Ira Stanislavna better in class, maybe then everything would have been different. At that moment, Artem didn’t care that Stanislavna was the same kind of teacher as a plane passenger afraid of heights was a pilot.

"What's wrong with her? I really don't understand…" He paused, looking at the pillow intently.

The hedgehog was silent. Artem turned his gaze to Dasha, hoping that she would explain. His sister freed him from the gravity of the unknown.

"She loves to chew the rag! Do you understand this?" the sister said with reproach.

A smile appeared on Artem's face.

"Well, I know it! What does it matter to us? Let her talk as much as she wants!"

Dasha and Lucien did not support him.

"She'll tell everyone about it everywhere; she will tell her mother. Very quickly, this news will be known to all Simfulensk! Can you imagine what will happen? It's all my fault…" Dasha said.

Artem was bursting to cheer up his sister because it's not all that bad. He thought, choosing the right words, but the ones circled in the head did not fit. He got angry at his own sluggishness and involuntarily said the first thing that came to mind.

"You're not in the right place to repent."

Dasha gave him a displeased look. Artem stared at the floor. It's all the fault of my dumb brain! He could not apologize to his sister either because even eating a bowl of cat food seemed easier. The boy rose and walked around the room, looking nervously at the table, then at the bed, then on the walls. The hedgehog watched him dejected. Finally, Artem forced himself to stop. He leaned his back against the table, grabbed the edges of the plasticine shelf with his palms, and declared, with a pretentious expression, looking straight ahead:

"But she saw nothing!"

Putting her palm to her forehead, Dasha dipped her head.

"It was enough for her just to hear," the girl said, rubbing her face with her hand.

"Can you erase her memory?" Artem glanced at the hedgehog.

"No, I don't remember the spell."

A brainstorming session started without any warning. Artem's lips spread in a rogue smile less than a minute later.

"Why don't you just put a spell on her?"

He imagined several situations, but he chose not to voice them. In the first, Nastya's mouth ran away. It came off her face like a sticker. In the second, she rushed into the sky like a ball filled with helium. She flew higher and higher, helplessly jerking her legs and arms and screeching from fright. And in the last one, the grandstander had the intelligence of a frying pan and moved on all fours, chewing clover with cows and goats.

"Are you nuts?" Dasha boiled viciously at her brother, and he scowled.

"You can't cripple a person because of some secret," Lucien shook his head, as if somehow seeing everything that Artem imagined.

"So, what can we do? To go to her and make her not tell anyone?" Artem asked the hedgehog.

"How do you imagine it?" Dasha smirked.

Artem did not answer.

"This girl is very impressionable, right?" After a little pause, the hedgehog asked Dasha.

"And curious?"

"It seems to me that if she were to be distracted by anything exceptional in her understanding, she would not remember what she heard here," the hedgehog suggested.

"I know what will work!" immediately blurted out Artem. "To make a hole in the middle of her yard all the way to the very center of Earth! ("I'm sick of you!" crossed Dasha’s face) Or write a note anonymously, make up stuff like "a treasure is hidden in your house." And slip it to her, with such a message, she will forget her name!"

The hedgehog thought a little and said:

"This plan with a note is a little cruel, but you are right, it must be effective. Let's do it."

"Is it possible to age a note, for example, to make it look like it's been kept since the century before last?" Artem asked. Feeling more confident, he sat in the chair and put his hands on the armrests. The chair's back went back and creaked.

"I can. Give me a piece of paper."

"Any?"

"Yes."

Artem quickly opened the desk drawer, pulled out a clean notebook, tore the first piece of paper out and put it in front of the hedgehog. Then he sat down on the floor next to Lucien.

"Tell me this girl's address," Lucien asked.

"Shadow street, 48." Dasha answered.

The hedgehog touched the piece of paper with the fingers of his front paw.

"Lirops!"

The children felt the cold begin to emanate from the piece of paper. The piece of paper became dirty yellow, roughened, and its edges became uneven. Then a text written in black ink and beautiful calligraphic handwriting appeared on it:

The gold coins hid in the attic, address: Shadow Street 48.

There was no one at home. I sneaked across the back of the yard, unnoticed.

"Done! All that remains is to deliver this. I would do it, but I don't know where this girl lives. One of you should do it. But it is necessary to make sure that no one can see you."

"Well, we're not superheroes; how can we be invisible? And we also do not have an invisible mantle!" Artem's face appeared bewildered. Noticing that his palm was soiled in the plasticine, the boy wiped it against his T-shirt.

"I know one spell that makes the bewitched invisible. But it does not mute voices; on the contrary, it makes them louder."

Artem straightened his back. Returning to its place, the back of the chair creaked with relief.

"Why would we drown out our voices? Invisible people aren't mute! And they're not noiseless. It's completely different!" he said enthusiastically, already imagining himself invisible.

"Voices get a lot louder. It's a spell; it's like… Visibility decreases, and voice enhances," explained the hedgehog.

"What if we try another spell? Is there anything similar?" asked Dasha, straightening her stiff legs.

"There's another one that isn't suitable at all. That spell does not affect voices. Instead, it increases the body by about ten times or more."

"It's even cooler!" Artem exclaimed and inquiringly looked at the hedgehog: "Do all your spells have a catch? Side effects?"

"No, not every. Only a few of them," Lucien smiled with restraint.

"Do voices get much louder?" asked Dasha.

"Yes. A whisper, for example, turns into a scream."

The girl shook her head.

"Then it's not a good idea for us. Well, think: we will become invisible. What if some words break out? And then what? A disaster!"

"Right," the hedgehog agreed.

Yes, a loud voice may create difficulties, but not so much that we would change our minds about doing it at all! Artem thought.

"And if someone small becomes invisible, his voice will be quieter than that who is the size of a person?" After a little thought, Dasha clarified.

"Of course."

"Then I would send someone small there, the size of a cat. We could send our cats, if that would be possible." It seems Dasha didn’t believe what she was saying.

"I doubt that they can be assigned a similar mission," Lucien replied to her.

Artem looked at his sister. Mentally, he was outraged.

She does not want to put a spell on Nastya, but she considers it a good idea to do this with our cats. She even offers to do it!

"Do you seriously think they could do that? They are lazy. And how will they understand what to do? How can we explain it to them? This is nonsense." He told her.

How much he wants to become invisible!

"Very simple, in fact," the hedgehog gently objected to Artem. "I can make them not only invisible, but also speak and understand speech, respectively. However, I repeat, I don't think it's a good idea to delegate them to do it."

"Speaking?" Dasha was surprised.

Artem laughed.

"He-he! Speak? Seriously, can you make these slobs speak?"

"Yes."

Dasha threw up her hands.

"Maybe entrust it to them? In any case, we have no other ideas." she said, looking Lucien in the eyes.

"Bring the cats here," the hedgehog said without much desire.

Okay, let the cats do it. Later I'll ask Lucien to make me invisible, too. When Dasha would not be nearby, Artem decided and went after his sister. Going down the stairs, he never stopped being surprised.

"The cats will talk! He-he! It is even difficult to imagine!"

"Yes, funny," Dasha said.

The children noticed Fox from the stairs: the cat was eating again. He was dipping his face into the bowl, grunting and whistling. His tabby brother was full-length on the kitchen floor and watched the gray brother.

Artem took Fox. The cat's muzzle was covered in his food from his eye to his throat.

"Look at him!" showed Artem cat Dasha. "Pig!"

She said with a laugh:

"Real pig!" Then she looked at the line of cat food on the floor and said to her brother, "We need to wash the floor."

"There are more important things to do now… So, when we're done, then you can do it," the brother didn't hesitate to answer.

"I thought we would wash the floor together."

"I'm not capable of that, you know."

The sister gave him a long, angry look, then said:

"All right, grab him, I'll take the second one."

"Okay," Artem replied, wiping Fox's face with his T-shirt. The gray cat sneezed and began to lick his paws. Artem deliberately exclaimed loudly, "Awful! What a nasty pet!"

Dasha knelt in front of the tabby cat:

"Well, let's go."

The cat looked up at her and purred knowingly. The girl held the cat against her and headed up the steps. The relaxed Matvey dangled like a sock drying on a street clothesline.

Returning to her brother's room, Dasha saw that preparations for the ritual were in full swing, and she was a little confused. Artem guarded the gray cat, who slunk back into a corner near the closet. Lucien walked in circles around the room. Either he appreciated the actions of Artem (Yes, yes, good, let him sit like that, you just stay there!), then he mumbled something unintelligible and rolled his eyes, then he condemned the furry brothers for being ill-mannered. The monster drawings were piled up against the wall. Apparently, Artem just moved them there to keep them out of the way. Probably he was too lazy to pick them up from the floor. The note was on the table.

"Close the door and give me Matvey," Artem told his sister.

Dasha silently gave her brother the cat and sat on the floor near the bed.

The hedgehog turned to the children.

"First, we will make them talk. Getting started?"

Artem shouted "Yes!" confidently, and his sister said the same, but with doubt.

"Move a little," Lucien asked Artem. "I need to stand right in front of these animals."

The boy obeyed. The hedgehog looked at the cats point-blank, raised his paws smoothly and pointed it at their faces. The furry brother's eyes turned truly insane.

Artem watched Fox and Matvey with a diabolical smile, but Dasha was worried about them. And if Lucien accidentally stutters and the spell does not work correctly? Or if he forgets some words? Or will he pronounce the spell incorrectly and mix up words?

"Wait a minute!" she exclaimed, rising.

Artem frowned. The furry brothers looked at Dasha with gratitude and with a plea for help at the same time.

"Why?" The hedgehog was sincerely surprised, turning on Dasha.

"I… If something goes wrong…"

"Sweet girl, you shouldn't worry. Everything will be fine with them. Don't forget, you have one of Leonard's best students in front of you. And this means a lot," the hedgehog assured her with calm and confidence.

"Are you sure they will be alright?"

"No doubt."

"Well, if so… I just thought…" Dasha explained in an apologetic tone. "And these spells – what are they, temporary? The cats won't always stay like this?"

"Of course, they're temporary. Continue?"

Dasha nodded shyly and sat down on the floor. Lucien turned to the cats and again pointed his paw at them. He whispered a long word in an unknown language with outlandish pronunciation. Leaving his paw in the same position, he lowered his head. A moment later, a tiny snow-white balloon burst out of his claw. It bifurcated, and both balls rushed into the faces of the terrified pets, crashed between their eyes, forcing the pupils of both cats to be directed to their noses, and the balls disappeared. It seems they penetrated inside their heads, bypassing wool and skin.

The cats howled and jumped out of the corner. Artem and the hedgehog barely managed to get out of their way. Both furry pets began to shake their heads, sizzle and squeal, as if they were possessed by demons. It seemed the balls of light that had penetrated the pets were hurting them badly every second. Even the eternally relaxed Matvey did not look like himself. Previously, he demonstrated madness only when someone bathed him. Once, even so zealously, that he kicked his paws on the faucet that it fell off.

Artem and his sister crawled to the wall. Lucien joined them.

Dasha's heart sank again.

"It's bad for them, you see?" she told the hedgehog, saddened.

"It can't cause harm to them. They just show their terrible temper." Lucien replied.

The cats were shaking their heads as if they shot their eyes around the room without stopping for anything longer than a second.

"Heh! If they had lasers instead of eyes, like Scott Summers, then we would have to live on the streets," Artem grinned.

After exploring the whole room with their eyes, Fox and Matvey turned their heads at the hedgehog. Staring at him, they began to open and immediately close their mouths, slamming them like pot lids. Both drooled like a stream. Their chins got wet; their drools hung like stalactites, dripping on the floor. Slamming mouths began to occur less often, but they opened wider. The first sounds began to be heard from the mouths, different from purring or meowing. The sounds were like clearing the throat before spitting.

"B-r-r… i-hi-x-x-x-i-i-k...."

"K-k-k-f-r… it-y-y-f…"

The intervals between opening and closing mouths became longer and longer; the sounds heard sounded clearer and more distinguishable. Then the slammings stopped, the cats' mouths closed, but their eyes lit up with hatred. Both brothers rushed as if on command towards the hedgehog. Artem covered Lucien with his hand and barked at them:

"Stop!"

Fox and Matvey braked sharply in front of the younger owner's palm, almost turning over.

"Now I see how kind they are!" Lucien said. He was no longer afraid of the fluffy brothers.

Dasha embarrassingly tried to justify Fox and Matvey:

"Er, they are just fooling around."

The cats kept their anger-blazing eyes on Lucien and began to open and close their mouths again, this time on their own.

"K-re-x-t… Har… Y-you!… u… u… P-prick-ckly! B-bag!" Fox said with great difficulty.

"Br-tan… in-howl… Mon… mon… Mon-n-n-ster!… nee… with need-l-l-les!" the tabby cat hardly said.

Lucien pointed his paw at the furry brothers and firmly declared:

"It is unacceptable to behave like this."

The cats jumped on the bed, curled up with their backs to the others. They didn't stop trying to talk, but they didn't dare call names anymore.

"Hen-n-n… Bro-o-o… Nao-o-k-k! E-k-o-o-t-t… Fe-e-e!"

"Well, as always…" Dasha said with condemnation.

"Hey, why are you guys laying down?" Artem asked the cats.

"Turn around, please!" the hedgehog addressed them.

The pets obeyed the hedgehog. Fox looked embittered and his tabby brother confused. There was no doubt that they understood all that was said to them and could answer.

"Do you know this girl who came here today?" Lucien asked them.

"M-m-may-b-by, w-we kn-now. D-does it-t mmatterr?" hissed Fox.

Artem grinned and moved up to his sister.

"How do you think they will talk like parrots all the time?"

"I don't know," Dasha smiled meekly, not looking at her brother.

"Yes, until the spell ceases to act," Lucien said to Artem and continued to tell the cats, "It matters because we want to entrust you with one task."

Matvey asked him:

"W-hat-t's tas-sk?"

"You'll have to take this note to that girl." The hedgehog pointed the note to the cats. The brothers looked at the note without interest.

"Why d-did you-u thi-ink m-we woul-ld agree-e-e? You-u do it-t!" said Fox. He got up and began to walk along the bed, arrogantly raising his head.

Matvey got up and approached his brother, looking into his eyes. Fox stopped, not realizing what was on his brother's mind. Matvey raised his paw and slapped Fox in the face.

"Don-n-'t sho-oww off-f!" And the tabby cat lay down where he stood.

Fox's eyes rounded in surprise.

"Oh!" the hedgehog said.

The brother and sister looked at each other with smiles on their lips: they had never seen anything like this before. Although it was funny, Artem decided to intervene. Who knows what the cats will do? They might want to fight, then they will turn out to be bad spies. The agents should be calm and judicious; you can't send feuding or mad persons on a mission because it'll end badly. Artem knew this very well from cartoons.

"Listen! I'll explain it to you. Nastya, this girl, found out something that should not be known…"

"Is that at our house?" The tabby cat didn't let his owner finish, pointing his paw at Lucien.

The hedgehog took what the cat said with dignity.

"I have a name," he said. He approached Dasha, and she stroked him with her fingers on his back.

"Yes, exactly. It's no good she found out, but there's nothing you can do about it. But we can't let her tell anyone about this. For this you will take the note to her, and it'll distract her."

"Wwe kn-n-now sh-h-he likkes tto t-talk. Sh-he ssaid mean-nn th-thin-n-ngs ab-boutt us, thatt wwe arre s-st-st-tuppid. Wwe s-saw it-t." clucked Matvey.

"Well, you see," Artem nodded at him.

Fox was in no hurry to agree.

"Annnyw-way. Itt's nn-not m-m-my b-b-busin-nes-s-s. I wwon't d-do it-t-t!"

Fox felt uncomfortable under the gaze of Artem, the hedgehog and Matvey. He tucked his paws under himself but was not going to refuse the decision.

"Well, we'll have to come up with something different…" said the hedgehog, unhappily.

"Can't Matvey do it alone?" Artem asked Lucien.

"I wwon't-t ddo it-t allone!" The tabby cat objected.

"That's not a good idea," replied the hedgehog to Artem.

Artem sat down on the floor near his sister and Lucien.

Dasha was lost in thoughts. We've spent so much time talking, we're maybe already too late, and Nastya's already told everyone everything, and now probably Artem and Dasha's mom and dad's phones are ringing nonstop in a hurry to break interesting news. But anyway, another attempt to make the stubborn cat will not be superfluous. Having come to this conclusion, the girl rose and went to bed. Fox raised his head on her with a surprised fright. He thought that everything was simple: he would express his opinion, which was the only right one, and everyone would agree. But it didn't happen.

"You may not go if you have decided so," the girl told him. "But I want to warn you: I will not wipe up your food from the floor anymore. So, think about what will happen to you if our mother steps on it not twice a day, but five or more."

Does my sister wash the floor so often after Fox? Artem was surprised.

The hedgehog watched what was happening with interest. Only Fox became upset, imagining the older owner yelling at him loudly, to the point of hoarseness, and threatening him with a rag. Not wanting to listen to her, the cat runs off as fast as he can, sliding on turns and almost falling on his side, but the owner catches up with him and scolds him with the worst words. Grabs him and pokes his face into spilled food. Fox wriggles and gets hit in the back with a rag. Then she takes the cat out on the doorstep and kicks him in the butt. Twisting in the air a couple of times, the cat falls into the grass.

"Un-n-fai-r-rly…" Fox muttered plaintively.

"Fairly, fairly!" Dasha mimicked him.

"Okkay, I wwil-l ddo it-t…" The gray cat obeyed, looking anywhere, just not at the harsh personality towering over him. "C-cann wwe ttake s-s-somme ffood wwith us-s? Wwhat-t iff wwe s-s-stay therre t-too ll-long annd g-get hhun-ngry?"

Artem laughed.

"Where are you gonna put that food? Will you stuff it in your mouth like a hamster?"

Dasha sat on the edge of the bed and gently stroked the furry brothers, as if it wasn't she who just put conditions, but someone else.

Lucien came to bed and jumped on the girl's knees.

"I will make you invisible now," he told the cats.

"I-invissibl-l-le?" Fox rose with a dazed look. "Wwe d-didnn't agr-ree tto thatt!"

"You've already agreed to go, and that's necessary for this," Lucien told him.

"A-as I as eas-silly aggreed-d, s-so easily wwill rrefus-se!"

Artem approached the bed.

"Quiet, you!" he shouted at the cat. "Forgot what your owner told you?"

"I r-remmember…"

"Then I'll add. If our parents find out about Lucien, then it is impossible to even imagine what will happen later. Now you're the only one who can help avoid this, and if the parents find out, you'll be the only one to blame! This is the first and only time we've asked for your help, and what do we get?" said Artem strictly and clearly.

"If-f I ddo o-nnlly thiss… Iff you-u ddon't-t forc-ce mme tto do an-nythin-ng elsse…" The cat looked at her like a cunning fox trapped in a crowd of hunters.

"Yes. Only this," Dasha confirmed, swiping her fingertips over the needles of the hedgehog.

Fox dutifully lowered his head. Lucien jumped onto the table, glowing. He took out the burron and put it in front of him. A cheerful tune began to flow from the little thing. The hedgehog began to dance, holding the pebble with both paws above his head.

I'm jumping in a meadow,

I'm sniffing tall grass.

I will sing dragonflies

I'm gonna howl at the Moon!

Artem grabbed his sister's hands and whirled with her, jumping from one foot to the other.

"Yay! Yay!"

Fox was flattered. Everyone is so happy about his agreement; it seems this is very important. He turned his muzzle to Matvey, wanting to make sure that the tabby cat was also satisfied. But he saw only cold and discontent in the eyes of his brother, which made him feel embarrassed.

Lucien calmed down and turned the burron off. Artem and Dasha lay down on the floor.

"We start?" Lucien asked the children.

"Yep," Artem agreed, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his T-shirt. "What stuffiness is here…"

"Open the window; you can still," suggested his sister.

"It's hot there too, like a steam room!"

"It's a little cooler there."

Artem rose, went to the window, and opened the vent. A light, warm wind blew into the room.

The hedgehog, holding the enchanted note in his paw, jumped from the table to the bed and was right in front of the pets.

"First, listen to the task that is assigned to you. Do you know where this girl lives?"

"Yes." Matvey quickly answered.

Fox stopped the narrow gaze at his brother.

"W-w-why ddo you-u knnow b-but I ddon't?"

The tabby cat froze:

"Er-r, you-u knnow… er…"

"You two can discuss it later." Artem firmly interrupted them.

"Ok-kay, wwe're l-listenning," Fox obeyed meekly.

"You need to get to this girl's house without anyone noticing you," Lucien continued.

"Like mice!" Dasha prompted.

"Ew-w, mmice," the gray cat wrinkled his face. "D-donn't rem-mind mme ab-bout mic-ce!"

"Oh, okay, okay…" Dasha replied with a condescending smile. "I forgot, you don't like mice…"

Lucien continued:

"And you can't talk. Your voices will become very loud."

"This is in-n-terrestinnng…" Fox said, imagining how he and his brother walk streets and scare dogs away with their loud voices.

"H-how arre wwe g-going to t-talk to each-ch othe-err? Wwe will-l n-need it-t!" Matvey asked the uninvited guest, discouraged.

"You won't need to do this. When you get there, leave this note in her yard." Lucien held out the piece of paper to the tabby cat, and Matvey clamped it in his teeth. "Somewhere in a prominent place. But don't go into her house! That's it. After that, you can come back."

"S-sounnds ea-easy," Fox said.

"Then let's start," Lucien replied, raising his paw.

"Wait a second," Dasha asked him and told Matvey: "Put the note down for now, otherwise it will also become invisible."

"No, you don't need to put the note aside. I do it on purpose so that the note is invisible until they deliver it," said the hedgehog. "When they do this, it will become visible."

"Ah, okay," Dasha said.

Lucien pointed his paw at the cats.

Fox's eyes widened.

"Will I feel pain now?" Matvey curled up, hiding his head.

"Not at all. As with the previous spell," the hedgehog answered him. Then he froze and whispered something barely audible. The children only on moving his mouth and twitching his antennae guessed that he was not just frozen.

Then a whitish veil formed literally out of nowhere around the furry brothers. At first barely noticeable, it became increasingly impenetrable. The cats tried touching it with their paws, but how can you touch something that's like fog? Having reached complete opacity, the veil rapidly dissipated. The bed was empty, and the pets disappeared, as if they were not there.

"They're here, right?" Artem quietly asked the hedgehog.

"Sure…" The hedgehog answered and gazed around the room. "Give us a sign or…"

Lucien failed to finish the sentence: the loud "Wwhatt?" like a hurricane swept through the room, shaking the walls and furniture. Dust from the table and from the closet flew off and hung in the air. The ceiling lamp hanging on a wire turned like a propeller. The monster drawings that had been lying aside were now scattered all over the room. The hedgehog was thrown into the wall like a puck into the goal. He fell on the floor with his paws stretched out to the sides. The children with closed eyes and with their hands over their ears recoiled into the center of the room and bumped into each other's backs.

The blast of wind left behind a mess and a sickening smell of cat canned food. It seems that "the aromas" from the mouths of Fox and Matvey intensified along with their voices.

Lucien rose.

"Well, it's alright now," he said, picking in his ears with his claws. "It's time for you. Hurry up. Don't forget to remain silent!" he commanded, having no idea where to look.

"O-okkay. Llet u-us ooutt" rang out from near the door. These words sounded a little quieter and affected only the bed. The sheet and the blanket on it soared for a second, like a sail that caught a tailwind. The pillow jumped from the bed to Dasha's legs.

"One second!" Artem shouted, opening his eyes. "Just don't say anything else!"

"O-okkay," agreed a thunderous voice, causing the sheets of drawings to flutter everywhere.

Artem opened the door and ran out of the room.

"I didn't think it would be that loud," Dasha said, her hands removed from her ears. “And how did the cats not become deaf?”

"I think I made a little mistake in the comparison," admitted the hedgehog. "But they can't go deaf. To them, their voices seem like normal volume."

Artem returned and blurted out: "Hurray, they're gone!" After that, he started picking up the drawings from the floor.

"Now all we can do is wait. I hope they don't do anything wrong," said the hedgehog.

Chapter 6. The wool poltergeists

The obnoxious human person lives not far away on Shadow Street, which is located parallel to Surprise Street. The tabby cat with the note in his mouth and Fox climbed over the fence at the back of the owners' yard and hurried through the overgrown garden belonging to the hostile old man Vasily. It remains to cross his yard, run across the street – and that's it; they'll be their place of destination.

Fox and Matvey considered Vasily Ilyich crazy because of his gratuitous hatred of representatives of the cat family. Besides, not so long ago the old man became allergic to cat hair, which had never manifested before in all his seventy-five years of life. Now his nose began to itch badly every time the old man saw a cat in his yard. The old man cursed and sneezed, splashing snot. Then he'd take off his boot from his leg and threw it at a cat. Then he chased an animal to the very fence, and it overcame at the speed of an intercontinental missile. As soon as the enemy was outside the old man's yard, all allergy symptoms magically disappeared, and Vasily, with a look of victory, went home in one boot. After that, he was always in no mood to climb nettles in search of a second boot.

Fox and Matvey often had to meet the old man thanks to their friendship with Vasily's dog Strelka, the half-breed of a German shepherd and mongrel. Vasily took her from an animal shelter last year.

The old man often swore at the dog because she loved cats with all her soul; she did not want to offend and drive them away. "I want no lousy cat to set foot on my land!" Ilyich often thundered at her with a raucous, senile voice, but it didn't help. That is why the old man regularly "re-educated" Strelka: locked her in the pantry and starved. The gray cat and Matvey knew about this and tried to be discreet and not to frame for their friend. However, it was impossible to hide from Vasily Ilyich with the dog sitting on a chain.

As the cats were running past the fifty-gallon barrel of green stagnant water, Fox felt the urge to poke fun at Strelka. Put some grass in her doghouse or move her bowl. The cat was sure that it would be funny. But, having passed through the young cabbage beds, the cats saw that the doghouse was empty. The crazy man locked her again! The fluffy brothers thought at the same time and exchanged glances. They were invisible to others but could see each other. Matvey hastened to put his paw to his mouth, reminding his brother about the need to keep quiet. Fox shook his head in agreement. Then the tabby cat pointed his paw toward the street and decisively headed there. We'll be back here soon, the gray cat decided and moved after his brother.

The cats climbed over the mildewed wooden fence of the old man and walked along the side of the street. They were ahead of the funeral procession of a couple of dozen old women and old men. The procession was led by the slowly moving bus with the acid-color inscriptions on the sides:

A DECENT FUNERAL – THERE IS NOTHING EASIER

The man, who was one of the last to walk, was dressed in three pants: white long johns, trousers and jeans on top of the others, and with winter boots on his feet. He complained to the limping man beside him about his freezing feet. All his pants kept falling off, and he pulled them up with every step.

Following his brother, the gray cat returned to the very important question: how does Matvey know where that girl lives? The brothers always walk together, and if Matvey knows where she lives, then I should know too. But I don't know. The cat was determined to ask his brother when they returned home.

After six hundred feet, the cats got to the right house. Crossed to the other side of the street, they climbed between the iron bars of the fence to the white brick-lined house.

At the same time, a cat of angelic appearance climbed into Nastya's yard through a gap in the side fence. White, short-tailed, with a silver butterfly on its collar. A silly smile appeared on Fox's face, while Matvey frowned like a rain cloud. The white cat strolled in the yard, enjoying the sun. But, as soon as she noticed the brothers, her mood changed. Hissing menacingly, she moved toward the brothers. The gray cat did not move; it seemed that the mind had left him. The tabby cat, squeezing the jaws holding the important note more strongly, backed up and slipped under the viburnum bush.

"Musya, Musya! Kitty-kitty-kitty!" Suddenly, a female voice was heard from behind the fence.

The angel with ominous eyes snorted ferociously, rushed to the call of the owner, and disappeared into the hole in the fence. The tabby cat crawled out from under the viburnum bush. He approached his brother from behind and touched Fox's back with his paw. Fox turned around, as if waking up from a dream.

The cats returned to their task. They ran along the stone-lined path deep into the courtyard, looking around, thinking about where to leave the note. They did not find any suitable place, but the hedgehog forbade them to enter the house. What to do? Where to put the note? With the help of gestures, the cats agreed to take their time and think about a good place for the note. And to make it easier to think, they returned to the front garden and lay down on soft grass under the window, from which a conversation was heard.

"So, they're hiding something? Someone?" Nastya's mother asked in a deep, almost masculine voice.

The brothers pricked up their ears.

"I'm sure this is someone crazy. Demented," answered a tall girly voice.

"Why are you whistling? Stop it! It's already making my ears hurt!" Tatiana Yulievna barked at her daughter.

"Okay, okay, mom," Nastya chirped in a normal voice.

"Why demented?" Tatiana Yulievna asked harshly.

"Cause, this man, this is definitely not a woman, I understood by his voice…" Nastya began.

"Did you eavesdrop?" Tatiana Yulievna interrupted her daughter, roaring so loudly and furiously that the cats shuddered. "No, it just can't be! I couldn't even imagine that my daughter could spy! Shame, it's a big shame!"

Nastya kept quiet.

"Shame on you! They should invite you and show you everything! The way everybody invites me!" Her mother resented, louder and louder.

She lied – nobody invited her and, moreover, showed her nothing. She had to obtain important information on her own, patiently huddling against the walls of houses, wiping windows with her clothes. Conversations about money were the most interesting because Yulievna wanted to know about every neighbor's sale and purchase in advance. But she always listened to the end of conversations about everything else. She believed that this daily ritual of hers allowed her to stay abreast of city events, and she could not imagine her life without this. If some day she had to miss "her walk," she would stop at a window of her house and start whining like an animal locked in a cage. She stood and howled all day and all night, driving her daughter, weak-willed husband and closest neighbors crazy.

"They didn't, so I had to do this. That man is dangerous and crazy! I wanted to help…"

Her mother roughly broke her off.

"Enough. Why is he crazy?"

The gray cat was so fascinated by eavesdropping that the task with the note slipped his mind.

"Ah… he was talking some nonsense about planets. He told how he flew to Earth. From a satellite! Talk about magical lakes… About wigs, singing stones… I almost laughed at this point. It's so funny…"

"Psycho," Tatyana Yulievna diagnosed.

"And one more thing…"

"What?"

"When The Babakins noticed me, they rushed to fight me!" Nastya pretended to cry.

"WHAT?" Her mother yelled. Immediately after this, there was a sharp sound of chair legs moving on the floor tiles. It seems that she quickly got up from the chair out of indignation.

Outraged, Fox rose sharply. He was not the smartest of animals, but he could distinguish lies from truth. Moreover, he saw everything when he lay on the kitchen floor. But what about his brother? Is he probably also shocked by such a big lie? The gray cat looked at him and became angry: the tabby cat slept sweetly, twitching his antennae thanks to a blade of grass tickling his face. Butterflies and the chirping of birds lulled him to sleep. The rumpled note lay near his nose. Fox remembered the hedgehog's task and pushed his brother.

"They yelled at me like people in a mad house! Called me names… Pushed me, I almost fell down their stairs. Now my back and side hurt." Nastya complained with a pretending suffering voice.

The tabby cat stretched out and yawned sweetly. Noticing Fox's angry expression, Matvey hastened to shut his mouth. Fox, barely holding back from anger, pointed his paw at the window. But Matvey, still sluggish thanks to sleep, did not understand what this raising of his brother's paw meant.

"Oh, woe… I told you that whether you do good or not, good will not follow! So you did a good thing, worried about them, but what did you get in response? Underage trash, they will regret this. Give me my phone!" she shouted in the last sentence so that the cats shuddered again. The paw of the tabby cat slipped off the face of his brother, and the gray cat, now not restrained by anything, growled:

"You-u-u fforgot-tten wwhy wwe are h-here?"

The Lazutkins' yard has not yet seen such wind. The note crumbled into small particles. In an instant, the kitchen window got a lot of cracks, like a spider web. The trees twitched violently. The side fences on both sides fell into neighbors' yards. Sparrows, chirping here and there, were thrown behind the back fence. Viburnum bushes and young vegetable plants from the garden were ripped up by the roots and were thrown behind the fence to the sparrows. The laundry that was drying on the rope behind the house swirled in a whirlwind and flopped onto the empty planting beds. The roof of the shed fell over to the side. The grass all over the yard property was flattened, as if a giant iron had run over it. The hurricane did not affect only the cats, who were looking around the yard with bulging eyes. Apparently, bad weather has no effect on its organizers.

The brothers went out onto the path in the courtyard. Matvey, who was already fully awake, shook his head, looking at the damage caused. Fox, having lost his anger, lowered his head guiltily because the hedgehog said that they would become loud, but he couldn't even imagine that it would be SO loud!

At this point, the cats smelled the odor of roasting meat coming from the back of the house. Both twitched their noses and headed for the source of the smell. They turned the corner of the house. Realizing the smell was coming from the ajar door of the house, the tabby cat was upset: the hedgehog forbade them from entering the house; therefore, they wouldn't get any meat.

Suddenly the head of a red-cheeked woman peeked out from behind the door at threshold level. She swept the threshold with her short curls, which looked like a tangle of many thin wires. The woman's eyes bugged out at the mess in the yard. There were hysterical cheers behind her.

"Mom, what's there?! Mom?!"

"Everything is fine," Nastya's mother muttered and stood up. "I'll go check. But you stay here! Probably someone threw a stone at our window."

"A stone, what stone?!"

"Oh, come inside!" The woman pushed her daughter into the house.

Tatiana Yulievna, who until today had been a talkative and bold woman, now looked like a pale shadow of herself. She sneaked out of the house and looked around cowardly.

The tabby cat thought for a bit and concluded that their task was completed. The point of the task was to distract Nastya so that she wouldn't tell anyone about the hedgehog. They accomplished it, albeit differently. Now, these two human females would definitely not remember about the cat's owners and the guest. Moreover, the note no longer existed. The cats had nothing more to do here. Matvey stopped his brother, who was sneaking up to the door, and pointed his paw at the street, making it clear that it was time to return. Fox nodded, agreeing, but his thoughts were far away.

Nastya's mother walked around the yard and wailed in a quivering voice:

"What's going on? What's going on? Oh, what a disaster, what a disaster!" After she went to the front door, saddened.

Nastya, seeing the approaching mother, leaned out of the door:

"Mom! Mom!? What was it?"

"I told you not to go out!" Tatiana Yulievna pushed her daughter inside again and stopped at the threshold and looked with tears in her eyes at the yard as if for the last time.

The cats hurried away. Matvey went first, and the gray cat followed. Nothing foreshadowed surprises until the tabby cat, slipping between the fence bars, discovered that Fox had disappeared. Matvey furiously stamped his paw and barely managed to shut his own mouth with his paw: he almost said a cussword. Rushed to the front door, but it was already closed. Of course, his gray brother is in the house. Where else could he be? There is no other place nearby with such an amazing smell of meat. At that moment, the door swung open as if by a blow. Nastya screamed her head off and jumped out onto the threshold.

"Ghost! Mom! What to do?! Mom!"

Tatyana Yulievna ran out behind her, breathing noisily and with his hand on his heart. Both jumped off the threshold and, trembling with fear, pressed close to the brick wall.

Following the pleasant smell, Matvey went into a room with a closet. The door immediately slammed shut, almost touching his lush tail. The tabby cat went deep into the house and stopped at the kitchen door. The first thing he noticed was the window with almost opaque glass due to many cracks. And he couldn't ignore his brother on the table, wiping the plates with his tongue.

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