I immediately ran after the two sisters, even though they moved so fast the air blurred around them. A loud boom followed, like thunder, which rattled every part of the forest.
'Hazel, Campion, Acorn, Shishky – you four go after the sisters. We'll detain the brother,' Pistachio called out.
I glanced over my shoulder and briefly saw him tackle the dwarf brother to the floor. It looked like a fight was about to take place, and I thought of helping Pistachio arrest the brother, but I had to follow the two sisters.
They were much too fast for me of course. There was no way I could break the speed of sound on foot. Not even our flying car was able to move that fast. I knew they were heading down towards the river, so decided to at least go that far. I ran, the three fox-keteers at my side, pushing through branches and leaves and long thorny fingers of bramble.
Finally I reached the narrow stream. The two sisters had paused on the riverbank, their eyes fixed on a dwarf struggling with a fishing rod. His brown beard was tangled in the rod so tight the two seemed inseparable. Immediately the sisters rushed forward. The dwarf sensed their approach and turned, his dark eyes round with dismay. He struggled in a furious panic, scared of both the sisters and his predicament.
If I was going to act, it had to be now. I didn't know what the dwarf's brother had commanded the android sisters to do. I saw a dwarf tangled in his fishing rod and the android sisters closing in fast.
'Magical Forest CIS. Freeze!' I yelled, jumping out at them.
The sisters ignored my demand and were on the dwarf in a flash. The dwarf screamed in horror as the sisters tore the rod from his hands, beard and all. The beard hung from the rod flapping in the wind, while the dwarf held his hands over his bald chin.
'Wait a minute. How did his beard grow back so quickly?' Acorn said, taking position beside me.
The answer came soon enough. The dwarf's embarrassment gave way to rage. It exploded out of him louder than the sonic boom. His mouth was like a volcano, spewing flaming torrents of swearwords that would make even the bramble fairies blush. But he wasn't shouting at the android sisters. He was shouting at me.
'Hazel Coyote, I told you to do something about them and look what they've done. You saw it. You are witness. They tore off my beard while I was fishing by the river, minding my own business!' his words were entwined with a whole library of colorful metaphors.
I felt I had to take them all in for questioning. Something about this just didn't make sense. Why did the sisters cut off his beard in the first place? And how did it grow back so fast? Where did the virus that shut down the network come from? How was it we crashed so close to the brother's home? So many questions swirled around my head they flowed faster than the dwarf's swearwords.
The three fox-keteers moved on the sisters while I moved on the dwarf. I was about to inform them of their rights under arrest, when a shadow fell over us and a loud caw echoed in the sky.
It was the last thing I expected to see.
An eagle swooped down on the dwarf. Talons the size of bear claws. The two sisters shrugged off the three fox-keteers and leaped on the dwarf faster than the eagle. The white haired sister wrenched the dwarf's hands from his chin. His beard came tumbling down, fully grown and shining.
The red haired sister immediately plucked the newly grown beard from the dwarf's face. She held the beard up to the eagle, her android eyes practically glowing red as lava, and the eagle immediately slowed its descent.
'What is going on?' I said.
But before I demanded they all come back to answer my questions, the next unexpected thing happened. Sunflower came running, a look of terror on her face, with Cashew and Labneh not far behind.
'A bear!' she screamed. 'There's a bear loose in the woods!'
Snuggles from Hazel, Acorn, Campion and Shishky.
