Pookar pulled the deerstalker to his eyes and strolled around the room. “Watson, do you have any ideas?”
“Nada,” the bunny babbled, barely audibly.
“So, it’s clear,” Pookar said meaningfully. “No one has any ideas? Then I’ll start.” The great detective turned around and closed his eyes. “One, two, three, four, five, I’ll go search! Look out, pot thief! The great Holmes goes on the warpath!”
“Better tell me where’s the pot? Is it you who stole it?” Olga hurried him, watching out for Pookar’s tricks without any special acknowledgement.
“First conclusion.” Pookar straightened the deerstalker. “If there’s no pot, then it means someone took it, because pots don’t walk by themselves. Second conclusion: the one who took it was probably very hungry, because only a very hungry creature can eat the sour kasha that Olga cooks.”
“What did you say? My kasha is sour? If it’s sour, who asked you to gobble it up?” Olga was offended.
“I eat the kasha out of sympathy,” said Pookar.
“Here, I’ll show you sympathy! Are you actually going to find the pot or just chitchat?” Olga flew into a rage.
“I’m going to. I’ll find it in no time at all. But first, let’s find out if the pot was lost at all. Perhaps you hid it somewhere so as not to cook dinner? Ah-h, mama!” Fleeing from Olga, Pookar quickly hid behind the cat Muffin and from there bravely stuck his tongue out at Olga.
It was not known how far the fighting would have gone but at that moment Flamy suddenly shouted, “Look! There’s our pot running!” Everyone looked around and saw that the pot was quickly crawling along the floor to the other side of the room. It was crawling by itself, completely inexplicably.
“Quick! We still have time to catch it!” Pookar shouted.
“A scientific sensation! A self-moving pot!” The gnome Scholarchkin was delighted.
Everybody except the frightened bunnies, who remained in the house, rushed after the pot. Flamy flew ahead. Muffin rushed behind him with soft bounds, Scholarchkin clinging to her tail. Pookar barely kept pace behind the cat. Olga, holding her skirt, ran last.
“Of course, milk boiled over at my place. But this, a pot running off, this has never happened to me!” Olga muttered under her breath.
Meanwhile the pot was crawling quietly by itself along the floor, sometimes stopping as if teasing its pursuers. From the outside, one would think that it was just going for a walk. Very soon, the friends overtook it. Flamy grabbed the handle with his teeth and held it until the others arrived. The cat Muffin arched her back and hissed. The pot did not stir anymore and did not try to crawl away.
“It’s not running by itself; someone was dragging it with a rope,” said Scholarchkin, walking around the pot and looking at it through a magnifying glass.
“This is my sock string that disappeared!” Pookar yelled suddenly.
The friends all looked at each other. They understood nothing.
“It’s probably the soldiers. But why did they have to drag the pot by a rope?” said Olga.
“Quite mysterious. A secret, shrouded in mystery… Look, Sineus is running to us!”
Stumbling, Sineus ran up to the toys. He was so agitated that he could not utter a word but only waved his paws. Olga had to take him into her arms and hold him tight.
“He’s shaking like a jackhammer!” Pookar said in amazement.
Only after five minutes did Sineus manage to utter, “Truvor… The soldiers stole Truvor! They also wanted me, but I hid!”
“It can’t be!”
“They waited until you ran after the pot and stole Truvor! They thought up everything on purpose! It’s all that tubby, whose helmet slides down over his eyes!”
Chapter Twelve
Flamy Saves Truvor
General stood beside a map in his headquarters behind the bookcase and thoughtfully traced with a finger on the map, pretending to think. The map was drawn on a scrap of wrapping paper and portrayed the room from above. Gorilla had drawn the map and it turned out to be extremely confusing. It was dusty behind the bookcase. Gorilla was constantly sneezing so loudly that everything around shook.
“Can you sneeze any louder, bird brain?” General shouted at him.
“Yes, I can,” Gorilla growled. “Achoo!” It was such a powerful sneeze that the map was torn off from the wall. The helmet flew off General’s head and smacked against the wall. Bang!
“Klutz! You’ll give us away! Why don’t you put in some work with your head for a change?” General stamped his feet.
“Yes, Commander! As you say! Bang!” Gorilla rammed his forehead into the wall and smiled contentedly.
“I’ll shoot you, idiot!” General pulled out his pistol.
“Neuh-uh, don’t shoot!” Gorilla shook his head.
“Why?”
“Gee! Your water was all gone there.”
The kidnapped bunny Truvor was sleeping on a chair in front of General. Since he was a little bunny, he was used to sleeping during the day. Gorilla’s terrible sneeze had woken Truvor. The bunny woke up and began to tremble. General saw that Truvor had opened his eyes and was overjoyed.
“Finally! We’ve been waiting for two hours for you to wake up! Tell me the military secret!”
“I don’t know any secret,” Truvor muttered.
General pouted. It seemed a little longer and he would start to cry. “So boring! If you don’t know, then think. Come up with something!” he ordered.
“I would love to, but I’m still little and I can’t,” Truvor whimpered.
“Fine!” General got angry. “If you don’t want to meet us half-way, then don’t… Then we’ll torture you! Gorilla, proceed!”
“Proceed with what?”
“Torture, half-wit!!!”
Gorilla scratched the back of his head, walked hesitantly to Truvor and made a savage face. “Humph! Now I’ll eat you! How I love eating little bunnies!”
Truvor raised his sleepy face and saw Gorilla’s silly face. He stopped crying, looked for some time in bewilderment at the grimacing Gorilla, and suddenly burst out laughing! Among all the toys, Truvor was the one that laughed the easiest.
“Stop! Come here, Gorilla! I’ll explain to you how to torture!” General was furious. He was so mad and turned so red that his helmet became red-hot.
Gorilla obediently went to General and they began to whisper. Then Gorilla rolled up his sleeves and approached the bunny. His arms were huge, hairy, and terrifying. “Tell me the secret or I’ll torture you by tickling!” he said and began to tickle the bunny.
Meanwhile, the bunny’s friends were thinking of how to rescue him and chase the soldiers away from the room.
“Just so you don’t poke your nose into them, they have these nasty pistols that fire burrs and paint. They instantly stain from head to toe,” said Olga.
“Do you want me to smoke them out from there?” Flamy released a jet of flame from his nostrils.
The cat Muffin fanned the smoke away with a paw, “Forget it! You’ll set something on fire!”
Sineus pleadingly touched the school gnome with a hot paw. “Think of something, Scholarchkin! You’re so smart! Think a bit and you’ll definitely come up with something!”
Scholarchkin frowned and began to walk around the room. He was not accustomed to thinking in a different way except on his feet. He had to walk. Olga even woke up at night sometimes