Mirasol says, "Alrighty, here it is, a little silliness exploring the deeper lore of our Squirrel-cookies, because I can't seem to let that topic go."
The secret
(This takes place during the events of Adventure 2, chapter 11)
Tuuri sat in a tree above the sauna in the Lehto the crew had set up camp in. She had fled Onni's and Sigrun's rather aggressive approach to exchanging information about the bear-problem. Mikkel was a lot better at diplomacy than she was, so there was no doubt he would be able to handle the situation without her. It also helped that both Sigrun and Onni could see and hear the Dane, another thing that wasn't a given in Tuuri's case.
Though happy about the silence, she was starting to feel a little bored. She would have hung out with Lalli and Reynir, maybe Emil, though he also couldn't see her (But he did seem to believe that she was there. She couldn't help but wonder what had changed the Swede's attitude towards everything “magical” since she had last seen him), but they had already been in the sauna. Probably also to avoid getting in between the crossfire of Onni and Sigrun. The door to the inside had been closed, and passing through walls was sadly none of Tuuri's abilities. She knew everything had to end, but at the moment she still missed her human-form a little. Flying was nice and all, but being a bird had other disadvantages. Not being able to open doors for example, and especially, being invisible for most people. She wished she could still talk to the friends she had made during the expedition. Not just the mages. All of them.
But what was the point in going into the sauna anyways, she couldn't feel its warmth anymore. This was one of the most irritating features of this bird-form. It couldn't feel temperature. Out here it was nice though, the sun was about to set and the slightly orange sky looked beautiful. And wild animals dared to come a lot closer to her than they ever did before. She had always liked looking at them, so this was definitely a plus.
Especially a lot of squirrels seemed to live here. Right at the moment, one of them ran over the branch right above the one where she was sitting, not at all paying attention to the little bird. It was barely out of sight as a second one appeared, taking the same path. Shortly after, another one. And another one. Didn't squirrels usually live alone? At the fifth squirrel passing, Tuuri realized that they all had been carrying something. It was too big for a nut. It looked more like a small, brown paper-bag. Had someone littered in the Lehto? How rude, using Tapio and Mielikki's hospitality like that! But then Tuuri remembered that the crew and Onni were the only living humans all around, and none of them had brought anything along the lines.
Her curiosity was piqued. The next squirrel that passed, also carrying a small bag-like thing, she followed.
***
At some point of pursuing the rodent through progressively thicker forest, Tuuri started to wonder how big this island was. She didn't recall taking that many turns to suggest the squirrel might be going in circles, and neither did she recognize her surroundings anymore. Still, from above the Lehto had looked so small. She was relatively certain they should have reached the opposite shore a while ago. But when her squirrel finally stopped, they were still in the woods. In fact, the trees were now standing so close to each other that Tuuri got the impression of standing in a naturally grown house.
In here there were squirrels galore, climbing on the walls, running over the ground, arriving and leaving. They all had the little bags with them, and were collecting the insides on small piles in the middle of the room. A pile of sugar, one of flour, one of chocolate… Wait. Baking supplies? Now this was a little too weird… Tuuri started suspecting she had fallen asleep on the branch she had been sitting on. But this felt strangely real for a dream. And strangely detailed.
She looked around some more. A little offside, in one of the room’s corners, a pile of nuts was gathered. Were these also ingredients? Or food for the bakers? Were the squirrels even the bakers? Maybe Mielikki was here to make food… Or something. Was that something she usually did?
Tuuri sneaked around a corner where many squirrels were running back and forth. It led to a smaller room mainly filled out with a truly huge bowl the rodents were filling with ingredients. Nearly hypnotized she watched them pass a huge wooden spoon around in order to mix the dough. When another squirrel ran through her frame of vision, she was finally able to take her eyes off of this strange sight. Not that what she was looking at now was any less weird. In fact, the distracter had been carrying a baking tray with finished cookies on it and was now filling them into a box. These cookies were chocolate, in the shape of, once again, squirrels. Light frosting was on the body and blue one on the eye. They had some sort of crunchy bits inside of them. Something seemed familiar…
When the cookie-bringer closed the full box, Tuuri could see that it was a package. To her surprise, it was addressed to a place in Keuruu, complete with a delivery date: “Yule Y91, do not open before December!” The squirrel sniffed on it, as if to check whether everything was in order, then it nodded and pushed the box into yet another forest-room out of the Finn's sight.
Suddenly it hit her. These cookies had been gifted to the kids in Keuruu around Yule every year! She still remembered trying to snatch additional ones together with Lalli when she was younger, by hiding under the community tables where they were given out. Whenever a new distributer took over who didn't know them yet, they would pretend to have just arrived and get more cookies. But they had to stop their yearly brilliant cookie-heist after Onni caught them once and got mad. She must have been almost fourteen then, too old for stupid things like these, at least according to her brother. Tuuri also remembered trying to copycat the cookies, but she never got them quite right, as the distributors wouldn't tell anyone the recipe. (She could see why now, considering who apparently baked them...) She just knew that the secret was somewhere in the crunchy bits, whatever those were made of.
Maybe that was what the nuts were for? Tuuri tried to catch another look into the bowl, but right now so many squirrels were sitting on its brim that they were blocking her view. There, two jumped down to gather more ingredients! She had clear sight. This was her chance to finally find out what made these cookies so good! And there it was-
***
Sigrun had called the rest outside for filling them into the plan she had come up with. Reynir, Emil and Lalli were just finished getting dressed, when suddenly a small, slightly see-through bird dropped out of the sky, fluttering around very agitated and chanting something about a secret in several mixed up languages. Onni and Lalli immediately stood in attention.
“Is it a troll?”, Onni asked, actually in Icelandic. Sigrun pulled out her knife.
Tuuri looked irritated for a bit, but then calmed down and gracefully landed on her brother's hand.
“No no, that´s not it. I mean, I know the secret ingredient of the Squirrel-cookies! The ones they used to give out in Keuruu every Yule, remember? Though… it's kinda silly, maybe I just dreamed it…”
“… the ones that you and Lalli always stole?” Onni grumbled as if the memory was causing him physical pain.
Tuuri laughed, which sounded a bit like the actual chirping of a bird: “Not steal! But yeah, these are the ones.”
While the two of them and Lalli were arguing a bit in Finnish, something rumored in the back of Reynir's mind.
“Wait, some squirrel-shaped chocolate-cookies with crunchy bits and frosting on them?”
All three Hotakainens looked at the Icelander in confusion.
“Yes, that's what they looked like”, Tuuri confirmed.
“Funny, I think we have those too! Someone leaves a small box of them on every doorstep in the village each Yule. I thought it was just some friendly neighbor who really liked squirrels. Looks like it's some kind of tradition if you also have them.”
At that moment, Mikkel joined the conversation: “May I pinch in? Though I am not absolutely sure what you are talking about, I can agree with Reynir on that assumption. At least in my home we have someone secretly gifting away cookies that fit his description as well.”
Emil and Sigrun now loudly demanded to be included into the discussion. After Mikkel had brought them up to speed, it turned out both of them knew the cookies too.
“So now, what's their secret, Tuuri?”, Reynir asked curiously.
All eyes were on the little bird. She proudly ruffled her feathers, and had already opened her beak to announce it, but then hesitated.
“Oh no… I think I forgot it over all that talking! Oh well… I mean, I probably did just dream it, and it was a very weird dream too… I think I fell asleep on the tree over there. I'm sorry!”
Though this wasn't the most surprising turn of events, everyone was a little disappointed.
Mikkel broke the silence at last. “Well then. I assume this was enough discussing of Yule-traditions for today. Let's resume with the plan, Sigrun.”
When the captain heard her name, she proudly pulled out a hand-drawn sketch and started explaining and pointing. It seemed to be a quite simple bear-hole-tactic, but Sigrun made it sound really complicated.
Mikkel didn't even bother translating, he just pointed at the drawing declaring “pretty self-explanatory.”
Reynir zoned out at looked up to the treetops. A squirrel was climbing through the branches, carrying a small brown bag…
