A new spring in Cairn! Here's last time.
Winter melts away, and the citizens of Cairn emerge from hibernation (or y'know, just being homebodies). The Traveling Knights get together on the first day of spring and traipse out of town to go wake up Desayd, the dryad. On the way, they chat about their winter activities - Ratatosk Longberry, in particular, has been fermenting and storing foodstuff, and Rumdiggle Sunsong is interested in the process. She's also been thinking about animal husbandry and how that might work in Cairn.
As they're walking through the forest, a voice says "Halt! Who goes there?" The look up and see Ladd Ringtail, the rat guardsman and protege of Russelet Leatherwind (introduced waaaay back here). He slides down a rope to the ground; he was on night watch and he's headed home.
They arrive at the tree and Russelet forages a bit to find some berries to offer the tree. Rummy plays a song, and Desayd steps out of the tree and stretches. She chats with the Knights, and tells them of a strange dream she had. In the dream, she was a flying creature, soaring over familiar landscape, and something was chasing her. She couldn't describe the hunter, but she knew it - it was a familiar creature, and it was hungry, but she couldn't turn to see it lest it catch her. She warns the Knights that she seldom dreams, much less like this, and worries it might be a portent.
The Knights head back to town, and someone yells to Snootabur Shadowbough that the Lord Mayor wants to see her. She goes to see Keeble Brownberry, the Lord Mayor - he wants to go over plans for the earthwork amphitheater that Snoot wanted to make. They'll need to wait until the ground thaws a bit, but it's good to have a plan.
A few weeks go by. More people are moving to Cairn - the circus and the Traveling Knights kind of inadvertently made the town seem like a great place to live, so more and more families are showing up. Construction on new housing begins, with larger animals (beavers, groundhogs, and hares, mostly) taking point on building and a mouse named Jiddie Littlebrook coordinating the efforts. Food and resources are stretched a little tight, but everyone pitches in. Russ even comes up with a way to string a net up near the river and catch midges and mosquitos, which make for good pies for many of the inhabitants of Cairn. The town is changing, but everyone is rolling with it well.
And then one morning, as Russelet is at the Roost (the guard house for his rangers), he hears someone yelling "Help! Help! Murder!" A young rat with a fishing pole is screaming for assistance, and when asked, he says that he was walking through the construction site on his way to the river to fish for minnows when he saw a dead body, partially buried in the dirt. He didn't know who it was - it was a rat, but he didn't recognize it and he ran to get help right away. Russelet sends a couple of his guys out to look and questions the fisher-rat a bit, and then heads down to the construction site himself.
When he gets there, he realizes his rangers are in shock - he was expected horror, but this is different. He approaches the body and realizes why - it's Ladd Ringtail, his friend and protege. Russelet, kind of numb, checks the body. Someone bashed Ladd on the head with something big and heavy, like a club, and then put a sack over his head (just a spare sack from around the site). There's not much blood here, so it looks like his body was moved. There are far too many footprints to track anyone, but there aren't any drag marks, either, so if he was moved here it was by an animal big enough to carry him (which is consistent with someone strong enough to do this damage).
The rangers find the other three Knights - Snoot is at home working on the theater plans, Ratatosk is out foraging, and Rummy is heading home to go to bed. The Knights are all told that Russ is at the construction site and needs them, and they go racing out to help him, but all are horrified by the truth of the situation. Murder in Cairn is nearly unheard of.
Snootabur goes to tell Keeble, while Ratatosk starts questioning people and trying to figure out Ladd's movements last night. Rummy and Russ have the truly awful job of going to inform Ladd's family.
Keeble receives Snoot and initially starts talking about the theater, but is shocked and appalled to hear the news. He immediately worries about how the new arrivals will perceive this, and tells Snoot that he'll need to let Juffin Longbottom (the groundhog constable of Cairn) know about this. Snoot agrees, and asks to have Ladd's body moved to the ice house for the moment.
Ratatosk asks around and finds that Ladd was not on guard duty last night, but some folks heard that he went to the Brookflower for dinner. Ratatosk heads there and talks to Quirkly Shallowleaf, the owner. He explains the situation and it becomes rapidly apparent that Ratatosk is probably the worst person to be delivering this news ("You mean there's a murderer hiding in Cairn?!" "No! He might be hiding in the woods."). Quirkly wasn't here last night, though, so Ratatosk goes to find Sarafina Bushytail.
Meanwhile, Rummy and Russ go to the Ringtail house. Bernit Ringtail, Ladd's mother, receives them and they talk on her patio. She takes the news about as well as can be expected (which is to say, not well), and isn't able to answer questions or provide much information. His father, Alum, however, keeps his composure enough to say that Ladd left last night intending to get dinner at the Brookflower. Alum said that he noticed his son had his bow with him, which he normally didn't carry if he wasn't on duty. He didn't think anything of it at the time, though.
Ratatosk visits Sarafina at home, and after her initial shock tells Ratatosk that she overheard Ladd say that he needed to talk to Russelet, but that he had something to do or "look into" first. She thinks he was talking to Trixat Flutterwatch, the night bartender. Ratatosk scampers across town to talk to Trixat before she falls asleep (she's a bat), and she confirms that Ladd was there, he had dinner, and then he said he had to find something out before he talked to Russ. She also mentions that Ladd had a piece of shiny, silvery metal on him - "the kind that the moles seem to like."
Snootabur heads back to the construction site, and finds that Juffin is there in the midst of a group of groundhogs. They're trying to get back to work, which Juffin isn't allowing. They finally decide to go clear some land south of here ("My people," muses Juffin, "they're not happy unless they're busy"), and Juffin talks with Snoot. He asks that she remember that since this happened in Cairn proper it's really his investigation, though of course he's happy to have the Knights' help. He also tells her to look out for Russ - this has got to be hitting him pretty hard.
Russ and Rummy console the Ringtails as best they can. Russ promises the Knights aren't going to rest until they bring Ladd's killer to justice, and they will of course help with arrangements or support any way they can. They leave, and all four of the Knights meet up again.
They examine the body and Ladd's possessions. He's carrying a snack pouch on his belt and a quiver of arrows, but no bow. They don't find the metal that Trixat mentioned, either. They decide to split up and continue the investigation. Rummy and Snoot head to the market to talk to Eliza Grayhair; maybe she knows something about this metal he was carrying. Russ and Ratatosk go up to the Roost to talk to the guardsmen and see if they know anything about what Ladd was investigating.
The guardsmen are somber and quiet, but they stand up when Russ arrives. None of them are sure what it was that Ladd was doing, though, and none of them saw the metal piece he had. Russ tells them all to be careful and to watch out for each other. He goes to his office and falls asleep. Ratatosk lets him sleep; he has another idea.
At the market, gossip is already spreading. Rummy and Snoot talk with Eliza and ask about the missing bow and the metal piece. Eliza points them at Flynn Rippleward, an otter bowyer, and Estu Scrabblescamp, a pika trader. Rummy, recognizing the nervous tenor of the people, plays a soothing song while Snoot goes to question folks.
Flynn, after admiring her bow, tells her that he's familiar with Ladd's bow but he hasn't seen anyone trying to trade it or pass it off. He promises to keep an eye out, however.
Estu is much more helpful. She did indeed give Ladd the silver piece; it was one of four she had. She promised all of them to Ripark, the mole that runs the Root, in exchange for a jug of fermented mushroom juice ("So fresh and musty!"). She notes, however, that she agreed to give him "some silver", which is exactly what she did give him. She isn't sure what Ladd wanted with it, and he seemed uncomfortable.
Rummy, also a nocturnal creature, takes her leave and heads home to sleep. Snoot and Ratatosk wind up at the Root, each following the same lead. The Root is closed during the day, but Ripark is there cleaning glasses. Snoot explains what's happening, and Ripark confirms that he traded silver for mushroom juice. He agrees to bring in a silver piece so that the Knights can see what it looks like, but he doesn't have it here - come back tonight. Snoot mentions that he doesn't seem too sad or even shocked by the news, and Ripark says that every time there's a crime in Cairn, the investigation always winds up at the Root. "I'll shed a tear for Ladd Ringtail later," he says. "Right now I just want to make sure that my folks don't get accused."
The Knights rest up - apparently tonight, the investigation continues at the roughest place in Cairn.
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