The days rolled by calmly. The weather was getting hotter by the day, but there was enough of a breeze across the Arfajia Valley to keep it bearable. The sunflowers at Butterfly Farm were growing steadily - much to the gleeful joy of the purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia, and her constant looking at the growing sunflowers and bouncily cheery reactions in turn much amused the tall freckled human woman Sasha. The three female biologists continued doing their work of monitoring the super fast-growing trees and gathering data on them, and sharing a naked lunch, cuddles and a good nap with Buddleia and Sasha during the mandatory midday rest period of the daily tropic's schedule. Every so often, a few days per week, they were even joined by the Dutch Spaniel mother and daughter Marian and Margot Witteveen for the midday rest period.
In between the recurring morning and evening routine of tending to their livestock animals and the regular chores that needed doing on the farm, Sasha did regular checks on the bee boxes - even the one covered with a tarp, to make sure it was not being infested by any vermin - and the coneflowers she had planted in the open area of bare dirt to the right of the driveway. She found the coneflower patch apparently had some kind of attraction to the longhaired black and white cat with the super short legs, Bubliny, whom she had brought from a pet store in Fossil City. Every morning when she and Buddleia went outside to have their morning bath in the pond, Bubliny would follow them, have a little sniff and investigation through the small forest on the hill behind the large shed and double silo, do her business, and make her way over to the coneflower patch to curl up in a small open spot where some of the plants had died off for some reason. Then at the midday rest period, she'd follow Sasha and Buddleia and all the others into the small old farmhouse and curl up in the cabinet under the sink of which the door was always sagging open a bit, and she'd leave the small farmhouse again at the end of the midday rest period when all the others returned to their work, to make her way back over to the coneflower patch. It had become as much of a routine as the daily routines Sasha and Buddleia went through.
It was that much more striking, therefore, when the short-legged long-furred quadruped cat introduced a small change into her daily routine. Of course, cats always do their own thing, but they still like regularity and tend to stick quite strongly to their routines. Bubliny was no exception. She tended to alter the times and positions at which she nibbled her dryfood from the feeding station, just to do her own thing, and sometimes she curled up in the cabinet next to the one under the sink, the one right next to the under-counter refrigerator, but that still counted as routine.
Buddleia's infallibly accurate internal clock still woke everyone up from the midday nap at three o'clock sharp. The third Thursday of June, Sasha found herself waking up before Buddleia's loud yawn and hard stretching. She rubbed her eyes, stretched lightly and looked around. One of Buddleia's arms was draped over her side and the vulpine taur's cheek was resting on the very top of her head. The blue-gray tabby cat biologist, Barbara Westing, was cuddled up against her left side, with her head resting right against the spot where Buddleia's upper tummy melded into her lower chest. One of the freckled human woman's long legs was held in an embrace by the Belgian Hare rabbit biologist Janni Baston, along with one of Buddleia's feral hind legs. In between them, the dark-furred ocelot biologist, Sandy Nightz, was cuddled up against Janni's right side with her head resting upon one of the rabbit woman's flat-ish breasts and the end of her tongue poking from the side of her muzzle.
Having brought the world into focus enough to take all that in, Sasha smiled quietly and very carefully disentangled herself from the cuddle pile so she could sit up a bit and take her glasses from the low coffee table and put them on. She looked around herself again, trying to pinpoint what it was that had woken her up. And as careful as she had been, her moving about had stirred the other women out of their nap as well. They all gradually woke up, and eventually noticed Sasha leaning one hand on the rug to support herself as she was still laying down, but held her upper torso lifted a bit so she could stick out and tilt her head a bit, with her eyes half-squinted in concentration.
"Is something wrong?" Barbara asked around a yawn.
Sasha fluttered her free hand a bit.
"Ssshhssh. Do y'all hear that?"
Both Buddleia and the three biologists lifted their head and perked their ears, swiveling and rotating them back and forth. Sure enough; there was a light sound coming from somewhere in the small house. Sounds of scratching, alternated every now and then by a quiet tinkling sound, but all the time accompanied by a soft, melodious murmuring.
"It's your adorable kitty," Barbara smiled after a few moments. "She must've found something of interest. Or a treasure, perhaps," she added with a soft giggle.
"I kind of figured it would be her, it sounded like her," Sasha nodded. "But where is it coming from? It sounds like it's coming from near the kitchen, but definitely not from any of those cabinets she likes to nap in."
Janni flagged both her imposingly large ears forwards.
"It's coming from up high. Is there any place for a creature to be up high in this house, with the ceiling being open like that and all?"
"There's a flat ceiling over the bathroom," Sasha nodded. "Leia stashes things up there, like her empty jam jars, and the box of farm records is up there."
"Maybe there's a mouse in that box of records?" Sandy suggested.
Sasha shook her head.
"It's possible, but all that's in that box is papers, there's nothing that could make that tinkling sound. That sounds like glass or something?" She turned her head to send a smile at Buddleia. "So what else is up there that I haven't found yet, babe?"
Buddleia gave a funny shrug of her upper shoulders.
"I not sure actually, yee hee. Is some boxes I not can reach because they pushed all the way into corner where roof comes down. They there forever, I forget what in them."
"There must be at least one glass jar in one of those boxes," Janni said with a light chortle. "It definitely sounds like your kitty is pawing at a glass jar, and there must be something hard inside that jar. Like... I don't know, what would you keep in glass jars? Old nuts maybe? Or dried beans?"
"Shall I go look?" Sandy offered. "I've been known to get myself into tight squeezes, I can probably fit in the space between that flat ceiling and the slanted side of the roof."
"Sure, I'm about dying with curiosity now," Sasha chortled. "You can get up there by climbing onto that small part of the counter next to the sink and over the fridge; that's how I've been getting up there."
"And there's no danger I'll fall through the ceiling and land in your toilet?" Sandy giggled.
Sasha shook her head with a snigger.
"Honey, that ceiling, like the rest of the woodwork of this house, is made of four hundred year old hewn timbers and planks. Leia can get up there without falling through, so I'm pretty damn sure it'll hold up under your weight."
Everyone chortled softly, and the dark-colored ocelot woman scrambled to her feet, giving herself a light shake and a quick stretch.
"I'll go have a look then."
Buddleia, Sasha and the other two biologists snuggled back up as they looked at the dark-furred ocelot woman stepping over to the kitchen area. A quick hop brought her to the top of the counter, a bit of scrambling and wriggling eventually had her on top of the flat ceiling over the small bathroom. She crawled forwards, gradually flattening herself more and more, only the end of her rosetted tail still visible and twitching back and forth lightly while she made crooning sounds and murmured at Bubliny.
"Where are you then, kitty? Oh, way in the corner there. Wow, that's a low spot. What have you found there then? What's so interesting there? I only see old boxes, and... those look like crock pots or something. Oh, no, wait... what's that behind there?" There were sounds of boxes being slid and shuffled, and Sandy's voice came back a bit more clearly, like she had turned her head towards the living room. "There's a guitar way in the corner here, Sasha! In what seems like a leather case, but it's falling apart, it's so brittle and nibbled on."
Sasha blinked and looked at Buddleia.
"A guitar?"
Buddleia's canine teeth and the front end of her tongue came on display as she smiled when a memory returned to her.
"Grandmother had guitar! Yes! She play on sometimes!"
Sasha quirked her eyebrows this time and gave a light shrug, looking back in the direction of the small bathroom.
"Can you grab all the stuff that's way in the back under the lowest part of the roof, Sandy? And in the corner? Just shove it all to the edge so we can all take it down if you can, okay?"
"I'll do my best, honey!" the ocelot woman's voice came from over the bathroom. "I see your kitty too, she's sticking her paw into a hole in one of those boxes up here."
"Alright, well, just start shoving, but be careful not to shove anything over the edge," Sasha chortled. "We'll come over to grab the stuff."
"Aye aye cap'n!" was the cheery reply.
There were more sounds of boxes being shuffled about. Sasha, Buddleia and the other two biologists all got up and walked over to the kitchen counter as well, and Sasha climbed onto the small part to the right of the sink. Leaning her arms on the edge of the flat ceiling over the small bathroom, she curled her lips into a light grin at the views provided to her by the swishing back and forth of the naked ocelot woman's tail. Some boxes she recognized; the one with the farm records in it, for one, got pushed to the very side of the flat ceiling. A much newer-looking box was in fact one of the boxes Millie had brought from Fossil City, with some of the things from Sasha's old apartment in it; that one got pushed to the side as well.
A few bulbous earthenware pots with earthenware lids held on by thin metal clamps like a swing-top were picked up and carefully handed over to Buddleia, who had her feral forepaws resting on the edge of the counter. She in turn handed them to the two biologists who carefully set them on the low table to the left of the counter, because they certainly looked very old. Two more boxes were pushed Sasha's way and taken off the flat ceiling, then Sandy's rosetted rump retreated a bit and one of her shoulders came into view as she slightly turned, carefully handing Sasha a tobacco-colored leather guitar case that was indeed crumbling into little pieces around an acoustic guitar. Without pausing to inspect the guitar, Sasha handed it over to Buddleia and reached back up to take a smaller box that had a hole in one of the lower corners.
Holding one hand over the hole, Sasha took the box and leaned way down to set it on the counter to the left of the small sink. There definitely was something made of glass in that box, as it tinkled when she moved it. Standing back upright, she looked at Sandy who had turned back to the corner and the rear side of the farmhouse.
"Any more stuff up there, honey?"
"Couple of boxes, and what looks like a quilt that I'm afraid to touch because it looks like it will crumble into dust at the slightest touch," the dark-colored ocelot woman chortled.
"Try pushing it with one of those boxes," Sasha chortled.
"Hee! Okay, that might work."
More shuffling sounds, and a few moments later Sandy turned again, pushing a box which in turn was pushing something that was folded up several times. Sasha coughed at the dust thrown up when she caught it as it fell over the edge of the ceiling, averting her head and waving a hand back and forth to dispel the dust as she handed the thing over to Buddleia. Then the box that had pushed it, and another box, and eventually the dark-colored ocelot woman wriggled and squirmed her way backwards as well.
Sasha climbed down off the counter and helped Sandy get down onto the counter from the flat ceiling, and from the counter to the floor. The feline woman giggled softly as she fervently wiped her paws over her face and patted them down along her chest and sides, throwing up more dust.
"Wow, was it ever dusty all the way back there, I need another bath now, hee hee!"
"Yes, well, go do that then and stop making a mess of our kitchen," Sasha sniggered, waving both hands at the dust. "We'll join you in a bit."
"Actually, I think I'll just take a rinse in your shower here," Sandy chortled, picking some cobwebs from her whiskers. "I wanna be close by you guys when you go through that stuff, because I'm curious!"
The dark-colored ocelot woman stepped into the small bathroom and turned on the shower over the old-fashioned bathtub with feline feet to rinse the dust and cobwebs off of herself. Sasha in the meantime looked at Buddleia, who had put the crumbly and dusty quilt in the cabinet under the sink.
"That does indeed look like a quilt, and it does indeed look mighty old," she remarked.
"Yes, grandmother make," Buddleia nodded with a smile that showed her upper canine teeth and the very tip of her tongue. "Is bunny pelts and squirrel pelts and scraps of cloth, but is too old to use, it very crumbly. Maybe Bubbeleeby like lay on in cabinet, yes, yee hee!"
"Fine, it's out of the way there and doesn't take up any room," Sasha smiled with a shrug, picking up one of the boxes and bringing it over to the living room, where one of the biologists had put the old guitar in the crumbling case on the coffee table. "And this was your granny's guitar, you said?"
"Yes!" Buddleia nodded cheerily, hopping over to the coffee table and brushing the bits and pieces and flakes of old brittle leather off the instrument. "She play songs sometime, and she have funny metal thing for around her neck with harmonica in, too! I remember, she teach me to play harmonica, yes!"
"Did she teach you to play this guitar too?" Sasha smiled, very carefully picking up the old instrument. "Wow this thing is old, look at this."
The guitar was an archtop model, made of black-coated wood, but the black coating had worn off to reveal a smoky wood color at the back of the body and a part in the middle on the back of the neck, as well as on the topside of the larger lower curve of the body and on the front around the strings and the dull and somewhat blackened brass tonebar that held the strings. Only the top three metal strings were still intact, the bottom three nylon strings were broken. There also was no round hole behind the strings, but rather two stylized f-shaped holes on either side of the bridge, like a violin. Between the frets on the neck, here and there a very faint marking of one or more dots could still be made out, and on the front of the headstock holding six yellowed string adjusters at the back, the word Harmony was very faintly visible even though it had mostly worn away.
Barbara very gently ran her fingers along the backside of the guitar's neck, where almost all the black coating had been worn away, and smiled.
"You can tell this guitar has been played lots and lots. Imagine the stories it could tell."
Sasha nodded.
"I didn't know guitars came with these violin holes as well, I thought they just had a round hole."
"F-hole guitars were quite popular in their day, they were often used for a more jazzy sound," Janni smiled. "If I were to wager a guess, I'd say this guitar is from the early to mid nineteen thirties."
"That would match up with the generation of both my and Leia's grandfolks," Sasha nodded with a light chortle, looking at Buddleia who was rummaging through one of the boxes. "Did your granny buy this guitar new, babe? Do you know?"
Buddleia looked up and shook her head with the same smile that displayed her upper canine teeth and the tip of her tongue.
"No, she buy second-hand. Was cheaper, yes. But it was only few years old when she buy it, yes."
"Alright, that still matches up," Sasha chortled, carefully setting the old guitar down on the sofa. "We should take this into town tomorrow, have it restrung and see if we can get a new case for it. A hard-case, it deserves being protected as best as possible. So did your granny teach you how to play it, babe?"
"She try, yes, but I not very good at, yee hee," Buddleia chirped a chortle. "I pretty good playing grandmother harmonica though, yes!"
"Right," Sasha nodded with another chortle. "So do you think that might be in that box?"
"Maybe, yes!" Buddleia nodded cheerily, leaning back down to the box.
It was the box with the hole in the lower corner. Sasha let go another chortle as well and sat down on the rug in front of Buddleia, together with Janni and Barbara, and Sandy who joined them still damp from the quick shower she had taken. Rummaging through the box together, it wasn't long before Buddleia pulled out a contraption of thin, curved metal rods that was pretty much a large U-shape with two upright bars, connected to the tips of the U with circular adjusters with wing nuts, between which was held a double strip of flat metal of which the upper one was bent up and the lower one was bent down to form a long, narrow rectangular opening in the middle; the harmonica harness she had mentioned before.
However, Sandy was the one who found what had caused the tinkling sounds when Bubliny had been sticking her paw through the hole in the box. Digging deeper through the old items in the box, the dark-colored ocelot woman eventually pulled out a glass jar with a metal lid, filled with copper and silver-colored coins. She held it up and shook it with a soft giggle.
"Well, I think this is the musical instrument your kitty was playing, hee hee! Shooka shooka tinkle tinkle, hee hee!"
"Gimme that, you goofball," Sasha sniggered, taking the jar and looking at the coins inside. "O-o-okay, this is either very old, or foreign currency, because these sure don't look like any coins I've ever seen and handled in my lifetime."
"Can I have a look?" Janni smiled. She took the jar when Sasha handed it to her and held it up in front of her face sideways, turning it a bit every now and then with myriads of tinkles and rattles. "This looks like Mry currency, from Nezinoma Salis, the large island off the west coast. They have a trade economy, but in the larger towns and cities they do utilize coins for currency. Ten coppers for a silver, ten silvers for a gold, but it doesn't look like there's any gold coins in here."
Sasha tilted her head.
"Mry? The feline taurs, you mean? I've heard of them, but I've still never met any."
"Indeed," Janni nodded with a smile. "There are a few of them on the mainland here, but most of them live on the Nezinoma Salis island and hardly, if ever, have contact with the mainland here. They're pretty much their own society."
"Right," Sasha nodded, letting go a light chortle again while nodding at the jar of coins. "So are those coins worth very much?"
"Not really," Janni chortled. "Last I heard, a gold coin was worth ten dollars." She shook the jar lightly. "You may have thirty, forty bucks worth in here, fifty if you're lucky."
Sasha shook her head with a laugh and petted the short-legged, long-furred quadruped cat Bubliny who had hopped onto the coffee table and started pawing at the jar again when Janni set it down on the low table.
"Haha! Well kitty, I guess you didn't find a treasure after all, but at least you dug up some history of this place, and that's more priceless than any kind of treasure."
Wasn't that the truth!
