prompt (from sands) - 'a lighthearted furry sleuth adventure :> I'll leave the rest of the details up to you - bonus mango cookies if you feature Holmes and Watson hehe' word count - 499 The tavern was small and crowded, filled to the limit with all sorts of different creatures, but when Ruby walked in she shoved her way to the front, past bear, fox, and rabbit alike. Reaching into her jacket, she dug out a glass jar containing a single beetle - his face full of malice despite his size - and threw it over the counter. The bartender, a large polar bear wearing a comically small top hat, caught it, and turned to Ruby with a confused look. “Go tell your boss that I caught him, and I’m expecting my reward,” she said in a soft, high-pitched voice - which she had often been told did not fit her rough demeanor. The bear cocked his head, evidently still confused, but knew better than to question her and ran off to the back of the tavern. After several minutes, the boss - a small but powerful cat much like Ruby herself - appeared, and handed her a sack filled with big, delicious mango cookies. “My favorite,” she said, eagerly snatching it and stuffing it into her jacket. “Thank you.” “And thank you for dealing with that criminal. If you want any more tasks like this, check the wall outside the police station - I heard they’ve got lots of wild prizes for detectives and bounty hunters like you to win.” And so a day later, Ruby found herself standing just outside the police station, wearing her signature jacket and fur hat, and skimming through the many flyers that had been taped to the wall. “‘Help catch this criminal and win a lifetime supply of pasta…’ not a fan of pasta. ‘Solve 100 integrals to get 100 mango cookies?’ Not my jam. Oh, what about this one?” she said, moving a bit closer to inspect the flyer that had piqued her interest. “‘Find my lost pet parrot for a prize of two hundred mango cookies?’ I’m in!” Ruby said excitedly, grabbing the flyer and running into the station. “Ah, so you want to find that old parrot…” said the sheriff of the town, an abnormally small raccoon wearing sunglasses and a fake moustache. “It’ll be a pretty hard job, but if anyone can do it, I know it’s you. And hey, you even get an extra fifty mango cookies if you find Holmes and Watson!” “Well, as much as I love mango cookies, I don’t know who those are, and I don’t think I have the time to figure it out. So I think I’ll stick to the two hundred.” “Alright then - I won’t hold you up any longer. Go out and find that parrot - and if you get a bit stuck, I think I last saw that pesky bird in the wheat field right outside of town.” Ruby did not need any more persuasion. Eager to go solve another mystery, she took out her hammer, sickle, and magnifying glass and burst out of the police station, ready to do whatever it took to find and return that parrot.
