Chapter 4: Blowtorches and Old Borscht

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The GPS on Gazelle's phone generated a dotted line straight to the address she had been given: 433 Thaw Street in Happytown. She had been running for the past ten minutes, having to dig in her hooves as she moved to try and make up for the lost five minutes she had spent watching the scene in the park.

Looking back on it, Gazelle really and truly blamed Morris and Annie and their strange antics back at the park. If she hadn't been distracted by the foolish hare who decided to be nicey-nice to that polar bear—a predator—she wouldn't have paused to try and reflect on what was going on.

But, Gazelle told herself, it might have also been because she had been distracted by the band Difursity. So many distractions, not enough time.

She weaved through street after street, following the complex dotted line between her and her destination, watching the line grow ever shorter.

However, as Gazelle ran all over town, she began to notice something curious going on. Entire herds of prey animals—a few dozen sheep here, another cluster of bison there—were all following her towards Koslov's Castle, or rudely cutting her off as they swapped chuckles. At one point, Gazelle was almost run over as a herd of well over a hundred wildebeest rushed out of a subway station, laughing and whooping while exchanging remarks such as "Time to go give that ugly chomper what's been coming to him!" or "There's a demonstration going on at that restaurant."

Gazelle was confused. What restaurant were they talking about? Were they talking about Koslov's Castle?

Indeed, that seemed to be where the herds of gleeful animals were going. But for what reason?

If there was one thing character trait Gazelle kept with her from her childhood, back before she lost her parents, it was that she never shied away from being curious. Her curiosity had led to several spankings over time, particularly after a painful incident with a cluster of prickly pear cactus.

Good thing those didn't grow in Capital City; Gazelle would have freaked.

Slowing down a bit to blend in with a crowd of equal-height antelopes, she followed them as they walked in defensive formation through the streets, and, at last, after a half-hour of walking, Gazelle quickly forgot about her job interview, which she was now late for and blocks away from.

Or was she?

She kept paying attention to the dotted line on her phone's GPS. Her theory seemed to be correct: the animals around her were all heading towards the same address: 433 Thaw Street.

Surely no borscht restaurant, regardless of how much space there was inside, could hold this many customers.

At last, the herd rounded a corner, and they began to pick up speed. The antelopes, waving their clenched fists in the air, charged forward towards Koslov's Castle, a large building made from what appeared to be an old fire house.

The front doors were cavernous, large enough to accommodate all sizes of animals, from the biggest elephant to the smallest shrew. A sign, written in both common English and Russian characters, read "KOSLOV'S CASTLE" as it hung over the door. Medieval-looking architectural motifs gave the old fire house quite a distinctive aesthetic, as did the suits of armor out front that looked to be genuine suits from the High Middle Ages. Through massive glass windows, Gazelle could see a series of tables and stools and bars made for six different animal sizes, so it really was an all-mammal restaurant.

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