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A preview of autumn attractions, since autumn is not that far away. Artwork by Asher!

==

Emmet didn't even bother looking up from his newspaper.

He heard Sully's footsteps thumping down the staircase, and from the odor that wafted into the room he could tell he'd just come in from the garden.

His assistant was standing just inside the threshold to Emmet's study. This was a sacred space. Ferrets didn't just invite themselves in.

"If you tracked any dirt in here," Emmet turned the page, "you're sweepin' it up."

When no reply or comment was forthcoming, the wombat glanced over the edge of the newspaper. The ferret was indeed his dirty gardening clothes.

Emmet licked his claw, turned the page. "You know our deal. The garden is your operation. Any problems out there are your responsibility and yours alone. If you're ready to get to real work then clean yourself up first."

"Boss, I, I..." the ferret stammered, removing his hat and holding it in front of him in a posture of plaintive supplication. "It's not a problem, it's just..."

The wombat grumbled to himself. It was midafternoon on a Sunday. He was looking forward to a nice, peaceful day of relaxing before he prepped the workshop for the upcoming week. He was in fact about to settle down for his afternoon nap. But Sully had to have his little projects.

Come to think of it, why was Sully even at the Burrow? Did young people not have lives anymore? When he was Sully's age... never mind. He'd be knee deep in something too.

"Spit it out, Ferret."

"It's the pumpkins, they're- they're-"

Emmet folded the broadsheet and looked him right in the eye.

"The-pumpkins-are-alive-and-I-don't-know-how!"

The old inventor folded the newspaper, put it aside, and kicked back in his recliner, making sure that his assistant heard his grumble this time. "Of course pumpkins are alive, Sully." He closed his eyes. Maybe if he fell asleep right now his memory wouldn't record any of this.

"No that's not what I mean!" Sully chanced a few steps into Emmet's sanctum. He'd be wringing his paws if they weren't clamped on to his headgear. "They're... moving."

Emmet opened one eye. "Moving, you say?"

Sully nodded frantically. "The other day I was finishing up my chores, and as I walked by the patch a few of them... turned towards me. I swear it happened Boss! It was like they were looking right at me!"

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, Ferret. Overwork will do unpredictable things to your perception. And you know how hot it's been lately. Have you been keeping hydrated?"

His assistant stepped forward again so that he and his odor were situated right in the middle of the room. "It's not just that. I went to pick one up and it... it hissed."

"Hissed?"

Sully nodded. The look in his eyes told Emmet exactly what he wanted from him.

Emmet made a show of putting his recliner back in the neutral position, but he very pointedly did not get up. "First things first, Ferret. You know your agricultural efforts are supposed to be completely detached from anything else you do around here. That being said, I need you to be forthright with me. Have any substances, materials or samples from either the lab or workshop escaped, intentionally or otherwise, from their proper places?"

It was so subtle that only a trained Sully observer could have caught it, but the ferret definitely hesitated. "N-no, sir. I've been keepin' everythin' separate."

Well, that more or less settled it. Sully even scratched his left ear the way he typically did when he was concealing something. The only question now was what he'd stolen.

Emmet could let it slide and remain Sully's problem, whatever it was, but prudence mandated that he check it out. He couldn't risk any of his property getting into the ecosystem.

"Very well," the wombat grunted. "I'll fetch some instruments."

Sully's joy was palpable. The young ferret clapped his hat back on his head and rushed over to help his mentor up, a gesture which the wombat accepted even though it made him feel like an old man every time he did it.

Once he was on his feet he looked up at him. "Have you been keeping a log of these... anomalies, as it were?"

Sully shook his head.

"You should be handling such things more scientifically. You know better than most how to approach unexplained phenomena. Oh, and Sully?"

"Yes, Boss?"

"Please take a shower after this is over. You reek."