Chapter 4 Finn Feenbart and the Thing About the Singing Beetle Hat

More about Chapter 4 Finn Feenbart and the Thing About the Singing Beetle Hat

Finn Feenbart left Knirpsengrund with a gentle laugh that lingered in the forest for a long time. The mushroom creatures had given him a small gift: a beetle hat. It was a hat made from the shell of a forest beetle, iridescent like the surface of water in the morning light. The mushrooms had enthusiastically claimed it sang. At first, Finn thought this was a friendly exaggeration. Until the hat started to do just that. Finn first put it on briefly to see how it felt. Something vibrated. And then it began softly: "Laaaaaaa… laaa la-laaaaa… la-lalalalaaaa!" Finn stopped. "Oh," he said politely to the hat, "I think you've started." The hat didn't reply with words, but with a suddenly very dramatic crescendo, somewhere between opera, a bird's cry, and a particularly ambitious kettle. Finn raised his eyebrows. That was… loud. And enthusiastic. And not at all unfriendly. Just a little too much. “Perhaps a little quieter?” Finn asked, very gently. The hat fell silent immediately. Suspiciously immediately. Like someone who is offended but doesn't want to say so. Finn sighed inwardly and continued on his way. The forest was brighter here, the leaves a little more golden, and somewhere the sun was dancing over small tracks in the moss. Many of these tracks were tiny, round, indecisive—as if they had been made by someone who didn't know where they were going. Finn followed them, because paths that don't know where they lead are usually the most interesting. After a while, the forest opened into a clearing where dozens of small creatures scurried about. They looked like tiny acorn sprites: bodies of bark, arms and legs as thin as twigs, and on each head—no, really—an acorn cap, like a hat. Some had feathers on them, others blossoms. Some had small holes drilled into them, as if they were helmets. Just then, the beetle hat on Finn's head raised its voice again. "LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—" All the acorn goblins stopped at once. Finn slowly took off the hat. The goblins looked. Finn looked. The beetle hat vibrated with an energy that said, "I'm about to start again." Finn spoke with the utmost calm: "Please. Just a moment." The hat hummed indignantly and fell silent. The goblins approached. One wearing a leaf skirt stepped forward. "Is this perhaps... the Legendary Singing Armor of the Forest Orchestra?" he asked reverently. Finn blinked. "Possibly." The goblin began to tremble. “We need it! We’ve been practicing for weeks for the Grand Midday Concert, but—and I say this with deep sadness—we’re terrible. Not a single note is in tune! Everything sounds like…” He made a sound imitation that sounded very much like a squeaky door. Finn nodded sympathetically. “I know the feeling.” He placed the hat on a small mound of moss. The hat cleared its throat.