The Hunt For The Curious Cheese : (Geronimo S. AU)

A Cheesy New Scent

On a windy afternoon, Geronimo was sitting in his office working, quite busy. The paper had been facing some problems regarding Sally Ratmousen, who was stealing their stories. He had to think of a way to get ahead. While thinking, he suddenly smelled something in the air. He took another whiff, then another. He was right, it was the delicious scent of his favorite dish in the world... Cheese! The scent overpowered him, and  Geronimo decided to follow the tantalizing scent. He went past the Singing Stone Square, and then down Rocky Rat Road. The scent of cheese was becoming more and more intense. He could feel it!

He turned around at a particular corner and was going to ran smack into which looked like a basement door. There was a sign; which read 'FREE CHEESE TASTING, FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED' "Interesting", said Geronimo. Till now someone was literally drooling all over itself. Yep it was Geronimo. There is only one thing that no rodent can resist, is some delicious whisker-licking-good cheese!

He scampered downstairs and found himself in a dark room. He was disgusted with look of the room, eww! In the room there were dark and dingy cellars with crumbling walls. In the middle of the cellar he noticed that there were millions of cheese slices kept on a table. According to Geronimo he dreams that he gets infinite cheeses. There shouldn't be any deficiency of the dish. next to that table there was a board which read a sign 'Surprise Sample'. 

"What's a Surprise Sample? "He said, by scratching his whiskers. He didn't get anything about the sign. It seemed like nothing out of the ordinary, and he was currently concentrating and was overwhelmed by the delicious scent of the rodent's favorite dish in the world cheese!! He quickly grabbed up his fork and headed straight to the table. He didn't wanted any disturbance but, as he was approaching the table, suddenly he heard a giggling voice."Hee-hee-hee".

Geronimo was wondering, what the hell was that? He started to think. Was someone watching his every pawstep? "Is someone there?" He called, but there was no one in sight. He took another step and then the situation happened. As he passed the giant wedge of cheese, it grabbed him. Surprise! He didn't expect the cheese to catch his feet. He yelled in surprise, a very unpleasant one.

"Heeelp!!" He squeaked at the top of his voice. It felt that he was starring in the most horrifying movie Revenge Of The Rodent-Chomping Cheese Chunks! He was about to faint, but at that moment of time that giant wedge of cheese began laughing uglily and hysterically. So odd! Suddenly he spotted something weird also. A tail was sticking out of the cheese? Then, a little door snapped open. From there, a grey fur and a yellow trench coat peeked out of it. So weird! "How did u like my little joke Stilton?" the mouse squeaked.

We know there are sometimes people who play weird pranks with us. One is the Hercule Poirat. Geronimo's childhood friend. He actually loves to play prank every time on Geronimo. Hercule is even a famous detective in the new mouse city. "Very funny" he muttered. Geronimo braced himself. He knows that whenever this rodent surprises him, that means that he wants to involve Geronimo in one of his crazy cases. "Stilton I need your little help in solving a mysterious case which included... cheese! Hercule said. Geronimo tried to make an excuse, but he knew that Hercule won't accept it. So, agreed to it.

Starting from that, an hour later he came had arrived at Hercule's door and knocked. "Hello? It's me Geronimo!" He squeaked. As he was waiting suddenly a pile of rancid cheese rinds whacked him on the door, and a small head poked out from it. Yep it was definitely Hercule. Hercule then let him in. Hercule had made a antitheft device. So that he can use to track down any thief who gets hit by the stinky cheese rinds, which had made Geronimo jump out of his skin. He just has to follow the stench. "How is my antitheft device Stilton?" Hercule asked. "But u know it was me." Geronimo protested. Hercule smiled. " Yes I trust you, but what if it wasn't u Stilton, what if someone was pretending to be you?" Hercule squeaked. Sometimes panic-strikes in Geronimo when Hercule looks in great seriousness. However, there is no arguing with the detective.

Now, lets get back to the case. Hercule called Geronimo in his flea-infested office. And when someone says flea-infested, it is not a joke. It's serious. Actually Hercule loves fleas. He lives with a ton of them. They all relax on his couch which is located in the living room. It looks like they all come on a picnic and relax in his house. Hercule even has a pillow which reads: "Fleas make the best friends." Right then he called out a flea name. "Felicity! Little Felicity!"

Right after it, a flea came bouncing on his couch. "Hi there Felicity, how are you?" Hercule gave her a little snack. He is training her to bring his slippers. Hercule has a very good memory to remember all the names of his fleas. Did I mention that Hercule is a bit weird?

"How do you recognize every flea?" Geronimo asked. "By the hairstyle, of course." He gave Geronimo a magnifying glass. He pointed to every flea and told everything to Geronimo in a detailed information. "Fifi has little braids, Fiona has red hair, Farrah has curls..." Who could listen to a description of fleas and their hairstyles, for over an hour? But, Geronimo did.  There can be only a concentrative rodent who can listen to it. So awkward! While Hercule was blabbering all about his fleas and it's hairstyles, Geronimo had leaned over a yellow-colored pawchair. Its pattern was a bit weird. It was blue in colour and it had a repetitive pattern of bananas. As expected for Hercule, who loved the fruit to bits. Just as Geronimo sat on the chair... ouuchh! Yikes! It felt as if he had sat on a pin-cushion. "What the heck was that?" Geronimo squeaked.

The time when Hercule saw that, " Now, I understood what had happened to my cacti." said Hercule. Hercule had failed to think that where had he kept his cactus. He told that his cousin Bloomertail had given it to him. Now, he started to blabber about the cactus. He says cacti are... Geronimo groaned and sighed. He didn't know something more worse was going to come. What is more worse, an hour- ling story about fleas or about this cacti!! "Hercule!" Geronimo finally had barged him. " Please tell me why do u need me?" Geronimo asked.

With a very different and mysterious look on Hercule's face, he took two typically identical cheeses and tasted both of them. "As I expected." Hercule muttered🤨. He then handed the fork to Geronimo asked him to also taste it. So, he tasted both the cheeses on after the other. After Geronimo had tasted the samples, he frowned in doubt. "They have the same colour, the same consistency, the same aroma, the same taste, and even the same label.. They must be the same!" He exclaimed, in disbelief. Everything was exactly the same. In simple words they both were identical. Hercule shook his head. "They look identical but they aren't." He pulled out the label off one cheese piece. He had then started to inspect it under the microscope.

"You see there are differences in the label! One is a copy!" Hercule then continued, " The ingredients in this piece are not the same ingredients in other cheese." So awful! There wasn't even milk added to the cheese. Hercule told that someone is making fake cheese and selling it for a cheap price. If this continues one day, it will put all the dairy farms out of business! That's terrible! After hearing this Geronimo quickly said yes. I mean, who wouldn't agree to help, in this bad and terrible situation? Besides, the mystery had piqued his interest. They both decided to meet up tomorrow morning. "We are going to go for the hunt for the curious cheese!"

 The following morning when Geronimo woke up from his bed, he had got a terrible itch all over his body. While he was scratching he turned on the news. The announcer told that all the factories near the 'New Mouse City' are going to shut down. Someone in the town is making counterfeit cheeses and putting everyone else out of business! Right after that there was a knock in Geronimo's house. And it was Hercule. He was standing right outside the door. He was calling Stilton for cracking up the case.