"The Great Mouse Detective"

A new face.. Toby.

{221 Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes' flat.}

{Florence's POV}

Upstairs, in the flat of the famous Sherlock Holmes, I watch as Basil opens a small wall design. As he peeks outside, Olivia opens the wall design further. I chuckle as Basil glares at Olivia in annoyance, "And not a word out of you. Is that clear? I-" Olivia shushes him and Basil pulls the secret passage door shut.

Two silhouettes come into view, the taller one of the two speaks first. "I observe there's a good deal of German music on the program. It's introspective, and I want to introspect." The shorter one speaks afterwards as they walk away, "But Holmes, that music is so frightfully dull.." The door closes and the lights dim, I hold onto the sleeve of Basil's jacket as we leave the hall and walk into the room.

"Toby?" Basil looks around for a few seconds before shouting his name again, "Toby!" Olivia lightly tugs at Dawson's coat, he leans down and Olivia whispers in his ear, "Who is Toby?"

Dawson tries his hardest to answer her question, "Well, my dear, Toby is.. Well, he's, uh.. Uh.." ...But he doesn't know either. He looks over at Basil, "I say, Basil, who is this Toby chap?" Before either one of us could answer, thundering footsteps approach us. Towering over us is a brown and white basset hound puppy, who is obviously ecstatic to see Basil, "Ahh! Here he is now!" I go over to Toby first, "Hello there.." I gently pat his nose as Basil speaks to Toby, "Toby, Florence." I tensed slightly when he said my first name instead of my last name, he always just called me 'Chamberlain', even before we left Basil's flat.

After I got to meet Basil's newest hound, it was Dawson's turn. Basil pushes Dawson forward as Toby leaned down, "Dawson.. Toby." Dawson chuckles nervously and tips his hat, patting Toby's nose afterwards, "Hehe, charmed, I'm sure." Toby starts growling at Dawson, who's finally got an excuse to run away. He hides behind a chair leg as Basil calms down Toby, "Now Toby! Toby, stop that! Toby, cease! Desist! Ha!" Dawson is trembling behind that chair leg as Toby start sniffing around the room.

Basil speaks again, impressing me once more, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Frightfully sorry, old man. Toby has the most splendid sense of smell of any hound I've trained. But he can be.." He chuckles, "...Deucedly frisky." Toby stops near a footrest, Olivia cautiously pushes the fringe aside and notices that Toby seems to like her just fine. "Hello, Toby!" She pats him on the nose and he starts sniffing her again, "Hehe, silly doggy!" She reaches into her pocket right as I had turned around, "Would you like a crumpet?" Toby nods happily as Olivia takes out a crumpet. He licks it right off her little hand.

Basil reaches into his pocket, "Here now, Toby? Toby! To the matter at hand. I want you to—" "Basil. Look." I stifled laughter as Basil looks over at Toby, Olivia, and Dawson. Toby is lying down on his back as Olivia gives him belly rubs. Clearly, someone isn't listening..

I clear my throat and Toby looks at me. As Basil taps his foot, Olivia quickly gets off Toby. Toby rolls over and Basil stops impatiently tapping his foot. "Good, now Toby! Toby.. I want you to find.." He snatches Fidget's hat out of his pocket, showing it to Toby, "This fiend!!" Toby starts growling, and Basil growls alongside him between his words and sentences to rile him up, "Yes, you know his type. A villain. A scoundrel!" He waves the hat infront of Toby while on his hands and knees, "Low brow, close-set eyes, broken wing.." Toby sits up, looking at Basil in a puzzled way.

Basil chortles and sits up, holding his right arm out in a way that resembles a broken wing, "Oh, he's a peg-legged bat with a broken wing." Toby starts to growl again, Basil goes back to riling him up, "Yes! Yes! That's the spirit! Got his scent?" Toby nods happily and Basil grabs his leash, "Good boy, good boy!" He turns around to look at Toby, but Toby's looking at me, Olivia, and Dawson. He stands between us and Toby, "Miss Flamchester!" Olivia and I correct him in unison, "Flaversham!" "Whatever. Your father's as good as found!"

Basil hooks up Toby's leash, "Toby.." I quickly grab part of Toby's leash as he gets into a pointer position..

"Sic 'em!"

As Toby starts running, he steps on Basil by accident and I hold onto the collar of his coat. {I know he could've held onto that leash by himself, but.. But I didn't want him to get lost..} Basil comes back down from whatever high he was at when he was in that daze, "Ah-ha! Yoinks! Tally ho! Ha-ha! Ha-ha!" I quickly lose my grip on the leash, "Ummmm, Basil?! Basil!!" Basil grabs my hand and I stay close to him. I chuckle a little as Dawson and Olivia run after us.

I sigh a little, and as I look up at Basil and try to say something, he cuts me off. "It's okay." What did he say..? "I'm not quite sure what you mean, I didn't get to say anything yet.." "And whatever it is, it most definitely is about.. That. And it's okay, Florence." I didn't want to cry just yet, that's for later.

A short while later, I'm holding Olivia with one arm and my other is wrapped around Basil's waist. Toby is sniffing the ground, and I'm thinking about what to say to Basil once this is over. Toby suddenly howls and starts running, I hold Basil tightly as Olivia clings onto me. Basil looks behind us, "The thrill of the hunt, eh, Dawson?!" Dawson responds to him, I could tell he was nervous, "Ah! Q-q-quite!"

"Oh-hoo-hoo! Our peg-legged quarry can't be far now!" Basil shouts. I suddenly felt less tense, like I had an odd weight off my shoulders and I didn't notice it until it was truly gone.

{...Now, I should probably start paying attention, before I almost drop that little girl again.}

{To be continued..}