Thirsty

17,000 Words of Kreme!

Elsa has always been a shy woman, though not purely in the sense most would assume. She's in no way mousy, a quite beautiful petite brunette, but she's more what her husband calls a thinker. Quiet and contemplative, very little slips past Elsa's keen eyes but when her husband leaves the country on business, a spontaneous trip to visit a friend from when she grew up awakens a mystery Elsa may never recover from.

Something about married life has left Elsa with a thirst for some of the old adventure she felt growing up with her best friend Nina. They would frequently hike the trails among their remote mountain community of Victoria and wander what tourists called The Dark Forest. There were rumors of all sorts in such a forest, tales of magic and witchcraft, but were those tales all rumors or is a local girl come home for a visit about to uncover the truth so few ever find out.

It's on the train into town that Elsa meets a local detective, a man who has been attempting to crack a rash of disappearances, missing people who always vanish in pairs but yet are always nearly immediately reported found, even though he never saw them. In this detective's eyes there is something strange happening, something he feels worthy of warning Elsa about, but then Elsa is quite observant and as quiet as she might be around new people, she's well aware of how to read someone.

Her friend Nina meets her at the station, but this is not the Nina of old, a veritable adult growth spurt taking place with Nina seeming bustier and quite a bit beyond the stick she was last Elsa saw her. According to Nina, it's largely thanks to the totally natural non-hormonal milk her new friend Vicky has supplied.

Vicky runs a small milk farm on her family land deep in The Dark Forest surrounding Victoria, but when Nina tells Elsa the two of them have been invited to stay for her entire vacation, something just doesn't seem right.

Just what is it about the mysteriously beautiful woman, Vicky, and her admittedly incredible tasting milk? Exactly why has Elsa never seen her before if her family has been in the Victoria area for generations? And what is making Nina grow a bit simpler and ditzy every single day of Elsa's vacation?

There are seven days of the trip, but is that enough time to solve a mystery which stumps even the always cautious thinker, Elsa? Is it going to prove too difficult, particularly when she too begins to exhibit similar behavior changes to her old best friend?

Only one thing is clear, a thirst for adventure and reconnecting to old hometowns has never led to such a truly thirst quenching discovery... and before the week is up, Elsa may learn what it's like to be Thirsty, in ways she never imagined.