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Nutmeg was not your average squirrel. While other squirrels were busy burying acorns for winter, Nutmeg was busy un-burying them, using them as clues to solve the most perplexing mysteries in Whispering Woods. He wore a tiny, well-worn deerstalker hat and carried a magnifying glass made from a dewdrop, which sparkled like a diamond under the forest’s dappled sunlight.

Nutmeg had a knack for noticing the tiniest details—a tuft of fur caught on a twig, an acorn slightly more polished than the others, or the faintest whiff of berry pie lingering in the crisp woodland air. His latest case was one that had the entire forest buzzing: the case of the missing sparkling berry pie. Mrs. Badger’s prize-winning pie, famous for its shimmer and delectable flavor, had vanished from her windowsill just as it was cooling. The news spread faster than a squirrel leaping from tree to tree.

Nutmeg arrived at the scene, his bushy tail twitching with determination. He examined the windowsill meticulously. There, amidst the faint scratches and crumbs, he found a trail of tiny, almost invisible, glittery crumbs leading away from the sill.

“Aha!” he squeaked, tapping his acorn with his paw. “Glittery crumbs mean… a sparkling berry pie thief!” This was not, he admitted, a particularly groundbreaking deduction, but every mystery began with small, seemingly obvious clues.

As Nutmeg followed the trail, he noticed something truly odd: a faint, slightly sticky, blue acorn. He picked it up with care, examining it through his dewdrop magnifying glass.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” Nutmeg mumbled to himself, adjusting his deerstalker. No normal acorn was blue and sticky. Determined to uncover the truth, he followed the glittery crumb trail, which led him past Mr. Owl’s napping tree. Mr. Owl blinked one sleepy eye open and hooted softly, "On another case, Detective Nutmeg?"

Nutmeg tipped his hat politely, "Indeed, Mr. Owl. The case of the missing sparkling berry pie."

Continuing along the trail, he passed the chattering magpies’ nest, where the magpies squawked about shiny things and recent forest gossip. Nutmeg ignored the distraction, focusing on the crumbs that sparkled faintly in the morning light.

Finally, the trail led to the very messy burrow of Barnaby Bear. Barnaby, who was known for his sweet tooth and his tendency to leave sticky messes, was currently attempting to wipe blue jam from his whiskers. Scattered around him were even more blue, sticky acorns, and an unmistakable fragment of Mrs. Badger’s pie crust.

Nutmeg held up his dewdrop magnifying glass dramatically. “Barnaby Bear,” Nutmeg declared, “I deduce that you, and your very blue acorns, are responsible for the disappearance of Mrs. Badger’s sparkling berry pie!”

Barnaby, caught red-pawed—or rather, blue-whiskered—looked sheepish. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble,” he mumbled. “I just wanted to make the pie look even more special with my blue dye for decorating my den. But it got messy… and well, I got hungry.”

Nutmeg, ever the professional, accepted Barnaby’s apology along with a slice of the pie. However, he made Barnaby promise to help Mrs. Badger bake a new one and clean up the mess he had made. Barnaby agreed eagerly, grateful to avoid any further embarrassment.

From that day on, whenever anything went missing in Whispering Woods, everyone knew to call for Detective Nutmeg and his trusty, clue-finding acorns. And Nutmeg, with his sharp eye and sharper mind, continued to solve mysteries, one sparkling crumb at a time.