The book in the genre of children's fantasy "Robert and the Secrets of Castle Lake."

Fragment. The book is written "live."
The illustration is done using AI.

Gelka really never cries for long, and this is one of her greatest virtues. She still sniffles, Robert licks her face and hands, but both are already tired of mourning and start looking for a way out of the situation.

"Did you take your phone?" Robert asks.

Gelka sniffs. She never has a tissue with her, which always irritates Grandma. At the thought of Grandma, Robert falls into despair again, and so his next phrase comes out with a somewhat sorrowful whimper:
"Do you have your phone with you? Let's text Mom!"

And Gelka suddenly stops crying and looks at Robert, her eyes wide open like a frog:

"You? You can talk?"

What a thing! Gelka understands him! I mean, she understood him before, but like all people, she just understood what he wanted, what his mood was. And all that. But now she understands the words!

"I always talked to you. It's just that for some reason you didn't understand before."

"I thought you were just barking..."

Astonished by the new discovery, they look at each other.

"Am I the extraordinary girl or are you the extraordinary dog?"

"Phew! What an eternal megalomania! You are both completely ordinary, there are just exceptional circumstances," says the Morning Hedgehog sitting on the path in front of the platform.

"Oh, hedgehog! I know you. And you also speak human language!"

"Phew! Very necessary! I'm speaking in the universal language right now, it's just that you have started to understand it. If you want to know, we animals don't have a speech apparatus adapted for speaking your terrible human languages at all. And don't call me 'hedgehog'! Hedgehogs are another... if I may say so, hedgehog. And I have nothing in common with him! My name is Grzegorz. However, that's too complicated for you. You can call me Grześ."

"Nice to meet you... Grześ! Gelya... Angelina," Gelka unnecessarily extended her hand to the Hedgehog. He flinched a little but remained silent.

"But how did it happen that I started to understand? What happened? Is it because of what happened to Grandma? Or... because of what appeared in the lake and stole our key? And what is the 'universal language'?"

"You see, girl, the universal language appeared long before people did..."

"Just listen to him more. This kind animal will tell you a lot," a quiet but clear voice overrides the Hedgehog's voice, dissolving his words in its soft, flowing sounds...

...This voice reminds Robert most of the hot chocolate that Mom squeezed onto the cake. Once she missed, drops fell on the floor, and as soon as they cooled down a little, Robert immediately licked them up...

Robert shakes his head and sees Little Panther coming out of the bushes. Wow! He had never heard her voice before. She only remained silent or snorted. But the Hedgehog, it seems, had heard her. Otherwise, how to explain his unusually embarrassed look?

"Understanding each other, the emergence of languages, and other socio-linguistic issues in this situation are secondary," the Panther meows chocolatey, "the primary question is: where will the girl and the dog spend this night?"

"My phone is dead," Gelka reports in a fallen voice, "and we are already late for the last train to Mom. However, we don't have money for a ticket anyway. We spent all our money on ice cream."

The Hedgehog and the Panther exchange glances.

"Not even the head of this dog will fit in my house," the Hedgehog reports.

Meanwhile, Gelka is already shamelessly rummaging through the bags of Leszek the wanderer, standing near the platform.

"There's a blanket here. It stinks, but it's warm for now, and if it gets cold we can endure and cover ourselves. When Leszek comes, we will explain the situation to him, he's kind, he will let us spend the night with him by the lake. It's not scary with him. And in the morning we will go to Grandma in the hospital. Grandma has her own keys."

"Leszek won't come today. He knows what kind of night it is today. And you can't stay here today either. Basanda sacrificed a swan and took your key, girl," the voice of the Panther melts like hot chocolate.
And the wind from the lake grows stronger and colder...