At Denis' place they met another friend of Daniel nicknamed Fox. Olive was introduced to him straight away; and, despite her old shyness that had once hindered her communication with new people, she gave her new acquaintance an open, friendly smile, the same as she had given Denis half a year before. The "sad sack" had finally let go of her - for good as she was hoping.
"I have a suggestion", said Fox over tea, "To show our guest the main attraction of the city!"
"Cool!" Olive embraced this idea wholeheartedly, "I'm all for it. What kind of attraction is it?"
"It's a surprise." the answer followed.
The guys finished their tea and all together flocked into the street. The group headed for the Christmas tree on the main city square, near which, along with the crowd of people, ice statues and ponies stood a small Bactrian camel covered with icicles.
"So is it the main attraction?" Olive gasped, "Isn't it too freezing for him here? The camel is a heat-loving animal, isn't it..."
"That's not all we have!" said Fox with inspiration, "We have also got an orange tree growing in the water, in the middle of the river."
"An orange tree?" said Olive in amazement, "Right here, in the water of the North Dvina?"
"Yeah, right here it grows, just out of the water."
"Don't listen to him," said Daniel with a grin, "He's read too many Pisakhov's fairy tales..."
"You're one to talk!" replied Fox jeeringly, "Look at you, as happy as a clam!"
Daniel chased him and, as he made a snowball, flung it at his buddy. A snowball fight started, and the guys got so delved in it that didn't even notice how they came running onto the bank of the North Dvina.
That winter was anomalously warm in Arkhangelsk, too. The river wasn't frozen, the snow was rather sleety, and the thermometer showed plus two degrees. It was so warm that even Olive took off her coat and played in the snow dressed only in her sweater and jeans. Having thrown snowballs to her heart's content without hitting anyone, though, she actually got exhausted. Denis and Fox, however, shot up Daniel in spite of him being extremely elusive and a hard target to hit.
At last, as they had had enough of running around, the guys approached the river and stood near the curb in silence. The wide North Dvina spread out before their eyes. There was a lot of piece and quiet all around. Just some lights on the opposite riverbank were twinkling from afar.
— Тишина-то какая… — задумчиво произнесла Олива.
"How quiet it is..." said Olive pensively.
"Yes..." replied Denis. Everybody else was silent.
"It's so nice and quiet here in Arkhangelsk," she said with a sigh, "Moscow is a lot noisier... So crowded and bustling, full of cars and people... Everybody runs and runs..."
The guys kept silent, staring still at the vast surface of the river. Everybody was deep in their own thought.
"Time goes by so fast," Denis noticed unexpectedly, "Seems like summer was just recently... Do you remember, Fox, us running Urban roads that summer night? It all feels like yesterday, actually."
"Urban roads?" asked Olive.
"Didn't Daniel tell you? It's a sort of game. Two teams of six participants searched for some treasure in the city at night. You must have read about it on Astud."
"Can't remember. Perhaps, I did." she said, "It's a shame I wasn't there with you."
"Yeah, quite a shame," Daniel chimed in, "Guess where the location of the treasure was!"
"No idea."
"Where did I take you last summer? Remember?"
"Ah, you mean that lamp factory building?"
"Exactly," Daniel drew the girl closer to himself.
"It's a pity we can't see the video with Urban," added Denis, "I gave the disc to Saltikov and he never returned it back."
Olive put on her listening ears with an obvious interest.
"Saltikov?"
"Yeah, Saltikov from Astud. It was him who organized the activity."
"Really? That's interesting." she muttered.
A sudden idea flashed on her:
"Listen, guys, what if I... I mean, what if I text him? So tomorrow we can all go and get the disc back from him?"