Lupe Forest...
Stenchpaw scowled as he threw several thick
branches onto his crackling fire, glaring out over the motley assembly of shell-shocked
Lupes. Most had abandoned their costumes, and looked extremely miserable. But
Stenchpaw, who had spent thousands of NP on decorations and his fancy costume,
wanted to continue, no matter what the circumstances.
"All right...HIC...I...HICCUP...know that...HURK...you
are all being... RICCUP...in a bad state...URP...but I still...BELCH...want
to be being finishing... URK...this Party! Now, let's tell some scary stories,
UUUURK ...no?"
"I'll give you a scary story..." Dippaw muttered.
"It's called 'Night of the Wives From Heck...'"
He was silenced by three different glares from
the three Lupesses flanking him, sinking down into his seat and fidgeting with
his paws.
"Oi! It's getting chilly out! Let's throw Warpaw
onto that fire!" Hollypaw squealed, still in the form of a yellow Chia and carrying
the stiff, frozen Lupe over her head like a plank.
"Ugga ugga!" Peacepaw remarked, clutching his
throat and guzzling down some water. "Ugga ugga ugga!!"
"Please..." Big Dippaw begged, still being tormented
by the three versions of his wife. "Throw ME in!! I can't stand it any more!
One Pawla, I could handle, but THREE? It's like living with her, her mother,
AND her sister all in one!"
"BE QUIET!!"
"SHUT UP!!"
"SILENCE!!"
SMACK!! SMACK!! SMACK!!
"Well, it won't do much good to argue, you know."
Nopaw sighed. "We've got to think about this for a while...who wanted to poison
every Lupe in Lupe Forest?"
Peachpaw, with her special powers, was the only
Lupe able to cure herself, but she refused to cure anyone else. She looked upset
as she fluttered her faerie wings and pouted in protest.
"Well, I know of a few people who would want
to harm ME...Don't hate me because I'm beautiful! I know that it was one of
you jealous wolves, so the next time you try to make me lose my head, I'll be
prepared!"
"Yeah, whatever..." Hollypaw whispered, propping
up Warpaw against a tree and leaning against him casually.
"Hiss?" Fluffy added, as the invisible Al desperately
tried to untangle his knots.
"MOOO?" Lulupaw pitched in, sitting near the
fire and munching on a stalk of grass.
"Well," Goldpaw sighed, scratching at his itchy
purple fur. "I'm really not sure exactly who could have done it, but I really
think that we have to cool down."
"Not...BELCH...funny." Thornpaw gasped, still
burping out blasts of fire.
"But I wasn't trying to insult you!"
"Oh, insult us, will you!?" Hollypaw snarled.
The Lupes were becoming defensive, glaring at
each other with intense frustration and anger. You could see their temples throbbing
and their paws clenching. Nopaw, looking worried at the prospect of a fight,
began to plead, covering her head with her paws.
"Don't start an argument, oh, please don't start
an argument!!"
But it was too late. Almost at once they all
began to viciously attack each other. Hollypaw used the frozen Warpaw as a club,
beating the still sniggering Hotpaw over his flame-decked cranium repeatedly,
cursing at the top of her lungs. Thornpaw belched fire and sneezed ice at the
peacefully mooing Lulupaw on accident, who roared with rage and began to charge
like a bull. She chased him around and around the large fire, Thornpaw sneezing
all the way.
Goldpaw, cross-eyed, itchy, and unable to see,
stepped into the fire on accident and set his tail on fire, too busy scratching
his itches to notice. Big Dippaw gurgled miserably as his three wives picked
him up, carried him, and hurled him into the icy waters of the nearby Lupe Lake.
Peachpaw rolled her eyes and fluttered off in
a huff, and all Stenchpaw, Fluffy, and Nopaw could do was watch on miserably
and desperately try to stop the conflict.
But Al, who was still invisible, had other ideas.
He quickly slipped off his Werelupe costume and glasses, creeping off into the
forest completely unseen. After a good ten minutes of all out chaos, Nopaw was
the first to notice that he and Peachpaw were gone.
"Um...guys?"
They ignored her, continuing to fight and scream.
Suddenly, something came over the normally timid Lupess, and she stood up, fire
in her eyes.
"GUYS!!"
At once, the fighting stopped. She gasped, catching
her breath and looking out over the now awestruck Lupes.
"WOULD YOU ALL JUST BE QUIET AND LISTEN FOR
A SECOND?! WE NEED TO GET OURSELVES FIXED AND FOLLOW AL!! I HAVE A HUNCH HE
KNOWS WHO DID THIS!!"
"But...how can we find him?" Goldpaw asked.
"He's invisible!"
"I think I have an idea..."
Deep in Lupe Swamp...
Jade hummed as she skipped along the damp,
murky path of Lupe Swamp. The ancient place had been abandoned by the Lupes
of the forest for years, and no one knew exactly what lurked there now.
But the careless Jade P. Pumpernickel couldn't
care less about all that. She hopped along, ignoring the melodious croak of
Greebles and the occasional howl of a Werelupe in the distance.
"La, la la la la laaaa!" She trilled, leaping
gracefully over a fallen log and dancing across a rock.
"Al is stupid and so are the Lupes! Tra la la
la!"
Suddenly, she heard a rustling. With a start,
she turned around, her ever-alert eyes scanning the trees behind her.
Nothing was there.
"Hm..." She turned and hop-skipped onward, now
a little more cautiously. Once again, she heard a rustling, this time much closer.
Jade grinned as she stopped dead, not bothering to turn around and look. The
grin turned into a broad, creepy smile as she carefully put a paw onto her flower.
"Hm...I hope whoever is out there realises that
it's not wise to annoy the Goddess of Annoyance..."
She slowly stood up, waiting and listening carefully.
Another rustling, right in the grass near the swamp!
Jade laughed as she squeezed the flower, shooting
a blast of green, sticky goo that splattered all over Al's face, both blinding
him and making him quite visible. Without missing a second, she shot out her
rainbow sticky hand. It closed around the stunned Lupologist, getting him in
a tight squeeze. The Halloween Chia licked her lips maliciously as she held
onto the long stretchy 'arm' of the hand.
"Well, well, well, looky what I've caught! It's
my invisible boyfriend, Alsy Palsy Walsy! How are you?"
"Err...fine! I'm just fine! Heh...well, I'd
be a little better if you let go of that sticky hand of yours..."
"Oh, I'm certain you would be, and that is why
I'm going to keep it onto you."
She tugged on the rope, and the hand tightened
itself around Al, making him squeak like a kiko toy.
"Well, this should teach you that I am the Goddess
of Annoyance, invincible and sleek as an Aisha! Fiercer than a Kougra!"
"AND AS SLIMY THAN A MORTHOG, YOU LITTLE WITCH!
A CURSE ON YOU TO MAKE YOU EVEN SLIMIER!"
A blast of pink light surged out from somewhere
in the nearby trees, zapping Jade with a loud crackle. She released a loud,
giddy whoop of laughter before glowing bright fuchsia and exploding in a cloud
of pink and purple smoke.
Al shielded his eyes until the blinding pinkness
faded. As his eyes slowly became accustomed to the dark, he saw a slightly singed
mask, hat, and cape slowly drifted down from the sky, landing on the slightly
scorched ground right in front of him.
"HM"
He scrambled onto his feet as Peachpaw emerged
from the forest, humming happily as she daintily descended onto the mushy, muddy
ground.
"YOU..." he spluttered, pointing at the smoking
clothing. "YOU BLEW HER UP!?"
"Actually..."
She beamed sweetly, holding up a yellow morthog
by its back leg. It thrashed and kicked, but Peachpaw's firm grip remained as
she forced it into a jar and slammed on the lid.
"I just turned her into a morthog. Not anything
terrible, but I'm certain someone playing 'Kiss the Morthog' will get an unpleasant
surprise when I get her to Meridell..."
She put the jar under her long, slender arm,
primping her beautiful hair and waving her wand. Her wings flapping, she soared
off into the air, disappearing with the sound of a bell and a puff of faerie
dust. Al blinked as he shielded his eyes from the glittery residue. As it landed
on him, he slowly faded back into visibility, transformed into his normal, former
Chia self...except with no clothes on.
"Geez, that Lupess bothers me..."
He looked down at himself, gasping and nearly
falling over.
"PIFFLES, I'M NOT WEARING MY LAB COAT!!"
Nopaw and the rest of the Lupes burst into the
area, slightly out of breath. Al screeched and leapt into the bushes, covering
himself up with the large leaves as Nopaw winced.
"Did Peachpaw get her?" She asked, looking away
and tossing him his Werelupe costume and glasses.
"Yep." The Chia ducked under the bushes for
a second, popping out fully clothed.
"She's going to be...er...vacationing in Meridell
for a while..."
"I see..."
Nopaw turned and gestured to the other Lupes,
who looked perfectly fine.
"Although Lulupaw could only moo, that didn't
mean she still didn't know how to heal us all. After we finally calmed everyone
down, she fixed everybody up, including Thornpaw. With his magnificent nose,
he sniffed your tail and led us right here..."
"Hiccup!!"
Hollypaw cackled as she elbowed Stenchpaw.
"Well, ALMOST everyone!"
The skunk Lupe frowned miserably, stifling another
hiccup as Lulupaw shrugged innocently.
"Heh, sorry, but there's no cure for the hiccups!!
You know, on Mystery Island, there was this one Lupe named Pricklepaw who had
the hiccups for sixty years! Isn't that amazing?"
She tittered as Stenchpaw hiccupped once more,
suddenly looking extremely tired.
"Well," Al sighed. "At least everyone is safe
and happy once more...now, let's get out of this horrible swamp before we all
get eaten by Werelupes!"
Everyone laughed. Well, at least until a loud,
echoing howl emitted from somewhere nearby, ending in a deep, eerie silence.
The Lupes looked at each other for a second, seeing two glowing eyes, slinking
towards them oh so slowly.
"Um..." Goldpaw gulped. "LAST ONE OUT IS Werelupe
CHOW!"
Screaming and shoving each other to get out
first, they all fled from the swamp at top speed, the glowing eyes giving fast
pursuit. As the last Lupe faded over the horizon, Fluffy slithered out from
the swamp, releasing another fake Werelupe howl and snickering quietly to himself.
With a grin, he looked to the harvest moon,
the silhouette of a vulture blocking it from view for a brief moment. Fog covered
the damp, murky ground, darkness seized the stars, the looming trees began to
howl and moan with the wind as the Cobrall hissed a few, final words:
"Happy Halloween!!!"
The End | 
