A/N: It's December! Finally! Aaahh I love this month! Happy birthday to one of my friends (her Animal Jam username is Mslayr), you're awesome! Also, I swear, if there's not snow by Dec. 3rd I'm going to die.
The characters used in this story are mainly going to be the same characters used in my other story Recalculation plus some new characters. Again, WildWorks owns Animal Jam and no characters are real. I'll try to post in time but I got at least four projects I have to work on for school and an orchestra concert coming up.
And about Night of Destruction (if you read it) it's discontinued for now. Until I get this and other work out of the way, I may or may not return to writing that.
Have fun reading and don't forget to drop a review!
Medieval Cleverivy stopped and glanced around. He scowled and sighed.
Had Snickety run off again?
"Snickety Cleverivy, you get back here now," shouted Medieval. "I know you're busy eating your Night of the Phantoms candy somewhere, but now isn't the time for that. Have all the candy you want when we get back to our den. Just not right now."
Snickety poked his head out from behind a snowy bench, his snout covered in chocolate. "Just one more piece, Dad? Please?" he pleaded.
Medieval sighed. "Well, alright, just one more. But that'll be it for the day, you hear me?"
"I promise I won't eat any more after this one, Dad!" Snickety said as he shoved another chocolate into his mouth as happy as a three-year-old.
Medieval nudged his son. "Let's get over to Jamaa Furniture now, okay? We'll have to recycle some unneeded Feast of Thanks decorations and also get some new winter ones for the Jamaalidays. Don't want to keep your mother and your sisters waiting, would you?"
"Nope," Snickety replied, beaming. Then he paused. "What kind of decorations are we gonna get? I hope they've got candy canes."
"Snow we don't have to worry about - it's all falling from the sky for us," Medieval said, smiling as he glanced up at the snow falling from the sky. "We could get some new ornaments. Maybe a frozen wreath, or - "
CRASH!
"Dad, what was that?" Snickety asked, his eyes wide with fear.
Medieval shook his head. "I don't know. We'd better go check it out."
The two bounded over to the location of the crash sound. As Medieval dragged his son into Jam Mart Furniture, snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, he heard several startled voices and a few shouts. That sure was a loud crash - he sure hoped nothing extremely bad had occurred.
"Zi-os! Are you okay, Awesome?" someone said.
Medieval stopped dead and gasped. A tall display of vases had fallen over on top of a Jammer he didn't recognize, and several people were trying to get him out from under the mess.
"What happened?" Medieval asked as he clawed at the broken vases and shelf.
"It was my fault," Explorer Daringartist said as he picked up a huge piece of glass in his beak and tossed it to the side. "I wasn't being careful and accidentally knocked the display over."
The Jammer stuck under the mess grunted and poked his head out. "It wasn't your fault," he said. "It...it was me who was not being careful. I should have...uh…gotten away in time and not just stand there." He laughed slightly. "I'm fine, Explorer. No worries."
Before Medieval or Explorer could say anything, another Jammer resembling the one trapped under the fallen shelf breathed a sigh of relief. "Are you sure you're alright, Awesome? None of the glass or broken vases hurt you…?"
"No, Snowflake. I'm perfectly fine."
Medieval moved to one side of the shattered shelf and wedged a nearby brick under it, causing the shelf to elevate slightly. He gestured for Snickety to do the same. Snickety nodded, shoving bricks under the side of the shelf.
After a few minutes, the Jammer (who was supposedly named Awesome) inched out from under the mess. He shook his fur out, and only then did Medieval realize that Awesome was likely of a new species they didn't see too much around this area of Jamaa. He seemed like a cross between a wolf and a fox.
"Well, I sure wasn't expecting that to happen," Medieval said. "Glad nobody's hurt, though."
"Thanks, Explorer," Awesome said, shaking out his fur again. He then turned to Medieval. "And thank you, sir…"
"You can just call me Medieval," responded Medieval, smiling. "This is my son, Snickety."
Snickety poked his head out from behind his father's tail. "Hi," he squeaked. Then he ducked behind Medieval again.
Awesome smiled. "Let me guess...you're all wondering what species Snowflake and I are," he said with a laugh, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I might as well tell you now. We uh...would not want to be mistaken for phantoms now, would we?"
That caused more laughing around the room.
"The phantoms are long gone, but if they ever decide to return…" Medieval thought for a moment. "Ah, I'm just kidding! You two are clearly anything but phantoms!"
The level of laughter only rose.
"You, Medieval," Explorer said between laughs, "are one of the most ridiculously funny and horribly stubborn people I've ever met. You're clearly not a phantom from what I know!"
"Sure, I'm not!" Medieval shot back. Then he said only loud enough for everyone to hear, "or am I?"
Everyone laughed.
"Awesome and I are coyotes!" a light teal Jammer nearby (supposedly Snowflake) said.
Muddy Spiritmeadow didn't know what was happening.
He did, however, know that he shouldn't be where he was. If Dad found him or found out that he had been over here, then he would be absolute dead meat. A dead arctic wolf pretending to be roadkill or dead turkey, maybe even dressed up in an old costume from Night of the Phantoms. Yuck.
All around, he found nothing but trees and hills that were all painted over with darkness, silence, and ice.
Muddy pulled out his map and peered at the tiny spot as to where he might be. The Basement of Secrets must be here somewhere, he thought. Ember said so.
Then again, his sister always told him about lies and fairy tales, which would get him hooked, and once he was hooked to finding them or proving them true…
"Well, ziosdammit!" Muddy grumped, throwing his backpack, map, and compass down. "I shouldn't have gone out here. Now I'll probably never make it out alive! It took me a few days to cross over the rest of Township and Appondale, and now I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere. If only Ember hadn't been the annoying sister she is!"
Adorable and Incredible Spiritmeadow, his parents, both despised this place, saying that it was filled with nothing but darkness and horror. Anyone who dares go there would have their fate sealed.
Now Muddy wished he'd listened to his parents' warnings.
He stormed a few feet ahead until suddenly, the ground underneath his feet collapsed.
Muddy screamed as he was falling, falling, falling...falling into the darkness. His paws slid against the side of dirt and then old, rotten wood. There was a flash of candlelight until he hit something hard, there was a loud clatter, and he found himself in the middle of several ancient and unusual items.
"Huh?" Muddy said aloud.
He kicked his legs, freeing himself from the mess. Picking up his own items, he shook the dirt out of his fur and slowly stepped around the room, the wood creaking under him. Muddy could see some stairs in the corner, lots of books, and some suspiciously shiny-looking candles and weird lamps.
Muddy sniffed one of the weird-looking lamps. It smelled ancient but new. He picked it up in his mouth and was slowly unzipped his backpack. Boy, Mom would sure love this as a Jamaaliday gift, he thought. Ember would never know where I got this. Ha!
But just before he slipped it in, he decided to see what was inside it. Just to make sure there wasn't anything -
It suddenly occurred to Muddy that all the candles were still burning. If this was really a lost place, the candles wouldn't be so tall. He was also sure that the flames would've gone out or the books would've caught fire, but clearly, neither had happened. So if the strange lamp looked so fresh and the candles hadn't gone out, that meant someone was constantly going down here to relight the candles.
By the time he realized it, however -
"ComposingKnowledge, you are going to have consequences once we return to our den. I have told you not to come down here."
Oh no. Dad.
Muddy felt his father's teeth clamp down onto his neck, dragging him up the stairs. His eyes went wide and his pulse quickened as he struggled to free himself.
"Uh...Dad! I wasn't - "
"Do not even think of going there," Incredible snapped. "I already told you that - "
"Dad, I was - I was just curious as to what was behind that shelf over there!" Muddy shouted the first excuse that came to his mind.
"Behind that shelf?" Incredible questioned, stopping the middle of the stairs to glare at his son for a moment before dragging him up a trapdoor. "Behind that shelf is a three-day suspension for you and hundreds of scammers who got away with scamming all because I had to come down here and get you, not to mention your angry mother who had to handle all those reports on her own. I am disappointed in you, Muddy."
"Oh, come on, Dad!" Muddy whined. "You can't just suspend me like that!"
"I can, too, because I am your father, and - "
"You can't do that, Dad," a familiar voice said.
Ember.
Incredible scowled. "Young lady, you stay out of this," he snarled.
Ember simply rolled her eyes. "I can be in it if I want," she said. "Muddy's my brother. There's no reason to suspend him. Can't an arctic wolf be an arctic wolf? It's not like he scammed or anything, right?"
"Yeah, Dad!" Muddy protested, but it didn't seem he was heard.
Incredible stood up taller. "You're implying that suspension is bad, which is true. Looks like you have learned a lesson from - "
"Look, Dad, I thought we agreed that we'd never talk about that again. That was five years ago. I'm twelve now, I know better, Lucky's forgiven me, and besides, now have my own fox hat. Like I'm going to do it again. Just don't suspend Muddy. He ain't done nothing wrong."
Incredible's scowl deepened and he muttered something under his breath.
"Alright, fine," he snapped, "I won't suspend your brother. But keep in mind that, if either of you dare to do anything against the rules of Jamaa, you are going to experience the worst day of your life. Understand?"
"Yes!" Muddy squeaked, jumping up.
Incredible exhaled gruffy and stormed off.
Muddy went over to his sister. "Thanks, Ember," he said.
Ember's expression went from protective to irritated.
"Watch out, Muddy," she said, giving him a shove with her paw. "I'm not over with you yet."
Muddy stood back up as Ember spun around and followed after her dad.
He sighed. Looks like I'm still gonna be "suspended" anyway.
Rosy Cleverivy gasped with joy when she saw Medieval, her father, and Snickety, her brother, approached the house holding several bags in their mouth. Snickety was running around in circles, jumping in the snow.
As the two burst into the den, Prancing, Rosy's sister, jumped up.
"What did you and Snickety get, Dad?" she asked Medieval.
"We got candy canes!" Snickety piped up.
"She didn't ask you, Snickers," Rosy said as she dug through the bag. "She asked Dad."
Snickety scowled. "I can still say stuff, ya know," he said as if to brag.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you can just jump in," Prancing shot back. She pulled out several small boxes from the bags. Rosy smiled. She was glad she had her sister on her side.
Medieval sighed and shook his head. "Nothing's going to keep you three feisty little ones from arguing, is there?"
"Is there what?" a voice said. Forest, Rosy's mother, had come down from upstairs.
"I picked up all the Jamaaliday gifts for us," Medieval said, smiling. "I also picked up some extra decorations and Jamaaliday-themed things…"
Rosy wasn't paying attention. She and Prancing were too busy opening the boxes and taking things out. A frozen garland, a set of ornaments, a new gingerbread baking set, and more were stuffed inside the bags.
"Woah, you two," Forest said, chuckling, "calm down. You haven't even opened your Daily Jamaaliday Gift yet." She handed out a present-like box to everyone, keeping one herself. "Go on now, let's open them."
Prancing slowly undid the ribbon, just like Rosy did. Snickety, however, ripped open the box in two seconds, squealing with joy as he saw what was inside of it.
Rosy rolled her eyes. Snickety's so rushed and so babyish. He doesn't know how to take his time. As Rosy slowly took the top off the gift box, she saw the top of something green and red. Her first thought was a top hat, but as she pulled it out, she realized it was something else.
"Oh, Dad! Look!" Rosy shrieked. "I love Jamaaliday hedges!"
Medieval was also holding one in his paws. "These are wonderful," he said. "Brings back so many memories."
"What a great way to start off the Jamaalidays," Forest added, her blue eyes sparkling. "Besides this, anything new?"
"We met two new people in Jamaa today," Snickety said quickly. "They're Awesome and Snowflake. They're both coyotes."
"Really? Coyotes?" Prancing asked in wonder. "I've heard they'd arrived around, but I've never known any around this area."
Medieval nodded. "I was surprised, too, at first, but they seem very happy to be here," he said. "I surely wouldn't mind them being around. Nice to have some new Jammers every once in a while, isn't it?"
Rosy was inspecting her Jamaaliday hedge, looking for any broken lights. "Hope they know where to pick up their gifts," she said. "It would be a shame for them to miss out on this one."
"It seems like they've grabbed theirs already," Medieval replied. "I mean, you get them right in the middle of Township. Hard to miss it, that's for sure. It's the biggest thing besides the statue a little farther north."
Forest laughed. "Mira's so cold, she's turned to ice, poor thing…"
Everyone burst into laughter. As Rosy was having fun, she peered out the window. The snow was piling up, enough to build a big snowman in soon. They'd set the Jamaaliday tree up, and they'd also get to play in the Jamaaliday Rescue adventure party. She loved that icy, snowy maze. Her favorite season is winter and her favorite month is December.
December is coming off to a good start, Rosy thought. 2017 might hold the best December ever. It's going to be fabulous. I just know it will.