Once upon a time there was a pert, vibrant damsel named Keandra Little, who had thick, luxurious, black hair cut in a short, choppy style; and brown skin the shade of the late-season maple syrup that flowed, sweet and pure, from the trees near her home in wintry upstate New York. Keandra worked as a waitress while dressed in a chicken-girl costume. This costume consisted of a bright-yellow minidress decorated with numerous imitation feathers, translucent, yellow, detachable sleeves, matching high-heeled shoes, and a small yellow cap with a red chicken comb.
Keandra's place of employment was the Lass Menagerie. Regular readers of the Knotty Fairytales Series will recall that Molly Miller worked there as well in Knotty Rumpelstiltskin as a bunny-girl; however, as Molly soon afterward moved on to start her own business she does not concern us at the present, so we will return our attention to Keandra Little, or Chicken Little as she was more often called while on duty, as she hurried to a table to take an order one snowy evening.
"The prices are falling! The prices are falling!" she exclaimed, waving her arms wildly and taking in deep breaths, for it had been a long shift for the busy waitress.
"What's that, baby?" asked The Wolf, looking at her in astonishment. He waggled his furry ears in curiosity.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Wolfy, but they're making us say that to all the customers," she explained. "It's all about letting people and, um, wolves too know about our great new prices and how much money they can save here now!"
"Hey, that's great, baby," said The Wolf, who didn't care since he didn't intend on actually paying for anything anyhow.
"Hey, do you think you could hurry things up over there?" asked a nasty voice. A very short man sat at a nearby table. Yes, it was Rumpelstiltskin, the same unpleasant character who had made such difficulties in that earlier story for Molly Miller… but of course, we are not concerned with her just now, so once again we must return our attention to Keandra, who flashed Rumpelstiltskin a smile. The Wolf also flashed Rumpelstiltskin a smile, one full of teeth and insinuations that caused Rumpelstiltskin to slump down in his chair and decide he could wait patiently a while longer after all.
"What can I get you, Wolfy?" asked Keandra.
"Some company, baby," invited The Wolf, patting the cushioned seat next to him. He sat against the wall on a long, padded bench that offered seating on one side for several tables. Keandra noted curiously that the bench was empty except for The Wolf, despite the rest of the Lass Menagerie being rather crowded. "I'm all by myself, baby, and that's no fun."
"Oh, Wolfy, you know I'd really like to…"
"Then sit down, baby."
"…only Lucy, the hostess, is really strict about us not taking any unauthorized breaks and I do have a lot of customers to take care of…"
"Like me," hinted Rumpelstiltskin.
"…so I just can't, but I'll be glad to meet you after work, and then, um, what's in the briefcase, Wolfy?"
"Rope and other things, baby." The Wolf had reached under the table to withdraw a silver attaché case, sleek and slim, which he placed before him. Clack, clack! The snaps open and The Wolf opened the lid.
"There sure is a lot of rope in there," agreed Keandra, leaning over to look closer and to give The Wolf a closer look at her at the same time. Numerous coils of three-strand Manila hemp rope, tan in color, were neatly wound and stowed in the upper part of the attaché case. In the lower left-hand corner were several piles of folded men's handkerchiefs. Some were in solid colors, such as burgundy and chartreuse; some were in patterns, with diamonds, stripes, and other elegant designs; and some were novelty styles, such as one with a black background that pictured red and green chili peppers. In the lower right-hand corner nestled six rolls of duct tape, green, yellow, blue, red, orange, and violet.
The Wolf selected a lengthy strand of the rope and rose from his seat. Keandra gave a gasp as The Wolf gently turned her around and began winding the rope around her wrists, holding them against her back with more rope around her waist. Before she realized what was happening her arms were fully immobilized; by the time it occurred to her that she ought to run off, her legs were bound as well, with ropes binding her ankles together, running under her shiny shoes to hold them on, and more rope encircling her calves and thighs. She opened her mouth to object, but The Wolf unhurriedly placed the folded chili pepper handkerchief into her mouth, and then sealed her lips shut with the blue duct tape.
"Mpfff!" she exclaimed in bewilderment as The Wolf seated her on the padded bench near him.
"Hey, this is all wrong!" exclaimed Rumpelstiltskin, his face flushed with anger. "You can't tie up Chicken Little like that! Now who's supposed to bring me my refill?"
"Wolfy, why do you have, um, oops, I almost forgot, the prices are falling, the prices are falling!" exclaimed Penelope Fermata, waving her arms as she hurried over to The Wolf. Penelope waited tables at the next section at the Lass Menagerie and was Keandra's best friend. She wore a hen-girl costume, so her nickname was Henny-Penny. Her blonde hair, worn in a braided ponytail, was a shade of yellow that called to mind Golden Delicious apples ready to be gathered from the orchard. Her costume was quite similar to Keandra's, except hers was mostly black with some silver-white speckles. "Um, why do you have Chicken Little all tied up?"
"Hey, baby, I needed some company," said The Wolf. "I could use some more too," he added, patting the empty space on his other side.
"Mpfff!" exclaimed Keandra indignantly, feeling she was quite enough company for him!
"Oh, Wolfy, I'd love to, but I've got so many customers and so does Keandra, I mean, Chicken Little, so if you could just wait until… eek!"
The Wolf didn't wait for Penelope to finish her explanation, but with quick motions had her bound and gagged just like her friend, except he used the orange duct tape to seal her lips closed.
"I'm never going to get any service around here," muttered Rumpelstiltskin loudly, looking jealously at The Wolf who was busy seating Penelope on his other side. "That's it, then. I'm leaving!"
"Hey, that's a good idea," agreed The Wolf amiably. "By the way, you might want to try Coney Island Barbecue right next door. It just opened today and the food is delicious!"
"That's what I'll do, all right," replied Rumpelstiltskin, hopping up out of his seat. "I'm sure they know how to treat me properly over there!"
"Have a great time," called out The Wolf to his departing back, glad to be rid of him. He returned his attention to the two bound and gagged damsels. "Hey, there we go, we'll get along much better now, won't we?"
"Mpfff," agreed Keandra and Penelope, wriggling around a bit to make themselves more comfortable. Rumpelstiltskin definitely was their least favorite customer!
""What's the meaning of this? Get back to work this instant, Chicken Little and Henny-Penny!" ordered a new voice that sounded as if it were used to being obeyed.
"Mpfff," they answered wriggling around some more to show they simply couldn't!
"Hey baby," said The Wolf to this newcomer, who was the hostess, Lucille Parabola, or Lucy-Goosey, due to her goose-girl costume. "There's plenty of room for you to join us!"
"I just had some very irate words from a costumer," said Lucille, ignoring the invitation. "Just before he stormed out the door. You two are here to wait on customers, not…"
"Hey, baby," interrupted The Wolf lazily, "isn't there something the owner of this place requires you to say to absolutely everybody before you say anything else?"
Lucille glared at him, but waved her arms. "The prices are falling! The prices are falling! Now, if you've had enough of this game… oh, no you don't, Wolfy!" She saw The Wolf pull out a length of cord from the attaché case, so she took a quick step backwards. "You may have been able to tie up Chicken Little and Henny-Penny without any trouble, but I'm sure that's because they just wriggled around a bit without putting up any real resistance so they could wrangle a break from work…"
"Mpfff," Keandra and Penelope said simultaneously, looking down at the floor guiltily. They hadn't realized their motives would be so obvious!
"…but you're going to find me a little more challenging than…." A clatter from Rumpelstiltskin's former table drowned out the rest of her words. Lucille frowned and turned her head. "Squirley-Shirley, you are employed here to clear the tables quickly and relatively inconspicuously, not to make as much noise as possible."
"I'm sorry, Goosey-Lucy," apologized Shirley Appositive. The busgirl, dressed in a squirrel-girl outfit, nervously picked up her plastic bus tub, the contents rattling loudly.
"I thought I told you to keep quiet!" Lucille snapped. "If you can't, I can always arrange for you to start seeking employment elsewhere!"
"Don't worry, baby; Coney Island Barbecue that just opened and I'm sure you could get hired on there in a flash," The Wolf told Shirley helpfully. "I know the owner and can put in a good word for you. First, though, do you think you could give me a hand tying up your boss? She's acting all unreasonable about it."
"With pleasure!" exclaimed Shirley.
"Let me go!" screamed Lucille as the busgirl wrapped her arms around her. The hostess glanced over in an appeal for help to the rest of the restaurant, which was still busy with customers, but no one seemed willing to come to her aid. Even with Shirley's help, it took The Wolf quite a bit of effort, but in the end, Lucille sat next to Keandra, tied with extra rope and gagged with the red duct tape.
"Mpfff!" she exclaimed, twisting her back and reaching out with her bound hands to try to get the waitress to work with her to get free. For some reason, though, no matter what the hostess did, she and Keandra simply could not connect to make any meaningful progress.
"Hey, thanks baby," The Wolf told Shirley. He took out yet another length of rope and started winding it about the startled busgirl's wrists.
"Wolfy, what are you doing?" she asked in astonishment.
"Tying you up, baby."
"But Wolfy, I need to go to that new restaurant and apply for a job. You told me yourself to go there!"
"You can go later, baby."
"No, Wolfy, I really think I need to go mpfff!"
While Shirley had been busy arguing, The Wolf had been busy tying her up. After inserting a handkerchief in her mouth he taped her lips closed with the violet duct tape and seated her next to Penelope, where the two bound damsels shifted their bodies a bit, but, as Lucy observed angrily, didn't seem to make quite the effort to get free that she expected of them.
The Wolf glanced around, trying to catch the eye of one of the remaining waitresses, but the nearest one, turkey-girl Lurlene Aspergillum, seemed rather shy about approaching him, so he went over to her instead, and soon a captive Turkey-Lurkey joined the throng, followed shortly by the beverage preparer, Lucky Curettage (Ducky-Lucky), who, seeing what was developing, wanted to dash away, but was much too devoted to her job to leave her station.
The Wolf continued fetching the remaining workers one by one, surrounding himself with more and more bound and gagged damsels in their animal costumes. There were waitresses, Kitty-Britty, and Larky-Marki; cloakroom attendant Filly-Jilly; cooks Fawny-Connie and Minky-Pinky, and finally, with her hands still wet, dishwasher Teddi-Heddy in her bear-girl outfit.
"Everybody doing okay?" asked The Wolf, feeling a bit worn out.
A chorus of "Mpfff!" came from a dozen human damsels dressed in cute and sexy animal costumes.
"Hey, baby, how come your working name doesn't rhyme like everybody else's?" The Wolf asked Keandra.
MpIfff mpdon'tfff mpknowfff," she answered shrugging her shoulders. She had been tied up the longest of anyone, and her gag was beginning to loosen a little so she could talk slightly coherently. She was interrupted before she could explain further, though.
"Wolfy, you bad boy, what do you mean by tying up all my employees and driving away all my customers?" asked Roxanne Foxworthy, the restaurant owner. Her heels echoed crisply on the hardwood floor of the building, now empty except for The Wolf and his captive damsels. "How am I supposed to make any money if you do that?"
"Hey, baby," The Wolf greeted her nonchalantly. "You're looking foxy tonight!"
Actually, the truth be told, Roxanne looked rather disheveled, as if she had hurried away from home rather suddenly. Her red-brown hair was tousled, a few errant strands bothering her face, which she brushed away with an impatient hand. Her burnt-orange trench coat was draped over her slender frame carelessly, the belt not properly fastened. She wore a matching Casablanca hat and deep-brown high-heeled boots.
She fluidly settled herself into a chair across from The Wolf and fastened her blue-grey eyes on him. "You really are very naughty. It's lucky for you that I'm so wild about you or I'd skin me a wolf for what you've just done."
"Let's skin a fox instead," he suggested, bounding out of his seat.
"Eek! No, Wolfy!" she cried out, rising from her seat, but she was too slow; The Wolf loosened her belt and in three seconds slipped off her trench coat, brushing her hat off in the process.
"Mpfff," exclaimed the bound damsels in unison.
"I was just getting ready to do a bit of weeding," Roxanne explained hurriedly, her face bright red, as she attempted to explain the revealing farmer's daughter costume The Wolf had uncovered under her trench coat: a checked halter top, magenta and white; and a cut-off pair of blue-jean shorts. "I had just changed into my old gardening clothes when I received an urgent phone call about what was going on here so I hurried right over."
"Mpgardeningfff mpinfff mpthefff mpmiddlefff mpoffff mpthefff mpnightfff?" asked Keandra skeptically.
"Okay, so I was really getting ready to meet my…. Wolfy, will you please give that back?" hissed Roxanne in exasperation, lunging desperately for her trench coat, but The Wolf adroitly kept it out of her reach. "Look, it's not important why I'm dressed like this, okay? What I want to know is, why did you do all this to me, Wolfy?"
A slight giggle came from the restaurant entrance as the door closed. "He did it for me, Foxy-Roxy." Although Roxanne never wore a costume herself, based on her last name, she was sometimes called that
"You!" she exclaimed, spinning around.
"Yes, it's me," agreed the newcomer. "Molly Miller, your old employee and former bunny-girl, and now rival in business with the opening of my barbecue place, Coney Island. You're not afraid of a little healthy competition, are you?"
"Not if it's fair, but this is going too far, sabotaging my business like this! I'll go over to your place and make an announcement and tell everyone what you did…"
"Wolfy," interrupted Molly, "I think you forgot to tie up one person."
"Getting right on it, baby," said The Wolf.
"Oh, no you don't!" said Roxanne dangerously. "You're not tying me up!"
"Yes, I am, baby," The Wolf corrected her. "We can do this the hard way or the easy way, but you're going to join everyone, bound and gagged."
Roxanne sighed, but realizing that with Molly's help The Wolf would be able to carry out his promise, placed her hands behind her back and turned around, silently making promises with her eyes to her new business rival.
"Mpfff," she called out as The Wolf gagged her. She squirmed helplessly, thinking about her position. "And the worst part of it all," she fumed silently as he seated her, "is that I'm all the way down here in the corner, far away from Wolfy!"
She understood The Wolf well enough to realize that neither she nor any of the other damsels were in any sort of danger; they would be kept perfectly safe, just unable to leave until The Wolf felt inclined to let them go. "And that probably won't happen for a while if I know him!" she reflected.
That certainly appeared to be the case, for The Wolf was ecstatic in his current position. His long tail wagged happily as he leaned over and whispered something in Keandra's ear that made Chicken Little giggle through her gag.
"But when he finally does let us go," continued Roxanne, "I'll have my revenge. I'm sure I won't have much trouble persuading Wolfy to do the same thing back to Molly that she just did to me!"