Ok, so I know it's not Halloween, but I remembered that I wrote this last time and I desided to submit it here. The reasoning behind this oneshot lies in "Nightmare in Retroville", the Halloween episode. One of my favorite episodes ever! Bold type is the present Ms. Fowl. Enjoy!
Moonlight Fowl
"Happy Halloween, class!" Ms. Fowl greeted to her students, her gypsy earrings jingling merrily. "I see everyone wore their costumes today." The kids smiled.
"You know what that means! Instead of learning about the six ways to insult a cuttlefish, we're going to have spooky story time!" The class cheered loudly.
"Who's first?" she asked, smiling at the multitude of hands that shot up into the air, all begging for attention. Her eyes rested on Jimmy, whose mad scientist costume stuck out in the room full of witches and ghosts.
"What story would you like to tell, Jimmy?
"Well," actually," he answered, his blue eyes shifting nervously. "I was wondering if you could tell us about…your ex-husband."
Ms. Fowl stood confused for a moment and then she remembered:
"Hi…Ms. Fowl. How do you know about werewolves?" Jimmy asked as she approached his hover car.
"I was married to one!" she explained, pointing to a wedding band on her finger. "But that's a story for another day…"
"Today's as good as any," she thought. She twirled her wedding band around her finger nervously as she said, "Of course, Jimmy."
She brought out her desk chair and set it at the front of the classroom. "I suppose I should start with his name," she began as she sat down. "His name is Frank. Frank Fowl. And he is a werewolf."
A pretty young woman of about twenty-two swaggered out of a stable, a coil of rope slung on her left shoulder. She tipped her cowboy hat politely to an elderly couple as she passed by. Her stirrups clicked when she walked, a merry sound.
"I'm sure you children remember when I told you that I used to be a rodeo girl."
The woman stopped when she saw another cowgirl running towards her. "Winni!" the girl exclaimed, her eyes glistening with excitement.
"What is it now, Rachel?" Winni sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Boss just hired a new bull rider! You gotta come see him!" Rachel tugged on Winni's plaid shirt.
Is he handsome?" she asked, her curiosity aroused. Rachel nodded eagerly.
"Usually, Rachel had little sense when it came to men, but this time she hit the nail on the head…"
Winni and Rachel peeking through the open doorway leading to the fields, watching the two men talk.
"Sweet muffins, he's gorgeous!" Winni gasped.
"I told ya!" Rachel whispered back. Winni just continued to stare at the dark haired man talking to the boss.
"He was the perfect man. Tall, dark, and handsome. Oh, how handsome! And a bull rider to boot! I'll never forget how we first met."
Suddenly the man looked up at the doorway and smiled, tipping his hat slightly to the girls. With a gasp, they pulled their heads back.
"Drat! He saw us!" Winni said. She could hear the boss's booming laugh and then the sound of stirrups coming closer.
"Sh! Here he comes!" Rachel whispered. They listened to the sound coming closer and then, stop. A handsome face peeked in the doorway.
"Hello, ladies," he greeted, winking at Winni. He had the palest blue eyes she had ever seen. They looked even brighter in his dark, tan face.
"Hi," she said nervously. "My name's…" He gave her a reassuring smile.
"My name's Winni."
"Now, I won't bore you children with all the gushy details, but let's just say that we ended up getting married two or so years after that day. Then came that dreadful time when I lost my riding nerve and we settled down in Retroville, me starting my first day of teaching. Life was peaceful then, or so I thought."
"Frank," Winni said one morning. "The Beaties invited us to dinner tonight."
"I'm sorry, pigeon," he confessed as he sat at the kitchen table. "But I have to work late tonight."
"Oh, ok," she replied, crossing out the date on the calendar beside the phone. There would be a full moon that night.
"Like, what happened next?" Brittney asked, her excitement growing.
"Well," Mss. Fowl continued. "He eventually told me he was a werewolf, and I believed everything from the start. He was a good man, never told a fib in his life. After he confessed, I raided the library, wanting to know everything I could about werewolves."
Winni sat at a table in the library, a giant volume open before her. She scribbled on a piece of notebook paper: "Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by night will become a wolf when the wolf bane blooms and the autumn moon is high."
"Then, one night…"
Pushing back a stack of graded papers, Winni flopped onto the couch, leaning her head on Frank's comforting chest. He cradled her in his arms, playing with her hair absently.
"I'm so happy you're ok with me being a werewolf," he said.
She sighed contentedly. "Nothing could change how much I love you."
"Winni?" he asked after a pause. "Would you…would you join me? Would you be a werewolf with me?"
Winni looked up at his pale blue eyes in a blissful daze. She whispered lustily in his ear, "Yes."
"The next full moon, we put our plan into action."
When evening came, Winni and Frank drove out to the edge of woods outside town. They sat together at the trunk of an old elm tree, watching the magnificent sunset.
"Will it hurt?" Winni asked, unable to stop the childish question.
"A little, at first," he admitted. "But it will heal as soon as you transform, I promise."
"Ok," she said, snuggling into his arms. Presently, the sun finally sank, and the large, orange moon rose into the sky.
"Stand back," he ordered, getting up off the ground. He took off his shirt and shoes.
"I love you," he whispered to her, his voice already growing deep and gruff.
"I lo…" she started to answer, but cut short when the moon came into view and the horrible transformation began.
Dark hair started sprouting on his arms, his legs, his face. With a hellish scream, his hands gripped his head as claws protruded from his fingertips. He moaned painfully as he swung his furry head from side to side. Then, it stopped.
"Oh God, Frank," Winni whispered in shock and awe. She stared at the monster's eyes, which glowed an eerie yellow. They were no longer the innocent blue she knew so well.
A chill ran up her spine as the werewolf howled to the moon. Then, it spotted her. She panicked and ran towards the truck, her eyes wide with fear.
"Come on, come on!" she urged the vehicle as it sputtered to life. She slammed on the gas as the monster charged. The truck screeched down the road, leaving Frank behind.
By now, the whole room was listening intently to Ms. Fowl's tale.
"I drove all the way home and locked the doors and windows. I was so afraid."
The next morning, Winni lay on the couch, trying to snuggle under a warm blanket. Her eyes were red and puffy and she had dark circles under her eyes. There was the sound of the front door being unlocked. She stiffened.
Frank came into the living room, his clothes slightly ruffled and his hair unkempt, but it was him.
"Oh, Frank!" she exclaimed, her tears starting anew. "I'm sorry! I…I couldn't do it!"
"Sh…" he whispered as he joined her on the couch, gently holding her around the shoulders. "It's ok. I understand. Sh…listen. I have to tell you something.
"When I transform, I can still see as myself, even if I can't control my actions. Do you understand?"
"I think so," she said, wiping back her tears.
"Last night, when I saw how scared you were, how frightened you were of me, it broke my heart. It made me realize how terrible it was for me to ask you to become a monster…like me."
"No, you're not a monster." Winni argued, holding his face between her hands, looking deeply in he pale blue eyes. "We'll try again next month."
"No, Winni. I've made a decision. I'm going to find a way to break this curse."
"You mean…"
"Yes," he whispered. "There's a cure out there, Winni, and I'm going to find it."
"We separated then. He needed to be alone to do his research, and he didn't want to burden me."
"So, what happened?" Libby asked. "Did he find a cure?"
"Not yet, Libby." Ms. Fowl replied. Her eyes wandered out the window. "But he's out there, in a broken-down shack in the woods outside town. Searching for a cure."
