"Yup, still ugly and stupid." said Lock as they landed in that green, fluffy, pink and white clover-filled field once more.
"Just like you." snickered Shock, and Barrel giggled.
Lock glared at the both of them. "At least I'm not as ugly as you," he pointed to Shock, "Or as stupid as you!" he pointed to Barrel, and Shock considered attempting to push that rotten little devil right out of the bathtub but their mission was too important to waste time screwing around.
"You just keep telling yourself that." she said in a very patronizing voice as she swung her leg over the side of the tub and hopped out onto the grassy field. It smelled just as revolting as it had before and she hoped that Sally's potion would work. As the boys crawled out of the tub after her (with Lock sticking his tongue out at her back) she began collecting the tools they had brought with them and delegating responsibilities. "Alright, let's split up. Lock, you take the net and go see if you can catch some of the flying bugs and some of those little blue birds. Barrel, you go collect as many of those eggs as you can find. Maybe Oogie will want to eat those, too, and if he doesn't we can just throw them at the Mayor's house like we were going to the first time we were here - before Lock threw them back in the door like an idiot."
Lock glared at her even harder. "That wasn't my fault, you told me to throw the scorpions back in! I wasn't gonna stick my hand in there and get stung trying to pick out a couple of lousy eggs!"
"Scorpions don't really even hurt that bad." said Barrel as he accepted the bag that Shock handed him. She was always setting them loose in his and Lock's bedrooms as a prank and it always fell to Barrel to catch them again. Shock simply refused to cook for either of them until they rounded up the scorpions and Lock would just punch Barrel until he did it, so consequently he'd been stung many, many times over the years to the point where he was pretty much used to it.
Shock gave Lock a sly grin. "Even the midget thinks scorpions are no big deal. You're such a wimp."
Lock's face began turning almost as red as his hair. If there was one thing he hated, it was being called weak. "It's not because they hurt, it's just 'cus sticking your hands in a box full of scorpions is dumb!" he snarled. "Being naked doesn't hurt either, but I still don't wanna run around town naked or something!"
"Ew." giggled Barrel, and while he didn't appreciate being called a midget, talking about being naked was funny and it was always entertaining when Shock made Lock so mad he started blushing.
"Whatever, wimp. Go catch some bugs." Shock said bossily as she shoved the net into Lock's hands.
"What are you gonna do, princess?" he sneered, and felt satisfied when he saw her eyelid twitch. Shock hated Oogie's nickname for her just as much as Lock hated being called a wimp, and once again she had to call on all of her strength and self control to stay on track and not waste time trying to shove Lock's face in the grass.
"I'm going to go trap some of those fluffy little yellow birds on the ground." she said coolly, picking up two large cage traps out of the tub, one in each hand. "Let's meet back here before it gets dark."
"When's that going to be?" asked Barrel. He really didn't want to get stuck in the dark in this strange world.
Shock shrugged. "How should I know?"
"Because you think you know everything." Lock grumbled, still feeling sore about the scorpion conversation. He made a mental note to grab those stupid scorpions with his bare hands and throw them right at her stupid face once they got home, just to prove that he wasn't too wimpy to do it.
She ignored him, and then Barrel asked again, "What if it doesn't even get dark here?"
Shock rolled her eyes and started walking in the direction of the little valley of burrows where they had caught Not-Sandy-Claws before. "It's got to get dark eventually. Every place has a nighttime."
"How do you know?" Lock sneered as he followed along after her, and Barrel brought up the rear.
"Because I know everything." she said smugly, and Lock was about two seconds away from slamming the net down over her head but her hat would just get in the way so it was pointless.
They apparently took a slightly different route this time because before too long they saw a silky-looking, light yellow fabric banner with blue writing tied between two of the smooth, pale-barked trees over a little dirt path. Shock attempted to pronounce the strange word: "Ee-A-ster town? Eeester town?" Either of those sounded plausible enough to Barrel, but Lock wasn't paying attention - a fat little bluebird sitting on a nearby branch had caught his eye and he very slowly pulled his slingshot out of his pocket, loaded up a rock, and took careful aim. He released the rock and it knocked the little bird right off of the branch, then he leapt forward and trapped it in the sack he was carrying.
"Got it!" he yelled triumphantly, feeling incredibly proud that he had bagged their first offering for the Boogie Man.
"Shhh!" Shock shushed him. "Don't scare everything else away, loudmouth!"
"Did you kill it?" Barrel whispered.
"Nah, just knocked out." said Lock, though he wasn't really sure. He hoped it wasn't dead because Oogie would only accept live offerings. The three of them split up into different directions: Barrel stayed near the banner and began hunting around beneath bushes and tall bunches of grass and flowers, looking for more of the brightly-colored eggs. He also found some bugs and worms and put those in the sack too, because the more they could bring home to their master, the better. Lock headed back towards the grassy field where they'd left the tub because there were lots and lots of the colorful-winged little flapping bugs out there and he felt confident that he could catch a bunch of them in a short amount of time. Shock continued down the dirt path beneath the banner and deeper into the shrubbery and forest, searching for any signs of those fuzzy little yellow birds with the big toenails that scratched up the earth.
It really was almost too easy. None of the birds and bugs were too difficult for the trio to hunt, capture or collect and they were all feeling quite pleased and relieved that they would have so many offerings to bring home to Oogie Boogie. Within a few hours Barrel had several sacks full of eggs and bugs, and while it took Shock a bit longer since she had to wait for her prey to walk into her traps, eventually she had a decent number of little yellow birds stuffed in her sack as well. She also had a logistical problem to deal with: they cheeped loudly once she had them in her bag, so she had to hide it far enough away that the other little birds didn't hear their sounds of alarm and steer clear of her traps. She'd had no idea what might entice the fuzzy little things so she brought pumpkin seeds, candy and dried bugs… and happily, both the bugs and pumpkin seeds seemed to work.
Meanwhile Lock had caught several bluebirds with his slingshot and many of the colorful-winged insects with the net, but right when he was starting to feel really cocky he honed in on a different kind of flying insect: a small, yellow-and-black striped, somewhat fuzzy little thing that was flitting from clover blossom to clover blossom. Thinking that Oogie might appreciate a little variety, he snuck up to it and quick as a flash reached out and grabbed it with his hands, cupping it between his palms since this little bug was too small to catch with a net. Within seconds he realized he'd made a terrible mistake and he let go of the bug with a yelp as it painfully stung his hand with a sharp, piercing stab. He swore angrily and stomped on it with his foot where it had landed on the ground, killing it instantly, and Lock was careful to avoid those insects from that point on. He tried to keep catching the other bugs and birds, but his hand was throbbing painfully and within only a moment it had puffed up to not quite twice it's normal size, pulling his white skin uncomfortably taut and shiny. It felt even worse than a scorpion sting but he tried to shake it off even though it hampered his hunting ability - he didn't want his cohorts to come back and see him acting like a baby, especially Shock. He was a little bit worried about it, but right now all he could do was hope that Sally's potion would protect him from whatever poison was causing this reaction and he grumbled to himself that it would be just his luck to die from a stupid bug-bite in this stupid pastel world.
When he'd finally managed to fill up his bags with birds and bugs he dropped them off in the tub and then headed back in the direction where he'd left Shock and Barrel to see how they were progressing. As he walked over a hilltop he saw a new kind of creature and instantly dropped to the ground to lay flat on his stomach and peek through the grass. These were medium-smallish, four-legged beasts covered in white woolly fur, with little cloven hooves and long tails. They appeared to be eating the grass between frolicking around and they made high pitched little 'baaah' noises. They definitely had to bring one of these home for Oogie Boogie! However, as soft and stupid as they looked, Lock had learned his lesson from that little yellow-and-black insect and didn't trust that these beasts would necessarily be as harmless as they appeared so he thought it would be wise to get backup. He crept slowly away from them and circled around far enough that they wouldn't spook and go running - or even worse, attack him.
He found Barrel sitting beneath one of the trees supporting the Easter Town banner, holding what looked like half of a colorful egg in his hand and actually eating the contents. "What the heck are you eating?!" Lock hissed. Maybe he wasn't the one who was going to die of poisoning in this dumb world after all. Leave it to Barrel to put his mouth on anything and everything in sight.
"What the heck happened to your hand?" Barrel answered, but Lock ignored him.
"Seriously! Are you eating a raw egg?"
Barrel's face transformed into a wide grin and he held up the egg half. "No, look! Some of them are plastic and filled with candy! Want some?" Lock looked inside of it and saw lots of little multi-colored jelly beans. Sometimes they got jelly beans while trick-or-treating, but not very often. His survival instinct battled with his candy-eating instinct for a moment, but eventually he gave up and took a few of the jelly beans. He was probably going to die from that bug sting anyway, so he might as well go out happy. "So what happened to your hand?" Barrel asked again as Lock sat down beside him.
"It's just a bug bite, no big deal."
Barrel looked dubiously at Lock's swollen hand. "I dunno, it kinda looks like a big deal to me."
"Well it isn't. Nothing in this ugly world is a big deal!" Lock said irritably as he grabbed one of the plastic eggs and snapped it open. Feeling reckless, he tipped back his head and dumped the entire contents into his mouth at once when suddenly Shock came pushing through the underbrush dragging her full sack behind her.
"You two had better have caught a bunch of birds and bugs before sitting around stuffing your fat faces!" she said angrily. Those boys were so lazy, always making her do all the work, and she kicked the plastic eggs out of both of their hands before they even saw it coming.
"OW! Hey! We caught stuff!" Lock snarled, shaking his hand that she'd kicked.
"Yeah, see?" said Barrel, gesturing to his pile of full bags while rubbing his own hand where her boot had made contact.
"What the heck happened to your hand?" asked Shock, suddenly noticing Lock's swollen, bug-stung appendage. It looked both hilarious and gross and she'd never seen anything quite like it.
"You just kicked it, moron!" he said angrily.
"No, the big puffed-up one!"
"It's just a bug bite, it's no big deal! It doesn't even hurt or anything."
Shock raised one eyebrow but didn't press the matter and instead asked, "What are you two idiots eating?"
"Some of them are full of jelly beans!" Barrel said excitedly, holding a plastic egg up to his eldest cohort and she inspected it for a moment before snapping it open.
"Huh… weird." she said, carefully picking a jelly bean out of the egg and looking at it closely. She figured Lock and Barrel had probably already eaten quite a few of them and they weren't dead yet, so what was the harm in trying a few herself? As she popped one into her mouth, Lock suddenly remembered the little woolly beasts he'd seen only moments ago.
"Hey! We have to go back to the tub, there's some animals hanging around there that we definitely gotta try to catch for Oogie Boogie!"
"So why didn't you catch any, dummy?" Shock said, popping another jelly bean into her mouth. They really were quite tasty.
"Because they're the biggest things we've seen here besides Not-Sandy-Claws. It's gonna take all three of us."
That sounded promising so Shock stopped giving him a hard time. "Okay, let's go!" she said, heaving her sack full of little peeping birds over her shoulder and dragging it along behind her as Barrel and Lock picked up the bags full of eggs and insects. After they'd put them all carefully into the tub Lock led his cohorts over to where he'd seen the creatures grazing and frolicking. They all three lay on their tummies in the grass as they peeked over the crest of the hill and Shock and Barrel agreed that bagging one of these for Oogie would most definitely get them on his good side.
"How are we gonna get one?" whispered Barrel. They'd never tried to catch anything quite like these before.
Shock began tying the rope they'd brought into a noose. "You two run down there and try to chase one up here to me. Then I'll try and lasso it." she whispered back, and Lock glared at her.
"How come we have to run down there?"
"Because you're the fastest runner." she said, knowing full well that stroking Lock's ego could get him to do just about anything without complaint because he just couldn't resist showing off.
"Yeah, I am." he said boastfully, puffing out his chest a bit as he moved into a crouching position like a sprinter at the starting blocks. Barrel tried to mimic Lock's position even though he knew he wasn't a very fast runner at all - but he was still going to try his best. "You go left and I'll go right, on my count." Lock muttered and the little ghoul tensed up, preparing to spring into action. "One… two… three!" Both of them tore down the hill in different directions at top speed and all of the little woolly beasts looked up in alarm before bunching tightly together and running away - but they didn't seem to know which way to go and they ended up just darting back and forth in random directions, bleating in terror. Then Barrel stumbled and fell, hit the ground hard and began rolling roughly head over heels all the way down the hill, yelping and grunting with every bump. Lock and Shock both started laughing hysterically, though Lock took care not to lose his footing as well - running down the grassy hill was much trickier than running on flat ground. The fact that Barrel was now rolling towards them instead of running didn't seem to matter to the little woolly beasts, they just kept frantically darting about. Lock circled wide around behind them, yelling and waving his arms and they all shot right up the hill where Shock lay waiting. When Barrel finally came to a stop at the bottom of the hill he spat the grass out of his mouth and scrambled to his feet to run behind Lock and the creatures as fast as he could, yelling and waving as well even though it really didn't help much at that point.
Shock waited and watched as the little herd of panicked creatures came nearer and nearer and she readied the rope, preparing to snag the closest one… but when they finally got close enough that she had a chance the beasts caught sight of her and veered sharply in a different direction and ran right past her. "Noooo!" she gritted in frustration and threw her lasso after them anyway, but she didn't even come close. "Dang it!" she yelled, throwing the rope to the ground as the creatures ran far away over another hill and out of sight, their terrified bleating getting fainter and fainter before going quiet all together.
"Oh good job, you let them get away!" Lock shouted as he finally got up the hill beside her again, panting and gasping for breath. Those little beasts were fast on their four cloven-hoofed feet and they'd worn him right out.
Shock ignored him. "We should have set some sort of a trap… but how?" she murmured to herself. They seemed to eat grass, not beetles, candy or pumpkin seeds, so what could they use for bait?
"WHO CARES!?" Lock yelled louder. "They're gone now! And you can run after them yourself next time, if we ever even find them again!"
"Shut up!" Shock finally snapped at him - he was disrupting her thinking with his obnoxious yelling.
"Make me!" he fired back, and she was about to wrap the noose around his neck and do just that when Barrel came staggering over the hill. They both turned to look at him and started cracking up once again because he looked so ridiculous - his costume was completely covered in grass stains and there were chunks of dirt and grass - and even a few daisies - stuck all over his clothing, hair and face.
"Did you get one?" he wheezed, holding his side and desperately hoping that he wouldn't have to do any more running.
"No, smarty-pants over here let them get away!" Lock sneered, crossing his arms.
"Well excuse me, how am I supposed to stop them when they run in the totally wrong direction?!" she sneered back, putting her hands on her hips.
"I dunno, maybe by not being loud and ugly!?"
"LOOK WHO'S TALKING!"
"Aw, man…" Barrel interrupted with a groan, frustrated by all of that that running and rolling with nothing to show for it but a dirty costume and likely plenty of bruises.
"It doesn't matter!" Shock growled. "What Oogie doesn't know won't hurt him - or us! We've got enough stuff to make him happy for now, and we can always try and bag one of those four-legged things later when we really need to get on his good side!"
"That's a good idea." Barrel said, still a bit breathless, and as annoyed as Lock was that they'd missed their prey this time he had to agree as well. It was always smart to have a backup plan for impressing Oogie waiting in the wings for when they really needed it.
The large yellow sun was just barely beginning to set as they headed back to their bathtub, the sky slowly turning from blue into rich pinks, oranges and purples that would probably be considered beautiful by anyone not from Halloween Town. "See, I told you it would get dark here!" Shock said snottily as she climbed into the tub, careful not to squish any of the animals or eggs they had gathered.
"Who cares?" Lock grumbled, shifting the sack full of peeping yellow birds gently aside so he could sit down more comfortably.
"I'm hungry." said Barrel, and he rooted around the tub until he found their satchel full of hotfrogs and fried spider legs that they'd packed for lunch. He handed his cohorts their portions, then flipped the faucet handle to 'on' and they trundled back towards the holiday doors while they ate, hoping that the Boogie Man would be pleased with what they were bringing him.
...
Author Note: Thanks so much for being patient on this one, friends! My hard drive crashed back in August, taking all of my progress on this story (and everything else on my computer) with it. Fortunately for me a (very expensive) specialist was able to restore all of my files! Yay! I'm so excited to pick up this story again and had a blast finishing up this chapter. So I hope you enjoyed it, too, and hopefully there won't be any more extremely long waits between chapters in the future.
As always, your reviews, comments and messages mean the world to me so if you're enjoying the story, I would sure appreciate hearing about it! Thank you! :D