Chapter 11.
The Mysterious Mansion
After receiving letters from an unknown person, Lumpy, Lilly, Vulcan, Spritzee, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern are tempted to go to a seemingly unoccupied mansion. But when they gets there, they end up getting a bunch of ticklish surprises that are something to sneeze at.
It was a normal day in The Happy Tree Friends Forest and at Lilly the Moose's house, Lilly the Moose was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on TV with her Guardian Subterra Premo Vulcan and her Pokemon Spritzee, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern while her father Melvin Moose was at his Saxaphone Busker Job and her mother Annabel Moose had gone to her book club.
...when a mysterious letter slid into the house via the underside of the front door.
Octillery was the first to notice the letter. He nudged over to it, picked it up with his arm, then nudged back over to Lilly and showed it to her.
"What this?" Lilly asked as she took the letter from Octillery and looked at it.
"Tell us your name and pay attention to the instructions to reach this address: 666 Fear Lane," the letter said. There was a long line above the sentence. Lilly took a pencil and wrote her name above the line.
Once that was finished, she walked out of her house, holding the paper in her hands. Her Pokemon and Vulcan went and followed her. Once Lilly and her friends had gotten to Fear Lane, they met up with Lumpy.
Lumpy noticed them and waved to them.
"Lilly?" Lumpy asked.
"Hi Uncle Lumpy," said Lilly.
"Hey, sweetie," Lumpy greeted her. "So someone told you to come here, too, huh?"
"Yes," nodded Lilly.
"Did you get a letter like..." Lumpy reached into his pocket and pulled out a... familiar-looking paper. "This?"
"Yes."
"That's weird..." Lumpy commented. "I don't remember being at this place, or even hearing about it."
"Well, let's find out who lives in this Mansion," said Vulcan.
Lumpy and Lilly nodded in agreement, and went up to the front doors before Lumpy knocked on them. There was no response, but then the doors opened fully. Lumpy and Lilly both winced in surprise when that happened, Vulcan floated towards the opened doors and looked in.
"Hello? Anyone home?" Vulcan called.
There was no reply. Vulcan, Lumpy, Lilly and the Pokemon seemed to be the only ones at the mansion. But if they were the only ones at the mansion, then who wrote that paper and sent it to Lumpy and Lilly?
Noivern noticed another piece of paper and he went over to pick it up. Once he picked it up, he looked at it, and then showed it to Lilly and Lumpy.
"Now your inside. There will be many surprises for you. If you find a certain room, something will happen to you, and it will change your life..."
"What are they talking about...?" Lumpy wondered.
"I have no idea," Lilly replied.
Then Vulcan noticed a large portrait of a light purple moose on the wall.
"What the... guys?" Vulcan asked. "You might wanna take a look at this."
Lumpy and Lilly joined him to look at the moose portrait. They were both stunned.
"Oh, my..." said Lilly.
"Is that... someone related to me...?" Lumpy wanted to know.
Lumpy tried to think back, hoping he could recall meeting anyone like this light purple moose.
"You think he... lived here?"
"I think so, yes," said Lilly.
"I wonder who he was..." As Lumpy continued thinking about this, he felt a mild tickle in his nose due to the dust causing him to inhale.
"Aaahhh... AaaAAAHHH... AAAHHH-CHOOOOoooo!" Lumpy released an uncovered sneeze, blowing some of the dust away from his face, but his nose still hadn't been satisfied. "Aahh... AAAAHHHH-CHOOoooooo!"
Lilly cringed as she heard the sneezes.
"Bless you, Uncle Lumpy," said Lilly.
"Thank you," said Lumpy as he rubbed his nose with his forefinger.
"Are you feeling okay?" Lilly wanted to know.
"Yes I am," said Lumpy.
"It's probably the dust," Vulcan stated.
"Hmm... Maybe it was," agreed Lilly.
"I wonder what else is in this mansion..." Lumpy then said.
Suddenly the front doors that had been opened, closed with a loud slammed. Everyone cringed and gasped when they heard that. Lilly, Lumpy and the others watched him in concern, hoping he would be able to open the doors. Lucario looked at them and shook his head.
"Oh, no... We're trapped here!" Lilly said.
"What are we gonna do?!" Lumpy asked.
Just then a large door behind the couch slowly opened. Lumpy and Lilly looked over at it, and then slowly went through it. Vulcan, Spritzee, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern hurried after them.
"What is this weird room...?" Lilly wondered as they made it in there.
Lumpy, Lilly, Vulcan, Spritzee, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern were now in a room, that seemed to be empty, except for what appeared to be a footprint in the floor. It wasn't too hard to see, even with the low amount of lighting. And above the footprint were three words.
"Insert Foot Here."
"I wonder..." Lumpy inserted his foot into the footprint.
Lumpy raised his right leg and stepped on the footprint. It turned out that it was actually a hole, about a few inches deep, that was shaped exactly like a footprint. Shortly after he had stuck his foot into the hole, a panel in the ground opened. A mechanical arm, holding a feather, ascended from the panel. The arm began to brush the feather directly under Lumpy's foot, tickling it.
Lumpy gasped, and then started laughing.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Lilly gasped suddenly, caught off-guard from Lumpy's laughter.
"Uncle Lumpy? What's so funny?"
"SOMETHINGS TICKLING MEHEHEHEHEHEH!" Lumpy said through his laughter.
Lilly gasped, then went over to Lumpy and pulled his foot out of the footprint. Lumpy panted a few times as he rubbed his foot, trying to further relieve it of the tickling that it had already gone through.
"Better?" Lilly wanted to know.
"Better," said Lumpy.
"Good." Lilly smiled at Lumpy. "You might wanna be careful, though; you never know what might happen to you in this mansion."
"Yes I will be careful," said Lumpy.
Lumpy, Lilly, Vulcan, Spritzee, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern then continued to explore the mansion, hoping to find the "certain room" that the paper had told them about.
Eventually, Lumpy came across a room with a hole in the wall, and a button next to the hole. Lumpy, Lilly, Vulcan, Spritzee, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern all looked at it. Maybe something was in the hole... Would the button do something if one of them pressed it?
"So which one of us is going to press this button?" asked Vulcan.
No response from Lilly or her Pokemon.
"Um, I'll do it...?" Lumpy offered.
"Go on then," said Vulcan.
Lumpy pushed the button with his forefinger. Suddenly something started to happen. Everyone except Lumpy took a few steps back, but Lumpy stayed where he was.
"Uncle Lumpy," said Lilly.
"Yeah?" Lumpy asked.
"Come away from there," said Lilly.
"If you say so..." Lumpy backed away a little.
Then, a robotic arm holding a feather came out of the hole, and began to stroke the feather underneath Lumpy's nose.
"Aaahhh..." Lumpy's reaction was instant. His eyes immediately opened, and his breath started to hitch. Having the outsides of his nostrils tickled made him feel sneezy enough, but having the insides tickled was even worse. "AaaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHH..."
Lilly reached up and placed her hoof underneath Lumpy's nostrils but still his nostrils still flared up.
"CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Lumpy shot his neck forwards as he unleashed the sneeze.
"Eeek!" Lilly cringed as she was sprayed with Lumpy's spit. "Uncle Lumpy!"
"Oops. Sorry Lilly," said Lumpy as he rubbed his nose with his forefinger.
"Oh, I guess it's okay..." Lilly said as she wiped the spit off her face. "Bless you, though."
"Thank you," said Lumpy.
"I don't think this is the certain room..." Lilly said.
Just then, Spritzee saw another door and on it it said:
"Certain Room"
Spritzee chirped at the others to get their attention, and then pointed at the room with one of her finger-feathers. Lumpy, Lilly, Vulcan, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern all looked at the room.
"Well Done Spritzee," said Lumpy.
When they looked into the room, however, they saw a stool with some shackles on the wall close to it, as well as on the floor close to it. Lumpy, Lilly, Vulcan, Spritzee, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern enterted the room.
"Now that we have found the Certain Room, what happens now?" asked Vulcan.
"I don't know, I guess we'll have to find out ourselves," said Lumpy and he walked over to the stool and sat down on it. Suddenly, the shackles closed on his ankles and wrists, to everyone's surprise and concern.
"Hey! What's happening?" Lilly asked and she rushed over to free Lumpy.
She tried her best, but she couldn't do anything to help him. Suddenly a few holes in the wall and floor opened, and a mechanical arm emerged from each one.
"What is happening?" asked Vulcan.
Two of the arms began to wiggle their claw-like fingers underneath Lumpy's feet.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Lumpy's laughter started in an instant.
Lilly gasped as soon as she heard her uncle's laughter. She didn't notice as the other two arms started tickling under Lumpy's arms.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Lumpy continued laughing.
Lilly finally noticed the arms tickling Lumpy's underarms and tried to pull him away from the shackles he was in but the shackles were firmly locked onto him.
"What are we gonna do?!" Lilly asked. "I can't get him out!"
"I've got it," said Vulcan and he turned to look at Noivern, "Noivern use Dragon Claw."
It didn't work because the shackles were metal.
"Noivern use Screech," said Lilly.
Noivern did as he was told and screeched loudly. The screech was so loud that it caused the shackles break off of Lumpy. Lumpy quickly got up and ran away from the machine.
"Thank you Noivern," said Lumpy as he patted the Sound Wave Pokémon on the head.
Noivern smiled at him in response.
"Who ever is behind this, show yourself, NOW!" shouted Lilly.
And everyone waited for whoever it was to show up. Suddenly there came the sound of footsteps coming towards them.
"What the...?" Lumpy asked himself.
The footsteps stopped and a figure into the light of the Certain Room. Everyone froze, daring not speak. The figure was a light purple Moose. Everyone's pupils shrunk to their smallest size as they stood in shock and disbelief.
"Greetings Lumpy, Lilly, Vulcan, Spritzee, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern," said the Moose.
"Y-YOU KNOW US?!" Lumpy asked.
"I sure do. I'm Derek, the Great Great Grandson of Edward the 6th," said the Moose.
"...Who was that?" Lumpy wanted to know.
"Oh... well, how do you know us?" Lumpy went on.
"Your Girlfriend Skittles the Rainbow Moose told me all about the 7 of you," said Derek.
Lumpy blushed hard as he heard that. What was going to happen now...?
"Don't worry Lumpy, I'm just a friend of hers," Derek reassured Lumpy.
"Um... Okay, but..."
"Why would you set up a place like this?!" Lilly wanted to know.
"This was a joke and it's what my Great Great Grandfather liked to do when he was still alive," said Derek.
Everyone looked at him, none of them amused.
"Well, it was not a nice Joke," said Vulcan.
Lumpy, Lilly and the Pokemon nodded in agreement.
"I know and I'm sorry," said Derek.
"I think it's gonna take more than that for you to forgive us..." Lumpy said.
"Now how do we get out of here?" asked Lilly.
"Yeah, how DO we get out of here?" Lumpy asked.
"Follow me," said Derek.
The others did as they were told and followed him. Derek led them through a hallway of candles until they arrived at another pair of large doors.
"Is this it?" Vulcan asked.
"Yes," said Derek.
Derek opened the doors and let them leave. Lumpy, Lilly, Vulcan, Spritzee, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern were all glad to be outside again.
"I am so glad that's over..." said Lumpy. "You guys saved my life. Thank you so much."
"Your Welcome Uncle Lumpy," said Lilly.
"So what do you wanna do now?" Lumpy asked.
"Let's go home," said Vulcan.
"Okay," said Lumpy.
Lumpy, Lilly, Vulcan, Spritzee, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern walked away from the Mansion and went on their home but unknown to them, Derek was watching them from an upstairs window. He couldn't help but wonder when they'd return...
"Those were such nice people," Derek said to himself with a smile.
Eventually, Lilly, Lumpy, Vulcan and Lilly's Pokemon made it to Lilly's home and Annabel was in the kitchen cooking dinner.
"Mom? We're home!" Lilly called.
Annabel heard the sound of her daughter's voice and smiled.
"How was your day, sweetie?" Annabel asked.
"It was fine and me, Vulcan and Spritzee, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern have Uncle Lumpy with us," said Lilly.
"Would you like to stay for dinner, Lumpy?" Annabel asked.
"Oh yes please," said Lumpy with a nod of his head.
"By the way, where have you been?" Annabel asked.
Lumpy and Lilly both looked at each other when Annabel asked that.
"Um, is something wrong?" Annabel wanted to know.
"No. It's just that we went to a large mansion and we got a bunch of ticklish surprises," said Lumpy.
"Oh..." Annabel said in surprise.
"And it was owned by this Moose named Derek too," added Lilly.
"That's strange..." Annabel commented.
"Well, it's over now and we can forget about it," said Vulcan.
"I'm glad it is over. I would've hated to have been there myself..." Annabel stated, "Now who's hungry?"
"Me!" Lumpy, Lilly and Vulcan responded as they sat down at the table.
And with that, the Moose Family including Vulcan, Spritzee, Lucario, Octillery & Noivern all tucked into their dinner.
