Chapter 109: All Hallows' Eve Sleepover


Nicky and Freddie have a sleepover with their friends in their castle-shaped treehouse


The full moon's silvery rays shone down softly through the window and onto the wooden floor of the treehouse where the six friends had gathered in a circle around the flickering yellow light that illuminated the spookily carved face of the jack-o-lantern which sat between them. All around the young animals were piles of candy and snack foods, their coveted loot from a successful evening of trick-or-treating. A howl was heard in the distance, quickly joined by others, and one of the children looked longingly at the moon outside. "No!" a raccoon in a pirate's outfit said in a commanding tone. "Billy! Sit!"

The coyote in the ninja costume looked again at the moon, his ears twitched as the howls continued. "But Nicky, it's a full moon on an All Hallows' Eve!" Billy whined as he scratched at his left ear with his paw. "That doesn't happen every year."

"Hey, Sammy, did you know that they used to call this a Blood Moon?" a coyfox vixen in a witch's costume ominously added as she glanced over at a young female white-tailed deer fawn sitting next to her, she too was dressed as a witch.

"They also called it a Hunter's Moon," another coyfox vixen, also in a witch's costume, interjected as she played with the fur between the ears of a raccoon wearing a medieval squire's jerkin. The raccoon had his head in her lap and he was just lazily strumming a few notes on his mandolin.

"And here I sit, the only prey animal in a room full of predators," the deer dramatically cried out as she put her hoofs to her chest in mock horror. "When I told my parents that I was going to have a sleepover with you guys, they said 'sure have fun'. I guess what they really meant was after tonight there would be one less mouth in the herd to feed?"

"Don't worry my dear, after all the candy we've eaten, none of us are hungry." the raccoon with his head in the coyfox's lap said. "Besides it would break up our trio of Sanderson sisters from the movie Hocus Pocus."

"Freddie, did you just say the words 'my dear' to me?" Sammy giggled. "Was that supposed to be funny, you know a play on the words dear and deer?"

"No!" the raccoon groaned out as he plucked yet another cord, but this time he purposely did it slightly off-key so it made an obnoxious sounding twang.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm still hungry!" Billy said as he dug around into his pile of mostly empty wrappers.

"You're always hungry, I swear that you must have a tapeworm," Nicky scoffed. "But we would have had a bigger haul if you hadn't kept stopping to howl at the moon all night long."

"The doctor said I didn't have a tapeworm, I just have a high metabolism," the thin coyote grumbled. "And I can't help the howling, it's in my DNA,"

"Oh come on Billy, Cheri and I don't have that problem and we are half coyote, right Cheri?" Sheri laughed and then she noticed that her littermate didn't seem to be listening, but was gently rubbing the ear of the raccoon who had his head lounging in her lap instead. "You didn't hear a word I said did you?" Sheri sighed as she shook her head.

"Would you two get a room?" Nicky groaned as he tossed an empty wrapper at this brother. "Between Billy's howling and you stopping to play that damn guitar of yours for anyone who asked, we were lucky we managed to hit as many houses as we did."

"They just wanted to hear me play my mandolin," Freddie defensively replied as he strummed the strings and began singing an old traditional ballad,

"Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
For she once was a true love of mine

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Without any seam nor needlework
And then she'll be a true love of mine…"

"Next time you need to pick a song without so many verses," Sheri commented. Her sister looked up at her and slightly bared her fangs.

"WOULD YOU ALL STOP THAT!" the deer yelled. "Sometimes when you start doing that to each other it makes me nervous, I am a prey animal after all!"

"Sorry!" Sheri said as she reached over and hugged the fawn. "You know that you are my best friend and I would never hurt you?"

"I know," Sammy said as she hugged her back. "And I would never hurt you either."

"As if you could!" the coyfox scoffed.

"Who in this room has been taking kickboxing?" the young deer challenged her friend. "These hoofs should be registered as lethal weapons."

"So should your mouth," Nicky joked.

There was the sound of rustling paper and Billy held up a small package, he tore it open and sniffed the roll-shaped green colored object that was inside. "What the hell is Nori?" he asked before he licked it and then scrunched his muzzle in disgust before adding. "YUCK!"

The raccoon next to him picked up the discarded package and held it closer to the jack-o-lantern's glowing candlelight so he could see what was printed on the wrapper. "Toasted seaweed, brown rice, sesame oil, and sea salt," Nicky read out loud to the others. "Whoever gave us this must have thought we were seals."

Sammy reached over and snatched the candy from the coyote's paw and munched on it. She looked at the others before she mumbled out between chews, "What? It tastes good."

"Of course it would to an herbivore!" Cheri commented. "Even with coyote spit on it."

"Ewwww, I didn't think of that!" the doe fussed.

"A full moon on All Hallows' Eve and you've eaten something which a coyote has licked, he left his canine cooties on it. Do you know what that means?" Nicky asked as he leaned forward towards the pumpkin, removing the top so that the yellowish flickering light illuminated his muzzle making him look sinister. "You are going to turn into a werewolf!" he proclaimed in a scary tone.

"I'm a coyote and not a wolf," Billy interjected before he swished a mouthful of cider in his muzzle and then swallowed. "That would make her a werecoyote."

"You need to lay off the cider," Nicky warned his friend before he put the top back on the pumpkin. "Otherwise you're going to have to go back to our house to use the bathroom again."

"I'll just go up onto the turret and pee off of it," the coyote said as he took yet another sip of the cider. "We've done that before."

"No, you won't! Don't you remember how mad Uncle Nick got when he smelled it that afternoon?" Freddie said as he gave his mandolin another strum. "Foxes sniffers are almost as good as yours."

"Well I wasn't the only one who peed off the treehouse that day," the coyote defensively huffed.

"Yuck, you boys are gross!" Sheri exclaimed.

"You're just jealous since girls can't do that," Freddie softly sang to a tune that he strummed on the strings of his mandolin. He then yelled "Ow!" when the coyfox leaning over him flicked his ear.

"How about a spooky story?" Sammy asked as she sat up. "Somebody has to have a good ghost story for a scary night?"

"Nope, no ghost stories," Nicky replied as he pushed aside his pile of uneaten treats and empty wrappers so he could lay back. "Pop says our place was haunted by the ghost of our grouchy old great, great, great uncle before we moved in. He even found a painting of the dude and has it hanging in his office. I swear that the painting's creepy eyes follow you wherever you go in there too, staring at you with disapproval."

"That's probably because you're searching for poppa's stash of candy!" Freddie chuckled before he strummed yet again.

"Shut up dude!" his brother snapped back as he threw an empty wrapper at him, hitting Cheri on the nose instead.

The coyfox gave out a low growl as a warning.

"Aw come on, it was just paper!" Nicky protested. When the coyfox flashed her canines again, he added. "I'm not scared of you!"

"I am!" Billy called out as he grabbed the smaller raccoon in a headlock.

"Let go of me or I'll bite your face off!" Nicky laughed as the two friends wrestled around.

"You've been hanging around with your Uncle Finn too much, you're starting to sound just like him," the coyote laughed back.

"The next predator that shows his or her fangs is going to eat this!" Sammy warned them as she held up another packet of Nori in her hoof. "With deer spit on it!"

"Okay, it is time for a scary story!" Nicky proclaimed as he untangled himself from the coyote and then jumped up so he could close the window's curtain. The only light in the room was now the flickering candlelight of the jack-o-lantern.

"Not that dumb story which Uncle Nick tells us about the guy with the hook!" Freddie protested.

"No, this is the story about a young lioness who wore a yellow ribbon around her neck," Nicky said as he sat back down. The others leaned against their pillows and made themselves more comfortable, all except Freddie who was already comfortable with his head in Cheri's lap, while they listened to the raccoon. "I mean every day, rain or shine."

"Go on," Sammy said, she had pulled her sleeping bag to cover her lap.

"There once was a lioness named Jane and she always had a yellow ribbon around her neck no matter what she wore," Nicky continued. "In high school, she got the attention of the football team's dashing quarterback, a lion named Leo. 'Why do you wear that yellow ribbon around your neck?' he'd ask her every day, but she wouldn't tell him.

Despite the aggravation of not knowing her secret, Leo thought Jane was cute and asked her out for a date and soon they were going steady. He still didn't know why she always wore that yellow ribbon around her neck and she wouldn't tell him, but he just shrugged it off because she was so fun to be with.

As time went on and after dating through college, Leo proposed to Jane. They planned a huge wedding with the whole pride attending and Jane even hinted that maybe she might even tell him why she wore the yellow ribbon. She didn't and with all that was going on, he never got around to asking her again. After they married he was so happy together and it didn't make a difference that she hadn't told him.

Soon they had their first litter of cubs and they were still happy despite her never telling him about the ribbon. Sometimes he would ask her about the yellow ribbon but she would tell him that he waited this long and he could wait a while longer. Leo was so much in love that he would just shrug his shoulders and tried to forget about it.

They grew old together, a happy loving couple with plenty of children and grandcubs. Then one day he was on his death bed and she leaned over him with tears running down her face. He asked her one last time about why she never removed the tattered old yellow ribbon from around her neck. With fumbling paws, she reached up and struggled with the knot, finally untying the ribbon, and just before he died, she removed it."

"Well, what happened!" Billy asked. The coyote was sitting there looking at him wide-eyed.

"It was horrifying!" the raccoon proclaimed as he leaned over and took the lid off the pumpkin so it illuminated his face in a sinister-looking manner yet again. "Truly horrifying!"

"Tell us what happened!" Sammy whimpered as she pulled her sleeping bag up to her chin.

"Her...head...FELL OFF!" the raccoon answered in a dramatic spooky voice.

"What?" Billy said in surprise. "All that build up for a scary ending and her head just fell off? I was expecting a snake to jump out of her neck or maybe an ugly monster head hidden under the ribbon."

The others just groaned and booed.

Suddenly the candle in the pumpkin flickered out and it became pitch black.

"There's a deer in here," Sammy's voice called out. "And I don't see as good as the rest of you in the dark, so would you please light the pumpkin again?"

"Does anyone have a match?" Nicky called out.

"No!" came an answer from the others.

"Then I guess it must be time for bed?" Cheri said as she climbed into her sleeping bag and wiggled herself closer to Freddie who was sitting on top of his.

There was a crunching sound from someone walking around and stepping on candy. Suddenly the room became bright when the overhead bulbs in the dragon-shaped chandelier were turned on. "Come on you dorks, this place has electricity!" Sammy snapped as she stood near the wall switch with her hoofs on her hips.

"Oh yeah," Nicky laughed.

"Predators!" the deer huffed as she looked around and found a nightlight. Plugging it in, she stepped back in triumph. "You all are just as bright as a herd of dumb bucks stuck in a forest full of stupid!"

"You gotta love those white-tailed deer sayings," Sheri giggled. "A forest full of stupid, really?"

"Well, it is after midnight and we should go to sleep," Sammy said. "Now you boys need to go someplace and let us girls change into our pajamas."

"Can't you just change inside your sleeping bags?" Freddie asked as he strummed his mandolin again, he had laid his head back in Cheri's lap. "It's not like I haven't see Cheri naked before...OWWW!" he protested when the coyfox behind him twisted his ear.

"We were much younger back then," Cheri said as she gently snatched away his mandolin and then shoved his head off of her lap.

"Okay…okay!" We'll go up into the turret while you three change," Freddie said as he gripped the rope ladder leading upwards. "Sometimes I can't figure you girls out?" Billy and Nicky followed him up and they stood on the wooden platform high in the tree's branches where they could see the moonlit town around them.

"Awwooo...mphhh!" The thin coyote had lifted his muzzle towards the moon and was beginning to howl, but the raccoon next to him had gripped his mouth closed with both paws.

"Quiet, you'll wake Uncle Nick and Aunt Judy!" Nicky whispered before he released his friend's muzzle.

"Sorry!" Billy whispered back.

They stood there waiting to be called back inside when suddenly Nicky heard something that sounded like water spraying. "Billy, are you peeing off the turret?" he snapped.

"I had to go," the coyote answered. "Don't worry, we can get up early and turn the sprinkler on. Your Uncle Nick will never know."

There was a zipping sound as at first one of the raccoons and then the other, joined him relieving themselves from off the platform.

Inside, the deer went over to the window and pulled back the curtains. "I'm going to open the window some to let in a bit of fresh air," Sammy said. "It smells overwhelmingly like a coyote in here, does Billy ever bathe?" After she opened the window, she cocked her head and asked. "Is it supposed to be raining outside?"

"No!" Sheri answered and then she gave a funny face.

"It's the boys," Cheri sighed as she shook her head.

"EWWWW!" all three girls exclaimed together.

A few minutes later the boys came back down. "Do you need us to leave the room?" Sheri asked.

"Why?" Billy answered in confusion.

"So you can change into your PJs," Sammy answered.

"Nope, we can do that inside of our sleeping bags," Nicky said as the raccoon slipped into his bag and after a few moments of fumbling around, pulled his costume off and put his pajamas on. Freddie had done the same thing as his brother.

A few moments later, the coyote piled his clothes next to his sleeping bag and sat up bare-chested. "Billy, where are your pajamas?" Sammy asked.

"I don't wear pajamas, I sleep nude," the coyote answered.

"At least put your underwear back on!" Nicky groaned. The coyote huffed as he grabbed up his undershorts and pulled them inside of his bag.

All six friends laid there in their sleeping bags. "Ah, who is going to turn off the lights?" Sammy finally asked.

"Not you Billy!" Nicky said as he crawled out of his bag and went over to turn off the lights. "None of us want to see your skinny tail parading around in your underwear."


It was a beautiful fall morning. The sun had just risen above the old abandoned mills that overlooked the town and there was a brisk crispness in the air. Nick stretched before he happily sipped from his mug of coffee. Suddenly the fox stopped and sniffed the air again and lowered his head as he followed the distinct scents to some wet spots on his lawn. "BOYS!" he yelled up towards the treehouse in the old oak tree. "NICKY! FREDDIE! BILLY! Get down here NOW!"

Groggily, Nicky sat up in his sleeping bag as he rubbed his eyes with his paws. The young raccoon had been woken by the fox's angry shouts. He looked at the two other boys and his ears drooped flat to his forehead in resignation when he heard Nick yell their names again. "Oh crap, we overslept!" he finally muttered.