Ed and Beatrice had never been so happy to see their own grandson again after not seeing him for two years. Of course, they were happier to see him than usual because of what happened to his own parents and how they tragically died in a house-fire. Ed felt like crying and he said: "So Loona... you're an... intriguing looking person. We don't get a lot of visitors like you around. Heh. Crazy teenagers."
"Hey!" Loona said: "I'm twenty-five!"
"Oh! Sorry." said Ed. "But Cody, what about Tommy? Is your own brother doing alright? We haven't seen him in two years either. Not since his twenty-third birthday party that we were in. Bah. He's probably doing fine since he's a legionnaire in the French Foreign Legion." his arm was shaking as he was trying to keep the cane on the floor. Indeed, he was definitely not as young as he used to be. Alas, even he didn't know when his time would come. But, he was prepared for death to come take him away into the afterlife.
"Tommy's just fine in France. He's just living with Celeste."
"Well he is a full-grown adult." said Beatrice. "I would love to see him again."
"I hate to break it to you, honey." said Ed to his wife. "We're too old to travel outside our homeland. Heh, we might even be too old to just leave our own house."
"That's what our farmhands are for." said Beatrice. She looked back at Cody and Loona again. "So Cody, where have you been all this time after the fire?"
Loona and the kid looked at one another giving nervous glances. "Well... Loona's been taking care of me." Cody said.
"Where do you live?" asked Ed
"Is that important?" asked Loona."
"Well, i guess if you put it that way, then i guess not."
"All that matters is that Loona saved me and she'll take care of me."
"Well, you seem like a nice young lady." said Beatrice.
"Whatever."
"I just wanted to show you guys I'm still alive." Cody said. "I guess me and Loona should get going now. I need to do a book report for school."
"A book report?" aaid Ed. "Well if you need a book, especially one for free, I can help you with that sport. Come, I'll help you with that."
Cody followed the old man to his small bookshelf near the stairs.
"Ok... so... where is that damn thing... ah! here it is!" said Ed, reaching out in tbe middle shelf for a book Cody wouldn't expect to see. "Here it is, kiddo." he politely gave him the novel.
Cody looked at it. "The Fox and the Hound?"
"Yep. This is where the Disney movie came from, Cody. If you loved the movie, you will love the book too."
"I didn't know it was based on a book by... Daniel P Mannix."
"Sure, all Disney movies have origins. Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Aladdin,"
"Cinderella, the Little Mermaid," Beatrice added.
"Right you are honey."
"But how come i couldn't find this at the library?"
"For some reason," said Cody's grandmother, "the book just stopped being published in the sixties and seventies."
"Technically, you can still buy a hardcover... for around five-hundred dollars."
"What?" said Loona. "Five-hundred bucks to get this?"
"Yep."
"Thanks guys." said Cody
"Feel free to pop around her any time." said Ed. "Have a good day."
"You too."
"You ready, kiddo?" asked Loona
"Yep." They walked away behind some trees in the fields near the farm, and Loona opened the portal with the book back to Hell.
The hellhound transformed back into her true form and Cody was glad to he back in the flat.
"Ah! there you are, kiddo." said Blitzo. "Turned into a bookworm?"
"No." said Cody. "I need to do this for a report."
"Eurgh! I hated that when I was in school so... freaking much!" Blitzo complained. "But it was that, or lose your spine by the principal. Anyway, did you have something to eat?"
"Panda express." said both Loona and Cody.
"Nice. There's plenty of bourbon and whiskey, and for Cody: some root beer, orange juice, apple juice or coke."
"Cool." said Cody. He realized that if he read this novel now, he wouldn't have to worry about finishing it later. Of course, he didn't have to finish the book immediately after that: because Miss Stacey was kind enough to the class enough time for next week to finish.
This novel didn't really look so long anyway. He went to his room as a quiet place to start reading it.
Of course, to not make it so boring, he put on some music while reading. It was rather funny: the names of the two dogs living with the human were switched.
As he was looking at the next chapter, he noticed how the fox came to be and how he became smarter than an average fox.
As he progressed into the chapters, he just couldn't stop reading. It was a literal page-turner.
Reading on, he noticed how things were getting more and more depressing in each chapter. Things go from bad to worse at every chapter.
It went on for a few hours, up to three to be exact, and as soon as he read the end, he was absolutely shocked by the ending. This novel was a far cry from the Disney film, and it was more dark and depressing.
He still just couldn't put the book down from how interesting it was. It was like... a nature documentary in book form.
Another hour had passed and what struck him the most was; the ending. It was the saddest, most heart-wrenching endings an author could ever think of. This really hit him hard.
He thought it would have been like the movie, but Cody was sure as hell wrong. This was possibly one of the darkest books he had ever read that it made the movie tame.
Shocked as he was, he felt like crying from reading what happens in the end of the novel. But he needed to get this report done for his teacher, especially for being gone so long. He written the notes down for this and felt like taking a break. After all, he couldn't really bare to read the ending again.
He decided to stop and get himself a glass of root beer from the fridge. "Come on. It was just a book." Cody said in his head. "It's no big deal."
"You've kinda isolated yourself in there for a little while, Cody." Loona said
"Yeah... it was an interesting read." said Cody
"One can say it's a page-turner, get it?" Blitzo joked
"You and your fucking cheesy jokes." Loona rolled her eyes.
"Sounds like you need a treat." Blitzo sang, holding up a doggy biscuit for his adopted daughter, and he looked playful like Loona was his dog.
Loona just growled and said: "We've already been through this, you moron!" said Loona. "Don't treat me like that! do I look like an Earth dog to you?!"
"OK! OK! you want a bourbon instead?"
"Sure, whatever."
"So how was work?" asked Cody to the demons.
"Same old things." Loona said.
"You should have seen what happened to Moxxie." Blitzo pointed
"What happened?"
"he accidentally got himself a wedgie!" Blitzo said. "He was yelling like a little girl."
"How did that happen?"
"I got it on video." Loona pointed. She pulled out her phone and showed the kid Moxxie's little incident. The place looked like a forest in the middle of nowhere and the demons were in a large tree.
All of them jumped, but Moxxie had his underwear and pants caught in a branch, and he was screaming at the top of his lungs. "Fuck!" Moxxie shouted out. "Help me! don't leave me hanging!" he almost sounded like a little girl as he was dangling like a trapped animal.
Cody, Loona, and Blitzo were all laughing at the incident. "Gets me every time." Loona said
"Poor Moxxie." Cody chuckled
"Yeah, but Millie helped him down."
The doorbell rang and Blitzo answered it. "Ah! Moxxie, Mills." he said happily.
Millie looked normal, but Moxxie had a bag of ice over his crotch. "Hey, sir." said Moxxie
"We're hear to see Cody." said Millie. "Where is that bundle of joy?"
"Right here." said the kid, coming up from the couch.
"There you are, Cody." said Moxxie. "We haven't seen you in a few days."
"Yeah, but I got back to school, remember?"
"We know, but we just wanted to pay you a visit, sweetie pie." Millie said, giving him a rather tight hug.
Loona couldn't help but look at the funny video and she was chuckling some more.
"Oh no." Moxxie recognized his own shrieking. He walked over and looked at her phone. "Just perfect." he muttered.
"Gotta admit." Millie pointed. "It is kinda funny."
"Millie!"
"What?"
Moxxie crossed his arms at her in disapproval.
It was bedtime and Cody couldn't rewlly sleep. Turns out: he couldn't get his mind off the original fox and the hound. Many hours passed, and it was already midnight, and Cody still couldn't go to sleep. That book was just so heavy for him to endure. He just couldn't close his eyes and dream at all. At last, he could stand it no longer, and he got out of bed and went out to the dark, quiet living room to look out the window and stared at the night landscape of the Wrath ring. The lights were shining bright and the faint sounds of dogs barking were heard outside.
"Man, what am I going to do." he thought to himself.
He went into the fridge and got himself a cola to drink. He didn't really know what to do about this problem he was having. He came outside and sat on the recliner on the patio. He drink more of his cola, and he was too deep in his head about that very book.
"What's next? Is the Little Mermaid dark? Is Cinderella? Or Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Aladdin? Grr. This is just too much." He just wanted to try and forget about this, but he was having great trouble in trying to accomplish that."
While he was thinking, he didn't see the female hellhound come outside. "Cody?"
"Gah!" Cody looked frightened, almost choking on his drink. He was coughing a few times and asked: "Oh. It's you, Loona."
"What are you doing out here, kiddo? Shouldn't you be in bed?"
"I know it's late." Cody sighed, turning over. "But... I can't sleep."
"Why not?"
"I don't know if I should tell you."
"Come inside." said Loona. "We can talk in here. And come on; i said you can tell me anything if something's bothering you, right?"
"I know." Cody ultimately complied and decided to head in. "Ok, i'm coming in." doing just that, he sat on the couch and Loona next to him.
"So what's wrong?"
"Well... the Fox and the Hound. The original story just... shocked me. It's nothing like the movie. All the characters die in the end of the story, and it'a so brutal. I don't even know how Disney got the rights to it in the first place. I mean, the names of the characters are the same. Everything else is different. But should we not wake up Blitzo?"
"Pfft, don't you worry about that." Loona nodded her head. "He's out bugging Moxxie and Millie's lives. He loves to intrude on their privacy at night."
"Oh. Right." so Cody explained to Loona how some parts of the story went down, and Loona was rather shocked as well. And the ending hit her as well. "So that's how it ends in the story. It's not a happy ending."
"Jesus." Loona said. "He killed his own dog in the end?"
"Because he had nothing else left to live for and he hated to do it. But... maybe he didn't want Copper to be abandoned. There was nothing else left to hunt."
"Damnit old man," said Loona in her head, "Why the fuck would you give him that fucking book anyway? Children's novel my ass." and back to Cody, she said: "I'm sorry you feel that way, kiddo. Is there anything I can do for you?"
"I just want to go to sleep."
"Here." said Loona. "Will you feel better sleeping with me tonight."
"Sure." Cody smiled. She tucked him in her own bed this time and she kept him close to her and her warm body. It was such a comforting feeling for him to endure. Yes, it already made him fell asleep, and Loona after.
