The dead forest was mostly quiet save for the occasional squawk of ravens and vultures, and the excited chattering of the three little trick-or-treaters as they rode along the trail. After walking through the forest for quite a long time their chattering died down and Shock started to worry that they weren't on the right track. Jack had told them it would be a long trip, but it was really taking much longer than she had expected. "Are you sure this is the right way?" she asked, peering up at the orange sun to try and calculate if they were at least still headed roughly in the correct direction.
"Of course." said Lock without hesitation, and Shock wondered how he could always be so sure of himself when half the time he didn't even pay attention to anything. Barrel was hanging his arms over the side of the tub, feeling bored.
"Are we there yet?" he mumbled.
"Tell you what, I'll punch you in the head when we get there, that way you'll know for sure." muttered Shock, tired of Barrel's whining. He ignored her and let out a loud sigh, then slid all the way back down to the bottom of the tub and stared up at the scraggly branches overhead. It felt like hours had passed and even Lock's confidence began to waver a little, when finally they reached a clearing that matched the description they were given: a circle of six trees all facing one other, each with a large painted door carved into the trunk. Barrel flipped the faucet handle to 'off', which brought the tub to a halt in the middle of the clearing.
"See, I told you we were going the right way!" Lock said in an arrogant tone as he hopped out of the tub and took his mask off to get a better look at the doors and the little items stacked beneath each one. Barrel and Shock followed him out of the tub - Shock rolling her eyes as she went - and they all three looked around for the door they were instructed to go through.
"This is weird," said Shock. "How come we never found this place before?"
Lock shrugged. "Well, it's pretty far out here, why would we ever go this far into the woods? It's boring out here, there's nothing to do."
"That's true." she conceded. The three of them weren't truly happy unless there was some trouble they could participate in, and there weren't a lot of pranks you could pull or even observe in the middle of a dead forest.
"Which one is it again?" asked Barrel, his mind going blank as he was confronted with all these strange doors. There were no evergreen trees in Halloween Town - only dead, leafless ones or the kind with large, crispy orange, red and brown autumn leaves - so for Jack to call it a tree was a useless description to children who had never seen one before.
"Jack said it was bright colors with lots of little colored bits all over it." said Lock, and the tree with a large, mostly white, pink and blue oval door caught his attention. It had little blue speckles and big yellow spots, a yellow sort of triangle pattern running through the center, and pink and white circles at the bottom. It certainly looked bright and fancy to him and he felt sure it was the right one so he walked over to stand by it.
"He also said it was kind of triangle-shaped with jagged edges, remember?" said Shock, scanning around the circle for a door that fit that description. "I think it's this one." She pointed to a mostly green door covered in shiny little baubles with a yellow star at the top.
"I don't remember him saying anything about triangle shapes or jagged edges." argued Lock, determined that his door was the right door. "And besides, that one's not all that bright, it's just boring old green."
"Yeah, but it's got more sparkly bits on it!" Shock argued back, though she was starting to doubt herself. Jack had said jagged edges, hadn't he? Or did she just make that up because of all the talk about claws?
"He didn't say 'sparkly' bits, he just said colored." Lock insisted, crossing his arms defiantly.
Shock wasn't completely convinced that he was right, but she also wasn't super-sure of her choice, either. She turned to Barrel, who was standing in the dead-center of the clearing, looking at all the other doors. "Barrel, what do you think? You have to break the tie."
"I like this one," he said, pointing to the door carved like a big, red and white firecracker.
Shock gave him an exasperated look. "I didn't ask which one you liked, I asked which one you thought is the right one. If it was a firecracker door Jack would have just said that, idiot."
"Oh." Barrel looked from Lock's door to Shock's, and then back to Lock's again. He really didn't have any idea which one to choose, they both looked equally ugly to him and he couldn't remember much of how Jack had described them anymore. Eventually he decided to go with Lock's choice - not because he necessarily thought it was correct, but just because Lock tended to punch harder than Shock did. Shock tended to say much, much meaner things than Lock, but given the choice Barrel preferred words over fists. "I think that one's right." he said, pointing at the white, pink, blue and yellow oval, and a self-satisfied smirk spread across Lock's face.
"You heard him, you're outnumbered." he taunted, and Shock shot Barrel a dirty look before walking over to join Lock beside the chosen door. There wasn't much she could do about being outvoted. Besides, this door definitely did look fancy and very different from anything in Halloween Town, and Jack had been going on and on about how different Christmas Town was… so it seemed like an acceptable choice even though it wasn't her first pick.
"Alright," said Shock as she reached for the doorknob, "Remember what Jack said: he's big and red, and he probably has claws, too, with a name like 'Sandy Claws'. And he's the king of Christmas Town so he shouldn't be too difficult to find."
Barrel looked a little unsure now that the moment of truth had arrived. "What if this Sandy Claws is really big and really scary? What if we can't catch him?"
"Don't be such a baby," sneered Lock. "He can't be any bigger or scarier than Jack or Oogie Boogie!" Deep down he was a bit nervous, too, but he would never, ever let his cohorts see it. Making mischief in Halloween Town was one thing, but executing a kidnapping in a foreign land was another thing entirely - and kidnapping the king of that land, no less! Still, it made all of them proud that Jack himself had entrusted this crucial task to them, so they had to give it their best try. Plus, it was more fun and exciting than it was frightening, so it was too good an opportunity to refuse.
"Can it, morons!" hissed Shock, then she turned the shiny, golden doorknob and ever-so-slowly pulled the door open a crack. Their three little faces peered cautiously inside, but all they could see was darkness so Shock opened the door all the way.
"Now what?" asked Lock.
"Well, Jack said that there would be a long drop, but that we would land on fluffy white stuff and we'd be alright." Shock answered.
"Let's throw Barrel in first, just to test it." Lock said.
"Hey!" Barrel protested, backing a few steps away from the door.
Shock rolled her eyes at Lock, "What, are you scared or something? You big scaredy-cat." Lock's face started to turn a little red and he was about to argue when Shock cut him off. "We all go down together, in the tub. That way it doesn't come down after us and squish us."
"Sounds good to me!" said Barrel, and he hopped back inside the tub and clutched onto both sides as hard as he could. Shock hopped in too, and Lock begrudgingly crawled in after her, muttering under his breath:
"I'm not scared, you're just stupid…."
"Alright, ready?" said Shock, ignoring Lock and putting on her mask.
"Ready!" Lock and Barrel answered in unison, also donning their masks and hanging on tight to the sides of the tub as Shock flipped the faucet handle and the tub lurched forward, stepped over the lip of the door and fell down into the darkness.
It was indeed a long fall, but it was also completely thrilling and soon their shrieks of terror turned into shrieks of laughter as they spiraled downwards towards a faint, blue-white light below. Then suddenly they landed - quite gently, just as Jack had promised, but something wasn't quite right. The ground wasn't all white and fluffy but rather mostly green with some white and pink fluffs scattered in little patches throughout the green. It also wasn't cold like Jack had said, but rather balmy and pleasant - but the children were too distracted to really notice these little discrepancies. Jack had tried to prepare them for the unfamiliar sights they would see in this strange world, but it was still quite startling and they looked around in disbelief for a few moments. Everything seemed to be pastel blues, greens, pinks and yellows, with gently rolling hills with flowering shrubs all over them, as well as tall trees - but they didn't look much like the trees in Halloween Town. These trees had smooth, light colored bark, bright green leaves and clusters of small, white buds. The trio had landed right in the middle of a ring of them with doors just like the one they had gone through, and they saw one with a jack-o-lantern door which they had been instructed was their way back home. The sky was light blue with fluffy white clouds, and plump little birds twittered cheerfully as they flew from branch to branch. The children found it all thoroughly repulsive.
"Whoa… what is that?" said Barrel as a small, colorful flapping thing with large, shimmering wings fluttered by his face. It had antennae and six spindly legs and they watched it curiously.
"Looks like some sort of crazy bug?" ventured Shock, and Lock made a grab for it but missed as the little thing flittered away.
Disappointed at failing to catch his intended prey he instead looked down at the lush, green ground. "It smells weird here." he said, wrinkling his nose at the light floral scent that filled the air. They didn't know what it was, but they had landed in a grassy field full of clover, bees and butterflies.
"Agreed," said Shock. "Let's get this over with." She swung her leg over the side of the tub and stepped out into the grass. "Hey, wasn't the ground supposed to be white?"
Lock shrugged. "There's white stuff here, look." he pointed at the clover. "I'm sure that's what Jack meant. C'mon, let's go." He sounded confident but Shock wasn't quite sure… but she followed along anyway as he leapt out of the tub and Barrel clambered out behind him, carrying his lollipop and their black bag that they intended to put Sandy Claws in once they caught him. Shock carried the axe and some rope, and Lock carried the spiked mace and a firecracker.
"Hadn't we better hide the tub while we look for him?" asked Barrel, and Lock and Shock had to agree that was a wise idea. As if it had heard them, the tub trundled over to a large bush covered with little purple blossoms and concealed itself within as best it could. Being the tallest, Shock peeked over the bush and scanned the horizon for any sign of where they should go. In the distance she saw a valley with a little cluster of hills tucked down in the middle of it and there seemed to be small brown doors in the sides of the hills. Jack had said there would be little houses and these looked like the closest thing to houses within sight.
"This way." she said, pointing.
"How do you know?" challenged Lock.
"Because it looks like there's houses there, dummy."
"I don't trust your eyesight. Give me a boost and let me look."
Shock gave him a nasty glare, but it was true that he had the best eyesight of the three of them. "FINE." she grumbled and bent slightly for him to climb onto her piggy-back style. Lock peered around her tall hat and saw the same thing that she did.
"Yeah, that looks right." he said as if it was his idea, and Shock wanted to throttle him.
"Hey, look what I found!" exclaimed Barrel. He'd been tuning out their bickering and examining the shrubbery, and found several brightly colored eggs tucked beneath it. He picked one up and Lock and Shock both took a closer look.
"I think it's an egg." said Shock.
"We should take some home and throw them at the Mayor's house." Lock snickered, and the three of them giggled wickedly as they collected several eggs each and put them in Shock's scorpion box for safekeeping. "Alright, down to business!" said Lock, puffing out his chest and striding confidently in the direction of the little valley. Shock and Barrel followed close behind, keeping an eye out for Sandy Claws or any other creature.
"We should be careful to stay out of sight," cautioned Shock, "We don't want Sandy Claws to catch word that we're here." They stuck a little bit closer to the bushes and trees, attempting to be stealthy, but it wasn't easy when the three of them stuck out like sore thumbs in their dark, dreary clothing. They saw more birds and more little flappy colorful bugs, then suddenly a new creature emerged: fuzzy little yellow birds walking along and pecking at the ground with their beaks and scratching it with their feet. The children ducked behind a bush and watched them, unaware that the proper term for them was 'chicks'.
"Those have claws!" whispered Lock.
"Hardly," huffed Shock. "More like glorified toenails if you ask me."
"Well I didn't ask you," he mocked, but he knew that her description was more accurate. Shock ignored him. "Sandy Claws is big and red with some white, but Jack said that he has little helpers so these must be the ones that work for him." she reasoned. Lock and Barrel nodded and the three of them continued towards the valley.
"I really wanna catch one of those things…" Lock murmured as they snuck past another little flock of chicks. "And I bet Oogie Boogie would wanna eat some of those weird flying bugs."
"After we get Sandy Claws back to Jack, we should come back here and see what mischief we can cause." suggested Shock with a wicked smile on her face, and all three of them agreed that was a grand idea. Before too terribly long they had reached the valley and encountered yet another new creature: these were pastel-colored, furry beasts with long slender ears and large back feet that they used to hop around. They had little fluffball tails and wiggly little noses and whiskers. "This place just gets weirder and weirder…" Shock muttered as they watched several of them hop past. Suddenly Lock spotted one that stood out among the rest and he elbowed Barrel.
"Look at that one…" he whispered. "I bet that's him!" He pointed to one of the hopping beasts: it was much larger than all the rest, colored pink with a white chin and belly, wearing a light yellow sash and carrying a basket with a purple ribbon tied around it and filled with the colorful eggs.
"It must be…" said Barrel. "It's the biggest and it's the only one wearing anything so he must be special."
"Yeah, but wasn't Sandy Claws supposed to be red?" said Shock dubiously.
"Pink is practically red." said Lock. "I bet that's the closest color to red in this whole stupid place."
"Nuh-uh," said Barrel, pointing to a bright red tulip nearby. "That's pretty red."
"Whatever, my point still stands. Pink is basically red." hissed Lock.
Barrel snickered, "Does that mean you're wearing pink and have pink hair?"
Lock smacked him on the back of the head. "Shut up, Barrel!"
"Both of you shut up!" snapped Shock. She agreed that if anyone here was Sandy Claws then it had to be this one.
"How are we gonna bag him?" asked Barrel, rubbing the back of his head.
"We're gonna do what Shock said earlier, of course." said Lock. "Put out some bait and a trap."
"What kind of trap?" Barrel asked again.
"Leave it to me." said Shock proudly, and she looped the rope around and starting tying a knot. "You two take the axe and go chop down a couple of really big branches, or some really small trees. We're going to set up a snare."
The boys hurried to do as she said, starting to get excited about capturing their quarry. They found a few young trees that seemed sturdy enough to hold Sandy Claws but not so thick that it would take forever to chop them down. They took turns with the axe and when the trees were felled they each drug one back to where Shock was, chattering excitedly about how fun it was going to be to catch the ruler of Christmas Town and bring him back to applause and acclaim from everyone in their own town, and then to Oogie Boogie to gain even more good favor with him. By then Shock had tied a large noose in the rope and she turned her head towards them as they approached. "Perfect," she grinned. "I've been watching and I think I know which house is Sandy Claws's. That big one, over there, I saw him go into it not five minutes ago."
"It's not really a house, though, is it?" puzzled Barrel. The hills didn't really have doors, just holes in the earth, like a burrow.
"Either way, if that's where he went, then that's where we put our trap!" said Lock. "He'll have to come out sooner or later. You keep a lookout and me and Shock will set up the snare. Give me your lollipop."
Barrel clutched his lollipop possessively. "Why?"
"For bait, stupid."
Barrel frowned but knew it was useless to refuse. If he tried, then Lock and Shock would just hit him until he surrendered it. "Fine." he grumbled and handed it over.
"If you see anyone coming, make a loud chirping sound. Like those dumb birds, but louder." suggested Lock, then he and Shock crept cautiously from their hiding place, dragging the two trees and rope behind them. Together they propped the trees up against the hill on either side of the burrow hole, then Shock tied them together with the noose hanging between them while Lock held the trees steady. "This is really fun," he grinned wickedly at her.
She grinned back at him as she positioned the noose just perfectly around the burrow hole. "I know, we haven't gotten to do anything this fun for awhile. And it will be even more fun watching him get stuck in our trap!"
"And then shoved in our bag!" he smirked.
"And thrown in our tub!" she giggled, putting the finishing touches on the snare and then stepping back to inspect their handiwork. Lock put the lollipop down on the other side of the noose - when Sandy Claws came out he would have no choice but to go through it and then they'd have him! They crept back to where Barrel was hiding in the bushes, snickering evilly. Now they just had to wait.
Waiting turned out to be the hardest part of the mission so far. None of them had very lengthy attention-spans and before long the boredom became excruciating. First they smashed all the colored eggs that were within reach, then they took turns watching for Sandy Claws, poking around in the dirt looking for bugs to squish, or plucking leaves and flowers off of the bush and shredding them. Barrel actually nodded off for a moment before Shock noticed and shoved him awake. Lock wished he had brought his slingshot to try and nail some of those fat little bluebirds that were watching them curiously from high in the trees, but it was probably just as well because he doubted Shock would have let him shoot anything anyway, for fear of alerting Sandy Claws to their location. Just about the moment they were all three convinced they were about to die from boredom they heard a scuffling noise and they scrambled to look through the bushes: Sandy Claws was poking his head out of his burrow, sniffing at the lollipop.
"Finally!" whispered Lock, and Shock shushed him as Sandy Claws perked his ears up a bit at the noise then looked around, but the children were well-concealed in the shrubbery and soon he went back to sniffing the candy. The three of them watched with bated breath as he hopped forward through the noose, tripping it so that it cinched tightly around his large back feet and he squeaked in alarm.
"Bag him!" shouted Lock, entirely forgetting the concept of stealth, and they each grabbed a corner of the bag and leapt out from their hiding place, containing Sandy Claws inside it before he even seemed to know what hit him. He thrashed around as Shock quickly tied the bag tightly shut and all three of them had to use all of their strength and weight to keep him inside until he finally stopped struggling.
"Uh… how are we supposed to get him back to the bathtub?" asked Barrel, still draped across the bag. "He's really heavy, I don't think we can carry him very far."
Lock hadn't even thought of that and it embarrassed him, so he directed the blame onto Barrel. "You're the one who said we should hide the tub! I thought we should have brought it with us!"
"Liar, you didn't say that!" Shock scoffed at him.
"Well, I thought it!"
"Fat lot of good just thinking about it does us, brainiac!" she shouted, also forgetting the concept of staying quiet.
"Well you didn't say it out loud, either, so you're just as much to blame as anyone!" Lock snarled.
Shock didn't have a retort to that because it was true, so she just glared at him and said, "First let's drag him behind the bush in case anyone comes by and then let's send Barrel back for the tub while we keep an eye on Sandy Claws." She turned to look at their littlest cohort. "Think you can handle that and not get caught or lost?"
Barrel nodded, secretly a little scared to go off by himself in this weird place but also glad to get away from their bickering and blame for a little bit. The three of them dragged the heavy bag back to their hiding place, then Lock said, "And hurry up, I don't want to sit here all day!"
Barrel gave him a surly look as he picked his dirty lollipop up off the ground and headed off the direction they'd come from. "Alright, alright, I don't want to be here all day either, you know!" he grumbled, and Lock threw a small rock after him, which made Shock snicker a little. They spent the time waiting for Barrel's return bragging to each other about what a great team the three of them made, pointing out and making fun of every dumb thing about this stupid, soft, pastel world and wondering why on earth Jack was so interested in it. They also speculated on what rewards they might expect for the successful completion of their mission and discussed possible pranks they could pull in this new place.
"Not only here, but there are five other doors where we can cause trouble!" Shock pointed out, and Lock grinned deviously. This Christmas Town might be boring, and he assumed that the other worlds would be boring as well - except for maybe the firecracker one - but they wouldn't stay boring for long if the three of them had any say in the matter. Eventually they heard the telltale sound of the tub approaching and soon saw it push through a nearby bush and come to a halt beside them when Barrel flipped the faucet handle to 'off'. It squatted as low to the ground as it could and the children heave-ho'd the heavy sack and the hapless holiday leader within into the tub with a thud. The three of them laughed wickedly as Barrel started up the tub again and Lock led them all back through the forest until they reached the circle of doors, with Shock bringing up the rear. They marched straight up to the jack-o-lantern door and this time Lock opened it all the way without any trepidation. "Jump in the tub, moron!" called Shock as she climbed into it herself. "We all need to hang on to Sandy Claws to make sure he doesn't fall out, and even though I wouldn't care if you got squished, I don't want to have to scrape the mess off of the bathtub later." Lock stuck his tongue out at her but clambered in and held on tight as they stepped into the door and fell once again into the darkness.
"Ah! Much better!" Lock sighed in relief and inhaled deeply as he hopped back out of the tub, welcoming the pleasant scent of dead leaves and general decay as they arrived home. "You can say that again!" said Barrel, maintaining his position on top of the bag while Shock jumped down to walk next to Lock and they all headed towards town, eager to show off their victory. They threw open the doors to town hall where Jack was still assigning duties to the other townspeople and the trio walked towards the stage, pointing to their trophy and feeling incredibly proud of themselves.
"Jack, Jack, we got him, we got him!" they shouted in unison.
"Perfect!" exclaimed Jack with a wide and excited grin on his bony face. "Open it up, quickly!" Barrel pulled the rope and Sandy Claws jumped out with so much force that it knocked him backwards onto the floor, and Lock and Shock watched as Sandy Claws leapt right over their heads and landed gracefully on one of the bench seats. Jack gasped, "That's not Sandy Claws!"
The children were stunned. "It isn't?" Shock asked, taking a few steps back.
"Who is it?" added Barrel from the floor as Not-Sandy-Claws hopped to the front of the hall. Lock hurried around the tub to join his friends, not wanting to be too close to Jack now that it seemed they had made a mistake. Not-Sandy-Claws was nose to nose with Behemoth for only a second before the latter's excited exclamation drove the former back into the bag, squeaking and shivering with terror. The children exchanged nervous looks. How could they have gone wrong?
"NOT Sandy Claws! Take him back!" Jack ordered, looking incredibly stern and the three of them took another few steps back.
"We followed your instructions!" Lock protested, a hint of desperation in his voice as he held out his palms in a helpless sort of gesture.
"We went through the door!" Barrel added sheepishly. Shock didn't say anything, too scared to contradict the Pumpkin King.
"Which door? There's more than one!" Jack scolded them, then reached behind him to grab a small brown and green cookie that was decidedly not the same shape as the door they had chosen. "Sandy Claws is behind the door shaped like THIS."
Lock's heart immediately sank with the realization that Shock had been right after all, and that it was his fault that they went through the wrong door. He wrung his hands anxiously and tried to think of an excuse, some way to talk himself out of trouble, but before he could speak Shock's hands were around his neck and squeezing tightly.
"I told you!" she said in an accusing tone, throttling him a bit. 'Stupid Lock!' she thought to herself. How did she let him talk her into picking the wrong door? He was always talking her into doing stupid things. Lock reached up to try and pry her hands from his throat and his mask fell off as she choked him. He didn't see Barrel winding up his arm to throw a punch at him, but mercifully Barrel missed and struck Shock in the face instead, knocking her mask off and landing on his own backside. Shock released her hold on Lock's neck and moved towards Barrel, intending to clock him a good one for hitting her, but before she could smack him Lock recovered his breath and tackled her, knocking her to the ground and punching her everywhere he could reach.
"Ow! Ow!" she shrieked and reached up to grab his hair and pull it hard.
"Knock it off!" he growled back, and they were so caught up in their fight that they didn't notice Jack's exasperated expression before a horrible roar caused all three of them to break apart and jump to their feet to cower before the Pumpkin King's rage.
Jack turned back to the quivering bag and said in a very diplomatic, apologetic tone, "I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, sir." Then he narrowed his gaze on the children again and demanded, "Take him home first. And apologize again!" The tub lurched forward and began walking towards the exit, and the kids put their masks back on as Jack called after them, "Be careful with Sandy Claws when you fetch him, treat him nicely!"
"You got it!" replied Barrel and Lock, thankful that they had gotten off with just a stern talking-to instead of a beating, like Oogie Boogie would no doubt have done if they had made such a big mistake with him.
"We'll get it right," added Shock.
"Next time!" they said together and hurried out the door, feeling a little ashamed but even more determined to succeed this time.