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Hollypaw's Cave
Hollypaw snarled as she socked a punchbag shaped like
a Chia back and forth across the room. She snorted steam as she reared back,
roared, and charged at it, giving it a swift and powerful kick in the midsection.
It exploded in a blast of sawdust, settling in on all the steely, uncomfortable-looking
furniture in her stone and steel themed study (yes, she kept, or at least she
HAD kept, a punchbag in her study).
"GAH! The Lupe Forest Winter Festival/Carnival
Extraordinaire is coming!! How I HATE that holiday! Chias could have thought
up of better things!"
She reared back and pounced upon the tattered
remains of her punchbag, ripping it to further pieces with her teeth and bare
hands. Warpaw, a red Lupe who was sitting uncomfortably in a steel chair nearby,
winced and edged his seat back a bit as a few bits of the cloth Chia snowed
down on him.
"Well, I don't see why you guys can't get some
Lupe Forest Winter Festival/Carnival cheer and forget this plan. I mean, do
we really want to ruin it?"
Hotpaw the fire Lupe, sitting across the room,
sneered at him, his flame-decorated paw giving off steam as it grasped the glass
of water he was drinking.
"Well, I can't say I'm surprised that you're
weakening, Warpaw. You've been pulled into the commercialism conspiracy that
the Chias always start up around this time of year. I bet you can't wait to
SPEND, SPEND, SPEND, and then, expect other people to BUY, BUY, BUY all those
worthless Battledome items you so long for. You're like a sniveling little Chia."
"A Festive Attack Pea is NOT worthless!" Warpaw
snarled. "It's...It's..."
"A vegetable?" Hollypaw offered, dusting Chia
bits off her Christmas coat and regaining control of her temper.
"NO! A really tough Battledome item I could
use to DESTROY Chias!"
"Warpaw," Hotpaw took a sip of his then ice,
now hot water before continuing. "I don't see how you can call yourself a 'warrior
Lupe.' You depend completely on weaponry to do all your fighting for you. And
on top of that, the sort of weapons you choose are really, REALLY silly. For
instance, the Festive Attack Pea you mentioned earlier. It's a PEA. I ate about
30 of them for dinner yesterday. Who knows how many those wimpy Chias eat."
Warpaw huffed, getting visibly frustrated. To
this particular group of Lupes, being compared to or even just mentioning a
Chia was the ultimate insult, so Warpaw felt a need to defend himself.
"It isn't just a PEA! It's a PEA in a HAT! And
it's REALLY, REALLY RARE!!"
Hotpaw and Hollypaw scoffed. Warpaw crossed
his arms sulkily, sinking (as much as one can sink) into his metal chair.
"I wouldn't expect YOU two to understand. Especially
you, Mr. I'm-So-Cool-Because-I-Set-Things-On-Fire."
"You know what I'd like to set on fire right
now? Your tiny, flammable brain."
"GO AHEAD AND TRY!"
Hotpaw began literally flaring as Warpaw reached
for his Lupe sword, snarling. This is when Hollypaw intervened.
"WOULD you two BE QUIET?"
She jumped up and kicked over Warpaw's steel
chair effortlessly, then whipped around and stamped down hard on Hotpaw's foot.
Warpaw's seat crashed down onto the stone floor with a noise and a vibration
like a gigantic bell. Warpaw wobbled as he rolled out of the chair, looking
quite shell-shocked. Steam shot out of Hotpaw's ears in pain as he fell off
his chair, clutching his foot.
"We don't have time for you to bicker and fight
about such stupid things! This Chia-Hating Gang I formed is PERFECT. We are
in HARMONY with each other, and I want to KEEP IT THAT WAY, even if I have to
KILL YOU!" Hollypaw yelled, slamming her fist into her paw and pacing back and
forth across the room as she talked, the model of intimidation.
"And we're going to use our great TEAMWORK to
destroy the Lupe Forest Winter Festival/Carnival Extraordinaire. You're all
doing this for ME, and if you SCREW UP, I'll have TWO NEW PUNCHBAGS as PRESENTS
this year!"
Hotpaw nodded, limping back into his seat. "Right
on."
Warpaw, who was just starting to revive, let
out a little whimper of agreement before Hollypaw trampled over him in her frenzied
pacing.
"Well then. Since we have no objections, and
your opinion doesn't matter, I suppose we should move on to business." Hollypaw
cracked her knuckles and neck before sitting back down. "Now, Hotpaw, report
on construction of our secret plan?"
Hotpaw smiled eerily, snapping his finger with
a small puff of flame. He grabbed the slightly charred shopping bag sitting
by the chair, rifling through a few items inside. "I received the last parts
from the Virtupets Space Station, special order from Dr. Sloth. I can probably
finish and test it by tonight."
"Good." Hollypaw turned. "And Warpaw, you've
covered everything else we'll need, I hope."
"Sure." Warpaw squeaked and pointed to the packages
stacked by his fallen chair, writhing across the floor in an attempt to get
back up again.
"Then we're set for Tuesday!" Hollypaw kicked
Warpaw over and stood on him for dramatic effect. "We're going to pull the ULTIMATE
GRINCHING on the Lupe Forest Winter Festival/Carnival Extraordinaire!"
The Lupe Forest Winter Festival/Carnival Extraordinaire
It was finally the big day in Lupe Forest. All the Lupes, from every dark
corner of the entire forest, had gathered by Lupe Lake, the Clearing, the Cliffside,
and every other place they could fit in, eager to participate in the traditional
Lupe Forest ceremonies.
But, three of the Lupes were gathered elsewhere,
waiting behind a tree as the parade was preparing to begin their forest-wide
movement.
"Ready?" Hollypaw hissed.
"Yuh," Warpaw nodded.
"Yuh," Hotpaw nodded.
The floats in the parade were all rather extravagant,
some completely covered with flowers, some hanging in the air and only controlled
by dozens of Lupes holding strings, others packed to the brim with Lupe Forest
celebrities. A marching band was warming up. But none of these were interesting
to the Lupes, who were focusing on one float in particular.
Hollypaw, followed closely by her two accomplices,
danced out from behind the tree, dodging behind float to float until they finally
reached the target: A rather large sleigh float, in which the actor playing
Scorchio Claus was calmly eating a tealeef sandwich in preparation for his role.
She stole a quick glance towards the large flowery float up ahead, on which
Goldpaw, the alpha, was standing.
Hollypaw grinned awfully as she crept into the
sleigh next to Claus, who looked up from his meal with a startled expression
on his face.
"Huh? Who are you?"
"Scorchio Claus."
"What? But I'M playing-"
WHUMP!
Hollypaw pushed the sleigh, unconscious Claus
and all, down the hillside. Hotpaw and Warpaw shoved a rather large, ugly, black,
and powerful behemoth of a space shuttle from behind a tree. Shaped like an
immense sleigh, it had jet boosters attached to the rear, along with two sets
of laser guns that could turn any Christmas item into sludge. Hollypaw donned
Claus's hat, her grin spreading and her spirits rising.
"Alright, Hotpaw, fire 'em up!"
Hollypaw leaped into the sleigh, taking the
reigns as she glanced at Warpaw. "Do you have the supplies ready?"
"Ready as they can be," Warpaw mumbled, picking
through a box filled to the brim with rancid eggs, spray paint cans, overripe
veggies, stink bombs, and other such disgusting objects.
"Then let's GO already!" she impatiently screamed,
seizing hold of the reigns. Hotpaw turned the key in the engine several times
to start the rather ugly sleigh until it finally began to hum, stuttering and
purring. He waited a moment to let the heating system warm up, put it out of
parking, held his breath, and then flicked a switch.
With a triumphant hoot, the rather Grinchy Christmas
Lupe whipped the reins of the sleigh as the Sloth Sleigh exploded into action
with a roar of flame. The plastic Raindorf set up in front of them were splintered
as they lurched forward with surprising speed, blasting through float after
float ahead of them and sending the Lupes holding the gigantic balloons, the
marching bands, and anything else in the way scattering.
Goldpaw fell forward onto his stomach as the
Chia-Hating gang made a sleigh-shaped hole in his flowered vehicle. His paw
fumbled around his neck until finding his silent Lupe whistle, which he blew
with all his might. But not even the piercing, Lupe-only sound could reach Hollypaw's
gang, who now seemed to be traveling faster than sound itself, lurching into
the sky with a bang and soaring towards the festivities, a trail of destruction
behind them.
"Hm," Goldpaw grunted. "This can only get worse."
Promptly, the remains of his float collapsed
underneath him.
To be continued...
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