Okay, back with another chapter I am! I am hoping like the hell that I uploaded the right one! n___n Enjoy! Now we're getting to where- (is gagged)
Jack: You'll tell them everything, you dolt!
Sk: Mrph....
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The young Christmas Town citizen shuddered as she looked around. She pulled her jersey tightly around her curves, staring at the trees. The four could hear strange music playing, just soft enough for them to hear. It sent the group into a sort of comforted, eerie sense of peace. Well, Evan, Chelsea and Shelly at least. Glimmering emerald eyes stared around in disbelief. Not terror, just uncertainty.
"This is what you call the Hinterlands?"
"Yeah." Chelsea smiled, looking back lazily. She involuntarily shuddered, looking around. "Isn't it beautiful? It's rather easy to get lost, as you would have noticed, but it's rather calm and serene all the same."
"A bit bleak, isn't it?" the Claus girl ask, looking the doll over. She sighed and stopped her, and Shelly too. Evan had nearly drifted off to sleep, but was jerked into wakefulness as Shelly stopped. Kris yanked her mittens off and slid them onto Chelsea's slender hands. She smiled and removed her jacket from her shoulders, exposing a soft green tee shirt.
"Aren't you cold?" Chelsea asked, sounding rather drowsy. Kris shook her head, wrapping a tanned arm around the girl's shoulders.
"Nah. Shelly, come. We're going to rest. No use going on if someone's tired. Chelsea, sit down, okay? We don't want another tiring themselves.
Chelsea couldn't be bothered arguing, and sat next to a healthy tree, leaning against it and yawning. Kris shuffled up against the heavily clothed ragdoll as Shelly sat right up next to her cousin, wrapping her fluffy tail around the other two. She nestled Evan in her lap, smiling. He tugged on Shelly's dress. "Shelly... I'm sleepy."
"Well, we have been walking for quite a while." Shelly mused, as her unseeing, milky eyes glided around. Kris sighed. She felt rather sorry for the poor girl. She smiled, asking politely for the bag that Shelly had slung over her shoulder. Shelly laughed softly, grabbing it for her. "I completely forgot it was there!"
"That's alright." Kris smiled, opening the back. She dug around for a few seconds, before pulling a handful of biscuits out. She handed one to Evan, whom thanked her kindly and began nibbling on it as he lay against Shelly's chest. She handed one to the demon, who sniffed it, and then stuffed it in her mouth whole. One was also handed to Chelsea, whom murmured an embarrassed thanks, bit into it and smiled, pleasing her new friend. Kris then grabbed one for herself and closed the bag again. "Now, you three get some rest. I'll keep a look out."
"Okay..." Chelsea mumbled sleepily. Evan was already snoozing, every-so-often whimpering and clutching at the red material on Shelly's minidress. Shelly was soon snoring away too. Chelsea's chocolate eyes finally eased shut, and her head limply lolled against Kris' shoulder. Kris smiled, wrapping a protective arm around her and looking about, thinking about the strange music that they could hear. It was rather sad, but calming and even lightly jaded.
---
Serena yawned and looked about. The sun was setting, and someone had joined the search party. A rather short witched with thick, frizzy black tresses, in a little green sweater and a long, black skirt. She looked up at her playmate, only being eight.
"Thanks for joining our search party, Tranquil!" Serena smiled. Tranquil's shiny blue eyes met her friend's forest orbs.
"It was fun!" she smiled. "But now I'm tired..."
"I'll walk you home then." Serena smiled, grasping her little friend's hand. "We're going home, okay Fiona, Caroline? We're a little tired! Good luck with finding the Skellingtons!"
"Thanks!" Caroline smiled cheerily as the pair left sight. But as soon as they were out of her vision, she sighed and turned around, looking sadder than ever. She looked up at Fiona, whom smiled at her encouragingly and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.
"Don't worry, Carol. We'll find them. And they'll be fine. Since when has Bayley let something happen to Anne or Maree? Or Shelly, Chelsea or Evan, besides scaring the little guy helpless?"
"He'd never let anything happen to them!" Caroline replied hopefully, clenching her fists. "And they will be alright! ...won't they?"
"Of course they will. That's the spirit, Carol!" Fiona laughed, smiling. The mayor's niece sighed and hugged herself, as Fiona removed her father's fluffy jersey from her own form and draped it around her friend's shoulders. "Don't worry. Maybe tomorrow we'll be able to get Kelly to help us."
"If she isn't busy." Caroline smiled with a small laugh. "That girl is always inventing things. And she has the most annoying sayings. Like her uncle, but worse."
"Like..." Fiona thought for a second, before putting on an annoying voice. "Curiosity killed the cat, you know!"
"Yeah, but..." Caroline laughed. "More like... The pen is mightier than the sword! And considerably easier to write with!"
Both friends started laughing, and carried their search to around Spiral Hill. Tomorrow they were going to go and search the entrance to the Hinterlands, and maybe even search a bit of the woods itself.
---
"And stay there." Bayley sneered into the cage that held Santa. The older man folded his arms, sighing in annoyance.
"I believe that you're also related to Skeleton Jack?"
"Yeah." Bayley laughed. His skelepire cousin, Anne, laughed mockingly and put an arm around her cousin's slender shoulders.
"What gave that away, huh?"
Maree also engaged in the cruel laughed, folding her own furry arms over her chest. "Maybe it was the bones."
The three laughed and walked away from the cage, into the shadows. Passing the cages, they saw the other Leaders that they had captured. The Easter Bunny. Saint Patrick. A Pilgrim. Cupid. Betsy Ross was the only Leader they managed from Independence Day. Now all they needed was...
"Time for my father." Bayley grinned, looking back. He locked into his slightly older cousin's blank, ebony eyes. "And we'll need your father too. It'd help, seeing as he's the 'brother of the Pumpkin King'!" he grinned mockingly, using a high-pitched voice. Anne giggled and nodded, clapping. He then locked into the forest eyes of his older cousin of two years. "And Maree, we'll need your mother. Uncle Werewolf isn't really related, and your mother is adopted, after all."
"Yeah." Maree agreed. "And even though the bumbling idiot she is, she could cause some damage."
"It's settled then." Bayley grinned. "Mr. Oogie and his friends will lure them here, and we'll get rid of them."
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"Oooh...."
Hazel-brown eyes grew wide with wonder and amazement. They were locked on the sight that they were taking in, although she couldn't really say it was as exciting as the Christmas door. A mitten-enclosed hand reached out to gently stroke the roughly painted orange wood. A chilling grin and evilly glaring eyes were painted in thick black, and the door was slightly cracked. Evan blinked and stated the obvious, as Chelsea appeared to be lost in thought.
"It looks like a pumpkin."
Kris nodded. "So it does. But not like any pumpkin, mind you. What do you call them... John of the lanterns?"
"A Jack 'o Lantern!" Shelly cried, smiling. "Nice work! Uh... where does it lead?"
"I think it'll take us home." Chelsea mumbled, looking up. She smiled and looked at Evan, Kris and Shelly in turn. Evan just bunched up and tried to hide from view to escape the wordless question that his cousin was asking. Kris shrugged, obviously not very enthusiastic. Unlike her brother, she welcomed the unknown, but sometimes it had her very scared. Shelly nodded, stepping forth.
"Go on. Open it. We need to get home. And to get home, we're going to have to risk this."
Chelsea nodded, looking back and reaching out. Her gloved hand grasped the doorknob-nose of the pumpkin delicately, and turned it, opening the door.
---
"You're back! You're back!"
The young trees ran to the group excitedly, jumping up and down on the spot. Willow's long, limp and frosted green leaves tumbled around in the wind, trailing on the ground, while Sakura's small, bright leaves were held high, adorned with pale pink cherry blossoms. Chelsea smiled and looked up at the pair of trees, the daughters of the Hanging Tree. Willow sighed happily, sounding, as she always did, as if she had just been crying. She was a weeping willow, after all.
"We're so glad you're back, Chelsea. You too, Evan. And Shelly. Your parents have been worried sick about you."
"Jack and Sally were especially worried about Chelsea." Sakura chirped up with sympathy in her light voice. "Are you okay, Chelsea? Do you think you're going to be okay?"
"Yeah..." the ragdoll replied. "Our new friend kept us safe and warm while we were in the Hinterlands."
Sakura's black eyes grew wide against her rather dark bark as her mouth dropped open. "You went into the HINTERLANDS???" She gasped aloud and stepped back. "And you're alright? Dad doesn't even let Willow go in there, let alone Skeleton Jack letting you guys out to look for Bayley! How'd you get him to say yes?"
"They didn't, you silly sapling." Willow laughed in her miserable, deep feminine voice. "They snuck out and ran. Just like Bayley and the lot did."
"And who's that?" Sakura asked, looking over at Kris. The Christmas Town girl, however, had turned a very pale, pasty shade of white, and was trembling from head to toe. Her knees buckled as she fell to the ground, staring frozenly at Willow and Sakura. The pair of tree sisters blinked.
"Not from around here, is she?" Willow asked. Shelly shook her head, along with Evan. Chelsea looked up.
"No, she's not. Poor thing, I think she's a bit frightened."
"More like traumatized." Sakura said smartly. She turned to Shelly and Evan. "Hop aboard you two. And be careful of the cherry blossoms. They're fragile."
"Yes, Sakura..."
"Climb aboard." Willow smiled, bending one of her white-barked boughs down. Chelsea managed to help Kris to her feet, and into the tree. She then pulled herself up. "We'll take you three home. Little red and green human girl, I think you'll be able to stay with Chelsea. If not, you're more than welcome to stay with us and our dad."
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Sk: >_> <_< >_> I think two of my fave characters are Willow and Sakura, along with Hanging Tree. Yes, I guess I do have a lot of oc's... SO SUE ME!!!
