I nodded my head to show him that I understood, sat down on his back again, and we started to walk off towards the east side of Henningtom.

We were almost to the end of the small pathway we were walking on when Jiggleweed set me down on the ground and walked away. I looked around, puzzled, wondering why he had just really set me down and went in the other direction without so much as one word.

“Jiggleweed?” I asked him. He was silent. I heard some ruffling from my right and said again, “Jiggleweed,” in more of a whisper this time. “Jiggleweed, there’s something here with us.” But Jiggleweed wouldn’t answer me. He didn’t even turn around, and I was starting to worry.

There was more noise, only louder, closer. I felt my body starting to shake compulsively, and I hoped and prayed for daylight. Hot tears started falling down my cheeks, silently and slowly, as I realized Jiggleweed wasn’t coming back.

“Hush now, young one,” a rough, husky voice said from the right. I looked over, but not without fear I can tell you, and to my great dismay I saw a huge, green animal; it was a crossover between a wolf and a fox… It was a wox (corny, I know, but at the time I had no idea what it was called).

“It’ll all be over soon,” another wox said.

“Who are you?” I stuttered out the question between fits of frightened tears.

“I’m Jackal,” the first said. “And this is Sidle. We’re friends of the deer’s.”

“Friends?” They sure didn’t look like the type of animals Jiggleweed would hang out with.

“Well, sort of.” He laughed and the other smiled. A cold chill went down my spine at the little exchange. “Let’s just say…we do a lot of business with Jiggleweed.” They both busted out in hysterics and I decided this was as good a time as any to get away. So I gathered up as much courage and momentum as I could and quickly got to my feet, running. But they were slightly faster; the first wox ran in front of me and the other behind, trying to keep me cornered. I tried to get away again, but they were still faster than me. They had me between them as if they were playing a game of monkey in the middle and I, obviously, was the monkey.

“Don’t frustrate us,” the second wox, the girl, said. “Or we’ll get our master to come back here and show you what’s for.”

“Back?” I asked. “You mean… Jiggleweed is your master?”