Quietly, Quiggly stepped into the darkness as he stealthily approached and steeled himself for a strike. Luckily, it was quiet down there, and then, it happened... The boy who cried wolf woke up. Quiggly's face contorted in horror, and he let out a shriek, "Nooooo!" He began thrashing against the walls, flailing wildly as he tried to get out, but he found the door as well as the walls in his path unyielding, solid, and completely impassable. Quiggly had been lured there by the ruckus from earlier. Thinking his friends were still outside, he made his way back to the forest, where he had run into Oogily. The boy had no idea what to make of Quiggly's desperate attempts at getting out. When he saw Quiggly's sudden change of demeanor, he had run to the edge of the forest and hid, not wanting anything to do with what he was witnessing. For a moment he had thought the Quiggly he knew was possessed by a bunny with a very big mean streak. That was until he noticed the quills of the Quiggly being possessed. The fur that was fluffing up on him was a very light grey. With his quills quivering as they popped up and down every which way, this was clearly not his Quiggly. This thing that was Quiggly had claws, and that was no bunny. If anything, this thing looked like a cross between a cat and a possum. Quiggly now a quivering ball in the corner, he would remain there as Quiggly-Catsquiggly, not even daring to move a muscle for the remainder of the night. Oogily would sit there in a stupor, watching the horror of his friend unfold before him. He couldn't begin to wrap his mind around how Quiggly had become so hideous in such a short time. Quiggly-Catsquiggly would curl up in the back corner of the small shed. He was not even sure how he had gotten there. He would sleep. It was as good a place as any. But his dreams were not restful. He was tormented by something. Something with sharp claws was trying to claw its way out of him. He would toss and turn in his sleep, trying to scream, "Let go, get off me." There was no way for him to calm down or calm himself down. He had been ripped from his Quiggly-bed by a wild animal. Quiggly, having never been in such a situation before, had no idea what to do. He just had no idea what to do. The next morning, as was normal for people whose sleep had been disturbed by a predator of some kind, Quiggly made his way back to the woods, searching for his old friend Oogily. To the shock of everyone, Quiggly came back with a small friend in tow. Quiggly was now covered in many, many quills. Oogily could not believe his eyes. Who knew what all Quiggly had been up to, but even he could not deny the change in Quiggly. He couldn't get over how his old friend had become this weird, frightening thing. "I saw something. I really did," Quiggly would say to no one in particular, always insisting that someone believe him. "It was really, really real." Quiggly became a permanent fixture in the village of Dilly-Dally. The townspeople could hardly blame him for getting his quills, and they all had a new appreciation for where Quiggly-Catsquiggly had come from. For Quiggly, his friends and the whole village, life went on as it always had, other than the quills of course. As the days went by, Quiggly began to enjoy the attention. He always made sure to have his new friends over to his place. He never told them about his new friend. They would be excited about the upcoming game night, so he kept the whole thing to himself. Oogily, on the other hand, was less than thrilled with his new found friend. Oogily had been raised around Quiggly, being practically his best friend. It was like Oogily had never met the Quiggly he knew and loved. To him, Quiggly had become Oogily-Catsquiggly, and the transformation was horrifying. He wanted nothing to do with his once best friend, but he could not simply cut him off and throw him away. It was just not in Oogily's character. So Quiggly began visiting him at his shack. There, Oogily could only sit in the corner and witness Quiggly-Catsquiggly the Quiggly-pissface. Quiggly had become weird and repulsive. With each passing day, he would only become more so. ### Chapter 3 ### One Big Quill After about three weeks of Quiggly-Catsquiggly's disturbing presence in the village of Dilly-Dally, a small commotion began to form. A crowd began gathering around the little shack where Oogily lived. Several townsfolk attempted to go in to see Quiggly-Catsquiggly, but he would not be parted from his best friend. At first, Quiggly-Catsquiggly's fur would puff up and he would hiss and bark at them, but this just led to the group becoming more and more enraged. There were a few of Oogily's old friends who attempted to befriend Quiggly-Catsquiggly. They would try and get to know Quiggly, and they would have some brief conversations with him, but once Quiggly had his quills out, nothing worked. Even friendly questions and positive reinforcement had no affect on Quiggly-Catsquiggly. Quiggly had gone wild. It was getting late in the evening and the gathering was growing larger. Everyone knew Quiggly-Catsquiggly was making a big mess and that they needed to get him out of there before someone got hurt. The men decided they were going to need a real plan of attack. The first plan to pop into their heads was to sneak into the house at night and pick up Quiggly-Catsquiggly. But all of a sudden, the whole plan was quashed. This was as good as a plan as anyone could come up with. If they were in the house, Quiggly-Catsquiggly would only get angrier and more unruly. So the men decided the next course of action was to round up any number of strong villagers and bring Quiggly-Catsquiggly out one at a time, but that still seemed like a plan that had a large chance of backfiring. Something was clearly wrong with the way Quiggly-Catsquiggly was reacting, and no one could think of a good solution. There was a knock on the door. A knock on the door when one had not been expected is a rare thing indeed. Everyone in the village went wild with the news. There was someone out there, someone at the door. For an entire minute, the crowd wondered what could be happening. Would their plan of moving the Quigglys out of the way work? Did the mysterious visitor have the answer they were looking for? Who could be at the door so late at night, and so early on a morning? Not in all of Dilly-Dally's time had a visitor knocked on the door of their little village. Dilly-Dally knew of no one outside of the village they had never heard of, and this mysterious visitor was clearly not from Dilly-Dally. There was only one visitor to the village that could be of interest, and he could arrive at an equally mysterious and impossible time. A knock came from the door again. In Dilly-Dally, knocking on the door meant business. Residents kept a very tight perimeter around their doors. There was never a time of night when you would find Dilly-Dally's doors open or unattended. Not that anyone in the village ever walked up to your door without invitation. At any given time, at least one resident of Dilly-Dally was on your doorstep, looking over everyone else's shoulder, making sure your quills were in their rightful place. Of course, being Dilly-Dally, one or two of the resident's quills would always be out of place. BANG! The door had been shaken off its hinges. All eyes in the village looked up to see the door fly open and a little person wearing a black, curly-haired wig and a large top hat standing there. It had taken everyone in the village by surprise. Quiggly-Catsquiggly hissed at the man. "Quiggly-Catsquiggly! I would like to introduce you to me. I am Quiggly-Catsquiggly's new friend, John. I am here because I am the one who came knocking on the door," the man exclaimed with a smile on his face. He had never been so eager to introduce himself. Quiggly-Catsquiggly could not take the strange smile that was on the man's face. His eyes narrowed