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Amanda quirked one brow at him. "Sleeping on the job? Not really like you."

"Yeah, sorry. I guess I didn't sleep enough last night." "How come? Were you watching a movie?"

He sighed, "I wish." Wooly rose to his feet. "I couldn't sleep a wink because I kept hearing something spooky from the forest by my house." The sheep felt his ears burn from embarrassment as he confessed, "I wound up staying awake until the sun started rising."

Spooky, huh? Amanda hated the dark, so hearing scary stuff on top of that must've sucked. "Ooh, that bad, huh? Did you tell your mom?"

"Tried. She told me it was just a figment of my imagination and to go back to bed." He let out a curt laugh. "Parents sure are something else..." Ignoring the puzzling look his friend gave him at the comment, he grabbed the awaiting can of yellow paint and handed it to her. "I think," he yawned, "I need to nap a little longer, i--if that's okay. Sorry, Amanda."

Amanda shrugged. "Eh, that's okay. Sure looks like you need it."

And just like that, Wooly flopped back to the nice, soft grass and started to snooze away. Amanda rolled her eyes and returned to the super special "Welcome, Summer Season" banner.

. # The Following Day # .

Knock knock knock!

"Woooooly," Amanda chimed after knocking on the sheep's door, "let's go to the park today! They finally opened the merry-go-round!"

Not a minute later, the door opened, and out stepped Wooly, finishing up a drink he held in one hand.

"Were you still having breakfast?" "Nope! Just needed to drink something quick before we went out."

The faint remnants of said drink reached Amanda's nose, and the child couldn't help but scrunch her nose and then grab the empty cup from him, questioning, "Is this coffee? I'm surprised your mom would be okay with you having that."

"It's...not that bad if you have something sweet with it," was his reply as he took the cup back and tossed it into the house. (THUMP, thankfully it wasn't a fragile mug.) "Ready to go, Amanda?"

She grinned. "Thought you'd never ask."

. # Some time later... # .

Amanda's giggling almost matched the volume of the merry-go-round's cheerful waltz as she held onto the golden bar which supported the fluffy rooster mount she rode. "This is so much fun!" When her noble "steed" went around the corner yet again, she called over her shoulder, "Having fun with your horse, Wooly--?"

And there was Wooly, curled up in a cozy ball, asleep in one of the horse-drawn carriage mounds. Amused, Amanda shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Hey, old man! Wake up!"

At once, Wooly awoke. "Huh? Wha...?"

"Let me guess, you heard the scary noises again last night and couldn't sleep." "...heh, was I that obvious." "Very. Your mom still didn't do anything?"

Wooly straightened out his form in the ride, shaking his head. "Nope."

"You're gonna get sick if you don't get enough rest, you know!" Amanda paused. "I'm pretty sure someone told me that before, but I can't remember who..."

He gave her a sleepy smile. "Probably me?"

She hummed in reply. "Maybe? You can be such a worry wart about me, why not be one about yourself, Wooly?"

The sheep knitted his brows at that. "I'm not a worry wart..."

But Amanda payed him no mind and, instead, suggested, "Look, I know you're just a shy little sheep that wouldn't hurt a fly, I guess, but you're gonna have to toughen up and face your fears!"

Pause.

"Well, as long as it's not a huuuuuuge bear or some blood-thirsty wolf, then you'll be okay."

That did not, in fact, make Wooly feel better about his predicament...

...but still...

"You're right," he fiddled with his hands. "I'll be sure to do that if it happens again."

This was going to be a long night.

. # That night... # .

As expected, the noises returned at full force. If Amanda had pried Wooly for what these "spooky noises" exactly sounded like, he would've told her how it sounded like a mixture of a man mumbling, growling of an unknown beast, high pitched scratching like nails making brutal contact with a chalkboard, and even now...even now, it felt like the floor beneath him moved as he stayed frozen in his bed.

Oh good lord, was that a pained groan? What the absolute hell was going on in that forest?

"Th--this has been going on for three days in a row," he shakily sat up in bed, "but I never heard that before...!"

Wooly stopped the jittering he wasn't even aware his body had been doing and the fidgeting of his bed sheets, he then shut his eyes. Right, as much as this was scaring him, he knew Amanda didn't need to be involved with whatever unnatural event was happening in that forest; therefore, he needed to handle this situation on his own.

This was his job.

...

The weather wasn't kind to Wooly as he made his way outside in that eerily still, humid air, a lit flashlight in his hands while he focused his attention on the entrance to the forest. The noises, god, they were getting louder, almost more intense...or perhaps that last part was Wooly's active imagination--

the noises stopped.

A flash of something red and furry slipped behind a tree to the right, and Wooly gasped out of surprise and swung his light at that direction. With focused eyes, he waited for anything else to appear (his hands tightened on the flashlight)...anything at all.

"Oops...I suppose I've been spotted!"

A bright voice reached Wooly's ears, and the sheep's tense shoulders loosened. "Wh--?"

The fluffy red fur poked out from behind the tree again -- oh, it was a tail! -- as the voice spoke up, "I'm sorry if I've been making a ruckus, neighbour! I hope you could forgive this fox for his misdeeds."

So this fox was the source of the freaky noises. Did Wooly even want to know how and why? Speaking of the fox in general, was this a new character to the series, or--?

"U--um! Can you come out so I can see you?" "Oh, I'm sorry, but I actually need to go now...it's getting rather late, I've realized. You should do the same, little lamb."

Wooly puffed his cheeks. "I'm a sheep, not a lamb."

"Let's try meeting again tomorrow! Promise at a much better hour. Goodnight...

Marcus."

The flashlight fell out of Wooly's hands, and the tip taps of the "fox" sounded ever-so-faint to his ears.