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Arden sat back in his small chair, in his small apartment, so many conflicting thoughts running through his head. He had completely lost touch with Dan. Why though? They seemed to get along well, the cat was funny, and smart, and had a nice girlfriend. But then, the wolf consoled himself, people drift apart all the time. It's just what happens, especially in the big city.

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Arden had made and given Dan a sterling-silver likeness of the hated cookie costume on their last day, to remember their time together. The cat was speechless. For a minute, the way the spotted feline was holding it in his pads, the lupine wondered if he was allergic to silver or something, like some of Arden's relatives.

"Wow. I mean, wow. Thanks man. I mean...this is incredible. I um, didn't get you anything," the serval mumbled, seeming distinctly uncomfortable. Arden should know, he had seen him uncomfortable all summer long.

"Oh! No, I didn't expect anything. Really. I just. I make jewelry, you know, and I thought...you had to endure that horrible costume, and I thought it would be funny to give you a permanent reminder of it. Ha ha! Maybe give you a good memory of it. I really enjoyed working with you man. It was fun in a death camp sort of way!" The wolf's ears had flagged to half-mast, and his tail had stilled as he realized how dumb this idea really was. He had once again overdone a gesture, and the situation was getting weird. Why had he thought this cat would even want a silver pin of his costume? Guys didn't even wear things like that, did they? "You know, if you ever have to wear a tie like I did all summer, you can use that as a tie-pin. I guarantee nobody has one like it - it's one of a kind!" There's a reason for that for sure, his traitorous inner voice sneered.

"Naw, it's really cool man. Thanks, really," Dan said opening the door of his car. "Let's keep in touch you know? You're really good, and I hope you get that Vegas gig. You deserve it."

As Arden watched Dan pull out of the parking lot, a tear ran down his muzzle.

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Back in his apartment, the jet wolf wiped his nose, and began to write again.

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The next time Arden visited David, it was much cooler. Fall was not officially here yet, but the wolf appreciated the reprieve in temperature that nightfall gave thick-furred individuals such as himself. As he walked up the driveway, he saw a small gathering of furs, chatting amiably around a couple of what looked to be stage illusions. David and Tim were there, and he recognized Jenny, but there were also two younger ferrets he did not recognize, who looked to be twins.

"Hey Arden," called the fox quietly in deference to his neighbors, while languidly waving a paw. "Come play with us!"

"Is that what I think it is?" Arden's eyes grew wide as he noticed a rather imposing, though somewhat oddly flimsily constructed prop, the Impaler. "Does it actually work?" Such implements were usually many thousands of dollars, and one would not usually display them on one's driveway.

"Why wouldn't it?" sneered the opossum, as he stalked up behind the fennec, his mate, Arden mentally reminded himself. He stared at the juxtaposition of the two of them.

"Um, we're not actually sure, to tell you the truth," said the fox quietly, ears splaying, bringing Arden's attention back to the present. "My friend constructed it for me. We were gonna try it with Jenny, but I can't lift her, so I wondered if you would help Tim and see how it goes."

Arden glanced at the scowling marsupial, and then back to the hopeful, bright-eyed, but tired-looking fennec. "Uh, sure! We can try it. Is it ready to go?"

"Yes," hissed the opossum, and lumbered past the wolf, who suddenly felt, again, like he should be anywhere else but here. What was it about him that rubbed the oversized-rodent the wrong way? Arden would never say such a thing out loud, but nobody could prosecute his thoughts for hate-speech, right? He smirked quickly, before turning around and putting on his game face.

"Oh this is going to be so cool!" cooed Jenny, as she mimed being hypnotized before falling back into Tim's arms to be awkwardly caught by her shoulders. Arden's breath caught as he reached out to catch her, but relaxed when after a second or two of fumbling, Tim looked pointedly at him. The lupine, startled, broke out of his trance, and picked up the pine marten's feet. She held her abdominals tight and planked, as the wolf and opossum lifted her high above the driveway, almost over their heads, to balance her precariously on a chrome spike topping a beachball-sized sphere on top of a pyramid on top of the rolling platform on the sloping driveway. Jenny was right, Arden thought, this is going to be cool!

It wasn't. Though the lighting on the front drive was moody, courtesy of a single bare bulb somewhere near the porch, it was also insufficient for the two men to see what they were doing, and it took what seemed like ages for them to line up the midpoint of the harness Jenny wore to the connecting point on the "spike." By then, she was listing this way and that as their arms tired, and her abs, though remarkable for a dancer such as she, also gave out, and she bent in the middle like a cat in a cookie costume.

"No!" she laughed. "No! Let's try again! This'll never work. Aaah! I can't hold it! Don't drop me! Aah!"

By then everybody was laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation, and just how un-mystifying it was and Arden once again remembered why he loved production.

After several more tries, it was clear the budget-conscious version of the Impaler was a no-go. They finally got Jenny on it, but she couldn't lay there for more than a few seconds before squirming in pain, as the steel from the harness bit into the small of her back. David explained that it was a generic size and that they didn't have money or time to get a custom-fitted one.

It mattered little, however, as the basic mechanism of the prop never worked either. Balancing on the spike, the fur was supposed to suddenly plummet, and the spike was supposed to go upward through her torso as she writhed theatrically backwards, only for the spike to be magically pushed back through by the mutilated fur herself, as she rose triumphantly to balance again on the tip of death, to be lifted off by the virile male furs who set her back gently to earth...

"Arden!"

The wolf found himself being stared at by the assembled cast. He looked at David, who looked back at him expectantly. Tim narrowed his eyes and bared a bit of fang.

"I said, is there any way you think we can get this to work?"

The wolf noticed Tim scoff before he trundled into the house, evidently miffed that his fox was seeking counsel from the interloper wolf.

Arden shook his head slowly. "Not really. The pneumatic mechanism isn't strong enough. Jenny can't handle the pain of the harness. And I'm afraid the thing is going to break, or explode. The tank is really thin; it was never meant for this."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Tim kept saying that this was going to be our signature effect, but I wasn't sure. Thanks for being honest." The vulpine absently combed through the scraggly fur on his arm with his claws. "Well, let's take a look at the Azrah!"

Like its more menacing counterpart the Impaler, the floating illusion proved ill-suited for use in the unique performance conditions of the Palace of Shadows. No matter how they tried, Arden had to admit, when asked, that he didn't think it would work either, even though he knew David had his heart set on it. Arden was beginning to see how David Tyler and Company's audition had turned out so badly. Arden wondered how the fox had been booked in to the Halloween shows.

David's tail drooped, along with his ears. "Well, I guess we'll have to come up with something else."

"I know you will, man. There's tons of other stuff you can do. It'll be a good show. I'll help any way I can. Oh, and man, I can't wait to show you my costume, I'm doing prosthetics and everything!"

The fennec lit up and instantly his tail began to wag furiously. "That sounds cool! What are you doing?"

The conversation lasted long into the cooling night, and at some point, they all ended up back in the pool house. Everyone, that is, except Tim. Arden was honestly glad, though. He just couldn't figure out the opossum's problem.

What he also couldn't figure out were the two ferrets who, throughout the night, seemed to remain on the periphery, and whispered between themselves. He had never had a chance to ask David to introduce them, as busy as they had been trying not to drop Jenny on the concrete. Priorities. But as the hour grew late, and Arden's eyelids grew heavy, he knew he had to get home, and any further mysteries would have to wait for the next episode.

As he was saying his goodbyes, following Jenny out the door, he saw the ferrets get up from the couch and wander sleepily over to the mattress on the floor. As the wolf turned back briefly to thank David for the entertaining evening, he saw one of the ferrets fall onto the bed, as if intending to sleep there. Arden tried to keep his eyebrows even, as he waved to David and turned back quickly to make his way to his car. As the door closed behind him he heard David murmur, "Do you really want to go to sleep just yet?"

Arden was sure he heard a demure giggle from the direction of the bed in the corner. He quickened his pace, started up the car, and frowned in consternation the whole way home. What is going on?

Why do you care?