A Song for Winter: Halloween

    “What exactly is Halloween,” William asked his daughter Jaina as she bounced up and down in front of him. The little half-lynx had been hanging out with refugee children from other portal worlds and undoubtedly learned about this from them,

 

    “Kids dress up in costumes, knock on doors, and say ‘trick or treat’,” Jaina explained as she stopped bouncing for a moment. “If they give us candy we wish them a bountiful harvest but if not we vow a curse on their grains.” Jaina looked so excited about the idea of getting dressed up and handed free candy but William still failed to see the point.

 

    “Jaina, we already have a harvest festival where you can get candy,” William replied as he tried his best not to let his daughter down too much. 

 

    “We can add this trick-or-treat thing to festivities,” Violet, William’s wife, declared as walked into the room leaning heavily on the wall. William jumped up to help the pregnant lioness but she waved him off as she made her way to a chair. “It’d be a good way to integrate other cultures into to village. Besides as daughter of the archdruid, I command you do it.”

 

    “I’ll get the word out to everyone then,” William announced with a slight smile, “this year we start to celebrate Halloween.” Jaina let out an excited squeal before she ran off to tell her friends the good news. William kissed Violet before he set off to inform everyone of the good news.

 

    Weeks later the village found itself decorated with Jack o lanterns as all the villagers seem to get into the new holiday spirit. The harvest druids encouraged all the children to dress in costumes for the harvest festival this year. Little ones dressed as witches, dragons, and legendary heroes from other worlds abounded about. Jaina wanted to dress like a proper Clan Drackonas warrior so William made a costume for her. A junior-sized set of armor crafted from a lightweight metal was the first to be built. In a fight, it would provide almost no actual defense but it looked like the real thing. Despite protests from Jaina her real weapons and shield were replaced with harmless look-alikes so he would hurt herself or anyone else by accident while trick-or-treating. The final touch was blue war paint applied by William in the traditional blue color to make his daughter look fierce.

 

    Harvest Festival went into full swing as usual with games and contests for all. This year however it featured children in costumes and new games like apple bobbing. William and Violet watched the fighting tournament, a little upset that they were unable to compete against each other this year, while Jaina played games to earn candy and trinkets. When the torches were lit to illuminate the dark village the trick-or-treating started. Each house had different treats from different lands for the children. William tried something called a Reese’s Peanutbutter Cup and found he rather liked them but they still weren’t as good as the traditional druid candy. Jaina went to bed exhausted from all the fun she had while William and Violet skimmed a little bit of candy off the top of the small half-lynx’s hoard for themselves.