A Pumpkaboo's Autumn Trick or Treat Party [Pokemon Halloween]

[Nighzmarquls]

A Pumpkaboo's Autumn Trick or Treat Party [Pokemon Halloween]​

One Jaunty Pot's Field​

I​

.~{ ` }~.

​

As the sun sank, turning orange and red below the horizon, Mosz began to wake.

First she seeped up the roots, filtering herself in from the soil. Filling out and saturating the vines.

Flooding the leaves, eventually finding a single flower.

She filled it and pressed, pouring more and more of herself and as she did it stretched, grew, burgeoned out until it had swollen well past any of its peers.

The leaves darkened as she overtook them, the dark green turned black. Each wide leaf strained under her presence before it began to sag from the weight of her. Edges growing ever more jagged, the cuts deepening until each leaf had taken on the frilled shape of herself.

She sank each mass to the top of her gourd, coiling and melting together until all of it was one.

Finally, with her body for the night ready Mosz stretched her frills as wide and high as she could.

Feeling out the light of the night sky.

The moon was full and wide, just creeping up enough its light touched her and the stars all sang with a tingling chime that complemented her joy.

She twisted them on her gourd left, then right.

Fluttering herself in the cool chill of a fresh autumn breeze.

Stretched up high into the sky and then down into the hollow depths inside her heavy squash of a body where she hung her freshly grown seeds like gems in chandeliers of pale vegetative viscera.

Mosz felt the moon's light sinking into her frills, how it mingled crisp and cool with the far richer and more sleepy sunlight the leaves had been soaking up all day. After condensing down she fully stretched out herself again.

Tugged and pulled the last few vines that carried her in from the rich dirt and its many delicate treasures. Dragging the saturated roots out of the gentle curves of all of her favorite toys.

Once every one of her black tendrils had finished furling back up and into her frills, she gave them another heavy ruffle.

Seven wide flaring limbs would be a good number today.

It was a fun number.

Together, they were enough to cover the entire half of her night's gourd.

Dusk was just settling from a lovely orange to a deep blue black.

Now all limbered up, she patted down her rotund shell. Drumming up a little rhythm before preparing the next bit. Pressing herself down into the bottom of the heavy fruit until it bent and stretched around her into two little nubbin feet.

No point in more, she just needed enough to push off every once in a while.

Now was the question of her face.

What was Mosz feeling like tonight?

Hmmm. She wasn't interested in making a production out of it.

So just two eyes will do.

She sunk into the middle of her gourd, sliding in through the stem, then stretched her frills sharp, thin and hard out into the spongy shell.

Catching the stiff sponge of it on her edges so it could not bend or bow like her foot nubbins. Then she twisted each frill in a tight circle. Catching her flesh, spilling the juices down her frills in that wonderful, slick-slimy way as it bled from the gourd's wounds.

It was over almost before she could enjoy the way it pulped and shredded as her juices spilled. Two pops of slightly oblong circular cuts, not properly centered or even lined up. Definitely different sizes. But Mosz didn't care about that, tonight was a casual one, the moon was full in the sky and made everything bright and sleepy with its silver treats.

Full moons were for lazy waddling in the woods toddling while just that much more overfull and giddy on silvery sweet light.

It was almost as comfy as those long summer days.

With a little shove from inside her gourd, each eye popped free, dragging strands of her inner threads and a few of her seed laden viscera. The tickle of her disembowelment made her laugh cheerfully into the night.

Then a bit of a shake and finally the last step before Mosz was ready for her jaunt for the night.

She pulled deep into the middle of her gourd, dragging all the day's light and joy and the wonderful treats from her patch and the many wonderful things within its deep dirt then squeezed them just right.

Light flared in the dark inside her, so bright it seared some of her inner flesh and dangling seeds til they smelled of a delicious meaty crispness.

Maybe if she found some travelers on her walk she'd share this night's bounty.

But that was enough preparation for a lazy walk.

Mosz wiggled happily, watching the shadows cast by her thready innards flutter over the faintly wonky holes of her 'eyes'.

Enjoying the way her inner lantern caught all the tumbled soil where her roots had dragged themselves loose as they came together in her frills. A little squeeze and a clench tucking her freshly toasted seeds outward against the inner curves of her vegetable shell.

Shining on the other gourds that had grown up around the field in her soil. Sprouted from her previously planted seeds on earlier nights, hers were the plumpest and largest gourds of them all. The others were barely much larger than one of her frills.

Hmm what else?

Oh yes, she needed to do one more chore before she could start her walk!

A quick little kicking of some of the already turned soil over the strands of seeds that had been dragged when she ejected the extra viscera that came from the eyes she'd just carved.

With the seeds planted for the next night's jaunt secured just in case, finally Mosz was ready for her walk!

She hummed a happy little tune as she skipped into the forest's moonlit trails.

.~{ ` }~.​

Full moons were always a such a good time! Mosz stayed mostly filled with light from a day of sleeping, and the sweet flavor of the moon's shine always kept her just dreamy enough that everything was that extra bit fuzzy and comfortable.

But she liked the full moons like the one from this autumn night the best!

The days were not so long that she felt over plump with light, on those days it would get hard to move, come dusk.

But the nights were not so long either; She wouldn't wake up every evening with the extra tingling jitters for mischief.

And the weather was just so nice for walks!

Autumn air was chill and bracing, but not cold enough that her flesh would crack with the delicate little cuts of ice inside and leave her mushy and spoiling come spring.

Winter was fun, but her gourds got brittle when there was snow. It was hard to stretch out her nubby little feet for walking, and it was hard to do anything but the messiest faces at the start of the night. The deer also would sometimes take bites out of her gourd. They swallowed her seeds though, so that was mostly fine.

Autumn was fresh, cool, and just the right balance of dark and light for full moon walks. Her flesh was firm and cool and flexible just right for little nubbin feets! And you couldn't walk without feets!

In winter, Mosz was so jittery and crunchy with snow and ice that she had to just float everywhere, or sometimes roll.

Rolling up into a big ball of snow was the best part of winter, but for only a few moons could she really make it work.

Okay, snow made winter her second favorite season! Even though her flesh was too hard and crispy with ice, she could still make plenty of faces with snow. If she made sure to break open a lake and get herself extra soaked in ice before she started packing it on, she could get so round and big!

So much room for so many fun faces in snow.

Shame spring always melted them away.

But Autumn?!

Autumn was like everything great about winter and everything fun about spring and summer! From Full moon to new you could have sleepy nights and wakeful jittery ones!

Autumn had the rain and wind of spring.

It had firm but not mushy flesh for face making.

It had the leaves all falling off the trees and the foliage and the deer shifting to match the color of her gourd!

It had so many more travelers on the road to meet!

Autumn was just the best and Mosz was delighting in it this first full moon after the leaves fell.

Skipping along her favorite trail, pushing off of the road with each nubby foot bound. Her frills in the wind fluttering and swaying to feel all the wonderful cool breeze of her passing. The taste of all of her favorite things drifting in the night.

The canopy opened and naked of any but the best and most twisted shade with all its wonderful grasping fingers.

And that scent in the air?

The Big Wind rolling in off the mountains?

Oh, she realized. Mosz maybe should have carved her face with a grin.

But tonight she'd made the eyes too big and low to add a proper mouth now. Any smile would be far too small if she didn't want to crumple her gourd.

And a too small smile was worse than no smile at all.

Oh well, the storm would be dark and grim, the wind was going to howl.

Mosz could already feel the jitters of the dark as the black clouds rolled in, obscuring the moon.

The Shadows pull her world from a sleepy dream of the bright into the sharp and wonderful hum of the blackness. And underneath the black? Oh she should have planned ahead, but today had been very warm and lazy and at dusk she was far too full.

Well, she would just have to make do without a wide grin lighting the way tonight.

But she could make do with two eyes to entice and express herself.

A little dance wriggling up her body, from the dangling fleshy viscera ripe with her glow toasted seeds to the splaying darkness of her frills that all the silly deer had long since learned to not nibble.

The tingling chime of the stars and the swooning call of the moon quieted their music. The deep boom of the storm and the howl of the dark rose up.

Mosz changed her pace, she hummed her song, for she had not made a mouth to sing tonight. But her eyes could squeeze just as happy as a smile should have. The rain was slick and wonderful as it soaked down her frills.

It ran in rivulets down her gourd's smooth skin.

It sloshed into and out of her innards. Spilling from her eyes like the most joyous of tears.

But of course it did nothing but make the light inside her waver all the more happily.

It was a bit early for the jitters, but the late summer days were always so long anyway she'd not had a proper time during the last new moon.

No, Mosz thought. This would be fine.

She'd hoped for a nice, sleepy walk to skip along on, but she could hum and dance with the lightning and the rain instead.

.~{ ` }~.​

"CORIN! Come on! I'm Sorry!"

Jean pressed on through the rain and shouted into the howling wind of the woods.

It was still not very heavy rain, but what had been a drizzle and ominous clouds had grown heavier and darker over the old pottery forest north of town.

Why did Corin have to run off tonight!?

Spoiled brat.

Jean had promised he'd get his little brother his partner!

Yeah he'd had to put it off again this week because mom needed help working on a big catering job. A boutique designer out of Lumiose was hosting a pageant and wanted to set it in the town's 'rustic atmosphere' this year.

It was a really big job, and their mom was not the only one busy because of it. The event had taken over almost all of the businesses of the entire village!

"CORIN! The rain is getting really heavy! Come on!"

The other two bakeries in town were working day and night to fulfill the order for pastries alone!

So yeah Jean had been busy and had to tell Corin to wait (again). But he had promised to go out with Corin to catch a Purrloin or a Goomy like his brother wanted for his brother's partner.

Who even wanted a Goomy as a partner? Sure there were people who swore by them in the tournament circuit, and they could grow up to be a huge Goodra under the right care and circumstances.

But Jean thought his brother played too much of those games.

A Purrloin or a Goomy might be great in his brother's favorite pastime but Corin just got mad when Jean tried to point out how his brother's favorite game was not the same as real pokemon in the tournament circuit.

Why was that something that made Corin so mad?!

It was obvious, wasn't it?

Like you could look at a map of Kalos and see how much they got wrong!

Thought Town wasn't even on the map from the game!

They just glossed over and went around their home town with the two routes.

"Come on! Mom is going to be mad! CORIN! Where are you?! Come out!"

The wind roared louder and the rain began to come down even harder.

Jean pushed on through, He had a good heavy winter coat.

But his brother had rushed off with something far too light for going off into the forest in the middle of an autumn storm. His brother's angry tear soaked face burned in Jean's memory.

He'd never seen his brother so angry and upset and it was over something so stupid. Jean picked up the pace from the careful walk on the old forest trail to a bit of a jog. The light of his torch bouncing along the road, illuminating all the roots and other things that might trip him up.

"Look Bro I'm Sorry! I promise, We'll come out THIS SUNDAY to catch whatever you want. All day! Just stop hiding man, you're gonna get soaked and catch a cold!"

Jean didn't even know if he'd somehow passed his brother. If Corin was angry enough maybe he just hid until Jean passed him by and then went home? But no, the bag with Jean's empty pokeballs was missing.

His fool brother was trying to catch a wild pokemon with no backup!

He was definitely headed this way to try and do this whole thing himself just like he shouted over his shoulder when her ran off because Jean told him they would have to go later.

Ugh another thing to blame those stupid games for.

Corin had no idea how much money he'd just stolen from his brother.

Jean had to save a month and mostly eat at home to make enough to afford a single pokeball bought used even working full time!

And he was not some apprentice doing his entry level job at ten years old! He was fourteen and an accomplished baker! He was three years into his career! And even then Jean had been saving up for months working with mom and the other bakeries around town to get enough for the empties his brother just ran off with!

He'd even bought a new pokeball just for Corin's first partner! He'd promised they would do this together.

His stupid brother probably didn't even understand how important that was!

You got your first partner with your family!

Stupid game filling his stupid brother's head with stupid ideas!

No, instead of waiting just a bit longer when Jean was less busy he ran off to do this alone!

Corin was out in the woods with a bag of Jean's empty pokeballs and probably was going to leave them in the dirt to get buried in rain and mud when they didn't hold whatever wild animal (or plant) his brother tried to catch with one!

The rain was coming down even harder, the wind howled, the branches rattled and Jean was starting to get soaked through his winter coat.

His brother was out in this, being an absolute fu-friggin idiot.

Throwing a tantrum because Jean had to tell him they were going to have to wait to go out together.

It was all that stupid game's fault.

Seven years old was far too young to be out trying to do the tournament circuit on your own.

In the woods!

At the start of october!

Jean wiped the rain out of his eyes from under his hat and took in a deep breath to shout out into the dark of the woods again.

"CORIN!"

Suddenly he caught a sign of light in the dark between the trees!

The tight beam of a torch!

He didn't remember if there had been a spare in his pokemon bag before but apparently he'd packed one and Corin had somehow managed to be slightly less of an idiot.

The sudden tightness in his chest relaxed.

His brother was fine.

Wandering around like an idiot in the rain but he was going to be okay.

Jean started running towards the light in the woods.

"CORIN! Get back over here, you're going to be in so much trouble when mom finds out!"

He ran towards his fool brother.

He was going to box the idiot's ears when they got home!

.~{ ` }~.​

Mosz hummed along to the wonderful music of the rain and the wind. The rattle of the branches were her drum-beat and the howl of the wind? Her metronome!

She spun as she skipped through the puddles and the mud, splashing and sloshing, sweeping the light of her mismatched eyes in a whirling circle, one that caused the bare trunks and branches to flicker and flash with illumination.

The strobe of them catching her light were a perfect extra tempo to add to her own wiggling dance.

There was just so much motion to the music all around her that Mosz' frills needed to swing, bend, and clap as they twisted and whorled around.

After her last spin, she heard a voice of a traveler in the woods!

Oh my, that was good and she was feeling jittery enough, but she was still pretty plump and full from both the day and the shine of the full moon before the storm clouds filled in.

She turned towards the voice of the traveler calling to her, and skipped jauntily towards him.

He carried a bright light of his own, but his voice silenced with a squeak when his eyes passed over her frills and the wet skin of her gourd's face.

Mosz had a lot of favorite games, but she was still a bit lazy and she had not carved her face for anything but an ambling walk, mostly alone under the bright moon. Well, that was fine, she would work with the face she'd carved!
A quick little twisty sashay in the air, and a squeeze of her gourd's flesh to wind the smaller eye so it faced her new friend.

He said some things, and Mosz bobbed and moved to this familiar dance. She listened to the song in his words, stompy and bothersome as it was. He was already playing brave with a tight little knot of fear just chewing him up inside!

He had that stern face, all tight and angry. A wonderful little prickly shell to just pry into. Let the weepy terrified insides flow free?

But no, he might be a core of fear wrapped up in anger, but there was also that fluttery lancing veins of guilt. Oh yes, so much guilt! so much fear! So much despair when he'd seen Mosz instead of who he had been expecting!

That was it!

Mosz listened to his song with all their chunky lyrics. She knew what part to play in this dance and what song to sing.

She nodded her gourd to him when his voice tuned up at the end, and then bobbed once in the air before turning her eyes away from him, widening them so that the light could shine as bright as could be.

After all, they were playing the hide and seeking game!

Mosz was feeling far too lazy tonight to decide on a game herself after all, despite the jitters of the storm, so she appreciated him bringing one to her so considerately!

This traveler and new friend was the seeker, and he was twisting up inside so terribly. She just had to help him find who he had lost. As he followed behind her Mosz could tell that the little glow of love deep inside him meant it was a someone lost instead of a something.

Oh yes, the heart of his feelings which were slowly strangling him in guilty vines pumped with fiery love.

The thorns of his anger that caged his fear were firmly one of caring.

Mosz just had to help him find who it was that he had lost!

Seeing what happened when he found them would just be the best thing for a lazy-turned-jittery night.

.~{ ` }~.​

It wasn't Corin with a torch he'd seen in the woods.

It looked a lot like a pumpkin. Bouncing along like it barely weighed anything at all. Big around as his chest. With two mismatched eyes that were curved like a happy smile.

A dark almost fern like mass on top of the bright orange gourd that rippled and waved. Two little spikes poking out of the bottom that wiggled and swung like silly legs. It reminded him a lot of his Swirlex.

Who needed to stay safe in their pokeball right now.

The rain was coming down far too heavy and the poor thing's fur would melt in this.

One time when Swirlix fell into the sink at the bakery was enough for him. The poor thing was a miserable, naked and wrinkly mess for days. Had to eat a pound of sugar before its coat grew back properly. Yet another reason he had to delay going out with Corin to catch his first partner.

If they were going to catch a goomy of all things the weather needed to be dry.

Still, while it wasn't his brother, the strange plant pokemon wasn't aggressive. It gave him a friendly face and hummed inquisitively, and when he apologized and explained he was looking for his brother and asked if it had seen Corin, the thing nodded in a swooshy way and then started leading him.

He had to admit that the light of its eyes, if nothing else, were a huge help in the heavy downpour and overcast sky. Brighter than his torch by far, and besides the way it occasionally would spin as it went far better at illuminating the path ahead of them.

His mother always warned him that animals and plants were smarter and many of them prouder than you might think.

Always best to be polite at first and not aggressive.

Friendly or respectful was best, but backing away too if they acted mean.

Never run either, if a monster was a hunter, running only enticed them all the more. And you couldn't outrun any but the slowest of monsters anyway.

Calmly back away if they were bothered by you.

If they were friendly and you had a snack, you could also offer one. That was how mom had got her partner.

Made friends until the Swirlix had practically jumped into the ball herself!

That had been his plan for his brother's partner. Bring some iceberg lettuce that he read goomy liked and a few shiny trinkets to maybe entice a Purrloin. Show his brother how you really found a partner instead of just trying to beat them unconscious like his brother's games worked.

He'd have Swirlix just in case of course, but a first partner was better if you didn't have to tame them after getting in a fight.

With the wild pumpkin monster leading the way, Jean started shouting for his fool brother even louder.

.~{ ` }~.​

As they made their way, the traveler-turned-friend and Mosz learned more of the song and dance of this particular seeking game.

He called out a sound, and Mosz after listening a few times, echoed him.

The point seemed to be to make sure his voice carried, and he struggled into the fury of the storm and wind. He huddled under the torrent of the rain but strived onward.

Mosz picked up on the details and understood what was needed.

Her friend was shivering in the cold in the way she would not.

He was yelling to be heard to make himself known to the one that was lost.

Well she could help with both counts!

Mosz pulled air into her gourd, pushing the water out of her eyes as she went. Then although she had not had the foresight to carve a proper mouth she belched the wind back up and through her frills.

The lyrics of the song and chant came free, but of course Mosz did it far more properly than the friend with her.

"CORIN!"

She cried the words for the song, she belted them out with all her joy and more she played the wind and the rain and the rattle of the branches into and out her gourd til they sang with her.

Her voice carried the sound and promise of a warm fire like she knew travelers preferred.

The sound was caught and carried in the wind, picking up the scent of her roasted seeds and all the nutty flavor and smoke they had roasted into them with her unquenchable light.

The air pulled itself into her eyes and up through her gourd's blazing core, dragging even more of the sweet scent of her roasting flesh and the spice of her frills. Following the call and promise of heat and fire into the sky.

But more than even that she also sang to her friend and fellow traveler.

He trembled in the rain because his breath required heat.

He struggled in the cold because his flesh was cool and far too full of secondhand light.

He was buffeted by the wind and held down by his weight.

But Mosz could help with that.

She spun in a bound, she let her light cast upon him.

The touch of her flame struck her traveler.

And instead of his flesh casting a shadow.

His shadow cast his flesh.

The boy stumbled when his weight failed to bring him down but he soon found his way by habit shortly back to it.

His trembles continued for a time but Mosz could already see he was no longer cold.

It might take him a bit of time to fully kindle a proper light inside him, but that was fine.

She was sure he would find it much easier to hear the music and find his steps in the dance now that the wind and rain fell through him instead of soaking and sapping him.

With his flesh free of his shade and his shadow allowed to stand on its own, that snarlying web of vined guilt and anger throbbed much more clearly in the billowing sheet of Mosz' light. His determination led him forward and Mosz skipped along with him.

Each of them sang the name of his missing one.

They would win this game of hide and seeking together, or they would search long enough that he found his own light, and she was delighted to find out which would happen first.

.~{ ` }~.​

Corin stumbled in the dark and shivered. Clutching his brother's satchel to his chest with one hand, gripping the slippery metal of the shiniest of the pokeballs he could find in it in case he spotted something.

Anything really.

He was getting so cold, but he couldn't go back now! His big brother and mom were never going to let him out again for the rest of his life! He was going to be grounded forever.

Unless he got a pokemon, any pokemon, he was never going to get another chance.

Jean was a liar!

He'd promised to take him this week.

And then the next week.

And the next.

But he was always too busy, or the weather was too hot, or it was too cold, or mom needed something.

He was always going off and doing things and saying that Corin couldn't!

But Jean didn't understand!

He just got his own partner handed to him by mom when he was eight!

And it was a Swirlex!

Corin couldn't be a badge winning trainer with a Swirlix as a partner! That was a dumb pokemon for bakers, chocolatiers and girls!

He didn't want to be any of those things. Not like his stupid liar brother or his mom. He wanted his partner to be tough and powerful and awesome! He'd memorized all the stats and the best ones you could get close to his home were either a Purrloin or a Goomy. Goodras were huge and tough and really powerful!

And Purrloin were sneaky, and just so broken in tournaments!

He didn't understand why every trainer and gym leader didn't just field Purrloins or Liepards! They could always win if you set up your team right!

But if no one else was going to use them, he'd do it and become the best trainer in the world. He'd be the very best! He'd just have to find one first.

But it was dark and rainy, and he was getting really cold, and he hadn't found any pokemon at all since he came out this way. He was pretty sure he should have, this was where the guide he found said they were.

He'd checked every bush and gone off the dirt path and hadn't found anything big enough for proper pokemon battles!

Corrin's teeth chattered and he was shivering in his coat. He tried to stay out of the wind and under the trees but the wind blew right through and the rain poured down everywhere.

He stumbled around in the mud and the puddles, keeping out of the clearings of the road, struggling past the brambles because that's how you found pokemon. He'd prove it that stupid liar Jean who always lied about everything and hated him!

Another branch snagged on his coat like a grasping hand but he just yanked free. But his cold fingers slipped and the Pokeball slipped free and fell to the mud.

Corin couldn't even manage to say a bad word like mom and stupid Jean always told him not to, his teeth were chattering too hard.

He tried to reach down to grab the metal of the pokeball, but he couldn't get his fingers to close. It was hard to squeeze for some reason. For some reason he slipped, he couldn't even really feel the mud and water around him.

He was already cold.

He shivered, body shaking and he tried again.

He had to get the pokeball, it was really wet right?

Goomy liked it when it was wet and rainy.

He'd told stupid jean that.

But he said no.

Corin's hand wouldn't close as he pushed the pokeball around.

But at least he wasn't feeling quite so cold. It was actually warming up a bit, there must be something under the mud heating it up.

This felt nice.

Was someone singing?

.~{ ` }~.​

Oh, Mosz knew that smell!

They were going to win at their hide and seeking!

Someone was getting ready for a nice, long nap in the snow (or mud in this case), all cuddled up and ripe to sprout. Didn't even need Mosz to sing them away from all the things that bothered them!

And when Mosz turned off the path and sang with a different and more joyous tone when she let out the peal of "CORIN!" it drew her new friend and traveler along. Bounding tall and graceful after all the practice he had gotten tonight.

Slipping between the drops of rain like a natural born spirit!

And then there was the lost one!

He wasn't quite all the way free, but there was a growing flicker just waiting to come loose. Weaker then the traveler who had sought him but growing by the moment.

However, Mosz stopped smiling with her eyes.

The lost one was no longer lost. She would frown if she had a mouth, but she had foolishly not carved one this night, and would have to wait until she grew another gourd after the next sunset if she wanted one.

So she furrowed the pulp beneath her skin over each eye into an annoyed brow.

The game was coming to an end.

The lost one was being found but it was sitting bitter with her.

The Traveler that found his lost one didn't look happy either. Well the traveler was a friend and he looked upset about the state they were finishing their game of hide and seeking.

That made it a loss and this was not a night for losses! The moon was still bright, even if it was pretending to be dark by hiding with the clouds.

No this was not a win for Mosz, It wasn't even a win for the Traveller. Which means she wouldn't let this be where the game finished! Games where everyone loses were not even fit to be called games! Songs where no one got to laugh at the end (especially Mosz) were barely songs worth singing or dances worth spinning.

Mosz huff-hummed, because again she had forgotten to make a mouth, and while calling out a single lyric in a trumpet through her body was possible, any more was very annoying.

Well, the problem was the lost one was cold and sodden and ready to shed.

Mosz could fix that.

She roiled and twisted and huddled up to the wailing traveler and the very still one who had been found.

No, this would definitely not do at all.

Wailing like that certainly meant the traveler might call a nasty one.

Mosz hated those nasty, looming things. They stung, and clawed, and tried to drive her off. Worse, they played bad, mean games!

She hated the big looming grinning one that kept creeping on her fields and forest.

Nope! None of that!

Mosz flared her inner light til it was warm enough her pulp began to brown and cook. She shoved her body between the traveler and his found one.

Filling them with warmth while scooping up her nicely toasted seeds.

Treats were for friends, and Mosz had already cooked them hard enough they wouldn't sprout anyway. They were warm from her light and for an added push she sang as well.

Called the still and very cold one up and out of the wet and the mud and the solid places, but only just enough that he could appreciate the warmth of the summer days that Mosz had been saving inside herself.

Then, just as an extra she shoved a frill full of seeds into each of their mouths and hummed harshly.

They better enjoy those treats, Mosz had grown those seeds and roasted them in her sweet juices especially for eating!

The Traveler chewed in confusion and then relief. But the found one was too sleepy to do it right. However, the traveling friend seemed to get the idea and shook him. Squeezed him tight and pressed him close to Mosz' lightly steaming gourd.

This was not a bad game.

It wasn't the usual, but Mosz would remember it for later.

A Hot fire inside her, sweet roasted treats of her body, a close hug?

Mosz liked this game.

And as she saw the fire of the found one sink and root back into his flesh she thought she'd not be against playing it again.

The water touched them, but it did not sap their heat.

The cold and wet was of no concern for them any more.

But Mosz was cooking herself up something fierce and jittery.

She struggled to try and tug loose from the two friends but couldn't really manage.

Well, bother.

It was no good if they both ended up dying of cold here when there wasn't anything left of her to cook.

That just wouldn't be right.

.~{ ` }~.​

Jean was speechless.

The strange monster plant had cooked itself to heat his brother up! It had cooked itself and shoved candied pumpkin seeds into their mouths that both burned and warmed his entire body just from the touch of it on his tongue.

He knew that Swirlix and his mom's Slurpuff didn't mind if you used a bit of their fur (properly cleaned and sanitized of course) for cooking. They grew it back but they didn't like being overly nibbled or left naked.

But it was one thing to give up a bit of fur and another to literally cook yourself from the inside to warm a person up and then scoop out your own insides and force feed yourself to them!

It didn't help how absolutely delicious it was!

Nutty, crunchy, a little salty, almost like bacon or roasted sunflower seeds. But then with a glazing of sweet pumpkin and something spicy that made his nostrils flush clear!

It wasn't cinnamon, but it reminded him of it.

Jean was a decent baker, he could work on most of the easy things, but these? These were the kind of treats that could give his mom's best cookies a decent competition.

And he loved his mom's cinnamon cookies!

It was almost like a fruity caramel? A salted pie?

A creamy squash sunday sprinkled in bacon?

He honestly could not quite place the way all the flavors mixed together.

Just the mouth full that had been shoved into him by the thing's leaves left him full of ideas for new flavors to try, toppings and mixes for the sweet breads. Glazes for buns, muffin toppings.

But the best thing was the effect it had on his poor cold brother.

The near corpse he'd found slumped in the mud.

It made him stir and groggily chew, then munch and swallow hard as the flavor got him the rest of the way up.

Jean was crying and squeezing the wonderful friend he had found in the woods.

The slowly crisping skin of the pumpkin monster pressing and splitting a bit around where he was squeezing it.

But it didn't seem to be in pain at all, just happily humming at him, eyes scrunched up in a smile.

However, as Corin started panting and trying to pull away from Jean's iron grip around his idiot of a brother, complaining about something stupid like how 'spicy' the treat that probably saved his life was?

Their savior slipped free. By the expedient way of shedding the crisped skin!

Leaving the somewhat mushy and glistening flesh behind.

Again, it didn't even seem bothered, but the warmth coming off of it began to fade.

A slight, almost pleading hum rising up from it and then a sharp bob up and down three times to get Jean's attention.

He kept an iron grip on Corin's hand and the pack between them. But his brother rummaged up and nattered about the stupid pokeball. Pulling it out of the mud, shifting it so his thumb could activate it for capture.

Before the idiot could scare off the friendly pokemon (who seemed not at all bothered by anything) Jean snatched the ball from the kid's hand.

Which of course got him wailing.

"Stop that you idiot! We don't even know what it is!"

Corin however snapped up at his brother.

"It's Pumpkaboo! That's a ghost plant type!"

Jean took a step back from the humming, bobbing gourd. Looked around at the storm coming down around them. Then for the first time he noticed how the rain wasn't touching him, it wasn't touching Corin either.

His hands were not bending right, his arms were sweeping curves instead of distinct things.

The wind didn't press on his jacket.

He felt dry and comfortable, if a little cool.

And when he was following the strange pumpkin monster it had felt so much like a dream. He'd been able to run further and jump higher. Everything was light, it almost had been fun to search for his brother.

If he'd not seen the slumped over form that terrified him so much Jean had been planning to maybe offer to go catch that goomy Corin wanted so much tonight!

How? Why had he wanted to do that when-

Suddenly, the music that he had not even realized was there went out like a record scratching to a stop. The howl of the wind no longer seemed to have a beat.

The rattle of the leafless branches in the night storm and the falling rain were just noise.

The shock of the cold rain hit him so suddenly, it made him shout in pain.

His feet sank into the wet goop, his arms ached and felt stiff in places they were not supposed to bend (but had).

The mud clung to his shoes and soaked his pants and the wind now nearly bowled him over.

Then in a lull in the rain and the wind he heard the shrill voice of his mom and the bellowing call of her Slurpuff.

"JEAN?! CORIN!?"

He turned to look towards her voice and the light of a torch blinded him.

"Oh thank Arceus! There you are!"

His mom's voice sounded terrified, frightened, worried, relieved.

The shout of his brother drew his attention back around.

Where Jean looked, the 'Pumpkaboo' was gone.

No sign of the strange gourd remained.

Not even a hint of its presence or its lantern light eyes, Just the strange melody fading in his memory and the taste of candied pumpkin seeds lingering on his tongue.

He didn't have time to think about it any more though.

His mother and the naked wrinkly body of a water-stripped slurpuff were doing their very best to crush the life out of both Jean and his brother.

His mother's touch felt hot enough it burned.

 

[Nighzmarquls]

II​

.~{ ` }~.​

Mosz slept through the wonderful autumn day.

The sun's light filling up the leaves of her field and sinking from it into the buds and fruits of her gourds. Then after circulating in them, depositing their fill it sank lower.

Mosz snoozed in her soil, soaking up the pure daylight after it had been wrung through pitch black flesh to sweeten the plants above her. Her field was the best of any field! Where the other plants of the wood had to sleep or perish in the cold or waning light?

For her the daylight was never lacking. Her seeds could quicken every sundown, fed by moonlight and darkness as much as daylight. Every evening she could sweeten and swell her fruits for the nocturnal activities.

Every dawn the seeds she had sown could erupt and spread back out from the soil anew.

Giving her fresh and plump blossoms to sprout and grow when she woke.

But for now Mosz slept.

Each cloud that drifted overhead sent trembles through her, down deep in the rich wet earth of her field. The brief shadows soaking into her and curdling with the sunlight. Making her dreams turbulent and viscous. Syrupy phantoms and languid premonitions.

Whispers of lyrics for future songs rising from the delicate bones in her soil.

As the sun made its way across the sky and the light feeding into her dreams moved from clear blue, yellow and white into the rich umber, orange and purple of sunset she once more began to awake.

And as one edge of the sky sank ever darker hues down into her leaves and soil Mosz' restlessness swelled.

Again she rose, seeping from the soil, from the bones, into the roots, through the leaves, she pulled with herself the days of light in summer, spring, fall. The years of light she had slept in the past.

She filled the vines once more and the blossoms of the morning swelled and ripened into the gourds of the night.

Her field drank deep and what sparse things which had dared to reach into her earth perished or sacrificed to her awakening. Offerings of rot upon the altar of her roots and by her passing were they laid into the swelling burgeoning shells of her gourds.

The shining skin glistened in a newborn's dewy moisture as they gurgled and rose.

And when they were hollow and ripe, filled with seeds hanging in sinewy strands of inner chandeliers.

Then Mosz came up and out and then down and in.

Awoke fully for the night and it's just waning moon.

Leaves and stems become frills as she suffuses them.

Tonight she would not make the same mistake as before, storms were not uncommon and the jittering dark of the day's cloud cover still swirled inside her.

Instead of the lopsided and simple pair of barely round eyes, she took more care.

Each eye was portioned just a bit to the top. A sweeping line that could express a smile or a frown each.

Not wide or pointed. It was jittery tonight but not that exciting.

Next she carved a little spiral as a hint for a nose, a good thing to anchor attention in a face. But again understated for the mood of still warm and lazy light.

It would shine well but could easily be missed with the last bit.

A smile, good sweeping crescent, delicately cut by her frills. The humming buzz of their toothy edges catching and singing through Mosz as she cut her face for the evening into form.

Only a few little fangs to suggest a hint of mirth.

But otherwise soft friendly lines, good sleepy sweeps, gentle sunny features.

The cuts finished, the pushes were small and piecemeal, the flesh of the shell coming out in shreds and thin slices.

The ripened seeds for her field needed to be spat out of her newly made mouth in a fibrous tongue of vegetable innards. Spread out over her circle of good black earth, buried over in whorls and lines to find all the best places to sprout come dawn.

Where the mangled or rotten corpses of this night's sprouting gourds would feed the growth of the next.

Her seeds properly disemboweled and buried, but for a good collection she would roast inside herself as treats for travelers, Mosz was ready to ignite her inner flame. Summer and autumn light flaring bright and golden.

Like a newly risen sun, blazing with the sun of this summer and many more past.

Of years soaked up by the leaves of Mosz' field.

And now with the sun not quite precisely a sliver less full.

Her hollow belly with its flickering lantern lit and roasting some seedy treats and her frills weaving about in the air Mosz was ready to start this night's walk.

Her little nubbin feet (three this time just for fun) tossed her into the air.

And she sailed in a lazy little arc before gently settling back into the dirt that was cold and hard and thick in roots beyond her own soils.

Another bound and a delighted open mouthed trilling filling the chill autumn night.

Mosz had remembered to carve a mouth this time.

Tonight she would sing and dance.

.~{ ` }~.​

Mosz bobbed over the silver lit trails. Not going in any particular direction but also not weaving completely aimlessly either.

The understory of bare scrub and heavy carpet of leaves was sopping beneath the outermost layer of thin orange and brown. The soil, rock and root beneath are wet and spongy with the scent of chill and forestalled death.

In her travels she came across a sleeping pair of deers. A mother and child. Their autumn coats blended so well with the warm colors of the leaf litter.

Mosz spent a moment simply appreciating the way the two of them curled against one another in the night's cold before reaching into her gourd and scooping out a good frill-full of seeds toasted in the flames of this past summer's heat.

The gifted treat laid out for the two deer's morning breakfast, Mosz continued on her way. Her lazy loping strides bounding along until she reached the edges of her woods.

There Mosz had to pause. For lazy and filled with moonlight as she was here she needs a little more of that dark sizzling vim and vigor. Here the road was a somewhat overgrown stone cobble thing. And though taken up by enterprising shrubs and a few trees the walls of the old Pottery sat chill and oozing creepy vibes.

The building was long abandoned, the kiln collapsed inward, its bricks only half in order around the edges.

But the dark and creep here stank up the place something awful. Made all the worse for what lurked sneering out at her from the dark. Red eyes glaring from the depths of the house, a pinch of cheeks turned up at either side and a glitter of teeth.

The grinning one was there.

Mosz pulled on all the gloom and dark that she could muster from this night and last one. She fluffed out her frills and then gave her sharpest song out from the edge of her woods. Adding in for good measure a flare of deepest, longest summer days in her lantern.

Mouth and eyes gaping as wide as they can, spearing the grinning one in her light.

The smile vanished into a snarling hiss and the nasty red eyes squinting before it retreated back into the darker depths of the building. A fearsome howling growl of displeasure and challenge echoed out from the old pottery. Shaking a few bricks free of the kiln to tumble into the overgrown bushes.

The Vicious grinning one was such a meanie, but Mosz had been in these woods for longer than that pottery had gone dark.

He could growl and hiss and bluster all he wanted she remembered when he was one of a dozen little pin pricks of snarling hate. He'd try pressing into her woods every few winters, but Mosz didn't stand for that.

She took in another deep breath of all the pitch dark night she'd saved up from last winter's longest night.

Flaring out her frills with the blackness of it before sinking it down and deep into her gourd. Rattling and roaring out into a piercing call of song that blew out of her freshly carved mouth so hard it broke one of the little spikes she'd carved for a tooth!

Summer's light and winter's night met in the screaming chorus and where the grinning one had rattled his little kiln loose of a few bricks Mosz' reminded him why the kiln had collapsed the first time.

The grinning one did not give another reprisal from where Mosz was sure he was still huddling somewhere in a dark corner but that was fine.

She didn't want the old pottery and its road that no one walked on anymore.

Mosz had her woods and she'd had them for a very long time.

The dumb meanie of a Grinning one could keep his stupid broken down building and its shadows and even the road that went to it if he wanted.

So long as he knew his place and that these woods were hers.

.~{ ` }~.​

After making sure that the Meanie Grinning One knew his place for the night Mosz turned away and continued her night's little bobbing walk along the edge of her woods.

Some parts of the edge were still properly in a forest too of course, trees grew like that! But Mosz was not going to let a few things like some trees growing tell her where her woods began or ended. That was for Mosz to decide and no one else.

However she was quite pleased when they built roads into her woods, cleared out fine avenues and set up so many wonderful places for Mosz to admire her reflection.

But the best part was that in the autumn months after the leaves turned red, orange and fell from the branches they put out so many wonderful examples of faces! When Mosz first made her face she had to work for hours each night putting in all the little teeth and eyes just right.

But then the kind guests in her woods started putting up so many simpler and delightful new styles of faces.

Simple faces, complex faces, snarling and angry or delighted and sweet. So many shapes that eyes could be which Mosz had never even imagined!

And she would never be able to thank them enough for bringing gourds to her woods!

Before she discovered the wonder of gourds Mosz was forced to use turnips!

Turnips were awful for making faces, they took so many summer days fed into them each night to grow to a useful size and they were not even hollow!

Her light had been so smothered before when she grew turnips in her field.

The only thing they had been good for was when the moon was new and the tingly fizz of the night was full in her frills.

Mosz much preferred Gourds, nice big orange ones were a favorite but she could be convinced to try some of the other varieties as a treat. Also the seeds and juices she had in a gourd? So much better for snacks than turnips.

Did anything but deer even eat turnips?

Mosz nodded as she skipped in front of the houses, checking for any interesting or inspiring new faces. Sparing a spark of the past day's light to rekindle those whose wicks had gone out for some reason.

There was of course the traditional and somewhat boring triangular face and noses. A good effort she thought, very conservative and easy to do if you didn't have frills she supposed.

She had stayed up one day to watch how they were made and she could appreciate the limitations of bones and fingers and knives. One of those incredibly sleepy days where it was hard to even keep her eyes open for all warm and toasty the sun had been was where she got the idea of toasting her seeds as treats!

Which reminded her!

Mosz deposited but a single glistening and crisped seed in the mouth of each of the traditional and familiar faces.

But that was just politeness, it would be mean to not acknowledge all the effort.

And mosz was no meanie.

Now then there were the faces that were very much a delight. The ones that she saw were carved by more skilled hands and maybe smaller knives?

Many of them were giving her some solid ideas for the new moon this month!

Even under near full moon light they just dripped with the frizzy night gloom. A couple even reminded Mosz of her old turnips! Which wasn't that a fantastic idea? Maybe for the darker nights.

She could spend the time on one of the darker faces.

She gave a dozen candied seeds to most of the higher effort. But the really inspiring ones? That just dripped with frizzy delightful darkness? Oh she doubled those!

And there was one!

One delightful, amazing piece!

She gave it a solid thirty four seeds!

After that there were the 'faces' which apparently were being done by people who didn't really understand the point.

Mosz of course was not a meanie. So she gave most of them at least one seed.

But the one that was just a carving of a tree?!

Not even an interesting tree!

Nope.

Mosz was not mean but even she had standards. No treat for you! Perhaps next year they will learn better.

Or maybe even later this month if they are not too stupid.

But then again with Mosz' guests?

Yeah prolly not.

.~{ ` }~.​

Mosz continued on her moonlit walk. Slowly circling in closer and closer to her field as she went.

The moon makes its way lower in the sky.

She finds a few more sleeping deer to feed her seeds too. But the fizzing darkness grows within as less of the silvery light can touch her.

And there was a tremble inside. It was a bit too early for anything particularly rambunctious. Not under a silver moon barely cut down by the creeping crescent of shadow. But Mosz still could feel it trembling through her frills.

Hmmm!

Her gourd was getting pretty empty and dry anyway from all the walking and gifts giving. She'd parceled out almost half of her candied insides just for compensation on all the lovely faces her guests in their temporary little houses of wood and stone had made for her. Well she did still have the jitters of a stormy night to work out!

And those silly birds were back in her woods at the wrong time of year.

Mosz knew that birds belonged in nests in spring and summer.

Birds were always a good bit of fun to end the evening.

Yes, that would do nicely for her jitters.

.~{ ` }~.​

It had been a long journey from the far north over the wide waters.

But they had arrived just in time for the last berries before winter and the richest sap from the bark.

He'd made a good nest and his wonderful new mate had approved. The songs on the wing and over the wind warned that these woods were dangerous. That terrible things lurked in the dark here.

He'd been worried but the tree branch with his nest was just too great.

But he'd checked all around and there were no beasts or horrors in this patch he had found. The berries were plentiful, the squirrels well fed. There were plenty of nuts and berries to raise chicks.

Him and his mate were both in the prime of their lives. And this was a perfect spot for their first nest.

Nothing hunted this patch of woods. No spoor or scent marked the trees.

A short flight away there might be signs of horrors and beasts.

But he was clever and had spotted that by greatest fortune this grove and many around it were left completely untouched.

So clever and intelligent was he.

So soft and well made his nest.

His mate and his eggs were both warm and safe in the best of possible places.

He dreamt of their cries to come. Of how he would teach them to sing.

He-

The world suddenly was wrong.

His wings were broken and he could barely breathe from the agony of it.

He hit the ground and tried to take flight, to call, but his chest felt wrong and his wing could not extend.

He stared blindly in the dark, the pitch blackness of the night.

What had happened?!

A heavy sound and a terrible cracking of precious shells sounded next to him.

And the darkness was finally pierced by warm sunlight.

Cutting through the black that surrounded him only to reveal a horror upon horrors.

His nest!

His eggs!

They were shattered, crushed, scattered in the leaf litter upon the stones and roots of a tree.

The life of his children not even half grown in their shells splattered upon the ground.

He looked up and finally understood.

The tree he had chosen for how safe it was.

Something had climbed it and thrown his nest to the terrible earth.

But there was no sign! No beast, no horror, no terrible cats!

He stared at the ruin of his life.

Where was his mate?!

He looked for her but the blackness of the night was too dark for his eyes.

And then he heard her song, panicked, terror filled.

Screaming in fright.

And when he turned towards where the blinding sunlight came he thought he could almost see the flutter of her shadow. But caught, crapped, held behind a crescent grin.

The thing that was not the sun lept.

It came down into the leaf litter around him.

It loomed huge and terrible. Terrible maw and slit eyes glowing bright with the stolen light of the sun itself.

Within its cavernous jaws was his mate!

Alive and whole, the sight of her filled him briefly with joy.

But then the terrible thing bellowed, it spoke in his mate's voice but distorted, twisted, horrible and overwhelming. It rattled his broken bones with its terrible and monstrous meaning.

"Silly Birds, This is not your season."

And then something was moving, coming down like claws of the horrors.

The terrible unspeakable cats.

He could not even cry before-

.~{ ` }~.​

Mosz laughed and sang as she made her way back to her field. Keeping her mouth, nose and eyes closed just enough the very silly bird could not get away.

She'd already broken the first of the two and their silly foolish eggs.

Eggs were for spring when the flowers were out.

Mosz knew this but there were always a few silly birds every autumn or so that needed to be reminded.

Well Mosz supposed it was a very bad reminder.

Dead birds didn't warn the living.

But this was fine, she didn't even mind really how silly the birds could be. How much their delicate little voices sang in her gourd. Adding just the most wonderful accompaniment to her dance home.

Dawn was coming soon and Mosz much preferred to nap in her deep good earth.

She could sleep outside in her gourd but it was just not the same.

Always, most best to nestle around all the little precious bones she kept deep in her soil.

The fluttering feathers of the silly bird tickled. Its beak pierced and cut her from inside. But that was just how the game went.

Silly birds would make their nests out of season.

Mosz would sometimes show them how silly they were.

It was a good time.

Well, Mosz had a good time and after all wasn't that what mattered most?

Ah and here was her field and its good rich earth.

Here was the rot of those gourds she had not taken for the night to wear her face on.

Already slumping in preparation for the dawn.

Mosz bounded to the middle of her field. The little wriggle enough to shake the silly bird into its dance and song one last time.

Then it was time to sleep.

She burrowed and bundled deep into the soft comforting blanket of her field. Dragging the broken bird and its delicate bones deep with her.

Letting her flesh rot and ooze around the one caught in her hollow.

Hugging the struggling, crying thing close in the embrace of the soil. Until it too went still and its little flame bloomed bright.

And then just like Mosz's own flesh.

The silly bird rotted.

And added its bones to the field.

 

[Nighzmarquls]

Chapter for today took a bit longer so its not quite ready for my planned schedule. Should be posting it thursday.

 

[Nighzmarquls]

III​

.~{ ` }~.​

Jean woke before dawn.

He showered, brushed his teeth, did his morning stretches, got dressed and then made his way downstairs after a big drink of water.

Next he did a thorough hand cleaning, humming Frère Jacque as he scrubbed.

Then checked his apron was clear one more time before he made his way into the beast cellar for the morning chores. Mom had been so mad that he'd gone after his stupid brother that night but she'd also been so busy she couldn't really afford him to not be working the store this month.

Still he was just as proud that he was trusted with the beast cellar as the first day she'd let him do his duties there unattended.

The cool air inside was just a little warmer than the rest of the bakery in the early hours.

First up he needed to rotate the sourdoughs on the shelves. Making sure that the day's fully proofed batches were ready to be taken down later for baking.

Then there were the more delicate duties.

Mixing the beast feed for the starters. Then kneading the feed into the jars of yeasty blob. While he worked he also confirmed that their color, texture and smell were good.

Which of course they were just like always, if he'd thought something was off he was to go to his mom where she was prepping the ovens. After making his rounds with all the jars and checking for signs of pests (Swirlix did his duty here and gave an affirmative bark).

That was the work in the beast cellar done. He propped open the door and quickly started moving the paper covered bowls of sourdough from their place on the shelf to the tray cart just outside.

Then with the cart full up with their bread for the day Jean pushed the heavy walk in door of the cellar closed, pausing to make sure he heard both the slight puff of pressure from the seal and the solid click of the latch.

At the end of the workday he would be portioning off some of the starter into new bowls for the next morning's bake, but for tonight it was best it stayed shut for the day.

After the beasts had been tended it was time for him to get the fluffy rounds of fermented dough portioned, floured, lightly kneaded and then set to tray for baking in their ovens. As he made his way into the kitchen he could already hear the three mixers his mom had running working on three different batters for the cakes that had been ordered for the pageant this afternoon.

After he got the cart to the workstation where he could get the dough portioned.

Jean smiled as he went through and hummed another round of Frère Jacque under his breath to make sure he got the timing right for his scrubbing. Making extra sure he didn't have any starter left over under his nails.

It technically wouldn't hurt any of the dough but mom was still a bit touchy over him and his brother going out into the woods in the middle of a torrential downpour.

Then after that he hooked his foot under the table to pull out the short steps and lock it in place.

Giving a quick kick to make sure it was solid and wouldn't slide he stepped up until his elbows had a comfortable place on the table.

When he had started baking Jean had needed to use the third shelf on the short step. But now he was proud that he only needed the first and lowest one. He knew some bakers that never managed to get tall enough to ever stop needing it but Jean was pretty sure his last growth spurt would be enough for that.

Then with his station all prepped he nodded to his mom and gave a quick call to make sure she knew he was there.

Then the two of them got settled into the labor of putting bread into ovens. Mixing batters and then after that preparing frostings, glazes, syrups, fillings and a dozen other more stovetop confections.

A half hour before dawn, when the sky was just turning silvery. Jean and his mom took a moment for breakfast out at one of the little tables on the street of their bakery. He had some of summer berry jam and a smaller loaf of sourdough had been left over from the standard rolls.

His mom had her coffee, a few sausages and an egg with crepe.

Swirlix and Slurpuff enjoyed a size portioned bowl of weak stale cookie crumbles and milk.

Jean and his mom didn't talk much in the morning, just enjoyed the cool autumn chill and how it soothed the burn of muscles and wicked away the sweat of the kitchen.

Then after that it was time to get started on the sugar buns so that their regular customers could get them fresh and piping hot first thing after opening.

It was good to be a baker.

.~{ ` }~.​

Corin was woken up at the awful hour of eight in the morning!

Which was not at all fair, however if he didn't get up he'd miss breakfast and maybe even be late getting to school!

Ugh why did he even need to go to school? He was going to get his first partner and then he'd be doing a journey like a proper pokemon tournament circuit player. Unlike his boring stupid brother who didn't even leave town when he got Swirlix!

Two of his classmates had already tested out because their parents got them their partners!

Corin couldn't be a tournament circuit master if he was the last one in his grade to get started on his journey!

He did his morning stretches, brushed his teeth and showered quickly.

When he got downstairs to the private kitchen for the bakery his stupid liar of a brother was just setting down a plate of pain au chocolat with a glass of milk for him.

Corin glared at his brother, but he was still standing there and he had to get to school, but his brother making him chocolate filled croissant pastries for breakfast was a sign he was going to have to prove how much of a liar he was-

"So, I've been really busy but I put in extra hours in the kitchen today so we are all stocked up through the day and I got the latest surveys and it's going to be clear til next thursday."

He tried to keep frowning while eating his breakfast. He really did but his stupid brother knew that these were his favorite and Jean did make them better then even mom did. But Corin was still mad at his stupid lying brother who lies.

"So as an apology for missing all the other times how about I pick you up after school today and we go out and get you a Goomy or Purrloin. I checked in with mom and she knows where we will be this time, so we can even stay out late."

Corin glared at him.

"You promised you'd take me before."

Jean winced at that, as he should but then reached into his bag and took out a pokeball.

"You didin't need to steal this out of my room bro, I-"

His brother huffed and then put it down on the table.

"I got it for you in the first place. Here take this to school and if I don't show, call mom and let her know. Just-"

Was his brother crying?!

His stupid liar of a brother who always was looking down on him for everything!?

"Just, if I don't show up after school, will you get some of your friends to go with you? And here..."

Corin's possibly insane older brother dropped a head of iceberg lettuce and a pull tab can of Magikarp on the table.

"If I'm not there please try just offering a snack before you go right to throwing a pokeball at the monster's head? Goomies love fresh iceberg and everything I read about Purrloin said a can of salted Magikarp like this can entice them to let you pet them jus-"

Corin interrupted his brother before his crazy madness embarrassed them both anymore.

His eyes sting for some reason.

"Fine you stupid liar! But you better be there after school!"

.~{ ` }~.​

Mosz woke with the moon.

Its light was a quarter darkness and her frills hummed and buzzed with the jitters of mischief. She went at the flesh of her night's gourd with that tingling thrill, slicing a fresh face that suited her mood. More triangular prongs for teeth, more naturally narrow eyes that would only widen with effort.

She spread her seeds with the violence that suited a quarter moon's darkness.

Then hummed and crackled her light to fiercely cook and glaze what seeds she kept to herself.

The game tonight would be a sharper one she decided.

But what to play?

Well Mosz could always-

Oh! She knew those two travelers!

It was the seeker and the found!

But they were together and smiling, and there were two other travelers with them. A slimy little slug and a sweet little puff of a pup!

Mosz knew this game!

She had enjoyed many a parade in her woods and while normally she had to start them herself she'd seen guests and travelers start them for her as well!

Oh that was so thoughtful of them and Mosz could hardly decline such an invitation!

She spun and added a song to their animated but far too quiet little quartet.

It was barely a parade without musical accompaniment.

.~{ ` }~.​

Jean was so glad that Corin had in fact settled on a goomy.

They were far easier to care for and lower maintenance then a Purrloin from what he'd read. Also besides needing to keep it away from a few things in the bakery they made for very robust partners.

He'd been worried maybe the slime would have put off his brother but the way the two had embraced and gotten on after Corin offered an entire head of iceberg lettuce put that to rest.

It had even enjoyed rough housing without a sign of distress.

The pokeball had been almost entirely superfluous by that point. A final sealing of the deal between boy and monster.

And the complete lack of any sign of resistance to that capture was the last proof he needed.

That Corin had immediately wanted his partner back out of it was also an excellent sign.

Jean was glad he'd done this, he honestly felt a bit bad that he'd put it off despite all the excuses.

The only problem was how late it was getting, but he'd already called ahead so his mom wouldn't worry and the weather was still clear. The moon and stars bright in the sky through the barren branches.

And then the music started.

It began in the breeze, in the whistling wind and the rattling cadence of the branches. It hummed on strings made of slumbering vines.

It sang with the throat of the wood itself.

And then the light shined on them. Brilliant bright and yellow as a summer sunrise and just as warm in the chill of an early october evening.

That familiar light which left him suddenly feeling lighter. The weight of gravity was suddenly just that much more distant. The music swelling as the strange gourd pranced and bounded through the woods towards them.

The size was far too large, the face was different, but the voice that was singing was familiar. Reedy and hollow and maybe feminine.

It was the same voice that had helped him search for his brother. But it sang now in words that sounded strange and old and faintly familiar, like something he had maybe heard from the past. But unmistakably full of joy and welcome.

He and Corin were soon bounding along with it. Along with the newly partnered Goomy and his own Swirlex.

The hot summer radiance that had soothed when first it alighted on him almost seemed to fill him out now. The song continued and they leaped higher than ever before.

His legs stretched and without the fear that he had felt the first time he could actually notice it.

He could bend where he never should have.

And every time he moved the shape his arms, legs and body took was a little smoother and less defined.

Corin laughed with him, his brother's shirt and pants billowing more and more as they danced. Jean couldn't help himself. The joy of it all was overwhelming and he laughed and somehow he managed to sing with the melody they all followed as he did.

He could feel his cheeks stretch as he laughed, he could feel how his jaw was soft. He didn't open his mouth by bending it, he didn't smile with his muscles.

The strange gourd pranced in the lead with them but they all bounced and weaved in the music. Following the leader as the five of them rose and fell through the woods. Every bound is almost touching the understory of branches.

But then why stop there?

Jean leapt and he sailed clear of the forest, up and over the bare branches of the woods. Sailing in an arc clear in the sky. High enough to see the light of his home in the distance!

He howled in laughter and bulged and swelled out as he landed before bouncing back into a shape (but not the shape of before).

Corin and their new best friend the goomy seemed just as happy.

His brother's clothes had continued to droop and spread in a wide sheet like drape, the hood of his coat having developed an odd little peak on the top. The hollow of it having sunken back into darkness.

But Jean's brother still somehow was obviously him.

He laughed in a chest wide call that filled his entire body and burst from his lips and teeth.

He'd seen home and the idea of going there seemed to spark through their entire party.

The bouncing lantern made a contemplative face, cut eyes and mouth scrunching and twisting in consideration before grinning wide and toothy right back at him.

He would now be the leader! Not a word passed between them, not a hitch in the rhythm of the song or the bounce of their parade. Jean leapt up and moved with Swirlex who as his partner and best friend just had to join him at the lead as he led his brother and new friends to town.

The gourd lantern settled to the back, wider around then all four of them together.

That was a lot bigger than last time wasn't it?

The Pumpkaboo had barely been larger than Corin's chest before.

But now it was so large?

His brother however was smiling and that was just the best.

It had been so long since the two of them had gotten along so well before.

Bunching up for an especially wide leap Jean oozed from his shoulders into his feet and then stretched like a flag in the wind as he lept.

This was going to be the best night ever!

.~{ ` }~.​

Mosz was so pleased with this parade!

They started on the forest trails where all the trees were high, but now they were making way into the part of the forest where her guests had laid down sturdy hard roads and put out faces for her to judge!
But a proper parade was not just one for the woods.

So after making a round of the houses of her guests and rekindling the pale little lights of mere flame they made their way past her woods and into the rest of the space.

Mosz had not done a parade in quite a few years.

But she could already see the wonderful faces of her neighbors behind their windows. Her friends and fellow marchers were taking the responsibility of leading so well too!

They didn't even have to be told you needed to scream, yell and laugh so everyone knew what direction to look and when to hide and cower. It was an excellent effort for such a small troup, even if they were having to lean into the clever little cheat of marching on the wrong moon's night.

Mosz howled and cheered the leader on as he bent and stretched and splayed his mouth wide in a gleeful scream bigger around than her gourd, his silly arms noodling about in the sky longer than he was tall.

He was a very good parade leader!

However there was just one problem.

They were a very small troup at only five.

And none of Mosz' neighbors or guests were coming out to join her.

Also it was the wrong moon and while she did not mind cheating every once in a while Mosz was still somewhat sun-lazy to be so far past her woods on such a bright night.

So after they had reached the place where all her neighbor's roads converged around the nice fountain Mosz called to her troup of paraders. It was time for her to head back to her woods. The moon was at its peak and although it was a quarter shadow that was simply not enough when joined by the sudden flaring lights filling every window the parade had passed.

But this had been a good diversion and an excellent cheat!

Mosz bestowed each member of the troup a heavy bounty of candied seeds. Filling the hands to overflowing for those that had them.

Piling them on the ground for those that did not.

Then with a crescendo the song was over.

The parade is done.

And Mosz cavorted back down the street to her home.

.~{ ` }~.​

Corin felt like he should ache.

He felt like nothing was flappy enough.

He felt stiff and strangely rigid where before he had been fluid.

The wind that had been a welcome friend he could dance with now billowed and broke around him instead of flowing past and moving him.

His coat felt separate and strange.

He was standing in the middle of downtown by the old fountain.

With his new partner Goomy who was delightedly wolfing down the same candied seeds that were filling his hands to overflowing.

His brother and Swirlex were with him. Jean's partner was also munching happily at his own pile of candy. He was pretty sure the goofy look on his brother's face was the same one he had. The sound of music was fading from the air, being replaced by the rising angry murmur of voices.

Then there were people around them. Muttering words that felt foggy to his head.

He thought maybe he caught a hint of fear.

It made him want to giggle.

The cries of fear from all these people as they had danced over the street.

He was giggling!

Jean was too, but then a hand that suddenly felt far too warm shook him. An old voice that was familiar and creaky finally snapping into full clarity.

"Hey! None of that you fool boy. Eat the old field wraith's tribute before you catch your death."

The idea seemed like as good of one as ever and he brought both hands up to his mouth and tried to bite and chew.

The heat from the pumpkin candied seeds burned in his mouth and he started coughing and almost choked on some. His teeth felt strange the way they had crunched some of them. Most of them fell from his fingers as he doubled over.

A heavy hand smacking him in the back helped clear his throat.

It was only then that the shivers began to come back and Corin thought he heard someone yelling to get a doctor.

 

[Serious_Senator]

Oh wow. I thought that would go much worse. This is an amazing little story. I'm very excited to hear how the villagers see the "field wraith". You'd think she'd be something to warn children about

 

[Nighzmarquls]

IV​

.~{ ` }~.​

The moon rose in all her fullness. A shadow marking her renewed in darkness.

Mosz swelled up from the soil in a tide. The jittering anticipation of the night twisting her new vines and leaves into sharp spined frills faster then on any other night.

The light of the late autumn day she had slept through shined against so much humming shade.

It was time to do things.

To play and dance and sing more than she had all month!

With so much moonshade to heighten her focus Mosz was already sharply awake. And her attention matched the edge of her frills as she carved at her face.

Deliberately and assured, memories of many nights just like this one and all the faces she had seen guiding every curling slice. Every cut. Every indent scooped out and varying of depth to shift the illumination of her fire.

As her hint of vegetable flesh teemed and buzzed with the rising darkness of the moon Mosz moved with the greatest care.

The newest, darkest moon deserved the best face.

It had shifted in the sky a sixteenth above the horizon before she was satisfied.

Joy and the teeming, buzzing fury of the night in perfect balance upon her gourd.

The seeds delicately deposited in sharp little jolts into individual little holes all over her field.

And then at last blazing with all the fiery sun in perfect complement and partner to the invigorating gloom around her, Mosz' gourd flared into life.

She strode with a stately and smooth gait on the four almost spiny nubs pressing from the skin of her underside. Her circumference tonight was wider than even the oldest tree trunks of her woods. Ephemeral and youthful creatures who in the clarity of the dark Mosz could once more remember as seedlings.

She took in a howling breath of air and then tore the silence of the night loose with her cries of joy.

Her call for mischief and accompaniment.

Her frill extended to either side as arms as much as wings, the sharpened leaves at its edges shining in her light alone.

And from the woods and the borders beyond she called a proper entourage.

Waxy little stubs with barely a flicker of their cool fires.

Snarling toxic motes of toothy black and glaring eyes.

Abandoned sheets and the wooded dead of the unfound bones.

Even the great mean sneering grump in his little abandoned pottery was given room to join her parade.

Although like every new moon she had offered before the hateful grump refused her.

Oh well she had enough light and participants for a proper festival.

And with a song belting from her toothsome new lips and the crackle of her soul and summer days Mosz began to sing.

.~{ ` }~.​

It was the night of the festival and pageant the rich designer had planned for their town. There had been lead up and qualifying rounds among the leading up days. Catering sourced locally for thousands of guests.

But tonight was when every bakery in town was putting their best foot forward.

And Jean was watching his mother's stall.

He was proud of that.

But watching his brother and most of the other kids dressed up for the season with their partners enjoying the fair atmosphere that had overtaken the entire town did give him a twinge of jealousy.

Still his mom trusted him to watch the stall while she took a nap for the evening.

This festival was playing hell with their usual sleep schedule.

But it was already worth it!

All the foreigners filling the town had tripled their business for most of the month!

And now all the sweets they were going through tonight?

His pumpkin spice pastries were especially popular although Jean still thought he was missing something that the inspiration had.

He'd used chili apple reduction and maple candied bacon crumble to accentuate the pumpkin seeds, clove and cinnamon but it just was not quite the same as the Pumpkaboo's candied treats.

Everyone else praised them though.

They had been selling out for days and he suspected the stock would not last another hour tonight.

That reminded him of the other reason why Jean was proud to man the stall.

Mom had grounded his brother and him both for getting caught up with the strange Pumpkaboo in the woods again.

After she heard that it was not the first time they had met it she'd been so angry he was pretty sure she wanted to ground them again! But instead she'd just demanded that they promise to stay out of the woods and the north side of town until spring.

Jean had been worried if he refused his mom would have grounded them for the rest of the year.

Corin would not have forgiven his brother if mom delayed his big journey on the tournament circuit. So of course Jean had made the promise. And it took weeks but she now trusted him enough to watch the stall for such a big event on his own!

He spotted his brother with his friends from school, dressed up in what was probably supposed to be a purrloin costume. It had cat ears and a tail anyway, although one of the ears was floppy and soggy with slime.

Jean wasn't sure, Corin had been in a bit of a mood the last few weeks and kept changing his mind on what costume he was going to wear for the new moon this year.

At least his brother got along so well with his Goomy.

And the Goomy seemed to love him.

But that was kinda a given, there were a lot of people on the net who claimed that if someone was rotten enough even a Goomy couldn't like you there was something seriously wrong.

Ah! There was another batch of foreign trainers.

Jean put on his best smile and tapped the little switch by his toe. Turning on the fan he kept hidden behind the counter of the stall.

Billowing the sweet scent of the pumpkin spice treats he had laid out front and center.

Jean was planning to sell out of his entire stock in time to see the rest of the fair.

.~{ ` }~.​

Corin stuffed his face with something sweet that wasn't bread.

Goomy sitting happily in the waterproofed satchel Jean had gotten him so Corin didn't need to keep her in a pokeball when he didn't want to get his clothing entirely soaked through in slime. When she grew up she was going to be a huge powerhouse on the circuit.

But he never quite realized what having a partner that was so slimy actually meant.

Still she was the best and they had even won her first (practice) match in a battle session at school.

The school's battle coach was going easy on both of them but it wasn't like everyone won their first proper match! And unlike math, history or the other boring classes Corin did well on all the tests for the battle class!

Goomy gumming at his elbow reminded him to stop thinking about school.

It was the black moon festival and a bunch of people from out of town were making this so much more of a production then they ever held before!

There were even some kids who were tournament circuit trainers!

He should show off goomy to some of them!

.~{ ` }~.​

Mosz rose and fell in great bounding leaps. The fizzing darkness of the new moon night pulsing in the flesh of her gourd and the fibers of her frills.

The pale lights of the candles and their souls dancing to the music.

The other creeping shadows cast free of their forms making a splendid entourage.

Unlike her last parade her neighbors were out and awake in numbers!

She did not have to light the candles in the faces set out. And so many guests and travelers were waiting for the festivities!

Mosz was so happy that the once lost and the seeker had reminded her about parades!

It had been years and years since her last one and she was utterly enjoying this one! There were so many travelers she had never seen before and the joy of it all filled her to bursting with song.

The dark of her woods and the shadow of the moon in the sky swelled inside her, making her grin so much wider. Her frills gnashed in the air as she danced and sang. It was so tempting to change the game. But it had been so long since a good new moon parade!

If she gave into the urge now the parade would have to end!

Also the many lights and lanterns tickled and soothed the thrumming violence of the dark. But it was more because it had been so long since her last march up and down the streets! The illumination was bright as it was only barely tickled and soothed her flesh and fire.

Feeble lights when compared to the multitudes of summer days burning in her gourd. Shining free from her as the night's black seeped and welled in her frills.

There were some guests and travelers who hid from her as was proper on a parade.

But so many more stayed out to greet her!

So many of them are succulent youths with bright flames waiting to shed their corpses.

But just as good were the ones that stood with skin, flesh and bones worn thin with age, their fires wide, deep and soft from age. But so loosely tethered is there fire it would be hardly any effort at all to cut them free.

Mosz could feel many in her entourage hungering to end the parade now.

The lanterns and candles and nastier mean looming ones yearned to break free but this was her parade and none of them would be set loose to revel in violence until she had her fill of it!

And for all the frizzing gloom deep inside her the parade was still so much fun.

Besides, Mosz' song was already drawing in revelers to join in her dance. Wonderful children already dressed for their part in the festivities!

And If she struck now how many would she scare away before they could join the new moon parade?

Far too many for Mosz' tastes.

.~{ ` }~.​

Jean froze midway in serving an order when the music finally reached him.

Fortunately his customer was just as surprised as him by the eerie voice and accompanying burbling howls and wind that seemed to carry the rhythm.

He recognized the way that music felt, the way it spun and twisted and danced. The song was different from before but it swung and swayed in the same way. And though the voice was different too it also felt all too similar.

What surprised him however was the way that the musicians and performers in the square seemed to be swept up into the melody. Fiddles, flutes and even the clap and clatter of passers by were taking up the song. Feet stamped and marched and even the pre-recorded music tracks that filled out the spaces that didn't have live performance squealed.

The electric shriek distorted and bent to whine and crackle in time to the melody.

It already was feeling like a dream but his duty to his mother's stall drew him back to himself.

A soft call of 'hey' to get his customer's attention seems to draw the girl across from him to her own senses.

Although she seemed a bit foggy even as she finished taking the pastry and paying him.

Her partner, some kind of chubby foreign pokemon with yellow fur and bright red patches of skin on its cheeks chirped and fretted at its perch on her shoulder.

It brought more clarity to her eyes at least and Jean.

"Wow, I didn't know there was a parade planned for tonight."

She kept her voice low, Jean could relate, it felt wrong to disturb the music. The rhythm that even now was causing Jean and her to sway slightly in time.

His voice was barely a whisper. He had to lean close to her to be sure she'd hear him.

"There wasn't."

He felt a tremor of fear inside. Everyone had been so worried and fussed over him and Corin that night.

Jean got an ear full how dangerous what happened was.

But Pumpkaboo was friendly!

It had saved his brother's life that night!

.~{ ` }~.​

Corin laughed and whooped with his friends as they joined the parade. He had been having an okay time before.

But the weight of school.

Of classes.

Of that stupid, stupid test that was standing in the way of him and going on his journey for the tournament circuit next spring!

He'd had to try to avoid thinking about it to keep his mood from souring before.

But now dancing and singing and bounding under the pale blue lights of the Litwick, Lampent and even a single Chandelure! Nevermind the other wispy shadows and gloomy chills which suggested other ghost types were present but invisible!

Corin didn't even know that those types of pokemon were anywhere near town!

And here they were in his home town dancing overhead as he, the other school children and even a few of the adults that had come for that stupid festival that had kept Jean so busy were dancing there with him!

Goomy was ecstatically wiggling on his shoulder with him. He wasn't moving all stretchy like last time.

But honestly the way everyone had fussed over him for days after made him kinda glad of that.

It probably was not right to have all your bones able to sway like a scarf.

Still he was so glad that his friend Pumpkaboo had decided to visit and bring a whole bunch of other ghost types with her!

He could recognize her even with such a toothy and detailed face carved into her gourd.

The size of the thing was almost wider then he was tall. Taking up a considerable part of the street ahead of them all.

He wondered if there were maybe some smaller ones he could catch for his team?

Pumpkaboos were alright in the game but when he checked tournament stats?

He couldn't find a single entry for one at all! He wondered if no one had ever been able to catch one? Or were they not actually good in tournament battles?

There were a lot of pokemon you could get in the games that he didn't hear about being used in any leagues.

Still he was so glad Pumpkaboo came tonight!

He really needed something to lift his spirits after he failed the test!


It wasn't fair! But right now that just felt fine.

He felt the burden of all his anger and frustration just floating loose of him.

As he danced under the moonless night sky.

.~{ ` }~.​

Antionette woke in the middle of the night with a jolt, her heart was hammering in her chest. The nightmare that her grandmother's stories had once inspired and then became far too close to real still echoing in her head.

The song of the field wraith. A scary bedtime story told every autumn on the new moon.

But great-grand-mama had been sharp when Antionette had once complained about that.

It wasn't just a story! That's what the ancient wrinkled woman had claimed but her own mother had shushed and fussed and told Antionette it was just a story great-grand-mama told because she was still angry about something that happened to her brother.

So Antionette had let herself forget. Why hadn't she believed her great grandma?!

It all came back in a rush when she heard what had happened to her boys.

How close they had come to the same fate great-grand-mama had warned about in the dark.

The field wraith would call out to foolish boys and girls in the dark of the night. Would tempt them with wonderful sweets the likes you never had tasted.

Antionette now remembered how sad and angry great grandma always looked when she said that. Why had she listened that it was just some bedtime story?! It wasn't anything like the other stories. It was never naughty girls or boys that got taken away and eaten in the woods!

Great-grand-mama was always very sharp about that. Always scolded them if they tried to recite the story back to her that way.

Good or bad the field wraith did not care.

It would take the cruelest bully or the most obedient child.

That story had always given her nightmares.

It had never helped her sleep.

Especially not when the moon was gone from the sky.

And now every night she'd woken from the same old nightmare. A vision of something she'd never even seen but apparently had been right next to her on that stormy night.

Something that had come for her boys twice this october!

Antionette sighed and tried to clear her head, she swore she could still hear the song from her nightmare.

Wait...

She could still hear the music.

The mother and baker who really needed more sleep barely took the time to make sure she was wearing a coat over her sleepwear and get some boots on with socks before she was tearing out of the house and into a night that was absolutely filled with terribly foreboding music.

.~{ ` }~.​

Mosz was so pleased to have found the once lost again. It had such a wonderful completeness to it.

All the better without the seeker Mosz could say with certainty that the lost was properly lost again and that made Mosz the seeker and the finder and wasn't that just a wonderful thing?! Mosz decided then and there that this meant she had properly won and beat the other seeker to an impromptu game of chase and seek she had just decided they had been playing all along.

And wasn't that just a wonderful prize to finish the evening on?

She thought so and called her prize up to the head of the parade, the prime place in front of Mosz itself. She looped her frills under his arms and lifted him and his little slimy friend up into the air. Just to be sure everyone would understand that he was not the leader of the parade.

No he was the prize!

Mosz trembled with how much night darkness pulsed and writhed through her.

The feeble little sparks and spurts of the village's lights and lanterns running off that deep blackness like rain and snow off her gourd's flesh.

Beading but not saturating.

Not making her soggy and sleepy with its warmth.

The prize that was once lost cheered and laughed. And that was quite nice too.

Mosz liked it when her prizes enjoyed the game too.

It meant they could march a little longer.

.~{ ` }~.​

Jean watched the town change. He saw people closing up stalls. He saw adults he knew from the village gathering up their children.

The old trickle of fear that had built in his gut when he first heard the Pumpkaboo's song was growing darker. But surely the adults were just being silly foolish adults. Afraid of something strange and wild that was just misunderstood?

He'd read and seen a lot of stories about that.

Pokemon were always misunderstood, you just had to learn about them and everything would be fine!

Only really old grandpas and grandmas from the bad old times treated pokemon with disrespect like that right? Yeah some of them were dangerous and you had to keep your eyes on them, especially wild ones.

But Pumpkaboo was nice. Right?

He shook his head and looked around. The strangers were cheering and clapping and dancing to the music. There were a lot of trainers here, surely if there was actually something to be worried about, someone among all these people wouldn't be partying right?

Jean shook himself out and turned away from the old folks yelling and dragging their kids and grandkids home.

The voices and sound almost entirely muffled, only the mute pantomimes showing.

Pumpkaboo had come up to the square just like she had with him and Corin. She was bigger than even then tonight. Her face was really something, festive and even a bit frightening. Perfect for the late october season.

Corin was riding on top of her having a great time and there was no sign of any strange bending or twisting shape to him like that one time.

So it was alright?

It was getting a bit late and most of the tourists had already gotten their fill.

Maybe he should pack up?

.~{ ` }~.​

Corin munched on some of the delicious pumpkin seed candy Pumpkaboo had given him. Goomy liked them too!

He looked around smiling from his perch up above everyone. For some reason the kids were being taken out of the parade. But he supposed it was getting pretty late right? The babies probably had a bedtime.

Pumpkaboo glared at anyone that tried to approach too close.

That carved face really was something, the way the eyes and teeth snarled without missing a single beat in her singing.

He was glad she was there to protect him from all those grubby old men and women.

Hmm the music was starting to change?

The familiar and yet entirely new melody!

Oh!

This was going to be great!

He knew that feeling in his bones. The way everything was starting to kind of fall off of him.

The way his skin, muscle and bones were starting to billow in the wind.

He'd wondered why Pumpkaboo wasn't doing the special song all night.

Corin laughed and tried to leap but his friend pulled him back down gently to his spot on her gourd.

Like he was a hat that had tried to blow away in the wind.

That was such a funny idea!

Corin the hat!

.~{ ` }~.​

Jean was running.

Mom had come running in her bedclothes, boots and a jacket!

She'd screamed and shook him when she demanded to know where Corin was!

When he'd told her that he'd seen his brother riding on the Pumpkaboo a little over an hour ago the look on her face had shocked him still.

She'd run off yelling his name. Yelling with a voice that was drowned out by the eerie music just a few meters away from him!

He'd run after his mom, the fear in his gut twisting him up inside.

He had not seen her that scared since they were lost in the storm that first night with the Pumpkaboo.

Actually no, his mom was more scared then even then!

He tried to call out to her but she couldn't hear him.

The music overwhelmed and twisted every sound. He started rushing over to her, and the two of them running caught the attention of a few trainers and one of the elders that had given him an earful that night of the first parade.

The lips moved but he couldn't hear them.

Still they ran with him. They followed Corin.

And then while they were running through the wake that the Pumpkaboo's passing had made the sound of the music changed.

It drew back and away. Receding from them all. Releasing everyone in the town like a tide receding. Letting the squall of the speakers finally play the tracks they were supposed too.

The performers that had been caught up in it all suddenly collapsing.

Many dropped what sounded like very expensive instruments as they fell to the ground gasping for breath.

The cries of parents looking for their children finally could rise over the noise.

The confused yelling of friends or siblings missing one another.

And then just as Corin finally could hear his mother's voice in the sudden quiet he realized the music was not gone.

It had only changed.

And he knew what that melody meant.

Before he could even speak Jean saw the cloud of flickering blue flames spreading out ahead of him.

The sudden chilling cold and eerie voice of the Pumpkaboo just ahead.

Holding his brother aloft.

For the first time Jean could properly appreciate how horrific what was happening was.

His brother billowed like a sheet in the wind.

Skin loose and flowing with his clothes.

Grin so wide, flat and toothy. Eyes wide and bulging.

How...

He thought Pumpkaboo was his friend!

Jean's voice rose up as loud as he could manage, his throat hurt with how shrill it was.

"CORIN!"

.~{ ` }~.​

Mosz let the gloom and fizz of the night well up and fill her from frills to gourd. She heard the seeker cry his anguish and grinned all the wider.

She had won the game and he had not even realized he had lost!

Her song rang out and the prize cheered with her. The sound of terror and pain in her opponent made the victory all the sweeter!

But it was not all good yet!

With the parade truly broken her entourage was scattering. All that is except one! The infuriating and despicable meanie was looming and swiping at her prize!

Red eyes glared and teeth stretched.

Well Mosz was full of the black tingling pitch of a night with no moon! She could play that game too.

The stupid looming meanie roared and swiped at her. His tongue lashed but Mosz' gourd was far too plump for that even if he sapped some of her vitality with it. Draining her flesh to pale and already rotting wounds where the tongue passed.

But Mosz was not the mistress of her woods for shying from a stupid meanie with a flesh rotting tongue!

Her frills twisted and raised her prize up and out of reach from the stupid meanie who thought simply stretching so wide and tall would cow her! Smirking with the face she had carved for this night before inhaling deeply. Voice never even paused in her exulting victory song!

She had been there when this stupid meanie had shucked his flame free. When all his hate and meaneness had twisted in and over his flame until it burnt black.

When the poison of his anger had filled him up so much the venom had to burst free.

And she had been there as he grew in his hate and poison.

But Mosz was not some feeble young flame.

She was mistress of her woods and had been so since before that collapsed pottery had been built.

She had drunk sunshine for hundreds upon hundreds of years.

And she so rarely was in the mood to use it.

It had been just a dark enough night for her to feel like it.

Mosz opened her toothsome maw wide. And she let a fraction of the sunlit days of her life burn over the stupid meanie until the feeble shades of his life were thrown back and away from her and scattered into the night.

Maybe he'd stay gone this time.

.~{ ` }~.​

Corin marveled, his friend was so cool!

That had been a Gengar!

He didn't realize Pumpkaboo could even use a move like that!

He wasn't even sure what it was!

Hyperbeam? No he didn't think so it didn't look like any of the video he'd seen of those. But it had been so bright and the Gengar had been so huge! Bigger and scarier and nastier then he had ever imagined they could be.

And Pumpkaboo had just blasted it away for trying to grab him! He snuggled into the grip of his friend's tight hug as they started bounding down the street.

But it was not a bloodless fight. A long splash of pale and rotted flesh was splashed across Pumpkaboo's side. As they ran the flex and pull of the motion was mashing and breaking it open.

But he'd already seen Pumpkaboo cook herself to help him before.

This was probably fine.

There was shouting behind them.

Cheers?

He kinda thought so but they sounded upset.

He looked behind him, twisting in a corkscrew around his flimsy noodly flesh to look. Seeing his mom and brother running after them.

Why were they chasing Pumpkaboo?

He tried to pull an arm free to wave at them but he couldn't quite find it.

Where had his arms gone?

He looked down at the big gourd and the vines and leaves with their bristly spiny texture. Not anything like pumpkin leaves. More like dark ferns.

Corin Squirmed, but could not get free!

"Hey, Pumpkaboo? Can you loosen up your vines? Mom and Jean look worried."

But the pokemon simply kept bounding along and gripped him tight. Leaping down the street and through the neighborhood. Still dancing after a fashion. But in a way that seemed strangely like she was running away with him.

The song was still running through him with a deep buzzing hum, and it kept him soft and noodly and swishy.

But now that he was paying attention to it something felt wrong.

Suddenly two thick strands of sugary white candyfloss that Corin knew were stronger than any rope shot past them.

Slurpuff! That was the move Slurpuff used to catch a thief once!

He twisted back around the other way to look past in time to see another blast of sticky sugar catch on Pumpkaboo's side. But most of it was catching on the rotten flesh and instead of catching long at all on his friend's side it simply tore a chunk out of her.

Mom was screaming and pointing. And yeah that was Slurpuff with her and Jean's Swirlex.

Goomy burbled and hummed on top of his head. Looking worried and confused.

Corin unwound and bent to look down at the face of Pumpkaboo.

Half of its mouth and one eye had been either mashed to a pulp or torn free by the way it spun and danced to avoid getting caught.

It made the already spooky face a twisted kind of terrifying mess.

The light inside it was very pale and made the flesh of the gourd far colder and less warm and inviting.

He tried speaking again and realized while he said something there were not any words.

"H-Hey... Pumpkaboo. This has been fun but could you set me down?"
There was not a single break in the song around him. There was not a pause in the way it leaped and galloped away from his screaming family.

There was not even really a sound to it.

But an overwhelming presence burned out from the fire inside and welled up with a tightening grip around him.

It was not a word, but he felt it all the same.

"NO"

Something icy and cold pressed in on him, and then the vines started squeezing him so tightly clenched hard and twisted.

He tried to scream but his throat cinched tight under the grip on his neck!

He felt his head ballooning out plump and taut. His eyes blurry and feeling weirdly flat, his nose and mouth smoothing over from the intense pressure ballooning out his head.

He flailed but his arms, coat and torso all flapped uselessly in the wind fluttering like a blanket.

Corin's gummy spine strained in its grip and then something crunched, cracked, snapped.

And the cold he had felt opened up like a chasm in his heart. The warmth of his chest filled with the screaming yells of his mom and brother.

And deep inside that filling pit he felt a sudden certainty billowing out over his thinning skin.

They'd lost him.

.~{ ` }~.​

Mosz danced into her woods, deep into the very heart of it.

Far outpacing the pursuit in a wonderful game of tag.

Her prize had shucked its flame with the slightest squeeze and twist and with that she was assured in her victory. The seeker would never be able to find his lost one ever again now!

It filled her with a dizzy little joy just like it always had. The peak of the shaded new moon thrilling her with the dark slippery wakefulness that she always loved with her jitters! It was nice to be sleepy and lazy but whenever Mosz had the new moon she reveled in how aware it made her.

Her gourd for the night was a half-rotten mess already.

Barely holding together as she bounded. Leaving her burnt viscera and soggy flesh behind.

But that was fine. She'd left a trail before.

They might come and try to dig up her field.

They might try to steal all her carefully planted bones.

But they couldn't dig up Mosz.

They had tried.

They had once burnt her field to the roots of her vines and turned over her soil til not a seed remained.

They had once salted her earth.

They had packed and covered her over with stones before.

They had tried to drown her with a well.

Mosz had always found her way to sprout anew.

She had to sleep and wait for seeds to find their way into her soil. Sometimes for years she waited for them, hoarding her sunny days deep below but she always found growing things to ride anew.

They could chase her and that would be its own game.

Maybe she'd get a nice long nap out of it?

But tonight Mosz had won!

She had her prize!

And that made it a good night!

Finally, in her field, Mosz burrowed deep into the cover of her soil, dragging the freshly shed bones down with her. Squeezing the rich soil deep into the corpse and nestling it down with all the many others she had collected and churned about in her field over the years.

She left the newly shucked flame to wander, properly lost just like she had suspected.

A drifty diaphanous thing that now would never be found.

Mosz was so proud of herself.

The seeker could never beat her now!

 

[torac]

Thank you for the spooky story!

The illumination was bright as it was only barely tickled and soothed her flesh and fire.

Click to shrink...

"as bright as"

But so loosely tethered is there fire it would be hardly any effort at all to cut them free.

Click to shrink...

remove "is there fire"?