"...and every year, on the night of All Hallows' Eve, parents will send their children to sleep in the pumpkin fields in the hopes that the mighty spirit will appear and bless them." Jasper fought to keep a straight face as he spun his tale, but it wasn't easy.

After another long, miserable day in the rain-soaked province of Amur-Corsyth, Tsia had begun pestering him for stories about his world. At first, he'd responded begrudgingly, but he'd warmed to the task as he'd realized he could have a little fun with them.

"Have you ever seen this spirit?"

"No. I was never fortunate enough to receive the Great Pumpkin's blessing, but I had a friend who did. Good old Snoop Dogg," he sighed, with faux wistfulness.

Unfortunately, Erin's snort of laughter broke the spell, and Tsia's curiosity turned to outrage as she realized she'd been had. "You - you were lying!"

"Hey!" Jasper's chuckle turned into a yelp as Tsia flung a miniature bolt of lightning at him, not enough to do any real damage, but enough to set his arm to pins and needles.

"Took you long enough," Ihra smirked at the girl. "I was starting to think you'd never catch on."

"You knew?" Tsia sputtered.

"I admit, I didn't catch on immediately, but when Jasper spun that tale about handing out candy to all the kids in the village - who could afford such an expense? But I suppose that's to be expected of a princess."

"Actually, that part was true," Jasper cut in with a laugh. "I mean, maybe we don't hand out candy to every kid in town, but we really do pass it out to our neighbors."

Ihra's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "And how do I know you aren't still pulling my leg?"

"It's true," Erin chimed in. "As a kid, I'd get more candy in one night than I'd get the rest of the year. Of course, half of it sucked - I mean, who actually likes candy corn - but, still, it was like the second best night of the year."

"What was the first?" Tsia pressed, as her irritation was overcome by her ever-present curiosity.

"Oh, that would definitely be-"

Erin's answer was cut short by an ear-splitting roar as lightning struck a tree not thirty feet off the road.

"Damn, that's getting a little too close for comfort." Jasper glanced up at the heavens nervously, as he felt the hairs on his arms prickle. "I know Ardul wanted us to make Merôm by tomorrow, but I don't think it's safe to keep going. Are we close to any towns?" he asked Ihra, knowing she'd spent longer poring over the map than he had.

Her reply was cut off as another bolt of lightning hammered the forest, thankfully a little further away this time, but the shake of her head was answer enough. "I think we're at least an hour or two away from Agur-Ibru," she said when the thunder quieted. "And I'm not even sure if it has an inn. It looked pretty small on the map."

"Damn it. Maybe we can find a cave-" Jasper started to suggest, but he was cut off as Tsia shouted over him.

"What's that?" Following her pointed finger, Jasper was surprised to see a structure looming out of the forest in front of them. It was partially obscured by the driving rain and the darkness of gathering dusk, but it was definitely a castle, complete with massive stone walls, over which a series of three spires could be seen, each higher than the last.

"How the hell did we not see that? Was that on your map?"

"No, there's nothing marked here, but it was a merchant's map. Maybe it's a private estate?" Ihra offered uncertainly.

"Who cares?" Erin spurred his horse forward as another bolt of lightning struck uncomfortably first. "If it can get us out of this storm, I'm in."

While there was something about the looming castle that made Jasper feel uneasy, if he had to choose between braving a creepy castle or being barbecued by a lightning bolt, the choice was clear. So, goading Dapplegrim forward, he hurried to catch up with the others. The lightning continued unabated as they rode toward the gates, and finding them open, entered a courtyard.

It was immediately apparent that this wasn't an imperial fort. The courtyard was smaller than it had appeared from the outside. Its right and left flanks were occupied by covered stables and low-slung servant housing, while the relatively small open space in the center was reserved for a heavily patinated fountain, featuring a statue of three satyrs dancing in a ring around a sheaf of wheat and a pile of gourds and pumpkins.

But the most unusual part of the castle was the manor itself. Its three conical spires, fused in a tight-knit circle, were almost comically oversized in comparison to the otherwise humble courtyard, and despite the overcast and stormy night, their silver shingles seemed to shine with the light of the moon.

"Have you come for the banquet?" Jasper jumped in the saddle as a gravelly voice came up behind him.

"Banquet?" He half-expected to be greeted by Igor as he craned his head around, but his tension eased as he found a perfectly normal man waiting behind them, holding a raincoat protectively over his lantern.

"Ach," the Corsyth's jaw flexed in a grimace, "Lord Delahat was expecting guests tonight, but judging from your response, I suppose you're not them."

"Sorry," Jasper's response was punctuated by a bolt of lightning that struck the highest spire of the manor, "We were just hoping to find a place to get out of the storm. Even your stables would be fine. We can pay," he added, gesturing for Ihra to offer the man some coin.

"Keep your gold," the stablehand waved him off. "With the weather how it is, I doubt Lord Delahat's guests will be arriving tonight. Come with me; we'll get your horses set for the night, and then I'll check with Lord Delahat. If I know him, he'll invite you in. Someone might as well enjoy the feast," the man grinned.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Even though the stablehand refused to let them help, he worked efficiently, removing their saddles and drying off their wet horses in half the time Jasper would have expected, although he noted the mounts seemed antsy around the man. But, as he didn't do anything wrong, Jasper wrote it off as nervousness from the nearly constant thunder and lightning.

"Alright, let me inform Lord Delahat of your arrival," the man said as he wiped his hands clean and donned his raincoat. Truthfully, Jasper would have preferred to sleep in the stables for the night than deal with an unknown and possibly capricious noble, but before he could suggest that, the man of the hour arrived.

Willowy was the first word that came to Jasper's mind as the lord of the manor stepped out of the downpour. The average Corsyth was several feet taller than most humans, but this man had another head on them, so tall that he was forced to duck his head as he stepped into the stable, despite its ten-foot high ceilings. Unfortunately, the lord's frame did not match his height, a slender wisp of a man who looked as if the wind could blow him away at any moment, like a dandelion puff.

"Ah, my guests have arrived," the man boomed with a hearty voice that didn't match his body. "Welcome, welcome!"

"Um, Lord Delahat, I'm afraid we're not your guests. We were just caught by the storm-"

"No matter, no matter," the lanky lord replied. "Perhaps you were not the guests I invited, by the night had other plans. Come - the table is already set, and there's no need for the food to go to waste."

Lured by the promise of food and warmth, Tsia and Erin followed the lord eagerly as he headed back into the maelstrom and toward the manor, but Jasper lagged behind, trying to catch Ihra's attention. "Does this whole thing feel a little…off?"

"Rotten is more like it," she whispered back. "What sort of a lord doesn't even ask our names - and where are the rest of his servants?"

It was something Jasper hadn't noticed, but as his eyes flitted across the row of servant houses, he realized there was not a single light in the windows. Hell - as he glanced over his shoulder, he couldn't see the stablehand any longer either. "I'm starting to think we should have braved the storm. Does the word 'vampire' mean anything to you?"

"What?" she hissed back.

"You know, pale, undead blooddrinker, with a pathological fear of garlic bread and suntans. It suddenly occurs to me that this hellhole of a province, where the sun never shines, might just be a bloody paradise for them."

She rolled her eyes. "Can you be serious? This place is creepy."

"I am being serious," he protested. "They're a real thing - well, more of a story…actually," he paused, suddenly realizing that since magic existed on Earth, maybe vampires weren't so mythical either, "I don't know if they're real, but I wasn't kidding when I asked if you're familiar with bloodsuckers. I mean, seriously," he pointed at the gargoyles leering at them from the manor's entry. "Can this place be any more cliché?"

Their conversation fell silent as they caught up to the strange lord, who was holding the manor doors open for them. "After you."

Jasper kept his essence close to the surface as he stepped across the threshold, but the sight that greeted him wasn't what he'd expected. A massive wooden table, surrounded with enough chairs to host a full platoon, was positively sagging beneath the weight of a sumptuous feast. There was every sort of food imaginable - entire flanks of beef that had been simmered until they could melt in your mouth, whole roasted pigs, stuffed peacocks, and dishes Jasper couldn't even begin to identify. The aroma was nearly overwhelming, so deliciously mouthwatering that it was only Jasper's tenuous grasp on decorum that kept him from full-on sprinting toward the table.

Regaining control of himself, his suspicion turned full force as he followed the lord to the table. This wasn't the sort of feast one spread for just any guest; this was the sort of feast that even the Emperor himself would have no cause to complain about, so why was he so blase about his guests not appearing?

"Dig in, dig in," the lord bid them, and as the gangly noble took his seat at the head of the table, music began to play.

Jasper glanced around the room in confusion as the sounds of strings filled the air. It wasn't just that there was no sign of musicians in the candlelit hall, but there was also something strangely familiar about the song. Is that…Vivaldi? The more he listened to it, the more he was certain he was correct, and he grabbed Ihra's hand as she began to scoop food onto the plate.

"What do you hear?" he whispered. "Do you know this song?"

"Nah, but the choir's nice."

"Choir?" Knocking the food out of her hand, Jasper channeled his essence into the Scales of Justice, and the world around him changed. The sumptuous feast turned into a pile of scavenged bones and rotten meat, the roaring fire to long-dead coals, and Lord Delahat into a skeletal giant with an enormous pumpkin for a head.

Sparks flew from its carved-out eyes as it noticed him staring, and a ghoulish grin crept across its face. "Ask, ask, and you shall receive, Speak my name and you shall see," the spirit boomed, despite its complete absence of any lungs, "a final blessing from the Pumpkin King."

Jasper fell on his ass, splintering the chair, as the specter lunged at him. He rolled beneath the table, scrambling on hands and knees, as its bony hands wrapped around his ankle and dragged him out, laughing all the while. "Soul Sear."

A shower of orange mush hit him as his orbs collided with its head, but the spirit seemed unfazed, its head reforming almost instantly. With a chuckle of glee, the pumpkin king pinned him down, wrapping two hands around his neck while a second set of arms sprouted from its back and grabbed his hands. "Eat, eat of my bounty, or face my wrath, on Hallowed's Eve."

Unable to shake the spirit's iron grip, Jasper could only watch in horror as a third set of arms sprouted from its back and tore a strip of beef, studded with milk-white maggots, off the rotten flank. "Eat, eat," it spoke sing-songedly, and Jasper's scream was suffocated as the creature stuffed it into his mouth, its bony fingers clicking against his teeth. "Eat, eat."

Flames scarred his sinuses as he tried to cast his spell, but the pumpkin king held his mouth shut, glee in its eyes as it forced him to swallow. Only when he finally choked down the foul meat and still squirming maggots did blessed oblivion come for him.

"What the hell?" Jasper's body groaned in protest as he bolted upright, but he was already focused on casting a spell. "Where did he go? Where-" Confusion set in as he took in his surroundings. They were camping in the burnt-out husk of an old fort. A ray of sunlight peeked through the ruined roof, revealing a sky curiously bereft of its usual storm clouds, but Jasper barely noticed it as he whirled around, looking for his attacker.

"Where did who go? Erin?" Ihra asked. "I think he went to take a piss."

"No, the bloody pumpkin king," Jasper roared, his heart rate still pounding in his ears.

"You mean that stupid story you told me?" Tsia wrinkled her nose. "Haha, very funny. Way to rub it in, Jasper."

"No, it was real - he was here…" His shoulders slumped as the two of them stared back blankly.

"Maybe you had a bad dream?" Ihra offered.

"I-" Jasper wanted to deny it, but he had had bad dreams before, dreams so real he hadn't immediately realized they were fake even after waking up. Was it? "I don't know; maybe-" His words got caught as something tickled in his throat, and he froze as he coughed up a single white maggot. Or maybe not.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.