A Phoenix's Heart

Chapter 10: Halloween Date

Fuegoleon point-of-view

I walk briskly down the hallway of the base. It is Halloween or Devil's Night. I am not on duty tonight but I am on call. so I have to stay close by or on base. It's a fun night and all, but people get out of hand. Magic Knights are always on call or on duty. Patrolling the streets or making sure nothing goes wrong. Murders and public disturbances always seem to increase around this time of year. I'm not sure how I feel about this holiday. It started about 500 years ago and was meant to eternalize the rather twisted story of the elves being evil devils that needed to be defeated. It quickly turned from a holiday surrounding a horrible twisted story about a tragedy to a fun night where kids will go around dressed up asking for candy and adults will get drunk out of their minds and act like idiots. I must have been too deep in thought because I didn't notice someone walking up behind me and over my eyes with their hands.

"Guess who?"

"Is that you Estella?"

"Yes!" she says, releasing me. "What do you think? Do you like my costume?" She twirls around letting me see all of her. She is dressed up in a lacey black and red dress, lace tights, black heels, with her hair in a braided bun decorated with flowers and leaves, and she is wearing fake vampire teeth. This is one of the few times I have seen her with her pointy ears showing in public. I reach out and play with the new earrings she's wearing that match mine. "You look beautiful as always," I say, leaning down and kissing her cheek.

"What are your plans for tonight? Listen to scary stories on magic broadcasting devices, go drinking, dress up, and go to a party. I hear quite a few nobles through themed parties around this time of year."

"None of that. I'm on call and need to be ready at a moment's notice so I'll be staying close by and sober.

"Oh. Too bad. Hmmm.... Ooh. How about we have a Halloween-themed stay-at-home date?! We could read scary stories together, go to one of the haunted houses in Berry, patrol a nearby festival, and partake in a game or two. We can go apple or pumpkin picking and have a baking contest.

"That sounds fun. We go pick our ingredients while it is still light out and stay up late baking. I'm going to win of course., I make a mean pumpkin pie. I also love toasted pumpkin seeds."

"Oh yeah. Those are so good. I prefer Apples tho. I'll make apple pies. I think I know where to find my mom's recipe. Oh, and I can try to make caramel apples. I love buying them at festivals."

"Should we head out then? Berry has the closest farmer market."

"Noo" whines Estella, "We should go to the orchard and a pumpkin patch. Besides, the farmers market is closed today. Also, you have to dress up too. I left a costume for you in our room. Meet up in the field in 30 minutes."

Stella rushes off and I head to the room to change. I haven't dressed in a costume for Halloween since Leo was a kid. The costume she left me matched hers. After I changed, me and Estella headed over to the outskirts of Berry close to the apple orchard. It is decorated to the nines with fake spiderwebs, scarecrows, fake witches, werewolves, vampires, hay bales, pumpkins, Jack-O-Lanterns, and Happy Halloween signs. There is a corn maze, a few haunted houses, a pumpkin patch, and booths for games like corn hole, and bobbing for apples. The smell of caramel, candy, and pumpkin filled the air. The area is crowded with young children and even adults wearing all sorts of costumes from magic knights to mythical creatures to insects.

I'm crouching down in front of a hay bale with an assortment of different-sized pumpkins on top. They were all sugar pumpkins but some were starting to show signs of rot, some weren't right yet, but a few were perfect. I needed to find the biggest ripe pumpkins to have enough to make the best pie to outshine Stella's. Stella isn't being helpful. Instead, she is off finding oddly shaped and different-sized pumpkins and gords.