Arthur's note-this is not the story I had originally intended to post. The one that I wanted to put up needs a little more time to do it right so instead I came up with this Halloween themed one. It could be one chapter or four. I guess it depends on how I feel about it. But anyway I hope you enjoy this and it puts you into the Halloween spirit.

Disclaimer- None of these characters are mine. I'm just using them to entertain myself and others with.

A Chaotic Halloween

H'earring was at a loss for words at the sight before him. Standing on the front steps of his home the goblin bunny looked up at what he assumed to be a human, standing in front of his home.

Just minutes prior the scout had been sitting in his favorite chair eating fresh fungus out of a green fruit bowl that had chips around the edge, reading from a new book that he had gotten. Books were rare in the Underworld and being able to read was even rarer. Unlike in Kiru city where there was a library for the public to use the citizens of the underworld didn't have that luxury. Luckily for H'earring learning to read was one of the few pleasures he had from his time as a scout for Chaor, the goblin bunny even had a small library in his house.

H'earring had already settled in to a peaceful evening at home when a knock and a voice that sounded an awful lot like his human friend Kaz shouted "Trick or treat" from outside. A buzz of irritation went through him as he shut his book and got out of his comfortable chair to investigate. But on opening his front door and stepping out on his front steps he was met with the baffling sight of a strange human standing outside his home.

If this was indeed his friend then he was dressed very weirdly, Kaz typically dressed in his opinion more stylish. This Chaotic player stood as straight as a board and almost had a stalwart touch about him. He wore a long pair of deep black pants that folded over top a pair of shiny black shoes. An emerald green vest was buttoned tightly over top a crisp long sleeved white shirt. The kid's hair was red and oiled back out of his face, finally a glittering green mask came across his eyes and the bridge of his nose with only two openings for H'earring to see the player looking down at him.

"Is that you Kaz?" The scout asked. Pulling back his mask over his slicked back hair the friendly face of his human friend Kaz appeared and he smiled down at his green skinned friend. "Hey H'earring."… The Underwolrd player said cheerfully. "What's with the puzzled look? Did you not recognize me?"

The little green imp's expression melted to one of confusion and relief. "For about ten seconds I didn't. Whet is with the disguise? You hiding from Chaor?"

The teen snerked at the jest. "Why would I have to hide from Chaor? We get along just fine…." Seconds after stating that the confidence in his voice zipped away and a more concerning tone bubbled up. "Why should I hide? Is there something I need to know about?"

The gremlin rabbit burst into laughter at his friend's dropped bravado. "You're as intimidated by the great lord of the underworld as I am." The look on Kaz's face was out right annoyed. "At least I have the chestnuts to stand up to him when I have to." The teenager replied proudly.

H'earring still had a huge smile on when he spoke. "That's till lord Chaor breaks those shells, ha, ha, ha, ha. Anyway why are you dressed so differently?"

Smiling again Kaz looked down at his attire. "Oh will most of this is from my choir uniform. The pants, the shirt, and vest are all part of my choir outfit but the mask and bow tie are all things I picked up at a costume shop. See there's even a button on the back of the bow tie that lets it light up with little orange lights. See all demonstrate for you." Kaz then reached underneath the tie and pushed on a button that made the ends of the bow flicker on and off with orange lights.

The little green underworlder oohed at the decoration. "A costume shop?" he said questionably. "Yeah it's for Halloween." Kaz replied enthusiastically.

"Halloween?"

"Yes I told you about it last year." Kaz reminded him. "Well if it was last year then I probably don't remember." H'earring replied. Casting his eyes down he noticed the stuff at kaz's feet. The kid's book bag, the one he took with him every time he explored Perim was on one side of him and on the other what looked to be a large berry. It was half the size of H'earring with the same orange color as Kaz's hair and a green wick like stem sticking out of the top. "What's all that for?"

Kaz made a big smile before grabbing the bag and the berry and moving closer to H'earring's front steps. Kneeling down he opened up his book bag and pulled out a huge role of gray parchment covered in words in black ink. Laying it out on the stone steps he placed the orange thing on top of them. Still curious the scout placed his knuckles on his hips and asked a bit more sternly about what his friend was doing.

His concern became more prevalent when he saw his human friend pull out a long silver blade with a wooden handle from his bag and place it on the paper right next to a metal scope and a pencil.

"Kaz, Kaz, what are you intending to do with those?" the green creature asked. Rolling up his sleeves the chaotic player answered. "I'm making a Jack-o-lantern."

Raising an eyebrow in confusion H'earring pointed to the berry. "Is this a Jack-o-lantern?" as he watched Kaz turn the thing around in place inspecting it.

"No…" he answered. "This is a pumpkin. A type of vegetable that grows in my world, it's in the squash family. I'm going to make a Jack-o-lantern out of it."

"How?"

"By carving it." Then he picked up the pencil and started sketching something on the surface of the gourd, on the side he liked the most. When done he placed the piece of wood down and grabbed the wood of the knife handle next.

H'earring cringed at the sound the blade made as it went thought the top of the pumpkin. Goose skin rippled up his arms as he listened to the hollow sound that echoed as Kaz bobbed the knife up and down around the green colored stem.

"Refresh my memory, Kaz. What's Halloween again? And tell me more about why you're murdering this vegetable to make a lantern for." Pulling the knife, now covered in pumpkin slime away from the gourd, he sat back on his feet and placed the knife down. Grabbing the stem Kaz lifted the top of the pumpkin off taking some of its still attached innards along the way and sat it on the newspaper beside him.

Adjusting his glasses he looked up at his friend. "Halloween is a holiday or festival that is celebrated by many countries around my world…"

"Countries?" H'earring raised an eyebrow.

Rephrasing. " Tribes, do you remember when I told you that humans are multi tribe. Anyway the holiday has been around for thousands of years and has many traditions. Some of those traditions have changed over the course of centuries." The boy then picked up the ice cream scoop and reached inside the pumpkin and started scraping against the walls. The scout wrinkled his nose at the wet noise he was hearing. "If it's a festival what do you celebrate?"

Sticking his other hand inside, Kaz fondled them around and scratched on the inside of the rind. "The dead." He then pulled both hands out of the hollow gored bringing with them handfuls of the slimy, slick, pumpkin insides. He dropped the mass of seeds and pulp on an empty newspaper sheet and reached back into the squash for more.

"You celebrate the dead! Why would you do that? Their dead there are nothing to celebrate over that. Once you're gone, you're gone. Why would your people have a party for that?" H'earring gasped out.

Kaz turned up one corner of his mouth as he continued to pull pulp out of his pumpkin. "It was believed since ancient times that on Halloween night that the door between the land of the living and the land of spirits would be unlocked and open for the dead or other supernatural beings to cross through."

The gremlin rabbit's expression brightened at this information. "So for one night out of every year the dead can come back to visit the living, like friends and family."

"Or the spirits of old enemies." Kaz added. The chaotic player looked inside the vegetable to make sure he'd gotten as much as he could out before dropping his scoop on the ground. Among the essential for pumpkin carving he brought with him he also had a role of paper towels and a plastic grocery bag to put all the dirty newspapers in when he was done. Wiping his hands off he's reached for the knife again.

The kid began cutting into the rind again. This time on the side he'd been doodling on. Once in awhile he'd remove and orange choke of the flesh and put it with the rest of the discards. Looking at the pile of slimy yellow and orange pumpkin seeds and flush H'earring couldn't help but feel a little curious about what the stuff felt like between his fingers especially after seeing Kaz grab handfuls of the staff. Coming closer he stuck a finger into the mess and pulled out a strand from the goop. Bringing it to his face he gave it a sniff. It didn't smell bad or rotten, more like fresh and ripe.

Feeling a bit more daring he opened his mouth and stuck it inside. The texture left something to be desired but all in all the pumpkin mess tasted sweet. Plopping down on the stone step right in front of his friends holiday operation, the underworlder began to joyfully gorge himself on the new weird treat he'd found.

Kaz raised an eyebrow as he watched his friend happily gulp down the slimy mess he had dug out of the gourd. But compared to the Dractyl scales and other weird things he'd seen H'earring eat, watching him scarf down pumpkin guts was a little less stomach turning by comparison.

"In the past some festivities required sacrifices to be made of living animals and people. Nowadays people celebrate by wearing costumes going to parties and going trick or treating." Kaz continued to educate.

H'earring paused and a lewd smile came across his face as he looked at Kaz. "Trick or treat. Sounds like something one might say when heading to the red light district to pick up a prostitute." He chuckled afterwards.

Kaz made a dirty look and sent it into his friend's direction. Putting his knife down, he wiped the pumpkin off with a paper towel. "The tradition of carving lanterns out of gourds has been dated back almost thousands of years. But it didn't become what it is today tilled a couple hundred years ago in Ireland."

H'earring licked his lips and rubbed his gut. The pumpkin innards now packed inside his innards felt nice in his full belly. At the call of his name the scout looked in Kaz's direction. "Do you have a candle? If so can I borrow it?" H'earring didn't really want to get up on a full stomach but he wanted to help his friend and a never before used candle was sitting on a small stand on the other side of the door. Fetching the light he handed the white waxed stick to his friend. "Now what are you doing?' He asked.

Kaz reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small pack of matches. "Putting on the final touches to your Jack-o-lantern."

"You knew you never told me anything more about that. What does it do?" the scout inquired.

Flicking the match across its sandpaper strip he held the candle in his other hand and brought the flame to its wick. Once the candle was lit he shook the match dead leaving only a small whisp of smoke behind. Dropping the little piece of wood Kaz carefully put the candle inside the pumpkin and laid its top on securely. A satisfied look came to his face as the warm glow from the flame lit up his face.

"It helps protect you from the dead." He said just before he placed both hands on the squash and turned it around so H'earring could see what his human friend had been working so hard on.

A face cut out from the pumpkins flash glowed back in the underworlder's direction. Not ugly or funny but rather fierce stared at H'earring in an otherworldly showdown. There were two eyes carved into triangles and in between the triangle nose and jagged teeth turned up into a wicked grin the flickering light of the candle could be seen from inside.

The scout shot a disturbed look at Kaz before speaking. "Is it supposed to look like this? How in the pits would it protect me from the spirits of the deceased? Is it like some kind of talisman?" Kaz was already busy cleaning up the mess. Putting the carving utensils away in a plastic baggie and crunching up all the dirty newspaper into big balls that he crammed into the grocery bag. Once he was done he hoisted his filled book bag onto his shoulders and looked at H'earring.

"Something like that. In times past Jack-o-lanterns were made out of turnips or other types of squash before settling on the much larger pumpkins. It was believed that on Halloween the dead could pass into our world. Both the good and bad could visit for the night, now that may sound cool but an evil ghost could be dangerous. Jack-o-lanterns were believed to frighten away evil spirits and keep homes safe. So many people carved them to place in front of their doorways or window seals so their home would remain safe."

H'earring looked a little lass horrified by the decoration on his steps now that he knew what it was for. "Why are you giving it to me?" he said drawling his eyes up from the pumpkin to his friend.

Kaz smiled lightly. "I just thought you might like it. You don't have to keep it if it frightens you, which is probably a sign that it's working, since Jack-o-lanterns scare off not just ghosts but imps and demons as well."

Something about that last sentence put H'earring off just slightly. Pulling his mask back down over his face and readjusting his glasses over top, Kaz removed his scanner from his pocket. "Well I'm porting out. There's a Halloween party in Chaotic and I wouldn't want to miss it. I'll see you soon H'earring and have a happy Halloween." And with that said Kaz disappeared in confetti of code.

H'earring for some unexplainable reason felt left out. Taking another look down at his Halloween talisman, at its frightening face a creepy feeling that even though it had no true eyes to see with and no tongue in its mouth it felt like the face was looking at him and was about to burst into laughter. The feeling of discomfort felt like ice around the back his neck, sticking his foot out H'earring turned the thing around till it was facing the street in front of his home. He then walked back into his house shut his front door and locked it. The new barriers between him that thing made him feel a little better. Heading deeper into his home he decided to pick up where he had left off. With finishing the new book he'd gotten from a friend who would transcribe stories from the human world into creature dialect. The one H'earring he had just started reading was from a human called Lovecraft. H'earring sighed in relief. A good romance would be a great distraction from all this talk of ghosts.

The End.

I hope everybody enjoyed that. It was quite the pleasure to write. Please review if you have anything you'd like to say or add. Have a safe happy Halloween. Sincerely Master of Gray.