Arthur's note- I know what everyone's thinking, or might be thinking. It's a little late in the year for a Halloween fanfic, and they'd probably be right. But like with many other writers life sort of happened around me. I had to go up and visit one of my aunts for the holidays and help her put up her Christmas tree and right after that Thanksgiving happened. Also for the past three months I've been busy making Christmas presents for my family and friends. I crochet it's a therapeutic hobby of mine and it's been my doing for the past three years going on four that I crochet Christmas presents for everybody. I'm currently at this very moment making a beautiful white Lacey shawl for another one of my aunts.
There was a death in the circle of people I know. My landlord, a good man passed away December, 2, 2016 from a long battle with cancer. May he rest in peace and his family find hope.
So I can tell you that I've been a little busy. I'm hoping to get this story wrapped up before New Year's so I can move on to other things. But truthfully who doesn't love Halloween in Christmas, isn't that what we learned from (A Nightmare before Christmas) anyway I hope everyone can still find these chapters good and fun. And since it's already so close to the holiday I'm going to go head and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy New Year.
Disclaimer- I own none of the characters or the franchise that there from.
Chapter three-Sweets
The thing that Wamma liked the most about his relationship with Sarah was there was no drama, maybe a little adventure and trouble now and again, but never anything to stress about. So when he came in to the old storage room in an offbeat way in Mount Pillar where Sarah and he would meet. He felt a little surprised to see her there so late and even more surprising the almost cheerful expression she had on.
Scuttling inside and shutting the door behind him, he saw the player standing in front of a large crate made out of wood from massive roots. She was wearing her usual cloths of red pants and a white undershirt with a black one overtop. Under her left arm what looked to be a large white cloth wrapped together to make a bundle and sitting on the crate by her was a rectangle shaped paper bag with stripes in white and orange and then white handles in half circles on each side.
"What's up Wamma?" Sarah asked brightly. "Everything still good?"
Stopping beside her the danian replied. "Nothing new, except for maybe one of the battle masters molting. This one gets really insecure when his shell comes off. Apparently his new exoskeleton starts off a shade of pink before turning a dusty brown. But other than that nothing new has happened."
Sarah giggled a little bit. Looking over Wamma could see something in the bag. Curiosity peeked. He asked. "What you got in there?" one corner of Sarah's mouth turned up. Grabbing the bag in both of her hands she turned it upside down and dumped its contents on the crate.
It sounded like grain from a potato sack that was hitting the wood but when it had stopped and the danian had come closer to look he saw it was the furthest thing from rice and wheat.
"It's called candy." He heard Sarah saw as he examined the stuff on the crate. It lay in a pile in the shape of a small hill. Most of it looked like pellets, round and wrapped in glossy wrapping, but some had sticks sticking out of them and others were square.
Looking to his friend for an OK he reached down to pluck one of the pieces from the pile. Bringing it up to better examine it he looked back to Sarah and spoke. "Candy? Like honey moss or nectar mold? It's sweet right?"
With a smile still light on her lips Sarah answered. "Yeah, will not all of them are sweet. Some of them are sour or bitterly hot. But all in all it's pretty good."
Pulling his shoulders back to stand up straight a sharp curiosity pitched him. In all the time he'd know the human not once had she brought food with her. Oftentimes small objects from her home or traveling supplies for overnight journeys, usually her scanner was the one thing that was a constant presence. So this was a surprise.
Wamma usually wasn't the inquisitive type, the less you know the less you worried about was his moto but the strange food the chaotic player had brought really caught his attention. "It's really kind of you to want to broaden my culinary palate but what is all this for exactly? You've never showed food off before. And what about that white bundle under your arm? Are you planning something?"
Sarah's eyes twinkled as she opened her mouth to answer him. "By no means…" She side reassuringly before continuing. "It's just Halloween and all the chaotic players are throwing a party to celebrate."
The danian's eye brows kitted together in mild confusion as if something had gone over his head.
Before he could pepper on about it she beat him to it and answered.
"It's a holiday that humans celebrate in our realm. You know I told you about the realm I'm from, the one past chaotic where humans come from." Wamma nodded in remembrance as Sarah continued. "We celebrated worldwide and some of my fellow players precipitated the code masters to have a party in chaotic today." Sarah side matter of factly.
"Is it religious?" Wamma cut in to ask.
Sarah had a thoughtful expression on her face as she thought for a moment before replying. "No not religious, will not anymore that is. It used to be back in ancient times, religious or more like spiritual. But it's not practiced that way anymore. Now a days it's a night where everyone dresses up and get sweets."
The mandiblor's antenna flexed to express his need to know a little more and Sarah for once had no problem with indulging.
"So is there anything you'd like to know more about?" Sarah side placing her hands on her hips in a queen bee like fashion.
Wamma nodded his head almost timidly in a yes.
"Is it about food?" She asked.
Twiddling his digits bashfully he replied. "Is there something wrong with that?"
"Mmmm…" Sarah looked thoughtful, as if deep in thought before responding with a smile. "No, no not at all."
The danian brightened and robbed his large midsection. "You side hand out sweets. What's the story on that about? I've never heard of a holiday that gives out free food before?"
"Well…" Sarah started. "The tradition of handing out food or sweets goes back about two thousand years go. It all started with a holiday we now call Halloween."
The chaotic player stopped to see if Wamma was still interested. The danian still looked on with a perky expression. "I'm still listening." He certified.
Picking up where she stopped Sarah want on with the history lesson. "Originally Halloween thousands of years ago was called Samhain. It was a night once a year where the souls of the dead could come back to walk among the living again. I think it was old Celtic Europe." Sarah stopped to add something first. "Before we continue I have to let you know that I'm only tailing the umbrage version. The history of the holiday is quite long and diverse. And although I'm enjoying playing professor I don't think I have the time or the patients to be thorough. Can you make it with that?" she asked.
"I don't mind, just tale me what you can." Wamma responded.
Sarah smiled. "Samhain was a night where people lit bonfires, wear masks, carved scary faces on turnips, ate food, (Samhain was not just a day of the dead. It was also an end of the harvest, when everything was bountiful.) and finally try and make predictions of the future. Now that was a long time ago and people ended that practice along with it."
She paused for a second before moving on. "I used to think as a child that the holiday was something invented by the candy companies to sell more sweets. I heard that from movies while growing up."
Wamma had already leaned the concept of movies and television explained to him by Sarah, although he still had no clue what it was though.
"But I later on learned that that was made up for entertainment only. In truth the history of trick or treating was extensive. Its oldest roots go back to Samhain itself where food would be plentiful from the end of year harvest. As the century's want on and new believes rolled in the traditions began to change. With the bringing in of Christianity the Catholic Church attempted to merge the two foreign cultures together. What was once Samhain became All Hallows Eve, All Souls Day, and All Saints Day. On this day in the middle-ages children and perhaps some poor adults would go from door to door asking for food or money in exchange for prayers and songs. Typically sung on behave of the souls of the dead. These people were called soulers and what they did was called souling. Along with well wishing the patrons would wear costumes of saints, angels, and demons. This was called guising short for disguising."
"Wait." Wamma spoke in quickly. "You wear costumes to get free food?"
Sarah nodded her head and spoke a. "Yeah." Before continuing. "Wearing costumes and masks for the holiday has been practiced since Samhain and like trick or treating and believing that the dead come back it was one of the traditions that made it to modern times."
Wamma's antenna twisted around for a minute before he asked. "Is wearing masks Still being done today? Are all the chaotic players going to get dressed up for the night?"
The blonde haired player nodded her head "Yes. The act of wearing masks and scary outfits is still practiced today and it's a big part of trick or treating. We all got dressed up for it, the boys and me. Every chaotic player that's going to the party did."
"So you're all wearing costumes?" He adds.
"Yeah, we all are my friends and me. Kaz, Peyton, and Tom, although there costumes are really elaborate. They really went all out the best way they could for today."
Wamma tilted his head a bit, a bit more curious now. "And you are not?"
Sarah waved her hand in the air dismissively while she spoke. "I'm not that into. I'm a little too old for Halloween. That's more of a kid's thing but my friends are getting into it. Tom, Peyton, and Kaz are just having fun with this acting like big kids about it. Unlike them I decided on a simpler costume."
And with that she pulled from under her arm the white bundle she had with her. Unfolding it Wamma saw it was a white sheet of fabric that was long and had two holes in it only a few inches apart. Pulling it open Sarah toke the ends and in one swift motion had the cotton sheet over her head and pulled it till her eyes could be seen from out of the two holes that were cut into it.
"I'm supposed to be a ghost." She side from underneath the white thing. "Just a simple quick costume with no serious mess or effort to put in to it."
The mandiblor stared before speaking humorously. "I never know that ghosts looked like that."
Sarah giggled from under her sheet.
"Anyway despite that Halloween is in some aspects ancient the tradition of trick or treating is quite new. Way back in the 1900th century Halloween as it is know now was a day that people dreaded. When kids' usually adolescent boys would pull terrible pranks and damage property by breaking windows and starting fires. Bystanders would even be attacked and sometimes seriously injured by these hooligans. It was almost like "The Purge", communities just hated this night and lived in fear of the damages they would find the next day. Finally people had had enough community leaders, parents, and law enforcers came together to find a solution. And soon they did. Instead of a night of unrestrained mischief the community would hold parties for these wannbe gangsters as well as parades where everyone could wear costumes. They also allowed the children to go from door to door to ask for treats. Hence "Trick or Treat." was born. It was a night that instead of throwing eggs and buckets of paint at doors they knock on them and get…"
"Candy." Wamma popped in cheerfully.
"No not at first. At first things like fruit and money were handed out, alongside home baked goods like cookies, as well as little toys too. It wasn't till later that candy was given and eventually become the favored treat to get." Sarah said. "Candy a lot like this." She add pointy at the neglected pile of the stuff right beside her.
"And is that the end of the history of trick or treating?" Wamma asked.
"And that's the end of the history of trick or treating." Sarah replied putting her hand on her waist.
Wamma looked still on the scene before him. At his friend Sarah and the hill of sweets beside her, she had already token off her ghost sheet. He felt a bit more enlightened but still had a craving to know a little more. Making eye contact with the bright colored candies in front of him another interrogation mark poked in his head.
Looking back to her he asked. "Is this the candy they would give out back then?"
"Not quite." Replied Sarah. "The sugary pieces they gave out then have gone through some changes as well as added some new flavors and types to it."
She reached out and pointed to the confections and started listing off what some of them were to the danian. Picking up a tiny round cylinder shaped candy that was brightly colored and translucent with a wrapping that was twisted at both ends, she side. "This is a Jolly Rancher. They come in all types of flavors. The most well known are fruit flavors."
She put that one down and picked up another one that looked a lot like the Jolly Rancher except it was pink and side. "This is a piece of bubblegum." She then dropped it and motioned with her hands the acted of popping it in her mouth. "You crew it and make bubbles from out of it."
The next one to be hold up was a round one bulb shaped with a purple wrapper around it and a white stick coming out of the bottom. "This is a Lollipop, a sucker, also knew as a Blow pop."
After that Wamma watched and listened as Sarah named one piece of candy after the other. There were things like; Gummi bears and worms, Pixie sticks, Starbursts, Candy corn, Twizzlers, Tootsis rolls, and a dozen other sweets that were named off.
For a minute it made Wamma's head spin and a little bit of that appetite he had earlier subsided. Then Sarah stopped on a pacific piece of candy with a rectangle shaped, could fit in the chaotic player's palm and sealed in dark brown glossy wrapping. "This is a Candy Bar. A Hershey chocolate bar to be accurate."
Sarah laid it down and pointed out two others in different sizes. One in a blue wrapper called an "Almond Joy." And another one in gray wrapping called a "Three Musketeer."
She went on to say. "That chocolate is the most popular sweet in the world and that it makes up more than half the candy sold and given out during Halloween. There are dozens of different types of candy bars from the three here to others like Snickers, Kit Kat, Butterfinger, Twix, and Milky Way are all a few. There are also three varieties of chocolate commonly used to make sweets. They are milk chocolate, white chocolate, and dark chocolate. Milk chocolate is my favorite."
There was a pause of silence, an indication that Sarah was done with her culture lesson.
Never breaking eye contact Wamma asked. "Are you done already?" Sarah replied. "Yeah, there's more to talk about but it's getting late and I don't want to spend the whole night talking your ear off."
Wamma felt OK with that after all he had already learned so much and he could feel a little of his appetite coming back. But there was still one thing he wanted to try before she had to go.
"Can I try some?" He asked sweetly.
Sarah smiled as her friend. "Sure. It's why I brought it here in the first place. Which would you like to try first?"
Looking from Sarah to the candy pile Wamma knew what he wanted to choose. "I'd like to try the milk chocolate Three Musketeer please."
Sarah smiled reached for the chocolate bar and side. "Tale you what, how about we share it."
The End
Will that's the end of this chapter, next the last installment with Peyton and the Mipedians. Don't be afraid to leave reviews if you have anything to say. I would love hearing from you. By the way my favorite sweet is Dark chocolate. Just thought I'd add that in there. If you have a favorite sweet don't be afraid to tail me. Thank you and see you soon.