As you know, today is Halloween. So, I decided to come out with a special Halloween chapter just for fun! Not an actual chapter, but just a short story I made for fun. If you actually thought this was a new chapter and got all excited, well…sorry.

BTW, this takes place after Toni's big first quest. Don't worry, no spoilers. Just Toni acting like the introvert she is.

A Halloween Special!

I stretched as I walked towards my room, letting out a contented sigh. The decorations in Valaither had inexplicably changed one day, the wallpaper turning to orange one day and the patterns on the wall turning to Jack O' Lantern patterns. Everyone had been getting into Halloween—even Jared, who was usually grumpier than a starving wolf, began prepping for Halloween. Although his idea of prepping for Halloween was tossing spiders into crowds and pulling all sorts of nefarious pranks. Jax, I knew, had accidentally destroyed his room with an obsidian spike after Jared tossed a bunch of live cockroaches into his room. Jared even said he had something nasty planned for actual Halloween involving actual spider mobs, some vexes, and a bucket of slime.

So...everyone would definitely give Jared a wide berth on Halloween.

Speaking of Halloween, Rook sent everyone costumes. She even sent me a shimmering cobalt blue wizard's robe and a fake beard (much to my dismay). And although I was particularly fond of the robe, (I tossed out the beard) I wouldn't be using it. No, siree. Why, you ask?

Because I was going to stay in my room and read books all day. A relaxing activity, in my opinion. And I'd be binge reading the entire Perry Otter series again with no disturbances. Seeing how today was Halloween and everyone had the day off, I thought I deserved a break.

You might find this behavior odd, but I can explain. It had been a few months since my journey to the center of the world, but I hadn't even gotten any rest since then. There was a party literally every month that had me at the center of attention, which exhausted me. And besides that, everyone in Squad 1 kept urging me to train, like there was going to be another life threatening adventure soon. Hopefully, that wouldn't happen any time soon.

(Insert future me, laughing my head off.)

Anyways, by the time the parties were over, I was more exhausted than if I'd spent an equal amount of time training. In my eyes, I deserved some me time.

Of course, that's when I saw people knocking on my door. Cacao, and Lago.

"Why isn't she coming out? Is she asleep?"

"Knock louder."

I looked around frantically, found a table holding a lamp, and dived under it so I wouldn't get caught.

Just great, I thought. On my day off, people decide to try and bother me. Look's like I'll have to play this the safe way.

I cleared my throat loudly and then flattened myself against the wall, hoping they wouldn't look under the table.

"Hey, what was that?"

"It sounded like Toni."

"So she wasn't in her room! She must be around here somewhere—let's go look for her!"

"Well let's hurry, the party starts soon!"

I saw two people run past my table—the white haired Lago, dressed in some black outfit with fake blood on it, and the tall Cacao, who had dyed his hair a pale blond and had dressed like Legolas from Lord Of The Rings.

Once they were gone, I sighed in relief and got out from under the table. Finally, I could read my Perry Otter collection in peace. I slipped into my room and jumped onto my bed.

And then I realized. I'd left my sword in the dining hall.

I cursed. After all that trouble…

I considered just leaving my sword there, but knew that the sword would undoubtedly be taken by someone if it was left there. A rule in Valaither was 'warriors need to keep track of their own stuff', and my sword was nice. Someone would definitely take it.

Reluctantly, I stood again and walked towards the door. I would just not run into anyone so I couldn't be invited to the Halloween party that would undoubtedly happen today. Call me a lazy bum, but I really didn't feel like being praised and worshipped for multiple long hours. That got real tiring after the first few days.

I creeped out of my room, glancing around cautiously. After making sure nobody was around, I ran over to the elevator, and then paused. What if someone caught me when the elevator doors opened? There was no way to prevent that.

I sighed. I'd have to take the stairs.

I stepped through a door next to the elevator that took me to the stairs. I grinned as I descended the stairs—I was only on the third floor, so it wouldn't take that much time, and it was less likely to run into someone. When I was at the bottom of the stairs, which didn't take long, I reached for the door handle—

—only for the door to swing open before I could touch the handle.

I quickly backed up into the wall and the door swung into my body, smacking my face and making my nose ache.

"Stupid," I heard Y grumble. "Can't believe they forced me into this stupid costume just because I didn't have any candy to give…can't let anyone see me in this stupid thing…"

The door began to swing shut, but I grabbed it, making sure the door hid me from view. I cautiously peeked out from behind the door, and what I saw almost made me burst into laughter. It was Y, who was wearing a costume that looked like an enormous slice of bread. He shifted, and I saw he had on a stupid looking peanut butter and jelly sandwich costume. His arms stuck out the sides so that he looked like a newborn as he struggled up the stairs.

Before he spotted me, I discreetly sneaked out from behind the door and slipped through the door way, suppressing snickers.

And just like that, I was standing in the dining hall, where the wind spirits were cleaning up the remains of breakfast. And I could see my diamond sword glinting on one of the tables.

I didn't think I had to be careful near the wind spirits, but one could never be too sure—I dashed towards one of the tables and rolled under it. I wasn't sure if I'd been seen, but I kept crawling under the tables until I was under the table I was sure my sword was on. I peeked out from under the table, and saw my sword.

Grinning I began to reach for it, only to hear people coming my way, and immediately hid back under the table.

"Why aren't you guys dressed?" I heard someone say. "It's Halloween."

"Come on. We're too old for that type of stuff, you know."

"Tommy's older than you and he still runs around the place dressed up in a costume."

"You're one to speak—you just threw on a cape and called it a day."

"Touché."

Some people were talking, but I only recognized one of the voices. My heart skipped a beat when I realized one of the boys were Owen.

Then, I went into a kind of panic. What if Owen happened to look down and see me in such an awkward position? Would he think I was weird for hiding under a table? Or worse—would he think I was stalking him? That would be truly unacceptable.

And as if my day couldn't get worse, I heard one of Owen's friends say, "Hey, look! It's a sick looking sword!"

"Wait," Owen stopped him. "I recognize that sword."

"So?" the boy said. "What about it?"

Owen sounded like he was struggling to remember. "I…I swear I've seen it somewhere. Maybe you shouldn't touch it."

"Nah. Finders keepers."

I heard him reach for the sword. Heard him grab the hilt. My mind was racing when an idea popped into my head.

I touched the underside of the table, and put a slight surge of power into it.

There was a small 'crack', and the boy yelped. "Ah! I just got zapped!"

"It's just static electricity," the other boy said impatiently. "Let's just pick it up and go to Sam's party. I hear she's a blast at parties."

"Not—" Crack. "Until I—" Crack. "Ouch—get this—" Crack. "Damn—" SNAP! "OW! SWORD!"

"I just remembered," Owen said suddenly. "That's Toni's sword."

"It is?" the boy said warily. "You think she put some defense mechanism on it or something?"

"I wouldn't put it past her," Owen said. "She's a very smart girl."

Under the table, the very smart girl in question blushed.

"That makes sense." the boy mused. "Think she'll be happy if I give it to her—" Crack. "YOW!"

"Just leave it," the other boy said, sounding amused. "Let's go. If it's really Toni's she'll come and get it herself."

"Yeah, let's go," Owen said, and the three left. As Owen left I saw he was dressed as a vampire, which surprisingly perfectly suited him.

After they were gone, I finally grabbed the sword, turned, and began crawling towards the elevator again. At the end of the table, I stood and ran for the stairs, throwing the door open and slamming the door shut.

I did it, I thought, satisfied. Now I just need to get back to my room.

Going up the stairs took no time at all, and when I finally got to the third floor, I sighed in relief. I ran over to my room, opened the door, and shut myself in.

"Yes," I said, pumping my fist into the air. "Mission accomplished! Now. Time to binge read the entire Perry Otter series—"

Knock knock.

I froze. Was this a premature celebration?

"Toni?" I could hear Jax's muffled call. "Toni, you in there?"

"Move aside," Sam said impatiently. The door rattled as Sam banged on the door so hard I thought it would break down. "TONI! OPEN UP!"

I stayed silent.

"TONI, I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"

Again, I stayed silent.

After a moment, Jax said, "Maybe she's asleep."

Sam responded, "I can wake up even the heaviest sleepers. Either she's not here or she's ignoring us."

"Why would she ignore us?" Jax asked.

I heard Sam's muffled sigh. "Maybe she just doesn't wanna go. After all, the last few parties she's been to she looked kinda glum."

"Why would she? She waved the world."

"Jax, you're as tone deaf as a snail. Maybe she's just uncomfortable around crowds. After all, a lot of people are trying to talk to her at the same time. It's easy to get overwhelmed. I know since I've been a popular archer for a while."

There was another uncomfortable silence.

"So we just leave her in there?" Jax said uncertainly. "On Halloween?"

"I guess," Sam said. "If she's not comfortable."

Almost unknowingly, I felt a pang of guilt in my gut. Here were two people I considered the best of friends feeling all concerned for me, and I was just ignoring them? Everyone seemed to be looking out for me…Cacao, Lago, maybe even Owen. And what was I going to to—stay in my room all day like a recluse?

I glanced back at my book collection, practically begging to be read. Then I looked at the shiny blue robes Rook had given me.

…

Perry Otter can wait.

After a moment, I opened the door, and Sam and Jax looked at me, surprised.

"Toni," Sam said. "What took you so long?"

I grinned as I patted down my blue wizard robes. "I was putting on my costume."

"Where's the beard?"

"Don't make me regret coming out here."

A short and wholesome story—my favorite!

This story was really fun to write, mostly because I like writing wholesome chapters with no real action to them. Shocking, I know, considering the plot of this story. But I really adore stories like this.

Anyways, have fun trick or treating!

Leave a review—Krios