Casper was human. He was cold. And he was scared. He ran through dark woods, his boots crunching snow and sticks beneath him. He didn't remember what he was running from. He saw a huge log and darted inside it, it was big enough to stand up in. It wasn't great cover. Why did he choose this hiding spot? It was awful! Something jumped on top of the log, he could hear the creaking wood above him. He backed up to the furthest point in the log, his heart in his throat. His pulse was so loud, and yet, he couldn't hear it ether. He was too focused on the monster above him. He two sets of black claws slowly wrap around the top entrance of the log.

Casper snapped awake. His heart was racing, he looked around the dark room frantically. Nothing there. He got out of bed and

slipped on the floor, grabbing his blankets in an attempt to save himself. He looked at the floor and blinked. Ice. He had frozen the floor around his bed. He then noticed how cold the room was. He grimaced and hoped that Ra didn't feel it in his sarcophagus. Now that Casper was starting to calm down from the nightmare, the room temperature should start to rise.

He noticed the time on the clock; 6:00 am.

"Might as well stay up…" he mumbled to himself tiredly.

He made his way to the bathroom, a hot shower sounded quite nice right now…

Casper's body generated temperature based on his mood, at least from what he could tell. If he was very sad or very angry, he would emit cold. If he was happy and content, he would have a much more normal body temperature. He also was immune to any poor effects from the cold, like hypothermia or frostbite. Rather Ironic he supposed. The cold didn't bother him physically, but it reminded him of…events. So he preferred being warm. This was why he liked lots of blankets and pillows, it was also why he tended to take long showers. Warmth felt safe.

It was lunch now, Mantha was telling them about her big summer trip when a gargoyle approached their table. Casper didn't usually get mail, so when the rock creature handed him a very fancy looking letter, he gave quite a confused look.

"Don't look at me like that. I don't know why anyone would wright to you ether." The gargoyle shrugged and walked away.

The envelope looked old, the yellow tint hinting at its age. In fancy quill styled writing on the back of it read very simply; "To Casper McFadden." It was sealed with dark purple wax, the vague shape of a ram imprinted into it, a black ribbon and lavender flower sealed under the wax

"Damn Casp, who do you know that's that fancy?" Ra pointed at the letter.

"I don't know…" Casper felt both worried and curious.

He opened up the envelope carefully, not wanting to ruin the seal. He took out the paper and unfolded it; he became very confused.

"…It's blank, there's nothing on it…"

"Really?" Mantha raised a brow. "…but why?"

"Maybe it's a prank?" Ra suggested.

"I'm not so sure that's it…" the ghost looked inside the envelope, it felt like it had something rolling around in it.

He pulled out a small purple crystal pendent, it was on a simple black rope.

"Who sends a necklace and a blank letter as a prank? What's the joke?" Mantha tilted her head in confusion.

"And such a pretty necklace at that." Casper smiled faintly at the gift.

"Maybe the sender just put the wrong piece of paper in?" the mummy raised a finger.

"Maybe, either way, Casper I don't think you should wea-" She paused as she turned to the ghost to see he was already putting it on, he had also paused, staring at her guiltily as he had the chain half way around his neck.

She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Casp, you can't be this trusting. Maybe Thatch sent it!" She scolded him with concern.

He blushed a bit with alarm. He knew she was implying maybe Thatch was pulling a mean prank on him…but that was not the first thought he had. For a very short split second, the concept of the vampire sending it to him all secret admirer style entered his head, and it made his romance loving heart flutter excitedly. But he quickly threw that idea out, as it was extremely unlikely. "Frankly, I needed to throw out this crush too. It's was never gonna happen…"

God, he felt like such a mess. Hoping for affection from somebody who was never going to give it. It was pathetic.

"I doubt Thatch sent it, it's not his style." Casper smiled and shook his head.

"Still, I wouldn't wear it if I were you…" She eyed the necklace suspiciously.

"Aww, let him have his bling." Ra laughed.

Casper looked at the envelope again, tracing the ram shaped seal. He smiled as he got an idea. "Maybe we should go research this seal in the library, after class?" He suggested.

His friends nodded in agreement.

Casper walked into the Answertourium, the door shutting behind him.

"Ansewertourium, can you tell me who sent this letter and necklace?"

It's booming voice rang out;

"A dream surrounded by a nightmare,
A master at the art of the scare.
Over a kingdom of flower and ice does he reign,
Your blood runs in his veins.
He can cause great pain,
You two are much the same."

"What do you mea-"

The Answertourium then violently shook, and Casper was then, very quickly kicked out of the room. He slid across the floor, past his friends, and into a shelf.

"Was the violence necessary?" He sighed at the spinning answer machine.

"Are you ok?" Mantha asked as she and Ra helped him off the floor.

Casper wasn't great admittedly, the machines answer was…less than comforting.

"He can cause great pain, you two are much the same."

It was a worrying thought…

"A dream surrounded by a nightmare, A master at the art of the scare. Over a kingdom of flower and ice does he reign, he can cause much pain." Casper told them with some reluctance, keeping some details to himself.

"Maybe we could look at past yearbooks, for a frost and flower monster?" Ra suggested with a shrug.

"While you do that, I'll look up past scare champions!" Mantha smiled brightly.

"And I'll try and see if I can find what this symbol means." Casper held up the envelopes wax seal.

The three headed their separate ways and began their search.

Casper was now currently looking at some very old books at the top of a bookshelf. This was the symbolism section of the library, it was very dusty, nobody ever looked at these books. He pulled on an old book, but another one stuck to it and fell out of the self unexpectedly. He had tried to catch it, but missed.

"OW!" Casper heard yelp and the sound of dropped books. He looked down to see Sibella, rubbing her head, her books on the floor.

He quickly flew down in a panic.

"I'm so sorry! Are you ok?" He asked worriedly.

She chuckled and smiled.

"I'm alright, luckily it was a flat side that hit me. Now, a corner would have really hurt."

He sighed in relief. He then knelt down and started picking up the dropped books. She knelt down as well and started helping.

"I really am sorry about that, a book slipped out of my grasp." He apologized again.

"I'm thankful it was me getting hit and not one of the teachers, they can be a bit…temperamental." She chuckled kindly.

He snorted with a short laugh. "Oh, you have no idea…"

He noticed one of her books, "Love at First Blood.", it looked like one of those vampire romance novels that humans loved so much. If definitely wasn't from the library. She must have noticed him staring at it, as she started talking about it;

"I'm a sucker for romance novels, especially the dark ones. This one is pretty good so far, I'm almost done with it. It's about a vampire and werewolf who met while hunting, and are now falling for each other." She swooned at the daydream of the story. "You can read it when I'm done if you'd like?" She suggested with a friendly smile.

Ah yes, that's what he needed right now. A vampire romance novel...that would totally help his crush situation, and not at all make it worse.

He chuckled nervously; "That's very kind, but I'd never be able to read it fast enough. You'd have to go back to your own school before I was done."

"You can just send it back through the mail, or I could buy another one." She suggested with a bright smile.

"That's very kind of you." He smiled sheepishly.

"Manners are what make the vampire!" she beamed.

"Don't let Thatch hear you say the." He chuckled. "Or the teachers for that matter…" he said, turning concerned.

"Oh, I've heard about how the people around here can be…" she frowned a bit.

"Yeah…try not to be nice around the teachers, or you'll get in trouble…" he rubbed his arm and looked away sadly.

He really hated this school sometimes…

"Oh, you don't have to worry about me…A little vampire hypnotism goes a long way." She gave a playful wink.

Well, that certainly explained why the teachers seemed to like her so quick. She noticed the shocked look on his face

"Don't worry, it's only a light hypnosis. Only enough to encourage acceptance of me, it's not any sort of mind control. They still have full control of themselves." She explained. "Just don't tell anyone, ok?" She winked again and made the shush gesture.

He chuckled; "I won't. I say the more power to you. Anyone who can get away with being kind in this school, earns my seal of approval. Which…isn't hard to earn anyways, but you get my point."

She smiled and started the walk away, but then stopped and turned to face him again.

"Oh, you're Casper, aren't you?" She asked.

"Oh, yes, that's me."

"Well, it was nice to meet you." She smiled again, holding out her hand for him to shake.

"You too." He shook her hand with a smile.

She turned and left. Casper went back to his search.

Casper, Ra, and Mantha were now sitting at the docks, dangling their legs over the water, and eating a snack. At least, Ra and Mantha were eating some crab apple granola bars, meanwhile Casper just sipped on some water.

"Well, it was worth a shot." Casper mumbled.

"I went through every school album there was, nobody in this school has ever fit the description of ice and flowers!" Ra exclaimed frustratedly.

He had gotten a little too invested in the search, and got rather upset when he got to the last album and didn't find anything helpful.

"No scare champions like that ether. Are you sure that letter didn't have anything else in it?" Matha turned to the ghost.

"I'm sure; just a blank paper, a necklace, and a fancy envelope." Casper mumbled sadly.

"Well, I'm out of ideas." She sighed and leaned back.

"Maybe you'll get another letter that explains more…" Ra suggested.

"HONK!"

The three blinked and looked into the water below them. There was a mallard duck looking up at them.

"Uhhhh…is that a duck, or is there just something really wrong with these granola bars?" Ra side eyed his snack with concern.

"No, I see it too. That's a duck alright." The ghost confirmed.

They stared at it, it stared at them. It was a lot of confused staring.

Then Casper's eyes then widened.

"Oh no…You better not have." He mumbled and got up.

He walked away several feet, out of the duck's line of sight. His friends watched him with confusion.

"Dudley! Come here!" He yelled excitedly, like he was trying to get the attention of a dog.

With an excited honk, the duck flapped out of the water and onto the dock, Mantha and Ra quickly scooting away from it. The bird quickly waddled over to Casper and affectionately rubbed against his leg, honking happily and wagging his feathered tail.

"Ok, ok, shush. You're gonna get me in trouble. The ghost smiled and knelt down to pet the water fowl.

His friends stared at him with confusion.

"Mantha, Ra, meet Dudley. Dudley, meet my friends." Casper smiled and gestured to his friends, who were still very confused.

"You...have a pet duck?" Mantha asked, looking between Casper and the Dudley.

"Well…I hatched him from an egg, so honestly I'm kind of his mom." Casper joked with a sheepish smile.

"Why did you never tell us?" Ra asked, raising a brow.

"You guys were so freaked out when that rabbit got loose in the school, I thought it best not to bring it up…" Casper rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Do you have any other pets?" Mantha crossed her arms and raised a brow, giving a look of comedic annoyance.

Casper looked at the ground with a sheepish smile and a flushed face. "…maybe…" he admitted.

"And what are they?" Mantha asked with a chuckle.

"A cat, a dog, and a ghost fox." He replied with a smile.

"Really? No pigs?" She teased him.

"No, but Wendy has a pig named Squealy. There's also a weird, ghost, demon, horse thing that lives in the woods behind my house. He sometimes comes by and I give him apples." He beamed.

"Oh my god." She snort laughed and rolled her eyes.

Ra was laughing, but then stopped dead with concern. "Wait…what do you mean demon horse?"

"A story for another time." Casper waved it off. "For now, we've got to hide Dudley until Cap gets back tomorrow. Which means we've got to sneak him to my room…" he trailed off.

"Ah great…" Mantha groaned, gripping the brim of her nose, knowing how hard this was going be.

The three friends hadn't noticed the black and white bat overhead, tucked among the stalactites of the cavern. The black and white bat who had been there the whole time…and had great hearing. His purple eyes watched curiously.

Caspers pets are; Dudley the duck, Ferdie the ghost fox, Molasses the greyhound, and a white cat named Snowball. And of course the demon horse thing is Nightmare. (no association to the riddle Casper was given) X3 and Squealy is from the old Casper episode "Spook and Span." XD