Hey all! I never expected such an outcome! Thank you and thank you again! This is for you!

Fire Filly, Aaya Skellington, Skeleton Doll, Nina Hikari, and Aelitagurl!

In Ghost Village

Edward had called on his most trusted advisor, Redwood, to find a spell that would help him become human for a few years. The elder spirit began going through the great libraries he was in charge of. His tall, hunched back and long gray beard would make you wonder if the old tale that spirits never age was true. He wiped the dust from his glasses, which made his eyes looked bugged.

"Well, young master, I think I may have something here." He began mumbling off the ingredients and came to the most important parts. "… Here we are! 'Spell is good until the birth of affected ghost's first child. Not meant for long a term spell. Spell cannot be passed down to offspring. Spell can only be rectified in advance by death of the false body.' Edward? Are you sure about this? While in this form, you won't be able to protect your kingdom."

"I know, Redwood, my old friend. But I gave Veilia my word. She requested a deal, and I have to uphold my end."

"But what about Doppler and Ridisk? They wouldn't think twice about taking advantage of your absence. Not to mention…"

"Don't!" he put his hand over the old man's mouth and looked around. He whispered. "Don't say that name. We don't know if the 'Speak of the Devil' spell is still active." Glancing around once more, he turned back to the old man. "I plan to leave the council of Holidays in charge. They have enough magic to dispel any attempts by… any of my enemies." His dark eyes drifted over to the doorway, and the old man and King made their way to the thrown room where he moved an old panting of some supposedly far off relative to reveal an old fashioned telephone. He picked up the receiver and began dialing. Instead of a number, he seemed to be dialing a date…

Back at the Orphanage

Ravanna hadn't slept at all that night. She kept seeing the town and the mysterious fog in her nightmares. She kept checking the bunk beside hers to make sure her sister was still there. Veilia had barely made it in time for the beginning of the play. Everyone noticed Ravanna wasn't as 'played up' as she usually was and the show wasn't all that bad. In fact, everyone noticed that she was oddly quiet after the play.

She kept seeing the fog in her mind and Veilia pushing her away. Ravanna hadn't asked anything about it, and she didn't intend to. She just wanted to forget, but something in her mind wouldn't let her. She was awake all that night, staring over at Veilia until morning.

There was a month that went by without incident, and then… the night of the full moon, Ravanna followed Veilia to the old swing again. She left as the sun began to set, Ravanna tailing her like a shadow.

When they arrived at the swing, Veilia sat down, facing across the ravine and began to wait. From where she was hiding behind an old, but still live tree, Ravanna could hear the faint sounds of singing. It started very mellow then slid into a lilting cry then back into a deep whisper of emotion. Ravanna had never heard anything so… moving.

"A crown of gold, a ring of silver,

Means not to me, a single thing,

My heart is full, because you chose me,

My future bright, because I know…" She paused, as if contemplating something.

"I… I know that… that…

"I know that you, will keep me safely,

Because you swore, with all your soul,

I know that with you by my side,

I'll never fear, I'll never cry,

For what pain can come, when death will die...

Even death will die, when I'm drowning in your eyes…" She became more and more passionate, pushing herself higher and higher on the swing as she continued.

"I promise you, I will protect you,

From any pain, from any woe,

Because I know, deep in my heart's heart,

I could not be, ever without you,

And inside I know you feel, the same way too."

Ravanna suddenly blushed; feeling like she had no right to be here… but as the final rays of sun disappeared, so did her doubt. The mysterious fog massed over on the other side for a moment before clearing enough to see the same eerily glowing buildings as before, once again bathed in the pale moonlight from the full and shining orb in the sky. Ravanna began to notice what looked like the northern lights zipping through the streets, pausing at every streetlight, as if to turn them on. That was when Ravanna noticed the huge, gothic mansion barely floating above the ground. It was the most ghastly, wondrous and beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

Suddenly, Veilia stood up and began walking toward the ravine. Ravanna slinked up behind the old rotten tree with the swing hanging from its branches and watched carefully, taking in every detail.

Veilia stood, mere millimeters from falling to the gagged rocks below, and put her foot out, straight and posed, as if preparing to do a ballet step off the ledge. As she began to descend, another streak of aurora darted out from the glowing village streets and made a beautiful glowing bridge. Veilia quickly made her way across it, not bothering to look back.

Ravanna stepped delicately towards the bridge. When she got to where Veilia had been standing before the bridge appeared, it shimmered brightly, almost in pleasant surprise. She felt a very pleasant vibration through the air, as if the bridge were welcoming a long lost friend. She smiled down at the bridge in thanks, not daring to speak while following her sister, and scurried across.

Veilia walked into the streets to see all the "Shops" on the main street busy and crowded, especially the tavern. It wasn't really a place to get drunk, but more of a place to socialize. The same thing was available in the smaller cities in the Land of the Dead.

One of the many things the scrolls had taught Veilia was that the only difference between the corpse citizens of the Land of the Dead, and the graceful, pale and transparent peoples of the Ghost Kingdom, were that the spirits either had their bodies cremated, or they had been destroyed beyond any hope of being used in the afterlife. Some of them liked it this way, others had originally been corpses, but didn't like the fleshy decaying smell, and chose the low maintenance option, after being approved by the Holiday counsel to "transfer" forms. Technically you can "transfer" into any form, except human, for obvious reasons (we can't have people coming back to life all the time now, can we? Humans have very delicate societies after all!), but your form dictates where you'll be welcome. The great thing about "transfers"; you usually didn't retain memories of who you once were.

Veilia knew that when she died, she wanted to be a spirit. Her mother was one. See, that's why she was nominated by the Holiday Counsel to be Queen of the Spirits. She, and her sister, were what you'd call half-breeds, which is very unusual, because, compared to the dead, living things breed like rabbits. It was hard for anyone who'd "passed on" to become parents at all.

The reason Veilia and Ravanna hadn't been raised in Ghost Village with "their kind", was that, they were born with flesh, because of their father. Living flesh didn't survive long in Ghost Village. And the Holiday Counsel dictated that the two girls were too young to make the decision on where to stay and what to do, so they were sent to the Orphanage to grow up and decide their fate. They had been treated as though they were being "transferred." Their memories had been erased and they were only left small memories of each other. When Veilia had first seen the town from the Clock tower, it had all come flooding back. She finally understood why she never felt at home with people. She didn't belong there. Ravanna seemed to fit in perfectly, though. Except for her strange need for someone to rescue her. Veilia never understood that. She was just as capable as any other person. More so, in their case. Veilia always suspected, though, that there had been a gaping emotional wound that was tied to that somewhere in her soul.

While Veilia was contemplating this, she absently walked into the "Sleepy Hollow Tavern." That had a headless horseman holding a jack-o-lantern on the street sign.

Ravanna, however, didn't see this. After she'd crossed the bridge, she just stood open mouthed and stared at the buildings that were much taller than they had seemed before.

Suddenly, she realized she had lost her sister. She began looked around in a panicked fashion. She couldn't see anyone in the streets so far, but she could hear lots of voices. She wasn't sure she liked this. She franticly began searching for her sister, looking down every alleyway. "Veilia!" she began calling as spirits began filtering into the streets, like a steady trickling stream. Suddenly she bumped into something and it sent her crashing towards the ground. When she didn't land roughly on her backside, she looked up…

And screamed. Not just any scream, the scream that signaled all of Ghost Village to wake up. Like any of them could remain in bed after that ear splitting racket!

Veilia looked up, startled as the shriek echoed through the nearly empty streets. That sounded like… "Ravanna!" She dashed out of the tavern to see the Pumpkin Queen helping up her sister, who had a wide-eyed, haunted look about her. "Ravanna… you shouldn't have followed me." Her voice became monotone.

"I know…" she said standing up and dusting herself off. "II'm sorry for invading your privacy, Veilia. But I did it with the best intentions! After last month, I thought that you'd been possessed or something! You never said a word about it, either! You just acted like it all went away and never happened. I was scared." She looked down. "I'm sorry for causing so much trouble." She directed it in the woman's direction that helped her as she curtsied, out of habit from trying to impress adoptive parents.

"Oh, no trouble." Sally nodded understandingly. "So, you must be Ravanna."

Veilia came and stood beside her sister. "Well, Sally, it looks like the counsel is going to get their wish after all. The both of us will be able to attend tonight's meeting. I'm guessing you and Jack will represent Halloween Town? Was the Mayor busy?"

Sally smiled. "I convinced him that we were the best representatives for the agenda tonight. He's taking a much deserved… nap."

"You put him to sleep, didn't you?" Veilia asked, barely hiding a smile.

Her soft chuckle told her everything. "Careful, Jack," she warned the approaching skeleton, "She might be slipping deadly nightshade into your soup one day." They both laughed at that.

"Sally's just enthusiastic about what she's heard about tonight's agenda." Jack spoke eloquently. "She's been speaking with your mother. She believes that you're still too young to make the decisions that you've been making, Veilia."

Veilia looked into where Jack's eyes should have been with a determined glint in her eye. "I know what everyone thinks, and I also know that this is what's best for our kingdom. Ravanna would've done the same thing if she would've shown up in Ghost Village first." Sally had a disapproving look on her face, wanting to say something, but knowing it wouldn't do any good right now. She could wait till the counsel was gathered…

Ravanna was still staring at the very tall, pinstripe suit wearing skeleton and the rag doll woman standing before her. 'What in the name of all that was good was going on here?' flashed through her mind before she finally started listening to what they were saying. "Wait a minute! Mother? Ghost Village? What's going on, Veilia? I don't understand!" The streets were now teeming with transparent figures, greeting and talking to each other, but also going about their business. Ravanna looked like she was trying to see in every direction at once.

Jack, Sally and Veilia looked at each other knowingly then at Ravanna sympathetically. "Come, Ravanna," Veilia said, leading her towards a small café, thinking it was a little too early for introducing her to the enthusiastic people's who frequented the Tavern. "I'll get you some tea, and we'll discuss everything. Jack? My treat." she added, letting him know he could come. He nodded, following, Sally on his arm.

'Veilia's going to need all the back-up she can get, trying to explain this.'
Two glowing green eyes blinked in the dark alley nearby and disappeared, but not before letting out a low and menacing cackle. "Ooh, what an unusual predicament the little Princesses find themselves in!"

When Veilia got them all a seat, she ordered a Puckerberry Ice for her and her sister. Soon a transparent waitress brought some strange, ghost version of sugar cookies out and set them down in front of Ravanna. "Complements of the head baker, for the returned Princesses!" she smiled in a way that should've been sweet, but Ravanna had a problem seeing past the fact that the girl's legs… simply weren't there. Her waist tapered down to where her knees should have been and then she just sort of floated a few feet about the ground. Her old fashioned waitress's outfit was ripped and torn… but that seemed to be the fashion around here, she noticed. The girl's skin was transparent and green. The waitress didn't pay her or her stares any mind, and continued back to the kitchen, smile still plastered to her face.

"Okay," Ravanna whispered, "I think I've lost my mind, but," she looked over at Veilia, "at least I'm not alone in this."

Veilia put a reassuring hand on Ravanna's wrist. "Don't worry, Ravanna. I know this is going to come as a shock, but this is where we were born."

Ravanna nodded dumbly. "I had a feeling it was something like that. The bridge seemed to know me."

"Yes. The bridge is made up of the same type of stuff the spirits are, but it wasn't alive when it was destroyed. That happens sometimes. People show so much appreciation for something, when it's destroyed; it comes here, and is reborn in a way that it can appreciate back. But it's not quite the same as a ghost. We crossed that bridge when we were little, do you remember?"

"Sort of… I remember seeing the Orphanage from far off, but I don't remember leaving here."

"That's part of the protocol for a transfer." Jack stated. "You weren't supposed to remember unless you came back. You're memories should return soon enough."

Ravanna then studied Jack and Sally. "You aren't ghosts." She stated it as-a-matter-of-factly. "How did you get here?"

"The train. There's a ghost train that goes from Holiday Forest to here, but the door to the station is much more hidden than the other doors." Sally informed. "A few years ago, a few… events… led to a big problem which caused all of the leaders o the holiday towns to band together in counsel. They decided it was time, since now more than a few creatures from the towns knew there were other holidays, that they all have a counsel that helped keep things in order and prevented mix ups or stow-a-ways. Some people don't like their holiday, so we made it where, after a series of tests and questions, you could transfer. But you aren't allowed to remember your old holiday. That's when we realized that it was still possible for Ghosts and Corpses to wander freely. That had caused some problems in the distant past, but we are now trying to correct them by adding their representatives to our counsel. That's part of the reason we're here tonight."

Ravanna tried to take all of this in, "So, if I was born here, then… wouldn't I have to be… I don't know… a little less fleshy?" She pinched her arm for emphasis.

Veilia looked at her with a very serious expression. "We're 'fleshy' because our father was a human and we're 'princesses' because our mother was once the heir to the thrown in Ghost Kingdom. Ravanna, I want you to know, I don't expect you to stay here. Flesh can't survive long in Ghost Village to begin with. When the sun comes up, we have to be on the other side of the ravine. But still, I don't expect you to ever want to stay here, or leave Living World. You've been so happy there. After I become Queen, I'll have to stay, and you can go get your adoptive parents or husband or anything else you might want, but as I am not trying to force you to stay, I don't want you to try to force me to leave, or change my mind about becoming Queen. Not tonight, maybe not next month, but one day, I'm going to have to come back to stay. I don't want you to feel like you have to come, because you don't, yet. You can have a long and healthy life in living world. But before you make any decision at all, I want you to think about both situations very carefully, okay? And I also don't want you to stay just because you're a princess." Veilia was searching for something in Ravanna's eyes. Ravanna didn't know what to think. She was still trying to let the "Ghost Village" part sink in.

After a few moments, she looked a little relieved. "So, what about our mother? Is she here?"

Veilia's eyes clouded for a moment. "She received a transfer shortly after we left. It was mandatory, for our safety. She's not the way you'd remember here, if you can remember her. There are several books about her and our family's rule over in the Ghost Archives, though."

"So, where did she go? What does she look like? Are we anything like her?"

Sally noticed Veilia's unease at these questions and put her free hand over on Veilia's shoulder in support. She then looked at Ravanna. "She transferred to the Holiday Forest."

Ravanna looked confused. "How? That's not a holiday, so what is she?"

Veilia looked up, her monotone expression that she worn in the orphanage firmly in place. "She became a tree. Or more appropriately, a tree spirit, much like the bridge spirit. She's the guardian spirit that watches over the tree that leads to Ghost Village, or will, when everything in the portal is set up properly." Ravanna's head began to hurt. This was too much info to take in on one sitting. A half-breed? A princess? And her mother was a tree? So who was her father? Before she had time to voice her questions, a bell tolled somewhere overhead.

"We have to go, Veilia. They're calling us to the meeting now." Jack stated calmly, helping Sally out of her seat, keeping her on his arm. Veilia stood with Ravanna, keeping her monotone face at all times.

"Well, Ravanna, welcome home. Time to go to your welcoming ceremony." She whispered, with resent in her voice. Ravanna didn't know whom it was directed at, her or the "ceremony", so she just kept quiet and followed, wondering how following her sister just once had caused so much trouble.

'Guess that's why the teachers say I'm a born leader.'

Deep beneath the Village in a hidden fortress, a spirit conversed with a pair of glowing green eyes that stuck out in the gloom all around them.

"So, the other princess IS still alive… and she's here?" A male spirit with a long silver cloak with white and silver peacock feathers outlined in a silver glitter embroidered down the outside, crowned with gray cobweb thin hair and his face hidden with a white masquerade ball mask with white peacock feathers pondered, sitting on a stone throne with a very arrogant and elegant aura around him.

"Yes. I saw her. She was with the Pumpkin King and his girl." The eyes blinked once during this, their slanted shape showing spite for everything he was talking about, so there was no way to tell if he hated the Pumpkin King or the girls. "Her sister did not seem pleased to see her here." This was followed by a deep and rasping chuckle.

"Hmm. How interesting. One would think Miss Veilia was trying to hide her sister from us, wouldn't one? Well, I think it's high time I met the future Queen Ravanna. Veilia might be spoken for, but her sister is open game." He began calculating, his hand poised over his mouth.

He never noticed the green eyed creature disappear and head towards, yet another, would be ghost king's home, tossing a back of white gold coins in the air. "Thank you, princess! For a very… profitable evening!" his cackle could be heard long into the night.

I don't own the shows. If you're wondering, the song Veilia's singing in the beginning is mine. I've decided to call it, "Waltz of Inner Knowing," because she's realizing that all this time in human world, she lacked self-esteem, while here, she has that and more, so long as she can be with "him".