"The Puritan Village"
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Mayor Corey eagerly showed the group the puritan village that had been built and everyone looked around in awe at the sight, but Davey wasn't a fan.
The puritans were a group of people who were not only racist but sexist as well.
They condemned people for being witches without any real proof.
If someone, namely a woman didn't fit in with everyone else nor did something that everyone else in the town viewed as odd or they weren't God fearing folks, then they would be accused of being witches or cavorting with the devil.
From what Davey had read up on witches, there was no devil in the craft and magic wasn't evil unless the person using it intended to do harm.
Davey may have become a bit sensitive to things like this after she had been forced into a voodoo ritual that had transformed her into a werecat.
Looking around the area, Veemon spotted a man dressed as a puritan selling freshly brewed apple cider and started dragging Davey over to get a drink.
Shaggy and Scooby happily followed after the duo of Miracles, pleased to get someone to fill their bellies with, even if it wasn't food.
Sipping at the warm apple cider on a lovely fall day made Davey smile and purr in contentment as she took in the sights around her, deciding to allow herself to relax and enjoy the beautiful day.
After all, this was supposed to be a vacation.
"What you're seeing is a perfect recreation of what life was like back in the 1600's as re-enacted by our locals." Mayor Corey explained.
"When did all of this go out?" Ben questioned.
"About six months ago." The mayor told him.
Everyone took in the sights of the towns people tended to the turkeys that everyone could take pictures of, baked fresh bread and churned butter.
"This is amazing, Mayor." Velma said.
They then approached a large tree stump that had handmade dolls sitting on it for people to purchase.
"Ooh, corn husk dolls! Aren't they cute, Fred?" Daphne asked picking up a male doll and showing it to her friend.
"Yeah, charming." Fred grinned.
Shaggy had locked himself up in one of the pillories that had been made and Scooby stared at him.
"Hey, look, Scooby. I've been a baaaad boy." Shaggy laughed.
Scooby laughed at that along with the people in the crowd, some of them taking pictures of Shaggy.
"Not sure if we should be laughing at this since people were tormented when they were locked up in those things." Veemon commented.
"Boys, come on, let's go see what else they have here." Davey insisted.
Helping Shaggy out of the pillory, Davey and the boys walked over to a woman who was churning butter.
The woman then looked at Scooby and smiled at him.
"Woulds thou like to churn?" She asked him.
"Huh?" Scooby blinked at that.
"Like, it's your turn to churn the butter, old buddy." Shaggy told him.
"Uh huh!" Scooby nodded and laughed.
"Is it smart to let a dog churn the butter?" Veemon muttered up to Davey.
"It's fine as long as I'm not eating it." Davey told him.
Scooby then walked over and took over churning the butter and some people began taking pictures, in awe that a dog was able to do something like that.
Soon enough, Scooby picked up the butter churn and began playing air guitar with it which had everyone laughing and looking on in amusement.
As he was dancing around, Scooby accidentally dripped some butter on the ground and he slipped on it, falling down, but smiled up at everyone as they laughed at how silly the canine was.
"Now all we need is the popcorn." Shaggy commented as the butter dripped out of the churn.
Over by a shed, Velma was speaking with Mayor Corey and Ben about the ghost that had been brought up earlier.
"So, you say a ghost has been appearing here?" Velma asked.
"That's right, young lady. We disturbed the spirit of Ben's ancestor who was persecuted as a witch way back in 1557." Mayor Corey informed.
Velma gasped that the news and Ben stepped in; outraged over the way someone was talking about his ancestor.
Davey and Veemon were making their way back over to the group, curious over what they were talking about.
"Unjustly persecuted! Sarah Ravencroft was a medicine woman who practised natural healing and was unfairly accused for her eccentric ways." Ben exclaimed.
"That's terrible." Davey said giving the man a look of sympathy.
There may be something off about Ben, but Davey could feel sympathy for the way the Mayor was exploiting his family to make money.
"Just like the Salem witch trials, many men and women who were a bit different or didn't conform to the codes of the colony suffered the same fate." Velma said as she gestured to the pillory.
"Sarah was a healer. It was said that she even kept a journal of all the patients she cured with her herbal remedies." Ben stated proudly.
"So, was she a wiccan?" Veemon asked.
"Actually, wicca is a modern pagan religion. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon a diverse set of ancient pagan and 20th century hermetic motifs for its theological structure and ritual practises." Velma explained.
Veemon stared blankly up at Velma for a moment while Ben appeared very impressed by the brunette's knowledge.
"I-I'm not sure I understand what you said." Veemon confessed.
Davey laughed at that, finding this to be amusing.
"Don't worry about it, Vee." Davey told him.
Shaggy and Scooby were making their way over to the tree stump where the dolls were set up.
"Rook Raggy." Scooby said as he stared at the hat one fo the dolls was wearing.
Picking it up between his teeth, Scooby tossed it into the air and it landed on his head.
"It's a perfect fit, Scoob." Shaggy said as Scooby giggled.
Just then, a strong wind blew the hat off of his head and it landed on the ground by the stump.
A gopher crawled out of the hole by the stump and picked up the hat, looking it over curious.
Scooby leaned down and smiled at the gopher, but the critter dived back down into his hole to hide from the dog.
Frowning, Scooby peered down into the hole and sniffed it.
Reaching his paw down into the hole, Scooby searched for the hat and yelped when he felt the gopher bite him.
Whimpering at the pain, Scooby soon began to growl and started digging, trying to locate the gopher as Shaggy covered his head, trying to protect himself from the dirt clods and rocks being thrown his way.
"Easy, Scoob!" Shaggy called.
Reaching down into the hole he had dug, Scooby found what appeared to be a shoe buckle.
Davey, Veemon, Mayor Corey, Ben and the rest of Mystery Inc began to make their way over to the cowardly duo to see what they had gotten up to.
"Like, what you got there old buddy?" Shaggy asked.
"I don't know." Scooby said as he spat the buckle into Shaggy's hand.
"Wonder what this is." Shaggy mused.
Mayor Corey glances over it and smiles.
"Looks like you found an old shoe buckle, my boy. Probably over 400 years old." Mayor Corey told him.
"Cool!" Shaggy trilled.
Bending down, Shaggy attached the buckle to his shoe and admired it.
"Man. Like, look for another one, Scoob, so I can have a matching pair." Shaggy told him.
"Rokay." Scooby nodded.
"Yeah, we found all sorts of items from the old colony when we cleared this area for construction. Handmade nails, horse shoes, farm equipment." Mayor Corey listed off.
"Amazing what you can find buried in the earth." Davey commented.
"How about a book?" Ben asked making everyone look at him.
"A book?" Mayor Corey frowned.
Ben glanced down at Velma who was staring at him before he continued on with what he was going to say.
"You know how long I've been searching for Sarah's journal to officially clear our family name." Ben reminded the man.
"Sorry, Ben, nothing like that." Mayor Corey told him.
"So, what makes you think its Sarah's ghost haunting this place?" Fred asked.
"Because the ghost said so. Maybe you'll see her tonight." Mayor Corey grinned.
"Oh, boy." Fred rolled his eyes.
"You never know, Fred." Daphne smiled at him.
After all, they already had seen that the paranormal was real after the incident in Louisiana last year.
Daphne then looked over at Davey and gave the young werecat a sad smile.
Loud gurgling noises were heard and everyone turned to look at Shaggy, Scooby and Veemon who were holding their stomachs.
"Hey, we'd like to see a puritan pizza joint. We're starved." Shaggy whimpered.
"Yeah, I'm getting really hungry, too." Davey said.
Mayor Corey laughed at that as he walked over and placed his arms around Davey and Shaggy's shoulders.
"Don't worry young ones. We got the best restaurant in all New England. It's back in town. I'll walk you there." Mayor Corey told them.
Davey scooped Veemon up in her arms and the group began walking off towards town.
"Do you kids want to go or would you like to see my studio?" Ben asked Velma, Fred and Daphne.
"Wow, would we ever!" Velma smiled excitedly.
Stepping forward, Velma then called after Davey and the boys to make sure they heard her.
"Shaggy, we'll meet up with you later!" Velma called making the group stop walking and Shaggy waved back at her.
"Mayor, tell Jack that anything they order is on me!" Ben called.
Everyone stared at Ben with their jaws dropped and horror on their faces.
Did the man have no idea how much Shaggy, Scooby and Veemon could eat?
Speaking of the gluttonous trio, they were all stunned and thrilled over the kind offer.
"Zoinks! Like, what a great guy!" Shaggy exclaimed.
"Yeah, reat!" Scooby licked his lips.
"Very generous!" Veemon added.
"Very dumb is more like it." Davey muttered.
Daphne laughed in amusement as Ben began leading her, Velma and Fred to where his house was.
"You're going to regret that offer, Ben." Daphne told him.
Ben appeared confused by what the redhead meant.
To be continued…