"Okay, the next one could be a problem. I don't even know if he can speak or understand us." They didn't stand in front of a house, but of a cave. It didn't have anything that could be defined as a door, just a dark gaping hole where the entrance was. Rylai took a deep breath. Then she called: "Hello Roshan! You have visitors!"

A second passed, then two. Then the deepest voice Lanaya had ever heard answered. "Come in." The sound kind of vibrated through her body and the words were almost not discernible through the deep rumbling. The Crystal Maiden shuddered slightly but smiled at her before she stepped into the dark. She vanished immediately, as if the dark had swallowed her, and the Assassin hurried after her.

And stopped dead in her tracks. She knew how the cave of Roshan looked in the town wars. It was always the same: small, dark, wet and uncomfortable. Nothing anyone would want to live in. But this here, it was completely different. The floor was covered completely by the plushest carpet she had ever seen. Or felt. The walls were coloured in a light yellow tone and pictures, from tiny to huge, were hanging everywhere. Two enormous chandeliers hung from the ceiling, bathing everything in warm light. The room was split by some movable wooden wall into more than one part.

Everything looked warm, and inviting and nice. And then Roshan stepped out from behind one of the wooden separators. He was huge and he himself didn't look any different than in the town wars, where Lanaya had fought against him more than once and had killed him (also more than once). She just hoped it had not always been the same creature but some kind of replication of him, otherwise he would probably kick her out of the cave immediately.

Rylai stared at the creature with wide eyes. "Oh, unbelievable, you are huge!" Then she smiled at him, as always ignoring his height and his rather frightening appearance. "Trick or Treat!"

The face of Roshan showed no emotion as he stared at the Maiden. Then he grabbed a handful of things from behind the wall and dropped them in front of her. The pile of things he had been able to fit in his hands was higher than Rylai and it consisted of shields, sticks, scrolls, potions and some other stuff. A few axes were there as well.

"Well, that's very nice of you, but those are not really treats." The Maiden tapped at a shield and when the pile slid a little, she jumped backwards.

"I thought so." The rumbling of his voice vibrated even more this close to the creature. "Don't really know what to do with the shit, though." He left them standing for a moment, the pile of stuff lying there. Before the two women could do more than look at each other, he was back.

"Here." He dumped the content of his hands into a second pile. This time it was sweets but they were huge. Everything was packed into coloured paper, chocolate, bonbons, gummy bears, candy, fudge, confect, and so on. But every single piece was about half as big as the Crystal Maiden was and the entire pile was even bigger than the first one.

"Oh." Rylai took a wrapped chocolate (she had to use both hands to lift it) and stared at it. "These are awesome!" She looked at Roshan and smiled. "Thank you! I can't take them all but maybe three or four." She showed her basket, which was too small to fit even one piece of the sweets.

Roshan nodded. "Take what you want, I put the rest away again."

Lanaya had to help to carry the four sweets to the griffon. "I wonder where he gets them this huge."

"There are lots of huge creatures. I know some who live near my place, and they always make cakes that are bigger than me. Sometimes they drop one in front of my door and I can eat from it with my whole staff for days. It's awesome."

The image of the Maiden in front of such a cake was definitely funny. As it was to see her carrying two huge wrapped sweets, only her legs and feet visible from her body, making her look like a walking chocolate.

Lucky for them their griffon had magical bags strapped to its sides where they could carry the sweets without problems. And off they were to the next house.