The day before Halloween was a flurry of activity with last-minute preparations, getting candy, completing costumes, and for the children. finishing up all homework so they could enjoy their holiday weekend. MK pretty much spent the day alone, wandering around the bustling town. She stopped by Overland's Antiques and Oddities for a spell, one of the few quiet shops in the town.

"Ah, hello MK, how are you this fine day before the big day?"

MK gave a slight chuckle mixed in with a sigh, "Well, all alone, really, just standing around watching the last of the decorations go up."

"Got your costume ready, and your ball gown?"

MK nodded, "Yup, mine is all ready. Sarah May still needs a ball gown, but at least she's got her costume ready."

Jack's eyes twinkled, "Ah, are you here to get her one from my stash?"

"Wh-what? Why would she wear any of those?"

Jack shrugged, "Well, it's all she's got left, right? And since Jamie already knew about you being a detective, you can consider this payment for the information you found at Jason's. How does that sound?"

MK thought for a bit, "Well, alright."

"Do you know your friend well enough to choose a dress for her? Or would you rather wait until after school when she can come and choose for herself?"

MK gave a slight grin, "I know her pretty well enough to choose right now. And if I remember the dresses correctly, then there's only a couple that would work."

"Right, well, come on into the back, then, and choose a dress for your friend." MK nodded before following him to the back. She knew exactly what Sarah May would like, there really were only two options, the red dress with the brown bears, and the green dress with the black dragons. Jack opened the wardrobe for her, and she rummaged through the dresses, looking at each one carefully. But the two she had figured out that would work were the only two that she knew Sarah May would like. However, just as it was described in Brown Bear of Norway, the green of the dress matched Richard's eyes perfectly, and with the recent developments in their relationship, MK wasn't sure if getting that one for Sarah may was such a good idea. She picked out the red dress.

She turned to Jack, sighing, "I know, I know, this is the dress Princess Merida wore in Brown Bear of Norway, but it's the only one Sarah May would like."

Jack just smirked, "That's perfectly alright. Would you like to have the bear clip to go with it?"

"Um . . ."

"If you want to, you can work for it. I have a task that you can do, if you don't mind doing it."

MK glanced at him, a little curiosity taking over, "What is it?"

"Could you check out what's in the basement of Glittering Gewels?"

MK blinked, "What? Why?"

Jack shrugged, "Well, George was telling me there's a bunch of stuff down there that he's willing to give me, but I can't leave my shop anytime soon, and he wants some of it out by tomorrow. So could you go and take a look, bring me back a list of what's down there, and we'll go from there?"

MK let out a puff of air, "Alright, it's better than sitting around doing nothing."

Jack grinned, "Thanks MK, you're the best." MK merely rolled her eyes as she picked up the dress before leaving the shop. Going back to the hotel to get her car, she drove over to Glittering Gewels to get the list.

"Well, hello there again, how are ya?" asked George when she walked in.

"Doing rather well, thank you. I'm here on behalf of Jackson Overland, he regrets that he couldn't come himself, but he couldn't leave the shop and asked me to bring him a list of everything you've got."

George led her into the back,"Oh good, because I do need this stuff out before tomorrow night. There's one door to the basement, and there's the other. Go ahead and take a look, I'm helping another customer. I'll be down there to help when we're finished here."

MK smiled, "Thanks." She took a quick glance around the back of Glittering Gewels, it looked like a giant cavern with a smithy at the far back, a large opening in the front wall and a large one in the top to let out the smoke. One basement door took up nearly half the cavern floor, the other was at the far wall behind the smithy. MK took the smaller door to go down to the basement, and was taken back by what she saw. There were tons of jewelry, antiques, and definitely several oddities. She looked through several old Viking pieces, shields, axes, even a sword or two. She went about sorting through everything, and wrote down every piece that she found. The strangest that she found were large saddles, she knew there wasn't a horse alive big enough to fit any of these, so what were they used for? When George finally got down there after taking care of several customers, as he explained, MK was about halfway through.

"Wow, nice work you're doing there, young lady! This is the cleanest I've ever seen my basement! Oh look! You found my pliers! Been wondering where that went."

MK stood up from taking another shield to its pile, wiping her sweaty forehead with her arm, "Well, there's still a lot that needs to be done."

"Then let's hurry this up then, two of my boys just came back from an errand I sent them on, so if the two of us work hard, we should get this done before lunch!"

"Mr. Goodwin?"

"Oh, just call me George."
"Alright, uh, George, why do you need this all out by tomorrow?"

"Eh? Oh, Richard had an idea for a Halloween attraction, but my basement is the only one large enough for it."

"What is it?"

George only gave her a mysterious grin, "You'll just have to come by tomorrow night and see for yourself. Though, some of this might work for his idea, I'll have to ask him about it. Leave all the Vikings stuff here for now, I don't think Jack could use that anyway." MK nodded, and the two went back to work. George was a bit off on his calculations as they had about a sixth of it left when they took a break for lunch. But they did manage to finish that last little bit in fifteen minutes when they got back from lunch. When they were done, MK noticed something strange in the wooden floorboards, it looked like a trap door, a rather large trap door. She decided to leave it unexplored for the moment and left to give Jack the list, George hauling up the pieces of jewelry that they had found into his shop.

"Wow, there's a ton of stuff down there!" exclaimed Jack as he looked over the list.

"Well yeah, his basement's large enough to fit Godzilla! Well, at least his head."

Jack raised an eyebrow, "That large, huh? And yet you were able to sort through everything before lunch."

"Almost everything, we finished up the last bit after lunch."

"You still got it done fairly quick for such a large basement."

"OK, his basement wasn't filled to the top with stuff, and a lot of it was small. The bigger stuff was all the Viking pieces that George said to leave in case Richard decides to use that for his Halloween attraction. Do you know anything about that?"

Jack blinked, though an inkling of an idea had entered his mind, "No idea, he didn't tell me anything about that."

"Oh really? With all the time he spends here, you'd think the two of you would have become best friends."

Jack laughed, "Maybe we have, but even then, best friends keep secrets from each other."

"N-no they wouldn't."

"Oh, so you've never had to keep a secret from your best friend so as not to spoil the surprise birthday party, or the Christmas present?"

"Oh, right. Do you think it might be a surprise for all of us?"

Jack shrugged, "Wouldn't put it past him. I have come to know him well enough to know that he does enjoy planning and building things. I also know that he likes to put his heart and his back into thanking people, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's an 'invite only' event. That, and, I think he's interested in working with George, so this might be a good way to get the guy to consider hiring him. But don't tell him that."

"Oh, wow. I won't breathe a word."

"Thanks MK, though I think it's also to get his mind off of Sarah May's distance."

MK pursed her lips and glanced away, it was hard on both of them, it seemed, "Oh, I see. I-I am trying to get her to see that Esther and Richard think of each other as nothing more than friends, and that Richard really does care for her."

Jack's eyes twinkled, "Ah, I see, so I have another ally. If this idea of Richard's really is his thank-you to all of us, you'd better make sure Sarah May doesn't know that it's from him, tell her it's from me, if you have to, and at the first chance we get, get them alone together. Esther is more than willing to help."

MK cracked a smile, "And I'm sure Jamie is as well."

Jack grinned, "You can count on that. If that's the case, we'd better get back to business, Richard doesn't have much time then." Jack turned back to the list, quickly glancing over everything that was left, MK having crossed out the jewelry George took and the Viking pieces he felt Richard might need. His eyes widened slightly at several of the pieces, but MK only thought that he was surprised with the number of items, and what was staying at Glittering Gewels. Jack basically circled the rest that were available before handing the list back to MK. "Think that will all fit into your car?"

"More likely than the things that are staying, though I might have to make two trips. Those tapestries would take up about half of the room," quipped MK, glancing through the list.

Jack nodded, "That's fine, as long as it's all in my shop before dinner."

MK sighed, rolling her eyes, "Oh, fine." She left to bring the stuff from Glittering Gewels to Overland's Antiques and Oddities. Jack went into the back to clear up some space to put the items, a little smile playing on his lips.

"Well, it looks like your daughter just found the dragons, and everything else, it seems, from your castle."