Author's Note: Back, by popular demand (no, seriously, I got a lot of requests from a lot of different folks for one of these), a new Halloween tale. Happy Halloween, my friends! ;)

Late one autumn afternoon, only a few days before the Tibetan Festival of Paldam Llamo, Kuai Liang peeked around a corner and saw Sifu Halsey walking down the hall towards his living quarters. Quickly, he looked back at his brother, Bi-Han, who was standing behind him. "Here he comes. Let's get ready." Immediately, both Cryomancers shoved dark, plastic pouches into their cheeks just as their teacher turned the corner.

"What are you idjits doin'?" he immediately asked.

"Sifu, my mouth hurts," Kuai Liang whined as fake blood began oozing out of his and Bi-Han's mouths, dribbling onto the floor in a disgusting puddle.

Halsey pressed his lips together as he cocked his head, and let out a long, impatient exhalation. "You see what happens when you don't floss!"

Both boys started chuckling while Halsey continued to glare at them, but after a long moment, he started laughing too. He tousled Kuai Liang's hair while the Cryomancer wiped the fake blood from his face with his black shirt sleeve. "Get this mess cleaned up, idjits."

Suddenly, Tomas' voice echoed through the hallway. "Hey, alright! Blood capsules. I love those!" The three turned to look at him and they saw that he carried a plain white box.

"And you know what really goes good with 'em?" Halsey asked with a smile as the young Czech teenager joined his friends. He opened the door to his bedroom and escorted them in.

"What's that?"

"Puss pellets," he replied as he rifled through his desk and found a paper bag. He tossed it to Kuai Liang while Tomas set his box on the desk and went to examine the treasure with his best friend.

"Ew," Bi-Han mumbled, his nose wrinkling in disgust.

Halsey ignored the oldest of the three. "Just don't squeeze 'em until Paldam Llamo."

Kuai Liang and Tomas tore through the paper bag in excitement. "Thank you, Sifu!" the youngest Cryomancer said. "Now we have all this great Paldam Llamo junk. Fake skeletons. Masks. Mummy wrapping tape!"

Halsey smiled. "Well, you've got to have mummy wrapping tape. You don't wanna see your mummy naked." Bi-Han immediately groaned at the joke.

"Sifu, I don't see any rubber guts," Tomas complained a minute later.

"How can we go to the Festival without rubber guts?" Kuai Liang asked. His question was sincere. He genuinely wanted to know.

Halsey scowled and pointed at him. "Let me tell you somethin', little mister," he began, his tone serious. "When I was your age, we didn't have rubber guts. We had to use real guts."

Bi-Han sighed. "This is why you two babies are lucky to have me. I asked Xiao-Ping to special order them." He reached into his deep pockets and yanked out rubber re-creations of a few human organs. "Here's a stomach, a spleen, and a couple of colons."

"Bi-Han, you are too cool," Tomas praised as the boys took the toys from him.

"Thanks," the eldest said. "But don't let the Grandmaster or my father catch you with them. You'll get in trouble."

"They can keep 'em in my office," Halsey told him gently as he patted his shoulder.

"Bi-Han, how did you pay for them?" Kuai Liang wanted to know. "You don't have any money."

"Oh, well, about that," his older brother began. "Xiao-Ping let me have them for free as long as we help him in his store during the Festival. You know it's always crazy in his shop every year. I told him it would be no problem. As long as Sifu Halsey could sneak us out, that is."

Halsey rolled his eyes and sighed in annoyance. "Well, I guess I have to now."

Bi-Han smiled. "Thank you, Sifu."

"Think nothin' of it," the other replied. "It'll do you gits some good doin' some community service." His eyes now rested on the box that Tomas had brought in. "Oh, good, Tomas. You got my spice cake. I've been waitin' for that for weeks!"

"Yeah, they did a really good job," Tomas told him, flashing Kuai Liang a mischievous smile. "The baker in Hong Kong loaded it up with tons of cream cheese frosting. The messenger had me double-check it to make sure it was okay before he'd let me take it. Why don't you take a look?"

"I think I will," Halsey replied. He was practically salivating. He went to the box and lifted the lid. Immediately, a gory rubber head mounted to a spring release popped up. Instantly, he and Kuai Liang screamed in terror, and even Bi-Han jumped a little. Tomas, meanwhile, had started giggling so hard that he'd collapsed onto his back and was now rolling on the floor.

A few days later, on the day of Paldam Llamo, the three young warriors and Halsey had trekked at dawn into the village of Tingri to help the shopkeeper, Xiao-Ping, with chores around his store. One of the first things the aging man told them to do was to paint the shop's façade. So he gave the boys a couple buckets of paint and some large brushes, and then he ushered Bi-Han and Halsey inside to help him in there.

"Hey, Kuai Liang, would you open that can for me please?" Tomas asked him, feigning tiredness to mask his true intentions.

Grumbling, genuinely tired, the Cryomancer leaned over and pulled the canister between his crossed legs. With a screwdriver, he pried open the lid. Instantly, the gory head that had been in Halsey's cake box several days ago popped out. Kuai Liang yelped and flung himself backwards while Tomas collapsed into uncontrollable giggles.

"Kuai Liang, Kuai Liang, Kuai Liang," he began. "I can't believe you fell for the old head in the paint can gag."

"I guess we're starting the party early. That is, unless you've found a sick new way to celebrate Mexican Revolution Day," his best friend grumbled as he got to his feet and dusted himself off before he flicked his paintbrush at him, flecking his ratty clothes with bright green paint. Tomas laughed and flicked his brush back, and their antics would've evolved into a full-blown war had a villager trotted up to him then.

"Are you the Lin Kuei warrior known as Tomas Vrbada?" he asked in Tibetan.

A big smile spread across his face. "Did you hear that?" he asked his friend in English. "He said I'm a warrior."

"That's because he doesn't know you," Kuai Liang drily remarked.

"Why yes, I am the warrior, Tomas Vrbada," he answered the man in Tibetan.

"A girl asked me to bring this to you," he stiffly announced as he thrust a gold box into the teenager's hands. Then he hurried away. It wasn't an uncommon reaction. The people in Tingri tended to fear anyone in the Lin Kuei, even the children.

Tomas hardly cared. He beamed. "Look, a lotus blossom!" he grinned. "Guess someone likes me."

"Don't kid yourself," Kuai Liang said. "No one likes you."

Tomas stuck his tongue out at him and then began reading the accompanying letter out loud. "Dear Tomas, I am falling deeply in love with you. I watch you every day you are in the village and I dream about you every night. I hope you like the khabsey that I baked for you. Love, your secret admirer, Pema." With his unfailing, ornery grin, he looked up at Kuai Liang. "You know, this is the second letter I've gotten from her this week. Did you hear that? She dreams about me every night."

"It sounds like she has a sleeping disorder," the Cryomancer retorted.

Tomas chuckled. "Kuai Liang, don't be jealous," he said. "You'll get some love letters from a real girl someday. Just change your name to 'Occupant.'"

"Can we just get this done, lover boy?" the other said. "I don't want to be working all day."

Inside Xiao-Ping's house, his wife, Asman, and Tomas' new friend, Gabby, were working hard rolling out dough for khabsey. Despite all odds, Tomas had managed to sweet-talk the American girl into helping with the chores that day, and dutifully, she showed up at Xiao-Ping's shop at dawn ready to work. Asman immediately put the teenager to work in the kitchen, and she, along with Asman's oldest daughter, Sabira, were elbow deep in flour and sugar.

"I really am grateful to you for helping us with this party," Asman kindly told Gabby as they worked.

Gabby smiled. "What else have I got to do?" she said. "My parents are climbing up Mount Everest again since they couldn't do it the last time we were here."

"I can think of a few things I'd like to do if my family were out of town," Sabira said with a smile of her own.

"Like what?"

With that, the front door swung open and Tomas, Bi-Han, and Xiao-Ping stomped in. Sabira glanced at them before she looked back at Gabby and answered. "Change the locks." Now she greeted the men. "Hello."

Tomas immediately gave Asman a hug. "Hello, ladies," he said. "Hello, Sabira," he said nasally, now smirking at Bi-Han, who still had a crush on her. The Cryomancer scowled at him before he dropped his gift box of khabsey on the long table.

"Oh, no, what's gonna pop out of that?" Gabby demanded to know. She'd been the victim of the spring-loaded head earlier in the week the same as Kuai Liang.

"Nothing," he chirped, "that's just some khabsey that a secret admirer made me."

Sabira laughed. "Yeah, right, you have a secret admirer."

Tomas wrinkled his nose indignantly. "Her name is Pema and she's sent me two letters this week."

"Uh-huh," Gabby mumbled skeptically while she reached for the box to steal one.

"No, don't touch that!" Sabira scolded her as she swatted her hand. "It's probably full of slimy frog eyeballs or something."

Tomas rolled his eyes and promptly opened the lid, revealing a pile of harmless, deep-fried pastries twisted like ribbons. Instantly, Sabira's eyes bugged out of her head. "Ooh, it's khabsey. Let me have one."

"Nope," Tomas said as he yanked his box away from her. "You made fun of me."

Gabby reached for one. "How about me?" she hopefully asked.

"Nope, you're her friend," he said.

"Come on, Tomas," Xiao-Ping began as everyone laughed at his joke. "I want you to decorate the inside of my shop."

"Fine, but I'm taking my khabsey with me," he said, winking at the girls.

A short time later, Tomas was alone in the shop that adjoined to Xiao-Ping's house, and he was nearly finished hanging a fake skeleton inside the darkened doorway to the main house. It was grotesque and realistic, almost as if someone had unearthed a grave and somehow wired the bones to stay together.

"Yup, that'll work," he muttered to himself when he was finished, pleased by his handiwork. "That'll scare everybody." As he tugged on it to make sure that it wouldn't come down by accident, the telephone – one of the only ones in Tingri – began to ring. Tomas looked around, but there was no one else in the shop with him, so he figured he should answer it. It was probably someone wanting to place an order.

"Oh, hang in there!" he joked with the skeleton before he headed for the counter. "Hello, Happy Palden Llamo Day."

"Hello, Tomas, this is Pema," a sweet, feminine voice said in Tibetan.

"Pema…" he trailed off in confusion. "I don't know any- Oh, Pema, cookie Pema."

"I take it you got my treat for you?"

Oh, yeah, sure, I got the khabsey, thank you very much. That was very ni-"

"I love you," she breathed heavily. "I want you."

"What?" he asked, both bewildered and flattered, though slightly afraid. No girl had ever said anything like that to him, and he doubted any ever would since he was in the Lin Kuei. Romance was generally forbidden to its warriors. "You're in love with me? You want me?" Tomas started to ask why, but then it occurred to him that it had to be his best friend attempting to play a prank on him to get even for the head in the paint can. "This is a joke, Kuai Liang. It's not even that funny."

"I'm not Kuai Liang," she said, the slightest hint of irritation creeping in. "My name is Pema."

"Of course you're not Kuai Liang. Or Gabby. How silly of me. No, no. In that case, I love you too. Yes! We should hang out sometime. Yup, just you and me. Kuai Liang and Gabby won't know. My friends, they're real slow." He erupted into laughter.

"Excuse me?" Kuai Liang's voice indignantly asked behind him.

Startled, the Czech boy whirled around, his eyes bulging from his head. "Kuai Liang?" he cried when he saw him and Gabby standing there. "You're not on the phone?"

Kuai Liang crossed his arms and smirked at him. "And you called us slow?"

"This is Pema, the person who sent me the khabsey. She says she wants me!" he yelped in a panic.

"Tell her she can have you," the Cryomancer boy said quite simply.

Nervously, Tomas thrust the phone receiver into his friend's hands. "You tell her."

Kuai Liang rolled his eyes as he held the phone up to his ear. "Um, you can have him," he told the person on the other end. "Hello? Hello?" He scowled, scoffed, and shoved the phone back into the other's hands. "There's no one there, Tomas. You are so full of it. What, is a little head gonna pop out of here now?"

"No, she was on the phone!" he insisted, fear creeping in. He should've been happy a girl was this interested in him, but this was verging on scary.

"How did she even know you'd be here?" Gabby wanted to know. "It's not like you advertise when you come into Tingri. And I sure didn't tell anyone."

"I bet she's watching you," Kuai Liang teased as he wiggled his fingers at him. "Maybe she's even following you."

"That's not funny!" he yelled. "Pema was on the phone!"

The Cryomancer scoffed. "Yeah, right. Look, Tomas, I know how badly you want a girl to like you. Just hang in there. One of these days, you'll get one."

"Where are you going?" Gabby called as the Czech boy promptly took his box and then stormed towards the door.

"To find Sifu Halsey," he snapped. This wasn't funny. Why did his friends think it was? "Maybe he'll be able to help me instead of make fun of me."

He found his Sifu in the goat pen, mucking out Oniro's stall with a shovel. The tall, muscular man immediately saw him, and as he wiped the sweat and dirt from his brow, he nodded at the teenager. "Hello, Tomas," he greeted. "Come to help me?"

"No, I came to ask you a question," he answered. "Let's say you wanted to know when I was coming into the village, but didn't. How would you go about getting that information?"

Halsey panted as he leaned on his shovel. "I already know when you come into the village, even if you don't think I do. I know your comings and goings better than you do."

Tomas frowned. "I know, but let's just say you didn't."

"Then I suppose I would just ask you to tell me."

"But what if you didn't know me?"

"Then why would I even care?"

Tomas sighed and leaned wearily against the fence post. "Boy, I wish I was friendlier with some of the other people in this town," he muttered before he thoughtfully bit into one of the khabsey treats Pema had made for him.

Halsey cocked his head sympathetically. "Alright, what's troublin' you, idjit?"

Tomas looked at him, his face oddly absent its usual smile. "I just got an odd phone call inside the store from this secret admirer who sent me a couple of love letters. But how did she even know I was here working?"

"Oh ho, that is a concern," he replied in all seriousness. "I hope you're not dealin' with an obsessed girl. Sometimes when they see one of us in uniform, they start idolizin' him. Girls love a man in uniform. And sometimes, they'll even fall so crazy in love that they'll send that person gifts."

Tomas looked uneasily at the khabsey that he'd been munching. "Like cookies?"

"Mmm-hmm," Halsey nodded yes. "That's a good and tasty possibility, though I'd be very cautious about eatin' anything that they send. It could be poisoned, you know."

Instantly, Tomas started letting the chewed up cookie fall from his mouth. He tried to be discreet, but Halsey saw it immediately and started chuckling and shaking his head.

Inside the shop, both Kuai Liang and Gabby looked out the side window at Tomas and Halsey as the two talked. "This is going so well," he laughed as he looked at the American girl Tomas had befriended several months prior. "This is gonna get Tomas back for every prank he's ever pulled on me. The severed thumb in my rice pudding. The tarantula in my bed roll."

Gabby giggled. "Good thing you convinced your teacher to get in on it as well."

"Yeah, he's freaking him out even more!" Kuai Liang snickered.

Then she sighed. "I wish I had a teacher as cool as him. I don't know what he's telling him, but he's clearly got him worked up."

Outside, Tomas had tilted his head back and was now forcing out a weird seal-like cough as he rubbed his throat. The inside of it hurt. He was certain he'd just swallowed something acidic, and slowly, it was corroding the delicate tissues inside his body. At the thought, an almost copper-like taste flavored his saliva.

Bless his heart, Halsey was still trying to reassure him. "Tomas, Tomas, Tomas!" he gently admonished. "I wouldn't worry. If that batch of khabsey was poisoned, I'm sure you'd have felt the effects by now."

Tomas continued rubbing his throat. "I don't know. I've got this burning, bile feeling in there now." He couldn't bring himself to believe his Sifu in spite of his adamancy.

"You're gonna be fine, ya idjit!" cried impatiently. "Now get back to work before I give you a real reason to worry about your life."

Later, after drinking a ton of water, Tomas finally felt well enough again to sweep the kitchen area for Asman while she bathed her younger children in a back room and got them dressed for the festivities. His thoughts dwelled on this Pema. Was he overreacting, like Sifu Halsey had said? Was she merely a nice girl who maybe just came on a little too strongly? He tried to insist that was the case, but his brain didn't want to listen. Every hair on his body stood on edge, mimicking a fearful cat. Girls were crazy, he decided.

At the thought, there was a sudden knock on the door. He nearly jumped from his skin. He immediately hoisted up his broom and prepared to bludgeon someone to death with it as he crept to the door. "Is that you, Pema?" he shouted as he flung the door open.

It was only Gabby. Her eyes went wide in surprise. "Hello. Nice to see you too," she drily remarked as she carried several baskets of fruits and vegetables into the kitchen. She dropped them on the table.

Tomas instantly felt terrible for threatening to hit her. "I'm really sorry, Gabby," he apologized. "I thought you were just some crazed lunatic."

She shrugged. "Nah, I'm just your run-of-the-mill lunatic."

Now Kuai Liang came into the house from the shop and saw him still holding the broom like a weapon. "Tomas, put the stick down!" he yelled. "I am so sorry, Gabby. He's not usually this stupid."

"That's okay," she replied as she started pulling food from the baskets. "What's his deal, anyway?"

"Remember that secret admirer who sent him khabsey this morning?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"He's convinced that she's obsessed with him."

Tomas leaned the broom against the wall and stood by Gabby. She wasn't teasing him nearly as much as his so-called best friend, so she felt decidedly safer to be around. "Halsey said that sometimes a crazy admirer will send you poisoned food," he told her, hoping to win her sympathy.

"Ooh, that's true!" the Cryomancer teased as he flopped onto one of the long benches, grabbed an apple, and took a loud, crunchy bite. "Those cookies were deep-fried in oil, and oil is very high in cholesterol. She could be trying to kill you slowly."

Gabby softly chuckled while he glared daggers at his friend. "Tomas," she began, "can you do me a favor? I left a few big pumpkins and squash for Asman outside. Can you go get them for me?"

"Sure," he replied.

"Unless you're afraid that Pema is hiding behind the stack of wood," Kuai Liang teased. Wordlessly, Tomas hissed at him and stamped outside.

When he was gone, Gabby grabbed an apple and bit into it as she looked at him. "He really looks nervous."

"Yeah," Kuai Liang agreed. "He's a total wreck. Isn't it great?"

"This is the best prank I've seen since we super-glued Grandma to the toilet seat," she declared.

The young Cryomancer cocked his head at her and looked at her in disbelief. "You what?" he chuckled as if he hadn't heard her right.

The American girl wrinkled her lightly-freckled nose indignantly. "Hey, you didn't know her. She was a mean, old bat." Kuai Liang laughed just as Tomas came back inside, so she cleared her throat and said, "You know, Kuai Liang, I think you should take this Pema thing pretty seriously. You know, my parents have me in therapy, so I know for a fact that there are a lot of psychos out there."

He scoffed. "But why would anyone be obsessed with Tomas?"

"Because I'm obsessable," the Czech teenager answered for her.

"Tomas, I sleep in the same room as you, and I barely think about you," the other joked, snickering lightly as the other scowled at him.

"So you think this is real funny, don't you?" he growled. "There could be a girl out there fantasizing about me right now."

"Please. What is she fantasizing about? That you come to her house late at night and blow smoke rings around her head?"

"Kuai Liang, I don't think you should joke about this," Gabby intervened before Tomas punched him in the face. "You know, these people can be dangerous."

He cocked his head at her and asked her in all seriousness, "Do you really think so? I mean, we study all sorts of martial arts for crying out loud. It's funny because he can more than take care of himself."

"Well, maybe, but I think Tomas should still watch his step."

Tomas patted her on the shoulder. "Yeah! Thanks, Gabby. You're a real friend. Unlike this sack of Yeti poop."

"Okay, maybe you're right." He looked at his friend. "Tomas, if you're that worried about this, I think you should just skip the Festival tonight."

Tomas snorted. "No way. I love Palden Llamo. I will not live my life in fear." With that, he opened the door to the shop. Instantly, the skeleton that he rigged earlier dropped in front of him, prompting him to scream. "Well that unkinked my colon!" he told his friends. "Get out of the way!" he yelled as he shoved it aside and wedged his way through.

After the doors to the shop officially opened, Tomas lingered in the back storeroom, afraid to go onto the sales floor and interact with Xiao-Ping's customers. He milled around there so long that eventually, Bi-Han came back there to find a special package someone had ordered. When the elder Cryomancer saw him pacing, he looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Hey, Bi-han," he greeted. "Did you notice any women in the shop today?"

Bi-Han raised an eyebrow at him. "I didn't notice, but there are always women in the shop, doofus. Why?"

"No reason," he shrugged, hoping to come off calm and collect. "Can you do me a favor? Can you go out there and see if any of them look particularly obsessed?"

"Obsessed?" the other repeated. His eyebrows arched even further into his eyebrows.

"Yeah, you know. Like, they've got the same look on their face when I'm looking at a plate of khir?"

Bi-Han was clearly not in the mood. "Get out there now," he sternly barked. "We promised we'd help Xiao-Ping keep an eye on things."

The Czech boy sighed. "All right." Reluctantly, he trudged from the storeroom and noticed that it was packed wall-to-wall with…teenage girls and young women. He coughed and cleared his throat, sidling his way towards Sabira. "Gosh, there's a lot of women in the shop today, Sabira."

"That's right," she nodded. "The Ladies' Sharpshooter Club from Houston in America is touring Asia, and they decided to visit Tingri during Palden Llamo."

Tomas looked at his companions in disbelief as a small group of the tourists spotted him and sauntered to him and Bi-Han. He began laughing uncomfortably, wishing they were here on a better day; ordinarily, he loved interacting with the visitors to Tingri, and especially the attractive teenage girls. But today, he couldn't begin to enjoy himself. "Haha, welcome, Sharpshooters," he greeted in English as he slinked behind Bi-han like a fearful rabbit. "My name is Tomas, and my friend here is called 'Bullseye Bi-han'." He began drawing a circle across the Cryomancer's chest, but the other batted his hand away in annoyance.

"You're both really cute," a curvy black girl wearing a purple North Face coat said quite bluntly.

Another girl in a fur-trimmed coat, this one with dark eyes and hair stepped forward and gently ran her long fingers through Tomas' downy hair. "How do you get your hair to do that? Is that an Asian thing?" she asked.

"He's not from Asia, he's from the Czech Republic," Bi-Han grinned. He clearly liked the attention. Tomas, however, couldn't believe him.

"Shut up, Bi-han!" he angrily whispered. He then looked at the girls with a nervous smile.

"Ooh, he's shy," a third girl said with a grin. She was the prettiest of the group, at least to Tomas. She had springy blond curls and pale blue eyes. She reminded him of Ilsa, the baker back in Prague.

"No way, he's European," the second girl argued as she leaned in flirtatiously. "I've heard that European boys have no…inhibitions. Maybe you can teach us about Palden Llamo."

Tomas nervously laughed even harder now. "You know, Palden Llamo isn't just about celebrating the patron goddess of Tibet. It's also about…frisking people." Bi-Han immediately shot him a surprised look. "Would you do the honors today, big guy?" he asked as he patted his arm.

"What's gotten into you?" he demanded to know. "No, I won't frisk them."

"Too bad," girl number one immediately said.

Bi-han turned his attention to the three, flashing his winningest smile at them. "Don't mind him. He's an idiot. Today is to pay homage to the goddess, Palden Llamo."

"And that's all the time we have for cultural exchange today, ladies," Tomas said. "See you next time!" With that, he darted from the store into the house.

"Tomas? Tomas!" Bi-Han called as he ran after him. "You're not going to help me help Xiao-Ping, are you? Why did I even agree to those terms? I knew you'd never help. You're too lazy."

Tomas started to reply with an indignant response, but Sabira immediately cut him off. "Tomas?" she began as she joined the two Lin Kuei warriors. "I found this on the counter in the shop. It's addressed to you." She thrust a pink envelope and a lotus flower towards him.

"It's a flower!" he yelped. "I don't want it. Get rid of it!"

Sabira looked at Bi-Han for support. "Boys and girls sure react differently to getting flowers."

Bi-Han nodded and took the envelope from her. "Well, you should at least read it, Tomas."

"I don't want to read it," he stubbornly answered.

Against his wishes, the Cryomancer began reading the note that was tucked inside the envelope. "My dearest Tomas, I'm in Xiao-Ping's shop today. Tonight, I'll be even closer at the Festival."

"Great."

"Don't reject my affections or you'll be sorry. Love, Pema."

"This is just great," Tomas said. Immediately, he slid into his state of invisibility and crept out of the house.

When he was gone, Sabira grinned and looked at Bi-Han. "Bi-han, don't you think it's mean what we're doing to Tomas?" she asked as she threaded her fingers through his.

Bi-Han nodded, and a twinkle of mirth sparkled in his deep blue eyes. "Yes, I do," he told her. Both started laughing at the joke.

That evening, the Festival was in full swing. Paper lanterns glowing in a wide assortment of colors had been strung over the tops of the streets, casting a dim light on the partygoers below. There were booths teeming with snack foods and alcoholic beverages. People were dancing, partying, and celebrating Paldam Llamo by wearing freaky masks and parading through the streets. Everyone present raucously laughed and cheered, clearly having fun. Everyone, that was, but Tomas.

He stood by himself near Xiao-Ping's booth, surveying the rowdy crowd, but at long last he saw Gabby dressed in traditional Tibetan robes and making her way towards him. Her passage was difficult since people crowded her on all sides. Immediately, he left his post and scurried towards her. On the way, he bumped into several people – more like they squashed him from every possible angle – and one random guy even hugged him.

"Hey, good to see you!" he quickly said in Tibetan, not really thinking about the words. When he shuffled away, Tomas muttered to himself, "Who is that?"

At long last, he reached Gabby on the other side of the street. "Did you get me a mask?" he asked her, unable to hide the anxiety in his voice.

"Of course I did," she said with a smile. "I didn't let you down." She immediately reached into a bag she was carrying and withdrew a feminine mask and handed it to him.

He looked at her in disgust. "What were you thinking when you picked this out for me? A goddess? I'm not a girl."

She shrugged. "Well, by the time I got there, there wasn't much left. It was either a goddess or Michael Jackson."

"What's the difference?" he retorted, and she giggled in response. One time, Gabby had played him a Michael Jackson album on her Walkman. He was not impressed by the so-called King of Pop. "Is it just my imagination, or is everyone dressed up like Death?" he asked her a moment later.

"Well, Death is a very popular costume this year," she said. "You know, because black is very slimming."

"Then why don't people just dress up like licorice?"

Gabby smiled and patted his shoulder. "Tomas, would you just relax?" she pleaded. "Your Sifu is watching out for you, and so is your friend, Bi-han. And you've also got me. I'm scarier than either of those two."

"Well, you're right about that," he agreed. She rolled her eyes and frowned on the side of her face.

"And Kuai Liang is keeping an eye out for any weird girls," she added.

Tomas looked over at Kuai Liang, who was talking with some of the tourist girls from America. "Oh, right, my crack security Yeti." While he watched and Kuai Liang was distracted, Tomas saw a girl in a costume slip past him and head towards him. He began to shake. For a moment, he was certain it was Pema, and he readied himself for a fight with her. But then at the last second, she veered towards a nearby booth. "Kuai Liang? Kuai Liang!" he yelled as he ran to his friend. He was still trembling; the adrenaline in his blood was making him light-headed. "Hey! Snowball breath! You let another fiend slip by."

Kuai Liang looked at the girl Tomas furiously pointed at. "Oh, no, that's just Hadiya," he reassured his friend. "Hello, Hadiya!" he called at her as he waved. Shyly, she waved back and then ducked behind a fat man. She still hadn't gotten over her crush on the Cryomancer.

He looked back to Tomas and yanked off his thick paper mask representing one of the spirits. "Man, this thing is hot!" he complained. "I hate wearing masks."

"Put that mask back on right this instant!" Tomas snapped. "You're scaring all the kids!" He crossed his arms as Kuai Liang rolled his eyes. "Just watch for any unusual She-devils, please? And flirting with the American tourists isn't what I'm talking about."

"Fine, okay. I will!" he agreed as he threw up his arms in deference.

Tomas frowned. "I'm going back to Xiao-Ping's booth." He turned to walk away, and had even made it halfway to the booth, when suddenly, a lotus blossom brushed against his cheek, kissing it softly, and scaring him out of his skin. He yelped and whirled around, his fingers curled into fists. There stood Sifu Halsey with the lotus in his hands. "Don't do that, Sifu!" he yelled.

"I'm sorry, Tomas," he apologized. "I didn't mean to frighten you, but a lovely young lady asked me to give this to you."

Tomas looked at it stupidly. "It's a lotus."

"That was my first reaction," he drily remarked.

Tomas looked around. "Where is she?"

Halsey now looked around as well, and hummed softly as he thought about it. "Well, I don't know," he finally answered. "She seems to have disappeared into the crowd. She was a teenager about your age, dressed all in red. Had an air of menace about her."

"Did she?" he thoughtfully replied as he started to walk away. Behind him, Halsey and Gabby, who was hiding in the shadows of the booth, subtly low-fived each other, stifling their amused grins.

Tomas wandered several minutes through the crowd to find her, getting pressed in on all sides. He strained to hear for her, but the noise was too loud to hear anything. He looked at everything colored red, but turned up nothing of consequence. Finally, when he was about to give up and return back to Xiao-Ping's curio booth, he saw her in front of one of the many skeletons decorating the village. She was dressed all in red like Halsey had described, but her face was shrouded by a red veil and he couldn't see it. In her hands, she carefully fingered a large lotus blossom.

"Oh, boy," he mumbled, swallowing hard. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Bi-Han dancing with Sabira, so he pushed his way to the pair and gripped the Cryomancers' arm. "Pema is here," he breathlessly declared. For the first time in a long time, he genuinely felt afraid.

"Pema, the obsessed girl?" Bi-Han asked.

"No, Pema Chödrön!" he snapped. "Yes, Pema, the obsessed girl."

"Well, where is she?"

"She was right over there," he said, pointing to the skeleton. Pema was gone, but in the faint light from the lanterns, they all saw the large lotus blossom stuck through its mouth, making it seem like it was biting its stem.

"This is so scary," Sabira nervously said. She shivered and looked at Bi-Han with wide, fearful eyes.

"I agree," he said as he wrapped his arm around her and looked at Tomas. "I think maybe we should all get back to the Temple. You get a head start. I'll go find Halsey and Kuai Liang."

"Okay," Tomas reluctantly agreed, "but I want you to know that if anything happens to me, you've got to kill Kuai Liang."

He started heading for the Temple like Bi-Han had directed, his heart pounding in his throat. He was okay, he insisted to himself. Like Kuai Liang had said, he knew several different martial arts – he had black belts in most of them too. But, what if Pema had black belts in martial arts too? What if she was a weapons master? What if she meant to gut him with a pair of sais, or filet him with a butterfly knife? What if she intended to kill him and stuff him so she could keep him, her true love, forever? Oh, God! He didn't want to be stuffed! He hurried his pace.

Towards Xiao-Ping's shop, Tomas heard the abrupt slamming of a door swinging shut. He jumped so hard that he tripped, but caught himself before he fell altogether, his body stumbling along instead. His heart started beating harder. His chest vaguely hurt. His breathing sped up. He looked at the house, and saw that the door was tightly shut; the door to the shop, however, stood slightly ajar.

"Who's there?" he called, trying to sound unafraid. "Bi-han?"

"Guess again," an unfamiliar, feminine voice fluttered seductively to his ears. "It's Pema. Come in here, Tomas. I want to give you a kiss."

Oh, no no no! He looked around in a panic, trying to find a weapon. "Uh, hang on!" he stalled. "I need to go home and brush my teeth. I've been eating onions and fish and other really smelly, gross things." And then, his eyes found a stone carving of the goddess near the front of Xiao-Ping's door. He bolted for it, and yanked it from the dirt before hefting it over his head. "On second thought, I'll take that kiss after all. Come on out here, Pema, so I can see you in the light. Come on."

Unbeknownst to him, the red-veiled Pema was not in the doorway. She had hidden around the corner of the house, and was silently creeping up behind Tomas as he poised to attack the shadows. He was so focused on what was in front of him that he failed to hear who was behind him. So when she gently tapped him on his shoulder with her hand, at first he just waved her off like a pesky fly. But then, realization hit him. In terror, the Czech teenager whirled around and beheld her terrifying countenance, which loomed large and red in his wide eyes. Unable to stop himself, he screamed.

At the same time, she yanked off her veil revealing that she was, in fact, not a she, but a he: Kuai Liang. "Trick or treat!" he yelled with a laugh as everyone else – Gabby, Bi-Han, Halsey, Xiao-Ping, Asman, and the rest of their children – burst from the open doorway and crowded around him. They were all cackling loudly while Tomas looked at them in humiliation. He had been tricked, and he knew it.

Gabby immediately ran to Kuai Liang and gave him a high-five. "That was beautiful!" she squealed. "Absolutely perfect!"

Kuai Liang whistled to get everyone's attention, namely Tomas'. He looked at his best friend and raised his arms. "The old King of the Temple is dead. Long live the new King!"

"And the Queen!" Gabby added as she clutched the Cryomancer's hand and they bowed while everyone around them clapped.

Later, as the Festival was winding down, Gabby found Tomas sitting at a table alone and drinking some kind of juice. He had arranged the table with flowers – lotus flowers – and when he saw her, he smiled and waved her over.

She looked at him suspiciously. "What is this stuff?"

"I thought I'd put a little romance back into Palden Llamo," he joked. "I spent all my time worrying about your Pema character that I forgot to have fun today. So, won't you join me?"

"Well, I have always had a thing for pasty-faced guys."

Tomas chuckled as he heard a slower song start to play through the air. "Care to dance, Black Magic Woman?"

"I'd love to," she snickered as she took his hand and helped him to his feet. Then, in the now largely empty street, they began to slow-dance. He didn't really know how to dance that well, so it was actually more of him stepping along and her trying to avoid getting stepped on. "So, are you going to get even with Kuai Liang?" she wanted to know.

"Oh, don't worry about him, my dear friend," he said, his eyes narrowing devilishly. "He. Will. Pay."

"What about me?" she wondered.

"What about you?"

"Don't you want to get even with me?" she asked. "Since I was in on it too?"

Tomas shook his head. "No, I don't think so," he answered. "You were merely his accomplice." She smiled at him, and he looked around. "Ah, nice party."

Gabby nodded in agreement. "Spin me, Mr. Vrbada. Spin me."

"You've got it," Tomas replied.

At her behest, he spun her from him, and as soon as he did, a horrid sound like a bone snapping cracked through the air. As she spun, she pulled a fake limb with her, and she instantly screamed, startled by the development. When she realized it was a gag, Gabby threw the arm into the dirt and glared daggers in his direction.

Tomas started laughing as he raised his arms in the air in triumph. "The King is back! He's only got one arm, but the King is back."