DrakElias

“Hey, Chantilly, I don’t know how long you were planning on sticking around, but once nightfall comes, they do spooky stories and ghost walks in the woods, you should stick around, it’ll be fun, I promise!” The trio had been sitting outside the haunted house, having just finished going through that, and were letting their nerves settle slightly. Chantilly nodded. “I could stick around a bit, of course,” they nodded before taking a long sip of the hot apple cider clutched in their paws. The slowly darkening sky had lent a brisk breeze, a chill that announced Fall being in full swing. Curio fixed the collar around their neck and hummed. “With it getting darker, they should be getting the bonfires set up soon, we could start that way, if you are ready?” The other two stood, cups in hand, and as a group, they started towards the large clearing where they could see others gathering. The path was lit with pumpkins, carved with the visage of faces, patterns and other things

The park where the halloween festival was being held was bustling as the trio of new friends wandered from place to place, looking for what they wanted to do first. There was just so much to choose from, Chantilly realized as Curio pointed out what all the farm offered outside of hayrides and the baking contest they had seen before. An archway that hosted the entrance to the corn maze caught Chantilly’s eye and they pointed in the direction of that. “That looks fun! Should we try that?” “Sure, mazes are always fun,” Curio smiled brightly and Jack nodded. “This one is fun, they always make a cool design that you can see from the air, last year it was a giant bat,” Jack told them as they joined the line of kebs waiting their turn to venture into the maze. As they neared the start of the line, a larger, dark orange keb trotted over, a smile on their features. “Hello there, I’m Sam! Are you headed into the maze today?” When the trio nodded all together, Sam’s grin widened.

Chantilly didn’t often venture out for spooky season shenanigans, preferring to spend their time at home, curled up with their partner, watching horror movies or handing out treats to the kids who stopped by their home in Ultra Violet Underground. This year, however, with Sav away, the musician was bored, and it hadn’t taken much for the musician to be convinced to take a trip out of the city for a day. The place they went seemed to have everything: hay rides, a maze, even a haunted house and late night opportunities for stories around campfires and a haunted walk through the woods! Chantilly had always enjoyed the halloween season, and though they didn’t celebrate it often enough how they wanted, they always had fun. This year though… Chantilly was beyond excited for what the day would bring. Taking the hayride out to where most of the activities were located was first and foremost, and the pink kebanzu climbed aboard, settling into the wagon, perching on one of the bales of

Between the two of them, Tan and Nay were able to keep the corruption back enough for the others to hoist Severin into a cart, driving them back towards the small camp. Vlad watched the strangers carefully. One was familiar in a way he couldn't describe, he couldn't place his finger on they why's, but.. something about him. He shook his head. Another time, he could worry about that, when the... Corrupted (it seemed to be the only logical way to put it, he sighed) one was awake. --- Severin hurt. At first, all he could see was darkness, though it seemed to fade into images. The world was red. He looked at his hands, teeth bared at the wisps that rose in tendrils from his skin, and suddenly the view changed, and it was almost like Severin was watching the world from outside his body, deathly still on the cot, black tar and smoke coating his fur, burrowing into his skin, his very being, held back by the bright magic Nayley and the other woolyne possessed. He couldn't hear

"Severin, it'll be alright, this must have to do with the skies..." Nayley kept her distance, but her hands glowed with magic, and she gritted her teeth as the smoky wisps seemed to consume the magic that settled on the still-shifted woolyne. He whimpered (Nayley had heard a lot of things from Severin, they had been friends since they were young, but never that), and she forced herself to keep her distance, shifting to look towards Lutum. "Lu, I need you to find someone, anyone really. If they have a cart or something, just... bring them here." The fel-vern trilled and zoomed off while Nayley sat, not far away, wishing she could comfort her brother. --- The Phantom Bazaar wasn't usually this far into the wilds. Vladimir generally kept them on main roads and the like, but when the skies broke (for lack of better words, Vlad didn't know what had happened, really), he decided to let the caravan rest in a clearing off the beaten path. The troupe got settled as Vlad kept an eye