[FF] The Great Pumpkins - Printable Version

Blackwing trudged through the patch with a pumpkin in Luci's jaws. They looked tired, grumpy (except Koi), and a bit skinnier than usual, but that's what you got when you raised a soldier to kill rabbits and not anything truly sustainable. They'd learned the hard way that many kinds of deer tended to fight back when kicked, judging by some missing scales and cuts.

The hydra peered around, narrowing their eyes at the Chaos Forge members-

Was that Epsilon?

They froze, staring at them, and meekly approached, bigger than they were before by far. They weren't a child anymore, but a fully grown dragon. Big and thick, perhaps not in length but their chest was so heavy that their wings practically dwarfed the rest of them, probably to get their front half off the ground. Any bigger and flight would be impossible.

"Garnet-Epsilon?", Hellfire asked, eyes big, "... You're okay."

Mayfal felt a little embarrassed, being "caught" by Comet. They didn't really want to trouble her or get in her way. But at this was probably better than some other creature finding out about their blindness.

They listened to the thud of the orange on the ground and followed that. They put their paw where they expected it to be. To Mayfal's surprise, there was actually something there!

"They don't smell like anything." Mayfal explained to Comet. "Honestly, it's like they're invisible unless I can touch them." Mayfal thought for a moment. Or, taste them. But how to get in there?

Mayfal didn't really think of just biting into the skin of the orange. They didn't really think any of it through. They just sorta felt the heat going to their paw and into the plant. It took a minute, but Mayfal finally started to smell something. It was a pleasant smell! Then they started to feel something mushy and tore their paw away. The plant was...ready?

Mayfal sniffed at it a little, and it seemed okay. Just a little hot. They licked it a little bit. Then some more. Then they bit a chunk. They couldn't describe the flavor. They just knew that it was

"Good!"

Avi merrily wiped away the juice from her orange, two out-of-four neon eyes watching Ozzie. "Ooh, that's a good one!" they chirped, and with a turn to the other vulture: "Nah, Lemon. If you were a pumpkin you'd be way lumpier." Even more creatures were arriving-- big ones, small ones, ones that slunk like living darkness. It was surprising. But exciting! The hybrid loved meeting people!

They were just about to wink and go meet one of them when a dark, terrifying dragon landed before Lemonface. Speaking about how he "kidnapped her" and roaring with all her might. They jolted back, dark wings slightly unfolding and scythes pedaling backwards at the surprise. Man, that was one big gembound! The yellow vulture didn't seem to be taking the accusations well, but, past the minor spook, Avi just stared blankly ahead like if nothing was wrong. They were confused more than anything.

"Whaaaaaat?" the gryphon's bioluminescent head cocked to the side. "Sorry, but you're confused. He's not a napping kid! He's Lemonface!" When Avi's friend pointed they, quite hilariously, fell for it, head snapping around to try and find the disturbance. They were just about to ask what it was when-- oh look, Lemon was calling her name! Were they playing tag? They liked tag!

"Eeeee, tag!" Avi's beak clicked together in excitement. "You're it, right?" they asked the dragon, followed immediately by "Aaah, you're probably it!" Their glowing wings snapped out as they launched onto the air, limbs pedaling a bit from the hasty start. "Come on guys, lets go!" They tried to conjure some magic behind them, a bit of wind to help Ozzie and Lemonface along, but the familiar tingle of magic never came. Oh, well.

Hellfire blinked and Koi shot forward instead, as happy as ever, "Cirrus!! Because you're fluffy, like a cloud! We have a name too!"

She spread their wings and all three heads grinned.

"Blackwing," she said.

"Cool, innit?", Hellfire asked with a toothy grin, his wreath of horns having grown in.

Blackwing stepped forward and lowered their heads, Luci dropping the pumpkin in favor of trying to nuzzle Cirrus first. The heads squabbled and nipped at each other, and finally Hellfire shoved forward and set his head before the other, butt wiggling happily.

"We can fly now!", he said happily, "And we can sort of hunt. Sort of."

Meissa was ecstatic, practically vibrating out of her skin. The Gembound were slipping into a nice rhythm of just coming in and taking pumpkins for themselves or their friends, and going off to make their own little circles to carve or smash them in. She tried her very best to be a good, reliable merchant (was it really being a merchant when she was just giving all her wares away?) but it was just too tempting to bounce between the groups. Her mouth was split in a wide, doggish grin, her eyes in a squint from being squished upwards. Full-on Duchenne, this smile was.

There was one group of kids that'd come in, all vulture-looking and thick as thieves; then, another duo to match the two white canines, but oddly alien-looking (Lyn cracked an eye open to watch them warily.) The fox-dragon shook her head eagerly towards Aran ("not at all!") when he asked after taking one. She then peered at the mosaic-covered Garnet-Epsilon, ears pricking up, "with magic... ! Lots of vines, too." Her broom of a tail lashed across the floor. "They're too heavy for trees, yeah! So they grow on the ground."

Her wings flared uncertainly as the one dragon came in and stared roaring about something; they'd been sufficiently distracted by the one they were threatening, but... that was mean.

She wasn't spooked, though! They were all out of pumpkins, but Meissa picked her way over to Carja nonetheless and wagged her tail, asking, "what're you gonna do with your pumpkin? Carve it? I've seen a lot of really cool ones so far..." She glanced down. "Your claws look really sharp!"

Hellfire lifted his head and shook his head, "A friend did."

They all watched Cirrus act... weird. They weren't as happy to see them as they'd thought. Even Luci was frowning more than usual.

"Is something wrong?", Hellfire asked, saying what the others didn't want to.

"Did we do something?", Koi asked, sweet sweet Koi.

Luci said nothing, and just looked away.

They'd pushed it off so easily... why?