Submission (#8920) Approved

On the starry shores of one of Silveil’s great starry lakes, a group of three curious kittoms huddled together around a cluster of pumpkins. They each pawed at the gourds, inspecting them with scrutiny as they flipped them around, felt their surfaces, and checked for dents.

“This one is mine!” Declared Shiloh, an energetic kitten with blue, yellow, and pink fur flecked with stars. “See the surface? This is what you want when you carve a pumpkin. Smooth and free of scratches.”

“Says who? You probably just made that up. Who cares what the surface is like. You’re just gonna hack away at it with a knife.” Hyacinth, a white and purple kittom with oversized ears rolled her eyes. She wasn’t too pleased to be there. “Where are we out here, anyway? Who said we needed to be in Silveil, and so far away from the city?”

Shiloh sighed, annoyed at the lack of excitement from this friend. “Haven’t you heard? The Elseworlder’s say that you have to carve gourds somewhere dark, otherwise you can’t see them illuminated from the inside by the candles. Silveil is always night, so it’s perfect.” He said sassily as he pulled out several candles from the satchel he had brought along, and he passed one to each of his friends.

“B-but…it’s dark out here. It’s spooky. I…I don’t think the candles will be enough. I wish we went somewhere brighter.” Skyburner, a pink and blue kittom, said with a trembling voice.

She peered over Shiloh’s shoulders, who was sitting with his back towards the forest. Her eyes scanned the trees for anything suspicious, but the light of the glowing mushrooms native to Silveil’s deep woodlands only lit up trees, logs, and rocks - nothing else. She looked back at Silveil City and its twinkling lights across the lake mournfully. Oh how she wished she was within the safety of the city walls, even if Silveil City wasn’t exactly the safest of places.

“Maybe…” she mewed, pulling her chosen pumpkin close, “maybe we could carve our pumpkins quickly and head back before we attract, uh, monsters?”

“Don’t be a baby, Sky. It’s fine. Look at all this light we have!” Shiloh motioned to a cluster of teal glowing mushrooms sitting on a rotting log. “There aren’t any monsters out here, and it’s bright enough. Just have fun!”

Hyacinth grabbed her pumpkin and started hacking away, maybe a little too eagerly. She sliced into the top and dug into the gooey innards, squishing them between her paws. “Yeah, actually, this is pretty fun. Just make sure you watch out for…the fey.” Her eyes darted towards Skyburner mischievously. 

“Don’t start,” Shiloh hissed.

“W-what?” 

Hyacinth smirked as she carved away. “Oh, don’t tell me you haven’t heard?”

“Hyacinth…”

“Yeah, I don’t know much about this ‘pumpkin carving’ stuff the Elseworlders do, but I do know about the fey superstitions.” She cleared her throat. “Every Feyhallow, they say the fey begin to stir. Creeping…crawling…and lurking around on cold, dark nights in Silveil forests, almost like this one.”

Skyburner shivered.

“They say that the fey love messing around with pumpkins carved by kittoms. Sometimes, they even change the expression of the face…but there’s one tale that will send a shiver down anyone’s spine. Even the adults get scared.”

Hyacinth paused for dramatic effect, but Shiloh shot her an impatient look as he eagerly awaited the next part of the legend. Skyburner hid her face behind her pumpkin that had yet to be pried open, her eyes meekly peeking out.

“They say one year, a kitten carved a huge pumpkin - it was so big that he had to climb inside of it. He worked tirelessly to remove all the guts,” she whispered and she took a hefty scoop out of her own pumpkin and threw it on the marshy grass with a slap. “But to get it all, he had to jump inside. So he crawled through the lid…and that’s when his friend noticed something…off.”

“No…” Skyburner whispered.

“His friend said the pumpkin’s face…well…it changed. It turned into a grimace, and….it GROWLED! Rahhh!” Hyacinth bellowed.

The two kittoms shrieked in terror. Skyburner fully hid herself behind the gourd, and Shiloh clutched his chest tightly before sighing and rolling his eyes.  

“Started, the little kittom ran to tell her mom. But when she returned with her to show her the haunted pumpkin, it was nowhere to be seen…and her friend? He was gone. He had climbed inside the pumpkin, so when the pumpkin was taken by the fey…they took him too. Not even a wisp of his fur remained. He had vanished into thin air. But there was something on the ground where the pumpkin used to be…”

Skyburned gulped. “W-what was it?”

“It…was…” Hyacinth paused, “A huge glob of pumpkin guts!” She took a hefty scoop of the innards and slapped it across Shiloh’s face, who recoiled in disgust.

“Ugh!” He screamed, frantically wiping the slimy mess off of his fur. His face was tinged orange from the goop, and seeds were scattered around his feet. Playfully, he flicked one at Hyacinth, who then plucked one off the ground and proceeded to throw one back at him.

Skyburner still hid behind her uncarved pumpkin, but after the seed-fight ensued, she gingerly sat up. The little kittom looked at her own pumpkin, and then she looked at the pumpkins that her friends had carved. 

“I…I don’t want to carve pumpkins anymore!”

The other two kittoms looked over at Skyburner, who trembled in fear. “C’mon, Sky, it was just a story! See, I told you to stop, Hyacinth. You know she’s a scaredy-kittom.” Shiloh groaned. “There’s really nothing to be afraid of. The fey don’t do stupid stuff like that.”

The two kittoms bickered at each other as they finished their masterpieces, and reluctantly Skyburner started planning her design after Shiloh had given her some encouragement. She planned to give hers a happy face, perhaps mostly to deviate from the events of the story, and once she had the initial features etched out, she began to cut.

Behind the kittoms, in the darkness of the moonlit woods, a deep, gravelly growl rang out. 

Shiloh’s hackles stood on end. “D-did you guys hear that?!” She squeaked timidly.

“No, you’re just getting in your hea-”

Another growl arose from the forest, but this time, it was even deeper.

“The fey! RUN!” Hyacinth scrambled away from the group, almost slipping through the big pile of pumpkin guts as she booked it. 

Shiloh and Skyburner quickly followed her as they screamed in terror, racing along the glittering shoreline. They left all of their supplies behind, and they didn’t bother to grab any of the pumpkins in their panic. Skyburner huffed and puffed as she dashed away, her eyes glued on a bright cluster of glowing mushrooms that was large enough to illuminate a wide area. Both of them stopped in the safety of the light, but Hyacinth’s shrieks could be heard farther up the shoreline as she continued to scurry away. Surely this bright area would be safe.

As they caught their breath, the two kittoms sheepishly looked behind them. The area where they carved their pumpkins was far enough away, but they could still spy their brightly lit candles by the shore. However, they noticed something…odd. Even in the dim moonlight, they could see that all of their pumpkins had vanished into the night. And curiously…not even a single pumpkin seed had remained.