The harvest festival is nothing to what Casper expected, he stares at the multiple rows of stalls all in the centre of this wide area with a beautiful lake reflecting the soft glow of the full moon. A nearby fountain bubbles peacefully at the centre of a few tables and seats. Surrounding this area is a garden of white, navy, and black roses. The personification of youth, mystery, and death. This is what the Harvest Festival celebrates. Why would Celestials celebrate these three things? The celestials are mysterious beings full of wonder, their youth never changes through eternity, and death is what most long for, to escape their eternal prison. Eternity can get boring, and celestials find that they mostly have learnt all there is. They long for purpose and seek the unknown, just to make the eternity less painful. So when you go to a Harvest festival this is the time you will witness a Celestials liveliness.
Jake and Casper wait near the lake for Crowley who arrives with opaque donuts that sparkled with golden stardust. He does a dance before splitting one of the donuts in half and hands one to Casper, as he takes a bite from his half he grins at Casper. Casper shyly smiles back, still bewildered by the demons shadowy appearance. Crowley puts his shades on hiding his sparkling ruby eyes. Jake grabs a donut and gobbles it down licking his fingers clean, Casper's eyes glow a light white hue as he savours the taste of the delicious donut. the dough was fluffy and warm, and the star dust was explosive with spice and flavour. The taste resemble chilli and chocolate with cinnamon.
"donut good?"
"yeah its delicious," Casper beams.
"can we go now there is lots to see," Jake says testily, growing impatient.
"what's the rush? have you heard of the demon the star boy and Mr skeleton walk into a bar?" says reading from a book of terrible jokes
"ha ha funny, now can we go I would like to buy this rare book." Jake says rolling his eyes a chartreuse colour. Crowley throws the book away. Jake gets up and helps Casper up who picks the book up without a care in the world what his friends think. Perhaps too early to call friends but close acquaintances.
"of course my prince," Crowley says with a bow.
The trio wander around to one of the book stalls where Jake goes to buy his rare book of dream crystals. Crowley points out one of the celestials wearing a cat masquerade mask, black with gold embroidery, then throws his shades off in a dramatic way. He asks the person about the mask then swiftly glides towards the masquerade stall leaving Casper to chase after him. Crowley buys himself a pure white mask with glossy black embroidery, and silver glitter sparkling in the moonlight. His eyes contrast with the white bringing them out in a bright shining red. He hands Jake a navy one and Casper a black one, the navy had white embroidery, and gold glittering stars, the Black one this time had bright Blue embroidery with glittering tear drops on one side. they compliment each other on how well the masks suit before they move on.
The smell of books in the book stalls smelt like his home library alive with the smell of dust and that musty smell from old book pages, the ink scribbled neatly, the hieroglyphs run vertically down the pages. Like columns from Rome, pillars of history written in dark squid ink. Strangely Casper could not read the hieroglyphs, he could only make out the word waltz and dead. intrigued Casper buys the book and finds a book on ancient hieroglyphs with some matching glyphs to the ones in the book and buys that one. Casper loves learning ancient language, the language of the dead is morbidly fascinating he would occasionally think. With his nose buried in the book he feels a shadowy presence peer over his shoulder staring with ruby eyes brimmed with curiosity.
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"you found one of the skeleton books. Hey star boy check out what Mr. skeleton found. Ouch that's not nice," Crowley rubs his head where the book hit him, thrown from Jake, who quickly bends down and scopes the book up cradling it like a baby.
"call me star boy and I'll throw a rock,"
"you Ok dude, you could have let it fly through you right, so why let it hit you."
"cause he felt like it, mostly he's a tease so don't mind him He'll be fine. Right?"
"sure hahaha,"
"laugh away, gosh you can be annoying, still I love you mate." Jake says and messes Crowley's hair.
"how do I look,"
"it's an improvement," Casper laughs. They all burst into laughter. Midnight really is full of joy.
The trio head to the food stalls and order food and drinks. Casper got choc mint a blend of diced chocolate and mint leaves with hot frothy macadamia milk. It tasted smooth and minty a sensation that warms the cold envious heart. Fresh as ice and a nutty coco smell wafted from the cup. Casper breathed it in as if it was his lifeline, and drifted into a dream like state for a moment before Crowley snapped him to reality. Giving him a worried look. Jake mentioned that it was called the milk of dreams. The food ordered was a vegetarian BBQ, diced seasoned tofu, two Portello mushrooms and roasted vegetables seasoned with herbs and spices from a well known exotic celestial garden. it smelt like a campfire, and the taste was like gazing into the sunset, that warm happy feeling. The vegetarian BBQ is said to boost a warriors morale before heading to battle. Crowley and Jake are used to these sensations but Casper living a dull dry life has never felt such sensations in a while. How long has it been, why can't he remember what it feels like, what happened to him to forget such feelings, Casper wonders. Jake looks at Crowley then Casper and indicates at Crowley to say something. Crowley checks in on him and Casper responds that he's at a lost to what he should feel. One word mentioned from Crowley made Casper heart dance. JOY.
Jake agrees, joy. He sees the question why flicker in Casper's abysmal eyes. So does Crowley, who firmly holds Casper shoulder and pulls him into an embrace. Jake pats Casper's back reassuringly, thinking of things to say for comfort.
"why, why, why?" Casper says overwhelmed with kindness.
"Why? Be full of joy for you have friends that care, I don't need to know you that well to care about you, I can tell your an awesome person that has a bright future. Accepting what you have is the first step. You want meaning in life, then let's go on an adventure together, lets find that key and build bonds strong enough to call ourselves brothers. That is my wish as your future friend," Jake announces.
"I believe that together with people that care about you, anything can be accomplished," Crowley looks at Casper and smiles. " I care."
These words of comfort from two strangers that he just met brings out that flicker of hope in his eyes, a candlelight dancing in the darkness. Can he really accomplish anything with these two, should he join them on an adventure for his vision of a key. Does he deserve joy, or a bright future. Casper is clueless in what to think, that was until a question popped in his head with a definitive answer.
Does he trust them?
Yes.
With that answer whimsical fireworks litter the starry night sky with the gaze of the moon watching down on them.