The fields of Doovlin lay bare of all life, the various crops that had previously inhabited them all stripped away and taken for processing and storage. Now the earth of the farmland was left for the winter to settle until when the frost had come and melted. All of the foodstuffs would have to keep the villagers fed not only throughout the winter but early spring as well. It was a constant battle between having enough provisions and starvation when a slight misfortune could spell disaster.

That was of course before a goddess graced their presence. Now with me around there was no need to worry about ever wanting for food again! Well at least I hoped so. During the late summer I had boosted the plants in the fields of both Doovlin and Yuvoghen with an extra vitality for plants magic power boost! It was done using the mana granted from the villager's worship so technically it was just them increasing their own crop harvest, with me as an intermediary of course.

When it comes to harvest time there was always a harvest festival to throw as well, and considering the large crop yield this year it was going to be an extra big blowout party. All of this got me thinking about such things from my old life, my old world of Earth. There was at least two harvest time festivals I could remember: Halloween and Thanksgiving. For whatever reason I remembered the formal the most.

For some reason the spookiness was a strange comfort to me, as if having a holiday dedicated to fear and evil was somehow good. Its wasn't the one I could consider favorite holiday, not by a long shot, but it did have a certain charm to it. Right now I manifested a plump pumpkin in my hand, one big enough to fit in my palm. I just wanted to look at it. So round and orange. Though I knew they came in many colors. It was a symbol of both the scary season with the Jack O Lantern as well as harvest time in general. I believe the land I came from was America? Yes I remember now. The United States. I'll have to look more into my memories for more on it.

I had recently learned how to create items out of pure mana while helping Yuvoghen. It was just something I wondering if I could do with an apple and it ended up working. There was only the need to concentrate intently on the object I wanted to create and imagine it in my mind. Then I would push together enough mana and the item would manifest into reality. Sometimes the item was temporary but other times, with greater mana usage, the item could become permanent.

"What do you have there goddess?"

Miya's voice came so suddenly that it made me jump.

At the moment I was sitting a distance away from the village in one of the empty fields. My legs were pulled up close to me and I was sort of hugging them as I resting my chin on my knees. The villagers were setting up the festival a short distance away and Miya had wandered over to me when she saw me creating the pumpkin. This wasn't one of the types of food native to their land and was probably strange to see.

"Oh nothing" I said about to destroy it.

Several of the other villagers had noticed and now I felt trapped holding this thing. I should never have manifested it! They were all looking at it now and even though their gaze was focused on the pumpkin it felt like they were staring at me. A blush appeared on my face and I sucked in some air to get myself under control.

"Hey look at that thing the goddess has!" said someone.

"Looks like a type of squash!" a woman cried.

Most of the villagers setting up the festival had stopped their work and come to gather around me. At this point I suppose there was no getting out of an explanation. With a very deep sigh I lowered the pumpkin down to the ground and settled it in front of the crown for them to inspect.

"Its called a pumpkin" I explained. "Its indeed a type of squash."

Miya was up close to it and inspecting it closely. "Why did you make it Goddess Jenna?"

Another small blush came onto my face and I sat up straighter. "Its not normally this big ok? I was just thinking about the harvest festivals where I'm from and made it because I wanted to look at it."

One of the men standing closest to me spoke up. It was a guy named Neilson who ran the tannery with his wife and parents. He was a pretty cool guy for someone in his mid thirties. I didn't know much to be honest.

"That's right! I remember you came from another land didn't you goddess?"

This got excited gasps from those gathered, especially the females. Here we go... I had kept as much as possible about my formal life to myself because I knew this would be a huge headache.

"Please tell us about them goddess!" Miya said excitedly.

"Yes tell us!" came a myriad of other voices.

I let out another sigh of exasperation. "Alright fine!"

There was a chorus of cheers and various jubilant expressions from the crowd. To get comfortable I put my arms behind me to prop myself up as I leaned back.

"Well pumpkins are symbols of the harvest season like ya'll know apples and wheat here. I mean those are harvest symbols where I'm from too but the pumpkin. Its majorly tied to a harvest festival called Halloween."

"Whats Halloween goddess?" Miya asked.

Before answering I leaned forward again and spread my legs apart, lowering them to the ground and spreading them out behind me.

"Well its not really a holiday I like that much" I continued. "Well its complicated really..."

They waited on baited breath as I paused. I also put one of my hands under my chin as I thought.

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"Its really a celebration of evil I suppose. A festival dedicated to all things scary and just fear in general. Not really in malicious way, at least not for most people. It was more of a time to dress up and scare each other for fun. Though there were plenty of people who followed evil that made it their holy day. For that reason I don't like it that much even though it was sorta fun."

There was much talking amongst the crowd as they thought about my description.

"Well what do these pumpkins have to do with such a horrid celebration?" someone else asked. It was Illena the wife of the innkeep.

It would probably be better to just show them. Thanks to my tinkering I was able to manipulate objects I had created, and I'm sure with practice could do the same with ones I didn't make. If I turned this pumpkin into a jack o lantern I could scare them too which would be fun. My thoughts were betrayed by the devilish grin on my face.

"Well just take a look!" I said leaning forward.

My body cast a dark shadow over the people below as I used my right hand to start sucking up all the light I could from the air, sort of creating a blanket of extra darkness around the immediate area. I then used my left hand and touched the pumpkin my imagination being made manifest as the gourd began to morph and change.

The thing was pretty massive all things considered, easily bigger than those prize winning contest pumpkins at country fairs. Its smooth texture was rapidly squeezing and changing as my magic took hold, the large side facing the villagers splitting apart in multiple places. Soon the thing was emptied out and three triangle shaped holes took hold: one simple nose and two evil looking eyes. Then the whole front split apart into a fang filled grin. In the quasi-darkness I had arranged bright orange light suddenly burst into existence as the inside of the pumpkin erupted in flickering flames.

There were screams of fear from the gathered villagers and some of outright terror. Many of them were stumbling backwards or simply falling over completely. Maybe I had overdone it?

Just as quickly as the whole display had appeared I released all my magic and leaned back. The normal light of the day returned and the pumpkin's fire vanished in a puff of smoke, its evil expression still in place however. I crossed my arms and looked away and up, sort of pouting since they made me feel bad for scaring them.

"Look I told you it was a scary holiday." I said still pouting.

It took a few moments for the villagers to recover and it was Jackson the innkeep to spoke up first.

"Why in the world would people make such terrifying things?"

This got another sigh out of me and I looked back down at them in front of me.

"Well its called a Jack-O-Lantern. Don't ask about the name, I'll tell the story some other time. Anyway its what people did with pumpkins after scooping out all the insides to make pies and jams. Its allegedly supposed to scare away evil spirits but they were mostly just made for fun and cuz they look cool."

There was more talking among the villagers as they digested all of this information. It was Miya again who spoke up next.

"What was that other harvest festival goddess?" she asked curiously.

With a flick of my arm I summoned my floating book and opened it up.

"Oh that's Thanksgiving! Its sort of unique to the country I came from. The whole thing started long ago when the people who settled the land from far away met the people who lived their originally."

As I spoke scenes of the first meetings of the settlers and natives of North America were displayed with the turning pages.

"The ones that came from afar had a very bad harvest and those natively living there helped them out and thus a sort of peaceful relationship started. Thanksgiving was named for the act of giving thanks. Its a time of celebration and getting together with your family to share a meal!"

Pictures of the first Thanksgiving and other various modern foods and families appeared on the pages as I narrated. After I was done the book snapped shut and I smiled happily down at them all.

"That sounds amazing goddess!" Miya said happily. "Do you think we could bring some of those traditions into our own festival?"

The other villagers seemed to agree. This brought a blush of embarrassment to my face and I sort of rubbed my chin nervously.

"I mean sure I guess so. I'll tell you more about the kinds of foods and we can see if we can recreate them. We probably don't have much of the stuff in my original country."

Illena walked closer to the pumpkin again and was looking up at me. "What's the name of your old country goddess?"

"Oh I'm American!" I said grinning. "Or I guess I was? The United States of America is what it was called. A land where many different smaller counties united together to form a super country!"

My hands were flailing about as I made gestures. I then stopped and paused again, reflecting on my values. I continued speaking my thoughts aloud.

"I suppose that's why I have these strong values of freedom and individuality. Also why I prize self reliance so greatly. Those were all core traits of the country."

"So you were a goddess of this United States?" Miya asked.

Now that I think about it besides there were many religions in that country, though if there was a deity of the nation it would be that symbol of freedom liberty herself.

"Well..." I said crossing my arms in thought. "There was a main religion that worshiped the creator of the universe, that Elohim I mentioned was my father. There were many religions there that coexisted. I suppose a major deity was Lady Liberty who was a symbol of freedom itself. I don't remember myself being a prominent goddess of any kind."

"Is that why you came here goddess?" Miya said with a hint of sadness. "Because you weren't loved in your homeland?"

It seemed this thought had taken over the crowd with melancholy. I didn't want them feeling bad for me and I certainly couldn't tell them about my memories as a human living there! Quickly I tried to come up with some satisfactory story to ease their worries and also keep my secret. In the end I decided that a piece of the truth was better than any lie could be.

"To be honest I don't remember all that much about my previous life. How I got here and who brought me here I don't actually know for sure. I'm assuming my father did." I then gave them a warm smile. "Not to worry though! I have plenty of happy memories with my family so if nothing else they loved me! That's what counts in the end right?"

Miya gave an exuberant yeah with the rest of the villagers following suit. It seemed that had placated their fears for me as well as satisfied their curiosity, albeit for now. The next course of action was to continue distracting them until they forgot about it completely. Bringing up what foods I could remember for Thanksgiving was a good idea.

"Why don't I come over to the festival area and help with decorations?" I said starting to get up. "I could tell you about some of the foods I used to have too!"

"I want to hear more about Halloween!" said a young boy from the crowd.

His mother grabbed him by the shirt collar. "Now that'll be enough about that terrifying celebration! I can't believe our goddess would bring such a terrible thing up at all!"

This got a small chuckle out of me that I held in enough that only a snort came out. I'm sure she didn't realize I could hear her but it was just funny how she reacted with her kid. Its something a parent from my world would do when their child wanted to go trick or treating and were told no. Probably citing how dangerous it was and candy was bad for their teeth. Thankfully I had left all that out of my explanation as I hadn't gone in depth. If I had mentioned it I would have all the children of the village swarming my feet begging for candy.

Sharing a bit of my history had actually put me in a really great mood. Even though I couldn't tell them much about my past life just being able to share the traditions I held made me feel a greater connection with them. I hoped they felt the same way too. For now I'd just enjoy this harvest festival and help them finish preparations for the oncoming winter. It would be here in a few weeks.