Zoey waited a few minutes before leaving M&P’s Pizzeria. She didn’t want to run into the same trio of adventurers from before. It wasn’t like they seemed evil, but something about them was weird, and she wasn’t sure if it was good-weird or bad-weird. At that moment, she was not ready to spend more time with them to deduce which they were.

Once outside, Zoey closed the restaurant’s door, and she scanned her eyes over Greenlake. At night, the town appeared calmer. The lake’s lazy tide beat in a slow rhythm against the coast. Its ripples reflected the stars back at the cloudless sky. The water extended as far as the eye could see; even Zoey’s enhanced vampire vision couldn’t see the other side.

Along the lake, cabinlike businesses and homes extended up a sloped hill. Large dark windows held place in the buildings, reflecting the moonlight.

During the day, elves, pixies, humans, and dwarves filled the streets. At night, those same roads remained empty. Natural sound came in the form of a gentle breeze. It whistled through the plentiful trees and bushes. Her vampire ears picked up the feint timbre of wildlife.

Zoey made her way up the sloped hill, passing Wanda’s Windmill and the school on the way to the city gate. As she prepared to break past the city limit, she heard a voice call out behind her. “Are you on the way to help Rumpke set up for Harvestfest?”

“Nick,” Zoey smiled. Then she hopped, spinning to face the city guard. He wore his usual rusted armor, sword sheathed on his hip. His red hair matched his thick mustache. “I’ll try and help as much as I can.” She wrinkled her forehead. “Isn’t it a little late for you to be up? Don’t you have to work early tomorrow morning?”

“I do.” He nodded. “But I have to work nights, too.”

“Do you ever sleep?” She asked.

“Yes.”

“When?”

“That’s confidential,” He answered monotone.

“You don’t trust me?” She squinted her eyes together.

Instead of answering with words, Nick growled. Zoey recognized the sound as Nick’s annoyed sound, and she thought to herself, He takes his job too serious. It’s not like I’m planning to learn his sleep schedule to commit some crime…a prank…yes…but not a crime…

“You asked about Rumpke. I’ll keep an eye on him for you.” Zoey grinned, considering how Rumpke might be able to help her with her future prank against Nick. Though, she didn’t spend too much time thinking about it, knowing she’d have plenty of time to plan for it later.

“Thank you,” Nick nodded, taking a few steps beyond her as he finished speaking. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I need to finish my patrol.”

She watched him for a moment before she continued along the path which led her out of town. A few minutes later, the route took her through the stone archway which marked the town’s edge. When she passed under it, she entered a grassy green field. As she crossed the area, she took in the vastness of the clear night sky. She’d always been a night person. That rooted in her childhood. It was a time when she spent countless summers camping in empty country fields near her grandpa’s house. Even so, there was an unfamiliarity to Round’s sky.

The strangeness came in the size of the stars. They seemed bigger and closer than the stars on Earth. And the constellations she knew so well were nowhere to be seen. Instead, unfamiliar patterns maintained their positions overhead. Between the yellow and white lights, she noticed streaks of green, blue, and purple.

Distracted by the sky, she didn’t notice as the field inclined. Though she did recognize as trees began to appear on each side of her. With each step, the incline steepened, and the trees became thicker and taller. Once in the Forest Mountain, she began toward the Trash Panda hideout. The night breeze whistled through the branches, rustling the leaves.

“BOOO!” Rumpke jumped out from his hiding spot behind one of the bushes.

Instead of jumping back in fear, Zoey caught the short, raccoon humanoid by his bronze harness. She held him like she had caught him…with one hand on each of his shoulders. Keeping an even tone to her voice, she said, “boo.” In that position, she continued to hold him, his feet dangling above the ground.

Where most of the Trash Pandas stood two to four feet tall, Rumpke was the tallest. Zoey estimated his height at five feet, not much shorter than her. As such, his feet were only a few inches above the soft, grassy earth.

“You knew I was there?” He asked.

“Yup,” she answered.

“And I didn’t scare you?” He hung his head, scratching the back of it with his right hand.

“Nope.

“Well…” he forced an uneasy chuckle, “I’ll get you next time.”

“You can tell yourself that, but I am a vampire.” She winked. “I have excellent night vision.”

“Right,” he smiled. After a few seconds of awkward silence, he asked. “You came to help with Harvestfest set up?”

She lowered him until his feet touched gentle against the ground and let him go. “I did.”

“Great,” he pointed deeper into the forest, “The rest of the Trash Pandas are that way. They’ve already begun set up.”

“Lead the way.” Zoey held her hand out in the direction which he had pointed. She felt like some fancy butler holding some invisible door.

Rumpke began in the direction, and Zoey lowered her arm, walking a quarter step behind him. They continued that way, pressing through the thickening foliage and forest detritus. The situation reminded her of when she’d gone hiking with her dad.

All the while, she remained aware of her surroundings, listening to the crickets, hanging on to every sound which carried in the light breeze as it whistled through the branches. She tried to filter out any abnormal resonance. As calm and safe as she felt with Rumpke by her side, nightshade terrors might still be in the area. She didn’t want one to sneak up on them. Where she didn’t hear any monsters, she did hear something else…voices up ahead.

They spoke in muffled tones, and she couldn’t make out any words. Along with the voices, she heard excited laughter and scurrying footsteps. It rang busy, reminding her of students working to set up the school gym for prom.

With the vegetation blocking her from seeing the source of the voices, she focused her ears. When she did, the voices became less abstract. Most spoke about Harvestfest. Others gave instructions about where to set up games and decorations. Then she began to see lights through the thick vegetation. Seconds later, Zoey and Rumpke emerged from the forest and entered a clearing.

The space came in the shape of a perfect circle. It was the diameter of which spread sixty paces in each direction. A cave sat on the far edge of the clearing, covered with vines and bushes. She recognized it must be the entrance to the Trash Panda hideout. Countless raccoon humanoids rushed in and out of the cave. Some carried boxes. The Trash Pandas spread throughout the whole clearing. They set up games and positioned lights on bushes. Some held candles or cast spells. Those casting spells created multi-colored flames. The flames hovered fifteen feet in the air.

Zoey recognized some of the games: bobbing for apples, a ring toss that used witches’ hats as the targets. They even had a pin the tail on the donkey. Though, this version of the game used a drawing of a chimera, a creature with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a snake for a tail.

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There was also a temporary structure in the center of the clearing. They'd built it with metal rods and wrapping resembling tin foil. A square metal sheet rested a top, and a sign beside it read, ‘Spirit Shrine.’

Most raccoons wore plate, harnesses, battle skirts, leather armor, and the like. Though some wore dresses and had a notable femininity to them. She wasn’t sure if it had something to do with how they walked or how their eyelashes curled out. But she could tell they were female.

One of them wore a red bow in her hair. When she saw Rumpke and Zoey, she jogged over to them. “Rumpke,” she shouted as she drew close, jumping to hug the warlord. “I wondered where you snuck off to.” The woman raccoon drew back and smiled at Zoey. “And who is your friend?”

“R…r…right…” Rumpke stammered, and Zoey took note of the raccoon warlord’s uncomfortableness. She guessed that if his face weren’t covered in fur, she’d have been able to see him blush. When he stopped stammering and began to speak, his words came fast and nervous. They had spaces in weird places. “I was busy getting Zoey here…this is Zoey…that’s her name. She’s a vampire, but she’s a nice one. Harvestfest…she’s here for Harvestfest…to help us set up for Harvestfest…that is.” He inhaled and exhaled a deep breath before finishing with a normal voice. “Zoey, this is Rosie…don’t worry though…she’s not a flower…she’s a raccoon… I mean, that is obvious, you can see.”

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Zoey reached out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Rosie.”

“You as well, Ms. Zoey.” Rosie took Zoey’s hand and shook it. After releasing her grip on Zoey, Rosie turned to look at the field. “I better get back to work. We have so much to do still.”

“Right,” Rumpke agreed. “Back to work. Work is good.”

Rosie ran back toward the center of the field. When she was out of earshot, Zoey whistled to tease Rumpke over his apparent interest in Rosie.

“What was that?” Rumpke wrinkled his brow and glared back at Zoey.”

“Nothing,” she said, casting her eyes off to the side and feigning innocence. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Zoey decided to change the subject. “So…you don’t know anything about dungeons? Do you?”

“Do I know about dungeons?” Rumpke’s scoffed, his demeanor returning to normal. “Of course, I know about dungeons.”

“What can you tell me about them?”

“My men found the entrance to one the other day.” He said. “It’s a glowing door about halfway between here and town. It’s about thirty feet off the walking path. Why do you ask?”

“I came across some adventurers tonight. They were asking about one.”

Rumpke rolled his eyes once before saying. “Of course, they did. That’s too bad.”

“Why’s that?” She asked.

“Because,” he answered, “they’ll loot it before we can.”

“Why didn’t you go in before them?”

He shrugged. “We couldn’t. We don’t have an adventurer’s pass. No one can go into a dungeon without one. After Harvestfest, we were going to send Cedric to buy one. Future City sells them. Though, there is no point in sending him now.”

“Oh,” Zoey said. “I guess that makes sense.” She turned her eyes back to the field where the busy Trash Pandas scurried. It didn’t make sense, but a lot about round didn’t make sense. She had gotten used to pretending to understand things until she did understand them.

On the far end of the field—where the trees rose above the cave entrance—she noticed a pair of lights. One was orange, and one was purple. The purple began to move left along the treeline. Every five feet, another light appeared while the purple continued along. The lights formed a simple patter of purple, orange, purple, orange, purple, orange. Moving to the right, the orange light mirrored the movement.

Are those lights moving by themselves? She wondered. No, she realized, something was carrying them. She squinted and looked closer. The image came into clarity. A respective Trash Panda held each light, hopping from branch to branch and jumping from tree to tree.

The lights were flames, hovering over the open palms of each respective raccoon. The fires were negligible, no more than three inches tall and one inch wide. At five-foot intervals, the raccoons would stop, clap, and a new flame would appear. It held place were it took form, staying behind while the raccoons moved along.

Zoey turned her head to look at Rumpkin. “What is with all the lights?”

“They are harvesting lights.” He answered, keeping his eyes on the other raccoons as they worked.

“They remind me of lights we use to celebrate something we call Christmas.”

“I’ve never heard of Christmas.” He said.

In awe at the Harvestfest preparations, Zoey decided to put off explaining Christmas. Instead, she wanted to learn more about Harvestfest. “These lights are different than Christmas lights, though. There are no green chords and no glass bulbs.” She wrinkled her forehead as the scent of the burning flames reached her, and she sniffed at the air two times. “It smells like sage.”

“I don’t know what sage is.” He said. “But the smell will keep the bad ghosts away from the Harvestfest activities.”

“Bad ghosts?” She asked. “Does that mean there are good ghosts?”

The raccoon leader’s right eyebrow raised, and he turned his head to look at her. “Of course, there will be good ghosts. Have you never celebrated Harvestfest before?”

She shook her head no.

“What do you do with the spirits that appear this time of year? How do you get rid of them?”

She considered the question. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand the question. Rather, she pondered over its implications. For example, did ghosts appear everywhere in the whole world of Round? Did they only appear in the forest? She needed to know more. “We don’t have ghosts where I’m from.”

“You have vampires but no ghosts?” He questioned.

“No,” she rubbed her temples with her right thumb and index finger, thinking about how best to explain. Then she lowered her hand to her side. “I know it’s weird—seeing as how I’m a vampire and all that—but where I’m from doesn’t have vampires. We don’t have ghosts. We don’t have evil witches that fly on brooms, werewolves, monsters, or any of that stuff. Sure, sometimes people tell stories about how they saw something supernatural. Yet, there is no real evidence for their claims… So ghosts might be real back home…but nobody knows for sure.”

“Have you seen a ghost before?” He asked.

“Nope,” she answered and then asked. “You said Harvestfest is something you do to get rid of the ghosts?”

“Yes,” he nodded his head one time and continued. “When someone dies, their essence remains dormant until the harvest. At that time, their ghost returns. For three days, they wander, seeking their place in the afterlife.

“At Harvestfest, we use these lights.” He pointed at the orange and purple flames before lowering his hand, “to draw the spirits.”

“And then what?” She asked.

“What do you mean?”

“After you get them here,” she clarified. “What do you do after?”

“We use these.” He reached into a leather pouch on his belt, retrieving an orb and holding it up. It was a perfect, white sphere about two inches wide. Light reflected off the surface, creating rainbows inside the ball. “If you hold this up to a spirit, they will enter it.”

“I see,” Zoey said.

“It isn’t quite as easy as it sounds,” Rumpke added. “For example, the spirits recognize the living, and they run from us. As such, we must dress up for Harvestfest. We try to make ourselves look like ghosts or forest animals. We use costumes so that the spirits trust us.”

“Makes sense,” Zoey said. ”After you put the spirits in the orbs, what do you do with the orbs?”

“On the third day of Harvestfest, we take the orbs and place them in the spirit shrine.” He pointed at the tinfoil construct in the center of the field. “From there, the spirits can find their way into the afterlife.”

“What happens to the other spirits?” She asked, “the ones that don’t get brought to the shrine?”

“They must wander for another year.” He said. “With each year they don’t enter the afterlife, they become corrupted. They become bitter…jealous of the living.”

“Can they hurt people?” She asked.

“Not at first,” he replied. “After enough time, they become a soul eater…”

“Don’t forget about monster spirits.” One of the other raccoons said, passing between Zoey and Rumpke, box in hand, on the way to decorate somewhere.

“Right,” Rumpke snapped his fingers once. “I’d almost forgotten. Monsters that have died also return. Those spirits can hurt you.”

Zoey shuttered. She and Pete had faced countless nightshade terrors to farm the tomatoes for the pizza sauce. She’d hate to meet them all at once.

He noticed her concern. “Don’t worry. Small things like nightshade terrors absorb into the orb like any other spirit. Plus, their attack power is less when they are ghosts. For someone your level, they won’t be able to cause more than one hitpoint of damage.”

“That’s a relief.” Zoey relaxed. “So Harvestfest isn’t only a celebration of the harvest, it is for helping spirits to the afterlife?”

He nodded once, adding. “And it is for remembering those we lost over the year. Before we send them off, we have a final meal with them. It’s important to remember the dead and respect from where we come.”

“I can appreciate that.” She offered an approving smile.

“Aside from a celebration,” he added. “It is also a competition.”

“Competition?” She raised an eyebrow.

“We have games and prizes.” He explained, pointing at the bobbing for apples and ring toss before lowering his hand. “The main competition involves the orbs and spirits. Whoever captures the most spirits wins the grand prize.”

“What’s the grand prize?”

He shrugged before returning the orb to the pouch on his belt. “We don’t know. After we send the spirits to the afterlife, the shrine generates the prize. It creates the prize based on the number of spirits we send.”

“That is…” she paused, trying to think of a word to describe Harvestfest… Cool… Crazy… She settled on saying. “That is like Halloween, Day of the Dead, and Samhain all put together.

“What’s Halloween, Day of the Dead, and Samhain?” He asked.

“Holidays where I’m from,” she said, walking toward the center of the field to help with decorations. Rumpke fell in step next to her, and she explained Halloween to him.