Half-way through the third night of catching spirits with orbchakus, Skye felt confident he could modify a pair of pizza cutters into cutterchakus. He wondered if he could impress customers with his chaku skills if he used those skills to cut a pizza. Though—in the end—it didn’t matter if he impressed them. He was going to have fun cutting the pizza. And fun was the point. At the time, he was having fun chasing insects up and down the plaza's edge.

“Don’t go too far off,” Hope reminded her brother. “Mom and dad don’t want us to leave the plaza.”

During the day, their parents never had qualms about them going anywhere in town. Greenlake was a safe place with safe people. Even so, the event with the miniature saurian and the sighting of the Turkey Titan had everyone on edge.

For safety, some citizens chose to remain home for the final night of Harvestfest. That said, the triplets lived on a street along the plaza. Their parents might as well have restricted them to the front yard.

If they couldn’t expand further out into town, they’d never win the soul-capturing contest. Not that they had much of a chance in the first place. All they’d managed to capture over the last few days were insects, some mice, and a snake. And Tornado had captured spirits of worms by opening cracks in the earth with his magic. This would reveal the spirit worms which wiggled through the air as if the dirt were still around them.

In the end, all three triplets understood how the contest was about putting the spirits to rest. If they hadn’t taken care of the smaller spirits, no one in Greenlake would have. In that respect, their work during Harvestfest proved more important than winning any competition. They took pride in that.

* * *

As the triplets had given up on any hope of winning the competition, so too had the mayor and Nick. Between the dungeon portal and the Turkey Titan sighting, their focus had shifted. They cared more about the safety of Greenlake and its citizens. Not to mention, Roger Escaron had followed them all three days. He'd captured anything within one hundred yards of them before they could.

Nick was a competitive person… And he was more emotional than he’d like to admit. Where winning would have felt great, he was okay with losing. What was more difficult for him to accept was how he hadn’t captured a single spirit. As such, he couldn’t hide his disappointment. He wore it in his sad eyes and his drooping mustache.

“It’ll be better next year,” the mayor assured him as they walked along the forest path. “Roger can’t follow us every year.”

“Yeah…” he agreed, his voice quiet. “Next year we’ll win…or catch one spirit…I’d settle for catching anything at this point.”

“On the bright side,” the Mayor said. “If we find the Turkey Titan, Roger will capture it for us. It will save us some trouble.”

“I suppose that’s true.” Nick agreed. Nick’d love to capture the spirit of the Turkey Titan for himself. Though, he recognized its capture was more important than him being the one to capture it. If they didn’t trap it during the Harvestfest competition, it would be wandering the forest for an entire year. In that time—if it became a soul eater—the whole of Greenlake would be at risk of destruction.

“How was Futuretown?” She asked.

“Futuretown?” He repeated, confused by the question.

“You went today to report the dungeon to the Adventurer’s Guild.” She reminded him.

“Ah, right.” He remembered. “It was the same as always. The guild said they’d send someone, but it might be a week before they can allocate the resources.”

“Help me.” A voice carried on the night air, interrupting their conversation. It was a voice that neither Nick nor the mayor recognized. It was soft, high-pitched, and calm. This contrasted the words which it spoke. “Help me.”

In fact, it was so soft that Nick had to confirm he wasn’t hearing things. He looked at the mayor and asked. “Did you hear that?”

She nodded that she had. “It was close.”

“Help me,” the voice repeated, and they began in its direction. It was a direction that didn’t make sense, away from the path and into some thick bushes.

Nick took the lead, using his sword like a machete to hack away vegetation. When he heard the voice call for help a fourth time, he answered. “Don’t worry. We’re coming.”

“Help me.” The voice called again. This time it was behind them, back toward the pathway.

Did we go past whoever needed our help? Nick wondered. How did we miss them? His eyes widened when he realized what had happened. “Hurry, get back to the path!” He shouted, trying to do the same himself.

Knowing not to question Nick, the mayor followed his advice. But the way back to the path wasn’t much easier than the one they’d followed into the bushes. She had to give up some speed to ensure she wouldn’t trip, poke herself in the eye, or anything like that. As she struggled to return to the safety of the path, she called back. “What is it?”

“A lonely tree,” Nick shouted at her. “I’ve seen them before, but never this far south. They draw you into the woods, then use their roots too… Aaggh!”

His sentence cut short as one of those roots wrapped around his leg and pulled. The combination of the force from the root and the speed at which he hurried tripped him. It left him parallel with the ground, three feet above it. When he landed, branches broke beneath the force, leaving new dents and scratches in his rusty armor.

The root around his ankle began to drag him. He knew he didn’t have a lot of time. The tree would use the root to pull him into a dirt-filled pit near its base. As soon as he was in it, the packed dirt would pin him in place like a carrot in a garden, preventing him from moving. Over the next few days, the root would drain his life energy. He needed to free his leg before that happened.

He lifted his sword and hacked at the tree root. It chipped but remained intact. And it didn’t let go. If anything, it squeezed tighter. All the while, the root continued to drag him, snapping bushes and branches along the way. In such circumstances, it was difficult enough to hold on to the sword, let alone swing it. Though, swing it he did…again…and again…and again…

On that fourth stroke, he struck true, and the root broke. He returned to his feet in time to hear the mayor scream. “It got me.” Rather than run in her direction, he looked at the ground. He guessed that if the mayor needed help, it was because a second root had trapped her. He identified that second root. Then he felled his sword onto it like a man using an axe to cut firewood, and the root broke.

“Are you free now?” He shouted.

“Yes,” she answered. “It let go. I’m free.”

“Good,” he shouted back. “Keep running. I’m going to take care of the tree.”

In his mind, he knew he shouldn’t take on the tree by himself. There were lots of reasons to not attack it. For one, he wasn’t an arborist. Attacking a tree went against his job. In turn, it went against the laws of the moderators.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Moderators allowed self-defense. But they didn’t allow someone to protect other people…not unless they had a job like Zoey. By being a paladin, she was able to defend others. In the case of Nick, saving the mayor from the root might have been enough to break the law. He grumbled as he came to this realization and whispered to himself. “Pete the pizzaman is becoming a bad influence on me.”

With that, Nick began his charge toward the lonely tree. The closer he got to where he guessed he’d find the trunk, the thinner the bushes became. Those that remained turned dead and dry. Then there were no bushes at all, only the lonely tree.

From one hundred paces away, Nick saw the tree for the first time. It had four roots swinging around it like wild tentacles. Two of them were the ones he’d damaged. The other two were in good condition. Though, they didn’t try to grab him. Was it afraid of him?

Between the tentacles, Nick recognized two glowing, purple orbs. He guessed them to be eyes. The leaves on the branches and in the tree’s canopy were bright orange. He wondered if they took their color from the blood of their victims. Victims, he wondered, has the tree killed any of Greenlake’s citizens? Had it killed Trash Pandas? How had it sustained itself?

As he observed the tree and wondered about its victims, he continued his charge. “Help me.” He heard it say. Though, he didn’t see a mouth. Then it swung a root at him, and another root, and another. Using his level 11 City Guard agility, he dodged around the lashes, jumping that way and sliding this way. When the distance between him and the tree had closed to six paces, he jumped feet first. He landed with his feet against the trunk as he dug the point of his sword into the bark between the eyes.

“Help… me…” The tree said one last time before the purple glow of its eyes dimmed to black.

* * *

Near the end of the third night, Pete found it difficult to remain motivated. At that point, soul capturers had cleared most of the spirits from the forest. He and Zoey hadn’t even seen a spirit during the last two hours.

“Do you think we should call it a night?” He asked her.

“That’s a good idea,” She agreed.

“Try using your vampire eyes again.” He told her. “Try to call something toward us.”

“That only works when I’m in battle mode, doing something athletic, or when I’m mad.” She reminded.

“So…think of something that makes you mad.” He said.

“Like what?”

“Like Kim.” He answered, reminding Zoey of her high school rival. Upon mentioning Kim, Zoey’s eyes flashed from green to red. “See, that turned them red.”

“Yeah,” she glowered at Pete. “Thanks for bringing her up.” Then she looked around. “It didn’t work. There’s no spirits around here for me to connect with.” After confirming the lack of spirits, Zoey took a calming breath, and her eyes returned to green. Those same eyes looked at Pete. “You know you shouldn’t bring up people like Kim while you are on a date.”

“Date?” Pete stammered. “This is a date?”

“You’re too easy to tease, Pete.” She snatched his hat off with her left hand and roughed up his hair with her right one. “That’s one of the reasons I like you.”

All he could do to answer was blush as she replaced the hat atop his head. Though, he went from embarrassment to curiosity as he noticed an ethereal blue glow in the trees behind Zoey. He hyper-focused on the light.

“What is it?” She asked, noticing the change in his demeanor and turning to follow his line of sight.

“Do you see that glowing light?” he asked. “You said there aren’t any spirits nearby, right?”

“There aren’t,” She confirmed.

“So for one to be big enough to give off that kind of light, it’d have to be…”

“The Turkey Titan,” she finished his sentence for him.

With that, both sped toward the direction of the light. They put every ounce of running ability and agility to use, hoping no one else captured the spirit of the Turkey Titan before they did.

As they neared the glow, they confirmed their suspicions. The light was in the shape of a giant turkey. When they drew even closer, Pete recognized the familiar turkey. It looked the same as it had in life. When they were within twenty feet of the thing, they slowed to a stop.

While Pete reached into his pocket and pulled out an orb, he told Zoey. “Watch this.” Then he threw the orb at the spirit. Instead of capturing the ghost of the Turkey Titan, the orb bounced off, and a prompt appeared:

This spirit is too powerful to capture. Wear it down with combat, and then try again.

“Wow,” Zoey said. “The way you bounced the orb off the turkey ghost thing…that was awesome. Good work.”

“It says we have to wear the spirit down before we can capture it.” He told her.

“Like catching a pokemon?” She asked.

“I guess so,” he answered. “I wish we had a masterball… Wait…do you think they have a master spirit orb?”

“You’re so dumb.” She chuckled.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “So how do we wear the spirit down.

“I have a few ideas,” She said. “I unlocked a few skills on my skill tree that might help.”

“Nice,” he said. “You use those. I’ll try to use my fire spell on them. Fire tends to damage spirits in video games.” He hesitated before continuing, “or it heals them. Boy, do I hope I don’t heal him.”

“If you do, he’ll be your friend.” Zoey smiled. “You can have a giant pet turkey ghost. Isn’t that what you wanted for Christmas this year?”

* * *

As they continued to banter, the Turkey Titan watched them. It scanned its head back and forth from one to the other as they spoke, deciding which it should try to eat first. At the time, the Turkey Titan didn’t realize it was a spirit. It didn’t know it couldn’t eat.

“I wanted a new gaming PC for Christmas.” Pete answered.

“That’s not the same thing?” She teased.

“How would that be the same thing?” He asked.

“They both…ummm…” She thought for a second. “…glow in the dark?”

The impatient turkey spirit decided it would eat Pete. He was the one that threw the strange orb at it, after all. “Gawk!” it let out its battle cry as it flapped its wings and charged.

* * *

Zoey activated her ability Draw Hate from her paladin skill tree. It was an ability that—when active—made nearby enemies hate her. The recast of the effect was a full minute, and the ability lasted thirty seconds.

As the turkey shifted its attention from Pete to Zoey, she transformed her peel into its shield form. She held it in her left hand. She held her pizza fork in her right. Seconds after she had equipped herself, the turkey slammed its beak toward her. She wasn’t sure she had the strength to withstand a square blow against her shield. As such, she held it overhead at an angle, causing the turkey’s attack to glance off and miss to the side.

The turkey pulled its beak back. And Zoey watched that beak with an intense focus, not wanting to mistime her defense of its next attack. That was her mistake. She’d become so hyper-focused on the beak that she overlooked as the turkey swung its wing in at her from the side. It caught her, sending her tumbling to her side and causing her hp to drop by a few points.

Before she could roll back onto her feet, the Turkey was on her, slamming its beak downward.

A fireball from Pete’s Strong Fire spell interrupted the attack. It caught the Turkey Titan in the side of its head, knocking the creature off balance, forcing it to stumble to the side.

It gave Zoey enough time to return to her feet. “He hits harder than I thought.” She said as Pete stepped next to her.

“Yeah,” Pete agreed, lifting his hand to hurl two more fire spells toward the gigantic spirit. They struck, but the health bar above the turkey didn’t deplete. “He wasn’t that much fun when he was alive either.”

* * *

At that moment, three things happened. First, Zoey’s hate spell wore off. Second, the giant turkey spirit remembered it was dead. Third, the Turkey Titan remembered who had killed him. Its eyes flashed with anger, and it charged with a renewed vigor, focusing all its efforts on its foe – the pizza delivery man.

* * *

Pete slid back to avoid the first attack. Then he tried to time a slap across the turkey’s head as its beak struck against the ground. Where his timing was right, the material nature of the turkey was not. His hand went straight through the spirit without causing any damage at all. It was like the head wasn’t even there. Even though Pete couldn’t hit the turkey, it could still hit him. And hit him it did, pulling its head away a few feet before batting it back into him.

He lost track of where he was as the world spun. When he came to a stop, the world continued to spin. Pete groaned as he returned to his feet, stumbling to keep his balance and not fall back to the ground.

The turkey sped toward him.

Zoey lifted her hand and initiated her attack in the form of two spells. The initial one was a spell that came from her paladin tree. It caused holy-based damage against its target. The other spell she used was a more robust version of the first one, also from her paladin tree.

Instead of shooting from her hands like Pete’s fireball spells, the Light of the Living spells began as lights. One light was the size of a lightbulb. The other was a smidge larger than a light bulb. The pair of lights appeared in the center of the turkey. She could see them through the spirit’s translucence. The smaller light radiated in waves that expanded outward. The more significant light spun. As it did, it flung out rotating waves of light.

The Turkey Titan froze in place, shrieking as the light disintegrated the creature from the inside out. When the spells finally dissipated, the spirit fell. Rather, it almost fell because it never hit the ground. Instead, it hovered, moaning in pain.

As Pete’s head began to clear, he realized this was the moment he’d been awaiting. He materialized an orb from his inventory into his hand. Then he threw it. The small sphere hit the spirit and vacuumed it with a satisfying whoosh. As the turkey dissolved into the sphere, the orb took on a brilliant, happy yellow glow.