For Waning-Sun's Halloween Trades






The stag stood on a hill, looking across the Forest, taking in the scenery as the leaves started to change for the Autumn season. Zash sighed, feeling as if there was something to this time of the year that was bittersweet, something about a memory from a life lived before that involved the leaves changing color. He tried to remember, but it was such a distant glimpse of his past life that it continued to haunt him, not being able to remember it clearly.

He was about to go deep into thought when something caught his eye in the distance. A metallic flash of light, it was faint but coming from the old Ruins. He had heard stories of things being uncovered there, old trinkets, bones, things like that. His curiosity got the better of him, and he was at once walking toward the flash of light, keeping his eyes open to make sure no others saw it around.

He was alone, aside from a few sleeping deer in the distance. They wouldn't have seen it. He knew it would be safe for him to look on the thing. He approached the old tombstones, where the flash seemed to have come from. He at first thought he was just imagining things, but then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something unusual - it was just a slight piece of golden metal sticking out from the ground.

Zash reached down, and picking up the bit of metal in his maw, he pulled, now realizing this was much larger than it appeared. He would unearth a large golden object, in an odd shape that resembled a gourd or a squash. He set it on the stone ruins, the thing making a loud 'clank' sound as metal collided with stone.

He looked about, hoping nobody heard this, and then began to brush the dirt off the thing with his neck fur. Once it was clean, he stared at it, the unusual shape morphing his reflection, causing a hypnotic sensation where he would continue to stare and stare mindlessly. He would have been standing there glaring at the reflection if it wasn't for a passing fawn speaking out, "Oh wow, what is that thing?"

Zash blinked out of his trance, looking around before noticing the fawn was there "Oh it's nothing, nothing. Run along now.", he instructed at once.

The fawn tilted his head, "But it looks so interesting...and very shiny! Can I just--", but before he could continue, the stag stepped in his way, blocking his view of the golden object, "No! Go on, get out of here!", he yelled.

The youngling, backing away with his tail between his legs and ears drooping, ran off without another word. Zash huffed to himself, trying to calm down, before he looked back at the object. It wasn't safe here. People would ask about it. He just wanted it all to himself.

He gripped the thing in his maw and looked around, before running to the Old Oak. The golden gourd shimmered in the sunlight, making a bright burst of metallic light shine all about. He knew someone would have spotted him, and sure enough, a doe watched him run into the Oak with the thing. Setting it down in the shady spot, he barely turned around before he noticed her peek in, "What in the world was that you were carrying?", she asked.

"Nothing, mind your own business!", the already annoyed stag spoke. The doe, still as curious as ever, took a step in to look at the thing. Zash charged at her, antlers down to strike. The doe quickly evaded him and ran off, stopping to look back with a scowl on her face, "You'll be sorry about that! When my mate hears you--", she would ramble on in the distance, but Zash paid no attention, and went back to staring at the gourd. He stared into the reflective surface for what seemed like hours, before someone called to him, "Hey, you in there! Come out with that thing and nobody will get hurt!"

Zash snapped out of the hypnotic state the gourd put him in, and looked out of the Oak. There now was the doe he charged at earlier, as well as several stags, all ready to take him by force. He backed away, trying to think of what to do. He got an idea, and gently rolled the golden gourd out the small hole in the back of the Oak, before stepping out, "Fine, take it. I have no need for it anyway.". The stags nodded to one another and approached the Oak, walking past Zash and entering in, expecting to find the golden object. Meanwhile, Zash snuck around the back, retrieved the gourd, and made a run for it. The doe spotted him, and shouted, "Hey he's getting away!", causing the stags inside the Oak to rush out and look around, all bewildered the other deer got away.

Zash ran to the Playground, hopping up onto the stones, stopping to catch his breath. The golden gourd shone so brightly that many other deer approached, all wondering what was going on with the metallic glow. Soon the doe and her stags were there, racing toward the Playground to catch up with him. Zash was surrounded, with so many deer there wanting to see the gourd, he tried to keep it hidden in his mouth. Something triggered an effect, whether it was his tongue touching a part of the gourd, or his teeth on it, but the thing began to open up. When Zash realized it was making a humming noise and began to quickly heat up, he set it on the ground in time to watch, as the metal gourd separated into countless golden fragments, hovering in a spherical pattern with a large energy source inside. This was so bright that the others around had to shield their eyes, but somehow Zash was unaffected by the bright glow and stared into the pulsating ball of energy within the golden object. Slowly he reached his hoof in, it was not something he would have normally done, but was oddly compelled to do so as the gourd had some kind of mind-controlling effect on him.

As soon as he touched the ball of energy, it erupted, expanding briefly and engulfing him. The sphere of energy stopped just before reaching the outer edge of the Playground boulders, before it collapsed on itself and shrank to the size of a marble, then fizzled out and toppled to the ground as one tiny, perfectly spherical stone that rolled off the boulder and was lost in the pebbles nearby.

Zash was no longer there, nor was the Golden Gourd, leaving all the spectators speechless.


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He sat up with a headache, and looked around. He was somewhere new, a barren land with few vegetation. The ground beneath him was cracked and above him a sun scorched the ground beneath his hooves. But he looked up and noticed things were different here. The sky was green, for example. There were actually two 'suns' in the sky, one red and one blue, a binary star system.

He was on another planet, a planet that supported life since there were some trees around and a little water, but it seemed there was nobody close by.

He was finally left alone, and would want to examine the Golden Gourd now, without interruptions.

Zash picked up the Gourd, and carrying it to one of the shady spots, he would try to learn more about it. But along the way, his hoof got caught in one of the cracks in the ground, causing him to stumble. The Gourd slipped out of his mouth, and flying into the air, it hit the ground and shattered into countless pieces. Many of the fragments fell into the deep cracks, lost forever, while the remaining ones shimmered in broken pieces.

"No...NO!", he cried, running to the broken thing. There was no way to fix it, so much was already lost to the cracked ground, and he had no means of repairing it himself. "No no no no!! This isn't happening!", he cried, then looked around, the solitude...the quiet getting to him already.

"Hello?! Anyone? Is anyone out there?!", he would call.

No answer.

He finally got his wish, to be left alone with this mysterious Golden Gourd, only for the worst to happen.


The End