Matching "Costumes" (TwoKinds)

It was Halloween once again in the world of Mekkan, and many folks were preparing for the evening’s festivities. From trick or treating to the Shepherd’s Square Carnival, all of Edinmire was excited for Halloween’s return. All except one.
Raine was sitting alone in her room, she had read about Halloween and had always wanted to go… but her parents were “never around” to take her. She decided hot cider, some hard candy,  and a horror book would be her Halloween for the night. But a certain redhead had other plans for the evening.
Halloween was Red’s favorite holiday, he had many fine memories of his childhood and teenhood raising hell in Edinmire and around the Templar academy. He hadn’t been able to truly celebrate Halloween in the tiny village him and the Taverdatters stayed in. So he was excited to finally get back into the festive spirit, and what better way than spend it with one of his closest friends?
He made the lonely girl jump a little out of bed with his sudden and booming voice. “Hey Raine you in there?”
“Y-Yeah, one sec.” After putting a bookmark in the pages, the human girl quickly walked over and opened the door, her cheeks turned slightly pink at the man in front of her, “Hey, weren’t you going down to Edinmire for the Halloween thing?”
Red had a soft but confident smile on his face, “Yeah I was about to get ready and then I had a thought-”
“You’ve been having a lot of those recently.”
“Yeah I know, I’ve actually been making an ef-...” His face blanked, then playfully scowled at her “Har har har.”
“Heheh.” Red was always willing to take a couple shots to his unlimited confidence for her… he just wished she wouldn’t strike so close to home sometimes.
“But no, I was thinking you should come along with me tonight.”
Raine’s blood went cold, “What?”
“You know, we should go to the festival down in Edinmire.”
Although she deeply wanted to… something else inside was telling Raine that it wasn’t possible.
 “I… can’t.”
“Why? No costume?”
“Y-yeah, can’t go to Halloween without a costume!”
“I mean you could, but it wouldn’t be very traditional.”
“Yeah exactly, I wouldn’t want to break tradition on my first Halloween!”
“We could always make one.”
“No I’m not really up for… making one...”
Red had come to an impasse, what could possibly fix this...
He suddenly remembered his own words from long ago;
“If you ignore the legs, it kinda looks like you’re wearing a Keidran costume.”
“It kinda looks like you’re wearing a Keidran costume.”
“Wearing a Keidran costume.”
“Keidran costume.”
His eyes lit up with a bright green hue at his own genius
“Raine, I just had an amazing idea!”
Her cheeks turned a little pinker as she grinned at his sudden burst of energy, “What’s that?”
“You could go in your half`n half form! You know maybe have like a wolf mask to make it complete!”
Raine was impressed that he of all people would be the one to think of that. “That’s… a good idea but...”
“But?”
She started sifting her hands through her long hair, “Y-You know, I’m not really comfortable with other people seeing me like that… even if they think it’s just a costume… Besides, I doubt it will match up with what you’re going to wear.”
Red typically spoke before thinking, most times it was just bumbling something out and making things worse… but every so often he managed to say just the right thing.
“Well, we could go in matching costumes, then.”
Raine was speechless at his words, he didn’t know if he offended her or not, time to go a little back. “Well I mean… if you’re cool with that, it’s ah, an idea. People wouldn’t think twice if they saw two people together with matching costumes.”
Her tail poofed out of her modified pants and started wagging a tiny bit, “Y-you'd actually do that?”
The realization of what he was saying actually hit him, “W-well yeah, if it’d make you more comfortable while we’re down there.”
Raine quickly grabbed her tail and tried to hold it still, “But how are you... how would you get into… did you call it ‘half`n half’?”
Red snickered. “Heh heh heh, yeah that’s just my little nickname for it, can’t you…” He regretted his train of thought just a little for getting himself into this situation, “transform me? I know you’re really good at it.”
Raine was struggling to control her tail, “You’re just saying that, I know I’m still bad at transformation magic, even on myself… and besides, I’m not sure I’ll be able to turn you back once we’re done.”
Red just gave her a dismissive hand wave, “Nonsense, you’re plenty good at it, and we can figure out getting me back to normal tomorrow… So, what do you say, want to go trick or treating with me?”
Raine took a page out of Red’s book of thought. “You know what, yes!”
Red’s heart practically skipped a beat at his crush’s rise in confidence, “Really?! Alrighty then! So I’m gonna go find us some masks and maybe some paint, uhh, you figure out the whole transformation thing!”
“W-wait?! How’s this going to work, like what do we wear?”
Red had to scratch his head a bit at that, “I dunno, I guess we should just wear our regular clothes, since people will probably be looking just at our masks and arms… and legs.”
Just before leaving, she quickly grabbed his shoulder, “Oh yeah, uh one more thing!”
“What’s up?”
The girl scratched her head and smiled nervously, “Thank you.”
It was his turn to have a little pink on the cheeks, “Oh, of course Raine, uh, anytime.”
After ungraciously bumping into a wall and bravadoing it off, the human went to his room to start getting supplies, Raine closed her door and couldn’t control her tail any longer. It started rapidly beating back and forth, she was going to do it, she was going to have a real Halloween! All those years spent locked up, dreaming of what could be, they wouldn’t matter because she was finally doing it! … As long as she could figure out how to turn Red partially into a wolf…
“Maybe Rose would know?” she thought out loud.
But before she could put her hand on the doorknob, Rose opened it from the inside.
Raine was a little startled by her aunt’s timing, “Gah!”
“Raine dear, may I ask why your friend was looking for masks and paint just now?”
The younger of the two was feeling a little on edge, her Aunt loved to tease about “her friend,” “Oh, well, he was going to take me to go to the Halloween festival, and he was getting masks for our costumes.”
Rose donned a smug smirk, “Our?”
A deep blush spread across Raine’s face, “We’re going in matching costumes… and I need your help with something.”
“Oh, and what’s that? Do you need me to wipe his memory so he doesn’t ruin it by being himself?”
“H-Hey! No! No, I just need help… ”
She had a large and insufferably smug grin on her face, “Yeees?”
“I need your help on turning him half`n half, I’m not sure how.”
Rose pretended to ponder deeply, “Hmm, I was thinking that we could teach him how to transform… but that would take WAY too long… I don’t think I’d live long enough to see the end of it either.” Raine huffed in annoyance at her aunt's consistent bashing of her friend’s intelligence. “Hmm, but I do know a variation of the spell that will make him ‘half`n half’... for a while.”
Raine perked up, “Oh, good! What is it?!”
“Hon, you really need to… nevermind, it’s a form of imperfect transformation.”
The young human’s blood grew cold at the revelation, “Imperfect transformation?! Like the one used on my mother?!”
“Yes, it would be a little painful, but it would get the job done.” Rose sighed at what came next, “He would also slowly transform into a full wolf over the course of a few hours. Almost like a werewolf... kind of fitting for tonight, don’t you think?”
Raine’s excitement grew dim. There was no way Red would agree to be practically cursed for an evening, especially if it meant that he’d become a wolf by night's end, “I, well… can we see what he thinks first?”
“Of course, but don’t get your hopes up for him.”

Meanwhile, Red was happily painting a couple of wolf masks. He had taken some headpieces off some old training dummies Trace had in a broom closet, and hollowed them out… he also whittled some more “appropriate” faces onto them: A wolf baring his teeth for himself, and a happily ‘blepping’ one for Raine. He painted them both with many layers of white, despite hoping his wolf form would be black furred, a brief experiment for Trace when they were younger told him it was white… also that he had a bright red nose as well. Speaking of noses, the energetic human finished adding the final layer of white paint onto the masks, and it was time to bust out the pink and red. Although he would never admit it out loud, he loved how cute Raine’s pink little nose was, the very sight of it gave him great desire to boop it… although strong and fluffy legs convinced him otherwise.
A pair of light footsteps made themselves known behind him, “What are you doing?”
“Oh, hey Maren, i’m just making some masks for me and Raine’s costumes, wanna help?”
“Aren’t you a little old for that?”
“Pshh, nah. And besides, it’s for Raine, I’m gonna make her first Halloween a great one! Wait a minute... why aren’t you getting ready?”
Maren grimaced a little, “In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t have a tavern to give candy out of.”
Red smirked because he knew exactly where this was going, “Then just go to the festival, or trick or treat, there’s plenty to do in Edinmire!”
And on cue, Maren’s face became solemn, “I’m too old for such childis-”
“Maren, cut the ice-queen thing for like half a second. Why can’t you let yourself be happy for one night?” He knew exactly how to press her buttons.
“I’m not an ice-! It’s not like I’m trying not to have fun!”
“It sure seems like you are.”
“I’m not!”
“Well then go have fun at the festival.”
“No!”
“Because you don’t want to have fun.”
“N-No! I want to have fun!”
“Then go to the festival with me and Raine and have fun.”
“...”
“...”
After a long sigh, Maren decided to give in, “You’re a real ass sometimes, you know that?”
Red could only smile genuinely at her jab, “Yeah, I just hate seeing you unhappy is all.”
“Yeah, I know…” Maren sometimes hated how he tried so hard to make her feel better, but she knew he just cared about her. “Hey… the paint is going to crack if you do it like that.”

Back with Rose and her niece, the elder had successfully taught Raine how to cast the “curse.”  Both of them knew it would be better if Raine was the one to cast the spell, Red would never let Rose near him with any form of magic.
Raine still felt needles pricking in her fingers and along her spine, “What If I mess it up? What if I kill him?!”
The wiser wolf tried her best to comfort her, “Darling, you won’t kill him, the worst that could happen is him turning into a full wolf… Though, he might see that as-”
“Please don’t, not now.”
“Sorry, I was jus-”
The previously mentioned human burst through the door, “Hey I got the masks!” Raine accidently slipped off her bed in surprise, “Oops.”
“I’m okay!”
Rose was a little annoyed at his intrusion, “You know there's a thing called knocking.”
“Why would I knock? I knew she was in here… besides, knocking is for pu-”
“And what if she was getting changed and only partially clothed?”
The human’s face reddened a bit as he rubbed his neck and looked away as his imagination took hold of his mind, “Fair enough.”
Raine couldn’t take the waiting anymore, “I-can-turn-you-half`nhalf.”
“Oh cool.” There was a long pause of silence, long enough that even Red picked up on it, “There’s a downside, isn’t there?”
Rose decided to have a little mercy on Raine and answered for her, “The spell we will use will be painful, and it will eventually turn you into a full wolf by night’s end.”
“Oh… Wait, that sounds an awful lot lik-”
Raine was quick to back down, “You don’t have to! I mean it’s no big deal really, Halloween isn’t that special, r-right?”
Silence returned to the room, and this time it wreaked hell on Raine’s nerves, she struggled to keep from transforming out of embarrassment. Red’s mind was racing for what to say next, he didn’t want to mess this up, he had to get it just right. Rose was watching the two patiently, ever ready to teleport him into the dungeons if he slipped up too much… she figured turning him into a donkey would be fitting.
Red started to sweat a little as he chose his words very carefully, “Okay, I'm totally fine with that.”
A little bit of hope glistened in Raine’s eyes, “Really?”
“Yes.” lied Red. The truth was that Trace had once explained every single explicit detail of the imperfect transformation spell, many years ago… so ‘totally fine’ was a complete exaggeration, not that he’d let his fears stop Raine’s potential fun.
The mentioned girl’s resolve was quickly fading, “Are you sure, we don’t ha-”
Red needed something more than his own willingness to help push her, “Raine… I made these masks with Maren, I told her about how I was going to be half wolf and all that, and she hasn’t been to a Halloween festival in several years... I wouldn't want to disappoint two people in one night… you know what I mean?”
That seemed to help a little, “I think so… If you’re sure, can you hold out your arms? A-and if it hurts even a little, please just say so.”
The redhead put down both of the masks and stuck out his hands, he gave Raine the most “you got this” smile he could. Raine drew mana from the ground and stood up, her heart beat started to skyrocket as she wrapped both of her hands around his right palm. A quick grimace from Rose was the only warning Red had about what was going to happen to him.
Pain shot through his hand as he stopped himself from inhaling sharply, “Not that bad at all,” his voice was slightly gravely with pain, “See you’re doing great Raine.” And after a few seconds of prickling under his skin, his hand began to transform. Fur quickly sprouted out over his digits, his nails sharpened into cones, and some of his skin started to morph into black pads. “Whoa… that’s... really sick, actually.”
Raine’s face was a little red, she wasn’t quite that used to touching other people this intimately, “How do you feel?”
Despite the paw being fully formed now, there was a slight ache to it, “Perfectly alright, so other hand or the rest of the arm?”
“Other hand, it should be up your arm by the time we get down there.”
Red’s eyes wided a bit by that, “It’s that fast?!”
Rose finally decided to step in, “It should slow down once it reaches your thighs and shoulders, more areas on the inside to spread to.”
“Huh, right… Wait, Rose, do you know how to reverse this?”
The elder wolf had to hide a coy smirk, “Not yet, is that a problem?”
Pain shot through his left hand as Raine began the procedure on it, “Naaaah, I just want to make sure I don’t permanently end up as a wolf.”
“Oh? And why not?”
Red knew he was in a corner… but a previous conversation with Sythe had prepared him for this exact question, “Sooooooo I can live more than twenty-five years, the first set was pretty interesting, so I just think, MMMmmhh, I think I kinda need to be a human to live the next twenty-five.”
Rose didn’t buy it one bit, “Mhm.”
Raine sighed as she finished the hand, “Rose, you can reverse it right?”
“... Not yet, only once he’s a full wolf will the reverse spell work, so no going back now.”
Red was going to ask her why, but Raine trying to untie his boots stopped that train of thought, “Oh? Are you going to transform those too tonight?”
“Well yeah, It would look weird for you to start in human feet and end the night with dog legs.“
He realized something dire, “Uhhh, Raine... how will I walk? Wait, how will I even stand?!”
That was a surprising oversight for her, considering how much trouble she usually had walking,  “Oh, it’s not… too hard? It’s like walking on your toes, so you just need some grace.”
“Raine... I am the least graceful person either of us know.”
“Eh, well, uh, you could… ” Her face was growing more red by the second, “Lean on me, you know... until you can walk on your own, I mean!”
“Heh, yeah that’ll work.” Raine was having a little trouble untying his boots, “Here, you have to pull on this a bit.”

After transforming both his feet, Raine helped Red take his first steps, “So the trick is not to put your non-existent heel down.”
Red was leaning heavily on Raine’s shoulders, facing each other as they took steps around her room. Rose couldn’t enjoy the sight more. Her niece's face was as red as her friend's hair, and her friend looked like he was about to biff it at any moment.
It looked like an awkward slow dance to her.
“Should I get some music for you two?”
Red pulled a Red, “... Yes.”
His “dancing” partner bapped him playfully on the nose, “I will let go of you, mister.”
“That’s okay, I think I got IIIIIEEEEEETTT!” The half`n half human misstepped and fell backwards. “Raine how about you transform? I think I’ll settle for ‘trial by fire’ once Rose isn’t here.”
Raine was a little nervous, even if it was just him and Rose in the room, transforming was something she was uncomfortable with showing off.
“Close your eyes,” After making sure the laying human’s eyes were shut, she instantly poofed into her half`n half form. “Okay, open them.”
Red was a little surprised by her ears; she still had her human ones and new keidran ears, “Uh Raine, am I going to need wolf ears?”
“Oh yeah, here!”
She leaned down and gently grabbed the human by the head, and after a brief and awkward moment of gazing into each other’s eyes, she started the spell. It felt like nails were being driven into his skull.
Rose finally decided that they had enough for the night, “You know, I think I’ll give you two the rest of the night. Besides, I need to see about getting more eggs, we seem to have run out.” For once, she actually smiled at the still laying man, “Try to have her home by midnight… or don’t, I hear the Riftwall Tavern is a pleasant place to stay if you’re not feeling the return trip… Just remember to bring some money.”
Without waiting for a response, she left the two to their devices.
Pain was ripping through his skull, changing his hearing ability was much more complex than arms and legs, “Hngh-ah, anything in particular you want to do tonight?”
“I don’t know what there is to do… are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m good, and I think I have a decent plan.”
“What’s that?”
“Walk around and do everything we see, sound good?”
“Yeah… oh, I think you’re done! Uh, can you hear me?” Raine said as she covered his human ears.
“Yep… not going to lie, Raine, but this is extremely weird.”
“Hehe, yeah it’s weird for me too, and Karen, she’s really the only one I could talk to about it.”
“And me now.” he said while rapidly moving his ears.
Her heart fluttered a bit, “Yeah, if you don’t mind talking about keirdan ears.”
“Ah I’m sure I can talk about it, talking is one of my many expertises.” He said trying to waggle his eyebrows with his ears.
“Snrk, come on up now, we don’t have long until the festival begins, right?”
“Yeah, that and we need some candy bags, you need to try on your mask, and we need to get Maren and Karen. They’re coming with us for the beginning.”
Raine helped the half human to his feet, “Maren’s not going with Sythe?”
“Nah, he’s taking the night off to relax in the Estate, you know, wolf ban and all that.”
Raine’s face darkened, “Oh.”
“Eh don’t feel too bad for him, he probably doesn’t celebrate Halloween the same way humans do… wait why am I the one telling you this?”
Raine tried to follow her aunt’s examples of teasing, “It’s the half form, it’s making you smarter on wolf things already.”
Red began rubbing his hands together, “Heh heh heh, soon I’ll know ALL of their weaknesses.” She couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at his exaggerations, “So, wanna try on your mask?”
Raine grabbed her wolf mask and observed it carefully. While the structure didn’t match her real wolf face, the color certainly did. From the silverish eyebrows to the pink nose, the pigment was perfectly painted on, no cracks, no chips, and no color overlapping.
“How does yours look, Red?”
Red rubbed the back of his neck, “Just as well as yours… only my nose is… ”
“Red?”
“Yeah.”
His mask was just as expertly painted as Raine’s, the only differences were red eyebrows and a bright red nose. he was real happy a certain tan wolf wasn’t there to see it.
“It’s cute!” Red was happy he was wearing a mask, it was his turn to get a little flustered.
“Yeah yeah, ‘cute.’ So, think we can get some bags and go?”
Raine face went a little white at the realization she forgot one of the most important pieces to their costumes… ironically it was the first thing she changed on herself,  “Oh yeah! Uh, hehe, I forgot one last, last thing.”
Red dreaded that there was even more that had to be transformed early, “What?”
“Your tail.”
“... Oh, should I drop my pants?”

After finally leaving their room, Red and Raine met up with the Taverndatters at the main entrance, where a few carriages were waiting. Maren had dressed up as a mage, known for wearing only black and white. Karen had dressed up as a feline witch, she’d even painted a black nose and whiskers on her face. The sisters, even Maren, were happy to finally be able to celebrate Halloween once again, of course not that the eldest would admit that even a little.
Red was having trouble controlling his tail, something Karen had immediately noticed, “Oh Gods! YOU HAVE A TAIL!?”
Everyone in the immediate area was now staring at the tallest one there, “Yeah, uh pretty convincing, right?”
Karen had zipped around to get a much closer look at it, “Yeah! What’s it even connected to?”
And before Raine could stop her, Karen yanked his new tail hard, “HERK!! Karen don’t do that! It’s, it was hard to get in place!” yelled Red.
“Oh uh, sorry, it just looks so real, is all.”
Maren was already getting a little impatient waiting in the carriage for the three, “Are you guys coming or not? The festival officially begins in thirty minutes, we’ll be a couple minutes late if we’re lucky.”
Raine was suppressing a giggle to herself as Red rubbed the base of his tail, “Yeah, come on you two, Karen you can ask us about our tails on the way there.”
Karen happily leaped into the carriage and plopped down next to her big sis. Red Helped Raine into the carriage, she was practically walking on stilts after all… And after a failed attempt and falling flat on his back, he managed to climb into the now packed wagon himself. The ride down to Edinmire was filled with stories of Halloweens past. Red had told many stories of the hundreds of “tricks” he and his friends, Trace included, played on the poor souls of the previously mentioned city. Maren recounted the first time her and Karen went trick or treating, their village was very small so it was a short lived tale. Karen talked a bit too fast and tried to get Raine to tell her about her first Halloween… and after a very loud cough from Red, she managed to get the message. Raine had also gotten the message, and instead cleared up to Karen that while this was actually her first Halloween, and she didn’t really mind that fact. After only a couple awkward moments, Red decided a “horror” story would probably be better than sitting in silence.

“...And after he removed the final needle, he decided to bring his new creation to life… wait what’s that!”
Maren had heard this story before, “Yeah, yeah, I’m not falling for i-”
A goblin had shoved his head through the open carriage window, “RAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”
Everyone but Red screamed at the top of their lungs… Raine managed to just barely keep herself from poofing into a wolf.
The redhead was laughing himself to death, “Heh heh heh heh, aha haha, holy shit! I didn’t think you’d be that loud man!”
The stranger pulled his mask off to reveal wine colored hair and dark blue eyes, “Heh, I’ve been practicing you know!” his voice was clearly of a lowborn variant.
Maren wasn’t amused in the slightest, “Riley! I haven’t seen you in years, and you’re still just immature as Red!”
“Red?”
“She means me.”
“Oh, well I heard you lot were in town so I knew at least the little one here,” He said while nodding toward Karen, “Er, not so little anymore, would want to come down to Edinmire. And then I hear someone telling “the raising dead story’ and decided to join in… Oh that reminds me! You single yet Maren?”
Maren’s face became as red as a tomato as she shot a dirty look at him, “... I’m not going out with you.”
“C’mon, the night’s young an-”
Red knew he should intervene, “Riles, you know I will push you off this moving carriage.”
“Haehaehaehaeh, I’ll see you lot around, still need to catch up a bit… Wait, what’s going on with your arms and legs man?”
“Well… It’s apart of our costume. Pretty realistic right?”
“Yeah, you even managed to get the fingers and claws to move too… freaky.”
He was about to jump off the carriage before Maren stopped him, “Oh wait a minute! How close are we to Edinemire?”
“`Bout five more minutes!” he shouted as he threw himself off the rolling wagon.
Raine was obviously confused about what just happened, “Red… who in the world was that?”
“Old friend from the Templar, really good at making illusions and stuff… Oh, that reminds me of another story!”

The group managed to arrive in Edinmire shortly after the festival’s opening. The streets were full of people dressed up as all sorts of creatures… except a few tradition breakers without costumes of course. Raine’s tail was swishing back and forth at the sight of it all, her Keidran eyes were wide with excitement, and her ears were happily sprung up. The sight was putting Red in a decent mood himself, so far so good. Karen immediately wanted to go trick or treating, the rules were first come first served after all, and there were a lot of people on the streets. Although Raine was nervous at the idea of going around asking for free sweets, her mask helped comfort her uneasy mind; surely if something went wrong, no one would recognise her. So long as they didn’t look too hard into her disguise, neither her nor Red should have any problems.
As they made their way to the first house, Karen tried to get Maren to go with them, “Come on, sis! Isn’t this why you brought a bag?”
“Well yeah I just… feel a little old for this.”
“You’re just a little older than Raine though, and that doesn’t even really matter, I’m sure Red could even get something!”
The three looked at the mentioned human, who was currently putting a couple of eggs from a small insulated bag into his pockets, “Uhh, yeah yeah, like, it’s trick or treat, so these are just in case.”
Maren faked a sigh of defeat, “Well, maybe just a couple of houses… at least until I get turned away.”
“If you do get turned away, you could always just follow my example!”
The three girls yelled in unison, “Red no!”
“Red yes!” he said with eggs holstered between all of his fingers.

The first house was a relatively small cottage. There was a middle aged woman sitting outside with a platter of large peppermints shaped like pumpkins, they even had little faces "carved" on them.
Karen joyfully hopped up and practically yelled trick or treat, Maren couldn't hide her smile as she indulged in a price of her childhood. The woman happily gave both of them a piece of candy, which brought some relief into Maren's mind. Raine stuck closely next to Red as they strolled up to the lady.
The woman figured Raine was just a little shy and took a small guess as to why, "Hey there, is this your first time trick or treating?"
"H-Heh, is it that obvious?"
"Only a little dear, I love your costumes though! They're so realistic!"
"T-Thank you, I… put a lot of work into them, well except the masks, that was his work."
Maren spoke up behind the trio, "I helped with those too you know!"
Red was quick to cover his tracks, “Yeah she helped paint on the finer details, I did the major brushwork.”
The lady had placed two of the peppermints into Raine’s bag, and one into Red’s, “Well, I think you all did an amazing job. Thank you so much for visiting, I hope you all have a spooky night.”
The group thanked the woman and headed to the next house. Karen told Raine that saving candy for a big chowdown was better than spacing it all out. Unknown to the other three, Raine had never had much candy in her life… if any at all.

After quite a few houses, their bags had collected a fine amount of sweets. Smaller children (and Karen pretending to be a stranger) had come up to see Red and Raine’s “ultra realistic” costumes. They both made sure to keep their tails away from grabby paws, much to everyone’s amazement. It wasn’t until a rather large and brown house that they encountered a real problem.
Red’s eyes went wide in recognition as the group approached the towering house, “Uhh, I think we should skip this one girls.”
Karen was real subtle and delivered her retort with utter grace and finesse: “No.”
And she bounded over to the front door and knocked rapidly on the main entrance.
A very, VERY old lynx poked his head out, “Ehh? Wuddya want?”
“Trick or Treat?!”
“Uhh, one second… … … ” Red’s paw pads were trembling a little, eggs ready in his pockets, “... … … here you go!”
The old man had given her some candied lemon peels, an ancient styled sweet, “Oh wow, I don’t think I’ve ever had these before! Thanks, mister!”
“Yeh yeh, alright I see you three back there, get on over `ere.” Despite hiding behind the woman in front of him, Red couldn’t dodge the old Lynx’s gaze. “Hey wait a minute, don’t I know you from somewhere?”
“... I was on the post board for a little bit a long time ago.”
“Hmm, probably, ye just remind me o` this lil red haired shit who egged my house `bout fifthteen years ago.”
All three girls stared at Red, “... Sounds like something a child would do.”
“Mhmm, here you go.” the old lynx said as he gave Red a couple candied lemon peels.
After the aged cat closed the door the three girls all gave the half`n half man a glare.
“Now listen, I can explain.”
Maren was the first to start berating him, “Something a child would do? How old are you and what’s in your pockets?”
“Twenty five and eggs, but listen!”
“And what are you going to do with said eggs?”
“I’m saving them.”
“For what?”
“Tricks…” Maren gave him her icyist stare she could, “Okay but he handed out chocolate covered onions shaped like apples that year! He actually deserved it!” There was a moment of silence as everyone pictured a young Red biting into a deceptive onion… and hacking it back up. The group shuddered at the nightmarish situation. “He gave me a trick, so I gave it back tenfold! Anyways that’s all in the past, so… oh, oh shit speaking of the past! Mrs. Bolder is still alive!” He tried to run to a sweet old lady handing out rock candy structures shaped like dragons, only to trip over his new feet and plopped hard onto the sidewalk… eggs quickly rolled out of his pockets and went down the street, Raine and Karen couldn’t help but giggle at his sudden childish antics, Maren only found them a little amusing behind an eyeroll.
Being the only ’adult’ in the group, the purple haired mage decided that a small break was due. ”Alright, but we should stop and rest soon, these heels are killing my feet.”
Raine had to help Red back to his feet, “Yeah that’d probably be a good idea… are you okay?”
The half`n half man was swaying a bit, “Yeah yeah, Mrs. Boulder, then a break. Is it alright if I lean on you a bit Raine? I don’t think I have these dog feet down yet.”
“Of course, I think you tried putting your heel down is all.”

After getting some candy dragons, the group found a small “closed off” section for people who need or want to take a break from the festival. Red took his mask off and practically laid back against a well trimmed tree, Raine took off hers and sat down next to him, she had to make sure he didn’t sit on his tail after all. Karen and Maren both sat across the pair and began to open their bags of goodies. Maren was trying to hide her excitement, but failed once Karen poked her in the gut, causing her to lose her composure for a second and let a youthful giggle out. After getting playfully pushed by her sister, Karen was going to ask Raine about her haul, only to see Raine rubbing Red’s arm… the fur had spread up to his armpits. The man seemed to be in slight discomfort, but still enjoying the attention. Only then did Karen realize the truth about Red’s “costume,” and suppressed an “aww,” as to not ruin his and Raine’s little moment. After making sure Red was comfortable with the fur having spread so much, the half`n half girl joined the sisters. Their haul wasn’t the most impressive, but it was still a ton of all sorts of sweets. Raine picked up the candied lemons the Old Lynx gave her and placed it in the middle of her mouth, and slowly pressed down with her jaw and tongue… and then started quickly munching on it trying to obtain every ounce of enjoyment from the sweet and sour treat. She had never tasted something this good in her life! She wanted more, so she placed another one in her mouth, and another, and anothe-
Maren had to stop her before she puked, “Raine, you’ll enjoy them longer if you slow down!”
Raine had a mouth full of lemon rings, “-eren ez eetan mow kanee en meh.” she said while pointing a clawed finger at Karen who was following Raine’s example.
“Well, don’t say I didn’t try and stop you when you get a stomach ache.”
Maren settled for popping a ‘Basitin Delight’ in her mouth, savoring the rich and sweet flavor as it slowly dissolved in her mouth. Red pulled out a large chocolate bar shaped like a bat and began eating it, might as well while his digestive system was still human. While the girls were distracted, he checked his egg-count, only thirty-six eggs remain in his egg-pouch… they’d have to do.
Red stopped eating his chocolate for a moment, something was up with Raine, she was clutching her stomach, “Hey Raine, you okay?”
She quickly turned her head to face him, her eyes a little wide and quickly fidgeting, “Yeah, my stomach hurts a little, not like, vomit, but kinda queasy. Do you feel light headed?”
“No...”
“Oh, well at least it’s not affecting my form.”
That reminded him of something, “Oh! There’s a haunted house thing down by the docks, would you be able to hold back your wolf form when going through it?”
Her foot started twitching as she spoke rapidly, “Oh yeah definitely I would easily be able to do that you know I’ve been training with Rose and I think not even being scared into wetting my pants would make me change into a wolf at this point… well maybe not because that dude in the wagon what was his name oh yeah Riley he almost made me turn wolf but that’s because I totally wasn’t expecting it and I’d be expecting it when we went into the haunted house because that’s what happens in a haunted house right right of course so I’d totally be able to control my wolf form!”
Red had a giant look of complete disbelief on his face, she was adorable, “How much candy did you eat, Raine? Actually no don’t answer that, I’ll just take that as a yes.”
“Hehehehehehehehehe haha-” Raine started giggling and laughing without control. Red didn’t think he was that funny, “Your ears are really happy, like really really happy!”
“They... are?”
Raine gently grabbed his pair and began playing with them, “Feel how hard they are!” she then quickly grasped his furry hands and put them on his wolf ears, “See what I mean?!”
“Huh, well would you look at that… Your ears are doing the same thing you know?”
“I know it’s great! Have you tried the gum drops yet? They’re really good!”
Red wanted to warn her about eating too much candy, or about a sugar crash… but some things were better learned through experience… He wondered what would be worse.

After downing at least half their bags, Raine and Karen could not sit still any longer. Each girl took their companion and pulled them back to the festival. While the pure sugary energy pumped through their system, they managed to get through quite a few houses trick or treating. Red and Maren decided to hang back and let the two balls of energy have their fun. But as to be expected, the houses with candy eventually ran out.
Red had to be the one to break the news, “Alright you two, I think that’s it.”
The green and silver haired girls replied in unison, “What’s it?”
“The houses are out of candy.”
“Awww-”
“BUT!” he said with his fingers pointed up, “There is still a ton of stuff to do!”
Although Maren hated them, she knew the perfect place to go next, “Like the haunted house.”
Raine and Karen were eager to get to the next event, “Where, where?”
Their enthusiasm made their friends grin, Red especially “Alright follow me, it’s at an old warehouse near the docks.”
Maren couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at him, “Do you remember how to get to the docks?”
“... Yes.” he lied.

The crowds were significantly smaller, many children and people there solely to solely trick or treat had left. So navigating down to the haunted house was easier than expected even with Red forgetting the path down. The group managed to arrive just in time to be sent inside it seemed, but the people running the attraction told them they had to “fix” a couple things. The organisers were a couple of human men, one of which was wearing a familiar looking goblin mask.
Maren told the two other girls to get in line and save a spot, she had to have a talk with Red, “Hey.”
“Oh, something wrong with Karen?”
“What?”
“Well I mean, you pulled us out of her ear range.”
“No it’s about… Riley.”
Red got more serious than he’d been all night. “What’s up?”
She hid a little behind her hair, “Y-you know about… Me and Sythe right?”
“About you and him “not” dating, right?” he said while air quoting.
Maren had a large blush on her face, “We’re not ‘dating’... but you know how I feel about that whole… situation.”
“Yeah yeah, I’ll keep Riles away from you, don’t you worry one bit.”
“I'm surprised you know about that.”
“Tch, Maren.” Red wrapped his right arm around her and gave her a side hug, “I’ve known you for nine years, you can’t hide something like that from me.”
She playfully rolled her eyes, “Uh huh, come on, those two are starting to stare.”
As the two eldest returned to the group, Red saw Riley and pulled him aside. “Hey man, I need you to listen.”
“Something up?”
“Yeah, I need you to relax about Maren.”
“Why, she’s single isn’t she?”
“Yeah, but you’ve heard what’s going on with Trace right?”
“Yeah isn’t he banging that ti-... oh, she’s not over that, is she?”
“Nah, so if you could take it easy with the flirting, you’d be a good friend to both of us.”
“Yeah no worries, uhh, that may delay the opening by a couple of minutes.”
“... Whyyyy?”
“I was going to do my thing and have a feral keidran ‘attack’ her, and I’d swooce right in and save her.”
A memory of Raine’s panic attack flashed in Red’s mind, “Yeah you better go change that, and the feral keidran thing too, a friend of mine has had some… really bad experiences with the ‘biters’.” And before he could turn and walk away, Red grabbed his shoulder, “I really mean it Riley, this is one night you don’t want to mess up.”
He turned and looked at the girl wearing a near identical wolf costume, who was laughing with Karen at a very flustered Maren, “Ooooooh, I see now! Don’t you worry your little mind, I got you man.”
And before Red could process what he just said, Riley quickly slipped through a backdoor into the warehouse. After a couple seconds of figuring out what he just did, Red mentally scolded himself… looks like he was going to have to stick reeeeal close to Raine… not that he minded that one bit.
Raine and Karen couldn’t wait to get inside, they were practically vibrating in anticipation. So when a masked Riley emerged from a curtain and made sure they left their belongings, he beckoned them inside. And because they quickly entered, neither saw Maren look away and Red shooting Riley a dirty look (completely negated by the mask of course.)
Upon entering the haunted house, Red quickly took his place next to Raine as Maren took hers next to Karen. The opening room was a narrow corridor filled with mirrors. A loud voice causing the younger two to jump, commanded them to move forward if they wish to escape this place alive.
With each mirror they passed, their image got more and more distorted. Red pretended to flex and “admire” himself in the most distorted mirror he could find, much to the girls amusement.
“You know, this mirror really makes me reflect on life, heh heh, a mirror-ical really.” The girls were not amused in the slightest.
 Raine booped her mask’s reflection and left a small smudge on the surface, her attempts to remove said mark only smudged it around more.
“Oh, uh.” She awkwardly spat in the mirror and rubbed her tail against it, “T-there, good as new!” The mirror had a massive smear mark on in, completely blocking any reflection. Red chuckled and pulled her away from the nearly opec reflector.
 Karen pretended to cast magic and warp her body’s shape using the distorting mirror… and Maren fixed some of her makeup using one of the normal ones.
“Sis aren’t you gonna mess around with one?”
The elder sister took her lipstick and wrote “Maren was here” on the mirror, she gave her sister a playful wink.
 Eventually the hallway lead into a room where all the walls were mirrors, they were endless reflecting mirrors. With a loud *clink* the door they entered was sealed shut, they were trapped. The humans’ reflections were staring back at them on each wall, endless copies of their image plastered on the walls.
“Freaky” muttered the quartet.
And then, the walls started to close in on them, and each copy gained a mind of its own. Countless Karens, Raines, Reds, and Marens all took places side by side, slowing moving forward as the room shrunk. All three girls immediately clung onto the sole man in the room. The haunted house was nowhere close to what they had imagined it would be, and although he’d never admit it, even Red’s battle-hardened heart beat harder than normal. Arms reached out at the group and started trying to pull them in, this only made the grip on Red even tighter. He tried to wrap them up safely in his arms, but hundreds of arms pried them away… and began pulling him into a mirror. And despite the fact that half of them were covered in claws and fur, Red kept his cool as he entered whatever part of the haunted house was next.

Red found himself in a dark forest, the moon was full, and he was still in his half`n half form. His keidran ears detect movement all around him. His instincts commanded him to grab his sword… but nothing was there. The footsteps weren't moving towards him anymore, and that’s when he realized exactly what was happening.
And he wasn’t happy. “Riley you son of a b-”
“Get away!”
“Raine!”
After tripping and falling over, the half`n half man sprinted like a-bat-out-of-hell towards his friend in need. His fully keidran legs let him move much faster than when he was human, though he dreaded the time when it would eventually spread a little further “North.” He arrived to see exactly what he’d fear: a feral keidran lion was cornering Raine, the poor girl looked like she’d transform at any second. Red prepared a large windblast spell, maybe they’d get the real message he was trying to send earlier.
“Hey asshole!” A red circle formed in his hand, “Get away from her!” The lion’s eyes went wide when he released the spell, sending volumes of rage induced air crashing into the lion’s chest, sending it flying into the forest.
Red took only a moment to collect himself, before hobbling over. “Raine, are you alright?!”
The half`n half girl jumped onto his chest and wrapped her legs around his back, her arms found their way around his head, “Thank you.”
“I am going to deck Riley when I see him.”
“Why?”
“He… I... ”
“D-did you plan this?”
“Nonononono, no no, no, I-I told him words that had meanings I didn’t think of!”
“...”
“...”
She just held him closer and quietly chuckled to herself, “Okay, that sounds about right.”
He rubbed her slightly shaking back in response, “Yeah, c’mon, we should find Maren and Karen.”

The two raced through the forest, their ears detecting people around them,so they followed the direction. Eventually they came up on the Taverndatter sisters, who were wielding sticks, surrounded by beat up and unconscious feral keidran.
Raine looked to Red for an answer, and was met with a shrug; “I donno, I guess warrior blood runs in the family… Maren! Glad I don’t have to worry about ‘you know who’ going feral on you!”
A small blush made its way onto Maren’s still smiling face, “Ha. Ha. You know, the first time I met Sythe I kicked his ass right?”
Karen was grinning like an idiot as she desperately tried to catch her breath; her stick was much too big for her, “Hey guys, can we get out of here? I think the candy is starting to wear off.”
Red walked over and scooped her up in his arms, “C’mon, I think we may have stopped the main event by accident.”
And sure enough, after walking a couple more meters, a bright square emitting white light appeared before them.
Raine had an idea what it was, “Oh, it’s a Gate Portal, like the one we went through to get to Trace’s…” It dawned on her that it may in fact, just be another trap, “Um, could you go first Red?”
“Ehhh I donno, I guess I could.” He replied as he slowly stepped through the Gate Portal with Karen poised to strike with her stick.
The group found themselves outside the warehouse in a small area with some food and punch.
The first person they saw was a maskless Riley. “Wow, just wow… You know we use that illusion matrix to train newbies on how to deal with ferals… and you three managed to beat it back completely… Not meaning to disrespect you o` white wolfess.”
Red walked up to the wine haired human, “Riley...”
“Yeah?”
He wrapped his arm around his friend and pulled him to the corner of the staff area, he began angrily whispering to him, “I told you no ferals!”
“Wait what? But didn’t you mean you wanted ferals when you said no ferals?”
“No you dolt, I meant no ferals when I told you not to have ferals.”
“Oooh, so you didn’t want ferals? Why no ferals though?”
The two continued to quietly spat at each other, unknown to them, the girls with the keidran ears could still hear them clearly.
Raine tried to make it just a little less awkward, “So how did you guys fight off all those… ferals.”
Maren just shrugged, “Red showed me how to defend myself incase the village ever got attacked while he was away. It honestly wasn’t that difficult.”
Her sister was still sweating from her recent exhaustion, “I just kept hitting things until they went away!”
Raine chuckled a little, “Yeah, that sounds like the “Red way” of doing things alright.”
The mentioned man was still fuming quietly at his old friend, “... Yeaaah, I didn’t want to risk ruining her night so early, you know?”
“Of course man, my mistake… It’s weird hearing that from you, normally you’re all balls.”
The half`n half man patted him on the back as he returned to his normal voice, “Heh, you can blame her for that… So, what now?”
“I got some spiked punch and lemon cakes on the table over there… Oh and I put your bags and stuff by the exit, didn’t go through them in case you’re wondering.” he said without making eye contact.
Maren immediately noticed something was wrong. “Spiked punch?”
“Well I mean you’re in the staff area, I figured you lot deserved better than the regular area.”
Maren faked a surprised face, “And that’s about the best thing you did all night.”
“Heh, well enjoy yourselves, the next group is coming through.” He said while donning his mask.
The moment he left, the group stared at the punch, Red obviously was the first to get a glassful “Well, I better check to see how “hard” it is for you three, wouldn’t want you girls to pass out after one shot.” And after gulping down the entire cup without abandon, Red sighed as the punch quenched his thirst.
“... … … It’s actually super weak. I think I remember Riley being an ultra lightweight or something.”
The girls all grabbed cups and got themselves some Riley’s Pansy Punch: Raine took a couple of careful sips, she was still extremely new to alcohol, but eventually started to drink it normally, though her half keidran stomach didn’t quite agree with the drink. But after watching Red drink a few more cups of punch, she guessed it must have been something else.
Maren was perfectly fine drinking the weak fluid, even though an Innkeeper should never drink  on the job… that didn’t stop her when the day got tough. Karen didn’t even get to taste any of it, her eyelids were very heavy, sleep was calling to her.
Her sister was the first to take notice, “Karen, are you alright?”
“Yeah, just tired is all.”
“Do you want to head back to the estate?”
“I don’t want to cut your night short, sis.”
Maren sat beside her and rubbed one of her keidran ears, “Oh don’t worry about that, I’ve had plenty of fun tonight. Hell, I didn’t even plan on doing anything tonight. I wouldn’t mind calling it good right now.”
The green haired girl closed her eyes and leaned into her sister, “Hmm, okay.”
Red set the glass down and picked the cat girl up. “Alright, I think the carriages should come around where we were dropped off soon. Uh, Raine and I are going to do a few more things before calling it a night.”
The mentioned girl’s ears perked up, it seemed like she was beginning to recover from the encounter with the third kind, “Oh, like what!?”
“Ever been apple bobbing?”
“I don’t even know what that is!”
The tan girl shifted a little in Red’s arms, “If the carriage isn’t there yet, can I try?”
Maren let a small smile spread across her lips, “Sure you can… I don’t think you’ve ever managed to get an apple. In fact, I think the only thing you’ve managed to do is dunk your own head in.”
The sleepy girl shot her sister a glare “And you’ve never even tried.”
“Well, I could easily get one, it just takes a little patience. Something you two lack.” She said while pointing at the green eyed pair.
Red chuckled a bit at their little spat, “Well, that and a big mouth, something we all clearly have.”
Raine was beyond confused at this point, “Soooo, what’s apple bobbing?”

After making their way back to the main Halloween street in Edinmire, Red pointed a finger at several people pulling apples out of wooden troughs with their mouths. “That’s apple bobbing!”
The half`n half girl had an immediate concern, “That doesn’t look sanitary what’s so ever.”
Some random man shouted from behind the troughs, “We put fluorite in the water, it kills any sickness inside.”
“Still, there must be a lot of saliva in there.”
Karen while getting out of Red’s arms smirked tiredly at her own devilishly perverse thoughts, “Oh, it can’t be anywhere near the amount you get while kissing.” And just like she’d hoped, Raine's tail fur puffed out as she blushed visibly behind her mask, a slight look of annoyance dawned on her face, “And if it bothers you that much, we could just have Red go before you so you’ll only really be getting his-”
The mentioned half`n half rolled his eyes as he scooped her up and squeezed her in a bear hug, “You’re just trying to get her to transform fully tonight, aren't you?”
"N-noooo-ack!" she lied.
That did give him an idea, “Although, that would make it easier,” He turned and looked at the masked girl, “using your muzzle I mean.”
Raine tilted her head at that, “What?”
“Well, I mean, I could cause a distraction, and you could quickly change your head into a wolf’s, and then pluck an apple out of the trough. Even if someone saw, it’s dark and they’d probably think it’s just part of the mask.”
“Wouldn’t that be cheating?”
“I mean, you’re still using your mouth, soooo.”
Karen’s much too tired mind completely forgot about her own desire to not ruin their night, “Wait hold on…” The little witch let out a quiet yawn, “Red, aren’t you going to have a muzzle too?”
Maren stared at her little sister, and then at Red, only she didn’t see his mask as what it was, but she imagined it as his face. The lines blurred and his face slowly resembled that of a white wolf with bright red hair and an equally red nose
“I’m going to pretend like I didn’t hear or see that.”
He didn’t know how to respond to all the sudden discoveries, “See what?”
“If you’re here for apple bobbing, we have a trough open!” one of the vendors yelled, “So get on over `ere and bob!”
The group “collectively decided” to put Red’s wolfish transformation behind them and proceed to the apple troughs, easier on all of their minds, Red’s especially. Upon leaning over and peering into the wooden containers, the group saw dozens of apples floating on the surface of the water.
Karen had a tired but smug look on her face, she gave Maren her hat, “Watch and learn, Raine!”
“Didn’t Maren say you never managed to get an apple?”
Without responding, Karen dunked her entire head into the trough… and emerged with not an apple, but with a red rubber ball. Her companions couldn’t help but chuckle and smirk at her utter look of confusion as she bit and squeezed it, emitting a small squeak in the process. Disappointed by another failed attempt, she sat on a haybale next to the trough, ball still in her mouth as the paint from her nose and whiskers ran down her face. Maren was next up, she had to tie her longish and purple hair back, and Raine couldn’t help but get a little flustered at the sight, she’d never seen her friend with her hair up before. She waited a couple seconds before bending down and gently plucking an apple with the tips of her incisors. She had perfecting bobbed an apple without getting a single part of her body wet, much to her sister’s annoyance. Red pulled his mask up till it was resting on top of his head, and quickly went down to the water’s surface. He bit as hard as he could into the first apple he touched, sinking his teeth deep into the fruit’s flesh. The half`n half man whipped his head up with an apple in his mouth, only the tips of his long bangs were wet. But before he could grab and take it out of his mouth, half the apple split off and fell back into the trough, leaving his mouth full of half of the fruit. He took a seat next to Karen who decided to use Maren’s thigh as a pillow; poor girl was fading fast. Nervous was a word that could be used to describe Raine, she’d never even heard of bobbing for apples until several minutes ago. Like her friend before her, she tied her hair up… to not much success, the freakishly long strands would fall in the water even if she tied it up, braiding would take far too long even for Maren’s skilled hands.
With a very nervous expression, she turned to her friends, “Hey, uh, Red, could you maybe, hold my hair?”
The human spat out his half-apple, “Sure, uh, sorry if I you know… pull your hair a little.”
“Oh don’t worry about that, I’ve sat on my hair more times than I can count.”
A small smirk spread across Maren’s lips, a glance to an equally smirking Karen was all she needed, “Or you could just get really close to her, you know, there’ll be more slack and ‘less tension’ that way.”
Unlike Red, Raine missed the implication entirely, “Oh yeah that’d work!”
Hiding his slight and annoyed blush with his mask, Red got up from his seat and held Raine’s long hair with his clawed hands.
He couldn’t help but whisper her some advice, this was her first time after all, “Okay, I don't know if you’re going to use your muzzle, but the main thing to do is if you feel like the apple is pushing your teeth apart a bit, just chomp down on i-… are you wearing perfume?”
“Snrk, yeah yesterday, the manor had some of that stuff you-”
The man running the station was getting a little annoyed at their lack of bobbing, “Are you going to go or not, young wolf-lady?”
“Sorry!”
And without much grace Raine quickly dunked her face into the water, her mask getting soaked in the process. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get an apple into her mouth, combination of inexperience and switching between muzzle and mouth so much had given her very little control over it. A combination of embarrassment and the surprise of water hitting her face, the plan of giving herself a muzzle and turning back was gone from her brain. Red saw this from above and decided he’d find another way of helping her... with magic of course!
“Raine, go for the one by your nose.” he whispered.
Although most people could only cast from their hands, he knew about a few ‘other’ places you could cast magic from, it made for a great party trick. After casting a minor water moving spell, the magic pushed an apple just enough to for Raine to get it right between her sharp and canine-like incisors.
She immediate brought her head up, “Ah goh et? Ah goh et!” Her tail was wagging in pure excitement as water quickly dripped off her chin.
The younger of the Taverndatter sisters was shooting Red a tired dirty look. Not that he really cared, as his tail was showing, he was just as happy as Raine. “Well done Raine, see I told ya you could do it.”
After taking the apple out of her mouth, she wiped away some of remaining water, “Besides some water in my nose, that was really fun! It’s really silly though, but I want to know how “dunking your head in a trough for apples” became a thing.”
Once again the man running the stall cut in, “It was an old human courting ritual. You see, a group of young men would pick an apple and put it in the barrel or trough, the bobber would then attempt to bite into the apple named for the young man she desired. If it only took her one try, they were destined for romance. If she succeeded with her second attempt, he would court her but their love would fade. If it took three tries, their relationship was doomed.” The pair of half`n halfs blushed under their masks as their tails wagged just a little bit harder,  “Of course that’s just ol` superstitious nonsense.”
The two “destined” pair glanced at each other’s beast-like eyes for a couple seconds, only to be interrupted by their purple haired friend, “You know I hate to ruin such a “cute” moment… but the carriage back to the estate is here… and Karen’s asleep.” The green haired girl had finally nodded off on her sister’s thigh, “Could you help me carry her over there?”
Red nodded and scooped up the sleeping “witch” into his arms, she didn’t even stir at the sudden movement… she was completely out of it. Grabbing their bags of goodies, the group made their way over to where a couple carriages were waiting.
After making sure Karen is secure in the seats, Maren turned and hugged both Red and Raine, “Hey, uh, thank you for getting me out tonight, I… I missed this.”
The redhead couldn’t help himself, and wrapped Maren in a big bearhug, something he hadn’t done in many years, “Maybe next time you’ll just listen to this moron when he tells you to have fun, yeah?”
She just rolled his eyes at him, “You have a big definition of the word fun mister, now put me down… Oh and Raine...” She got close and whispered into her ear, “There’s another superstition about the apple you picked, if you put it under your pillow, you’ll have sweet dreams of your suitor…” After closing the door, she gave the pair a playful wink, “Have fun, you two~”

They waited until the carriage was out of sight, neither one really wanting to break the silence. It was a couple of minutes until Red finally decided to speak up.
“So, wanna do a couple more games?”
Her ears perked up., “There’s more?”
“Oh yeah there's always plenty more, like spider toss-”
“Spider toss?!”
“Not real spiders… well… my friends and I used real spiders when we ran a stall one year, scared the daylights out of people when they started crawling on their hands.”
“... Why… why am I not even surprised by that?”
“Heh heh heh, you’re becoming immune to my bullshit. There’s this one stall that does “potions.””
“What, like fake potions?”
“Not unless you consider alcohol a potion… huh, is alcohol a type of potion?”
“Snrk, I don’t think so. I mean we could find out.”
“Oh yeah, we should do that before the other games though! You know, to make them more fun.”
“But won’t that mess with our aim?”
“That’s the fun part! Now if it’s still in the apothecary shop we shouldn’t be too far from it, now c’mon, last time I went they were out.”
“When was that?”
The half`n half man had begun speed walking towards the “potion” shop, “Like ten years ago! Totally still applicable though!”
Raine couldn’t help but playfully roll her eyes at his “infallible” logic sometimes. The two quickly made it to the shop, Red’s experience in the warehouse aiding his movement. And as he’d feared, there was a longish line stretching out of the door.
“Damn it! It’s worse than last time!”
“Well, it’s better than them being out.”
“... You’re not wrong.” Red saw the size of the line and cringed a bit, he’d have to do something sooner than he’d hoped, “Hey Raine… save us a spot in line, I have to… use the restroom.”
“Oh sure.” She saw his ears were drooping, she knew what that meant, “What’s wr- Oh! Oh… Trust me, it's a little weird, but it’s not that big of a difference.”
“Yeah yeah yeah, I’ll see you in a couple seconds. And ah, here’s the money pouch, I’m not sure if he still does this for free.”
The moment he disappeared around a corner, Raine heard "Alright everyone I got what you ordered. Let's go, I think we can do the haunted house by the docks just before the dancing grounds open up!" And with that, over three quarters of of the line vanished in front of her. Leaving only a couple in line who quickly entered the shop.
Her heart started beating a little harder, "Red where are you?" She mumbled.
It was only a minute before the couple in front of her came back out with potions in hand, she turned her head to see if she could get out of line and get back in line with Red, but a much MUCH longer line had conjured up behind her.
"Next!" It looks like she was going in alone.
Upon entering the shop, Raine's slightly keidran sense of smell was blasted with thousands of different scents. From the too sweet floral top notes to the rich bitterness of musky base notes, it all made her mouth water.
"So young wolfess, care to take a look of my potions and tonics?"
"S-sure! What are you offering?"
"Depends on what you desire. Do you wish to be fearless? Do you wish to be loved? Do you wish not to remember tonight?" The old man had to stifle a couple chuckles.
"Well I definitely want to remember tonight… and my friend, well he already is pretty fearless, so..."
"Hmm, yes yes I see. I have just the thing!" The old man started rummaging through his cabinet, dozens and dozens of bottles lined the inside of the oak container. He quickly pulled out several bottles and started mixing the liquids in a small crucible next to two glass vials. Raine couldn’t help but fawn over the changing colors and brief glows the liquid was giving off, though the smell of alcohol was strong and saturating her sense of smell. “That tail of yours is very realistic.”
“Huh?” The mentioned appendage was practically trying to wiggle itself off her butt, “Oh yeah, it was… magically created, it responds to emotions and stuff.”
“You like alchemy?”
“Oh yeah! Like I love how you can turn basic ingredients that do nothing into their purest form and then they can do almost anything and… and, uh sorry.”
“No no, keep that curiosity high! It’s what keeps life full and colorful! Stop by here sometime, I can teach you a thing or two if you want.” The old man put two glass funnels in the vials and poured the red-orange “potion” into the glasses. “Now make sure you don’t drink it down at once, Gods know how many people have just drank the entire vial and passed out.” He said while breaking off corks into the openings.
“Hehe, don’t worry, I’ll be sure to warn him not to.”
“Take care now!”
“Oh definitely, thank you!”
After carefully storing the vials in her bag, Raine left the shop with a proud smile on her face. That went much better than she had hoped it would. After getting away from the collossial line and all the people staring at her very lifelike costume, Raine walked over and sat down on a park bench. No point in wandering off when Red would be back soon.

After several more minutes, Raine was getting a little uncomfortable being alone, “C'mon Red, where are you?”
“Exguse meh.” A voice sounded behind her. “Where dijj you get sssuch ah real costum?”
Raine turned around to see a woman dressed as a wolf,in a costume which was… revealing to say the least, “Oh uh, I made it.”
“Is so lifelike!... Can I have ih?”
The question flew right over Raine’s head, “W-What?”
“Your costum! I’d like it, ya see, mah costum ain very good, but with yours, I’d look amazin!”
There was more than one issue aside from the fact that Raine was not actually wearing a costume, “Uh, well, ma’am, you’re really short.”
Even without her dog legs giving her an extra three inches of height, she stood at least over half a foot taller than the woman, “So?”
“It wouldn’t fit.”
“Oh I’m sure it’d fit with ah lil adjustment. `Ere, just take it off for meh.” Her hands started to reach at Raine’s costume.
Raine started to get a little concerned about this woman, “Ma’am… how much have you had to drink?”
And that’s when she noticed a completely empty vial, “Ah, jus a couple sips, now for yer costum.”
“Ma’am I’m not wearing anything underneath, and besides you should see a medicus or something.”
While it was true, it wouldn’t really matter because only her arms and legs were the only parts visibly transformed, “Oh thas okay, you can hav my costum!” The lady proceeded to clumsily strip down to her underwear and tossed the costume onto Raine. “Ther, now giv yours.”
Raine was blushing at the nearly naked woman as her brain started to crash, “Uh, I never said… what?”
The lady began trying to pull off what she thought was a sleeve on the half`n half’s arm, “Yes yah did, now this is getting a lil awkward, thers people starin at us.”
Just as her brain stopped functioning, Red returned to a rather strange sight, “Uh, damn Raine, I uh...” He was rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment, “didn’t realize you were better at picking up girls than I was.” Both of the women looked at him with puzzled expressions, “Right sorry, my brain was in the gutter… But why are you uh… almost naked then?”
“She sad she’d giv me her costum, thas why I’m all undresse like this,  is not like ahm tryin to seduce her or anythin… although if thas what it takes.” She proceeded to wink and pose in a very revealing fashion.
Raine couldn’t help but eye the now posing woman’s body, “Red, help.”
He was too busy doing the same thing, “Give me a sec, brain not have blood right now.”
After getting a decent look at Red, she came up with a different plan, to her intoxicated state: it seemed that these costumes might be more trouble than they’re worth, “Oh yew have one too! You have any extra costums?”
“Nah.”
“Oh whatta about this cute lil bag?” The woman proceeded to ungraciously unlatch the little clip connecting the strap to a rather full bag. “Oh who needs a wuffy costum when yah have a bag lik this! Thank!”
Even in the state she was in, she made sure to slip her frilly clothes off of a still flustered Raine, making sure to walk way with a happy sway to her hips. And after the bag bounced slightly off those hips, Red realized exactly what bag she took: “Raine, we need to go!”
She managed to pull her eyes off the woman and shook her head out of the trance she was in, “Wah? Why?”
“That bag has to be opened in a special way… or else the eggs-” He was cut short by a loud explosion and a couple eggs splattering around them. They both turned their heads to see the woman covered in egg yolks.
Raine quickly grabbed her bag and began running towards the where the carriages were, only to be scooped up by a sprinting Red seconds later. He was running much faster than she could, and soon they were back to where they had feasted on candies. After setting her down, Red began laughing, shortly followed by Raine. The two laughed until their guts hurt, that whole situation was just plain ridiculous.
Raine couldn’t help herself, “Well, are you happy you finally got to use those eggs?”
“Why yes I did… though, I hope I didn’t just cut our night short.”
“Oh, yeah… illegal thing.”
“Now now, I’m sure all we need to do is… lay low.” He said while laying against the same tree as earlier. “Besides, the dance is in like, half an hour anyways… plenty of time.”
Raine took a seat right next to him, “Oh yeah, someone in line mentioned a dance earlier.”
“Yeah, it’s where everyone gets together and dance in costumes… Trace never went, I always wished I had someone to go with.”
“I’m not much of a dancer… But I’ll try!” she said with a look of determination on her face.
He loved that side of her, “Mmmh, hey Raine.”
“Yeah?”
“Everywhere but my belly and above my shoulders is covered in fur, kinda itches too.”
“Yeah that happens, you look taller.”
“Y-yeah, I bonked my head on the restroom door.” He shivered at remembering his restroom ‘experience.’
“Snrk… OH! While you were busy with… that, I got us the potions!”
The redhead perked up at those words, “What’d you get us?”
“Uh, heh, well, I was a little confused… and I got us the “love” potions.” She was blushing under her mask.
“Oh those ones are really good! Though, they usually have a bit too much cinnamon in them for me.”
“Yeah, here.” Raine gave Red the reddish-orange liquid, being careful not to look him in the eye, “Uh, he said to drink it if you want to feel loved...”
“I don’t need a potion for that,” he said while taking a swig, “MMhhhmm, strong and spicy, that’s not really how love feels.”
Raine took a tiny sip of hers, “Bleh, how does it feel?”
“Spicy and strong is how lust feels, love feels like... tart and sweet… like a peach.”
“That sounds almost poetic… I wish I had a peach.”
"Psh, don't you worry, you'll get your peach… I ah... I guarantee it." Raine’s face grew with a pleasant warmth at his words, her mask was her savior that night.
The two sat there for a while, enjoying the enhanced sounds of the festival around them. Raine decided to eat some more of her candy while Red sipped on his "love" potion. He thought about a distant time ago, when they were alone by a river. He had asked her to spend some time together, just the two of them. Funny thing was,t he hadn't even thought of that when he went to get her for Halloween… tonight still counted in his mind. While he thought about pleasantries, Raine was growing nervous about the dance, she didn't have the slightest clue on how to dance, much less with someone else. While she munched on some taffy, she tried to remember every dance scene from all the books she’s ever read… to varying amounts of success.
“Hey Red?”
“Hmm?”
“You know how to dance, right?”
“Of course, kinda a big part of theater was singing and dancing. I mean it’s been awhile, but I still remember how to.”
“Oh good… wait singing?”
“Yeah, I had a decent singing voice, haven’t really used it in like, well, at least a decade… So It’s probably gone bad by now.”
“But you still remember how to do the dances for the festival?”
“Yep! Why do you ask?”
“I… don’t know how, I’ve… never danced before.”
“Ah well, It ain’t that hard, just follow my lead and you will do just fine… and even if you mess up, I’ll just mess up with you, so it’ll look completely like it’s my fault!”
She allowed herself a small smile at that, she hoped that his expertise would be enough for the two of them.
“Well well well, why’d I think I’d find you two here?” A rather tall man was standing where the two had entered the secluded place. “How many years has it been? And you’re throwing eggs at people.”
Red stood up and walked over to the man. Despite his height boost from being mostly keidran, the human still stood a good few inches above him, “Ah Kei the pee, always pissing on everyone’s parade.”
“Told you years ago to stop calling me that.”
“And yet you still are here… pissing on my party.”
Raine had to intervene before he made the problem worse, “Uh hello, hi!” She still hid behind him, “What seems to be the problem, officer?”
He looked down at the shorter half`n half girl, “This dumbass egged some woman.”
“How do you kno-” Kei just glared at him, “She deserved it!”
“What, did she call you firecrotch or something?”
Raine could feel the heat building off of him where she stood, she needed to do something fast: “She stole one of our bags.”
The only full human was surprised at her words, “But then how did that turn into an egging?”
Red realized that he was going to have to fess up to carrying around eggs in the first place, “I uh, well, there was a special way you needed to open the bag.”
Raine tried to help, “And we didn’t notice her taking his bag until she already walked away.”
Kei was unamused, “Uh huh, she said the bag exploded, I’m going to guess you let her walk off with it. Because honestly, what else could have possibly happened for the two of you to be so distracted, that a woman was able to steal a self destructive bag filled with eggs?”
The two were starting to sweat, the potions and embarrassment were starting to heat their insulated bodies up, Red’s especially, “Well, as you could probably tell, she wasn’t wearing anything… other than some frilly underwear.”
Raine was flustered, she felt like she had to confess a little guilt like Red was, “And we were… distracted by it.”
“Yeah, she was doing all these seductive poses, you know how it is man.”
“Especially when she turned around too.”
“Oh yeah, even she would agree that her a-”
Kei was really uncomfortable, “Alright alright, sheesh man, it would have been fine with you just saying she seduced the two of you or something, hell, just lying and saying she stole the bag without you knowing would have been better than… this.”
The pair just chuckled, seems they got ahead of themselves, Raine tried to give him an apologetic smile “Heh, sorry officer Kei. At least you know we can’t do it again.”
Red laughed a bit, he knew she didn’t mean to sound cheeky, “Heh yeah, so, we good?”
“Well… I kinda said I’d kick you two out, she talked my ear off and well...”
Raine picked up on his heasantence, “And?”
“Well I’m gonna give you guys a little more time now, seeing how you never technically threw any eggs… More time as in until the end of the dance.”
The human’s coyness went over the mostly keidran’s head, “Isn’t that when the festival ends or-?”
“Yeah, funny how that works… alright I have to go… I actually have a date with someone important.”
Red just smirked at him, “What did you finally get a real girlfriend?”
“No it’s just a first... it’s none of your bus-” His desire to leave was too much, “It’s whatever, but I swear to the Gods, bring any more eggs to this festival, and I'll break you hands off!”
Red couldn’t help but chuckle aggressively and yell as Kei left, “I’d like to see you try!...” He quickly whispered to Raine as Kei checked over his shoulder at him, “If I had one, I’d slip it in his bag for later… WAIT KEI!” Both Raine and the mentioned guard captain jumped at his sudden increase in volume. “How much longer `till the dance?” He was clearly trying to suppress a smirk at his own antics.
“Nora above man, about ten minutes.”
After that he made his quick departure, not wanting to be near the redhead any longer than necessary. Raine was still confused about something, “He… seemed to really not like you.”
“Yeah, I used to bully him for constantly being a tattle tell and for being a shameless keidran kisser... oh wait… shit.” Raine couldn’t help but snicker and blush at his sudden realization. “Yeeeeaaaah, heh, man I’m really glad my past doesn’t come at me all at once.”
“Baby steps, and who knows, m-maybe one day he can get back at you for being a shameless keidran kisser.”
Red blushed slightly and grinned at the half`n half girl behind him, sticking out his white furred elbow for her to lean on, “Yeah yeah yeah, we should probably head over. You ready?”
Her ears lay flat against her head, “Not really, but...” She smiled as she slowly wrapped her arm around his, confidence was always radiating off of him. “But what's the worst that can happen?”

The very moment they arrived they noticed it was mostly couples… and by mostly, it was entirely comprised of very obviously in love couples. It was very late in the night, all families with children had left long ago, most of the older adults didn't have enough energy to stay up that late. The dance of the dead would consist of mostly of young lovers… something that was very apparent to the two now standing just outside the entrance. To make matters “worse” for the two, they both were getting a rather warm buzz from the “love potions.”
"I think I just remembered why I stopped coming to the dance part."
"D-do you want to leave?"
"Huh? No! No no, we should totally still dance, it might just be a little more awkward is all."
Their fur was puffing out just a little, “Yeah, you know as f-friends.”
That hurt Red’s chest a little more than he expected, “Oh yeah totally…” He got a really dumb idea, “Though, we don’t have to dance as friends.”
Red could feel her blush through her mask, “W-what?”
His brain was skipping multiple beats at once again, “I mean for the authentic experience! Like we could dance as lovers!”
There was a painful couple moments of silence, the pair just stared into each other’s keidran-like eyes, daring the other one to make the first move after his rambling of words. Red for once in his life, was at a complete loss for words, he truly impressed himself sometimes. Raine’s brain was racing with every scenario of what could happen, if she said yes, she’d spend the dance extra close with him… and possibly mess up his night by dancing horribly. If she said no, they’d just leave, sure he might be disappointed, but at least she wouldn’t make an ass of herself…
She wondered what he’d want her to do… “I-I’d love to!” Speaking and ignoring any consequences seemed about right.
Red couldn’t even begin to control his rapid tail wags, “That’s great, I uh, here I think I remember a more discreet spot to dance in, music is usually not too loud there.”
Both of them were trying to ignore the very obvious appendages behind them currently trying to whip up a whirlwind. They placed their bags by a corner of dancing grounds, making sure that if anyone tumbled, none of their stuff would be crushed. It seemed that they arrived later than they thought, because the band started to play a soft melodic prelude, the dance of the dead was now on its way.
A very skinny man dressed in a skeleton costume spoke in a very deceptly booming voice, “Ghouls and hagwraiths, witches and Templars, dragons and whatever inhumane creatures that have sprung forth on this night! I welcome you all to, The Dance of The Dead! I hope you all brought a spooky partner, because this is a dance for two, if you do get separated, you won’t make it our alive! muah ha haaa!” The skeleton disappeared in a flash and a puff of grey smoke, and no later after he took his leave, the band started the first song. The tempo started slow, allowing all couples to get together, Raine immediately looked to Red for any sort of direction.
“Raine, it’s just a small country dance is all, just mirror my body.” The moment he started trying to dance he nearly fell, and a harsh realization hit him. “Shit!”
“What’s wrong?!”
He looked up, a little bit of initial shock was still in his eyes, “I know how to dance… with human legs.”
The two began to dance slowly, “Well, can’t you like… translate it over a little.”
“I hope so, I mean I learned how to run pretty fast, well, that’s mostly because I thought you were in danger.”
Her heart fluttered at his words, “Well, just think I’m in danger of having a bad night or something, and focus a little.”
The redhead stumbed once again, nearly falling to ground before Raine managed to catch him, “It’s… kinda just like dancing on stilts.”
The music began to slowly increase in tempo, “Have you da-?”
“Yeah, it’s a long story,” He eyed a member of the band dashing over to a piece of percussion, “Now spin once every time you hear a ‘ding’.”  An almost painfully high pitch ding played across the dance floor, the two spun on the top of their paw pads with Red nearly losing his balance. “Other way, Raine.”
“Sorry!”
“It’s okay, everyone does that their first time… and second… heh, and maybe third.”
*ding* The two spun in opposite directions, with their tails brushing each other briefly, “Snrk, is that a hypothetical situation?”
There was a low rumble from a few timpanis, “Get ready to hold on!”
“What!? Why!?” *ding*
Red leaned down a little bit and lifted Raine’s hips up to his chest with his arms resting just under her butt. Raine immediate grabbed onto the back of his head as she was quickly spun around a few times in the air. A mixture of laughter and several squeaks of terror were emitted from the girl as an intense rush of joy made its way through her entire body. By the time Red sat her down and they began dancing once more, her body was shaking with excitement. She hadn’t even realized most of her fear had disappeared, and with each successful step, Red was adjusting to his “dog legs.” He still had no idea how he was going to successfully slow dance with the happy half`n half girl in front of him without crushing her paws. The band began to grow faster and faster in beat, the pair started to struggle to keep up with the music. Raine noticed that a few people had fallen down and were laughing while sitting on the ground, she had a good idea what was going on.
“How much longer do you think we can last?”
“I’ve only made it to the end once, but I think we got this! Get ready!”
And with another third *ding* Raine was hoisted up into the air. This time, however, Red had gotten a good portion of tail between his arms. It was causing Raine to spasm and laugh under his grasp,  “Red, my tail!”
“Oh shit, sorry!” He tried to adjust his arms and let her tail out, but trying to do all of this while spinning on an unfamiliar leg… wasn't the best thing to do.
The pair fell to the ground with Red breaking the fall, Raine landed on his stomach giving the mostly wolf little time to recover. As soon as they managed to realize what had just happened, they started chuckling, Raine with a higher pitched giggle, and Red with low laughs.
Although it was a little awkward position to rest in, the two decided it was fine to watch to see how long all the other couples could continue.
Raine was a little uncomfortable at first, but quickly grew okay with resting on his taut belly, “So how many dances are there? Because I don’t think I can fall on you too many times in one night.”
Red placed his hands underneath his own head, getting comfortable with the view in front of him, “Four I think, a country dance to start, two fun Halloween themed ones… and a slow dance.”
“Slow dance?”
He blushed a little underneath his mask, “It’s… where we get really close and just kinda sway to the music.”
She was getting pretty flustered, she liked that idea more than she would admit, “How close?”
“Depends on how close you want to get, we could leave some space… or we could always go belly to belly, it’s a romantic dance really, I don’t know why they put it in.”
Raine slowly placed her hands on his chest, feeling the thick fur that lay underneath his black shirt move at her delicate touch, “That sounds nice, actually.”
“It is… especially with someone you care for… you know?”
The sudden stop in music sent an immediate end to their little moment, the skeleton man from before was standing on a rather high podium with two very familiar human faces, “Alright everyone, it seems that the only ones left alive are our very own Captain Kei and his dance partner, the magnificent Princess Reni!” The two were giving small golden sashes labeled “Alive.” With a flash, everyone’s skin grew a shade greyer, symbolizing their “death.”
Red couldn’t help but mutter to himself as him and Raine got back to their feet, “Cheating twit, I know for a fact Keiren can’t dance to save his life.” Raine just quietly rubbed his back, she couldn’t help but smirk a little at his grumpy display.
“Now, I hope you all are good at mimicking what you see, if not, you may lose your bodies!”
This time the man didn’t disappear, instead he was joined by a group of five maids with similar skeletal face paints on stage, one of which had red face paint instead of white. At the corners of the stage were men dressed as ghouls, they were to be the judges.
The band immediately started with a fast pace tempo, the skeleton man took the red maid’s hand and gave her a curt bow, with her doing the same to him. Red and Raine mimicked the pair on stage perfectly, easy enough… until the red maid picked the skeleton up in a bridal carry and spun him around once. Out of the corner of their eyes they saw a human Reni easily spin Kei around several times… which got them eliminated of course. But it would seem R&R had a much different problem… Even in her wolf form, Raine had the arm strength of a newborn chick, however, watching Kei and Reni had given Red an idea.
They had to talk quickly, a ghoul was starting to notice their lack of a spin, “Raine, levitate me a little with your magic!”
“I can’t, my body is too keidran!”
“Can’t you just change your hands?”
A ghoul was getting closer, “I can try, but please just be ready to fall!”
After changing her hands and much of her arms back to human, Raine casted a small levitation spell, Red mentally prepared himself to fall flat on his back incase she shifted back to her wolf form. He tried to make it a little easy on her by practically jumping into her arms, and with a single heartbeat skipped… Raine was managing to “carry” him in her arms. Spinning once, the two were able to pass the round, and as soon as the cost was clear, the half`n half girl’s mana ran out and accidentally dropped the mostly wolf on his back, nearly crushing his tail in the process.
While changing her arms back to keidran form, she helped him back to his feet. “Are you okay?”
He rubbed his tail a couple times, “Yeah, heh, it’s not the most amount of pain I’ve been tonight.”
“What?”
“Uhh, forget I said that!”
Raine mimicked Karen’s earlier style of grace, “No.”
The spooky skeleton on stage was fast, “Alright, it’s clear you all have a strong lass to get this far… But gentlemen… are you smart enough to figure this out?” The man followed by all the background dancers quickly grabbed their partner’s arms and swung them in between their legs, and somehow they came back out opposite the direction they went in. “Also ladies, no helping.”
Red was sweating, “Shit.”
“You have ten seconds!”
“SHIT!”
Red’s mind raced, it seemed so simple and yet so complex. He was too busy watching all the other dancers to notice how they were managing to spin around. It wasn’t like he could just have both him and Raine cross wrists while they hold hands and swing through so they’d only have to straighten their arms to turn around… “Raine, cross your wrists!”
The mentioned girl sighed in relief and whispered, “I was only a little worried you wouldn’t get it.”
They quickly grabbed each other’s respective paw, making sure to scandalously interlock their fingers for extra grip. Red widened his stance, his digitigrade legs making the process a little easier by allowing more room for the girl to swing through. Raine closed her eyes and tucked herself together as she began to swing through his legs, tail bumping the ground ever so slightly as she passed through. As soon as she made it out the other end and felt Red’s tail bap her on the mask, the pair straightened their arms and Raine quickly spun around. Swinging back through his legs was much easier now that she's done it once, she even managed to stick the landing without slipping.
As soon as Raine opened her eyes, she noticed a lot of people laughing on the ground.
The skeleton on stage was laughing as well, "Well, you gentlemen may be witty enough, but by the Gods you aren't graceful. Considering we only have three pairs left, it's time for the score breaker! Now you won't be able to recreate this pose exactly… I guarantee it, but the closest shall be the winners!" This time the skeleton and his red lady were the sole demonstrators, the bony man proceeded to stick his head between her thighs and lifted her up on his shoulders … but what he did next was… inhuman, in a single motion, he dropped down into a squat while she shifted her feet to be on his shoulders. The crowd was in awe as he held on to her feet as they both stood up straight, creating an impossibly balanced human pole in the process.
Red quickly looked at the other contestants, one pair was a certain blue haired human and a noticeably pregnant tiger dressed as a famous explorer and their tiger matriarch guide. The other was two random humans he didn't know.
He leaned close, whispering excitedly; "Raine, we can totally win this!"
"I don't really have a good balance."
"Well… it doesn't have to be perfect, you could crouch on my shoulder and hold onto my head, and we'd totally win."
"You sure? Flora is really agile."
"Yeah but trust me, standing on Trace's shoulders is a guaranteed fall."
"Snrk! Speaking from experience?"
"You betcha!"
The mostly wolf turned Raine around, and after eliciting a small but excited yip from her by sticking his head in between her thighs, he managed to lift her up on his shoulders. Red was struggling to balance on his stilts for legs, raising her to his chest was one thing, but having her up to his head was a whole different field!
“You ready, Raine?”
“Yeah, sorry if I pull on your hair.”
“It’s alright, you can hold on to my ears if you really need to. Here. We. GO!”
The pair dropped close to the ground, Raine’s paws landing perfectly on his shoulders, they both were mentally high fiving each other at their initial finesse.
“Red, I don’t know if I can stand.”
“Then just stay squatting, we still got another round to win… you ready for me to stand up?”
The half`n half girl wrapped her paws around his head in anticipation, “Ready!”
Ever so carefully, Red slowly made his way up, not only did his now almost entirely keidran form replace his steady plantigrade feet with pole-like digitigrade ones, but he was about four inches taller than his human form and just barely adjusted to the height difference… and on top of all that, he essentially was wearing an adorable but still heavy hat around his head. But despite all those problems throwing him off, he made his way up until he was standing as straight as he trusted himself with. The other human couple had failed when the lady missed his shoulders, they were laughing in now what would seem to be a very lewd position if they didn’t have clothes on.
But to both Red and Raine’s dismay, Trace and Flora were both standing perfectly straight… and being both magic users they noticed the faintest blue aura in Trace’s eyes, he was keeping himself up via a spell. The redhead was about to yell at his old friend until Raine stopped and reminded him about what they did earlier in the dance.
After making sure Raine got down without an issue, Red began to rub her shoulder, “Heh, alright we’ll win the next one for sure.”
She couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm, “Oh? Didn’t you say it was another fun Halloween one?”
The skeleton on stage interrupted them both, “The winners are Duke and Duchess Legacy, you both look incredible by the way, but I know how to make you two look even better!” After getting awarded sashes with the word “Undead” on them, their grey colored bodies turned blue and dark purple, showing that they managed to keep their bodies this round. Everyone else suddenly took on a ghostly and transparent white. “Now! I hope you’re ready, because your souls are at stake! It’s time! For!” A crystal covered ball started to drop from a part of the stage close to the center. “The Thriller! Now, show me your best moves!”
Red leaned and whispered into Raine’s wolf ear, “We just got to impress the judges by dancing.”
Raine had an idea, “Oh, I know how we can win!”
The band started up a cheery but still very spooky tune.
“Oh?”
“We should dance like keidran!”
There was a very obvious problem, and a minor one that he kept sealed away in the back of his mind, “Raine I don’t know how to dance like a keidran.”
“That’s okay! I read in a book once that most keidran dances is about letting the music flow through your body and letting it react on its own!” She had a wide smile on her face as her tail wagged fiercely.
“That sounds... about right, so I just,” The mostly wolf started with his dog-like feet, they stepped to the fairly quick beat. His tail wagged with the melody as his hands reached out for Raine to take them, “Does this seem about right?”
Raine grabbed his hands and copied his pattern to the best of her ability, “Snrk, I don’t know, the book didn’t have any pictures. Though, I don’t think the judges will know the difference.”
As the two danced together, everything else seemed to fade away to the two, even the music started to seem to be a suggestive melody rather than the controlling tune it was supposed to be. It was only them, no one else to interrupt them, no one else to hide from. What little remnants of Raine’s initial fears of dancing in front of other people faded away, no reason to really hold back. And It was a truly wondrous sight to behold, Raine being unburdened by fear, smiling and laughing as she playfully bumped Red’s hips with hers (nearly knocking him over in the process,) and genuinely being happy with life. The mostly wolf was having a blast himself, although he wouldn’t admit it, if this is what keidran dancing was like, they’d’ve done something right for once. And before they knew it, the round was over, signaled by a gong that caused the music controlled pair to jump as high as they could in shock.
Much like many other pairs, the two waited close together quietly as the bony judges disappeared to make their choice. Red couldn’t help but throw an arm around Raine’s shoulders and give her a reassuring rub. She didn’t even notice the gesture, she was too busy replaying the events in her head as her tail swayed in anticipation for the judges decision, she was ready to win alright.
It wasn’t until a blue haired man walked over to the pair did her concentration break, “You guys look like you’re having fun.”
Raine was quick to respond, “Yeah! Especially considering how we’re gonna win!”
Her dancing partner couldn’t help but add fuel to the fire, “Oh hell yeah! No offence Tracey, but you’re only winning one round! And even that was with some ‘assistance.’”
Trace smirked, he knew what he did, “Well, I just didn’t want my pregnant fiancé to fall.”
“Uh-huh!” the wolffish pair spoke in unison.
Unlike Trace, Flora noticed where Red’s arm currently rested, “Well, I think you two will win this round, you two were adorable together out there!” The two stopped their raving and briefly glanced at each other, they both could only utter a couple sentences of gratitude to the tiger, “I can’t wait to see you two slow dance.”
Trace was slowly catching on, “Oh, oh yeah! You two are gonna slow dance together, right?”
Red scratched the back of his head while trying to come up with the right response, “Well, Raine said she wanted too… and I certainly wouldn’t mind getting a little closer for a bit.” The tiger and human gave him a “knowing” smirk, “... Right, Raine?”
She was starting to wonder if he suggested the idea of a mask just so he could tease her without getting flustered himself, “Y-Yeah, I wouldn’t mind getting closer either… you know just to see how well you dance with those dog legs of yours.”
Trace suddenly noticed just how wolfish his childhood friend was, “Oh wow, I thought that was just an illusion or apart of the costume! How much of you is still human?!”
“Eh, really just most of my skull and like… belly button area, my back molars are starting to get sharper.” He leaned down to whisper to Trace: “Hurts like a sonofabitch though, don’t tell her.”
“Cool! So how does the rest of your body feel? Like how much control do you have over your body now that you have keidran parts instead of human ones?”
Raine was quick to join in, she was previously a little hesitant to ask such private questions… but now that Trace had broken the barrier: “Yeah, earlier he noticed the perfume I put on yesterday, so his nose got stronger without physically transforming yet! I wonder what else is like that!”
The “matriarch” had to be the one to pull the group together now that a door on stage was opening, “Alright you three, you can discuss this tomorrow, the judges are coming back out.”
Like she stated, the skeleton man and his spooky maidens all emerged out of a trap door. He scanned the audience as dead silence filled the air… “You two… in the wolf outfits!”
Raine’s heart practically exploded in excitement as the realization hit her. “Oh Gods, we won? Red we won!” She frantically grabbed his paw and arm and began quickly pulling him to the stage. The man being dragged along had the biggest grin on his face, he did exactly what he set out to do, and the night was a single breath away to being perfect… at least in his mind It’d be perfect.
The skeleton man held out two sashes with the words ‘At Peace,’ “Well done, you two, I haven’t seen genuine keidran dancing for…” he got close and whispered to them, “since you know who got control…”
Raine lifted up her mask to whisper back to him, “You know he lost his memory right?”
The bony man smirked, “Yeah, but it’s still better to be on the safe side and allllll-... say you look a lot like Mary Silverlock.”
“Well I’d hope so, she is my mom.”
Red broke out of his happy daze, “Raine.”
The sash holder quickly glanced down to one of the previous winners and back to the girl standing in front of him, “Heheheheh, well I’m no one to judge! But I do decide who gets these sashes!” The man dropped the two golden and cream sashes over the pair and returned to his original booming voice, “Now go get ready, it’s time to warm each other’s lost souls!”
After putting on her mask again, Raine with her fellow sash bearer quickly left the stage and went back to their chosen ground. Everyone but the previous winners were nearly invisible, the newest ones were still slightly transparent, but had their original colors and a warm hue to them. Inside she was both excited and a little worried about slow dancing with Red. She heard him say he wanted to get a little closer, but how close was too close? They did come to the festival as friends after all…
Her mind was made up for her by the band starting up for one final time, the tune was slow and melodic. Red offered his clawed hand for her to take, she could tell he was smiling under his mask. The moment their paws touched they could both feel ice like nerves firing in their arms, only to be silenced by the other’s heat. And after a small hiccup of Raine not knowing where to put her hands... they got closer. The pair let the music flow through them like it had in the previous dance, but instead of a fast keidran dance, it was a slow and very human-like sway. Aside from the occasional stepping on each other’s foot with their very awkward dog legs, there was nothing to interrupt the two’s dance. Distracted by the other’s eyes, they didn’t realize they were slowly getting closer to one another… until their bellies touched. Even then, they knew better than to pull away; it felt wrong to think of even doing such an act. The song carried the two away, what little anxiety Raine had felt drifted away, it was being replaced quickly by a warm fuzzy feeling.
 Red on the other hand was growing with doubt, he wasn’t just deeply lost in her eyes and warmth, his mind fought with itself over one very dangerous idea… should he kiss her? It could either completely ruin or make her night all the better, and if there was ever a time for it… He decided to think of everything that happened that night:
He had gone out of his way to help her get ready in the first place, and he was the reason she was even out here… maybe she only went because of him? He knew she appreciated taking on the curse for her and making such perfect costumes, so she might just be out here to not make his efforts and sweat in vain. He had seen glimpses of blushes when the two were close before, between the looks at the warehouse and the apple bobbing station… and especially discussing her getting her “peach.” He couldn’t tell if she was just embarrassed or there was something more at play. He thought of every possible moment that could suggest her being open to a kiss.
He decided to do what he did best and bravado it out. He moved his hand from her side and placed it on her cheek, he felt the skin grow hot under his touch. Their hearts raced as their eyelids slowly fell in unison… their grip on their interlocked fingers tightened... and their lips slowly drifted towards each other…
CLINK!
Both of their eyes shot open at the noise and lack of warm lips touching, their masks’ noses had bumped together, chipping some of the red and pink paint in the process. Neither one could hold back their laughter, so much for that moment.
Raine wrapped one of her arms around his back and hugged him, “Snrk, sorry, I forgot about the masks. Why’d you make them so well? I couldn’t even tell you were wearing one.”
He couldn’t help but return the embrace, “Well, sometimes there’s a price to be amazing at something.” he said with a wink.
“Mhmm.” She lifted her mask up, revealing the goofy and euphoric smile on her lips.
Red lifted his mask up in return and rubbed his clawed thumb down her cheek to her chin, the pair closed their eyes and quickly planted a long and passionate kiss on each other’s still slightly smiling lips, their masks were giving each other a similar experience.

The dance eventually had to come to an end, despite most not winning anything, most couples were still happy with the festival’s dance. Two of which were happily chatting with each other about a very recent development.
Flora was keen on getting a confession out of at least one of them about what their future plans were: “So… planning on anymore kisses tonight you two?”
Raine had long since retreated behind her partner, anything to escape Flora’s unrelenting pursuit, “M-Maybe, I ah, wouldn’t mind more kisses.”
Red’s perverted mind actually helped him catch the correct meaning for once, “Heh, well, I think her lips will be the only thing I’d be kissing tonight.”
Flora’s equally perverted grin only widened, “Which lips are you talking about?” Raine quickly dropped her mask over her face and tried to hide behind her hair as she got a very vivid mental image.
Her fiance had to step in using the only way he knew how, “Flora please, if you keep that up and you won’t be getting any kisses anywhere tonight.”
Just as they reached the carriage that was supposed to take them back to the estate, Red decided that nor he or Raine would be able to withstand a full carriage ride to the estate defending off his old friend’s fiancee with her constant barrage of perverted questions. “You know, on second thought, Rose said there was this nice little Tavern just outside of Edinmire… and that sounds uh, pretty nice… Right, Raine?”
“Uh, yeah! Besides, you two look like you could use some time alone together.”
Flora’s tail was wrapped around and bapping quickly against Trace’s leg, the poor man could only laugh a little at that,  “Heh, well, I guess I’ll see you two in the morning.”
Red suddenly felt the last of his stomach transform, followed by some more of his teeth sharpening, “Ha! Tracey, it’s like three in the morning right now, we probably won’t see each other till the afternoon.”
After making sure Flora managed to get in the elevated carriage safely, the pairs split from each other. After only a short time later, Raine started to encounter a small problem.
“Hey Red?”
“Yeah?”
Her tiredness and euphoric state silenced any doubt she would’ve had before, “Can you carry me?”
“Oh, sure.” The almost entirely wolf crouched down and let Raine tiredly climb onto his back, her head gently resting on his shoulder, “Heh, tired?”
“Mhm, how are you feeling?”
“I’m pretty tired too… but I’ll make it to the tavern no problem.” She gave him a small hug as her tail subconsciously wrapped around his. It felt strange.
“Uhh, Raine your...”
“Hm?”
“... It’s nothing… hey, why don’t you take a nap, I’ll wake you when we get there.”
She smiled as she playfully lifted up his mask, “I wanna see your wolf form though.”
He gulped as his skull started to throb, “It probably won’t be transformed until we wake up tomorrow.”
The girl on his back closed her eyes, “Aw, okay… hey, Red?”
“Yeah?”
She nuzzled his warm and silky neck fluff, “Thank you… tonight was perfect.”
The words were like opium to his soul, “Heh… yes it was.”


(Twokinds, and all the characters in this story © Thomas Fischbach)

So I’m still alive, coolio. Anyways I’ll keep this short, but for some background on this fic, a week before Halloween we were talking about a Halloween content contest on a different discord. So I had an idea of Raine never being allowed to go celebrate Halloween. And that eventually turned into an idea of Red taking on a curse to make Raine feel less insecure about her half form.
But…
"Fuck, I'm going to write it now, nothing big just a cute short story" - Aimbot.exe
"15000 words later..." - Mandag
It turned into a 19k word story by accident… don’t you just hate it when that happens? :^>
Also speaking of that radical 3d glasses wearing dude, a big thanks to him for editing this fic and his general guidance. Go check that man out: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/mandag
Anyways, more stories to come, and don’t forget.
“If you ignore the legs, it kinda looks like you’re wearing a Keidran costume.” - Red
-Aimbot.exe