Tales of the Candy Witch

Tales of the Candy Witch
Yuuko dipped another a burlap sack into the candy calduren, filling it about ⅔ of the way before tying it shut and sticking on the headless body standing next to her. As head met neck the little scarecrow stood up right and adjusted its head, Yuuko pointed her broom towards the living room and watched the little creature waddle off to join it brothen, “246 done, 54 to go” she thought to herself as she filled another burlap sack. Looking down at the cauldron, she saw it was getting low and poured another bag of store bought candy into the colduren and watched as it multiplied until the cauldron filled to brim again, as she filled another bag and put the new head on another body. The thud of boots on the kitchens hardwood floor announced Connar’s arrival, he already had has coat on and was sheathing his sword as he grabbed a burlap sack from the counter and began helping her build scarecrows. “Again, I am sorry that I can't perform my normal vest duties this year.” Yuuko rolled her eyes at the apology “Stop, you have already apologized like 10 times, and it's not like your going on vacation, its work and we already have substitute lined up.” As if on Cue Tuk sauntered in the kitchen wearing a modified version of the anima vest, sniffing at the cauldron before pulling a sucker out it before returning to the living room.
Connar sighd “Only other man I would trust with a mission of this magnitude, on that note you never told me who else got to help you this year.” The legend of the candy witch had grown since her flight last year more and more children were searching the skies on Halloween night looking for the witch that summoned candy for trick or treaters, but alas even if she had the collective anima of every agent in the world, she wouldn't be able to appear before every child that went trick or treating. She had asked Santa during their interview last year how he managed to travel the world so quickly, hoping that his magic could help her, but like all things involving anima, the answer involved dangerous eldritch magic from a lost age, so she would need to rely on outsourcing instead. The doorbell rang, as she put another head on scarecrow, “that should be them now, could you finish up the last few scarecrows for me?” Connar nodded as she left to let them in.
When she opened the door a small group elderly women in black witches hats greeted her, with Emma leading them in her witchy gram jumper. “It turns out they are a lot of catholic women who are interested in being witches” she said with a grin, one of them spoke up behind her, “dressing the costume is the only why I can get Harold to look to me anymore” This caused the group to begin cackling to themselves, “me, well the children have been calling me a witch for years and I’d hate to break their little hearts by making them liars” the group continued to laugh as they stepped into the house, the last one in a short woman with long white hair, who looked at Yuuko a smile, “well all the girls were doing it, I didn't want to be left out, same reason I have family now dear” the group burst into cackling laughter at the quip before Yuuko stood up on the coffee table and asked for their attention. “Welcome to Candy Witch helpers, I’d like to take this moment to thank you all for donating your time to enchanting children around the world. Being the candy witch is fairly straightforward process, you find a group of children and then pass out candy and then flee into the night to find another group. How you distribute candy depends on your abilities non-magic users have the option of passing out candy by hand or by throwing handfuls onto the sidewalk, if you choose this way please make sure to keep it on the sidewalk and not in the streets. You may also use one of the scarecrows, if you are so inclined however you will have to command them verbally, and they will be limited to their default dance which this year is a wallace. Magic users have the option of deploying scarecrows from either the ground or the air, if you deploy them from the air, please make sure you equip them with a parachute as they tend to explode on impact, before they can do their dance routine. Their dance routines can be changed via anima manipulation just like a familiar, though they have default dance that changes from year to year. If a child approaches you with a candy request because of the either personal preference or dietary restrictions, simply reach into your candy witch satchel and the satchel will produce the request. You are not required to interact with the children or to invite them to sit with you, the candy witch is not as personal Santa.” One of the women spoke up “you mean he is not here? I wore my good Knickers for nothing!” the crowd erupted into laughter, “Remember if you encounter trouble from local law enforcement or community members, you are running a business or campaign for anything, you are simply trying to promote community. In the unlikely event that you encounter an attacker, break the strap on your candy witch satchel and you will become invisible for 12 hours, this should allow you enough time to escape to safety and finally and most importantly we are all commanded to have as much fun as possible!” the crowd again erupted into laughter and applause as Yuuko began passing out satchels as Connar came out of the kitchen with the last few scarecrows.
He stopped and stared at the assembled women in his living room, “ I know what goes on at these Galway hen parties, you lot behave yourselves out there” “But if we do that, the economy of Dublin will collapse.” The crowd burst into laughter as Connar waved goodbye. Yuuko ran over and stood up on her toes to kiss him, “Don't anything stupid out there” she said as she as straightened his coat, “I never do anything stupid, I am always perfectly reasonable”, “you know what I mean. They are already going to be on edge, don't give them a reason to shoot at you” Connar sighed as he looked over the top of her head to make sure no one else was listening to them, “Historically the authorities in Belfast haven't been very tolerant of Catholics sneaking around in the dark, but I am doing it for good reason this time so...hopefully the peace processes has softened them a bit.” “That wasn't the “yes honey” I was looking for.” Connar only smiled again before saying “Love you” Yuuko rolled her eyes with a smile “Love you too.” She then turned to the  assembled women while Connar slipped out the back door. “Alright ladies, anima user of the right, non anima user on the right, one satchel per witch, please take as many scarecrows as you’d like.”
As the last of the satchels are passed out, the Witches begin flowing out the front door, where a small group of children had gathered to greet them, with “Trick or Treat,” the group of old women all smiled and parted as Yuuko exited the house her broom in head and messenger bag over her shoulder. She step a side and summoned a scarecrow to the children, then with a wave of her wand, its burlap head began swelling up, until it was the size of a garbage bag before it finally fell forward and exploded in a shower of candy. As the children cheered, Yuuko Mounted her broom and flew off into the night, followed shortly be flock cackling witches spreading out over the sky, as others began marching down the dirt road toward Greenfield. Behind them Tuk pushed a bowl of candy out onto the front porch before returning inside and pulling the door shut, relieved to have the hoard of people out of his house. Above them Yuuko took our phone and hit send on prepared tweet, And she’s off, the candy witch was last seen leaving Greenfield Ireland.”

The London encounter- Markus Gallagher
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Ealdwic- Cricket
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The Boston encounter - Angelique and Klaus
Perched in a tree overlooking Harvard square, Klaus watches Angel observing the revelers and children coming and going from the square. Mostly Students and children dressed in costumes with the occasional cryptid blending in with the crowd. As they watch, Angel notices a group of disappointed looking children clutching small silver cylinders with some kind of writing on them. In the distance, Klaus can see a woman in a white witches hat and cloak with a bucket of the little cylinders, looking for more children.
Below in the busy square, Angelique wanders among the crowds with a calavera mask and little else. In the spirit of the season, she blends in perfectly. Doubly so as she is accompanied by her excited son Brandon, who is dressed in a military uniform, complete with a wooden gun. He holds his candy basket with one hand and the other clasped in his friends’ sheet covered ‘hand’. The friend, wearing the classic ghostly sheet, is one of the diminutive elemental creations sworn to serve the young and budding golemancer. Stepping up to the children, Angel subvocally relays this information to Klaus before addressing them. “Howdy. What kinda treats are those?” Brandon peers over, also interested in the shiny cylinders.
“They are new, the Candy Witch on the corner was giving them out. She says they are called Dew drops, they are supposed to be good for you."One of the children popped open the silver cylinder, before taking one of the little yellow balls that fell out and popping it in his mouth. "Yuk!" the boy said as he spat the ball back out, "There are not very good though, they taste like wax and diet coke and not the regular kind either, like the Kroger kind." Angel could hear a chorus of spitting as the crowd of children begins tasting their candy “she was also giving these out” The boy took a little note from his bag and showed it to Angel, “Lower grades, higher BMI, shorter lives, what you don't know can hurt you, think before you inject, pointedtruths.net”
From his perch, the darkened feathery form that Angelique and Brandon can immediately identify as Klaus bobs in active acknowledgement of the signal that had been given. With a sharp twist, he gestures in the direction of the false witch. It is then that he swoops in! In the shadows looming behind the white witch forms the shape of a man, snapping into place as if he had been there, and yet, he had only just arrived. Covered in a feathered cloak, that which enables the transformation, Klaus certainly looked like he was in costume. He will keep her occupied, he hopes, or if need be, make chase. “What an odd looking candy~”
The false witch turned around, startled by the sudden appearance of Klaus, "would you like to try some, they are all natural." Looking back over her shoulder, she spots the odd looking ghost next to Brandon and appears visibly agitated by it. Forcing a smile, she holds out one of the silver cylinders for Klaus, and slowly begins moving toward the subway.  It takes only the briefest mention and nod to Brandon and both he and the costumed elemental 'child' have walked up to the witch, Angelique in tow. "There's a lotta all natural things that ain't good for ya..." she states as she stalks closer.
Klaus swipes the cylinder, suspicious of the strange offering full of lies with offhanded, flippant dismissal and disappointment. "It probably doesn't even have any honey!", but continues to slinks ever closer, a nod and a swift step leading to him looming alongside Angelique from a different direction - all the better to corner their prey. Angel can see the white glow of a flashing light coming from inside the imposters cloak, it looks like she has some kind of detector with her. As Angel, Klaus and Brandon draw closer, the light begins to pulse quicker. The imposter now visibly afraid. Before they can draw any closer, she takes her pale of candy scatters it across the pavement and screams “FREE CANDY!” before dropping the pale and running for the subway. As she descends the stairs to the platform, the trio see her disappearing down the tunnel leading from Harvard station.  The necromancer frowns, turning to Brandon and his golem. "Pick it all up and try to keep the other children from getting it. Papa an' I got this imposter." With that, she heads down into the red line of the T. Ducking down into the tunnels, the imposter leaps from one side of the platform to another before kicking open a rusted maintenance door and fleeing deeper into the subway. “Why are you running?!” Shouts Klaus, exasperated as the pair try to catch up to the witch. “We only want to talk!” He looks hesitantly to the rusted door, not at all liking where things are headed. While Klaus pauses, Angel heads ever forward in her pursuit. The necromancer does not want to lose this imposter without a chase!
Angel follows the imposter through the winding hallways of the maintenance tunnel until they come to what appears to be a cave, though she can not tell if it is man-made or naturally occurring. She then hears the click of a gun being cocked and turns just in time to see the imposter aiming at her with unsteady hands. “They told me the Illuminati were real, but I never thought they would stoop so low as to send someone after the Candy Witch.” Klaus had belatedly made chase after the two women despite his distaste of the horrible state of the location. He stares at the scene, uncertain, and uses the shadowy powers bestowed by the feathers to meld into the shadows and rise up behind the witch, ready to act if she makes a move.
As the woman stood trying to intimidate Angel, and Klaus stood ready to strike, they did not see the pack of ghouls that came running out of the adjacent tunnel and pounced on the imposter, as they began digging into her entrails, one of them stepped in front of Angel as another turned toward Klaus in the darkness, “No shoot, we have permit for morning light, long as it tunnels. Good in Massachusetts or New Hampshire.” Another one swallowed a handful of liver before snarling “Live Free Die! Feed Ghoul!”
Angel grins. "The candy witch is our friend, and so is Tech Ghoul and his family." Angel gives the pack a polite nod. "Mission accomplished. Say hi to Tech Ghoul at MIT for me." As the pack continues to feed, Klaus and Angel return above ground where they find Brandon playing soccer with a group of small scarecrows and his golem. As one of the little scarecrows maneuvers the detached head of his comrades around Brandons leg and over the head of the golem. The group gathers together as they pull their heads off and throw them in the air in celebration. The three of them watch the heads of the tiny scarecrows begin to inflate then finally explode in a shower of candy and a fiery message that says “thank you!”, overhead they can see the silhouette of a witch passing by the moon and hear “Happy Halloween” on the wind.

The Portland encounter Portland - Arkham
At the top of a hill near the edge of a Portland suburb, Arkham watches the trick or treaters moving down the street from one house to another. It has already grown dark and he has yet to see any sign of the imposter, just as he was about to change spots, he noticed a group of children looking upset and clutching small silver cylinders with something written on them. One of the larger children seems to be on the edge of tears as he reads a note attached to his cylinder. As he looks back to where the children came from, he can see a woman in a white witches hat and cloak standing on the edge of the woods making eye contact with him. As a smile spreads across her face, she disappears into the forest.
Arkham raises himself up as he walks down the street feeling like Moundshroud, that all important bastion of halloween made famous by Bradbury, ancient, primordial both jovial and terrifying at the same portion as he landed looking down at the children, his cape fluttering against his suit. "Hello children, I could not help but notice that you were upset by that young woman and her lack of candy". He raises a bag at them "I will trade you those tawdry cylinders and notes for a bag of only the finest chocolates given to me to give to you by the one and only real Candy Witch" He smiles and then lifts out of thin air one by one thick king size bars of chocolate and nougat wrapped in silver foil. He drops them like rain, bars, massive candied green apples with caramel in plastic into buckets and open bags making it rain as he collects the vials.
Each of the children hands the cylinders over to Arkham and begin scoping up the treats, the cylinders are labeled, “morning light dew drops” and come with a message “do you ever feel sad? Like you could be more than what you are? Like something is holding you back? It’s not your fault we can help sweettruth.net" additionally one of the notes read, “Learn the truth about childhood obesity ittakesvillage.org” Inside each of them, is set of small yellow balls that look like cough drops and smell vaguely of aspartame. As he examines the ground he can see the tracks leading up the path the woman had taken, the path seemed well trodden and there is evidence that someone took some kind of heavy cart on it as well. The imposter may not be alone. Arkham smiles and lightning flashes around him as he pulls his cape tighter and melts it around himself blending into the shadows, a creature camouflaged in the dark evening as the lights flicker in pumpkins and the pale moon shines down. Arkham creeps closer and closer keeping to the path and the tracks watching it as he moves ever nearer. After following the path for a few hundred meters, he comes to a trail leading deeper into the woods. the trail forks in two different directions, The karts tracks lead in one direction and there is a set of footprints headed in the other direction. Next to the Karts tracks, there appear to be several other sets of footprints, but they appear to be made by bare human feet. The tracks leading in the other direction appear to come from a pair of women's shoes.
Arkham leans down to see both sets of tracks taking a breath and breathing in the air, tasting for perfume, smells, he looks at the tracks and tests by touch which is fresher deeper, muddier. He takes it all in utilizing his senses and tracker senses. The barefoot tracks appear to be older by a few hours, the group that made them came threw just as the sun was setting, the ones made by shoes appear to be fresher, being made only moments ago. The tracks are also laced with the faint scent of aspartame and something that approximates lemon. Arkham follows the shoe tracks making his way shadow to shadow blending in with the trees. He has learned from the kraken of lore and nature to mimic his natural surroundings blending in with them as he makes his way through the forest. Arkham comes across the white witches hat on the ground, as he examines it, he hears the snap of twigs behind and is able to dodge an aluminum baseball bat in the nick of time. "Who sent you!" The woman in the white cloak snaps "Orochi, Council, Illuminati!" "Worse" He says with a smile as he lunges forward and closes the gap "The Candy witch sent me" The woman rolled her eyes, "of course and this from Santa!" she takes another swing at Arkham who dodges in the nick of time again as the two Grapple, they fall into a clearing off of the beaten path, as he looks up he notices they are not alone. In the clearing is a group of naked women gathered around a fire and stone altar ranging in age from early 20's to over 70. The eldest among them a woman wearing only a black robe, ask’s "is there is a reason you two are interrupting mass." Then her eyes turn to the woman in the white cloak, "Oh....hello Karen." motioning, the woman in the robe summons two other women out of the woods to pull Karen off of Arkham.
Arkham stands up and dusts himself off “ladies I do believe there has been a drastic misunderstanding, someone dressed as a witch is passing out vials to children and I followed her to the split in the woods and must have taken the wrong path” He adjusts his coat “so if nothing else I do need to be getting on my way” The woman called Karen is actively struggling against the two woman summoned by the priestess, the Old woman smiled at Arkham, “Were they little silver cylinders? The kind given out by the morning light? Because Karen here was giving them out at the farmers market a week ago, and she has been giving them out for almost a year now as part of her “Vaccine awareness campaign.” Our coven has had to send at least one little lord to back to the goddess because of Karnes “awareness”, and now we find her appropriating our culture to spread her lies” The old woman studies Arkham carefully for a moment, “And getting the illuminati involved too, to boot.” A red haired woman in her early 20’s spoke up “mistress Young, we are still missing a sacrifice for mass and it’s the end of the year so….why don’t we use Karen.” Karens mouth hung open in amazement as she began thrashing against her captors, “Bitches! I knew you were fucking murderers! I knew Alex Jones was right!” the priestess then turned towards Arkham, “an intriguing idea, but the goddess teaches, we cannot take what is not freely given. So what say you sweetling, can we have Karen or must the eye have its pound of flesh?”
Arkham looks at the woman and then at Karen “stupidity is a grievous crime in any time and to cost someone a child because of it even more so. “ he leaned in to Karen “do you know how many children I buried through the ages.... how many loved ones.... to little diseases before antibiotics, before vaccination, holding their hands until they cooled, watching them burned in plague pits”. He whispered this into her ear “I would give you to these women but you don’t belong to them any more than you belong to the Illuminati” he says “maybe I will let them cut out your tongue so it can’t sow any more deceptive seeds though, their pound of flesh” “But you also don’t belong to Gaia, the one who could send her healing to any of these to fix what you harm.... no you belong to the Leviathan..... you will be brought to serve and atone for what you have done.... because if you don’t a primal sacrifice at a pagan altar will seem the least of your worries.... you will either bid yourself to undo the harm you have done.... or I’ll hand them your lying tongue with an obsidian blade and then..... you will spend your last few miserable months covered in boils and pox and plagues that haven’t existed for centuries because I’ve ripped the immunity from you......Arkham looks no longer aged, his eyes are a deep blue like ice as his shadow stretches out beyond normal coiling like tentacles around the trees, almost like it as itself alive. He leans in at her and then with a deft hand lifts her face to his “which shall it be Karen, which sacrifice will you choose” he says as he pushes an obsidian dagger to her lips prying her teeth open with it chipping her tooth and touching the cold stone against her wet tongue
Karen looks up into Akrhams eyes, studying his words, carefully considering what he had said. She then spit in his face. “Lairs, murderers!, I won’t be deceived, I save lives every day and if you listened to me I could save you too. Illuminati, Satanist, Orochi, Council, you have killed more than I could ever dream of, we are ALL MADE OF STARS!” before she could finish, Karen felt her mouth fill with blood as fleshy lump was pulled from her mouth, Arkham tossed it in the fire and the coven erupted in cheers. Before the  sacrifice could continue, the clearing was flooded with light from the high beams of a cherry red Tesla with a license plate that read “BUYBACK” and from the Car emerges a man that looks like Samuel Chandra. “My apologies ladies, I hit traffic coming up,” his eyes turn to Karen and Arkham at the center of the clearing, “but it seems I arrived just in time,” rolling up his sleeves he clapped his hands together, “now, let’s get this party started.” The coven cheered again, as they held Karen down on the alter the priestess raising an obsidian dagger above her head before plungging it into Karen’s chest, and pulling out her heart and casting it into the fire. As Chandra passes Arkham he claps him on the shoulder, “We will speak another time Arkham, as you can imagine its a busy night for me.”
Arkham looked at Chandra’s hand like that of something he might have broken off. Unlike most humans Arkham never let any angel forget that for all their bluster they were less to their father than him, the original talking ape. He felt robbed as the cheers went up,the party started but Arkham is never denied a due payment as he walked over to the eyes of the dead woman and reached down plucking them out with his free hand the fire toasting up his sleeve smoldering, reaching into the empty sockets he drew out something ethereal and essential to the human nature. The eyes are the window to the soul and Arkham had taken his due one way or the other. They chose the material and the flesh, he would take her spirit. He wouldn’t interrupt their party but any who tried to stop him he would assert his own right over his payment head held high. One must always pay what is due to him. He began to walk back into town as he slid the aether into a small glass bottle jarring it up. One of the young women clutching a cup of what looked like a mix of  punch and Karen's blood, was playing with her hair and giggling with one of the other witches and as they looked in his direction, they asked him “So…you come to coven often?”, before he had a chance to answer, he heard someone yell, “Oh my god! Close your fucking eyes Michael!" as he directs his attention in the direction of the scream, Arkham sees the heavy-set trick or treater from earlier, his mouth a gap in awe as he stumbled upon the coven of naked witches, one of whom was evidently his sister. The priestess sighed as she threw up her hands, “do Christians have to deal with this many interruptions!” she then shot an anima bolt into the boys head causing him to go into a trance before she turned to Arkham again and pulling a golden ring from her finger and bowing “A favor from the machine goddess, child of Gaia, take the young stranger with you so that we can finish the service in peace. Arkham looked at the ring and took it palming it as he walked over to the young man “come on big chief let’s go, nothing to see here you can’t find online” he took the boy and angled him toward the path. As he did he hummed and sang “by the pricking of my thumb something wicked.... this way comes” finishing the siouxsie and the banshees lyrics taking the kid back to town and sending him on his way to chocolate bliss fullness
As Arkham exits the forest, he comes across a strange child in orange pajamas and a burlap mask, as the two make eye contact, the child turns his eyes to the sky and as Arkham looks up, he can see a silhouette of a witch against the moon followed by what looks like half a dozen little bodies attached to a unicycle. A parachute deploys from the lead body as they begin to descend towards the earth, as the unicycle swings down, the bodies rearrange themselves into an inverted pyramid. As soon as the unicycle hit the ground it began moving towards Arkham, the edge of the pyramid now blazing with sparklers, that illuminated the tinny scarecrows that formed it, at the base of the inverted pyramid they held a banner that read “thank you!” as the unicycle stopped in front of Arkham the heads of the tiny scarecrows began to inflate until they exploded in a shower of candies from across the ages,  including a kind of cookie made from a type of fig that was thought to be extinct. The unicycle and the remains of the scarecrows soon dissolved and reformed into a pillowcase containing the shower of candy.  Arkham smiles and opened a piece of candy checking it then eating it as he looked at Sam and put a piece in his own bag.

Conclusion:
The flock of witches that set out with Yuuko had been slowly trickling back to the farm throughout the night, some by broomstick others by foot, not a single one had a single piece of candy left, but all of them a smile that could be seen from space. As the hour grew late and the magic of the Halloween faded, the women who had donned the mantle of candy witch transformed back into the ordinary women of Greenfield. Yuuko was among the last to arrive, her broom dropped from under her as the vest reached its limit, Again She had been around the world and brought joy and wonder to all she had visited, and again in the morning she was sure she would be happy, but for the moment she was still exhausted, but this year she had an army with her, a fleet of candy witches, that spread the magic of Halloween further than ever before.
She had evidently beaten Connar home though, as the Halloween decorations were still up. As she went to take some of the decorations inside she felt the familiar pain of the holiday passing and thought to herself, maybe a few more hours wouldn't hurt. As she turned to go back inside she saw the strange child known as Sam looking at her from the path leading up to the house. “Did you get them?” she asked. Sam reached into his bag and pulled out the four fitness trackers that the imposter witches had worn, a smile spread across Yuuko's face, as she prepared to  summon his candy only to remember that her vest had reached its limit, she prepared to go inside to see what was left of the candy bowl, when Connar began dragging himself up the path to their home, blood streaming down his face, barely able to carry the wait of his own sword. Yuuko droped her wand and broom in shock as she ran over to check on him, “I am fine, I am fine.” “No your not! Your still bleeding.” “The Bees will patch up me good as new like always,” Looking over Yuuko’s shoulder, he could see Sam waiting patiently with his bag out, “Did he get the trackers?” “he did” Yuuko replied, “Are you out of anima?” Yuuko grinned sheepishly, “yes.” Connar placed his hand over her chest and began channeling anima back into the vest, “That should be enough for one last spell, make it a good one,” he said as he cracked his back. Yuuko picked up her wand and summoned the last of the anima to the tip of her wand, causing a meter long Snickers bar to form in Sams bag. The strange child closed his pillow case and began walking back down the path, Yuuko waved to him as he neared their mailbox, “Thank you!” the strange child looked back and waved to her before fading into the darkness.
She turned to help Connar inside, “What happened!?” “Short version is I ran into a stranger that was stronger than I anticipated, and who seemed to be involved in some kind of elaborate political scheme that required a group of knuckle heads (that thought they were doing their country a favor) to set off a bomb in belfast. I put a stop to the lads with the bomb and this mystery agent didn't appreciate it.” “What's the long version?” Yuuko asked “I think I know it but I got hit in the head a lot so I am not positive its accurate, a little rest and I Should be able to recall it though.”Connar cast his eyes to the ground, “...don't forget your wand or broom, it would disappoint the children to see a Candy Witch without them, did you know they sell candy witch key chains at the tourist shops in Belfast?” Yuuko picked up the wand, and gave the broom to Connar to use as a crutch, “Really?” “Yeah, I saw stickers and a little garden sign too, I would have gotten them except I didn't have my back pack with me and they wouldn't fit in my coat.” As they entered the house, they found only an empty candy bowl and Tuk asleep on his couch loudly snoring through his now gray muzzle. “Looks like the vest really took it out of him.” Connar said as he hung his sword and coat on the rack. Yuuko undid the vests straps and slid it off the black wolf (who only snorted as the vest went over his head before returning to his rhythmic snoring), “he will be ok, right?” Yuuko asked as she began going up stairs, “He’s tired but in the morning the gray around his muzzle will be gone and he will be back to his old self.” Yuuko looked back at Connar, “And what about you,” Connar began limping up the stairs, anima already crackling around his wounds. “It was a hard fight, I can't deny that. But it takes a lot more than that to kill me and it's going to take the bees weeks to put  the other guy back together.” Connar sat himself down on the bed as he began taking off his boots. Yuuko opened the closet door and put her hat and wand back for the year “You taking the day off tomorrow?” Connar asked. Yuuko nodded, “definitely”, “You fancy taking the train to Belfast and getting those Candy Witch decorations?” Yuuko smiled at the suggestion, “They will be on sale, it would be a crime not to.” She sat herself down on the bed before grabbing her glasses from the nightstand and opening her iPad, “Night Connar, love you.” “Love you to Yuuko.”