#baronyofthesilverwolf

She scowls.

"I said I'm over it."

Scrabble scrabble squeak

"You some kind of fairy rat?"

"Or I guess a regular rat..."

No answer, at least not in English. But she catches a glimpse of a bushy brown-grey tail sticking out of a hole in a tree, along with a pair of lightly clawed haunches.

Scrabble scrabble, digging into the dirt a bit, trying to back out of the hole?

"Oh - a squirrel."

Dig scratch scratch scratch! It seems to be stuck.

SIGH.

"You idiot. Squirrels are just rats with fluffy tails, y'know."

"You gonna bite me if I help?"

The fluffy tail doesn't look very threatening. The claws are sharpish, but rather small. Then again, she may have a pair of gloves with her.

She does - magic gloves!

But that's still better than bare skin. Squirrels, after all, also have TEETH.

Gloves fit like, well, we made that joke already. But they are very comfortably snug.

"Okay, Rocky, don't freak out." She grabs the beastie's feet.

TUG

"I'm not getting you out of the jack o lantern."

SCRABBLE SCRABBLE SCRATCH - POP! A squirrel with a somewhat singed looking head pops free of the tiny pumpkin, and it scrambles up a tree in a flash!

"Aw, Jeepers Creepers. You made me lose my dinner." The small Jack-o-Lantern rolls face up and frowns at her, greenish-white lights flickering inside it's face holes.

"Wait..."

"Wait, that was a regular squirrel?"

"And it got away." A grumpy scowl on the somewhat shriveled face.

"Well, life's tough."

It rolls over and settles back at the base of another tree. "There is always another squirrel."

A cough-HACK sound, and a few pumpkin seeds, attached on thin tendrils of pumpkin guts, are coughed out of it's mouth to scatter on the leaves in front of it.

And, it waits.

"Gross, dude."

A muffled chortle, and it goes silent, just the faintest flicker inside the eye holes.

"Well, I'm gonna move on. And not think about it. Circle of life, ya-dee-dah."

And on she can move. There is a chipmunk eying those seeds already. The Circle of Liiiiiife~!

But she doesn't have to watch it, nope.

She moves on! It must eat, after all, if it's going to grow large and strong enough to catch a trick or treater by Samhain.

It's an idle day - she tools around on her scooter, she stops for lunch, she takes a nap under a tree. October is usually cool, but this year has been warm.

If she can sleep. A half-dozen nevers, wearing cloaks made of colorful autumn leaves, have declared her recumbent form a battle ground!

Grumble!

The Army of Golden Oak will defeat the Forces of Red Maple!

Then again, half of them stop to try on new leaves halfway through, so it's hard to tell who, if any, actually won

"(*&^%^^, ya'll are ridiculous."

"Why don't you follow around Dee? She farts rainbows."

A chiming chorus of protest, and one of they tugs at her hair in emphasis!

Which, right now, might even be brighter than the fall leaves.

It's orange, so seasonal - but little in nature is THAT vibrant.

"What? You don't like Dee?"

A pair have started playing tug-of-war with her shoelaces (still on the shoe), and another one zips into the chest pocket on her flannel top, and snuggles in there.

"Guys..."

Bip bip bip bip bip! Five little frizzy-haired nevers in a row, looking up at her attentively.

The 6th has disappeared under a pile of leaves...

"Guys, I don't think I'm gonna do this thing anymore. Okay?"