Copyright
J.B. Norman
The Brotherhood of the Coasts’ annual Heroes’ Eve box social is, as ever a lively affair. And, as ever, Kat has found herself dragged along. She wishes she’d chosen a costume with a mask this year, so she could safely hide away in one of the corners or by the snack table – or least toss a bedsheet over herself and claim to be a ghost.
As it was, something as conspicuous as an Oake Island Hornet was a poor choice. It’s hard to be subtle dressed in black and yellow stripes.
And several of the, ahem, less academically-minded members of the Brotherhood keep telling her that her zebra costume is the wrong colour. Or that zebras don’t have wings.
Kat tries to ignore them and hope that they ignore her as she stakes her claim to the snacks.
She feels a tug on the hem of her striped vest.
“Kat,” Dunstana says, looking up desperately at her, clad in her lobster costume. “Help! My hands don’t work!”
Dunstana waves her hands, trapped in her costume’s lobster claws, wildly in the direction of the snack table.
“Lobster claws aren’t good for snacks!” she cries.
Kat sighs and picks up a chicken wing. Dunstana grins broadly and jumps mouth first at the chicken wing, like a fish about to be hooked. She chomps down.
“Ow!” Kat cries. “You bit me!”
“Sorry,” Dunstana says with her mouth full. “How about some shrimp next?”
“Ahoy, Kat!”
Kat is just about to tell the approaching pirate to leave her alone, but as she turns towards the speaker, she realises it’s Lena.
The Goblin is dressed in a pirate outfit and it takes Kat a minute to clue into the fact that she’s wearing a costume at all. The typical pirate get-up isn’t really much of costume in a room full of pirates, but like Kat, Lena has no interest in being a pirate the other 364 days of the year.
“Arrr,” Lena says. “It be I, Captain Goblinbeard. Avast, ye… something, something. Mizzen the main mast. Anchors ahoy! And, uh, so forth.”
“Wow,” Kat says. “I would never go as my dad for Heroes’ Eve.”
“Well, yeah,” Lena says. “But it’s easier for me since my dad doesn’t actually have a beard.”
Standing at the bar with his trusted crew member Billie Hawkins, the real Captain Goblinbeard watches the spectacle and isn’t quite sure how to feel about it.
“No offence, Captain,” Billie offers, her face painted white and the tip of her nose painted black and dressed in an old white fur coat for her polar bear costume. “But her impression of you is remarkable.”
“I’ll pass yer words along to me daughter,” Captain Goblinbeard says with a sigh.
“Also, Captain,” Billie continues. “I love your pumpkin costume.”
Captain Goblinbeard tips his cap, made up to look like a pumpkin’s stem. He sighs again watches as his daughter goes around the party Arrr-ing and Ahoy-ing all the other guests.
“Yarr, Miss Hawkins,” Captain Goblinbeard notes. “I do believe she be makin’ fun o’ me…”
All rise for the national anthem of Halloween:
Also, a reminder that tomorrow, November 1, will see both the next chapter of Captain Goblinbeard (hence why this year’s Halloween post is about him and Lena) and also the start of my month-long daily writing exercise.
Realmgard’s headed to Space, baby.
The rest of my writing exercises are here. This one was originally written in March 2023.
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