BY AMANDA PIZZOLATTO

Once upon a time, in the far distant past of Havorest, the genies brought five races from Earth to the planet. They were the kissiae (pumpkin and vine nymphs), the meliades (apple and autumn nymphs), lampades (candle and lantern nymphs), spunkies (fae/gnome-like beings with eyes that change into fox or owl eyes at night), and the aconi (anthropomorphic squirrels/chipmunks). Together, they set about turning the whole planet into an autumnal wonderland.

They began by naming one meliade the Leaf Maiden, and she was given the power to control the weather. From there, they decided on making lanterns to represent each of the peoples whenever she wanted it to check in on them. These lanterns were to be handled by a representative of each race, but no sooner were they completed than the trouble began.

The Leaf Maiden selected the representatives herself, two from each race, one to be the main carrier of the lantern, the other to be the helper. For the lampades, the representatives were Elbert Feuer and Jack O’Lantern. Jack was a simple fellow, lanky, and easy-going. Elbert was loud, boisterous, and eager to take on his duties. But then the different lanterns were revealed. For each race, a specific kind of lantern was forged, an acorn for the aconi, a cinnamon stick torch for the spunkies, apple for the meliades, pumpkin for the kissiae, and turnip for the lampades. The pumpkin lantern was the biggest of them all, and Elbert, for some reason, did not like that. He began to argue that the lanterns should have been the same size, at least for the three nymph races. Jack pointed out that it was merely because pumpkins got bigger than turnips, nothing more, just like acorns wouldn’t get bigger simply because they were meant to grow into oaks. But Elbert kept arguing that these were lanterns, they could be any size. He eventually convinced a couple of the representatives to agree with him.

The Leaf Maiden revealed that these were, in fact, made out of real pumpkins, real apples, real turnips, real cinnamon, and real acorns, which meant Jack was right. She continued by stating that if anyone wanted to step away from being a representative, now would be the time. No one said a word and, thinking it was over, she began to present each person with their lantern. But she had gotten no further than presenting the aconi with the acorn lantern before Elbert took that moment to grab the pumpkin and take off to everyone’s chagrin. Before anyone could recover, one of the spunkies followed him, grabbing the turnip lantern on his way out. The Leaf Maiden stopped the proceedings to send guards after them, and to send word out for new representatives. But by the time the guards found them, the two had figured out how to force the lanterns to belong to them.

Being a lampade, Elbert could take off his head without dying. As such, he placed the pumpkin on his shoulders and it became his new head. Meanwhile, the spunkie had fed the turnip lantern cinnamon mixed with other wood, and something else that he did not disclose. This threw everything into disarray. Those lanterns could not be taken back, unless the two gave them up willingly, which they did not. With their newfound strength granted them by the lanterns, they defeated the guards and took off to find themselves a new home.

Distraught, the Leaf Maiden gathered the rest to figure out what to do. The genies had only left them with a certain amount of magic to turn the world into one of their choosing, and the rest had been put into the lanterns. The Leaf Maiden decided to sacrifice a bit of her power to craft more lanterns, but this lost her the power of immortality. As such, a new Leaf Maiden would have to be picked when the previous one died. But despite sacrificing that much, only one more lantern could be made, and it was a turnip. Jack then took on the role of both lampade and kissiae representative while the other spunkie, Tom Fox, offered to help while he became the sole representative for the spunkies. The Harvest Maiden thought it unfair, but there seemed to be no other choice for the time being. She gave Jack and Tom a head start to begin their duties, but it didn’t take long to show that they were capable of keeping up.

In time, both kissiae and lampades grew to enjoy having a shared representative that, surprisingly, in time, Jack’s turnip lantern was able to change between turnip and pumpkin, depending on which area he was visiting. Eventually, it became more pumpkin than turnip, and the lampades didn’t mind. Eventually, the legend grew to state that Elbert, who became known as the Headless Horseman, would terrorize parts of Havorest and sometimes people would go missing, making many people think that Elbert was growing an army. The spunkie, now known as the Bugul Noz, was stated to often help him, though many people think that people’s souls were being fed to his lantern, which turned it red. Yet, in all their wanderings, neither pair really faced off. They came very close to it, but Jack often thought it best not to do it so close to any of the villages.