Valkyrie and her pumpkin carving carnage.

An Arcanai sat, with all limbs seemingly covered with pumpkin guts.  In addition to the pumpkin guts, there were large seeds stuck to the far ends of her front legs. Yet as disheveled as she seemed, she was sitting next to her creation chest puffed up and chin raised high proud of her jack-o’-lantern. Her scales seemed to almost shine as the low glow of her red markings reflected off them, creating an eerie look.  The pumpkin’s design she had created looked cute, it resembled the face of a Woolimoo.  To create the design had taken a few tries, but it was the first Umbraveil that she’d ever even tried carving a pumpkin.  She had carved the pumpkins using a small knife and after the first pumpkin, she learned to use a spoon to clean out the inside as the first step. 

The design she had done took her many days to refine, knowing how difficult it would be to put on a pumpkin. There had been multiple drawings or “templates” made, and even talking with Io about if he thought it would be transferable into a jack-o-lantern. Both Arcanai loved Umbraveil, though Io was more invested in the festivities than Valkyrie was. Io had seen some of the first attempts… he stepped in to help make adjustments to the design and the process. In contrast to her design, Io had made a simple set of feather-like designs which was much easier to achieve. 

Io’s design was finished a few days before Valkyrie, so when she finished the design and was happy with it, she grabbed the carved pumpkin and set off to Io’s home. It was a short walk, as she basically pranced proud of her accomplishment. Val set down the pumpkin and knocked on the door of Io’s home, while waiting for a response she started to brush the pumpkin remains from her scales. The door opened and mismatched eyes stared back set in a glare seemingly unamused. “Val, it’s almost 2am… why are you here?” Valkyrie smiled in response, “Look! I finished my pumpkin!!” She was so excited, she didn’t control the flames that licked her breath when she said pumpkin. Io’s head tilted to the side slightly, “This couldn’t wait until morning Val?” The Arcanai outside the door, shook her head with chin high and eyes closed, clearly proud of her creation. A sigh came from Io, “Once you finish cleaning the pumpkin off your scales you can come in.” Valkyrie quickly continued to brush her paws across the scales on her legs and arms, stopping only when she thought she had it all off. In response, Io moved out of the way of the door to allow the intruder into his clean home. His eyes narrowed as he watched her enter his home scanning her scales, and her long trailing feathers for pumpkin. “VALKYRIE- don’t you dare drag your pumpkin covered feathers on my floor-” Io was rushing to slide paper, newspapers or anything within reach under the feathers in question to stop the spread across his floor. Valkyrie turned her head to the left to examine her feathers, “Oh sorry, Io give me a minute and I’ll clean your floor up too…” there was a sigh from the darkly colored Arcanai. “It’s alright Val, I had just cleaned though… how did you even- you know I don’t even need to ask knowing you.” A sheepish grin now showed on Valkyrie muzzle, “I probably dragged them through the mess I made from carving as I left my place to head over…” She began to slowly slink backwards out the door to clean her feathers off outside. 

She stepped out and began to swipe her claws through the long feathers. Finding that most of the mess was at the far end of the feathers she focused her attention there. She hadn’t noticed that Io had disappeared from sight until he reappeared with a damp cloth in his paw for her to clean with if needed. It only took a couple of minutes, and a couple swipes of the damp cloth to not only clean the feathers but then convince Io they were in fact now clean. Once she stepped inside she began to inspect if any had actually gotten on the floor. It was highly unlikely as the pumpkin on her feathers had been dry, but she wanted to check nonetheless.  It didn’t take more than a few seconds for them both to agree that in fact nothing had actually gotten on the floor. Which was good for Valkyries health as she was sure that this would result in her having to decontaminate the whole house. It’s not that Io was a neat freak, it’s more that it was 2am and Io may see that cleaning could be a fitting punishment for waking him up. With the two coming to the agreement that it was clean, Valkyrie peaked her head outside to grab her pumpkin by the stem with her teeth. “Could you be any more barbaric?” Io’s voice called out. “Mm mmmm MmmM mM Mm” knowing that it wouldn’t be understandable didn’t stop her response. She returned to see Io staring blankly at her, and setting down the pumpkin on her paws she repeated her comment “Of course I can be, I’m me.” After which she returned the stem to her mouth and trotted towards the kitchen. Entering the kitchen she found what she was looking for, Io’s pumpkin which sat on the countertop. Choosing to shift onto her back legs for a moment, and using the counter for balance she lifted her pumpkin onto the countertop sliding it back to sit next to Io’s. 

Io joined her in the kitchen, as they sat looking at the two pumpkins he broke the silence, “do you think next year… maybe you could choose something simpler?” Valkyrie had a smile spread on her muzzle, “simpler? I have a feeling you wouldn’t care as long as it’s at a reasonable time of day that I come to show you it…” Io rolled his eyes, and then let out a sigh. “True. This is true, but please next time unless it’s life or death, can it wait till morning?” Valkyrie’s solid eyes had an almost mischievous glint to them, that matched the smile she wore, “I’ll try but no promises that I will remember to wait though.” Io sighed knowing it was true, “Well, no matter. You did a wonderful job carving by the way it ended up amazing.”