"Janara, what's a vampire?"
The tall brunette consulted the scroll before her and sighed. "I'm not sure, but it has sharp teeth and drinks the blood of its victims."
The blonde nodded sagely. "Like a bacchae?"
"Yeah. Like a bacchae."
"Then why don't we just wear bacchae costumes?"
Janara rolled her eyes and then spoke slowly as if speaking to a small child. "Keirony, the scroll says 'vampire'."
"And we're supposed to get one of those where?"
Janara shrugged, standing to her full six feet height. "We'll figure it out."
"But I thought we wanted this party to be perfect for Queen Gabrielle? How can we do that without a vampire?"
"Keirony, do you always have to ask so many questions?"
The blonde opened her mouth, but shut it at the look her partner shot her.
The dark-haired Amazon slowly turned from the shorter blonde, shuffling through a large wooden crate. "Now, Cyane's scroll mentions a piñata."
"What's a piñata?"
"Something you stuff full of chocolate and then hit with bats until all the chocolate falls out."
Keirony raised an eyebrow at her partner. "Chocolate?"
"Yeah. It was one of Cyane's favorite treats."
"Oh." Keirony watched as Janara studied the scroll again. "What else?"
"We need to go to the graveyard."
"I'm afraid to ask, but I'm going to. Why?"
"To get a skeleton."
Keirony shook her head and laughed. "Janara, love, Amazons cremate their dead. We don't have skeletons."
"Oh yeah." The brunette shrugged. "Maybe we can borrow them from that village north of here."
"Borrow one? Janara, you scare me sometimes."
Janara smiled sweetly, surprising the blonde by ducking her head and kissing her sweetly on the lips. "But you love me anyway."
"Gods only know why." Keirony grinned. "Are we done yet?"
"No. We need a haunted house."
"A haunted house?"
"Yeah, as in a ghost lives there. I seem to recall there being one in Amphipolis..." Janara shrugged. "Oh, and a pumpkin."
"Now that, I can find!" Keirony produced a large orange pumpkin and tossed it to Janara. "There you go!"
"Great!" Janara placed the pumpkin on the floor, and then wandered into a closet, moving aside cobwebs to get inside. "We need to clean more often."
"Um, that would be your job, remember?" Keirony waggled her eyebrows and laughed at the brunette's expression. "At the last full moon...when you bet me that I couldn't hold out-"
Janara stopped her with another kiss. "Okay! I remember!" She shook her head, still wondering how the smaller woman had outlasted her. "We need apples for the kids." She abruptly changed the subject.
"Why?"
Janara shrugged. "It's on the scroll."
"Oh." Keirony watched as Janara opened a metal box. "What's in that?"
"Ice."
"Ice? For what?"
Again, Janara sighed. "We have to dry it. The scroll says we have to have dry ice." She tossed a rag to her partner. "You do that while I get the broomstick."
"And what is the broomstick for?"
"For one of my tricks."
"And that would be?"
Janara smiled, straddling the broomstick. "You'll see."
Keirony shook her head and grabbed the scroll from the taller woman. "Let me see that! I can't believe you have to straddle a..." she stopped, examining the scroll closer. "Janara, love, this is not the Christmas Scroll."
"What? It's not?"
"No." Keirony began to read the very top of the scroll. "It says, Hall-o-ween. It's a Halloween scroll."
"Halloween? Then where's the Christmas Scroll?"
Keirony shrugged, tossing the Halloween scroll aside and digging through a box. "Ah, here it is. See?"
"Ah, yes. I thought it was weird that we needed to dry ice for Christmas." She handed Keirony the scroll. "Here's what we need."
"Lilies, tulips, ham and a bunny." Keirony smiled. "Now that's more like it!"
The End