Firefly Glen trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!

It took all afternoon and the next morning to carry the entire batch of pumpkins from the edge of The Heartwood to the rendezvous site. She placed each of them at the foot of the boulder there, small ones tucked in front of the bigger ones. Surely several members of the glen observed her comings and goings. If they stopped and asked her about it, she only smiled like a Cheshire cat and gleefully ran to fetch more of the tasty gourds.

Finally, she was ready to call for them. Standing beside her carefully arranged displaly, Meerkat smiled broadly before tossing back her head to call for anyone and everyone in Firefly Glen—and even Moonspear, if they were in earshot—to come feast on pumpkins. They were in for such a treat!

While she waited for them to gather, Meerkat rolled a carefully chosen mid-sized pumpkin toward herself. It was soft and rotten in the back, unsuitable for eating. But she gently thrust her paw into its soft guts, leaving it there and waiting for the perfect opportunity to fling some pumpkin goo at someone. They were in for some tricks as well. ;)

have some music :o

The excitement had gripped Toad since Meerkat had given her the deets on Firefly Glen. Over the last several days she had been working hard to help secure the borders and re-familiarize herself with a territory she had known well. Yesterday, she had seen the sandy girl rolling a large squash with determination, but this sort of behaviour was something expected from her.

Toad arrived quickly when the call rang out, having not ventured far after filling a cache with a dead squirrel. Meerkat had painstakingly rolled not one, but what looked like all of the pumpkins in the Heartland to the rendezvous boulder and lined them all up. Wow, she said, laughing quietly in disbelief. That's a lot of squash.

The howl had been quite clear on a feast of gourd-flavour, but Toad had never tried to eat one of the fruits. She wandered cautiously up to the display, steps slow and low as though the pumpkins would abruptly roll into her. She looked at Meerkat for direction.

Osiris wasn't entirely sure what Meerkat was doing, but he was nevertheless intrigued. He would check-in every so often, crossing through the rendezvous site, to see how she progressed. He had never seen a pumpkin before, so naturally, he wondered what she had found; it didn't even cross his mind that the gourds were edible.

He was tending the borders when she howled, and he abandoned his post in a hurried clip. When he arrived, his eyes fell upon the neatly gathered gourds. He lingered in place, observing the arrangement before he turned to his packmates. "They're called squash?" Osiris asked, in an attempt to confirm what he had thought he had heard Toad say as he approached.

He had tried not to pay a lot of mind to whatever Bronco's sister was doing with moving the orange things, so left her to it undisturbed once he realized there was no harm. Antares had patrolled on elsewhere, done his own thing, and mostly forgot about it until she howled about a feast. Hm, well, not one to turn down something like that lately, he decided he had enough of an appetite to go see--though he was going to be a little sour if there was a hunt he'd missed out on somewhere.

But he soon saw, on lurking into the scene with Osiris and Toad ahead of him, that it was about the strange roundish fruits. Antares moved to his brother's side, ears up, and with a tilt to his whole head, as he wondered what had possessed Meerkat to put all these gourds here today. Maybe it was some Firebirds things. He had never eaten them before himself. Apples, certain berries--yeah, but those orange orbs? He'd passed them right by, not even knowing what was inside.

She held onto her fistful of pumpkin guts even as members of the pack began to appear. Meerkat smiled innocently at Toad, her mouth opening to answer her question when Osiris arrived and echoed it. Oh man, they'd walked right into this one.

"Yeah, 'cause they're so squashy!" she hollered as she launched the goop at the two brown wolves, right around the time a third guest appeared. Her heart skipped a beat, thinking it was Atlas, though she quickly realized it was actually his brother, Antares.

"Desdemona said they're called pumpkins, actually," Meerkat shared with the class, "but whatever they're called, they're dang delicious! Dig in! Eat up! Pig out!" There was plenty, even if many more of their comrades joined the party.

Toad nodded at Osiris, giggling as Meerkat explained the reasoning behind the name. Antares appeared as they chattered, and Toad glanced briefly at him. Like his brother, Toad didn't know the Ostrega son particularly well. She was thankful at least that Meerkat had managed to get the four of them together. It was starting to feel like a real pack instead of a pile of roaming Moonspears.

Pumpkins? She stared at the row of fruit before her, unsure how one was supposed to choose a pumpkin. She decided, cautiously, on a middle-sized one, pawing it toward her. She rolled it several feet away and sat in front of it, still puzzled. She looked at Meerkat, then at the orange beast of a fruit. The object felt odd on her teeth as she tried to mouth it and failed to make much more than a dent. But...how?

Super-duper sorry about this wait. Making this thread a priority!

"Hey!" Osiris exclaimed as Meerkat launched the goop in their direction. Some of the pumpkin guts landed on his face, and he quickly cleaned himself up with a swipe of his forearm. Once he was clean, he noticed that Antares had arrived, and he greeted his brother with a quick glance.

When Meerkat explained what strange-plants she had gathered were and encouraged them to eat, Osiris sought the nearest pumpkin. It was large—enough food to satiate his appetite for days—and he was quick to attempt to bite into the fruit. The exterior reminded him of a turtle shell; it's exterior was tough, and felt stranger as he attempted to dig his teeth into it.

Puasing his efforts, Osiris lifted his head and glanced at Toad once she spoke. "It seems like we have to smash it like we would a turtle," he observed. Turning to Meerkat for confirmation, he asked, "Is that how you broke your pumpkin?"

Antares kept out of the splatter-radius with a low snicker as he watched that pan out, and flared his nose at the rich gourd innards. While still listening to Meerkat, he soon moved among them to find his own choice pumpkin. There were two he liked initially but he settled on the one with less bumps, then nudged it around to test its weight and feel for himself.

A strange thing.. orange, roundish, mostly, which satisfied something undefined for being uncommon, possibly seasonal. He gave the stem a little test chew, feeling the almost wood-like material give beneath his molars. The rest of the pumpkin skin was nondescript, and firm yet on further poking around. He couldn't get a good bite on it, either, considering its size. A few nibbles scraped at the skin, but it took a lot of work. The others were talking about getting them open still and.. he skirted a quick glance to Meerkat again. Leaning back on his hind legs, he gave a few scrapes with his paw--increasing pressure, pinning it to the earth. More lines were grooved into the outer skin of the gourd and when he zeroed in on one spot, he could claw away a solid scar of lighter underneath.

Testing it again with his teeth, he snipped a few pieces of it and shook his head, then really dug in with both paws. The pumpkin gave way not long after, him smashing it inward to squish his toes right into its guts. Not quite as graceful as he'd hoped, but, supposed it did work in the end; he could get to the goods now. He withdrew and delicately sampled the flesh.

Not bad.

The fistful of pulp sailed right past Toad and splattered directly onto Osiris's face. Meerkat's eyes flew wide, her brows nearly jumping off her face, at her own incredible aim. She wasn't sure if she should feel awesome or terrible for messing with the Alpha like that. She waited a beat to gauge his reaction, then let herself cackle a bit when he casually wiped the goop from his face.

She watched merrily as each of the three approached a pumpkin and began fiddle with it. Toad seemed rather perplexed about what to do with it; Osiris proposed smashing his; and Antares just quietly beat his chosen gourd to death. Meerkat laughed again, pleased to see them engaging with the weird objects after all her effort.

Her brown eyes flitted around in the hopes of seeing some more pack mates coming to join the fun. She didn't see anyone yet, though that didn't dampen her inner sparkle one whit. Wiping her messy paw on the grass, she sashayed over to Toad and said, "Osiris and Antares have the right idea! Just pretend its your sworn enemy and punch it right in the face!"

Toad looked at the party organizer and Osiris, glancing between them before noting the way that Antares just... decimated his squash. She felt a bit like the odd one out, seemingly incapable of figuring out how to open a pumpkin even though everyone else could figure it out by themselves. It was moments like this that made her feel pretty foolish, but Meerkat showing her the way of things was hardly a new thing for her.

Oooh, she said, and quickly began scraping and attacking her pumpkin in a single spot. Finally, she was able to lift it and push it back down, hard, breaking through the surface with her paws. They were soaked in the guts and seeds within, and she grinned wide. Hah! she said, triumphantly. She mimicked what Antares had done, chewing off a piece of the squash and sampling the flesh. It tasted carby and almost sweet. Regardless of the nutritional value, it was quite fun to chew on, and so Toad went to town. I feel like turtle would go with this, she said, giggling, looking up from her mess at Osiris.

"Ahhhh," Osiris replied, acknowledging both Antares's actions and Meerkat's information. Now knowing what to do, he began to scratch away the rind. When the spot he'd be working at softened, he began to punch it with his paw. He broke through the surface with a few hits, and he became repulsed the moment his foot landed in the goop. 

Hopefully, it'd taste better than it felt. 

He tried some of the guts that had hung onto his paw and quickly realized it was unlike anything else he had had before. It wasn't necessarily bad, but it wasn't good, either. It was just okay, in his opinion. The others seemed to enjoy it, so he kept his thoughts to himself; he wasn't going to be a party pooper. 

Smiling, Osiris turned to Toad. "It would," he agreed. "It might even taste good with boar, too," he added, thinking of the foods that he would prefer to be eating.

They all made their progress in their own way as he decided the taste wasn't so bad once he got used to it. He didn't care much for the seeds he found inside, but they were easy to avoid in the little clusters his pumpkin grew them in. Antares was glad he had put a little space between himself, and there was an instinctive unease electrifying under the surface when they all started to notice his success, turning eyes on him--probably thanks to the subject at hand, and scent that was much more extreme now with the gourd open. It was only natural, on all fronts.

Once they all got busy on their own he got to better work on his, crumbling the walls further to expose more innards. They stuck messily to his chin in awkward strands, and still, he ate his choice bits wondering how Meerkat found these things. As all went on, he settled into a peaceful enough groove in the company, now that it was getting a bit more familiar to him.

His ears tipped up to the conversation around. He wouldn't have thought of turtle, though didn't disagree. Boar suddenly sounded good.. he hadn't had that in a while. Antares gave it a hint of thought before something came to mind. Maybe even with bird meats too. Like pheasant? he said, finally voicing anything at all when he didn't actively have a mouthful of pumpkin. Others surely wouldn't be bad--or he was just letting his appetite run the imagination a bit before he went to lick up another smear of orange.

Let's wrap! :)

It delighted her immensely when the adults began discussing pairing main courses with this newly discovered side dish. It made her mouth water, even though she was still full of pumpkin herself. Meerkat had never eaten a turtle—and gave Toad a slightly surprised and intrigued glance when she mentioned it—but she agreed with both Osiris and Antares. Those meats would complement the peculiar but delicious gourds.

"Maybe," she spoke in turn, "we could throw a feast sometime! Like a real spread, with not just turtle, boar and pheasant but every kind of game you can imagine." Her eyes sparkled as she spoke. "And then pumpkins for a side," Meerkat finished, "or maybe a dessert." They were a bit sweet, after all.

Even with her three pack mates readily indulging, there were still many pumpkins left. Meerkat imagined the pack would make short work of them over the coming days. Even those who didn't find them edible could get a chew toy or plaything out of the deal. Her warm brown eyes swept over the remaining pumpkins, then her pack mates, and she felt cheerful about a job well done.

All of them set to work on their individual pumpkins. At one point, Antares — who seemed a most serious type of boy — wore a bear of orange guts all over his chin, seeds attached. It almost made Toad choke on her strange orange prize as she snorted. All the talk about meat made Toad gobble up a surprisingly large portion of her squash, swallowing huge chunks that would definitely cause a minor problem for her in about five hours.

The hunter's eyes were alight with possibility when Meerkat mentioned throwing a feast with every kind of game they could think of. Such a thing would be extremely challenging to organize, like the ultimate scavenger hunt. Toad nodded profusely, finding that her own face and chin were coated with pumpkin guts. She was a squashy, orange mess. Let's do it!! she exclaimed, flinging the guts at Meerkat just for good measure by tossing her head toward her. She missed, and only a tiny bit hit the ground in front of her.

There was something quite satisfying about being with all of them while they chowed down on weird fruits. At the end of it all, Toad felt warm and pleasant. Meerkat was awesome.

Now Osiris was salivating; all of the pairing suggestions sounded delicious to him. He nodded, agreeing with the group's majority. 

When Meerkat proposed that they turn their collective ideas into a feast, his eyes brightened. "That's a great idea," he complimented, already thinking of dishes that they could add to the spread. He turned to Toad then, thinking of her skills in particular. "Do you think you could lead a hunt to get our main course?" he asked. Presuming that she agreed, he smiled gratefully, knowing that she'd be able to deliver. 

With their plans in motion, they continued to plot the event. It would be a great way to gather the pack, and he was already excited about it. They would need more time to plan, and Osiris was aware of this, but still, he couldn't help but be inspired.

Meerkat conjured images of quite an event, quirking the edges of his lips as he carefully continued his work on the gourd. From there, it began to take shape into a plan for hunts to come and really start to feel like a possibility. He was satisfied with the prospect at least, and would have to scout out for the best spots to hunt said beasts to help bring it together. Evidently Meerkat knew where to get pumpkins, so they already had that covered in full. Now for the rest..

Largely he was quiet, but he was content in the pieces he did offer. Together, they shared a nice little meal in good company and he was glad he had come to check this out.