All I Want For Halloween

Cado ran into the room with a book above his head waving it wildly and screaming, "Saree! Saree!" Then he stumbled over Mirna who was sleeping on the floor of Sarah's office before crashing into a heap on the floor.

"Oh no!" Sarah quickly stood, untangling the two goblins and taking the book out of his hands, "You've been reading through my library again haven't you, Cado." She turned the book over in her hand and laughed at the title.

"What's Hall-ween, Saree?" Mirna said with a slight yawn, rubbing her eyes.

Wondering if it was a good idea to tell them, she looked over the two and suddenly felt miserable for hiding it from their curious little faces. With a sigh she explained about Samhaim, Halloween, the pumpkins, the costumes and above all the candy, which she should have avoided. Vira, who came into the office halfway through the story ran to the calendar to check the date and yelped.

"It's today! Saree! It's today! Can we go get candy? Please Saree?" Vira was jumping up and down excitedly.

Sarah jumped, not noticing Vira until she came in, with a sigh she shook her head, "I'll have to get costumes for you three if you really want to go. You already fit in, but I want you to wear a costume so you can say you did." Then she laughed at herself thinking how much fun it would be having three costumed goblins running around the Goblin King's castle. Vira disappeared with a pop as Sarah gathered her purse and the coats for the little goblins that were almost always with her nowadays. Unable to find Vira she picked up the goblins coat before heading out into the chilly fall air.

"Did you two see where Vira went?" She asked the two goblins that followed close behind her, looking odd in their furry coats and what everyone perceived to be costumes. They looked at each other than shrugged, following Sarah down the block until she came to the intersection. With a laugh she picked up the duo, putting one on each hip so they wouldn't freak out at the cars as they waited for the light to change. She learned that lesson a while back with cars and didn't care to repeat it again. Without putting the two down Sarah stepped up to a cart in the parking lot, putting the two goblins and Vira's jacket in the basket and waiting a few minutes outside.

"Vira, where are you?" she called quietly then yelped as Vira and three other goblins appeared in the basket, crowding the ones that were already there.

"Okay you guys, settle down," she looked over the new arrivals, "oh no..." Sarah sighed, "Is this all of them Vira or will more come?"

"Ies only told these about Hall-ween, tried to keep it secret, yes, me did, yes." Vira nodded, unable to move much in the basket.

Sarah rubbed the side of her face then rolled her eyes, "Okay, I said we would do this, but no more, I can't have the lot of you coming with me. The King would be furious if everyone suddenly left him."

"We hide from Kingy, is fun," Mirna giggled.

Once inside the store Sarah moved the cart slowly since the excited goblins had to look at everything and reach out to touch everything.

"Okay, you guys, we're here for some food too, not just costumes and no ice cream this time. Hoggle told me Jareth was in an uproar when I sent you all back with it last time. Bless him for covering for me."

The goblins began jumping up and down at the aspect of ice cream and then pouted when they realized they would have none. They tried to grab everything as they passed it, but each time Sarah would calmly take it from them.

"Stop that right now, you can look once we get to the Halloween stuff. I've got a few ideas for the lot of you." After picking up dinner for herself and her small herd, the girl headed towards where the costumes were. The first thing that caught her eye was an awful goblin costume. The whole group of them laughed at that. As they were looking several people asked where the children got their costumes. With a chuckle, Sarah explained that they were made in a studio of a friend of hers. Several of those same people's children recognized her and asked for her to autograph a book or two that they were buying, showing their parents the back of it with Sarah's picture on it. The goblins tried their best to sign the books as well, but ended up with handprints more than signatures.

Finding several suits that were perfect, including a huge metal band she could use for Ludo, as well as something for Sir Didymus and Hoggle, the girl ended up holding up two outfits for herself, unable to choose. One was a long blue flared dress that was covered in glitter with fairy wings and a crown, the other was a sleek looking green gown that would end up making her look like a wood nymph.

"I can't decide," she stood there with her hands on her hips.

"I like the wingies, they remind me of yummy pixies," Farne, the smallest goblin laughed.

"Me too! Me too!" several of the others added.

"If only the Goblin King could see me now, wearing this," Sarah laughed, but the goblins all stiffened or ducked as if they were expecting him to appear out of the nowhere.

Once back at her house the goblins all piled in jumping on the couches and ran into the kitchen climbing on the counters. She ended up making sandwiches for dinner since it was already starting to get dark. She giggled to herself, remembering their first adventure with peanut butter and jelly and since then has always made lunch meat type sandwiches for them.

"Saree!" Vira's brother Tira yelled out, "Hoggy, Ludo and Diddid is here!"

The young girl turned and squealed as she say Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus and Ambrosia coming into the living room from the large mirror she now kept in her hallway for them.

"Are you guys ready for some fun?"

The goblins all answered at once, causing Sarah to laugh.

"Sarah, are you sure you want to do this?" Hoggle asked her. When Sarah had explained how they celebrated Samhain in the Aboveground he was scared for her safety.

"I am. I think they deserve some fun and this group has been good almost all day. Before we get dressed there are some rules for tonight. First of all, no scaring children, but the older kids and adults are okay. Secondly, no stealing candy from other trick-or-treaters. Third, you must stay with either me or Hoggle at all times. Last, but not least, you misbehave you get sent home." Sarah pointed to each of them as she spoke.

Hoggle seemed to relax some as she turned to him and nodded. The mayhem of the goblins dressing made Sarah laugh as she gently pulled Ludo down by the horns as she put on the big metal sash across his chest.

"You make the perfect Chewbacca, Ludo, you look wonderful," Sarah kissed his nose before turning to helping Cado into his jawa costume. The two girls wanted to be TinkerBell and Snow White so Sarah had each of them sit in front of them as she styled their hair. As she brushed out their hair, Sir Didymus came back into the room as a Musketeer and Ambrosia was in full armor.

"Very dashing, my knight," she told him, tying the red bow on the top of Mirna's head.

Farne, a male goblin ended up dressed as another jedi while his brother Hikne ended up as Mirna's Prince Charming. When Hikne came out he bowed low to Mirna, taking her hand and kissing it, then offering her an apple. Just after, Sara laughed as she watched Farne and Tira, who was also in his Jedi costume took out their light sabers and started to fight with them.

"What in the world am I supposed to be?" Hoggle's only additions were a hard hat, a lantern and a pickax.

"We have a Snow White so I figured she needed to have at least one of her dwarves."

Hoggle muttered something, rolling his eyes, "Only for you, Sarah. Let's get this bunch out of here before they tear your house apart."

Once the goblins were dressed, Sarah went into her bedroom to change into her costume. She pulled her hair back when Mirna and Vira came in to help her by lacing ribbons throughout her hand and tossing glitter in the air to land all over her bare skin and all over her hair. Carefully the girl pulled on the blue gown that had so many colors mixed into it that it almost looked like the night sky. Once her hair was done the two globins moved back to let Sarah put on her huge blue fairy wings that took up all of her back and went down nearly to her knee and far above her head. Tapping her chin, Vira climbed up on the dressing table and placed a crown on the top of Sarah's head then nodded.

"Now you look like a queenie, Saree."

Sarah was staring at herself in the mirror as Vira said that, hoping that one day she'd be worthy of that title. She missed the Goblin King fiercely, but knew there was no way for them to be together. She already thought of the goblins as her children and cared for them almost as much as her brother.

Instead of driving the troop, Sarah decided they would walk to the Halloween fair that the school was putting on only a block away. The goblins nearly took off, but one cough from her and they stayed close, but still were dancing up a storm. As the group moved from place to place the adults only stared at the goblins and jumped back when Ludo yowled at them. Smiling, Sarah remembered the Star Wars movie night she had with the lot of them a few months ago. For the most part the fair went smoothly except when the goblins started trying eating the fish they won in one of the booths and catching her wings on almost everything. Once they got to the Farris wheel though the group started climbing the outside of it, dropping the now empty fish bags on unsuspecting people like water balloons. Covering her mouth with her hands, Sarah had to calm her laughter enough to call them back down.

As they moved through the kid filled neighborhood the goblins kept darting into yards picking up stray acorns and rocks. Once they had gotten to the first house Sarah reminded them to say trick-or-treat, but stayed at the street with Hoggle. A small group of kids surrounded Sir Didymus and tried to play with him as he was freaking out from all the costumes the kids were wearing. Sarah moved up to him, putting him on her shoulder a moment before she heard a scream at the front door the goblins were at. Ludo stayed as still as he could while people stared at him in wonder. Rushing up to the door, Sarah saw the woman at the door holding a candy bowl shaking in terror as the goblins all held out their bags yelling trick-or-treat over and over again.

"What are they?" the woman asked her.

"These are my children," she laughed, pulling her hand on Cado's back, "Do you like their costumes?"

The woman looked at Sarah then back to the goblins, nodding slowly, "They look so…. Real."

"Don't they?" she answered, grinning as the woman gained back her senses, giving each a handful of candy.

After each goblin, Sir Didymus and Ludo got their candy the group moved on to the next house. The responses from the next few houses were much the same. Hoggle stayed back unless he found out they were giving out candy jewelry or something shiny, then he pushed his way past the kids to get to the door. At one brightly lit house a kid recognized Ludo from Sarah's books and yelled his name. After that kids gathered around Sarah and her troop, realizing they were the characters from their favorite books dressed as other characters.

"Excuse me," one of the mothers tugged gently on her wings, "Are you Sarah Williams?"

"I am," Sarah couldn't help but smile at the kids happy faces.

A tiny little girl tugged on her skirt, "Are you dressed as the Goblin Queen? I love your wings!"

Sarah carefully pulled up her skirt so she could kneel in front of the girl, "It was the goblin's idea, do you like it?"

"Does the Goblin King know that you're dressed as his queen? You know he still loves you, right?"

"I don't think he does, but with him I don't really know. I could never tell what Jareth is going to do next."

Behind her Hoggle gasped and several of the goblins vanished at the mention of their king's name.

"Time for us to go, Sarah."

Hoggle pulled on her hand, knocking her off balance. As she stood up she ran into a pair of leather bound legs and high black leather boots. Suddenly panicking she looked up into brown eyes and relaxed. One of the parents had dressed up like the images she had drawn of Jareth in her books.

"Sarah dear," he bowed, while his daughter giggled at the pair.

Sarah curtsied to the fake king then smiled at Hoggle.

"We really do need to be going; I can't have my children out too late."

After many farewells and a kiss on the hand from the fake king and some hugs from the children the group headed to the park across from where they were. Once they were completely out of the site from the street and trick-or-treaters Sarah moved them to an open area.

"It's okay you guys, you can come back," she called, looking around to make sure they were all back, "It wasn't him, someone had dressed up like him."

The smallest one had appeared under one of Sarah's skirts, but came out as Sarah stepped back. She watched as the group looked around to make sure it was safe then tear out of their costumes, running around the park throwing acorns at each other and playing with the light sabers before realizing there was a playground. While sitting on the bench, Didymus hopped down from his perch on her shoulder to sit down next to her.

"I should have warned you about that guy that was going to jump out at us, Didymus, I'm sorry. You didn't have to jump on him though."

"I hath sworn my life to protect thee, great lady and I shall for all time."

"Then my thanks, sir knight," Sarah turned to her other side, "Hoggle, I'd avoid the king for a few days after this."

The dwarf laughed, "I had already planned on it. Your world has some strange customs, but I'm glad you invited me along on this one, thank you."

"You are very welcome. I do need to head back home; I have a book signing to get to in the morning."

Hoggle smiled, nodding his head, "You go on ahead, I'll make sure we all get back, no worries," he handed her a camera, "Be sure to show us some of those next time."

"I will," Sarah held the camera to her chest as she watched the goblins disappear one by one, taking everyone else with them. With a quiet sigh she lifted her skirt and made her way towards her house to write her next great novel.