Submission (#6907) Approved

Halloween. Fall’s last hurrah before the cold months settled in. Dandy loved autumn, loved the heat, and she was always a bit sad to bid farewell to summer’s last breath. It wasn’t that she disliked winter. Dandy didn’t dislike many things in general; it’s just that she liked the warmth.

“Are you gonna stare at every stick yah find, Dandy?”

Goddess’ voice broke her away from her thoughts. “No.” Dandy replied mutedly, slowly getting to her feet. “Just most of them. I like the way they look.” She couldn’t help but admire every last aspect of fall. Every stick, every stone, every fallen leaf; they’d all decay away, soon, and then they were no good to anyone. Well, they'd be no fun to look at, at the very least.

“You’re such an airhead. We’re gonna be out here all day if yah keep dwadlin’ around!” Goddess scolded. She was far too caught up in her gentle, energetic, reprimand to notice the tree directly in front of her. In fact, neither Dandy or Goddess seemed to be aware of it until the smaller flew directly into it.

“Oh, ouch. Are you okay, Goddess?” Dandy bit back a grimace as her friend yelped, her arms flailing wildly as she fell into a pile of leaves at the oak tree’s base. She shuffled over to her fallen comrade to offer a hand, pulling her lackadaisically to her feet. Dandy never moved with much vigor, even on something as exciting as a last fall forage for the season. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Goddess giggled. She moved to brush herself off with the carelessness of a person who did this on the regular. Which she did.

“We’re supposed to be looking for fun things to pick up from the ground, Goddess. Not putting ourselves down onto it.” Dandy sighed softly, brushing a stray leaf off the shoulder of her friend. “Now, let’s focus on collecting the prettiest leaves. I wonder if we can make a dried natural wreath to hang up for winter. Hm.” The fossil trailed off, seemingly lost in her own stream of thoughts.

“We make a silly wreath every year, Dandy!” Goddess chirped, hovering once again in the air. “Why don’t we make a leaf topiary, or a leaf statue? Somethin’ fun and different from our usual shenanigans? I bet we could display it at our little friend festival before winter officially starts.” Goddess brightened. Her wings fluttered excitedly

“Hm… I suppose you’re right.” Dandy spoke slowly, a smile hanging in her words. “I guess our usual fall tradition could use a bit of sprucing up. I wonder if the others would find the change refreshing.” She reached out to gently grasp at one of Goddess’ hands, lightly tugging her wandering friend back into movement with her.

“Now, come help me gather some more sculpture materials. This year’s display has to be the best yet.”