Trick or Treat with Gork and Tonk
Gork's big flat feet slapped the ground while tiny pebbles squished between his hairy toes. His friend Tonk, a green eyed troll with scruffy hair on his head that reminded him of a dead bush, walked along with him. The sun was beginning to set. Not one soul was to be seen any where in the near distance.
Houses lined the road on both sides. These were not the homes they were use to seeing. Their homes were made of boulders, sealing the dampness inside and keeping the dry heat out. One needed to be able to keep those mushrooms at the proper climate, his mom would always say to him.
Tonk promised him this would be fun. Gork still had not seen what was suppose to be so fun about walking through the Grink to the other side. A place where only the adults were allowed to travel. They also would go through the Grink in large groups of nine or ten, not two ninko's.
Ninko's were suppose to stay close to the home. They needed to practice their war skills before they were allowed to travel across the far lands. Gork and Tonk were only 20 years away from taking their rites of passage into the adult clans. For now they were left to their mothers for their final lessons on herbalism, butchering , and cooking.
"Their going to find out." Gork scratched at his butt cheek. "What are these forsaken bugs? They are so annoying." He smacked a tiny bug on his hairy arm. It flattened instantly.
Tonk snickered. "I don't know. But I think they like your green Orc blood."
Gork rubbed the smear of green blood and bug off his arm. "Why did we come here in the first place?"
"Because, this is the best day of the year to come to this land." Tonk grinned. The remains of a chunk of stangleweed clung between his front teeth. "It is the only day of the year we can walk here amongst the humans and they would not even know we are any different from them."
"So you have been here before?" Gork stopped to survey the landscape. Each home had at least one metal box in front of the home. He watched a human leave their home, approach the box, open this box some how and disappear inside it. Then the strange box would move away from the home with the human hidden inside. How strange, he thought.
"No. My brother, Angistgog, came here last year. He said he had a blast." Tonk noticed a bunch of human children in a group not far away from them. He pointed them out to Gork. The human children were busy showing off clothing items and some sort of masks.
Tonk continued, "Angistgog said, that on this day every year the human children dress up in costumes. They pretend to be some sort of monster and walk up to each home and say the words...trick or treat. Then the human adults toss sweet food items into a sack of some sort and the human children run to the next home and repeat it all over again. By the end of the night they have a big bounty sack of sweets."
Gork scratched the hair on his head and rubbed at the gold hoop earing in his big pointy ear. He ramed his finger inside his ear trying to reach the itch inside it. "So what make these humans not notice us on this day?"
Tonk grinned, "The costumes. When it gets dark, you will see what I mean. You did remember the sacks like I said right?"
Gork held up two sacks he had tied to his waist belt.
"Good. We will sit under that big bush over there and wait for the darkness to pool over the land. Then we will follow those humans on their journey to all these homes."
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It was not long before darkness over came the landscape. Candles on poles lit themselves when the sun finished setting below the tall trees. Gork thought, how strange this land is. More candles lit themselves on the outside of the homes. Bright green colored lights shown above the entrances to these homes. The green lights reminded Gork of fairies frozen in space and time.
They watched a group of humans approach the first home and then move on to the next. It was not long before they were followed by another group of humans.
"Come on...lets go." Tonk led the way.
He lumbered up to the first home while Gork followed him. Just before they approached the first home, Tonk held out his hand. "I need a sack first."
Gork handed him his sack.
"Follow me and do and say what I say."
Tonk approached the door of the home. The light over head flickered when they stepped onto the steps leading to the door. "Let me do the knocking."
Tonk closed his fist and pounded on the door.
The door opened. Tonk smiled showing the weed still stuck between his teeth. Stangleweed was one of the hardest plants to get out of ones teeth.
"Trick or Treat" Tonk bellowed at the human standing in the door way. A bowl of strangely packaged treats held before her.
"Oh my...what really nice costumes." She dropped two treats from the bowl into each of their sacks. "Have a happy Halloween and watch out for the cars."
"Thank you," Tonk said.
"Thank you," Gork repeated.
Tonk led Gork on to the next home and repeated the whole schrade all over again. The street was beginning to fill with human children dressed oddly in various costumes.
Things were going great for Tonk and Gork until they reached the farside of the neighborhood. A group of small humans were stopped halfway up the street by a group of much larger humans blocking their way. Loud shouting followed by a scene of pushing and shoving by the larger humans. Bags of treats were ripped out of the hands of the small humans.
Gork shook his head. Even Orcs did not treat their young this way. "What do you think Tonk? Do we smash them?"
Tonk wrapped the opening of his sack closed with a piece of twine and swing it over his shoulder. "Ah... that must be the fun Angistgog was really talking about. Mmm...I think we should."
Gork tied his sack to his waist belt. "Lets get 'im."
They approached the group. Gork and Tonk focused on the two biggest humans. Each of them picking the human up by the front of their costume and tossing them a good five feet into a bush and a small tree.
The younger humans cheered.
Gork handed a sack, dropped on the ground by the larger humans who had fled, to one of the small humans. Her eyes were wet with tears washing the makeup of cat wiskers off her cheek. Gork smiled.
"Where did you get that really cool costume?" the girl asked.
Gork thought for a moment and replied, "My mom made it for me."
Copyright © October 26, 2010
