Meadow was not the best cook, but her siblings enjoyed it and so she entertained them. They went and gotten the necessary items which they didn’t already have at home. Mostly just sweeter things like a nectar since that wasn’t something they kept on their farm. The kids had also picked up a few colorful items to decorate. They were going to make some cookies and some tartlets and possibly even a cookie haunted house if they had the time. She wasn’t sure how much they’d actually be able to get done considering their age, but it was a fun activity for the season.

Setting up the table, Meadow grabbed the mixing bowls and set them down on the table.

‘‘Grab the ingredients and placed them on the table.’’ She said as she went to grab some utensils.

‘’I want to get the eggs,’’ she heard her little sister.

‘’No, I want to do it!’’ Came the screeching reply from her twin brother.

Meadow made a face but let them work out the issue on their own, she didn’t feel like fighting with them today and they’d resolve it on their own anyway.

‘’Get the milk too,’’ she called while they were still arguing over the eggs to divert their attention away from the fight. It worked and soon they had sprawled all of the ingredients on the table and were fighting over who got to stir the bowl. Meadowlyn wasn’t sure how her mother did it, personally, she felt like she wouldn’t want kids after this. Or maybe just one, but four was too many children to keep track of. Or at least she might have one but no more after that.

Once all the ingredients had been mixed, Meadow set out to rolling out the dough so that they could cut out some shapes. Personally, she drew two pumpkins while the twins cut out what she could only guess where either animals or people of some kind. She didn’t really question but popped them onto a metal plate and then into their woodburning oven. While those cooked, they got the different icing ready. They crushed berries and different foods to get their colors, Meadow had to tell them not to eat it all.

She really hoped they wouldn’t hit some kind of sugar rush later on. Then again, they wouldn’t be her problem anymore at that point!

Once the cookies where baked, they took them out to cool. Meadow watched them blow on their cookies, she wasn’t really sure if that was going to help but didn’t stop them either. Grace came by briefly and they exchanged a few words before she left again on an errand for their mother. Probably more supplies for the harvest holiday coming up.

Once the cookies were finally cool enough to decorate, the twins go to work on their monstrosity. Meadowlyn watched them mix colors and laugh as they got icing everywhere. She got to work on her pumpkins, doing first a traditional orange one with dark purple icing for eyes, nose and mouth. Her other pumpkin was plain white, and the features she’d colored in grey, she

liked this one the best out of the two. She added stems with a brown color that the twins had managed to put together while mixing a bunch of colors together.

‘’We have to let them dry now,’’ Meadow said as she began to set them on the ledge of their kitchen window. The twins grumpily obliged her but not without their mother telling them to pipe down and do as they were told.

Since they were done, the rest of the day was spent walking through the empty fields freshly harvested. The ground was already hard and cracking from the warm days but cool nights which were only getting colder each day. Meadow wasn’t looking forward to those cold wintery nights. Hopefully in the spring she would finally be ready to move out and work on her own as a beast tamer. She’d worked a lot more with animals this year, she would miss home.

Around dinner time they headed back in, their mother had set all the cookies in the middle of the table proudly, but none could be eaten until they finished dinner first.

They’d used a lot of spices in the cookies and they were perfect with some warm milk. Meadowlyn only ate her own cookies but the rest of the family enjoyed the colorful whatever it was they had created.