Prompt 8: The Pumpkin Thief
Every now and then, a few pumpkins will disappear from a local pumpkin patch. It’s probably just some teenagers playing pranks, or some wild animals, or–oh, this is Destiny City. Of course there are rumors that it might actually be some furry, moss covered behemoth from the forest. And, there’s credence to that rumor, because maybe you’ve seen it, too. It’s a strange creature that keeps its distance. It almost looks like it might be a skinny, malformed bear but there’s something just off about it. Sometimes, it just steals pumpkins and you find their carcasses strewn about not far off. Sometimes, it throws the pumpkins–at people, at places. Sometimes, it carves out a hideous face and wears the pumpkin like a mask. It cannot be caught, and it will always run off into the wood if engaged. Sometimes, you can hear a strange, ghoulish bellow as it disappears into the forest.
Quetzálcoatl found herself on the outskirts of a small farm this night. The farm belonged to a friend of hers, they were growing pumpkins but recently they had been finding pumpkins missing. They hadn't caught the thief in the act but was obvious someone was robbing their farm, Pumpkins didn't just get up and leave on their own or at least Quetz didn't think they did. So the teenage senshi had volunteered to her friend to keep lookout and catch the thief in the act.
What she of course hadn't told her friend is that she would be using her powers as Sailor Quetzálcoatl, the Senshi of Cataclysms, to aid in her hunt for the thief. Since she had enhanced strength and speed as a senshi she figured it was a good idea to make use of her magical form. Plus if she caught the thief she could introduce them to a mirrorwraith, not only would that be a good chance to collect some energy but she was sure the ghostly being would more than scare the thief away from the farm in the future.
So the young senshi walked along the edge of the farm near the forest that bordered the area. That was when she spotted a line of pumpkin carcasses leading into the woods. She took off following the trail. She was shocked anybody would be this deep in the woods just to steal pumpkins but that was when she spotted a figure carrying the pumpkins and she was fairly certain it was no normal thief. The towering figure was covered in fur and moss, it wore a pumpkin on its head which had a carved monstrous face on it. She was shocked for a moment but then she took a breath. "Come on girl get a hold of yourself. Its a monster, you've seen plenty of monsters before." She said to herself as she looked up at the monster again. "I need to destroy whatever that thing is before it hurts anyone on the farm." She glared at the strange being.
"Howling Doom Storm!" She yelled as a cataclysmic storm began to form overhead. Wind and rain buffeted the area and lightning lashed at the creature but it dodged it letting out a strange, ghoulish bellow. The monster took off deeper into the woods outside the range of her magic. "Hey, wait! You can't just run off light that!" She cried after it. She ran after the creature but it was no use it disappeared into the darkness of the trees and it didn't have an aura that she could track. She hung her head defeated as she began to trudge her way back to the farm. There was no way she could explain this to her friend she would just have to hope that maybe her magic scared the creature away and it wouldn't come back. She'd definitely be keeping an eye out for it though. She wondered what it was exactly it hadn't felt like a youma and she knew it wasn't a mirror wraith so what exactly was it?
Word count: 516
