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Meanwhile at the lair of Dr. Callyco

"Ahhhhhhhh ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaaa!" Laughter echoed throughout the castle. And then fell silent. After a few seconds near identical laughter sounded and then fell silent once more. More time passed as a third laugh echoed off the castle walls.

"What are you doing?" The gray wolf pup dressed in only a lab coat and a pair of goggles tilted his head as he stared at kitten companion.

"Trying to be dramatic." Dr. Callyco complained. The orange kitten was dressed in a similar coat and goggle combo.

"O... Kay?" Dr. Cutie Pup didn't seem like he completely understood.

"It's just! Well-" Dr. Callyco through his paws up in the air. "I'm trying to do this big dramatic entrance since this is our first appearance in a year... And Mother Nature just refuses to cooperate with me!"

"I'm almost hesitant to ask what that even means. But I suspect you'll tell me anyway." Dr. Cutie Pup stuck his tongue out.

"It's about lightning! And dramatic timing!" Dr. Callyco flailed his arms. "There's always supposed to be a big flash of lighting and a huge thunder clap when the mad scientist starts laughing! It's tradition! But it's just not happening."

"Well..." Dr. Cutie Pup slowly moved to the edge of the room and opened a window. There was a completely clear moonlit sky outside. "I don't think you're getting that lightning bolt anytime soon. So... What now? We go home or-"

"We cannot go home!" Dr. Callyco glared at the wolf pup. "We have a job to do! One year has passed since we last haunted this place!"

"We're not really haunting it..." Dr. Cutie Pup interrupted. "I mean, that would imply we were ghosts. Lurking in, prowling about, maybe even terrorizing-"

"Why? Why this?"

"You wanted a playful puppy companion." Dr. Cutie Pup stuck his tongue out again.

"Right... Anyway... Where was I! Ah right! I... Dr. Callyco feline mad scientist and my partner Dr. Cutie Pup have returned with thirteen new tales of terror and mayhem! And this year we have a new twist! Each of these tales will have a karmic twist."

"Ah... A classic scenario! Those who commit crimes always getting their just desserts! A classic staple of-"

"Oh no we're not going that direction at all." Dr. Callyco smiled.

"Come again?"

"I mean I guess some of our tales will be the classic crime and punishment." Dr. Callyco shrugged. "But karma runs two ways you know! It's not just about seeing the wicked punished! It's also about seeing the good rewarded! And we'll be having tales that go in both directions! Probably. Maybe. It depends on if our guests this year have been good or bad boys and girls"

"You're just planning to make this up as you go huh?" Dr. Cutie Pup said.

"I can neither confirm nor deny this!" Dr. Callyco avoided the wolf's gaze. "But it's time to get things started! Dr. Cutie Pup, introduce our first guest!"

"Very well... Our first guest is one thirteen and a half year old Kyle Zachary Roocoon or "Kit." It would seem young Kit is an apprentice in magic who's not shy to causing a bit of mischief himself."

"Is it really okay for us to call him "young Kit" when he's twice our age?" Dr. Callyco asked.

"It's all about perspective really..." Dr. Cutie Pup rubbed the back of his head.

"Uh huh right..." The kitten fixed the wolf with a stare. "Getting back on track... Kit is about to be in for quite the adventure tonight as he heads out on his yearly track in search of candy. He'll get what he's looking for... But it may be more than he can bear. We present to you, our first tale. The Tale of the Blind Badger."

Thirteen Karmic Tales

First Tale

The Tale of the Blind Badger

Samhain. The night was an important one to anyone who practiced the art of magic. For children though... It was extra important. Monsters might roam the world freely on this night... But if they did they'd soon find themselves overrun by droves of children out on a quest to feed their own insatiable hunger. And the difference between monsters and children... Well the appetite of monsters had limits.

And so the young roocoon's quest began. Tonight Kit was dressed in the flowing blue and silver robes of his school uniform over his trousers and shirt and no shoes. Normally he wouldn't be able to dress in his uniform outside school. Had to keep certain things a secret after all. However tonight those he ran into of the more mundane persuasion would be unable to tell the difference from him and a normal kid in a costume.

Kit quickly checked his map. Some might have considered it a bit strange to need a map for Samhain. Those were people who were ok with getting an inferior candy haul. It had been drawn up by him, his classmates and even his little brother over the years outlining which houses in the neighborhoods gave out the best treats. By following the right route he could guarantee a night of King Sized candy bars and bags of chocolate peanut butter bliss.

There was no time to waste. Kit started in his own neighborhood. Most of the houses here only gave out fun sized candy bars... But if you showed up early they tended to give out two or three bars. It took very little time to get between the houses making them a wise investment on his trip. The real prizes were yet to come. The best candy came from a neighborhood that was about two communities down. A less intelligent child might have made a beeline straight there. But Kit was smart enough to think about travel times.

He was allowed to stay out until 10:00 PM. Trick or treating started at 7:00 PM. That gave roughly three hours of Trick or Treating time. The houses that gave out the King Sized bars were about 45 minutes away on foot. That made it an hour and a half of travel time going both ways. That would leave him just an hour and a half total of trick or treating time. He'd get a few King Sized bars, but he'd never fill his bag in so little time. Instead, he would work his way through additional neighborhoods on his way there and back. He'd travel in a circle, hitting the rich neighborhood at the halfway point before circling back to his own. This increased the travel time sure... But it meant during that time he was getting candy nonstop.

And so his schedule went like this.

7:00: Start Trick or Treating in his home neighborhood.

7:30: Proceed through nearby neighborhoods. Instead of doing complete laps through these he would travel in a straight line, occasionally cutting through grassy fields to reach the next subdivision. It meant skipping a few houses, but got him more places overall as he traveled to his destination.

8:30: Arrive in the rich neighborhood. Be very thorough hitting every house here.

9:00: Begin heading home. Again he would travel in a near straight line cutting through yards and fields to take shortcuts between each neighborhood. He specifically took a different route back to hit more shortcuts.

10:00: Arrive home just in time to avoid being late for curfew and have enough candy to last a year. It would probably in truth only last a week... But it was in theory enough for a year.

The night started out as planned. Kit went door to door as people remarked on how authentic his wizard costume looked. (If only they knew) Everything was proceeding to plan and to schedule... Right up until about 8:00 PM when he found one of his usual paths blocked.

Kit had explored these places for as long as he could remember. He knew there was a grassy field at this specific spot that had been abandoned for years. Usually he had no issue cutting through to get to his next spot. However the field was noticeably less abandoned than the last time he had been here. There was now a large wooden house sitting in the middle of it with a six foot tall fence running around the entire field. The house must have been new. It wasn't year during last year's Samhain. It must have been a rush job building it though... Because the place already looked like it was falling apart.

Kit considered jumping the fence and just proceeding as normal. Still... Something about the place felt off. Maybe his sixth sense was trying to tell him something... Or maybe he was just bothered his perfect plan had been upset. Yet he found himself strangely hesitant to just jump the fence and keep going.

He decided to approach the house instead. Maybe he could get permission from the owner to cut through their yard and that'd make him feel a bit better. Besides, he was trick or treating. This was a new place, and that meant new treats. Perhaps this place would become a new stop on the map each year.

His paws crunched down on Autumn leaves as he approached the front door. It seemed whoever lived here didn't make much of a work to take care of the yard. Gnarled roots stuck out from the ground, weeds were overgrown and fallen leaves completely covered the driveway and sidewalk. On the other hand... It did help give the place a spooky feel. Perhaps whoever lived here was just very dedicated to this holiday.

As Kit reached the front door he rang the doorbell. At first no one appeared. He was prepared to leave empty handed a cobweb infested porch light turned on. On the other side of the door stood a woman who looked absolutely ancient. She was a badger and dressed in a plain gray dress. She moved rather curiously with slow and deliberate efforts and it took Kit a moment to realize why. He then noticed that her eyes were milky white. She was blind.

"Who is it?" The badger asked. "And please speak up, my hearing seems to be the next thing going."

"Um... I'm Kyle!" Kit said. "And I'm just here to Trick or Treat?"

"Oh is it that time already?" The badger let out a laugh. "Oh my, I should have worn a costume. I must look a mess. Well... Let me get you some candy." She began to fumble around in her house's foyer. She was grasped for an end table where a bowl of small wrapped candies lay. It took her a few seconds but eventually she managed to grab a single candy about the size of a mint and held it out. "Here you go."

"Thank you." Kit did his best to hide his disappointment at how small his treat was. He knew he shouldn't feel entitled... But it was hard not to get your hopes up. And she did seem like a nice old lady too so it wasn't fair to judge her harshly.

"Is it not enough?" The old badger seemed to sense Kit's disappointment despite his best efforts.

"No it's fine!" Kit insisted. "Thank you I'm very grateful."

"Hmph." The badger smirked. "You can't fool me for a second... But I appreciate your manners. But... I'll tell you what. I don't get many trick or treaters... And I could really use some help around the house tonight. It's just so hard to get these old bones going sometime. Help me out for a bit and I'll let you take the whole bowl."

"Um well..." Kit didn't actually want to say yes. The bowl wasn't very big... And given these candies looked like mints probably weren't that great. He was aware time was passing... If he didn't get a move on those King Sized candy bars were going to soon be beyond his reach. There simply wasn't time to stop what he was doing and help her out. Still... What kind of person would he be if he just left someone asking for help like that? Even if he didn't want to do it, it was still the right thing to do. "Sure I'll help he said."

"Wonderful!" The badger smiled as she opened the door wider to let Kit in. "I assure you it won't be hard. I just need trouble with a few things... Just a bit of cleaning up, some dusting, oh and feeding the kids."

"Kids?" Kit asked. He had guessed she lived alone.

"Oh that's just what I call them." The badger gestured across the foyer to the living room. There was a large terrarium propped up by the wall there. It was full of very lively looking mice. "Found them in my back yard... Really not too happy about them being there... But I couldn't just leave the dearies like that so brought them in so I can make sure they're well fed and taken care of."

"O... Kay." Kit had heard of people keeping pet mice. Though he had never known anyone who caught their own pets in the yard. "So... What needs doing?"

With that Kit was put to work. It thankfully wasn't exceptionally hard. A lot of things just need to be moved to a new room, and there was a little bit of dusting to be done. He supposed that basic house cleaning must have been hard for someone who was so old and blind. Though... He got this strange urge she always knew where he was. She clearly couldn't see him... But anytime he finished one task she was right there ready for him with what needed to be done next. The last thing she wound up giving him to do was feed the mice.

He wound up giving them bits of seeds and berries. Though the way the mice acted... They were very expressive. They kept squeaking at him when he fed them like they were trying to have a conversation with him. It was kind of adorable. Perhaps he was underestimating the value of rodents as pets.

After that he had finally finished. The badger had no more chores to give him.

"Well you really kept your word." She smiled. "Not many kids your age would have done that. I would have been forced to have words with them." As she spoke she picked up her candy bowl and poured all of the mint looking candies into Kit's back. "Take your reward, you earned it."

"Thank you." Kit tried his best to be upbeat. The truth was that he knew he had used up most of the night. It was after 9:30 now. There would be no hitting another neighborhood He wouldn't be hitting any other places. He had to head straight home to make it home from curfew.

"Think nothing of it." The badger smiled as she weaved him out the door. "And try not to feel too disappointed. You may discover that you earned more tonight than you believed."

Kit wasn't sure how to make sense of that. He thought about it on the way home. Maybe it was something about how a good deed was its own reward? He supposed at the very least he had learned an important lesson about himself tonight. He had done the right thing even though it had cost him. Still... Would be nice if he had gotten a bit more candy.

He greeted his parents as he arrived home then headed up to his room. He dumped the bag of candy on the floor to see what all he had. It was his least impressive haul in years. Still... There was some candy to be enjoyed. He picked up one of the mint looking candies he had gotten from the badger. He was somewhat curious about them. They looked like old person candy... But he'd try them at least once. He threw it into his mouth and...

It was almost entirely tasteless. It wasn't disgusting. It just had no taste whatsoever. That was almost more disappointing. But as soon as he ate it... Suddenly, he had a strange sense of vertigo overtake him and then...

And then he was suddenly trapped underneath darkness. This situation wasn't entirely foreign to him. He had been in something like this before... Sometimes even on purpose. He crawled around looking for an exit from what he was trapped beneath. Eventually he found one. As he crawled back into the light behind him he confirmed his suspicions. The robes and clothes he had been wearing were now gigantic and laying in a pile on the floor.

Kit looked down at his own body. It had changed. His body was of course much smaller for him to have shrunk out of his robes. It was also a lot rounder. He was still covered in fur... Except for his hands and his feet which looked a lot more feral than he remembered. He reached up his hands... or paws to touch his ears. They were a lot more round. He thought he knew what happened but he wanted to confirm it.

He ran to his dresser and quickly scurried up it. Looking in the mirror on top of it he saw his reflection. He was a tiny little mouse! He let out a squeak of surprise. It had happened right as he ate the candy! That old badger must have been some kind of witch! Or... Wait a second...

Kit scurried back down to the floor and ran to his candy pile. At his current size his seemingly unimpressive pile of candy now towered over him. It was a giant mountain of candy! More than he could ever eat! Comparatively it was the most candy he had ever seen! It was a Samhain miracle! This was the best haul ever! Kit couldn't help but smile. This was a pretty ok way to end the night.

Then he spied the remaining candies he had from the badger. She had given him the entire bowl. He suddenly got a rather wicked idea. He was sure a few of his friends might appreciate suddenly seeing their piles of candy turn into mountains. He'd have to find some way to get those to them. But first...

He looked at his door then picked up one of the badger's candies and scurried towards it. Maybe first he'd pay a visit to his brother's room and play a little trick before he enjoyed his treats.

The End