King of the Pumpkin Patch - Part 1
King of the Pumpkin Patch
~
The house at the end of the drive had stood empty for a long, long time. It had been seasons upon seasons, years even, since the Old Lady had left, escorted to a van by a smiling man and woman in white clothing. Ryan hadn’t seen her since. He’d never really wondered about her, hadn’t missed her.
Perhaps he should have wondered. Perhaps he should have expected that the ever-busy humans with all their hustle and bustle would never leave a house as spacious and inviting as this one unoccupied for long. Perhaps he should have seen the cars that had blocked the drive briefly during the summer as a warning sign, rather than turning a blind eye and hoping the problem went away on its own.
But he hadn’t.
Instead, he’d been curled up underneath the briar bush as tightly as his long limbs would allow, dreaming about the ripening grapes and the first bite of winter, when a van thundering down the drive yanked him unceremoniously from his slumber. He bolted upright, banged his head against one of the sturdy bottom branches, planted his hand in a couple of wayward thorns, and let out an undignified yelp.
When he finally, sucking on his palm and more than a little disgruntled, located the cause of the disturbance, two of the men had already opened the van’s back doors. There were another two, one significantly older than the others, who began to lift cardboard boxes and a disassembled lantern onto the ground. A car was parked over at the far side of the lot, next to a woman who eyed the proceedings with a critical expression and her hands on her hips, and a boy kicking the ground with the biggest frown Ryan had ever seen, on anybody.
“What is it?” Spencer asked from behind him, wriggling his way underneath the briar bush.
“Humans,” Ryan breathed. He could hardly make himself say the words. “There are humans at the house, Spencer.”
“More than one?” Spencer asked, creeping forward on his belly. When Ryan glanced over, he could see one of the thorns tearing a hole into the fabric covering his shoulder, but Spencer seemed preoccupied with other things. Ryan couldn’t blame him.
Once he had come close enough to see properly, Spencer propped himself up on his elbows, head ducked low to avoid the sharp thorns. “Lots of humans,” he said.
“Lots,” Ryan agreed. He chewed his lip. “They’ve brought… things.”
“To-stay things?” Spencer asked, cutting him a sharp glance.
“I think so.” Ryan pointed at the back of the van, where all four of the men were hard at work. “Look, that’s one of those indoor benches.”
“This is not good,” Spencer said. He slipped his thumb into his mouth and chewed vigorously on the nail before he said, speaking around it, “Not good at all.”
They both startled at the sound of branches cracking behind them - Ryan could feel Spencer flinch - but it was only Jon, pressing in against Ryan’s shoulder.
“Hello,” he said quietly, but there wasn’t any of his usual humor in it. His attention was fully focused on the men and the woman bustling around the drive.
“Are the others safe?’ Ryan asked him under his breath.
Jon nodded. “They’re all hiding,” he said. “Watching, but hiding.” He met Ryan’s gaze briefly. “Pete and Patrick are off somewhere, but Patrick’s smart. He won’t let them catch him.”
“Good,” Ryan said, and Jon grinned briefly at the praise before he nodded at the van.
“Do you think they’ll all be staying here?” he asked. “I mean - the house is big, but it’s not that big.”
And there are so many of them, Ryan knew he wasn’t saying.
“I don’t think so,” he said. He bit his lip. “I hope not.”
Spencer nudged him lightly, understanding in his eyes, before he shuffled another few inches forward. “There’s, what? Four men, and the woman?”
“And the boy,” Ryan said.
“Boy?” Jon asked.
“Yeah, he’s -” He had wandered off towards the house, the boy had, apparently fascinated by the ivy climbing up one side. He couldn’t quite reach it, stalled by the flowerbed separating him and whatever had caught his attention, but he was certainly trying his best, tips of his sneakers dipping into the loose soil.
That much fascination for a blank wall was unsettling to Ryan, even though he knew humans did strange things sometimes. He narrowed his eyes, and then widened them in alarm when he caught sight of a telltale shimmer between the ivy leaves, like air rising from asphalt on a boiling hot day.
“Who’s over there?” he asked, under his breath, barely even daring that even though the humans were all the way at the other end of the drive.
“Pete and Patrick, most likely,” Spencer whispered back, just as quietly. “Pete wanted to go raid the bees’ nest in the oak tree, I think.”
Ryan groaned, burying his face in his elbow for a moment before concern for his guys made him look up again. The human boy had edged closer while Ryan wasn’t paying attention, feet barely moving but his torso twisted forward. His eyes had narrowed to little slits.
“He has glasses,” Jon noted. “That’s good, right? That means his eyes are bad.”
“But how bad?” Spencer asked over Ryan’s head. “They’re well camouflaged, but he’ll still see them if he’s looking right at them.”
“Guess we’ll just have to hope for the best,” Ryan said, even though his every instinct was screaming at him to run away, or else cause enough of a distraction that the boy would leave his guys alone.
The boy reached out a questioning hand, and Ryan was just about to throw caution to the wind and march over there when the woman, unexpectedly helpful, intervened.
“Brendon,” she snapped. “Will you make yourself useful, please?” She pointed a demanding finger at the back of the van, and while the boy scowled, he whirled away from the ivy and stomped down the drive.
Ryan let out a long, slow breath.
Across the yard, two shimmering shadows disappeared around the corner of the house, and by the time the boy, with his arms full of boxes, looked their way again, they were long, long gone.
Ryan breathed in, and then out again. “Let’s go,” he said, pushing himself backwards. “We need to talk to the others.”
~
They’d taken up refuge down by the largest pumpkins, Ryan and Spencer and Jon. The others were unsettled and chattery, too loud and too boisterous, and it had taken most of the afternoon to restore some semblance of calm. It didn’t help that Ryan himself could feel the apprehension sharply in his gut, that Spencer - usually as cool as the icicles on the trees in wintertime - was fidgety and distracted, glancing back at the house every couple of sentences like the humans might come for them right this very moment.
They’d finally convinced everyone to settle down for the night, to not panic, when daylight was already fading, and then they’d hunkered down amidst the pumpkins and lapsed into distressed silence, watching the sun die on the horizon in a blaze of yellows and greens. Still, it was bright enough that Jon was barely more than a black silhouette, a stark profile surrounded by a soft halo of hair, utterly preoccupied with stuffing tobacco into his pipe. He leaned against a pumpkin the way he always did, legs sprawled out and crossed at the ankles, unlike Spencer, who liked to sit painfully upright even in situations like these.
“What’s taking so long?” Spencer asked, annoyed but not malicious, and Jon turned his head the other way to look at him.
“Do you want to do this?” he asked, waving the pipe around.
“Just… finish it, please,” Ryan said, unwilling to listen to their usual bickering. He slid one leg off the pumpkin he was perched upon and nudged the sole of Jon’s foot. “Take pity on my poor nerves, please.”
“You sound like the Old Lady,” Spencer scoffed, but he left it at that, and so did Jon.
He struck a light on the side of his pumpkin and lit the tobacco with it, the dried leaves glimmering crimson in the falling darkness. He grew even more boneless as he smoked, practically melting into the ground like snow in the spring, and when he finally passed the pipe on to Spencer, his voice was thick and lazy.
“What are we going to do?” he asked. “About the humans?”
“We might not have to do anything,” Spencer said. “Maybe they won’t care about the yard.”
“Did you see their stuff?” Jon asked. “They’re not the type not to care about the yard.”
Ryan took the pipe when Spencer offered it, but he didn’t add anything. He stared off into the sunset and thought about the boy instead, the human boy, the only one in the chaos who’d opened his eyes and looked.
He glanced over his shoulder at the house. Through the briar bush’s branches, he could see the illuminated kitchen window. Not many of the humans - the Urie’s, Ryland had said they were called. Not many of them had stayed, but the woman had, and the older man, and the boy. The Brendon. He was sitting at the table now, inside the house, stabbing at the plate in front of him while the other two scowled.
Ryan had a hard time reading humans, he knew that, but the whole scene looked rather dismal. Unpleasant. He didn’t really understand why they would do that to themselves.
Frowning, he turned back to the sunset, pressed one hand to his cheek and let the other, the one holding the pipe, rest on one knee. Jon poked the other with his toes.
“Ryan?” he said. “Earth to Ryan.”
“I’m alright,” Ryan said automatically.
“Yes, you are,” Jon said. “But the humans? What are we going to do about them?”
“What can we do?” Ryan returned, shrugging helplessly. “It’s a people-house. We have no claim over it. We can’t ask them to leave.”
“We could make them leave,” Spencer offered, but even he looked unconvinced by the idea.
“They’d only bring more people,” Ryan said, shaking his head. “People, and machines, and all sorts of things, and it’ll be troublesome and dangerous.”
“It’ll be dangerous no matter what happens,” Jon said. The frayed sleeves of his shirt trailed over Ryan’s knees when he reached for the pipe. “The boy pays attention. That’s bad for us.”
Ryan looked back at the house again. They were all standing now, the man and the woman and the boy, shuffling around their kitchen with big gestures and agitated movements. As he watched, the man pointed a stern finger at the door and the boy hesitated, said something else that darkened the man’s face like the last black clouds arriving before the storm, and then he stomped away.
When Ryan turned back to his friends, the sun had almost died, and the pipe had passed on to Spencer. Jon settled his hands on the belly bulging out underneath his shirt and sighed lazily. “We should wait,” he said. “Either they’ll try to destroy the yard, or they won’t. We won’t find out tonight.”
“You were the one asking,” Spencer pointed out, but he seemed well pleased with the idea himself.
Ryan couldn’t help sneaking one more look. Inside, the woman had sat down at the kitchen table with her head in her hands, the man rubbing soothingly between her shoulder blades. There was no sight of the boy. Ryan drummed the pipe against the side of his boot to knock out the dregs and tucked it into his coat pocket.
“I suppose there’s nothing further we can do tonight, at least,” he said, even though it was frustrating to acknowledge. “Let’s turn in.”
Spencer, yawning, nodded. “I’m sleeping in the briar patch,” he said. “Anybody with me?”
“I’ve finally managed to get that damn badger out of his hole,” Jon announced gleefully. “It’s mine now.”
“Congratulations,” Spencer said, mostly serious. “Ryan?”
“I’ll be there soon,” Ryan said. “You go on ahead.”
“Suit yourself,” Spencer said, giving him an odd look. He nudged Jon in the shoulder by way of saying goodnight and slipped underneath the branches while Jon disappeared into the high grass beyond the dog rose hedge, chattering under his breath all the while.
Ryan stayed where he was, even though it was starting to get cold, even though the last light was fading fast. If these humans were like the others, if the stories he’d heard tell were true, then this was to be one of their last days in the pumpkin patch, and Ryan wanted to be there for every minute of it.
~
Despite the chill that was starting to creep into the ground at night, the last hot days of summer were turning the pumpkins a warm, dark orange-red. It was the time of year Ryan loved best, those first days of fall, when the trees were heavy with ripening fruit but the leaves had yet to die.
He was alone, as alone as he ever was, the others scattered across the yard and the fields beyond it. Jon was off picking grapes to make wine with Carden and Maja, and Spencer was somewhere around, doing things that Spencer did when he was alone.
Ryan didn’t mind. He liked the quiet, the way nature grew more solemn when he was on his own, and yet never quite fell silent. It put him in a strange, contemplative mood, and he tended to wander around the pumpkin patch when he was feeling like this, peeking under leaves to spy on the bolder snails and stretching up as far as he could to reach the ripest pears.
The humans were still at the back of his mind, of course, but it had been a day or two and they had yet to venture out of the house much, let alone this far into the yard. They could still be heard arguing sometimes - always, always the boy against the man and the woman, though the instigator changed as frequently as the wind - but Ryan couldn’t quite bring himself to sneak closer and listen in. As long as humans were fighting amongst themselves, he’d learned, they were too busy to destroy anything else.
He paused to investigate a mouse burrow with his toes, but he couldn’t tell if it was lived in or not. He hadn’t seen mice at it in days. Maybe Jon’s badger had gotten them.
“Oh wow,” someone said behind him. “Check this out.”
It was the boy, of course. Ryan turned and it was the boy, standing there, fiddling with a blackberry leaf and grinning at everything. He hadn’t even seemed to notice anything strange, yet. He certainly wasn’t staring at Ryan like he ought to.
Instead, he grinned at him for a second before he plucked one of the berries and popped it into his mouth. “These are really good,” he said around it, warbled. “Small, but really sweet.”
“That’s because they’re wild blackberries,” Ryan said. He couldn’t help it. “They’re not like the man-grown ones.”
“Yeah, I can tell.” The boy stuffed another few into his cheeks.
Ryan felt the corners of his mouth tugging into a smirk.
The boy reached for yet another berry. “Are you the gardener?” he asked. He hesitated, and Ryan could practically feel his gaze dragging up Ryan's spindly limbs, his coattails, the coal-black glimmer of his eyes. “You’re not the gardener,” he said.
“I’m not the gardener,” Ryan agreed. He hopped up to perch on the wrought-iron fence surrounding the pumpkin patch, one hand on the metal between his toes to steady himself. “But you’re the little Urie.”
“Uh. Brendon,” the boy said. “My name’s Brendon.”
“Brendon,” Ryan echoed, rolling the name around his mouth. “Well, little Brendon Urie. Don’t you know it’s bad luck to tell your name to strangers?”
“It is?” Brendon asked, voice going shrill and breathless, so that answered that question, Ryan supposed.
One of the blackberry vines smacked, harmless but startling, against Brendon’s temple. “Oh!” he exclaimed, stumbling backwards. “Did that - was that-?”
“Spencer, stop it,” Ryan said. He didn’t even try not to laugh.
“You’re no fun when you’re being all regal,” Spencer grumbled, but he emerged from the blackberry vines a moment later. He looked the same as he always did, dressed in a bright orange shirt, patches of moss and small trees growing on his shoulders and along his arms, one ear and the side of his head looking as though it had been carved out of cool, smooth stone. Ryan had the sneaking suspicion he was also hiding a cabin in his hair, but Spencer refused to admit it, and Ryan didn’t dare pry.
Brendon watched him walk past with his mouth wide open.
Spencer, catching the look, rolled his eyes. “Humans,” he scoffed. “Think they’re so smart.”
“I, I,” the Brendon said, proving Spencer’s point, and then fell silent, mouth and eyes open wide, when Jon also crawled out from the thicket. His gaze followed Jon’s movements as he brushed clumps of soil from his shirt and the worn out fabric of his pants, from the top of his feet, eyes flickering briefly to the curved claws of Jon’s fingernails.
“You’re the human,” Jon said. “Do you have a cat? I like cats.”
“No cats,” the Brendon said, blinking. “I had a hamster once, but it died.”
Jon nodded knowledgeably. “Cats eat hamsters,” he said.
“Mine just died of old age, I think.” Brendon aimed a helpless look in Ryan’s direction. “And I think hamsters might be a bit big? For cats to eat, I mean.”
“Jon,” Ryan said, when Jon looked to be gearing up to another one of his educational monologues. It did little good, of course, because Frank chose that moment to pop up amidst the begonias, a crown of them hanging precariously off his ear, and say loudly, “I like cats too! They’re delicious.”
Jon bristled immediately, the hairs at the back of his neck visibly straining upwards, and Ryan was fairly certain that only Gerard’s arrival prevented Jon from going straight for Frank’s throat.
“Frankie,” Gerard protested, fussing with the flowers in Frank’s hair. “Don’t be mean,” he added, as an afterthought.
The Brendon looked utterly fascinated and possibly a little horrified by the pair of them, Gerard’s snowy skin contrasting sharply with the blue, green and red patches of Frank’s, his dark hair almost brushing against Frank’s green and orange tufts. Ryan used the momentary respite to gesture Jon closer, tugging him between his knees and scritching lightly at the sensitive skin behind his ear.
“Frank won’t be eating any cats,” he promised quietly. “I won’t let him.” He had little control over what Frank did in his spare time, of course, but even the feral cats tended to stay well clear of the area, and Frank was too enamored with Gerard to set out looking for them, so Ryan figured it was safe enough to say.
Jon rubbed his cheek against Ryan’s knee in response, and Ryan ran his nails over his skin one last time before he looked up to find Brendon spinning on his heel in alarm. During Frank’s little interlude, the pumpkin patch had filled with Ryan’s creatures, and there were more arriving still, slipping in through the fence and underneath the briar bushes, peeking out from the wild grass and behind the broad pumpkin leaves. The Alex’ balanced on the back of the worn resting bench, giggling and attempting to tip each other off of it, but they stayed well clear of the other end with Ian and his crow’s nest of hair, who’d pulled one of the baby birds from the tangles and cradled it carefully in his lap. Victoria sat straddling the faux-Greek statue where it barely rose over the weeds, long legs twisting round and round and round the base. Greta eased herself out of a tangle of pea plants, straightened her skirts and shook the flower blossoms out of her hair, and then more, and more, daisies and marguerites and buttercups until Nate crouching in the grass beside her smacked at her legs to get her to stop.
“This is the human?” Andy asked. His mouth was smeared red with raspberry juice. There were several more speared onto the horns protruding from his hair.
“He’s so squat,” William said, sliding down from the branches of the apricot tree. He bent down to peer closely at Brendon’s face. He had to fold himself nearly in half to do it, and when he drew back, Brendon’s mouth had formed a perfect little o.
“This is one of the humans,” Ryan said, drawing both Brendon’s attention, and the crowd’s. “The little one.”
The little one in question took off his eyeglasses, polished them rapidly on the hem of his t-shirt, and pushed them back up his nose. He closed his eyes firmly, and then opened them again. From the look on his face, he had expected something to change, but as far as Ryan could tell, nothing had.
“Holy shit,” Brendon said, taking them all in. He blinked at Ryan, but his eyes stayed just as wide. “Who are they?”
“My Court,” Ryan said, not entirely without pride.
“Your court,” Brendon repeated.
“My boys and girls. My creatures.” Ryan grinned. “And I’m the King of the Pumpkin Patch.” He bowed as deeply as his precarious perch would allow. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, little Brendon Urie.”
~
The moment didn’t last. Brendon closed his mouth, opened it, closed it, opened it, and looked to be on the verge of actually managing a few words when the woman’s voice carried into the pumpkin patch, calling for him to wash up before dinner.
Brendon pointed hesitantly back at the house. “I have to go,” he said. “But, it was nice to meet you. Your Highness?” He bobbed his head. “And everybody.”
“Goodbye, Brendon Urie,” Jon said, waving from the vicinity of Ryan’s knees.
Spencer nodded, once.
“You’ll be here tomorrow?” the boy asked quickly. Another loud, harsher “Brendon!” came from the house, and he called back, “I’m coming, Jeez!” before he whirled back to Ryan. “You’ll be here?” he asked, almost desperately.
“We’re always here,” Ryan said, finally.
The boy nodded hastily. He swept his gaze over the Court’s solemn faces one last time before he rushed towards the house, uncaring of the blackberry vines tearing into his shirt, shoes pounding the ground long after he’d vanished from sight.
“Well,” Spencer said, into the silence. He pushed himself away from the fence. “We’ve got something now, I suppose.”
“I suppose,” Ryan echoed. He rose to his feet, towering over even William and Gabe and Travis from his vantage point on the fence. “My creatures,” he said grandly.
It took them a moment to quiet down, but eventually they all turned their eyes on him, waiting for his verdict.
Ryan pitched his voice loud enough for them all to hear. “Stay away from the humans,” he said. “The boy knows now. That’s already too much. The others cannot know, is that clear?”
He gave them time to nod, to mumble quiet affirmations, before he turned away and beckoned Spencer to him.
“What are we going to do about him?” Spencer asked, head tilted back to meet Ryan’s eyes. “He’s far, far too aware for his own good.”
“When the time is right, we’ll think of something,” Ryan said, hoping he sounded more assured than he felt. He’d never met a human who could spot them that easily, that casually, and yet barely even notice anything was out of place. He hadn’t met many humans at all, but nevertheless, he knew that wasn’t the way it was supposed to go.
He didn’t like it at all.
~
Ryan, curled up in his nightly nest underneath the briar bush with Spencer, breathing his air, jolted awake at the sound of footsteps. It was late, for their preference, the sun already halfway to midday, but the previous day’s events had tired him out and, apparently, made him careless and unaware.
He craned his neck around and caught sight of two pairs of shoes, one small, one large, both sturdy and sensible.
“Look at this mess,” a woman said, and when Ryan tilted his head back, he could see it was the one from the house. The Urie mother.
“I suppose no one’s been here since Aunt Jenna moved to the home,” was the reply, and that was the man of the house, the Brendon-father, the one with the sternly disapproving eyes. “No one’s bothered to take care of the place.”
“They should have,” the woman said. “We’ll have to get rid of this jungle,” she said, pushing one of the old briar branches aside with so much force that it splintered and cracked. “Maybe we could put in a pool. That might appease Brendon a little bit, don’t you think?”
“We can’t reward his bad behavior by spoiling him,” the man said, but he didn’t sound opposed to the idea, exactly.
“Being strict with him hasn’t worked, either,” the woman said, and she didn’t sound reproachful, exactly, but worn out and frustrated and maybe a little sad.
The man sighed. “We’ll look into a pool,” he said. “The trees would have to go.”
The woman looked up at the apricot tree that was William’s favorite, his preferred spot to curl around the branches and bask in the last rays of summer sun, to fold himself along the bark and listen to the voices of the garden. “I think we’ll survive,” she said. “It’s not like there’ll be a lot of fruit we’re missing out on.”
The man took a few decided steps over and laid his hand on the bark curiously. “I suppose not,” he said.
A hand settled on Ryan’s shoulder, and then Spencer’s arms slipped around his torso, pressing in close, his nose squashed against the fabric of Ryan’s suit. Ryan covered Spencer’s fingers with his own.
“I’ll call the landscaping agency, get a quote,” the woman said, and then they were moving away, voices fading into the quiet sounds of morning.
A pool. They were going to ruin the pumpkin patch, their home, for a pool.
Humans. Most days, Ryan just wanted to strangle them all.
“We can’t let this happen,” Spencer said, squeezing Ryan’s middle once before letting go.
“We can’t,” Ryan agreed. He ran his fingers through his hair, dislodging a few overzealous leaves, and shook his head.
Spencer pulled at his own hair in frustration. “Why can’t we just tell them to go?” he asked. “We were here first. We’ve been here for years! Why can they just waltz in and destroy everything?”
Ryan was about to agree vehemently when an idea struck him. He tapped his forefinger against his chin. “Maybe we can,” he said.
Spencer blinked. “What do you mean?”
“The Brendon,” Ryan said. “He knows about us already, and he’s one of them. We’ll make him their champion. If I challenge him to a contest, maybe we can strike up a deal. If I win, I remain King of the Pumpkin Patch, and he and the other humans will leave. And if he wins…” He trailed off, but Spencer merely nodded his understanding.
“Can you even do that?” he asked. “Challenge someone for your own title?”
“I’m King of the Pumpkin Patch,” Ryan pointed out in response. “Who’s going to stop me?”
Spencer shrugged, because no one would, and they both knew it. “But what if you lose?” he asked instead. “What if he wins, and you’re no longer the King of the Pumpkin Patch?”
“Why be King of the Pumpkin Patch if there is no pumpkin patch anymore?” Ryan asked.
Spencer, it seemed, could think of nothing to say to that.
~
Ryan had asked his creatures to disappear. They were still there, of course, hidden in the brambles, ducked into the grass, shielded from curious eyes by the leaves of the trees surrounding the pumpkin patch. Even when Ryan was alone, they were never far away.
Ryan himself had cozied up to William’s apricot tree, still and hidden from view long before the Brendon’s shuffling steps came close enough to be heard.
They hesitated fairly early on, and Ryan could hear him smacking his lips absently. “Creatures?” he asked loudly. “Anybody?”
Ryan almost felt bad for him, the way his voice dipped from expectant to forlorn just about instantly, but apparently that wasn’t going to deter Brendon from anything.
“Hello?” he called. “Guys? You can come out now. I know I didn’t imagine you.” He took an uncertain step, a pumpkin leaf breaking loudly under his soles, and stumbled backwards.
Ryan gritted his teeth.
“Please?” the Brendon called, and he sounded almost miserable now. “Come on, now. Don’t do this to me.” Another leaf shattered under his careless feet.
“Stop that,” Ryan grouched, slipping around the trunk of the tree and startling the boy so badly he narrowly avoided flattening a pumpkin. “There’s no need to destroy everything in sight.”
“I didn’t mean to,” Brendon said quickly. “It was an accident, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Ryan waved a bony hand. “You’re just getting a head start, really.”
“Head start?” Brendon shook his head, frowning. “Head start on what?”
“On the destruction,” Ryan said, slowly. Maybe this one was a little weak in the head. He knew that happened sometimes, if they were dropped as children. He’d heard humans say that before.
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Brendon said slowly, like maybe Ryan was the dense one.
“The humans,” Ryan said, sharply gesturing towards the house. “Your parents. Don’t tell me you don’t know they’re planning on razing the entire pumpkin patch to the ground.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that,” the Brendon said, looking unsettlingly sincere. “They don’t really get it.” He scowled at the ground. “They don’t get a lot of things.”
“I don’t like it,” Ryan said, more to himself than the boy. “No one’s disturbed us for years,” he said, pulling at the hem of his coat. “The Old Lady knew better.”
“Aunt Jenna?” the Brendon said, looking surprised. “She knew about you?”
“She knew to leave the pumpkin patch alone,” Ryan said loftily, because the truth was, he had no idea if the Old Lady had known. But she’d been careful, only coming in to trim when it was absolutely necessary, never destroying. In turn, Ryan and his creatures had saved her the juiciest apples and the darkest pumpkins, the sweetest berries and the ripest pears. Things had been good, like that.
And then she’d disappeared.
“Anyhow,” Ryan said, pulling himself upright. It was extremely gratifying to see how Brendon had to strain his neck to meet his eyes. “What you do or don’t know is inconsequential. I’m here to challenge you.”
“You’re challenging me?” Brendon asked, voice flipping. “To what? Why? Um, your majesty.”
“A competition,” Ryan confirmed, unimpressed. “I am challenging you to a competition. Its outcome will determine the future King of the Pumpkin Patch.”
“A competition?” Brendon breathed. “Fuck, that’s cool.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “I’m glad you think so,” he said.
“I really do.” Brendon grinned. “I was kind of hoping my parents would get me a dog, but this is so much better.”
Ryan turned away so Brendon wouldn’t see him roll his eyes. That was probably bad form, now that they were formal challengers.
“Shall we begin, then?” he asked instead, summoning his creatures with a wave of his hand.
“You mean right now?” Brendon asked, eyes going wide. He sounded thrilled.
“No time like the present,” Spencer said, striding over to them, followed by a crowd of Ryan's creatures. “Do you, the Brendon, formally agree to partake in the competition?”
“It’s just ‘Brendon,’ actually,” the Brendon put in. “There’s no ‘the.’ It’s not a title, or anything.”
Spencer managed to look distinctly unimpressed without even twitching a muscle. “Do you?”
Brendon bounced on the balls of his feet, looking around at the creatures bustling across the pumpkin patch, trying to pretend they weren’t watching their every move. “Yeah, sure,” he said. “Let’s compete.”
Ryan would really have liked to reach over and hold him still, but instead he fit his hands into the pockets of his waistcoat, elbows sticking out at stark angles.
One of the Alex’ darted up and pressed three white pebbles into Spencer’s palm, who inspected them for a moment before he turned away, nodding.
Someone had brought over a pumpkin for Spencer to sit on, leaves and stem curled carefully away. When he settled, so did Ryan’s creatures, leaving him and Brendon standing awkwardly at the center of a cleared circle, constrained at every side by watchful eyes.
Brendon shot Ryan a quick smile. Ryan turned his attention to Spencer, who carefully placed all three pebbles between his feet and cleared his throat.
“Do the contestants agree to abide by the rules?”
“We do,” Ryan said calmly.
Brendon darted quick glances back and forth between them. “What rules?” he asked. “Guys, what are the rules?”
Spencer nodded approvingly. “I’ll get everything ready,” he told Ryan.
Ryan nodded himself, turning away to get a drink of water, and maybe find something to eat. It wasn’t good to fight on an empty stomach.
“No, seriously, what are the rules?” Brendon asked, trailing after him.
Ryan paused and gave Spencer a look over Brendon’s head. “Explain the rules,” he said.
“The rules,” Spencer began, slow and long-suffering, “are the following: You and his majesty shall duel each other. You may not let anyone help you in any task. The winner of each task should be fairly obvious, but when there is doubt, the Master of Ceremonies,” he pointed at himself, “shall decide. Clear so far?”
Brendon nodded seriously.
Spencer went on, “There will be three challenges. The first contestant to win two of them becomes - or remains,” he amended with a nod in Ryan’s direction, “the King of the Pumpkin Patch, thus deciding its future. Is everyone in accord?”
There was murmured assent from the crowd around them. Spencer nodded regally. “Then the contest begins.”
Ryan’s creatures cheered, but they didn’t sound like their hearts were really in it. He could understand that - after all, the duel would decide all their futures, and while Ryan didn’t quite think he would lose, he also couldn’t guarantee success.
“Alright,” Spencer said. “First challenge. Who wants to start?”
“I’m the challenger,” Ryan said. “I’ll do it.”
Spencer nodded gravely.
Brendon pushed himself up onto his tiptoes to manage some semblance of looking them in the eyes. “Um - is anybody going to tell us what the first challenge is?”
“The king knows,” Spencer said lightly.
Brendon pulled on Ryan’s sleeve. “Tell me what the first challenge is,” he said. “Come on, your majesty.”
Ryan tugged his arm free and carefully inspected the fabric. “We’re going to perform poetry,” he said.
“Poetry?” Brendon asked. He looked absolutely horrified. “I thought it was going to be stuff like finding the hidden treasure, and shit. I’m shit at poetry!”
“I don’t think the king will really mind,” Frank put in sardonically.
“Frank,” Ryan chided, even though it was the truth.
Frank settled back, scowling.
“You can bow out,” Spencer informed Brendon, who still looked like Ryan had announced that the Winter Solace celebration had been cancelled. “In that case, you will forfeit, and Ryan be declared winner.”
Brendon looked over at Ryan, who smiled.
Brendon wrinkled his nose. “No, I’ll try it,” he said. “Whatever. What do I do?”
“His majesty will start,” Spencer reminded him. “As challenger. You sit with us until it’s your turn.”
“Okay,” Brendon said. “Fine.” He let out a noisy sigh. “I can do that.”
Jon patted the empty patch of ground next to him. “Come sit with me,” he said. “Front row seat. They’re the best.”
Spencer waited until Brendon was settled, arms wrapped around his knees, before he nodded regally. “Your majesty, begin.”
Ryan let his gaze sweep over his creatures for a moment. He didn’t meet anyone’s eyes, but he could still see them gazing up at him, expectant and enraptured, and Ryan drew in a deep breath and spoke.
Part 2