Afternoon turned to evening, and the sun was well out of view behind the canopies of the many trees that made up the Great Forest. Though in this season and at this time of day, the lands of the Forgotten City were a fantastic sight. Trees blurred between the evergreen and the flaky brown, with a healthy carpet of fallen leaves. Everything shone with an edge of moisture, although it did make everything feel that much colder. No worries for most, the typical creature of the City had fur or scales suitable for the climate.

Although a city in name, the Forgotten City was more like a nation-state. The citizens took all shapes and sizes, though humans were not very common at all and only tended to be here by accident. Buildings weren't so much built as grown, with live trees fashioned into spaces suitable for living, trading, learning, and many other things besides. Though it seemed spartan, the City had rules and rulers, and advanced comfort technologies such as the electrical and the informational tended to be accomplished by magical means instead.

Although the sun was low, it wasn't going to get much darker than this as the sky was littered with stars. The vibrant activity of the City nearby ensured there was plenty of light, even far beyond the City's limits. Though the City was large, the Forest was even larger, although the areas left untouched tended to be like that for a good reason. The east was bordered by sea, while the west was bordered by mountains and the magical realms of Fairytale. Most of the civilised City considered this to be too dangerous and unpredictable a place to live, and so they tended not to try.

Still, a few people enjoyed the anarchy and freedom of life outside the City walls. Creatures who preferred the feral lifestyle had no real troubles, and Nall was one of them. Nall was a magical familiar and a wild feral pine marten, cinnamon and black with a creamy bib. Right now, he was flopped on his front, looking at the view from his glass window cut into the side of a large tree trunk. Although he seemed to be relaxing, he didn't look very happy and his tail was twitching either which way, full of energy but having no use for it!

"So this is where you tell me it's a bad idea. I want to try it though! It'll be something to do."

Elsewhere in the room, his partner the white ferret was newly awake, flexing his claws and rubbing his eyes. Without needing to conform to the rhythm of the City, the mustelids tended to be crepuscular, waking in the evening and enjoying the twilight hours of dusk and dawn.
"Okay, I get it. you're bored. Everyone gets bored," he mumbled, tiredly. "Read a book. Make something. Don't just sit there and be irritating."

"But it's not fair. I'm sure someone somewhere must be conjuring a familiar for Halloween," he complained. "It's like trying to have Easter without eggs. But I've not had the call and I think that means I'm stuck here tonight. And, eh, the City doesn't really do Halloween, you know-"

The ferret's paws dug into the linen and straw as he rolled into a comfier position. "No, I don't know. I have no idea. Hey, if you want to do something potentially stupid with magic, I'm not going to stop you. You're the one who told me that familiars shouldn't summon other familiars."

"Of course! If we all started doing that, where would it end?"

"Who exactly are you trying to convince? This is very simple. Do you want to try it, or not?"

Nall thought about it for a moment, and then his mood lightened. He dived up from his perch and gave the white ferret a kiss.
"Okay! Yay, thank you, that's just the chat I needed."
Before the ferret had chance to respond, the marten wiggled his way into the slim tubular corridor that led towards the outside. Muttering to himself a bit, "I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"...

---

Nall landed softly on the mossy ground, and cleared the grass of its fallen leaves, letting them pile up in a messy ring around him. Every so often he'd dab a pawprint on the ring of leaves and it would glow blue, because one of the last things he wanted was to be disturbed in the middle of his magic.

Not that it would take long, but he didn't feel like a surprise run-in with some of the creatures that crept around outside of the City. If anything it just showed he was a bit apprehensive, balancing on his tail as pink energy crackled across his claws, and he carefully ripped a small circular hole in the air, a little smaller than his head. Air rushed back and forth, blowing his fur in different directions, and a hemisphere of blue raised up from the ring and over his head. Okay, now he could begin.

Magic could have a lot of pomp and circumstance to it. Nall didn't enjoy that most of the time, it was his twitchy and spurious and eager nature that tended to make him cut corners and save time. Sure, he could have spent ages mumbling words and invoking helpful spirits and setting the scene, but in his mind this was already a Bad Idea. So, it didn't feel like much of a leap to balance on his tail and shove his arm into the hole. He fidgeted around, paw moving around in the space, as though he was searching a particularly deep pocket for something valuable.

Sensations tickled around his paw, and at what he thought was the right time he closed his claws and pulled back, quickly. It was a bit of a squeeze, and he stuck his other paw in there too; clearly he was having a bit of a fight with whatever phantasmal force he had managed to snag onto. But, perseverance paid off, and he tumbled backwards, and another creature came through with a high-pitched shriek as the hole behind them shrank and sealed itself.

Nall gathered his breath, and looked more closely at the critter he had summoned. She floated in the air, giving off a strong aura in magenta and purple; a remnant of the traumatic process of bringing her there in the first place. The imp seemed to be about half his size and all pink and stretchy like taffy, one colour with two long ears and a mischievous face and a long, spade-tipped tail. She had black hair that tumbled in heavy locks around her head and two tiny crystal horns of dark purple.

The blue power surrounding them grew red, crackling with sparks that bathed Nall in a deep, scary light. Small stubby hands and legs began to move, and her eyes opened slowly - not just the two on her face, but four more on either side of her, floating and disembodied and yet well within her control. All six bore their gaze down on the furry marten, and her powerful voice echoed forth.

"Who dares summon Rook, an Imp of the infernal realm of Nightmare, and on All Hallow's Eve? A warning to you, little magician, even the oldest and wisest mages tread carefully when forging a pact with one of us, but to do so on this most ancient of days-"
Her speech became muffled as one of the marten's paws went over her mouth.
"Okay, okay; spare me the monologue," said Nall. "I'm a familiar as well. I'm not here to make a contract. To be honest, I'm just bored."

Rook's muffles and squirms became less frantic as he spoke, before she changed into smoke and pulled away from Nall's paws.

"You're a bit rude, you know," she said once she'd reappeared. "Interrupting while I was doing the thing." Her ears lowered as she frowned. "I like doing the thing. Gets me in the mood."
"Hey, shh. Don't waste it on me. Find some mortals and you can do it properly. Me, I'm surprised there's anyone left in Nightmare tonight. Don't you guys and girls get like a free pass to the mortal realms for Halloween?"
The imp grinned, and nodded. "Sure. Any doofus can just go make mischief on Halloween. There's no sport in it."
"Well, I tell you what," says Nall. "Here they don't even have Halloween. What's say you and me introduce the idea to the locals?"

Nall's tail broke the leafy ring around them and the magic subsided, letting the pair taste the cool evening air. Rook was quiet for a moment before setting herself down on the floor, pushing at the grass with a foot, looking thoughtful.

"What's in it for me?" she inquired.
Nall stuck out his tongue. "I thought you imps were all about mischief for the sake of it?"
Rook grinned. "Yeah, but you really want it, I can use that. I do have an idea though, let's make it a game! We can both bring Halloween to the city, and if I do better then you can be my pet for a whole week and I can teach you a few manners. Fair?"

The marten seemed uncertain at Rook's proposal, and his tail bristled as he considered it through. "I'm not sure this is all that fair, though. I mean, I like Halloween and making mischief, but then you're a creature from Nightmare, it's basically built in. I don't think I'd be very good competition. Plus you're so energised, look at you all shiny and freshly summoned like that. Nah, I'd be silly to take that bet."
The glowing imp floated around and looked the marten over, back and front. She tugged on his tail, and the slinky weasel turned around to face her.
"No, I think you've got a good point. Haha, aren't you smart? But you know, I've never been anywhere without Halloween before. I want them to have it right special. Tell you what, let's even it up a bit."

Nall didn't have much chance to react to that, before Rook disappeared into smoke again. Not just wispy, thin smoke, but a nice thick cloud that smothered the marten and invaded his mouth and nose and ears. It felt sticky and warm, and burned the back of his throat, and Nall wriggled about and tried to push it away with paws. It didn't work, and the confused critter began to shrink, and squelch, and change. Rook was inside him now, that enriched spirit doing as it saw fit. Those rounded marten ears grew long and pointed, and that muzzled face pulled back and became impish and full of mischief. Wide green eyes grew larger, as his tubular shape was stretched and squashed from inside, and little impish black wings grew from his back.

Nall stumbled, and his thoughts filled with strange and insidious thoughts. The toonish imp muzzle pulled into a grin, his big fluffy tail thinning and developing its own spade. Black took over his body, hands and feet, with cinnamon brown hair and long creamy crystal horns. The smoke reformed into Rook, who let Nall see his new slinky impish self through a pair of floating eyes that followed him around. Cute, cunning magical thoughts had given way to devilish ideas, and surprised green eyes met with Rook's blue ones.

"Aaagh.. w-what did you do? Now I'm an imp as well!"
"Sure. Now it's a fair fight, you got all the instincts you need. A week as my pet?" she reminded him.
Nall screwed up his face, before the urge to compete took over and he butted heads with Rook. "Ahah. How about a month as my pet when I win?"
"A year?"
"Haha, no, I have better things to do than take care of you for a year. Come on, a month, that's the bet," said the weasely black imp, and the two of them agreed; that was that.

Nall grinned, feeling quite confident about this. Hey, he knew the city better than she did, and he was already having ideas. "Alright, then follow me. You can go first, and we'll see what we can get done before the sunrise." The familiar made tracks and headed for the bright lights of the city, and Rook floated along behind.

Nearby, a blue monkey slid down a tree, from branch to floor, dropping the last few feet and landing softly. Indeed, he had been snoozing nearby, but had heard most of this conversation between the two. The circus performer wasn't from the City, so it wasn't really his business, but he had become curious and he set off after the pair, keeping a fair distance.
As he thought to himself, he didn't really understand these spirit creatures, they seemed to discuss rudeness a lot - but then, they were both planning to mess with the people of the City for their own amusement…