1: Invited to the Lantessama Halloween Ball

1: Invited to the Lantessama Halloween ball
"Hallows, look what I found!"
The cheery voice came from outside the cave the two witches shared, and echoed about for awhile before reaching the bed on which the witch being addressed was currently seated. The witch in question, Hallows, lifted her head and twitched her ears at the voice, tilting her head curiously. She wasn't altogether sure she wanted to know what Hayne had found.. it wasn't good all of the time. The speaker, also known as Hayne, however, did not wait for an answer-- she merely waltzed inside the cavern, followed by a mass of multicoloured wings and limbs and hair and gods knew what else.
"You found a flock of chaos?" Hallows asked, lifting an arched eyebrow and twitching an ear, putting the potion she'd been working on in a pumpkin-cauldron aside.
"I think so." Hayne replied, pausing once she was well inside the cavern and looking down at the group behind her. Most of them stared back, some insolently, and some curiously. "I was mucking around in the garden patch, and one of those random portals popped up next to me, and this group came out. I wonder what it means."
Hallows, too, looked at the group, her face a mirror of the other witch's bemusement. "Strange. Ah well, I wonder if they're hungry." she said, getting to her feet and making her way over to the hearth, which was always stocked with some sort of meatlike substance, despite the fact that they were far from any discernable civilization. The flitters seemed to like this idea, for they perked up visibly, and a few even made some small noises that sounded suspiciously like, 'yes, please.'
That was good enough for Hallows, who filled a few bowls with meat, and put it in front of the miniature fair, letting them have at it. They all but dived into the bowls, clustering around them as tightly as they could, and gobbling everything up until it was no more. It was amusing, and both Hallows and Hayne had to grin in amusement. There were about 12 of the small creatures, and each of them looked different-- some were serpentine, some were more compact, some had wings, some didn't, a few were even made of leaves, or so it appeared. They all had one thing in common, however-- on their faces they wore the most peculiar masks, to which Hayne and Hallows found themselves drawn, time and again.
Once the small fair was done eating, they split off-- half of them wandered out the way they'd come, into the wilderness of mindspace. The other half, however, stayed where they were, laying down or sitting back and licking their paws, much like cats. The movement made Hallows smile-- she, herself, was a cat anthro, and similar behavior was adorable to her.
"So." she said, after awhile, looking at Hayne. "What now?"
"We keep them, of course." Hayne said, looking at the flitters with a raised eyebrow. "That is, if they want to stay?"
As one, the creatures made a noise of a collective affirmative.
"Well, then.. We have ourselves some new companions. You always did say it was lonely out here." Hayne said, grinning at her companion. Hallows gave her an amused look, but didn't complain. "They do have an air of magic around them."
**
Later that night, once night had fallen and the temperatures had dropped, Hayne and Hallows huddled beside the hearth, warm in the fire's glow. On their laps and around them were gathered the six flitters from the morning, looking very comfortable indeed. By now they'd picked favorites and gone off with whomever of the two witches they found most suitable-- on Hallow's lap were arranged the first air flit and both of the eastern-type ones, and around Hayne the fire, second air and earth flitters had made themselves at home. The room of the cavern was filled with warmth, firelight, and a comfortable silence, and both witches found their minds wandering and their eyes half closing.
They were in that half-asleep state when they first heard it, that crash of tin can against stone, which caused them, at first, to think the occurrence part of a dream. It was hallows who recognized it not as such first, and she sat up with a start, barely believing what she was seeing. She shook Hayne awake a moment later, pointing to the cause of her disturbance.
The wall beside the hearth was now covered in large splotches of white paint, courtesy the two flitters that currently perched on the hearth itself, looking pleased with themselves. They were partially covered in white paint, and the empty paint cans themselves rolled vaguely about on the floor, proof of the two flitter's guilt. They didn't look shamed, however-- in fact they, and all of their flitter compatriots, looked rather pleased for themselves.
The now white-and-gray wall was not hallow's main concern, however- it was the fact that things, or rather, images and words, were being portrayed on the wall seemingly out of nowhere, in black. Lines danced across the wall like painted strokes by an invisible giant, coming together first as a collection of words, and then a map, and then an image of a bunch of masked dragons resembling the flitters themselves.
Balle Masque. Lantessama. Come. We'll show you where to go.
The flitters, if anything, looked even further pleased with themselves. Something magical about them indeed. Hayne and Hallows, as one, looked from the wall to the flitters, who preened happily under their eyes. Evidently, since this specific batch of flitters couldn't speak, they'd found a way of combining their own magic with that inherent to mindspace, thus creating a way of getting the message across.
Hallows and Hayne looked at each other, eyebrows raised. "Okay, then." they said, and then laughed. It looked like they, too, would be amongst those inhabitants of mindspace attaining dragons for themselves.
**
Elsewhere in mindspace, similar things were happening.
The tombs of the vampires Laudanum and Ambergris found themselves visited by similar fairs of firelizards, simultaneously. This group of six walked fearlessly into the graveyard wherein the two vampires made their home, splitting off in separate directions when it came time to enter the conjoined crypts. The first group, led by a fire flitter whose personality evidently matched his colouring, wandered bravely up to the Laudanum, glaring at him out of proud eyes. He relayed his message much more directly, by projecting directly into the vampire's mind the same things the other firelizards had projected onto the wall. He didn't even wait for the vampire's answer-- merely settled himself on the stone coffin that belonged to his new owner, giving every indication that he expected the vampire to get ready and leave as soon as possible. His compatriots, a delicate air and a pale eastern-type firelizard, curled around him as well, fixing equally expectant eyes on the male vampire.
A moment later, Ambergris made her way into her brother's tomb, cradling three firelizards two her-- an air, a dark eastern-type, and a little leafy earth creature. "Did-" she began, but was cut off by her brother, who was exchanging stares with his fire firelizard.
"Yes," he replied, raising an eyebrow at the little creature. "It seems we've been invited to Lantessama."
"Are you going?" Ambergris asked, curiously. She wanted to go, but didn't feel like going alone, without the company of her older brother.
"I've been given little choice in the matter." Laudanum said, grinning slightly. He didn't sound to annoyed at that fact. "Not, of course, that I particularly mind."