Forest Sprite Pumpkin Keeper

The first fallen leaves have begun to rustle in the forest. The air is crisp, sweet with the smell of ripe apples.

At this time of year, many begin to feel the approach of unhurried, cosy days. And one forest sprite is very much among them. He found a small orange pumpkin — and the gold of his eyes lit up with quiet delight at the scent of it.

The Pumpkin Keeper is a well-known devotee of autumn. Not the hurried autumn — when there is still so much to harvest and prepare and finish before the cold arrives. The other kind: when everything is already done, the leaves lie soft underfoot like a warm carpet, and you can simply sit somewhere in the quiet and smell a pumpkin.

His horns are amber — warm as autumn sunlight at three in the afternoon. His head bears a fine carved pattern, like the veins of a leaf or the bark of an old tree. He resembles the October forest itself: dark on the outside, but golden within.

They say if you place him on a windowsill in autumn, the house begins to smell of something good. Cinnamon, perhaps. Or apple cake.

The pumpkin is not up for discussion. It's his.

Some of the Wood Spirits share the sprite's love of autumn and pumpkins. Wood Spirit Mabon Rustle wanders with a lantern among the first fallen leaves — the pumpkin, after all, is one of the great symbols of his festival. And Wood Spirit Samhain Whisper holds the pumpkin in particular esteem: it glows on every crossroads on the night when the boundary between worlds grows thinner than usual.