[Gift] Candied Apples

Vindferthe the wanderer had decided to stop by his friend Amoranth's place to have some fun celebrating Halloween together. Vindferthe himself had hauled multiple huge sacks of freshly-harvested apples there to enjoy with Amor and his neighbors, because exploring and growing fruit is just about all he knows. However, since he was always in the woods and barely ever around others, he was too naive to realize that offering "healthy snacks" on Halloween was something that not many would appreciate.

"Hey guys! Do you want some apples? I've got too many to eat them all myself!" Vindferthe yelled from the porch, trying to get the attention of other grems passing by. They all would look over at him for a few seconds, see that he didn't have candy, and keep walking. Occasionally someone would call Vindferthe a buzzkill for offering fruit instead of candy for Halloween.

The small green grem trudged through the front door with a disappointed expression on his face, one of the large horns on his viking costume's helmet scraping against the doorway. Amoranth glanced over at him from the chair he was sitting in.

"Not a single other grem has taken an apple from me, Amor! And these are top quality, I don't want them to go to waste!"

Amor himself was in the middle of eating a piece of candy, and stopped chewing for a moment, before quickly finishing the rest.

"Hmm... well, most people go trick or treating to get candy, not... well... apples."

"But I didn't bring any candy! I don't come across it often!"

Vindferthe sat in another chair by a table, slouching and crossing his arms on the tabletop. He lazily reached into the nearly-empty candy bowl sitting on the table, and picked up a small piece of hard candy between his fingers.

Fidgeting with the piece of candy in one hand, he grabbed an apple out of his bag with the other, looking at both of them.

"I don't get it... candy is sweet, but so are apples..."

"Vindferthe, you really should interact with society more," Amoranth said in a gentle tone. But suddenly, an idea sprung to Amoranth's head!

"Hey, have you ever tried a candied apple?"

Vindferthe's attention drew to his friend, and he raised an eyebrow.

"It's basically just an apple on a stick, dipped in candy! It's a great treat that we don't really see that often. We could try making some, and even if nobody else wants them, we would have them all to ourselves!"

Vindferthe's face lit up at the suggestion, his tail swaying a bit with excitement. But then he chimed in, "But this bowl has barely any candy left in it. These ones in particular look really good," he said, holding up the hard candy he picked up, "but there's only three of these left."

"Hold on a minute, buddy."

Amoranth darted into the kitchen, and Vindferthe unwrapped the candy and put it in his mouth. A few seconds passed, and Amor was back in the living room with a huge bag of those exact candies!

"Wait, you have MORE of them?!" Vindferthe exclaimed.

"Yeah, and there are more flavors than just the cherry one you had! There's grape, kiwi, blue raspberry, the list goes on!"

Both grems had huge excited grins on their faces, and Amoranth asked, "So, do you wanna make some candied apples and see how it goes?"

"Yeah! Let's do it!"

------

Many minutes had passed in the kitchen, with both grems trying to figure out how to properly make candied apples. The sun had finally finished setting, and moonlight was shining through the window. Pots stained with sticky, hardened candy were scattered about from their first few failed attempts, as well as a few apples that had gone bad. But ultimately, they made five big trays packed with candied apples of all flavors!

"I think they've cooled off by now," Amoranth said, "Let's see if anyone passing by wants one! I bet we'll be the talk of the town after this!"

"Wait," Vindferthe interjected, "Can I try one first?"

"Of course!"

The green grem bit down on the crunchy coating of the candied apple, and his fangs sunk into the crisp apple underneath. He chewed for a few seconds, and it was clear he loved it, from how quickly he devoured the rest of it!

"Oh yeah, that's so delicious! Let's see how everyone else likes them!"

The two friends walked out onto the porch, and Vindferthe immediately saw a group of grems from earlier walking back down the street in the opposite direction.

"Hey, it's the apple guy," one of them remarked, "Let's just go to the next street."

"Hey, not so fast!" Amoranth shouted happily, "It's not just apples now!"

Vindferthe's eyes widened as the group came up to the porch, chuckling and making snarky remarks about him being a weird hippie. When the group arrived at the porch, they looked on the small table and saw the huge tray on top of it, with the most colorful candied apples they had ever seen sitting on it.

"What the... weren't you handing out just random apples earlier?!" One of the trick-or-treaters exclaimed, clearly confused.

Vindferthe opened his mouth, but Amoranth interrupted, "Nope, he had these candied apples the whole time!"

The group reached to grab as many candied apples as they could, and wolfed them down as they walked away, exclaiming how tasty they were, and many more trick-or-treaters had come and gone as the evening went on. It was just before midnight when Vindferthe and Amoranth decided to go back inside for the night.

"We have so many of these left over... wanna play some music and enjoy some together, Vindferthe?"

"Sounds good to me!"

They both held a candied apple up and tapped them together, saying "cheers," and turned on the radio as they enjoyed each other's company.

"Hey, Amor?"

"What's up?"

"I didn't know candied apples were such a delicious treat! You know, I have some squash that's about ready to harvest, should I make some candied squash next?"

"I don't think that's a good idea... but hey, you can try it if you want."

The two chuckled, eating one candied apple after another, until they had a sugar crash and fell asleep flopped on the couch.