Submission (#1364) Approved

Solar Flare was a red-orange kittom with yellow markings and darker hues on their legs, featuring a yellow diamond-shaped marking between their eyes and little white paws. They had a matching glade tail that flicked back and forth in the forest of Kyendi, both clearing the air of the flies as well as cooling the kittom a bit. They had a small tuft of hair that matched their coat. Their small ears flickered as the sounds of the forest flowed into their ears, creating a melody that reached their soul. Their body swayed back and forth as they walked, their legs doing a dance to music only they heard.

Ahead of Solar Flare was Hypnos, a lean adult elnin with a light coat. She had purple-tipped ears with golden moons and stars printed into the pattern of the coat, a similarly matching warren tail that was on the small side, and a star over one of her eyes. Her anima was also blue, but a lighter shade than Solar Flare's own. While Solar Flare only had little star earrings in their ears, Hypnos was wearing a thematically matching dress with bunny socks, bows in her long hair, a hooded cape to protect her from any weather, and a basket to carry her herb collection in.

The two elnin were walking through a rather dense forest. There were tall trees all around them with vines hanging from the branches above. Bushes and shrubs kept the forest tight together as a low mist hugged the forest floor. Under the mist was a rather clear pathway with old stone, a lot of dirt and grass growing in every cook and cranny. It definitely didn't seem to be a well-kept path, adding to the overall "lost in time" sort of feel that was happening here.

Solar Flare was walking beside Hypnos. They had met earlier on the Sunshard Isle while Solar Flare was preparing their faerie ring, and so Solar Flare found themselves tagging along with them for the rest of the day. Hypnos was a soft-spoken apothecary assistant that was in Kyendi to pick up herbs and ingredients for their shop back in Silveil City, The Starlit Mortar, before the seasonal shifts. Many of these words were completely foreign to Solar Flare but the kittom didn't mind the company. Solar Flare argued that they were tagging along because Hypnos needed to go into the forest to collect herbs, and they wanted to explore! Win-win, right?

Ilrian wasn't too far from where they were so Solar Flare could easily just head back at any time but there was something compelling about an unexplored place to a kittom! The dense forest was so unusual to Solar Flare as they were so used to the lighter forests of Faerindell. Overgrown mountains seemed to span the entire area but Solar Flare and Hypnos were following a river upstream. Hypnos seemed to know where she was going but Solar Flare was mostly just following her. That was probably a good thing since Solar Flare thought everything in this forest looked the same: like an overgrown mess.

"So, you were staying in Silveil City before this?" Hypnos asked Solar Flare, her voice soft and gentle. "Are you leaving Silveil City and moving to Ilrian or are you here for something else?"

Solar Flare kept pace with Hypnos, following behind her as they walked upstream. Hypnos walked slowly, an easy pace for a kittom to follow. Not unlike most adult paces where Solar Flare would have to run to keep up with her. It was nice to not have to feel like they were dragging behind, and Hypnos seemed perfectly happy at this pace, not bringing it up even once. She didn't even walk fast originally and slow down for Solar Flare, which felt nice.

"Oh, I'm going to go back to Silveil City, I think..." Solar Flare began, pondering what they would do after this. "I came to Ilrian for a performance!"

"A performance? Are you a singer?" Hypnos asked as she walked.

"I like to dance," Solar Flare said. "I was offered the opportunity to perform with a singer who is putting on a show when they'd see me in Silveil City. It's soooooo cool."

Solar Flare was practically gushing, and that was embarrassing for them. They coughed, tried to clear their thought, and generally move on from the subject of embarrassment.

Hypnos simply smiled as she said, "I'd like to see it."

Solar Flare didn't say anything but they definitely blushed, walking in silence the short distance left before the two of them reached the end of the river. It opened up into a small lake with a cliff at the end and a waterfall spilling down the side of it. On either side of the waterfall were ruined that looked extremely old to Solar Flare, even without being covered in vines and otherwise buried under the dense forest. The temperature of the water spraying from the waterfall created some mist, not as much as the mainland but enough to notice a shift in the temperature.

"This is where I can usually find it..." Hypnos said, looking around at the edge of the water for something.

Solar Flare didn't know what Hypnos was looking for but they found themselves looking around, too. It wasn't a plant that caught their attention though. While Hypnos was digging around in the water, Solar Flare found something interesting by the ruins. It had caught their attention because it seemed to be blowing around in the wind, caught under a rock to stop it from blowing away completely. As Solar Flare got closer, they recognized it as a piece of parchment. It looked like a scroll of some kind.

Solar Flare walked without caution, completely disregarding all senses for the thrill of adventure. As they reached the ruins, they were close enough to touch the parchment. It was there that they noticed that it wasn't a rock that was preventing the scroll from blowing away in the wind. No. The bottom part of the scroll appeared to be made of stone! How did that even happen? Solar Flare was perplexed and found themselves staring at the school in disbelief. On top of that, Solar Flare didn't even recognize the writing that was on the scroll.

What sort of joke was this?

How does a scroll become part of a stone? What sort of language was this? Solar Flare looked up from where they found the scroll and took another look at the ruins. A stone building was buried between some old trees and vines hanging down from the rooftop was basically a door at this point. There didn't seem to be anything else here.

"I found it!" Hypnos called to Solar Flare from the waterfall, her arms full of a wet, yellow bloom.

Solar Flare looked up and then ran over to Hypnos to assist. It was definitely better than trying to figure out the scroll... that felt more like schoolwork. It definitely lingered in their thoughts though. Maybe someday they'd figure out what it all meant.