"It's is Feyhallow~ It is Feyhallow~ In this town~ we call home~ everyone hails to the masks of bone~~" sings a chirpy small black and white kittom. She prances along ahead of her father, a primarily blue elnin, with markings that shine in the light of the day, glinting a silvery blue in the sunlight, making it appear his coat is covered in ripples lapping at a stony lake shore. His gold and silver eyes crinkle into a smile as he watches his daughter bobbing along to the tune. Her golden metallic markings a contrast to his own, Her small tuft of hair blowing in an invisible breeze, and her black and white tipped ears bobbing up and down in time to the rhythm.
"Hiroka, remember your manners when we visit Aunt Airi's place. She owns the hotel, so don't go playing hide and seek in her fancy pottery vases. You remember what happened last time don't you?" Hiroka rolls her seafoam green eyes, and turns to face her dad.
"IT WAS ONE TIME! How was I supposed to know it was some rare Kyendi antique" she exclaims with a huff, and sticks her tongue out at her dad, before turning around as the large hotel comes into view. "Oooh look Dad! It's the Black Lace Hotel!" and with that she bounded off, running to the entrance as she spies a pair of figures in the distance. Ripple, her father sighs shaking his head causing his long floating locks of blue, white and gold to phase gently in and out of the air and bob as they float in the air. One of these days, she's going to be less reckless.... then again, I was young once too. With a chuckle the pair approach the revamped hotel. The Black Lace had undergone several changes over the recent times, its architecture was definitely stereotypical Kyendi, but adorning each circular window, an intricate metallic design swirled, reflecting the patterns of the current owner, Airi. The rooftop was a maroon colour, sweeping upwards in the typical asiatic style that was familiar to the locale. Mist from the mistmere gently swirling and coiling around its peak as it usually did. As Ripple crossed, the final stone bridge leading to the entrance of the hotel he saw his old teacher Airi standing there. Her pale white complexion, coupled with her dark black hair and lacelike markings, made her stand out against the surrounding trees and bushes of the garden around the hotel. Her daughter, Chantilly, stood next to her. Her black coat, and white lacelike markings, the exact opposite of her mother's. She seemed to be engrossed in some small pocketbook, scribbling away. Hiroka, Ripple's daughter, bounded across the gardens to greet them.
"AUNTY AIRI!!!!" she squealed running over to hug her aunt, who, startled by Hiroka's rambunctiousness, took a few seconds before hugging the little kittom back.
"Hello Hiroka. It's good to see you again. Are you keeping your dad, Ripple, on his toes?" she asked with a wink. Grinning, up at her, Hiroka laughs before bounding over to Chantilly.
"Heya Chanti! Whatcha reading? Do you have your Feyhallow costume ready? You're so good at sewing you've gotta have something amazing prepped!" Hiroka says with a grin. Chantilly snapped shut her book and turned her dark black eyes over to her Mum's friends daughter, her white winglets fluttering as she blinked twice processing the question.
"O-o-oh... um... y-yeah...." she said softly looking down and blushing slightly "d-do you want to see?"
"Hell yeah I do! Let's go! Lead the way before my Dad gets over here and ruins everything."Hiroka said with a moan, rolling her eyes for dramatic effect. Before following behind the black and white kittom. Ripple reaches Airi and gives her a kiss on the cheek as a greeting,
"Heya, teach, long time no see, huh?" Airi's pale grey eyes look at Ripple with a little disdain.
"Teach? I thought I taught you better than to call me 'teach'." she let out a forlorn sigh, "Did you bring the painting I asked you to purchase from that auction in Ealei?"
"Of course I did! Whenever you ask for anything I'll endeavour to get it. Anything for my old mentor." he said with a sly wink of a silver eye and a playful smirk. "Let me drop off Hiroka's half made mask in Chantilly's room, and you can have a look at some of the other artifacts I managed to score while in Ealei."
"Oh, Ripple, you know just how to get the old adventurer in me excited." she said with a smile at the younger Elnin.
Meanwhile, Chantilly had led Hiroka to her room. The room, was located on the top level of a secondary house next to the hotel. Large windows out of place with the architecture of the rest of the building, filled the room with light. Large wooden tables filled with paper, fabric, scissors and other tools lay strewn across the place, and many mannequins, some half dressed, others completely bare, lay strewn about the room.
"Wooah, THIS IS SO COOL!!! Your room is so fancy Chanti~!" Hiroka exclaimed, running around the tables poking the different fabrics, her eyes twinkling with delight. Chantilly smiled at her friend, her marsh tail flicking back and forth happy at her friends approval.
"Heh, wait till you see this." Chantilly bounded over to the mannequin closest to her bed, that was covered by a large red velvet cloth. Holding onto it with two of her paws she waited for Hiroka, to plonk her black and white tush onto the wooden floor and gaze up at her with full attention. Then with one swift movement, she pulled the velvet cloth away. Underneath lay a mannequin dressed in a shades of black, white and deep plum, a long dress with black lace and a long black cape that shimmered with glitter on the inside.
"Ooooh," HIroka exclaimed jumping up to have a closer look at the fabric. "This is fancy, Chanti!!!" with a smile Chantilly proudly puffs up her small black chest with pride.
"It's an 18th century gothic design! I want to go as... a vampire princess."she said flourishing her front paw, as if it was holding a cape. "W-what about you Hiro? What're you thinking of going as?" Chanti asked, tilting her head to the left, letting her ears flop to the side.
"Oh, me? W-well... hehehe..." Hiro gently rubbed the back of her head before looking out the window at the mists surrounding the rounded hills visible outside. "Uhhh... well... nothing THAT fancy. I was just thinking of coming up with one of those traditional mask thingos! The ones that look all scary to ward off those feyfolk things. Dad says, that there are different masks from different places all around the world! He got me this magazine which showcased all these fancy ones, I really wanna do something like the traditional Zevija one! It's got this amazing big brimmed hat that has lots of small tiny masks hanging off of it by threads, and it looks super cool." Hiroka says with a grin. "Hang on, let me go grab the book and stuff from Dad! You're going to love the magazine Chanti, it has all these weird traditional mask designs in it." scrambling out the door and back to the main hall, Chantilly shrugged at her friend, before thoughtfully walking after her, still contemplating how Hiroka's mask could look like.
Hiroka, bounded down the stairs and into the main living room of Airi and Chantilly's house next to the hotel. She checked the kitchen... but no sign of her Dad or Airi there, she checked the living room... nope, no sign of them there either. Finally giving up, she decided the quickest way to find her dad would just be to shout. "DAAAAD WHERE ARE YOUUU?!"she yelled, before thoughtfully sitting and closing her eyes and straining her ears, honing in on any sound she could. Then, she heard a decently loud "Over here!" ah, the basement! Quickly she bounded down the stairs to the lower level. As she pushed open the door, she found herself surrounded by books. A large library, filled with weird antiques, books, paintings and a humongous circular table where her father was pointing to various photographs, and weird artifacts that lay strewn across an old map that was laid out on the table.
"Woah, whatre you doing Dad?" Hiroka asked, using her small white paws to prop herself up so she could see onto the tall table better.
"Well, Airi and I was just discussing some new ideas for the upcoming conference being held in her hotel. All these items came from the places we visited 4 months ago, remember Ealei?" he said, pointing a pale blue paw at the island on the map.
"Oh yeah! Huh... it's not THAT big, it's a pretty small island" Hiroka said confidently to Airi who smiled and nodded at the small kittom's posturing. "Anyways, Dad where's my stuff? Chanti and I are going to make our costumes! OH! Did you know she made this crazy 18th century gown thingo? She's going as a vampire princess! IT'S CRAZY GOOD DAD! You gotta come see." Hiroka said pulling her Dad's fluffy mane.
"Of course it's amazing sweetheart. I'll come over in a bit, Dad's talking business with Aunty Airi okay? Here, your mask making stuff is over in the bag on the chair there! Be gentle with it. You still haven't glued down the strings onto the hat base." Ripple said lovingly, before tousling her tufts of black and metallic gold.
"Urgh, Daad, stop ruffling my hair. I hate it when you do that."she mumbled under her breath, shaking her head thoroughly so that her hair went springing back to its usual place, before bounding over and grabbing her mask stuff and the magazine. As she turned around to head back upstairs to Chanti's room, she saw Chanti, enter, also propping her small paws up onto the table to get a glimpse at what her mother was doing. With a smile, Hiroka bounded over to her friend and handed her the magazine. "See! THIS is what I was talking about! Look at the masks from Strynhalde! They use antlers! Isn't that crazy?!"she exclaimed, flipping the pages till she got to the well thumbed one of Strynhalde. Chantilly's black eyes twinkled at the sight of some new fashion ideas, and she let out a soft 'woah' at the sight. Grabbing the magazine and sticking her nose into it, while walking back to her room. Hiroka chattered alongside her while carrying her mask back to Chantilly's room.
The afternoon was a fruitful one, and with Chantilly's help Hiroka made her awesome Zevija mask-hat thing and Chantilly came up with several new ideas thanks to the traditional mask magazine. As the day came to a close and Hiroka, Ripple, Airi and Chantilly had dinner together at the Black Lace hotel, Hiroka couldn't imagine a more perfect Feyhallow's eve, and the next day donning their new costumes they headed out and had a fantastic time together.
