Submission (#2982) Approved

Kibo could make a game out of absolutely anything. Clearing leaves from the storefront? Kibo collects them into a neat pile on the side of the walkway before jumping in to make a big splash. Gather up the pieces of crumpled paper scattered across the floor? Time for a classic game of toss-balls-into-the-bin!

It’s usually a major help to the adult Elnin to have a kittom so enthused about doing chores - but sometimes he can get a bit too enraptured by whatever game he’s created and lose sight of the original task. One time he was trying to help create a fancy display of tea boxes in a cafe window with the goal being to make a pyramid. But he wanted to see how high he could make the tower and ended up stacking it so high that the entire thing crashed down and he had to start over!

Some of the younger kittoms have been growing restless while the adults work to prepare for the upcoming winter months, so Kibo decided he would take it upon himself to distract them. The very best way to do that, in his opinion, was to keep them occupied with fun and games. In his many explorations of Ealei, he’s started growing a collection of really smooth, almost glass-like rocks that are round in shape. He thinks that, if he can find some more, he could use them in a game to play with the youngins. They’re pretty to look at, come in all sorts of colors, and can easily slide across the floor. 

It's evening now as he walks down the docks laid across the water’s surface like streets, the paths growing more familiar the longer he stays here. It’s been a few weeks since he arrived in a small town to the east of Nalnalo. The settlement wasn’t nearly as big as the capital, but it was extremely welcoming with a strong sense of community. It held a charm often lost on the busier cities in Eyre. 

As he reaches the very end of the dock, he takes a moment to drink in Ealei’s distinctive surroundings. Trees rise from the water’s depths, their roots zigzagging up and down over the surface, creating intricate pathways through the mire for those riskier travelers who aren’t afraid to get their paws wet. Ealei was… secluded, but comforting. Dark and wet and yet full of warmth. Feelings caused, no doubt, by the Mother Tree towering above him, so large that it doesn’t even register as a tree. He can’t even see the lowest of the branches of Yggdrasil from so far beneath its canopy, especially with such little sunlight reaching the waters below. 

There’s a small chunk of time where he gets distracted by a swarm of fireflies whose warm light reflects softly on the water’s surface. Suddenly, as he looks down into the shallow depth, another idea suddenly crosses his mind. He scoops up a smaller, flatter rock from the river with his paw and shifts his gaze between it and the expanse in front of him. He’s seen other kittoms do this before getting yelled at by fisherman to stop scaring all the fish away. But there’s no fisherman around, so…

He rears his paw back and then surges forward with a quick thrust, releasing the rock to send it flying. The first time he throws it, it plops into the water uneventfully. He smiles at the sound it makes, undeterred by the failure. He tries again. Another plop. It takes a few more times, but one of the rocks finally hops across the surface of the water once before sinking along with the others. One skip! Yes! 

He continues this way, again and again, until he’s finally gotten the hang of just how to flick his paw to get the right angle. Two skips. Three! Can he get to four? He reaches down and finds only one more rock left, so he decides to make this last throw really count. It goes much farther than he intended it to, disappearing behind the large roots of a tree. Instead of hearing it plop into the water like he expected, there’s a loud yelp in the direction the rock landed.

“Ouch!”

The sudden cry startles him, but he quickly shakes it off and rushes over to the source of the sound, hopping from root to root across the water. When he reaches the source of the sound behind the tree, he finds... another kittom?

“Oh…! Are you okay?” The kittom was rubbing their head with a paw. When Kibo only received a glare in reply, he continued to apologize. “I’m sorry! I was just playing a game…” He looks around and notices that they’re completely alone, hidden away from the main part of the town. Maybe they’re lonely…? Worrying this might be the case, he asks, “Would you like to play with me?”

After a moment of silence, they finally speak. “...I don’t like games.”

Kibo can’t help but blink in surprise. Who doesn’t like games? Are they sick? Surely that would be the only explanation to someone saying something so silly. Acting on instinct, he reaches out a paw to touch the other’s forehead. 

The mysterious kittom immediately recoils in response with a sharp “What are you doing?!” 

“Checking to make sure you’re not sick,” he says like it’s plain as day, though he does look a bit sheepish. “I’m sorry if I startled you again.”

“I was never startled in the first place,” they huff. 

“Okay, okay,” Kibo soothes. “What about if I at least keep you company for a while, then?” 

They look him up and down before twitching their nose. “I don’t need company.” 

But Kibo refuses to give up. “Well… I do! It gets boring going out by myself at night. Will you do me a favor and keep me company?”

The dark-furred kittom seems to ponder this for a moment. Eventually, they relent. “...Fine. But keep your paws to yourself.”

Kibo smiles to himself as he follows his new friend deeper into the wilds of Ealei.