Submission (#315) Approved

A trip to pick some food for dinner became more of a family outing than Asherion had planned. Pauline had work to do and originally only Ashe had planned to go, leaving the kittoms to play near their mother. At least that had been the plan until Elora piped up that she wanted to come with, followed by a slightly more reluctant Kite. Ashe raised a brow at Pauline for a moment, checking if she knew what was going on, before shrugging and beckoning the kittoms to follow with a flick of his tail tip. Her silence he took to mean his guess would be as good as hers.

Wandering out to the vegetable garden at the edge of town Asherion bartered with the local Sylvan who owned and tended to this bit of land. Meanwhile his kittoms plodded carefully through the undergrowth of the well-kept garden. “Careful of the crops.” Their father had warned them before they came here. It was their condition for being allowed to come along at all since part way through the walk there Asherion realized they weren’t coming along to help him pick food. They were set on a different goal, one Elora must have had the idea for since the usually brave and honest Kite even bit his tongue. Ashe had been a kittom once, he knew a secret when he saw one and didn’t press them much further. If they were in danger at least he was there. Even while bartering he kept sight of his kittoms out of the corner of his eye.

The crops growth was plentiful that they towered over the small kittoms, only their tails visible above the leaves along with the subtle movement as they navigated their way to the back of the garden. Towards the back the two squeezed under it into a field of flowers that bordered the town. “Don’t go far.” Elora heard Ashe chide to them at a distance. It wasn’t an audible warning but clearly filled her head as she kept her mind open. A soft “We won’t.” came as a stubborn reply. Elora was strong willed and definitely took after her mom in that sense and Kite seemed to puff up a little bit at the warning. The small kittom at some point in time had taken it upon himself to watch over his sibling, after all he wanted to grow up to be brave and strong like his dad.

The siblings wandered through the flowers, eyes wide with all of the colors. Elora was right, if they had waited any longer they would have missed this grand bloom. As winter drew nearer and the miasma grew stronger this would be their last opportunity for a while to safely come to the edge of town. “What colors should we choose?” Kite ventured the question as he tailed after his sister. In his mouth he toted around a small basket in Elora’s wake.

Her little eyebrow dots furrowed in thought. “All of them. Mother’s been so busy lately she probably hasn’t had time to see them all. So we should use all of them to make her gift.” Elora announced proudly. To kittoms who had only recently come into this world the idea that Pauline had probably seen many other flower fields in her days never crossed Elora’s mind. Kite, of course, nodded in agreement. Surely if Bazil were here he would have said something similar. Bazil was quite sharp after all. Kite missed his half-brother but one of them had to stay with Anko so it made sense Kite come back to Faerindell after the summer visit to the Palu’au islands.

“This one reminds me of a sea shell I saw.” He commented, setting down the basket to pluck a bright pink flower from the earth. “It matches your eyes too. Mom will think it’s pretty.” He observed before dropping it into the basket. Elora looked very shy for a moment, maybe a bit embarrassed by the roundabout compliment. “How about these.” She plucked a few other flowers, one purple, and another blue. “Hmm…we need a yellow one though.” Her eyes scanning the flower field.

She pointed one out to Kite that was growing beside a decaying stump. She wasn’t particularly fond of the mushrooms near it but her brother would get it for her. Kite had a gentleness about him that Elora recognized in her father, though it was rarer to see in Ashe. To Elora though her brother’s kindness was the best. Kite had confided in her once that wide open spaces like this made him nervous. He had felt the same way about the great waters between Palu’au and Ealei when he saw them. Despite his fears he had come out here to help do something special for their mother. Elora would have told her dad but…he really couldn’t keep secrets from her mother.

At a distance Ashe watched the two kittoms carefully gathering up an assortment of flowers as he gathered up the vegetables he had bartered for and placed them into a larger basket. When he was done though it seemed the kittoms weren’t and upon trying to approach Elora’s thoughts fell upon him. “You can’t come over here! We aren’t done yet.” He smirked a bit and then turned around to settle on the back steps of the Sylvan’s home to sun a bit while he waited.

Back in the meadow Elora puffed up. “Ok Kite. I think we have enough.” She announced, bringing the basket atop a large stone that was loitering in the field. There they carefully laid out all the flowers they had collected and warmed their little paws. Kite turned a little bit, looking to his shadow. “Miff, can you help?” He asked as a very round, small pomu came out of his shadow. This was part of why Elora had requested his help specifically. Ever since Kite’s pomu had appeared Elora had taken quite the interest, perhaps testing Miff a bit. Kite, gentle as he was, seemed to share that nature with his pomu. The easy going little puff was not the most dexterous, as it was quite small and young but it had learned one thing that always cheered Elora up. It knew how to braid.

“Pomu.” The solemn response came from the small puff as it waited for Kite’s request. “We want to braid a flower crown for mum, Miff. Can you braid these?” Kite asked to which the small pomu nodded and sat down to get to work. It took quite a while, so long that even Ashe almost came over a few times only to have Elora put her whole weight into ushering him off. When she returned though from guarding their project her eyes gleamed at what had been crafted. Kite set a small flower crown on her head from the extras that they had and little Elora spun for a moment with glee. Turning behind her, her eyes narrowed on two flowers and she plucked one each, setting the small one on Miff’s head and the other next to Kite’s ear. “Thank you for helping me.” Her expression aglow with emotion. Kite set their mother’s flower crown in the basket and Miff settled on his back as the two worked their way through the flowers.

Their father looked them up and down as they emerged covered in grass and petals. “Did you accomplish what you wanted to?” He asked, watching the two small kittoms nod. Elora stuck a stray blossom in his tail proudly and he let out a half squeaked noise, something maybe akin to a laugh. “Alright, back home we go.” And with that their excursion came to an end. As the door back where they were settled for the night opened Elora half tumbled in, almost losing her own small flower crown. She carefully took the flower crown from Kite’s basket and trotted over her mom, crawling up a pillow to place it on Pauline’s head. “Mother! Mother look. We can make accessories too. We made you a crown.” She beamed with pride as Kite came up alongside her.

Asherion looked upon his family with a warm gaze, and a hint of mischief in his eyes when he met Pauline’s gaze. ‘She is a lot like you, you know.' Seemed to be what he was saying, though no words passed between the two parents. Kite had also made two small bracelets for his other siblings, though like all the other pieces they were a bit rough. After all his pomu was very young and the dexterity an older pomu might have wasn’t quite there. He was not the sort of brother to leave anyone out though. Maybe it was the charming part of his father but he’d been raised not to ignore those who were kind to him, his siblings included.

As the day wrapped up and the daylight was fading lights slowly lit up across the homely cottages and houses. Elora was content. For as much traveling their parents did there was nothing like being in cozy Faerindell. She and Kite settled in a pile next to their siblings, chattering softly about their day and what things would come.