Submission (#324) Approved

Mazin had settled into the heart of Elenion, Faerindell’s capital city, for some of the winter months with his mother Rynne. His small pomu had slipped into a crystalized state of hibernation. As for Mazin, he peered beyond the window pane shyly peeking at the elnin ambling through the fairytale style town with their pomu lanterns. The small kittom hardly noticed his mother’s watchful eye as he attempted to inconspicuously craft his own lantern.

It was hard for Mazin to admit he was a bit jealous of his half-sister Remillia’s lantern. At least Mazin couldn’t quite place his jealousy a few days ago when he had seen the lantern but his unlabeled feelings moved him into action. Their mother had helped his sister with her lantern for Remi was a lot bolder about asking for favors. Mazin in contrast was fairly reserved and didn’t want to trouble his mom. If anything he wanted to prove he could handle things on his own like his father probably would. So he set himself to work.

In the early mornings he would rise and quietly tiptoe around the house to gather supplies. Twice he had nearly fallen in a seed bin just outside the home trying to retrieve flowers from the fairy shrouds that clung to the roof. In the end he could only grab a few blossoms and had to settle for collecting some of the pink petals and leaves that littered the ground in this region. On the days when the miasma seemed slightly thinner he would take a spare scrap of paper and some ink to draw the hilly patterns of the fields on them. Then compiling all his materials and drawings he sat down one day to craft his lantern.

He framed it out in tough stalks of tall grass and used some spare thread for mending clothes to hold the stalks together. Carefully he fixed the drawn on papers to the stalks with thread and a bit of plant pulp as glue to keep things together. Then to cover up the edges he stuck petals along them and decorated some of the top corners with the flowers he had managed to snag that were beginning to droop and wilt. His mother found him sound asleep hours later beside his crafted lantern noticing he must have run out of thread as the string tied to it was quite short.

Quietly she extended it with a braided thread from the base of the lantern, weaving the thin strand into a stronger tether with a lucky fortune tied to the end of it. The next day Mazin awoke to the finished lantern. With a little additional help from his mom to secure it to his pomu’s crystal they were ready to go to the local Faerindell farmers market. While a lot of the fields further out could not be sown this time of year the local gardens that lay within the protection of the town’s runes were abundant enough to still put on a fairly good local market. It provided some entertainment when most elnin were usually sequestered to their towns.

Remillia took the lead through the stalls, marveling at all the produce. Every so often they would find something imported from a different region, likely by a noble caravan or lone noble. Rynne was not far behind Remi and following at the tail end of the small parade was Mazin. Unlike Remi who just about lost the lantern tied to her tail a few times in her galavanting Mazin was careful and quite proud. He wasn’t used to drawing much attention but just for this season bringing light to others and toting around his small decorated lantern got him out of his shell a little more.