Submission (#329) Approved

With the miasma season passed and elnin straying a little further from their homes it was time...for payback. Sazial was a rather quiet elnin with a level head most of the time but when he had been pushed too far it came quickly, like a storm. He remembered lounging around last summer when the weather was nice like this and the sun was warm. He had fallen asleep only to awake to a lovely manaberry stain on the white fluff of his paws and a few speckles on his chest. How embarrassing...and worst he was sure his companion Rabbit would pick a fight over it. Sazial really couldn’t decide which predicament was worse but he knew who it was, another visitor to Ealei…specifically, a kittom named Wick.

The flashy kittom had been terrorizing the boardwalk for a while looking for a challenge, or in Sazial’s case perhaps a good mark to prank. In the end he had made it work and Sazial hadn’t even noticed the berry juice his paws were dipped in, silently cursing his ability to sleep deeply for the first time in a while. Usually it came in handy when Rabbit was prodding him awake with some wild excursion to go on but in this case he hadn’t noticed his fur being dyed. Much scrubbing later that evening one summer ago he could still remember being left with a faint blue hue to areas of his fur after trying to get it all clean.

Now he heard that kittom was back in town and Sazial had full intent to enact a grand prank this year. Hulling himself up he plotted, drawing out his plan. He would need more paper than this for what he wanted to do, not for the planning phase but for his prank. Rabbit had left him a while back to his crafting after a mess was made of his room. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she thought it was just him taking too long and got bored but sometimes she surprised him with interest in his small side projects.

The air was damp and the skies were clear in Ealei. He could make out the rock structures in the distance that stood firm against the cresting waves. It was hard to stay inside and focus on his planning while the outdoors looked so nice but he had resolved himself. It didn’t take him long to draft a small prototype and then he got to folding a white serpent out of papers and attaching it to wooden dowels, like a puppet on stilts. It wasn’t the most perfect papercraft creation but it would do, especially since paws weren’t very dexterous and he had to ask for help cutting the shapes for some of the papers apart.

Then it was on to the next step of his prank. He wandered down to the boardwalks, ducking under a root or two that sometimes came overhead some of the narrower walks and worked to find a quiet place to play his prank. He found a tub of water and dragged it to a narrow boardwalk section among the mangroves. Then went wadding around in a pool nestled in a large root of Yggdrasil to find a noisy frog. It complained a great deal but once in the tub of water quieted down a bit. Climbing up a root he camouflaged his paper sculpture among some leaves and everything was finally prepared.

Now all he had to do was find that pesky kittom, Wick. The hunt for the rival kittom took longer than he expected. He found the other relaxed under the shade of a fruit stand’s canopy. Sazial tried to avoid smirking or seeming all too satisfied with the prank he had set up. “You know...I found this really interesting fish down by the mangroves. I thought you might be interested given you seem quite bored...though I could be wrong. Maybe it’s not something you’re interested in.” Sazial said, going back and forth with his words trying to pique the other’s curiosity. Wick perked up an ear at the comment. He was a bit suspicious, but he didn’t think of the other kittom to be all too clever. Maybe he could figure out what kind of fish it was and boast about it to Mallow later, though his friend had more interest in plants than most other living creatures.

“I can’t say I’m all that interested but I have a friend who might want to hear about it. So...well...maybe just a peak wouldn’t hurt.” Wick responded casually. Getting up he stretched and his tail flicked back and forth a little with subtle interest. “Lead the way.” He said, looking beyond Sazial down the boardwalk. For a short while Sazial was almost afraid he wouldn’t be able to hold the other kittom’s interest. It had taken him so long to find Wick that they were quite a great distance. So on the way to his setup Sazial bartered a bit and got them snacks to eat along the way. It wasn’t too much farther now.

“Wow you sure came a long way to tell me about a neat fish.” Wick said a bit suspiciously. “Well it’s a really cool one and fish aren’t really my friend’s thing.” He said, though he was pretty sure fish weren’t really his friend Rabbit’s thing mostly because Sazial didn’t like what came from Rabbit and fish being in close proximity. Once or twice he had one thrown at him and he wasn’t all too keen on them or the smell. As they approached his set up prank he took one last look up at the sky, admiring the billowing white fluffy clouds. Wandering over to the tub he looked down into it, gesturing for Wick to come closer.

“See it’s a really cool fish.” He said, grinning ear to ear as Wick approached mistaking Sazial’s satisfaction for pride. Sazial pretended to bump into the tub when Wick got close, rippling the water that almost looked like clouds reflected on its surface until it seadied. Once it was no longer rippling Wick saw what looked like the giant white serpent in the water stumbling back as the startled frog in the tub leapt out at him. He thought his heart stopped for a moment until he spun quickly on his heel to look at the fake paper serpent up in the branches. It had just been a terrible trick and the frog had even splashed some water on Wick in the process. Sazial on the other hand was laughing himself to tears. His prank really had paid off. “You should have seen the look of fright on your face.” He said between breaths.

Initially Wick was furious with embarrassment but taking a deep breath even he had to admit it had been a pretty good prank. Looking up at the crafted serpent he picked up the frog and slipped it back into the water. “You know it would be a waste to put all that effort just into one prank.” He said with a mischievous grin. “Who else do you think might fall for this?” He proposed, watching Sazial think a bit. With a whisper of a name the two kittoms scampered off united for at least a brief while. It had been a lot of work after all. Why not make it last a little while longer, Sazial thought.