Submission (#4047) Approved

Elora had dozed off under the pink foliage of a tree in an Elenion courtyard several hours before. Her father Asherion had left her with uncle Kormir again this summer, though she knew there wasn’t any blood relation. She still prefered to call Kormir an uncle since he and her father were close and she had half-siblings that often visited. She dreamed of the times spent back when they were younger and just a bunch of kittoms romping through the flower fields of Faerindell.

She blinked through bleary eyes as she started to wake up and for a moment she wondered if she was still dreaming. Streaks of thin colorful light rained down upon the courtyard and a breeze carried petals across the quaint cobblestone pathways in the capital. It was a little windy out, almost threatening to dislodge more of the surrounding garden’s flowers and petals. There was nothing cool about the rain though, and instead of pooling like water the light streaks just fell and settled for a moment before fading completely.

Maybe if she had been awake when the light storm started it would have come as a greater shock, but seeing as she’d slept through a portion of it Elora felt very little panic. She flipped on her back, stretching out in the grass just off to the side of a path in the courtyard and tilted her head to look at the faerie shrouds featured in the space. The flowers were vibrant in color during the daylight hours where the colorful streaks of prismatic rain paled a bit in comparison. During the day the light streaks had less to contrast against compared to the darker evening skies.

The experience felt magical. Elora really loved flowers. She recalled making flower crowns with Kite when they were a little younger, but now he was off adventuring. Tears welled up in her eyes a little at the thought of how much she missed him. Her family still kept her close but when Kormir had longer hours to work in the adjacent building she still felt a bit lonely. Paperwork was boring and while there were many friendly elnin she could tell it wasn’t really a place meant to entertain kittoms. For that reason she often came outside to play but there didn’t seem to be many kittoms here.

A slight stubborn streak bubbled up in her, not wanting to sit around and accept that she would have to stay in this boring place. She stood up after rolling back onto her paws and followed the path to the edge of the courtyard. The building in town had a fairly good view of the rolling hills in the distance that she pondered if she shouldn't just run for the hills now. That would show uncle Kormir how much she disliked this place. Something moved off to the side though a bit that she jumped. Another kittom sat in the shadows of a different set of faerie shrouds, watching the prismatic rain fall upon them.

"Hey! What are you doing? This is my place." She said confidently as she put on a bit of a tough air. She should have been thrilled that another kittom had come but instead she panicked a bit, wanting them to leave while she was exposing her feelings so much. The fur on her cheeks was drying a bit now but she couldn't resist her own curiosity. What in the world was this kittom looking at just staring at those flowers so steadily. "I'm checking if the rain does anything to the flowers." The other kittom piped up. Elora just felt bewildered, though she did look around her after a moment. The flowers were all the colors they should be aside from those being struck by the occasional light rain that seemed to glow a color momentarily from the residual light.
"Has something happened to plants before when the light storm hit them?" She asked, not bothering to ask the kittom's name perhaps because she finally had company here and holding a conversation felt more important. "Not that I've seen when I was passing through the farm fields or flower fields on my way here with my father. This is also my first time seeing faerie shrouds up close though. They're already so colorful, I wondered if they were magical in any way." The kittom said calmly. In response he was met with a very confident Elora. "Well the locals probably would say they make the city appear magical, but they're just regular flowers from my experience." She said with her chest puffed out a bit. The look the other kittom gave her was slightly awestricken.

"Do you know a lot about the plants here?" They asked, staring intently as if they had made a friend already. "Yeah, we usually spend a lot of time in this region or a neighboring one." She confessed. "Can you show me all of them?" The kittom asked, eyes starting to light up with excitement. "Well it will be a bit hard with the storm maybe to see everything but a little light never hurt anyone is what my brother said the last time in a letter when these storms happened years ago." She rambled a bit. The other kittom paused for a minute. "You know it's funny my father said the same thing to me once but then he wouldn't let me come with him when he was going on a caravan trip this year. So he dropped me off with some friends to bring me to grandpa Kormir." The kittom confided in her. Elora just about tripped at the mention of Kormir. ‘A grandpa?!' She thought, her eyes growing wide as she looked at the dark coated kittom beside her.

"Well I can show you all the plants here. Kormir's my uncle so you must be family. What's your name?" She asked. Her tone seemed a bit warmer than it had been initially. She missed her brothers so much, but she hadn't known she'd gotten a nephew too. Almost immediately she was filled with pride. There were lots of flowers the small towns of Faerindell had to offer. She would start with the courtyard and in no time she would surely show all the plants to this kittom. "Ah, it's Mallow!" They said excitedly and in no time the two had settled down into a pleasant conversation about the flowers in the flowerbeds. Some day Elora would go to the eldertree in Faerindell where all the sakura pink petals fell. She was looking forward to it too.