Submission (#4389) Approved

Crystal hadn’t meant to neglect her duties. The day simply needed more hours in it so she could get everything done! Several days ago she had offered to help take down the Feyhallow decorations that were still strewn across town. She was one of the few who could reach the decorations that were higher up in the trees and on the houses without the need of a ladder. Crystal had every intention of helping out as soon as she could. She hadn’t expected Nina to come find her and show her how to bake cookies, and she hadn’t expected to be roped into helping Nina deliver cookies. Before she knew it, days had gone by and elnin in town were starting to wonder if the spooky decorations they had set up were here to stay.

The town looked different at night. During the day, the sunlight brought out the vibrant colors of Faerinell flowers. It was easy to see the colorful petals dance in the wind, and you could tell what was a flower petal and what was a pink leaf from the nearby trees. The cobblestone houses that made up the town felt warm and inviting. At night, though, Crystal couldn’t help but see her surroundings differently. The stone pathways felt cold under her paws, so she took to flying through the town instead of walking. Pink and green leaves gently scooting on the ground from the wind sounded like the rustling of critters, and the flower petals that were so easily identifiable during the day made Crystal think a bug or animal was flying past her as they floated in the wind.

Flying made it easier for her Pomu, Gem, to join her in her task of cleaning up decorations. The pomu with black fur and a bulb tail just like Crystal’s flew next to the faenin. Crystal would never admit it, but having Gem by her side kept her thoughts in check. Surely if there was a spooky animal out and about then Gem would notice it as well and be alarmed. As long as Gem was calm, Crystal had no reason to be worried.

Crystal decided to start removing the stuffed bat decorations from the nearby houses and streetlights. She flew up to the edge of the stone and wooden houses and began to unhook the strings that connected the houses to the toy bats made of cotton and cloth. Big eyes and fangs had been drawn on them with paint, and in the light they would have looked more silly than anything else, but in the dead of night Crystal felt a shiver go down her spine. She quickly plopped the stuffed bats onto the ground and created a bat pile before long. Once the bats were off the houses, she worked on taking the bats off the streetlights that gave off a gentle, flickering light from the fire within the lamps.

Crystal pondered where she should move the bats to, but Gem answered her question as the pomu began to pick up the bats and toss them into the faenin’s shadow. Great idea! They could keep all the decorations in there and figure out where they needed to go in the morning. Now that the bats were out of the way, Crystal turned her attention towards some cotton cobwebs clinging to a bed of flowers. The faenin kittom landed on the ground and trotted over to the flowers. Large chunks of cotton had been pulled apart and placed all over the flowers. A younger kittom must have done this decoration, because Crystal couldn’t imagine an adult placing cobwebs on flowers like this.

With a sigh, Crystal sat down and began working on untangling the colorful flowers from the cotton cobwebs. Gem sat down next to Crystal and watched the kittom work. After several minutes and making little progress, something moved behind the kittom and pomu. Gem was the first to notice something was amiss. The pomu poked Crystal, who didn’t notice, and after a few more poked Gem used both of her feathered wings to gently bap Crystal’s arm. The kittom finally looked away from the cotton cobwebs and snapped a “What?!-” before her words caught in her throat.

Something was standing behind them. Shrouded in shadow, all Crystal and Gem saw were bright, glowing icy blue eyes. Was it a monster here to eat them for being out too late!? OH NO!

“AHHHHHHHHHH!”

Crystal let out a shriek. She grabbed Gem to pull her away from the monster and scooted backwards. The faenin kittom had completely forgotten that it was a bed of flowers sitting behind her, and with a yelp Crystal and Gem tumbled into both the flowers and cotton webs.

“... Are you alright?”

A gentle voice piped up from the shadows. Stepping forward, what Crystal thought was a monster quickly became a brown kittom with luminous blue eyes. She vaguely knew this kittom as Glenn, one of her neighbors. The faenin kittom paused for a moment before huffing and pulling herself out of the cobwebs.

“I’m fine! Why are you out and about so late at night? Trying to scare someone?!”

“I saw you taking down the decorations from my house, and figured you may want help. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Crystal picked a strand of cotton cobweb off of her and huffed again.

“If you want me to accept your apology, you can help with these cobwebs.”

She wasn’t going to outright admit that she was scared. So instead she accepted the other kittom’s help, and before long all of the Feyhallow decorations were down. With everything cleaned up and squared away, she bid Glenn farewell and made her way home. Perhaps tomorrow she could give Glenn a proper ‘thank you’, but for now she was still a bit frazzled from the surprise. She was ready to lay in bed and calm down.