Submission (#4499) Approved

Submitted

29 November 2022, 13:59:21 PST (1 year ago)

Processed

30 November 2022, 10:42:06 PST (1 year ago) by tatter

Comments

Regional Affinity: Silveil
Elnin: https://worldofeyre.com/character/ELN2740

Content

Much as she had enjoyed her visit to Faerindell during her extended Starfall holiday, Poema soon found herself feeling a strange itch. Not from the pollen from so many flowers blooming absolutely everywhere, but the pearl-marked blue Kittom was an ocean child. She'd been found from the sea. As best she could tell she'd been born at sea.

Poema needed to see water again.

Ever since she had been very small, barely old enough to remember her Pomu first crawling from her shadow as her nursery group stargazed from the night shores of Palu'au, Poema always wanted to see the deeper, brighter skies she'd heard about of Silveil. Could the stars really be so much better there than anywhere else?

So, riding across the twilight veil from Faerindell, eternally night-shrouded Silveil became their next travel stop.

But what her aquatic spirit needed most, Poema desperately wanted to rest her sight upon the lake of Silveil. That great expanse of water, cradling the region's submerged Eldertree, reflecting all those infinite stars and bringing the freshwater depths up to the wide-open, galaxy-streaked skies like Poema had only dreamed.

To her imagination, the lake should have been a jealously guarded secret. A secluded treasure Poema could cherish in reverent silence until she had, proverbially of course, drunk her fill of its beauty, eventually reluctantly returning to her caretaker's lodgings in the glaring caterwaul of the main city.

Instead, the raucous laughter of so many Kittoms rang through the air, with the shouts of tussling, fighting, and so many exasperated caretakers. Poema grumbled a little but found herself wandering toward the commotion. Curiosity did slay the Kittom, after all. What was going on there?

A picnic spread of cookies and other Feyhallow treats greeted Poema, but to her growing curiosity, and Hoku, her Pomu's, infinite despair, they weren't for immediate snacking. Danika, a chatterbox of a native Kittom, with a twilight-hued coat marked with golden stars, filled Poema in on the details.

"So, Poe. You don't mind if I call you Poe? Okay, so we all get one monster cookie. It's like a trail mix baked into the cookies. But then we go out, find some glowshrooms for everybody, and then we all eat. It's like, local tradition for us or something, you understand."

Poema broke off a little chunk of her cookie, a piece brimming with peanuts and chocolate candies, and offered it to Hoku. Her Pomu's eyes shimmered, almost as though welling with tears. Poema stifled a chuckle as the fluffy black shadow creature slowly, almost reverently took the piece of cookie into his paws, before stuffing the entire crumbly confection into his mouth.

"Muuuu...." A contented noise burbled up from her Pomu, lost in the joy of cookie, and Poema could no longer resist laughter. That didn't sound like any squeak or chirp from her familiar that the Kittom had ever heard before.

"Hoku, you sound like a highlands cow. Do you need a glass of milk with that?"

With barely a moment's hesitation, Hoku dipped into their shared shadow, reaching out from the inky darkness with a sippy cup in his paws. He waved the cup around to emphasize the point, flailing his free paw in equally dramatic fashion. Poema gave Danika a sheepish glance, and the starry Kittom offered a hearty belly laugh in return.

"So, glowshrooms?" Trying to change the subject, Poema gave her new friend a puzzled glance. "Doesn't everyone live in the city? There should be more than plenty enough light to scare off even miasma monsters, shouldn't there?"

"Nah, not everyone!" Danika shook her head, gesturing wildly to emphasize the point. "You got some villages spring up, out around the lake, out around the outskirts of the city, even in the forest! Lots of Elnins and elseworlders like it here, but not so much the noise. So we gotta take them spirit gourds."

Her friend tapped the funny carved gourds at their feet. "Keeps 'em all safe from fey and other creepy crawls. Some regions, they do spirit masks and stuff, like the old ways did, but here in Silveil, it's dark so the light keeps the least beasties away."

Poema nodded absently to herself, watching the other Kittoms disperse in pairs and trios, plucking tiny shimmering fungi surrounding the lake shore, others exploring around the alcoves created by nearby bridges.

It all seemed oddly inefficient. "Aren't there more mushrooms in the forest? We could get this task completed in a few minutes if we tried."

Poema noticed Danika grin in her direction. A slow, toothy little grin that caught a glint of moonlight for the barest hint of a second before the star-marked Kittom bounded off toward a clearing in the forest. Unsettling as the moment was, Poema shrugged off her moment's worry and scampered to catch up.

"Hey, hey, that's not a bad idea, Poe. I got my basket, you got yours. Let's race each other, see who fills theirs up first!" Swinging her basket up on her shoulder, Danika called out behind her. "Just don't wander too far off the trails, you don't wanna know what else calls the deep shrooms home."

Poema took to the task of collecting glowshrooms with her usual sort of distracted, contented reverie. Her basket filled to the brim with a medley of glowing mushrooms in an array of pretty pastel hues, Poema happily spun to show off her bounty to her picking partner. She froze in place.

Where was her new friend? Furthermore... the mushroom forest, glittering and glimmering and beautiful as it was, also stood in eerie silence. No birds, no bugs. No Kittoms. Was it always this... quiet?

"Dani?"

Crunch. Crunch.

A wet, oozing sound slopped across her hearing, accented with harsh, crackling noises. A monster? Had she chanced upon a miasma creature in the forest, all by her lonesome?

With lop ears pressed close to her skull, Poema shivered, huddling close to her basket as though the small glowing fungi could somehow ward off the unknown horrors.

"Stay back, monster. Danika? This... this isn't funny!"

Cronch. CRONCH.

The slobbering, grumbling, crunching noises grew steadily louder and ever closer. Poema gasped, expecting to be caught and eaten, maybe told about in hushed voices over future fireside stories, about naughty Kittoms who strayed too far away from safe places...

Wait...

CRONCH. CRONCH.

Still shivering, but trying her best to put on her bravest face, Poema took a glowshroom in her paw. She leaned into her shadow, squinting to see past the mess of inky blackness cast by the glowing flora in the dim starlight.

CRONCH.

"Hoku!"

With a triumphant peep, Hoku tumbled out from her shadow, face absolutely smeared with chocolate and crumbs. He grasped his latest prize, a shard of cookie easily as big around as he was plump, tightly in his paws. What caught Poema's exasperated attention were the cookie's blue and purple candy star sprinkles, tucked among the peanuts and raisins and chocolates.

"Hey, Poe!" Danika leapt from the cap of a particularly tall mushroom tree, cackling and rolling with laughter once her paws hit the ground. "You shoulda seen your face, girly, that was amazing! I knew that Pomu of yours would be easy to bribe!"

Crinkling her nose, Poema stuck her tongue out at her prankster assailant. Still, she felt quietly relieved it was all just a joke. No one had really and truly left her. All by her lonesome. Again. Poema shivered again in spite of herself, and a soft paw clapped her shoulder.

"Yeah, you got a good mess of shrooms for us. That's good! C'mon, Poe, let's go, we'll feast like queens!"

Rewards

Reward	Amount
Elecite Coins	9

Characters

ELN2467: Danika 🌟

Reward	Amount

ELN2740: Poema 🌊

Reward	Amount
AP (Silveil) (Currencies)	1

Add-Ons

These items have been removed from the submitter's inventory and will be refunded if the request is rejected or consumed if it is approved.

Item	Source	Notes	Quantity

Keilin's Bank

Currency	Quantity