Submission (#6199) Approved

After Sazial had taken care of building a shrine earlier that evening, he grabbed his bag of belongings and began to head further out of Silveil City. Treading along the sandy starlit beach towards the forest, he couldn’t help but pause. He looked over his shoulder and plodding behind him was the annoying elnin from the docks. “Why are you following me?” Sazial asked, puffing out his cheeks a bit. Carnelian, on the other hand, just found the act to be quite cute and not nearly as intimidating as Sazial must have been trying to be. Going too far away from the city wasn’t very safe for a kittom, as Carnelian thought about it he even glanced at the large lake’s surface that seemed to twinkle with light. Some kittoms in the past he had seen dive in head first to try to catch the reflected stars only for the bioluminescent jellyfish and life in the lake to cause a sting or two. They were pretty small near the lake’s edge so most kittoms would be fine but Carnelian still didn’t think it would be good to leave Sazial on his own.

Following the adult elnin’s gaze, Sazial’s eyebrows furrowed a bit. “Were you thinking I’d jump in the lake? If you keep following me…I’ll really do it!” He threatened, taking a step towards the water. Carnelian just raised an eyebrow. They had been getting along well enough at the docks he didn’t think the kittom would be so opposed. So Carnelian shrugged a little bit and said his piece. “If you’re not going to jump in the lake, then what are you going to do? I just happened to be going this way.” Carnelian announced, as though it were just by chance they were both walking towards the forest.

Sazial looked absolutely shocked. He didn’t believe it for a minute that this was by chance, but he couldn’t really argue that much with an adult. “Well maybe you should just happen to go a different way.” Sazial piped up, and after grabbing his bag he booked it for the tree line. The forest was dark, but every so often he would glance up at the stars between the tree branches until he found a nice spot in the woods. Carnelian had still been following him, but Sazial didn’t really notice since he genuinely believed he’d lost the elnin with sheer speed. With that in mind, he pulled some materials out of his bag, using the glow of nearby mushrooms and the starlight pouring into the clearing light up the area where he began to look for an offering.

He had been wandering around the woods for a while, looking for a faerie ring and this clearing seemed to have one. Glowing mushrooms formed a circle in the clearing and it was a pretty big ring too. Somehow Sazial felt that would help, though he had never really heard if there was anything that increased the success rate of having a good blessing occur. Sazial brought out some dolls he had bought in town with some stray coins he picked up that Silveil visitors sometimes dropped when they were coming in and out of gambling areas. Of course, he didn’t spend all the coins either. He left a few beside the dolls in the circles and then he sat down to wait to be blessed.

Eventually Carnelian came out from the tree line and was about to speak but Sazial just gestured to the adult elnin to be quiet, as though it would scare off any feyfolk in the area. Carnelian just smiled at what he guessed the kittom was hoping to achieve but having them both stay quiet. As time went on though Sazial found himself nodding off. He just desperately wanted a good friend, and thought the two dolls would get the idea across, and the shiny coin might help in case the dolls themselves weren’t enough. Carnelian wondered about the coins but didn’t mention the fact he wasn’t sure it was worth mentioning that bribes were not always financial in nature and that some other items might have worked just as well for feyfolk.

When Sazial woke up, he felt Carnelian’s plush tails wrapped around him, keeping him warm in the cool night air. The groggy kittom blinked and found his items he had left in the ring were missing. “Did you see them?” He asked, ears perking up ever so slightly with excitement though Carnelian just shook his head. “I nodded off too.” He admitted, though Sazial gave him a look of skepticism for a moment but could only sigh. “Well do I look any different?” he asked, half expecting his fur to appear different or something as though blessings were always visible things. Once again Carnelian just shook his head and Sazial pouted. “Well at least we got to see this ring of mushrooms. Hopefully it was noticed.” He said somberly.

“I’m sure they did. It was pretty quiet out but if it weren’t the feyfolk we surely would have heard someone come.” Carnelian suggested, hoping to raise the kittom’s spirits a bit. Sazial’s expression seemed to lighten a little. If they headed back to Silveil City, maybe he would find himself lucky and make a loyal friend there. With that idea in mind, the two fo them headed out of the dark forest and back towards the well lit city. For a region of eternal night, the city was the liveliest and brightest place you could be. It held a lot of promise even if there could be some danger at times too.