Submission (#7231) Approved

Micca plodded down the stony path of a cavern looking particularly exhausted. It was a friend's suggestion that some resident elnins and kittoms from Strynhalde take a trip to Zevija in the nicer months of the year, but so far the excursion had been anything but restful. So Micca had followed the caravan far from her cozy home in the snowy region of Eyre to this hot and desolate environment. Imagine she, who was content to knit her months away in Strynhalde, had seen distant volcanoes and lava pools only days ago. The locals even had to warn her that the geysers were in fact not hot springs and that the rainfall when it did hit this region could be quite acidic.

She was ready to leave this region already but the caravan wouldn't be leaving for a few days. Her paws were rough from the rock and occasionally she got a pebble or two stuck between her paw pads. Her small fluffy tail looked a bit frizzy along with the tuft of hair atop her head and she had run to this cave path after seeing a storm set into the area. For a bit she had waited at the cavern entrance, realizing after a moment that it was a light storm like those she had seen rarely in Strynhalde, but part of her didn't trust going back outside. Micca was all for adventure, but perhaps somewhere nicer and greener like Faerindell would have been a better choice.

So there she walked further into the cavern. It was close to town at least since the adult elnin never let the kittoms wander too far. Every so often a beam of light would find some crevasse in the rocks and sometimes bounce if it hit something amongst the stones just right. Micca didn't understand how that could happen but she didn't think too heavily on it. Further into the cavern she went, seeing gemstones from the walls that had been carved away. She must have found a mine but it seemed like it hadn't been in use for a while. There were not a ton of gemstones and every so often she would step in a puddle of water that had dripped down from the ceiling. Eventually she heard the soft sound of running water and found a small stream carving away at the floor as well.

Curiosity struck her as she followed it, going a bit deeper until something shot past her. It was another beam of light, only this time she could see it refract off of the gemstones, bouncing between them until it struck a pool of water, leaving a soft glow in the pool. The stream cut through the caverns leaving clean pools of water here and there, but on a hot day it seemed like the water being channeled might dry up. What was most peculiar was the pool still glowed. Usually the glowing motes of a light shower seemed to fade pretty quickly. Micca moved to the pool's edge, peering into it to find a small glowing fish.

She looked absolutely dumbstruck by the unexpected creature. Up until now Micca had been following small lanterns through the passage, seeing how far they went but now her eyes were fixated on the new source of light. She quickly looked around for something that could help the fish out. Zevija was so hot that Micca didn't think the fish would make it in the small pool, regardless of how cool it was beneath the ground amongst all the gemstones. If only fish could walk with fins like she could with her paws it could have helped itself, but Micca knew that such a thing was impossible.

This was a glowing fish, so clearly it was special. There was another elnin back home that mentioned an old tradition of helping glowing fish back to the sea but Micca hadn't believed her. Now she was regretting that mindset a bit. She pulled out some scraps of paper and a stick and a ball of yarn and some knitting needles she kept handy. It took emptying almost everything out of the kittom's small bag to find something remotely like a vessel that might be able to hold the fish. What Micca found was a small cup, just big enough for her. She gulped hard, looking back and forth between the fish and the cup. Would it fit? She sure hoped so.

"Stitch, please help me scoop the fish up into the cup." She asked, peering at her shadow as a small pomu crawled out with a touch of difficulty. It was a very round pomu and fairly small but Micca knew instantly they would be good friends. Though the pomu was a bit clumsy it was a persistent small friend. After attempting to catch the fish a few times, eventually the glowing fish was successfully transferred to the cup. Micca sighed with relief. Now they just had to get to the sea. It took a little bit for the kittom to trace her steps back and by the time she reached the surface the light shower had faded and there wouldn't be much time until the sunset.

Thankfully some adult elnin from the caravan had come looking for her and they helped her place the fish it a bubble-like vessel. Micca didn't exactly get why the adults seemed so excited but apparently this tradition had not surfaced for a while. The group traversed the hot and rocky landscape over a canyon and down a slope to get to the sea but thankfully with it getting later in the day things were cooling off considerably. Micca set the bubble vessel into the sea shallows and watched as it drifted out a ways. A sense of pride bubbled up in her as well. Maybe this was why the older elnin were so excited. She felt like a part of something larger than herself and for the first time on her trip she felt lucky to have come here. The sunset's warm light created deep shadows on the land around her and reflected on the sea's surface. She saw the bubble vessel pop as the little glowing fish was freed into the sea. As it swam into the depths its light faded but Micca felt like it would be ok. It would fare a lot better in the sea than in the cave, she was sure of that much.