Submission (#7235) Approved

Loki trudged along slowly, his pomu his only companion as he walked among the roots and vegetation, deep in thought. While it was true he had a mission to see through, his mind had been elsewhere for days on end, and there seemed to be no respite for it in sight. Still he'd put himself to work and had at length decided that the best place to search and find glowing fish... was the mangroves that Ealei had. The water was shallow enough in many places that his gijinka form could easily wave the liquid, and clear enough for him to see, specially in the dimmer light of the evening.

While his eyes scanned the surface of the water, peeking through the many tree roots while trying to avoid falling into deeper waters... his mind wandered. His good friend had left him behind, even if this was obviously not her intention. He idly wondered how, or better yet, how Fu had managed to grow up so soon. He figured perhaps she'd just had it all together better than he had? Unsure of the answer, he'd only managed to dwell for days without much answer. After so much time feeling mildly sorry for himself, he'd decided to put his mind out of the issue and set out to help with the ancient tradition; perhaps the chore would give him insight, or perhaps, well... it'd at least give him something else to ponder.

As such he'd sat down and pondered deeply on how best to find the glowing fish, how best to help at all. His mind kept coming back on the crux of what had set him out in the first place however, and he was finding it... hard, to concentrate.

A small chirp from his companion pomu, who pointed to their immediate right, suddenly caught his attention, and he attempted, albeit poorly, to put these thoughts to rest. Instead, he caught sight of a flash of scales, and the kittom worked his way through the mangrove roots, "Finally," his pomu looked at him at the sound of impatience in his voice, and the small creature frowned, lifting a finger to wag it in the air, as if it did not agree with the kittom, which only served to make Loki roll his eyes, "We've been wading in water for the past three hours! I'm allowed to be frustrated."

He forced his way through some roots, and there, in the shallow water, was a glowing fish. One that took quite a lengthy time to coax into the fish bowl Loki had been carrying in his paws the whole time.

Still, he did eventually manage to secure the small creature, along with a couple others before making his way out of the waters and only firmer land. Firmer being... a stranger descriptive word for the terrain, granted, which was still full of massive tree roots. Making a small impatient sound, the Kittom held the bowl tightly in his front paws and began to make his way south, towards where he knew the wharf cities lay. Soon, the great poofy clouds hanging over the ocean would be seen, and perhaps... seeing tradition through would help settle his thoughts?

It wasn't until he was standing on the piers, looking at the many rocks that poked out of the ocean water that Loki realized the whole day had just served to frustrate him. Nothing he was doing was inducing any sort of positive feeling in him, and still frustrated, albeit this time with himself, he chose to sit on the wooden pier. There, he place the bowl between his legs and looked down at the fish calmly swimming in the clear waters he'd gathered.

His pomu, sensing some sort of bout of melancholy, wise chose to sink into the kittom's shadow and vanished, leaving the child to look out over the water, where the sun was slowly setting. It took him a rather long time to realize he felt sorry for himself, or perhaps, rather, he felt vaguely put off by the notion his best friend had left him behind. She'd walked too far ahead, and he felt...

Lonely.

Which was honestly, a dumb notion, to be fair. Fu hadn't gone anywhere he couldn't reach, but the gap felt almost insurmountable, and he felt strangely inadequate, knowing that he had not yet managed what she had. He knew growth was not time based; everyone grew at their own speed, but the notion did not alleviate his inner turmoil. It took him longer still, sitting there on that pier, looking down upon the fish, to realize that likely, part of the reason he'd been 'left behind', had to do with the feelings themselves. They were childish, immature thoughts, and that while it was all well and good, and very fair for him to feel lonely, he needed to look inward to fix things. He also should go see Fu.

Sighing softly, he got up, slowly lowered the bowl to the water, and released the fish into the waters, staying put to watch their glow swim away from the pier he stood at. He, perhaps, had a lot to work on still, and there was... clearly a reason he hadn't yet grown up. He simply wasn't ready, and there was simply no forcing any of it. He should, perhaps, ask his friend to travel with him regardless.

They say travel is one of the best ways towards self growth and maturity.