Submission (#7522) Approved

Hi team! Writing is a little rusty, so let me know if I need to change anything! ovo

Word count: 1117
Region: Ealei (Tree cities, mangroves, puffy white clouds, clear sea) - 1 Ealei AP for MYO-ELN798
Elnin in prompt: MYO-ELN798 + ELN2741
Pomu in prompt: Belongs to MYO-ELN798

Payout: 6 + 2 (over 900 words) + 1 (Pomu) =9EC

When Mira woke up that morning, she assumed the day would go by like any other day. With miasma season rolling in, the chatter and noises from the docks had disappeared. The only noise that roused her from her slumber that morning was the soft crying of seagulls. In other regions, other elnin typically woke up to the beautiful sound of singing birds. Why couldn’t seagulls sing instead of screech and cry?

Mira knew there was no use in trying to go back to sleep, even if to try and get a few extra minutes of slumber. She pulled herself out of bed and went through her usual morning routine- Brush teeth, shower, make breakfast, eat breakfast, pack her bag for the day. The kitten placed a few apples and several wrapped sandwiches into her bag. She was going to be carrying around too much food for one kitten, but her plans always included splitting her food with her best friend.

With her bag properly packed and everything else out of the way, Mira headed to the front door. As opened the door, something sitting on the doormat outside gave her pause.If she had moved her feet to step out onto the wooden platform the kitten would have ended up kicking over what appeared to be an egg. The egg was roughly the size of a pomu (Mira could only guess as she didn’t have a pomu of her own yet, something that bothered her greatly) and was a soft jade green color. Mira leaned down to inspect the egg, seeing that there was an intricate swirl design on the shell’s surface. This certainly wasn’t a seagull egg, or an egg from any bird that she was aware of. Mira was also pretty sure pomu didn’t come from eggs, and she couldn’t think of any other animal that would lay an egg and leave it for someone to pick up. It was possible that this strange egg wasn’t an egg at all, but a strange rock. Or was it a giant seed? The leaves that clung to the bottom of the egg, the cord wrapped around the egg, and the wooden bead with moss only brought more questions than answers.

Whatever it was, Mira assumed that someone left it on her doorstep by mistake. Ever so carefully the kitten picked up the egg and began to make her way across the wooden platform towards the nearest staircase.

Mira’s plan was to find an adult and ask what to do with the strange egg. As she made her way down several of the many wooden staircases that linked Ealei’s tree cities together, her ears perked up at the sound of gossip. Mira learned that others had received eggs as well and that there was no definitive explanation about how they appeared in Ealei. There were scattered whispers about feyfolk, but the residents could only guess. The one thing that every elnin agreed on was that the eggs should be taken care of and kept safe.

Part of Mira wanted to give the egg to someone more responsible. However, the other part of Mira wanted to keep it. She couldn’t quite explain it, but holding the egg made her feel warm. Important. Special. Even though other elnin had received eggs too, not everyone had, and someone had deemed Mira worthy of having this egg. For now, she figured she would keep it.

Now that the egg mystery was partially solved, Mira made her way down to the docks of Ealei. The sky was crystal blue with several large, white puffy clouds hanging high in the air. As she walked closer to the docks, she could see through Ealei’s clear ocean water at all the mangroves and rocks underneath the water’s surface. It was the perfect day for swimming, so she knew that Gem had to be somewhere nearby.

Her guess was correct. When Mira reached the edge of the wooden dock where she often spent time with gem, she could see the undine kitten swimming in the water nearby. Accompanying the undine kitten was a pomu that was swimming circles around the kitten. Gem and her pomu were diving between mangrove roots, scattering schools of fish in their wake.

When Gem noticed Mira sitting down at the edge of the dock, her face split into a wide smile and she swam over to her friend. Gem’s pomu, Pebble, followed quickly behind her.

Gem popped her head out of the water, said “Good morning!” then turned her attention to the egg that Mira was holding. “What’s that? Did you bring breakfast with you?”

Mira rolled her eyes and explained the situation with the mysterious eggs and they feyfolk rumors. Gem’s eyes went wide and she shouted “I WANT ONE! That’s so cool! It’s like having a pomu, but, like, not!” Pebble turned their head and gave Gem a curious look before looking at the egg and shaking their head. Mira shared Pebble’s sentiment.
“It’s nothing like a pomu.”
“It’s like when pomu go into hibernation, but it already has its own protective lantern! Kinda. Hey! Let’s go read your egg some stories!”
“Read it… stories?”

Gem pulled herself out of the water and shook herself off. Pebble climbed up Gem’s tail, plopped onto the dock, and shook itself dry as well.

“Yeah! That’s what I do with Pebble when they’re hibernating! Even though they’re asleep, we can still spend time together and enjoy each other’s company. You gotta take care of that egg, right? I bet it would like to hear some stories! Come on, let’s go back to my place. I have a lot of story books there!”

Before Mira could protest Gem and Pebble were already making their way towards the stairs leading to the tree cities above. Mira sighed softly and reluctantly followed the two. They climbed up the stairs and walked across the large wooden bridges that connected the tree city platforms together.

It was about lunch time when they arrived at Gem’s house. While Gem and Pebble collected story books for them to read, Mira set the egg down and pulled out the apples and sandwiches from her bag. Mira, Gem, Pebble, and the egg sat in the middle of the room before long, enjoying their lunch and reading stories out loud.

While the day wasn’t going according to how she expected it to when she woke up that morning, she was enjoying herself. She wasn’t sure if the egg could hear Gem’s dramatic reading of fairy tales, but she had a feeling it was enjoying the company, just like Mira was.

Perhaps taking care of this strange egg wouldn’t be so bad after all.