Submission (#7906) Approved

Mavis had waited around Pau'lau for a few more days, to see if she would encounter another light shower, and on the last day before she decided to give up, she had encountered another. She decided to sit under "her" palm tree, the one she had sat under every day, and watch the light shower while she wrote and sketched in her journal. She stretched her arms over her head, a lazy grin settling on her face as the last of her journal entries trailed off in a flourish of pencil strokes and sketches. She leaned back against the palm tree, toes curling into the warm golden sand, and lifted her head to watch the prismatic light shower continue its strange, beautiful descent. Every now and then, a brilliant shard of color would streak past her and burst into a scatter of glowing motes, soft as fireflies, dancing along the surface of the beach before fading into the breeze.

Further down the shoreline, laughter echoed.

Mavis tilted her head, catching sight of a group of kittoms darting through the rain of lights. There were four of them by the looks of it, their fur bouncing with every hop and dash. They each held tiny glass jars, some corked, others open, and were waving them wildly through the air. They leapt like frogs, tumbled through the sand, and chased the motes with delighted squeals.

"Almost had one!" one cried.

"That one bounced off my nose! Did you see it?"

"You're in my way, Luma!"

Mavis laughed softly to herself. The scene was endearing, pure. The motes seemed to swirl closer to the kittoms, as if caught up in their joy. With a small smile, she rose to her feet, brushing sand off the back of her legs. She tucked her notebook into her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and started walking toward them.

"Hey there," she called out as she approached. One of the kittoms paused mid pounce, their little pink and cream ears twitching toward her.

"Hiii!" the smallest of them greeted, jar held high like a torch.

"Mind if I join?" Mavis asked, giving them a warm smile. "It looks like fun."

The kittoms exchanged glances. The tallest, a soft blue furred nin with a lime green ribbon tied around their tail, stepped forward. "You can try! But it’s really hard. We haven’t caught a single one yet."

"Not even close!" chimed in the one called Luma.

"Still," said the blue one, beaming, "it’s a game! You’re totally welcome. Just find a bottle."

Mavis pulled out the empty water bottle from her satchel and swished the last bit of liquid onto the sand before twisting the cap back on loosely. "Will this work?"

"It’ll do!" Luma giggled.

The others gave excited nods, and without further delay, Mavis joined the fray.

The air buzzed around them, full of energy and color. The light showers drifted in gentle arcs through the sky, like celestial petals falling from a rainbow tree. Mavis raised her bottle high and spun around as a glimmering streak came toward her. She timed her catch, snapped the cap shut, and blinked.

Nothing inside.

"Missed!" a kittom called, hopping gleefully beside her.

"You have to scoop from below! Like this!" one demonstrated with a high leap and an exaggerated sweep of their jar.

Mavis tried again, following their movements, this time crouching low. A flicker of lavender light drifted downward in front of her, delicate and slow. She reached forward with her bottle, trying not to startle it, like catching a butterfly in the air.

Pop.

It burst just as it neared her hand, motes scattering in a soft fizzle across her arm.

She let out a delighted gasp. "Oh! That one tickled!"

The kittoms burst into laughter.

"It got you!"

"They always burst if you get too close! But sometimes they bounce!" another explained.

They chased the lights for what felt like ages, darting in and out of patches of sand and tide, kicking up bits of water as the reef shimmered beside them in shallow pools. Mavis quickly realized that catching them wasn’t the point at all.

It was about the trying.

The joy of chasing something that made your heart leap. The delight of being surrounded by something that didn’t quite belong to anyone, something you couldn’t keep, but could still experience.

She collapsed onto the sand beside the other kittoms, all of them breathless and flushed from the effort. A few jars clinked together, all of them empty, with nothing inside. One thought that they had managed to catch a whole cluster of faint golden light, but when they checked, they noticed that there was nothing inside.

"You almost caught one," she murmured in awe.

"Almost! But you can't actually catch them," said the kittom holding it. "They always disappear just as you're about to catch one, or as soon as they enter the jar. But it’s okay! We just try again next time, since it's so much fun!."

Mavis smiled, heart full. She looked up as more lights rained from the sky in slow, steady streaks. Their color had shifted again, now blues and pinks, soft as candy floss. She reached for her notebook, quickly sketching the scene as the kittoms played around her.

"Thank you for letting me join," she said softly.

"You're welcome!" they chorused.

She stayed until the sun began to dip behind the horizon, the motes still falling like soft glitter from the sky. Not once did she catch one, but she’d had an amazing and fun time.