Submission (#8023) Approved

It was Rani's first time experiencing a light shower and her little cloud of a tail wiggled back and forth with excitement as colorful streaks fell from the sky. Her mother had told her about some of the past light showers, spinning all sorts of tales about odd cases of pomus disappearing and other pomus sometimes appearing more colorful after such storms. Rani was too young and naive to distinguish the truth from the tall tales in the stories, so to her the idea of mysteries and Eyre becoming more colorful due to the light showers never seemed all that bad. She was quite the curious kittom and took after her mother in that way.

It was a fairly calm night in Ealei when the light shower began. She and her mother were nestled in their lodging up within Yggdrasil's branches but out the window she could see the lights streak across the sky and through gaps within the leaves and branches of the large tree. After a bit of begging her mom to let her go out, she got permission to go out as long as she took Carnelian, her older sibling with her. He was in the area for business reasons appraising some things but his work filled mostly the daytime hours while Rynne seemed to settle at night to do a good chunk of writing and sorting out her thoughts. So Carnelian helped keep an eye on the eager Rani this evening.

Small colorful toe-beans pressed against the door, almost stumbling as Carnelian carefully opened it. Rani teetered forward slightly but without missing a beat seemed to balance out and with that she was off. Her little paws pattered down the stairs that wound down the tree's bark and Carnelian was maybe only a pace or two behind her. It always looked like she was moving quite swiftly but one glance at the grown elnin revealed how moderate the pace actually was. Carnelian had to slow down a bit to not accidentally bump into Rani. For every few steps she took, it only took one stride for him to catch up to her. Carnelian was quite surprised that Rani still had energy by the time they reached the docks and mangroves below. Where the mangrove tree roots were thicker, not as many beams of light seemed to go past.

She peered into the water to watch as the light seemed to bend when it hit it. Maybe it only appeared to bend when she looked at it from the surface but she honestly couldn't tell. Her nose inched closer to the water's surface and Carnelian had to wrap a paw around her to ensure she didn't fall in face first with a splash. The waters were pretty clear and it was easy to see the larger elder tree roots below, but in some areas Carnelian was sure the darkness gave way to deeper waters. Rani wasn't a strong enough swimmer to contend with a slip into the water yet, and few elnin were particularly strong swimmers in the first place.

Once the small kittom was pulled back up onto the dock Carnelian sat down next to her. They watched the skies and the big fluffy clouds above. In the distance Rani wondered what it looked like when the lights hit the large rocks instead, but she could only squint in an attempt to see. Carnelian might have known what other light storms had looked like in the past but Rani was determined to see it with her own eyes. The colors reminded her of herself a bit, the vibrant hues striking color across white clouds. She hardly noticed when a beam or two slipped into the faint shadows behind her. It was night so only light from nearby lamps cast any sort of shadow but there was at least a faint one that fell beside her.

"Brother 'Nelian? Where do you think the colors come from?" She asked, her eyes big as they followed the movement of the beams on the horizon line. The older elnin couldn't help but smile a bit at the question. It wasn't like any elnin had quite figured out an answer yet but he had always thought that was part of the fun. With that soft smile on his face his response was just a simple question. "Do you really want to know?" He asked, the corners of his eyes creasing a bit as his smile broadened as a pout seemed to waver on Rani's face. She must have not been expecting her question would be answered with another question. The kittom appeared to give it a good think for a minute or two before she eventually sighed. "Mum's already told me all kinds of things. Maybe I'll find out on my own some day." She told him. It was the same as her saying she no longer wanted to know. Perhaps she would grow to solve such mysteries but for now she was content to just ponder about them.

She gave a little stretch after the storm seemed to dwindle some and with a yawn asked if they could go back home. Carnelian rose with a stiffer motion, perhaps a bit lost in thought himself and gave a small nod and with that the two headed back up the winding paths back to where Rynne was. There would be time for such mysteries to be answered or at least thought about. An elnin could never be sure if these lightstorms would be a once in a lifetime experience or more regular, they sure were beautiful though. It would be an unforgettable night for the small kittom and hopefully feed her curiosity and imagination for many days to come.