Submission (#8118) Approved

The late morning sunlight spilled across the colorful garden behind Harun and Jirais home in Devara; a little patch of calm nestled near the waterfalls, where the breeze carried scents of dry earth, ripe fruit, and jasmine. Devaras desert heat was tempered here by the shade of flowering vines and carefully tended greenery. The inn was still quiet, they didn’t have many visitors at the moment, and Haruns friend was taking care of things while he was spending time with Jirai. 

Harun sat cross-legged beneath a flowering tree, hair up and eyes narrowed in concentration. Bits of fabric, copper wire, old beads and a loop of patterned ribbon were scattered around him. In his lap rested a half-finished creature; a strange fusion of a snake and dragonfly, stitched together from scraps. Its long, patchwork body curved delicately across his knees, and two mismatched wings, one made of pale blue silk with gold thread, the other deep green linen patched with flower embroidery, fluttered slightly in the wind.

Jirai zipped past behind him, his arms full of yarn balls, sticks and shiny beetle shells that he had collected over time. He disappeared into the house only to burst out again moments later, triumphantly holding glitter glue and what looked like pieces of a dismantled holiday garland.

“You better not be cutting into our curtain tassels again,” Harun muttered without looking up.

Jirai stopped abruptly. “...Define 'again.'”

Harun gave him a flat look, but his lips twitched. “Unbelievable.”

“Hey, sacrifices must be made for art,” Jirai said with a grin, flopping down beside him and immediately beginning work on his own creature - a fantasy beetle with shimmering wings made of dried leaf skeletons and something that looked suspiciously like the shell from his coin purse. Between them, the small garden was cluttered with scissors, cloth, bark, bits of bone polished smooth, and spools of thread.

“Is that glitter?” Harun asked, squinting as a gust of wind flung a sparkle into his eye.

“Stardust,” Jirai replied, dead serious. “My beetle eats comets and mangoes.”

“Truly a creature of legends.”

They fell into a comfortable silence as they worked, the garden filling with the sounds of cutting, stitching, and the occasional huff when glue went where it shouldn’t. Jirai’s beetle was gaudy and bold; oversized wings, antennae made from curled ribbon, and shiny beads down its back like armor. Harun’s dragonfly-snake was more subdued, with soft colors, a serpentine body of quilted cloth patches, all different sizes and shapes.

“If it were real, it would feed off of honeydew and sunshine…”, he murmured to himself, with Jirai agreeing in the background.

The dragonfly-snake took form with delicate glass bead eyes, gathered from broken necklace pieces, a tail of twisting yarn stripes, and tiny wire legs wrapped in copper thread. Harun breathed softly as he worked, pride and melancholy mixing in his chest.

“Look at him! He’s… he's the Sunfire Beetle! With leaf-membrane wings and glitter bits inside!” Jirai suddenly held his creation upright and shook it gently so the wings fluttered. Its painted shell was fiery orange and yellow, speckled like sunrise on sand. But he quickly put it back down again and started arguing with a particularly stubborn bit of wire, when suddenly the garden gate creaked.

“Speak of the craft devils,” Jirai said brightly, waving. “Mary! Nico! And; oh Yoru!”

Mary stepped into the garden like he was mentally preparing himself for battle. He took one look at the mess and sighed.

“What is this floorcovered madness?”

“No?!,” Jirai replied cheerfully. “We call it ‘creative chaos.’”

Nico followed, a woven basket looped over one arm, and grinned as he took in the scene. “We heard crafting was happening. We brought supplies …you know, in case you run out of beetle shells or rainbow yarn. Found a shop in town that had these.” He passed the basket to Harun, who peeked inside - buttons shaped like stars, velvet scraps, gold trim, and a bundle of shimmery lace.

Haruns eyes lit up. “These are perfect!”

Mary raised a brow as he crouched beside Haruns creation. “This one is a bit unsettling.”

“It’s a dragonfly-snake,” Harun said. “I wanted to make something inspired… not to capture, but to imagine. It’s not perfect but…”

“It’s fine, I’m just teasing. But it’s adorable, really”, Mary smirked and Harun nodded. 

Yoru had already seated himself beside Jirai, inspecting the beetle Jirai was working on.

“Wait until you see what I’m adding next,” Jirai said, rummaging in the supplies, before Nico handed over a small pile of iridescent ribbon and metallic thread and his eyes lit. Yoru laughed and quietly helped untangle the ribbon for him.

Mary stared at Nico, shaking his head. “You’re enabling this.”

But the younger one just laughed. “This is what we came here to do. Let them build their weird little dream pets.”

Soon the garden became a shared workshop; full of laughter, fabric, and light teasing. Nico helped Harun string tiny chains around the dragonfly-snake’s coils like jewelry. Mary, surprisingly precise with his claws, tied perfect miniature bows for the beetle’s legs. Yoru, focused and quiet, added delicate flower embroidery to the wings.

“Imagine if these were real,” Jirai said dreamily, pinching some fabric. “We’d need a greenhouse to house them.”

“Or a containment field,” Mary muttered.

Nico chuckled. “You two should open a shop.”

Harun laughed under his breath. “I think with the inn that would get a bit overwhelming…”

He placed his finished creature onto a warm stone bench. It shimmered faintly in the sun - soft fabric, shimmering thread, wings curved like gentle sails.

Jirai nestled his beetle next to it. “Sunfire Beetle and Mistcoil Snake. Best friends.”

“We’ll make them a little pond later,” Harun said.

An hour later, Mary and Nico packed up to leave for lunch. They offered to help finish the creatures’ final embellishments - Nico handed over tiny bead chains, “Necklaces for your beasties. They deserve a little flourish.” and Mary grinnened; “And remember, if you two ever do open a pet boutique, I want the top spot. And Jirai; try not to glue yourselves to the floor.”

“Too late,” Jirai said, examining his paws.

“Haha, oh no…Well good luck with that,” Nico called, following Mary toward the gate.

As they waved farewell, quiet returned. Yoru stayed behind, stitching something small from pale felt - perhaps a bird, perhaps a fox, only he knew.

Harun leaned back, his head resting against the tree trunk, his long hair slowly becoming undone in the breeze. Jirai flopped beside him, arms behind his head, eyes watching their two little creatures under the dappled sun.

“They look happy,” Jirai said quietly.

“Making these… helped me believe in gentleness again. That creatures don’t always need to be real to matter.”

“Isn’t that the point?”

Harun smiled, just a little and brushed a paw across Jirais’ cheek “Yeah. I think it is.”