Submission (#856) Approved

(632 words)

It was late evening and the sun was about to set over of the Mangroves in Ealei. Winter was tired from a long days journey with her traveling companions, but retained a youthful excitement to explore the tree city they had arrived in. Her traveling companions were either sound asleep in their cots or relaxing in the inn they had found for the night.

Too eager to see the city Winter announced, “I’m going to explore for an hour”. She was tired but very eager to explore the treetops.

“Be careful!” Mia, Winter’s mentor, chimed on Winter’s way out to town.

The treetop city was bustling, and everyone walked with certainty on the wooden walkways despite being elevated far above the mangrove below. Winter was unsure at first following the pace of the locals, but soon found confidence that the walkways would not send her plummeting below. She found a grouping of shops that were near closing that showcased the cities unique fashion sense and marveled at the windows. She saw rather decadent looking scarf but was sad to see the awfully expensive price tag attached to it. She shrugged looking at the coins available to her and started to move out of the clothing district.

She later found herself following her nose and her growling stomach to a grouping of food shops celebrating Starfall despite current events recent pomu catastrophe. There was a decent bustle of patrons in a large square. She went shop to shop looking at the delicious edibles until she settled on candy shop. She purchased a large portion of fudge and took a seat at a nearby branch shaped into a bench. She eyed the fudge hungrily and despite having grown and matured over the years as Mia’s apprentice, she gobbled the fudge down like the kittom she was.

Full of fudge, feeling a little tired, but unwilling to return to the inn so soon, Winter stayed on the bench and watched the locals walk by. She was always amazed at the differences between the regions and enjoyed making note of unique things about the locals everywhere she went. She yawned and noticed that the sky was starting to dim with the setting sun. Winter looked at the sky and noticed a weird lights falling towards the trees.

The first few motes of light landed on the ground in front of her and she panicked, fearful that the light would surely burn down this wooden city. She got up from her bench and dashed towards the Inn, bumping occasionally into the equally fearful or awestruck local. Once she reached the Inn she ran into the room screaming.

“EVERYONE WE NEED TO GET OUT NOW!!! THE CITY IS GOING TO BURN” Winter bellowed.

Her yelling managed to wake up Pan from a deep sleep, and Mia’s hair was standing on edge. Everyone either looked bewildered or confused or both.

“What do you mean burning?...” Mia said with a calm tone trying to gather information and plan a course of action.

Winter was always stunned how calm Mia reacted to even the scariest things and tried to emulate her calmness despite trembling. “There are these weird lights falling and landing on everything in the city” Winter stuttered.

Mia looked confused and walked over towards Winter and brushed off her fur. To winter’s surprise she was covered in the lights and they were not burning or destroying anything. Winter stood there stunned and watched Mia inspect and play with the light trying to figure out what it was.

“It isn’t dangerous” Mia said amused but looked confused. “Let’s go see what is going on with this” Mia smiled and patted Winter’s back.

As they started out the door they heard a sleepy “hey wait for me!” from Pan behind them.