Submission (#859) Approved

               As the sky overhead darkened with the setting sun and Bard ran to catch her brother, Sylvan, and their friend Arcadia, she couldn’t help but stop as the lights that were littering the sky finally hit the ground below and burst into floating motes of soft, gentle light.

               Holding her forepaws out, Bard didn’t really intend to catch any of the motes or falling streaks of light as she was far too cautious to do that intentionally, but the adventurer in her piqued her curiosity regardless. The lights fell gradually over time, Bard had only spotted one or two of the streaks dotted across the sky and they were so faint and fast that she wasn’t sure she had really seen them at all.

               However as the sky grew darker with the coming of night, the frequency of the ‘light-rain’ picked up exponentially, growing into a shower in a matter of minutes. The sight at first had startled Bard as she rushed to find her brother and make sure he was safe- but her worry turned to intrigue as the lights gently pattered down onto the ground below and seemed to do no harm. The longer she stood in the field surrounded by misty mountains floating in the night sky, the more light fell down and eventually plenty of it was pattering down on the top of her head, tickling her oversized ears and dusting her light brown hair with motes of near-white light.

               Bard was snapped out of her intrigue by the sound of her brother trampling through the dark, rustling the bushes and snapping numerous twigs underfoot, “Bard! There you are, what are you doing?” The gray-striped kittom rushed up to his sister, worry bristling his fur as he watched his twin spinning in a shower of strange lights. Apparently he had the same idea as Bard originally and had rushed back to find her, Arcadia trailing behind him looking concerned- but quite possibly only really concerned by Sylvan’s worried nature rubbing off of her.

               “Sylvan I think it’s fine, actually- look.” Bard held out a forepaw and caught a spark of harmless light, watching with wonder as it burst into a soft mote of light. As Arcadia peeked out from behind Sylvan to watch Bard, Bard’s heart suddenly raced as the other she-nin watched her so closely.

               Suddenly embarrassed, Bard froze and held her forepaw there even a few moments after the mote dissipated and seemingly melted away, but Arcadia and Sylvan didn’t seem to notice Bard’s sudden feeling of self-consciousness.

               “I’m not so sure… we have no idea what this could be, we really should get inside now!” Sylvan voiced his protest, but Bard hardly listened to her poor fretting brother as she noticed Arcadia seemed absolutely enthralled and enjoying herself at the beautiful sight.

               “This is wonderful Sylv!! I’m not sure what these lights are, but they’re harmless, soft and beautiful! Let’s stay out here and enjoy this, huh?” Arcadia chimed in as a response to Sylvan’s fretting, and caught Bard’s eye with a huge smile- the colorful almost white lights reflecting in her big, round glasses.

It would have been pitch black dark outside at this point if not for the lights showering down from above- the deep, thick woods to the side of the field were illuminated by the floating motes; highlighting huge trees and thick draping moss reminiscent of the large swaths of moss which hung from the massive mountains surrounding the group- and Bard felt a fluttering in her chest that she tried desperately to keep hidden as she watched Arcadia dance and have fun in this sparkling wonderland.

Thinking this was the perfect setting to experience with Arcadia, Bard hoped that her brother- who was seeming to calm down now- and Arcadia wouldn’t notice the burning red under the fur of her cheeks.