Word count: 812
Elnins: :thumb806880352: (Norton) :thumb800478405: (Amazon)
Regional Affinity (in the Story): Kyendi
Amazon stared at her mess of papers and groaned. She STILL didn’t know what to do for the Masked Masquerade, and it was coming up soon! Every Elnin was trying to look the coolest, so costume planning was becoming competitive. Each costume maker was hoping theirs would be the best.
The white and blue Elnin lashed her long tail in frustration and went back to pacing outside her house. The forest clearing had many ancient trees that cast a deep shade over anyone under their immense canopy. Amazon huffed and sat down with an inkwell and dipped her reed in it. She began sketching out costume ideas and then paused, irritated. She crumpled up the paper and grabbed a new one. The mess all over the clearing told of this being repeated many times as the frustrated Elnin tried to come up with the coolest, most creative costume to cover her plain, unkempt fur.
Amazon sighed and then went into her oak tree home to look at what materials she had, hoping for inspiration. She thumbed through stacks of drawings collected over the months, deep in thought. A quiet cough echoing from the clearing shook her out of her reverie. A visitor, and Amazon was pretty sure she knew who it was. A grey and orange head with dark blue eyes poked through the doorway, confirming her suspicion. Norton’s blue-gray hair was up in a messy braid bun and his fluffy gold chest was covered in dirt and scraps of who-knows-what. He looked around at the inside of Amazon’s home, which was not much neater than the clearing outside.
Amazon glared at him. “Yes, it’s messy. I’m trying to come up with a costume idea but I can’t figure out anything! Nothing seems extravagant enough!” Norton thought for a moment. “What if instead of trying to make it fancy, try making it reflect you? You’re a warrior, you’re a traveler, you’re a legend-seeker. Why not include that?” Amazon looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean?” She asked. “Well,” he looked around at the room. “You have this Silveil lace, some cool decorative knives, these awesome feathers... you could be a warrior fae creature! That would look especially cool with your crown and Emberglow.” Amazon jumped up, excited. She ran over to Norton and gave him a hug, then dashed over to her shelf and began pulling down seemingly random objects. She grabbed a small stack of her designs and a clean sheet and began drawing a costume that held the best elements of all her ideas. She finished sketching and looked over her design. She nodded and began organizing her materials by type and color. Norton watched with an expression that can best described as intrigued amusement.
Amazon began tying ribbons and starry lace together, making a looping rope of shimmery, colorful material. She wound it around her tail and pinned it with a few jeweled daggers, and attached some Strynhalde Winter Phoenix feathers. The effect made her look like a peacock warrior, giving Amazon more ideas. She sorted through the basket of fabric items next to her shelf until she found what she was looking for: a deep blue mask with gold patterns on it. Perfect! Amazon began busily attaching ribbons, feathers, and gems to the mask’s surface until it resembled a Faery peacock wrapped in the stars of Silveil. That done, she used cotton wisps and the Silveil lace to make floaty wings that appeared to be wreathed in the mist of Kyendi, Amazon’s home region. Then, she attached faerie shrouds she had traded for in Faerendell to different parts of her costume, and tied them onto a shimmery gold cord. Amazon tied the cord around her favorite weapon, a glaive with a blue-tinged metal tip and runic carvings in the wood.
She set down all of her costume pieces and sewed them together. She looked up, finally finished, to realize the sun was setting and Norton was gone. However, he had left behind a gift. A miasma charm decorated with gold-frosted feathers and blue crystals. Amazon picked up the beautiful pendant and attached it to her necklace, vowing to wear it all winter long. She folded up all of her costume pieces and put them in a box, which she stashed under her bed. Then, she went out of her house, bringing a rug and some pillows with her to eat a dinner of fried nutbread and Starberry jam, her favorite food. Out in the misty clearing, surrounded by old trees, Amazon found another gift from Norton. He had cleaned up the mess in her clearing and trimmed the trees, letting her see the floating islands Kyendi was famous for in the distance. As the sun set, bathing the forest in orange-gold light, Amazon ate her faintly steaming dinner and thanked the stars for her friend Norton.
