Post by Mittens Mckittens on Jun 10, 2023 18:02:41 GMT
He takes up position within the center of the room, casting a nervous glance and smile at the little golden bee perched watching him from her fresh bouquet of wildflowers. “It’ll be fine Lib,” Mittens says, trying to ignore the shake to his voice. “I-I mean, what’s the worst that could happen right?” he added, more to himself. As he turned to face the morning sun, taking a deep breath as his eyes became fixated on a chalk ‘X’ drawn onto one of the wooden boards of the floor in front of him and, he began to speak aloud the incantation.
A blue glow begins to emanate from around the young one's eyes, rippling across his slick black fur and man, the glossy sapphire gemstone set within the copper headband around his head begins to pulse, resonating with the magical energy being brought forth. Shaping and focusing it into the weave of the words being spoken aloud, as sunlight dances across the surface of the golden flower clutched hopeful and aloft in the small gloved paw.
The room is filled with a sudden puff of brilliant golden light, sparkles emanating out from the flower as if it had just sneezed out a cloud of glittery pollen.
At first the only thing Mittens can make is the flutter of wings, and a sudden hiss. When the gleam of the gilded flower settles, at first Mittens thinks nothing has happened, before he then notices two big angry glowing eyes staring at him from under the kitchen table.
As he squints to get a better look at whatever he summoned-and worrying it just might be a fiend-he makes out a silhouette of a very fluffy tabby cat with the legs and tail of a hawk.
"H-hello?" Mittens says, carefully setting down the journal with the flower on top onto the floor and edging closer to the table, keeping his eyes on the creature's.
The cat's entire face contorts in a grimace of hatred as it hisses back.
"W-wait..Don't I know you?..Y-You're one of those Fey from the Orchard ain't ya?" Mittens suddenly recalls.
The cat-shaped sprite, the one that head-butted Jax with lightning, Mittens recollects, nods. But the deep growling noise still permeates the room.
Libby the bee curiously lifts up from her perch amongst the flowers and buzzes down quietly to hover between the chair legs and stare at the creature.
"Careful Lib, we don't wanna scare..um..Oh..I-I don't think I caught ya name last time." Mittens admits with the scratch of an ear.
"Levkoi" Mittens hears in his head. There are other words, but their meaning are lost to him: Sylvan.
"Levkoi huh?" Mittens states as he crouches down next to Libby, both peering down under the chair. "Well d-don't know if you remember me, but I'm Mittens."
A hiss, louder than previous ones, quickly disproved his guess: the sprite clearly remembered him well enough.
"Ah..Right ya do...Um..." Mittens lets himself fall back to sit cross legged and allows his ears to fall with a shameful look.
"Look I'm sorry about what happened at the Orchard..I-I didn't want them to send ye away, or for ya to feel that ya had to leave. Things got...Complicated...And I was a little...Well a lot, overwhelmed I'd guess you'd say."
There is a bit more of disgruntled growling there, and Levkoi rolls his huge eyes, as if saying, “No shit”.
“So..I..Summoned you right? Y-you answered me? Mittens asks tentatively.
Another grimace, and another hiss. While Levkoi cannot deny the facts, none of them seem to make him happier.
"Hm...I can tell you’re not best pleased about it too huh." Mitten draws up his legs and hugs his knees to his chest, resting his head on them as he stares away ashamedly. "Look, I can't blame ye for not being happy about it. Trust me I know all about folk bossing ya about: telling where you should or shouldn't be going, not being tough enough for adventures, or doing the wrong things...I've had me fair share since arriving here." He admits with a soft mewing sigh.
From her position in the air, Libby lands down to perch delicately on Mittens’ leg, watching him sadly before closing her eyes and beginning a soft uplifting humming melody. Mittens looks back over at her, a small smile creasing the sadness in eyes. "Well..Not from you Lib..and not from..Miss Kennari of course..." Mittens glances up at Levkoi. "She brought me here, you know, to the Dawnlands. Got me involved in all this Magic, adventuring and stuff…
I-I want..I-I would like...I need you. To help find her for me…
Please.”
As the sprite watches the images, its scowl softens, fur and feathers falling back into place. The green eyes lose some of their maniacal energy, following the shift in illusion. While still on edge, Levkoi seems to be teetering between his own insecurity and the comfort of the story in front of him. Two large eyes fixate on Mittens, uncertainty flickering in their green depth instead of pure terror.
“I-I’ll do anything! I’ll find ya a home, make sure nobody bothers ya, make sure you’re happy! Just please…Help me find her…” Mittens voice breaks as he finally releases the pain and fear he’s had welling up for weeks, fat tears spilling down and along his whiskers to drip to the floor.
Mittens feels a tiny pressure on the back of his palms. As he raises his eyes, and the fog of tears lifts slightly, he notices a small paw pressing on his hand. Levkoi paws at him with only his toe beans a couple of times, claws hidden away. There’s a bit of a grumbling. Not annoyed, but rather…Uncertain.
"What is it..c-can't you do it?" The Kitten asks, not wanting to hear the confirming answer.
As he wipes his eyes with the back of his hand, Mittens takes in the sprite’s appearance: the ears are down, the wings droop down. The huge green eyes look… lost. Even Levkoi’s shape seems to be shifting: fur morphing into feathers and back, all crackling with Fey magic. It suddenly dawns on Mittens just how small Levkoi is. How small they both are. Two smalls in a very, very big world. What can they do? Where would they even start? Even if Levkoi wanted to help, which he seems to be willing to, there isn’t much a small Feywild sprite can do.
As if reading his mind, Levkoi bristles a bit, and turns to the rows of books lining one of the walls. He walks up to it, sniffing the book covers with what Mittens imagines must be his usual expression of disdain. The sprite proceeds to rub his cheeks, very cat-like, on one that sticks out of the row ever so slightly, causing it to fall on the floor. Satisfied with the chaos he caused, Levkoi returns to sit by Mittens. Pearching some distance away from him still, looking peeved. But at least he’s not scurrying under the table anymore.
Mittens gives a sniff and wipes his nose on his sleeve before going over to curiously lift the book from the floor, and examines the cover.
It's one of Miss Kennari's spell books, the deep indigo cover faded and worn, although Mittens can't recall his teacher using this one more than the others. It is entitled, ‘Dreams and Divinations’, and as it fell from the shelf, opened to a complex looking section documenting the ‘Dream’ spell.
Mittens scans across the spread of runes that make up the spell. They are far more challenging than anything he has tackled before, but with a glimmer of hope he realises with time, He could potentially crack them. “This spell enables you to shape a creature's dreams…” he read aloud from the author’s description. “So-you think I could use this to contact Miss Kennari he asks?”, glancing up to ask the fey.
As Mittens turns to look, instead of an answer he finds a rather peaceful picture. Levkoi pawing at the mysterious gift-given rock from the huge tabaxi Purchase, as if trying to decide how much disdain it deserves, Libby happily buzzing a tune as she flies around his head.
“Hmp.” Mittens gives a small amused smile. “Guess you’ve helped me in more ways than one.” he spoke quietly to himself.
