The sun had barely begun to come over the horizon as the rival pacapillars began to breach the forest's edge before the city of Chrysalopolis began to come into view. The two of them stopped as the shadow of the leaves faded and Grimm looked off into the distance. It had been a while since he had been this close to the city. He didn’t like coming this close- knowing how other creatures looked at him. He usually opted to just snag the stray pacapillars that had just wandered too far.
The trip had been quiet as they had made their way through the forest. So quiet that Grimm nearly forgot the smaller pacapillar that had been accompanying him. His blurry vision peered into the distance- not that it had done much as he could only make out some blocked shapes. He turned his attention down to Skye- his defining features not as muddy as the distant trees and structures.
“Where are we going?” Grimm asked, his guttural voice catching the smaller creature's attention. The deep green pacapillar began to move in a motion that Grimm was familiar with but did not understand. He narrowed his eye at him, face showing annoyance. Skye rolled their eyes.
“Sachet’s,” he said simply in a much softer tone than what Grimm was capable of.
“I don’t know who that is,” Grimm replied.
“She’s a purple pacapillar with long head feelers and a round single tail. She looks like a plushie, kind of. Funny since she makes plushies,” Skye mused, mostly to himself.
“Okay, well, let’s go. I don’t have all day,” Grimm complained as he let his attention travel to the blurry distance.
“Well… we have to find her first. Last time I saw her was when Boreal Wishes was going on,” Skye explained to the monster.
“Ough… you creatures and your holidays,” Grimm grumbled to himself. Skye turned to look up at him, briefly forgetting how much smaller he was in comparison.
“You’d probably enjoy it if you didn’t have such a miserable attitude,” the wing-shaped feeler pacapillar said in a snappish tone.
Grimm snapped his attention back to the standard pacapillar with a scowl defined upon his face. Skye’s own expression was similar; annoyed, tired, and irritable. The smaller pacapillar was first to break the prolonged eye contact and opted to be more productive by deciding to begin their trek out from under the shade of the leaves.
Grimm waited for a moment as he watched Skye began to make their way into the clearing. He waited until his features were becoming mixed in with the environment before allowing himself to follow the other. His long legs helped in keeping up with the other pacapillar, cutting into the soft soil of the ground with every step he made.
The sun was starting to make its presence known now as all the blurry shapes began to gain more saturation and brightness in his vision. It kind of hurt. It had been so long since he was active during a day cycle since hunting worked best around sunset.
“Good morning, Skye!” Said a higher pitch tone that cut into Grimm’s thoughts. He brought his line of sight from Skye that was in front of him to the, slightly more blurry, purple pacapillar that was standing in front of Skye. He missed the note of Skye waving to her happily.
Her voice continued, “It’s been since Boreal Wishes that I’ve seen you! How have- you… been…?” The slowed speech and with Sachet now looking up at the monster let Grimm know that his presence was now being acknowledged. Skye’s head feelers fluttered and it drew the monster's attention for a moment- as well as Sachet’s for that matter. Skye’s nubs began to move and Sachet watched attentively as he did so.
“It’s good to hear you’ve been doing well,” she replied to him happily.
Skye moved to pull the plush snekket out of his leather pouch. He presented it to her and she took it with a loving nub. Skye began to sign to her again.
“Yes, I made this… but I’m sorry- I don’t know how you-” her eyes briefly darted up to look at Grimm before locking back with Skye’s, “... your friend… got it. What-”
Her speech was cut off by Grimm giving out a low growl and taking a couple of steps forward. He was practically standing on top of Skye now as his tail came up near the side of his head to hold the basket in front of her face. His shiny fangs glinted with the new day's sun coming overhead.
“Yes you do,” he accused aggressively. “It was in this basket you left by my den. I don’t want it- so take it back.”
Sachet gave out a startled squeak and dropped the plushie that Skye had handed to her. “No, I promise I had nothing to do with it!” Her voice pleaded and Grimm only let out a more frustrated snarl. Skye leaned down to pick up the plushie off the ground, giving it a soft dusting off before craning their head back to look up at Grimm. He seemed to be honed in and getting closer.
“So help me if you don’t take this back or tell me why-”
“I promise it’s all I know!” She tried to cut in.
There was a hard smacking noise as Skye used his head feeler to spring up and hit Grimm square on the core. A pained noise escaped Grimm as he staggered backward, dropping the basket in the process. There was a soft gasp that escaped both the standard pacapillars as they rushed over to make sure the egg hadn’t been damaged. Luckily the blanket provided gave it enough cushion to keep the egg from cracking open from the sudden drop. Skye opted to add the plush snekket that came with the basket originally back in the basket to provide another layer of cushioning next to it.
While Grimm began to grumble and curse about the pain he was now in Skye looked back to Sachet, “Sorry about him… Grimm is just like that…” Skye spoke, although quietly, for the first time as his nubs were occupied with checking over the snekket egg just to double-check all angles.
She shook her head, “I apologize for not being more help. I would suggest you go see Monet but I do believe he is on vacation until April.” Skye gave a nod of acknowledgment to her. He put it on his mental note to see if he could find the pacapillar before this egg hatched.
“Alright Grimm… grab the basket so Sachet can finish setting up for the day,” Skye ordered and Grimm made his way back over to retrieve the basket. Of course, not without using his large front pincer to shove Skye out of the way.
Though, unbothered, Skye stayed upright and watched Grimm grab the basket and begin to walk away. He looked to Sachet as she spoke.
“Good luck,” she smiled at Skye that he then returned, “and… uh- I hope that egg is okay.” She gestured to Grimm who was now waiting by the wooded edge.
‘I’ll make sure of it,’ Skye had signed back to her before hurrying his little nubs to follow after Grimm, though, slowing down just long enough to give Bobble a wave but he had to stop and take note that Bobble also had a glistening egg with him that was being carried with the same patterned blanket.
Odd. Skye thought, but Bobble had already said hello and moved on to walking up to Sachet with his typical happy-go-lucky attitude before he could question anything about the egg and blanket he had. He then focused back on catching up with Grimm who took his distracted attention with the opportunity to successfully knock Skye over with his pincer.
“That’s for wasting my time,” Grimm complained. Skye huffed in return before correcting his position onto his nubs again.
“Not entirely-” Skye deflected, “Sachet did tell me that we could talk to Monet. He’s known for being knowledgeable about snekkets!”
“Okay, well then, let’s go,” Grimm said and waited for Skye to begin walking.
There was an awkward silence of them standing still for a minute.
“Well?” Grimm questioned, annoyance once again setting in.
“Uhm- well… He’s on vacation until April-”
Grimm’s pincer swung down to stab at him. Skye squawked as he narrowly dodged it.
As the two had their banter back and forth they were unaware of the Squacky that had managed to make it into the basket during the period it was on the ground. It got cozy- the yelling of the two other creatures not bothering it.