The late afternoon sky began to cast its orange rays across the vast lands of Chrysalopolis. The hustle and bustle of pacapillars walking along the merchant stalls had begun to dwindle as the sun began to make its descent below the sky. The small dark green pacapillar hummed to themselves as they looked around. They hadn’t intended to be out this late, and they had promised Gibby that they would be home in time to help him make dinner for them and the circus gang.
They trailed along the stalls, letting themselves window shop at the unique items that each stall had as they began making his way to the exit. As their nubs finally crossed that invisible border that separated Chrysalopolis from the Mirage Festival they began to weigh their option on how they were going to make their way home. On one nub, they could follow the crowd- but they would likely make it home way past dark. On the other nub, they could cut through the forest. They would make it home in a timely manner, plus, it’s not like it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve trekked through the forest.
The feathered pacapillar splits off from the small crowd of other pacapillars and creeps their way to the edge. They peer into the shadow-casted environment. They once again weigh their options, knowing they could run into monsters or poisons out here. A brief feeling of excitement courses through their core at the thought. Skye had been through the woods plenty of times and has never had too much trouble out there. Except for, well, Grimm. However, the smaller pacapillar feels like they know how to handle themselves fairly well, it’ll just be like any other walk they’ve been on.
As they started their trek into the woods the pacapillar kept their guard up. Skye was continuously checking their surroundings to make sure they weren’t being followed. Though, their guard immediately crumbled the moment something shiny caught their attention. They stared from a distance at first as they attempted to figure out what it could be before finally approaching the object.
Upon closer inspection, the small pacapillar could see that in front of them lay a pretty blue shard. Light dances off the object with the setting suns light. They gently scoop the object into their nubs and inspect it closely. It was so pretty and shiny. It almost felt… important.
Wing-shaped head feelers twitch as a noise of something approaching caught their attention. Their eyes glide around the environment, studying every tiny thing that passes their vision. To their left, they finally settle on another shiny object. ‘That wasn’t there before,’ Skye thinks to themselves and lets their gaze follow up along the object. As they peer through their bangs they stop to stare at a flower-shaped object, a small glint shining off of it as well. Finally, they looked straight up and made eye contact with the monster that had approached them.
‘Oh… pretty…’ Skye thinks to themself as they admire her beauty but the thought quickly swept away as she began to speak, “Oh, my apologies small one! I was not aware there was anyone else out here!” Her voice was soft as she spoke, and Skye felt his fluffy tail feeler begin to wag softly.
‘Oh, she’s friendly!’ Skye turned to face her more directly to let her know that she had their attention. Skye watched the pretty white monster glance to their nubs and an expression of hurt crossed her features.
“Oh… I see…” her voice was even more quiet. She took a step back, staring at the stone that lay resting in Skye’s frontmost nubs. Skye gave a confused look and moved forward a bit to get back in her line of sight, though, their action resulted in a hiss of words coming from the monster, “No! Stay back! All of you are the same, and you dare threaten to use a Chrysalis Shard against me even though you found it in our forest!”
‘Wait… what?’
Skye could hear her voice breaking and they felt guilt building in their core. The small green pacapillar opened their mouth but like many times before- their voice didn’t make itself known. How were they supposed to let this monster know that they weren’t gonna hurt her?
“Leave before you make your presence known to others,” her voice was barely above a whisper as she promptly turned away from Skye and began to walk away from them.
‘Please, wait! I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings!’ That was all Skye could think to themselves as they shoved the blue crystal into their pouch and began to follow the monster to get her attention. Skye wanted to apologize, even if they couldn’t do it verbally.
However, the monster looked behind her and let out another hiss, “Leave me alone!” She yelled back at Skye and then began to run instead of walk. Skye’s little nubs were not able to keep up with her and they slowly came to a stop. They couldn’t stop the growing guilt and sadness filling their core as they watched her form slowly fade into the distance.
They looked up through the leaves and saw that the sky was now much darker than they anticipated. With one last look into the direction she vanished to Skye let out a defeated sigh and turned back the way they were originally going, making their way past the soul bloom tree and to town without any other problems.
Upon making it to their shared burrow with Gibby, the other pacapillar began to poke fun at Skye, “You said you’d be back late afternoon.” Gibby's voice lacked any malice and was playful at heart, but that didn’t stop Skye from feeling a little bad.
“Sorry, I got caught up at the festival,” Skye replied and walked over to peer at the dinner Gibby was making. It smelled yummy. Gibby smiled at them, “No worries- I know that place is fun and full of activities. Help me get portions out though.”
Skye and Gibby began to separate the portions of food to bring over to their nearby circus friends. They all ate together and Skye was happy they could entertain each other without needing them as part of the conversation. As they all spoke with each other Skye dismissed themselves, stating that he was exhausted from the festival and needed rest.
On the small walk home Skye dug the crystal out of their pouch and stared at it as they walked. The smaller pacapillar thought about that pretty white monster and what she said. ‘Chrysalis Shard…? She said I was going to use it against her…’
As the green pacapillar made their way to their room they thought about a list of people they could potentially talk to about this shard. They lay in their nest while still holding the shard, allowing the moonlight through their window to reflect off of the shard.
‘Maybe I can talk to Faith… Surely they’ll know…’