Featuring Wisp

June Minievent Prompt 3 
By: Penpause47
— One-shot —

    The earth below her was crumbled and covered in dust. The dull rocky terrain had few vegetations to offer, besides the occasional patch of grass here and there. Akila took each step carefully; it had just rained, and she did not want to harm worms that remained after soaking in the evening’s showers. As silly as it was, Akila cared deeply for the thoughts and emotions of the littlest things, and that included the tiny earth-dwellers. 

    As she reached the crest of the slope, she was greeted by a wondrous view of what seemed like the entire world below her. Although the sky was a dark gray and crowded with stormy rain clouds, the weak rays of sunlight shone through, casting a warm golden glow onto those below it. Akila couldn’t help but feel blessed by the beauty of the sight. She closed her eyes to savor the sweet sounds of nature as a gentle breeze lifted her fur. When she opened her eyes, she noticed a dark shape below her. Is that another esk?

    Akila descended downward onto the rocky ledge, where a sleek black esk stood sentinel. His eyes were closed, and as she approached, the esk turned away from her hastily.

    Confused, Akila moved closer towards the towering esk. ”Who are you?” She asked. 

    The esk kept his eyes closed tight and walked past her without a word. 

    ”H-Hey!” Akila stumbled after him. ”Where are you going?”

    The esk stopped as a blur of white flew past. It flapped its wings and came back around to land on the dark esk’s shoulder. Upon a closer inspection, Akila realized it was a new world warbler… and it’s eyes were a dark-tinted gray. 

    ”Is that your familiar?” Akila asked, and then immediately shook her head. ”No, that can’t be… you don’t have any of your nature features.”

    The esk continued to ignore her. Frustrated, Akila bounded ahead, levitated herself up into the air so that she was at the esk’s eye level, and brought herself so close to the esk that their snouts almost touched.

    And still the esk ignored her; and kept his eyes closed.

    Oh, you are SO DIFFICULT! Akila thought in exasperation. ”Will you be a gentleman and stop ignoring me, please? That would be great—I mean—that would be PREFERRED.”

    The esk said something so softly that Akila’s telepathy couldn’t understand what he had said. ”Can you speak a little louder, please?”

    ”Leave me be.” His thoughts were barely a whisper, but audible.

    ”Why? Why are you so keen on being alone?” Akila was curious now, leaning in towards the esk’s face. When he gave her no answer, Akila let out an exasperated sigh. ”Are you going to even tell me your name?”

    ”Do you always pester esks that don’t warm up to you at first sight?” The esk asked softly. They shifted tirelessly, causing the warbler perched on his shoulder to chirp indignantly. 

    ”No, I—“ 

    ”It’s rude, you know.” The esk lowered his head and pushed past Akila. She watched him walk sullenly up the path, and a twinge of pity gripped her gut. He must have quite a battered past. 

    ”At least tell me your name,” Akila called after him, her thoughts pleading. ”I promise I won’t follow you or bother you again.”

    The dark esk stopped, pondering the offer. ”Caece,” the esk replied finally. He then continued on his way, disappearing into the shadows of the towering rocks.

    Caece. Akila rolled the name around in her mind. Caece. Caece. Caece. Has a nice ring to it.

    ”Gee, that esk is weird. Doesn’t talk to anyone if he can help it.” Akila swung around to find an esk, just about her size, staring her down. 

    ”Um, excuse me?” Akila cocked her head, examining the esk. They had a nice light to dark gray gradient, with a cream-colored face. ”I’m sure you didn’t mean to sneak up on me, but—“

    The newcomer’s eyes twinkled. ”Actually, I did.”

    ”Okay… well, wait, how do you know that esk?” 

    The esk shrugged. ”I’ve seen him a couple times before. He has some curse or something—no one knows what it is—and he doesn’t interact with anything that isn’t blind or doesn’t have or need eyes.”

    Akila sat down in the gritted dirt. ”Have you been stalking him or something?”

    ”No! Well… maybe,” the esk looked up at her innocently.

    Akila sighed. ”Pfft. Who are you, anyway?”

    The other esk’s fur bristled defensively. ”Who are you?”

    Akila rolled her eyes, or tried to anyway. As an esk, she didn’t have pupils or irises, so all she could do was swing her head around dramatically. ”Fine, I’ll go first. My name is Akila. Now what’s yours?”

    The esk gave her an amused look. ”I’m Onyx.”

    Ooooooh, Onyx. I am so fascinated with names today, aren’t I? Akila nodded in response to Onyx’s introduction. ”You don’t have your nature features either, do you?”She said, peering at the small esk.

    Onyx laughed telepathically. ”Nope, I’m not from the mountains. You should see me in my vernal pool. I’ve got plants, jewelry, silk, hah, even ferrets!”

    Akila leaned in closer. ”Ferrets?” She had never seen a ferret before.

    ”Yeah, my familiars.” Onyx pawed at the ground absent-mindedly. ”I’d best be going. See you around.” Onyx gave Akila a nod and levitated up into the air, towards the top of the mountain.

    Huh. Esks seem to just come and go these days, Akila thought. She brushed off the encounter and rose up to her previous point of origin: a flat rocky surface, shaded by a couple of plants that had managed to live in the harsh conditions.

    In front of her, Akila noticed a small esk hunched over a rock. Upon a closer inspection, Akila realized there were two other esks also peering down at the rock, though one was a bit larger than the rest.

    ”What are you guys doing?” Akila asked as she approached the group. 

    The larger esk, still in possession of their nature features, Akila noticed, looked up at her. ”Oh, hi! We’re just decorating this rock.”

    Akila cocked her head to one side. ”Decorating the rock?”

    The esk nodded, ”Yep! I’m Ahku, and this is Chardonnay and Beetle.” Ahku pointed at a blue esk and a darker-colored esk, none of which had their nature features. So only Ahku is from the mountain biome. Interesting.

    ”I’m Akila,” Akila replied politely. ”Do you mind if I help you?”

    ”With the rock? Sure!” The blue esk, Chardonnay, moved closer to Beetle to make room for Akila. 

    Akila sat down between Ahku and Chardonnay and turned her attention towards the rock. Beetle was holding a paintbrush and painting peculiar designs in bright colors on one side of the rock, while Ahku was spreading glue on the other side so that Chardonnay could place leaves and twigs in creative arrangements.

    ”What are you painting?” Akila asked Beetle, curiosity tickling her fur.

    Beetle paused and glanced up at her. ”Just stuff.”

    ”What kind of stuff?”

    ”The stuff I want to paint!” Beetle said suddenly, his thoughts echoing in Akila’s head. She looked at him in surprise.

    ”I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Akila said.

    Beetle grunted and returned to his painting. He dipped the brush in a can of royal blue paint, which sat beside him, and let the brush glide over the rock’s surface in a beautiful swirl.

    ”Hah, you should’ve seen how much trouble we had to go to to get that paint,” Ahku joked, trying to lighten the mood. ”The shopkeeper was NOT happy after the stunt we pulled.”

    Chardonnay huffed. ”He was like, ‘where’d my paint go! It was right here, you were supposed to be watching it!’ and passed the blame to one of his employees.”

    Beetle nodded. ”Selfish old cow.”

    Akila regraded Beetle coolly; it was the best imitation of the raising of the eyebrows she didn’t have she could muster. ”Do you want me to find you some cool leaves, or pretty stones?” She asked Chardonnay.

    Chardonnay shrugged as she placed a leaf next to a cluster she had already glued to the rock. ”If you want.”

    Akila nodded and started picking through the rocks behind her. They were mostly just plain and gray—some were brown or red. She moved away from the group and cast her eyes to the ground, searching for something that wasn’t dull or ordinary. After some indefinite searching, she noticed a glimmer of color by the edge of the area, where the flat rocky clearing delved down into a steep slope. It was a round blue stone, nestled among its unworthy companions. As she was about to pick it up, another esk jumped in front of her, fur bristling.

    ”What are you doing? That’s my stone!” The esk hissed. 

    ”Woah, chill out there, buddy! I didn’t know it was yours!” Akila exclaimed, stepping back.

    ”You should’ve! No one touches my stone.” The esk regraded her with contempt, their body vibrating with a defensive tone.

    ”Wait a minute, how was I supposed to know? You were hiding in some dark hole, I imagine, and you didn’t even keep the stone with you,” Akila realized. 

    ”I wouldn’t dare touch such a precious object with my dirty paws,” The esk retorted.

    Akila sighed. ”Okay, let's start over. I’m Akila, nice to meet you, who are you?” Her tone was laced with sarcasm.

    The esk hesitated for a moment. ”Moth.”

    Akila blinked. ”Moth.”

    Moth sat down and cast his eyes downward. He flipped over a gray stone and flicked it away from him. ”Yep.”

    ”Alright, then.” Akila sat down next to him. She scooted closer to him when he shifted away from her uncomfortably. ”If I can't have this stone, do you have a stone similar to it than I can have?”

    Moth nodded. He got up and disappeared over the rocky ledge, reappearing with a white stone clutched in his paws. ”I have this one.”

    Akila reached out to take it. ”That’ll work! Thank you!”

    ”It’s no problem. Just don’t try taking my stone again!” Moth replied.

    ”Haha, I won’t!” Akila said with a laugh. She bid Moth farewell and headed back towards the spot where Ahku, Chardonnay, and Beetle we’re sitting.

    ”I found a pretty rock,” Akila told Chardonnay, sliding the white stone into one of his piles.

    Chardonnay stared at it with surprise and awe. ”Is that a pearl?!”

    ”No, silly, just a white stone. It’s better than the dull gray ones you have there, though,” Akila said, humming with amusement.

    Ahku laughed. ”One day we’ll find you a pearl, Chardonnay.”

    Chardonnay ducked her head in embarrassment and carefully placed the stone onto the rock. Akila glanced over at Beetle’s side of the rock, where she was surprised to see that his elaborate swirls had come together to picture a riverbank with a dark, star-lit sky. She squinted at the shapes Chardonnay had so painstakingly made with the stones, leaves, and twigs, and found herself face-to-face with little miniatures of Beetle, Chardonnay, Ahku, and herself, the white stone resting above them. The shapes were a little inaccurate, but Chardonnay had done a brilliant job working with such limited resources. 

    ”This is so cool!” Akila exclaimed, entranced in the rock’s beauty. 

    Beetle looked up at her, snorted, and continued staring at his creation. Ahku started wiping her paws off in the dirt, trying to rid them of the sticky glue she had been handling.

    ”It’s rock art,” Chardonnay said sheepishly. ”Pretty cool, huh?”

    Akila nodded. She peeked over Chardonnay’s shoulder and caught sight of Ahku rubbing her paws in the dirt. ”Uh, Ahku, you know you’re gluing dirt to your paws, right?”

    Ahku stopped abruptly and stared at Akila. ”I am?”

    Akila laughed. ”Yeah. You should probably just wash the glue off in the river before it dries.”

    Ahku sighed. ”Yeah, that’s a good idea.” She looked over at Beetle, who had paint all over his little legs. ”Do you want to come with me, Beetle?”

    ”Why would I need to come with you?!” Beetle said scathingly. 

    Ahku flinched. ”To wash the paint off, from your legs.”

    Beetle glanced at his legs. ”Oh, okay. Sure.”

    Chardonnay shot Ahku a sympathetic look as the two made their way to the river, which was at the bottom of the mountain. Akila glanced at Chardonnay, who was struggling to move the rock from the mess they had made. There were scattered leaves and twigs everywhere, not to mention Beetle’s paint cans.

    ”Here, let me help you.” Akila pushed against the rock with all her might. She felt Chardonnay guide the rock into the sunlight, where the glue and paint could dry. She then helped him clean up the mess he’d left. 

    When they finished, all that was left were the paint cans. There were several: orange, purple, blue, yellow, even maroon. ”What do we do with the paint?” Akila asked, looking over at Chardonnay, who was backing away from the cans.

    Chardonnay shook her head. ”If we touch those, Beetle will kill us.”

    ”Oh.” Akila giggled. ”He must really like those paint cans.”

    Chardonnay hummed cheerfully. ”Thanks for helping us with the art. You’re a really nice esk.”

    Akila would have blushed if she could. ”Thank you.” She took a deep breath, gazing fondly at the rock, which had been decorated with a variety of beautiful designs and shapes. The world sure is beautiful.