Rhys and the Glowing Peppers

Rhys and the Glowing Peppers

{Small Drabble}

.:+:.

At the end of the year, every year, the humans in the restaurant do something strange.

Along with the lights made up of glass mason jars hanging from the pergolas and the roof, the humans put up even more lights- strange, oddly shaped plastic lights shaped like peppers, and that glow a brilliant red hue. These are especially strange because it seems like they are trying to mimic the peppers and chilies that grow in the garden, but they..... glow.

Peppers don't glow

So why in the world are the humans trying to make them do what they don't do?
Rhys doesn't quite know what to make of it at first- and in fact, at first they find the new twinkling and unrealistic lights somewhat infuriating.

The first time these strange things appeared, Rhys thought the humans had lost their minds, stuffing lights into the plants and hanging them up there to rot and make a mess. Rhys  immediately went to tear them down, and managed to topple a whole line-  only to find that the peppers were not real peppers, but plastic and fake, and entirely impervious to the esk's attempts at shredding them to pieces. The plastic peppers resisted any attempt at tearing them up, and it made Rhys all the more annoyed- ending with the little fellow tangling the lights up in a knot that might never be unwound, and then they stormed away in a huff.

Later though, Rhys came back- their initial anger had faded slightly now and been replaced with curiosity.

Rhys pulled some of the little plastic pepper shaped covers off, fiddling with them, stacking them, the works (and perhaps at one point getting their muzzle stuck in the end the lights fit into). They still didn't  get it, why make them look like the food and make them glow when they never did that naturally? It was absurd... but then again, humans did a lot of absurd things.

Well at least they wouldn't rot, and they didn't readily fall to the floor unless Rhys mucked with them, or pesky humans visiting the restaurant fiddled with them where they weren't meant to. The 'pepper' lights were up high and mostly out of the way, though they still cluttered the place a bit more than Rhys liked- but Rhys left it alone, and did their best to ignore the pepper light's existence altogether.

Later when night fell and darkness cast over the world, Rhys sat on a table looking at the twinkling red lights in sheer silence and.... perhaps they weren't that bad.

They were still unreasonable, and nonsensical, but the color was sort of pleasant.

Winter came and went, and the lights went away with it. Rhys thought nothing of the absurd pepper lights until the next winter came- and again they were there. Red and plastic and glowing and.... still absurd.

But Rhys found themselves watching the little red lights above their head as night fell, the red color so out of place among the usually yellow lighting... and again, maybe it was pleasant. It was something a little different from the things in this place they had become so used to (and kept proper as best they  could). Maybe it was nice to have a little dash of red and a little something else to look at, every once in awhile. Even the odd pepper shape bothered Rhys less and less as the years went by, and they came and went on a constant loop.

And strangely enough? Eventually they became something Rhys was looking forward to- not out of pleasure, really, but just wonder....  a wonder of when they would pop back up, and add that red glow to all the yellow.

They came again and Rhys sat among the rafters of the pergolas, the red peppers a bright backsplash against a dark starry sky overhead. The lights had a certain warmth to them that went beyond just the natural heat the humans lights seemed to generate, and Rhys could not  say they minded it. It was not a bother it was just... content.

Very little here was ever content. There was always something going wrong, something put out of place, some human annoying Rhys, or some animal agitating them. There was always  something to put back together, to clean, to make sure it was right-  there was never a break, there was always annoyance and agitation... but right then?

Content

Rhys paused, the red suddenly muddied with a different color they hadn't seen before, and they sat there for a moment, going rigid and very, very confused.

There was.... green light, all of a sudden....?

Rhys nearly leapt out of their fur when they looked down and saw the peppers around their neck giving off a peculiar green glow. And they nearly lost all sense of themselves and their footing on the rafters when they found the peppers in their tail were glowing green too.

Glowing

PEPPERS DON'T GLOW

.... Needless to say it took quite a bit for Rhys to settle again after that, and quite a few hours more of prodding at their Nature Feature in shock and disbelief. They experimented with it for days afterward, finding  that the glow only ever really occurred in the low light, and that if  Rhys were to concentrate hard enough, they could make the glow go away.  But if they didn't focus on it specifically, they gave off that mix of green and red light all of their own accord, and Rhys never really knew how or why they started doing it.

Eventually they got used to it, though they do get a little annoyed with having to think about keeping  the jalapenos from glowing (especially when they are doing their best to hide)..... But eventually it did become just a normal part of the day to day, sort of like how the pepper lights in the rafters had become normal.

They weren't expecting to have to get used to this normal though, and at first resisted it with all their might- but eventually it was just something that happened, and something they got used to, and sometimes even forgot. It became natural.... Though sometimes Rhys wonders if any of the humans, or the animals, notice the little splash of green sitting up among the red pepper lights when winter rolls  around?

But of course, why would they? Peppers weren't supposed to glow.. but among all the rest of those giving off that red glow, why would anyone bat an eye at a little green glow too?