A Lantern to Share

“Come now, Baba, we mustn’t be late!”

Augurys scooped up the pink-leafed boosha with their snout, lifting the tiny creature and hastily laying it across their back. For a moment, Baba waggled its tiny limbs, scrambling to stay balanced atop its eagerly frantic owner. Augurys did not seem to notice at the time as they went about their affairs, bounding across their room towards a paper lantern that had been drying by the window.

Clumsily, they almost crashed right into their craft as they slid to a stop nearby. Baba squeaked, nearly being thrown off by the force of their braking as well. Yet, all the same, Augurys merely took the arched handle of the lantern into their mouth and pivoted to sprint back the other way towards the door.

The lantern was not necessarily shoddily made, though one could certainly come to the conclusion that it was at a glance. Augurys had known about the ceremony to release lanterns at the shores of the beach for a number of weeks. They even made plans to meet with their dear friend to do so some time ago. However, it was forgetting to pen it into their calendar that wind up causing them such distress now. Only the night prior, their companion had reminded them of their impending meet-up, and it was only then that they recalled at all their idea to put together their own lantern for the occasion.

The candle noodle spent much of that evening and the morning after putting together the lantern they had in mind all those weeks ago. It was simple — primarily spherical and cream-coloured with little to no patterns painted atop its papery surface. At one point, they had Baba press its tiny paws into some brown ink alongside themself to print the image of their paw pads onto the lantern. It was nothing extravagant, but the fact that they were able to complete the project in such short notice was enough to make Augurys beam proudly when they looked at it.

They jogged down the trail towards the beachfront, the lantern swaying in their grasp and their Boosha being bounced up and down on their back as they hurried to make their appointed meeting time. By then, the sun had set upon the Realm, leaving only a pinkish-purple hue in the sky slightly hidden behind shadowed clouds. It was not long before they were approaching the sands, eyes scanning the shore for any sign of their friend.

“Oof—!” Augurys yelped as they ran almost nose-first into something solid. They stumbled backwards into the sand, the lantern flying from their grasp and the boosha along with it. Once they became unstunned however, they immediately tried to get to their feet to look for their now-missing effects worriedly. “Oh no! Bab—!”

Before they could even call for their bushy companion however, they looked up to find a towering ruptour standing tall in front of them; a pink-leafed Boosha laying across his face and a paper lantern hanging from one of his outstretched paws.

“Ah, Ephe!” Augurys beamed, immediately sighing in relief. They wasted no time reaching up as far as they could to pluck Baba from the ruptour's head, smiling all the while while all that remained on the other Faian’s face was a displeased frown. “Thank you. I can be so clumsy,” they giggled as they held Baba in both their front paws gently.

“Of course…” Ephemir mumbled. “You didn’t forget, did you?”

“I may have…” Augurys sheepishly responded, their smile faltering for but a moment. Regardless, it didn’t seem like Ephemir’s own expression grew any more impatient. “But you reminded me. So, here I am.”

Ephemir held out his own paw towards the candle noodle and tilted his head down towards it. “With a lantern.”

“You didn’t bring your own?”

The question had been sudden to Ephemir. He seemed ill-prepared to answer as he merely started with a somewhat stilted “I…”

There was a pause. Despite the fact that Augurys seemed to wait a beat for him to continue, they ultimately chimed in before he could, as though they recognized that he had no good explanation he cared to share. “Well, we can share this one.” They gestured to the backside of the lantern, which was facing towards Ephemir at the moment. “Baba helped me with it, see?”

He made no noise, but the tension from Ephemir’s shoulders dropped. He nodded as he stood and turned towards the shore. “Of course. Let’s… let’s get moving, Augurys.”

“Ah, yes! I’ll tell you about it as we walk.”

“I would like that.”