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Prompt #1 (Reefed off of front page. Because it looked fun. whee )

The Prompt: Your kid has a pet. Well, maybe. It can be their family's pet, some stranger's pet, a wild animal they latched onto, a wild animal that latched onto them or even an inanimate object, like a rock. The point is, the kid somehow decides/discovers that they have a pet. If you already have a pet, what is it? If you have many pets, which one does your Curio choose as it's favourite? If you don't have a pet, what is the animal/inanimate object/etc that they choose, or chooses them? How do they interact with it? Do they attempt to train it? What name do they give it, if at all? Etc, etc.

TL;DR version: Describe, in 2,500+ words, how your Curio would interact with a Pet.

Et Voila:

Ixchellia was outside in the garden, enjoying the fresh air and the delights of the natural world. She loved the large grounds surrounding their house; there were so many amazing things to discover and places to explore. Not to mention all the beautiful flowers.

A small pair of white boots lay scattered on the lawn, along with two scrunched up white socks with lacy decor on them, still where she had kicked them off in order to feel the cool grass caress the soles of her feet.

Playful, childish laughter echoed through the garden and up into the bluebell sky as a petite barefoot figure with curly rust coloured hair scampered away from her twin to dart behind a stand of neatly clipped topiary hedges, finding a new hidey hole. They were playing ‘Hide and Seek’ and this time she was sure she’d outsmarted Sanqui.

She may well have. If only she didn’t keep giving herself away with gleeful giggles of anticipation.

Peering around the small clearing, which was surrounded by greeneries trimmed into geometrical shapes, Ixchellia noticed, with a spark of curiosity, that one end of the secluded space she was in led down a gentle slope to a patch of the forest that grew on their land; One of the only areas where she and Sanqui weren’t allowed to play by themselves. “Hmm…” she hummed thoughtfully, considering this newfound knowledge.

Glancing back to where her hands rested against a tall, pine smelling, evergreen shrub in the shape of a triangular spire, she peeked around the side to see the whereabouts of her brother before quickly ducking out of sight again. Good, he hadn’t found her yet.

Letting go of the bush and leaning her back against it, she brushed her hands against her clothing then brought them to her mouth, trying to stem the burst of mischievous laughter which burbled forth from within, dual coloured eyes sparkling with merriment. Sure, she wasn’t allowed to go in the forest by herself…but she wasn’t going to go in. She would just sneak over and have a look at the edge of it. There was no way she could get into trouble for that. At least, she didn’t think there was.

Tiptoeing across the clearing, Ixa kept glancing around, expecting to be caught at any moment. Eventually, she made a dash for it halfway across, checking back over her shoulder to make sure that hadn’t been seen. Phew, she was safe.

Approaching the lofty giants that clamoured for space at the edge of the forest border, she crept as close as she dared, taking in everything she saw with growing awe. Huge, mossy trees lifted their branches towards the light, forming part of a melding canopy as they entangled with other trees. Butterflies like jewels danced here and there amongst blossoming plants and birds fluttered and sang, sending all sorts of calls through the bowers. As her eyes travelled over the scene, she spotted a splash of vivid red somewhere near the ground and Ixchellia uttered a delighted squeal. There were hundreds of strawberries growing all around the area.

Sadly, as luck would have it, they were just out of reach. However, this only served to make them all the more tempting.

She had taken two steps towards them when she realised how far away they were – about a metre into the forest. Ixa chewed lightly on her bottom lip, hesitating where she stood. Sanqui was bound to find her soon if she didn’t hurry up. Not to mention, Mommy would announce it was lunch time shortly.

She knew she was breaking the rules…yet the girl glanced behind her once more before she turned and ventured into the forest, heading straight for the strawberries. A small thrill went through her, making the little one give a mischievous grin. This was kind of fun~!

Besides, she reasoned, no one was around to see. It wouldn’t take very long and really, what was so wrong with what she was doing? The more she thought about it, the less Ixchellia could think of a problem. She wasn’t going to go very far and only wanted one tiny thing. If she was caught, surely they would understand once she gave them her excuses.

As for the strawberries; she had never seen them growing wild like this before! The tiny white flowers looked delicate and lovely and the berries were ruby ripe, plump and bursting with sweetness. Tittering softly, she threaded her way between leafy trees and mulched undergrowth and crouched down amongst the patches of plants. Soft moss and grasses covering the ground were like pillows under her bare feet.

Ixi reached down and began picking the fruit, gathering them into the skirt of her white dress. She wasn’t exactly an expert at picking the berries and sometimes pulled off large parts of the plant, leaves and all, or else crushed the fruit in her fingers, which were becoming more and more stained by the minute. Ixchellia began humming quietly to herself. She would share these with Sanqui and Mommy once she’d gathered them up. Yes, and they would -

“Triiiiiiiiiiiiii!”

Gasping, the toddler looked up from her activity, letting go of the stem she was holding and trying to locate the source of a sudden, high-pitched ringing noise. Something small and bright flitted past her cheek, trailing a faint tinkling noise near her ear.

“Wh…what you?” she whispered nervously, keeping her voice low so she wouldn’t be heard by her brother, who could be nearby. “No hurt me!” Please don’t let it hurt her. It wasn’t something bad was it? If it was after the strawberries, she could give it the ones she’d collected – Ixa was good at sharing. Yes indeed.

“Triiririri!”

The high pitched trill sounded again and all at once a small, odd looking creature appeared in front of her nose, making her jolt with surprise so that she spilled some of her gathered treats. The ‘something’ had tiny, fast wings and looked like it was made of rings of…water? Glass? Ixchellia didn’t know. There were white glowing lines that were brighter and hairline thin forming circles like a ripple pattern on its belly. It looked a lot like some of those fishy creatures she had seen in books. Was it a seahorse? A pipefish? Whatever it was, it was incredibly miniature, only about the size of her hand and it had cute, round eyes that were all glitter and black like the buttons on her clothes.

Making the sparkly trilling sound again, the clusters of loops that formed its wings fanned air gently across her face and the critter darted close, a thin, delicate tongue like a filament from a spider’s web flicking out to brush her nose.

Ixa’s face lit up as a delighted smile blossomed into life and she giggled, brushing at the spot where it had licked her and accidentally smearing red juice all over her face. “That tickles!” she squealed happily, holding out her finger for the little creature to perch on. “Come here. You be my friend?” she asked it, tilting her head to watch the sprite as it zipped back away from her hand and off to one side with an alarmed trill of “Chii-ii-ii-ii!”

Thinking she’d scared it off, Ixchellia frowned. She wanted to get up and chase after this funny creature but the skirt of her dress was full of berries. Thus, she settled for watching with wide eyes instead as it flitted around some of the white flowers, fine tongue probing into them while it nosed them for nectar. It was strange. Mommy had been teaching her and Sanqui about letters, numbers and animals ever since they were very little, but Ixa had never seen or read about anything like this….this…flittery thing. Still, she supposed there were a lot of things she didn’t know. Millions of things she didn’t know, in fact. She was aware that she didn’t know about all of the animals and living things in this world and so passed this off as yet another new thing to discover.

She went on collecting, brushing gently through the patches with her hands and peeking under their leaves to find the treasures hidden among them, not even thinking there could be anything else hidden in the vines, such as snakes, spiders or worse. Ixchellia was just placing more strawberries on the now nicely sized pile when she felt something cool and tickly against her right hand. She looked down with a giggle to see the pretty thing from before licking her sticky fingers. It appeared to like the juice all over them and was licking away excitedly, making little noises of pleasure that sounded very musical.

“Ixchellia~!”

A distant call snatched her attention away, reminding her where she was. Her mother’s voice carried over the grounds and through the garden. How long had she been?

“Ah…Mommy calling me. Lunch time!” She told it, quickly stumbling to her feet, clutching the folds of her dress with one hand to form a makeshift basket of sorts for her finds. Uh-oh. Better go back now. If she was spotted here, she would be told off for sure! Her previous reasoning didn’t seem so sound now that she heard her Mom’s voice and remembered she was breaking a rule. Her tummy made an odd little flip flop as a different kind of thrill glanced through her; nervousness.

She hurried her pace and ambled back out of the forest, though she was sad to leave it behind. In the back of her mind, she resolved to wander in there again one day.

When she and Sanqui got the chance, maybe they could go in together and play some time. It wasn’t allowed but she couldn’t see why and the very fact of it being forbidden just made her want to explore it more. Yet, another part of her didn’t want to disobey her Mommy. For one thing, she loved her and didn’t want to make her sad. For another, she didn’t want to get in trouble - that part was the bit that was strongest right now! Hmm, maybe she could talk to Mommy about it and ask lots of questions, such as why they couldn’t play in there alone. Then again, if she did that, Mommy might start to suspect Ixchellia’s ideas…Mommy was smart. Say something and risk it or say nothing and sneak in there again? The girl couldn’t decide, so resolved to keep quiet for the time being.

Ixchellia wandered back out into the sunny garden as fast as she could go, her white frock brightly soaked with crimson red, as well as her fingers and face. Sucking the sweet juice off her fingers, she smiled in contentment and began to hum a small tune. But wait, what was that? She paused at a musical tinkling sound hovering in the air beside her and looked around for the source, grinning once she found it. The little sprite she had met earlier seemed to have followed her out of the strawberry patch. Did this mean they were friends now? Yayyy! Ixa loved making friends. “You hungry too?” she asked it.

She giggled, wriggling a little as it licked fresh juice off her cheek. “Okay, okay! You eat with me. Coming Mommy~!” she called towards the house, squealing as she caught sight of her brother at last. “Sanqui, look! I make new friend! An’ look – srawbees!” she beamed, holding out her dress to show him.

Lunch time was going to be very interesting. The sprite followed her all way home.

***

Later that night after everyone had been tucked up in bed, Ixchellia couldn’t sleep. Despite the soothing sounds of a rain shower pattering steadily down, she was too excited at having a new friend. Giggling softly, she opened her eyes to peek up at the tiny critter perched on the knob of her bed, its tail curled around the bedpost and its nose tucked into its chest. The sprite emitted a faint silvery-white glow, almost like a nightlight in the dark stillness of her room. “Hey…how you?” she whispered, keeping her voice as low as possible as she stared in admiration at the pretty creature.

“Mriirii, tiiriirii?” Lifting its chin, the sprite cracked open one eye and chimed a sleepy tinkling sound at her, so tiny it could barely be heard. It seemed completely content, small belly puffed out, full up with strawberry juice. Ixi slapped her hands to her mouth, stifling gleeful giggles. “You good! You like srawbees too, hey?” she whispered back, noting the splashes and stains on its muzzle. It has done its best to lick them off but hadn’t been completely successful with removing the red stains caused by an over eager toddler shoving strawberries into its face. During lunch time, she’d discovered it was partial to the sweet juice from them and had fed it til it couldn’t drink any more. Or as she saw it, she had shared her treats with it in a small act of kindness that further verified their friendship. There were places its tongue couldn’t reach easily, thus the juice had remained.

Ixchellia yawned, watching her new pal blink and then slowly begin to squeeze its eye shut again, tucking its nose back into its chest. It had followed her around everywhere for the rest of that day, perching on her shoulder tucked in amongst her hair when it got tired and needed breaks, little tail winding around the collar of her clothes to anchor it in place.

Snuggling down in her pillow, she wondered whether it would grow into a big animal some day. She wouldn’t mind, though she really rather liked it being pocket sized. “Nyu needs a name” she whispered, after some minutes of silent consideration. “I not know what you called.” She couldn’t just keep calling her new friend ‘you’. That wasn’t very good manners. But what was a good name? Closing her eyes, she tried to remember everything she could about their meeting that afternoon and thought over what she knew about it, what it was like…what it liked. Ixchellia’s eyes flew open again and she broke into a sleepy, bright smile. “I know...your new name Srawbee!” she announced in a loud stage whisper, forgetting to keep her voice low so she couldn’t be heard. “We always be friends, a-kay? Nigh-night Srawbee” Ixi pushed herself up off her pillow and turned to face the sound sprite, reaching a slightly chubby hand out and up very slowly, putting out only her index finger. Using the tip of her finger, she gently stroked her new friend on the nose with the lightest touch she was able to use, (though it was somewhat wobbly) being careful not to hurt it. “Night Srawbee…love you” she crooned softly. After that, she lay back down and began to hum softly, singing faint words under her breath about her new friend until eventually she fell asleep, russet locks spread out over the pillow and her favourite toy clutched under her arm. Ixchellia slept soundly, a blissful smile on her face the entire night long. Whatever this thing was, she was glad it had followed her home.

A playdate with her uncle Quint on a rainy weekend. Like any good host, she serves her guest 'tea'. Made by Ixi, with love~. whee

[PRP] Tea and Teeth - in progress

Participants: Ixchellia, Quint Gear.

The day was drawing - drawing, finger painting, making tea and tea parties, dress-ups, cubbies, fresh fruit for lunch and make-believe games and now it was drawing to a close.

As the sun’s tropical evening rays lightly wafted over a landscape slowly darkening with dusky violets and sensuous plums that curled in corners and whispered in grooves and hollows, gradually swelling with deepening shadow, dinner time came and went, teeth brushing with frobbly foam, and finally bath time before the usual routine of pyjamas, bathroom, story and bed.

Currently it was bath time. Sanqui already had his turn so now it was Ixi’s. Sometimes they shared a bath and sometimes they took them separately, whatever was easiest for Tori that night.

This particular evening the girl twin had the tub all to herself. With ruffles of sparkly bubbles as the twins often did. Sweetly melon scented of course.

With such a fruity scent, it was hardly surprising that Strawberry the sound sprite was taking a bath also, attracted by the nectar-like smell. Ixchellia, strands of wet burgundy hair with twisty ends plastered to her delicate baby skin, surfaced from a waterfall poured from a hair washing jug, giggling as she emerged with the last streams trickling away down her face. Shaking her head in a catlike manner, she wiped the water out of her eyes, swiping the strands of silky wet hair away from her face absentmindedly. She had been washing away the bubble crown she made earlier.

“Bubbles all gone now! We needa get more!” she declared, scooping up some of the fluffy white puff and without a second thought smothering them as carefully as she could on top of her head like a sort of blobbily hat.

Grabbing hold of her toy T-rex dinosaur, she resumed her games, and began to make him explore the strange lands created by islands of bubbles surrounded by a sea of slightly pink water.

“Rarr! Where can I find da treashar? I left it in one ‘o dese caves. My fine scarf an’ my silva claw tips too!” she growled, making the ‘voice’ of the T-rex she saw in her imagination.

Then Ixi had another idea. Scooping up more of the bubbles, she placed her chin on her cupped hands and into the mass of swirly rainbow bubbles and came away with a quite magnificent bubble beard.

“I am Captain Bubblebeardia matey - I c’n help you finda treashar. But only if you be nice to me! An’ Srawbee c’n help too. He’s my…” here she paused, glancing over at the little sprite who was happily perched on the cold tap faucet, his ringed tail wrapped around the metal a number of times.

Glowing softly as always when he was happy, Strawberry looked up from preening himself and chinkled at her joyfully, blowing a small bubble by mistake which hovered across to his mistress before popping on her nose in a brief shower of tickles.
“Tiiririri!” The sprite licked his muzzle, lightly cleansing stray bubble foam off it. This melony bubble bath was very tasty!

“Srawbee! You silly! Bubbles not for eating!” the little girl broke out into laughter, highly amused by this as she rubbed her nose where the bubble had popped. Not that Ixi hadn’t tried eating them herself…she knew they were not for eating by experience.

“You c’n be my first mate, akay? An’ you’re also my friend…but I getta be Captain. But’s just a story, akay? We are in make believe” she laid this out clearly, making sure he’d understand because she never liked to hurt feelings.

“Now matey Srawbubbly - go searchin’ in dat secret caves for da treashar akay? Captain Bubblebeard-ia thinks it be a good idear - treshar might be in dere!” She pointed to a mountain of glimmery fluff, attempting to make her voice gruff by lowering it slightly and adding a soft raspy sound.

Watching her sprite enter the pile of fluff, her imagination took off again.

“Arr, it’s be in dere aright but dere’s a angry waps next grardin’ it! She gasped in astonishment, seeing giant wasp monsters in her mind.

Leaning down towards her dino toy, she uttered. “I’ll have ta make a ‘straction!”

Captain Bubblebeardia confided to the T-Rex, who nodded and agreed. “Akay, I’ll use my teeth and bite the next an’ run for it -you go in and fight dem off”

Strawberry tilted his head at Ixi’s pointing finger and her command-question, sensing…she wanted him to fly into the imaginary bubble mountain cave? Okay! That sounded so fun! He’d play along.

Trilling delightedly, the sound sprite unwound the delicate looped tail from around the tap and fluttered down past Ixi’s arm into the foam, bubbles gently crackling all around as his tiny body disappeared into them, carving out an actual little tunnel. “Do see the treshar?” asked the T-Rex, following after. Whapping the wasp’s nest with his tail, he snapped at a few til they were buzzing mad before running so the swarm chased after him…leaving the caves unguarded.

“I’ll hold ‘em off as long as I can!” T-Rex called as the Captain and the sprite advanced, fighting off remaining wasps as they went further into the caves. However, just when Ixchellia was playing out the part where they defeated some bugbears and slime monsters, and had finally found the treasure, she realised there was not really a cave there and that she had lost sight of her precious pet and friend quite a while ago. She began to worry he got lost in the bubbles so pausing her game, Ixi’s brow furrowed in concern as she called out for him. "Srawbee, where you hiding? Are you lost inna caves?” she called gently. A muffled chiming like the sounds of tinkling wind chimes caught her ears and and she searched around. Then she noticed a glowing part of bubbles lighter than the rest and heard the small fizzing of them popping. And all of a sudden a very energetic little sprite burst forth, from the sweet tasting haven he’d been in, fluttering all around her. His wings had caught the liquid mix and trailed streams of bubbles from them just like a bubble wand. “Whee! Lok at all da bubbles!” Ixi hollered, laughing with delight as she threw her hands out, trying to catch one. “Captain Bubblebeardia an T-recks found da treshar and now dere’s a big party!” She announced, springing back into her fantasy game now that she knew her friend was safe. “An the bubbles are from the fairy land where fairy cakes an fairy breads are made. Now we can go there an -”

“Ixchellia! Bath time is over sweetie. Time to hop out”

The girl with the melty bubble beard and wobbly hat sighed at her mom’s words but got ready to hop out just the same, saving her ideas for another game as she poured another waterfall over her head to wash these bubbles away.

“Akay mommy. I’m hopping out now!” she complied as their nanny came into the flooded bathroom and helped her out of the big tub into a fuzzy towel.

“I ‘ready pulled da plug out” Ixi informed Alice while having her hair rubbed dry, just to let Alice know that she took care of that. Sure enough, the monster who lived in the drain hole was squeaking and gurgling away.

A short time later, she was dressed in a silky nightie and boxers - sugary pink and green with princesses and frogs on them -and tucked up in bed aginst the plush pillow with the purple starry cover. She lay back contentedly, looking at the glow in the dark stars on her purple matching doona, Saucers the owl under one arm, Sealy tucked beside her leg and Strawberry curled around the bedpost as usual, acting as his usual pretty nightlight self and Tori was there too, perched beside her daughter with some storybooks for them to choose from.

“Mommy? Can we read a story ’bou fairies, dragons, unicorns, treshar an adventures an’ knights an’ pirates a’night?” the girl questioned sleepily, a cute expression on her face as she turned her gaze, a-shimmer with hope, to her parent. “I really like that kind!”

A Nightmare involving one of her worst fears. Maybe a friend will be able to help out!

Sweet Nightmares

Participants: Ixchellia, Yiska - the Dreamcatcher Curio.