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The Fireflies (6) : In the warm summer nights, little glowing lights begin to bob and dart through the city. Fireflies are mating, so this isn't uncommon in itself; in the past few days you've probably seen hundreds of fireflies. What makes these lights so unique is that they seem to change color; you might see a blue one, a green one, a red one. They flicker randomly, and something just seems off with them. If you come into contact with one, you will find yourself with a strange electric jolt. They cannot be caught, and will flicker away if you pursue too aggressively. This isn't the first time they've appeared in Destiny City, but no one's been able to tell where they came from or where they're going. No matter how quickly you chase them, they always seem to disappear before you can find any answers.
Absently shaking out her hand, Clem found herself wondering if her life would now be one long, weird series of zappy zappy events. First he lightning storms, then the snake and its bullshit, now fireflies. She wasn’t supposed to be a goddamned lightning rod. Taking a moment to shove down her annoyance, Clem took a breath and counted to ten. Once she felt a bit more centered, she got herself settled on an old blanket and turned her face up to watch the funky little fireflies do their thing.
She’d always liked watching fireflies in the summer. It was fun to suddenly see little dots of light zip by. Who cared if they were getting their freak on? Weird little bugs deserved to find love too. But these fireflies were different from what she was used to seeing. Aside from the literal shock, of course. That was just taking their other common name a bit too far and too on the nose.
Nah, these guys seemed to be all the colors, rather than the usual yellow-ish white. And they were fascinating to watch. Laying back and pillowing her head against her folded arms, Clem watched as various, flickering little flies flew past, locked in their little dance. In the distance, she could hear other people who’d come out to enjoy the show. Every few minutes she heard someone let out a startled yell, sometimes following by faint cursing. That was how she knew the some other poor ******** had been zapped. Well, she’d learned her lesson. They only seemed to dole out the jolts if you were dumb enough to get in their way or try to catch ‘em. She was staying well out of reach, thank you so much!
Besides, laying down and looking up to watch them gave things a kind of magical feeling. Like she was watching stars dancing, just out of reach. The fireflies doing their thing mixed with the soft murmur or people talking and even some random, shrill laughter from the little kids brought out by their parents all melded into a fairly pleasant whole. This, she thought, was how summer nights should be. Just a kind of peaceful laziness punctuated by little primal joys. She found herself wondering if things like this were why some of the old timers kept fighting. If so, she could respect it for sure. The more she considered things, the more she came to the conclusion that protecting little tableaus like this was why she’d be fighting.
Sighing in contentment, Clem closed her eyes for a moment. She was having her moment of zen and the world could just wait until she was done to toss any nonsense her way. Unfortunately, nonsense arrived early, in the form of a pair of kids playing tag with the fireflies. Which would have been hella cute had the little shits not barreled over her. She avoided a kicked in head only by the greatest of good luck and sat up abruptly, glaring daggers at the two. She got a cursory apology as they continued racing around, at least. Pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers, she wondered if this was her sign to head home. She didn’t really want to, but she also didn’t want to end up gang pressed into playing tag.
It looked like the fireflies were already starting to move off, so not much point in sticking around. Sighing, she got to her feet and began to gather her blanket up. Stuck to one of the worn tassells was a sapphire star charm. It had probably come from one of the kids who’d raced past. Well, too bad, so sad. It was hers now. Finished with folding the blanket, Clem took one last look at the twinkling bug butts and then headed off for home.
Word Count = 645
