[FP-003] Love letter in a bottle

The blank white page stares as intently at Lottie as she stared at it, trying to force the perfect words to mind through sheer will alone. 

She pushes back from the small desk, groaning as she moans to her companions “Come onnn! How is it you can spend the whole time thinking about someone, but the minute you want to write it down, the thoughts suddenly disappear!”

Bella cocks her head, sending her silver gloopy facial drops swinging with the force of the motion, as Biko just whines in sympathy. Their owner hops down from the little stool she’d sat on, squishing the poochyena’s fluffy grey cheeks in her paws as she rubs her soft fur with a sigh. “I need this letter to be perfect… I haven’t seen Aiko in ages! This might be the only contact I have with her for months, with everything going down here with the beasts roaming!”

Lottie shifts over to Bella, hovering a paw over her head until she could feel the heat radiating from her simmer down to a tolerable warmth. Just because Bella doesn’t circulate heat as well as your average slugma, it doesn’t mean she’s always safe to touch! Her cooling magma felt like petting a living, shifting mass of warmed up silly putty as the slugma let out a satisfied “Bah!” at the touch.

Where to start with the letter… How much she misses her little friend? Living in the same quiet village meant Aiko was only a short walk away whenever she wanted to hang out, but now even if the younger girl had stayed put after Lottie set off there was now an extremely long journey between them. With Aiko also headed off to join a clan and liven up the desert? It would be even harder for them to meet up. The empty space beside her where her best friend used to stand haunted the ghost type like a spectre; while the influx of new faces coming to Dragonspiral Tower has the excitement and variety Lottie dreamed of back in Respite Village, being surrounded by strangers has left her missing the familiarity and close connection she has with Aiko. Hmm, perhaps too depressing for a Palentines card…

The good times they shared together? The memory of Aiko’s pale fingertips and heart-swirl adorned arms being so caked with garden dirt that it was impossible to tell where her chocolate markings ended and dug up sediment began as the pair planted and tended to a wide variety of flowers always brings a smile to Lottie’s face. In Lottie’s mind, the grin she wears when thinking about Aiko completely absorbed in gardening and the gorgeous plants she nurtured could never compare in beauty to the radiant joy clear on her bestie’s face and in every move of her body as she brought gardens to life. Even the inhospitable desert will become a garden full of life now that Aiko’s out there, adventuring. The thought of it makes Lottie’s chest swell with pride; the little girl being dragged into her mischief and exploration, panicking half the while but somehow managing to take it all in stride- if she wasn’t having to hold Lottie back from some of the worst ideas known to Luminarian kind- now going on her own journey, making her own discoveries, braving the whole wide world, helping a hero… She’s always been so brave, even if she didn’t realise it. But Lottie would have to write a Palentines novel to fit every memory and trait she loved about Aiko in!

How about what’s been going on since they separated? Dragonspiral Tower certainly hasn’t been quiet- clearly to the chagrin of its mysterious mistress Mirage. It’s still not clear if Mirage hates her, likes her in a strange sort of ‘I refuse to spend any unnecessary time with you, and don’t appreciate you running around my home- let alone your gaggle of primordial pests you brought with you- but I still somewhat tolerate you’ way, or if she simply doesn’t care at all about Lottie and the rest of the Moon Clan newcomers, but that just makes her want to stick around and find out more! Mirage has at least one luminarian she clearly likes- Lacie, who shares the fairy typing with Aiko- so she can’t be completely antisocial! There’s been plenty of opportunities to learn about more than just new faces; cooking, cleaning, foraging, shopping, and even tracking, first-aid and defence- all sorts of skills are needed to take a bit of the load off Mirage. Considering that Lottie’s just turned up out of nowhere and imposed on her, it’s the least she could do to pitch in and help! Beast patrols have to be the favourite of the responsibilities Lottie’s picked up; it’s exploring with company! Outside of the danger, what’s not to love? But she really has to thank Aiko; if it weren’t for her love of plants, Lottie would have had no clue how to start picking out the tastiest and most useful things growing around the tower, or where to start when it comes to creating an edible garden of her own nearby! Once it’s grown a bit more it will become at least a sustainable part of feeding the ever growing clan. And there’s been drama too- a case of missing items and even of missing kids! But if she writes everything down in the Palentines card, she’ll have nothing to gush about when she sees Aiko again! Hearing about Aiko’s time with the Sun Clan will be fascinating, but Lottie wants to be able to reciprocate!

Lottie’s long braids levitate in the air, suspended unconsciously as her brain gets to churning. Absentmindedly scritching Biko’s ear, she mutters through all her ideas at light speed to her companions as she watches the poochyena’s cross piercing bounce in times to her paw’s movement. 

“Got it!” Lottie cries, loud enough she’s scared Mirage will come down and kick her out of the tower for being a disturbance, causing Biko and Bella to yip in a mixture of excitement and shock at the sudden spike in the pikachu’s volume. Lottie jumps back down onto her stool, levitating over to it to save the 5 seconds it would take to walk as she starts furiously scribbling down her message.

Dearest Aiko <3

I’ve missed you so so much! You have no idea; there’s been a lot of exciting faces coming and going from Dragonspiral Tower, but none of them could replace you!

How has the gardening out there gone? I’m sure you’ve made the desert a forest by now; you’re so good at growing plants, and you always look so cute and happy when you’re gardening! The tricks you’ve taught me have come in super handy out here, I’m starting my own garden too. I can’t wait to show you!

I also can’t wait to tell you about everything that’s been happening out here- I met Mirage from the prophecy; she’s just as mysterious as her role in everything lol. She’s tolerating me for now, I’m sure in no small part thanks to the plant skills you’ve given me!

I’m so excited to hear about your own adventures- I bet Solaris was thrilled to have such a cool girl join him! You’re being so brave out there! 

Happy Palentines, I’m looking forward to seeing you! Hopefully soon!

Give little Chive my love too.

Love; Lottie, Biko and Bella xoxo

“Welp, not perfect, but it works! And if I look at this piece of paper for any longer I will scream.” Lottie stretches out her ink-stained fingers, raising her arms high above her head, after drawing hearts and flowers all around the border of the page. Biko wags, both her and Bella heading closer as Lottie gets off her stool for the final time to shower them in celebratory pats. “So how to get it to her?” Lottie asks, causing both her companions to tilt their heads. The faint rush of the river outside gives her the answer she was searching for.

“I’ve got it! A message in a bottle! It’s got all the mystery and adventure I’d normally try to give her!”

Taking a small lump of wax, a glass bottle, a small bowl and a paintbrush from various spots around her room, Lottie tucks them all alongside the letter in a small satchel. Untying the orange and yellow flame-retardant scarf she made from Bella’s neck, she lies it across Biko’s back. The poochyena settles on the floor, allowing Bella to shift her way up onto Biko’s back. 

“Ready to go?”

Lottie barely waits for acknowledgement as she dashes down Dragonspiral Tower’s many staircases with a grin, Biko close on her tail despite her trepidation regarding the speed they were going at. 

With Lottie’s half-running half-floating, the group reaches the river in record time. “At least I know how to make it recognisable for her!” She says with a wag of her tail, picking out some yellow and brown stones from the riverbank. She fills her small bowl with cool river water, puts some of the yellow stones in it, and gets Biko to crush them up with a Stomp. Mixing it into a yellow paste, she begins to paint petals on the inside of the bottle and the top of it’s cork, adding powder from the brown rocks into the paint to create shadows for the sunflower petals and eventually it’s brown centre. “Bella, if you would?” Lottie asks, holding the neck of the bottle towards the slugma, who blows hot air into its aperture to dry the paint within. Doing the same to the cork, Lottie then places the small lump of wax onto it, getting Bella to repeat the process and melt the wax onto the adorned brown cork. The wax covers it as easily as butter melting into toast, sealing painted sunflower against the water it would soon be submerged in. With a flourish Lottie paints ‘Aiko’ in the best cursive handwriting she can muster on the inside of the bottle, having Bella dry it. She rolls up the letter as carefully as she can, trying not to crush it, and sticks it in the bottle. She shoves the cork into it and shuffles over to the river, setting it gently out to float off with a salute.

On the way back Lottie suddenly comes to a halt with a strange expression trying to find its place between realisation, embarrassment, disappointment, and annoyance. She buries her face in her paws, getting leftover ink and paint all over her light aquamarine cheeks and eliciting confused noises from the poochyena and her slugma passenger.

“Shoot. Gals, I just realised something.”

They both tilt their heads in confusion.

“She’s in a desert. What are the chances the river runs into such a dry place?”

Biko lies down, covering her face with a paw and whining. Bella lets out a defeated, sighing “Bah…”

“Ah well. They’d have to be somewhere that there’s drinking water, right? There’s a chance it’ll get to her!”

A chance is good enough!