Depthstrider Prompt 3

The three friends were still laughing happily amongst themselves as they each observed their chaotically painted coats, honest attempts at drawing shapes onto their pelts had been overpowered with random paint splatters and pawprints.

„That was fun!“ said Maple wiping at her eyes with a clawed finger, this moment having brought joyful tears to them. „Yeah!“ said Varos practically beaming with their wide grin, Katholes too had a small smile tug at the corners of their mouth and whilst this small smile might not have made it immediately obvious they were fully content at this moment, just enjoying the time with their friends.

The rustling and jingling of something closeby caught both Maples and Varos attention whose heads immeditately turned to the direction of the sound. Maples eyes dilated as she looked at a moss-covered table closeby. „Oh my god look at that!“ said Maple, a claw pointing at the table with pure excitement and it didn‘t even take the tyrian the amount of time that it takes one to blink to rush over to the table.

The tyrians tail swished excitedly behind her an assortment of corals and textiles infront of her, they were all so pretty, so much so that she was a bit overwhelmed on which thing to pay attention to first. Varos and Katholes joined her at the table with Varos looking just as enthusiastic as their tyrian friend.

Maple finally picked out a few bioluminescent corals out of the pile of materials to look at in more details, Haedians of the Depthstrider clan were also sitting on the table, crafting all manner of things from the materials on the table, there was a haedian currently finishing a loufa with some frilly fabrics that were on the table whilst another was in the process of making what looked to be a waterskin, whilst another was weaving a net. „This is so nice.“ said Maple, feeling right at home in the Depthstrider clan, how welcoming they had been, as well as the general atmosphere and the activities they engaged in- Maple just knew this was by far her favorite clan out of the bunch they had visited so far.

Katholes sat next to Maple, observing her attempt at making a tiara with the glowing corals. „What do you need that far?“ asked the redcoated Puller, whilst their tone was neutral and some could have understood this as critique the others knew from having spent enough time with them that Katholes was genuinely asking, as they often tended to think practical with a focus on survival.

„Oh- well I guess I don‘t need it for anything specific, just-“ Katholes eyebrow raised so show them silently asking the tyrian ‚why‘,

„You see, some things dont need to have a deeper use or purpose, some things are just supposed to be pretty and be appreciated because of that. Besides-“ Maple held the pieces of coral out in front of them, they were still very much not glued together, but with some effort she held them to Katholes head in the formation she wanted to glue them in to showcase what she imagined the end product would look like.

„It suits you!“ noted Varos, netting an eyeroll from Katholes, whilst yes, praise was nice- this wasnt something theyd ever want to have- or wear, they had no use for things that didnt help them survive after all.

Varos and another Haedian had started to look through the pile of fabric, pulling one out that had bits of crystals glowing on it, giving it an iridescent sheen. The actual fabric part was thin enough that even the bioluminescent paint had a chance to shine through it, lighting the small crystals up if draped over something glowing. Varos had a smug smile on his face before he asked the Haedian to get closer and whispered something into their ear. Said haedian nodded and took out a few sewing pins, starting to work on the fabric together with Varos.

The small chaser wasn‘t very skilled when it came to tailoring, or sewing for that matter but he just knew that Maple would love what he had planned, as she did with anything that sparkles, shimmered or shined. Maple had started to glue the coral together at this point, and whilst Katholes mainly watched, they served as a standin model for Maple to see if she liked the arrangement of coral and shells she had started to incorporate. A pensive smile rested on Katholes face, they knew that activities like this were miles away from what they normally engaged in and something they would have scoffed at before meeting these two, but one thing was for sure. Katholes knew that Varos and Maple were having a good time and as such they wanted to make sure to spend that time with their friends as it seemed to mean a lot to them.

Varos was excited to be able to gift Maple a small handmade bag made from this crystal encrusted fabric and had promised the Haedian a meal they would never forget in exchange, the small chaser after all knew which battles to pick and choose and settling on offering something in return that they knew they could deliver on due to their culinary expertise was only logical.

„Hey just to make sure-“ said the small chaser leaning over to the Haedian. „Your kind doesn‘t mind spice right?“ he asked intending to make his own version of the dish maeuntang for this haedian who in turn just gave the chaser a quizzical look.