Mistica Chronicles


Welcome to Issue 70

black_shadow Winning Entry

In the early predawn hours of morning, a young Blush Cheran was awoken from his slumber by the sound of loud hammering coming from downstairs. blinking sleepily, he curled his tail around his blanket and climbed from his bed, heading downstairs to see what all the fuss was about.

He found his owner and the rest of the pets hard at work; their owner seemed to be putting some sort of gel between the cracks of the doors and the windows while the rest of the pets chopped bits of board and rock up and used them to block off the entrances.

Confusion took over the young Cheran’s mind, and he asked, “Whatcha doing?”

Everyone jumped at the sound of his voice; Sentinal dropped a rock on his foot and yelped loudly, swearing as he clutched the injured limb. Mateus scolded him for cursing before turning to the youngster. “It’s for the Infestation, sweetheart. It’ll be here in about a month.”

“Infestation? What’s that?” Tilting his head cutely, the Cheran moved deeper into the room and climbed onto to couch, wrapping the blanket around him. His owner, seeing him getting settled for a story, set his tools down and nodded at Touda, who blanched before heading into one of the back rooms.

His owner rubbed his hands with a dirty towel before plopping down on the couch beside the Cheran. “Infestation is a monthly holiday, kinda like Mistmas or Eastyr. Basically, a whole swarm of…lovebugs and cooties – that’s the name for the creatures that show up – come here to Mistica and the owners spend the entire month waging a war against one another.”

“A war? That sounds scary!” Curling into a tighter ball, the youngster’s eyes went wide. The boy chuckled, patting his head reassuringly.

“Nah, it’s not like that. You ever hear of Doorbell Ditch?” Seeing the Cheran nod, he continued. “Well, it’s kinda like that. See, we all get a certain number of cooties and lovebugs, and then we go from house to house, knock on the door and leave the cootie or lovebug on the doorstep for the user to find. It’s…interesting.” The male grimaced.

The Cheran noticed it. “It doesn’t sound interesting. Do you dislike it?”

This time it was the Wintergreen Jinx – sans his lights – who answered. “It’s not so much that we dislike it, kid. It’d be a fine holiday if there wasn’t so much [i]pink[/i] involved.” Zeromus chuckled as their owner shuddered. “Shadow here hates pink with a passion, and there’s enough of it in Mistica to blind you. Not to mention that it’s at the same time as Valentine’s Day, and everyone’s all lovey-dovey and mushy. Blech!”

Touda chose this time to reenter the room with a jar clasped in his mouth. Moving forward, he laid the jar on the desk, the young Cheran’s eyes widening comically at what was inside. “Is…that a lovebug?”

“Nope, that’s a cootie. See those little teeth? Those are what they use to bite on pets and make ‘em Lovesick.” Shadow informed his pet, eyeing the jar distrustfully.

“Lovesick?”

“Yeah, it’s a disease that can only be cured with a potion Rosebud sells. Luckily, she always has it in bulk and in stock. Speaking of which, I need to hurry down and get some.” Standing, the owner hurried towards his room, returning after a moment with a bulging pocketful of Mistic Cash. “Anyone want to come with?”

“I’ll go.” Zeromus stood, stretching. “If I stay here too long, I’m liable to get bored, and then I won’t be able to help you guys.”

And so while the two went off to Rosebud’s store the rest of the group went back to work, and the young Cheran sat there and pondered at how something so small could cause so much of a fuss.