by madeofkaons » Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:14 am
I’m participating in Prompt Day #11!Username: rosemeadow
Your ID#: 985317
Previous Entry: Forum/viewtopic.php?f=124&t=4766474&start=120#p139235503
Chicoon: Zeno (Forum/viewtopic.php?t=4768266)
Shadow Puppets
Show or tell us about your Chicoon making shadow puppets! Do they use their flame as the light source, or a flashlight? What kinds of stories do they show?
Entry: Story
Zeno sat against the canvas wall of his flimsy tent, watching the flickering light of a campfire from inside the structure. It was late evening, and most chicoons were either heading to bed or settled down in groups around the multiple campfires scattered throughout the area. For some reason- out of spite, maybe- Zeno was doing neither. He was simply gazing at the silhouettes of the others of his species, milling about and enjoying themselves. The silence, self-created, was broken periodically by the odd series of honking noises or loud crackling of the fire devouring yet another piece of wood (or marshmallow). He knew he was being unreasonable; why wouldn't he go outside and just talk to everyone? That's what Ilia would say, anyways. He, plain and simple, did not feel like going outside and interacting with other chicoons.
As he watched the shadows on the tent's wall, flickering and distorting with the changing source of light as they walked, he was reminded of a memory that seemed insignificant now, but had been important when he had been experiencing it- he had been quite young, after all. He raised one of his paws so that it was directly in the path of the light and lazily looked behind him. A shadow puppet. He smiled to himself without thinking, and then squashed the expression to revert back to a face of indifference. This wasn't something he had done for a long while. Zeno couldn't help it. He brought his other paw up in front of the muffled firelight, creating two shadow characters that were just asking to be made into a story. He then turned himself around, his back to the bright light of the outside campfire, and raised his tail flame. He almost immediaely became completely absorbed in the puppets on the wall.
Zeno created a butterfly, then a flower. He made a rabbit that hopped from a cliff face onto a trampoline below. He shaped the shadows with his paws, boredom vanquished with the flick of a tail flame. He found himself having fun, alone in the tent, becoming a puppeteer. He shaped a chicoon with his paws and then heard a loud booming laugh from outside. He looked away, squinting through the translucent wall at the fuzzy shapes of chicoons. Behind him came a sudden honk, and he jumped. He returned in alarm to his shadow puppet wall and saw that, haha oh boy there was a communicating shadow. He lowered his paws slowly from the position they were in, but the chicoon puppet stayed on the wall. I must be imagining something, Zeno thought, certain of some kind of hallucination.
The puppet honked again, sounding suspiciously like someone he knew. It gestured outside, as though wanting him to join the other chicoons. Zeno narrowed his eyes. He shook his head slowly, his tail wings still held high in a startled position. The puppet- he couldn't believe he was experiencing this- nodded. It.. wanted him to go outside? It was a SHADOW PUPPET and it was none of its business whether he ventured out or not. He tried to communicate this through a glare at the wall, and realized how foolish he would look to anyone glancing inside his tent. No matter, he thought, trying to dismiss it. I have to deal with the shadow puppet first. He raised his paws and made another shadow puppet, but then that one, too, pointed to the tent door with its tail, and he realized he had made a mistake. He frantically looked around, wondering how one gets rid of shadow puppets that have gained minds of their own. They both, almost comedically, made indications for him to unzip the door. Zeno was about to make yet another shadow puppet, slightly enthused by his own power, and then he woke up.
A dream. He blinked in the sunlight streaming through the tent walls and slightly open windows. A dream about.. shadow puppets. Zeno glanced at the wall above him, and then at the tent door. Perhaps he should get out today, he thought. Just to be safe.
[686 words]
hello there! i'm madeofkaons
☆ she/her ☆ math and physics nerd ☆
