Kalon Link: event myo (jelly)
Chosen Prompt: "Is there a political climate? What’s it like?"
Prompt Response:
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The shopkeeper peered around the wall of his booth, taking note of the thin white tail slinking into an alleyway. He sat back and continued selling the bundles of fresh fruits to other desert residents, quickly exchanging cash for a bushel. The succulent fruits he sold were a hot spot for the market, as those living in the arid area weren’t usually offered the chance to eat anything with such a high water content. With such a good day at the market, he had fully forgotten about the suspicious figure sleuthing around the market stalls until they sped by, grabbing two of his most expensive bunches.
Jelly had gotten used to this, now. Stake out a stall, grab your next meal, and run. He was lithe, and the whiplike tail with the barbed shine at the end was a useful tool for keeping angry salesmen and cops off of his trail. Speaking of, the grape salesman was hot on Jelly’s tail, snarling and shouting at him. Jelly swung a barrel out into the pathway with the barb of his tail and swung his whole chest to the right as hard as he could, sprinting down an alley. It was almost like a cartoon with how his legs just hopelessly skittered behind the powerful front paws pulling him down the alley.
Jelly hopped up, climbing over dumpsters and scaling fire escapes until he sat on top of the decrepit brick building. His chest heaved, the desert sun beating down on him, keeping his already strained muscles too warm. He pricked his ears forward, then to his sides, and when he heard no approaching policemen or rightfully distraught shop owners, he dug into the meal he had worked oh so hard to acquire.
He finished one of the two bags of fruit, putting the other’s handles into his jaws and slithering back down to the alley floor. He had to be careful now, slinking behind buildings and ducking into shadows to avoid being caught. The wily young kal had almost fully escaped the town when another kalon, probably no older than himself, ran directly into him.
Jelly was the first to stand, jumping up on top of the spoils of his hunt, making it very clear he wasn’t willing to share. The younger just lazily shook the dust out of his fur - how could someone have such long fur in the middle of a desert? - and looked on apathetically.
“Hey, step down. I’m not here for your grapes. I can just grab my own. I’m Lonnie.” The little black kal said. Jelly looked at him blankly, completely dumbfounded by the circumstances.
“Uhh… okay. Why are you following me?” Jelly said, completely tactless and quite frankly a little bit stupidly. It was a question, but his tone was cold and accusatory.
The teenager, apparently named Lonnie, scoffed. “Because you’re scrambling around in the market all alone. It’s essentially a death wish. I wanted to offer you to join our... little group.
It’s no less theft, of course, we don’t have a dime between us. But you’ll be a little safer, and there’s a place to stay with fresh water. Cops won’t try to get at us there either.” He half smiled, half grimaced at his own words.
“Plus… you definitely need the extra support. The bright colors on black don’t really blend into the middle of a town built out of red bricks.”
Jelly looked away from the kid in front of him. What the hell? He’s just trying to get his next meal sorted and some gangly fuzzy kit is trying to coerce him into some sort of gang or something.
“Um.” Ever the slick and smooth talker, there, Jelly. “What’s the catch..?” he finally choked out.
“Well, you’ll have to help us get food together. So if you come back home with me, the grapes are for everyone. Luckily you won’t starve anyways. I think the only thing you’d really have to come to terms with is coexisting with Lucas.” Lonnie raised an eyebrow and looked expectantly at Jelly.
“...Fine. I’ll at least check it out.”
Jelly was quickly made fully aware of why cops weren’t an issue for these kals: he had to drag his poor, tired paws through probably twenty miles of desert with no tree cover or shade at all. Any water they passed was tainted by city smog or, the further out they went, the rotting remnants of birds and other such wildlife that couldn’t take the heat. It gave him the creeps, quite frankly, that he was being led into the heart of an inhospitable and barren land by some strange kid who TOLD HIM that he’d be meeting a group of other kals, hardened by the desert around them.
It had been just long enough that Jelly thought he was going to die when the breeze picked up, revitalizing the downtrodden kalon enough to make it to the largest oasis that he’d ever seen.
“Christ, I knew oases were supposed to feel like magic, but that doesn’t even look real,” Jelly remarked. Lonnie barked out a laugh and moved forwards.
“Well, don’t get your hopes up - any magic in this place is stretched pretty thin. This is just where the river runs, so all the plants are here, y’know? Science, or whatever.
You’re sweaty. Bathe in the basin, it’ll feel a lot better. I’ll take the grapes over to the camp, it’s just over the riverbank.” Lonnie pointed towards a less shifty part of the sands, where various foods stolen from the market were laying. The amount of food there could have made Jelly sob, but he kept himself composed long enough to acknowledge Lonnie’s words and ease himself into the water.
The world they lived in may force them to steal, lie, cheat, or even fight others. However, When Jelly let the water rush over his back and pull the sand, dust, and debris out of his fur, he could almost forget why he was in this situation in the first place.
Token Worth: [1008 words - 10 tokens]
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