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A soft spring breeze rustled through the grasses and flowers around Taranza, making the green plains almost like a vast ocean, and fortunately blowing in his direction, fluttering his pale hair out of his face. The late morning sun shone down on the scene, giving a light of ease to all of his surroundings. Cotton clouds dotted the crystal blue sky, and they seemed almost sleepy. Taranza took a deep breath of the fresh country air. It was much warmer than Royal Road, and, unfortunately, all his heavy clothing was dreadfully unsuited for this weather.He slipped a map from his cloak (the green one with the spider webs all around the sides-- it was his favorite, and it went well with his bright red scarf; in his opinion, at least) and stared at the atlas with the eyes on the front of his face; a golden pair in the middle of his bangs, and a lavender pair where one would normally expect them.Now then… Where to find an artist ? Oh! There’s someone, but they don’t exactly look the artistic type… They were short and round, with orange skin and a pale face. A waddle dee, yes? He didn’t spend much time outside Royal Road, much less Floralia itself. But he’d seen waddle dees in Fine Fields… A pleasant surprise to find one down here, too! Like a little reminder of home.“Pardon,” Taranza asked, drifting closer. “But I don’t suppose you know any artists?”“Artists…?” The waddle dee echoed. “Oh! Yeah! Artists are a dime a dozen around here, so I’ve heard. Look around in any forest or town, you’re bound to find at least one. Or a couple. Or a big bunch!” He spread his nubs wide, or at least as far as he could. “They usually either hang around each other or spend all their time alone.”“Ah, thank you. See, this is my first trip to the Lower World, and I’m not quite familiar with the terrain.”The waddle dee blinked. “…I’ve never heard of any ‘Lower World,’ bud. I mean, I don’t know where you’re from, with that weird accent, but down here we call this place Dream Land! ...What do you need an artist for, anyways?”Taranza gritted his teeth and mustered a polite reply. “Ah, about that…”*~*~~~*~*“So, you say you’re headed to the Lower World, hmm? I hear it’s quite peaceful down there,” Queen Sectonia said absentmindedly, resting a gloved hand on her cheek. “And what kind of business do you have down there, anyway?”“Delivering something. The couriers are all busy, and the post office is closed today. Nothing terribly interesting.” That wasn’t entirely true, but one couldn’t fault him for lying. It was a surprise for her birthday, after all. He’d heard that the Lower World was home to quite a few artists, all quite talented. He’d always found his own gifts to be underwhelming, but perhaps a professional painter might make something suitable for his queen?“I see… Well, I hear the journey down is quite tedious. I would love to accompany you, but--” with a swish of her hair and a grin, the queen put on her fake-poshest voice-- “such matters are beneath me!” She burst out into wonderful laughter that echoed through the halls. “Get it, Taranza? Be-beneath!” she said between laughs.Taranza could only manage to hold a straight face for a good four seconds before a smile cracked. Her laughter sounded like tiny bells, ringing out the sweetest melodies-- how could you not smile with the queen around? His cheeks flushed, and he pushed a strand of pale hair out of his face.“...I suppose I have to be going now,” He said finally. “I’ll not be gone long, I promise.”Queen Sectonia nodded. “May the stars protect your journey, Taranza.”*~*~~~*~*“I’d like to commission a painting… A gift for a friend. Her birthday is coming up soon, you see.” A dreamy smile crossed his face as he thought of his queen, her sparkling eyes, her grin, her laughter.“Well, you’re not gonna find better painters than in Dream Land!” The waddle dee guffawed, his nubs on his hips. “I hear that some can even bring paintings to life! You can’t get that anywhere else! At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”Taranza cocked a brow. Was he an advertiser? He certainly sounded like one now.
“Ah, splendid. I don’t suppose you could direct me to one?” Taranza asked.“I’ve never met an artist in my life.”“…” Taranza’s face went blank. “But you speak like you know quite a few.”“Well, like I said before, it doesn’t take long to find an artist around here,” the waddle dee shrugged. “I know some people who know them though. Try looking in the woods, you might find something there.” With that, he walked away.Taranza was silent as he watched him leave. With the way he spoke, he could easily assume that he’d mistaken artists for some sort of mythical creatures, hiding in the shadows and forgotten by history. But then again, with what he said they could do, it almost made sense… Bringing paintings to life? That must require some powerful magic. He couldn’t help but grin with excitement as he thought of what sort of spells would be needed. Hopefully, magic or no magic, whatever they make would be good enough for his queen…*~*~~~*~*The forest was a quiet, shady place. The leaves were such lovely colors of red, gold and brown, like a perpetual autumn, despite spring’s pastels and greens being present everywhere else. As Taranza drifted through the woods, his eyes caught someone sitting on a wide stump, watching the leaves fall.“Pardon,” He asked. “But are you an artist? I was told I could find one here...”A pair of deep green eyes, almost catlike, darted in his direction. As the person slipped off of the stump and approached him, patches of sunlight allowed Taranza to get a better look at her. The stranger was a fair head taller than him, with hair as black as the night, a beret as red as a strawberry. She wore a long green shirt that bordered on a dress, with sleeves that stopped at her wrists, atop a cloudy grey skirt(? Or was it a dress? It was none of his business to ask). With her hands on her hips, a big smile spread on her face. “Yeah, I’m an artist!” She held out a hand for him to shake. “The name’s Adeleine! How can I help you?”“Yes, about that,” Taranza said. He gently shook her hand with one of his own. “My name is Taranza. I don’t suppose you do commissions, do you?”Adeleine put a finger to her chin and hummed in thought. “Well… It depends on wh--”“Did someone say commissions ?” A sudden voice piped up from not too far away. Taranza’s back set of eyes darted to the source. Two girls, one a fairy with hair colored with all the hues of the rainbow-- styled almost like the end of a paintbrush, with it all ending at a tip-- and the other some being with lavender skin and long, cloudy, bright blue hair which covered her eyes stood behind him. He turned.“Are you artists as well?” He asked.The taller of the two nodded vigorously. “I’m a sculptress, and she--” she gestured to the fairy beside her-- “paints the shapes I make. Claycia and Elline, at your service.” She gave a small curtsy.“Oh? Then perhaps you could help me. Her Majesty has always loved that sort of thing…” Taranza remembered how they used to visit the pottery studio when they were little. The two of them would watch the potter’s careworn fingers glide across the vase’s surface, making the most beautiful patterns with only her hands. But then again, she also had a fondness for paintings…“Wait, Her Majesty who ?!” Adeleine’s jaw dropped. “You didn’t say anything about a queen! Then again,” she turned to the new pair with a furrowed eyebrow, tapping her foot, “we were kinda interrupted before we could get to those sort of details.”“Oh, sorry!” Elline chuckled. “We kinda get excited about art. You know how it is, right?”Adeleine crossed her arms and huffed. “Well, fine, sure. But this person came to me first !”Claycia put a hand to her chin. “Sure, by chance . Besides, you’re just a kid . If this is going to be for a queen, it should be done by professionals -- no offence.” She gave an almost apologetic smile.Taranza opened his mouth to speak, but the words died in his throat.“Claycia, I know you didn’t mean it, but… That did kind of sound mean,” Elline whispered. She turned to Adeleine with her hands clasped together. “Sorry, she doesn’t mean that, she just gets really competitive someti--”“Well, let’s turn this into a competition, then! Whoever makes the best piece gets paid!” Adeleine exclaimed.Elline clapped a hand to her mouth. Whoops. “C-Come on, Cia, let’s not make this nasty…” She said.Claycia grinned, paying no heed to Elline’s protests. She floated over to Adeleine, looming over her. “And whoever loses has to admit to the winner that she’s the better artist?”“... Deal .” Adeleine shook Claycia’s hand while staring her directly in the eyes-- or, well, where one could assume eyes would be, since Claycia’s were covered up by bangs. Her deep green eyes burned with a fiery passion.“Well, good luck, kid! May the best artist win!”*~*~~~*~*The two “teams” separated, Adeleine standing by the stump where Taranza had first found her, and Claycia and Elline a ways away near a river. “Okay, Taranza, what does she look like?” Adeleine pulled out a notebook from a pocket on her shirt and a pencil from behind her ear. “If you don’t have any kind of picture, be as detailed as you can.”“Well…” Taranza wrung his hands. “She’s… She looks a little like me, actually, but far, far more lovely. She’s a wonderful woman with dark colored skin and pale hair that falls around her shoulders. She’s got six hands like mine-- oh, and horns. Only hers are longer and more curved. And her eyes… She’s got the loveliest eyes. They’re the color of amethysts, and they glow like stars in the night sky…” He gazed off into space as he thought of Sectonia, of her laughter, of her smile.“She sounds really pretty.” Adeleine rested her chin on her hand.Taranza nodded. “She’s the kindest, gentlest person I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.” He sighed dreamily.After a moment, Adeleine nodded. “Well, I’ve got a good idea of what she looks like. I think I’m good to go! You should probably check on those two.” She gave shifty eyes over to Claycia and Elline, their voices barely audible but indecipherable, who were searching by the river for… something. “I never understood their type. ‘Besides, you’re just a kid .’” The words stung on her lips, Taranza could tell. “Hmph. Just because I’m not some wise old sage doesn’t mean I can’t make it into the big shots! Don’t you think?”“…You’re right, I should check on them.” Taranza mumbled. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with artistry drama today, whether it be just from competitive spirit or not. He drifted to the river bed, floating by in front of the water. Right by the river, Claycia was digging through the mud directly by the water for… some reason.“I… I don’t suppose you two need a reference?” Taranza asked.“Hmm? Oh, yeah, no, I overheard you talking with the kid,” Claycia said absentmindedly, not turning away from her hands in the mud. “No, there’s not enough here, Elline.” She shook her head with a sigh. “We’ll have to get more from home.”“Are you sure?” Elline asked. “I think there’s some more over here…” She dug through the silt, eyes scanning the muck for something useful. “Oh, here we go! I found some, Cia!” She cheered.“No way, really?! That’s awesome, Elline!” Claycia clasped her mud-covered hands together and hurried over to Elline’s side.“I know I know, I’m the best,” Elline teased, giving Claycia’s cheek a light peck.Claycia’s cheeks flushed and she covered her face with her still muddy hands, suddenly unable to form any words other than babble and giggles.“If I may ask,” Taranza piped up, folding two of his hands behind his back. “What are you looking for? Perhaps I can be of assistance.”Once Claycia regained her composure, she took a deep breath. “Oh, no, it’s fine. We were just trying to find some clay to make the statue out of. But it’s no worry--” she scooped up Elline in her arms and planted a kiss on the back of her head-- “my amazing co-artist found more than enough!”“Ah, good!” Taranza adjusted his scarf. “I… Don’t suppose you’d mind if I watched?” He always found pottery enchanting to watch.“It’ll take a bit to actually dig out the clay we need…” Claycia tapped her chin, seemingly disregarding that her hands were STILL covered in mud, “And besides, wouldn’t it be better if the final product was a surprise?”“I suppose so…” He said. “Do let me know if you require anything.”The pair of artists nodded, and headed off to get to their work. With that, the two teams set off on their work, as Taranza waited, his heart pounding in anticipation.*~*~~~*~*Early afternoon, into late afternoon, into evening, into sunset, into night. The sculptresses and the painter worked furiously, non-stop until the stars were dancing with the moon far above their heads. All the while Taranza paced, his many hands behind his back, not sleeping even as the stars shone above. Finally, one of the artists approached him. Taranza stopped, taking a moment to wipe the blurriness from his eyes.Adeleine, completely covered in splatters and streaks of paint, wiped her forehead with a sigh, creating a smear of purple across her brow. She was carrying a canvas, turned backwards, in one hand. “Mr… Mr. Taranza! I… I’m done! It’s finally finished!” With that, she flipped the canvas around, and…Taranza clapped his hands together and opened his mouth to give praise, but stopped as soon as he saw the painting. It was lovely. It really was. Only it wasn’t his queen at all.“I followed what you told me, but some of the stuff you said was pretty vague… So I took some artistic liberties.” The figure in the painting was more human shaped, with a long nose and full lips. Her eyes were a violent violet, brighter than anything he had ever seen. He didn’t even know that vicious of a purple was possible-- they almost even glowed in the dark. She had horns longer than her entire head, curling like corkscrews, and long hair falling down to her back. Oh no… “It’s…” Taranza swallowed hard. “It’s lovely, but it uh…” How to put this? “Er… It doesn’t look like her at all.”“Oh.” Adeleine blinked, her free arm falling limp to her side. “And after all that… All day…” She rubbed at her eyes, accidentally smearing paint over them, too. Taranza’s heart sunk at her miserable sight…Suddenly, the two other artists scrambled over. Claycia was carrying… something under a blanket-- assumably a statue-- while Elline, like Adeleine, was covered in a rainbow of paint. “We finished, Taranza…! The sculpture is done!” Claycia chimed in, covered in clay.“And what have you created?” Taranza asked, tilting his head. With a grin and not another word, Claycia pulled back the blanket covering the sculpture. Perhaps they would have had better luck in capturing his queen’s image properly…They didn’t. No better luck at all. “I overheard you say she’s lovely, so I based the sculpture on the loveliest person I know!” Claycia said, giving her small assistant a kiss on the forehead. Which was very romantic, but it really didn’t help their case. The body type was too skinny, the sculpture had too few hands and was lacking in extra eyes. Not to mention the hair shape was all wrong… The sculpture was like a paintbrush with horns slapped onto it. Taranza wrung his hands and let out a deep sigh. “I am terribly sorry, but this… I am afraid this isn’t accurate either.”“You mean…?”“Neither of us got it right?”Taranza shook his head. Both teams of artists looked at each other, dumbfounded. “…What are we going to do, then…?” Claycia asked, her lips pulling tight. “I mean… We can’t send either of these to your queen! They’d be… They’d be insults to Her Majesty!”Adeleine put a palm on her own forehead. “I don’t know. I don’t know what we should do. But whatever we do, we do it tomorrow, I say,” she said with a yawn. “It’s… It’s late. Stupidly late.”“Let’s get some sleep then,” Elline agreed, yawning as well. “Maybe a good night’s rest will help us think with a new perspective!”Claycia nodded, then turned to Taranza. “You have a place to sleep for the night, don’t you, Taranza…?”“I do,” He said, dipping his head. He had seen some sort of hotel on his way to the forest. Though he had no way of telling what quality of service they could offer… Well, he could risk it. Whatever would await him, it would better than sleeping in the woods, anyway.Adeleine packed up her easel and paints into a bag. “…What about you, kiddo?” Claycia asked. “You’ve got somewhere safe to go for the night, right? Your own house and all that?”“I’m twelve , you think I own a house ?” Adeleine asked with a raised eyebrow.“Wait, you live all on your own in the forest then?” Ellie drifted closer, wringing her hands. “That’s awful! You’re too young to be a hobo! Come stay with us!”“Yeah! We’ve got the room, and it’s a lot safer than staying out here all night… Not to mention warmer.” Claycia grabbed at her own shoulders. While the spring sun had warmed the land, the moonlight isn’t nearly as courteous, and a cold night wind now blew through, bringing a chill as it whistled through the trees.“…Okay.” Adeleine nodded. “Better than the shoddy tent I’ve got out here, anyways.”Claycia gave her a smile. “That’s just what I’m saying, kid!” And so, the artists and Taranza headed off on their separate ways.*~*~~~*~*When the morning sun kissed the horizon, the four of them met by the stump again. The early light slipped through the trees like blinds, warm orange stripes landing gently on all of their faces. A mellow spring breeze knocked the leaves off of the trees, which flew like birds on the wind.“I trust you slept well?” Taranza asked, picking a golden leaf out of his hair.With a stretch, Adeleine smiled. “Best night of sleep I’ve ever had!”“Might be because it was on a real bed for once.” Claycia chuckled. “Oh! And tell him that idea you had at breakfast!”Adeleine grinned, and clenched her fists in anticipation. “Right! So there were two problems yesterday, I think. One, we were so focused on trying to one-up each other that we forgot to actually consider the piece. I mean, I know I went over the top with some of the details on mine… Plus, trying to compare a painting to a sculpture is like comparing apples to oranges. Anyways! The second problem was that we never tried to get any feedback until we were actually done! So, if all three of us work together on the piece, and you talk us through how the queen looks in case we make a mistake, we’ll make something great! What do you think, Mr. Taranza?”Taranza clapped his hands together. “That sounds like a wonderful plan!” He said, allowing himself a grin. “Let us begin as soon as you are ready!”“Well, we’re ready when you are!” Elline gave Taranza a thumbs up, and the four of them began again, this time as one team.With Adeleine coming up with the basic “blueprint,” Taranza giving feedback (“Oh, no, the hair isn’t that long. Just to about… Here. And her horns are a bit shorter, with just one curve like an ‘s’.”), the sculptress couple got to work. They spent the entire afternoon shaping every detail with care, like they were handling the finest marble. When the final colors were finished being added on, Taranza gasped, putting a pair of hands up to his mouth.“Oh my…” He breathed. “It’s… It’s lovely! It’s perfect! ” His eyes sparkled with tears of joy as he stared open mouthed at the statue. Every detail, every color and every shape was created with pinpoint accuracy. It was like he could hear her laughter then and there! In fact, he could almost swear he could …The three artists gave each other high fives all around, before a familiar voice chimed up.“My, my…” She gasped.Taranza spotted her through his rear eyes first and whirled around, just to make sure his eyes didn’t deceive him. “Sectonia!” He gasped. “Y-You’re here-!”Queen Sectonia’s eyes widened at his surprise, and she put a hand to her chin. “When you took so long to return, I was worried for your safety… I considered sending guards down here, but… I decided to come down myself, instead.” Taranza’s smile faded.“Oh no… I did not mean to worry you!” He said, swallowing a lump in his throat.“So…” the queen giggled, her laughter like bells as always, “‘delivering something,’ hmm?” She glanced up at the statue, which was still drying in the sun.Taranza wrung his hands. “Apologies… That was only partly true.” He said, eyes hanging around the forest floor. “It was going to be a surprise, this… I was going to bring it back up to Floralia for your birthday, you see. But it took a bit longer than we anticipated.”Adeleine’s eyes widened. “ This is your queen? Wow!” She hurried over and curtsied low enough that her knees nearly touched the forest floor. “It’s… It’s an honor to meet you!”Sectonia’s smile grew even more as she replied with a curtsy of her own. “And I assumed you helped to make this, little one?”Adeleine nodded. “Me, and her, and her!” She pointed over at Elline and Claycia, who had already floated over and curtsied, as well.“The whole thing was Adeleine’s idea, Your Majesty,” Elline said.“Yeah… They did most of the work, though!” Adeleine grinned. “I just did a sketch and helped with the painting after.”“It’s absolutely delightful, ladies.” Queen Sectonia turned to Taranza. “…You… You had this made just for… me?”“Y-Yes…” Taranza gulped. He felt blush creep into his cheeks as he tapped his fingers together. “Your birthday is coming soon, yes? You deserve the best.”Without another word, Sectonia laughed and scooped Taranza up into a hug. He gasped and dissolved into giggles as she spun him around. “You’re wonderful, Taranza!” Sectonia finally said with a grin at the end of the giggle fit, still holding him close and running a hand through his hair. “You’re the best friend anyone could ask for!”Tears of bliss spilled down Taranza’s cheeks as he leaned his head into her hand. “Really,” He whispered. “It’s the least I could do for you , Secty.”