Avancyn was much like her father in the fact that she was throughly enjoying the ever present darkness that was making the marking around her eye constantly glow. She loved looking at her reflection in the surface of the lake and looking at the pretty glow the snowflake-like marking made—which was exactly where she was right now. She was at the edge of the lake, tilting her head one way or the other so she could see it as best as she could in the steady, lapping water on the rocky shore. It was later in the afternoon so the faint twilight of the "day" had faded and the moon had returned in full force. The fireflies were no longer only visible at night, but they felt the most active at night and some of them were always dancing around her legs and sometimes coming up to tickle her nose.

A cluster of them got her attention and she looked away from her reflection to see where the mischievous little motes of light were trying to lead her. They had taken her to various things like pretty rocks and plants occasionally, but as she got up to follow them this time she found herself led to her brother instead. Her twin was always up to something and this time she found him crushing large mushrooms that glowed with the same kind of blue-hued glow as everything else. "Sara!" she chided with a frown, running over to stop him. "What are you doing? What if they're dangerous! Or even if they're not, they're so pretty! Why are you destroying them!"

"Avacyn Mendacium"

Crunch!

The feel of the foamy toadstool crushing beneath his paw pads brought a wide smile to little Saracyn's face. The mushrooms just felt so strange and funny under his paws, and when he felt them squish, it was even more entertaining! Giggling to himself, Saracyn targeted another large glowing mushroom and placed both paws atop of it, then pressed all of his weight forward. Another popping crunch and the mushroom turned to pulp and pieces beneath his feet. Sara tittered, his little tail wagging like mad off the end of his butt. Above him, the glowing blue fireflies floated about his head, keeping him company in the darkening evening, the massive glowing moon illuminating the forest he played in. Mom hadn't called them back for dinner yet, so he planned to keep playing as long as he could. He loved the darker days and couldn't get enough of them!

The sound of approaching paws made the boy look up, spotting the glow of his twin sister before she appeared. He greeted her with a wide grin, noting the way her eye marking glowed bright and strong just like his did all day long now. "Hi Ava!" he said as he stomped down on another mushroom. His sister's upset reaction surprised him, blinking and tilting his head in confusion much like his father did and followed her gaze down to the splattered pulp of glowing mushroom between his toes. The red-furred pup gave a dramatic sigh and rolled his eye. Silly girls! "Ava, mushrooms are only bad if you eat them. Duh!" And he wasn't eating them, just squishing a few! It really was their fault for feeling so funny.

"Besides, look at how cool this is!" Saracyn lifted a paw to Avacyn's face and revealed how the mushroom goop had stained his paw pads and surrounding fur in glowing luminescent blue. He gestured to the large patch of mushrooms he'd been playing in, then gave her a daring smirk. "Go on, give it a try! It's loads of fun!" With both of their clusters of firefly companions joining, the little clearing was filled with glowing blue light, allowing the twins' marking to glow even brighter, like two little lighthouses amongst a sea of darkness.

"Saracyn Mendacium"

Avacyn frowned disapprovingly as her brother insisted that they were safe as long as he didn't eat them and was very insistent on the fact that he was in fact not eating them. She could have argued that wasn't entirely true and how some mushrooms could give off spores and things like that, but by the destruction he had already caused she figured he probably would have already started showing signs of being intoxicated or poisoned if that was the case with these. It felt like she'd just be lecturing to a rock without some kind of evidence thatches was really the case so it was easier to just sigh and shake her head at her ridiculous twin. At least one of them could be the responsible one with some common sense!

She looked doubtfully at his paw as he lifted it for her to see, showing off how the mushrooms had made his paw pads glow. It was honestly a bit hard to distinguish what was making everything glow—the mushrooms themselves or the numerous fireflies that were playing in the air above them. She looked down at one of the mushrooms in front of her and hesitantly tapped her paw on its domed top at his insistence that she join in. Even if they weren't dangerous she still didn't really want to mess them up. They were so pretty with their soft glow and she'd rather just admire them than destroy them. Instead, she tried just rubbing her paw across the top of the mushroom to see if she could get a similar effect, but when she lifted her paw away and looked at her dark paw pads she was disappointed to see that there wasn't any glow there.

"Avacyn Mendacium"

Saracyn huffed and rolled his bright blue eyes again when his sister gave a disparaging glower at him. Girls... Always with such soft hearts for pretty things like flowers and glowing mushrooms. While he smashed another mushroom beneath his paw pads, Sara glanced over to Ava and saw her very cautiously rubbing her tiny paw across the top of one of the glowing mushrooms. He snickered and shook his head. "Didn't do anything, huh?" he asked when he saw the disappointed expression on her face clear as day. "Well, if you don't wanna smash any, then I guess no glow paws for you!"

Smirking as he waved his glowing digits at his sister again, Saracyn noted a ball of glowing blue light flicker by his face. He recoiled a bit from the firefly, but then watched as it circled around his glowing paw. Then another came, and another. One by one, the fireflies started to float and circle around his paw, as if drawn in by the glow on his pads. Raising his paw as high as he could, Sara gaped in awe to watch the sea of floating fireflies all come down to dance and pirouette around his mushroom-coated glowing paw. Every time he moved, the fireflies moved to follow his paw. It was like he was a conductor of some beautiful symphony of light. "Whoa! That's cool!" he remarked, then shot his sister a grin. "Ava, look! I'm like the firefly prince!"

"Saracyn Mendacium"

Avacyn pouted a bit as Saracyn taunted her about how she couldn't have glow paws unless she crushed some of the mushrooms. He was already doing enough destruction for the both of them without her joining in. She bet that they'd all just be clumps of mush by the time mom called them in for dinner and she was sad to see the pretty mushrooms go. She was distracted from her inner lamenting about her brother's carelessness when he exclaimed about something being cool and she looked up from the mushroom she was guarding in front of her to see the swarm of fireflies that had collected around his glowing paw. The fireflies were always pretty playful with them but they seemed to reeeeeally like the glow that Saracyn had made with his crushed mushrooms.

His claim of being the firefly prince got her thinking and she glanced down at the trail of destroyed mushrooms between her and Saracyn and grinned a little at her idea. She got up and went over to one of the already destroyed mushrooms so that she wouldn't have to ruin another one for her idea and stabbed one of them with one of her claws, picking up the chunk and rubbing it on her opposite paw pad just to make sure it was still going to work with transferring glow to things. She grinned when it did and then used her chunk of glowing mushroom to color the budding ridge of horns on her head with it. The spiked, boney ridges started to glow like strips of bioluminescent light on her head and she trotted over to where most of the fireflies had gathered by Saracyn.

One of the fireflies seemed to notice as she sat down in front of her twin and a clump of them moved toward her, floating and dancing around her head and making almost literally a crown made of fireflies. She beamed happily as her tail wagged, proudly wearing the blue fireflies that she could see drifting in and out of the edges of her vision. "I'm the real firefly princess!" she insisted, feeling like she most certainly won this contest!

"Avacyn Mendacium"

Saracyn had been too enthralled with commanding the fireflies with a mere flick and wave of his paw that he hadn't noticed Avacyn moving over to use his own destructive behaviors to her own advantage. He didn't notice his sister scooping up some of the goopy glowing mess from the crushed mushrooms and painting her horns with it, creating a crown of light around her forehead until she sauntered by him like the star of the show. Almost all at once, her brighter glowing horns had attracted the sea of fireflies over to dance around her head, and though some still lingered around Saracyn's paw, the boy was obviously not too pleased by his twin's ostentatious display.

Ava declared herself the real firefly princess, and Saracyn scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Well, if you're a princess, then this is a hostile takeover!" he remarked as he sprung to his paws and pounced at his sister, aiming to tackle her and pin her smaller form beneath his. He was hoping to get her on the ground so he could use his bioluminescent-covered paws to paint all over her and get her pristine fur all glowy and messy, knowing she'd hate it and he'd regain his rightful place as lord of the fireflies!

"Saracyn Mendacium"

Avacyn

Your paws are smeared in mushroom goop, and as you slather it on your horns you swear you feel it pull away from you, like it refuses to stick to your paws and horns, nothing a little pressure and elbow grease won't fix though, even if the way it seems to twitch on your skin, as if it's alive and trying to crawl away, is a little off-putting.

Maybe you shouldn't have done that...

Saracyn

As you launch yourself at your sister your mind keeps turning to the mash of mushroom on your paws... It's all you can think about... You feel overwhelmingly unable to let it go. You look at your paws, feeling very much like the goop is a part of your now. It's yours now. You want to take it with you. You know your parents will try to wash it off... And your mind is quickly working through ways to avoid having to do that!

Maybe you shouldn't have done that...

Avacyn was too caught up in her perceived win over her brother to notice the odd movement of the mushrooms at first, but when the piece of the mushroom that was stuck on her claw wiggled itself off it made her blink with confusion and look down at the fallen chunk with surprise. That's when she noticed the strange sensation of something shifting and moving on top of her head, almost like the goop she had smeared on her horns was pulling away from them. The feeling was really, really weird and not one she really liked, but she tried to brush it off since she clearly had made much better use of the glowing mushrooms than her brother did and she didn't want to admit that she didn't win in any way!

Of course that train of thought distracted her just long enough to give her brother an opening so when he sprang forward to tackle her she couldn't react fast enough to stop him or get out of the way. She was knocked to the ground with a huff and she immediately started flailing and kicking to try and get Saracyn off of her. "Saraaaaa! Stooooop!" she whined when he started smearing more of the glowing goop all over her fur, making big swatches of her face, neck and chest glow with the same bioluminescence as the mushrooms they were rolling around in. All the fireflies around them started swarming in, settling all over the two pups, clearly wanting to get in on the fun. Avacyn was most certainly not having fun though because now that weird, moving, crawling feeling was all over her and she had fireflies and her brother on her!

"Avacyn Mendacium"

Saracyn gave a wicked giggle when he managed to successfully pounce on Avacyn and pin her beneath his larger frame and heavier weight. He held her down while he painted her pretty purple fur with the bluish mushroom goop that glowed in the moonlight. This was all too much fun! Even the fireflies around them started to swarm around more energetically, as if they were playing around too. Sara laughed and slapped his mucky paws together, watching the way the bioluminescent gloop squished between his toes. It was just... so pretty and funny feeling! He'd never felt or seen anything like it before and he was obsessed with it! Plus it made the fireflies do whatever he wanted, and that little rush of power felt good!

Avacyn's wails for mercy fell on deaf ears as Sara glanced down at her with a slowly growing grin that spelled wickedness. His ice blue eyes fell upon the goop on top of his twin sister's budding horns. He wanted it! It was his, after all, all his! He'd destroyed the mushrooms, and therefore it was his spoils. Reaching tiny paws down, Saracyn went to scoop the mushroom glop off of his sister's horns to add to the mess on his paws, wanting to hoard all of the shiny, glow mushroom paste for himself. "Never!" Saracyn said, sniggering to himself while he waved his paws around to conduct the fireflies again, still perched atop his sister's belly as he did so.

"Saracyn Mendacium"

Firefly Shoppe- Avacyn

A firefly draws your attention nearby to reveal a cloaked figure with a small wooden table in front of him. On the table lay three items, with their prices beside them. "Choose wisely, and only choose one," the figure says. "If you can afford it, that is." Perhaps he accepts cŕ̷̕y̵̍͊stals and mushrö̸́̀ō̴̉ms... or perhaps its worth bargaining for something greater...


Inventory:

• Pungent Potion- 1 /
  This tiny bottle contains a green globby liquid, the label claims it was made from local mushrooms.
  
• Coupon- 1 /
  Looks like a regular voucher but it glows. Apparently it’s good for one bonus purchase next time the Firefly Shoppe is nearby.
  
• Serious Steroids- 1 /
  The cloaked figure assures you it’s not really steroids but he does say it’ll make your body more resilient, he won’t tell you what’s in them though.
  

It Continues for Saracyn...

Huh? It doesn't seem like anything happened... Well, maybe that's for the best...

Avacyn paused in the middle of her squirming and fighting to get her twin off of her as a noticeable buzz drew her attention away from the glowing boy on top of her, glancing to the side and doing a double take as her obsidian gaze landed on the cloaked figure at the edge of the clearing. "Do you see that?" she questioned, shoving her brother off and rolling to her feet. She gave herself a good shake, most of the remaining squished up mushroom falling off of her as it unnaturally pulled away and wiggled off of her fur. The marking that framed her eye glowed brightly as she trotted toward the strange figure, somehow not afraid or nervous of him at all. He seemed familiar almost, but it wasn't till she got close that she remembered where she had seen him before. She gasped and grinned excitedly, her tail wagging behind her. It was the same figure she had seen in the water when she and her father went on a trip to Firefly Lake! Except he wasn't in the water this time, he was standing in front of her with a table that had a bunch of weird stuff on it. "I knew it! I knew you were real! Daddy tried to tell me you weren't!"

Avacyn's white rimmed ears perked as she listened to the terms that were told to her about how she could only pick one. They all seemed kind of weird, but cool at the same time. The first little bottle didn't really look all that appealing and the last thing she just didn't understand cause what even was a steroid? That wasn't anything like what Irilyth had taught them! The middle thing was at least pretty and sparkly so if anything at least what she was getting would be nice to look at. But what would she trade for it? She hummed softly and glanced around her and she spotted a huge, beautiful mushroom near by and grinned. A pretty thing for a pretty thing! That had to be fair, right? So she hopped over to the mushroom and carefully picked it, ignoring the way it weirdly wiggled for a second so she could place the mushroom down in front of the cloaked shape. "Here you go! One mushroom for one... what did you call it? Coupon? You're weird, but I like you!"

"Avacyn Mendacium"

Firefly Shoppe- Avacyn

The pup excitedly told her father that he was real, saying he claimed he wasn't. The figure tilted its head to the side. The pup then went in for a bargain, grabbing the coupon. She called the man weird, but said she liked him. As the man faded away, his voice echoed, "You're weird too, but I also like you."


You gain:

• Coupon- Looks like a regular voucher but it glows. Apparently it’s good for one bonus purchase next time the Firefly Shoppe is nearby.
  

You lose:

• Currency (x1)- Used in Firefly's Shoppe, and perhaps elsewhere...