Submission (#559) Approved

A small group of luminites stood tense at a shaky line drawn into the grass. The crisp, cool breeze dragged lazy fingers through their fur, but no one showed any signs of the chill seeping into their bones. A lumi in a makeshift ref outfit stepped out beside the lineup. Meher’s heart leapt into her throat. This was it.

“Are ya ready folks?” The ref called. “This year's candy hunt begins in…
Three…
Two…
One…
AND GO!”

Meher raced off into the forest, determined to win this year. She’s never had much luck, really. Every time she was a second too slow, or a minute behind. This year, she swore to study all the tricks. She’d spent the past week scouting hiding locations, and she was positive she’d win. The striped lumi picked her way down hills, wove between trees, and scampered over rocks. She checked every hole in every tree (after looking for spiders), stuck her head in a freezing river - hell, even rifled through a garbage or two. Score, after score, her bag began to fill up. Her heart racing with excitement, she checked her stash. 35. More than she’s ever gotten, and she still had time to spare! She gathered herself and bolted off once again, on her way to shake all the decorative lanterns and see if anything would fall out. All she got were moths.

“OH ew ew ew EWWW.” Meher stumbled backwards and shook violently, trying to get the bugs out of her coat. As she raced away, she swore she could feel their creepy little legs on her face and in her ears. Once far enough, she paused, heaving from her sprint. Shivering with disgust, Meher slowly collected herself and went to move on - only to realize she no longer had her bag of candy. Her heart dropped to her feet.

“No…no way I LOST it.” She began to pace, breath quickening. “No. Bad Meher. Breathe in, breathe out. Calm down. Retrace your steps.”

And retracing her steps is what she tried to do, but her panicked fleeing from the moth corpses turned her around and got her lost. The trees around her were unfriendly and menacing. Time was slipping away from her. Meher kicked a boulder in sheer frustration, only succeeding in stubbing her toe.

“OH THE LOVE OF-“ she hopped around cursing at the rock, at the trees and their silence, at the stupid moths and their stupid brains for being stupid - she proceeded to trip over something sprawled out on the forest floor. Meher whipped her head around at what turned out to be another lumi laying on the scattered pine needles. She narrowed her eyes, taking in the dark brown and tan form before her.

“WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING!!! WHY ARE YOU ON THE FLOOR!!! YOU'RE IN THE WAY! WHY-“ She was cut off by a dry laugh.

“Me? What do you think YOU’RE doing throwing bags of candy at strangers! I could’ve gotten a concussion,” the two glared at each other. Meher shook herself off and stood up, intentionally towering over the other lumi on the ground. “Where is it?” The other lumi yawned, unbothered.

“What?”

“My bag of candy, dummy.” The other lumi looked up lazily and gave her a smirk. Meher felt heat rising in her chest.

“My name is Lux. L. U. X. Lux. Got it? Or do I need to spell it in the dirt.” He paused thoughtfully. “Well…assuming you can read, but that might be too generous.”

She growled, and before she knew it, she had pinned Lux to the ground and was snarling at him. “I. Am. NOT. Playing. This. Game.” She enunciated through gritted teeth. “Candy. NOW.” To her supreme annoyance, he began to laugh. He took that lapse in guard to roughly shove her off and bolt away, still laughing. Stunned, dusty, and pissed beyond belief, Meher sat in the now quiet forest. The sun was setting quickly, the hunt would be over soon, and once again she had nothing to show for it. She stayed in the forest, seething quietly, not even bothering to show up to the rest of the event. “To hell with this,” she thought. She had a name, and the beginnings of a plan to make him pay.

Reward	Amount
Candy	200
QuBits	460