Dry Stick

Homura always found summertime in the human world to be quite pleasant. Being from the Ignis Clan, the extra heat actually felt really nice to him. But he didn't mind the stuff that involved cooling off a bit either.

Coming to the beach with everyone was proving to be a pretty pleasant experience. Ranmaru, Uruu and Jyuka had pretty much immediately gone into the sea to swim and splash around. (Well, Ranmaru and Jyuka were splashing water at each other constantly, while Uruu tried not to get caught up in it and just enjoy the water.) While Takara just stayed near their stuff and reading a book, Homura had gone off on a walk around the sand by himself - just wandering around and observing the beach and the humans.

To his surprise, he had run into quite a few dry sticks despite there not being that many trees near that beach. Perhaps they had just been brought by the sea during the night, left to dry in the sun after the tides lowered. Of course, he remembered the common belief in the Ignis Clan that dry sticks were quite special. They were often used in festivals and other traditions, and bigger ones would sometimes be considered good omens and were used to make good luck charms.

Even though he didn't consider himself to believe in many of those things, when he ran into a particularly big dry stick he picked it up. Perhaps he could try to make a good luck charm for Bar F.

He walked back to where Takara was, just in time to see Jyuka rushing over there as well - apparently to grab a quick snack from the ones they had packed. Although they all greeted each other with smiles, Homura noticed Jyuka raising an eyebrow when he looked at his hands.

"What's that?" Jyuka asked.

"A dry stick." Homura said. "This one seemed like it'd make a nice good luck charm later."

"Good luck charm? Is that an Ignis Clan thing?" Jyuka inched closer, analyzing the stick with his eyes.

Noticing his interest, Homura handed him the stick. He supposed an Arbor fairy would be interested in something like that. "I suppose it might be, if you're unfamiliar with that."

Jyuka nodded. "Yeah. Dry sticks like this aren't usually considered a good thing for the Arbor Clan. Not many plants can survive in dry environments, and dryness means fires can spread more easily…" He paused there, then looked at Homura sort of apologetically.

Homura just tilted his head. Was Jyuka expecting him to be offended by that? "Don't worry about it. It makes sense."

Jyuka laughed awkwardly. But the smile that followed was genuine. "Anyway. If you're gonna turn it into a good luck charm, I'd love to see it later!"

Homura smiled back as Jyuka returned him the stick. "Sure. You'll be the first to see it."