My Sudden Monster Convergence

Stepping out of the room, I waved at Mom who instantly hugged me. Her arms clinging to me as tightly as she could until I could feel air leaving my mouth!

“I love you so much.” She happily mumbled as she smooshed her face into my ribs. She nuzzled me a little longer before pulling her head back to look up at me. 

“Hey, it’s no issue. I don’t mind trying some nice clothes out every now and then.” I said with a smile.

“Huh? You’re wearing some of……” She stopped looking up at me, took a step back and looked again. 

I took that hanging coat, jacket, it was big enough to hide my wings if it kept them tightly folded and pressed into my back. I also had the flower crown, it had a type of rubber or plastic arch that allowed it to clip onto my horns. It didn’t feel weird, honestly I hardly noticed them holding on to my horns at all.

Mom smiled with huge eyes. “Something from both. Smart.” She nodded in approval. “Like having both chocolate and vanilla.” Her smile grew wider. “So how does the crown fit? It’s not pinching or pulling on your hair is it?” She asked.

“No, it fits pretty nicely and as long as I pat down my hair then I’m good. Though it makes me wonder what other horn accessories are out there.” I thought out loud  as I rubbed my chin.

For a moment I thought I saw Mom’s eyes glint dangerously before her face changed to a big goofy grin. “I actually asked Amanda about those. Apparently there’s more there than I remember. So many types and styles to try….” She quietly muttered to herself as she rubbed her hands together before quickly clearing her throat. “Anyway, I'll quickly slip into something more fitting for the day’s festivities.” She gave a thumbs up before walking into the room I stepped out of. 

While she changed, I poked around her book shelf, taking a closer look at that Oni figure Cole was fretting over. Her skin was a vibrant restaurant red and looked really glossy as if she was just finished with a workout or was walking around in the rain. She had three horns that slotted into star shaped holes in a tiara and had each horn wrapped in a blue ribbon. But like that other Oni, she had the same smugly excited grin. The figure looked like she was planning for her next battle or maybe planning to wrestle someone like the Oni at school did.

Maybe they’re all just battle junkies? Horny junkies. I narrowed my eyes as I glared at the figure. Hopefully I’ll have prepared enough to handle you.

“Hey Oly! Ready to go?” Mom called to me. Turning I paused as I saw her outfit.

It was a sunny yellow dress with green ribbons that spiraled down from the waist. The top was oddly booby? It was a dress that didn’t show cleavage but it was like she wore a stretchy material and her chest was making room. If it didn’t have two thick leaves as shoulder straps that covered most of her upper chest then I’d be having a bigger problem with it. The only normal and yet fitting part was the red gloves she wore, they were like gardening gloves with a green band to tighten or loosen it around the wrist with yellow beads that looked almost like lemons or cherry tomatoes.

“Mom? Y-your dress.” I sputtered.

“You like it? Took two weeks of work and another one just to get the right material from Rasberry’s floor. Was super worried I’d have to go with pink!” She laughed as she picked up the skirt of her dress and spun in a circle. The ribbon made for a nice twisting effect as she spun, making it hard not to watch.

“Uh, your um showing a little…” I pointed at her chest. 

She happily smiled. “Yeah, can you believe sample four makes good breast pockets? I was so worried I’d have to settle for a simple cradle-” She paused and gave me a narrowed look. “Oliver, you don’t have an issue with me dressing up do you?” She asked pointedly.

“No! I just don’t want creeps disrespecting you.” I quickly explained as her gaze sent a cold chill up my wings.

“AW!” She hugged my arm with a happy smile. “You’re so sweet! Don’t worry, I can take care of a few weirdos and if I have a hard time.” She looked up at me with an innocent gaze. “You’ll be there to help me, right?” She asked with a soft voice.

 I patted her back. “I get it. I’ll watch your back.” I relented. 

“Thank you.” She cheerily said before pulling out the stone Amanda got for me, placing it in my hand. “Now don’t forget to feed some mana into it to start it up and tug my shirt two times for yes, one for no and three to go somewhere private.” She reminded me. “And if you get lost or separated, come back here or to the fountain in the town square. Don't forget that I'll ask if you're there every twenty to thirty minutes so I know if you're gone or not, since Amanda said the concealer will mess with any electronics or enchantments.”

“Alright, yeah…” I quickly nodded and dropped my gaze to the mana concealer. The oddly shaped stone just sat there lifeless and unassuming like a pebble on the side of a road. “Alright. Let's do this.” 

I nodded at my mother who turned around before channeling my mana into the stone and the moment it touched the stone my mana was slowly pulled into it. Like tying a string to your arm and pulling the other end, I felt my mana seep into the concealer like it was a drain eagerly swallowing up my mana. This continued for a few seconds more before it sorta just stopped taking my mana, the metaphoric drain plugging up.

A second later, I felt a nice heated blanket wrap around me almost like my body heat was hovering around me like an aura. The feeling then Compressed tighter and tighter until it felt like I was in the middle of a group hug. Not bad, not bad at all……maybe I can use this to learn a thing of two on hiding mana? Or to help on sleepless nights?

“Oliver? Did it work?” My mother asked with her back still turned to me. 

“Yea-” I instantly answered before stopping myself. 

Mom's head quickly swiveled side to side like she heard a distant rat squeak. “Oliver?!” She nervously shouted.  “Uh, I mean oly, you have to tug, remember?” She said after calming down.

I opened my mouth again before stopping myself from answering. This was already becoming annoying. I quickly walked up to her and lightly tugged her skirt twice. 

“That's good. But be careful with talk-Wait a minute……” She held her knuckle under her chin, tapping it a couple times before a wide smile slid across her lips. “ Though if you happen to see your grandpa then make sure you say hello-Oh and make sure you give a huge hug!” She giggled evilly.

Mom……YOU'RE A GENIUS!  

Walking down the street wasn’t too hard, though there weren't as many people here as there was going to be at the town park and town hall. So dodging people was probably going to get harder the closer we got to the festival. Though walking around town I could already see many of the decorations, paintings and even spotted several small birdhouse sized buildings sitting on top of what looked like a single story post office. Many of the bushes and hedges were decorated with little figurines tied to branches with a gold colored string that beautifully reflected the sunlight. One figurine was of a fairy with white cat ears that was crouching like a cat ready to pounce on something. 

As I followed behind mom, I noticed a few women running around with bundles of flowers. They would randomly run up to men and tie a flower in their hair or clothes, both would smile and giggle to each other. Sometimes a guy receiving a flower would pull out a twisted leather bracelet and if the girl offered her wrist then he would tie it to her. With either the girl or guy would turn red before separating. There was a goblin girl running around with flowers who was following a battle-jin and when ever he wasn’t paying attention she would tuck a flower into his pockets. She would then hide and giggle whenever he would discover the flowers. The big lug would look so confused before looking around, his face lost and his cat ears wildly flapping side to side to find the girl responsible.

The closer we got the more people dressed up seemed to pop up and the more I’d see girls handing or tying flowers to their chosen guy. And if two or more girls approached a single guy then their flowers would light up and smell really good though the guy would just give all of them a shiny string with some glowing glass bead attached at the bottom.

There were a few more of those jellyfish creatures floating around with banners tied to them as they lazily floated in the air. Many of the banners were advertising the shop directly below the floater jellies which sold leather works, grilled veggies with something called muck squid and another one was even selling hand crafted wand frames. The leather I did see was dyed in vibrant reds or a shiny brown and included things from backpacks, purses and wallets to stranger things like armor and scabbards. The food on the other hand smelled really good and juicy. The goblin chief manning the grill would toss the food in the air before it would then explode with fire the second it hit the grill. The fire would then spin like a tornado before snaking into the air, writing SPICY and evaporating. The wand frames on the other hand were more like a scabbard or cup that turned your can soda into a mug. You could slot a wand into these frames carved like flowers, wrapping ferns and some even different monsters or scenic views carved into them. I would’ve argued it made the wand look fat but the frames shrunk until the wand was the shape of the frame.

As we got closer to the festival grounds the more people seemed to appear from nowhere. We make one turn at a corner and there’s a group of fifteen people. Make another turn and then there’s three groups clustered around stalls, peering at fairy buildings and entering stores. The more we moved the more people would shotgun around Mom and almost into me. Leaving me to have to side step people, push my tail at a farther side or press it closer to my body. 

My mother on the other hand stopped every now and then to stare at people running around before writing into a small notebook she kept in her purse. Looking at people with glass accessories, hoods, armor and textured clothes like wool or braids. She’d quickly write something or scribble out a simple drawing before continuing on her way. So even with having to dodge people, it was pretty easy to keep up with her. But I did have to step back when a few people circled around her.

The streams of people increased leaving me to have to loop around another group. I almost lost sight of her but luckily for me, my new height allowed me to easily scan the crowd. It didn’t take long as I spotted mom as she was looking around, probably asking if I was there. After quickly moving passed a few  Nya-Jin who were trading flowers for bracelets and flirting with each other, I found my mother. She was ready to rush off in the direction of her warehouse when I reached out to tug on her top. This made her worried face quickly melt away with a sigh.

“Oliver, are you alright?” She asked as she looked on at the people.

“Yea-” I stopped myself and tugged twice. Sadly a few people seemed to have heard me because they started looking around like they heard a cry for help. Even Mom started looking around with a confused face for a moment before forcing herself to stop.

“Oly, you have to be more careful.” She sighed. “Try to stay behind me, ok?” I gave her two tugs. “Good, because there’s a few shops we should check out. And If you want anything for yourself or a friendly souvenir then tap it twice.” She then turned and walked in the direction of the leather shop at a slow pace. 

Crossing many people and near a fenced off area, I heard a weird bleat of a sheep. Looking over I saw two sheep heads looking around, only instead of a normal body, the heads were connected to a wooly stem into a potted plant. One head shook, releasing a large wad of cotton balls on the floor. I just stared at it in surprise and if my eyes didn’t budge out of my head then the moment a giant cookie icecream sandwich might’ve done it. It was cut in the shape of a horse and it nayed?! Opened its mouth and neighed! Let alone the thing was only walking with two legs as if it had four, it crapped out neapolitan icecream! On a plate that a kid picked up started and eating!

“Bock”

The cry of a familiar animal pulled my attention only to find small chicken wobble its way to a tall box with seeds littered on it. I thought it was just a normal chicken when it leaned back and a scaled tail began to push it upwards like a snake until it was high enough to start pecking at the seeds. There was even a large dog sized lobster that a kid was riding around. It even barked like a dog and hopped around on six large legs. The animal's eyes looked large like it had mastered the wet puppy eye look

Okay. OKAY. Maybe I’ll never be ready for everything out there. Turning around I saw Mom was half way there So I quickly made my way to her. Though I did feel my tail slap something behind me but I didn’t stop as no one even made a scream, shout, not even something falling over. So I just continued on my way. Luckily I caught up to mom without any other issues………. Though I did see a minotaur girl pass by and she had a really nice sway and that guy's arms looked firm………..Ugh, I mean the leather shop had so many different things to look at!

There were nice red colored bags, purses and strap pouches. There was even a nice red backpack with three pouches, a black zipper in the middle and a hood that closed the top. Every zipper had a nice blue bead with swirling particles like mini snowglobes and the leather had a nice mint smell. I also saw a light pink bracelet with the leather shaped like a convention of fairies, all holding snowglobe beads. Without a second wasted, I tapped on those two and Mom quickly grabbed them but the shopkeeper looked a little shocked at the tapping. 

Along with that,  Mom grabbed a leather gauntlet, pauldrons and a large roll of something called Rok leather.

“Just send it all to this address please.” she handed the shop keeper a note with a friendly smile.

“Sure thing Miss. Here's a few sun tokens for the large purchase. Usable at any game stall for a free try at the grand prizes that might catch your fancy today. Thank you again!” He waved at Mom with a large smile.