next stop

Katalia glanced at the sky from under her palm, as she attempted to shield her eyes from the pouring rain. There wasn't much to see. It was all just dark, and wet.

She didn't mind that much, though. She liked the planet. It was very reminiscent of Earth. Reminded her of home. While the girl wasn't exactly a fan of standing in the rain waiting for a bus, getting soaked by some variant of Mother Nature wasn't that big of a deal.

Although this guy gave her the creeps. It wasn't enough that the pink-and-black whatever was the same height as a skyscraper, but for some reason he seemed to insist on shielding Katalia with his over-the-top decorated umbrella. If she needed an umbrella, she would've brought her own!

"I smell like shit, don't I?" The beanpole suddenly spoke. The words he blurted out had nothing to do with anything. Katalia only froze in her confusion, letting him ramble on further: "I've got no idea what perfume I put on today. They all smell the same. Pungent."

The girl sighed, and rolled her eyes. "Why'd you use it, then?"

"Because I'm hopeless, and want to please a certain dragon," the man grumbled partially to himself.

Katalia groaned, clearly frustrated, and pulled away from him as she twirled around to face him. She took enough steps to have a comfortable-enough distance between herself, and the strange fellow. "What's your problem?"

The stranger's freckled face shifted through expressions rapidly. "Well..."

"Don't--" Katalia raised her hand to silence him. "Don't answer that." She let out a mixture of a sigh and a huff. "At least tell me that you're waiting for a bus, too, and not creeping around for no reason."

The man flinched. Confusion and surprise painted his face. "Am... am I being creepy?"

"Yes!" The pink-haired girl raised her voice, gesturing widely with her forearms at the same time. A puzzled feeling in her stomach quickly started to gnaw away at her frustration when she saw the busybody's demeanor change in the blink of an eye. His bright eyes lowered to the sopped soil, and by the way he acted, he seemed to regress to a small child.

"Sorry," he apologized awkwardly, and fell silent - until he suddenly lifted his gaze from the ground, body language instantly shifting as though he had forgotten everything that had happened two seconds ago. "But no - buses don't stop here."

"WHAT?" Katalia almost scared herself with how much she raised her voice at the outrageous statement. Something was getting on her nerves, but she couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what that was. Perhaps it was a sum of things. She cleared her throat, attempting to get herself together, and rephrased her question, calmly, in the form of an argument: "I've used this line multiple times. That can't be right."

She didn't like how the other shook his head and chuckled. The man pointed at a sign next to them with his umbrella, letting his body be exposed to the sky's wrath. It was a yellow circle at the end of a thick metal rod, red crudely painted over the silhouette of a Terran bus.

"Nothing goes through here," the stranger specified, and returned the cover over his head. "Not even the cat-shaped ones."

Katalia narrowed her gaze, staring at the sign. She could've sworn it wasn't like that the last time. She traveled just yesterday, didn't she? Was the line closed just before she got to it again?

"Come on. Let's find you a real bus before something eats you."

The girl had to look for the stranger when his voice dragged her out of her jumbled thoughts. He had moved further away, and gestured at Katalia to follow. She crossed her arms. "There's nothing here that could eat me," she snorted at the man.

A deep rumble that trembled the ground beneath her mud-caked boots changed her mind nigh-instantly. Katalia skittishly skipped over to the pink-accented beanpole. The creature offered her the umbrella, but she pushed it away with her hand. In turn, she received a shrug.

"Suit yourself."

He turned away, and Katalia followed. Might as well now, she thought.

Secret Santa for LavenderXOXOX, happy holidays! You wanted to see your Secret Santa have fun with a fantasy themed piece, so I did what I enjoy - drawing Caspian. But drawing just him would've been unfair, so I had to get something else in, too. Kat was a joy to draw.

My first attempt at this was very much Totoro-inspired, and I wanted to keep that feeling when I started again from scratch. The fantasy aspect isn't that clear, especially now when the inspiration itself isn't as visible, but fantasy sadly is something my brain just simply doesn't work with almost at all. Or I'm thinking about all this the wrong way lol.

I hope the whole thing doesn't come off as weird, it wasn't my intention in any way. Though that might just be me overthinking it.