With Sky Within (for SilverRoseOfLight)
Author's note: "So, do you wish you could fly? I think you'd go straight into the big blue sky and gorge yourself if you could."
This quote from Rose's Puppety Snippets inspired me. I simply couldn't not imagine a content, sky-heavy Red Guy who in fact had gorged himself... and so, a thank-you drabble in response was born.
Firm and soft at the same time, that's how this living red dome feels to Yellow. A little warmer to the sides, a little cooler in the middle. Almost like just laying your palm onto a well-stuffed red fleece pillow.
Except for it breathes. And inside of it is the blue of the sky. Heavy enough — hard to imagine that it may be — to fill their friend to the point he simply had no choice but to land and stretch out on the lawn before their house.
"...n't squeeze it too much, okay."
"I don't squeeze, I stroke," whispers Yellow, worried why Red's eyes are shut that tight. "Does it hurt?"
"...'s too good," exhales the monster. "...'Fraid I'll burst if absorb one more drop."
"Somebody's been too greedy," quips Duck, still unable to get his eyes off Red's wings — red, wide and fleecy, adorned with fringes instead of rows of feathers. "I mean come on, you didn't have to take my words about gorging yourself that serious, bud!"
Next second, a red wing knocks him off his feet — dangerously close to the fuzzy red dome; luckily, Duck only slightly brushes it with his bill — and Red, not without an effort, raises on his elbow.
"Says... Hclp... Says th' duck who had had... Eight cobs of boiled corn on th' town fair 'cause it was, hic, fresh... And did I say a word back then?"
"...Yes," finally agrees Duck and stretches out besides the monster. "At least we know it's been fresh and tasty to you."
"You have no idea." With his another wing, Red nudges Yellow, inviting to lay by his side, and spreads both wings above his friends like a tent. "I'd been missing it like you have no idea."
"Never slept in a wing tent before," chuckles Yellow. "And with the sky at that! So glad you brought it to us!"
"...but you didn't even see it, little fella?"
Red sounds embarrassed — there are things he sadly cannot do, even if asked as nicely as by Yellow at times, and turning a puppet boy into a mop monster is one of them.
"That's nothing." Yellow smiles and gives his larger friend's side a pat. "I've got to stroke it. That's what matters."
Januarry 2022