✧✧ A Very Merry Winter Market ✧✧ - Open!

[Zuki]

Username: Zuki
Decoration:

"Oh!" The old kiokote doe was too practiced to flinch in surprise when she was addressed, but the surprise at being addressed was still clear in her voice.

"Yes, I'd love to help." It was sincere. She'd planned on being a mere spectator to this traditional Swamp gathering, and here she was, invited to participate. The stubbornly-nameless kiokote surveyed the supplies for tree decoration. There were so many lovely options, it didn't seem fair to deprive another kin of the opportunity. "Actually, I have something else I'd like to bring. I'll be right back."

A little while later, she returned with a generous bundle of golden ginko leaves, yellow fans and heart-shapes that would be bright against the fir's needles. "Here. I preserved these....well, never mind how I saved them. They remind one of butterfly wings, don't they?"

Kiokote added the leaves to the pile of decoration supplies.

[Fasti]

Username: Fasti
Decoration:

[SkylerKarashi]

Username: SkylerKarashi
Decoration: RainBone offers what appear to be a last minute decided pinecone to stick on the tree. But hey, at least he seemed to try to make it special by "painting" it with squished up berries!

[Lirilei]

Username: Lirilei
Decoration: Sparkle In His Smile approached the tree with his contribution. A large, smelly fish in bright colors. "It's the pop of color you need!" he insisted over and over again trying to give someone the fish to hang on the tree, grinning around it.

[doomsayer]

Username: doomsayer
Decoration: Smoldering Ember comes up to the huge tree with what looks like a rock containing veins of reflective material interspersed throughout it like cracks in the rock.
"My sense of aesthetics is admittedly not very good, but I thought this would compliment any bright colors that end up on the tree when it is decorated.

[Fasti]

Username: Fasti
Decoration:
After Thriving Mint had colored the vanilla sticks into sweet canes, she thought... the tree still looks very bare, it needs color! She quickly ran outside, picked leaves and then returned. Her supply of berries came in handy and she painted colorful patterns on the leaves, color by color, until she was satisfied.

[Astoria]

Username: AstoriaFallen
Decoration: Meadow Lark presents one of Darlings and Dearests Feathers, adorn with dried grass, a twig with berries and an acorn leaf to be added to the tree. (to simplify two owl feathers, a twig of red berries and an acorn leaf, tied with dried grass)

[SkylerKarashi]

Username: SkyerKarashi
Decoration: Rain Bone thought for sure he was done with this. But along his travel, he found another trinket that made him think back to that tree. A sigh left him before lowering his head and picking it up. It seemed to be a silver scale, a bit on the larger side and probably discarded from another creature eating a fish for lunch. Regardless, he thought it might fit in nicely.

[elvy]

Username: elvy
Decoration: Bring Me the Horizon wasn't sure what was going on but soon noticed other kin bringing items to decorate a tree? She could do that! So she searched around the area and found something on the ground to bring over: a shiny beetle wing.

[Scaramouche Fandango]

Username: Scaramouche Fandango
Decoration: Strange Creature is bringing a looooooong shed snakeskin to use as a garland!

[Lirilei]

Username: Lirilei
Decoration: Stolen Bones comes up carrying a few small bones strung together using spider silk, and decorated with leaves and berries. "It'll sort of catch the wind while hanging there and make a neat sound." he stated as he hung it near the tip of a branch.

[Baneful]

Username: Baneful
Decoration:


Gifts.

Giving gifts was a potent symbol, something that resonated through the ages. A gift was simply a fraction of intentionality away from sacrifice, and sacrifices powered tremendous rituals. Offering objects up to the tree was a symbol, and the eventual tree, strung with its intentions, became but a ghost of a wishing tree, channeling power into the winter nights.

At least, this is what Will believed. The most fervent rituals were orchestrated in the darkest pools of the night when summer seemed it might never return to the world. It felt that way now, the world stretched and other worlds bleeding into this one through the cracks. Everything was coming apart, yet they brought gifts and surrendered them to the tree.

Will thought it would be interesting to partake in the age-old ritual, but rather than something beautiful or pleasant, he brought a wooden bunny carved of yellowish wood. It was simple and crafted by hoof and tooth, but its surface was marked with blood that had seeped into the material long ago.

"A gift for your tree," he said with a smile and his eyes glowed like gems in the dark.

[peanutbutter]

Username: Peanutbutter
Decoration: Never Known, after considering the tree for a moment, brought back a few glossy black feathers and bright red berries, tied together with a bit of vine. It wasn't unique, but it was certainly pretty.

[Tiarana]

Username: Tiarana
Decoration: Wasp brings some bright red berries bundled with grains. "For the birds," he says.

[Tiarana]

Username: Tiarana
Decoration: Colored Spring grunts disapprovingly. "Needs more red," he says, and comes back with a large red rose. (Look this might sound unlikely but my roses are blooming more now than they did all summer. )