Alex stood sentry at the underground opening with a long abyssian ladder that Abigail had climbed down to. Peering down, he studied the wooden frame surrounding the opening and found it engraved with strange markings he can’t understand. The markings seem to be all over the frame and it seemed to extend towards the ladder. “Woah.” A sharp exhale left him as he leaned in closer to see the ladder disappearing into a yawning darkened abyss. He spied that each rung was carved with markings and he suddenly had an urge to read it. But what is it? What does it say?

Laughter bloomed behind him. It was the same laughter he heard before; clear as bells, sweet as candy and most of all, shrill. It sounded a lot like a baby. And he knew there were no families living in these mountains with little kids. If there were, who was watching them? Are they safe?

He pushed to his feet, and made a broad sweep around him with his lamplight.

There.

A small shadow quickly hid behind the wooden barrel that was leaning its debilitated frame against a dirt wall. Bursts of muffled giggles sprang free from behind the barrel.

“Hey, kid! You lost?” Alex heard a scuffle of feet before something, small thuds of a feet like a baby toddler would make. Then something tiny stepped out of the shadows and into the light. It was the size of a cotton candy, big brown ears and stubby arms and legs. It blinked up at him with an electric buzzing glee, bounding to him at the same time using its short stubby legs.

Alex nearly stumbled as he planted his knee onto the dirt. He has never seen anything from the animal kingdom like this before. When it jumped with a gleeful, “Faa! Ffa” it sang in merry tune. It looked to be floating in its movement before coming back down. It reminded him of an astronaut moving on the moon. He tried catching it with both hands and succeeded on the first try. It wasn’t hard. The little thing moved about like gravity had a little hold on it. “Hey, pretty thing. Are you here with someone? Wouldn’t want you getting lost around here. Pretty dangerous.”

At that, it turned to face him fully, eyes growing wide. Its black orbs for eyes reminded him of a little bird’s. Then its pert nose sniffed. It sounded like it was choking.

“Oh no.” He had been around enough of his nieces back in the city to know what a disastrous bawling would soon follow after an upset face like this baby animal was exhibiting. “Sha sha sha!” He cooed without thinking better about it. “Sha sha sha.”

Rocking the upset little animal, he found the poofy pink curl sitting on top of its head bounced. And then he spied a red blush beginning to form on its pink cheeks, “Cleffa?” It sang in a sweet tune, seeming chastised. Tips of its big brown ears perking up and down. It lifted its stubby hand, reached up and patted his nose repeatedly. “Sha sha sha!” it began mimicking.

Upon closer inspection as their gazes met, Alex found that the pink animal resembled the shape of a star. “Star?” He mumbled more to himself as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Without missing a beat, it said “Fa!”

“What?”

Slowly, “Ffffaaaa!” Then it nodded with authority.

Unsure, he began “Star..”

It immediately followed it with a hearty, “Fa.”

“Starfa.” He grinned.

Completely satisfied, Starfa’s smile began to grow bigger. Eyes twinkling as an inner white glow bloomed from within its cotton candy body. Then, they both heard a whistle from underground. Followed by another, and Abigail for the final time whistled again.

Abigail’s danger cut through the oddity of the moment, and he set Starfa down on top of a barrel and began to lift the wooden mallet over his shoulder. “You stay here. Your family should soon realize you’re missing and come looking for you, okay?”

Shadows crossed Starfa’s face, bouncing on her feet as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

“Stay put. You’ll be safe here.” Alex said before descending down the mines.