Critters of Bright Valley: Weekly Episodes 1 Art Projects

Cover art by Cuttle Dreams

“Good morning Sherman, guess what? I bought the new Critters Classic Collection box set from Unlimited Toon Studios Online! Don’t worry dear, I’ve got it set-up for here in your room. You don’t need to get up for it.”

“Thanks mom! See? I’m not too big for hugs! Care to watch some with me?”

“Of course I would!”

++++

Like they often did, the Valleyers imagined themselves grouped around a beautifully crafted giant sign titling today’s adventure, along with the world founders’ names. The imagined Valleyers smiled with their backs to the sign (they didn’t know what the adventure was yet after all). Wren was haughtily off in her own corner even in pretend.

From a bird’s eye view of Bright Valley, the vision zoomed down to the Grand Tree’s clearing. At a set of makeshift wooden tables, the Critters worked excitedly on clay blobs.

“Thanks again for carrying the clay from the Swamp of Gloom, Puck,” said Faith the fox. Her sculpture of a squirrel knight slaying an octopus monster was coming along one detail at a time. Honestly, the armature had been the hardest part. A spot was reserved for engraving her stylized ‘F.F.’ when she was done.

“No problem, you all helped too,” said Puck the panda. His simplistic sculpture was the most inoffensively friendly dragon imaginable.

“And don’t forget who found it, Marshmallow,” Blush the rabbit boasted. Her epic battle of Doctor Muscles versus Captain Wonderful fell apart for the second time as the comic book characters collapsed under their own weight. Blush growled and smushed them into a blob and started again.

“Blush, You may want to try an armature,” said Sunzhine ‘Sunny’ the zebra. She’d made a little sculpture of a pirate mouse from bold abstract shapes.

Seabright was laser focused on his sculpture of … well, the other Critters were sure they’d figure out what it was by the time Seabright himself did. Faith believed it was a mermaid, Sunny figured it was a sea cow, Puck thought it was a fat bird, and Blush was sure it was a rocket ship.

The winner would receive a blue ribbon from Faith, the same one she used for all their contests. It wasn’t like they kept score.

But then a familiar cawing put the Critters on guard. Wren the Witchling hovered over them, bowing in midair.

“Hah, hah! Greetings, Critters, on this most Befriendable day! What are you making there, hmm? How… adorable. Digging for clay when my magic could free you from such toil.” The blackbird folded her arms. “I could transmute some worthless rocks into clay if you insist.”

“Thanks, maybe next time,” Puck said.

“I thought getting the clay was part of the experience,” said Sunny.

“But seriously, why do it this way?” Wren asked, tilting her head. “I know, I know, you ‘don’t have magic.'” Wren moved her claws in quotation. “But my magic lets me shape my creations as I see fit. Doing it so slowly, having to start all over after one little mistake, never truly creating what you REALLY imagined. How do you not go crazy?”

“Grit and determination!” Blush said, not looking up from her table.

“Patience.”

“Whimsy,” chimed in Sunny and Puck.

“Got sick of seeing your old pod letting things do the imagining for them,” Seabright said under his breath.

“It’s a creative PROCESS Wren,” said Faith, stopping her work to look up at her. “It starts from an idea, but it grows, matures, changes… you can never be sure what it’ll be when you stop. It’s what makes art ALIVE.”

“If you found Aladdin’s lamp, why not wish for EXACTLY what you want at the start? It’s your idea,” Wren asked.

‘Ideas are cheap!” Blush shouted.

“Precisely,” said Seabright.

Wren stomped her claw only to remember she was still flying. “Look, it’s like cooking, you want a cake, what does it matter if it’s you or someone else who follows the recipe?”

“My mother did recipes a little different every time,” Sunny said.

“So did my dad,” Faith said.

“Uh, tradition is important?” Puck offered, twiddling his clay-caked thumbs.

“I’m honored my family knew how to cook, period,” Seabright sighed.

“I didn’t ask for a poll,” Wren said.

“So you cook with magic?” Sunny asked.

“I have servants for cooking,” Wren said, looking down her beak at them. A thought balloon showed a fledgeling Wren transmuting a cake from flour and sugar with her magic as those around her used mixing bowls. Her feline teacher turned green from one taste, and handed her an ‘F’ grade with the words ‘Tastes like dirt! Learn to actually cook!’

“Servants cooked for me too. You wouldn’t wanna see my charred veggies,” Blush said with a bucked tooth smirk.

“I said I didn’t want your little stories.”

“But it helps us get to know each other,” Faith said.

“You wouldn’t NEED to get to know each other if-” Wren stopped and face clawed. “I don’t know what fox-magic you used to get me so off track, but seeing you all sculpting the pedestrian way, I knew I had to Befriend you once and for all as REAL works of art!”

Wren twirled her wand, and in the same motion flung the formed spell ring at Puck. Puck ducked, the spell ring went right over his tail.

Blush slammed her third failure into the table with a huff and hopped onto Puck like a springboard toward Wren, happy Wren’d volunteered to help work off frustration.

A crow’s eyes have sixty-degree vision that overlaps, and Blush forgot to go for a blind spot or distract her, giving Wren warning to flap back from the rabbit projectile and begin a new spell ring. And wits enough to let the spin from Blush’s impact help Wren weave the ring, and experience to fling down when Blush’s back was to the ground.

Blush let go as her skeleton flashed within her rabbit outline, twitching as a new shape was browbeaten into her. A bellow of green smoke, and Blush dropped like a stone.

Blush impacted waist deep into the ground at an angle, straight as a rod, arms and legs together like a figurine. She was a polished white statue with a blank smile and empty stare. Her hair flower was nestled in a tiny pot on the side of her head.

The other Critters braced for whoever Wren went after next, forming a circle. Instead Wren said, “Get up, golem.”

The statue’s eyes and an engraving on its back glowed green. The golem that had been Blush pushed itself out of the crater and stood at attention.

“Behold! MY artwork! Instant and inspired!”

“That’s lazy!” Faith shouted.

“Traditionalists fear efficiency!” Wren flung a spell ring at Faith, but the fox ducked it, then hopped right over it when the spell ring swerved back towards her again.

“I prefer checkmating fellow mages, but just for that!”

Faith thought, ‘I don’t think fainting from using Wren’s spellbook against her one time makes me a wizardess, but I won’t argue now!’

“Golem, grab her!”

The Blush golem made towards Faith… at walking speed.

“Faster, golem!” The golem double-marched, but kept stalling, having to rebalance itself after each stomp.

The Critters stared at brisk Blush running at, well, an average pace.

Faith easily outran it, but the golem was tireless.

Wren shot spell after spell at Faith, who jumped, slid, and forward flipped, alert for ‘boomer-rang throws’, the golem a relentless wall behind her, armed outstretched out like for a hug.

As Wren barraged Faith, Puck launched Seabright to Wren’s back, pinning her wings.

“Ack! Golem, help me!” Wren cawed.

The golem’s smile never changed as it turned around, Faith forgotten as it raced back to its mistress. Sunny tackled the golem, but felt like she’d hit a clay pillar. The little golem picked up Sunny and tossed her away, forgetting her the moment she was out of the way of its objective.

The golem gave a perfect rear view to Faith as it marched. Faith stared at the engraving on the golem’s back and ran past it on all fours. The golem ignored her.

Seabright wrestled on top of Wren, trying to force Wren to drop her wand. The melee stopped Wren’s spell weaving via claw-gestures or verbal. But Wren was just able to spin a spell ring that skimmed the ground towards the rushing Faith’s paws like a landmine.

Puck raced past the scuffle to flop on the spell ring, shocking and confusing him, the spell meant for a fox unable to change a panda.

Wren, in spite of herself, thought, ‘He could have gone for me but he shielded Faith instead. What makes you tick, sir panda?’

This gave Seabright his opening to force Wren’s claws open and the wand rolled from her clutches.

Faith being Faith, stopped and helped up Puck.

Sunny sped in and kicked away the wand.

“Alright Wren, it’s time for you-” The golem shoved Sunny aside, having picked up the wand. Seabright grabbed the golem as it tried to push him off Wren. The golem flipped Seabright and kicked him into an elbow jab, or tried to, instead the heavy thing stumbled backwards onto its tail.

Blush tossed the wand to her mistress as Seabright landed on top of Blush. Wren snatched her wand gleefully, flapping out of reach.

Wren glared at Seabright, spun a spell ring, then twisted about flung it at Puck instead. Puck, who’d been about to shield Seabright, shuddered. His eyes spun in different directions with his tongue out, and his arms and legs locked at attention as green lightning crackled through him showing a panda skeleton.

And in a puff of smoke, Puck was a perfect white clay statue, sinking slightly to the ground from his new weight. Puck stared at nothing with a peaceful smile.

“Golems! Get the self-righteous art critic!”

Te engraving on Puck’s back glow green as his eye lit up.

Puck picked up Blush and aimed her at Wren.

“Not me!” cawed Wren. “Get Faith!” She didn’t call them ‘rock-brains’, they could only follow the orders, after all.

The golems gave chase at equal speed in lock step, Blush stayinh the same distance behind Puck.

“Seabright! There’s something up about the carvings on their backs!” Faith called, the golems never stopping.

“The runes? Hm?” Seabright put a flipper to his chin thoughtfully.

“Oh no you don’t!” Wren flung a spell ring at Seabright, who was pulled away by Sunny.

Sunny zigzagged carrying Seabright. Seabright scoped out the backs of the golems as Faith was stuck not wanting to abandon her friends and the golems closing the gap with every turn she made.

“Golems! Of course! It’s a primitive ID rune.”

“PRIMITIVE?!” Wren squawked.

“The name on their backs is why they listen to Wren! Change it and they’ll listen to us!”

“Good thing they won’t just let you chisel them, eh?” Wren sneered flinging another spell, Sunny dodged not knowing if it was for her or Seabright.

“Sunny! Can you-“

“Speed writing and fast racing aren’t the same!”

“DANGIT!”

Then Puck stopped and let Blush catch up with him. He picked her up and aimed at Faith. So what if Faith got hurt? She’d be fine once she was a golem.

Fox reflexes ducked the clay rabbit, who landed head first in the ground. Blush dislodged herself no worse for wear.

Now the tireless golems approached Faith from both directions. “Uh-oh.”

‘Think, Seabright! How can we replace Wren’s initials with our own? Eureka!’

Seabright whispered to Sunny. Sunny put Seabright down and ran off.

“Must’ve been a really rotten idea for her to abandon you,” Wren cawed.

He turned up his nose at her. “You think you know everything when you just spew nonsense to sound clever. No wonder you ran away from other witches who could see through you.”

Wren’s focused on Seabright like a laser. “Y-you. You didn’t. You little. Self-righteous. Pretentious. This is why-! Wait a minute!”

Wren spotted Faith at the craft tables, madly whittling into some lumps of clay, the golem marching ever closer.

Wren frantically scanned for Sunny, spotting her carrying a stick?

“What are you up to?!” Wren snapped.

“Ask some pixies,” Seabright said.

The spell ring hit Seabright dead center. Seabright spasmed as his existence submitted to the irrefutable argument he was a golem, a poof of green smoke and the white rock-hard clay statue awaited orders.

“GET THEM!” Wren pointed.

By ‘them’ Mistress clearly meant his friends who weren’t Befriended yet: thus she meant Sunny and Faith. And by ‘get’ she meant subdue them for Befriendment. So the seal golem thought, not even trying to subvert Wren’s commands. After all, he was supposed to follow her orders to the best of his ability, and that included his reasoning.

The golem marched, slithered really, on its tail, towards the Critters, the speed as the other golems.

“Whatever you’re up to, it’s not gonna happen!” Wren slung another spell ring.

Faith grabbed the blobs of clay and kicked over the table for cover. Her near complete squirrel and octopus smooshed against the ground.

Wren gasped. “Faith! How can you ruin your own sculpture like that?!”

“For my friends.”

“Your creations are your responsibility.”

Sunny skidded behind the table and hunched down.

“Sorry, Faith!” Before Faith could react, Sunny cut off a lock of Faith’s hair with a shear. With a fire-striker Sunny’d grabbed from the toolshed, she used the tress as kindling for the stick. The Faith recognized the wood was from the Grand Tree.

The stick burned, a blue aura flickering around the flames.

Sunny shoved the fire into the startled Faith’s paws. The fire took on the colors of an aurora and danced in her hands.

“What the-” Faith tizzied in confusion.

~”The Grand Tree’s been soaking up mana for eons, if any wood has magic in it, it does,” Seabright had said.~

“You! Hand! Clay! Over runes! Face up!” Sunny said quickly.

The golems lifted up the table.

“You’re an artist! Sign your art!” Sunny said, pulling Faith along as a spell hit where they’d just been.

Sunny ran around Puck. Faith pushed one of the clay blobs into his back over the rune.

“You think that’ll cut off my control? That’s precious!” Wren cawed.

The ‘F.F.’ engraved into the clay glowed arctic colors, and the clay hardened at lightning speed. The golem’s eyes lit up with the same colors.

~”Sunny, golems only desire to serve, using their own names won’t work,” Seabright had said.~

“You infected my magic! What saint-craft is this?!”

“It’s the Grand Tree’s doing, not me!” Faith yelped.

The Blush golem reached for Faith.

“PUCK, HELP!”

The panda golem turned and grappled Blush, the two equal in strength.

“One golem’s as good as another, that’s their weakness,” Sunny said.

As the rabbit golem wrestled Puck, Sunny carried Faith behind Blush and Faith pressed a clay blob into Blush’s back. Again her initials glowed and the golem ceased its attack.

“Puck protect Sunny! Blush hold Seabright!” Faith shouted.

Golems aren’t deaf, the seal golem focused on Blush, calculating how to avoid it to capture Faith.

That brief change in attention was all Faith needed, and one yellow and violet blur later the seal golem had a new owner.

Wren was ready to rip out her feathers. “THAT STUPID TREE! I AM DONE!”

Wren spun in place with her wand outward in both claws, and a huge spell ring formed with Wren at the center. Wren continued to rotate, all else forgotten. She thought the simple verse, ‘wood into stone’ over and over. Even if it didn’t affect the entire tree, the damn giant flora would FEEL IT!

And like she was throwing a giant discus, Wren flung the spell ring right at the center of the Grand Tree.

“Wren don’t!” Faith shouted. Wren laughed.

The spell ring struck the Grand Tree and warped like a rubber band, the Grand Tree unaltered. Blue ‘veins’ glowed underneath the bark.

With an audible BOUNCE the giant spell ring sprung right back at Wren. Wren shrieked, swinging her wand, but was overwhelmed by her own magic. Wren wasn’t made of wood, so she didn’t petrify, but Wren’s feathers puffed out in every direction with green static.

“Everyone! Get Wren’s wand!” Faith shouted.

And in pure objective logic, the golem of Puck picked up the rabbit and seal golems and threw them straight at Wren’s wand.

Wren wildly dodged both, but the golems landed right near Puck’s rock garden. They picked up the stones (in neat rows, didn’t want to disrupt the zen) and hurled them at Wren’s wand. Too bad Wren kept darting out of the way. The golems looked for a nice boulder.

Wren quivered and snapped at Faith. “I’ll just golemize you and order you to order them to stop!”

“But I won’t be ‘me’, they won’t listen, and they’ll tear down Raven’s Keep brick by brick to get your wand.”

“I’ll turn you into a catgirl maid and THEN order you to!”

“Same problem. Plus you wouldn’t have a matching set.”

Wren reared back as if struck. “I-I just re-zap you later!”

“You can’t befriend friends, you know that Wren.”

“You… you… agh! Fine! You win today, but I’ll get you Critters next time! Just you wait!” Wren swooped and cawed at them one last time before flying away.

Faith shouted at the golems, “EVERYONE! STOP!”

The seal golem put down the rock that was as big as him. Faith didn’t notice her hands’ aurora flame flickering out.

Faith breathed out and leaned against Sunny who held her close. “You don’t think Wren was hurt too bad, was she?” Faith asked.

“All she got was a few bruises and ruffled feathers. She’ll be fine,” Sunny assured with a smile.

Faith nodded.

“Come on guys, let’s get you back to being you,” Faith said.

The golems each thought of telling their owner that they, the golems, were already themselves, but then they remembered that argument never worked, and what Owner wanted, Owner got. It was as factual as gravity. The golems turned as one and marched.

Faith stopped at her craft table and placed it upright. She carefully picked up her fallen sculpture returning it to the table.

“Faith, I’m sorry,” Sunny said.

“It’s… it’s okay… The armature is still good. And… only one side of it got ruined.” Faith focused on the squirrel knight reduced to mush in front of the evil octopus. “We have forever, remember? So what if I had to start again a little? A work of art is done when you say it is. And I’m not done.”

Sunny put a hoof on Faith’s shoulder. “I’m proud of you, Faith.”

The golems just kept on marching.

“Oh right!” Faith and Sunny hurried after the golems.

-One Restoration Later-

“Another week, another close call of being Wren’s toys forever,” Blush said, stretching to work out the kinks.

Faith tested, “Everyone, please do a headstand!”

Most looked at Faith, confused.

“Just making sure there were no side effects to hijacking Wren’s spell- PUCK!”

Puck looked up at her. “What? You said ‘please.'”

“Oh! Right, heh, sorry.” Faith laughed.

“So, is anyone scared of working with clay after being turned into clay minions?” asked Blush. “Nobody? Good! Then back to it!”

---

Blush raised a first to pound her fourth failed clay sculpture, but looked at her hands that had been clay themselves not so long ago.

‘Everything doesn’t need to perfect first try, that’s what it means to do something yourself.’

“Hey Seabright, can ya loan me some scrap for me to make a couple armatures?”

“My pleasure,” Seabright said with a smile, the other critters smiled in turn.

Later the six figurines stood on the sills and shelves of their creators beautifully in the sunset.

~Fin

Edited By Mtangalion