Back at the crafts store you periodically visited, you had decided to splurge a bit on the chalk sets. There was a specially packaged tub for summertime colors, whatever that meant. Another chalk tub dedicated to various shades of blue laid dusty on a higher shelf. You summon Burst to help out; you'd rather try to get it through your own means than bother the staff. At this point, you still haven't noticed the lavender cloud affecting the whole of Spirale had crept into the store.
Loyally, your Familiar floats upward to nudge the tub forward—but before it can tip it over, your Familiar suddenly stops responding to your command. It sits still on the shelf. Your head swims, and for reasons you can't comprehend, the outlines of your world begin to blur. Struggling to keep awake, you breath deeply to clear your mind, and begin climbing up the shelves to retrieve your friend. You try to reach your hand out to grasp it, but it's as though someone had switched your limbs with lead replacements, arm swiveling wildly. The haze is too much. The cyan lines of your outstretched hand blurs, and a familiar sense of gravity overtakes you. You fall. You fall...
A bell chimes; a soft little sound.
It takes you a moment to realize that you're lying flat on the ground; you didn't feel impact at all. Testing the sensation, you experimentally flex your fingers, and find them woven through flower stems. You sit up a little too quickly, and the vertigo that follows is unpleasant enough for you to shut your eyes. It passes.
You dare to open them again and find yourself in the Familiar Garden. Burst is here by your side again, seemingly okay. You smile and pet it, and it rubs against the feathers of your wings affectionately before floating away to the others.
The other Familiars... You thought you would never see them again. But they're all here in this little garden, hovering around in this tiny respite. You had retreated to this place a few times before Spirale, knowing there was no chance of Nightmarish danger in the Familiar Garden. Curiosity burns through the relief, however, when you notice some Familiars trying to bump into a newcomer. You can't quite make out their outline, but if your Familiars were excited about them, you don't think they were here to fight.
"..."
You silently command your Familiars to move away from the stranger, and all of them obey—except for one, a golden blob with two eyes and two disconnected paws. Laser gently bats its paws against the newcomer's head, seemingly untrusting out of all the other Familiars.