fun froufrou - feuepine

A breeze rustled through the branches of the trees, almost sending the stack of colored paper strips on the table in front of Nectarios flying away. Before that could happen, a silver-purple Estra quickly flew up and set itself on them, chiming softly at their cossetling. The white-haired cossetling patted their herald appreciatively, speaking softly.

“My thanks, Ambrosius. Could you fetch the box I brought? It seems it will be necessary after all.”

Ambrosius flew off, a few silver clover leaves trailing behind them. Nectarios held his hand down on the paper, preventing its escape with the playful winds that brushed through the clearing. Within a few seconds, Ambrosius had returned, carrying a medium-sized box with him. The two quickly put the paper strips into the box, safely containing them from the wind. Nectarios pulled out a strip of green paper, turning to look at Ambrosius.

“We’ll be making paper star garlands for the party in a few days. It’s really very simple to do, and makes for a lovely decoration for Cossette.”

Ambrosius chimed softly, spinning in mid-air. Nectarios chuckled softly, shaking his head.

“No, no, not like you. Very small, around the size of the end of my fingers. Look, like this.”

He took the strip of paper and carefully folded it around itself, making a loose, flat knot in the paper, before tightening it down to the end of the strip carefully until it lay flush against itself in a pentagonal shape. He held it up to Ambrosius, who examined it carefully.

“The real first step is cutting the paper, but I had the librarian you’re so fond of cut these for me a few days ago in preparation for this. The strips need to be a uniform width and length, or else the stars won’t form properly. The measurements for these strips are a centimeter wide and eleven inches long.”

He pointed towards the remaining length of the strip, moving it in his hands as he spoke.

“Now we fold the paper over the knot, following the edges of the pentagon we made. Keep turning it over and over. It will cross over itself, making a slightly thick pentagon. Once you reach the end of the strip, you might have a little extra paper left over that’s not enough to make another pass around the star.”

He showed this extra length of paper, a few centimeters, to Ambrosius, who chimed again, bouncing up and down in the air.

“For this, tuck it into the folds of the paper star, where two previous crosses of the paper overlap, forming a sort of triangle on the pentagon. Do you see?”

Ambrosius chimed again, watching Nectarios’s hands closely.

“See how the pentagon has become thicker? Now comes the tricky part. Take two fingers and push in gently, but firmly, at the center of two opposite sides on the side of the pentagon. This will allow the star to puff outward from the center, and will define the points.”

He carefully took his left index and thumb finger, pinching at the pentagon. Like magic, it puffed outwards, and Ambrosius chimed, eyes wide.

“Now, to push inwards at the other sides of the pentagon to help make the points on the star. Once it’s fully puffed out, you can then pinch at the corners to help make them more defined.”

He moved as he spoke, and before long, there was a small green star, about a centimeter across, lying in the palm of his hand. Ambrosius chimed, making a quick loop-de-loop in the air.

“Ha, yes, it is cute, isn’t it? And so very easy to make.”

Reaching into the box, he pulled out a needle and a thin but sturdy yarn. Threading the needle carefully (and with some assistance from Ambrosius), he then held the star.

“Now, to make garlands, we thread the paper stars onto a string, or in this case, a yarn. Simply guide the needle through one of the indents and out of the point at the other end, and we have the start of our garland.”

He sighed slightly, looking at the box of paper strips and the ball of yarn.

“We had best get folding, Ambrosius. We’ve got to make sure everything is ready in time, and while these paper stars are quick to make, it certainly takes… a lot of them to make the garlands.”

Ambrosius chimed again, and Nectarios grabbed another strip of paper, repeating the process all over again, as the sun shone down on the party venue-to-be.