So Fire

by Ran Walker

GloKat hadn’t been in Sparkadia for long, but they’d been there long enough to know two things: (1) Sparkball was an amazing game, and (2) Hotpaws was their favorite Sparkball player. Gloria appreciated how high he jumped and how agile he was with his ball movement; StarKat loved the aggression of his dunks. They cheered for him every time he touched the ball, and after a thunderous dunk, he’d wave at them, his hands glowing like embers. GloKat contemplated high-fiving Hotpaws after one of his games, but good sense prevailed and instead they shot candied fireworks into the sky, just above Hotpaws’s head. He jumped up and lit them with his head, and the sky was filled with confectioned confetti.