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Sunny mornings are always a delight. The weather is pleasant, not too hot thanks to the cool breezes that pass through the valley, the birds are singing their beautiful melodies that wake the neighborhood like a lovely natural alarm clock. The picnic blanket is soft to the touch, the large tree provides a pleasant shade—everything a critter could wish for in the morning: to be with their friends and enjoy a lovely breakfast outdoors.
“Hey guys, where's Crafty?” Picky's voice catches the attention of all the critters present.
Everyone looks around searching for the unicorn, but there's no sign of her. Then they all look at Dogday, silently asking their leader, who always makes a point of waking all his friends at the same time as always.
Dogday puts his index finger on his chin and makes a worried and thoughtful expression. “That's strange. I knocked on her door and she said she would meet us in a few minutes.” He looks up at his friends, who also share the same concern and confusion. “And she is usually one of the first to arrive.” He turns to look at Catnap, who was sitting next to him. “Catnap, did you put Crafty to sleep last night?”
“No, she said it wouldn't be necessary. Because she was going to sleep at a friend's house.” He frowns in concern. He looks at Bobby, who was on the other side of their circle. “I thought she had gone to sleep at your house.”
Bobby's eyes widen, she also looks genuinely confused. “What? No. She hadn't even asked me if she could sleep at my house.”
“But did she actually spend the night at someone's house from here?” Bubba asks everyone in the circle.
“Nope!” “No!” Kickin and Hoppy respond in unison.
“Not at mine's.” Picky says, concern evident in her voice.
This is alarming. Crafty doesn't lie; something bad must have happened.
“I'll go look for her.” Dogday says decisively and confidently. He stands up in a single leap. “Save some pancakes for me and Crafty!” He turns around and runs off, heading towards Crafty's tower.
It doesn't take long for him to arrive and stop in front of the tower; luckily, all his friends live close to each other. The tower remains the same as always, with its simple wooden door, but decorated with a beautiful drawing of Crafty, painted by Crafty herself, using the best paints she possessed, and surrounded by vines and white flowers, which she made grow using the magic of her horn. Its structure is built of old stone blocks that are also decorated with various drawings, some made by Crafty and others by the other Smiling Critters. Dogday always smiles when he looks at the clumsy drawing he made on the blocks above the door, of all the Smiling Critters in a group hug. It's not a perfect drawing, but Crafty always says that each drawing is beautiful in its own way because it's made with soul and heart. He's happy to have such a kind, creative and talented friend as the unicorn.
He knocks on the door using the same knocking sequence he always uses on Crafty's door. Two slow knocks and three fast ones; he likes to have different knocking sequences for each of his friends. It might seem silly or even pointless, but Dogday thinks it's cool.
“Crafty, are you alright? You haven't come down for breakfast and me and the others are starting to get worried!” Dogday calls for his friend, however, unlike earlier, now he receives no answer.
He knocks on the door more urgently, and this time without any special sequence of knocks. “Crafty!” He calls out louder, practically shouting for the unicorn. Still no answers.
He goes to the doorknob and turns it a few times, but it's locked. Luckily, he has a spare key to each of his friends' houses, a safety measure they decided to adopt: each of them has a copy of everyone else's house key, in case something bad happens, so they can all help each other.
He pulls the key to Crafty's tower from his pants pocket, puts it in the lock, unlocks the door, opens it, and enters his friend's house without a second thought. He looks around; the living room is normal and organized as always. In the corner, the door leading to the bathroom is open, and no one is inside. Going up the stairs to the kitchen, there's nothing out of the ordinary there either. What's strange is the silence; obviously, the unicorn isn't an eccentric critter—in fact, she's rather shy—but she always makes a point of greeting her friends.
The time had come to go up to her room. Dogday climbed the stairs leading to Crafty's room, his heart racing with worry about what might have happened to her. He pushed the trapdoor open and entered his friend's room, but to his surprise, she wasn't there either.
Even knowing it's foolish to think Crafty is hiding, he still calls for her. “Crafty?” Nothing, again.
He looks around, analyzing the entire room. Nothing seems out of the ordinary; Crafty's paintings are in their usual place, paints and brushes are stored on the shelves, no paper or pencils are scattered on the floor—nothing suggests Crafty spent the entire night awake. However, her bed was perfectly made, without a single crease in the blanket, mattress, or pillow, indicating that his friend hadn't actually slept at her house. But he heard her reply to him in the morning; Dogday is certain of it.
Dogday leans over, placing his snout on Crafty's bed and deeply sniffing the area. Crafty's characteristic scent is still there, though faint, almost imperceptible to the canine's keen sense of smell.
After confirming that his friend hadn't slept there, Dogday gets up, but something catches his eye: on the nightstand near the window was a tape recorder. Dogday didn't know Crafty even owned one. He goes to the object and picks it up, smelling it and detecting a faint jasmine scent, confirming that it really belongs to Crafty. Dogday presses the play button to check if there are any messages from his friend on it. And there are.
“Good morning, Dogday! I'll meet you and the others soon, I just need some time to get ready.”
The message on the recorder ends and Dogday's eyes widen. Those are the exact same words Crafty said earlier today. But how didn't he notice it before? The voices on the recorder and Crafty's are clearly differe–
He slaps his forehead. Magic. Of course his friend could alter the recorder however she wanted. Oh, the perks of being a unicorn.
All that's left for him is to try and track Crafty by scent, which won't be easy, but Dogday won't give up.
He leaves the recorder in its original place, exits Crafty's tower—not before locking the door, of course—gets down on all fours, and begins to sniff the grass. Picking up faint traces of jasmine, he starts walking, managing to trace a possible path of where she might have gone.
After several minutes of sniffing, Dogday finally arrives somewhere: Baba Chops' house. The black sheep of the Nightmare Critters, who always prefers to stay in her room alone. The canine begins to get slightly worried about why Crafty would be there; among all the Nightmare Critters, Baba is one of the least aggressive or malicious, but she is still considered their leader, and when they find a target, the result can be quite unpleasant.
But Dogday doesn't want to jump to conclusions; he decides he'll just knock on the door and politely ask if his friend is there. He approaches the door, but before he can reach it and knock, it opens and Crafty comes out.
“Crafty!” Dogday exclaims happily.
“Uh? Do–” Crafty lets out a little yelp after being caught in a tight, surprised hug from her canine friend.
“We were worried about you!” He moves away from her slightly, but still keeps his hands on her shoulders as if she might disappear if he didn't maintain physical contact. “Why didn't you sleep in your tower? Where were you? Why were you here? Are you okay? Did someone hurt you? Did–”
“Whoa whoa! Calm down!” She giggles and gestures with her hooves up and down, indicating for Dogday to slow down. “Nobody hurt me, I'm fine. I just came to spend the night at Baba's house.”
To say Dogday is confused would be an understatement. Baba, out of all the Critters, wanted Crafty to sleep at her house?
“Why?” That seemed to be the only right question to ask.
“Oh...uh...well...” She blushes and looks away from her friend. “She and I have been close for...a while now.” She scratches the back of her neck, embarrassed.
The gears in Dogday's brain begin to turn, and after a few seconds his eyes light up in realization.
“Oh, so you two are friends?” He smiles and his tail begins to wag happily.
Crafty looks at him perplexed. But she goes along with it.
“Yeah, I think we are.” She turns her head to look inside Baba's house, whose door was still open because of Dogday's interruption.
Seeing this, he also looks inside her house searching for Baba. “Aaannd where is she?”
“She is inside her room.” She looks back at her friend, a blush spreading across her cheeks once more. “The reason I was late was because I woke up a little late today and also because I didn't want to risk getting up and waking her. And when I finally managed to get up, I decided to make breakfast for her because otherwise she would forget to eat.” She looks at Dogday with a more apologetic expression. “However, I know I owe you more explanations.” She closes the door behind her. “I promise to explain everything to you on our way back.” The unicorn smiles softly.
“Okie Dokie!” The two begin walking together side by side. Dogday can smell anise coming from Crafty along with her familiar jasmine scent. This kind of confirms the hypothesis that they slept in the same bed, which is why Crafty was apprehensive about getting up and waking Baba. “Listen Crafty, I want you to know that I and the others will always support you in everything. So don't feel like you need to lie to us about anything, okay? I'm really happy that you're making new friends.”
Crafty nods. “Thanks Dogday. This means a lot to me.”
“Anytime and always for my friends!”
From the outside, Catnap seems like the distant and cold type of Critter who wouldn't care about anyone but himself. And that couldn't be further from the truth; Catnap is affectionate and cares deeply for his friends, sometimes even more than all of them. Among all the Smiling Critters, he's the most reclusive; he silently analyzes everything and everyone, and when necessary, he always intervenes to protect or help them.
Catnap is someone who values sleep, stating it's one of the most important things for a critter's health. That's why he always tries to ensure all his friends get at least eight hours of sleep, which is why he's so concerned about one particular critter.
CraftyCorn
His best friend wasn't sleeping well; even through all her fur, he could still see the distinct dark circles under her eyes. He asked her what was wrong and if she needed any help, but she always brushed it off, saying there was nothing wrong and that she was just taking longer to fall asleep, and she refused his red gas. He even asked if she was having nightmares because of his gas; Catnap was getting better at controlling his gas to avoid causing nightmares for his friends, but once in a while one of them would still have them. Crafty said no, and that she was just at some friends' houses and that's why she was taking longer to fall asleep sometimes.
Catnap knows that Crafty isn't spending the night at one of their mutual friends' houses. Even though he's happy that she has other friends, Catnap is still worried and suspicious about these friends of hers. What if they're a bad influence on her? What if they're the ones keeping her from sleeping properly?
He can't let that happen; the protection and health of his best friend is his priority.
He knows what he's about to do is wrong; he shouldn't be stalking and following Crafty, but he promises he'll only do it this once, because soon he'll be the one who can't sleep from worrying about his friend. Crafty opens the tower door, closes it, and locks it. She's carrying a backpack, not the one she usually uses for her art supplies. Silently, Catnap follows her through the shadows; he's lucky to have a coloration that camouflages well in the darkness of the night.
Crafty felt she was being followed, but every time she looked back and around she saw nothing and no one. This made her quicken her pace, arriving at Baba's house much faster than usual. She wasted no time and knocked on the door, where Rabie Baby greeted her with a hug and let her in.
Catnap's worries increased considerably. Why would Crafty visit the house of a Nightmare Critter? Were they the friends she talked so much about? No, it couldn't be.
He runs to one of the windows that was ajar and partially covered by a curtain and observes what is happening inside, keeping his ears alert to hear everything.
“Crafty is here girls!” Rabie says excitedly to Maggie and Baba, who were sitting on the sofa.
Maggie grinned, showing all her sharp teeth. “Oi! Speaking of the beauty!” Maggie's boisterous voice resounds in the room. “Baba here was starting to miss ya.” Maggie nudges the sheep with her elbow. Baba responds by throwing a pillow at her face and staring at the shark with a stern face, making the other three girls laugh.
All this interaction between them is strange to the feline. He had never seen the Nightmare Critters treating another critter from outside so well, much less a Smiling Critter. And when he looks at Crafty, he realizes that she isn't uncomfortable; in fact, she's laughing, talking, and socializing with them normally, as if she'd known them for a long time.
He spends some time watching Crafty and Maggie cook some desserts for themselves. Then they gather in a circle to chat, with Rabie dropping a few gossips here and there, but surprisingly the main focus of the conversation is on each other's interests, which Crafty participates in naturally without that apprehension in her voice that she always carries, when she is afraid of saying something wrong. And when Catnap thinks he couldn't be more surprised, he's proven wrong when Baba, who was sitting next to Crafty in the circle, suddenly leans in to rest her head on her shoulder and she wraps her arm around her waist. This action seems so natural that nobody there seems to really care, except for Rabie, who teases the sheep saying that since she started dating the unicorn she's become less gloomy.
Wait...
Crafty and Baba are DATING?
But since when? Was this a long time ago or is it recent?
Catnap is tempted to climb in through the window and question Crafty about it. But he decides against it when he sees his best friend smile and lean in to rest her head on top of Baba's.
“AAWWW!” Rabie and Maggie say in unison.
“Aren't ya beautys just the cutest.” Maggie says, imitating a baby voice.
For this, Baba just flips the bird at her while Crafty just laughs.
Catnap smiled, even though he was holding himself back from going in and telling them to go to bed because it was past their bedtime. He'd let it slide this time, because next time he'd stick to Crafty until he was sure she'd fallen asleep. He turned and went home.
Crafty isn't very fond of sports; of course, she enjoys playing just for fun with her friends. However, she doesn't like the competitive aspect very much. She ends up feeling pressured to play well to avoid mistakes, which prevents her from actually having fun. But she likes watching Hoppy and Kickin compete, and she also enjoys being a judge in their games and challenges.
At the moment, she is refereeing a soccer competition between the two, which is very close, with Hoppy winning by only one point, but Kickin always manages to recover and tie the game. Crafty admires how talented they both are, with Hoppy always managing to control the ball with great ease and pass it over Kickin's head, while Kickin often manages to steal the ball from her and score a goal with his quick mobility and accurate shots.
With only one minute left in the round, Kickin manages to steal the ball from Hoppy, almost dropping her and scoring a goal. The clock ticks down, marking the end of the game, which he celebrates.
“Yes! Now that's a good game!” He throws his wings high into the air in celebration.
“Yeah, I gotta admit you played well buddy.” Hoppy says, raising her paw for them to do their special friendship handshake. It consists of a high five, followed by a fist bump, and then a light tap on the elbow. Despite their competitive spirit and occasional arguments, they still get along very well and are great friends. Crafty smiles.
The unicorn's ear twitches at the loud noise of something flying towards her; looking back, she sees Simon landing beside her. Hoppy and Kickin turn to look, already apprehensive about what the dragon has come there to do.
“Yo Crafty! I need a favor from you.” Simon says, completely ignoring the disapproving looks from Crafty's two friends.
“Sure, what do you need?” Crafty glances nervously at her friends out of the corner of her eye, who seem perplexed that she's even talking to him.
“I need you to be the judge for a series of challenges that Icky and I will be competing in. I know he'll try to cheat, so I'll need a fair judge.” Simon gets slightly annoyed when Icky is mentioned, leading Crafty to believe that it was the frog who started these challenges.
But before the unicorn could answer, her two friends stepped in front of her, creating a space between her and the dragon.
“Hey! Crafty isn't going anywhere with you!” Kickin says, placing one of his wings protectively in front of Crafty.
“Yeah, go call one of your friends instead of one of ours!” Hoppy points an accusing finger at Simon's chest. Simon frowns in irritation at the two critters who interrupted his conversation.
Not wanting a fight to break out, Crafty quickly intervenes.
“Hey, you guys don't need to fight.” She puts her hands on her friends' shoulders and walks in front of them to look at Simon. “Okay, I'll be the judge of your challenges.” She says confidently.
Simon smiles, but Hoppy and Kickin are dumbfounded.
“WHAT?! Crafty no!” Kickin says, frightened and even a little desperate.
“Crafty, you shouldn't trust this guy! What if this is some kind of trick?!” The rabbit says apprehensively.
“It's not a trick, believe me, I've participated in it once and they didn't do anything bad to me.” She reassures her friends and then looks back at Simon. “Just...please don't do any risky challenges. I don't want you two to get hurt like you did last time.” Her tone is worried and apprehensive, but not for herself, rather for Simon and Icky, which in itself is quite odd.
Simon grins slyly, but his smile is slightly softened at the corners, an almost imperceptible change from his usual smug smile. He lifts Crafty in his arms bridal style, which makes her let out a low squeak, but she had kind of expected this from him.
“No promises.” He says it playfully and then takes flight with the unicorn in his arms.
Hoppy and Kickin just watched everything, worried. Later that day they went to visit Crafty to see if she was alright, and she was fine, which made them feel more relaxed.
It's become common knowledge among the Smiling Critters that their unicorn friend seems strangely close to some members of the Nightmare Critters, but they haven't yet gotten together to discuss whether they should be more concerned about it or not. Now, whenever they need to find her for something, they have to search even in the neighborhood where the Nightmare Critters live, which is kind of annoying, but nobody have the heart to tell Crafty that.
That's why Bubba told Picky it would be more proactive if they went looking for Crafty before Picky started making lunch, because it would save time and they wouldn't have to bother Dogday with the task of spending hours looking for her. So the two decide to go together to look for their friend in the neighborhood of the troublemaking critters.
It took some time, but they finally found her in the swampy region along with Allister and Icky. In a rather unusual situation.
“I bet your lazy ass can't do a pose like this!” Icky tells Allister, climbing a tree and hanging upside down on top of a branch, holding on only with his feet.
Allister, who was in the lake with only his head above water, makes a "tch" sound with his mouth. Looking at the frog with an unimpressed expression. “I don't even need to move much to strike a better pose than that.”
The alligator swims to the edge of the lake, supporting his upper body on land while his lower body remains submerged in the water. He crosses his arms and rests his head on them, tilting it slightly to the side for a better view of his face.
“Lame! Your pose is not cool at all, Crafty won't want to draw that!” He says, gesturing towards the unicorn.
Crafty was sitting on a rock with a pencil and sketchbook in her hooves. She was simply sketching the beautiful swamp lake landscape with its water lilies and lotus flowers. By chance, she ended up drawing Allister as well, since he was among those elements of the landscape. She didn't expect Icky to try to turn it into a competition of who could strike the best pose for her to draw. Which is kind of funny, making her smile at their little argument.
“I think we should let the artist decide that.” Allister says, making them both turn to look at Crafty.
“Uh...what?” She says, slightly nervous about what that implied.
“Who do you want to draw? Me or him?” Icky, still upside down, points first at himself and then at Allister.
While all this was unfolding, Bubba and Picky just watched in disbelief, never imagining that Crafty would get along with those two to the point where they were competing for her to draw them. It seemed like the kind of thing that would only happen in a fever dream.
Luckily for Crafty, who didn't want to risk making a choice and upsetting one of them, Picky emerges from the bushes, drawing the attention of everyone present.
“Sorry to interrupt your moment, but Crafty needs to come with us because it's almost lunchtime.” She approaches the unicorn.
“Oh right!” Crafty gets up from the rock and puts her sketchbook and pencil back in her bag. “Sorry boys, but I have to go now. I promise to draw you two next time!” She waves goodbye to the two of them, who wave back.
“Bye Crafty.” Allister says in his usual relaxed tone.
“See ya later!” Icky says, jumping from the branch and landing on the ground.
The trio with hooves began walking back to their neighborhood together. But Bubba was still suspicious of the other two Critters' intentions.
“Crafty.” He catches the unicorn's attention, and she looks at him. “Did they do something to you? Were they forcing you to stay there?” He asks worriedly.
She looks at the elephant with a confused expression. “No, they didn't do anything bad to me. Why do you think that?”
“Because you seemed nervous and uncomfortable when we found you here.”
Crafty thinks for a moment until she remembers what happened a few minutes ago. “Oh, that. Don't worry about it. I was just nervous because I didn't want to choose only one of them to draw and end up upsetting the other.”
Bubba still looks worried, obviously not fully believing what Crafty said. But it's Picky who breaks the silence.
“Crafty, you know you don't need to hide anything from us. If they do anything to you, let us know so we can take care of 'em.” Picky finishes her speech by slamming a closed fist against the palm of her hoof.
Crafty giggles. “Relax guys, I promise if they had done anything I would have told you. We were just spending time together.”
Despite their doubts and uncertainties, Bubba and Picky decide to trust Crafty; after all, their friend was fine, so there was nothing to worry about.
Bobby is known by everyone as the kindest critter of all. She possesses all the good qualities anyone could have; she's kind, loving, patient, and empathetic. Obviously, she's not perfect, and some even point out that she's clingy and overly affectionate, but she strives to make her friends as comfortable as possible around her. She knows that her bear-like size and strength might scare some critters away, but she's nothing but gentle and cuddly with her friends, always offering the best hugs and comforting words.
She may not be as observant as Catnap, but she can tell when one of her friends is down. And she notices that Crafty seemed less cheerful than usual; the unicorn is known for being shy and somewhat reclusive, but she's not like that with her friends, even being able to reach the same level of enthusiasm as Hoppy when she starts talking about her various crafts.
Seeing her friend downcast worried Bobby. She tried talking to Crafty to see if she would confide in her, but that didn't happen. Crafty forced a smile, said there was nothing wrong, and tried to change the subject.
Bobby knew she shouldn't pressure Crafty to talk, so she did what she always did: she hugged Crafty without putting too much of her strength into it and said that whenever the unicorn needed her, she would be there for her.
One day, Bobby was walking through the flower fields of the valley, appreciating the beauty and tranquility of the surroundings. In the distance, she saw Crafty also there, but Crafty was heading down a path leading out of the valley. Curiosity made Bobby follow her. She felt bad for following her friend like that, but she also didn't want to startle her with her sudden presence, so she stayed behind, following and observing her from a considerable distance.
Crafty walks towards the abandoned cemetery and enters. Bobby freezes in place; that cemetery hasn't been used for centuries since a new one was built closer to the valley. There's no reason for her friend to go there; as far as Bobby knows, Crafty doesn't have any relatives or acquaintances buried there for her to visit.
But there are also many things Crafty doesn't tell them.
A voice in the bear's head says this, making her heart clench. If her friend is suffering from something, she wants to help her.
It takes Bobby a few minutes to gather the courage to enter the cemetery. The vegetation had taken over the place, with many large trees, bushes, and vines, making the setting resemble those cliché horror movies. Even though she's scared, Bobby continues searching for the unicorn.
And she finds her, sitting under a tree hugging her knees with her head resting on them, her eyes tearing up. But she wasn't alone. Touille and Poe were standing on either side of her. At first glance, they seemed to be bullying Crafty, which made Bobby clench her fists, and she was ready to come out from behind the tree where she was hiding and defend her friend. However, Touille sits beside her with an empathetic look, while Poe strokes her shoulder trying to comfort her. Crafty says something, but Bobby doesn't hear, so she approaches, hiding behind another nearby tree.
“Don't feel pressured to tell us what happened; you can simply let your sorrows out without having to justify yourself.” Poe says softly, still cradling her shoulder.
And with those words, the dam breaks and Crafty begins to cry, hiding her face in her knees as she sobs loudly. Seeing this scene breaks Bobby's heart; she wants nothing more than to run to her friend, hug her, and tell her that everything will be alright, but she's not sure if that's the best thing to do right now. She doesn't want to scare Crafty, and considering that the other two critters present are already trying to comfort her, it makes her a little at easy.
When Crafty's crying subsided, she lifted her face from her knees, her eyes slightly swollen and the fur on her cheeks wet with tears. Touille took a handkerchief from a small box and offered it to the unicorn, who whispered a soft thank you before taking the handkerchief and beginning to dry her face.
A period of silence passes until Crafty breaks it.
“I-it's about my friends...”
When she says that, Bobby's blood runs cold. And she's already starting to wonder if something happened between Crafty and the others in the group.
“Ze Smiling Critters?” Touille asks and Crafty nods.
“Did you have a fight with them? Or was there an internal arguing between them?” This time Poe asks and Crafty shakes her head. Which makes Bobby sigh with relief.
“It's just...something that only includes me. And it's for such a...dumb reason.” She sniffles.
“It's not some dumb reason that would make you cry so much.” Poe lowers themself to the artist's eye level, resting one knee on the ground and keeping the other raised, they keeps one of their wings holding Crafty's shoulder. “From the moment something hurts you to that extent, then it's no longer just something dumb.” They say in a serious and worried tone.
Crafty takes a deep breath, looks down to avoid their gazes and whispers. “Sometimes...I think I-I don't fit in with the Smiling Critters.”
“What do you mean?” Touille asks, tilting his head to the side, confused. “You are kind, sweet, cheerful, calm, teach good values, and are very talented—all ze good qualities a Smiling Critter has!”
Crafty laughs, but it's a bitter laugh. “Yeah, that's all everyone thinks. But I don't really...mesh with their energy.” She pauses and thinks about what to say next. “Just think about it, they all manage to approach other critters and make them smile. But I don't have the courage to approach someone first. I just stay in my corner waiting for someone to approach and take the i-initiative first.” She feels tears welling up again, but she blinks them away before they can fall. “A Smiling Critter isn't afraid to take the initiative, doesn't hesitate to try and cheer someone up, isn't afraid to defend themselves and others. But I'm not like that; I let people make fun of me, use me, and walk all over me, and I also don't have the courage to defend my friends when they need it nor do I know what to do to comfort them when they're sad. I'm not capable of doing everything they do.”
Tears begin to fall and she wipes them away with her arm. She starts doing her breathing exercises to try and calm herself. She takes a deep breath, holds it for three seconds, and exhales, repeating this process several times until her breathing is regular.
Bobby watched all this, worried and sad, her heart aching with agony knowing that Crafty thought so little of herself. And she began to feel guilty for never having realized that her friend was suffering from her insecurities and inner turmoil.
And things get even worse with Crafty's next words. “The worst part is that my friends do everything they can to include me in the group and encourage me in my actions. But sometimes I feel out of place, like I shouldn't be there, and I end up distancing myself from them.” She sniffles and sobs softly. “A-and whenever one of them notices I'm sad, they try to comfort me, and when I don't tell them the real problem and end up l-lying instead of admitting it, they tell me that I can always count on them if I need anything. This makes me feel even more guilty for lying to them and for not having the courage to talk to them, for fear of what they will think of m-me.” She sobs and wipes her tears.
Everyone falls silent, which makes Crafty think she's said too much and is about to face the judgment she so feared. She closes her eyes, hugs her knees tightly, and curls up in herself, waiting for anything—a laugh, a mean joke, a sarcastic or harsh comment—but none of that comes.
“Crafty look at me.” Poe asks gently and Crafty obeys, opening her eyes and looking up at them. “I know how complicated and difficult insecurities are to deal with, and I know that a few compliments aren't going to change your self-perception. But I want you to know that you're looking at it the wrong way.”
“Huh?” She makes a confused expression.
“What Poe means is zat you focus so much on finding flaws in yourself zat you end up forgettin' to focus on everything zat you already are. Like zose people who turn zeir noses up at smelly cheese, but forget zat the best cheeses are ze ones zat smell bad!” Touille raises his index finger and smiles as if he had just said the most intelligent thing in the world.
“Ignoring Touille's terrible analogy, that's exactly what I meant.”
“'Ey! Ze best analogies are ze ones of cheese!”
Crafty gives a little laugh, a sweet and genuine one this time. “I think I get it now.”
Poe and Touille smiles. “I'm glad to hear that.” The crow says.
“Group 'ug now?” Touille asks, streching his arms for the hug.
Crafty approaches and hugs them both, and they return the hug.
Bobby smiles, and for the first time since she arrived, her heart warms at the sight. She's happy to know that Crafty gets along well with the Nightmare Critters, despite their terrible reputation; it's a relief to know that at least they're kind to her friend. The bear turns to leave; later she would try to talk to the artist again to try and help her, but for now she will leave her in the care of the other critters.
At this point, the Smiling Critters are recognizing a pattern; it's not just a coincidence that Crafty occasionally spends time with the Nightmare Critters. There's something more to every time they see their friend near the valley's most troublesome critters. They gathered in their spot under the tree to discuss it, and everything they witnessed pointed to the same conclusion.
“So Crafty really is friends with the Nightmare Critters.” Bubba concludes and adjusts his glasses on his face.
“But how did that even happen? They're such jerks, it's hard to believe Crafty would get involved with 'em.” Kickin says perplexed.
“Yeah, but somehow it happened.” Picky shrugs.
“But at least they treat Crafty well. So we don't need to worry too much about that.” Dogday says cheerfully, trying to be positive.
Everyone nods and they look towards the horizon where Crafty runs towards Baba and hugs her, and she returns the hug. They walk together and meet up with the other members of the Nightmare Critters, and they all walk together along a path that appears to be the trail to Simon's house. Despite everything and the strangeness of the situation, they are happy that their friend is making new friends.
“By the way, Baba and Crafty are dating.” Catnap says it in a laid back tone, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Silence
And then
“WHAT?!” All the other Smiling Critters scream in unison.