Chapter 21 –– Flower or Flour

Today we started our morning with the opening ceremony of Felixia tribe’s annual event, the Redfyre Carnival. The opening ceremony was conducted at the village square. A stage set was up a few days beforehand for this special event. The first thing in the morning, Lady Zara went upstage for a speech before commencing the event.

“Good morning everyone. Today and for the next two days we will have our annual Redfyre Carnival. I hope you all enjoy all the celebrations and festivities, and remember;”

Right before finishing her speech, she paused as the audience stared at her.

“Silence is Golden. Roar is Platinum!” everyone shouted in unison.

That phrase turned out to be Felixia’s tribe motto. They really do take a lot of pride in their identity as Felixia tribesfolk, huh.

Today I was wearing a traditional Felixia tribe outfit which was a red aodai with yellow coloured flower patterns on it. Everyone seemed to be wearing a similar costume, just with different shades of red, yellow, and orange hues. We were also wearing sandals instead of shoes for this time of the year. Some people took it even further and wore a complimenting tall hat; something that used to be worn by people from the older generation.

The moment the event commenced, a huge cat puppet appeared onstage with people puppeteering it from below. They moved the cat puppet using some kind of stick rhythmically and in an orderly fashion to make it look like it was dancing. The dance was called the “cat-out-of-the-bag waltz.” Everyone watched as the dance hypnotized them, figuratively speaking. The dance was so unique and interesting, especially for an outsider like me.

While the stage was filled with different kinds of attractions, Moshe and I decided to take a walk and have a tour around the square. We wanted to see if there was any activity that we could do together.

After walking for a while, I came across a booth with a lot of dolls for the prizes. One of the prize was the doll of the event’s mascot, a sphynx cat. It was really cute and I asked Moshe if we could go there and try it. He just nodded and went along with it.

“Would you like to try?”

The shop owner asked if I wanted to try the game. I nodded passionately. After Moshe paid for the game, I started playing it.

The rule of the game was fairly simple. All I needed to do was to roar as loud as I could until I reached the perfect decibel for getting the equivalent prize. Each prize has its own score, and the rarer the prize the higher the score needed to win it.

“Ready? Set... Roar!”

I roared as best as I could. Yet, I didn’t even get halfway through the score necessary to win it. I found it to be very hard especially as an outsider. We didn’t have this kind of game back in my village as it was a Felixia tribe traditional game.

“Would you like to have another try?”

I tried two more times and still couldn’t get the right score. I don't think I can win it.

“Do you want me to win it for you?”

Whoa. He thought that he could win it so easily. Damn. That confidence was quite sexy.

“Try. As if you can win it––”

Moshe tried roaring and it was the loudest roar I had ever heard in my entire life. It was even louder than my brother’s when he stood up for me back in the village when Moshe first came to our house, despite the difference in tone due to differing intentions. After Moshe roared, he got the perfect score and won it on his first try.

“––so easily.”

The shop owner handed Moshe the prize that I had been wanting ever since I came across it. Moshe thanked the shop owner and received it humbly.

“You were saying?” he said, mocking me.

“Huh. Well, you must have done this game a lot so no wonder you could––”

Moshe handed the doll to me and patted me in the head aggressively. He then wrapped his arm around my shoulder and walked right beside me, leaving the roaring game stall. We then walked towards the street to find something else to do.

Damn. This guy didn’t really say much but did a lot of physical touch in exchange. It must be one of his primary love languages, huh. Never said I didn’t like it, though. Hehe.

We then went to another stall nearby to try another game. This time, Moshe and I were competing against each other and with other participants. There were 10 participants in total. The prize for the winner was a coupon to a dinner for two. Since he won the previous game for me, I was thinking of winning this one on my own so that he wouldn’t see me as someone who was not capable of anything. I’d show him what I could do.

The game was called “flower or flour.” The game master–– the owner of the shop–– stood on a second floor of a building. She would then throw either a bag of flower petals or a bag of flour. Our main objective was to catch as many flower petals as possible and avoid getting hit by the flour. Every time we get flour on our face or body, our points would be deducted accordingly.

It was a fairly simple game that required fast movement and quick reflexes. I don’t know who invented this game, but it does sound quite energy-draining.

All of us were put in different spots, standing apart from one another. Moshe and I stood quite far from each other, so there was no way for us to communicate nor to cooperate. We stood still and prepared ourselves for the first round to collect the first batch of flower petals–– or get hit by a bag of flour.

“Ready? Set......Catch!”

Everyone started running here and there. The moment the first bag was thrown to the participants, the second one already was thrown almost at the same time. The game master had prepared the bags beforehand and had only needed to throw them with very little effort. Everything happened so fast, but with my thorough vision and nimble movements, I managed to avoid the flour and catch the flower petals.

Except for one.

“Ugh! You cheater!”

Moshe pulled me just at the right moment to get my face hit by the flour. I was too focused on collecting flower petals and he did it when I didn’t even notice he was standing next to me. Out of frustration, I collected some of the flour on me and threw it at his face.

“Revenge time!”

“Ahahah.”

Whoa. That was the first time I saw him laughing and not just chuckling. He smiled so widely. He really enjoyed the game, huh.

Well, even if I didn’t win the game for today, at least he enjoyed my time with me and that was enough for me.

After the game went on for about 15 minutes, the time was up and the game master started counting the flower petals of each participant.

“The winner is.....contestant number 8!”

The winner came to the front to collect his prize, which was a couple of vouchers for a free dinner for two at a fine dining restaurant. The winner was.....

“Aaryn!?” I was startled to my own voice.

I was so focused on the game (and on Moshe) to the point that I didn’t even notice he was competing in the game with us.

“Did you know he was here?” I asked Moshe.

“Well, I saw him earlier.”

Why didn’t he tell me!!! Ugh, these guys.

“Alright. As promised, here ya go.”

Aaryn received the vouchers and descended from the stage. He then walked towards me and Moshe.

“Seems like you two had a lot of fun,” Aaryn said, laughing at us for having our faces thrown by flour.

“Let’s have some more fun tonight, yeah ;)?” Aaryn said, while handing me one of his tickets.

:O

I literally didn’t know how to react. I didn’t even know whether to take it or not. I looked at Moshe and he just nodded.

“Take it,” he said.

Well, if he said so. I took the ticket and humbly received it.

“I look forward to tonight! xD” Aaryn told me.

Before he left, he patted Moshe on the shoulder and whispered something to him. I couldn’t hear what he said, so I just stood still while holding the voucher. Aaryn then left us with the other voucher in his hand, going to another stall on his own.

“What did he say?” I asked Moshe.

“Nothing important.”

Huh. I wonder what they were talking about.

After the game was over, we walked around some more. While we were walking, I came across a photo booth at one of the stalls. I forced Moshe to take one with me as a souvenir to bring home. He didn’t want it at first, saying it was embarrassing. However, after I begged to him, he finally relented.

We then walked towards a queue in front of the photo booth. There were several people wanting to take a photo for themselves, so we had to queue to get one for ourselves.

“Oh, what a coincidence.”

Out of pure coincidence (or not, I don’t know), we met with Aaryn again. He was right in front of the photo booth that we were queuing to get one for himself.

“Can we join you?” I asked him.

Since he was way in front of us and I thought it would be nice to have a photo of the three of us together, I decided to ask him to let us join him.

“Sure, why not.”

He said yes and we ended up take a photo together with him.

“Say geez!”

Later that night, an hour before dinner, a staff called me to my room saying that there was someone in front of the manor who wanted to pick me up. I got myself ready as soon as I could and headed downstairs to meet the person.

“There he is. We were just talking about you,” Lady Zara said, with Moshe standing next to her.

As expected, it was Aaryn. He came to pick me up for our dinner for tonight.

“Moshe, you better be careful or else Aaryn is going to steal him from you,” Lady Zara said, teasing Moshe.

“Yeah, right,” Moshe replied nonchalantly.

I guessed he didn’t really care about that, huh.

Aaryn looked surprisingly casual. Despite the fact that we were going to a fine dining restaurant, he wore some casual attire instead of a formal one.

“Well, shall we go now?” he asked.

“Sure.”

We then exited the manor and entered his carriage. We went to the restaurant just the two of us, without Moshe.

I just realised that Aaryn didn't live together with Moshe and Lady Zara in the manor, despite the fact that he was Lady Zara's step son. That's interesting. It's totally different from the experience that I had back in Caninus Village where everyone including extended members of the family live together in the same mansion.

After having arrived at the restaurant, Aaryn and I showed our vouchers to the receptionist. The staff then showed us the way to our table right at the corner of the room.

It was a really fancy restaurant. However, tonight was fairly less crowded than I imagined.

Since it was basically a free meal, they already prepared a 3-course set menu for us that we couldn’t choose, except for the drinks. They asked if we had any allergies so that they could prepare the dishes accordingly, but that was basically it.

“So, what do you think of Moshe?”

Aaryn immediately went straight to the point. We hadn’t even got our first meal yet but he already asked the fire-burning question.