Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Sometime past 6pm, Al arrived at the inn. The boys had a friendly talk, while Tom, Roger and Al smoked their cheap cigars, filling the room with smoke. Meanwhile, they were having a chat, almost exclusively about girls.

“Hey, Al, are you dating someone?”
“Yeah, Tom, for almost three years.”
“So it must be the same girl you had just started to date last time we saw you.”
“Yes, it is, Tili.”
“Nice, very nice. But are you that serious?”
“Well, sometimes I hang out with the girls that work along with me, in the market.”
“Oh, you naughty boy!”
“Yeah, Tom, but you know I'm like that.”
“And will you be able to come with us to the festival?”
“Of course!” Al said in a nonchalant way. “I just sent a message to her, telling her I'll be with my friends today and that is it.”
“Very good.”
“It is always like that, I tell her that I'll go out and that is okay for her. If I don't tell, then I'm screwed.”
“Well, I don't see there is a need to tell your girlfriend if you are not supposed to be with her.” Tili raised one of his moral questions.
“No, that is impossible. You have to tell your girl where you are.”
“What for? If the couple trust each other, there is no need to tell the other where you are, unless you were supposed to be with the other.”
“No, that is not the way that it works.” Roger joined the discussion.
“It can not be the way it works, but it is immaturity to demand the other partner to tell that you are going out. There is no need for that.”
“Of course it is!” Al was baffled. “Once I was with another girl and my girlfriend sent a message boy after me. Then I had to build up an excuse, saying I was on an errand related to my job, but that was close.”
“That only proves my point. Is it worthy to demand you to tell her you are going out when you lie to her and cheat her anyway?” Tili had an assured air that he was right.
“Well... let's talk about other things...” Al and Roger didn't have any arguments to counter Tili's argument. “Do you really want to go to the festival?”
“Do you think it will be good?” Tom asked, excitedly.
“Well, all the girls from Cille and nearby villages will be there. Besides, it is only 10 meseta.”
“I'm not sure...”
“Tom, today it will be Tenor Latin and his Orchestra. All the girls will be there at his dance party.”
“Well, even so, I'm not so sure.”
“Oh, stop it, Tom!” Roger was irritated at his friend's hesitation. “We've come here for the girls.”
“Alright... Isn't there any other ball?”
“Maybe, but today everybody will be at the harvest festival. We should go there. In case it is not good, we can go somewhere else later.” Al tried to encourage Tom to follow them.
“Alright. What do you think, Tili?”
Tili was not much concerned with the parties. “Well, anything you choose, for me, it is fine.”

Tili was not the kind of guy who enjoyed these parties. He was shy and a bit of an old-fashioned romantic, more like an old gentleman. These parties usually meant cheap flirtation, but no opportunities of knowing a lady worthy of his attention. He would follow his friends to the party just to let them have some fun, because he knew that other people liked that cheap flirtation and he that was fine. Just he didn’t like it and he was hardly excited with those parties. Usually he would sit in a corner and wait for his friends, until they had had enough of the parties.

After some talking, the group finally decided to go to the harvest festival. Al left in order to take a shower and change his clothes for ones suitable to the party. The three friends did the same in the Inn. When it was about 9pm, Al returned with his coach to take the group to the harvest festival. Roger was very excited about the girls. Tom had mixed feelings. He was somewhat excited too, but his mind was partly on his ex-girlfriend. Tili was there more to cheer up his friends. After some minutes traveling through Cille streets, Al parked his coach in a safe place in front is his uncle's large wooden house, half a mile far from the place where the harvest festival was taking place. They went to the harvest festival walking that distance, enjoying the country air of the outskirts of Cille. Arriving there, they were unsure whether they should enter the festival, especially Tom.

“Are you sure this will be good? Judging by the people here, I'm somewhat afraid.”
“But there is the place where everybody will be today.” Al tried to reassure his friend.
“I'm not sure...”
“Come on, man! We've come here to have fun! Stop being a jerk!” Roger was less than happy with his friends hesitation.
“Isn't there another party where we can go? Like the ball we went to the last time we came here?”
“Oh, sure there is, Tom, but I think it will be empty today.” Al was more inclined to go to the festival.
“I don't have a good feeling about this festival...”
“Come on, stop being an idiot!” Roger was now irritated.
“Well, we could enter the festival and, if the dance party is not good, then we go to another ball.”
“I don't know...” Tom was still hesitant.
“Let's do it. Don't you agree Tili?” Roger was excited to enter the festival.
“Whatever you choose is good for me.”
“So let's go.” Roger started pushing Tom into the festival.
“Alright.”

The four friends entered the harvest festival. It looked like Tom's intuition was sharp that day. After some minutes looking at the prized vines in the exhibition place, the group decided to go straight to the dance party, but then, they were frustrated. The dance party was a huge crowd of men and women together, shaking their arms in the air at the sound of a terrible tenor and a percussive orchestra out of tune. Though none of the friends were from the nobility, they were not used to that kind of dance party. To make matters worse, it was as if the men had drunk all the yearly Cille wine production only that day. The women were not up to their standard as well, mostly drunk, wearing lewd dresses with very short skirts. To complete the chaos, they were blessed with a very strong summer shower. No, definitely it was a bad choice to have joined the harvest festival. And they couldn't not even leave the place because of the pouring rain.

“What have I told you? What have I told you? Look at this people over there! It is not that I'm a snob, but look at the way they behave! The boys act like animals and the girls seem to like it! No, I don't consider them members of my species.” Tom was mad at the scenes the group had seen.
“Alright, you were right. This party is terrible, though there are some chicks...”
“Come on, Roger, do you really want to have anything with these girls?”
“Well, no...” Roger was frustrated.
“So what do you want to do? We can still try to find another ball.” Al was trying to cheer up his friends.
“We should have gone there first. Well, now we can't even leave here, with all this rain...”

The four friends stayed for half an hour, talking about the most diverse subjects, like their own jobs, the fates of other common friends and other generic talk, waiting for the summer shower to stop, but the rain would not stop. Concluding it would be useless to wait for it to stop completely, the group left the harvest festival under rain. As Al's coach was parked far from the harvest festival, they arrived there completely drenched. Even so, they decided to take a look around, to see if there would be another ball to attend. The group went to a nearby dance hall. It looked like there would be a ball, so they decided to stay.

“If you had heard me before, we'd have come here at first and we'd not be drenched.” Tom was still trying to prove to the others that he was right, because he had good judgment.
“OK, anyway, let's see if this ball will be good. Looks like the girls here are better.” Roger was excited at the sight of the girls waiting to join the ball. The girls wore better dresses, more fit to ladies, though almost all the girls were no real ladies and would behave in a similar way as the peasant girls on the harvest festival.
“What are you waiting for, let´s get in!” Al was trying to keep the spirits high.

Tili was feeling tired. He was not fond of balls and, he was drenched, his spirits were low and everything he wanted was to return to the Inn. Even so, he didn't want to frustrate his friends, so he stuck there with his friends to not cause any rift among them. Meanwhile, some interesting thoughts crossed his mind and he came with an excellent idea for saving the night.

“Well, pals, if you want to go to this ball, I'm all for it. But let's keep it real. If you intend to enter the ball drenched like that, you will get nothing, but a cold. Come on, if you really want to go to the ball and not look ridiculous, let's return to the Inn and exchange our clothes for something dry.”
“Well, makes sense.” Tom was convinced. “Is it too much to return to the Inn, exchange our clothes and return, Al?”
“Not at all. Let's go for it.”

The group left the dance hall and returned to the Inn, in order to get ready for the ball. Tili was the least excited of the group, because he'd rather stay at the Inn for the night. He had already had enough of that Cille trip. What he didn't know was that his life would be completely changed in about one hour. It would be changed in a way he could never had predicted. And he would always be glad for having that insight. Though he didn't believe in fate, it was as if the universe was conspiring in his favor. And Cille would have a place in his heart forever.