Nighttime had already covered us as we slowly approached the main gates of Nolt. The city seemed somewhat dead at night, a cold breeze blew across my neck as we passed through the gate. "YEEEHAAAWWW" Was the sound I heard in the distance. A faint light shone ahead of us, most likely a civillion of Nolt was there. Walking through the streets we noticed that all the houses were barren. "Where do you think all the people are?" I asked. Finally as we climbed the hill-like area towards the town square we noticed a large crowd before us.
"Wow!" Was all that I could mutter, a giant festival was right before our eyes. The townspeople were all gathered around various booths selling and buying items, children playing games for prizes. "Not what I had expected?" Ray mumbled, all the while rubbing his chin with his index finger and thumb. "It's going to be hard to gather information." Rune said. His eyebrow was twitching a bit, I could tell that he was angry. "Cmon Rune lighten up! Nothing ever gets accomplished by being stressed all the time." Slapping Rune on the back Ray spoke out loudly.
I grabbed ahold of Nara's hand and ran down the hill towards the festival. "Lets go Nara, this seems like fun." I said with a firm grip on her hand. A blank stare was on her face, taking all this in must of been tough on her. *Sigh* "Why you sighing Rune? Come on, lets go have some fun." Ray told him, the two slowly followed behind us. Nara and I approached a small booth, inside were toys as well as balloons. "Five meseta for one ball!" The woman said. I looked around, dimwitted I did not know the woman was talking to me. "Five meseta little girl and you can win a prize." She said again.
Placing my hand through my coin purse I pulled out five meseta coins. The woman placed a ball down in front of me then turned and extended her arm towards the wall behind her. "Strike three of the five chirpers with one ball and win your prize." She said. It seemed easy enough, grabbing ahold of the ball I tightened my grip on it. "MISS!" The woman said. I couldn't believe it, I missed. Me out of all people missed some stupid wooden imitations of birds about 10 feet in front of me.
"Can I try Alys?" Nara asked me. I placed my hand back in my coin purse, revealing all I had was five meseta left. "Sure Nara, go for it" I said. Handing the woman the last bit of my money she re-handed us the ball. "Strike three of the five chirpers and win your prize" She said once again. Nara's focus went straight towards the chirpers ahead. "We have a winner!" The woman said as she rang a bell. Nara had struck down all five chirpers with one ball.
"Hey Alys! Nara!, You guys having fun?" Ray yelled as he ran up to us with a huge grin on his face. "We sure have, look even Nara won herself a stuffed musk-cat doll." I replied. Nara turned around, hugging the doll she had just won. "Wow, she must really like dolls." He said. Nara nodded, she seemed just like a little girl when it came to that doll. "I sure do ^_^, daddy use to always make dolls for me." She replied. Quickly and sneakingly I wrapped my arm around Rays neck and gave him a weird look.
"So just what were you and Rune up to?" He placed his hand on my arm and moved it off as I said that. *Ahem* "We were out gathering information on the person we're after." He replied. I could tell he was lying. "You were staring at those well endowed women over there weren't you Ray?" I remarked. His face turned beet red, his silent stare went into a scattered chuckle. "Hehehehe ehhh, Whatever ok, I split up with Rune and I can't seem to find him." He said.
Just at that moment there was a loud cheering noise coming from behind us. A large amount of people were gathered, we pushed our way through to see what all the commotion was about. "RUNE!" I yelled out. Rune, as well as four women dressed in dancers clothes were gathered in the center of the crowd, it seemed Rune may have been caught up in all the commotion but from what it appeared he was enjoying himself. He was laughing and dancing, clapping his hands and singing with the dancers he was with, it felt good to see Rune be like that.
"You seem to of been enjoying yourself." Ray asked Rune after the crowd scattered. *Ahem* "Not really, it was all to gather information, which I did in fact." Rune replied. We paused for a moment, then let out a heart filled laugh towards him. "Hey! I'm serious ok. *Well maybe I was enjoying myself a little.* I found out from the women I was with moments ago saw me head into the science and spacecraft lab moments ago. They found it strange that I had made it back so fast but then they decided not to even ask me how." He told us. Placing his hand on his chin he seemed concerned.
Was the night of the festival a sign that this would be our last good moment together before we came face to face with the man who looked like Rune. What awaited for us ahead, and what would the outcome be after all this was over. Would our journey continue on after all this was over? Or would we eventually go our seperate ways, never to speak again? I didn't want it to happen, but even so this is all I can do. We were still tired from our long journey to Nolt, but we couldn't rest now. So we marched through the crowd towards the lab. Towards our desiny.
