My Dream

🦁 Gwen's Face-paint Booth

Gwen awoke the next morning by herself. "What happened to the motivation he had before becoming king..." She wondered aloud.

"Hey... get up." A voice told her.

Gwen shrieked and shot upright to see Jack. "Oh golly... w-what are you doing in my bedroom!?" She looked out the window to see that it still looked dark outside.

"Yeah, why are you in our dorm?" Grim asked.

"I came during my morning run." Jack explained. "Today's the magical shift tournament. I couldn't let you oversleep."

"Ah! That's right!" Grim shot out of bed. "We gotta catch the culprit so Ramshackle Dorm can get our prize, entry into the tournament."

"I'm nervous." Gwen admitted, getting out of the bed. "But still... let's do this!"

"Hmm... see you at the stadium." Jack crossed his arms. "Don't you dare go back to sleep."

"Hey Jack." Gwen called as he was leaving. "You need to knock. What if I had already been awake and changing?"

Jack said nothing, but by the way his ears and tail stiffened, Gwen could guess he was flustered at the thought.

***

For now, all Gwen could do was wait. Luckily, her face-paint booth was set up, so she could distract herself by painting on people's faces. Grim munched on tuna cans besides her.

"Ooh! Face paint!" An excited voice cried. Gwen looked up from organizing her paint bottles to see an adorable little boy with lion ears and a tail.

Gwen grinned. "Yep. Would you like your face painted?"

"Yep!" The boy hurriedly climbed into the chair.

"Cheka! Hold on!" A woman closely resembling the boy walked over. "Sorry about that, he's very excited."

"It's no problem!" Gwen assured her. She turned to Cheka. "What would you like on your face?"

"I want a lion like Oji-tan!" Cheka said.

The woman pulled out her phone. "Hmm... I think I have a photo of it somewhere... ah, here!" The woman showed Gwen a very familiar looking tattoo.

"Huh. I think I've seen that before..." Gwen said. "No problem, I can do it!"

Within a few minutes it was done. Gwen held up the mirror for Cheka to see. "What do you think?"

"It's perfect! Oji-tan and I match now! Thank you!"

"You're welcome!" Gwen smiled.

Cheka's mother smiled and paid Gwen before taking her son's hand. "C'mon Cheka, we can go show your father and your uncle."

After they left, Gwen received another customer, who was a robot. "Huh?" Gwen blinked at the sight.

"Oh, a face paint booth! My brother told me there was going to be one." The little robot said.

"Yep! Would you like your face painted?"

"Hmm. That might be a little hard since I'm mostly metal..." The robot pondered this predicament.

"Well... would it be okay if I painted on the metal?" Gwen suggested.

"That would be perfect! My brother can wash it off easily too." The robot sat in the seat. "Can I have a little robot?"