PHOENIX

Chapter Thirty: The Festival

Finally. Festival day.

I could barely sleep the night before, both the excitement keeping me up, and the little interaction I had with Dream. I had never really touched Dream before, at least not while being conscious. God that sounds horrible, but it makes sense in context. It was strange, because it had caught me so off guard, but at the same time it felt...nice? Comfortable? Right. It felt right.

But I had more important things to think about than the festival, or my confusing feelings. Those things being Niki and my plans.

I got up early and immediately left for Niki's house, balancing my dress and everything else I need in a bag over my shoulder while riding my horse to her house. Thankfully Niki's cave was on the border of L'Manberg, and it was early enough for not many people to be outside, otherwise I would've gotten caught.

Sneaking into L'Manberg wasn't only physically scary, but mentally screwed with me a little. I never thought that I would be coming back to my own home in secret. But here I was, starting to understand the way Eret must've felt while sneaking into L'Manberg to see Niki; like going to a family reunion that you weren't even invited to. That kind of feeling.

The moment I saw Niki, tears rolled down my cheeks. I missed my friends more than I had thought.

"Nix! Are you alright?" Niki asked right away, concern all over her face.

"I'm...I'm so happy to see you" I sniffed, really badly wanting a Niki hug.

"Aww, me t-too" Niki started to cry along with me, both of us a mess.

We stood inside the entrance to her cave for a couple minutes, just sobbing and hugging each other. I hadn't felt that kind of bittersweet happiness in a while, and it felt good to cry.

Eventually we started laughing and smiling instead of crying, that was until Niki brought out the tray of her signature cookies, and upon tasting them I broke down again. It tasted like home.

The day was spent catching up with each other and going over the plans for today, making sure it couldn't possibly go wrong.

First, we would arrive at the festival and figure out how many people were there and who they were. We would have help from the decent sized group of L'Manbergians who Niki has gathered up to help us. It was only citizens we could trust completely to go against Schlatt no matter what.
Some of the citizens would stay back in L'Manberg and try to figure out where Wilbur had the tnt, while the other half would spread out in the castle and keep watch on what was going on. The latter group would alert any of us if they believed something wasn't quite right. Niki was supposed to be catering the event, but was also on Wilbur watch, keeping a special eye out for him. I, on the other hand, was supposed to be on distraction duty. Aka; Schlatt distraction duty. Hopefully, my sudden appearance at the ball will distract him for most of the night. Last I heard, Wilbur was going to be setting off the tnt at the end of the festival, so that when everyone returns home, L'Manberg will be gone. Going off of that, we know two things. One, most of the L'Manbergians won't be there for the explosion, and two, we have about four hours to find, disarm, and get rid of the tnt. No pressure.

"I can't believe we're doing this" Niki mumbled, the tea cup in her hand shaking slightly.

"We'll be saving a lot of lives tonight. That's what has been keeping me going. No matter how nervous I am, I need to do this for my home" I reply, putting on a brave face for both Niki and myself. We both need it.

"Oh! Look at the time, we need to start getting ready" Niki jumped up, somehow gracefully even with a teacup in her hand.

We both put on our dresses and agreed to do each other's hair and makeup for the night.