Riveildian tales

Once upon a blue moon (part 2)

The festival came with a merry air about it, music strummed through the air along with the smell of spices from various hot meals. While Amice stuffed her face with as much roasted meat she could lay her hands on and Thomas watched the mages excitedly as they put on a magical display of fire and ice, Oliver kept running the lines of the lunar maiden's poem through his head. He'd had no luck finding answers to the riddle since the day before, he had spent the previous night re-reading the lines of the poem hoping to find a hidden clue in it. Time and again, he muttered the words to himself;

"Every night I see it in all its forms. What exactly is it?" Oliver said to himself. One mage shot out a huge ball of fire from his wand into the air, the fiery ball twisted and stretched into narrow blaze that moved in a circular path.

"Oliver are you seeing this?!" Thomas squealed in excitement, another mage shot a blast of ice to the fire turning it into ice. The circle it formed was filled with a large ice crystal that was shaped like the moon. The moon sculpture spun at a high speed before exploding into little glittering icicles that came down like rain. The display was followed by a round of applause along with cheers and whistles. "Did you see that Oliver?" Thomas asked in excitement, he looked to Oliver and was shocked to see he was still immersed in his own thoughts. It was as though Oliver wasn't aware of anything happening around him. He stroked his chin as he continued to mutter to himself.

"He's at it again." Amice said as she wiped her hands on her blouse, "Nothing gets Olly's attention more than an unsolvable riddle."

"I haven't seen him like this since he tried to figure out who stole his lilynuts." Amice gave a low chuckle remembering how Oliver had caught her attempting to steal his lilynuts again,

"I still can't believe he set a trap for me in his satchel." She said, a small flicker lit up Oliver's blue eyes as an idea came to him.

"That's it!!" he exclaimed,

"Did you figure out the meaning of the poem?" Thomas asked,

"Not even close, However, Amice has provided another solution." Oliver said with a smile showing his excitement.

"I have?" Amice questioned, not sure of what he meant,

"We set traps." Thomas and Amice looked at him the same way they would old man Jake,

"Olly, she's a spirit." Amice said,

"Some consider her a goddess." Said Oliver,

"What does it matter?" Thomas exclaimed. Oliver took a step towards his friends and said,

"It does, you see as long as she has a physical form then she can set off a trap."

"Capturing the lunar maiden is a high feat, even for you Olly,"

"So we don't try to catch her, we just set a trap that would alert us." Oliver's enthusiasm was always his strongest influence on Amice and Thomas. Even now, when all they wanted now was to enjoy the festival, the two began to consider the idea of meeting the Lunar maiden.

"What kind of trap do you have in mind?" Thomas asked him, Oliver scratched his head for a while and then said;

"A simple one, I'll need you to gather as much rope as you can get. And you..." he said facing Amice, he pointed to a mast with a bunch of decorative bells tied to it. "I need as much of those bells as possible."

"And when do we set these traps?" Thomas asked, "The festival is said to go on till dawn tomorrow."

A little smile tugged on Oliver's lips, "that's what the plan usually is, but I was doing some reading and I learned that for one reason or another, everyone usually falls asleep an hour after the full blue moon is out."