EverRealm

Festival Fun

The village was alive with color and laughter, banners fluttering in the breeze as the scent of roasted nuts and sweet pastries filled the air. Stalls lined the cobblestone streets, offering trinkets, toys, and treats of every kind. The festival was in full swing, music drifting from a lively band playing near the town square.

The group, exhausted from their journey, welcomed the chance to rest and enjoy themselves.

Miri and Hook wandered off first, drawn toward a stall selling shimmering fabrics. Miri ran a hand over a bolt of deep blue silk. "My father would've called this frivolous," Miri murmured to Hook, her voice light but edged with an old, familiar tension. Hook chuckled, twirling his namesake hook. "Aye, but you wear it better than most." His grin softened as he picked up a delicate silver hairpin, offering it to her. "This one suits you." Miri hesitated before accepting, but something in his rough kindness made her smile.

Miri had just turned away from the fabric stall, the silver hairpin now tucked carefully into the folds of her cloak, when she caught it—movement in her periphery. Instinct made her glance toward the edge of the festival square, where the noise of the crowd thinned and the golden glow of lanterns flickered softly.

There, half-hidden by the crisscrossing shadows of banners, stood Elora and Cedric—close, too close. Cedric's usual scowl had slipped into something entirely different—wide-eyed, flustered, his mouth half-open in stunned silence. And Elora—Miri barely recognized her for a second. The elf's guarded posture had dissolved; she looked younger, freer, her forest-green eyes alight with mischief. Then, quick as a struck match, Elora curled her fingers into Cedric's robes and kissed him.

Not a shy peck. Not a hesitant brush of lips. A proper, *deliberate* kiss, the kind that left no room for misunderstanding.

Miri's own breath hitched, her fingers tightening reflexively around Hook's arm.

"Well," Hook murmured beside her, his voice warm with amusement. "That's one way to shut the man up."

Miri bit her lip to keep from laughing. Cedric's expression was nothing short of *precious*—like someone had shoved a live eel down his robes. His hands hovered awkwardly in the air before finally settling—very stiffly—on Elora's shoulders, as though he wasn't sure whether to push her away or pull her closer.

Then, as suddenly as she'd struck, Elora leaned back, grinning. Miri could almost *hear* the teasing in her voice even from this distance.

Hook chuckled, nudging Miri with his hook, gently. "Thought those two'd never stop circling each other."

Miri exhaled, shaking her head fondly. "Good for them."

Hook's smirk softened into something quieter. "Aye. Takes one to know one."

She elbowed him, but a reluctant smile tugged at her lips all the same. The fireworks chose that moment to erupt above them, painting the sky in a shower of sparks, and Miri couldn't help but look back—just in time to see Elora lean in again, slower this time, her hand lingering on Cedric's cheek.

Something warm settled in Miri's chest. It was nice, seeing someone else get their moment of lightness in all this mess.

Then Hook cleared his throat pointedly, steering her toward a nearby sweets stall. "Come on, love. Let's leave 'em to it."

Miri laughed, letting him lead her away—though not without one last glance over her shoulder.

*About time.*

---

Meanwhile, Sofia and her father, Birk, found themselves at a puppet show, the wooden figures twirling on strings as they acted out an old fable—*The Brave Tailor and the Giants*, a tale Sofia had loved as a child. A gust of wind made the puppeteer's painted backdrop flutter, the giant's papier-mâché head wobbling comically. Birk chuckled as Sofia clapped along, her eyes bright with nostalgia.