They walked slowly around the fair and waited for evening to come before they finally headed to the stage where the beauty contest would be held. The stage wasn't that large, but given the space provided it was as big as they could make it. Twinkling lights were draped along the edges and across the air giving their surroundings a magical look.
Finally, Gordy stepped out onto the stage and announced the start of the competition. He was the Wiseman of Centaline, which meant he ran the Village, and made the important political or economic decisions that came up. Plus, he was usually invited to different get togethers with the other seven men who were in charge of The Eight.
They watched as a judges table was set with three places and those three spots were filled with the chosen villagers that were nominated for the job. Sir Calvin Hammelton was the first Aeryn recognized and was immediately relieved that she hadn't entered. He was Centaline Village's Sculptor and regarded himself as the best around. His work was beautiful, and even Aeryn had to admit that he was probably the richest in the village for it, but everyone knew of his pickiness and he mostly only cared about proportions. She suddenly felt pity for the girls in the contest, it would be very hard to please him.
The second judge was Mrs. Maybelle Pinelly, of course one of them needed to be a woman themselves. And everyone seemed content with her being chosen, she was, after all, the most beautiful lady in the village, and it was only right for her to have a say if beauty was the subject. The last judge came as a shock to her however.
"Why is the Blacksmith one of the judges?" Jonathon voiced her question with a raise of his eyebrow.
She shook her head and shrugged. Hammock the Blacksmith seemed a strange choice to her also, he had never shown any interest in any festival before. It didn't take her long to realize that others from their village in the crowd were also surprised to see him sitting at the table. His presence didn't strike her that much, on the account that even though Hammock was a young Blacksmith and worked with metal his whole life, he was very handsome, and she could see that the other girls were noticing the fact also.
"Maybe they want some different views this year," Aeryn tried to make sense of it.
"Maybe," Jonathon agreed slowly as his next words halted as they were pulled into the start of the competition.
All of the girls walked onto the stage in a straight line, showing off their first dress. Aeryn and Jonathon watched as some of the woman became familiar to them, but there were also girls from the other villages, ages from fifteen to twenty-five. They were all poised, standing tall to show off their bodies and faces, smiling when given the chance, flipping their hair and winking at the judges and the crowd whenever they could manage it.
However, this was only the first round and in a swirl of colors the judges picked the ones that would be going on to the second round that would be held the next day. Aeryn was well aware of the fact that she wasn't going to like the first day of the competition, but she sat through the eliminations anyways, she always had to know who had made it and who she would root for from there.
____________________________________________________________
The first day of Shican quickly came to a close as people started back home. The music died down and what was left were the voices of the people, talking excitedly about what the next day held for them and how the competition would pick up right where it left off. There were only a handful of villagers out now, mostly consisting of the ones in charge of the festival and who were picking up trash and fixing the lights.
Aeryn was making her way back over to the trail that would lead her home, all the while humming to herself softly. It had been a very nice day, different from the ones that she usually spent exploring the forest or hanging out at the waterfall. Tomorrow she would go back to her shorts and t-shirts, and she missed her sneakers greatly. She wondered how the other girls could go for hours wearing skirts and dresses and being unable to do anything but sit and look pretty.
Jonathon had been called away by Mr. Grunger, who needed his help to unload a large shipment of boxes that he ordered from Gerview Village, which was probably just new glass supplies, one of Gerview's specialties. He owned the Centaline Village Inn and Jonathon was always expected to help out around the place, which he did a lot because Mr. Grunger usually denied needing any kind of outside help. Jonathon couldn't say no to this even if he wanted to because even though Mr. Grunger wasn't a relative, he took him in as one of his own.
Her eyes followed as a fire bug zipped by and all but disappeared into a nearby bush, the only thing letting her know that it was still there was the faint light that it gave off. As she passed the spot she was no longer looking at what was in front of her and collided with another person. She stumbled but quickly caught herself and backed away a step, looking up with an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry, I-" But she cut off when all she saw was a dark hood pulled low to cast the person's face into darkness. "I wasn't looking where I was going." She finished slowly.
The figure was draped in a black cloak that covered any signs that she could have used to determine if the person was male or female. It was taller than her, and she had to look up and squint to see if she could make out any facial features. When she realized she couldn't the fact that it hadn't moved made her take a cautious step back. She knew that the stranger was watching her, and she had determined that it was indeed a person from the slight rise and fall of its chest, but the immobility of it sent an uneasy chill up her spine.
"Okay, I'll be going now," She sidestepped quickly and bowed her head politely before setting a brisk pace and walking away from it.
She looked back only once, just to check if it wasn't following her, and almost tripped over her own foot when she couldn't find the hooded figure anywhere. Her eyes scanned the trees surrounding her for any movement and she sighed with relief when nothing moved. She shook her head and shook off the encounter before turning onto her trail and following it home.
