Avarein: Vant

Chapter 27: Photo

"You there! Yes, you! Would you like a picture?"

"A picture?"

Morma was the first to turn around, with a childish glee to her words that was as contagious as a plague, but as sweet as candy. Behind her she dragged an equally excitable Vant by his hand, pointing towards the old man who held a strange looking contraption around his neck.

"A very unique picture, young one. My style is one of a kind!"

The old man was well groomed, his beard cleanly trimmed and his clothes making him look surprisingly snappy. It was easy to tell he was well off, although it was strange to see a man like that at such a small festival in such a small village. Especially so for the annual moon festival; most who could afford it would visit the capitol or a city to enjoy the much bigger celebration there.

"What sort of picture is that?"

Even Vant had a sense of niggling suspicion, although it would be a lie to say it wasn't also part harmless curiosity. He seemed like a nice but interesting old man; what was the harm in asking a few questions?

"It's with this little artefact right here. Using this bad boy, I can make you the more realistic pictures possible within a few moments. Just pose however you'd like and let the artefact do its work."

Seeing Vant's face of hesitation, the old man quickly spoke again.

"I press the button and you get the picture. Two silver each."

"Alright, give me five of those."

Vant fumbled in his pocket and dropped a gold coin into the cupped hand of the old man. The man picked up his artefact, holding it in a way where it was wider vertically than horizontally, looking through the artefact and moving to the side slightly. Once he was satisfied with his position,he signalled for one of them to walk in front of him. Vant softly pushed Morma towards the range of the lens, leaving her to be the first to get her picture taken.

"Guys, don't run ahead so far."

"Sorry!"

Fiara finally caught up to the two, although she didn't seem particularly puffed or tired, unlike Carte and Greva who trailed behind her. Carte silently grumbled about the arbitrary no magic rule applied to him for the day, but decided against airing his grievances towards both Fiara and Morma. Greva still wasn't used to longer distance running, her stamina just giving out as they came close. The three of them weren't quite sure what to make of the martial arts master-esque pose Morma was making, but they would get to see the permanent rendition a moment later when the old man handed them the piece of glossy paper that the machine had spit out. Vant moved forward while the rest of them admired the picture, inspecting it from every side.

"It really is realistic."

"Well, it is a camera."

"How did you know it was called a camera?"

The old man handed them their second photo, this one of Vant posing stoically over a somewhat messy looking blade of ice. He carefully inspected Fiara, but a moment later he shaking his head and went back to his normal goofy smile.

"That was what the wanderer called it when he gave it to me. That isn't the official name though, so I'm pretty surprised."

"Wait, the wanderer gave your artefact to you?"

"Well, yes. Would you like to hear the story?"

"Indeed I would."

Carte already has his notebook out, ready to transcribe the story of the council's most mysterious member onto the paper. Fiara quietly moved in next, deciding to play it safe with a peace pose.

"Well, it happened in my lowest moment. My wife left me, my eldest child outright said she hated me and I went from promising soldier and noble husband to homeless. I was wandering around in the Iarna gardens, wondering what in the world I would do. I was stuck on a massive piece of dirt floating in the sky, with nobody on my side. That's when the wanderer appeared before me, sliding up from behind a hedge."

The old man paused for a moment and closed one of his eyes, snapping the picture, before continuing on as he handed it to them once again.

"He gave me my partner right here. Who's next?"

Carte nodded and moved forward, still taking notes. As soon as he finished, he froze in place for a few seconds, giving the old man enough time to take a picture. His held up his journal in his pose and his glasses made it difficult to make out his face, although nobody could tell if it was intentional or not.

"You want me to keep going?"

"I would love that."

"From then on, I sold pictures to nobles at an absurd price. It was easy and it got me money, but I didn't exactly feel happy. It wasn't like there was any real effort in what I was doing... and hiring bodyguards to protect me and my home from thieves didn't feel so great either."

He handed Carte's picture to the group once more and smiled at Greva, who also smiled back nervously. She swiftly made her way to the same spot and pulled out her dagger, beginning to spin it in her hand.

"I ended up moving out to the sticks to get away from it all. I charge enough to get by and the right amount for the amount of amusement people get."

He snapped his camera a final time and Greva almost immediately rushed over, nervously looking at the old man.

"Did it come out alright?"

"Perfect, dear."

Judging from her reaction, he was right. Greva smiled softly and took the photo, showing it off to everyone before handing it to Vant, who she and the rest of the group had mutually decided should hold all of the photos. Just as they prepared to leave, the old man tapped Fiara on the shoulder, still holding his camera.

"Would you like a group picture? It's on the house."

Fiara wasn't the first to react despite the physical contact, with Morma turning and almost jumping from excitement.

"You can do more than one person at a time?"

"Well... yes. The artefact does all the heavy lifting."

The old man stepped back and signalled for the group to move in closer together, around Morma. Vant ended up behind her, acting as some sort of contraption for her to hang off of while Greva stood to his left, contemplating on whether or not to scold Morma. Carte stood to his right and put his notebook away into his vest pocket while Fiara stood to Carte's right, silently mouthing a 'thank you' to the old man.

"Three, two, one... smile!"

The picture was one of his personal favourites and he was a little sad to see it go, but the old man knew that it was better off in their hands. That moment belonged with that group, not him. Once they collected the picture and gave their blessings, he decided to watch them leave instead of immediately finding the next customer. Perhaps if things had gone a little different, he could be like them...

"Umm..."

Morma had snuck away from the rest of the group, back to the same spot where they had taken the photo a minute before. She smiled wholeheartedly, although the old man wasn't quite sure over what.

"If you're charging based on how much happiness you bring, you should really up your prices!"

Before he could react, she was gone, running off to her group to do who knows what. It took him a few additional moments to process, but when he did, it gave him a good chuckle, something he hadn't had in a long time.

Perhaps he should go meet his daughter.