I took her hand and dragged her to my dorm. There, I pulled out of a shopping bag a long, ankle-length dress with long sleeves. It was white and flowing, made of cotton, with embroidery of tiny red, green, pink and black flowers on the bodice and skirt. She gasped as she observed the dress, her green eyes widening.
I handed it to her before pulling out another item, a floral headband with red and white flowers, along with tiny leather sandals.
“Women wear their hair long and flowing for the festival, with floral crowns,” I said. “I thought these would look beautiful on you.”
“These are gorgeous, Ethan.” Emma stared at the dress, unable to take her eyes off of it. “You got them for me?”
“Well, I knew you wouldn’t have anything for the festival, so I thought I’d surprise you,” I said.” I wanted to make the festival as amazing as possible for her.
She could barely contain her excitement. “Hold on. I’ll get ready.” She headed into my bathroom to change. When she came out, it nearly took my breath away. Her red hair fell in soft waves under the floral headband, and the dress fit her perfectly, tucking in at her small waist and flowing around the curves of her body.
“Is everyone going to be dressed this way?” she asked. I noticed a bit of self-consciousness in her tone.
“Mostly,” I told her. “Come on. I don’t want you to miss a thing.”
Dolinska was bustling with activity when we arrived. The streets were packed with Marked and Companions, dressed in true Malovian fashion. The Marked wore dresses similar to Emma’s, while the Companions wore knee-high black leather boots, red embroidered shirts, and navy jackets with matching pants. Streamers and ribbons flowed through the air, along with confetti, and the smells of incense rose into the air. There was folk music everywhere— it sounded like the songs of the faeries as musicians played wooden flutes, goatskin bagpipes, fiddles, and large string instruments.
People were dancing to the sound in the streets, in their shifter and human forms. Companions that had opted to remain as animals wore harnesses made of woven flowers. Stages had been set up for dancing or band competitions, or even demonstrations. One Marked performed illusions for children with puppets, while a group of sorceresses nearby put on an air show with owls and hawks. Companions had a drinking contest nearby, while Marked awed the crowd by spinning wheels of fire and swallowing flaming torches. Acrobats, both Marked and Companion, did flips and tricks throughout the streets to an applauding crowd, while a heavy lifting contest took place near the vendors. Companions lifted huge logs and threw giant stones as high and far as they could, to massive cheers of the crowd. It looked like a very muscular dragon had won the contest, and he raised a fist in victory.
In the center of town, there was a jousting contest. Marked rode their Companions at each other with lances in full armor and tried to knock each other off. Once both were on the ground, the Marked and Companions both did battle, and fought each other with ancient swords.
There’d be something similar during the King’s Contest in December, but that would be an actual tournament, not for fun and show. People would get hurt.
I pushed the thought out of my mind. The King’s Contest was still months away. I didn’t want to bother myself with such worries today.
Emma was awed. She observed the archery contest near the jousting tournament with bright eyes and a wide smile. “Okay, you didn’t tell me it’d bethisawesome. This is incredible. It’s like stepping back in time to the Middle Ages.”
“Told you it was cool.” My eyes caught some familiar faces dancing in the town square near the music.
Odette had gone all out for the festival. She was wearing a headband made of different colored fall leaves, her white dress embroidered with orange and brown thread. She was laughing and spinning around with Theo in the middle of the square, who was dressed in a traditional way similar to Odette’s.
They hadmatching outfits.This was getting bad. Out of all people, why couldn’t Odette see that Theo’s heart was set on her?
Delmare wasn’t too far. It wasn’t any surprise that her dress was pure black. Even her headband had black roses on it. She looked like the queen of death. She was sitting cross-legged on a barrel and looking very cross, holding onto a mug of ale with an irritated expression. Stefan was right next to her, leaning on a brick wall and obviously flirting hardcore.
Odette caught Emma’s eye and squealed. She left Theo’s arms and hurried over to Emma, throwing her arms around her before clinging to me.
I leaned into the embrace. I’d learned that with Odette, you just accepted hugs.
“Emma! I’m so glad you could make it!” Odette sang. She eyed me up and down, and a huge grin split her face. “Sothisis the reason you didn’t want to come with us. You could’ve told us you had a date. I wouldn’t have minded.”
“No, it’s not like that,” Emma rushed to explain.
“Oh, hush, silly.” Odette giggled. “It’s no big thing. I hope you two enjoy the festival!”
Odette skipped off to rejoin the dancing circle. She fell into Theo’s arms, and raised up onto her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. He blushed so red it would make tomatoes jealous.
Stefan had moved onto flexing his muscles to try and show off. Delmare was ignoring him and staring at us. She cupped her hands around her lips and mouthed,Save me.
Emma laughed under her breath and said, “We should probably go and help her.”
“That’s all you,” I said. “Stefan doesn’t quit when he’s on the hunt.”
As we approached, I heard Stefan boasting loudly, “Yeah, I’d say the average dragon my age has killed around… I’d say…tenmonsters by now? But I’ve killed around thirty. They just see me and run, you know?”
He was totally bluffing. He’d killed five, three with my help. I wasn’t sure what happened with the other two. Probably got lucky, or sat on them or something.
“Anyway, I’m at the top of my class.” Stefan made an arrogant noise and cleared his throat. “Best at fighting, and all that.”
