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“I can’t waitfor the festival. We didn’t go last year, and I missed the fun we had there the year before.” Cian had been talking up the trip the whole week after Tharon told them about it.
“As much as I have enjoyed living vicariously through you two this week, I am going to enjoy this festival more for myself. Of course, I will enjoy seeing you two have fun as well.” Mia was enjoying the trip to the festival grounds, and she was looking forward to the new experience.
“I have heard a bit about the festivals that you Earthlings celebrate, and I hope you are prepared to have fun a bit differently than what you are used to.” Tharon had explained some of the celebrations for this weekend, but he still wasn’t sure if Mia was thoroughly prepared for the difference.
He watched her expression as they arrived, and she saw the floating apparatuses with stairs that led up to them. He saw the wonder in her eyes as they watched the fireworks that evening from their own hovering platform. He moved closer to her on the front landing. “Are you enjoying your time here so far?”
“Are you kidding me? This place is amazing. I was preparing for the worst, but this is fantastic. I never even imagined a cabin or a tent floating in the air.”
“How else could you get so many sleeping accommodations in one small area?”
“That’s another thing. This tent, as you call it, it's huge on the inside. It’s like magic, and it looks so much smaller on the outside.”
“I had heard that the Earthlings have smaller accommodations, but I was not sure until now. These fireworks are just the start of this celebration. I hope you are ready for the games that we will be playing tomorrow.”
“We had fireworks back on Earth, but these are so theatrical. I have never seen a firework that can split into little worms and fly through the sky like that.”
The following morning, they all gathered outside their sleeping quarters to walk to the midway of the festival. They spent the morning eating popcorn strings and elephant ears, but not the kind of popcorn or elephant ears that Mia had before. The popcorn was made of gigantic pieces of corn, and the elephant ears looked like literal gray ears from an elephant.
The midway games were another surprise to Mia. She watched as the children threw axes at clown masks and shot laser guns at large bouncing balls. When they managed to hit a ball, it exploded into a cloud of green smoke. They sat for a show which featured comical bats and giant mice in the afternoon.
Tharon enjoyed observing the children and Mia as they watched the show. He loved seeing Mia laugh as the children blinked green smoke out of their eyes during the midway games. He and Mia walked hand in hand on the way back to the sleeping quarters that evening while Cian and Triat ran alongside them, throwing little bean bags at each other.
“You looked happy today and seemed to enjoy yourself while the children played games. I thought some of the games would be too much of a shock for you.”
“They were different. Most of our midway games back on Earth consist of throwing a dart at a barely inflated balloon or trying to make a large ball land in a small basket.”
“Wow, they really expect people to win at those games? That sounds crazy.”
“I don’t think the game makers' intentions are for players to win. At least here, it seems like the games are designed for the players to have a chance.”
“I guess it’s only barbaric if the games are designed for the purposes of torture.”
“Honestly … the way you talked it up, I thought that’s what I was going to be walking into today. I was a little apprehensive, thinking that the games would be created in a way that involved torturing someone who was tied to a pole or something. I was pleasantly surprised to see the most concerning part was when they gave children axes and laser weapons.”
He chuckled at the thought of the games being more barbaric than they were already. “I guess to think of someone being tied to a pole and tortured would mean that our games are less worrisome.”
Their dinner flew up on a drone just as they got back to their sleeping quarters. Even though the cuisine here was different from what Mia was used to, it was all becoming so familiar. Their dinner that evening was nothing more than a burger with fries. Granted, the burger was made of a type of meat she had to grow accustomed to, and the fries were more like seaweed.
After dinner, they spent the rest of the evening playing with the bean bags Cian and Triat had won from the midway games. The children taught her a game they liked to play involving trying to levitate the bags in the air and not letting them hit the ground.
Halfway through the game, the children threw in some rules about using their minds to keep the bags in the air. This was not something she was going to be able to master, but Tharon seemed to be an ace at the game.
He beckoned her outside when it seemed like the children were occupied trying to beat each other at their own game. He stood next to her with his arms wrapped around her while they watched the sun disappear for the evening. “The sunset here is so different from back on Earth.”
“How so?” Tharon had never been to Earth but wanted to hear as much as he could about it from Mia.
“For one thing, we only have one moon.” She watched the two moons rise as the sun was setting. “For another, our sun is yellow and round.”
“That is different from our sun with its oblong shape and purplish haze. Do you miss the sunset back on Earth?”
“Sometimes … but I am growing to enjoy the culture and my time here so much that it is becoming easier every day to let go of the things I miss from Earth.”
SIXTEEN
THARON
Tharon headed to his office after arriving home from the celebrations. His lighthearted feeling after enjoying his time with his children and Mia did not last long after seeing he had a message from his head security officer.
