Flower Parade II

Kies waited silently outside the mansion gates for Nina. He was dressed in a gray shirt made out of some sort of exotic material with the Trevan family's insignia stitched onto it, a pair of blue pants, and a watch that was just recently invented. All noble families, although not required, wear the best clothes that they can find since it would represent their family for the Flower Parade. It was an unsaid rule, and it was considered embarrassing to wear something casual to the parade.

Although the uniform was in fact, very comfortable, Kies did not like wearing it. He would rather have worn his usual clothes. He looked up at the clouds to kill time as he waited for Nina to come out. There weren't many and the weather was fair, making today the perfect day to hold the festival.

A few minutes pass and Nina comes out from the mansion and made Kies' jaw drop, and not in a good way. As Nina walked toward the gate, Kies couldn't help but think how ridiculous she looked. She was wearing a dress and had on what looked like about 15 different kinds of jewelry. The dress by itself would have probably looked great, and maybe one of two pieces of jewelry would have made it even better, but Kies couldn't comprehend why she was wearing so many. She was practically a ball of shining lights.

Nina walked up to Kies and asked, "How do I look?"

Kies was stunned. The only thing that he could say was, "Are you serious?"

"Do I look that bad?" Nina pouted. In reality, she already knew that she probably looked ridiculous but it was something her mother forced on her. She couldn't do anything about it.

Kies sighed and shook his head. "Are your parents coming?" he asked.

"No. Mom's not feeling well and dad is at the Silver Halls. I think he is doing something important."

After exchanging a few more words, Kies learned that they were going to the Flower Parade by themselves. Almost all of the guards and servants at the mansion have taken the rest of the day off for the parade. The few that were left were doing work at the mansion.

"We should get going." Nina reminded Kies that the festival was starting soon and pointed to Kies's watch. He took a glance at it but had no idea how to read it. It was a rather new invention and he didn't know how it worked. The only thing that he understood was that it was somehow supposed to tell them what time of the day it was. They had a grandfather clock inside the mansion which was a lot easier to read since it only had two hands. The watch had three and Kies couldn't figure out what fast one represented. If he were to go with just what he knew from that then the watch displayed 11:58.

"Come on," Nina said as she took Kies's hand. She was as hesitant to go to the festival as Kies since she looked like a ball of jewelry, but she wanted to have fun at the festival. After all, it might be the last one. There has been talk of this Flower Parade being the last because of the war. The annual festivals take up too much resources and they might need to cancel it because the war against the kingdom of Otane is showing no sign of stopping.

***

In the ruins of what looks like a city, lies a half-broken tower. On top of the tower, two figures are talking.

"You found him?" the cloaked figure asked again for confirmation.

The spirit murmured something in an indecipherable to the cloaked figure to which he nodded in satisfaction.

"Where is he?" the cloaked figure asked.

The spirit murmured something else to the cloaked figure.

The cloaked figure nodded again and then asked, "When can he get here." The cloaked figure was in a rush. He needed him here as quickly as possible.

The spirit murmured something else in the strange language which caused the cloaked figure to scowl.

"Are you sure about this?" they asked.

The spirit nods in confirmation and then says something else to the cloaked figure.

The cloaked figure lets out a curse and pauses for a second to decide on what to do before ordering the spirit, "Gather the rest of the spirits and tell them to go to Silverfield as fast as possible." The cloaked figure pauses again then continues. "Keep him safe."

The spirit, after hearing those words, flew off into the distance, leaving the cloaked figure alone at the broken tower.

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