Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was that time of year again, Lore had forgotten the year previous, but with his courtship and the library that was easy to do. He came home early for this reason, he nearly forgot again this year, but Umi had reminded him.

The Kitsune Festival would be starting today, and it was to date one of the most interesting and bizarre festivals ever held in Gaia. Not because they did very odd things (depending whom you asked), but rather the kitsune were tricksters by nature and their trade were illusions. He set his bag down before going off to look for Elnara.

"Elnara?" Lore called out.

When Lore thought about it, he had wished he had remembered last year to take her, but at least he remembered this year. Which was why he had asked Elnara if she wanted to go to a festival tonight. It was... fun to surprise her every once in a while.

Lore could hear the conversation as he went upstairs. there were slight advantages to having above hearing (sometimes he had to wonder though when he lived in the city). Popping his head in he chuckled at the sight, it was a good thing Donovan had suddenly up and decided to put in a telephone system in every house.

The man had been muttering about contacting others.

Stepping into the room he placed a hand on Storm's shoulder, they hadn't managed to figure out the change in Storm, and while one could write it off as a growth, this had been occurring long before he became a teenager.

"Is there anything you two would like us to bring back?"

It's a festival, he expected they would need a rune bag, who knew what was going to happen there.

No matter how long he would read up on child studies, Lore decided if there was anything no one ever covered were the simple things. Like why babies liked to build things up only so they could knock it down. He sighed a bit realizing that Storm had not answered to him at all.

"Especially if we play the games, I'm sure we'll come back with something," Lore assured Starr.

No one could lose at their games, but there was no promise you'd get what you were aiming for.

"We'll see you both later," he murmured squeezing Storm's shoulder reassuringly before going over to take Elnara's hand.

The Kitsune Festival was called such because it was during this one time of the year where the Kitsune people would set up a fair right in the middle of Gaia's largest trading hub. It would appear like magic out of nowhere the moment the sun was starting to set. The streets which had always been a mix of races were suddenly filled with people with fox ears and tails, manning the stalls and browsing them. Some had wings, some did not, others had horns and while the ones manning the stalls would have only fox ears and tail, the ones browsing would have two sets of ears, the fox ones and another one.

Kitsunes after all were best known for being tricksters and masters of illusions. Careful what you eat there, lest you find yourself with temporary fox ears and a tail for the rest of the night.

The lights were floating fires that did not burn when touch and more lights were strung up on strings but they didn't look like the typical eletric lights. There was a tea house for those who wanted to experience a calm time of tea, games, trinkets and of course a food stand or two.

Very normal, if it didn't seem so surreal, at the same time. The normal modern Gaian city had been transformed for that night into an old fashion Japanese town.

Lore chuckled at this as he led Elnara along, it was good to get her out and see what other oddities Gaia had to offer, and he wasn't going to deny it. After spending a year in the Borderlands, learning about her world in the Southland he had come to the conclusion that Gaia was down right odd. It was a mixture of contradictions, it had the best and worse that any world could offer and in truth nothing in Gaia was limited, unless you had a limited imagination of course.

He stopped at the ticket booth to pay for gaming tickets, entrance was free they made money off of the food, the trinkets and of course the games of chance. People always won something of course, but you could win a lot of cheap stuff all the while wasting gold on trying to get the good stuff. Entertainment was free.

This was how the Kitsune were smart merchants they purposely put rare and expensive prizes in their gaming booths but the chances of winning those were tiny, it was like the carrot at the end of a stick.

"Where you would like to go first?" he inquired of her, "There is entertainment by the glade, their games, their booths, their food or tea house."

Leading Elnara to the glade Lore had to think about it, even though this wasn't his first time here, it never failed to interest him, because of course it would break a Kitsune's heart to know their tricks were boring.

"Hmm... certainly music, probably dancing.... definely some sort of illusion show," Lore murmured.

For those who weren't use to it, seeing a perfect glade of trees that look like they have been there for centuries in the heart of a city was strange. Yet there was, the lights he noted this year looked to be like glowing fruit, and knowing these foxes they were probably edible.

He wouldn't want to eat them though, for all he knew they would make him glow. In the centre were a trio of women kitsune's in old fashion flowing kimonos. One was holding the a flute, the other a zither and the last some sort of single string instrument, it was small and the name of it escaped him at the moment.

Lore grinned leading Elnara over to what seemed to be tree trunks but they were heavily padded with soft moss and part of the bark was attached to make it seem like there was a back to them.

"Every year the kitsune hold a festival, it allows them to go full out excerising their imaginations and to an extent their mischievious nature," Lore explained, "But it also reminds everyone how saterated in magic we are. Despite the fact that the family uses magic, studies magic and teaches magic, quite frankly we're not that common. Most magic users pass through the city, not settle down, the most settled magic users are the large families who have been here for generations already."

He laughed a bit.

"For a world, or rather a city where science and technology rules most aspects of life, it is to remind us not everything is what it seems or can be explained."