The long maned ulaya god padded his way slowly through the crowded courtyard of the solstice festival, his fur glistening with the glow of the moonlight casting down on the earth. The evening's events were bustling with noises and scents that were all new to him for he lived deep in the mountains where he was as far away from anyone as possible. But this event seemed more promising than the other solstice celebrations, this year he caught wind of a rare item that was being sold at one of the vender tents. An old artifact from a very old sand village he visited a few years back, before the great war had destroyed it's utmost beauty and reduced it to rubble. Sniffing the air the smell of carnival food was very prominent and covered any other scents with which he might be searching for. Turning an ear back the large god released a slow sigh for he wasn't sure exactly where this item was to be sold at but he was determined to find it and barter it away from it's current owner. He knew that any item could be bought over with the right price, he just had to figure out what that price was.
Coming from around a corner, Victon paused at the sight of a blue and white tent set up next to a food booth and immediately he recognized this was where he would find the item in question he had traveled so far to see. Narrowing his eyes on the contents within it's plastic room, the brown and cream god glazed his vision over each and every trinket, most of which were actually just pieces of trash dressed up to look presentable enough to sell for a pretty penny. Clearly this vender was a con artist so perhaps he wouldn't recognize a real valuable item it if bit him in the maw. Snorting in frustration with not being able to see the one thing he cared to walk among the mortals that night for, Victon rolled his eyes at the ridiculous stuff the ulaya was trying to sell people.
"Oh this one is going to be hard to let go." He heard the vender say to a young ulaya who was just old enough to be considered an adult.
"I really would like this for my love." the customer replied, worried he wouldn't have enough to afford the seemingly lovely necklace for an ulaya he was trying to court.
"Well, I'll make you a deal." the con artist replied.
"You give me that old pelt you have there and I'll give you this priceless trinket for you lady friend." Victon watched on silently, he knew the trade was far too one sided in the vender's favor, for the necklace he was trading was merely costume jewelry, but he didn't want to upset the ulaya before trying to con an item himself.
"Well, I guess so. I really want to get this for her." They exchanged items, the long thick flowing pelt for a piece of painted plastic hardly seemed like a fair trade.
"You're killing me but I'm sure I'll find some use for this pelt." the vender had a casual demeanour as he swindled the worthy item from his un expecting customer. Scoffing at the rude and inexperienced ulaya, Victon stepped away from the booth and began searching the ground around the play area, seemingly for something but at the same time nothing in particular. Flicking some dirt aside he uncovered a stone. Not just any stone a useless, dirt covered, ordinary boring stone. Giving a smirk, the god placed it in his pouch and made his way back to the cocky vender to swindle his own prize for nothing. Seeing that the ulaya was busy trying to talk another uneven trade with yet another unsuspecting buyer, Victon took this time to interrupt him from his current conversation.
"Excuse me, I'm trying to find something I heard you might have to trade here at your booth." the maned ulaya said as casual as the other ulaya had been with his potential buyers.
"Oh really? Well I'm sure you'll be able to find it here, I have many wonderful items that have been collected from reigns all over the world. What, may I ask, are you looking for in particular?" The ulaya was obviously excited to hear that someone may have come to the festival just to see his collection of useless items.
"I'm looking for a tablet which is said to be made of sandstone and carved with the most delicate of precision that only a master craftsman could have made it. Do you have anything like that?" He wasn't going to settle for anything but the one thing he had come to see.
"Hmm, I will have to see what I can find here." The black and gold ulaya pretended to sift through a large bag of items, clearly putting on a show for the potential customer before pulling out the tablet and placing it on the table before Victon.
Unbeknownst to the hoarding god, Kitsuaki was at the same festival celebrating the change of the seasons. The spirit god had come to actually enjoy the sights and events but as soon as he saw the enormous Victon sitting at a vender tent he had to go see what he was up to. Upon approaching the booth, Kitsu could finally hear what Victon was saying and realized his acquaintance was trying to collect yet another item for his collection. Silently placing himself next to Victon, Kitsu exchanged glances with him before the brown god returned his attention to the mortal ulaya standing before them.
"What were you hoping to get for it?" He wasn't going to dance around the ulaya's normal mind games he had been playing on his other customers, the god knew what he wanted and was leaving with it for as little as he possibly could offer. Knowing Victon had come all the way to the celebration just for this item he had, the ulaya was going to try his hardest to get as much as possible for an item he didn't fully understand to begin with.
"Well, it is practically priceless so I'm not even sure if you can offer anything of such value worth considering a trade for." Victon knew all of the lines this ulaya was going to toss at him, for he used them himself all the time. The only difference between the two of them is that the god knew how to use them better.
Looking over at Kitsu who was watching intently, Victon reached down and retrieved his pouch out from it's hiding spot within his thick, course mane. Pulling a string he opened the leather bag and dumped it's contents upon the table between him and his trading foe. The ulaya's eyes widened with all of the amazing things he saw which had fallen from the small sack the brown god had been carrying. Shimmering diamonds and emeralds radiated, casting colorful lights to reflect off from items which were cluttering the surface surrounding Victon's collection.
"Does anything here please your eyes?" Kitsuaki, admiring the sapphires himself, was trying hard to figure out his companion's intentions for he knew Victon better than this and couldn't not understand why he would offer items of actual value for something that, to him, seemed worthless as well. Unable to speak for a moment or two, the ulaya regained his composure and pointed to a rather large gemstone which seemed to glow with every color of the rainbow.
"That one looks very interesting." He tried hard not to look so interested but found that it was extremely difficult for his normal crowd was usually offering items worth far less than what this ulaya's offerings that seemed to fit in just one of his paws.
"Are you sure you want that one?" Victon had a sly tone to his voice that Kitsuaki recognized all too well.
'Here it comes' The spirit god thought to himself as he proceeded to watch the happenings unfold before them. By this time the unsuspecting ulaya had no idea what to say for be didn't actually know the value of anything that was just put down before him, all he knew is that he recognized only a couple of the and that's it.
Well ... what would you suggest as an offering?" He wanted to see what the horned ulaya would consider an even trade was.
Contemplating his collection for a few minutes, Victon reached his paw out and picked up the stone he had recently found on the ground around the corner and held it up to the light.
"If you ask me," he began
"this would be the most valuable of them all." He looked at the ulaya before him who was in shock from the selection the god had made.
"Honestly, the others are fish bowl stones compared to this one." He placed it back down on the table for the ulaya to admire it before speaking back to the Victon's words.
"I hardly doubt this common stone is worth as much as this ruby. Perhaps I'll just take this off your hands and call it even?" He reached out for the red stone but stopped in his motions as soon as Victon remarked with;
"If you really wish." Kitsuaki, now having to turn away to hold himself from laughing at the situation, was trying hard not to interfere. He often felt terrible for sitting idly by while Victon tricked so many ulayas into trading their most valuable possessions for useless pebbles and pieces of wood the god would find on his walk over to them. But today, the black god would hold his tongue for it was a festival and he wanted to talk Victon into spending the rest of the night at the festivities. He knew all too well that the god was only here for this tablet and nothing more and would be gone once he gets what he wants. By now Victon knew he was wining the bartering battle, all he needed to do was grab the ulaya's attention away from the more precious stones he had placed down and then the next step was to fully convince him that this rock was the best choice for his trade.
"This so called common stone was mined from a celestial meteor thousands of miles away, excavated from the finest materials known to all ulaya. This stone, as you call it, may just be made of the rarest metal you can ever find. It's so rare it may just be the only one in existence." The ulaya's jaw dropped at the promising item the god was offering for trade for it did indeed sound like the best choice to accept for his chunk of packed sand.
"But if you just want this ruby then by all means, take it. Doesn't bother me any, not like I can't replace it once I sell this." Victon then picked up the playground rock and was about to place back in his pouch when the ulaya yelled
"Stop!" He wanted to have the best thing that was offered to him and didn't want to miss out on something so valuable and rare. Pausing, Victon looked up at the ulaya who was clearly overwhelmed with how fast this trade is going down.
"Are you wanting it then?" The vender ulaya didn't know what to say for in one paw he knew what some of the stones were and how valuable they may be but in the other paw, he might be able to finally get something limited and rare in his shop. Victon got ready to place the stone in his pouch before the ulaya once again stopped him with his words, yelling
"Yes! Yes,I want it!" All composure out the window, the ulaya was desperate to receive the most rare of all things no matter what the price was. The god handed the ulaya his stone and took the tablet from him before scooping his gemstones back into his pouch and placing it back into his mane. Giving Kitsu another glance he turned around and left the vender tent without giving anyone another word.
Kitsuaki watched the ulaya hoard his stone for a couple of seconds before turning to follow Victon away from the booth, leaving the vender to tend to his truly worthless rock he had swindled off from the hoarding god. Finally catching up to the large brown ulaya, Kitsu looked at him as he paced next to his steps.
"You truly are terrible for doing that, you do know that right?" Victon laughed a scoff towards the black god, he was always amused with how he reacted to his bartering techniques.
"If he wasn't run by greed so much he wouldn't have done such a stupid trade. He did it to himself in the end." Victon suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned to the spirit god who in turn paused himself.
"Why are you here? One of your butterflies want to ride the ferris wheel?" Kitsuaki sighed for he hated it when Victon would mock his spirits but he regressed his anger and looked back up at the male.
"If you must know this is my favorite seasonal solstice. I mean, the smell of the snow in the air, the joy on everyone's faces, even the sounds are jolly. Don't you like it even one bit?" Victon stared at Kitsuaki for a moment before turning his head to walk away.
"No" was all he said before making his way towards the exit. The sooner her got away from these ulayas the better, for his task was complete and he wanted to get home to admire the tablet even closer.
"Stay with me, Victon!" Kitsu ran ahead and put himself in front of Victon who stood much taller than himself.
"You want me to ... what?" Kitsu knew the horned ulaya hated crowds for he feared getting pick pocketed or something but he didn't want to be alone during the solstice festival.
"Stay with me. We can get away from these ulayas if you wish, just don't make me celebrate alone." He was trying everything he could to get the other god to remain there with him. Victon thought for a moment before looking back at the crowd which seemed less and less inviting.
"Or would you rather I went back to that vender and tell him how you swindled him for a stone you picked up in front of his own business?" Kitsu was getting desperate but wasn't shocked to see Victon un phased by his remark.
"Actually, I picked it up by the playground ... " He said before looking back at the black ulaya and gazing at him sternly. Giving in to the stubbarn yet attractive god, Victon began walking back towards the energized crowd where Kitsu had so deeply begged him to stay with.
"You owe me." The frustrated god remarked, but Kitsu didn't care. He had, yet again, won in another battle against Victon and victory tasted so sweet.
The two enjoyed the evening's events as if they were young again, well at least Kitsu did. Victon, on the other hand, was tired and wanted to go home so he could sleep but knew his journey would take him a few weeks to reach his hidden lair in the mountain range.
"Come on, Victon. The fireworks are going to start soon!" Kitsu pulled on Victon's arm and led him to a ring of tents which were previously decorated with glowing lights but were now as dark as the night's sky. Victon looked over at Kitsu who was watching the sky with excitement for the flashy show to begin, the moon shown visibly in the silver swirls contained in his eyes. He always had strange feelings when he was with the god of spirits, a feeling he still couldn't fully understand and yet he wanted more of it. Kitsuaki's fine hair danced in the breeze as he looked down at Victon who was stuck in a gaze at himself. He tilted his head a little to the side as the crowd thickened and moved closer to the two boys. Suddenly, a loud ulaya shoved their way through the tight group of bodies, pushing against Victon's back and shoving him into Kitsuaki causing him to lock lips with the fair young ulaya's. Pulling back as fast as he could, Victon began to turn red, unsure of what just happened and trying to use the fireworks as an excuse to pretend like nothing had just happened. Kitsu continued to watch Victon, ignoring the loud booms of light that were demanding their attention with so much effort. He was amused with how the other ulaya god tried so hard to not look back down at him but instead up at the sky, flashes of red and green glowing on his fur as each firework exploded with a fury of noise. Leaning in towards Victon, Kitsu pressed his body against the other ulaya's and looked up at the fireworks himself, leaving Victon with even more red on his cheeks and taking one more step towards their realization of an unseen love.
