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This festival came at the week's end of the last week of spring. The berry and root veggie farmers would bring their extras out to trade with people who came from the rest of Sauti to Kesris's northwestern border. There was always lots of excitement with summer not far off. The weather was warmer.

Greicee, in particular, looked forward to all of the festivals in town. She loved the opportunity to help people. She loved helping people. She was finally getting old enough that people would ask her to help with things other than just watching their children while getting ready. Not that she had a problem doing that either; she was just really ready to do something else. She felt like she was getting older. She wanted people to acknowledge she wasn't so young anymore. In fact, she dreamed she would be ready to go have adventures of her own soon enough.

Her favorite part of festivals was that sometimes they'd get travelers from far away. They'd bring neat things she hadn't seen before. Sometimes it was animals. Sometimes it was rocks. She wondered what she'd get to see this time.

'Hmm?" Someone called her over to help them organize a stall with extra crates of berries. Her blue eyes shimmered in the sunshine, and she pulled her long purple hair up into the ponytail. She made a gesture like rolling up sleeves even though she had a short-sleeved tunic on. "At your service! Where would you like these?"

She kept stopping to excitedly wave to everyone she knew. "Hi!!" Sometimes seeing some starting to drift in from the other settlements and staring at the faces of the ones who seemed like she had seen them around before.

1/7

Greicee loved helping! Also, she loved talking. Hearing the voice of someone standing a bit taller than her which wasn't unusual. She was fairly short for in stance coming up to most people's shoulders about. She looked up and gave an excited grin.

"Hey! If you want! You can help me sure. I'm just moving them around, so the colors blend. I think it'll catch eyes and make them want to look more. What kind of berries to you like the most?"

As she was turning and grabbing some of the smaller bushels in the crates to spread out on a table next to the spot where people would barter and trade other things for them.

The word trouble caught her attention. Judging by her enthusiastic response, you'd have thought he said 'lots of fun'. "Oh really? Like what? Can I do it too?"

In the back of her mind, she thought if anyone thought anyone here was trouble. It was more likely to be here with her yaeli hair or crystals. Noone ever outright said or made obvious insinuations. She just noticed from the looks she got.

2/7

Tobirius groaned as three of his siblings nattered on behind him, each excited for the spring festival. He'd left home only to sulk around as homesickness ate at him. It had finally started to wean off when he realized that it was time for the annual festival, and no one would ever forgive him if he didn't show up for it. On his back was a small basket filled with tubers, his sibs each carried a similar basket though the contents varied between sweet and tart berries, some greenery and some fish wrapped in leaves. He smiled and called out greetings to the faces that were familiar and eyed some of the faces that he didn't know. He hoped that no one would start any trouble, not that they ever really had people start a ruckus, but still. The peace was nice while the air was charged with so much excitement.

He escorted his siblings to the stall that their mother had setup, the dark green cloth with lighter green and orange patterns easily visible. He set his basket down with an audible thunk and rolled his shoulders. "Here you go Ma." He said, leaning over the booth to press a kiss to her cheek. "Half the brood is here too, so you wont be lonely. I'm going to help Auntie Demeri setup if she hasn't already. If she's even here. I didn't notice her in her usual place." He said with a frown. It was strange not to see her in the same spot that she'd claimed for the past five years, but she was getting on in age. Maybe she'd decided to attend as a festival goer instead of a prospective seller for once. His mother agreed and shooed him off, getting up to stop some squabble between his sisters and brother.

When she wasn't looking he snagged one of the larger ripe berries from their pile to snack on as he wandered around the festival. He drifted eventually to the spot where Aunt Demeri usually was, only to see that it was still empty. The space next to it had someone setting up and two individuals who appeared to be near his age were chatting happily. He passed by just in time to hear the male state that he wasn't a bum and then change the subject to the favors of fruit.

"I'd hope that you aren't a bum." Tobirious said, stopping to look at them, head tilted a bit in puzzlement. "There's enough work to go around setting things up that someone would be yelling at you if they caught you slacking." He eyed the others complexion and decided that yes, he was a member of the Wind Tribe and yes, here in particular they'd be yelling at him. His purple haired companions not so much, he thought. She didn't look like she was from around Sauti.

When Greicee saw the next person who joined them, she gazed at him with a curious expression. Why did something about him tickle the back of her mind? She felt both sure she hadn't known him before, but he still seemed vaguely familiar. She got nervous that her curiosity might come across as staring, so she comforted Oduin instead.

"Oh, but it's a festival. Everyone doesn't need to do crazy amounts of work and labor. We're all here to enjoy ourselves once it gets going. I'm sure you're not lazy. I can be lazy sometimes myself, but I consider it even exchange for all the babysitting I do."

Her eyes blinked as she saw her sister joining them. "Or, as we do, I should say. We have twin siblings who we have to help take care of a lot. Being able to do stuff like this is kind of a treat if that sounds weird." Her eyes moving back to attempt a less obvious look at the Sauti who had just joined them. As she kept looking, she started to notice something in him looked a little more than just Sauti as well.

When Meadowlyn joined them, she accidentally dropped what was in her hand as she went to wave. "We're helping set up!" Then, she scrambled to try and catch them before they hit ground. She luckily caught the container keeping most of it. Though a few slipped over the edge and burst on her foot. She peeked around to see if anyone actually watched that or not.

Looking back at the young man who had joined them just before Meadowlyn, Greicee waved to him as well. "I'm Greicee! It's nice to meet you. This is my sister." She gestured carefully trying not to drop the container again.

3/7

Tobirius seemed to ponder Oduin's words. "They make fresh jams and juices over by the pond. They always need help squishing the berries, or stirring the pots as the berries cook down." Tobi said, rubbing absently at his chin. "Oh, how rude of me. It's a pleasure to meet you Greicee, Greciee's sister and Oduin. I'm Tobirius. My mother and three of my siblings are here running a stall."

Greicee peered back and forth between everyone as they exchanged hello's and all that. She looked up observing some of Tobirius's features. Then, her eyes looked over at her sister.

"You know. If any of you really wanna sort these out that bad. I can offer to go help that guy set up his stuff he sells from treasure hunting. It's cool. I always like to see the new things he brings back."

The word treasure alone practically made her eyes glitter with curiosity and excitement. "Most of this is done already anyways. There's just a few more. I'm sure it wouldn't take all 4 of us to put them up here."

She started to sneak out from behind there, and she was trying to make sure she wasn't covered with berries somewhere on her. "He usually has an assortment of big and small items too. Sometimes, they're really shiny."

She gave a glance up to Oduin as if to ask him if he felt like he had the rest of these in hand. She probably didn't really need his permission or any of them, but she didn't want to seem impolite and just dash off.

4/7